Pretty Pots, Sassy Slab Work, and Show Information

Small Jars, from 5"-8" tall, with cut foot ring, first pots with a bit of glaze sprayed through my new little mouth atomizer for added color subtlety.

Bowls, from 8"-10" tall. They came out well, but I will re-fire at least one in the new kiln,  to see whether the interior rust color will deepen to a redder (less green-y) hue with slower cooling after peak temperature.

Textured Platter, approx. 15" x 11". The branch was drawn on the raw clay piece right after it was formed. Glazes went on over that after the bisque fire.

Above are a few pots from the last glaze kiln, which I fired approximately a month ago.

I may have been away from the studio a whole lot since then, but it's been anything but a dry phase. I've watched terrific technique DVDs from Erin Furimsky (surface decoration) and Lorna Meaden (throwing techniques and aesthetic considerations) in the last month, plus the usual online videos from the prolific Simon Leach and Hsin Chuen Lin, plus the usual video snippets and posts from many others I find on Ceramic Arts Daily. There were photos and articles in Ceramics Monthly and Pottery Making Illustrated, and information absorbed from using handmade pottery every day. 

I have two shows coming up in November, one with the Potters Guild of NJ on 11/11/12 (the guild will be there the 10th and 11th, but I'll just be there in person on Sunday) and the other in a terrific little craft show at the Nanuet Hebrew Center in New City, NY, on 11/18/12.

September and the first part of October were super-busy with holidays and family. (Did I mention grandtwins, now nearly 3 months old???) By the time the holidays ended Tuesday evening, I was pining to get back to my bright studio and make new work. Wednesday and Thursday were full steam ahead, productive and engrossing with work made from rolled-out slabs of clay. It was like getting back in touch with a very dear friend.

Stamped Tray, approx. 11" x 7.5"

Long Oval Platter, approx. 17" x 11", underglaze design based on a sketch

The first pieces I made on my return to the studio, a set of 8 appetizer plates, approx. 6" x 4". Glaze will pool nicely into the strong texture, made with a carved wooden roulette and my own, homemade flower stamp.

All this slab work (and more) was inspired by a request I received to demonstrate handbuilding techniques. I've been increasingly interested in non-wheel work, because of its textural possibilities, so I happily said Yes to the request. I will be doing an hour-long demo of handbuilding of items like the plates and trays above, at the 46th New Jersey Senior Citizens Annual Art Contest and Exhibition. The event will take place at Meadow Lakes (senior living community) in East Windsor, NJ on Friday, October 26th, mid-morning (11-approximately 12:15).  I call it "From Clay Slice to Delicious Dish." Visit, see the demo, and say hi!

While Thursday's handbuilding and underglazing was going on, the tech came to hook up the vent on the new, digital (programmable) kiln, which is due to fire its first glazed pots in a week or so. OK. I confess. I'm so excited about this kiln I could bust. I've now invested in a way to make my electric-fired glazes richer looking, with slower cooling in the kiln at the end of each firing. Can't wait to get the process going. But that's a story for another day!

On Glaze Ingredients and Old Kilns

After conversations with the manufacturer and my local supplier, weeks of deliberation, and some consultation with my favorite business analyst son (who really helps me weigh studio practicalities), I will be buying a new kiln. The same brand (Skutt) and size (7 cubic feet of interior space) as my trusty old kiln, the new one will have a digital controller so the kiln can be programmed to fire better for better glaze development. I will be able to heat it up slowly and cool it down slowly, a possibility much harder to obtain with the old manual switches (low, medium, high). I am looking for richer and more interesting glaze colors and textures, and this will help. (The brownish red color on the rim of the glaze-test cup below will be a much richer rust red with slower cooling in the kiln, for example.) I'm excited to order the kiln today.

Price Green- almost more blue than green. (Viewing the color depends on your browser settings, though.)

 Late last week I went into my ceramic supplier to pick up some wax resist and a couple of small tools. I also wanted some black nickel oxide, an ingredient in a recipe for Price Green, a great, fat green-blue glaze I came across lately when I wasn't even looking.  In an offhand way, without paying much attention, I figured I will make a bunch of buckets of this glaze over the next couple of years, so I'd better stock up. "Five lbs of black nickel oxide, please."

The cashier got it from a shelf behind the desk. (I hadn't asked the price. I should have been tipped off by where they keep it.) Ringing it up, she noted, "I'm just letting you know this is very expensive."

"What's 'very expensive'?"

"$280."

Oops. Reality check. Black nickel oxide is the least ingredient in the recipe- like the food coloring in frosting, if you will. I am not sure where my brain was with that 5 lbs. I bought a quarter lb, less than $15 worth, which will probably do for the next eight buckets of Price Green, after which I may have moved on to a whole 'nother color palette. (Talk about studio practicalities!)

