One Thing Leads To Another

I woke up in the middle of the night last Friday/Saturday because I was thinking about lamps.  In particular that I needed to make some.  RIGHT NOW.  I've probably been thinking about lamps off and on for the past 10 months, but for some reason last week, I FINALLY NEEDED TO MAKE LAMPS.

Last weekend was devoted to lamp making.  I've never made lamps before, but I watched Allen make them.

I started with slabs and added some texture before cutting them and fitting the pieces inside the molds.  The textured side of the clay is on what will be the outside of the lamp. I worked to completely seal up the seams on the inside.  

The top and bottom started out as 2 different pieces.

They were scored and slipped and carefully joined. I worked hard to try to conceal the joint where the 2 pieces meet.  The other seams are part of the design and texture, so I left them visible.  

It was about a 3 or 4 day process to go from waking up in the middle of the night with the idea and getting two lamp forms completely put together.  The slow down was the drying time.  It's been raining a lot here recently. When it rains, the clay dries very slowly.

I will try to remember to take some after pictures when they are all finished.  I don't have a good plan for glazing yet.  I think I'm leaning toward blue, but I could be talked out of it if someone has another great idea.  What would you like to see sitting in your living room?  Once they are glazed and fired, I'll get lamp kits and shades.  For now the focus was on getting two forms that more or less match.

I hadn't done any serious hand building in a long time. I generally like working on the potter's wheel a lot more, but this was a lot of fun. The day after I got my lamps put together, I had a request to make a tall vase for flowers.  The requested height is around 12 inches.  To get something that is 12 inches tall finished, it needs to be 13 or 14 inches wet.  That's more than I can get from one ball of clay, so I either need to throw two (or more) pieces and join them or find a form and do some hand building.

First I tried throwing two pieces and joining them.  This is the second effort.  With the first try I learned what not to do. This was actually three pieces.  That is a 12 inch ruler for perspective. 

I also tried a hand built vase.

I wrapped a slab of clay around a large cardboard cylinder we have in the studio, added some texture, and then threw a top for it.  I attached a slab bottom and the top when it dried to leather hard. 

This ended up looking a lot more like an umbrella stand than a vase, but it could work if one had some BIG flowers to display.  The slab that I used to make the cylinder was 12 inches tall, so this one is also a good bit taller than the finished size that I need. Right now it is giant.  I have to keep reminding myself that it will be a good bit smaller when finished. 

Treasures of the Earth

Treasures of the Earth is a pottery show and sale at the Cleveland County Arts Council.  It's a cool show.  There's an opening reception (generally the first Thursday in February) and then the show stays up for a month.  If you buy some pottery (this is strongly encouraged by all involved), you can pick it up at the end of the show in March.  (NOTE: Exceptions are made for people from out of town.  If you were to come from Maryland, South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, California, West Virginia, or someplace other than right here in the City of Pleasant Living, I am fairly sure that the kind Arts Council folks will let you take your purchase with you.)

Set up and tear down a month a part?  Yes, please!  Pottery shows can be exhausting when the haul in, set up, tear down, and haul out all happen on the same day or even over a couple of days.

Treasures of the Earth 2019 starts next week and I have been working my tail off in the studio since right after Christmas trying to get ready.

This big casserole will be there.

Along with these bowls.

These mugs will be glazed like the casserole and bowls above.  That's the plan at least.  Sometimes plans change, but this is what they look like in my head right now.

I made some tall vases or utensil holders...

...and some taller lidded jars.

I have experimented with some different shapes.  Sort of squarish...

... and sort of ovalish.

I tried some bowls with altered rims.  These will be available at Bowling for Dollars.

See that cake plate? 

(More about the cake in a minute.  For now, focus on the plate.)

This is a hand made pottery cake plate that is the right size to fit in a Rubbermaid or Tupperware cake carrier.  This one is not for sale, but there will be 5 or 6 others that will be making their debut at the opening reception for this show at the Cleveland County Arts Council.

Oh yes.  The cake.

The cake pictured above is a Pecan Praline Buttermilk Pound Cake and it is DELICIOUS if I do say so myself.  I plan to make this cake to share at the opening reception for the show.  Well, a cake like this one.  I already ate that one. 

Opening Reception

for

Treasures of the Earth Pottery Show and Sale

Thursday, Feb 7, 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm.

Cleveland County Arts Council

111 S Washington St

Shelby, NC 28150

Let's Get Small!

In my best Steve Martin voice, "Let's get small!"  

Some spoon rests from the last glaze fire.

I knew last Saturday that I probably wouldn't make it back to the studio for a few days.  We were forecast to get somewhere between 4 and 8 inches of snow beginning late Saturday night and all day on Sunday.  In case you don't know, this is a big deal in my part of the world.  We don't usually get significant snowfall and certainly not in December.  

I made some small things that would not require me to do anything else to them before they dried.  

I hope these soap dishes will turn out ok.  Some of them may be too small when they are done to hold a bar of soap, but there's always other uses for little dishes.

