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.

Getting Ready for the Fairview Pottery Sale...

The craft sale season is in full swing and the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale is swiftly approaching. I will be there with all of my pots this Saturday (Nov 23^rd) from 9am to Noon. The Christmas sale is, as always, a unique event and a good study in human behavior. The lineup starts to form somewhere around 8am. The well seasoned customers who have been to our little sale before know to bring their own bags, boxes, carry alls etc. and they all rush in to the hall upon opening like demented lemmings rushing to the cliff’s edge. Nobody shoves or pushes (we are Canadian after all), but there is a determinedness in their eyes to get the biggest, the bestest, or most fantabulous pot ever. They grab the first few po

ts that catch their eye and then hem and haw over their selections as they cruise the rest of the tables, setting pots down, picking new fav’s up in their stead, or just going straight to the cash tables without second guessing themselves.

There are also 2 distinct types of people who attend these sales, at least that I have noticed anyway. There is the person who wants something very unique and one of a kind, and then there is the person who brings a ruler and lines up all the mugs in a row to pick out the mugs that are not all the same height. These same people may also bring along paint chips and fabric swatches to ensure that their new purchase matches the paint on their walls, or the fabric on their furniture etc.

But whether you are a matcher or a mixer, we have pretty much everything you could want.

Behind the scenes is just as interesting, albeit unobservable to the non potter. Starting around the 1^st of November, there is a mad rush to get as much work fired as is humanly possible (or is that humanely – Dave would think its inhumane to have him work so hard) Pretty much every day people are asking if there will be another glaze firing, or another bisque, or if we think there will be enough time to throw today and get it done for the sale. I even have this insane urge to try to produce work right up to the last second. Granted I have to bob and weave around student firings. I can’t interfere with those firings by jumping in with my work. So last night (Tuesday), I loaded a bisque. I know there is no possible way that I can get that work glazed and fired before Saturday morning, but I was mulling the possibility over in my mind last night. If I go to the studio and unload really hot bisque, I could do a marathon glaze session on Wednesday night and load a glaze to be unloaded Friday, priced and then packed. Doubtful to say the least. I have heard a story or 2 of flaming pots in the back of cars on the way to sales. Not something I want to experience first hand.The second best scenario is that I spend a bit of time on Sunday to glaze at a leisurely pace and have it ready for the Moe Shelly Craft Sale on December 1^st at the Bamboo Lounge. This is actually the best option. When I rush, I make mistakes, or break stuff. That is always bad.

Here is a non sale related tip: When someone gives you a ginormous tub of Cornish stone, don’t leave it in your car for a week. I opened my hatch the other day to discover that the bucket had tipped over and dumped about 3 pounds of pale blue grey Cornish stone powder all over. I did manage to get most of it back in the bucket, but I will need to vacuum the rest out at some point. I took the Cornish stone because it is the real deal. We can’t get this anymore. The replacement material did almost the same things, but then there was a replacement to the replacement and it does not do the same thing, at all.

The last few days

I have actually been a bit more productive lately. I guess with the heat starting to become more bearable and less humidity in the air I have more energy. I was able to load a bisque on Friday night, in anticipation of being able to fire a glaze load this week, but the last element in the kiln that had not been replaced yet, finally shuffled off it's mortal coil (pun intended) last week, the element is on order, but did not arrive on Friday, so hopefully tomorrow (fingers crossed). I also threw a bunch of the square plates, and trimmed them up. They have all had the slip/shellac treatment and are now drying under wraps. There were a couple squared off teapots. They are actually quite round, but the bottom comes out quite square and then I cut out feet at each corner. I should record the process and post it one of these days. I also took a few pictures, and will take more, of finished work and posted to Etsy (see last post). I updated my facebook account finally. I think I was the last person in the FB universe to update the new (to me) settings. It seems I am an antisocial networker.

I glazed the fire bowl and am again, just waiting for the element so that I can fire it. My fingers are really crossed with this one as there are a few things that could go wrong, and as it is a custom piece, it is marked for death by that fact alone. I just have to take deep breaths and pray to the kiln gods. I should have made 2 to be on the safe side, but I did not.

Here are a few pics of some of the pots that went into the bisque, including some of the square shellacked plates with various designs. I am especially fond of the leaf pattern and have begun working more along that line. It takes way less time to do than the trees, as the spirals take a really steady hand and a lot of patience. I also like the 1 big spirally thing with the stripes running behind it. It kind of reminds me of a seedling just poking it's head out of the ground. Apparently I am thinking of all things natural and organic when I am doing these. I don't really start with anything particular in mind, but I always seem to end up with these kinds of designs.

How Fast Can a Pot maker Pot?

