2018-05-17 - Thursday - Raku class firing

At Clayworks we have a Thursday night raku class. Greg teaches it and he pushes the boundaries of the medium. Sometimes he does a tumble stack on a large platter which he calls a dragon's eye. It really makes for some interesting results.

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2018-01-26 - Friday - Muddy Fun with the ASC

Every year the Arts and Science Council holds a Connect With Culture event on Saturday. This year we had the first ever Muddy Fun with the ASC on the Friday night before the main events. Adrienne asked if I would teach it and I didn't have to think twice about it. I love helping out with Muddy Fun and teaching it if nobody else is available.

This was a first; participants were given a coupon for a beer at Common Market and many used them. Robert Bush, the president of the ASC said a few words to start off the session by welcoming everyone to the first-ever Friday night culture event. Several people took selfies with Mr. Bush before we started getting muddy.

We had a good group of students who picked it right up. It's always so much fun to see people learn something new. Vince and Dorothy were great helpers. I couldn't have done it without them.

We have four more sessions tomorrow. Angela is teaching the first one, Greg is teaching the second two, and I'm teaching the last one. It's going to be a good day.

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2017-11-27 - Monday - Salting and deer

Monday we finished firing the salt kiln. If you've never attended a salt kiln firing, we add the salt at the end of the firing. The salt (sodium chloride) atomizes and breaks down so the salt coats the pots and the chlorine goes out of the chimney. It's a community event and we usually have several people helping out with it.

We made it a real community event when I put us on Periscope for the salting process. I was talking to a user in the U.K. (who knew Doug and Hannah!) and later to my friend Ang in Australia. It's a big community.

One of the two forced-air burners.

Greg, Kurt, and yours truly waiting to salt.

We shut down the kiln when it was finished and everyone packed up and left. I was last (go figure) and noticed as I was driving out of the parking lot that I could see light between the bricks of the kiln as I went by. Watch this short video. You will see the gaps light up, cascading across the wall of the kiln as the camera moves. I love to notice little things like this.

When I got home I noticed some visitors across the street so I stopped my van in the road and grabbed some photos. They were not alarmed about my running van so close to them and didn't even mind being in the spotlight. They were vigilant, but just kept feeding on the neighbor's grass and acorns.

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2017-10-19 - Thursday - Raku

Thursday night is raku class night at Clayworks and when I arrived I saw Greg had the mobile stairs pulled up to the kiln so everyone could see inside. Good idea.

Here's a short video showing the lazy flame inside the kiln.

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2017-06-09 - Friday - Maui

Karen was attending a conference in Honolulu so we left a few days early and went to Maui before the conference.

Maui is a wonderful place. It's a shame it takes so long to get there from the US east coast. After a bit more than 17 hours of travel we were ready to be stationary. We flew from Charlotte to Atlanta to LA to Maui. 5:40 am to 11:00 pm (our time).

Karen found a for rent by owner condo in Lahaina, about 50 feet from the ocean. It was glorious. From our patio door we looked across the bay to Lanai with Molokai off to the right. If you're as geographically challenged (like me) about Hawaii, here's a handy map.

We landed at 11:00 pm our time which was 5:00 pm local time. After getting our rental car and checking in at the condo we thought about some food. Right next door to the condos was a small shopping center including Betty's Beach Cafe. Betty's is next to Feast at Lele, where they have luaus on the beach most nights.

Greg had told me about a great porter from the Maui Brewing Company so I ordered one at Betty's. I fell in love with their Coconut Hiwa Porter. Good call.

We finished a light meal at about 2:30 am east coast time and were ready to crash.

Out the window of the Kahului airport, Maui.

Out the patio door of our condo.

Off the patio.
Lanai on the left, Molokai on the right.

Patio view of Lanai.

The Feast at Lele from Betty's railing.

Hawaiian for beer.

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2017-01-31 - Tuesday - Tuesday Stuff

First off, on Monday I was leaving for a 3 1/2 hour drive to a customer's office and the handle for the sliding door on my van came off in my hand. When I arrived at the office I set up my laptop and once it booted into Windows it unceremoniously died. Not a good day.

