Tuesday

Moving is way overrated. The good news is that I've moved. The more I do it, the less things i move as I keep throwing things out and donating things. The bad news is that I'm exhausted beyond words.
At least tomorrow, a very good thing will happen. Seven of my pots will come out of the gas kiln. Can hardly wait to see them.
Thanks to all who supported me in the move.

Off Season Glazing

Well, it's kinda the off-season at Clayworks. All at the studio are preparing for the upcoming Spring Sale this weekend. There's about two weeks of no classes, which is quite interesting for some of us students, who consider being at the wheel being like breathing.

I moved this past weekend, so that has helped fill the extra time. The gas kiln was loaded on Sunday evening though in anticipation of the weekend sale. I glazed 10 pots then too. 7 made the cut and got in. The others are teaching me more about patience. :)

Above are the 10. Most have spotted shino glaze as a base glaze and some have alfred's blue and red iron oxide wash. I used the spiral design on several of these and some have only glaze on the inside and just partially on the outside. Depending on how the 7 turn out, I may change the glaze of the remaining 3. Put some of the glaze on with a bulb while I turned the pot in a spiral motion.

Also just updated my profile. I've decided that my new clay goals are:

+ help in the building of a kiln.

+ make pieces and woodfire them.

+ take a class at Penland.
These are all achievable. I'm hopeful!

Finally, look closely-- here's Julie, the amazing studio manager who I sometime thinks lives at Clayworks. She does so much and works so hard. One of the things she does best is load the kiln. The kiln will be unloaded on Wednesday mid-day. Wednesday will be here before we know it!

No Festival For Me

Wish I could go to the Catawba Valley Pottery & Antiques Festival this weekend. Instead, I'm moving! Thankfully, I've almost finished packing. Adrienne and several others that I know will have their pottery there. I'll definitely miss out. (Camera shutter didn't fully open. I need a new camera!)

Above, here's part of what came out of the kiln today. Three in this pic are mine. Here they are again in this next pic, fired with spotted shino on the inside and combos of red iron oxide, catherine's oribe, wax resist, alfred's blue, tenmoku all for design on the outside. I'm mostly pleased. This is a good beginning. I'm trying one of the new pots out tonight, just to see if it works. Yes, the red wine does is great in it. :) I'm going to focus more on my surface work in the days to come. In the meantime, I like hearing the ping ping sound of the pots once they come out of the kiln. My three are still ping pinging.

Finally, here are some of Adrienne's pots getting ready for their trip to Hickory, NC for the Festival. Look closely... Beautiful.

Word Cloud and Packing

Words are powerful. I'm watching CNN as I write, waiting for President Obama to speak to the nation. He's been on my mind much recently, as he's had to make many important decisions. Words. Wolf Blitzer is introducing Word Cloud which is a bunch of word on a screenand the larger hte owrd, teh more the President will emphasize it. Click here to learn more about Word Cloud (also called Tag Cloud). It's so interesting.
Writing has not come easily for me ever. English was one of my least favorite subjects in school and somehow I compensated, getting two masters degrees. I now love to read; although having a broad vocabulary has never been one of my strengths. It would be neat to be able to make word clouds using a program; I'll need to check more into that.
Am in the midst of packing these days; boxes surround me. It always takes longer to pack than I realize. The longer I pack though, the more I get rid of which is a very good thing. It took a long while to pack my pottery. Am about halfway done. Will be happy when packing is over! Took a break today and went running. Didn't head into the studio today. Hope to do that tomorrow, as a reward for all of my packing. I'm over half done, at least. :)
Until I move on Saturday, I'm living with the boxes. At least I'm staying in the Charlotte area.

New

Am trying some new glaze ideas. Put red iron oxide on all three of these.

For added effect, put wax resist on the outside too, mostly in a spiral shape, especially with the one in the center.

Clay body: Zella Stone Stoneware

Glaze: Spotted shino on the inside and rim

Outside: some spotted shino, catherine's oribe, alfred's blue, and tenmoku in varying designs. Base of the outside has no glaze; Recently, I've liked the plain clay look.

Sprinkled a bit of soda ash on the outside too.
These were glazed just in time to be put in the gas kiln that is firing now. :) While there's now a two week break from classes at the studio, the resident artists are gearing up for a sale. Time will tell how these turn out. Can you find them in the kiln? Middle left...

Yesterday and Today Part II

These three plates also came out yesterday. They're okay. I'm experimenting with glazing and just making plates in general. Let it be said that making plates is harder than it may seem. I really want to take a class in surface design sometime. Lots more to learn... I'll use these though.

