What's a Salt Pig?

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Salt pigs keep your salt handy by the stove top. Just reach in for a pinch. Mine are rather small so maybe I should call these salt piglets. Here's one by John Leach with a handle. This is my first litter. I've had a customer asking for one so I thought I'd make 6 or 8 for my next show. My pal Tom makes them too.

A few slab trays and bowls that got cut yesterday. I'll be getting back into full production mode on Monday. I am in a show at the Cleveland County Arts Council that opens the first week in Feb. so I'll be firing the salt kiln soon.

Back in Grey Clay

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I got back into my stoneware yesterday. It felt like coming home. Comfortable. I felt at ease working on familiar shapes, starting with some yunomi and then a couple boards of bowls and then some mugs. A new shape mug for me, sort of hourglass shaped. I had a customer ask me for this shape so these will be for her. I'll get the feet cut on these pots and handles on the mugs today.

I already have a kiln load probably with all the dishes I made a while back. Today I'm going to make some salt pigs and maybe a few more bowls. I also made some cut slab trays yesterday, I'll get some feet on them today and post an image later.
Have a great Friday!

Newly Added

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I have added a couple new links over in the Blogs I Like column to the right. The first is Michael Kline's blog. Michael is a potter here in NC. I've known him for several years and really admire his work.

The other addition is Hannah McAndrew. Hannah works in South west Scotland and makes lovely slipware. I'm a slipware addict these days. I love Hannah's sliptrailed lettering and drawing. That little birdie is fun too.

Be sure to visit these blogs from time to time. It's fun to see what we are each up to.

Thoughts/Thursday

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A couple people said they would like to hear me ramble so here goes. (I hate long blog posts, but this will probably be one)

I have always been drawn to pots with images. My first strong influences (other than Warren) were the pots of Michael Simon, Ron Meyers and Ruggles and Rankin. These potters made great forms and all incorporated some kind of imagery also. I copied much of these potters work in my early years. It was a way to learn. Over time I realized I had to find my own images and I struggled with that for a long time and eventually gave up. I've always felt like I had to make pots that were cohesive and unified in some way. ie a body of work that is recognizable as my own. My thinking was that I had to do this so I could sell to galleries and they would be able to reorder each year and get similar pots. In other words I felt like I had to get my sh*& together and make a living... I couldn't be trying on all these different hats all the time. So I gave up decorating and made pots that were mostly finished when they came off the wheel. (Something I learned from Mary Law). I let the kiln do the decorating, varied surfaces from the salt and soda.

(Aside: The funny thing is that I sell to very few galleries. Most of my work is sold from home. I could do almost anything I want. Clary Illian is a good example of a potter who tries all kinds of things (within certain parameters))

Note: Here's something I didn't know for a long time. Don't look to contemporary pots for inspiration. Or at least your main inspiration. Go back in time and look at historical pots. Or look for inspiration in other mediums, textiles have great imagery and patterns. etc. If you like a particular potter's work, find out what inspired them, then look at that, then look back farther still. (I should have gone to art school, I bet they tell you that in the first week. Prob. not. I don't know).

Okay so eventually I really began to like my image-less pots. I liked my forms and the firings. I was and still make pots for daily use and that too has been my main focus.

Still though I have had a desire to draw on pots for a number of reasons. I'm not sure that one of the reasons is a good one to admit but here it is: People/customers are drawn first to pots with an image/pattern. They see that first. Most anyhow. Then maybe they see the form. So I have thought I'd do better financially if I made pots with images. Yuck. Okay I'm human. The hard part is doing this in a way that one can live with. Making pots that feed my soul and still sell. Being happy with the deco. , form, firing etc. That should be the main goal. And really I have proven that I can do what I want and sell pots. I rarely do things for the sake of others. I make what I like and then educate my customers to why it's good. Then they get it and they come back for more.

Okay enough rambling for now. I will talk about my love for earthenware in another rambling post. And more of what it felt like to try something new and succeed on some levels and have problems on others. Stay tuned.

