Studio Time

The first long weekend of the summer is now over (sigh). I did manage to get 3.5 full & uninterrupted days in the studio, so that is a bonus. I did a lot of black and white sgrafitto, I threw some mugs, and I may have lost my mind a bit, as I threw 1 20 lb canister, 1 10 lb canister, 1 5 lb canister and then topped it off with a 10 lb pitcher. I know full well that I will probably not sell these. Nobody in this town buys jars, let alone massive ones with no actual purpose other than to look pretty.

 This is the 20 lb canister

 Pretty jars all in a row(I know, the handles/lugs suck)


 I was asked to come up with a "chicken" teapot for a student that collects chickens, so this is what I came up with first:

and then just in case it wasn't that obvious, I made this one:

I filled in the time spent waiting for things to dry with these:

OPEN HOUSE - Fairview Studios

If you have ever wondered how pottery was made and that you might like to give it a whirl, come to the Fairview Studios Open House. You can check out the studio, meet the instructors, watch throwing demonstrations and partake in a raku firing and you might even get to take a little treasure home with you. If you missed the Spring Sale, there will also be a selection of work for sale made by the instructors and various students.

The Cost of a Cup

I was speaking to a customer at our sale on the weekend and was a bit taken aback by the comment that $10 for a cup is just too much because it is “just a cup”. Personally, I think $10 is a bargain. Let's say that I can make a simple cup (no handle) out of 200g of clay. This is the equivalent of .441 lbs. For arguments sake, let's say half a pound My clay costs about $26 for a 50lb box. So, the cost for the clay to make one cup is $0.26. The cost to glaze and fire this cup is based on the formula that the studio uses and it amounts to approximately $3. So, the absolute bare minimum that this cup would cost is $3.26. Nowhere in this figure is my time taken into account, or the overhead that I pay for using the studio space, the gas that it takes to get my work to the shows and galleries etc. I would say that to throw 1 cup takes me about 1 minute (not a production potter by any means). The trimming takes another 2 minutes, the glazing takes about 10 minutes and includes the waxing of feet, dusting of the pot, waiting for glaze to dry, wiping bottoms etc. So we are at 12 minutes for making and decorating (lets round to 15 minutes). The minimum wage is $9.75/hour in Alberta, so this would work out to $2.44 if I only put the same value on my work as that of a kid working in a fast food chain. The cost in materials and the making/decorating time (at the very least) is $5.70. The way I price my pots is based on the cost to fire and usually amounts to four times that cost, so in fact, the $10 cup, should be more like $12. So, when I have a conversation with a customer that thinks $10 for a cup is just too much because it is “just a cup”, I don't really know what to say. Don't get me started on matching sets. My personal belief is that sets should not be less per item than if you just bought one. So a set of six $10 cups should be no less than $60 and in my humble opinion, should cost a bit more. The effort to produce, by hand (not machine), a set of anything that perfectly matches is not simple. I can't blame the customer for thinking this though. We have been living in a world of mass production that has resulted in consumers that do not think about quality, only how cheap it is and can they get a better deal elsewhere. Pottery is functional, therefore it is not valued as a work of art by most people (unless they have tried to make it themselves and have an appreciation for the skill required).

Now, take that cup and add a handle. It is going to cost a wee bit more than $10. I generally charge in the area of $20 for a plain mug. The handle requires special attention, it is not just a strip of clay haphazardly squished into place. I pull my handles by hand, I don't extrude them, so this takes a little extra time and care. I then consider the mug and determine where it should be placed to have the right visual as well as functional balance. After attaching the handle, the mug is set aside to dry very slowly so that the handle remains an integral part of the mug and not a cracked mess. Do I consider the time it takes to dry these mugs under plastic for a week and then a few more days unwrapped to completely dry? Nope. If I am decorating my mugs, this will increase the cost a bit too. My black and white sgrafitto mugs take quite a bit of extra time.In fact, depending on the pattern, it can take upwards of an hour. I charge about $30 for one of these, so that means I am only getting $10/hour for that time. If I were to price my pots truthfully, they would be unaffordable and that is counter productive.

Tiny Wings, I curse you!!!

I have an app on my phone called Tiny Wings, and I have been trying to get to island 9 for like ever!!! I almost made it, I was on the cusp, and then I didn't.

UPDATE: I just did it, so I take back the curse, for now. The next thing I need to do is also proving to be a challenge, so the curse is still valid, I am just suspending it for the moment...

