pottery

Video. Wax Resist

Hey, I'm trying to do a few videos that show some of the processes other than throwing or making pots.  Here's one I shot earlier in the week that shows me waxing a plate.  The main point I want to make in these videos is that there are a lot of skills involved in being a potter.  Making the pots is a very, very small part of what we do.  In this video you'll see me tap the plate on center.  That skill alone is something that most people have a very hard time with.  It took me quite awhile to learn to do it but now it's nothing to me.  I totally take it for granted.  Anyhow, here's the video.  Look for more to come.  Thanks so much for visiting the blog.  ~Ron

Gratitude

Hey there.  I hope everyone is well out there where ever you happen to be in the world.  I am fine.  Thanks for asking.  I will say right off that I've been meaning to do a post but really didn't know what to say and thinking to myself, 'it's gotta be something good, so just wait and post when you have something good.'  Well, I don't really have anything really good.  But who cares.  I mean if we wait for the perfect thing or whatever then who the hell knows when we'd get anything done?  Never. Ok?  Ok.  I think I just want to use this space to write and be less judgmental about it.  I've been reading some things online that are really well written.  God I wish I could write like some people out there.  But I am me and not them and this will have to do.

 

I have been reading some things about gratitude lately.  How it's good to be grateful and how by practicing gratitude then your life will be better, blah, blah, blah.  I don't mention the blah, blah, in a negative way.  Just that I don't want to go into the details.  You get it right?  Be grateful.  Enough said.  Do it!  That's what I tell myself.  And I've been practicing.  I write some things down in my journal every day.  And sometimes at night when I can't sleep I do the alphabet backwards and for each letter I think of something I am thankful for.  Z. Zippers, I am thankful for zippers.  Y. My big Yard of grass that I love to mow in the summer time.  X.  Ah, X.  Skip.  It's okay to skip.  And so on.  And then I am asleep.

Yes, it snowed.  Here in Shelby people go crazy when it snows.  It's so funny.  I don't know how much snow we got but it wasn't a ton like further north.  But you'd have thought Armageddon was coming.  I was just outside sitting on the porch.  The blues and grays and whites of the sky and landscape are so beautiful.  And then I came in to write and looked out the window and saw how the sky in the west was turning pink so I had to run out and have a look at that.  I'm so thankful to be able to take a moment to see the beauty of the sunset.

I am really hoping to fire this week.  I have a bisque kiln cooling tonight.  I got a little jump on the loading by pre-wadding all the pots I could today.  Maybe tomorrow I can glaze what's in the bisque and load the last bisque which will consist of tall pots I couldn't get in this load.  I made a few special pots for Valentine's Day so I better get on the ball if I'm to have them fired in time.

I guess that's about all I have for now.  I am feeling good and looking forward to the days ahead.  What a good life I have.  I am so thankful for  it all.  No kidding.  I'm feeling a bit mushy and I think maybe I should delete that but I know that there are days when I feel sorry for myself or I think my work sucks because I didn't get invited to some show or don't have a lot of money.  (That's a huge run-on sentence and if I was a better writer I'd fix that!).  He he.  Ok.  Yes, in this moment...things are perfect.

Thanks for checking in.  Cheers.  ~Ron

 

 

An Emotional Day

It's almost my bed time but I thought I'd knock out this post.  What a crazy day.  I woke to find that David Bowie had died.  I was shocked.  I had spent Friday in the studio listening to KEXP's tribute to him.  He was turning 69 and released his new album, Blackstar.  Little did anyone know he had been battling cancer for 18 months and this album was to be his parting gift to his fans.  So today KEXP (my very favorite radio station in the world, that I stream everyday) played more Bowie and I found myself overwhelmed with emotion.  Standing at my wheel crying as I put handles on cups.  Crazy!!  I'm not a mega Bowie fan, but I think it was just knowing how incredibly full his life was that got to me.  He was a true artist, always growing, changing, evolving, giving.  Wow.  Anyhow, I was moved and inspired, sad and joyful. And it was just weird, I think so many people were impacted.  Maybe some energy was moving through the air, connecting us, or maybe it was just those songs.  

Ok. Pots!  Yes!  I tackled some plastic today and got pots finished.  

Those double love bird dishes will get fired before Valentine's Day and go up on the Etsy site.

I forgot to take images of my pitchers but I'll do that tomorrow.  And I made plans for the fat pots.  Ha.  God, they are still under plastic, out of sight.  But I know what I'm gonna do to each one so I'm not stressed.  I really just want to get all this finished up, make a few more boards of pots and fire.  I'm ready.

Ok.  That's it for this dude.  Catch ya later!


Energy

I like the drawings of Quentin Blake.  They seem alive and about to move around or off the page.  I think I remember reading Blake saying that the drawings should show 'action' or the 'anticipation of action'.  I like that.  And I think it's hard to pull off.  Blake's illustrations feel scratchy and twitchy to me.  They have a great energy that keeps me engaged and interested.

As a potter I want to make pots that have energy about them. I want them to maintain some of the action that was present during the making.  I like marking the pot with the tool as the pot spins on the wheel.  The relationship between the speed of the turning pot and the raising tool, or hand/finger, can impart all sorts of information on the pot. Personally, I like a bit of asymmetry, a slow wheel and fast movement of the throwing rib.  A wobble in the line around the rim.  Those things, for me, keep the pot in motion.  An anticipation of action remains in the pot even after the firing.

