Happy Valen-Birth-Presi-National Pancake Day!

Because those are the holidays I have celebrated since I last posted.


(If you want more frequent updates I could just be a better blogger, or you can go LIKE my pottery page on Facebook to get the regular updates when they're actually, you know, updated. If you'd like to opt for me to just be a better blogger, why don't you leave a note so I now you exist, eh?)

Anyway, since it's the last week of the month I did think it was an appropriate time to share what I've been up to in the studio. Mostly in pictures. Because I don't words right now.

In no particular order, here's what I've been up to in and out of (but mostly in) my studio:

A quartet of communion chalices has been ordered. A quartet of communion chalices has been made. Quite satisfied with the shape and proportions of this set, all around.

The disembodied hand! Well, okay, that's mine. I guess I was trying to capture the "Here's what I'm up to right this second!" look for Twitter. You tweet? Follow me here!

These are my buds. My bud vases. Playing with textures, working through some bags of nasty clay. We had our ducts cleaned out in November and some amount of refuse and debris blew out of the furnace and into some of my recycling clay. I'll be picking those bits and pieces out forever.

Celebrated Krystal's birthday a couple weeks ago! We are now in the three months of the year that I really rub it in how much older she is than me. Which is three months. But for these three months it's almost like she's a whole year older than me. And that's a number I'm not at liberty to divulge right now. But we had a lovely celebration with friends and cake made my yours truly and hot tea. And then more cake. And then more tea.

Starting to look like it may be time to load the kiln. That's close to half a load on that shelf alone.

Here's a special order undertaken this winter: a single serving pour-over coffee maker. Hopefully it functions, but right now I'm proud of this handle.

More stuff waiting for the kiln. That's starting to look like a full load.  There are those chalices again!

A stein. Special order. Want one? Shoot me an e-mail, leave a comment, or get working on your smoke signals!

Weekends not spent in the studio have looked more or less like this. Which is pretty great when it's snowing outside. Or cold. Or just gray, regardless of temperature. Either way, there have been more than a few hours when I could have been potting and instead I was sitting and reading and sipping hot tea and eating crumpets, etc.

A few small pieces of throwing productivity. The two on the right are to go with Teapot #2 (below).

Teapot #1. That was not the final lid. Genie not included.

Teapot #2. The cups to match are above. Starting to get more comfortable with my handles. Still don't like them - like a wrench in the gears of my productivity, but necessary evil.

Teapot #3. Full set. For the record, these are being made for fun and are as of yet unspoken for. So if you're in the market for a new teapot, just let me know.

Puppy also has spent plenty of time in the window, keeping the couch warm. It's a hard job, but somebody has to do it.

And a "finished" piece ready for the kiln. Yup.

That's the story. Taking it easy, making pots for fun. I have a pretty full inventory of "basics" to get me through any shows this spring, so this winter has been about fun things and one-off special orders.  I don't suppose I have much else to report on.

Of course, always listening to lots of music. There's new music on the horizon from the likes of Phoenix, Atoms for Peace (Thom Yorke, Flea, et al), and The Strokes, but I can't say that I'm crazed with anticipation for any of those. Phoenix should be great, but AfP just reminds me I really ought to listen to more Radiohead and as much as I thought 2011's Angles was solid, if not anticlimactic, if I really want to feel like it's 2001 again I'll probably be listening to Is This It.  Speaking of nostalgia, I have been listening heavily to the records that I associate with my high school days: a lot of "Christian" alternative and Top 40/mainstream rock circa '99-'02 has been providing some variety in the studio and early morning workouts.  Turn of the century records from the likes of Audio Adrenaline, Skillet, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper, Santana, Lenny Kravitz... you know, the usual suspects.

Thrown in the mix and worth mentioning this month are the debut LP from Leagues (You Belong Here), records from The Heavy (bluesy, danceable rock), Local Natives (alt-folk; think less ethereal Fleet Foxes), and Gary Clark, Jr. (Again with the blues rock. Check him out!).

Until next month, unless I get a bee in my bonnet to provide a quicker update this time around, although still not likely to happen before next month, so that statement stands.  Thanks for stopping by. Keep making things. Always love to hear from you. Tell me, what are you listening to these days? What's keeping you occupied through the winter? Or are you still in hibernation mode?

Take care.

Happy New Year!

It took me long enough, but here's the first update from this side of 2013!

