Sandstone || Albany Slip Brown

Sandstone w/blue slip || IYFC Blue

Sandstone w/blue slip || IYFC Blue

No surprises here, just a few slides from the last firing. Thanks to all who came out to the FUMC Spring Bazaar in Pierre on Saturday. Sold enough pots to make worth my while. Taking some quiet time off from the studio for a couple of weeks - I have enough stock to hold me for my April show. Unless I completely sell out of "normal" stock, I'm looking forward to putting some time into some larger pieces and exploratory projects this spring/summer. We'll just have to see how that goes.

Unloaded the kiln just now. Overall, very pleased. Tried something new this time, experimenting with holding the firing at it's highest point for an hour to get uniform results throughout the kiln, and also hoping to push a little more depth out of some of the glazes. Generally speaking it went well, but I may have over-fired my Rust Red by just a scoche as a result - went a bit darker in some places than normal. Sandstone gave me nice results this time too, a little bit more depth out of it then normal - hints of red and blue (maybe some crystallization of sorts?) came through on some underbellies. Tonight the kiln gets loaded and fired again. Lots of bowls on the way. I may try a 30 minute soak vs. 60 to see about finding the balance between getting the rich colors without toasting the Rusts. 

Top Shelf (that glaze mark on the shelf there is from my first firing with unknown glaze properties, not the result of soaking at ^6).

Next half-shelf.

Down another tier. That smattering of orange-browns is "Albany Slip Brown," my new favorite glaze.

Mountains and IYFC Blues.

Mountains. Sandstone went a bit dark on the blues, but the browns are gorgeous.

Bitty vases.

Bowls and bowls and bowls.

And bowls and bowls and bowls.

And more bowls.

And a few mugs for good measure.

Excited to get out next weekend and see what other folks think of these pots.

Lots of Firing Around Here

Busy busy busy. I seem to be starting a lot of note that way these days. The final firing before my show is cooling to be unloaded tonight. I've been firing nonstop since last Friday night: a final bisque load and now into my third (I think?) glaze firing. There's no way I'll be able to log all of my pots as "slide" quality images, but the bottom line is that a lot of them aren't portfolio worth pots. I'll hopefully find time in the next 9 days with enough good natural lighting to get some good photos of my favorite pots to come out of the last couple months work. In the meantime, here's a taste of what's been coming out of the kiln.

I did a baker's half-dozen cups like this. I may be taking a break from my sgraffito this winter to do more pieces that emphasize carving, relief, and glaze work. Mostly I love these two glazes together. Wishing I had a whole set of work like this.

Another mountain vase. They're coming out pretty regularly lately. The brown still isn't as strong as I'd like, but what can you do?

Bowls and bowls and bowls. These are itty-bitty ice cream dishes. Or whatever. Beautiful reds.

Still not avoiding disappointment. Here are two stacked bowls with the glaze doing this. In addition to the 6 from the earlier firing that didn't turn out in this combo. And the six small ones that I tried with an alternative glazing that didn't pan out either. Argh. Went back to my glaze/firing log and discovered what I've been doing wrong here, but too late to help these bowls. Blurgh.

This is a big one - blue and sandstone. Should have stayed with the red-sandstone combo, but it's a pretty blue, nonetheless.

More cups.  A whole palette. And remember: Choose Natural Energy!!!

And last, but not least, I think my favorite from this round of work. The glaze, the shape. It's a winner. Now, to make sure I don't arbitrarily price this one head and shoulders above the rest just so I can keep it...

That's it. Don't know how much more news I'll be able to get up in the next week. On the road this weekend to run a marathon - hopefully I don't die. Then home to finish sanding and washing and prepping and pricing for the show. And then the show. And then I may sleep for a week or two straight.

In addition, if you're not already, listen to the new records from Switchfoot and MuteMath. They are amazing.

Peace!

New pots, busy busy busy...

Well, the busy-ness has been maintained. More potting has been had. And while I haven't been very photographic lately, I did manage to get some snapshots of the pots that are taking over our home. They've all been sanded (nice smooth feet!) and are ready to head down into storage (most of them) for my October show. Still a lot of work to do on that front. Hopefully.

Also, I am, I think, supposed to post an official retraction of a statement made in my previous post. According to this bit of information presented to me (thanks a lot, Dad), rhinoceros (rhinoceroses? rhinoceros'? rhinoceri? rhinos!) do in fact have hooves. Not toes. Hooves. They are a part of a grouping of ungulates (hoofed mammals) called perissodactyla which covers all odd-number-hoofed mammals, with three subcategories - horses, rhinos, and tapirs. On a related note, it is not clear to me whether or not rhinos and tapirs are unclean to eat in the Levitical sense. Horses are obviously unclean, on account of not having split hoofs. But the Law is not explicit on the number of splitting of the hoof (three toes = twice split). Also, I don't know if rhinos chew the cud. Not generally a distinguishing clue for our guessing game. But there you have it: Krystal was right, rhinoceroses do, most certainly, have hooves. 

