More Trailing

in

I had all these soap dishes waiting under plastic from last week needing decoration. So I took the opportunity to play around more with the trailer that Hannah send me. I'm not sure I'm holding it properly, it's a bit awkward so maybe I'll give Hannah a call for a lesson.

Off to teach at Clayworks tonight. We are going to be making some cut handle pots that I saw Alan Gaff making on his blog back in August. I've been meaning to try them out for a while now, it will be a good opportunity to pass along that information. Alan is still teaching me and I can share that with my students.

It Starts with the Clay

in

As if it's not enough that I've been testing glazes for months, now I'm testing a new clay body.
Actually this is good. I checked the porosity on my current body and it was about twice as high as it should be. I had been told that I could maybe add some frit to the body to help with that and that's what I've done. I got my hands on a body recipe that is very similar to mine that contained 3 % of frit 3124. The proportions of clays in the recipe were almost the same. So any how I mixed up a small batch today. I'm gonna let it sit a day and then make a few cups, some test bars for shrinkage and absorption and then move on to slip and glaze tests. Or it may need some tweaking. I've already added some Lizella from Georgia and a bit of grog. So we'll see....

Brad Tucker

in , ,

Our guest at the Circle show this time was Brad Tucker from Creedmore, NC. I heard Brad's name early on when I started making pots. My mentor, Tom Gray ,told me about him and mentioned that Brad was one of the best pitcher makers around. Well this weekend I finally got one of Brad's jugs. It's a small one but boy it's really wonderful, nice and light with a sharp lip and good balance. Sarah and I put it to use yesterday morning when we used it to pour the maple syrup over our pancakes. I should have broken down and got a bigger one....well I guess I'll just have to make the trip out to Creedmoor soon.

Thanks Brad for coming out and being our guest.

Obamaware!!!!

in
I will participating in a fund raising show for the Obama/Biden campaign in a few weeks. This show will feature limited edition Obama/Biden ceramics.

Click Here to for more information and to sign up for notification of when the show goes online.

I'll also be posting more information as the time gets closer.

Feeling Good

in , ,

I taught last night at Clayworks. I've got a really good group of students. They are so eager to learn and to improve their pots. I try to get around to all of them throughout the class to give them individual help and attention. I am seeing their pots improve each session.

I had some time last night to talk to my friend Julie about her weekend at the Utilitarian Clay Conference. She took some really good notes and shared them with me. We talked about internet marketing, photography, clay bodies, techniques that she saw over the weekend that were unusual and how we are both pretty pumped up about our pots right now and want to keep up with the times, make work that is engaging and get it out to folks.

I emailed a web designer yesterday to see about the cost for a custom website. My old site has gone off line and was getting out of date. I have distinct ideas about what I want and I outlined that for the designer. I haven't heard back yet with the quote but I'm bracing myself for the number. With my love of the internet, I feel like it is only natural that I strongly pursue this area. Also, I am learning that sometimes it's better to pay a person who is skilled in an area to get the work done. I can struggle and struggle with it for weeks and months. What I need to do is make pots and leave some of this other stuff to people who do it for a living. That said, I did choose someone who I know has worked with potters and who is creative and artistic. I want to give work to folks who are passionate about what they do.

I met with Leon, my glaze guru, last night for supper. We had a good chat about clay bodies and all that. I have some new info. that Julie brought back from the Conference that may help me adjust my clay, slip and glaze. Tests will be happening next week.

For now I'm out to check on my bisque firing. Hope you all have a good Wednesday!!

Alan Gaff

in
Alan Gaff from Argyll Pottery in Scotland died tragically yesterday from an accident on his motorbike. I had gotten to know Alan over the past few months from his blog and an occasional email. Alan made really delightful pots and I was astounded by many of his forms and designs. Hannah McAndrew knew him much better than I and here is what she had to say today on her blog:

"I don't want to write this because I don't want to believe it. Nicola who works with Alan sent me an email today with the horrible news that Alan had an accident last night on his motorbike and has passed away. I know there were people reading the blogs who were starting to think of Alan as a friend since he started joining in with comments on our blogs and with his own. This is not much of a tribute as as you can imagine I am not really comprehending it. Nicola asked me to let people know and this I think is the way to reach as many people as I can. I can only say that my heart goes out to Alan's family and to Hugh and Nicola who he worked and laughed with. I will certainly miss his general mickey taking and the friendly rivalry of my low fired earthenware pots to his high fired stoneware. "

Still Having Problems

in


I got up early this morning to unload a glaze kiln and reload a bisque. I had about 14 pots out of this load that had crawling problems. Still, most of the pots were fine and I'll try to refire these after I dab on some more glaze. This is it for this glaze....I'll be finding some thing else.

Thoughts on Monday

in


This cup is from yesterday's firing. It was sort of a test piece too as I had put these colored dots on there. I used Mason stains to color my clear glaze. I'm not sure where this will lead, but I do want to keep trying to get some color on my pots. I have a green I like and I use it in an Oribe-ish sort of way.

All weekend I felt pretty regretful that I didn't go to the Utilitarian Clay Conference. It's been good to see some posts from folks who did and I heard there may be some podcasts at some point. I did hear that my blog got mentioned on Saturday morning during Ayumi Horie's presentation. That was a big surprise! Thanks Ayumi.

In the midst of feeling regretful, I've also been feeling energized and hopeful that I can turn my focus to making some good pots. I really want to get this slipware rocking. I can see in my mind part of what I want to do and where I want to take it. Getting there in reality will take some time (and more clay, glaze and slip tests).

I am also wanting to move forward on the internet marketing side of things. My Etsy site is a good start but I really want to continue to pursue the internet as a marketing and selling tool.

Having said that, I also want to analyze where I put my energy and how I can get things accomplished. I'm going to talk about this a little more later, so stay tuned.

Fired another glaze load last night. More pots out tomorrow.

I wish the postman would get here, I'm expecting some new books!!!

Pots

in
I unloaded this morning and there was no screaming and yelling. The glaze did fine, I did have a couple small areas of crawling on some plates, but they can be refired. I glazed another load today and will fire again tonight. I'll try and get up a few more pics of individual pots tomorrow.

Glaze. Again. And a Big Bowl.

in
Hey, thanks to you guys who all wrote in regarding my glaze problems (again). Really it wasn't so bad this morning, just a glitch (I hope). My test of the old G.B. glaze with 2% iron came out full of iron spots. Agggggghhhh.... I know I sieved it, but it was some new black iron that I'd bought so maybe it's different. So I sieved it again (twice), dipped a test, made two more quick tests with red iron and popped them all into the test kiln. Hopefully tomorrow there will be no screaming and I'll be glazing a kiln load of pots.

Finishing up teapots today and the large bowls. Decorated this big guy from last week finally. After shooting that first image I felt like it could use one more line so I drew that in and I do think that's better. Sorry you all have been looking at greenware for weeks, I promise glazed pots soon.

For the record, I did try some LG10 commercial glaze and it did great over a new white slip I mixed up but it crazed like..... well like crazy.... on my regular white slip. It's a no go. Too expensive anyhow.

I had my first class of the session at Clayworks on Tuesday. I 've got a good group again. Tonight I'm subbing for Julie as she's at the Utiliatrian Clay Conference (I sure hope she's taking good notes for me). So I'll be off to Charlotte again in a few hours.

That's it for today.