I haven't been able to spend as much time in the studio in the last few weeks as I'd prefer, but sometimes that's the way life goes. Once we started taking down and putting away our Christmas decorations (or, as Krystal would say, "Putting up the Christmas stuff," which is, confusingly enough, the same verbage used to describe the initial decoration) we sort of got sucked into a spiral of premature spring cleaning. So, in addition to small bits of throwing here and there (always in smaller bits than I'd prefer) most of the time in my studio has been spent doing some long overdue mopping, sponging, recycling (of clay and actual recyclables), tidying, and laundering of pottery towels and such + inventorying and sorting/packing pots up in the non-studio portion of the basement. I've also been working on photographing some older "clearance" pottery for listing on Facebook in the near future. Perhaps by February 1st I'll actually have something worth showing for it.

So what* else have I been up to if I haven't been throwing?

Sometimes Temperance tries to play hide-and-seek without telling us we're playing. This is her trying to blend in with a wool throw on the ottoman. She's also dangerously invisible on the bathroom rug. And most of the carpet in the house. So, mostly: watch out for the invisible dog.

Had some company that warranted a trip to the Casey Tibbs SD Rodeo (Center? Museum?) earlier this month. Learned bunches and bunches about the rodeo. And took this rad picture. Not pictured: Krystal riding the non-mechanical Bullride Simulator. A/V experience only, no automotion involved. Big bummer there.

Sending pots out and about, still. This one went to Virginia. It's an exciting thing, sending pots out and about. Since December 1st I sent pottery that would end up in Colorado, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Virginia, and points unknown international. Thinking it's time to start a map wall with color coded push pins. Put that on my to-do list.

At the start of the year, I was pleased to present the communion set I had been commissioned to make for Resurrection Lutheran Church (our congregation). The communion wares were dedicated and used in service on Sunday, January 6th.

Talking a little bit about the process and creation of the wares during the dedication.

Complete communion set for Resurrection Lutheran, including: spouted/lipped chalices, larger for wine, smaller for grape juice; paten with cover for wafer service; larger paten for loaf service, and pitcher.

I think it's okay to say that I'm awfully proud of this set and the way it turned out.  Bit of a challenge in the outset as these are pieces outside of my normal range of work, but extremely edifying in the end. I hope these pieces will provide years of service in our congregation. It certainly has been nice to see them in use the last few weeks.

But then I have been in the studio, too. Not a non-existent time, just not as frequent as would be preferable. Here's a bit of progress on things:

Bits and pieces this week. Teapot #1 for 2013. A small one. We'll see. I'll have to do something decoratively oriented with it. Not sure what that might be. The creative process requires patience....

A couple of 6# mountain vases. Rather pleased with the necks/lips/tops on these. 

Mountain vases, mountain vases.

So that's about it. Some little bowls happening here and there. Other things. Might actually get down to some heavy-duty throwing this weekend. Sold off my giant mountain vases, so that might be an upcoming project.

In the meantime: enjoying tunes lately from LEAGUES (debut releasing 1/29/13 - have been enjoying my early bird preorder copy), Least of These, and Ascend the Hill, as well as perennial favorites like Bleach and Mutemath. So check all of them out. They won't disappoint.

Back to the grind y'all. Stay classy, have fun, make stuff, be creative.

Or something. Always on the hunt for a good mantra.



*Note: if you type faster with one hand than the other, sometimes keys get pushed out of order, sometimes to hilarious result. For example, at first run-through I mistyped "So what" as "Sow hat" which is something completely different, I suppose. And mildly amusing for me. Deal with it.

It's the end of the year as we know it...

Happy Almost-New Year's Day! We all survived another apocalypse that wasn't, and so here's one more blog post to go out with a bang before ushering in 2013.  On my radar for the new year: more pots. Big pots. Teapots. Mountain pots. That sort of thing.  In the even more immediate future, maybe even something like "My favorite pots made in 2012!" or something. I'm not that organized yet.

A great big thank you to those of the readership that continued to support my creative endeavors over the last year.  Off the top of my head, highlights include heading to my boyhood hometown for the Clear Lake Art Sail (tons of fun, my first "real" outdoor show either in years or ever, depending on how you're counting. Lots of work, lots of challenges, supremely rewarding) and the launch of my online store at Etsy.  Actively using Etsy as a source of making new customers and also as an EASY format for purchasing my work by longtime supporters turned out to be quite successful in its first weeks. Obviously the pre-Christmas shopping rush accounts for a lot of that, but I'm excited to see what might come of the online storefront in the new year. I'll try to be keeping a regular amount of work stocked and available to ship year round, so please check that out if you're looking to add some of my work to your collection. Find it at :: www.etsy.com/shop/lukelangholzpottery :: and as always, if you're ever looking to order something specially made just for you, just shoot me a message either here or here.