Now that that is out of the way, here are some pots.

New pots. 

More new pots.

A creative caption that tells you, "Look! New pots!"

That's all for now. I'll try to get some of what I've been working on lately up in here. Until then, I bid you, "Adieu."

Pots and puppy and pMusic.

So, I'm about due for a "real" post. With more than fifty words. I'm also due for some real throwing time, and while we're at it, a vacation that includes white sand beaches but excludes being in the car for eight hours. But that's sort of another story.  So we're almost done with July, and I'm almost done with this week, but I have been progressing with pottings and such.  Also, this:

Is that our dog?

Tempy got her hairs cut (almost two weeks ago, now?) and did just fine.  Much more traumatizing for us than her. She's acutally pretty relieved about not being so fluffy, which is a good thing, given the current heatwave.

Speaking of which, you know you live in rural South Dakota when everybody just leaves their car windows down in the office parking lot on account of the heat. I haven't yet figured out, culturally, if it is appropriate/expected/necessary to lock the doors when you leave the windows down.  Cause, you know, seriously?

So anyway, Tempy got her haircut and has recovered quite a bit already (in the cuteness department) but it was really touch-and-go there for the first couple days. Suddenly it was all, "Oh, so there really is some poodle mixed into that doodle after all!" And then yesterday she got all shaved down again for ye olde snip-snip.  Also known, on our itemized vet receipt, as an "ovariohysterectomy." I think. I'm too lazy to get up and go check the receipt (it's in the other room) but that was a pretty intense word when they could have just been all: SPAYED.  So there's that. 

Ah, yes: pots.

Well, I got some out of the kiln. Overall it was a very good firing. Good results, good colors, good glazing, good time.  Fired to the right cone range, which is always a plus. Unfortunately, totally had a cracked plate in one of my sets. Bottom of the kiln, last plate out. Think about it: unloading five levels of pots, each one more satisfying. Success! Colors! Bowls! Plates! Vases! Yay! Then you unveil the bottom tier and there are four plates, sitting pretty. Beautiful. The glazing was perfect. One by one you pull them out, check the feet for any glaze mishaps, and hand them off to the wife (or hubs, or studio assistant, I mean, whoever helps you with these things), and then as you take number four, the last thing out of the kiln, you see that the plate has cracked along the pea catcher, a deep crack (all the way, actually) that runs for about 120 degrees around the flare of the plate. Kinda sucks. So THAT set, commissioned, bought and paid for, will not be shipped and I'm back to the wheel.

However, if anybody wants three BEAUTIFUL matching plates, just let me know.

The firing. I liked it, overall. Some pretty colors, and some colors that needed to be tried, even though they're not quite pretty.

This set did turn out (the blues). On the right you see a sample of the now trio. Some test bowls in the upper left to play around with some overlapping glaze combos.

The bowls that went to the plate. These I did send merrily along to my patron. They'll just have to wait on a set of plates that doesn't decide to ruin my otherwise perfect firings!

So that was the firing.  I'm in a hurry to get on to the next round as I have a couple of time-sensitive commissions/projects that don't have a whole lot of wiggle room. If I don't get more throwing time soon I may have to fire a less-than-full bisque kiln which would be less than ideal. But we'll see.  I still have a couple weeks before I get to that level of crunch.  But I'd rather not push it.  In the meantime here are my throwing projects over the last couple weeks:

Some bigger-ish bowls of the slipping variety.

Drying bowls. They're pretty inside, I promis.

Mountain 1, drying.

Mountain 2, dry. With bowl. Bowl might not pull through. It's a bit clunky for what it is, in almost all ways.

Vase, on the wheel.  I think this one will go all mountainy, too.

That's what I've got for you. Also, I recommend that you hit up NoiseTrade this week for the debut EP from Leagues, a new group full of musicians that you may have heard otherwise. Free this week only, it's a fun little set of songs and well worth your time. To finish up, I'll leave you with a couple of things I'm very much looking forward to this fall: new records from both Switchfoot and MuteMath.

Here's what we've got to look forward to:

(Watch on YouTube, or listen to the first single at Switchfoot.com)

(Watch on YouTube or remix your own version of the video!)

New Pots - April 2011

New pots, throwing, and a helper in the studio.

So I got a picture of the hot hot kiln posted up here in the middle of the week as a teaser.  Cause I'm cruel like that.  But seriously, I did do a glaze firing this (last?) week.  

Bisque.