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I throw pots on a treadle wheel.  It's a machine that puts me at a disadvantage the minute I sit down at it.  I have to sit sort of cock-eyed on a narrow seat and I'm kicking continuously with my left leg.  So I'm off balance in some way at all times.  But I love it.  And I love the way the pots come off that wheel.  I have to use soft clay to make the pots on the treadle.  The flywheel is light and the crook in the bar makes me feel sort of like I am whipping around.  Whoom, whoom.  (Kind of like the bass groove in The Humpty Dance.)  Well, maybe that's stretching it but for some reason I thought of that.  Anyhow, working in this manner, soft clay, kicking, off balance, whoom, whoom, my body moving, the clay spinning, all that is energy right?  And that energy can show up in the pot if I allow it to.

Another thing Blake says about drawing is that 'you have to know when to stop'.  That's really important with pots too. I don't want to work the pot to it's death.  Or 'cat lick' it as John Leach has been known to say.  The way I work, with the soft clay and the treadle wheel I am forced into an economy of movement and time.  For one thing, the clay is soft and will collapse if I just keep adding water to it.  And the other is that I don't want to be up there kicking on one pot for ages and ages!  So I try to make my statement and move on to the next pot.  

It's been a few weeks since I've made any pots.  I had to finish up all the work and clean the studio for the Holiday Sale.  Now it's time to get back in there and make a few boards of pots.  I'm a bit hesitant to start up right now during Christmas week.  But I'm feeling the urge to get my hands dirty and to make a few cups and some plates.  So today I'll at least do that.  I like having a nice easy start and then moving on through the making list.


I Love Summer Winter

This must be what it's like to live in Florida.  Beautiful, warm, porch sitting weather in December.  I don't want the cold to come.  I think it's supposed to become more winter-like later in the week.  So I'm going to enjoy this while I can. 

I'm reading The Fall by Albert Camus.  That pronounced, al-BAIR ka-MOO.  Just so you know.  French.  Yep.  I know we call called him Albert, like Fat Albert, and Camus, like campus, but without the p, when we all read him back in the day. Back when listening to The Cure and the best thing we had to do was sit on the roof of  Aaron Lee's mom's house drinking cheap wine.  Oh, I don't miss those days.

Anyhow, I shipped a bunch more pots out today and even had some customers drop buy to get to pots for gifts.  I am starting to feel the itch to make some things.  Tomorrow I'll make a list of what that will be.
 

Friday. Getting Ready for the Next Firing

It's been a great week.  Things in the studio have been going well and steady.  I'm making some nice pots that I hope will really shine once they come out of the kiln.  On a personal level I am working on internal growth, doing lots of journaling and reading.  I've felt 'up' the past few days which is awesome.  I feel like there is some space opening up within me, allowing me to see and think about my life more clearly.  I'll not go into too much of that, but suffice it to say that I'm doing well and that I'm grateful for all that I have and that I'm capable of.

Ok. So.  Pottery.  I'm hoping to load the soda kiln over the weekend.  Yesterday was spent waxing and glazing most of the pots for this firing.  I still have one more bisque load firing today.

I have yunomi going to Akar late next week for their upcoming annual Yunomi Invitation exhibition.   That show will open in May and I'll be sending 5 of my faceted yunomi.  

Karma got a new bed this week.
 

She's very happy with it as you can see.  She and Peety have a nightly ritual where they taunt each other and run around the bed room.  Here's a moment I caught last night.

Ok.  Enough of the cuteness.  I'm off to wad pots and finish cleaning up in the kiln shed.  Have a great weekend and stay tuned for a post on the loading and firing.


Thursday Catch Up

It's been a good week here.  I've gotten lots of pots made and we had a beautiful, wet, fluffy snow last night.  Sorry, no photo of the snow.  I tell ya, I'm just not in blogger mode the way I used to be.  I'd have gotten right up and photographed all the white goodness if I was.  Oh well.  

I did take some pics in the studio this week and that's what I'll share.

I've been having fun making jars.  The ones in the back and front are relatively new.  Or sort of, I made similar footed jars like those in the back years ago.  We still have one that we keep our coffee beans in. I think I made it in 1997. 

Here's the coffee jar.


I started loading a bisque today.  The tall pots are new and I can't wait to fire them.  I have three more in the works.

Here I am putting a texture on one of the tall vases.

And lastly...it's important to pay attention to the bottoms.  Watch any potter pick up a pot and the first thing he or she will do is look at the foot/bottom.  Here's a nice wire cut texture on the bottom of a recently made mug.

That's it for now.  Hope you all have a great end of the week and weekend.

Second Kiln Load and Quiet Inspiration

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It was a very good day in the workshop.  I had a morning of hauling and stacking wood, going to the grocery, working out, and coaching a class at CrossFit Shelby.  But after lunch, by 2pm, I was in the studio with clay pugged and ready to make pots for the second firing of 2015.

I started off making yunomi, which in Japan are everyday cups for hot tea.  I love making this pot.  I have been faceting these lately, cutting the sides to give nice edges for the soda glaze to enhance in the firing.
 

After the first few I was really getting into the feel for them and then on number seven I hit upon with this:

A totally new facet method for me.  I came to this by playing with a tool I made and using it in a way I had not before.  Observation, play, and taking a chance let to this new discovery which is very, very cool and exciting.  Yay!!  When these things happen it just makes me smile from ear to ear and feel really grateful for the process of creativity and discovery.  Needless to say I made a few more, with a couple failures, before moving on to some other pots.

After a couple hours I had the start of my next kiln load.  I'm hoping to fire at the end of this month.
 

About 65 more pots to make but that's a good start for sure.

This past Saturday, Sarah and I drove to the North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC for the opening reception of Quiet Inspiration: Japanese Influence on North Carolina Potters.  The show looked fantastic.  I have three pots in the show.  

The turnout was great but I didn't get any photos.  I did shoot a bit of video.  I wish I would have gotten all the pots shot and some of the crowd as well.  But here's a little film showing what I took:

I have a full day tomorrow to work in the studio.  I'm planning on making the most of it.  Stay tuned for some pots.  Who knows what the day may hold?