2008-12-20 Sale

Question: If you hold a pottery sale in the garage and nobody comes does it still make a sound?

Answer: Yes, mostly the sound of leaf blowers.

I don't know what I was thinking. It's less than a week (and the last weekend) before Christmas. People are busy doing whatever they're doing. (Seems like mostly leaf removal.) A lot of people have probably left town for the week, and most sane people have already finished their shopping. I was just so buoyed by the response I had last weekend with no postcards or emails (again, duh) that I thought this weekend would be better. Oh well, I need to start thinking about a spring sale when a young man's thoughts (and mine too) turn to pots.

Everyone who does come by loves my work, so I'm feeling good about that. Thank you, everyone for your kind words. They really do mean a lot to me.

All set up and ready to go at 9:00 am.,
10:00 am, 11:00 am, etc.

I think I've eaten too many Christmas cookies...

Friday night slipping

Friday night I met Greg at Clayworks to get some of my earthenware pots into his bisque kiln. I slipped some of them and did some sgraffito on some of them. I don't have pictures of all of them since I rushed to get some of them into the kiln before Greg closed the lid. I also learned the hard way what Ron, Doug, and Hannah talk about when pouring slip --it can make the pot really soft and start eroding it away. Lesson learned.

When I got there Nick was furiously working on his wonderful planters and he stayed way too late as he left with me (and we all know how late that can be).

Some slipped and sgraffitoed pots.

This would be a syrup warmer.
Could you tell?


The fish pot.

Earthmovers Incorporated...

... just a couple of pounds at a time.

Clayworks people on Etsy

Amy Huacani has opened a new Etsy shop here. Check it out.



Ron Philbeck has had an Etsy shop for a while. You can find it here.


Visit them often and shop them even more often.

BTW, I wasn't at the studio tonight,
but this is what that building looked like
since it was foggy again.
(Still doing my best
to recycle those pixels
and keep our country great.)

More Earthen Red

I went in to the studio Wednesday night and worked with the rest of the bag of earthen red. I also trimmed the bottoms and handled the pots I made on Tuesday. I have given up trying to fire the pots before Saturday, but maybe they will be done before Christmas.

It was foggy again on Wednesday night.

Same picture as Tuesday
because it looked the same.
(That's recycling pixels,
the newest green option.)

Pots from Wednesday night.

Trimmed and handled pots
from Tuesday night.

More worked pots
from Tuesday night.

Carry on...

Earthen Red

When I got to Clayworks on Tuesday, it was getting foggy downtown again. I'm starting to think we live in London.

Amy, Becky, Mitch and Nick were working when I arrived and we enjoyed some lively conversation about pottery, movies, and music. As usual, I was the last to get there and the last to leave.

When Greg and I talked about getting one more cone 6 firing completed before Christmas, he mentioned that he was working with Earthen Red clay so I thought I would give it a try. It was a revelation. It seemed smoother than porcelain and I really enjoyed working with it. So much that I made sixteen pots and one lid (not pictured) off the hump in about three hours and almost finished a new bag of clay. Woo-hoo!

Now let's see if I can fire them in time...

Foggy night.

Goin' earthenware crazy.
(Beer bottle is really for scale
since I didn't have any.)

Detail of some reed infusers.

"I feel the earth move under my hands..."

Pottery Sale 2008-12-13

I had a home sale on Saturday and forgot to send out emails and cards (duh!). I just put a sign out at the road and did pretty well. I am going to have another one this Saturday and have sent out my emails already. Cross your fingers.

I set up in the garage since it was pretty chilly, but my assistant (Meredith) was still having trouble keeping her hands warm. To remedy that I made her a cup of hot chocolate which I think helped. When it warmed up a bit we cleaned up some leaves in the back yard between customers. It was a pleasant way to spend a Saturday.

Well-stocked shelves.

Well-stocked table.

Just a nice shot in the afternoon sun
with the long rays of autumn.

Meredith taking a break with the skippy thing.
(I forget what it's called.)

Now back to work...

100 POTS!!! Together at last

One of the other reasons I went to Clayworks on Friday night was to pull out all of my 100 pots and take some photos with Elaine.

Once I started unpacking them I was amazed at how many there were. I've been saying 100 pots for quite a while, but seeing them all in one place is pretty amazing. It has been a wonderful journey and I have learned and grown along the way. Thank you, Elaine for challenging me to stretch my boundaries and get out of my comfort zone.

This project has kept pottery in the conscious part of my brain for ten weeks straight instead of thinking about a one-night-a-week class. It has made me think, live, and breathe pottery, and not just my own. I have looked at more pots online in the last two months than I ever have. Constantly looking at good pottery has made me much more cognisant of lines, gestures, and movement. I am seeing lines now where I only saw vessels before. I notice the line from a pitcher handle following through the pot to continue along the bottom of the spout or how the gestures on a piece show movement which gives the piece life. It's seeing what was always there for the first time.

My friend Rick recently sent me a quote which sums it up quite nicely:

The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
-- Marcel Proust


The eyes have it.

(Sorry, you know I couldn't resist.)


On to the pictures!

Elaine, a table, and 100 pots.

Elaine is a good laugher.

The 100th pot.

The proud papa.

1 table + 100 pots = 1 happy potter.

Since she likes cooking,
Elaine picked out a small bowl.

Some of my favorites...
(beer bottle solely for scale)

Nice form and nice glaze combo.
(luck)

Small plate with nice variation.

Another one.

Next project?