good news and new handles

Well, I am saying goodbye to my little hatchback tonight. I have had it for 5 years now, but the lease is up and I needed to make a decision. Buy it out, refinance for another 2 years w/o a warranty, or trade it in. I opted to trade it in. So tonight I am picking up my new car. It is a compact SUV, but is definitely bigger than my little one. I should now have more cargo capacity to allow me to transport more pots. Who knows, maybe I will hit the road and do out of town summer craft fairs next year. I have always found it a struggle to fit both the pots and display materials (even as minimal  inside one vehicle comfortably and safely. I have often though that if I were to get in an accident, I could easily be killed by multiple pots being dislodged from their cartons and winging their way up towards my head.

Last year was a year of loss for me. I was forced to “let go” so speak of almost all that I owned. This year will be the year of renewal, I can only hope that the turmoil of the past 11.5 months will settle down and life can carry on at a more sedate pace. It is still looking good for a move in date somewhere in the 2^nd week of June, so I will be taking some much needed time off to calmly reorganize my life and get settled again.

In pottery news, I have been working on a new type of handle/knob for my casseroles. This is one area where I have always struggled to get something that looks good. My handles have either looked like they were an after thought, or were either too big or too small. I have thrown knobs, used strap handles, pulled and attached or pulled in place lugs, rolled lugs etc. Sometimes they come out nice, but usually they either look contrived, or tortured into submission. Then one day I was watching YouTube videos and came across a Bill Van Gilder video of how he makes a “shell” handle by gradually slapping and stretching a coil into a “shell” shape. I have played around with it on rims of batter bowls (see previous posts) and then I added a whole bunch of them to a rim to add some height and decorative interest. Then I had a thought that they would look good if they were more 3D. So I made 2 of equal size, bulged them out a bit and then attached them edge to edge to achieve a hollow yet full knob for the lid. I added 2 smaller “shells” to the side for lugs. I think this worked out fairly well. I will play around a bit more, but so far it’s looking good.

And last but definitely not least, I won the draw for the Michael Kline cup for the Christa Assad fundraiser and it arrived in the mail the other day. It is the sweetest little thing and drinks very well. It will find a nice home in my new condo with all the other pots from other potters that I already have.

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.

Now showing...

Some of my newest pots (as well as a few less than newer) are on display (for the next 8 weeks) in the Sunlife Plaza downtown (144, 4th Ave. S.W.). These photos are not the best as I took them with my iPhone and they are under plexiglass, so there are a lot of reflections and hot spots. Anyway, If you are in the area, and want to have a boo, they are scattered throughout the lobby. It is quite a nice lobby, lots of tropical plants and water features etc. Here are the pots I took down. Sorry for the poor image quality...

Last Chance!

Friday, December 20^th from 7 – 10 pm will be your LAST* chance to get some of my HAND MADE pottery before Christmas. I will be showing my work at Brandy & Moe’s Christmas Market located at Brandy Leigh’s at 233 10^th Street N.W.

Along with my pottery there will be lots of other art and craft vendors to get that one of a kind and very unique gift that has eluded you this shopping season.

I will have a lot of my very new black and white sgraffito work, as well as some more colourful items. I will have tons of teapots, many mugs, copious casseroles, plenty of pitchers, bountiful bowls, you get the drift. If you want the alliteration to stop, come to the sale!

In fact, some of the items I will have on offer will be still warm (ish) from the kiln. I don’t even know what they look like yet!

So tie up your galoshes, put on your toque and come cheque it out. Oh ya, if you need more temptation, there will be bevies and snacks to munch on too!

It should be noted that part of the proceeds are being donated to charity. It’s like killing a whole bunch of birds with one stone. What more could you ask for?

* Technically it isn’t really your last chance, if you contact me at ashleymorrow@shaw.ca we can always work something out before it really is too late.  

These pics are some of the items that will be there, they are just in the kiln right now, so I can't give you a "finished" pic. You will just have to come check out the sale to see what they look like all shiny from the kiln.

My weekend results

Here are some of the things I was up to on the weekend. I made 3 of these altered serving dishes and a couple of these slipped spherical pots.

