Another month comes to a close

Jeff took a road trip to Raleigh on Thursday to deliver mugs to Capitol Broadcasting Company. Each employee receives a handmade mug, from a North Carolina potter, as birthday gift. They choose a different potter each year. This year they chose us to make the mugs. They picked one of my designs.

This is a good project for me because I am not a production potter. If I were paid piece work by a pottery I would never make more than minimum wage. I changed up my handles a little, in order to make things go faster. I am still pulling them off the mug, but now I am extruding the lugs. 

I am definitely getting a little faster at throwing them as well.

We don't have to deliver 600 at once but I do plan to get the order done as quickly as possible. So now my nights are filled with dreams of mug making, along with piggy bank production...

And the occasional dreams of painting.

Throwing Bowls

Like many potters, Jeff and I have always supported Empty Bowls. I am sure you all know the premise; potters donate bowls, restaurants donate soup, people come to the event and purchase a bowl that is then filled with soup. All funds raised support agencies that feed the hungry in your community. Since moving to North Carolina, we have been donating to an agency that has a very large Empty Bowls fundraiser each spring. This year they contacted us to make 50 bowls for them. They will pay for a portion of the bowls and we donate the rest.

Since Jeff is the production potter in this studio, the throwing of the 50 bowls was left to him. If I were doing the throwing, we would have had to start a week earlier! He is able to throw a soup bowl that needs no trimming. Yesterday was the day he got them all done.

He wheeled a ware cart out into the driveway to allow for quick drying. I kept a watchful eye on them, thumbing smooth the foot and stamping with Jeff's chop and his Empty Bowls chop as soon as they were stiff enough. Tonight he is loading them into the kiln for the bisque firing. Our glaze plan should go quickly as well as fun to do. More on that next week!

Is it still hand made?

I belong to a couple of online groups where the conversation can get rather lively. Mention the words "jigger" or "ram pressed" and the conversation gets heated! Many potters believe that those two terms and "handmade", can never be said in the same sentence. I happen to disagree. There are small production potteries that utilize these techniques for some items, and their wares can still be considered handmade.

 This is one of my all time favorite dishes. It's a ram pressed baking dish created in a production pottery that JZ had worked at. It's quite small, the perfect size for one can of refried beans, or half a dozen baked stuffed shrimp.

Typically this dish would have been slip trailed by hand, with a blue traditional design, and salt glazed. JZ acquired this one prior to the decorating, and fired it in a wood kiln. The shino glaze on the interior has some beautiful crazing which would make some say it isn't food safe. It's high-fired, the clay is vitrified, and it gets washed in hot water. I haven't gotten sick and (obviously) haven't died from using it yet. Perhaps that's an argument for another post!

Is there really any difference from ram pressing a piece or using a slump mold? Some would state that ram pressing involves a machine... but we can also argue that all potters incorporate some machinery to make the work easier on our bodies, and to save time. My little baker was ram pressed, but all the trimming and finish work was done by hand. 

Wheel thrown plate by John Zentner - pork quesadilla with re-fried beans by Meesh

I believe that there are many manufacturers that are creating some very nice products, utilizing beautiful design. Those designs started somewhere, from within someone's imagination. As long as they are produced ethically, I will continue to enjoy using them.


UPDATE!

I thought I would add a photo of what this company's pots look like when decorated and glazed in their salt kiln. This one was thrown and handled by Jz. His stamp is just underneath, where the handle attaches at the bottom of the pot. 

Finally nailing it.

 Jeff has a mug shape that is always a best seller. We often collaborate with this shape for ginkgo carved mug. He throws them, I slip, handle, and carve.

The vessel sink business has really taken off and that has been his focus in recent months. So if wanted mugs in his shape, I had some practice to do. At first I could always tell which were mine and which were his. At last I think I have finally nailed it! 

I could never work at a pottery throwing other potter's designs. It would take me so long to get it down that I would have been fired before I became successful. Jeff on the other hand did it for so many years that he can reproduce most anybodies pots.

Today is a glazing day. It's looking to be gorgeous weather here in Seagrove, and will do our glazing outside. We have been firing the gas kiln most every week. It doesn't take long to fill when there are sinks in each firing.

My name is...

Nuka, I glaze on the second floor... I glaze upstairs from you...

okay, I'll stop now.

Yesterday I spent the entire, sweaty afternoon mixing three different glazes. One of which was nuka. All day the Suzanne Vega song was stuck in my head with Nuka substituted for Luka.

Jeff can take the blame for this silliness...

When he was working at the production pottery in NH, he and his fellow potters passed the time by singing popular songs and switching the words out with pottery terms.

Wild horses, couldn't drag me through clay... Rolling Stones "Wild Horses"
Creamers, Sugars and Creamers, well can you put your hands on your clay oh no... Supertramp's "Dreamers"

Squish the little babies and make them throw cups..... Ween "Push Th' Little Daisies" (google it if you aren't familiar with Ween)

I am sure there are more, as well as the "Movie" versions of the production pottery, but THAT could be a whole other post and I am not going there.


Back to glaze mixing (much more serious business!)... I used to use nuka all the time when I was making pots at NH Institute of Art. It was one of their more consistent glazes so I used a lot of that and spodumene. When something works when you have little or no control over the glaze or the firing, YOU STICK TO IT. I am looking forward to glazing pots with it again, and see what it will do in our own kiln of which we THINK we have control over. I also mixed a batch of glaze called peach blossom. It's one that JZ had tested during the last few months he worked in the studio. He had mixed a small batch and tested it on porcelain...

Looks like the test got a little beat up during the move, but we didn't manage to lose it, or the recipe!

I couldn't find his tests on stoneware, but I am sure it will look great. I think it will be a good color for some piggy banks. The kiln is firing as I type and there are tests of the nuka  and peach blossom in there.

My name is Nuka...