Today at the studio I put the finishing touches on the cups I posted about yesterday and put them on the shelf to be bisqued. I added some rutile wash, red iron oxide, and different colored slip to four of them. While I realize that some of things are better added after the pieces are bisqued, I put them on now to see what will happen. Experimenting again. :)

It was a gorgeous, peaceful evening too. Spent some time on my mini deck eating my first meal entirely out of my own pottery and reading. :)

Am in the midst of moving so here are some boxes. Got them from Total Wine, which was very generous in giving them to me for free. Makes me want to try these wines!

Tonight, the Tennessee Lady Vols play their first game as the women's NCAA tournament begins. I've missed on most of their games this season, due to my love of pottery. Will watch this one though.

Someday and Yesterday Part I

As I write, I'm watcing Celtic Woman on PBS. One song of theirs, Someday is one of my favorites. Even so, back to the here and now.

Am gearing up for a move. so, that means the workers at Total Wine today were extra grace and gave me boxes for free. Makes me want to try out the wine that once came in them. I'll spend this week packing and move on Saturday. Thanks to all of you who are helping me!

Below is a plate that came out of the electric kiln today. :)

I'm pleased. The glazes on the rim ran a bit which is what I wanted (some Ben Gareen and Tahitian over Ron's Creme).

These days I'm not saving everything I make at the wheel, which is a good thing. I've become more picky about what is worth saving and giving more attention to detail.

Oh, yeah-- this is the first of two posts today.

Yesterday, I went to the Morrison's gallery in Charlotte where clayworks resident artists have a few pieces of their work.

Lighting isn't the best in these pics. It was fun to see the pieces and say to myself-- "I know these artists!" Perhaps someday I'll join them, if I win the lottery at this point. :)

Am now watching 60 Minutes' interview with Obama. Gosh, what an amazing President we have. He's got so much coming at him these days and yet he says he reads 10 letters every night that are written from ordinary people, out of 40,000. I have lots of respect for him.

Cups

Here are the latest cups. Am experimenting and trying new forms.

I'm tired.

I'll post more tomorrow.

Raindrop and Raku

From a raindrop.... These are the start of the words in a Peter Mayer song that I etched onto a plate for me, just me. :) (Earthen Red plus white trailing slip). Everything I need in the etching is in the pic. Red pen to write down some of the lyrics of the song, the tool, and that's it!

Before the raku, mid-day, we celebrated Robin's birthday. This was not the first of her birthday celebrations... it was great to be included at the last minute and the conversation was full of laughter. Chris (second from left) brought a delicious coconut lemon pie. Yum!

Here we're all anticipating our piece of the pie.

Robin and Chris on this happy day- St. Patrick's day too! Gorgeous daffodils as well. I've loved it that it's warmer here--- real spring-like weather! All encouraging in the midst of job searching.

Made these six cups yesterday. Hope to trim them all later today. Am finishing more off with a rib and trying new things in terms of form. Put some slip on this cup earlier and then decided when it was dry to take a sponge and wipe some of it off. I like the effect....

Last night when I was at Clayworks it was also Raku night for Greg's class. Here Greg and John (L-R, respectively) are waiting for the kiln to heat up. Greg is drinking a beverage of some sort. Stories abounded. Greg has some of the best stories to tell. I stayed around a bit to watch the fun action. Check out John's blog for more pics.

Finally, the kiln was hot and pots were put in. In this pic above, some of the pots were drying as raku glaze had been put on them just prior to the class.

When it was hot enough, the pots came out one by one, and CAREFULLY! Here's John bringing his big pot to one of the small cans.

Newspaper caught on fire when the pot was placed in, which was a great thing.

Here's another small pot upon its arrival in the trashcan. All made sure to 'burp' the cans too..... to take the lid off of at some point, not to long after putting the pot in, to help the can catch fire again. All this helps in the cooling and the colors, I think.

This is John's big pot when he was burping it. He added some more newspaper inside it. We could literally see the colors changing. Amazing to watch!

Finally, when it was cooled down, it was retrieved from the can. Look how dark the big one is initially....

and then how in time, more colors come out. The small one is John's too; the smaller ones in the pic above are Ed's.

Writing this post has reminded me of how much more I have to learn about raku. Above is Greg's pot.... notice the face sculpture on it. The raku world is always unpredictable in a wonderful way.