Food.

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A couple weeks ago I was listening to The Splendid Table on NPR and there was a segment on a new book called Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. The concept of the book sounded really simple, you take 4 basic ingredients mix them in a container let them sit in the fridge for up to two weeks. During that time you take out whatever amount of dough you need to bake and use it to make bread or whatever. No kneading, no punching down, etc. Guess what? It makes great bread. I've baked two loaves and one small pizza. Better than any store bought bread you've ever had. I don't have the book yet , it seems to be a great hit and everyone is sold out. My pal Tom got it and he's had good success with it too.


Here is a loaf shaped like a shell that I baked last night.While we were in Asheville we visited Greenlife and I bought an 4.5 lb organic chicken. I roasted it up last night and it was for sure the best chicken we've ever eaten. I made these clay chicken roasters a few years ago. I sold about 5 and kept one for myself. Of the 5 I sold every one cracked in the oven and I had to give everyone their $35 back. Ha. Of course mine has lasted like a champ! There is an attached cylinder in the center that you fill with beer or whatever and the bird sits on it. I usually fill ours with lemon wedges, garlic and water.
So we had a great supper last night with rosemary roasted chicken, homemade bread, asparagus and fingerling potatoes.

Finishing Up/Changing Over

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I spent most of today finishing up some pots and then cleaning the workshop. It was getting way out of control. I am switching back over to my stoneware in the next day or two. I ran into a problem yesterday with my earthenware. It seeps. I know most earthenware seeps some, but this was SEEPING. I am using Ron Meyers claybody and we have lots of his pots that don't seep, and they are fired to the same temp. etc. I am not using Ron's glaze so maybe that's part of the problem or maybe I did something wrong in the mixing. Either way I have to let it go for now so I can get back to pots I can sell to make a living.

I have had all sorts of feelings about making different work and trying something new. I want to post on it but I'll have to sort it out a little more to keep from rambling and sounding psychotic. Thanks for everyone's comments and suggestions. I am looking forward to getting back to my salt kiln and the pots with all their varying surfaces and inconsistencies.

More soon.

Finished Work

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Here are the results of my first glaze firing with the earthenware. I was happy that all the pots came out although it was 'amber overload' since that was the only glaze I have tested so far that I really like. I do feel like I could tone it down a little by decreasing the oxide in my glaze and increasing the iron in my white slip. Overall though it's good for my first try.
I was using the green slip for pours like on the mug on the far right. It's got too much oxide in it too I think so I'll decrease that and try again. I'd like to have a good green slip. I also tested a black slip, which isn't pictured, so that may offer some variety too.
That green bowl is over the top for me colorwise. It has 8% copper carb. in the glaze. I'm going to knock that down and maybe add some iron to it to see if I can't get something better. The finger wiped plates all came out good, and I like that little bowl with the dots.
Everything else was more of the same or had that ugly green slip poured on it. So it's back to testing. I don't know how much longer I'll be playing around with all this. I have to get back to my salt glazed pots soon. Unloading this kiln was much different than unloading my salt kiln. It was weird to see pots that were all the same, or mostly the same. I did like seeing the decorated work esp. the drawings.

Sarah and I had a great time in Asheville. I'll post on that later.

Catching Up

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Yesterday I went to unload the electric kiln at the Arts Council where I am firing this work. It was a bisque and I blew up all my slab pots. Oh well. Plus it was under fired by about 2 cones I'd guess. I 'm not too keen on these computer kilns. Anyhow I pressed on and glazed all the cups and yunomi and plates and reloaded the kiln. I set it to fire over night to cone 03. I went in early this morning to make sure it reached temp. The 04's were down when I got there and then then thing shut off. So I restarted it and fired it to temp. I am glad I was there to check.

So I'll unload my first glazed pots tomorrow and see if this little adventure is going to continue.

