Making Vessel Sinks

The great thing about making vessel sinks is that it isn't tied to the holiday season. People order them year round. This week I took a few photos of Jeff's work in progress. Last month he had to order a new torch. He finally wore out the last one. The nice thing about this torch is that it doesn't need a striker to light. I can't even tell you how many times the striker was misplaces and we had to search for it.

Torching the pot stiffens the clay and allows Jeff to finish throwing the sink in one session. When he is using the torch it's gets very warm and steamy in the studio. Which was very welcome while we experienced a cold snap.

This sink is getting a textured exterior and glazed in our nuka white glaze. I think this is one of my favorite patterns. I really like how the glaze breaks to gray over the texture.

Today was sunny and 70 degrees. We have enough work completed for the first firing of 2017. It was a perfect day to load the bisque kiln. Tomorrow we will fire it off.

running water

We spent today battling the frozen water pump/pipes issue that comes along with arctic temps in a structure that wasn't designed for this kind of weather. As I looked at the dishes piling up in the sink, my mind drifted to the vessel sinks that Jeff has been making, and shipping out across this country and Canada...

Jeff's sinks are a generous size, deep and wide enough to function well. I have seen, and used, many vessel sinks that just weren't deep enough to wash your hands in without splashing water everywhere.
Clicking on the first photo will take you to Jeff's Etsy shop where you can take a look at pricing etc. We have a few sinks in stock, but most are custom ordered.

I am hoping that tomorrow we will have water and I can wash all those dishes that are piling up! In the meantime, I hope you are all fairing well in these frigid temps.

this and that...

 I have soft spot for little ceramic things...

I adore this small dish. I would use it for an Asian dipping sauce or a catch all on my dresser. I really like little unique pieces like this. I just wish there were more people in the world who felt the same way!  I may have to keep it for myself.

The weather was great today so I took a few photos outdoors. This is one of the soap dishes from the last firing. I can think of a few more uses besides a soap dish, but that was my intent when making it.

Jeff has been busy making vessel sinks...

 I love this one! It's like his bowls only BIG. Someday we will have one in our own bathroom. It's going to get the shino/turquoise glaze combo.

Jeff is working on a sink order right now. This one is a drop in sink with an overflow...

 I thought you may want to see how he creates that on the underside. This sink when finished will be similar to this one:

Jeff also makes disks to fire these sinks on...

So much behind the scenes work!
That's what's been happening around here this week. Tomorrow a friend from NH arrives for the NC Potters Conference. It's always fun to see our New England friends.

Booth Neighbors

When you do a nine day show you get to know your booth neighbors quite well...

 Next door to us was Lee Spiller. We already had a couple of his vases at home and this year we added two more to the collection.

 We think hauling pottery to shows is heavy, can you imagine lugging all these stones? On the plus side, they aren't breakable!

Our across the aisle neighbor for the 2nd year in a row was Sarah Heimann...

 The details on her carved pots is amazing. If you click on the photo above you may be able to see that the knob on the right is a vacuum cleaner and on the left is dresser!

A bonus for the week was having the opportunity to see a sink that Jeff made for a good friend that lives in the Sunapee area. He hadn't seen it installed...

Do you see where Jeff set his beer down to take the photo? I guess we won't be using this photo for advertising!
Ha, ha, ha, I just enlarged the photo and it wasn't his beer... it was a bottle of hand lotion that must have been on the countertop!

happy people

Jeff''s large vessel sinks went to their new home yesterday...

Ash glaze over shino

They are going to sit on a granite countertop. The new owner said he would send some pictures once they are installed.

Preview of things to come...

We let the kiln cool slowly today and have 1/2 the door un-bricked at 11:45 pm. So far we like what we can see and what we have taken out...

the vessel sink in the front looks good, phew!

The lids on my little jars weren't stuck... always a good sign...
More pics tomorrow.