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Back to work

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I got back in the studio on Monday and made a several boards of bowls. Yesterday I got the feet cut on them and made some mugs, salt jars, and bird dishes. It looks like I'm going to try and fire twice in October to get ready for shows I have in early November.

Sale Weekend

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I had a good turnout for my Pottery Sale over the weekend. Thanks to you all who made it to the studio. I always want to have some photos to post from the Sale but it seems I get so caught up in talking to folks, and wrapping up pots that I forget to take any. Oh well, maybe next time.

Today I need to get the studio set back up in work mode so I can throw a few pots. I have one show in October and 3 in November. I need to get busy and figure out a firing schedule. I still have a nice selection of some items but I do need to stock up on some things.

More later.
Ron

New Pots

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I unloaded today. Good firing with some new exciting pots. Tomorrow I will be getting the showroom and studio all set up for the sale. Lots to do.

Anyhow here are some of the pots. Owl candle stick holders.
Trays with incising. I really like these! Sorry about that glare.
Two new teapot shapes.
Same idea but the one on the left is Oribe inspired deco. I like both of these a lot.


Mugs with incised flower design. I am into this idea of drawing and incising on the pots. I can't wait to make some more pots and see where this goes. Sarah was very excited about all of these too. It will be interesting to get some feedback from my customers this weekend. And from you all also. Comments??

Pots

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Here are a few more pots from the firing. Candle holders. I'd never made these before.
Jar.
Oval baker with incising.
Small jars with new knob idea. Nice firing on these.
Oops. Here these are again.

Loading, etc

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Here is a shot of the kiln all loaded up from Monday. I finished firing Tuesday around 3:30pm and I think it all went well. Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind as I had to go teach last night in Charlotte.

Today I have a couple of visitors coming and I need to unpack from last weekend's show and start cleaning up the studio and around the house.

Tomorrow I will unload the kiln so come back to see how it all turns out. I'll be sanding, dusting, and pricing pots and moving things into the studio tomorrow and Friday. It is nice and cool this morning and the temp is only supposed to get into the 70's. Nice.

Lots to do so I better get on with it. I am already late for Karma's morning walk.

Quick

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Quick Entry
Yesterday I loaded the kiln.
Today I fired and now I am off to Charlotte to teach.
It's been tiring and looks like I'll be getting home late tonight.
I'll post some pics tomorrow from the loading, and check back on Thursday for pots!!!!
Sale this weekend!

Circle of Eight Show

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Circle of Eight had our first group show yesterday in Charlottle. We had a great turnout and everyone was excited and encouraging about this new venue the eight of us have started.

The day was beautiful and folks started showing up alittle before 10 am. It was really cool to see all the pots set up around the yard, we are each very accomplished potters in our own right and the work certainly reflected it. We had a good crowd for most of the day with people coming in to buy pots for themselves and some who got an early start on their Holiday shopping.

At the end of the day the eight of us all felt the sale had been a huge success and made plans for our next meeting to discuss when we'd like to do this again. We also found out we have been asked to do a group show in November in the Davidson area. More on that when I get more details.


Busy Times

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I am trying to get ready for two upcoming shows. One is this weekend in Charlotte with a group of 7 other potters. We call ourselves Circle of Eight and we are having our first group show on Saturday the 16th. If you want info. email me ronpots2 at yahoo dot com. I am really excited about this group. We formed sometime last year and have big plans for ourselves. We get together from time to time to have dinner and talk about pots, marketing, shows, exhibits, etc. It's a good support group, and we are able to help each other solve problems, critique our work and realize that we are not alone in all of this as individual artists. We just found out that we got accepted to show at the National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts (NCECA) Conference which will be held in Louisville, KY in March 2007. The show will feature the 8 of us plus 8 predominate potters in the field who influenced each us. It's a very big deal. (More on that sometime later)

My Fall Sale is September 23 and 24 here in Shelby. I hope you will make it. I will have a very large selection of pots. I am firing next week and will post pictures from the firing on Thurs or Friday. This new clay body I am using is great. It gets some super nice orange peel texture and shows off the incising well. I have lots to do around here before then whipping the place into shape and getting all set up.

In addition to these things I have been working on a grant to buy a new wheel. It's due tomorrow and I think I have it all together. I am teaching in Charlotte at Clayworks once a week, and serving on the Board at the Cleveland Co. Arts Council and as a member of the Travel and Tourism group in Cleveland Co. I have never been this active in so many things at once. Not to mention the two committees I'm serving on at the Arts Council. It's a lot but it's doing me some good to get out of my studio and be around other humans.