I decorated these plates yesterday.
Here are some tankards with sprigs. I have made some jugs that are similar.
And a couple of the 10 lb bowls decorated.
Sarah and I are off to Asheville for the night to celebrate our 8 year wedding anniversary. We will have fun knocking around there tomorrow. Check back in for pics of the fired work. Cross all your digits.

Success!!

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I unloaded my test kiln this morning with good results. My amber glaze test came out great, so it's full steam ahead with that. From left to right below it's : Amber glaze over Erect clay slip. Amber glaze over white clay slip. And Clear glaze over Erect clay slip. The Erect clay comes from Erect , NC and is principally a ball clay I think. I like it better than the white slip as the Erect has more of a creme color.I still have some work to do on my greens. The two on the left are green slips made with Erect and white clay with additions of green copper oxide. Both covered in clear glaze. The far right is white slip covered with a clear glaze that contains some copper carbonate. I think the two on the left have some potential. It looks like the slips went on too thin. I don't really care for the color of the far right but it gives me something to go by for future tests.
Gotta go! More later probably.
Yea for me!

Hits. Newcomers

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I had 252 hits yesterday! I think that's a record for me by far. I am sure I owe much of it to Doug for mentioning me on his blog. Thanks Doug. If you visited for the first time I hope you'll check in again in the future to see what I am up too.

I'm off to work. I'll be bisque firing tomorrow and hopefully my glaze firing will be out by Monday. More to come later.
Ron

Late Start

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I didn't get started in the shop today until 2pm. I went to the Arts Council to help out painting pedestals and panels and stayed there about 2.5 hours. We were supposed to have a group of volunteers come but only me and one other showed. The staff worked too. Anyhow I do quite a bit there but I'm feeling kinda resentful that no else showed up.

So after lunch I made 6 plates, 6 beer mugs, 3 jugs , and 4 biggish bowls. (I made those 3 cap jars yesterday.)
I mixed up slip and glaze tests over the weekend. Here's my little chemistry area.
I borrowed this test kiln from a friend so I could fire my test pieces. (Those 2 on top are drying out). I'm gonna work some glaze tests into my first big bisque firing as the temperature for some of these glazes is the same as the bisque temp. Anyhow I have a plan...we'll see how it goes.
I'm pretty psyched about all this. I LOVE this clay. It is just what I want, earthy, gritty, imperfect, cuts well, throws pretty good. It smells good in the bin too!
Thanks for everyone's honest comments and links to sites for helpful deco. inspiration. Keep your fingers crossed for my first glaze firing (hopefully this weekend).

A Few More Dishes

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I forgot to post this image yesterday of some dishes with fingerwipes through the white slip. I am figuring out the timing for this, can't wait too long or the slip gets dry and sort of gums up instead of wiping away nicely.I have pugged some clay and left it to stiffen up a little for tomorrow. It was quite wet and fine for plates and such, but too soft for much else.

That's all for now.

More From Today

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Here are some odd bowls . I was mainly trying out different shapes to see how I could work out the deco. I made a few with pours too.
This group of pots are made from slabs draped over plaster hump molds that I made. That is a gigantic chicken is it not! I may add some finger dots of brown slip around that bird tomorrow. It looks like lots of blank space. Space is good I guess.
This clay is really groggy and I love it. Look at this flake!

I am very conscientious about the whole decoration thing. I have never done it for very long and I don't know if I'll stick to this much. The wipes and pours and dots are fine. I would like to incorporate some images, but it seems hard for me to let myself go there without being really judgmental. I am enjoying doing something new.

Gotta go get started on dinner. Please leave some comments.

