Slowly But Surely

For once, I had glazed pots to take home instead of pots to glaze when I managed to get back to the studio after my crazy couple of weeks.  

I also made a few things.  Two sets of mugs, a couple of lidded jars, and a couple of tall vase/utensil holder thingies. 

My work is featured in the window at Buffalo Creek Gallery this month.  Very cool looking display if I do say so myself.

More mugs...

That's two more sets if you are counting.

Over the past two weeks I've made 4 different sets of mugs each with a very different shape.  I thought it was interesting to see them all together.

Then I made a couple of pitchers.  These are both relatively small. This white textured one was about 2 pounds of clay.

This brown one was closer to 3 pounds I think.  Maybe it was two and a half. It's a little bigger than the white one.  I did something completely new with altering the shape here.  I think I like it.  You may see more of this in the future.

Then I got moving on making a mask.  This is the first effort.  I was NOT at all excited about this project and had put it off for a while, but sometimes you just have to suck it up and do things that you don't think will be all that fun.  But it wasn't bad, so I made another one.

I'm "cheating" and using a plaster mold that we have.  In the picture above you see the mold and the slab.  Don't ask me how we got that mold.  It has been in the studio ever since I started hanging out up there.  I suspect that it involved someone putting their face in plaster which is absolutely terrifying, so surely it didn't happen that way.  Maybe I should ask.

Now the slab in pressed into the mold textured side down.  Next I trimmed off the extra clay and let it sit in the wet closet over night.

After it dried to leather hard and I took it out of the mold, this is what I had.  If good things happen with these later on, I will update you.  If they are complete disasters, you may never see them again.  Does anyone else see Abe Lincoln?  Holy Cow!  I know Abe didn't show up one day and get Allen to shove his face in a box of plaster.  Yes.  I need to find out the story.

And They're Done!

I FINISHED THE BUSINESS CARD HOLDERS!!!!

That's about 47 of the 53 that ended up making it.

I don't really want to make any more of those for a while.

Then there was some glazing.

I'm not sure how it is possible that I've had stuff to glaze for the past 3 weekends in a row, but I have.  My production has slowed way down since I'm back at work, so I won't feel so overwhelmed by the amount of glazing for the next several months. 

I didn't make anything new last week, so I was kind of itching to sit down at the wheel.

I made a couple of pitchers.

And I made a couple of utensil holders.  As you can see, I've been working on texture again.

This week the American Legion World Series begins.  I'm proud to say that I'm a volunteer, so there will be a LOT of baseball happening.  It is also the last week before classes start back at CCC, so there's late registration and the frantic scramble to get ready for the first day.  My sweet niece turns ONE on Aug 17, so I'll be making a trip to Greensboro for the party next weekend.  In case life weren't full enough, this week is my last week of hard training for the triathlon that I'm doing on Aug 22.  I'm not real sure how I'm going to fit swim-bike-run into this schedule.  

What I'm saying is that there will not be any pottery happening in my life for a couple of weeks.  Who wants to make a bet that when I go back, I'll have pots to glaze?  

Get To Know Uptown Shelby

GoCarolinas.com has a picture gallery from Uptown Shelby on their website.  I have been told that the guy was in Shelby to see a new B&B and ended up spending a couple of hours walking around our super cool uptown area taking pictures.

Take a few minutes and check it out at this link.  Get to know uptown Shelby  (The link should open a new window.)

Items of note as you scroll through include several very nice shots of Allen Griffin's studio (photos 34 through 43).  This is where the magic happens.  The handsome dude in picture #40 is Allen.  Look also for a shot of my box-o-pottery-tools in picture #43.  There are also some very nice photos from Buffalo Creek Gallery in pictures 47 through 56.  The piggy bank in picture #51 is mine.

Speaking of pottery magic, I did more glazing this weekend and I loaded the kiln. 

Not pictured above are the bazillion business card holders that I glazed on Friday afternoon.  Here's what they look like in the kiln.  

There's one more shelf of them that you can't see.  Four shelves of nothing but card holders and a few others stuck in between other pieces.  I'm very happy to have gotten them all in, so in a few days I'll be able to figure out how many more I need to make to get the 50 that I have promised.  

One more shot of the loaded kiln.  

