Sawdust & Dirt

Jugs and fountains

2009-07-15T11:28:00.001-04:00

After Supper Pots

2009-07-15T00:05:00.003-04:00

[It's been a week since I predicted to Stacey that our 7 year old eMac would probably bite the dust, but here we are plugging away, albeit, slower than Christmas, a week later and the hard drive still making a squealing noise that makes the neighborhood hounds howl.]

In the shop tonight:

It was a scholarship night! I've been wanting to do some chicken watering pots for a while now, even before we had chickens, because there are such curious forms. After seeing Tom Turner's show at the Blue Spiral in Asheville, I was also struck by his almost closed forms and how they had a premium on surface. A closed form is all surface! So with the planets aligned and I went for it and failed a few times but hung in there. After a few hours I had a few "poultry fountains". Some of the smaller prototypes are based on some that I saw in the Isaac Button video and in books. I just guessed at how they might be made and went for it with marginal success. Some of the smaller jars are thrown and closed, then the "mouth" is cut and the jar pushed in to make room for the fowl to get their heads in their to drink. The taller forms will be accompanied by a saucer and will have a little hole (about an inch and a half in diameter) cut out at their base.
The water stays in the jar after it has been filled and turned right side up. The ledge of the the mouth or the saucer is slightly higher than the opening in the jar and the majority of the water is held inside the jar by gravity. When the birds drink the water out of the mouth of the jar or the saucer more water is released from the jar to maintain the level of water. I hope this makes sense. More on how this actually works ATF (after the firing), when I actually will be testing my results. Also, I will try to post more images of historical pots like the ones I am mimicking.
Also on the table tonight were some 8 # bowls that I threw earlier in the day and more of the mini-latte bowls.

It's late. More tomorrow.

This Week @ St Earth Pottery with Scott Cooper

2009-07-14T14:52:00.006-04:00

a studio shot from "This Week @ St. Earth Pottery"

I wanted to let everybody know that Scott Cooper's blog, "This Week @ St. Earth Pottery" is now available as an RSS feed! This means that you can subscribe to his weekly blog in you reader or link to it through my blog roll whenever he updates it! Yay. Scott never fails to write insightfully about the potters life and always has a great quote to lead the way each week. I've had a link to his blog in my blog roll, but it's way down at the bottom. Now you'll see it pop into the blog roll every week in a more convenient place. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do and will be glad you found it!

Finally, Handles

2009-07-14T00:24:00.001-04:00

After a few days under plastic these jugs were liberated and handled. For the record, because I know there is someone out there asking this question to themselves, "Yes, I was wearing my Pointer Brand overalls." Tom, I hope you like the handles!

Ginger/Honey/Pooch

2009-07-14T00:16:00.001-04:00

Do you know this dog?

More pictures of the foundling!

Stowaway

2009-07-14T00:06:00.001-04:00

Dog Update: Our beagle Sonny G. ran off on Saturday and is AWOL. But today this cute pooch has shown up on the pottery's back porch. Sonny has had the travel bug before and has come back after his 'walkabout'. This puppy is very friendly and is comfortable just jumping in to the Ford, onto the couch, and into Lillian's bed so we assume she's been loved. We'll send a picture to the shelter and local vet's offices in the a.m. in case someone is looking. In the meantime we'll take good care of her. Lillian has already given her several names: Ginger and Honey are the most oft used this evening. Honey/Ginger is keeping me company this evening as I make my 'after supper' pots.

More Bread and Butter

2009-07-12T15:54:00.001-04:00

I've been making this pot for a long while. Affectionately know as the "latte bowl", this version is smaller than usual. I seem to use this sized pot a lot in the kitchen. So I decided to make a board full. I'll make more for this firing this week.This coming week will be my last week to make, then out come the brushes for some painting and glazing next week.

Function and Form

2009-07-12T12:21:00.001-04:00

These big cups have been a "bread and butter" form for many years. By that I mean these pots more than pay for themselves and allows me to speculate or experiment on other forms. Mark Shapiro describes these speculative pots as made on 'scholarship'. It's great to have a variety of forms and a diversity of interests to keep the creative fires burning. Like these cups fitting together in the kiln, it's great when all of one's ideas have room to 'fit' together.

Plates and Such

2009-07-10T11:10:00.001-04:00

Here are some dinner plates with incised birds. These will get some brushwork which may or may not obscure the birds. Since these are dinner plates I may do a white slip, then a regular wax resist pattern, then another layer of the crackle slip. It will be subtle and nice, I hope.

I will handle the jugs and throw pitchers this afternoon.

Night Owls, Jugs, and Sigur Rós

2009-07-10T02:00:00.005-04:00

When the clock strikes midnight and I'm deep "in the shed", I turn to Sigur Rós to get me through the late night pottery trance. You can read about this fantastic Icelandic band that my good buddy, Matt turned me onto after we heard an ethereal song in one of our favorite movies, The Life Aquatic w/ Steve Zissou.

