Right on schedule, time for my monthly update. I'm keeping myself busy lately which means I'm spending more time on pots and less time on posts here. However, I have been doing a relatively decent job of sending quick updates out into cyberspace via my presence on Facebook (just pottery!) and Twitter (shenanigans of all sorts!). So if once a month is simply not enough of me for you, go ahead and give me a follow at one of these locations.
For those not interested in the social media angle (ye antisocial mediites), here's a recap: throwing. Lots of throwing. And trimming. And decorating. And firing. And glazing. And more firing. And more throwing. Rinse and repeat.
No, but seriously - I've been pretty diligent about my studio time this fall. Krystal's been having to do a lot of professional traveling, so I've had lots of time to commit guilt-free to the pots. I've been focusing on making fun pots, and not stressing about quantity or volume for my next show (November 10-11, here in Pierre). I always have more than enough work, so I shouldn't stress too much. That's my goal anyway. Also continuing to play/experiment with shape and texture in addition to my old faithful sgraffito.
Here are some snapshots:
Itty-bitty bowls.
A full bisque kiln. Had to make room on my shelves for more pots to dry!
Textures and such.
I've been commissioned to do a complete communion service for our congregation. I don't think this pair of chalices quite make the cut, but a good start.
This? This is just a steak dinner hot off the grill a couple weeks back that was quite photogenic. I'm not giving up summer that easily. I'll still be grilling when there's snow on the ground.
This week I finally got around to glazing a load of pots and was quite thrilled with the results. Every firing is a little different and I usually try to include at least one or two experimental pieces per firing. Looking forward to finishing up more work this fall.
Final thoughts before next month (post-show summary?): Lots of great new music this fall from Mumford & Sons, The Killers, No Doubt and more, but I've been letting the iPod run on shuffle for the last couple weeks and have enjoyed happening upon such wide and varied selections as Switchfoot's 1997 debut, Led Zeppelin's 1976 live concert recording "The Song Remains the Same," older (and newer) Ben Folds (& Five), Bob Dylan, America, Jimmy Eat World, and so on and so forth. Last night Apple up and shuffled me into a jungle of Krystal's Ani Difranco selection which simply didn't last very long. I of course reserve veto rights. But it's been enjoyable to not put any thinking energies into picking my soundtrack and taking what comes my way. Within reason, of course.
Well, I did it again - successfully went a full month between updates. Apparently I've been doing things other than pottery. Mostly. When I do get into the studio, I'm much more apt to post a picture on Facebook or Twitter.
Because, also: you should go like my Facebook page. More pictures, more frequently, and sometimes other things that you might like. Generally things that I like. Music, other artists, thoughts and ponderings. Anyway. Check it out!
Speaking of, Facebook informs me I have 4 friends who were born on this day in history. That seems like a relatively high amount for one day. So that's, you know, worth noting. But more importantly, today is my father's birthday. And he was actually born IN history. When I was in high school we actually learned about stuff that happened AFTER he was born, so that's significant. I wonder how late they're teaching history these days anyway?* But that's really not important. What's important is that he was born, and then he lived for some years, and now here he is and he's my dad and has been (since before I was born, actually!) for some time now and that's pretty cool. So happy birthday, Paul (Dad) Langholz!
On to the important things. If I haven't been throwing oodles of noodles, where I have I been? Here's a guide...
After my show I thought it would be healthy to step back, take a little break, collect my thoughts... and then we had company for a few days and I got sick and things just sort of went from there.
Unpacked everything that came home from Iowa. Took inventory. Deciding what to throw next.
Took a look at things that DIDN'T go to Iowa. Thinking maybe I need to have a Facebook Inventory Reduction Clearance Sale.
Went off Apple Orcharding. Found a tractor. It was pretty neat.
Played some soccer with my dog. She's pretty fierce.
Played some guitar. Also doing some repair and maintenance work on them. Certain projects were a long time coming on those. Guitars generally sound better without post-factory holes. Just saying.
Played some board games. Sometimes the Robber takes an alternative form in our household. Also, cute Robbers are harder to get (as) upset about.
Played some... no, wait. This is just the sign out front of our church. It's been a hot one up here. Moving right along...