Okay I gotta go box up pots and load a bisque. Have a great day.

New Beginnings

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Here is my sweet wife leaving this morning for her first day at her new job. The position is with Behavioral Wellness in Shelby. Now, instead of the hour drive to Charlotte she had for her internship, she has a 10 minute drive into town. And she's getting paid!!! Yea!! I am so proud of Sarah. I am fortunate to have such a great woman in my life.


I also have something new (and that pays) starting tonight. I have been asked to join the instructor staff at Clayworks Studios in Charlotte. I will be teaching intermediate wheel throwing for the next 10 weeks. It's once a week, but I hope in the future that maybe I can pick up another class. I am looking forward to getting out and interacting with students and sharing some of what I know about clay.

Process: Bisque firing

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I bisque fire all my pots before glazing and then firing in the salt kiln. For many years I single fired meaning I would load the salt kiln with greenware and fire to maturity, skipping the bisque. I stopped doing that a few years for a number of reasons. Anyhow I fired my bisque kiln this past week and thought I'd put up a few pics. Most people fire bisque in an electric kiln, I don't have one so I built this chamber out of soft brick and made a lid out of ceramic fiber. There is a burner in the back that shoots the flame in under the shelf on the bottom. The lid has a hole for the 'chimney'. It's essentially an updraft kiln, very basic, and yes it fires unevenly but not enough to matter (for me). Bisque kiln


Here are the pots on the top shelf.

All these pots were in the kiln. Around 60 in all. Bisqueware is nothing great to look at, pink and plain. I'll be firing my salt kiln next week. That's when the magic happens.

One Year

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Today is the one year birthday of my Blog. Yea! I've posted 155 times in the last year. I guess that's pretty good.

Not much exciting happening in the studio today. I fired a bisque and brought my clay in out of the racks. I had a nice group of visitors from out of town. I need to start taking some photos of folks who come by. We had a good visit and they headed on up to Morganton.

Big news!! Sarah got a job offer!! It looks like she is going to take it. I think we are both very relieved. It's here in Shelby and has lots of what she is looking for.

My sale is on the 23 & 24. Postcards go out tomorrow so look for them in your mailboxes next week.

Sprout

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I've been in a weird mood today. Cranky sort of. It's been a good day so I'm not really sure why I feel so emotional and raw. We had some friends from Charlotte come by today to get some pots and have lunch. That was a nice visit. And I had two customers drop by and buy pots. That was really great because we need the money and I have a good selection of pots in the studio that I like seeing go out to good homes.

Something's going on with me but I can't put my finger on it. We are going out of town for a few days starting tomorrow. We took the dogs to be boarded this morning. The vet was really busy so that was like a whirlwind, "here they are...see you later." I hope they do okay.

I had this memory the other day about when I was a kid back on the farm where I grew up. I had a sand box that my dad built. I guess it was about 8 ft square and filled with white sand. I had lots of die cast metal tractors and plows and trucks and stuff. I loved playing out there. I'd make rows with the tractors and then I'd go down to the real tractor shed and find some stray soy beans to plant. The memory is of these soy bean plants. They would pop up so green and fresh, two leaves each. I had little rows of them. I'd never let them grow into big plants, I guess I tilled them up. Anyhow the image of the soybean sprout has been moving to me lately. Growth, life, innocence, childhood, summer, tenderness...these are all words that come to mind. Anyhow, it's good to remember.

Clyde Edgerton

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Last week I went to the library to return some books. I had nothing in mind to check out. So I said to myself, "I'll walk through the stacks and see what catches my eye." I like doing this, I find some good books this way. Here's what caught me that day. Redeye by Clyde Edgerton. I was pretty much hooked by this drawing on the cover by Laura Levine. Nice eh?

Looking in the jacket I read that Clyde is from NC. Cool. I never read local authors. Don't know why. I read Redeye in about two days. It takes place in south west Colorado around what in real life is now known as Mesa Verde (which Sarah and I visited a few years ago). It's set in the late 1800's. Anyhow it's a great read. I'm not so good a giving synopses, so I won't bother (maybe this is something I'll work on). Just get it and read it. You'll be glad you did.


