Leaves!

I'm so happy to have leaves to work with again!

Don't forget - Uptown Art Walk Thursday, April 23 and Arts on the Square on Saturday, April 25.

Once again, we have reached the point in the semester that I don't have much time for pottery.  Classes are busy, papers need grading, meetings must be attended, and registration must be staffed.  On top of that, I had to go run over a Bridge a few weeks ago (Cooper River Bridge Run in Charleston on Mar 28).  After that it was Easter and we had family visiting.  

When I did go back, I had glazing to do.  Why must I always start with glazing after several weeks away?  The horror! 

Here are a few of the latest things that I've finished up.  

This set is designed to keep dips or salads cold if they to be out of the refrigerator for a longer period of time.  (I'm thinking about the times that you take something to a party to share.)  Put the dip or salad in the covered dish and ice in the bowl then sit the dish inside the bowl.  Or you can use the pieces separately.  

Here are the faceted bowls that I made a few weeks ago.  I'm pretty please with how each of these turned out.  

Another set of mugs. There are 4 like this.  I'm still experimenting with texture as you can see.  

Uptown Art Walk, April 23

Our next Uptown Art Walk is next week on Thursday night.  I'll be at Allen Griffin Pottery doing demonstrations that night.  I would LOVE to see you!  

Contact: Tricia Woodland, Uptown Shelby Association, 704-484-3100

Corine Guseman, Cleveland County Arts Council, 704-484-2787 (for more information on the artists)

Showcasing the vibrancy of local artists, galleries and art friendly spaces throughout Uptown Shelby, we welcome visitors on Thursday, April 23 for an Uptown Art Walk. In conjunction with the Cleveland County Arts Council “Cleveland County Student Art Competition” opening reception, 15 Uptown businesses will host a variety of local artists for demonstrations, exhibits, music and other special events.

The Art Walk will include a spectrum of visual arts – including photography, paintings, basket weaving, drawing, mosaics, pottery and live music.

Maps for the event are available at the participating venues.pril 1st

Participating venues include:

·         Allen Griffin Pottery (art)

·         Buffalo Creek Gallery (art)

·         Cleveland County Arts Council (Student Art)

·         Dragonfly Wine Market (art & music)

·         Lily Bean Micro-Roasted Coffee (art)

·         Newt’s Pub Burgers (art & music)

·         Peace Avenue (art)

·         RollOver Pets (art & music)

·         Miss Molly’s Boutique (art)

·         Cleveland County Chamber Patio (drum circle)

·         Victorian Rose (art)

·         Hip-O-Kat Retro and Vintage (music)

·         Smoke on the Square (art)

·         Child Care Connections (art)

·         The Swamp Fox  Trading Company (art)

The Art Walk is free and open to the public, with festivities taking place between 5:30 and 8:30 pm.

The Uptown Art Walk is a partnership between Uptown Shelby Association and Cleveland County Arts Council to draw people to Uptown and encourage new audiences for the arts in our area.  This evening event will span venues on Warren, Washington, Lafayette and Marion Streets.

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.

Check Out This Frog!

The platter needs to be re-fired, and I really hope the frog still looks like this when I'm done.

Dip Bowl

I saw this project in the latest issue of Pottery Making Illustrated and thought it looked fun.  This is a set of two bowls that nest.  The parts can be used separately or the outer bowl can have ice in it to keep something in the smaller bowl cold.  I had a little trouble with the sizes.  The smaller bowl with the lid ended up just a tad bigger than I meant for it so it was a little bit more of a tight fit than I wanted.  I'm a little concerned that when I glaze them, they won't fit together as nicely as I want them too.  I trimmed a little bit of clay off to make it a little smaller, but I'll have to wait until they are done to know for sure if they are going to work the way I want or not.

Still Playing With Texture

 You will notice that there are no pictures of glazing in this post.  I didn't have anything to glaze this week.  I could spend all my effort on making new stuff.

I'm still messing around with texture.

I don't know what this is.  Weird vase? Even more weird bowl?  Just something interesting to look at?

Mugs!  Because you can never make too many mugs.

