Little bowls are for the birds

I was recently approached to see if I could make 100 little bowls to be used as canary nests. The bowl itself is simple, it is the dimensions that need to be pretty accurate. The bowl fits into a round wire hanger that sits under the rim of the bowl so that it can be hung in the bird cage with a round piece of what looks like felt, or something similar, to act as a liner for the nest. The hanger is a fixed size, so the bowls can't vary much in diameter. They also have a few holes punched into the bottom. Easy Peasy, right? I have a fired bowl to use as a reference, but as it has already shrunk, I can't use it for accurate measurements, so instead I used calipers and eyeballed an additional 1/3" on either side of the bowl. I am using a plainsman terracotta and they provide excellent data on all of their clays regarding shrinkage rates and the clay I am using has an approximate shrinkage rate of 9% going from wet to fired (^04). I plunked 22 pounds on the wheel this past Saturday and threw 23 bowls off the hump. That took about 1 hour to do, give or take. I then threw another 23 bowls on Sunday from the remaining 22 pounds. So in 2 hours, I threw 46 bowls, it took another 10 or 15 minutes to thumb the bottoms and punch 3 holes at the bottom of each one. What I am really amazed with is how accurate I was throwing of the hump as I don't do a lot of this type of repeat ware, I usually wedge individual balls of clay for the piece unless it is lids and spouts. I throw those off the hump all the time. There were a few that were smaller and a few that were larger than the average, but that was mostly depth, the width did not vary much as I had the calipers to guide me. There is no way that I was going to wedge 100 1 lb balls of clay for this, the profit margin is pretty skinny, if present at all, so I needed to save time by not wedging and not trimming. The first 46 are drying now and I will soon know if my measurements were correct, fingers crossed.

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.

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.

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.

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

Whittling down my list of things to make

I spent the day in the studio on Sunday from 9am to 4pm and as you can see, it was a day spent assembling teapots and throwing cups, bowls, pitchers and platters. I also managed to get 3 other large platters trimmed. Because these platters are in the 16 - 18 inch range in diameter, I decided to punch holes in the foot ring to allow for a cord or wire loop to be added to allow the eventual owner to hang on their wall as ART as well as being a functional piece. Saturday was spent working at Ceramics Canada and I picked up 3 boxes of polar ice porcelain and a 44lb bag of Plainsman stoneware clear base. This is a new glaze product that Plainsman has developed and it is absolutely crystal clear. It works amazingly on the new polar ice body and it accepts mason stains really nice and will allow for a huge range of colours that I have not been able to use, until now. I am thinking tangerine, bright yellow, turquoise, red, purple, and then various concentrations of each one so that I have a nice range to choose from. The clear we have in the studio is a bit yellow, which is OK if you are only using stoneware bodies, but on a truly white porcelain, you don't want that, so I bit the bullet and will use Plainsman's clear base instead.
I am well on my way to my goal of 1200 pots before November this year. Since Dec 26, I have 105 pots thrown and in various stages of completion. That works out to 8.75 % of my goal.
I managed to pull a muscle in my back on the weekend, so I hope it resolves itself  before next weekend so I can plow ahead and maybe get 12 - 15 % of my goal achieved. If I can hit that 25% mark by the end of February, then it should be "easy" sailing from here on out. The true test will be in the glazing of course. This is the last stage where disaster can strike (unless you count packing breakage), so I am trying to count as few chickens as possible until they all hatch. It seems that I am focusing on those easy to knock out forms, like cups and bowls, but I know there are time sucking forms that I need to get making more of, like casseroles, more teapots, creamers and sugars (that match), etc that involve throwing multiple pots to make one pot (like the lids and spouts etc). Don't even get me started on handles, they are simple to make, but again, a time sucker when it comes to attaching them. 