Came down with a spot of the flu before Christmas and I found myself drinking an awful lot of hot tea. This time it actually involved me busting out a spare teapot I'd made as back-up for a custom order and using the teapot, as opposed to just filling a mug, made for a surprisingly enriched tea-drinking experience. So I may be exploring teapots a bit this year as a result of that renewed personal interest. 

I also have said "good bye" to my token "large" mountain vase which will be going off to its new home shortly. That's always a good thing, and now I may have to work on a couple large pieces this winter to fill that hole in my heart inventory.

Anyhow. Back to the studio soon enough. Back in the clay. And I have some pots to share (photographically) soon enough. But now, for those who care for such things, here are a dozen of my favorite albums of 2012. Or, 12 for 2012.

With the full disclosure, of course, that I'm not trying to make any sort of argument (necessarily) for the "best" music of the year. For example, everyone knows that Jack White released his debut solo record this year and it was a smashing critical success and what a record! And all the superlative statements about how he finally can do whatever he wants and let his genius run free... and it was so phenomenal. No, really. In all seriousness, it was a great record and I appreciate it deeply. But Blunderbuss simply wasn't my favorite.

So here's the completely unscientific list, in alphabetical order, based on a combination of my personal ratings, play counts, and gut instincts on what were my favorite records for the year.  It would have been an easier process, I think, to cut it down to 5 or 6, or expand it to 18-20, but 12 seemed like a good number.

1. Aaron Espe, "Three"
2. Alabama Shakes, "Boys & Girls"
3. Civil Twilight, "Holy Weather"
4. David Crowder*Band "Give Us Rest or (A Requiem Mass in C [The Happiest of All Keys])"
5. Father John Misty, "Fear Fun"
6. The Followers, "Wounded Healer"
7. House of Heroes, "Cold Hard Want"
8. The Killers, "Battle Born"
9. Matthew Perryman Jones, "Land of the Living"
10. Mumford & Sons, "Babel"
11. Norah Jones, "Little Broken Hearts"
12. Sons, "Keep Quiet"

 Honorable Mentions :: For whatever reason not on the list, but definitely on my shortlist as great music from this year, including releases from Owen Thomas, Jason Aaron Coons, Pioneer, The Royal Royal, and the O.C. Supertones.

Thanks for following along, see you next year!!!

Luke Langholz Pottery now available at Etsy!

That's right! You can now buy my pottery online via Etsy, right here!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/LukeLangholzPottery

There are a handful of pieces available right now, and will be updating to provide a variety of work, or at least a reasonable sampling of all styles that I do. Of course the challenge of this sort of thing is deciding how many pieces to list when there are individual listing fees and keeping track of that inventory and blah blah blah... mostly I'm glad to be able to share this!

Prepping the shop has been keeping me busy - shooting pictures, tracking measurements and pottery dimensions, setting up the account... in addition to throwing and trimming and all that jazz in preparation for some Christmas orders folks have gotten in to me.  So lots of that going on as well.

Anyhow. Go check it out! And maybe buy something, eh?

A quick picture for Carol, by request. :)

A very brief, pictorial update for Carol who inquired about some smaller vases I may have in stock at the moment. Behold: I am short-stocked. I have another similar to the red vase on the left.

 

To everyone else: Happy Advent! Today, of course, is the first Sunday in Advent, the liturgical season of preparing for the birth of the Christ Child. So we've been doing Adventy things like marveling at the 70-degree weather, playing with Temperance in the yard, and putting up our tree. 

I was out and about yesterday for a last-minute show across the river in Fort Pierre, and a great thanks to all who came out and especially those who supported this local artist. Krystal was on hand with me and enjoyed bartering up a storm of my pottery in exchange for shiny things to call her own. We make a good team.

I have news in the works, too. Stay tuned, keep posted. I'm excited. Very soon.  And I've also been throwing pots for a pre-Christmas firing. I'm still willing to take any orders this week for those looking for the perfect gift. 

That's all for tonight. Talk to y'all later, and thanks for reading!