I will soon find out just how quickly I can push the making process. Can I go from wet clay today to glazed pot in 1.5 weeks? Probably not, but I’m ‘gonna give it a go. The 18 mugs I made for a custom order took me from June 6th to the 24th to throw, dry (barely), bisque, glaze and fire again. I was just able to squeak in under the 1 month minimum deadline I usually give for this type of order due to the fact that I had, coincidentally, already thrown 10 mugs on June 3rd and was able to use them for this order. So in reality, I actually started the making 3 days earlier, so that means the whole process took 3 full weeks to complete. The other and more crucial factor was that I had the minimum amount of greenware waiting for bisque to be able to fire a fairly full load of pots in the bisque. I will not fire a load less than that so as not to waste energy, or run the risk of cracked pots. In the end, the planets were all lined up just right for getting things done on time.
Now we come to why I am going to attempt the improbable (if not the impossible). The customer for the mugs picked them up yesterday evening and today she has asked if I had any extras. She needs 2 more, but this time, could the text that was impressed into the mug be raised up on an appliqué? That’s doable, but the kicker is that she wanted to pick them up next Friday (I kyboshed this Friday right away). That is 9 days away, not including today. The other kicker is that I will not be back in the studio until Friday this week, so really, I only have 1 week. I know that will not be a goal I can achieve, so I think I can get away with 2 weeks, she just does not want to wait a month. My only issue once they are complete is how to fire them. I will probably have to use the small test kiln at Ceramics Canada to get them finished on time, at least to bisque. I have more than enough to fill a glaze load, but I will NOT have enough for a reasonably full bisque load.
It's my fault for saying yes, I know, but I am always up for a challenge, just not sure how the clay feels about it. It has been extraordinarily wet here for the past few weeks. 80% humidity in Calgary is pretty rare, but that’s what it was yesterday and the day before that, and the day before that etc. Then there is the 100% humid rain, the rising rivers and ground water seepage. Work that would normally be dry in a few days is still very squishy after a week. I will have to take advantage of the natural drying powers of the sun (if it can keep shining long enough for me to finish this), as well as strategically placed fans. I just have to keep thinking of this as a “marketing opportunity” that may result in future customers. I have said that a lot about similar “marketing opportunities” but then I start to count chickens before they hatch and I usually end up with a basket full of rotten eggs. I am what you would call a pessimistic optimist. I try to always look on the bright side of things, but I know that in the deep dark recesses of my mind, in the pessimistic corner where my alter ego lives, I am thinking of all the ways this could go off the rails. Handles will crack, appliqué’s will start to peel off, glaze will crawl, or pinhole, or they will just plain warp and come out looking slightly rhomboid. But then, maybe I worry too much.

Further adventures in dreamland

I got my new computer home last night, and I love it. It is much more functional than my 17 inch paper weight. The screen is fantastic, and everything is so crisp and clean. Now the transfer begins. It’s going to be a bear though. My pc laptop has power cord issues, so I have to use battery power. I use an old laptop that has screen issues to charge a spare battery while I am using the laptop with power cord issues. I only get about 1.5 hours of working time per charge, and then it is less if I am doing things like copying files, burning cd's, etc...so, I see a lot of hair pulling in my future as I attempt to get all my files off of it and onto my new one, especially the media files like pictures, and music.

Didn’t say too much in my dreams last night, I saved up 1 sentence for the very end around 6am, and again, I have no recollection of the dream but here’s a transcript...”I’m not sure what the hourly rate is...I’m not going down to that...thing....jfkldaj” Not too sure what that was about...

It was obviously somewhere I really did not want to go, and I said “thing” with a bit of derision in my voice, like it was totally beneath me, and why would I ever go there. I find it funny that even in my sleep, I sound totally coherent. I sound as if I am completely aware of what I am saying.

Loading bisque load tonight. I am not sure if I have a full load, but I need to fire this weekend regardless, as I need to load a glaze on Sunday if I am going to get my orders out in time.

This is the sky last night as I was driving home

I never seem to learn my lessons

My demo for last night’s class should have been titled “how to make mud pies”. I was roving around on the interweb yesterday and came across some nifty neato altered vases. I thought to myself “Hey, those would make great teaching demos, I can do that”. Yeah right. I know that I should never attempt a new form (to me) for the first time in front of an audience. I threw the body of the vase too wide, and the neck too narrow so when I started pushing out the ribs with my finger, the shoulder collapsed and that was good by vase. It still demonstrated the essentials of throwing, ie, centre, open, collar, raise, collar, raise, raise, shape etc... but the “wow” factor was definitely not there. They all gasped when it collapsed, and they all made helpful suggestions on how it could be saved, but it was also a lesson for them on when to just throw in the towel and start again, learn from your mistakes and make the next one better.

While I was in the studio last night I was also attempting to glaze what I bisque fired on Sunday. I know I should never attempt to glaze during a class night. One, the time to do it is not enough; and two, there are constant interruptions from students. So, in an attempt to get a jump on glazing, I think I just made more work for me on Friday when I will be in the studio again. Another lesson left unlearned.

 

 

Tonight

Tonight I will be glazing and loading the kiln. I need to clear the glazing backlog so that I can start filling the shelves for a bisque. I am running out of time for the dinner ware show, and I need to make enough for a bisque firing so that I can begin testing the lustre that I want to use (if it ever arrives from Ceramics Canada that is). Firing my own bisque is new to me, I usually just stick it in with the students work. Now I am going to have to be more prolific in order to fill the kilns in a timely manner.

another video

Here are the latest pots. The glazed 3 part canister is the prototype, and the unglazd one is the 2nd one I have made. There was to be a 3rd 2 tiered box, but alas, it failed in the bisque. The lid, AND the bottom cracked. The celadon jar is just what it is, but has some interresting curlycues on top, and actually inspired the 3 part box set beside it.