Anyway, I'm digressing in this late hour. All I really wanted to share with you was this group of jugs that were made after supper tonight. It was a good evening!

Button Trick

2009-07-09T23:18:00.001-04:00

I got this pottery trick at the Isaac Button workshop so many years ago!;-) To lift this jug off the wheel just put a clay 'button' over the mouth and lift. The button makes the jug airtight so it can be lifted without deforming the pot! This is probably one of those tools that goes missing from the historical or archeological record because it just gets chucked when it dries up and is easily replaced by a fresh one. But I'm neither a historian nor an archeologist, but I've got YouTube!

I'll hook you up with a link later when I'm at the computer.

Loadin' and Scrubbin'

2009-07-09T16:41:00.007-04:00

B a Pepper

Instead of making all of those jugs, bottles, and pitchers today, I realized all of the shelves were full and there was no place to put the table pots! So I loaded a bisque kiln with a lot of these plates that have to be scrubbed, first! This is what I use to take the burr or edge off of the rim cut plates. It's simply a green scrubbie pad. I got this tip from Shawn Ireland while we were residents together over at Penland back in the salad days, (1998-2001). I do the scrubbing when the pot is bone dry.

In other News
I'm blogging on my pottery page on Facebook. See the link on the upper right side of this screen. Think of it as the "other channel". I hope you don't find all of these options overwhelming, but I have a lot of folks who like to read about the pottery there, too!

More pottery to be made tonight. My clay wasn't quite stiff enough, [refrain from lewd joke that Michael Scott ~~might~~ would blurt out] but it'll be ready after supper. Until then, love the spin you're in!

Hustling Flow

2009-07-09T00:19:00.005-04:00

price debate

The evening started out with the NC Clay Club, who met at the Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville. When I got there there was a lively discussion about pricing one's work. When I left there was still a lively discussion about pricing one's work. I guess we'll always debate that one. For an interesting discussion about pricing, see Ron Philbecks blog post, here.

I zipped back to the shop to work on finishing the pots and pugging clay to get clay ready for jugs and bottle and pitchers tomorrow! The clay in the picture below is my red dirt mix. I set it out to dry a little more in this way and will do another pugging in the a.m.

looks like a busy day tomorrow!

I'm feeling good about the clay, the pots, and the flow. It's been a good week and I hope to do some capping tomorrow. I also will try to start back on slab dishes that I have been wanting to make for a long time. Oh, ambition!

All Throw and No Play

2009-07-08T21:44:00.001-04:00

It's easy to throw all day long, but it may take more than a day to trim feet and add handles if I'm not careful. But today is working out fine. Tomorrow I'll throw the clay I just pugged. Momentum is building!

One More Sentence B 4 I Go

2009-07-08T17:27:00.001-04:00

This is the table before I head out the door to join a roomful of pottery affectionados talking shop and eating good food at the annual gathering of the NC Clay Club.

Ripple in Time

2009-07-08T12:25:00.002-04:00

Timing is everything, someone once said. In my case I have to confess that it takes me a long time to make a pot, or a kiln load of pots. As I've spoken about before here, life in the summertime, the kids home from school, friends visiting from Penland, put a pleasant speed bump in the old pottery making path.

My approach, and maybe potters everywhere, relies on a certain momentum. Clay dries or stays damp, depending on the weather. A potter walks through the shop pushing their finger into soft pots,checking the clay, waiting for further attention. This gesture keeps the potter in "touch" with the pots. Momentum in the shop is an accumulation of all of these moments of "awareness" that one gets from being in the shop. Remembering also comes with this momentum: pots that still want to be made, updates on shapes from previous cycles of work, attempts at new forms.

Blogging has been a real good outlet for me and a great way of staying in touch with you. But there comes a time when I've just got to get the pots made. This, hopefully, will serve as an apology for not being in touch with all of you (whom I'm so grateful for).

I've had to postpone my firing, and cancel a show. But in the scheme of time and momentum, the pots wil be better, I hope. Thanks for reading!

Penland Clay Slides Tonight

2009-07-08T00:49:00.010-04:00

Hayne Bayless introducing his studio assistant,

and my wonderful neighbor, Lindsay Rogers.

Tuesday Night is clay slides night at Penland this summer and it was a great night of wonderful work. First my bud, Hayne Bayless was up and among other things he was gracious enough to show a few of our pieces during his talk that we did together, last time he was passing through. Then my neighbor, Lindsay Rogers (who is assisting Hayne) showed slides of her pots, her visual influences, and pots with food! Sarah House is Hayne's other assistant. She should not be confused by our Sarah House, from Burnsville, NC. She talked about her work and the influence of scientific discovery on her work.

After a group intro by three studio assistants, James Watkins showed slides of his impressive work and travels. His assistants followed with quite a variety of work.

