Felt Like A Busy Week

I'm not normally in the studio on Tuesday evenings, but this week I had about an hour to kill between leaving work and a meeting for Buffalo Creek Gallery.  I thought to myself, let's see if I can make something.  The answer was yes, but I should have stopped at one of the somethings.  I was late to the gallery meeting and I had clay all up my arm when I got there.  Oh well.  It is a forgiving bunch.

I'm working on using leaves while I have them.

Thursday, I took all the cone 10 pieces that Allen had put aside for soda firing along with the things that I made over to Ron Philbeck's to get started on glazing.  I've mentioned before what a nice guy Ron is, but I should say it again.  He's been really wonderful and supportive of me - always answering my questions and offering advice when needed.  He basically let me take over his studio space to get everything glazed and ready to go. 

 Here's everything before I glazed...

 

...and after. 

Well, except for two pieces that I messed up so badly that I just had to wash it all off.

Here is the first of those boo-boo pieces sitting outside in the sun in the hopes that it would dry enough to glaze (again) before I left. Didn't work, so I'll have to glaze those two things when I go back to help with the wadding.  Pictures of that later. 

I got to unload the kiln yesterday! Usually someone else gets to it before I do.

Here are some of my pieces...

Three large trays.  There are 2 more of these waiting to be fired. They have been selling well this fall.  I can't seem to keep them "in stock."

Napkin holders.  I made these because I broke my sister-in-law Kelsey's when I was at her house last month.  She gets first pick, then the others will be for sale.

Here are the cups that I made to be like the one my Mom brought me from France.  What I learned is that I like the lighter colored glazes better on this kind of thing.  Also the first one that I used (test drinking occurred last night) was just a bit too big to be comfortable in my hand. Will also try out the others and make notes for myself on what to do next time.  Question: would you want a cup like this?  Could be a stemless wine glass or really a cup for drinking anything I suppose.

Here's a picture of the one that I tried out last night next to the one I "copied."  I need to work on slightly smaller size and less curve at the top.  Oh yeah - better carving too.  I am not good at carving.  This is why I almost never do it.

Eight mugs.  Four each in two similar brownish red colors.  Guess which one I like best.

Tried out some different things to make into ornaments. Not wild about any of these.

Smallish blue platter.

A couple of good sized casseroles.

Some bowls.

Made some mugs on Friday.

Put handles on them on Saturday. Eight are for Hannah at Hannah's Coffee House and four are for me.

Trying some new things for Christmas ornaments.  These are also for Hannah. It was a Hannah kind of day.  In addition to this, I made some small bowls that she might like.  Somehow, I didn't get a picture of the bowls.  I think I was pretty much exhausted by that point today.  

OK, I see why it felt like a busy week.  It WAS a busy week. I'm going to go fall asleep in my recliner now.

Really, There Was More

I worked my fanny off in the studio this weekend...and only managed to take one picture. 

This is a big platter.  Notice that I had to take the splash pan off.  If anyone else had been around, I might have felt the need to flex and scream (like a linebacker after sacking the quarterback - or at least one who doesn't know how to behave does) when I got done with it.  To be honest, I'm more of a hold my breath so that it doesn't collapse and gently move it from the wheel to the table kind of person.  But flexing and screaming makes for better story telling.

I knew that I needed to be open a long time on Saturday, so I stared by working extra on Friday.  Trust me, it makes sense.  I had a bunch of work that needed to be glazed, and I wanted to make some things that would need finishing on Saturday.  I threw that big platter, a bowl, and 4 mugs.  All those got finished up with trimming and handles where appropriate on Saturday.  I also loaded most of a glaze fire.  I'm waiting to top it off with some things that my associates are glazing.  I also worked on reclaiming clay.  Reclaiming is not my favorite chore.

I hope I have some finished pieces to show off after the kiln is unloaded later this week.

Nice!

Casey White from the Shelby Star did a really nice article on our studio this week.  It was a pleasure talking to him and to Brittany Randolph, the photographer that came with him. If you would like to read it, it is available at the link below.