I should just work for dirt

Well, the tax man cameth and doth did taketh away. For various reasons, I owed a wee bit more in taxes this year. Let's just say that when I was laid off last January, I had to decide what I wanted done with my retirement savings that I had been accumulating with the company I was with. I could either take it in cash (less whatever tax they took off) or transfer it to an RSP account of my own. I mean, it was not a lot of money as I had only been on the plan for a year and a half. Well, I was a little short on funds and thought what the heck, I'll take the cash please. I invested some of it, I bought a new camera with a bit of it, and the rest has been sitting in my bank account (subconsciously I knew I would have to part with some of it, but was not sure how much). Also, I don't have taxes taken off my pay cheque from Ceramics Canada, so that had to be added on to the amount owed. Trudy, if you read this, you should just pay me in dirt, preferably with the sticks and rocks removed. Here's hoping that Saturday's sale is busy and profitable (aka breakevenable).

Digital Withdrawal - sort of

You know that feeling you get when you are leaving the house for the day? That feeling that you are forgetting something? Why do I never listen to that little voice until I am in the car and half way to wherever I am going (like work) and then like a bolt out of the blue I remember what it was that I forgot to bring with me. Today it was my phone. But it is not just my phone though, it is my watch, my camera, my photo album, my library, my alarm clock, my to do lists, my things to remember (ironic?), it is a whole lot more than just my phone. I am all for planned unplugging from the digital world, but when it is unplanned and accidental, it sucks.

In non digital news, I managed to price and pack most of my pots for the spring studio sale this Saturday. This is a rare occurrence. Not the sale, but the fact that I have priced and packed my pots a week in advance. I am usually doing it the night before the sale, which causes me to stay up late and then risk sleeping in. I have, in the past, actually slept in twice for the sale. I discovered that I can set up in 10 minutes, but am super crabby about it. If I am late, don't get in my way.

There is still a lot to do before Saturday, like getting the cash float for the sale, putting the sale accounting binders together, making sure there is enough paper and plastic for wrapping purchases, putting together a playlist for the music that will be playing in the background, pricing and wrapping the few odds and ends I have not gotten to yet, buying the coffee supplies and loading my car. The problem is that I will have to cram it all into Thursday and Friday night. I still have not done my taxes, so I have to do them tonight. I teach on Tuesday night and the taxes are due on Tuesday. I have a massage booked for Wednesday evening that will render me completely useless, so Thursday and Friday it is. I can probably get to the bank today, but all the other stuff will have to wait until Thursday and Friday. I am not the one heading up the sale, but these are the things I know that nobody is going to take care of or is even thinking of, so I'm it I guess. I could delegate, but it you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself.

I'm getting antsy without my phone...

It's all relative I'm afraid (AKA - I wish I had a Tardis)

This year is speeding by quite quickly, more quickly than I would like in fact. I think that the perceived speed that time passes is inversely related to the speed you wish it was going. If you want it to go quickly, it drags by and then when you really want time to slow down a little, it whizzes past you. There should be a button you can push for that...but now that I think of it, if everyone was pushing the speed up/slow down time button, things would get very confusing.

Anyway, it is almost time for the Fairview Studios Spring Pottery Sale. As previously mentioned, it will be on Saturday, May 4^th from 9am to Noon at the Canyon Meadows Community Centre (848 Cantabrian Dr. SW). I will have lots of salty pots as well as the regular cone 6 fare, including my new black and white sgrafitto work, among others.

Fairview Studios is also planning an OPEN HOUSE on June 8^th. More details will follow, but if you have ever wanted to see how pottery is made on a potters wheel, or wondered just what exactly a glaze is, then mark this date in your calendar. We will have lots going on, and you might just be able to take a little something home with you. I will provide more info after the sale.

More low fire porcelain

Before I left for Medalta I mixed up a 5lb batch of the 04 porcelain. This is what I did with some of it. I am going to fire a test with some different stains to see if I can get some colour on these pots. Otherwise they will just be white. Aside from the teapot, I threw a couple low wide bowls and a half a dozen tea bowls. I have another 5lb batch on the go right now too. It takes a while to get all the excess moisture out, so I will be wedging it on plaster for a while until it is workable.

 

Always learning, sometimes the hard way.

