Tradition Turners Pottery Festival

I will be at West Lincoln Middle School tomorrow (Saturday, Oct 13).  The show opens at 9 am and will be over around 2 pm.  I decided to do a minimal booth this year and left my tall shelves at home.  There's still plenty to look at if you decide to come to the show.  

I found myself looking at everything all set up and feeling pretty good about it all.  I know this sounds out of character for me.  Normally I am more disappointed in pieces as they are fired than I am excited by them, but looking at everything together (which I only do when setting up for a show), its not so bad.  It also doesn't hurt my ego any when other potters come up and tell me how nice my work is.  I don't believe them, but it is nice for them to say.  

At least I left the gym tonight feeling good about things.  Tomorrow if I don't sell much, it will be a different story.  

Raku Experiment

Remember these little guys from a few weeks ago?  I decided to raku fire all of them.  Really I didn't have much to do with the actual firing.  I put wax on them (to keep the glaze off the parts that I wanted to be naked.) and then Allen then took them to Gaston College and glazed them and fired for me.  

When they'd been fired, I ran them through the dish washer to clean all the soot off of them. 

And then followed that by a little shoe polish on the black parts and some future wax on the whole thing to give it a nice shine.  I am delighted with the outcome!  

I gave the shoe polish/future wax treatment to the other raku piece I had from last year.  Now Allen's finger marks are shiny.  

Re-Visiting Some Old Favorites

I haven't made any cookie jars in a long time, so I gave it a try this weekend.  This started with 4 pounds for the jar and 1 pound for the lid.  I think the lid could be a little smaller and work better, but this isn't bad.  I will likely do some more of these in the weeks to come and will experiment with different shapes and lid types.

I'm also continuing to work on chip and dip sets.  I've had a lot of trouble with these cracking on the bottom as they dry.  We shall see if I have found a solution to that.  It is very frustrating to work hard on something only to have it crack and have to be trashed in the end.  

Starting Out Small

I managed some studio time this weekend.  It had been a LONG time since I'd thrown anything, so I started with some small things.  The vases you see were thrown from 2 lb, 2.5 lb, 3 lb, and 2 lb.

Each piece started as a cylinder and then I shaped them differently.  The one on the far left has a shoulder and is flared out at the top, The next one has sort of a gradual flare all the way up, next is a piece with a belly and a flare at the top, and finally on the far right is a piece that is bellied out and closed in at the top.

The piece on the far right is also going to be raku fired eventually.  Allen had some clay that is specifically for raku and he suggested I try a little bit.  You can tell in the picture (I think) that it has a slightly different color than the other clay.  It also has more grog in it meaning that it feels more gritty when you work with it.

The last piece of mine that was raku fired turned out really well.  In fact, I liked it so much that I have it in my house.  The glaze did amazing crackly things, but what I love the most is Allen's finger marks at the bottom.  I was trying for roughly the same shape in the piece that I threw on Saturday.

Messy, Messy, Messy

This is a picture of the mess I made glazing a few pieces last Saturday.  The picture really doesn't do it justice.  It was much more unpleasant in person.

It has been a really busy week, so I've only been able to stop by the studio quickly on my way to work one morning.  Based on what I could see that came out of the last glaze fire, the mess is not over.  I don't know if the kiln malfunctioned in some way or if I just goofed up big time putting the glaze on.  That was the most horrible mess I've ever seen.

Is It REALLY August Already?

I'm not sure how it happened, but the summer is gone.  I've been back at work for three weeks, registration day is next week, and classes start a week after that.  I'm also not sure why I am surprised that the time has flown.  It always does.  What is different is that I used to get more time in the studio and would get to a number of projects at home in my time away from work.  No so this summer.

I've sort of been struggling with ideas and motivation lately.  I realize that this is due, at least in part, to the fact that I am spending a lot more time exercising that I used to.  Since I decided to register for two more triathlons and a half marathon over the next three months, training for those races is taking up more of my time and energy.  There's not as much "free" time to get to the studio and sometimes when I get there, I'm too tired to do anything.  Sad, but true.

All that being said, I have been working since last spring to build some inventory for the fall shows.  On days when I have no other ideas, I'll make a set of mugs.  I've also tried to stock up on the napkin holders that sold well last fall. I've got several, but could probably use some more.  Lately, I've been working on making chip and dip sets.  Those take a lot of time, so the going is slow.  This realization also is causing me to re-think how I price those pieces.

We are also all doing some experimenting with new glazes...or maybe I should say new combinations of old glazes.  The mug in the picture is an example.  I don't think the colors came through very well--the dark glaze is sort of red/brown.  What I like the most is where the glazes overlap.  This makes a very smooth surface look more interesting.  The trick will be to see if I can do this again.

So Pretty!

It's always so nice to see my pottery being used.  This bowl lives with our friends the Lloyds in Durham.