First Post in Weeks

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It's been two weeks to the day since I met up with Doug and Hannah at Kevin Crowe's pottery in Va.  The time has flown by and there is way too much to say about what we did and where we went.  I'm sad that they are gone and I could have done with more time with them just to myself.  It's going to take another day or so for me to get back to work.  I can't imagine how tired those two must be after spending a month in the States getting moved around from place to place and giving workshops every weekend.

 


Most of the trip has been documented in some way or another on others blogs and Facebook pages.  Ang Walford did a great job of shooting video and photos and she has posted some of that already.  You can also see pics and video on Hollis and Dan's blogs, Meredith Haywood's site and via Tracey Broome.  Hannah and Doug even found a bit of time to post themselves.  Becky Story has some great pics on her blog as well.

There are a bunch of pics HERE on my Facebook page.

Okay, well that's all I can muster at this time. There will be more. For now I just feel like thinking, not writing.

Deco. Video

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I shot this short clip on Wednesday of some pots getting the pencil layout.  Today  I got all of those scratched in and loaded in the kiln.  Still more to do...whew.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9e-qT52tRg

The Thrown Together Spring Sale is April 30th.  I am going to have lots of new pots, many for flowers.  Stay tuned for some finished work coming out of the kiln next week.

Good Stuff

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Loads of new stuff arrived today.  Below is a photo and video.


 


httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc_zhI-yWhU


Pretty cool eh?


I first saw Scott Garrett's work on my pal Matt Grimmitt's blog.  Scott did an illustration that had one of Matt's jugs included in it.


Later on I found my way to Scott's website and then his blog.  Scott is in the first stages of learning to make pots.  I love his illustration style and his sense of humor.  That mustache is pretty cool too.  Scott has an affection for folk pots from the American south. It's pretty cool seeing how someone in England is taken with US pottery much like I am with pots from their country.


Thanks for the prints Scott. I love them and they are going to get framed and put up in the house.


I'm pretty excited about my little self published picture book.  It will be a good asset in the studio.  I'll probably order one for my mom too.  She'd like that.


I'll talk more about the Michael Simon book later on. I've looked through it once and read a bit of it.  It really slowed my mind down today, just thinking about Michael, his pots, the way he works etc.  I met him several times, saw him make pots, went to his and Ron Meyers' pottery sales and even visited him at his home once.  Special memories.


Well, Sarah and I are headed over to Ni Fen for some wine and tapas.  It's been a sunny, beautiful day after a long damp week.  I hope you all have a great weekend.

A Little Play Goes a Long Way

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In this short clip I talk a bit about coming up with ideas through trying new things or playing around.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt8Tr1oUF_E

I mention a post by Carter Gillies in the video.  To go to that post on Carter's blog click HERE.

Lots of feet to turn today and slipping too.  Then the drawing begins!!

A View from the Wheel

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I've had two days of good productive work.  That's beside the fact that I'm not sleeping very well at night and not getting much of an early start.

Anyhow, I'm getting stocked up for the Thrown Together show which is April 30th in Charlotte.  I really hope we have a great sale.  Our guests this spring are Gay Smith and Matt Jones.

So here's a bit of video from my seat up on my treadle wheel.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6tI8a-_7ZA

Happy Monday

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I made a nice dinner tonight of roasted Brussels sprouts, pan fried corn and mac and cheese (Ruggles and Rankin baker).  Yum!!  Plates by yours truly.



I picked up the summer seasonal beer from Magic Hat at the grocery today. It's called Wacko and it's beet colored.  It doesn't taste like beets thank goodness.  I had to pour it in that wine glass so you could see the color.  It's tasty.

We have planted lettuces and chard in the garden.  Also some snow peas and spinach.  I can't wait to have some home grown food and for the local farmers market to open.

Speaking of local food, my pal Brad turned me on to this website today.  It's AMAZING, I've watched the episodes on rabbits and spear fishing and making hard cider.  Check out The Perennial Plate by clicking HERE.

