This Should Have Been Written LAST Week

I ran out of energy last week before I got to share pictures of the things that came out of the latest glaze fire.

The new Hannah's Coffee House stamp worked out pretty nice.

Soup bowls

Bowls...and a casserole. I was feeling particularly un-creative while glazing.  Did lots of the same glaze combinations.

Some small pitchers

A BIG rectangular baker

Another BIG baker...in blue

Lidded casserole

Lidded casserole - something warped.  Not sure if it was the top or the bottom. This piece had to go on the half price shelf.  It's super nice if you don't care if the lid fits.  I was disappointed.

Mugs

More mugs

Garlic keepers. I took the one on the left home.  The other 3 will be for sale at Treasures of the Earth Pottery Show and Sale at the Cleveland County Arts council in February.  In fact, most of the pieces pictured above will go to Treasurers.

I also made some pieces last weekend.  A lot of pieces really.  Bowls, wine cups, and more small pitchers.

I'm trying out a couple of new designs on the cups.  I tend to not be very impressed with my sketches, so I am trying to reserve judgement on these until they are finished. 

Here are the pitchers after the handles were attached. 

The last thing I made last weekend - Four large utensil holder/vase things.  I gave myself an assignment to see how tall I could get 5 pounds of clay.  The answer was roughly 9 inches.  I feel like I should have been able to go taller than that with 5 pounds, but this was the best I could do.  I'll try again another time and see what I can do.  

Many of those things made it in the bisque fire that I loaded up today.

We had a really great time in the studio today.  Almost everyone was there at some point.  We talked and laughed and some of us even made some pottery.  I wasn't really productive, but I am pooped after having to work a full week this past week.  I got the kiln loaded and ready to go and made a few mugs that I'll finish up tomorrow.  Other than that, I couldn't really get going.

I would like to introduce you to Linda Brown, the newest addition to my little pottery family! She has a lot more experience than I do, and I plan on learning a lot from her. Today, she was throwing cups off the hump.  OFF THE HUMP! I can't do that...yet.

Linda is delightful and is fitting right in.  When I asked her how she felt about appearing in my blog (I would never include pictures or mention anyone by name without their permission), I also told her how great it was to have her there with us today.  She responded with, "It was great. Just like my dream." Well Linda, it is my dream as well to continue to have such a "Happy, Busy Place."  Thanks for adding to the joy.

An Extra Day In The Studio

With the 3 day weekend this week, I got to spend extra time in the studio.  A good thing since Treasurers of the Earth is only 3 weeks away.  Seriously? How did THAT happen?

I am in full out pottery panic mode.  That translates to: 

"I need another soup tureen!"
"Glaze all the things!"

"Mugs!  I need more mugs!"

Here's the next soup tureen.  I just realized that I forgot to cut a hole in the lid for the ladle. It's wrapped up right now, so I hope I can take care of that tomorrow. 

 I started with 8 pounds of clay again.  Actually I tried to throw 9 pounds and that kind of got away from me, so the next try was just 8 pounds. 

Then because I didn't want to move the big bowl, I used one of the other wheels in the studio to throw the lid. Managed to make a lid on the first try this time. 

Checking the lid fit before trimming.

Forgot the hole for the ladle, but I didn't forget the ladle.

I had a lot of work in the last bisque fire.  ALL of that got glazed this weekend.  This is part of it.   Believe it or not, it didn't all fit on the table at once.

After finishing all the glazing and the tureen making, I threw six mugs.  I'll get handles on them tomorrow between work and the gallery meeting at 6pm.  At least that is my plan.

That big bowl back there is the 9-pound bowl that ended up not being the soup bowl. Who needs a huge bowl?

Next week, I expect my pottery panic to translate to:

"Fire the kiln!"

"Soup bowls!  I don't have enough soup bowls!"

"Still not enough mugs!"

"OMG - what else can I make?"

Hello, 2018

If I said good bye to 2017 last week, it is only fitting to say hello to 2018 this week, right?  Don't get your hopes up, I still hate New Years.  

Might as well lead with the finished product.

Tah-dah!  Soup tureen.

