2016-08-27 - Saturday - Kevin Crowe workshop

Saturday was the first day of the Kevin Crowe workshop. Like so many potters, Kevin is very talented and an extremely nice person. He is quite a potter and shares his knowledge and skills freely. He showed us so many tips and tricks to make our pots better and make it easier to do things.

Kevin wood-fires his pots in a three-chamber kiln. In the first chamber he relies on the wood ash to become a glaze on his pots during the four day firing. In the second chamber he puts his regular glazed pots and in the third chamber he uses salt to glaze the ware.

Demoing a tall cylinder.

The base for a large pot.

Break time.

Some of Kevin's work.

More of the room.

Adding coils to the thrown base to make a larger pot.

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2016-02-26 - Friday - Sunshine

When I returned to my car on in a parking garage on Friday I noticed this pattern on the wall. The sunlight was beautifully reflected and refracted by my headlight lens. I had to grab a few snapshots before I got into the car. I really like the way the lines intersect and the highlight of the prismatic effect across the line just stuns me.

I could very easily see this as the basis for glaze decoration on a platter.

Who knew I had such talented headlights?

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2015-01-22 - Thursday - Glazing bowls

Thursday I glazed another batch of bowls for the Second Harvest Food Bank of Metrolina's Empty Bowls event. I played with slip, underglaze, wax resist, and glazes on the surfaces again. I'm really getting into my surfaces these days.

Before.

After.

I'm looking forward to seeing these finished. If you are too, please check back.

You know I'll post photos. :8^)


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2015-01-10 - Saturday - Glazing bowls

Saturday I started glazing my empty bowls. It always takes me so long to glaze as I get more involved in it every time I do it. On this batch I dipped, poured, trailed, sprayed, and painted. It will be interesting to see how some of my new designs will fire.

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2015-01-05 - Monday - Empty bowls

Monday I made more empty bowls. I plan to make a bunch this week and then I have to glaze them, so I will be on empty bowls for a while.

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2014-06-05 - Thursday - Carved pot

Thursday I carved the round pot.  I really carved it.  We'll see what the glaze does.

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2010-10-13 Wednesday - Little Making

Wednesday night saw me making small pots.  A customer at the Barn Sale bought all of the small pots I had and needed a few more for bridal favors so I bent to the wheel and turned out some more.  I figured why stop at the required amount while I'm making them, so I made more for me.

I throw these "off the hump", meaning I put a large lump of clay (6-8 pounds) on the wheel and throw these on the top of the "hump" cutting each one off as it's finished.

Now, on to bisque, glaze, and cone 10 reduction firing for these babies (and I do mean babies, see the ball point pen I put in the shot for scale).

Baby pots.

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2009-05-12 Tuesday at Clayworks

Tuesday night I went to the studio to finish up my shelf supports for displaying my pots on the table. It was a quick wax and a glaze dip or two or three.

I also found my first large pot in a sorry state. I had re-wedged the clay and re-thrown it after it collapsed the first time and apparently there was some air in the (very) thick bottom of it. Trapped air does not do well in the bisque kiln. Oh well, live and learn and on to other projects. It makes a great garden pot, so I will grow something inside it in the garden.

Shelf supports with mystic moss, ryoko cream, and/or white.

First really large pot
after bisquing.

Upside-down. Oops.

Julie was kind enough to leave me a note inside it.

Hiding in the pots...

2009-05-05 Tuesday Clayworks

Tuesday at Clayworks people were hard at work, as usual. I had to glaze a pot for the gas kiln because Julie and Ro were loading it. I got the pot glazed and even had time to help load the kiln.

My craggy crunch pot with spotted shino,
Rick's shino, and Alfred blue.

Julie and Ro hard at work.

"No, this pot should go there."

"We're almost finished!"

Ron checking in.

Ron and his great apron.

Ta-da!

Rick's newest plate.
He draws great fish.

That building I always catch in different weather.

2009-04-23 Thursday Trimming and Shelf Helpers

Thursday I went to the studio to trim some pots and make some supports to hold my shelves up at the shows. I thought instead of using bricks I would like to use something I made. I hope to make them look kind of rustic with my glazing choices. I like some of Nick's glaze work so after talking to him tonight, I have some great ideas. Thanks, Nick.

The three dark pots in the front are mine.

I threw ten supports in pairs
so the shelves should sit evenly.