Meanwhile, I still have enough of this color and others, already mixed up in buckets, to glaze a few loads for the kiln. 

Here is a typical glaze phase in the studio. There are bisqued but still-to-be-glazed pots (washing cups and small dishes on the left), glazed but unfired pots (the chalky looking brown and white ones on the right), and fired pots (those black bowls) that need to be refired with glaze touchups.

My old kiln will run one of its last two glaze firings this week. When the new kiln arrives in a few weeks, the old kiln will run for bisque firings only and no longer have the higher wear and tear of glaze firings. My good old workhorse, 25 years old, will be on light duty from now on.

"I can't wait to see your new pieces!"

It's been heavy, dirty work in my studio. I haven't produced a finished piece of pottery in a few months. Prep, prep, organize...many verbs have peppered my days since the studio reno was done enough for me to work. (This is where a studio elf would come in handy.)

I've planned to make bisqueware molds (forms that will not be glazed, used for supporting handbuilt work as I construct it) and "trimming chucks."* I began to wedge the "chuck clay" I reserved to make these chucks* and molds-

from this nasty looking slop

30 lbs down and just 150 lbs more left to wedge. (Day at a time!)  

wedged (kneaded) into this nice looking clay

And remixed and sieved neglected glazes that had settled out in their buckets with the water on top and the solids migrated down to the bottom. Labor intensive. Not to mention sloppy to the max.

each bucket contains a different glaze made from recipes

Pouring, mixing and sieving are grungy jobs. You will have to imagine the shmutz, as I have taken deceptively clean pictures.

can-do, with a double sink & various sieves

So I mopped the studio piecemeal wherever I left trails of clay spatters and glaze droplets- there's always mopping, darn it.  Stacked boxes of finished pots that await my home-gallery reno, found homes for bits and pieces of studio stuff. Called that gallery in Brookline, Mass., that wants to carry my work and would like to know if I wholesale (yes!). Scheduled two shows I will be in, and booked one handbuilding demonstration at another art show. Shlepped shelves and boxes and bags and tools to their new places in the studio. or out of the way. Fired and unloaded a bisque kiln, and loaded another. Made ready the glaze table, preparing to glaze the bisqueware.  Moved wooden shelves from the crowded garage down to the studio, bumpity bump down the stairs, and put them together. Bought and assembled additional wire shelf units on wheels, and loaded them with the boxed pottery and tools from pre-reno. Oh, and paid my quarterly sales tax...


Only thing I haven't done is make many pots. Recently, they are the least of what I have had to do.

So why does it seem more fun nowadays, even though the actual making of pottery is so very delayed? Is it the LED lighting that makes the space so inviting even for grunt work, that it banishes the dungeon doldrums? Is it the shows scheduled for November and perhaps December?  Are the new grandbabies giving me a rosy attitude?

Truth- just can't wait to make new work!

*trimming chucks...that's a whole 'nother post.

Last Days in Maine, Microcosm-Gazing

We are leaving Maine tomorrow. Today will be a day on the lake, then grilling dinner. Relaxing.

Away from my studio, other creative outlets just have to pop up. It's how I function.

Looking at birds, writing and drawing... always observing.

What kind of stone is this (below)? Click on it for a bigger image! (You do know you can always click on any blog photo for a bigger image, right??) I know those are quartz inclusions, but what's the rusty colored stone? Seriously. I want to know. I fell in love with it on a hike two days ago and lugged it the rest of the way in my daypack. Fortunately we were already going back downhill after a savage uphill hike. I think it weighed six pounds.

Crazy Quartz Rock

The quartz inclusion and crystals are testament to the turbulent, heated core of the earth. The heat of my electric kiln in the studio is much more serene and steady. I wish I had the capacity to fire my pots in a fluctuating, flickering, oxygen-sucking environment that makes randomly beautiful things happen, but "I got what I got."

So many textures and contrasts in birch and bush! Lines, curls, flaking, feathering, lights and darks, warms and cools. What an interesting visual world we live in.

Kayak Landing Spot

A little notch in the bank of the lake serves as the spot we pull in our kayaks, one by one. A soft, sandy spot, it is easy on the feet and, once I got deep into microcosm-gazing, I found the picture extremely engaging. Such is the effect of quiet, lazy days of observing and writing. Brain gets very attuned to nuance. It's like looking into a crystalline glaze.

Back home, I should get some edge back next week, lose this particular focus, and gain some further insights in clay- such is life. See you then.

