Imperfection

Wow, it has been almost 2 months since my last post. My only excuse is that life got busy. I had another leak in my condo last week that was completely the fault of shoddy workmanship. the solder at the connection to the shower diverter starter leaking due to a plumber that just did not care enough. That was taken care of last week, but I spend most of it at my parent's house while the fans were blowing in my unit to dry out the wall and the floor. There is an area about 2x3 feet that has a bit of a bow in it. I am not sure if I should get this "fixed", as it is engineered hardwood that is all glued together. once you cut bits out of it, it ruins the integrity of the floor. I can only tell that the bow is there because I know that there was a leak and where to look for it... Now, as for pottery, it has been so warm and muggy here in Calgary that the thought of throwing anything while kilns are cooling and the temp outside has been 28 plus degrees, has been less than tempting. I went in yesterday to get a few things done though. It was much cooler and way less sweaty. I began with mugs and then moved on to a few bowls. These were poked and prodded into submission by a couple of new texture ribs and bits of a mug that did not survive. I just pulled wads off the lump of dead mug and stuck them on the textured bowl. They are not my normal, that's for sure. I love texture, I am just not good at that spontaneous, fresh look. I need to practice a bit more for them to just spring forth without much prodding.

All carved up

Now that I have committed myself financially to the festival of crafts in the fall, I need to commit mentally and physically. I began my weekend on Friday afternoon by throwing a few mugs, trimming what needed trimming and carving a few mugs. I worked one of the last few Saturdays left before the summer at Ceramics Canada so I was only able to finish off the last few mugs that were to be carved that afternoon. Sunday however was the day to throw and carve en mass. I made mugs and casseroles, and carved a ton of ramekins. OK, only 7 ramekins, but they take about 20 minutes each to carve, not counting the time to slip them up with black terra sig. It is amazing how much does NOT get done in the studio though, even when I have a list of TO DO's. I usually arrive at 9am on Sundays and am generally there until at least 2pm, although this Sunday I was there until 4:30 ish. I only managed to throw 7 mugs and 2 casseroles, I think I will need to step up the production rate if I am going to have enough to fill my shelves. This will mean less talking I think. The sale may be over 5 months away, but I will need to get the majority of my stock made and glazed this summer so I don't run into any snags getting things fired in the fall. The student sale takes priority at the studio, so my firings will need to be worked in and around the student work.
This image is just a sampling of what I have been working on. I have changed my mug shape a wee bit, and the handles are way more substantial. The designs are different, yet similar to the ones in the past. I have to find a good pattern or 2 that is simple to lay out and carve, yet still engaging to the eye. The time it takes to carve some of them is way too long, especially if I actually want to make a profit or even break even on this. I should note that these are all free hand, no actual pattern is used, it all comes out of my brain. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it does not. The top right hand mug for instance is not really working for me in terms of the pattern, I do like the bottom 2 though. 

I will finally be able to spend more time in the studio as of July 4th. Ceramics Canada does not open on the weekends during the summer, so I should be able to put some long hours in over those 9 hot, sweaty weeks.

UH OH...What Have I Done?!?

The title sounds a bit ominous, but in reality, it is just my inner doubter/critic in me.

I have news and it is probably good!

I have been accepted into and I have just signed the contract and paid the first installment for ......the 2015 Festival of Crafts at the BMO Centre in Calgary.

This is a very daunting challenge I have set myself. I need to make, make, make until my fingers fall off and run away, tie a grindstone to my head, etc. I have 5 months and a bit to make and carve all the pots I can possibly make before this show.

Have I gotten myself in too deep? Who knows, I sure don't, and I wont know until it is too late anyway, so I am just going to jump head first into the deep end and hope there are no hidden rocks or sharks under the surface. Other people do these things, so I should be able to too, right?

I think the only other thing I need to do besides make lots of pots is to get myself liability insurance. I'm fairly certain that my booth will be injury free, but you never know, someone could pull my display shelves down and die from a thousand small cuts from all the broken pottery...

Wish me luck, I think I will need it.