I'll hopefully be sharing quite a bit of what's happening in Cleveland County in the upcoming months regarding local food, small farming, and of course eating all this wonderful goodness.

Oh and I made some nice runs of pots today. Yay Monday!!

Fixed it!

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Ha. Not really. Sometimes you see a not so good pot with good decoration or a good pot with bad decoration.  It's hard to get both.  I remember a person saying once that a wood firing can make a bad pot look good.  Nope. Not true.  In my case this was an opportunity to play for a  minute and not take things seriously.  Maybe I'll fire this pot and keep my brushes in it.

Thanks to everyone for thoughtful comments on the last post.  It is hard for beginning students to learn to let go or for them to see the benefits of learning to throw well.  Maybe the class is a one time thing for them, or maybe they just want to get a few pots made.  Not all students  have long term goals of becoming a proficient potter.  Some do have pretty high expectations though and that seems to get them in trouble.

I miss teaching on a regular basis.  I had a great group of students when I was at the studio in Charlotte.  I have taught week long classes a couple times at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown NC.  Folks can learn so much in an intensive week long or two week long class.

I also do the occasional weekend demonstration type workshop.  Those are great. So Wadiefong if the studio you belong to wants to bring me to San Fran then I am raring to come!!!

I'm getting a late start to studio work this morning but I am hoping for a productive Monday.  I hope everyone has a great week!!

 

Ouch!

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I dropped this pot on the side of the bucket after slipping it.

Just goes to show that anything can happen at any time.

Every so often I get asked to fill in and teach a pottery class when a friend of mine goes out of town.  The last time I did this I had a student ask me to show her how to make a certain kind of pot.  I did a demo for her (with others watching) and then helped her along as she made her own pot.

A short time later another student called me over and said she needed help.  She was trying to make the same pot and part way through it had gone wrong.  It wasn't totaled but it was very much off center and getting wobbly and worse the more she messed with it.

She wanted me to 'fix it'.  (Just writing that made me giggle a little).  I told her she'd be better off re-wedging that clay and starting over.  No, she didn't want to do that.  She said she had two more things she wanted to make before class ended and if she started over on this pot then she wouldn't get to the others.

So I told her, "that's the best it's gonna get."
To which she replied, "But it's not perfect."
"Nope, and it's not going to be, you've passed the part where it could have been perfect.  It's fine like it is,  if you want to keep it you should take it off now."
"Can't you fix it?"
"It would be better to just start over."
"I want to just fix this one and I want it to be better."
"It's not going to get any better, it's too late for that."

It was in pretty bad shape. It was a platter by the way, but being the softy that I am I worked on it a bit and it came out looking ....well it looked crooked and lumpy, but she settled for it. (Settled is right, she was not happy with it. Ha. It's funny, but she was dead set on not trying to make another one.)

Now there are a couple reasons I tell you all this story.  The first is that it's insane to think that something should be perfect, especially when it's the first time you've ever made it and you're not willing to give it more than one shot.  The word perfect shouldn't even be used in pottery class.  I could go on and on about this but I will not.

Here's another reason for this story.  What if the next week that student came back, unwrapped that pot from the plastic it had been under, turned around, tripped and dropped the pot?  Gone. In an instant.  Is anything lost? No. Some time.  Some clay. What to do? Make another one. And another one.

Making pottery is risk taking.  Every thing about it.  Nothing is guaranteed.  The bisque could over fire.  The glaze could run, or pinhole, or blister.  You may step on the speed pedal and there goes the pot flying across the room.  Drop the pot on the slip bucket. Boom, it's gone.

If any of it was guaranteed then it would be boring and not worth doing.  Just like making perfect pots.

 

 

Just a few more pots

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Another post of just photos.  You can click on each of these to see a bigger more complete image.  You'll recognize the two jars from the video and then there's the bottle too.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC" columns="2" orderby="ID"]

Try it now.

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I didn't realize that I had one of the videos in the last post set as 'private' in my Youtube settings.  Thanks to Carter for notifying me.

So it works down there now and here it is again.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pdlnAXNVqE