2017-02-22 - Wednesday - Bottles

I finished trimming and slipping the bottles from last Wednesday.

Now they remind me of penguins.

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2017-02-15 - Wednesday - Bottles

On Wednesday night I made some bottles using craggy crunch. Not quite the forms I was imagining, but fun.

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2017-01-19 - Thursday - New pots

Thursday I worked on finishing up some pots and made a lid and a tumbler out of some leftover craggy crunch clay. There's always something to be done.

The tall one is a nod to Nick Joerling, though not near as graceful or fun as his work. Everybody has to start someplace.

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2016-07-19 - Tuesday - New pot

As I've mentioned here before, sometimes a pot is just too round. At times like that extreme measures are often called for to remedy the situation.

...or just stretch the hell out of it.

This pot needs to firm up a bit before I can continue to work on it.

Round is a shape --it's just not the only shape.

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2015-09-17 - Thursday - Bisque kiln

Thursday morning I went to Clayworks to load the big oval kiln with Kimberly. We filled it, set it to candle for eight hours (some of the pots were pretty damp), and I left to do my day job.

Thursday night I went back and made a face column and some bottles out of craggy crunch clay.

When I left, I checked the kiln and it was way past candling, into the firing schedule and up to 782 degrees. If those damp pots were going to explode they would have done it when the temperature got past 212. Cross your fingers...

Bottles and a face column.

Climbing kiln.

It's pretty large.

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2015-07-21 - Tuesday - Pots

Tuesday I threw some new pots at Clayworks. I made a couple of one-piece pots and a two-piece snorkel pot using craggy crunch. I like the large amount of grog in craggy crunch because it makes it very pliable.

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2014-07-28 - Monday - What? Pots?

Monday I put a rim on the vertically textured pot and threw two more.  The third one reminds me of a hornets nest and has a triangular rim.

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2014-07-24 - Thursday - Pots and rims

Thursday I added a rim to the middle pot and threw the other two.  The bottle was thrown from the trimmings of the other pots.

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2014-04-23 - Wednesday - Tree and pots

At about 4:30 Wednesday morning we heard a huge crash outside and jumped out of bed.  Our neighbor's tree had fallen on our fence.  We went outside and checked for damage, then went back to bed.

I took these photos later in the morning.  We were very lucky that the only damage that happened was to our fence.  As you can see it just missed my van when it landed.

That evening I went to Clayworks for class.  I wedged vermiculite into some craggy crunch clay and threw some pots that I plan to raku.

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2014-04-10 - Thursday - More new pots

Thursday I added some grog to some craggy crunch (which is very groggy already) and threw some more new pots.  I am interested in adding more volume to my pots, but at the same time I'm trying different forms.  I'll probably push these further after they stiffen up a bit.

I don't have any fingerprints left.

The one on the left has extra grog added to it.

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2013-11-20 - Wednesday - Soon to be raku pots

We (the class) decided to raku on Monday so I made some quick pots for the firing.  I wedged vermiculite into some craggy crunch I had left and threw some pots.  I'm hoping to get these dried and bisqued before Monday.  I may have to crank up my own kiln to do it, but I should make it.

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June 3 - More pots

Saturday I made some new pieces, decorated some others, and carved the big pot.  The new pieces have some looseness to them, which I've been working toward.  I sometimes want my pots to be a bit looser and more organic and it's an effort when you've been working at making them clean and precise for so long.

I put some wonky handles and decorative banding on the two phoenix pieces destined for raku and I'm planning on slipping them before the bisque to start with a white canvas.

I carved the big phoenix "castle" pot to remove some of the weight from the bottom third and also add some visual interest and remove some of the rigidness from it.

I made two pots from recycled clay and had fun playing with them, putting four accent handles on one of them.  I have some interesting plans for the glazing on those.

The last pot I made has a simple form.  It is made with craggy crunch and I wedged vermiculite into the clay before I started.  It's destined for the raku kiln and while I want the pot to be blackened with carbon, the vermiculite should add some gold highlights.  We shall see.  In the meantime I have something to add to that pot in the near future.

It's all about the process...

Mess 'o pots.

Two decorated pots and one pleasantly wonky one.

One traditional, one wonky, and one simple.

As if the craggy crunch wasn't rough enough,
the vermiculite adds more.

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January 15 - Pots, bowls, and good friends

Sunday I made two more craggy crunch pots and six more bowls for Second Harvest Food Bank Empty Bowls.  The studio was crowded and I got to see a lot of friends while working on my pots.

Later, we met some friends at Buca di Beppo for a great dinner and some overdue catching up.  We all ate more than we needed to, and then Meredith ordered a "colossal brownie sundae".  Although several of us had some of it, we still left some in the bowl.

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January 14 - More new work

I made three pots on Saturday, these two and one I gave to Becky to be decorated with her cave art.  I think it's been way too long since she's done any cave art so I hope the new pot helps her find her inspiration again.

These pots are made of craggy crunch and are becoming very traditional shapes.  I don't want to get too mired in the same old shapes so I hope to be diverging from these forms soon.  I have some ideas for new work that I am still thinking through.  Stay tuned.

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Saturday - Muddy Fun and new work

This is the message from Meredith that greeted us this morning.  At least it's more positive than the last one.

Today was another Muddy Fun day at Clayworks.  Angela does a great job teaching this class and we always have a great group of volunteers to help our beginners.

Muddy Fun part 1

Muddy Fun part 2

Since we had a bunch of volunteers and my foot was hurting I sat down to throw some new pots.  I made a really tall (for me) crackle pot using phoenix and a craggy crunch pot.  I made a decision recently to try adding some eyeballs to my pots so I put one on the craggy crunch pot.  Who knows where this will lead --maybe whole faces.  We'll see.

I also paddled the "milk bottle" I made on Wednesday to make it square and collected some bisque pots from the shelf.

Tall with blue crackled slip.

Creepy?

You betcha.

I'm seeing this in a nice shino.

Ready for glazing.

This evening's message.
We're back to negative again.

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Thursday - Throwing and Greg's glazing

Thursday I let my pot from Wednesday dry some while I threw some craggy crunch and watched Greg glaze some of the awards he was making for the Museum Mile race.

I tried to throw a really large pot and made a one-piece 14-inch cylinder only to crash it and make a small bottle from what was left on the wheel.  You're not pushing your boundaries if you don't crash a few pots.  I like to push things.

Thrown pot placed on
top of a thrown doughnut.

Greg's awards in process.

Greg adds more glaze layers.

My 14 inch cylinder before the collapse.

Greg spraying glaze.

My bottle from the remnants.

Loading the awards and placing glass on them..

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