Took in some live music in the Sioux Falls area over Labor Day. Pictured is House of Heroes, headlining an amazing night at the festival. I saw them once in 2005 at a tiny little hole-in-the-wall club in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. They've come along way, and they were amazing. Check them out.**
So that just about brings us up to speed. I have a show coming up (8 weeks out) and I'm realizing I'm a bit understocked. But I'm also not willing to stress out about it because I've decided that I'd rather enjoy the process of getting there and feel a little picked over at the end of the weekend than maintain a fully stocked display for the duration of a show but spend the months prepping for it in constant agony over my volume. There's a happy medium in there somewhere (something like don't ever take a month off from throwing and maintain a steady base inventory) but oh well.
But I have been throwing the last couple weeks/days. I've spent a lot of time messing about with larger pieces, most of which end up scrapped because I'm a bit too picky maybe. And one very nice, large sectional piece that I accidentally left uncovered for an undisclosed amount of time before it had been trimmed to shape and thus it was fail and sadness. But I'm getting back to the nitty-gritty functional throwing now to replenish what has been sold and distributed for selling.
Playing with mugs again. Ways to incorporate my "voice" a bit more than simply splashing about with glaze.
2-pounders. Conspicuously absent from my inventory these days. A good problem.
More of these guys. Right now sticking with the 2-pounder size. There are a couple larger ones already drying, and I'm sure I'll throw a hump of baby ones later this month.
Hard to tell, but that's a wide shallow bowl, not a platter. For a commission piece (I think).
Broad, broad bowl in this style.
All together, now - say, "Cheese!"
I've also been commissioned to create a set of Communion service wares for our congregation, so that's a fun little project I'll be embarking on in the near future.
And that would be everything I've really got time to share right now. If you're at all interested in commissioning something special (or reserving something of a specific style) for the holidays, now's the time to do it! Drop me a line at lukelangholz (at) msn (dot) com or contact me via private message on Facebook or Twitter - though really, e-mail is currently still the best method of proper communication. So it's back to the grind.
Thanks for stopping by, y'all. Have a great weekend!
*I'm totally chasing this thought, as distracting as it may be: at what point do they decide what to cut from history classes? Because with every passing year there's more history to teach. The last proper history class I took was American Heritage History my junior year of high school. As I recall, we spent close to a month on the Civil War, and then America post-Vietnam got approximately half of a class period's worth of attention the day before finals. And believe it or not, there's a whole extra decade of material to cover since then. Just curious at what point you decide, "Eh, it's time to throw out the carpetbaggers and reconstruction, and might as well toss the Era of Good Feelings too, no matter how memorable it is - gotta make room for at least ten minutes of classroom discussion on post-9/11 foreign policy and God forbid we actually shorten our coverage of the Civil War..." Anyhow. Back to the regularly scheduled content.
** Other highlights from the weekend of live music included:
Jenny & Tyler (an adorable husband'n'wife duo out of Nashville who make beautiful alt-folk together).
Sosaveme (indie band out of Michigan who make beautiful "aggressive alternative" music together - I highly recommend their most recent release, "The Garden."
Run Kid Run (nothing dramatically original or different going on in this pop-punk outfit, but one of the better non-headliners we saw).
Five Iron Frenzy (ska-punk-all-out-frenzy of a show. If you don't know about Five Iron I'm not going to try and describe them now, but WOW. My favorite from them is their 1997 sophomore release, "Our Newest Album Ever.")
Well, I suppose I've been away long enough - two weeks past the Art Sail (my big summer event this year) and I'm ready to get back into the studio. Trying to plan the coming batches of work to be efficiently productive for fall sales and also with enough room for creative growth. I squeezed a little bit of experimental work into the last batch of pots for the Sail, and I'd like to go back and pursue those further. Looking forward to mixing some things up.
But first, a look back!
A great big thank you is in order for any and all who came out to the Art Sail at the end of July! It was a wonderful day for an art fair, with plenty of sunlight, moderate cloud cover and just enough breeze off the lake to keep things refreshing. The sun never stayed out long enough for things to get truly HOT, but it was never cloudy enough to scare anyone away. Rain fell north and south of town, I heard, but we stayed dry all day long. Late that night, after the pots were long packed away and I was tucked into bed, the thunder finally rolled in and we fell asleep to the sound of the rain pelting the window panes. Beautiful day.
Looking down Main Street USA the morning of the Art Sail.
