blogger brain freeze

I have had nothing to blog about these days. I guess I haven't wanted to bore you with the mundane. The CCM Pottery Festival in Charlotte was good... easy set up, short day (10am-4pm), and fabulous customers who love to buy pottery. When you figure in the time and dollars we put into this show we make more money per hour than any other show we do. This show also attracts a smart crowd that understands art and handmade. We sold lots of sponge holders and coasters (as usual) and things in the $50 to $95 range were selling as well.

The sponge holders are about gone and the good thing is, I can throw those forms without putting too much stress on my shoulder. They are a good exercise in getting back to work!

I think I have the warping issue pretty much solved. They need to be thrown fairly hefty. A few still warp slightly, but not enough to be called a second or get the hammer.

I am having some issues with peeling slip on these flared rim bowls. The slip peeled off the rim on a few of these. I have two thoughts on the issue. The first is that I should keep the slip off of the edge of the rim and second, I am at the bottom of my slip bucket and I think it's beyond it's shelf life. I have heard other potters say that slip doesn't keep. The last batch I made was large so it's been around a few months. I also had a couple of vases with some slip that popped off the sides. It's time to mix a new batch and I think I will make half as much. If anyone else has had this experience, I would be happy to hear your thoughts.

Wedding cake box

... that is what I decided to call this one

The slip has no color so it will a raised texture only. Jeff called it the wedding cookie box :-)

back to work

I was ready for work yesterday after the break on Wednesday. I had a bunch of pasta bowls and one large bowl that were slipped and ready to carve. It was about 50 degrees outside, therefore easy to keep the studio at a good working temperature.

I enjoy carving designs through slip but it can get tedious when you have a dozen bowls and as many tumblers to carve. I broke the work up by finishing the tumblers on Tuesday before our day off. Yesterday I worked on the bowls for about 7 hours straight, until 8:00 pm. I think I have three left to finish today.
When I went to bed last night, I spent the first few hours dreaming those monotonous, repetitive, go nowhere dreams, about carving bowls. Those darn bowls wouldn't leave my head!!! When they finally left I had a strange dream that involved working for a corrupt circus... something about you weren't aloud to perform unless you had an X tattooed on your back... and one of the female trapeze artists performed without the X and she was now in grave danger... I woke up before anything bad happened.
I think I will finish those last few bowls EARLY today and get them out of my head before bedtime.

the last few pots of 2011

Last year we were in NH for the week between Christmas and New Years so we didn't know what to expect for gallery traffic or sales this week. We have been pleasantly surprised and have enjoyed meeting new people and making a few good sales. We have enjoyed the week with a healthy balance of slacking off and working. Jeff has been making mugs by the dozens and getting his tools organized around his wheel. In between cooking (and eating!) good food, I have finished some carved vases...

I have about a dozen finished and played around a little with the designs. I have sold quite a few of these in the last few weeks.

When the last vase was carved, I got busy throwing some shallow pasta bowls. These will also be slipped and carved. You may recall that the last round of these ended up full of shards from a re-fire explosion in the kiln. Only one survived and it has already found a new home. Today I will throw a few more. I am trying really hard to stick to working in a larger series rather than jumping around to every new idea that comes into my head. Perhaps this is my New Years resolution!

On a final note... I am paying closer attention to my Etsy shop. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I was listing items everyday, my sales increased as did my traffic. I use Google analytics to track my page views. When I list items my traffic is anywhere from 24 to 60 hits a day. I didn't list anything this week until yesterday and my traffic had dropped steadily to only 8 visitors. After yesterday's listing I was back up to 24. If I want to increase my sales this year I know I have to stay on top of it.

I think that may be resolution #2.

envelope forms

back to work on ovals... since these are narrow i have been referring to them as envelope forms.

decided to do the leaves and slip decoration on these, typically i stamp them like the one on the left. this morning i threw the parts so i can assemble a few more tomorrow. i have an idea in my head about adding some little feet to the next ones.

finished up a few large bowls today. it's been so humid that these took forever to get to trimming consistency. i wonder how long before they will be dry enough to bisque? no a/c in the studio :-(

slip and leaf technique

the japanese maple in front of the gallery has leaves now which means i need to get busy making plates with maple leaf impressions.  they were very popular last year and i don't have any left in the gallery.  i figured while i was making them i would take some pictures and share the technique i use.  it isn't anything i invented but everyone touches clay in their own way...

after the plates are thrown and are still in a semi-soft state, i lay the leaves on to the plates and impress them into the clay with a pony roller

i apply a white slip over the leaves and up to the rim with a soft brush... i then roll a small nylon piece of rope up and down, around the rim for some texture.  i have a rope wrapped and glued around a dowel that was purchased, but for this application the dowel ends get in the way and muck up the rim.  for some things simple is best!

we keep an recycled kitty litter bucket full of slip that we mix up... here is the recipe written right on the lid so that it is always handy.  feel free to give it a try... we fire to ^10.  this slip looks great in salt and soda.

i use this handy dandy kitchen mixer to stir it before using... as you can see it is on it's last leg and held together with duct tape.  i hope i can find another at a yard sale! we use a larger mixer on an electric drill for 5+ gal buckets of glazes.

once the slip has set up i can peel the leaves up, usually quite easily if i slip a needle tool under the stem.

i let the slip set up, for a few hours or overnight (covered in plastic) and then setting the plate and bat back on the wheel and carve and accent ring using a small dolan carving tool.

when the plates are leather hard i will finish trimming them.  when they are completely dry and ready to bisque i will go over them lightly with a green scotch scrubby and remove any unwanted high or bumpy points in the slip.

here is an example of a plate that was fired with wood and salt

this one was reduction fired to ^10 in our gas kiln

we will be participating in a wood/salt firing with our friend Prissy Newell in Carthage at the end of the month... i am hoping this new round of plates and platters will make it into that kiln.

teapot update

finished!

view one

view two

all in all i am happy with how this teapot turned out.  i am anxious to see it finished, but i think i will save it for the next time we are able to participate in a salt firing... i like the look of the slip and sgraffito when fired with salt.

i threw three more teapot bodies today, one didn't make the final cut.  my mission for the next few days is to finish these and perhaps stretch my imagination to create some different shaped bodies for teapots.

new pots!

we unloaded the kiln today and we had mostly good results... a few of the copper reds were a little pink, but all in all it was a good firing.  i will have some new pots to post on etsy in the coming days.

remember when my photographer friend ken came to the northwood, nh studio and tried his hand at throwing pots? well i finally got them fired and i think they came out really nice.  i will send them off to him so he can have them in time for christmas...

i think these are great little cups for a first attempt at the wheel!

and here is a little peek at what i have been working on in the studio today...

i applied white slip to the vase and then carved the oak leaf design... seems i am getting into more tedious work these days!  not sure yet how i will glaze this.

slip sliding away...

last week we bought 500 pounds of orange stone highwater clay... it fires to a nice toasty orangey/brown in reduction and it really looks great fired in a wood kiln.  this clay also works well with a variety of slip techniques.  since jeff mixed up that batch of slip yesterday i decided to have a little fun with it...

i have another large bowl to finish tomorrow along with some berry bowls... can't wait to get these fired.