Monday night when I returned home I ordered a replacement door handle and the actuators needed to repair the motorized doors so I don't have to use the (COMPLETELY PLASTIC) handles manually.

Yee-ha.

Tuesday evening I stopped in the Red Sea restaurant that moved in down the street from Clayworks. They had been located near the Double Door Inn and had to move when Central Piedmont Community College purchased the whole block for expansion.

I'll dearly miss the Double Door Inn, where I (mis)spent many nights of my youth listening to some of the best local and regional bands, but the Red Sea will continue.

I am not overly familiar with Ethiopian or Eritrean food so when I walked in the man who greeted me asked if I like lamb. I said, "Yes."

He asked if I like goat and I said that I liked lamb better.

He recommended the first menu item which I can't pronounce, but in english it's called "lamb cubes" and it says "(spicy or not spicy)" underneath it. He asked if I wanted it spicy and I thought I'd err on the cautious side by asking for "medium spice". He said he would put the spicy sauce on the side and I thought that would be a good compromise.

When I got it back to Clayworks and opened it the smell was intoxicating and I dug into it. The flavors were great but I never did crack that "spicy" sauce. I don't shy away from hearty spice and like a good bit of heat, but this had me sweating after a few mouthfuls. It was so spicy that I really couldn't taste the beer I opened half an hour later.

The meal was rounded out with the standard spongy Ethiopian bread that I've experienced once before and sides of lentils and a medley of potatoes, cabbage, and carrots.

The food was tasty, but that dish was just too hot for me. I'll gladly try some other menu items.

On a side note, the Red Sea moved into the building that housed the original Sonny's Real Pit BBQ restaurant in Charlotte. When I moved here in 1980, my roommate and I would meet our neighbor here occasionally on a Friday to have lunch.

History.

At the studio, Adrienne's class was glazing. Glazing always seems to be a hurdle students have to get over in their journey. It's usually approached with a lot of dread since they've worked so hard to get a form they wanted and now they are taking a chance on messing the whole thing up in one step.

I think a lot of it comes from not being able to visualize the finished product based on the way it looks when the glaze is applied. In most endeavors like painting, the look doesn't change much from the time it is painted. It may change a shade or two in drying, but that's it.

Ceramic glazes are completely different looking from application to final firing. They go on as matte, powdery coatings and usually emerge from the kiln as a glassy, glossy finish in a very different color, like a butterfly from a caterpillar. Along the way in that transformation, many things can go awry. Everything from getting waxy fingerprints on the pot which makes the glaze crawl away, to combining the wrong glazes creating a eutectic situation (where the combination of the ingredients creates a lower melting point than any of the individual ingredients).

Sometimes just the huge amount of options intimidates people. There's just too much to consider staring at the glaze buckets. Not firing enough pots to understand the properties of the glazes in those buckets leads one to a great fear of the unknown. It's only by trying them and observing and noting the results that we can feel more comfortable taking that leap.

I was there, standing paralyzed in fear for a long time.

Taking Greg's class for several years helped me get over my fears and gave me the experience to better plan my glazing. Working with our palette of glazes and noting the results, along with many conversations on glaze and ingredient properties gave me more confidence. I eventually started to layer my surfaces and, most importantly, started thinking about how I was going to glaze it while making the pot.

I will never know everything I need to know, but now I experiment a lot more confidently.

My advice: Hang in there, take notes, and pay attention.

I wasn't glazing so I made some more Empty Bowls.

Onward and upward.

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2016-12-03 - Saturday - Sale, footprints, and old friends

Saturday was the second day of the Clayworks sale so I spent the day there. I left for a while to attend Greg's father's funeral (been to too many lately) and came back to break down the sale. In the evening we went to dinner with some old friends who were visiting from the west coast.

It was an emotionally complex day: Pride and joy showing my pottery and discussing it, grief for a friend's loss, and the warm joy of seeing John and Pat Lewis after many years. Sometimes a single day is like a tapestry.

Everyone could tell a potter
attended the funeral.

Me, John, Karen, and Pat.

