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New Ideas

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Following the "Plan" from the other day I brushed slip on the pots today instead of pouring it. Well I did pour it on some cups, but anyhow. This basket is sort of a new idea. It needs a bit of work and since I didn't feel very attached to it I decided to immediately draw on it after I applied the slip. Being in that adventurous mood i thought why not try some things off the top of my head. So came the fork and spoon, knife and box grater, pot and pan, and some carrots. Hey that was fun...so I moved on to some bowls...(next post).

Shinos for Andrew

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Andrew, these first three pots I made and have the Gustin shino on them. When that glaze is thick it's white when thin it's toasty. The clay does need some body reduction for it to look decent. You can see the thick and thin areas on these pots. Jazzing up the surfaces helps too, texture on the pot. Or like you are doing and like I did on the jar, wiping through the glaze to thin it out. The plate has a matt black trailed across it. I think shinos, unless they are the carbon trap variety, need something else going on on the pot. A pot covered in shino is sometimes boring. Try texture, paddling, roping, incising, whatever, things that will let the glaze go thick and thin. I have some pots with shino and ash on them somewhere here, and a cup that's this same glaze but thicker and really white. I'll try and find them.




This cup was made by Randy Johnston and has some kind of shino on it. It would be pretty boring if it didn't have that little band there in the middle.Try getting a high iron clay too. That will change the whole thing.
Looking good. Keep up the good work.

Nic Collins

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Nic Collins will be holding an on-line exhibition/sale of the 20 best pots, chosen by him from the winter firing of the groundhog kiln. The exhibition/sale will take place at 6 pm on Friday 5th of December and will continue until 6pm Friday 12th December.

I was introduced to Nic's pots by Doug Fitch. Doug has helped Nic fire over the years and has been influenced in many ways by Nic and his work.

It will great to see the progression of the work as it makes it way from the wheel to the kiln and on to the exhibition. Check in often.

Obamaware Preview

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Hey! The Obamaware Preview is up!! So many visitors yesterday that the site went down for a while. Sadly, my pots are still missing in action somewhere in the postal system. (which totally sucks and is making me sick).

However there are some killer pieces on there and they all go on sale tomorrow at noon. So get ready and be there.

Monday. Back to Work

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Okay here is the Plan:


I learned a good lesson last week when I made some pots that had hardly any surface variety, and then no glaze depth. BORING! Flat. Lifeless. Yuck. So I'm making sure now to jazz things up a bit. When I was firing salt I had to do very little to the surface because the kiln atmosphere did it all. I'm learning by trial and error with this slipware, and from paying attention.

Made some cups and bowls today.

Decorated these and a couple more boards from last week.
If you've been looking at the Obamaware site and wondering where my pots are, well, I had some bad news on Friday. My package got mis-routed. I think I screwed up the zip code. Hopefully they will get there before the show goes live on Wednesday.
Frustrating, but out of my hands for now.

Response

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Here are some examples of what I heard on Saturday.

"Wow this is new!"
"This doesn't look like your work Ron."
"Hey is this your work? I like it."
"Are you still firing your salt kiln?"
"We walked right by here and didn't know this was you"
"I love that amber glaze."
"These drawings are great. I love the piranha."

I visited some other potters in their booths and they asked, "Are you here? Where are your pots?" I'd tell them and they'd say, "Wow that's new, it doesn't look like your work at all Ron, I really like it, are you still firing your salt kiln? Is this earthenware?!"

Ha! Anyhow it was fun to introduce my slipware to folks who haven't seen it before. It was well received and I think it even surprised some folks that I could do something different. Maybe too it was a reminder that we don't have to do the same thing forever.

I took this photo yesterday. Sarah is rooting a plant on the window sill, with the curtain pulled over, it gave nice silhouette.

Off to the workshop. Have a good Monday.

ClayMatters Fall Pottery Sale

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It was a beautiful day for the ClayMatters Pottery Sale yesterday. This event is held at the McAlpine Business Park amid the old dairy barn and silos. Its a great venue.



I didn't bother to put up a tent and brought my minimalist display to set up. I was flanked on either side by Vicki Gill and Jen Mecca, good neighbors for the day. I had pretty good sales considering all the hubbub going on with the banking market in Charlotte and all the other national economic stuff. I did notice a considerable drop from last year though. I was happy to sell my first harvest jug! I also took a few orders for plates.


Below are pics of Vicki Gill's booth and Jen Mecca's.

Vicki and Jen will be showing next weekend at Vicki's Studio in Gastonia. Check Vicki's blog this week for info.
Well that's it for now. Check in later for now.

Feet!

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Man, I just had a great 2 hours in the studio!! KEXP is rocking this morning. Even though it's the fund drive John and Cheryl are having a blast and playing some killer, killer music. Tune in, it will make your day. I pledged on Monday to support the station.

So I've been cutting feet on pots. Got some jars, bowls, and diamond dishes footed and even some handles on those guys.

Time for lunch!!!!


Oh, and the kiln just shut off. Yeah, Obamaware out tomorrow!!!!!

Rough Day

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Just finished glazing a load of pots including all my Obamaware. I fired my last bisque a bit too hot so it took forever for the glaze to dry. On top of that I dropped 2 pots today! Yes they were plates for Obama...good thing I made extras. Anyhow the kiln is on now thank goodness.

Now time to get cleaned up and have a bit of rest before I head out to teach my class tonight. Guess I'll be listening to the debate on NPR on the drive home.

One Plate

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Here's a teaser of my Obamaware. It was a long afternoon in the studio working up to decorating. I didn't like any of the three cups I etched so I thought I'd move on to plates. The first two were pretty stiff and controlled. I decided to got back and do some drawings on newsprint and told myself, "play, have fun, it's just paper, do what you want." That helped and things changed from what I had been planning for the last day. I ended up with 7 plates decorated and 5 left under plastic. I didn't try to tackle any more cups. Now that I've got a little confidence I will finish what I have tomorrow and probably even make a few more plates to toy around with.

I know this may seem a bit silly to some, but I have to admit that I put myself in the situation of being part of this show to push myself. This morning I was almost regretting it b/c I thought, "What if my pots aren't good enough, or as good as everyone elses?" Well I knew that kind of thinking was no good so I tried to let that go and I turned to a couple people for support. That helped too. Thanks Sarah and Amy.

Here's something else that came up. I asked myself, " Do I do what I normally do, you know my regular shapes and marks, and glazes or do I try to make it look really 'campainy' or 'political colors' etc.? After thinking about it (and trying to think what would such and such do) I figured it was best just to stick to my usual stuff. It's good, why change? There's a bit more to that, but I have to run, time for supper and the v.p. debate.

Thanks!

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Thanks to everyone who came out to the Fall Sale this weekend. It was a good sale and nice to catch up with folks who I hadn't seen in several months. I didn't know what to expect with the current financial crisis, the gas shortage in the southeast and the biggest county fair in the state happening just a few miles up the highway.

Many pots went off to new homes and I was pleased at the end of the day today when I added up my receipts. I hope everyone will enjoy their new pots.

This week I'll be working on my Obamaware as well as some other things I'm behind on.
Check in to see what I'm up too.