Catching up

The Fairview Studios Spring Pottery sale is over for another year and it looks like we may be in for a change of venue for the next fall sale, so stay tuned for more info to come shortly. Anyway, now that the craziness of the sale is over, I can concentrate on pots. As you can see, I have been up to a whole lot of carving and scratching, and there is more than what you see here. I have even been messing around with slip inlay, or mishima as well as making a whole load of large bowls and platters. Finally, mug handles. They have always been the bane of my existence. I used to hate making them, but not so much now. I am however, always on the search for that "perfect" handle. I think I like these ones. they are substantial, you can't mistake them for anything else. I think Mick Casson said something about how your handles should always make themselves known. That they shouldn't be an afterthought. I agree that wimpy handles that just hang onto the pot like a piece of lint are horrible. Handles should be HANDLES and as that is probably the area that most hands will touch and feel, a well made handle is almost priceless. I love a pulled handle the best, to me they feel like they belong in the hand. Sharp edges are not my thing, thin strappy handles are not my thing, but a lovely pulled handle is something else. I could hold a mug and stroke the handle all day long until I could identify it blindfolded.

Inside the Garbage Can

I think this picture pretty much says it all. The glaze ran and ran and ran...

Spring Pottery Sale!

It's that time of year again. The Fairview Studios Potters have been working hard all winter and now its time to see what they have created and maybe buy a few pots too.

There is one small change to the sale this year. We will no longer be accepting cheques as a payment type. That being said, we are moving into the 21st century and will be taking Visa, MasterCard and American Express and those transactions will no longer be done using the antiquated imprinter with the carbon copy slips. We will be going DIGITAL. Of course, CASH is best, we like cash.

So without further ado...

Take it to the bank

I posted some banks that I was in the process of making a little while ago, but then did not get the finished result posted. Here is one bird bank and the octopi bank that I made for my nephew. The rest will follow as I get them glazed and photographed.

Running out of time

It's been a while since my last post, so here is a quick update. As you can see from the picture above, I have some "new to me" modular display shelves. My friend Susan offered this system to me for free, as it was just gathering dust in her garage. I took her up on the offer and loaded my car with a ton of shelves and uprights. I put up this 7' section last week so that I could take pictures for a sale application. There are many more sections to this, and all of various heights, but I think this will work for application purposes. I have since installed some LED lights on the underside of a few of the shelves as well as a few clip on goose neck LED lights to illuminate the pots. I ordered that banner a while ago and I think it will work just fine with this display. Of course it will not be attached to the shelves, but hung in front of the table at the sale (assuming I am accepted that is). My next task is to take good quality pictures of a few pots, but first I needed to find a battery charger for my camera battery. The original charger was lost in the flood and I have since tried a couple of times to find one that will replace it, but apparently it is not so easy to find an actual Nikon charger without buying a whole new camera. I purchased a universal charger a while ago but it failed after a while, as did the replacement I got. Now I have a different one that seems to be doing the job. We'll see how long it lasts. I also had to re fire a glaze load as it was seriously under fired when an element died mid fire. There were a lot of good pots in there, so I am hoping that everything works out and doesn't just get worse. I will need these for the picture taking mentioned above. I borrowed a photo cube from a friend of mine a little while ago and I have finally gotten around to testing it out. I was only using my iphone for these shots and the lighting was less than optimal, but still OK results. 

Looks like my weekend will be filled with working, potting, making a family dinner (that's my fault, I offered), more potting and hopefully getting some more pictures taken. I need to get that application off before the end of the month. I just looked at the calendar and YIKES, May is only 2 weeks away.

Pots

I have been working on a few miscellaneous items in the studio. I almost destroyed this pitcher while trimming. I trim them the right way up and then roll the base on a table to develop the "foot" and just smooth the bottom. I guess I trimmed it a tad thin in one spot and while rolling the bottom, it started to bulge out at that thin spot. Upon closer examination, it was not so much thin, as just too damp to support the downward pressure while rolling. I coaxed it back into shape though and managed to get a decent handle attached. I threw some tall mugs, a couple of coffee pour overs to test how fluting would work on the inside to aid the brew. I am not really sure that these channels are necessary, but the internet says so, so it must be true. I was also asked to make a large piggy bank for my nephew and since I already had money banks on my mind, I jumped right in and threw a half dozen or so of various sizes and shapes. I did one traditional pig, but then thought that was too ordinary. I had been thinking of a conical, hut shaped bank with various animal sculptures on top and while discussing ideas with my sister, the idea of an octopus came up. She had no idea what I would do, and so after a few birds, I made this 8 tentacled money bank. I hope it works.

Catching up in the studio

On top of what has been going on at my condo, I have been busily beavering away in the studio. Here is a quick rundown of some of what has been going on since my last glazing frenzy

here are some of the pots from that last glaze marathon

 

This is a cup and saucer for a potential project, possibly more to follow on that, we'll see.

 

Because I never make coffee pots, I thought I would change that

 

Must have teapots 

 

More scratching as always

 

White on white scratching, front and back

That's it for now.