Sales were steady and, as far as I'm concerned, very good for a one day event. Seeing as how Clear Lake is my hometown there were a lot of familiar faces - folks I haven't seen in many cases for close to ten years. But great fun catching up and sharing what I've been up to.
Booth Shot.
I didn't know quite what to expect for this show as it was my first year doing it, but the Clear Lake Art Sail attracts quite a crowd from all demographics - young, old, local, vacationers - all sorts. And getting to meet everyone is just such a treat.
Pedestals in action.
My favorite incident from the weekend came in the form of a man who approached me while I was standing out in the street in front of my booth doing some people-watching. After asking if that was my work, he began with "You know, I really don't like pottery," before continuing, "but man, I really like your stuff!" Even from out in the street, he said, the decoration stood out boldly amid the shapes and colors and really exuded the style of my work without getting busy or overpowering. We chatted for the better part of 15 minutes, going over my process and stylistic influence and he left with one of my sgraffito bowls with a Retro Blue-Green interior.
It's for the stories like these that I love the shows.
It's for a lot of the rest of the stuff that I wring my hands and fret and become a mess. I had a few "Ah, #$%&" moments while loading up the chariot for the commute to the show before finally squeezing everything in with barely enough room for my copilots.
That's what we looked like 2/3 of the way through packing. No rear view? No problem!
And then the first in-the-field trial of tent and pedestals and such brought their own challenges (shout-out to my father and brother, Paul and Noah Langholz, for some assistance in my set-up and tear-down!). But overall, I think I'm figuring things out pretty well. Maybe a couple more of these things on the schedule next summer? We'll just have to wait and see!
In addition to the sales the day of the show, I was grateful for the opportunity to fill a wholesale order for the owners of a couple local jewelry & gift stores in northern Iowa, and also took some time to restock the Clear Lake Arts Center with more of my work for the gift shop. All told, I was able to come home with half of my bins empty, which meant that I had a functional rear view for the drive home. Hot dog!
After we were done setting up she ditched me for a long run. Devoted, that.
And no show recap would be acceptable without mentioning that none of it would be possible without the unwavering support of my lovely wife, Krystal. Leading up to the show means sacrificing nights and weekends and free time and many, many fun times of the summer-y sort. And to top it all off she's on-site the day of helping with set-up and tear-down and selling pots while I take potty breaks (<-"Potty" breaks? It's funny!). So she's awesome and y'all should be amazed.
"Oh, hey - thanks for stopping by!" Just your friendly neighborhood Potterman.
Edit: I realized shortly after I hit "Publish" that I'd forgotten something very important. I'd also like to give a great big thank you to everyone who helped make the Art Sail a great experience - it was a very well organized and pleasant event to be a part of. Big thank you to Jacky Garlock as well as Kim Larson and Amy Palmer at CLAC for all their hard work and for allowing me to be a part of North Iowa's premier art festival!
On the non-pottery front, we were very excited to be in-state for the arrival of the newest member of our family, nephew #2 (congrats to my big brother Sam and sister-in-law Kristin on their beautiful boy!). We couldn't have planned it better, and we were so happy to be near enough to meet him right away!
Krystal loves being an auntie!
I got back into the studio last week a little bit, and so will be back to a more regular schedule of throwing now I think. Tackling some larger mounds of clay, right now focusing more on practice and form than intent of finished project - meaning I'm not so attached to these pieces that I won't decide they need to be recycled at some point pre-firing, but here are a few things I've done.
Vase is 12" tall, for comparison. That's a rather large bowl. Not quite sure where it will be going - either stylistically or otherwise.
Yesterday's pot. 25#. Not 100% pleased with the top, but there might be some room for adjustment yet. Decent amount of weight to trim out of the bottom, though not so bad as it could be.
In addition to the big pots, I need to re-stock some of the things that sold well this summer. It's always a little predictable, but there are some things that I do always need to have on hand. I also need to spend a little time this fall hanging out with mugs, trying to find common ground that doesn't harbor any hostilities. Explore creative expression with mug as a canvas. That sort of thing. And, always, a couple commission pieces to take care of and fulfill those obligations.