I did that with the variations in the glaze on purpose.  Didn't want you to think that I'm a total slob even though that is more or less the case.

It has been stupid cold here for the last week and my studio is not well insulated.  This means that as long as the heat is running and pumping out warm air, it's ok.  But the instant that the fan cuts off, all the heat immediately leaves the building and the people inside are cold. 

This is a picture of the fountain across the street.  I mention all this to explain why I didn't spend a lot of time in the studio this week. I also had to go back to my real job, so I didn't have much free time anyway.  Compared to the end of December, I didn't do much pottery work.  

I did get all my bisque ware glazed and fired the kiln.  I have several commissions that I wanted to get completed as soon as possible, so my focus was on that rather than making more pots. I do need to get on the make more pots train ASAP though.  Perhaps this week that can happen. 

The soup tureen is obviously one of those commissions.  I can't wait to get in the studio and make another one of these!  I am tickled with how it turned out.  Firing the ladle was a bit of a challenge since I wanted it to be glazed all over.  This is what I came up with.

Pretty clever, huh?  It's ok.  You can be impressed with me.  I sure am.  I was very nervous about this falling over during firing or something.  

I love kiln before and after shots. 

Here are a few of the other things that were in this load. 

Third honey pot.

I enjoyed making those. If they sell, I will work on making more.

I have an order for 4 bowls and 4 mugs like these.  I hope these will be acceptable.

 A few more shots of the mugs. I think they are cool.

 I'm trying to make mugs to go with that small tray.

In other weird news, I am STILL trying to get more of the Mediterranean Mist glaze that we all like so much.  I bought more this summer, but when I mixed it up and tested it, it was not the same color.  When I inquired about this at Carolina Clay Connection, I was informed that there was a problem with the glaze they had been sent in the summer and they arranged for the company to ship me some replacement glaze that should be "right."

Well, what they sent is the same as what I purchased.  You can see that they are definitely different in the bucket.  Good glaze on the right, bad glaze on the left. 

Good glaze on the tester on the right, bad glaze on the tester on the left.

Sigh.

So the saga of blue glazes continues.

This time last year, I ordered merchandise bags.  Since I was almost out of the medium size bag, I ordered some more.  This is how they arrived at my house.  Is this not the most interesting packing job you've ever seen? 

I used a different company, so I got bags that are a different color (oh well), but I was able to get some that are in between the medium size and large size bag that I had.  I think they will be very nice to have even if they don't match the others.

Good Bye, 2017

Happy New Year, everyone.  

OK.  Can I be done with that now?  I really do not enjoy the whole New Year's Eve, New Year's Day celebration thing.  Staying up past 9:30 or 10 pm is no longer my idea of a good time and New Year's Day is always the last day of vacation.  I am about to enter into that difficult couple of weeks where I'm not yet done with Fall classes because I teach at one of the high schools, and at the same time, Spring classes are getting started because I teach on our campus.  It is cold.  I don't like cold.  Bleh.  

Lots of people look back over the last year to remember the things that were joyous or difficult or of which they are particularly proud.  Right now, all I can think about is how I didn't get around to calling the repair man about the refrigerator.  Meant to do that for when I was out of work.  The house still isn't clean.  Jeff is going to take offense to that.  He vacuumed for me yesterday which I very much appreciate.  However, the bathrooms didn't get cleaned and the window treatments in our bedroom and bathroom are very dusty.  My house plants are all ailing and puny.  I only took one nap the whole time I was off.  Sad.

They look forward to great, exciting things for the new year.  Me? I am not sure how I'm going to get ready for Treasures of the Earth the first week of February.  That's only one month away now.  Eeek!  I wonder when I might hear if I got in the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival in Hickory in March.  If I'm accepted, how in the world am I going to get ready for that one too?  Oh yeah, I've got a huge teaching load again this semester too.  That will be fun. 

See why I don't like New Year's?  

OK.  Let me see if I can put a more positive spin on things for the rest of this.  Sorry for being so blah.  

Looking back at the last year...

