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.

Firing

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My firing went well. After going back and checking my old kiln logs I felt like I have been firing too fast at the beginning of the firing. So I slowed down, especially between 1400 and 1650. I also did a longer body reduction, 45 minutes instead of 20. Not a hard reduction, I'd say it was medium, long flame out the top front peep and barely a wisp out of the middle front. Maybe that's more neutral. This was at cone 08. Anyhow it's what I did. Then I oxidized for 10 minutes then back to neutral. At 2100 I oxidized again for 30 minutes. I started putting the chunk in when the 8's were going down. I put in 5000g of 'chunk' which 2500 of is whiting and the other 2500 is soda ash and baking soda (See Gail Nichols book, Soda, Clay, Fire). I tried to stay around cone 9, my colors seem to be brighter at cone 8 and 9. After I was finished putting the soda chunks in I soaked for 1 hour in oxidation. I then shut the burners down and crash cooled for 25 minutes by pulling out the damper and opening the soda/salt ports.

The stacking was a bit different. I don't usually put those tall pots in the middle of the stack, but the top has been so bad I didn't want to sacrifice them again. Turns out it would have been fine. Anyhow, the back of the kiln was dry in places. I need to work this out either by spraying some soda solution in or by putting 'soda cups' back there.

I did not go with the diagonal burner arrangement this time either, doing so may help push the soda to the back so I may try that in the future.

Okay that's my update. I'll post some individual pot images tomorrow. Thanks everyone for checking in and being supportative.

Yes!

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Just unloaded. Very good results! I will post some pics tomorrow and tell more about it. I am sort of on a tight schedule today, have been working on the house etc. I am so relieved to have had a good firing.

Friday evening

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I peeped in the kiln just a while ago. I have mixed feelings...it looks a bit dry overall but up front a few things look like they got too much soda. I am trying not to get depressed about it, I'll unload tomorrow and hopefully be happy with most of it. Or all of it, who knows?

Right now I am listening to Pandora Internet Radio while waiting on the oven to get super hot so I can bake some pizzas. It has to stay on 500 for an hour so my pizza stone gets really nice and hot. The pizzas will cook in 8 or 9 minutes. I made my dough this morning and I am looking forward to some good eats.

That's it for now.

Firing

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I am in for lunch while the kiln does it own thing for little while. I just checked and cone 5 was started at the front in the middle, which is usually the hottest part of the kiln. I have all my 'chunk' mixed up and ready to go. I am increasing that by about 1 lb and dropping the salt back from 3 lbs to 1lb. At least that's the plan, if the draw rings look like I am needing more salt then I will add another pound probably.
As Phil Rogers suggested I did a good body reduction for one hour. Prior to this I also fired a little slower than usual and really let the kiln have some time between 1500 and 1600 to burn out any carbon. I have been thinking and I realized that my bisque temperature is really all over the place. The bottom of that little kiln will be cone 06 down and who knows what the next two levels up are. Maybe 010 or somewhere. So I thought I'd do this soak during my firing to let anything burn out that I missed in the bisque.
Early on this kiln did great. At that time I was single firing and my firings were long. Sometimes 26 hrs. But the pots were always really nice. I always felt that long slow heat up was good and maybe it's what's been missing lately.
Well enough of all this. I will start putting the chunk in when the 8's start, till then I'm just going to hang out and read a little and listen to the rain on the tin roof.

I'm cool...well not really

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Sarah shot this picture last night. She said I looked like a total geek sitting on the couch with all my kiln notes and books on salt and soda firing, not to mention my really hip attire. I aspire to be a really cool dude but it just isn't happening. I am more of a weirdo geek type with little artsy bits here and there.
I like nerds and geeks. After all I was a mathematics major in college. There are lots of types, you have the computer nerds, intellecutals, with pocket protecters and thick glasses, or the pimpley, shy, video game geeks, or the weird, fantasy loving dungeons and dragons type, and then theres the Napoleon Dynamite type, sort of out there in a rural backcountry kinda way. That would be me in a way I guess, especially on the dance floor.