A Dream. And Help.

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Last night I dreamed I was firing Janet Mansfield's big woodfired salt kiln.  All my pots came out of it and they were great.  I had made everything from porcelain and they all had drawings on them, and saltglazed!  It was wonderful!  I think I'm having a bit of salt glazer relapse.  Which is cool, it may lead some where.

Earlier today I was looking at Priscilla Mouritzen's blog, Pinchpots, and I saw there, Hans and Birgitte Borjeson.  I remembered their pots from Janet Mansfield's book, Salt-glaze Ceramics.  (Yes, Janet again!)  As I looked through the Borjeson's website I recognized some of their patterned saltglazed pots but then, bam, there were a couple of pots with drawings on them.

I couldn't figure out how to capture the images from the Flash player so I photographed the screen.



You can see these images better if you go to their website.  Anyhow I am wondering about this technique.  I know there is some sgraffito going on.  And the blue is some sort of cobalt wash/stain.  My question is how are the figures/trees etc resisted yet still they have sgraffito and inlaided stain within them?  See what I mean?  I have one theory that involves wax but it seems too complicated.  Help? Anyone have ideas on this?  I may be overlooking the obvious.

Here's another photo I found on the web of Hans and Birgitte with one of their large bowls that has the same technique.


My studio is totally overflowing with pots at the moment.  I have to get into deco. mode tomorrow so I can get some things into the kiln and bisque fired.




Okay, that's all for now.  Thanks for checking in and leave me a comment if you know how anything about the salt glaze deco that happening up there.  Thanks!

Making a List.

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Sometimes it's good to do a prototype before trying something new.  I had the idea for this candle stick holder the other night while in bed and I did a sketch so I wouldn't forget it.  So yesterday I threw this together just to get a feel for the  scale and where the drawings may go.

I'm not 100% satisfied with this yet but it gives me a starting point without having spent too much time on it.  The plan is to do some cut outs there in the center where those circles are and the base would be in white slip with my usual drawings of animals and flowers.

That's my studio candle. I use it to measure my candle cups to make sure they are the right size.

I also got all the plates footed and slipped from the last making session and the mugs finished too.  I wanted to backfill those mug handles but things are drying so fast that I missed the opportunity.  A new batch of 6 to handle today.  Maybe I'll catch them in time.



I told myself that I needed to make a list if I was going to get anywhere with my making.  So yesterday I organized the showroom to see what my inventory looked like and made up this list of what to make.  It's a bit ambitious for the time I have (there's more on the back), but I'll get done what I can.


I'm also in the midst of making a bisque mold for a rectangular tray.  I have approached this pot from several angles in the past and not been happy with any of the results.  I fear this attempt may prove to be no different but I'm going to give it a go.  I'll take a pic of my mold today.


All for now.



Happy Birthday to my good pal Doug Fitch!!!!


Potter Plumber

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Our kitchen faucet pretty much blew apart last night as we were getting ready to do the dinner dishes.  It was about 11 years old and had seen it's better days I think.

I took it off the sink and today we went to the hardware store to get another one.  We also decided to replace the sink because it had gotten chipped a few years ago and one edge of it was a rusty mess.  So after dropping close to $400 we now have a new fancy Delta faucet and cast iron Kohler sink.




It's very heavy and I'm waiting for my bro-in-law to come help me set it into place.  We don't have a dishwasher and do dishes 2-3 times a day.  I like a nice deep sink, this one is 9 inches, and big enough for pots and pans and of course lots of pottery.

Sarah and I had a good supper last night.  I made spagetti and meat balls, I'd never made meatballs before.  I bought some Italian sausage from a local farmer at the market yesterday and cut it with some ground beef added herbs, onion, garlic and bread crumbs.  They were super yummy with the homemade marinara that Sarah's mom canned from her tomatoes.

Looking forward to the new week ahead.  I am hoping to have a Home Sale in September and I also have the Thrown Together Sale coming up on September 24th.  Sarah and I are also going to the beach, a much needed vacation for the both of us.  So I'd better make the most of my time that's left here in August and get some pots made.


 

Friday Afternoon Post

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I drove up to Highwater Clays in Asheville yesterday and picked up 1000 lbs of clay.  I am so happy to have plenty of clay in the studio.


Speaking of 'happy'.  Do you know anyone who always seems to be happy?  No matter when you see them?  Is that for real?  I know someone who no matter when I see them will always be smiling and saying how things are great and blah, blah, blah...I just came from yoga and I feel sooooo connected to myself and the world.  Or, Oh things are so good, I have been out in the garden weeding all morning...


Maybe I'm just too hum drum or gloomy.  I mean if that's really how that person is then good for them.  But if it's a put on then what the hell is that about?  I wonder if I acted more happy if I could be more happy.


Hey here's a pot:



(Gotta make sure I don't lose focus of what this blog is supposedly about).


