Not Piggy Banks

After a the holiday craziness, I have been given a very short reprieve from making pigs. Along with the dinnerware order I made some porcelain bowls and this shallow bowl/plate. It felt good to get back to carving those ginkgo leaves.

Since this is porcelain, and no slip, I will glaze them in celadon. I like it when I have pots planned from start to finish. It makes glazing less of a chore.

Tools of the Trade

I have an order for some porcelain plates and bowls. Today I had to clean up my act to get ready to throw that pristine white stuff. It makes me feel like a doctor getting ready for surgery. As I was cleaning, I chose the tools that I would most likely need to throw these pots. Out of the myriad of ribs, wooden knives, needle tools, and sponges that I own, in reality these are the ones I use most.
...and probably the only ones I really ever need. But I do like looking at my collection of "stuff", and I would find it hard to give them up.

It's always something

What a week it has been. We are trying to keep up with studio work and complete our kitchen rehab so that we can move by the end of next week. Wednesday, I got a call from my sister. Dad fell and broke a hip. He had partial hip replacement surgery late in the day Thursday. Friday morning he had a stroke. His right side is week and his speech is slurred. It's a wait and see thing now. This is when I really hate being so far away. I just want to pack my suitcase and buy a plane ticket to New Hampshire. 

Enough of the depressing side of things, how about some cheery celadon?

 Two different Highwater porcelains with the same glaze. Notice how much darker the cup is? I think that must be the P-10. The plate is Helios.

Enjoy your holiday weekend, I hope the weather where you are, is as nice as it is here Seagrove, NC.

and now for something completely different...

After two posts about brown pots, I thought you might be ready for some Spring green!

Have a great weekend!

New Tools

I try to throw on bats as little as possible. Between us, Jeff and I have a large number of bats both big and small. The problem with bats is that when you throw on them they take up a lot of room. Small bats are a pain because there is the extra step of throwing a pad of clay to adhere them to. A couple of months ago Jeff bought a set of bats with a remove-able center. We have both been giving a them a go.

The bats are really thick and I hope that will prevent warping in the future. Only time will tell. The space saving feature is a big plus. I am not thrilled with the way I can feel the "finger" notches when I am centering. While it bothers me, Jeff doesn't mind it. If they hold up, we will invest in some more center pieces.
I haven't done a whole lot of studio work in the past week, it seems paperwork, and shipping have been at the top of the "must do" list. What little wheel work I have done has been in porcelain. Bowls, plates, and mugs. Stamped with flowers and destined for black underglaze and finished with celadon.

Geesh, do I hate pulling handles with porcelain. The constant battle with cracking :-/.

The Element of Surprise

Jeff helped David Stuempfle fire his wood kiln just prior to my mother's passing. We had a few pots in the kiln and this porcelain bowl was one of them. I really hadn't had any time to look at it, as I flew to New Hampshire a few days later. It definitely got hot! I like the way it warped in the firing and the flashing is gorgeous. Not everyone enjoys the wabi-sabi effects of wood firing, but I just love it.

I am going to hang on to this one for awhile.

Another kiln fired...

Jeff and I unloaded the kiln yesterday and had some mixed results. The turquoise glaze did some funny stuff, it's so darn persnickety! Thankfully my Etsy orders were ok. All of my Etsy buyers were very understanding about having to wait a bit for their items. I did e-mail everyone with an explanation of the delay and I received many kind and thoughtful replies with expressions of condolences. You wouldn't think that selling online could have this personal feel, but it does. Jeff and I cross sell in our shops and we have each gotten orders from the same buyers with personal notes saying "give my regards to Jeff/Michèle."

This firing had a few more ginkgo's carved in porcelain. I am really enjoying the celadon glaze. It's a nice departure from my darker gloss green. I have been using helios porcelain from Highwater Clay. It throws quite nicely. I did have one bowl that had an iron spot in the middle of it. It was a small blemish before firing. I tried to sand it out but couldn't remove it all. It's sort of irritating since you expect porcelain to be a pure white. Iron "pops" seem to be a common problem with Highwater clay. We've had it happen in their other clay bodies as well. With stoneware it's not as problematic as porcelain.