I also threw some small vases.  It had been a while since I'd made anything this size.  I had fun playing with shapes.

We ended up with about 4 or 5 inches of the white stuff after all. It was enough snow that I was content to stay home and inside all day on Sunday.  I ventured outside and contemplated driving in to town to check on the studio on Monday (school was closed - woo hoo!)  I got the car stuck on the driveway and changed my mind though.  I managed to get out of the driveway and safely onto the nicely cleared road this morning and everything at the studio was just fine. 

While snowed in, I cooked breakfast and used my bacon cooker.

It works great.  The bacon doesn't sit in the drippings as it cooks and when you are finished, you pour off the grease and put the cooker in the dish washer!

Since it's been a long time (again) since I updated you on what was going on at the studio, so here are some things...

New paint and new sign on the building!  I put the middle picture in there for comparison.

If the weather ever is nice again, I'll get a good shot of the whole new look.

Here are some shots of the most recently finished pieces:

Cake pans.  I still have 2 of these available for sale.

Large leaf platter.  The green glaze did something kind of interesting there on the bottom where it overlapped.  The leaf is more subtle on this one.  I didn't stain it and block it out with wax resist. In person, one can clearly see the leaf through the green glaze.

A not so subtle leaf design in a plate. I love this combination of blue glaze and he red/brown stain on the leaf.

Believe it or not, it is time to start putting 2019 on the bottom of pots.  Everything that I'm making this week won't get glaze fired until the new year!

My, My How Time Flies

I cannot believe that it has been two solid months since I wrote a blog post.  I realize that I am making excuses, but I have a good one. 

I am teaching four online classes this semester.  Yes, four.  F-O-U-R.  Every semester it seems there is something strange about how my classes work out.  This semester I have four onlines and only one seated class.  It is going well, but I spend all day at work every day sitting at my computer.  I respond to student emails and answer questions and even hand grade their written work all at my computer.  Technology is wonderful that way.  As a result, I have not been able to make myself sit down at the computer when I'm at home to do anything.  Thus, no new posts here.  

I would promise to do better, but realistically I probably will not do better.  Let us just skip the empty promises this time and move on to what I can share right now.  

First of all, the Carolina Pottery Festival is this Saturday!  Hours are 10am to 4pm at the LeGrand Center in Shelby.  It is worth the $5 admission to see the wide variety of work.  I would love to see you there!  

About a month ago, I realized that this was happening again (as it does on the first Saturday of November every year) and I was not even close to prepared for it.  Pottery panic ensued.  Since September 26, we have been working in high gear at A Griffin Pottery.  I think the kiln has been fired 4 or 5 times already (previously unheard of in my studio), and I have another glaze fire to load up tonight after I finish glazing my last pieces.  I was not the only one who did not have as much work ready as she felt like she needed.  Gail and Lisa have both been right there with me frantically churning out the work. 

I made mugs...

soup bowls...

and bunches of other things that I did not stop to take pictures of. (Sorry.  I ended that sentence with a preposition.  I am exhausted.  Cut me some slack.)

All these things will be at the festival on Saturday.

We have experienced lots of rain and some wind due to two different hurricanes in September and October (Who am I kidding?  I can not remember when those storms were except that they were not this week or last week.) that have blown through our area.  The second one brought down this limb.  Only minor damage to a couple of cars that were parked there.  We were really lucky. 

Perhaps most exciting thing that has happened since I last posted here is that some long needed work to spruce up the outside of the building began.  This is further proof that when one thinks that one cannot do one more thing because she is too busy, that is when that one more thing will have to happen.  (Did you follow that?)

Check out this before and after.  Well, it's an after and before, but you get what I am trying to show you.  The building looks amazing!

Obviously, we are not finished.  I have to get the "stuff" back up on the outside now that the new paint is on. (Again with the preposition. Yikes!)  There will be a new sign soon too. Once that goes up, I'll get this guy back up and we will be all set.

For now, he is content to hang out inside where he is safe.

 Oh yeah, we have a new door knob on the bathroom door too.  I no longer have to worry about someone getting stuck in the bathroom because the door knob broke.  The knob broke on Sunday afternoon.  Lucky for me, I was on the outside and not the inside.

BIG thank you to my "handy" husband, Jeff for replacing this today.

Cake Plates, Sponges, and Glaze Messes, OH MY!

What's wrong with this picture?  

That birthday cake is on one of my dinner plates instead of the pottery cake plate that I normally use.  That plate cracked last time I used it, so it was time to toss it out.  Because I know you are wondering, it was a pecan praline buttermilk pound cake and it was delicious even though I used twice as much butter as the recipe called for.  Oops!

So it is time that I made some more cake plates.

I am hopeful that these will work out.  I struggle with getting the size right.  They need to be mostly flat with just a little bit of lift on the outer edge (to catch stray icing).  I put some rings on them to help center the cake (I'm thoughtful that way).  They have to fit inside a cake carrier, so they have to be big enough for a 9 or 10 inch cake but small enough that the lid will fit on the carrier.

In other random things, I wore out my favorite sponge recently.