New Pots

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Okay so here are some pots from the weekend. I spent today turning feet and dipping and pouring slip. These mugs have a white slip with green slip pours. They will get some dots tomorrow. My dot slip was too wet for today.A few yunomi with pours and wipes and some dots.
Now here are these plates. Covered in white slip and then incised. A proper slipware potter would have trailed these designs, but I am better with a stick than a sliptrailer hence the drawing. So, I'm not 100% about this kind of thing. It can seem rather 'cute', or kitschy, or just bad. These will have an amber glaze over them so they won't be so bold, but if you have any feedback let me know. I can take it. If they are kinda 'folksy' then I'm okay with that. I'm not okay with cute. I may have to make them more 'fierce' animals or something. (That bird on the bottom right looks rather phallic, not fierce, although a flying phallus may be fierce) (Say that 3 times fast).
Most all of these pots above will get the amber glaze. I am testing a green glaze too and a clear although I don't know when I'd use a clear really. I think it would let the white be too white.

Unbagged

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No kittens, or Jimmy Hoffa, or fruitcake or children. Just some red clay. I mixed about 600 lbs of earthenware at Clayworks on Tuesday. Yesterday I pugged the lot of it and got it stored in a big garbage bin.
I threw a few yunomi and some plates with it yesterday. I like this clay a lot. It has plenty of grog and a fireclay/brickclay called Neuman Red from California. I did pick some bits of rock out of it. I'm not sure if that came from the Neuman or from the sides of the Solder mixer (which is concrete). Anyhow I doubt I'll continue to use the Neuman in any future batches. It seems rather silly to be transporting clay across the country when I can get something more local. So I'll be on the lookout for that.
I'm gonna be making some more pots today and mixing my white slip. I'm pretty much putting everything on hold for this month to play with this new clay and deco ideas. It's challenging for me to try something new and not over think it or try to see where it will go. So for now it's just for fun.

Footing a Bowl

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I thought it may be helpful to some to see how I cut feet on bowls and plates. Or at least the set up. I'd like the show the cutting via video, but I have to figure out how to do that first. So maybe that whole video thing will happen this year at some point. For now though here are a couple posts that may be helpful.

Below is a soup bowl , freshly thrown. This one was a two pounder. I made sure I left enough clay in the bottom for my foot.After throwing all of my bowls I take a measurement of the interior so I can make a chuck for them to sit on. The chuck is then thrown and let to stiffen up along with the bowls. I'll usually let the bowls sit out until I can flip them over without damaging the rims. Then, when the bottoms are soft leather hard they are ready to cut (trim).
Here is the chuck, which is just a tapered, low cylinder. You can see that I have made it so the rim of the bowl will wedge down on it about middle ways.
Here is the bowl on inverted on the chuck. I forgot to mention that I throw the chuck on a batt. That way when I am ready to use it I can just put it back on my batt pins and it is centered and ready to go. A few light taps on the bowl will center it on the chuck.
Here is the finished foot. I lift the bowl off and replace it with the next one to be footed.
Hope that was a bit helpful. Like I said maybe I can shoot a video of the actual cutting. If you have access to the Hamada video, The Art of the Potter, it shows him cutting some feet and is really excellent.
Happy Friday.

Footing a Plate

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I use this homemade foam bat when I am cutting feet on plates or wide bowls. To make it I just used white school glue to attach thin foam to a batt. The clay supply stores sell these too. I have another larger one I use for platters and big bowls.Here is the uncut plate centered on the batt. Learning to tap on center is a skill worth learning. I use it not only when cutting feet but also when waxing, or decorating.
The finished foot below. I'll usually pick up the foam batt and invert the plate over onto another regular batt. That way I don't mess up the rim or distort the pot. If it's firm enough it's okay just to pick it up.
I usually dry my plates upside down on a batt.

Note From a Friend

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I got this email yesterday. This is why I love to make pots.

I just wanted to tell you I’m in a small part of heaven right now. I let my kids stay home to have one day of complete rest before heading back to school. My daughter came in the office and asked if she could learn how to make coffee for me. Sooo - don’t want to discourage another helping hand around here. I showed her how and she just brought in a poured cup of coffee in one of your cups - she even put cream and sugar in it for me.
Soo, I’m here sipping Farrah made coffee in one of your super cool cups and happy as can be. Thanks for sharing your talents – Smile !!

Take Care !!
D.