I spent the past weekend, from Thursday to Sunday, firing the salt and soda kilns at Medalta. I have posted a few pictures of the fired results and there will be more to follow, but I am going to wait for my new light box to arrive before I do. Anyway, there were a few things that I learned this weekend. First, we needed to introduce more soda into the soda kiln. Second, we needed to pack the soda kiln a little more loosely. Third, the salt kiln seems to fire very evenly but slower than the soda kiln. Fourth, we don't think many people drink wine in Medicine Hat. We did however pick up a very nice malbec at the Co-op liquor store (the lady there doesn't drink wine, she only reads the labels, so no help there unless you can't read, then she's your gal. Fifthly, I personally discovered that if you lean in too close when looking into the peeps, your eyebrows, eyelashes and the hair surrounding your face, will singe completely off. I lost half the length of my lashes, trimmed my brows, and now have a fringe of hair no longer than a centimetre at my hair line.

A few pots from Medicine Hat

The firing at Medalta was far from perfect but there were some pots that came pretty darned close. I managed to shoot a few good quality pictures before I came home and here they are. Overall I would say 1/3 crap, 1/3 good and 1/3 excellent.

Crippled

Susan and I arrived in Medicine Hat yesterday at 11 ish and were glazing by noon. It took us until 11:30 that night to get the kilns loaded. We turned the flames on low and went to the hotel. I took two robaxicets and fell into a coma. Just before I woke up this morning I was dreaming about glaze. I couldn't get it off my hands. Out out damn spot.....
We will be turning up the kilns soon, but first I need some nourishment.
Pictures will be forthcoming, but not till later.

Glorious or Gloriously Hideous

I leave tomorrow morning at 6:30am for the Hat. I have not packed a single thing yet (not counting pots and slips of course). I also have a massage booked for this evening, so I wont be home until 7:30 or so. I know, kinda dumb to book a massage the day before I embark on a marathon glazing/firing event, but at least I will be limber. I may need to book another for when I get back. I am taking almost every pot I have thrown since January as well as a couple flashing slips, some coloured terra sig based slips (green, blue/green, rutile & black) and a shino. There will be glazes at the studio that I will be able to use, but I have these on hand and can not really use them at cone 6 in electric kilns, so I am using them where I can. I am eager to leave and get started, but I am also thinking about all the work that this is going to be. I have approximately 100 pots to decorate, wad and load. Then there are the kiln shelves that will need to be scraped and cleaned when we are done. I am bringing a jumbo bottle of ibuprofen as well as a box of muscle relaxants. Perhaps a bottle of wine would be in order too.... It feels a bit strange to me to have not fired much in the way of pots over the last 3.5 months. All of my output has been geared towards the salt and soda firing this weekend. This means that I am risking most, if not all, of my near future sales on this one weekend. If something goes awry, I could have a load of crap. If all goes well, then nothing to worry about, but I come from a long line of worriers. I have almost nothing ready for the studio sale coming up on May 4th and if this does not go to plan, then I really will not have much to offer. I will have a quick refresher on how their kilns work (ie where the air is, where the gas is, etc, but then it is up to me to remember how we fired it last time (thank goodness for kiln logs and kiln gods) and what we might want to change based on the results from last time. To be honest, there are only one or two things I would change. I think we packed the soda a bit tight and I would cut back on how much soda we sprayed and increase the burritos. The spraying tends to cause the glaze to become a bit grey if too much water is introduced. It seems to trap the carbon in a not very pretty way. If we decide to stay with the same amount of spraying, I would increase the damper wafting and keep it open a bit longer in between applications of soda to clean up the atmosphere and brighten the colours and hopefully mitigate any greying of the glaze. The salt kiln (for me) gave results that I appreciated a bit more. I love toasty orange and brown orange peel. I love flashing too, and that will be more evident in the soda I think, but there were a lot of dry pots in the soda compared to the salt (from the over packing I am sure). I hate this, I keep thinking about what could be and then in 3 days I will be confronted with what is, be it glorious or gloriously hideous. I will take lots of pictures and maybe some video as we go and I will try to blog a bit as well (back pain permitting). We also have a visit planned at Plainsman too, so perhaps we can fit that in at some point on Friday (?)
Here are some pics from that first salt firing a couple of years ago during the coldest weekend that year in Medicine Hat, so cold it froze my power steering. This weekend should be tropical in comparison.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go....