We also moved all the wheels
out of the front classroom
and most out of the second classroom
to make room for All Fired Up,
Clayworks' annual fundraiser.
If you can make it on Saturday,
come on out and have a great time.

The room looks so empty after moving the wheels.

Tuesday 2009-03-10

I got some earthen red pots that I made last year back from the glaze kiln. They got pretty dry on the shelf so I couldn't put handles on the small pitchers.

Small pots.

2008 in the rear view mirror

Looking back on 2008 I feel truly blessed. Not only do I have a wonderful and loving family, but our health is good, we have a roof over our heads and food on our table. Those last two things mean even more than usual given the state of the economy in 2008.

I made many new friends this year. I made a lot of acquaintances too, but I'm talking friends here. These are the people that make a difference in your life. 2008 has been a banner year for making friends. You know who you are.

It has also been an amazing year for keeping in touch with old and new friends. Between this blog (thanks again, Becky!) and facebook (thanks Elaine!) I have kept in touch with many friends and reconnected with several 'lost' ones.

2008 has been a big year for me in clay. I have completed my 100 pots journey (thanks again, Elaine!), which you might have heard about. If you asked me six months ago if I thought I could throw one hundred pots in ten weeks, well you know...

I have worked with stoneware and earthenware. Made terra sigillata from the parking lot at Clayworks, and made yellow spotted shino. I have pinched and thrown pots, decorated pots with slips, glazes, and stains. Worked out a new (for me) type of hollow, flanged lid that is thrown right-side up off the hump. I have fired cone 10 reduction, cone 5 oxidation, raku, saggar, and fired in a barrel. I have thrown some small pots, some large pots, and all the sizes in between. I have attended my first three workshops (Peter Rose, Peter Lenzo, and Tomoo Kitamura) and they were wonderful.

One of the biggest accomplishments I made this year in clay was to get serious about it. After sixteen years I have started really paying attention to what I am doing and why I am doing it. I have looked at more great pottery online and in person in 2008 than I have probably seen in the last decade. The blogosphere has made a huge impact on that. If you'd like to know where I get a lot of my inspiration, check out the blog roll on the right. These folks are for lack of a better, more dramatic term, amazing.

A lot of thanks go to my good friend and teacher, Greg. He has shared some of his wonderful insights on the nature of art and pottery that have kick-started my journey of discovery. I am seeing lines and forms and gestures in a way I never realized was possible. I am thinking about things around me in a whole different light. I'm noticing things.

It has truly been an inspiring year. In 2009 I am looking forward to pushing my pottery to new and different places. I am hoping to do more raku, concentrate on form and decorating more, and even slip a couple of pieces into a salt kiln. I'm hoping that 2009 will take my journey ever onward and upward to new heights I currently don't even know exist.

Here's hoping that 2008 was good to you and 2009 challenges you and takes you to places you never thought possible. May we all continue to live in interesting times.

Slip and glaze

Here are some of my earthenware pots that came out of Greg's firing. I tried some slip work and used some hare's fur blue. I will experiment with this some more in the near future.

Tuesday night raku

Tuesday night Joe and I helped Julie and Ron with their classes' raku firing. It was a lot of fun as always and when it was winding down I took some time to glaze some of my pieces for the Wednesday night firing with my class.

The beer bottle is only there for scale.
No, really.

Becky and Joe.
Good friends make everything much more fun.

Becky has more pictures from Tuesday here.

I haven't taken any pictures of the fired pieces yet, but I soon will.

Glazing and drawing

I went in late on Wednesday and glazed my slap trays. I had put a lot of different slips on them before the bisque firing and I added some red and yellow underglaze. I then put spotted shino over the whole piece and poured some clear in certain areas. I sprayed some iron oxide wash over the whole thing. Not pictured here, I dipped some marbles in alfred blue before placing them on the trays.



I tried drawing some images on some of the slipped pots, but I'm not too sure about it. Time will tell if they're keepers. Before I try any more of these I really should start doing some practice sketching. These are some of them with drawings off the top of my head.








Thursday, on from eighty-five...

Glazing part of the 63 pots

Naked pots getting some covering. Film at eleven.

I have to do some glazing to make sure I have room for the rest of my pots, so Saturday I was in the studio from 9:15 until 1:30 glazing some mugs and juicers.

Ah, Octoberfest!

My shelf runneth over.

Trying out my new red and yellow underglazes.

Big mess 'o pots.