Organization

Jeff and I have been feeling rather unorganized since moving our studio a year ago. Don't get me wrong, we have never been super organized... but if you were to go down to our basement right now you would gasp at the mayhem. It's been a tough to balance getting pots made and getting settled. This week while I glazed piggy banks, Jeff cleared out some boxes and got the smaller pug mill set up in a permanent location. This is huge for us. It's been totally painful to pug clay for the last year and our scrap clay has been getting a little overwhelming because of it. We now have a clear workspace and all of our dies are in easy reach. After the holidays I will spend some time deciding what needs to be on the shelves and in cabinets.

Our work flow is slowly improving!

Practice Makes Perfect

Jeff is teaching his "Practice Makes Perfect" workshop at our studio this weekend. The workshop focuses on enhancing your skills using production pottery techniques. I call it pottery boot camp. I took this workshop with Jeff nearly ten years ago. I was student at the time with a full time job... I thought my arms might fall off by the end of the weekend!

Needless to say, we need lots of clay ready for the participants. I pugged a whole bunch of clay and the last time through, I attached a die to the pug mill to make smaller lugs of clay.

When you drop these smaller lugs through the harps, pictured below, they are cut to a certain weight. The first harp is one pound, the second 1 1/2 pounds etc...
It saves a lot of time when doing production work. No weighing out balls of clay.

The workshops we teach at our studio are small, 5 to 6 participants. If there is a group that wants to come we can work around your schedule to meet your needs. Jeff also travels to other studios and clay centers to teach. If you are interested in a workshop at our studio or yours, send him an e-mail for more info: jeff@jeffbrownpottery.com.

In between our studio clean up marathon, and pugging clay, I managed to roll out some slabs and make some square soap dishes. They are nice chunky dishes that can be used for other things as well. Typically I just stamp the insides, this time I slipped and carved half of them. They were a nice break from wheel work.

It's been pouring rain off and on here for a couple of days. Tonight they are predicting snow. The snow may actually be a nice break from the rain... did this New Hampshire girl really just say that???

the giant fun factory machine

While the bisque kiln was firing and before we started to glaze, I felt it would be a good time to pug many months of two potter's clay scraps. When I turned the pugmill on it made a horrible sound... I quickly turned it off. Jeff heard the noise and said he hoped it just needed grease.

Seagrove Hardware had lithium grease and in no time I was back to work. Luckily, grease was all it needed. She's an old Bluebird pugmill and I was a little worried!

when all was said and done i pugged about 200 pounds of clay... thankfully my arm didn't fall off.
... I love seeing all this freshly plugged clay, makes me want to get back to throwing pots!

a sturdier wine cup

this one will hold up much better for me! i was fondling this cup in David Orser's booth at the fair and he insisted that i have it. it feels so good in my hand. i like David's work a lot, we have some of his plates that get used nearly everyday. His wife, Laurel MacDuffie, makes amazing boxes.

we woke up to very comfortable and cool air this morning... perfect timing for us. Jeff is stoking the wood kiln at David Stuempfle's today (always a hot job!) and i have what seems like tons of clay to pug. i started yesterday afternoon, only to find that the clay in the old bluebird had started to dry and wouldn't budge. Jeff took it apart and we had to dig a fair amount out before we could get it moving. it was a lesson learned... i have to pug more often here in the heat than i did in NH. the pugger stayed unused in my old studio for nearly a year and it never dried out. i always put a wet sponge in the hopper and cover everything in plastic. i just have to look on the bright side... if i pug more often the task won't seem as daunting!

back to reality...

after a fun weekend of visitors it was time to get back to work on monday.  i just couldn't get into the groove.  i need to make piggy banks but the bodies just weren't looking the way i wanted them too, jeff says i was being too critical.... rather than get totally frustrated i abandoned the pigs for the day and moved on to some slump molded dishes and then finished some cake stands that i started last week...

today i woke up with a new attitude.  after working some more on slump molded plates and throwing a few pig bodies, i decided to get to work pugging clay.  we had gotten sooooo far behind with recycling clay.  we didn't have the pug mill set up until just about 6 weeks ago which means we had nearly a years worth of scraps to recycle and pug.  jeff and i worked together and pugged a few hundred pounds of clay... we are finally caught up with recycling!!!  i have to say i do enjoy the physical aspect of the process... and the fresh new tubes of clay all stacked up and ready to throw make me feel good about the hard work.
of course i may feel differently in the morning when my arm feels like it is ready to fall off!

the clay is pugged!

mmmm...just like new (almost)

...i spent a few hours in the studio tonight finishing some oval bakers that i started at the beginning of the week. it felt good to be there in the evening...it was raining here in new hampshire and the sound of the rain beating down on the studio roof was a comforting.

there was clay on the plaster bats that was ready to be pugged but it was getting late. i wrapped it up in plastic and should get to it by sunday afternoon... i promised pictures so i will try to deliver.
i am getting closer to being able to do a glaze firing in the gas kiln.

now that is exciting news :-)

recycling clay

at last my clay scrap buckets have thawed out and i was able to start to reclaim clay. i got one bucket spread out on plaster bats...should be ready to pug by the end of the week. did i tell you that i LOVE to pug clay? it is soooo satisfying to start out with globs of clay...and end with fresh smooth tubes...ready to make new pots. mmmmmmm......


this what the scraps look like today:

i will try to post some "during and after" pictures of the pugging process.

...and in case you are wondering....no i haven't finished this months art journal. i promise to do it tomorrow (a day late).