These altered forms are a pain in the butt to make, but I do like the finished result. I just hate hand building. I guess I just need to practice. I did notice that by the 3rd one I was getting more confident in my decisions and actions. Ooh I just had a thought. They would look good with a big pulled handle running from end to end. Maybe tomorrow....

I love the freshness of the wet slip on these round pots. If only I could keep the feel of that look right through to the fired piece. 

What I did for the Canada Day Long Weekend...

Ok, so I'm a little behind with this

On Friday, I met a new customer who is looking for a custom made bowl. He had, and I quote, “a very vivid dream” about the bowl and was looking for someone to create it for him. Apparently it is a “ceremonial fire bowl”. There will be a bowl that will go inside this bowl that will contain the fire, so I don’t have to worry about direct contact with the flame, but I decided to use a really groggy body to help prevent any issues with thermal shock. The bowl itself is fairly simple, ~10” in diameter and ~5-6” tall. There are some specific design elements that he is looking for. He wants 6, equally spaced “people” around the outside. At least I think they are people. Essentially, a “Y” with a circle in the upturned arms of the “Y”. He wants the “people” to be turquoise, and the rest of the bowl to be a medium brown, easy peasy. I threw the bowl on Saturday, trimmed it on Monday and then cut out the “people” from a thin slab of clay and then attached them. I rounded all the harsh corners and I think it looks pretty darned good. I figure it will take about 1 month to finish, as I want to dry it really slowly to avoid inadvertent peeling up or cracking off of the appliqués.

Friday was also the day that I completed the additional 2 mugs for the custom mug order that I delivered last week. They wanted 2 more, but with a raised appliqué with the initials and year. I did everything I could to get them done in one day, as this customer wants them by this Friday (if possible). I really doubt the completion time, but I may be able to squeak it through if I can access a small test kiln to do both the bisque and the glaze. I might be able to sneak them into a student kiln load when Dave isn’t looking.

The customer who wants the custom bowl was more than OK with the 1 month timeline. He was just really happy that I took this project on. I guess he had looked into this a little bit and found it really difficult to find anybody that would do it. Are all the potters out there just so overloaded with work that they are turning it away? I doubt it.

Aside from these 2 custom orders, I threw several large casseroles and cannisters, , and one complete rip off of a “pumpkin” casserole. I had been reading some past blog entries from John Bauman and was inspired to “copy” his method. I have made lots of pumkiny pots before (mostly teapots), but I have always carved out the “lobes” of the pumpkin. I was particularly keen to try out his method of attaching the “knob” which is a pulled handle in the shape of a pumpkin stem. I have always either used a different coloured clay, or glazed the clay a different colour for the handle. John paints on an iron rich slip midway through the pulling process and then continues pulling to incorporate the iron into the clay. Of course he did this without getting any iron on his nice white stoneware pot. Mine looks like it was in the middle of a bloodbath.

Sorry for the blurry pics, they were taken with my iphone and not the new camera.

This is the Fire Bowl (now under wraps for a while to dry)

Here is one of the casseroles (the other ones not pictured were thrown from BMix)

And lastly, a cannister and a pumpkin pot. I wiped it clean for the photograph. . Also, I don't believe John puts the handles on the sides of his pots. His pumpkins are more true to life.

This is a vase that was thrown in 2 parts, it was never very tall to begin with, but was thrown to demonstrate sectional throwing in my Tuesday night class.

I am guilty of pottery plagiarism. This is my version of a bird house that I saw Hsin-Chuen Lin throw on You Tube. I have since altered this one a bit and have done some bas relief shingles on the roof using wax resist. In the background you can see some of my pots that are ready for some raku firing. I have just used Plainsman M370 porcelaineous stoneware and have covered in Terra Sigilatta.

This is just a very large bowl. I have not measured, but I think it is about 17 or 18 inches in diameter, and about 10 inches tall?

Hmmm, I can't change the orientation of my pictures when I send them from my phone...just tilt your head a little to the right....there you go, it's a casserole done in my red tree design.

I apologise for the poor picture quality, the lighting in the studio is less than stellar.