Tulipieres Stage 3- Vases of Another Name

A satisfying morning putting black underglaze on the tulipieres and cutting through it with a tiny carving tool, aka stage 3 of the 4-step process.

Tulipiere 1, One Side

 And the other side of the same vase:

Tulipiere 1, Second Side

Then:

Tulipiere 2, One Side

Tulipiere 2, Second Side

Moving on:

Tulipiere 3, First Side

Tulipiere 3, Second Side

And one more vase:

Tulipiere 4, First Side

Tulipiere 4, Second Side

They will stay under plastic and dry slowly, to even out moisture loss and prevent stress cracks from forming.

Symposium's End: "'Bye for now"

Like the last day of senior year at college, the last moments at the clay symposium were hard. Too many goodbyes of new friends. How hard is it to leave people you just met? Am I being silly?
Here are Marita and Liz, and me.

Marita, Mimi and Liz (left to right)

We are all three wearing necklaces by Marita. It's a gesture of friendship from a lovely lady to the two of us, and to others here, as well. We each chose our pendant the second morning, and yesterday at breakfast, Marita presented them, strung and with her tag: Earth2Ware by Marita Early. Liz and I were delighted to be recipients. We were also delighted to find each other to sit with at meals. It is a joyful thing to meet people like this, and I am hereby counting a blessing. I hope to see them back here next year, but I also hope to exchange thoughts and photos over the course of the year with them.

Potters in small studios spend a lot of time alone, and when we make friends with other potters, they don't usually live next door. They are, in fact, hard to find. Well, voila- two here, and numerous more to talk to and sit beside.

I would never have met these wonderful women, or the other friendly potters, sculptors and poets with whom I have had such good conversations, had I not come to Virginia for these four days. 

As for all that I've seen and listened to at the symposium, my notebook is not just full of notes on the thoughts, techniques and quotes from the presenting clay artists, it also contains notations of books I want to read, improvements I want to make to my kiln, and even a design change to the layout plan for the new shelves I want to build in The Gallery Downstairs. And all the pottery I have looked at and touched (dude, it was an informal exhibition, wasn't it? And no cameras..?) have given me a deepened discontent with my glazes, that desire to add to the palette and to experiment with layering colors and varying the textures. 

More than anything, my personal motivations and aesthetic considerations have had a bop on the head this week. I see some gravitational shift in my work ahead.

So here's to Liz and Marita, Hollins University, Donna Polseno (artist, teacher and symposium coordinator) and all the people who made this symposium so good. Or as Mom used to say at the end of each phone conversation, "Bye for now."

Symposium: Women Working with Clay, Day 2

Today was FULL.

First thing was introductions. We all stood in turn and said our names and something about ourselves. We are only 44 attendees, so this was easy. It's always fun to meet other potters.

After that, our five presenters demonstrated technique. They were in two studios, and we could come and go as we wanted to see whomever in either room. They did the first part today in the morning, and the second part after lunch.

Lisa Clague

Lisa Clague built the first part of her sculpture from big, flattened coils of clay. As she builds the piece she draws on it, butters the surface with slip in places, and sometimes (see the small sculpture at her elbow) incorporates metal objects. She will add the head tomorrow. I think it will surprise you.

Tip Toland

Tip Toland built much of the head and shoulders of a figure. She will continue tomorrow, too. Along the way she explained proportion and structure of the human head. She was so funny and charming, it will be a contrast to see the finished piece, which will tend, she told us, toward melancholia. She added that her sculpture tends toward the dark side. If you find her work online, you will know what she means.

Ellen Shankin

In the second studio, Ellen Shankin threw pots. Throwing is the technique closest to my heart, which I use most. but every potter has his or her own influences and style, and it is really a blast to see Ellen's. Here are some of the Phase 1 pots, to be assembled or altered or added to tomorrow in Phase 2:

In the same studio as Ellen Shankin, Mary Barringer worked on slab pieces. 

Mary Barringer

Mary doesn't use much color, but builds up lots of surface intensity with texture and thin washes of glaze. Her forms are simple and rely a great deal on individual nuance to give them strength. Throughout her presentation, she tried at length to talk about her objects and their meanings. It is difficult to express the ideas within objects. As editor of Studio Potter, she is always thinking through ideas that frame the "language of clay." I found it challenging to assimilate some of her ideas. I am not used to thinking in this way.

Donna Polseno

While Ellen and Mary were two in this session in the first part of the day, Donna Polseno joined them after lunch to make three presenters in this studio. Donna teaches at Hollins University, and organized this symposium. She slipcasts her forms (from original pieces she makes herself) to obtain the right shapes, then adds to the cast pieces with additional parts. These lively forms are sometimes vessel, sometimes form, and sometimes a hybrid. 