I paid all the bills.  Seriously, this is a big deal to me. There is enough money coming in from sales, commissions, and studio fees, that I have rent and utility money every month and money for the other expenses that come up (toilet paper, paper towels, glaze, shopping bags, ant spray, etc.). When I started this adventure 19 or 20 months ago, I wasn't sure I would be able to do this.

Vicki Halloran came back.  Those of you who know Vicki understand why this is such a big deal.  Additionally, Vicki was there from the very beginning of my pottery adventure.  When I was brand new, if Allen wasn't there, Vicki was to help me figure out how to do things.  The first mug that I made all by myself that was actually large enough to drink from I made on a Saturday morning when Allen was out of town for something.  I still remember Vicki giving advice from her wheel just to my left.  I didn't realize how much I missed her the last few years while she's been absent.  We've had some great fun together at 302 South Lafayette St and a few other locations too.

I finished out 2017 doing some pretty cool things in the studio.  

This monster survived the bisque fire and is ready to glaze.  The customer who ordered it stopped by the other day when I was there.  She just wanted to check the progress.  She is delighted with how things are going.  We discussed glaze colors, but I need to check in with her because I don't remember if we made a decision or not.  I really need to make another one or two of these.  Ladle included - although I haven't gotten my head wrapped around how I'm going to fire that ladle.  It will involve two levels of shelves and stilts I think.  Should be a fun challenge, right? 

I made another rectangular baking dish.  Did the handles differently this time around.  

This is another smaller casserole. It's kind of oval shaped instead of round.  I should mention that I did that on purpose. Sometimes things are not round because they are just badly off center.  Sometimes things start out round and then I alter them.

After I made honey pots a few weeks ago, I have been looking forward to trying garlic keepers.  It's the same basic lidded jar but instead of cutting a notch in the lid for a stick, I cut holes in the sides for air circulation.  

I start by lightly scoring a couple of lines on the piece so that I have a prayer of keeping the design even as I cut out holes.

Clearly I have improvement to make on the design.  Also I remember why I don't do holes more often.  What a pain!  Cutting them is kind of fun, but then there's all those inside edges that have to be cleaned up and smoothed out.

I made four of them.  Please note the one second from the left.  Yes, that is a sine wave pattern.  For that one, I scored a line for he maximum values, a line for the minimum values, and a mid-line. (Nerd)

 I worked on some mugs for Hannah's Coffee House. She got a stamp made for me with her logo on it.  This is my first attempt at using the stamp to put the logo on mugs.  I shall withhold judgement until they are fired I think.  I had some difficulty with getting even pressure all the way across the stamp.  Also this stamp really distorted the shape of the cup.  Mostly I could sort of fix that later, but it is still a little lumpier than I would like.  

Last and certainly least in the excitement category, I reclaimed 29.5 pounds of clay.  

It was cold and it sucked. 

I have another bucket full almost ready to go.  I guess that will be part of this week's work. 

Looking ahead to 2018...

I have a bucket of clay to reclaim.  Always a good time.  It will be cold.  It will suck. Perhaps I can find a cloudy, dreary day so that my misery can be complete while working on this chore.  Ha!

I have glazing to do.  There are three or four special orders that I hope to get completed in this glaze fire.  Money coming in for January.  Woo hoo!  I hope that I can get the glazing done so I can fire this weekend. That is probably a reasonable goal given the fact that I am back to work starting tomorrow.

The opening reception for Treasures of the Earth is Feb 8.  Set up will be Feb 6 I suppose.  I will have to check my teaching schedule to decide if that is even possible.  The 6th is a Tuesday, and I have kind of a heavy load on Tues/Thurs.  I might have to ask for permission to set up a different day this time.

The Catawba Valley Pottery Festival is Mar 23 and 24.  I am not sure if I am in that  or not, but for the time being, I am keeping that weekend blocked off.  In the happy coincidence category, Mar 23 happens to be a planning day for Cleveland County Schools, so I won't have to get a substitute for my two classes at Kings Mountain High.  I dreamed the other night, that I was turned down for this show, but I think that was just a dream.  I haven't gotten any correspondence yet from them.  If I get in, great.  If I don't, it's OK too.