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."
I've had a busy weekend so far. But a good kind of busy. Pottery, non pottery. All good things. Well, mostly good things. There was the 30 inch vase that I had to trash, but it wasn't too much time loss (section thrown; pieces thrown quite nicely, quite quickly; went a bit too far dry before joining, too much weight in the top half; the pull of reshaping and the added weight caused some issues in the support on the bottom of the vase. I'll be trying again this week.). But productivity was not lost on me. This is what I woke up to this morning:
Them are glazed pots in there.
So of course yesterday was filled with the accompanying sort of messes of glazing and such.
Not the final arrangement: still playing with the best spacial arrangement.
It only took me 4 hours to glaze this kiln-load. Had the table cleared before dinner!
Speaking of dinner, the First Course: garden-fresh grape tomatoes and basil on an olive oil brushed whole wheat crust, topped with feta and just a touch of mozzarella. Grilled. Fabulous. Needed more tomatoes, which we had. Had I known, it would have not been a problem. As it was, hardly a problem.
Among the other things that happened yesterday: we started the morn with a 14 mile run. My longest run to date, Krystal's longest run in nearly 7 years. When we were within a mile of home (we were delirious - debating whether or not rhinoceros are hoofed mammals or not. Because seriously, if you've determined that you're trying to guess a horned, hoofed, herbivore native to the African plains that isn't a cow, buffalo, antelope, or goat, this is an important point. I'm pretty sure they're not hoofed, and I convinced Krystal* as such, but seriously.) - so, let me restart this thought. When we were within a mile of home I observed to Krystal that the Marathon will just be this, twice. Not too shabby, I say. I think I can do it. I think it will not be fun. I think it will hurt. But yeah, I'll get medieval on those 26.2 if that's what it takes.
I also asked Krystal, somewhere around halfway (so, we've already run 8 miles) if going out and running for hours on end ever just seems stupid. She just gave me the look.
All that to say, by noon or so we were all cleaned up and ready to tackle the day with the rest of our tasks, like glazing and groceries and teaching Temperance how to dance. Because she's awesome.
Our dog is an awesome dog: she trains with power and love, our Dog is an Awesome Dog.
So that was our day. Running for the better part of the morning, teaching our dog to dance, buying groceries, glazing pots, grilling pizza. Ready to do it all over again. Except with less being on my feet. Cause I'm sort of done with that. Here are a couple more pictures of things that have been happening this week and last week and such that never got photographed or posted.
This one's actually in the glaze fire already, so a bit behind the times.
This one's drying. Discovered I have sore few of bowls in this style for October show. Time to kick it up a notch. BAM! (Must be channeling my inner Emeril this morning. Don't know what's up with that.)
Bigger mountain vase. Pretty nice balance to it. And the camera's autofocus needs some help apparently. Sorry!
Well, that's all I've got for now. Still working on shots of the last firing, and there may be new pots in view by bedtime tonight. As you saw above, the kiln is still glowing. In fact, it needs to drop about 2000 degrees before I can open it yet. So that may be awhile. But I'll certainly keep you posted.
Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to keep your Sabbath holy! Or at the very least, restful!
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*in Krystal's defense, when we play the "Guess the Animal Game" she normally goes places like "Grevy's Zebra" or "Reticulated Giraffe." Most people are all like, "Horse" or "Cow" or "Bear."** So, she's hardcore, don't think otherwise. I'm willing to say this one was just misstated.
**In my defense, she has met her match. She may know the rare specifics of Blank Park's collection, but I'm all like, "Amur Leopard, BAM!" or "Narwhal, BAM!"*** Yes, in fact there is such a thing as a European Bison, and that's why I kick butt at this game. And I've got a secret weapon for the next time around. Been saving it for years. She'll be like, "What? Can't be!" and then I'll come home and bust out or Guide to Wild Animals of the World and be all like, "Read it and WEEP!"
***I'd also like to point out that she required three (3) reliable sources to convince her that Narwhals were real and not just fantastical. Yeah, take THAT!
It's been hot around here, and I've been busy. Our heat index (think opposite-effect wind chill) has been well over 100 degrees for the last couple weeks, but it's finally starting to break. I think we've been steadily in the high 80's for the last couple days, so of course I thought that would make the best time to run a firing.
Well, that and some time sensitive pieces that have been sitting on my greenware shelf for just a little too long. So the bisque ran last night. Could have fit another 3 or 4 vases in the top shelf, but I didn't have any more, so that was just too bad. But like I said: time sensitive. I set it up to preheat for 3 hours (holds temp at 180 to help get all the moisture out before hitting the boiling point for water) and then ran a slow cycle. Firing completed mid morning (not optimal - but I didn't get the kiln turned on early enough last night) in 14 hours and some change. Sitting around 600 right now; might be able to unload before bed. Glazing this weekend, and another firing by Sunday night. Then it will be new pots.
In the meantime I've been making pots. I just haven't been blogging them. And with purpose. I've been selected to show at the South Dakota First Lady's Art Showcase, which coincides with the Governor's Invitational (Pheasant) Hunt. Kind of a big deal in this state. That show will be October 21-22, and I need to make a lot more pots between now and then. So I need to get better about buckling down and cranking some work out. I'm very excited about this opportunity, and also a little freaked out about not whether or not I'll have enough quality work pulled together by the time the show rolls around. I basically sold everything worth selling before our move - everything that was left has slowly been whittled down as gifting away and such. And a lot of time since establishing my current studio has gone to test pieces and special orders. Which are essential (the former) and much appreciated (the latter), but haven't left me much time for building up general stock. So here's hoping that I won't be a complete dud at showtime. So that's what I've been up to.
Well, among other things. Krystal and I are in training for a fall Marathon (the weekend before the big art show - crazy?) which will be my first, and her third. So, that's taking a lot of time and energy and effort. The good news: if the pots aren't done by the weekend before the show, I've probably done something wrong anyway! And I don't have to travel, as the show will be in Pierre!
I also have taken some "good" shots of my last firing (good being relative - I've mentioned before that there's a reason I'm a potter and not a photographer) but haven't gotten them edited yet for online consumption. So here's a little teaser.
Trying to get more detail shots to compile a glaze chart for folks who want to order something. Easier to e-mail out a chart than e-mail a whole swarm of photos and try to connect which one we're talking about.
Sorry for my failings at being online: believe me, this time around it means good things for the artwork. Hopefully sooner than later, and have a great weekend!
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.
More pictures, a real post, coming soon. Maybe this week. That'd be ideal. In the meantime, here's this one. Kiln opened, unloaded on Sunday evening. Mostly good firing, as far as glazes are concerned. Couple bummers as far as cracking and warping and such. And that's no good. Especially when special commissions are involved. That's part of the process, though, I guess. Later, y'all.