Mugs all trimmed and handled

Yikes, it was over a week ago that I was to have had these mugs trimmed. I did get them done last Tuesday, I just neglected to tie up the loose ends of the last post. Anyway, I did get the handles on, as you can see. I also trimmed all the other pots that I threw out of the 2 boxes of Polar Ice porcelain that I managed to get my hands on. Amazingly, Ceramics Canada is all sold out of that clay now. No more until the new year I guess. No biggy, I should probably get a handle on the glazing of this body before I commit more time and money to it. In addition to the pots I have posted from this new clay, I got a couple of teapots out of it, as well as a few smaller serving bowls. I am finding that it requires an insane amount of trimming and I have a full bag of trimmings already that I will hopefully be able to make useable again. The few extra days off from my real job(s) that the holidays create will be spent in the studio loading bisque kilns, mixing test glazes, glazing, loading glaze kilns and crossing fingers. I will try to get into the studio on the 24th, but there are people in my life that don't seem to share the same enthusiasm I have for clay and will probably complain. I won't go on the 25th, I think that would be pushing it a bit, but boxing day is a given, as is the weekend. I will have a whole 4.5 uninterrupted days over the New Year as well. I never do anything on New Years Eve that would require any recovery from the next day, so I am hoping for a lot of productivity. I never make New Year's resolutions, but I think I might cave just this once. I am going to resolve to enter a large craft show next year. I am in no position to think spring, but I should be able to pump enough clay through my hands to be able to have enough stock for a Christmas show. I know, I know, but If I don't start thinking about it now, it will never happen. The show I think I should enter makes their entry info and forms available in February and I think the deadline is in April. Between now and then I need to come up with a booth design, have enough representative ware to fill that booth to take photos of so they can assess the booth, as well as have pictures of individual pieces for the jury process. If all goes well and I get accepted, I will be a very busy beaver over the next 11 months. I think I have the booth mostly nailed down. A friend and fellow potter has a display system that is very portable and she has offered it to me for the sale. I also have some ideas for some wooden crates. My idea is to paint them in milk paint and distress them. The colours will be very pale and muted so as not to distract from the pottery, but they will be stackable which will allow me to create a nice table top display without too much hassle as well as act as carrying totes. So that's it for now, I will be up to my elbows in clay for the next couple of weeks. I will have one glass of nog (maybe, i really don't like that stuff), but other than that, I will be busy busy busy. I have a pile of podcasts downloaded that I need to catch up on/start and the studio is the perfect place to do that. There is also the added bonus of the studio actually being closed on the 26th and the 1st, but I have a key, so it should be JUST ME in there with nobody to else to take up table space. There might be one or 2 other key holders in there, but they don't really count, as they are probably just looking for some peace and quiet too. If I don't post before then, have a Merry Christmas, and a wonderful New Year and we'll see you in 2015. I will probably be putting pics up on Instagram (see link above), but mostly just throwing, glazing and firing. Cheers!

New pots

I have been busily scratching away on some new bowls and tall cups. The Fairview Pottery Sale is looming (Nov 22nd) and I really need to get a move on, so any spare time I can find to get in the studio will be taken full advantage of.

Catching up on the pottery

Pottery has been taking a bit of a back seat on this blog for a while, what with the condo rebuild and getting to possibly, maybe getting to move in sometime soon. But I have been making pots. Here are a few pictures of what I have been up to. These are just a few shots of the different patterns I have been scratching away on in the form of mugs and bowls

Because no post would be truly complete without a little update on Lucy the flying dog, here she is leaping across the deck just after a freak late summer snow fall...

Reminder - Fairview Studios Spring Pottery Sale - May 31st, 2014

I just wanted to send out a reminder that the much anticipated Fairview Studios Spring Pottery sale is on May 31st this year. If you have never attended one of our sales, you should come and check it out.
The atmosphere at the spring sale is pretty laid back (in stark contrast to the organized chaos of our Christmas sale). There will be coffee and snacks for you to enjoy while you peruse the selection of pottery. We will also be drawing for 2 door prizes (gift certificates towards your next purchase)
So if you are looking for that one of a kind wedding or shower gift or just a little something for yourself like a fantastic teapot or a large coffee mug, you really should come by and have a look.

No entry fee, no pressure, just pots, lots and lots of pots.

Bowl with scalloped rim

I spent a few hours in the studio over the weekend. I glazed a load of pots, loaded the kiln and fired it off on Sunday. I also messed around with a "fancy" rim on a rolled rim bowl. I made several batter bowls with the new curved handle and thought that it might be interesting to repeat these handles all the way around the bowl to add height and interest to an otherwise plain bowl. We will see how it does. The potential for failure increases dramatically with multiple attachments and the rim can warp, or crack with the stress of mucking about with it. Fingers are crossed that it makes it. I still need to clean it up, but it was way too floppy/fragile at that point.

Batter Bowl in the hen house

Nothing special today, just a view of a trimmed bowl with a pouring spout and a somewhat different handle. It has a bit of a chickenish look to it.

The doofer attachments to the side of the actual handle appear to be a bit cockeyed. Will have to do better next time.
Definition: Doofer - Term used locally (Fairview Studios, originated by Dave Settles) to describe the little clay wads that are pressed out with a finger or thumb to decorate pots.

Getting stuff done

I was teaching class last night and had a couple of new students to indoctrinate. I could see the fire in their eyes. They really, really wanted to make stuff. By the end of class, I don't think the fire had been extinguished, just smoored. There was the inevitable struggle as they tried to do battle with the clay instead of working with it, but first night was fairly successfull. They both made a few pots, and that is the only goal on night one. Make at least one pot that you will be able to trim next week. That's it, the rest is all play/mud wrestle etc. Here are some pictures of a few pots from the glaze load I fired on Sunday, as well as 2 of the very wide platters I made on the weekend that I trimmed and then slathered with underglaze and then attacked with a rubber tipped clean up tool.

It's that time of year again. The spring pottery sale is set for May 31st this year. As per usual, I don't think I have enough stuff, but as per usual, I will probably have way more than I anticipated. The email notices will go out at the end of April, so don't worry if you have not gotten your notice, it is coming...