Duncan Pottery

13/01/2024

https://substack.com/redirect/ace95d6b-4542-4ceb-81dd-171fb5661e07?j=eyJ1IjoiMmYzc2F0In0.noLXuAR3S0lGrQGl83dURXycKrQhywbKilmmhs9_nzc

OK. I know you may not like it or your tired of politics, but just for a second, listen to this old white man (*sigh*..) and compare what he says and does to the likely alternative old white man (***triple sigh***..) and think about it. What kind of country and government do you want? Then please go out and do something, anything, positive about it. OK, I'll go back now to kittens and what we made for dinner. Thanks.

Historian Heather Cox Richardson talks to President Joe Biden about Valley Forge and his belief in the strength of the American people.

04/09/2022

Thanks to everyone who has ever visited my Duncan_Pottery webstore on Etsy. But I have closed it down. I will continue, instead, to sell from local venues and at the occasional craft event (like the recent PCAM yART sale!). So, thanks to y'all and maybe I'll see you around Pittsburgh. :) Rick

23/08/2022

https://pghartsmedia.org/events/yart-sale/

I'm going to be selling at the yART sale with 4 fellow potters. Come check it out! Click on link from Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and Media. Hope to see you there :)

20/12/2021

Wish my cat would help me throw....

https://twitter.com/i/status/1472267022914527239

“https://t.co/9Tf0WrCFVn”

18/12/2021

The Fail --- So, it was a cone 6 glaze firing. The glazed pieces (see photo) were loaded into the kiln. Watch cones were placed and the manual dead-man switch (there's no computer, timer, or thermostat on this old baby) was set to drop at Cone 6 as well. I estimated about a 5 hour firing. Then I got - distracted - yeah - television - and forgot to check in time. By the time my wife looked at me and said "is your kiln still on?", my only answer was "f******!!! as I ran out to the garage. The dead-man switch had fallen, the kiln was off, but when I looked inside, the Cone 6 watch cone was waaaayy too droopy (see photo) and the top viewing hole was completely blocked - couldn't see a thing. I assumed that one of the pieces had fallen across the hole. But I couldn't open the kiln, which was still white hot inside, until the next day. The next morning I opened up a still warm kiln and found that the top shelf supports had actually gone plastic and the shelf had fallen on top of the pottery below (see photo). To add insult to injury, some of the cone 6 glazes I had purchased (on sale from a closing studio) turned out not to be cone 6. So, the glaze on those pieces never really melted and they look like colored cement (see photo). In the end, of about 35 pieces, I think about 8 survived unscathed and fully fired. And I'll be taking a chisel to the bottom of the shelf, where the pots below glued themselves when it fell. Wish I could say that the Netflix show was worth it - but it wasn't. Oh well, Live and Learn, again and again and again 😏

09/12/2021

So, here's the beginning of the firing. The firing included my pots and some from Jonathan Dreher. All went well with the loading and bisque firing. But the following glazing and glaze firing of my pots, well...., that was a MASSIVE fail.....😟
**it happens**. I'll post those results next.

28/10/2021

21/04/2021

A long time back, I bought an old, used "Duncan" kiln (an ironic manufacturer name). Very basic, kiln sitter, manual, got it working with some online spare parts, and had a few mishaps. But it's working now and I just bisque fired pieces for myself and a friend. I'll post the results soon......garage firing, gotta love it.

05/04/2021

Rain Plate - donated to the pre-COVID Penn Hills Shade Tree Commission's fund raiser auction items. A rain plate to help trees! How appropriate.