It's going to be a hot one today. I am heading to the market and post office before I get sweaty and dirty working in the studio. It feel great to be back in my regular routine.

We Celebrated Spring in Seagrove...

We had a really great turnout for the Celebration of Spring Studio Tour last weekend and lots of pots went to new homes. The weather was absolutely perfect and I am sure that helped bring people out to wander the country roads of Seagrove. We unloaded the kiln on Friday evening. It was great firing. There was only one order that has to be a do-over. It's not scheduled to be shipped until the end of May so we have plenty of time. Here are a few pics of the new pots.

I am loving this celadon on porcelain. It feels so good in in your hands. I had one with a cracked rim so I am keeping that one for me.

I fired four ovals and not a single one cracked... hurray!

There were a few of the mugs with underglaze in this firing. This one is my favorite. It's a wee little mug, about 8oz. The one finger handle, down low, is a first for me. Clicking on the photo will take you to Etsy. I will be adding some of the new pots to the shop over the next few days.

Tomorrow I am flying to New Hampshire to say good bye to my Mom. She is receiving hospice care in the nursing home and they tell us it's just a matter of days before she is gone. I hope that she hangs on until I arrive. We are all very thankful that she hasn't been in pain. My mother has a big family. She is the third oldest of ten kids. Her much younger brothers are taking shifts to stay with her overnight, so that she isn't alone and my Dad can go home and get some rest. I think that's the sweetest thing. 

Meditating with porcelain

It was time to clean up the wheel and break out the porcelain this week. Jeff had been after me to make some small cups and carve them, so I figured now was as good a time as any. While I was at it I threw and carved a variety of shallow bowls. Most of these will get celadon glaze. This next firing will be a test. I'll do one in only celadon and another in celadon with black underglaze. I really like carving through porcelain, the cream cheese texture feels so good under my carving tool and it's quite meditative.

Working a little differently also kept my mind occupied and it was a good escape from the worries of my mother's illness. She is still at the rehab center of a nursing home. She hasn't gained any strength and in reality is much weaker. I have to force myself to call everyday. It's so depressing to talk with her. She is having a very difficult time coming to terms with this. Everyday she tells me she is so tired and doesn't understand why. I just don't know how to respond to her without saying, "Mom, you have terminal cancer, what are you expecting?" But of course I can't say that to her.  I think because she is in "rehab" she has it in her head that she should be getting strong enough to come home. I guess that was the goal when they moved her, but I really don't think she is coming home. My sister is going to be with them today for appointments with the oncologist and palliative care. I am hoping after today we will have a better idea of what we are facing in the next few weeks. I am staying on top of laundry here at home, in case I have to quickly hop on a plane... on the bright side, at least we haven't been running out of socks!

A last minute change of plans

During that gloriously warm weather last weekend, I cleaned my wheel off and hosed down my splash pan. Since everything was so spic and span I decided to spend some time with porcelain. I made a few platters and a couple of tumblers. I was intending to carve them all with ginkgo leaves. After the first platter was done I was feeling bored with the leaves.

I decided that the rest would get stamped and dotted!

After the bisque firing I'll give these babies an inlay of black underglaze. I will probably glaze them in my translucent Temple white glaze...
or maybe gloss green...
or blue??

The gas kiln is cooling today. I am curious to see how my stamped mugs will come out. I went out on a limb with more underglaze experiments. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Get out-a town...

I am heading to Charlotte tomorrow morning for a workshop with Josh DeWeese. I haven't been to a workshop since going to NCECA in 2011. This one is put on by Carolina Claymatters Guild and will be held at Central Piedmont Community College. It's a full day tomorrow and a half day on Sunday. Jeff's niece lives in Mint Hill so I will stay with their family overnight. 