I take for granted this "cultural entertainment" that happens nightly up at the school, where teachers and their assistants briefly describe their work and show pictures for about ten minutes. It's quick and impressionistic at times, but it allows everyone time to present their work and still allow time to go back to the studios to get a little work in before it gets late.

Here is a platter that James Watkins made today using
sodium silicate to give the surface a crackle.

Here are Hayne and Lindsay looking over some

imagery Lindsay is working on in the work
she is making this session.

But tonight there wasn't much work being done as
Alan Tinney and Jan Welch were entertaining from
the upper clay porch. It was a blast as the moon
rose nearby in all of it's glory on this clear cool night.

There are a lot of friends teaching this session and I hope to ramble a little more and post some pictures of the great stuff I'm sure they're gonna do.

some of my pots that await

Meanwhile there are pots to make. But that a story for another day!

Penland School Auction Catalog Online!

2009-07-05T10:40:00.002-04:00

my slice of the catalog

The Penland School of Crafts 24th Annual Auction catalog is now online here. There are 230 + artworks that have been donated for the annual event. Check out the catalog through the 4 pdf files. The piece I donated is in the Saturday Silent Auction. Apparently there are a few tickets left. Hope to see you at the auction!

Download PDF directly:

Friday Night Silent Auction
Friday Night Live Auction
Saturday Silent Auction
Saturday Live Auction

Saturday Fun

2009-07-04T12:09:00.001-04:00

I'm carving some patterns on a few jars today. Also cutting some footrings on some platter bowls.

Tom Turner at Blue Spiral in Asheville

2009-07-01T15:40:00.005-04:00

The opening of Tom's new work is tomorrow evening, July 2nd. This show consists of the best from several month's of Tom's kiln. I hope to see you at the opening! Here are a few pictures of the installation.

Random Monday

2009-06-30T00:45:00.008-04:00

Here are a few pictures that describe the day I had today in no particular order.

some of the sandy light stoneware I'm using this go around.
For glazed pots.

hay bales. we lease the hay field to our neighbors who take the hay!

pugging some reclaim

more plates with light sandy stoneware

little tumblers in #6 tile slip

a nice mug I got in the mail from Scott Cooper. We're trading!

remote control.
Today's sounds included Ben Webster, NPR, The Ravonettes,
Destroyer, Deerhunter, and Wolf Parade!

the table. 12# bowls, 3.5# plates

random things that are collecting on the woodstove, including a vase
I am donating to my high school reunion (thirty years!!) raffle!
I was supposed to ship it Friday, sorry Angelia...

Activities not represented in this photo barrage,

fixing the digital converter box so that we could watch PBS on our analog, rabbit ears powered TV again
talking with some potter friends on some of the many unused minutes of my upgraded cell phone plan
making a 7 foot haystack, old school style, with the pitchfork.
playing with the girls
face~~hooking~~booking
grabbing chickens
fitting and oiling a new screen door, getting it ready to hang
feeding chickens
laying in the hammock

It was a full-on day that's just now ending with this post. It was a gorgeous day, the kind of clear bright Monday that my Dad would call a "blue Monday". Until next time.......

Dipping Cups

2009-06-26T14:59:00.002-04:00

These cups are hard to hold because there's not much of a foot to hold on to. So I just wet my fingers and hold on to the leatherhard clay till I feel that my fingers are stuck. Then I invert and dip!

Penland Ramble (of Sorts)

2009-06-26T10:43:00.008-04:00

checking for balance

I didn't ramble around Penland as I usually do, instead I took a break from my own pottery action to swing up to peek in on the upper clay class being led by Daniel Johnston. I just happened to get when Kaye Waltman and Daniel were taking a big pot that Kaye had made outside to glaze. Here is a series of pictures of that process.

wrappin'

walking it out to the kiln pad

Getting ready to pour the glaze. The Brent wheel has had
it's belt removed so that the wheel will spin freely.
The glaze and another way to
pour and conserve the glaze.

Daniel Johnston @ Penland

2009-06-24T15:29:00.005-04:00

One of the curses of being ten minutes from Penland is its strong gravitational pull. Especially when friends and colleagues are teaching up there. I spent several afternoons up there last session when Ayumi was there teaching, and insisted that I would hit the wheel hard this week and crank some pottery for the upcoming firing (#31). But I found myself drawn into the lights of the pot shop at Penland last night like a big ole Luna moth. And big were the pots, too.

Daniel and one of his students burning
the midnight oil last night

Daniel is showing his coil and throw technique which he employs on his fantasticly big pots in Seagrove, NC. I will swing by a few more times, I'm sure, before the two week session is over. I'll try to bring my tripod next time.

Talkin' Kyle Carpenter Blues

2009-06-23T15:41:00.004-04:00

a scene like this must be what inspires
Kyle Carpenter!