Okay now I am reading Clyde's first book, Raney. It is set in 1975 in a small NC rural town. Not unlike where I grew up. Well maybe a little smaller. Let me tell you I can relate to so much of this book that it's scary. I found myself laughing out loud before I was on page 10. There are issues of race, ignorance, religion, naivete, marriage and all sorts of things. It is humorous and serious both. Being raised in the South I have experienced and heard much of what is written here, most of it from my own family or close neighbors and friends.
The main character is Raney, 24, newly married to Charles, a "booklearned" young man from Atlanta. Raney's family is typical rural NC. Charles has "new" ideas that challenges much of what Raney knows. Again, read this, it will stir you up one way or another and make you laugh all the same.

That's it for tonight.

From the Studio

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Here are a few pics of some things I've been working on.Bird dishes, slipped, ready to fire.

Here's my studio mate hanging out.


This is a bowl shape I'm trying out. Weird handles. It's kinda big, made with 12 lbs of clay.

These are sort of new teapots, combining ideas from a couple influences. I like the simple boxey shape of the body, I'm sure I'll get some comments on these spouts from my pal Tom . Anyhow, I have ideas for decoration for a couple that will be in the Oribe style, but with my own take on it.

Today I made some 4.5 lb bowls, some 12 lb bowls, sections for a large 2 pc jar, and finished up some trays and small stuff I made yesterday. It was a good day. I am sort of biding my time, waiting for my clay to come out of the racks. I could have 2 firings before the sale but I'll probably just pick out the most important things I want to fire and only have one.


Catching up...trying to

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Sorry for the duration between posts. I have been working in the studio making pots and doing other various things around the house. Last Friday I drove to Asheville and picked up 1500 lbs of dry materials to make clay. On Saturday I mixed up what will amount to around 700 lbs of wet clay. As soon as this comes out of the racks I'll go ahead and mix again. I want to get ahead of the game before the weather turns cold.

I'll take the camera out to the shop today and take some shots of pots in progress and get them posted up here later.

The showroom is very well stocked right now. I have 6 shows between now and the first of December. I am looking forward to my next Home Sale which is Sept. 23 and 24. Postcards will go out soon. Of course you are welcome to come by anytime. The showroom is self service if I am not around.

Check back later for some images and probably a blurb on Clyde Edgerton, a NC author whose fiction I am enjoying.

Pots from August Firing

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My digital camera arrived yesterday. So now I am back in business with some images from last weeks firing. This firing had lots of work made with this new clay I have been trying out. I mixed up a big batch and I really like the pots that were made with it. It's higher in silica so the pots are a bit more shiny and have great orange peel texure when they get hit with the salt and soda. The incising shows up nicely tooRectangular tray shape I am trying out. Made with the new clay.
I made this big jar at the Folk School. It's made with some clay I got at the Folk School. It got some great marks in the firing.
I really like these bowls. My titanium slip(yellow) looks great on this clay.
This is the other side of that big jar.
More new vases made with my clay. That yellow slip rocks when it gets blasted with salt.

More Pots From August Firing

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This oval baker is made with the high silica clay. It is awesome!!
 I made this bottle at the Folk School. It got some great marks in the firing. It was made with commercial clay.
New vases made with my new clay.
Big oval. I think you could use this to put your magazines in. See how this new clay allows the incised lines show up? Just what I've been looking for.
Another bottle I made at the Folk School. Trying out some different handles/lugs.

Pots

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I unloaded the kiln yesterday after lunch. I was really happy with most everything. This was the first firing with most of the pots being made from this new higher silica clay that I mixed up last month. It did great. My slips look nice on it and it gets some good flashing and takes the salt well. The atmosphere in the kiln was all over the place it seemed. The front bottom was neutral to oxidized, the front middle and top were nice and reduced and the back was cooler as usual and more neutral. So I had a variety of pots even if they were made from the same clay and had the same slip on them. The best pots were some small vases and some new bowls. I'll be sure to post some pictures once my camera gets here next week.

Today I'll be sanding the bottoms and bringing everything in to the showroom.
Tomorrow my friend Lester from Charlotte and I are heading up to the Penland area to visit a friend of mine who is taking a wood carving class. We will visit some potters in the area too and basically hang out and have a good time. I am looking forward to it

Today is Sarah's last day of her intership! Yea!!!!! No more driving back and forth to Charlotte everyday. She is still on the job search. Next week I am hoping we get to take a bit of a vacation. She certainly deserves one.

Have a good Friday.