When I signed up for this workshop it seemed like it would be great timing, but of course we are now two days behind our firing schedule due to the freezing temps. Some it is our own fault for not pushing harder and forcing ourselves to stand outside, sand pots, and load the bisque kiln sooner. It will all work out in the end and I am trying not to stress about it.

 I finally got around to photographing some of the porcelain pots that were in the last firing. The cup with the stamped flowers sold in the first two hours it was on Etsy... posting it on facebook hastened the sale!

Next post should be some photos of the workshop. Have a great weekend!

Runaway Orb

I started a large orb before Christmas, wrapped it up and sort of forgot about it. It was still in good shape, perfect for applying slip and carving into.

I drew my design Friday afternoon and carved everything except the background. I left it on my banding wheel and went into the house for a few minutes.

When I returned it was gone! It had rolled off the banding wheel onto the floor, and then over to one of the wheels a few feet away.  I was so mad at myself for leaving it there. The orb was flat on one side and had a few cracks. Never mind the dirt and dust it picked up on it's roll. At Jeff's suggestion, I smoothed the cracks and paddled it back into shape. I had to go over some of the carving, but I did manage to save it.

Jeff went right to work and cut me a piece of foam with a hole in the center. Now my orbs have a safe resting place when my back is turned. 

Prior to the orb catastrophe, I took out some porcelain and threw a few shallow bowls of the hump. I don't usually throw that (I never was very good at it) but decided to give it another try. I was pretty happy with these. I am probable going to glaze them in my Temple White. The one with the stamps will get some black underglaze.

It felt good to be in the studio making exactly what I wanted to make and not something that someone ordered and has to be completed by certain date... that's what I will be back to soon enough.

a little fun with porcelain...

A little cake decorating influence? 

I had a little fun with porcelain this week and these were two of the results...

Kristen Keiffer meets Maureen Mills!

Not sure about how I will glaze these. Perhaps they will be ladies in waiting for a wood firing. Which would be my preference if I am patient.

The weather was great today. I spent much of it outdoors, preparing and loading pots for a bisque firing. I feel like spring is imminent... I even ordered some new light weight (but hopefully sturdy), studio shoes online today... my getting older feet just can't handle working in flip flops anymore!

cheesy inspiration

 A couple of weeks ago I saw a simple tutorial on Pinterest about how to make a wedding ring dish. I thought it was clever so I pinned it to my "crafty ideas" board. I don't feel it meets the criteria to be on my ceramics board because I don't think it takes much talent to make these.

I tweaked it some and cut the dishes into heart shapes. I have lots of doilies made by my mother and grandmother and they add a nice lacy texture.

The holes are used for ribbons to be tied on. Some couples use these little dishes for the ring bearer at their wedding ceremony. Jeff teased me about these, asking if I was going to start imprinting cheesy inspirational words on porcelain dishes... you know that whole "live, laugh, love" fad that's been hanging around for a few years... you can even buy inspirational paper towels these days. His teasing led me to think about making some in the vein of Valentine's Day conversation hearts and imprinting them with sarcastic words... boy could I have fun with that!

I used some bowls as a slump mold to get the curve I was looking for. Should I decide to continue with these I will throw some bowls and bisque them for this purpose. I lined these with plastic wrap so that I could get them out of the bowl once they set up. With a bisqued bowl they would set up a little more quickly as well. Today I will slip trail a few with a colorless porcelain slip. I used porcelain for these and my plan is to experiment with some Amoco underglaze on the texture and words and then glaze them in my Temple white. Lori Buff had some nice results with the underglaze and texture, you can check out her results here.

Aside from a little playing this weekend, I did complete a bunch of small pitchers. We will have another load of pots to bisque fire very shortly. Jeff fired the gas kiln yesterday, while I worked at the Co-op gallery in town. I glazed a few pigs in some new colors this time, I'll post some pics as soon as we are cooled down.