Sarah and I went into the city for acupuncture today.  I felt so good and relaxed laying there on the table with needles in me!  I could have stayed there all afternoon.


As I was laying there, before dozing off, I thought it would be cool to do an online survey about mugs.  Preferences and such.  I'm going to try and put one together by Monday so stay tuned.


Speaking of mugs HERE is a nice blog post that I read this morning.


Another pottery image just to keep you scrolling:



Yesterday while in Asheville I ate at 12 Bones.  Oh brother, it was delicious.  I had a half rack of ribs with blueberry chipotle sauce, a side of corn pudding (yum), a side of mac and cheese, and sweet iced tea.  Heaven.  You have got to go if you are in Asheville. (assuming you eat pork).


The President has even been there you know.


Okay, that's all. Happy Weekend everyone.  Look for some newly made pots to come this way v. soon.  For now one more image.


Temmoku glazed yunomi fired in my salt kiln.  This one is now in my Online Shop.

Video. How I Slip a Plate

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Hope this helps some of you out there.  This technique could easily be used when glazing also.

Spinning the plate takes some practice.  You could practice with a bisque plate and water just to get the feel of the motion and the pouring.  Notice I don't move my pouring hand/cup.  Just the plate moves and the pour goes from the center of the plate (more or less)

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v52RYTsYlBU

Salt Glazed Pottery

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My salt firing workshop went well last weekend and on Friday we unloaded the kiln. Everyone was pleased with their pottery.   We only used a few glazes and one slip.  Some of the pots were bare clay.  I really liked seeing the different claybodies come out of the kiln, especially the porcelain.

I had about 18 cups in the kiln. I'll put images of them up later.  For now here are images of the participants pots.  Click for larger/fuller image.

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

no potin' 'round here

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(I wrote this post on Thursday but only got around to posting it this morning)

No pottery being made this week.  Well I did make 4 cups some time back and they are out there under plastic but I bet they are too dry for handles now.


Between getting ready for last weeks workshop and a big party we are hosting this weekend I have been fairly busy.  I'd like to make some pots.  I have them in my head but it will probably be the 8th before I get any clay on the wheel.


I've been to 2 grocery stores, 2 hardware stores and over to help my father in law install a storm door today.  I think I'm on my 5th cup of tea. Ha! It's hot as hell outside but honestly I haven't been complaining too much.  I like NC weather and we do have A/C indoors so its not too brutal.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm trying to stay up to date on reading other's blogs so I'll try and leave you a comment if I drop by.

Night Thoughts

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I woke up at 4 am and my brain started zooming.  I couldn't get back to sleep because I was having thoughts of pre-historic man walking the earth over a million years ago.  That made me feel very small and insignificant.  I guess I could turn it around and say I'm even lucky to be alive and part of the universe.   That would be less depressing.


So I came downstairs to lay on the couch.  I can usually fall back asleep down there.  But I got to thinking about how large many humans are becoming and I wondered if in 100 years or more if all humans will be super sized.  Or dead.


Thankfully I finally fell asleep and now it's morning and the birds are singing outside and I'm having tea and looking forward to my day.  Off I go.

What's Happening

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The Creatures of the Night Exhibition at MudFire Gallery opens this Saturday, Aug. 6th.  There is some really cool work in this show.  You can click HERE to see the preview.  The show will be online and pots for sale online so no matter where you are you can participate.  MudFire has really kicked it up a notch with their new website.  Check in there often!


I've been invited to quite a few shows over the next few months and into next year.  I have to say I'm really happy to be getting my work out there more.  Also, whenever I am invited to and exhibition or show it pushes me to come up with new ideas or to fine tune some of the work that I have been doing.  For the Creatures show I came up with some really cool bat imagery.


I sold both of the rectangular boxes in the past two weeks.



I am happy to know that I can work at this scale and put a good amount of effort into these sorts of pots and get paid what I ask.  Living here in 'big pot' country NC I've felt like I have to make bigger scale work to command any attention or to have more expensive 'show' pieces.  Of course that's just a notion of my own that I've created.  So it's important for me to see that I can do what I want and move past that notion.

Last week I sent out an email letting folks know about all the new work in my Etsy shop.  That created a little bit of a buying frenzy which was nice.  If you'd like to receive emails please sign up in the right hand side bar. Thanks!!

Hope everyone is having a good week so far.  Thanks for checking in.  ~Ron

 

Salt Glaze Weekend

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The Salt Firing weekend workshop went very well.  Four participants were here to glaze and wad pots on Saturday and then we loaded up the kiln.  It's the first firing in over a year and a half.


I lit the burners late Saturday night and got up a few times through the night to increase the gas.  By 2 pm Sunday we were ready to start salting.


We put in a total of 12 lbs of salt.  The kiln fired off without a hitch, following the same protocol as I did when I fired it on a regular basis.  It's good to know that it's still in good working order and that I haven't totally forgotten what to do. ( I do have over a decade of detailed kiln logs to help if necessary!)