Continuing the Legacy

The picture below is the vase that I made while being interviewed.  Not bad for multitasking, huh?

Just LOOK At These

Well, not these pots.  Keep reading...there are some beautiful Allen pots farther down.

My project yesterday was to get all the cone 10 pieces ready for glazing.  This means to think about what parts need to be glazed for the sake of function and what I want to be glazed because of how it will look.  These mugs will have a liner glaze (function) and glaze on the rim and in the dot (how it will look).  I used wax to outline the edges of the glazed areas so that glazing can be done as quickly and neatly as possible. White (or clear) wax on white clay is super hard to see, so I put a little red food coloring in the wax.  In the tub, it looks really red, but painted on the clay its only barely pink. 

Thinking about my pieces was hard enough, but I've also got some Allen pieces to finish too.  Just look at some of these treasures! 

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Big mugs with faces...

Nice lidded jars...

And super cool deep pots. Would you bake something in this? I sure would.

Below is a picture that I took on Friday afternoon.  Lisa (on the left), Gail (on the right), and I had almost every surface in the studio covered with work.  Some of it we did on Thursday night during the Art Walk and some we threw that day.  It was pouring rain, so nothing would dry enough to finish!  The bowls you see on the slab press (foreground) I made Thursday night.  They weren't dry enough to trim until late Saturday afternoon.

October First

How?  How is it October already?  I wrote my sixth rent check Friday night and it went out in Saturday's mail.  Six months. SIX MONTHS???

Confession time. When I bought the pottery studio in May, I thought to myself that I would see how it went for six months.  Technically it won't be six months of my ownership until the end of October, but it has been six months that Allen has been gone and that I've been operating the place without him.  Checks are written and bills are paid for the sixth time, and we are still there. I am so grateful to Ronnie, Gail and Lisa for sticking with me.  I'm grateful to Jeff for understanding why I'm NEVER home anymore and there are very few home cooked meals at our house.  I'm proud of the fact that we've made it half a year.  I still miss Allen every day.  I'm less freaked out about everything all the time.  That probably has as much to do with being too busy to really dwell on how inadequate I feel and how much I still don't know as it does with gaining experience.  Pots get made, the kiln gets fired, and ideas and techniques are still shared. There is still laughter and sometimes a few tears.  

If the next six months fly by as fast, I'll be talking about my first year as the owner of A Griffin Pottery Associates before we know it.  I hope by then I'm less exhausted. I know that I'll still be grateful for all the blessings.

Friday night while the Golden Lions were on the TV at our house, I worked on Christmas ornaments. (How can you get a high school game on TV?  Find the video feed online and then Chromecast to the TV.)  Yes.  Christmas ornaments.  It will be that time soon and if I want to sell ornaments, I have to make them now.

This felt like a lot of work at the time, but I may wish that I had more of them. Every time I've made things like this, I swear off (again) making things like this.  Its just not very fun. 

There will be more information about the pots pictured below later, but for now I can tell you this.  Most of that work is Allen's.  He made a bunch of things and sat them aside to be fired sometime in a salt or soda kiln.  It feels like the right time for me to do something about taking care of that now.  I made a few pieces myself and I think all together, there's about half a kiln load.  Unpacking those boxes was emotional.  I had no idea what was there, and I found some real treasures.  Allen's work is so uniquely his. I see him in those pots as much as I see him in the handwritten notes that are still all over the studio and as much as I see him in the photographs that I have.  There's work that I'll be doing in the next little bit to get them ready to fire.  I'll try to remember to take a few more pictures and share them. 

Hey!  There's an Art Walk in Uptown Shelby on Thursday, Oct 6. 

I'll be at the studio doing demos from 5:30 to 8:30.  I hope that lots and lots of you will come for a visit!  I would love to see you.  I even cleaned up a little bit.  This explains the lack of pictures of new pots from this week.  I cleaned instead of making things.  I even ran the vacuum.  This is a big deal.