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Monday Morning

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The birds are singing and having a busy time this morning. I love that it is warm enough to have the windows open in the house, especially at night. I slept in about 30 minutes later than usual today so I am a bit behind in my morning routine. Today I'll be loading the kiln and getting ready for my Home Sale which is this weekend. I'll fire tomorrow and unload on Thursday. I am planning on using the solid chunk method of soda introduction again, but I am also going to spray some soda in the back of the kiln since it was a little dry back there last time.

We had a good weekend. We got to spend some time with friends, got the house cleaned, and visited with Sarah's mom and dad on Sunday. The dogs also got a bath and I serviced the lawn mower and got a little work done on the renovation. I have to get things all in order here and looking nice for the coming weekend. That means cleaning the studio and showroom and dusting the pots in there. It's going to be a busy week but it will all be done by 10 am Saturday morning.

I hope your week is off to a good start. Check in later for some pics from the loading.

Spring Pottery Sale
Saturday March 31 10 am till 5 pm
Sunday April 1 Noon till 4 pm

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I have my bisque going this morning, it will probably be slow and long since a few things are still a bit damp. I am getting excted about my next firing which is early next week. Then my Sale that following weekend.

I have a visual arts selection committee meeting at the Arts Council this morning at 10. I am also on the board there and we are starting our fund drive for the year soon. I am not too excited about this. It's my first year on the board so this is all new to me. I am very supportative of the AC and I like being active but I hate asking people for money. I guess I need to detach myself from it in a personal way and realize that I am doing it for the good of the AC. Asking for things is very hard for me, especially money. Maybe I'll bring it up to some folks there and see what they suggest that could be helpful.

It is nice and Spring-like out today. I love this time of year. I need to try and savor it before the summer heat and humity kicks in.

Dad and I have been working on my renovation some this week and plan to work tomorrow. I need to start cleaning the studio and showroom and getting a jump on setting up for my Pottery Sale which is March 31 and April 1. If you want to receive more info. let me know. I hope we have a good turnout, I have LOTS of good pots.

Well I am off to walk Karma and then have a bite to eat before heading to town. I hope you all have a great day.

New Equipment

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Toyota is now manfacturing pottery equipment. Here you can see their latest, a drying rack-truck. It works great and keeps the work up out of the reach of curious little dogs. I had my pots up there all day and at the end of the day it was ready to go in the bisque kiln for firing tomorrow. I think the drying time could have been hurried along if I would have used the 'take it on the road' feature. Maybe next time.

His Eminence

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I had the last class of this session on Tuesday. We had a potluck dinner and watched The Art of the Potter. One of my students brought in this carrot cake. I learned the name of one of my favorite tools this session from another student who is in the medical field. It sort of took a life of it's own and has been added to the 'Philbeck Pottery Vocabulary'. I use my thenar eminence over and over when making plates, bowls, and other dishy shapes. I take it with me everywhere. I am hoping to get some tee shirts made soon, I'm not quite sure what they'll say yet.

Finishing up

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Yesterday I finally got everything finished and slipped. Today the weather is supposed to be warm and sunny so I'll have boards of pots sitting out drying. I want to fire a bisque tomorrow and hopefully load the salt/soda kiln on Sunday or Monday. I have 150 of commercial clay left, I need to mix clay. With the warm weather coming on I'd like to mix a ton or at least 1000 lbs.

I hope I have another good firing. There should be lots of pots here for my sale which is next weekend. I am glad spring is here. The trees are budding out and the birds all seem very happy too. I haven't made much of an effort in the garden yet or on my yard, other than putting out some fertilizer last weekend.

I'll get some images posted later today of pots. Have a great day.


Work

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I got back in the studio yesterday after lunch to make pots to finish up this kiln cycle. This morning I threw some small vases and yunomi and that's it. I am waiting on some test clay to dry out a bit so I can make a few small pieces out of it. As soon as yesterday's mugs are dry enough I'll get them handled and hopefully everything will be slipped by the end of the day tomorrow.

I saw hundreds of pots at NCECA. It seemed that the majority of the work was functional, which was nice. Lots of bottles and cups, going along with the whole bourbon theme of many shows. I often come away from shows or workshops feeling down about my pots or my direction. Thankfully this wasn't the case after NCECA. I came away feeling like I could push certain things a little further and make some improvements here and there. Mainly regarding form. I felt good about my handles. Seeing some of the salt and soda fired work made me want to explore heavier sodium deposits, and reduction cooling. Since I am not a big decorator I want the kiln to have a say in that process.

I will be firing next week for my Home Sale. Newsletters went out yesterday and I'll send out email versions today or tomorrow. If you'd like to receive one please let me know, I'll be happy to put one out to you.

I am off to teach my last class of the session tonight at Clayworks. We are having a potluck and watching the Hamada film.

Opening

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Below are the pots I sent to our show. The jar up top was sent by my influential artist, Mary Law, from Berkley Ca. I'll try and post a few more images from the show later.

The opening at Mad About Art went well. We had a pretty good turnout and we were all so excited to have a show of our own. (this lighting is terrible from the sun coming in the front window).

Highlight

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One of the highlights from NCECA was getting to meet Gail Nichols and viewing two of her magnificent bowls at an exhibition. Gail gave a slide presentation and talked about where she lives in Australia, her kilns, pots, and firing process. These two bowls were awesome. If I would have been in the gallery alone I'd probably have licked them! That's how juicy they were. They were quite big, I guess 16 to 18 inches in diameter.
If you are in interested in soda firing you should checked out Gail's book it is packed with information.

