2015-07-12 - Sunday - Tiny pots

Sunday I went to Clayworks and threw a bunch of tiny pots. I like these pots as punctuation for the larger ones I make. They also fill in the kiln nicely amidst the larger pieces.

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2015-02-15 - Sunday - Vases and VSVs

Sunday I carved another vase, threw a foot on the last one, and made eighteen VSVs (Very Small Vessels) or weed pots. It's been a while since I made VSVs and I throw them "off the hump". I would have had twenty, but I cut the bottom out of one taking it off the hump and ripped the last one. The way I choose to look at it, at ninety percent I'm doing better than ever.

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2014-02-22 - Saturday - Big studio afternoon and lollipops

Saturday afternoon I went to Clayworks to try to get back into a comfortable place with my pots as I've been really dissatisfied with my throwing lately.

It turned out to be a good day and I made a lot of things in about five hours.  We've got a gas firing coming up at the studio and I'm also trying to get pots ready for a wood firing on March 15.

I may remove the handles on the basket pot since I'm not thrilled with them.  Josh DeWeese showed us how he makes some wild handles and I wanted to give it a try.  Needless to say, mine aren't anywhere near the level of Josh's.  I may have to spend time just pulling random handles to get more comfortable with it before attempting it again.

Busy, busy, busy.

Stephanie came home from school for a long weekend and it's always great to have her here.  She's an adventurous eater and really appreciates her food which makes it more fun to cook when she's home.

Unfortunately she's on a very restricted diet since she's allergic to corn and soy (just try to find things in the supermarket with no corn or soy in them!) and she's always thrilled when she finds something she likes that is within her parameters.

A friend of ours gave her some pomegranate lollipops and since she loves pomegranates and can't eat most lollipops (lots of corn syrup) she was thrilled.  At twenty-one she has re-established her relationship with lollipops.

It's the (seemingly) little things.

Stephanie really likes these
pomegranate lollipops.

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August 16 - Thursday hawk and VSVs

Thursday the girls noticed our hawk in the backyard as it flew up to a fencepost.  It was pretty antisocial and kept it's back to me the whole time before taking wing and flying to the neighbor's tree.  I love the fact that we have a pair of hawks living in our neighborhood.

In the evening I went to Clayworks to throw some VSVs (Very Small Vessels).  The recent kiln-loading reminded me that we need smaller pieces to go around the larger ones and I like to keep some of these on hand.  You can fit a lot on a bat.

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December 4 - Glazing and bisquing

Sunday I rushed to get my glazing done since the gas kiln was going to be loaded on Tuesday.  I had some crackled pots, a bumpy one, and I decided to test some new glaze combinations on my VSVs (Very Small Vessels).  I know I've said this before, but I am always amazed at how long it takes to get glazing done and I'm not even doing anything extravagant.  Part of the reason is that I am not 'in production' using the same two or three glazes on everything so there is a lot of mixing, applying, and cleaning up between each step.

Another thing that takes some time is the fact that I have to wait for the outside to dry after I glaze the inside.  The water from the glaze on the inside soaks the clay which would restrict the amount of glaze that would adhere to the outside if applied while the pot is wet.  This is a fairly new development for me as I am throwing thinner pots these days.  The crackled pots are especially thin since I stretch them to (and sometimes past) their limits from the inside after applying the slip.

As my friend and teacher Greg says, "If you're not crashing some pots you're not pushing your limits."

Amen, brother.

I also moved some dry bowls to the greenware shelf to be bisqued.

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