The last thing that I did today before I left was to make sure that the last bunch of mugs I made are ready for the next bisque fire.  One way to be sure that greenware is completely dry is to lick it.  If your tongue sticks, you know it is dry.  When Allen showed me that trick years ago, I thought it was the grossest thing ever.  Now, I find myself licking pots on a regular basis.  Its still gross, but I guess I've gotten used to it.

I ALWAYS think, "Stuck, stuck, stuck."  So far, the fire department has not had to come help me.  (Shameless movie reference there.)    

Some of Everything is Ready

I'm not sure how it is Wednesday already.  I meant to get this post up over the weekend.  There was a glaze fire last week.  Some of the several dozens of pieces that I've made were in there.  Other people have pots to fire too.  This studio is not all about me.  

Here's a shot of everything.

This covers maybe half of the glazing table.  I still have lots left to be fired.  

Here's a close up of the two trays.  Pretty darn pleased with these.  

A not so close up of a bowl and a casserole.

A big, green platter.

The glaze on this is so shiny it's hard to get a good picture.

Some tiny bowls, tiny pitchers, a few candle holders, and some business card holders.

Remember the business card holders?  

More business card holders, tiny bowls, and a couple of butter dishes.

There are still many, many business card holders to be glazed and fired.

In other stuff last week, I made 9 dessert bowls.

And six mugs.

 

There was also another bisque fire over the weekend.  The rest of the business card holders were in that bisque fire.  I'll be glazing more pots when I manage to get back to the studio.

Hopefully I can get all the rest of the business card holders in the next glaze fire. I need to get a good count so that I know if I need to do more.  There are 52 currently, but I can't be sure that I've got 52 good ones until they are glaze fired.

I Glazed Everything

I have been pushing myself pretty hard to make pottery lately.  All this was in the last bisque fire. 

That's two different views of the same pieces.  No matter what I tried, I couldn't get one shot that really showed everything well.  Please note that they cover the entire glaze table. It took several hours on Saturday to get everything ready to glaze.  The plan was to let things dry over night and come back in on Sunday and get the glazing done.  I was packing up my stuff to go and I realized that I had some really nice leaves that I either needed to use or throw away.  So I did this...

Soft clay is one of life's little treasures.  When the clay is soft, you can throw a platter, a plate, and a good sized bowl in not much time and with minimal effort.  The down side is that are three pieces that will need to be trimmed on Sunday in addition to the huge amount of glazing.  

It took almost 5 hours including a break for lunch, but I got all of that stuff glazed and trimmed the 3 new pieces.  Phew!  

Stay tuned.  I'll try to show you some glazed pieces next week. 

The Rest Of The Week

Wednesday: I put handles on the casserole...

...trimmed the bowls...

...and made some more card holders.

Thursday: I worked in the gallery on Thursday during the day.  Then about 5 pm I moved over to the studio to get ready for the Art Walk.  I set things up and got some clay ready so that I could demonstrate for folks who stopped by.  We had a good crowd that night with people stopping by pretty much the whole time from 5:30 to 8:30 pm.  Some of our visitors were friends of mine and some were people that I'd never met before.  I threw six mugs...

...two kind of medium sized bowls...

...and more business card holders.

Friday: I took the day off and didn't make anything new.  I was tired after being uptown for a good 12 hours the day before.  So it was Saturday before I got back to doing anything productive.  I trimmed the bowls...

...put handles on the mugs...

...and made more business card holders.

I think I am very close to having 50 of these now.  I'll have to count again to be sure, and I should make a few extras in case something happens.  It was my goal to get the bulk of this work done this week while I had more time.  I think the count for the week is 1 casserole, 4 bowls, 13 mugs, and about 50 business card holders.  

July 5th through 7th

We just back from vacation and this is my last week of summer before I go back to work next week.  Here's what I've done so far...

On Sunday, I picked up the pieces from that last glaze fire.  All these are now at Buffalo Creek Gallery.

Then I made about 10 business card holders. 

Monday, I threw 7 mugs. 

And made some more business card holders.

Tuesday morning I put handles on 7 mugs. 

And made some more business card holders.  

Sensing a theme yet?  I've got an order for 50 business card holders.  I think I have about 25 made now.

Tuesday afternoon, I went back to the studio (killing time between a chiropractor appointment and swim practice - don't laugh) and threw an oval casserole and two bowls.