Home from NYC

Sarah and I spent the last few days in NYC having fun and pretty much walking our feet off.  It was our first time there and we had a blast.  Sarah did her masters work at Appalachian State University here in NC.  ASU has a loft space in the Flatiron district that is available for alumni, their family and guests.  It's insanely cheap to stay there so we took full advantage of it and certainly plan to go back.

Sarah and I in Central Park

 

We met up with Hannah McAndrew there after she had been in Philly for a week as an exhibitor in the Philadelphia Craft Show. Hannah's partner Paul flew in from Scotland to join us too.

Having lunch at Katz's Delicatessen

I'll do a few posts over the next few days.  For now I'm happy to be back home in the slow lane of country living.  My brain and body put their selves into restore mode today so I spent it on the couch sleeping and reading.

 

Cuttin' Up

I was going to title this post "I'm a Cutter" but I didn't want my therapist getting a bunch of calls.

I got my scalpel, blades and cutting mat today!!  So I dove right in and did a few cuts.

Oh, I haven't mentioned this have I?  Right, well I got a bit interested in paper cutting when Hannah was here.  We were at a shop in Charlotte called the Paper Skyscraper and Hannah pointed out a Rob Ryan mug.  She told me how popular he was in England and said I should look him up.  So I did and I totally love what he does.

And it looked not too different than what I was doing with the deco on my pots!  So I ordered a scalpel and some blades and a cool cutting mat.  "Why a scalpel?"you ask.  Why not just use an Exacto knife?  Well, first off because R.R. uses a scalpel AND totally because it's much more cool than an Exacto!!  "What kind of tool do you use Ron?"  "I use a scalpel."  "Wow! You're totally rad!"  Okay so that's just in my head right.

I did this first.

Which I glued to the wall on top of my favorite Tommy Kane print.

Here are my new toys.

And a few more cuts I did.

So I'm just fiddling along, I have no books on this or anything, but it seems pretty straight forward so far. I want to make some bigger ones and some circular ones too.  We'll see.

Fun!!!

Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew Workshop

Many of you know Doug and Hannah from their blogs.  I met them both here on the internet some 5 or so years ago.

I'm happy to announce that they will both be coming to the US in April, 2011!!!

Jugs made by Hannah McAndrew

I have planned a one day demonstration workshop for them here in Shelby, NC.

The date is April 23rd, 2011.  The workshop will be held at the Cleveland County Arts Council in historic downtown Shelby.

If you are interested in receiving information on this workshop please send an email to

ronpots2 <at> yahoo <dot> com

with Workshop in the Subject line.  As soon as I get my registration forms together I will send them out to you.  (Hopefully in the next week or so).

Jug by Doug Fitch

Cost will $85 per person for the workshop.




This is a great chance to meet Hannah and Doug and see them make and decorate their pots right in front of your eyes.  It should be a really fun day.  I can't wait for them to get here!!

If you'd like to learn more about Doug Fitch visit these sites:

HERE

or HERE

For more on Hannah:

Click HERE for website or HERE for Hannah's blog

or HERE for her online Store.

Let me know if you belong to a guild or group of potters who would like to receive information on this workshop.  Tell your potter friends too.  Thanks!!!

Earthenware Journey

It's been just over 2 years since I made the big switch to earthenware.  If you are interested in seeing the progress you can go back in the Archives (right sidebar) to January 2008 and move forward from there.

Just to give you an idea of where I started, here is the  post I made after my first glaze firing. Click HERE.

And here is a platter from that period.



And a recent platter:



There have been some significant steps along the way.  Doug and Hannah have both been very encouraging and have turned me on to loads of great pots.

I have looked at Margaret Brampton's pots for encouragement on using color.

Of course my two weeks at Penland with Ayumi Horie were very influential for me.    I came back from that experience and jumped in feet first into my decoration.  That's been 8 months ago now and while I continue to work with red clay, white slip, clear and colored glazes I feel like my decoration is becoming more and more my own.  I am certainly putting more time than ever into drawing on my pots.  I was fortunate in that I had put many years into working on my forms when I was making salt glaze.  It's nice not to have too many problems to work on at once.

Right after I left Penland I became fascinated with Medieval Majolica from Italy.  Thankfully there are some nice images on the Internet.  See Here for one.

I moved up from that time period to more current Italian majolica,1500, 1600's.   And then on to pots that were made in this country in the 1700 and 1800's.

Thank goodness for the Internet and all it's resources.

When I first thought about making earthenware pots I knew I wanted them to be fun and accessible.  I think I am accomplishing that.  It's neat to see how humorous some of the old English slipware was.

Living out here in the country of NC offers many subjects for my work.  I've spoken before about how we are surrounded by cows and goats, squirrels and rabbits.  Most recently I've started incorporating more flowers and foliage into the decoration.  I imagine that will certainly pick up speed as the honeysuckles begin to flower and the garden takes shape.  I look forward to that.

Well, I just wanted to do a bit of a recap.  It's good for me and I know I could have certainly gone into more depth here on various areas.  For now, I'd best get out to the studio and make some bowls.  I hope you all have a good week.

Trailing is Hard

Finished up most of the pots from yesterday.  I thought it would be fun to try some slip trailing so I had a go at it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSJgGKME_Zw

It's really difficult.  Not nearly as easy as some people make it out to be.

All in all...

it's been a very good day.  I started off making mugs and moved on to jars.  After several failed attempts at getting anything worth a hoot I moved on to 8lb bowls.  I made 6 of these, various shapes each one.

The jars will have to wait for another day I guess.  I only managed two that were 6 lb. Notice that lovely mug I drank my tea from all day.

I have LOTS of pots under plastic waiting to be drawn on.  Tomorrow all that will happen.

The porch framing is all finished up!  Shade, yay!  Now for all the small tidbits to finish it up.  But that will wait for a weekend job, when my helpers show up and only expect to be paid in beer.

Detail from one of the large bowls.

Well like a said, not a bad day.  I'm ready for a cool shower and then on to supper.  Maybe a bit of relaxation out on the porch later on too.  Good evening all.