Back Home

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I got in from Louisville last night around 11:30 pm. I had a great time at NCECA with all my friends that went and it was fun to see everyone there. I was so pumped up and excited every day. I am still getting settled in here at home. I will post some highlights and pics over the next few days.

Off to NCECA

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I am leaving today for Louisville, Ky for the NCECA conference. I actually may not even attend the conference. The main reason for going is that the Circle of Eight has an exhibiton so we are all going down for the opening, and also to go around to all the galleries to see other shows.
Our show is at Mad About Art which is on the Louisville Stoneware Gallery Route.
The show is called Circle of Eight and Their Influential Artists. We each invited an artist who was an influence on our work or way of working. Here's the lineup.

Adrienne Dellinger invites Cynthia Bringle
Greg Scott invites Ron Meyers
Ron Philbeck invites Mary Law
Julie Wiggins invites Suze Lindsey&Kent McLaughlin
Amy Sanders invites Julia Galloway
Dale Duncan invites Tony Clennell
Sandy Singletary invites Sandy Pierantozzi
Jen Mecca invites Linda Christianson


It should be fun. Our opening is this Friday from 5 till 9.

Nina Hole

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While we were in Boone on Sunday we went by the ASU art department and saw the Nina Hole sculpture that was built and fired there last fall. It was really incredible. I wanted to go up for the construction and firing but was unable to. It was awesome to see it.
Here's a shot with me in it for scale.

Posts

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Sorry for the lapse in posts. I had a good weekend. My birthday was Sunday. Sarah and I rode up to Boone for the day. The weather was beautiful and sunny. It was really nice. I had a good birthday, 37 this year.
I have been finishing up pots today and trying to get myself ready to go to Louisville. I had some foot issues on these last bowls I made but I think I have them worked out for now. I need a cutting tool with a bigger loop to get the curve I want. I am firing a bisque too, which I need to go check on.
Anyway, this isn't much of a post but I did want to check in. I probably won't be posting while I am away, but you never know.
Also I was really surprised to see some hits from unexpected places on my little map counter I installed the other day. So thanks.

Pots in Progress

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Here are images of some of the pots I worked on today.Group of plates with poured slip. Tokyo pattern.

Oil Cans. Just slipped.


This is a new 8 lb bowl. I made 2 more of these and three six pounders. They will get feet cut and slipped over the weekend.

Bowls awaiting cutting and mugs ready to slip.

Tankards drying upside down just after getting handled.


Irons

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Yesterday it felt like I had way too many irons in the fire. I had wet, freshly thrown pots, leatherhard pots that needed handled, leatherhard pots that needed slipping, pots that needed spouts attached, oval bakers that needed bottoms, a big wet messy pile of recycled clay on the table, and thoughts in my head of a new bowl I wanted to try. I found myself talking out loud to myself, "what am I doing?", "what are YOU doing?", "I need to finish these.", "I am getting tired.", "do one thing at a time." , "which one?" At the end of the day some things were finished, some still partly finished and lots of stuff covered in plastic for today. So I have a committee meeting at the Arts Council at 10am and then it will be back here to try and put an end on some things. I keep forgetting to take the camera out to the studio but I will try and get some shots of these things in progress. Have a good Friday!

Pots for NCECA

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Here are the 3 pots I decided to send to the Circle of Eight Show at NCECA. I had a hard time deciding, especially after having a good firing last week and actually having some pots I was really proud of. I struggled with the reasons of choosing the pots. I found at first I was being really ego based about it and wanting to send work that was 'the best' so folks who saw them would say 'this guy's good', 'look at these great pots' , 'blah, blah, blah'. Then I thought about what people might actually buy, and should I send things that would sell. Pricing is hard too, I admit I marked things up a good bit compared to my home prices. I looked on the web and found pots that were comparable and used that as a guide, still I marked mine a bit lower, but higher than usual. I had some real gems from the kiln, an oval baker and an oil can I really liked. I can't part with them just yet so I didn't send them. Instead I picked the bird dish and the other oil can that was good but not the 'racer'. I thought about keeping the oval vase too, it got some really nice flashing. But I sent it along, I would like to have had a professional photo of it. Anyhow so this is how stuff works out in my head, maybe I make it too complicated. Honestly I'd like to keep the best pots here for my locals to buy at my sales, I am going to have to start holding some things back though to get photographed and to send off to exhibitions in the future. Anyhow enough of all this. I must get some work done.

Back to work

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Well here it is Wednesday. I made lots of pots on Monday and they have been wrapped up in plastic until today. Yesterday I had to finish up the Guild's Newsletter and the Newsletter for my upcoming sale at the end of the month. I also packed my pots for NCECA and took them to be shipped. I had to be in Charlotte at 4:30 to participate in an event at the Arts and Science Council, and then on to teach. So I got nothing done at all yesterday in my workshop.
I will post some images later of what I get finished today.

Here they are.

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Below is a selection of pots from this weeks firing. Really nice stuff. I am not sure how some of this happened, for instance the three jars have some pretty wild flashing, they were in the back and the atmosphere back there seemed to be pretty crazy, plus other yet unknown factors. They are cool for sure. A lot of these pots have a wood fired look I think. Anyhow, enjoy and please post any comments. Tumblers with various slips.