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2016-08-24 - Wednesday - Raku

Wednesday was raku night for Greg's class. It's always fun for veterans and rookies alike.

Greg sharing the procedure.

Before firing.

After firing.

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2016-07-17 - Sunday - Busy day

Sunday was a busy day at Clayworks.

The Young Visionaries of the Bechtler Museum had a Muddy Fun class.

Karen is making a cool sculpture of the city.

Ju-Ian drew a caricature of Greg on the white board.

I made a new pot with spikes.

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2016-06-08 - Wednesday - Flowers and fires and clay

Wednesday I stopped to check on our Rose of Sharon hibiscus. It's very happy and blooming quietly in the corner of the fence. Not bad for a volunteer. I really like this plant. The blooms only last a day but there are hundreds of them. It's a very happy plant.

In the evening I was at Clayworks. I know, go figure.

Greg was firing the raku kiln and I caught him standing behind the flame. He looks like some sorcerer casting a spell. If you've seen any of his raku pieces you know that's a pretty accurate description.

I went inside and threw a lump of Pure Catawba clay from STARworks. My friend John Freeman gave me a piece to try and I really liked throwing it. The way it held the texture and got crackly without having to use sodium silicate was surprising. I may have to purchase some of this to explore it further.

The little guy was made from the trimmings of the large one. Waste not the dirt.

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2016-04-15 - Friday - Pat's Place and Load Out

Friday I stopped by Clayworks to drop off a flash drive and found a team-building class happening with people from Pat's Place, an organization devoted to child advocacy. Greg was teaching the class and everyone was having fun with their projects.

Life is full of strange coincidences. Friday morning I was driving down East Boulevard like I'd done so many times before and happened to notice the Pat's Place building for the first time. Later that day I walk into the studio and meet the employees from that building. Life is good, but it's also a bit strange.

Friday evening I loaded up the van with my booth for the C3 Lab South End Bazaar on Saturday. I thought the load looked a bit light and then I realized I had five empty bins. I need to make more pots.

Back.

Left side door.

Right side door.

Empty bins.

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2014-12-05 - Friday - Elder Gallery, Larry Horowitz, Clayworks Holiday Sale & Open House

Friday started out at the Elder Gallery for part of the Lunch with the Artist series with Larry Horowitz. It was a great talk with Mr. Horowitz showing us his handmade pastels and explaining how he makes them. He told us about being Wolf Kahn's assistant for several years when he started out. He works mainly in pastels and oils and many of his works were on display. I really like his work and I've been a fan of Wolf Kahn's for several years.

Let me take a moment to extol the virtues of the Lunch with the Artist series at Elder Gallery. It's a wonderful way to find out about an artist you may not be aware of or find out more about an artist you already follow. The hour gives them a chance to share their inspirations, processes, and philosophy of their work. At ten dollars, it's a very affordable way to expose yourself to some great art and insights.

Larry Elder introducing Larry Horowitz.

Larry Horowitz discussing his work.

In the evening it was over to Clayworks for the annual Holiday Sale & Open House. Our studio artists spent the day arranging their work in the gallery and the studio. It really is quite a transformation into a ceramic wonderland. My friend Sylvia Cobb was kind enough to share some of her photos of the setup and the event.

For the last several years I have done demos during Friday night. I enjoy throwing, talking to people, and answering questions as I work. I am grateful to everyone at Clayworks for allowing me to do the demos.

Kary Coke with some of his work.

Ralph Mello and his creations.

Ju-Ian Shen's work.

Jeff Pender's sculptures.

Hannah putting on the finishing touches.

Ju-Ian with her work.

Greg Scott's work.

Greg and Hannah discussing her work.

Herb Cohen and Jose Fumero.

Herb and Jose visiting with yours truly.

Jack, Ju-Ian, and Karen with Ju-Ian's piece they purchased.

Life imitating art.

If you've been reading this blog for any length of time you know I love photo series. In this one I caught Ansley was clowning with me while she helped out at the wrapping station with Elaine. The series speaks for itself as she goes from her usual angelic smile to complete mock contempt. (at least I hope it's mock!)

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