I had quite the pile of bisqued pots stacking up and I figured I'd done about as many test firings as I was going to effectively do with regard to all the mountain vases I'd been waiting on.  So I did it.

My glazing helper.

Our good friend John X. was hanging out with us this week (isn't it great to have friends in transitional periods of life?) so he helped me out with this mess.  Mostly keeping me preoccupied so I'd not dwell on how much I hate glazing.  I have no idea what that expression is that he's making, but he's a cool cat.  He also tried his hand at waxing a couple of pot-feet, which certainly was interesting.  I didn't do too well at that either.  So we loaded up and fired the kiln on Wednesday night.  Medium-speed ^6 firing, took 8h36 to fire to completion.  We unloaded Thursday night after dinner.

Is that really a kiln-load?

Another kiln with moderatley mixed results, kind of.  I stuck with what's been working - which is rather uniform across the board.  The brown slips on my mountain vases still aren't providing a whole lot of contrast under these glazes, but boy are those blues spectacular!  Definitely some good stuff in there, at least. 

 Yesterday (Saturday, for those keeping score at home) John decided he wanted to learn how to pot, so I gave a couple demonstrations and let him take a crack at it.

Sure looks like a natural.

He did pretty well, for day one, with no experience.  Let's just say that if he continued to grow as a potter at the rate he demonstrated during the two hours we spent in the studio, and threw every day, he'd probably surpass me within a week or so.  Sadly, I don't think that's quite how it works.  But he certainly did very well for a first time in the clay.  I threw him a couple of demonstration pieces - first a bowl, then a vase - working through the process, and then coached him through the steps. He took to it like a duck to peanut butter.  Which is to say that ducks, I would imagine, really enjoy eating peanut butter, but probably aren't meant to try swimming in it.  It's actually a pretty horrible simile, but I liked the sound of it when it first hit "the page."

My demonstration.

John's pots.  Not bad!

So that went pretty well.  John took off this afternoon and I went back into the studio with a fresh breath of inspiration and ambition.  And so I threw some big jars.

#3

#2 (left) and #1

I'm not sure whether these will get a sgraffito treatment or if I'll just leave them to be glazed for color.  I might mix it up, but these will probably get slipped up and carved to pieces.  I think I favor the B-clay for glaze-only pieces. 

Keeping me company in the studio this afternoon was a little new music, followed by something older.  My studio selections, in play order and, coincidentally (or not?) also alphabetical order!

King of Limbs, Radiohead - good studio background music.  The more I listen, the more I realize that this one starts out really promising and peters out after only five or six tracks.  Since there are only really eight tracks, I guess that's a pretty good percentage of the album that stays solid, but then, on the other hand, there are only eight tracks.  But overall it's really enjoyable.  Not sure that it really stacks up anywhere near the top of their canon, but worth listening to.

Love, Liberty, Disco, Newsboys - this is my favorite from CCM's golden boys from the Gold Coast. Mellow with nods to classic funk/soul/disco, I think it's one of the most interesting albums from them musically (the guitar work on this album is phenomenal - quick licks, bluesy leads, and soul the whole way - and the rhythm sec) and also mature lyrically.  Call it nostalgia, but I think this offering from 2001 is pretty near the peak of their output and is undeniably one of my "Desert Island Discs."

Much Afraid, Jars of Clay - their sophomore release, and possibly my favorite.  The album starts off a little unsteady as "Overjoyed" tries to find the tone for the record, but is solid from track 2 onward.  By the time you hit Track 5 "Frail" (beautiful guitarwork, haunting lyrics) it's onward and upward as the boys wrestle some heavy stuff.  Lead singer Dan Haseltine has recently started writing about where some of this music comes from - not in an attempt to say what the songs should mean, but what the music has meant and, specifically, trying to address the places and times in life that the lyrics came from, which is really fascinating for a fan like me.  One of the things that I (and Krystal, too) have most appreciated about Jars, and Haseltine as main lyricist especially, is that they are willing to write music that deals with life in the hard places in a genre/market ("Christian" music) that so often seems to shun music that doesn't deal in glossy answers.  Haseltine's lyrics come from places real and raw, and it's powerful to read, in his own words, the story of the songs and where they came out of his life and the life of his bandmates.  The result is music that is true in a way that has too often been in short supply.  All that to say, if your interested in post-grunge, alt-folk this is a very solid album, reglardless your religious orientaions.  If you're interested in reading more about the stories behind the songs, you can find them at http://www.danhaseltine.com/.  As of this posting, he's most recently unpacked "Portrait of an Apology" which is definitely a standout track on this album.  

All that to say, I threw some pots and listened to some music that I really really like.  And I hope you'll check it out because you might really like it too.  Happy Sunday, and please try not to let Monday get the best of you.