Kiln #1 unloaded

Jeff arrived with our pots from David's kiln late this afternoon...

 I am really happy with how these lids look "antiqued". These are made with Highwater porcelain 

(P-10)

 Wadding on the lids still need to be ground

 Very happy with the tumblers... I made these over a year ago. Some are regular B-mix, some are B-mix for wood. I actually prefer the regular. 

 Not a great photo, but Jeff's vase is gorgeous. 

 Seed pod rattle

and the first ginkgo cup is fired!

Fred Johnston just called to say he already unloaded his kiln so Jeff is off to get those next. How exiting, new pots from two different kilns in one day! Fred adds a little salt to his kiln and it's a much shorter firing. Jeff's BIG pots were in kiln #2, stay tuned for more photos!

Wood firing!

Patience has paid off for me. 

I made these covered ovals back in May and really wanted to wood fire them. I was anxious to see them finished but I resisted glazing and firing them in the gas kiln. Next week I will have the opportunity to fire them in David Stuempfle's wood kiln. The tumblers behind them will also be going in. I threw the tumblers a year ago when I was doing demonstrations for the NH Potters Guild at the League of NH Craftsmen's Fair. A company in Vermont donates the clay and last year a good bunch of it was Laguna B-mix for wood. These should come out nice and toasty. The ovals are Highwater P-10... I am not sure exactly what these will look like, but most likely not as toasty as the B-mix. Jeff has a gigantic pot to fire.


The temperatures have been cooler here, but the humidity has been, in my opinion, oppressive. The lawn needed mowing (again) and last night there was a nice breeze so I decided to tackle it.
After the mowing Jeff and I had a nice cool treat...

Carolina Brewery - Oatmeal Porter. We had to go to Greensboro the other day to pick up a cup we purchased from the By Example show at Green Hill Center for the Arts. While there we took advantage of our time and did what we call "good grocery shopping". There is a new Whole Foods in Greensboro and they carry Carolina Brewery beer. Since we don't even have a grocery store in Seagrove, and the ones in nearby Asheboro don't have a great selection, we consider an afternoon of grocery shopping in Greensboro a great day out!

and the beer tasted even better in our Samantha Henneke and Mark Hewitt tumblers :-)

Mashima

While Jeff was away in South Korea I read the Newberry Award winning children's book, " A Single Shard"by Linda Sue Park. A customer recommended the book to me and being a big fan of children's lit, I had to read it. I thoroughly enjoyed the story which wove a tale of the introduction of inlay work to South Korea in the mid to late 12th century.
As you know, Jeff came home with lots of little pots. Many with sgraffito designs and a few with porcelain inlay, also known as Mashima. He chose these pots because he knew that the carving and inlaid designs would inspire me...
I did some reading online as well as referring to my "go to" book for surface decoration, "Surface Design for Ceramics" by Maureen Mills. Maureen is the head of the ceramics department at the NH Institute of Art. I decided to try two methods of inlay. First was from Maureen's book, using a slip trailer to inlay the porcelain into my carved designs:

This worked best for vases which needed to be trimmed prior to the inlay. It was easy to clean up the excess slip with a scrubby but I did have some issues with the porcelain and stoneware drying unevenly.

Next I did some tiles where I carved them when moist and applied the slip with a brush immediately after:

Once the tiles were almost dry, I used a scrubby to remove the excess slip and reveal the inlay pattern:

This method was quickest for applying the porcelain slip and for the most even drying of the two clays, but it was a lot of work to clean up. I am not a fan of creating so much dust, I did it outside and really should have worn a mask. It was so darn humid today that I couldn't bring myself to wear one.
I am going to try two different glazes on these. Temple white, which is a translucent glaze and Celadon.

Jeff and I also collaborated on this little teapot...

Korean teapots are very small... this one fits in the palm of your hand. It was quite challenging to carve a design into!
Jeff may have been the one that made the trip to Korea, but his visit has inspired us both!