Weekend and Glazing

Did some glazing tonight, but first there was yesterday.
Busy Sunday. I'm getting back into stoneware again and made this new form. Not sure if I'll keep it; I'm in an experimental phase. This is with phoenix clay; it's been about a year and a half since I've used this kind of clay. Thankfully, I've improved a bunch since then.
First put some wax resist on the bottom of these plates. Then, I ended up glazing these six plates with a base glaze of Ron's Creme. Also added accents of glaze in the colors of Ban Gareen, Tahitian, and Ryoko Cream. Applied some of the accent glazes with the bulb in the pic, making drops and also with my index finger, creating a different look. All will be fired in the electric kiln (cone 5). Haven't used this glaze combo before; will be interesting to see how these turn out. I do think that plates are high maintenance and hard to make. The plate form doesn't come easy for me; the teacups are easier. Guess I need to make lots of plates to improve that!

It's been wet outside. I'm ready for dry weather when I can go running.

On another note, lately, I've gotten some invitations to participate in artisan shows and other small events. While it's exciting, it just takes lots of time! I don't make pots full-time and I haven't been throwing clay as long as many other potters, but I'm reminded that there is just ALOT involved in being a full-time potter, not to mention making the pots! How does one make a living doing this? Gosh...

Wet/Dry Saturday

It was a day outside best for ducks and as a result, many potters came to the inside of Clayworks to play with the earth. I arrived at around lunchtime and almost immediately turned around and went out for lunch with Becky and John. We went to Lupie's Cafe, which is a Charlotte local favorite. When we arrived, Lupie was hard at work (the woman in the green shirt behind the counter). It is one of those hole-in-the-wall great homecooked food restaurants.

We were greeted by this and we waited to be seated. :) In what seemed like no time at all, we had food at the table and in no time at all, it disappeared. I ate pinto beans without onions and quickly learned from the two Charlotteans (is that a word?) that pinto beans with onions is a southern food, but not pinto beans without onions. Oh well... We talked and talked and Becky told us a bit about her trip to Sicily. She showed us these pottery shards. One piece looked like one of John's pots. Wonder how it got all the way to Sicily?
Time went by fast and we came back to Clayworks and slopped back through the rain and got into the dry inside. I began to work on making some slip out of phoenix clay. All that was needed was adding water to make it a clay slurpee mixture. Then, time to let it sit.

Once back and dry, we went our separate directions and got back to the clay. Above L-R are John, Kit and Becky. Kit was working on these. Earthen red clay with white slip and then underglaze. These are beautiful! She has a wonderful attention to detail.

Minke worked on her latest sculpture. Some limbs are definitely in the making.

Becky worked on her cave art doing all sorts of things to the surfaces.

Then I threw these five cups. Am not pleased with all of them, so I may not keep some. For many weeks I had thrown with only earthen red clay so phoenix clay was a big change. I'm getting back into it. Will make some more tomorrow. Put slip on these two. The one on the left needs more. Hmmm Will work on that tomorrow too.
All this happened on Pi/Pie Day. (3/14) John even brought a pie. Did you know it was Pi/Pie Day?

The Newest

These came out of the electric kiln earlier today. The one in the middle had a bit of white slip brushed onto it and some blue slip poured and then some words inscribed into it. The ones on the outer edges had white and blue slip poured on them. All were glazed in Ron's creme with some swirls of Tahitian glaze on the outside. The one in the middle is for me; the outside ones I'll sell. These have such a different look with the slip poured.And here's a bowl--the tahitian glaze spiral on the inside accentuates the slip made spiral, and the tahitian glaze put on the rim ran more than I thought it would. Here's a side view. The slip was poured on the sides. While I've really loved throwing with earthen red clay, I think I'll throw some pots with zella stone stoneware clay tomorrow.

Another Evening at Clayworks

There's always something happening at Clayworks. Here is a snapshot from tonight:

Becky showed me how to use the extruder. This was all new to me; she is a great teacher. She was making the sides of a base for a saggar for a Jim Whalen workshop next weekend.
John was making some handles. This mug on the right looks like it might be ready to fly.

I trimmed some more dessert plates that will have this quote on them like this finished one for an order. I hope to make more plates with quotes on them. I REALLY like doing this. :)
All this happened during Greg's class. He made the top half of this udo drum during class. Always something unpredictable happening with his teaching. He knows so much.
Here is him telling me a bit about it. What a candid shot!

Here is the base that Becky made for the saggar. I have much to do tomorrow in the studio. Slipwork and making more mugs on the wheel. I think I'll use some zella stone clay again.