Le Oinker

Well look what's arrived at our house...a Gary Rith mug complete with pig on the handle.  What a treat!  I just feel like oinking everytime I take a sip of my tea.  You know it's kind of like I have to communicate with that little guy. (His name is Bacon)  Thanks Gary!  I'm making you a special goat mug and it will be on it's way soon.

Oink, oink

New Pots

[gallery link="file"]

Click on any thumbnail to view a larger image.

So it was a good firing as far glaze and such goes.  There's a lot of white on the pots though and that's one thing I'm trying to work out.  I need more layers, depth, and possibily color.  I mean if I'm gonna do this low fire work I may as well do it right.  So I am thinking about moving away some from this off white base slip to a more tinted straw color or something.  Actually I'd like a layer of each with some texture in there and some dirty smudgey-ness.  It will come around I guess, I'm just gonna have to keep working.  Unfortunately today is full of meetings, appointments, and teaching, so no studio time for me.

I'll get most of these pots photographed individually and put up on the Etsy site later on this week.

Thanks for looking.

The Graveyard Book

I just finished The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman this morning.

I almost read this non stop. Well, I stopped when I had to.  It's a story about a child who's family is murdered when he is an infant.  The child (who is named by the dead,Nobody Owens) comes to live in a near by cemetery and grows up there into adolescence.  He lives among the 'ghosts' of the dead, not really scary ghosts.  Well not all.  Anyhow it's about growing up, being alive, struggle, and love.  There's adventure and lessons learned.  You can read HERE what Gaiman said about the book soon after he finished it.

Silas is Noboby's guardian.  Here are some words from the book that stuck with me.

Silas said, "Out there, the man who killed your family  is, I believe, still looking for you, still intends to kill you."
Bod shrugged.  "So?" he said. "It's only death. I mean, all of my best friends are dead."
"Yes." Silas hesitated.  "They are. And they are, for the most part, done with the world.  You are not.  You're alive, Bod.  That means you have infinite potential.  You can do anything, make anything, dream anything.  If you change the world, the world will change.  Potential.  Once you're dead, it's gone.  Over.  You've made what you've made, dreamed your dream, written your name.  You may be buried here, you may even walk.  But that potential is finished."

Good stuff.
Well I'm off to check on the kiln.  Hopefully I'll have some pots up here in an hour or so.  Check back soon.

Coming Soon...

New pots out of the kiln Tuesday, so check back in to see some images.
They'll be hitting the Etsy shop later in the week.

On a side note , I had to delete a few older posts that were getting spammed to death for some reason.  I thought I had a plugin that was stopping that but after inspection saw that I had deactivated it.  All is well now.

Allison McGowen Workshop

I really enjoyed Allison McGowen's workshop yesterday.  Allison hand builds all her pots.  I have never been to a workshop that did not come from a throwing perspective so I learned a lot.  Not once did she add any water to her pots, only slip at the joins and that was applied neatly from a squeeze bottle.  The aspect of staying as clean as Allison did during the making really appealed to me.  Man, sometimes I get really tired of being so dirty.

Below is an image of Allison finishing up a pillowed bowl form.  This pot starts out upside down as a slab draped over a soft mold.  All the texture is created on the slab  before construction begins.



The slabs were made by throwing and stretching them out on the table. No slab roller.  I was impressed at the control she had over making the slabs.  Lots of practice.  The slab below is the start of a teapot.



Allison was a great presenter and I'd certainly recommend going to any workshop or demo that she gives.  I'm looking forward to getting back in my studio this week and trying my hand at some slabbed spouts as well as trying to make some jar bodies. 

By the way, all this work was made from porcelain clay.  Jen Mecca and I were amazed at the stretchability and workability or Allison's clay.

Below are a few of the pots Allison brought to show.



It was great to meet Allison, she doesn't live too far away so I'm hopeing that we'll be seeing more of her in the regional clay community. 

Week's End

Man, I'm glad this week is over.  I've been kinda grumpy and out of sorts in the studio too.  I've been trying some large jars and they just have not gone well (hence the lack of any pics of them).  The one's I did keep proved to be very, very challenging in the deco. dept.  What do you draw on a 16 lb jar?  Does the scale of the drawings get bigger?  Do I break it up into sections?  Should I have covered less in slip so as to have different areas to use?  And on and on....  So questions are good right?

I was happy today to unload a bisque kiln on modestly sized pots, plates and mugs and bowls.  I looked at them and thought, "well now these aren't totally bad, I'm learning how to do these .  So I will get them all glazed on Sunday and back in the kiln.