And I'd be remiss to sign off without recommending some music to y'all. This fortnight I've been rather taken with one J. Tillman's full catalog. He released a record this spring under the moniker Father John Misty, and he may be best recognized as Fleet Foxes' former drummer, but his full catalog is phenomenal. Simple, earthy and mostly acoustic (solo work) and all that + amazing rhythmic sensibilities (especially with the FJM project), he will probably comprise the better part of my "official" fall soundtrack this year. Phenomenal. Check it out for yourself. Like in the video below (or here for the e-mail subscribers).
Thanks for stopping by. Don't forget to check me out on Facebook!!!
You know you live somewhere special when 92 degrees is a refreshingly cool midday temperature. Yesterday I didn't even have to microwave my leftovers for lunch; I just set my plate out on the deck for a couple minutes and it was ready to go.
Nothing like picking the hottest week of the year to run my kiln nonstop. While the air conditioner is also running nonstop. I'm looking forward to this month's utility bill, that's for sure.
Unloaded the kiln this morning, loaded it back up for another firing at noon. Still have maybe 2/3 of a kiln's worth of pots to get in a third firing. I'd rather not fire it with any room to spare, but that's just the way it goes. Everything is glazed and ready to go, just waiting for the kiln to open up.
Top shelf.
Bottom Shelf.
Loaded back up and ready to go again!
Pretty!
And a little bit closer now.
And even closer.
Details.
Reds and blues.
It's all patriotic up in hurr.
So that's where we're at. Shooting to unload/reload the current/next firing(s) on Thursday which will give me a full week for sanding, pricing, inventory-ing and packing. Which is more lead time than I've ever given myself on a show, so that's great news.
Around the house and during the glazing have been playing a lot of the new House of Heroes record. Well, that and some Zeppelin. Always good to keep one foot in the classics, right?
Busy busy busy! I suppose for most working artists it's not so big of a deal to prepare for one show or another, one event after another, but as someone still just getting started (really) in the vending and fair-ing of my pots, each show brings new challenges (opportunities) for stepping up my game. It may be a long time until doing a show is anything resembling routine, but each step gets me closer.
Of specific note, I was glad to enlist my father's help in the garage this weekend in tackling a building project in prep for the upcoming show. Saws, drills, wood glue, sawdust, spackle, splinters, and blood. All in a day's work, right?
Makeshift clay-box sawhorses.
The end result.
Starting out at noon with not much more than my sorry excuse for schematics and a half-baked idea, I now have a set of nesting pedestals to take on the road with me. So that's thrilling. And maybe not before the coming show (CLEAR LAKE ART SAIL - JULY 28th - CLEAR LAKE, IOWA - BE THERE OR BE SQUARE!!!), but with this batch under the belt and a garage full of scrap trimmings, I'm well set to build some table-top display pedestals and such to go along with. Like I said, stepping up the game, one step at a time. Still some sanding and painting to go on these, but not too shabby considering where we sat at noon.
Other than that, the last several weeks have been filled with lots of trimming, drying, firing, and last minute throwing. Some a little too last minute. Had a minor casualty in the last firing - thrown too late, trimmed too late, and didn't have quite enough time to dry before it went in the kiln. A portion of the center of the trimmed foot ring crumbled (exploded) in the firing. From the top, the bowl is quite lovely. Flip it over and it looks like an ogre tried to eat my signature. So that's too bad. Salvageable for my own personal use, or perhaps selling to family or VERY close friend, but not something I'm going to let out into the world at cost to a paying customer. I have standards, you know. In the end: sad story. I could have waited another day to load the kiln: I didn't actually get the chance to glaze this week, so pushing the bisque for another twenty-four hours wouldn't have hurt any, BUT it also wasn't even the piece that I was most worried about being too wet. Go figure, huh?
So... here's what else has been going on:
Last minute vases. Trying out new things.
Another Arizona.
Celebrated America's Birthday. Anything more American than apple pie? Temperance also enjoyed it. Most of it. While we were out. And it was on the counter. Dog.
This would be the one that exploded its foot in the kiln. Won't be heading to the show with me, but will be glazing and finishing.
Loading up the bisque. I was a bit concerned I'd have to leave something out. It all fit just fine.
Mandatory kiln-shot. Almost there!
Bisque. Now just waiting to glaze.
So, glazing is now in the near future. For the record, all these photos were shared as they were taken via my Twitter and Facebook. Follow or Like! me for all the craziness on a daily basis.
That's all for now, folks. Hopefully I'll check in with y'all before the show. Woo! Counting down...