Everyone agreed that they could meet up here on Friday for the unloading.  I can't wait to see what all the different pots look like.  We had stoneware and porcelain in this firing, some slipped pots, some glazed and some bare clay.  I had 20 cups go in, the rest of the load is what the workshop participants made.





It was fun for me to have folks here and to share what I know. I think they all learned a lot and were happy to have this experience.  Hopefully we'll all have some nice pots come out of the kiln later this week.  That will be the icing on the cake.


 

Mostly Pots

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Hey.

Okay, so someone told me recently that they liked my blog because I pretty much kept it about pots and not a lot of other riff-raff and such.  Well, I was in a sharing mood today and wrote a rather long post filled with stuff about my feelings and problems and how I was procrastinating all the time and blah, blah, blah.   Then I thought about it for a bit and edited all that stuff out.

I want to keep it real here and write about what's going on with me but sometimes when I go back and look over it I feel like it's too much.  So for now I'm  keeping it about pots and light stuff, nothing heavy.  Maybe I'll change my mind later and write some of the other stuff.

Here are some of the footed cups.


That's not all of them but it's a good representation.  I have to say, and I've said it here before at some point,...stiff, hard clay kills pots.  This clay was too stiff for my liking when I made these but I pulled most of them off okay.  But when it comes to cutting feet nothing is worse than the pot/clay being too hard.  These feet were a struggle and some aren't super/great but not terrible either.  There was no give and take between the tool and the clay.  Cut them as soft as you can is my advice.


Okay what else?  This isn't about pottery, but I got some cool new ink.

Ha! Right, not real.  But fun.  I've always liked temporary tattoos and I hadn't had any in a while so I ordered a few the other day.  I have no idea what I'd get if I wanted a real tattoo so it's better for me to just 'play'.  What are "Mother" tattoos about anyhow?  I guess I should have asked that before I put this on?  I think it shows love for the mother.  ? And I guess I'm a sailor now too maybe? No? I don't know.   I've been out to a couple places with it on and no one has commented on it.  Probably too polite.


Here are some stills of this jar from the video.




Okay, well thanks for reading.  I've got a buys week ahead getting ready for the salt firing.  I hope to get in some good posts this week too about creativity, drawing, and staying motivated.

Cups for the Upcoming Salt firing

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A short clip showing some cups I made this evening.  It was fun to just get all the clay balled up and sit and make these cups.  It was quick and effortless and I like that they are finished, other than the footing, and ready to go in the kiln.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nyuw0Bj3F0

Thanks to Michael Kline who gave me a bag of stoneware clay!

Kiln Shed Roof

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I'm firing up the ole salt kiln in a few weeks!  It will be the first time in 2 years since it's been fired and I'm pretty excited to see some pots come out of it.  I'm firing along with 5 friends so I won't be making a lot of pots to fill it.

The tin roof has been rusted out for a while now and after one of those last hailstorms we had it ended up with some pretty big holes in it.  The tin directly over the kiln is effected the most due to the salt vapor that rusts any metal in the vicinity.


I took six sheets off yesterday and I think I'll probably go ahead and replace those last few while I'm up there.

I did some inventory on my tin stack too.  I didn't realize I had quite so much.  A good portion are short pieces but in good shape and I can use them.  Some has some surface rust from being stacked up and in the weather, but all in all it's in good shape and I don't have to purchase any materials.

The temps are supposed to be in the low to mid 90's today so I'll wait till later in the day when the shed is in the shade of the trees before getting up there to start nailing on.


 


I just listed some New Mugs and Cups in the Online Shop!!  Click HERE.

Ronware goes Hawaiian

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Oh, I wish I were on the beach in Honolulu right now.  Guess I'll have live vicariously thorough my pottery for the time being.

I sent this Goat cup out to Kailua, Honolulu, Hawaii last week.  It looks very happy there doesn't it?


A bit closer to home, this next image was sent in by my friend Angela, in Charlotte, NC,  who made a nice dinner featuring tandoori chicken last week.  Served up on an amber plate that I made.


Hope you all have a good weekend. I have pots in the bisque today.  Glazing over the weekend and some new pots out by Monday evening.

Candle Holder with Turtle and Friends

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This pot started out as an experiment but turned out to be a pretty nice piece.

You can see in the latter part of THIS VIDEO that I used wax resist to mask out the areas around the Animal portraits.  I did this instead of scratching away all that slip like I normally do.

It worked pretty well. And I think I'll be trying more of the wax technique on other pots.

I've been putting that Turtle on pots for years but he's never been drawn on a pot.  Maybe I'll see if I can work up a Turtle drawing today at some point.

I listed this piece in my Online Store this morning.  Click HERE to go to the shop.

Thanks for checking in. I'll be posting some more new pots soon.