The one on the bottom I've been using for years and it has gotten really ratty.  You guys know how sentimental I am about some of the pottery stuff, so you won't be too surprised when I tell you that I am sad about my sponge and can't quite throw it out yet.  Allen gave me that sponge.  I think they must have thrown it in on one of his orders at Carolina Clay Connection and he didn't like it.  I happened to be in the studio that day, so he gave it to me.  I've used it ever since.

I want to share a not so good thing that happened in the last glaze fire.

The glaze on these mugs ran and stuck to the shelf.  I HATE it when that happens.  I should have checked the glaze, because the green was WAY too thick.  I made a great big mess.  I was in a hurry and didn't take the time to do it right.  You would think I would learn!  Notice the white on the bottom.  That is the kiln wash that I put on the shelves.  It served its purpose.  The kiln wash protects the shelf by keeping the piece from sticking when there are glaze accidents like this one.

This is how you fix that kind of mess.

You have to grind the extra glaze off the bottom.  I'll also have a little shelf repair to do, but that's a chore for another day.

Whirl Wind

The past several weeks have been a whirl wind of busy-ness.  I went back to work on July 9.  I've been helping my Mom and Dad get ready to move for what feels like an eternity but has really only been since late June.  (Please don't ask me to move any more furniture.)  Classes started on Aug 16. That was also the first day of games for the American Legion World Series.  I was pretty busy with the World Series beginning on Aug 13 and going through our team's last game on Aug 20.  In between, there's not been a lot of time for pottery or energy for writing blogs. 

Jeff and I volunteer with the World Series every year as part of a group that hosts one of the teams.  We always host the winner of the Great Lakes Region.  As a result, we now have friends from Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana.  I'm frustrated each year that I can't be more involved, but the series coincides with the beginning of our semester.  Sometimes I'm doing well just to be able to get to the games when our guys play.  This year I thought I would be completely out of it since Mom and Dad were supposed to move during that week too.  Due to an untimely injury (Mom broke her ankle), the move had to be postponed for a few weeks.  As a result, I was able to do more with the Series than I thought I would.

Over the past eight years or so, the team from Midland, Michigan has earned the right to play in the World Series five or six times.  As a result, we have built relationships with those coaches over the years, and by extension also their families.  It is SO COOL!

How does this relate to pottery?  Hang on!  I'm getting there.

I invited Coach Ben Wright's family (Cindy, his mom; Jolee, his sister; and Addysen and Kipten, his niece and nephew) to come over to the pottery studio one of the days that the team didn't play until later in the afternoon. In addition to showing them all around, I made a few pieces so the kids could see how pottery is made.  The pictures that follow are all courtesy of Cindy Wright and Jolee Throop. 

I always start a demonstration with something cylindrical.  It was going well, so I added some texture and gave it a little belly out and a flair at the top to make a nice little vase.

I asked the kids what they wanted me to try next.  A bunny was the first idea. After I explained that I couldn't do a bunny, they settled on a plate. 

I had grabbed a few leaves from the yard before I left the house that morning.  I let Kipten pick the one we would use to decorate the plate.

I explained how I can tell when a piece is completely bone dry and demonstrated the "tongue test". 

Kipten tried it.

And then Addysen.

All in all, I had a wonderful time that morning and I think they did too.

Pushing Hard

I talked to my friend Vicki on the phone today and she encouraged me to use this last week of my summer vacation to relax.  She went on to describe what relaxing is since she observed that I am not particularly good at it.  Sleeping in, sitting in my recliner, snacking on nachos, reading books, watching some TV shows, etc. all sound like good ideas.  I'll probably do some of those things too. 

But there is a lot that I planned for myself for this two weeks that I've had free.  Last week, I was in the studio every day.  Every. Day.  It was great! 

I started with these smallish pitchers. Each is about 2 pounds of clay.

Over the next couple of days, I finally got around to making some bacon cookers. I still need to have more of these on hand, but this is a start at least.

I only took a picture of one leaf platter.  I made a couple of other rectangular trays with leaves as well.

Four more pitchers.  These range from 3 to 4 pounds of clay each.

I think there were some mugs that didn't get photographed.

I glazed some.

There were also a few other relatively odious tasks that I had been putting off doing that I forced myself to get done.  I have a new batch of reclaimed clay now and all my kiln shelves are scraped and have a fresh layer of kiln wash.  I. Loathe. Those. Chores. But they are done now!  For the time being, I am going to continue to ignore that other bucket of clay that needs reclaiming.  

This week will be some different.  I'm going to pick up an order of clay and dry glazes in Charlotte in the morning.  Then I'll have to unload all that when I get back.  At some point, I'll need to process the new glazes.  I spent all of today working on some stuff for Buffalo Creek Gallery and I'll need to devote a good chunk of another day to get all that finished up.  Wednesday is July 4, so I should act like it is a holiday.  Then there's some family stuff going on Friday that will probably keep me out of the studio most of that day.  I guess it is a good thing that I got some pots made last week, because it isn't looking all that great for this week.