Well, my pots are packed at least. There are only 6 sleeps left until I leave for Medalta and it will be a weekend of extremes. Susan and I will be arriving in Medicine Hat around 10am on Thursday next week and right away we will be madly decorating our pots and loading the 2 kilns at the end of which we will probably fall down in exhausted heaps. We will fire them on Friday, so there will be periods of inactivity and then frantic salting etc. Saturday will be our down day while the kilns cool. Not sure what we will get up to, but we will find something to occupy us I am sure. Sunday will undoubtedly include both the excitement and anxiety of the unknown (think of Schrödinger's cat) and then when the kilns are opened and all possible unknown results are fixed with our observations, we will probably shed a tear or two over the pots that did not make it. I am sure however that there will be lovely results and hopefully the keepers outweigh the crap. Here are a few pics of what I am taking. These are by no means all of my pots, but they do represent a fair chunk.

Catching up

I have been a little distant lately. My apologies. Here are a few of the things I have been up to or that are going on. These are not in any chronological order, just the order in which I sent the pictures to blogger. First, we have some tea bowls. I threw these for the studio Open House coming up in June. We want to have a raku demo during the day so I decided to get these out of the way week or 2 ago. I had a bag of raku clay kicking around. I am not even sure where it came from. It has been sitting on my shelf since the studio moved locations 4 years ago. Needless to say, it was hard as a rock. I soaked it in a bag of water that I submerged in a bucket of water and then dried it out on plaster once it was all gooey. I did not relish wedging up a zillion little balls of clay, so i just threw the whole lump on the wheel and started throwing off the hump. I got about 25 tea bowls from the one bag. They have all been bisqued.

Next we have some really good ribs that I made. These were pork side ribs that I marinated for 24 hours. Here is the marinade recipe as far as I can remember. juice of 3 limes, a little balsamic vinegar, some olive oil, worstershire sauce, 3 cloves garlic roughly chopped, ground pepper, cayenne pepper, onion flakes, ketchup, fresh thyme (rough chop, brown sugar. Then I steamed them in a tinfoil lined pan for 2 hours in the oven and finished them under the broiler for 5 minutes.

Finally I have a shot of my crazy amaryllis plants that I started from seeds that I got from pollinating a store bought amaryllis about 6 years ago. If you ignore them for about a month in the winter and don't water them, they will flower (seemingly overnight)

Sucking is good

This is so true and applies to all things in pottery. I find that most new students have an expectation of perfection that is dashed quite quickly. If they can accept the element of suck, they usually can stick it out and become sorta good. It then follows that being sorta good is the first step towards being great (hopefully).

The Zombies are Coming, The Zombies are Coming...

I woke up with a start at 6:30 this morning. In my dream I was running away from zombies. They looked pretty fresh, no body parts falling off yet. But they were after me, so in my dream wisdom, I hopped into an elevator to get away from them. There was one woman who was not a zombie, and we got in the elevator together. As the doors closed, that is when I woke up with a jack hammer in my chest. The Zombie Apocalypse is not the best way to start the day. I wonder what the shelf life of the average zombie is? I mean, they are the walking dead. Bits are going to fall off. Eventually they would just be a non threatening (albeit disgusting) torso. Easy to run away from a torso I bet.

Biding my time

As of yesterday there are only 4 more weeks to go until I pack it all up to go to Medalta for a salt and soda firing and I have 1 more load to bisque before then. I am also still teaching on Thursday nights, in addition to my regular Tuesday nights. I have been doing so since mid February and will be until April 18th. As yesterday was Thursday, I was teaching, but only 3 students showed, so I did manage to get some work done. I have been fooling around with hand build platters made on an oval hump mold. I have been extruding long fat coils of clay and creating abstract patterns on the mold and then smoothing the backside with ribs and or paddling with sticks. I took down the first one I made as it was the driest of the 2 that I have made so far and began slathering on some underglazes. As these are very experimental for me, I thought what the heck, I will throw some caution up into the wind and see where the pieces fall. My plan was to apply different layers of colour and then erode through them once dry to reveal the different layers as I artificially weather the piece. Like layers of paint on old furniture, or those gobstopper candy's with the multi-coloured layers that slowly reveal themselves as you suck on them. I do remember trying to fit one of those into my 6 year old mouth once and it got kinda stuck. I had to suck my way to freedom or risk suffocation by choking the stupid thing.


Anyway, back to the pot. I opened up my pint of red velvet underglaze that I had purchased in Lexington back in October and to my horror, there was a big glob of green mold sitting on top. And the smell....it was definitely gag inducing. Seeing as how it cost me a bit of money, and I can't readily acquire these underglazes here, I used it, but man was it stinky. The other colours were OK. The yellow had a mild fishy smell, but no mold.