I tried some different slip patterns on two boards of plates today too.  Here's one board:I'm interested in having more bare clay showing.  I am also wanting to mix up a yellowish slip to start using over this white one.  Contrasting pours and such.  I still haven't done my glaze tests either.

Tomorrow I am going to an Allison McGowan workshop.  I don't know much about her, so it should be fun.

Feeding Time

Ron Philbeck Serving Bowls are suitable for many occasions....

Opening at Lark and Key

My friend Hal and I enjoyed a trip to Charlotte last night to have dinner and attend the opening at Lark and Key featuring new paintings by Duy Huynh and ceramics by Diana Fayt.

It was nice to be able to handle Diana's pots.  I mostly see them on the web so it's great to connect with her work in reality.





Duy's paintings are lovely.  I'd love to own one someday.  That's Hal below. 

A Few Links

Nothing from the pottery to share today.  I was not in a good head during my studio time.  Maybe tomorrow will be better.  For now...

Here is a LINK to some really nice pots.  Thanks to Fred for sharing.

I am on my way to Charlotte this evening for an opening at Lark and Key.  The gallery is celebrating it's one year anniversay with an exhibition of new works by Duy Huynh and Diana Fayt.  I'm really looking forward to it. (There's gonna be mini cupcakes too!!).

Have a good evening.

Stealing

I nabbed this Jen Mecca pitcher after she left the Clayworks studio last night.  Aaahahahahaaha (evil laugh).  I just slipped it and I'm gonna deco it up later with some Ron-goodness.

It's a secret so don't anyone tell her.

For John

This is a Ron Meyers vase that we have.  It's salt glazed earthenware.  John at Clayworks asked me to put up an image of it awhile back so here it is (finally).

Pots in Use

My friend Rick from Charlotte send me this picture a while back showing his dining room table all set with handmade pots.  Many of them are mine but not all.  Thanks Rick.

The Birds

We had a giant flock of black birds come into the yard this morning.  They made quite the ruckus.  It's pretty common, I always enjoy seeing them out in the trees clattering about.

Slow Start

I haven't made it out to the shop yet.  Still having my tea in this nice Mark Hewitt mug.  Juicy eh?

After my play time with that jar last night I thought how cool it would be to get as close to finished with each pot right off the wheel.  Working pretty wet.  Ruthanne Tudball makes most of her pots in this manner, even assembling teapots after all the parts are freshly thrown.

I don't know, but it would be a fun experiment.  It could get messy and a bit too wacky if I'm not careful.    Maybe I'll play around with some things as I work on the next kiln load.

Below is a Chuck Hindes jar that I really like.  I applied to take a class with Chuck and Ron Meyers at Penland this summer.  It would be amazing to be around those two guys for a couple weeks.



I've been scouring the web for jar shapes that I like.  Japanese water jars that were used in the tea ceremony are really turning me on.  I'll try and post some pics of those or put up a link or two later on.  I'm sure this jar was inspired by those water jars.

Better get on out to work.  I'm teaching at Clayworks this evening.  I'm going to be demoing some altered pitcher shapes, with spouts.  That should be something most of my students haven't seen or done before.  Have a good day.

Good to Mess About

I put that jar (bel0w) back on the wheel after tearing off the handles and had a bit of fun.  Of course the clay was really wet and tired and just fell all over the place.   I did some tugging and pulling and pushing out before adding some slip and quick deco.

Just for fun.

Process. Looking

I just made this jar. And I'm not so sure I'm totally happy with it.  But.... after I took it off the wheel I looked at it and liked the bottom pretty good.  So I thought, that bottom part would make a cool dish.  So I immediately made that next pot.

I'm putting the handles on these while they are still on the wheel.  The dish feels full and loose.  I'm not having much luck getting that feeling in a large jar (10-12 lbs).  So, back to work.

For Michael

Thanks to Michael for the inspiration.

Long Trays

I've made these sort of things a few times but never kept any to fire.  It's basically a clay wall thrown on the wheel with no bottom.  I cut it down to make a slab and rolled the ends for handles.  I made these because I wanted something long and narrow for the washline deco.  After I see how these fire out I may make more of different lengths and widths.

Pots in the Dish Rack

Gallery Page

I put some images up on my Gallery page (over to the right there).  Most of you have prob. seen them.  I'll be updating it soon.  Still getting things in order here on this site.