Deja vu

I went down to my condo last night after work and took some pictures. They seem vaguely familiar (HA HA). As you may recall, it was at this stage of completion back in October last year, but then disaster struck, again, and the kitchen and floor had to be ripped out due to an influx of mystery water. The new contractor that we hired still has to paint some areas that needed new drywall, install new baseboards and do a final clean. There are some cabinet doors and drawers that were also damaged and will need to be replaced or repaired, but other than that, it is almost done. I am hoping that it will only take 1 more week or even less. I could live with the damaged cabinet doors and wait for the new or repaired ones to be delivered. I don't care, I just want to move home.

Fear and Loathing...

Sometimes setting goals can be scary. Yesterday I was confronted with the looming deadlines for application into a few art & craft shows this year. I had made the decision to apply before the holidays last year and have been busily throwing pots towards that end ever since. Well, I emptied a couple kiln loads of finished pieces on Tuesday and was thrown into a tailspin of self doubt and loathing. One of the kilns did not fire to temperature. the top shelf was OK, but got progressively under fired the lower I went. Although this was due to no fault of my own, just old elements, I was still thrown by it.

I tend to walk a knifes edge when it comes to confidence in my work. I know I can throw pretty nice pots, but apparently I let little issues expand in my mind's eye until they are totally blown out of proportion and obscure the really good things. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday second guessing myself. Thoughts like, what if I can't do this" and "I'm sure there will be waaaay better potters putting their work out there, why should I try"....etc.

I did scratch one sale off my list, the deadline and the sale are just waaay too close and I know I would never have enough stuff by May to make it worth the mental anguish. I will be able to attempt to enter the one in the fall, just so long as my inner Charlie Brown does not get in the way.

Glazed and loaded

This past weekend was a long weekend and I managed to get pretty much everything from the last bisque load into 2 kilns. I spent a bit more time on the glazing than I normally do, and it took me from Friday to Sunday to get it all done. I cleaned pots and waxed feet on Friday night. Saturday was spent glazing the interiors of mugs and bowls and then waxing those interiors so I could glaze the outsides without making a huge mess of the whole pot. I then finished spraying and dipping the outsides of everything and began loading. As I knew it was going to take more than 1 kiln, I tried to get an even distribution of small vs large pots in both kilns. It worked. The first kiln fired off without a hitch and was cooling all day yesterday. The 2nd kiln began firing around 2:00 on Monday and will hopefully be cool enough to have a peek at tonight. These pictures represent the "controlled chaos" of my glazing methods. The swearing was minimal, but I did take a few ibuprofen's when it was all done. My hip cant take that much standing on concrete.

In even more exciting to me and probably boring to you news, apparently the engineered hardwood was being installed on the weekend in my condo. Next come the kitchen cabinets I guess and then I might be able to move in. Waiting for an updated timeline on that. so it was a good weekend. We'll see how Shrodinger's cat (aka the pots in the kilns) did when I get to the studio tonight.

Loaded to the gills

Busy doesn't even begin to describe the studio last night. I got there at 5:20 pm and immediately began unloading my shelves of all of the green ware that I have been stockpiling over the last couple of months in order to begin loading up a bisque kiln. The first picture shows everything that I had, but there were a few pieces that did not make it in. Not to worry, there will be another bisque in about a month. The rest of the images show the bottom, middle and top layers. As you can see, it is loaded really tight. This kiln will fire off tonight and will be ready for me to begin the glaze prep on Friday. If I can get my hands on a couple of large buckets, I will also mix up the new Plainsman clear base that is so nice on the Polar Ice. I will also mix up some smaller buckets of the same clear base but will tint each with violet, pansy purple, tangerine and yellow Mason stains. Fingers are crossed that nothing cracks.

When in doubt, make mugs

Since you can never have too many mugs, I tend to always fall back on them when I just can't decide what to do next.

I got these handles attached on Friday night and now I am just waiting for them to dry out completely before I slather them in terra sigillata for another round of carpel tunnel inducing sgrafitto. I really need to get a bisque load fired, but my plans were thwarted when all the student work beat me to it and now I will have to wait until this Friday to fire. Perhaps that was for the best. It is a long weekend coming, so I can spend more time with glazing instead of rushing it, like I usually do.

A weekends worth of work and other stuff

I was at the studio on Friday night for 4 hours or so. I trimmed and attached handles to a bunch of serving/baking dishes as well as carved this somewhat creepy looking "man in the moon" platter.

I took the day off on Saturday, but was back in the studio on Sunday for 8 hours where I threw 15 mugs and then spent the day carving bowls and plates
 

Here is a plate and a bowl before, during and after carving