In other studio related news, the Fairview Spring Sale is swiftly approaching. It is on Saturday, May 4th this year and as always, it runs from 9am to Noon at the Canyon Meadows Community Centre. Fairview Studios is also going to have it's first ever (that I know of) Open House. I think I somehow got elected leader for this one. I will be sending out more information as it becomes available, but I can tell you that if you show up on Saturday, June 8th between 11am and 3pm (5650 C Burbank Rd. S.E.), the studio will be open to the public to check it out and see what we do. There will be a raku firing with little take away tea bowls for those that show (first come first served), coffee and snacks will also be available. The volunteer students for this event will also be selling a few pieces of their work. The idea behind this event is to make more people aware of our existence and hopefully attract new students. It is tucked away in a little industrial area and doesn't get any foot traffic. So if you have ever wanted to try pottery but did not know where to go, or if you would even enjoy it, this would be the perfect opportunity to see the studio, meet the instructors and students and ask questions. Any and all are welcome to attend this event. More deets to follow.   It has been snowing on and off for the past 2 days. We reached 12 above on Tuesday, but then plumeted down to -11 on Wednesday. I will be really glad with spring finally takes hold and doesn't let go. Hopefully before I go to the Hat.

Just a little snow

Well, I guess March decided to come in like a lion. This was the view outside the studio yesterday at around 11 am. I got up early and left my house at 8:00 to go pick up some stuff I had in the wee little test kiln at Ceramics Canada and the snow was not too bad. When I got to the studio at 9 I shoveled the entrance but within a few minutes you could not tell. I packed it in shortly after taking this picture and just went home and watched movies instead.

I'm in the 21st century now

This little doodad came in the mail yesterday. It plugs into my iPhone and lets me swipe credit cards. So now when I have a customer that doesn't have cash on them, I can take their plastic. I will take cheques, but I have run across a few people that actually don't know how to write them.

Getting Ready for Salt

I have been throwing cone 10 clay almost exclusively since the end of December in preparation for my upcoming trip to Medalta in April to fire off their salt and soda kilns. I have made a lot of stuff in that time, but I am in that place right now where I don't know if I have made enough, or if I have made too much. Each kiln is 20cu feet and I am splitting the firing with my friend Susan (aka Sooooozin). So I have a full 20cu feet to fill, plus all the extras like on bag walls, the space under the bottom shelves etc. The end of my last bag of clay was actually where I started to make really good pots (I hope – I still need to trim them). They are gnarly and full of texture just waiting for the salt to juice them up and soften all that craggy goodness. It would be ok if the kilns were here, but alas, they are 3 hours away and I need to transport them down there, and if I have left overs, I really can't do anything with them except wait for another high fire opportunity. I think I may just go for broke and make as much as possible. If I have way too much, then so be it, at least I will have lots to choose from. I got a bit stuck on the sgrafitto, so there is a LOT of it, but everything from now on is plain old clay that will get flashing slips or shinos.

Other than that, a few students and myself are going to put together an open house sometime in early to mid June to help boost the enrolment at the studio. It is located in an industrial area in the city's south east and the feeling is that some people are put off by the location. It is not in a trendy area with lots of cafes and boutiques. It is not in a residential area either. It is in a light industrial/business park area and because of this, we think that some people are nervous about it. It is not a bad area, it just isn't very busy at night, and it can feel a little isolated. The building is a Quonset, and that may not give it a very homey feel either. But you take what you can get in this town. Rents can be a bit steep for small business owners, let a lone a pottery studio owner. If we have an open house in June on a nice sunny day, when the birds are chirping, then we can open up the very large overhead door to let as much light in and make it look inviting. We can have demonstrations going on throughout the day with perhaps a stinky raku demo to attract the pyromaniacs and give away small raku bowls to the attendees. I really hate doing raku firings, but it does have that WOW factor as well as immediate gratification. I always go home feeling like I have been camping and sitting around wet smokey fire pits, but without the added bonus of smores. I usually also look like a bit bedraggled, my face is all red, my hair usually gets a bit fried from looking into the kiln to check glaze melt, and some article of clothing always gets a burn mark or two. Ya, raku and me are not friends. So, if we blitz our FB friends, our twitter followers (of which don't have), our personal e-mail lists etc, as well as advertise in all the free weekly magazines we can, then hopefully we will have a good day. If nobody shows, then it will just be a regular day at the studio. More on this to follow.