After this, the whole group had a writing session where we wrote an ode to something. Mine was to my studio, and boy, does it need revising.  I missed most of this, as it happens, because I was so tired from all the information I was absorbing that I slipped out to my room and took a brief nap.

In the evening, after dinner, the presenters gave a slide show with photos of their work. It was very telling to hear influences that formed phases of their potting lives. I was heartened by something Ellen Shankin said, in reference to the shows of a group of potters in Virginia, Sixteen Hands, of which she is part. She said, "We were all 25 years into this before we tried to get people to find us." 

Hmm. I started my studio in 1987. It's a happy quarter century in clay for me. Who knows where next year will find my work?

Symposium: Women Working with Clay, Day 1

What is more convivial than a meeting of minds to discuss a topic we are all passionate about? There is no point in being shy and reserved. So I'm yawping my potterly head off to folks from all over the place, and they are doing just the same with me. We are at Hollins University, in Roanoke, Virginia, at a Women Working with Clay symposium. Just to enrich the atmosphere still more, we coincide with a poets symposium. The conversations have been so good. But I will save discussions with the poets perhaps for another day, or another blog.

I took some pictures at the end of the day, of pots by a couple of the people who will discuss and demonstrate techniques tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday. The old conundrum exists. How am I to take even adequate photos (2-D) of these 3-D items? They are never as good in photos as they are in person. But here are a few that I loved, anyhow.

I walked into the exhibition room and fell weirdly in love at first sight with this wonderful pagoda-ish covered jar by Ellen Shankin. She kind of blew me away in general with her work.

(Pardon the awkward shadow. I couldn't take the time and space to set up the shoot.)

Then there were these by Donna Polseno:

They are two of the numerous beauties she has there. Donna teaches at Hollins, and coordinated the symposium.

More tomorrow!

A Single Fruit in a Fruit-Sized Bowl

Sometimes you want an orange. Or an apple. Or a pear. And you want to cut it up and put it into just the right bowl.

Hello, bowl.

You are perfect for one pear today.

Tomorrow I will use you to beat up a couple of eggs for an omelet.

Later, you are just the right size for the last bit of stir-fry.

Last bit of stir fry> into the bowl> into the microwave>Voila!

Love these. I have a quartet of them in my kitchen cabinet.

Even I am surprised at how often one of these is the go-to bowl.

They were each made from a slab of clay, paddled into shape with a wooden tool.

I love how none is the same as the others, but they stack up so nicely.

I don't have these on my website, but they are made to order for $15 each.

Have you enjoyed a handmade, one-of-a-kind, just-right-for-one-fruit bowl today? Inquiring potters want to know.

The Fabric of Challenges

Here is one face of behind the scenes. It is called SEO (Search Engine Optimization). I am Optimizing my website for Search Engines to find me. Somewhere inside my head I know this isn't so difficult, but Cheese Louise, I don't get it yet. The tumblers have yet to align in my head to unclick this lock. This is one of those smack-my-head things: won't you step into my brain, Yoast? But Yoast refrains.

But I persist. At some point soon, with a little speck more explication from an expert, I will get to that "Oh!" realization and evolve from there. I say this with confidence even though I am not feeling it yet. I hope to draw actuality with positivity...and further effort.

Meanwhile, say hello to the awning of the future. So far it is just a pile of nice fabric:

But soon it will be an awning on the wall that faces you as you come down the steps to the gallery downstairs. There is a wall right in front of you. Since I have no real shop window (because hey, we're inside my house), I am creating the illusion of one on that wall. There will be a "window" in front of you, a big, attractive framed grid of wood resembling a window (without glass) that will showcase various pieces of pottery. Above it will be my awning, with a flap on the front that will read The Gallery Downstairs in black letters. There will be a spotlight behind the awning flap shining on the art.

The same fabric will also be used to upholster a bench I found in an interesting store in Garwood, NJ, called Artifacts. They take old furniture and refurbish it. It isn't going to cost me a fortune, and non-browsing friends of browsing people can sit on this nice upholstered bench while they wait, and read back issues of Pottery Making Illustrated.

Meanwhile, the pots broken by accident after the last show (dang) are deleted from my website, SOLD has gone up on photos of those that sold, and I am puzzling (through a mental block) over that Search Engine Optimization. This blog post is a digression from what I really should be doing! So I am going to sign off and get my Thinking Cap from the virtual hatrack, and go do what I should be doing.

Give me a 3-D challenge over this webby stuff any day. But it is all necessary to run my studio and gallery.

Hey, thanks for reading. Leave a comment below if you have one!