A pitcher.  I should have choked it in a little more narrow above the textured part and/or flared the top out a little bit more.  I swear, I think that about every pitcher I've ever made.  Getting the handle on it actually makes it look better.  It was pretty bad pre-handle.  Hey!  I'm learning and learning is about trying something new that might not work out the first time (or first dozen times) you try it.

This small bowl made me pretty happy, so I decided to do more.  

Here's my next effort.  This is about 4 pounds of clay.  

It started out like this.  Well, no.  This is about step 2 of 3.  I took extra pictures of the next one...

I start with a relatively thick cylinder.  I put a line near the top so I'd know where to stop cutting in the facets and trimmed away a little bit of the clay at the bottom.  I also made this cylinder wider and not as tall as the first one so I'd get a wide, shallow bowl.

See?  Thick - so there's lots of clay with which to work.  (Notice that I did not end that sentence with a preposition.)

About here I realized that professionals probably have someone else to take pictures for them while their hands are messy.  Work with clay.  Wash hands.  Dry with towel.  Take picture.  Repeat.  This picture I actually took with my left hand because that is my right hand holding the rib.  You may be impressed if you like.  

Where was I?  Oh yes.  I cut the facets with the rib.  When my left hand isn't taking pictures, it is inside the pot applying pressure to keep the rib in the right hand from destroying the pot as I worked.  Make sense?  

I went all the way around with the cutting.  

By now, I've thrown out the wash hands step and gone straight to wipe off on towel.  That was a pretty gross towel and my phone ended up with a good bit of clay smeared on it.

Finally, using my left hand, a sponge, and a throwing stick, I stretched the piece out wide to make a bowl.  It would be cool to show you that part, but I'd have to have help to make that happen.  (Note to self: That is a good idea for video next time there are other people around who can help me.)  All the pressure has to come from the inside on this step.  The outside of the pot didn't get touched again.  Well, that's not completely true.  I did use both hands to work on and smooth out the rim after all that distorting.  I was pretty pleased with the end result there, but I hoped to get those facets to twist when I stretched out the bowl.  If you are good, they twist.  

One last try. This time I used a smaller amount of clay (about 2.5 pounds instead of 4) and I began with more of a cone shape.  

This time, I used the corner of a plastic gift card to cut the texture.

And I got a little bit of twist!  I need to start with thicker walls and rims so that I can stretch the clay farther.  The more you stretch, the more it twists.  At least I think that's what happens.  

Last Week's Firing

I have learned that whatever picture is first in a blog post is what shows up on Facebook when I share the link.  So that's why those utensil holder/vases are first. The texture did nice things with the glaze didn't it?  Very pleased.  

Here's a shot of everything that was fired last week.  I had to stand on a stool to get up high enough to get them all in one picture.  

A close up of one of the two red crackle bowls.  This is such an interesting look I think.

Another bowl in one of my favorite glaze combinations.  It almost always does what I expect it to.  I love how the tan glaze is darker next to where the red overlapped it.  Cool.  

More texture.  I decided that this glaze was a little bit too thick, so I thinned it out a bit before I used it again.  What?  I didn't mention that I had more glazing to do last weekend?  Well, I did.  I don't know who keeps making all these pots.  It certainly doesn't feel like I'm working all that hard.  But for 3 weeks straight, I had piles of glazing to do.  As you know, glazing is my favorite part of making pottery.  <sarcasm>

I had 6 mugs in all this stuff.  Two each of the glaze combinations that are shown here.  They all turned out nicely.  No surprises.  

Ah!  The lidded casseroles.  This green and tan one looks very nice, doesn't it?  Unfortunately the top cracked as it was cooling.  Very weird and I have no idea why that happened.  I can't sell that piece.  Jeff was very excited when I brought it to the kitchen and told him that we get to keep this one.  That cracked lid might never be a problem, but it might break the very first time that it is used.  If so, then I'll have a casserole without a lid.  Bummer.  

This one didn't crack, but the lid warped just enough in the kiln that it doesn't fit well anymore.  I wasn't happy with that development because everything else is great about the piece.  Plus, those casseroles are a LOT of work.  I was very bummed to have both of them flawed after working so hard on them.  I do have this one for sale, but I priced it lower than I would normally.  So if you want a deal, check it out at Buffalo Creek Gallery!