Monday. And a Video

Hey.  Sorry for the break.  I don't know what happened last week but I finally got all my stuff sorted and I'm feeling better now.  I've been getting some pots made and I think this kiln load is going to come together pretty quickly.

I've been invited to send 5 pots to AKAR for their annual yunomi show.  That will be in March.  This will be my third year in the show and I am so honored to be asked.  I shot a short video showing the making of a yunomi so here it is:

I love making pots on my treadle wheel.  The combination of using that wheel and soft clay helps give the pots the energy that I look for in my work.  Also, not over-working each pot is important.  I try to make the pot in as few movements as possible.  It's hard to do on some pots but it's what I strive for.  I really want the look of the throwing to show through in the finished pot.  I want the clay wall to have some motion and the pot look like it's rising up or moving out or breathing.  I feel the pots are at their best when they come off the wheel.  For them to have some energy and life after the firing is one of the crucial things I want to achieve.  

Here they are after being footed and decorated:

I made 11 more today.  I don't know how I ended up with 9 to begin with.  I wanted 20 for the firing so hopefully out of those I'll get 5 good ones.

So that's all I have for now.  Tomorrow I've got another video to post and I'll try to get some content up as the week goes on.  Thanks for checking me out.  

Coming to the End of a Cycle

I'm at the end of this cycle of making pots and it feels like it's just in time.  I felt a relief today as I knew I had just a couple boards of pots to finish up and then it was on to waxing and glazing.  I'll have one more bisque to fire before I can load the soda kiln.  Hopefully things will dry out over the next few days enough for me to do a slow bisque before the weekend.

Waxing out areas on pots is one of the more time consuming things I have to do.  It's pretty straightforward though.  I don't do this sort of thing on every pot but I do enjoy having some areas that are glazed against the slipped surfaces.  Combined with any texture this is even better I think.

It's pretty ugly in this state.  I add some green food coloring to my wax resist so I can see where I am putting it.  Working with wax is great until you get it somewhere it doesn't belong.  I'll have to bisque the cup below to burn off all the wax since I dropped a big blob right in the middle of the panel that is to be glazed. 

I took a few photos of the area beside the treadle wheel to give you an idea of what tools I mainly use.  I have most everything I need for throwing within arms reach. 

The ceramic bird was made by Peter Rose and it's sitting on a sagger from Bill Gordy's kiln.  I don't really use a lot of different tools and honestly I could get rid of more than half of this and still do just fine making pots.

Tomorrow I'll get on with glazing what pots I have left.