Summer Gets Shorter Every Year

It's been a while since I last logged in here...two months goes by in the blink of an eye.  Here I am with only one week left before I return to work on July 14.  As usual, I've been gone a lot.  I took a trip to Pennsylvania to see my sister, a trip to Kansas City to grade Advanced Placement Calculus exams, and a trip to the beach with the family and my summer is gone.  In between trips, I did make a little bit of pottery, but I was less than disciplined about photographing it and I sure didn't want to turn on the computer.

Today I actually remembered to grab my phone and snap a couple of pictures of what I was working on.  I think I remembered because it was something I'd never done before...GOBLETS.  Why goblets you ask?  Because Allen made some and I thought they looked really cool.  So I decided that I needed to see if I could do it too.

I started by throwing the cups and stems separately.  I used about a pound and a half for each cup and a pound for each stem.  

Next I trimmed the cups so that they fit inside the top of the stems, and then joined them.

You have to make sure that they are level.  

And there we are.  Three goblets that may or may not survive the drying/firing process.

They were pretty dry when I got back to them this morning, so I'm a little worried about the joints coming apart.  I also cracked the rim of one of the cups when I put on on the wheel to trim the bottom, so that one might not live.  

Since this was the first time I'd ever done this, I made NO EFFORT at all to make pieces that match.  This exercise was about figuring out if I could do this.  And I can...and it was fun.  It will be interesting to see what size they end up when they are finished. Right now, they are good sized, but they will shrink a good bit.  

Uptown Art Walk on Thursday, May 8

On Thursday, May 8, I will be participating in the Uptown Art Walk in Shelby.  Ronnie Blackburn and I will be at Allen Griffin Pottery from 5:30 to 7:30 pm.  Our work will be available for sale and I think there is a pretty good chance you could watch a demonstration if that is something that interests you.  There is a lot going on in Uptown Shelby that evening.  I hope that you will come see us.

Here is the information from the press release:

Showcasing the vibrancy of local artists, galleries and art friendly spaces throughout Uptown Shelby, we welcome visitors on Thursday, May 8 for an Uptown Art Walk. In conjunction with the Cleveland County Arts Council “Moments in Time” opening reception, ten Uptown businesses will host a variety of local artists for demonstrations, exhibits, refreshments and other special events. The Art Walk will include a spectrum of visual arts – including pottery, sketchings, quilts, woodworking, jewelry, fiber arts, and journals – but will also include other forms of art such as literature and live music. Maps for the event will be available at the participating venues starting May 1.

Participating venues include:

·         Allen Griffin Pottery (art)

·         Buffalo Creek Gallery (art)

·         Cleveland County Arts Council (music & art)

·         Dragonfly Wine Market (music & art)

·         Fireside Books & Gifts (book signing 4:30 – 6:00)

·         Lee’s Insurance Services (art)

·         Lily Bean Micro-Roasted Coffee (art)

·         Newt’s Pub Burgers (music)

·         Peace Avenue (art)

·         RollOver Pets (art)

·         The Fuzzy Peach (art)

A special performance by the Crest High School’s national award winning A Cappella Choir on the steps of the Arts Council will kick off the event at 5:30. The Art Walk is free and open to the public, with festivities taking place from 5:30 - 7:30pm.

For more information please call the Arts Council at 704-484-2787, Uptown Shelby Association at 704-484-3100, or find the Art Walk event on the Uptown Shelby Facebook page.

Napkin Holders and Egg Separators

It was a napkin holder and egg separator kind of morning last Saturday.  That's 6 napkin holders and 4 egg separators all in white clay which I haven't used in a while.  The weather is perfect right now for pottery.  I can throw a couple of pieces and sit them outside in the sun while I throw a couple more.  By the time that I get the next two thrown, the first ones are dry enough to cut the appropriate slots.  Yay for Spring!!

Outside My Comfort Zone

I volunteered to do a pottery demonstration at work on Friday, Apr 25.  "Volunteered" as in it was my suggestion and I said I'd do it if people were interested.  Interest was expressed, so it was put on the schedule for the day.  Wow.  What's even more amazing is that there were a good number of people who actually showed up to watch me throw pots at lunch time during our day long professional development.  I was pretty nervous to be honest, but it was all OK.  Once I got started, it was fun.  I'm getting much better about having people watch me throw now.  

I made a few pieces--3 to be exact.  A mug, a vase, and a pitcher.  I put handles on the mug and pitcher on Saturday.  

(Don't have a picture of the vase.  Sorry.) 

I was in a pitcher making mood after that, so I threw a couple more. It was sunny and warm so I was able to dry them enough to get handles on them before I left.  

I had to trash this one.  It cracked when I attached the handle.  I thought about trying to cover up the crack with decoration (note all the lumps of clay at the top of the handle), but chances were good that it was going to die in the end anyway and it just looked weird to me.  Too bad really.  I liked the shape.

There was one other lump of clay.  I tried twice to make it a pitcher and it just would not cooperate.  So I made a baker.  Stubborn clay.  I'm still working on handles.  I don't think I've "got it" yet.  

On a completely unrelated note, I really like sun dried tomatoes.  There were some on the piece of left over pizza I just ate.  YUM!  

Mugs, Mugs, Mugs

I picked up a lot of glazed pots on Wednesday this week before I headed to pottery class.  Here are a couple of mugs that turned out pretty nice.

I didn't get pictures taken of anything else.  

We left to go out of town for the weekend on Friday morning, so there was no pottery making this week beyond the little bit that I did Wednesday night.  Instead we spent some very important time with friends, and on Saturday morning we joined 40,000 of our closest friends for the Cooper River Bridge Run.   

Who Makes All This Stuff??

It seems like every weekend lately I have had a ton of pots to glaze.  Here's a "before" shot. 

And an "in progress" shot.  Glazing would be so much simpler if I could use ONE color.  Alas, I cannot.

And this is what my jeans always look like after a morning of glazing.  

And I made a few things too.

These mugs will be for The Copper Rock.  I managed to get handles on all of them Saturday, but it was a struggle.  With the rain, they had not dried as much as they should have before I attached handles.

In class this week, Ron showed me a couple of ways to make oval (and square) bakers.  In each method, you start by throwing a round baking dish.  He demonstrated three different ways to change the shape.  In one, the potter cuts out a small leaf shaped piece of clay from the bottom and then presses in on the sides until the hole is closed up.  I tried this several times and it did not work for me.  I couldn't get the sides to move in enough to close the hole without completely destroying the walls of the pot.  Ugh.  

The second method involves cutting a slit several inches long at the bottom of the side just where it connects to the bottom, moving the "straight" sides in, reattaching the wall, and removing the extra bottom that is sticking out.  (I know how confusing that sounds.  I seriously need a photographer to take pictures of hard to explain things when I am working.)  That's what I did to make this piece.   

  

 In the third method, the potter uses a board or something similar to press in on the walls to change the shape of the pot.  I had some problems with the clay sticking to the board.  I found that one of the small square bats worked better than the piece of wood that I used first.  Sliding the bat off the pot rather than pulling it away was also more successful.   I managed to do this on a piece that I made this morning.  I'll share pictures of it later.  I'm going to take that piece with me to class this week and will put handles on it there if all goes well.

More Glaze Pictures

Here are pictures of a few things that were fired this week.  

A baking dish.

This was the one that I almost killed before it ever got started.  I'm glad that I was able to restrain myself from smashing it.  

Trays.  I'm really pleased with the red and green one and I don't mind the blue and tan one.  

Lidded jars.