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.

Scritch scritch scritch

I have been scritching and scratching pretty much on anything I can get my hands on these days. So much so that all of my small wire sgrafitto tools have been worn right through. These are some more mugs and yunomis that I have been working on...

In addition to the urn I posted earlier with the "boy and his dog" theme, I was also asked to make a less fat, more slender urn with blue butterflies. The recipient did not want to spend eternity in a "fat" jar :) So, here it is...

In condo news, we threatened the contractors with firing and man, that seems to have lit a fire. There has been work, they are firing some trades and getting new ones to fix the incorrect stuff and move it along faster. We were told that this is a 3 week project now. Once they give us a revised and updated schedule and plan, we will know more. So maybe August 1st? I really have no idea, I can only guess. So far, all of my guesses have been wrong though....

Texture

A few weeks ago I demonstrated how to achieve a highly textured surface on a thrown pot using slip with sodium silicate. When the sodium silicate is "dry" and you begin to expand the cylinder, you get a crackled surface. I had added red iron oxide to achieve a more dramatic contrast for demonstration purposes. The end result were about 3 very fat forms with some excellent texture. Anyway, after the bisque, I rubbed in some Barnard slip, and then a thin wash of iron oxide and a further wash of a rutile/Gerstley Borate/Neph Sey mixture. The trick was then "how to glaze neatly" without obscuring the texture. On 2 of them I brushed on a thick layer of liquid latex on the untextured areas, let it dry a bit and then brushed on a wax emulsion over the textured areas. Once the latex was removed, I was able to glaze those areas fairly cleanly. I decided to see if the latex would work directly on the textured areas instead and brushed a very thick coat all over where I did not want the glaze. I was worried that it would stick in the copious nooks and crannies, so I let it dry for several days. I removed it last night, after dipping the whole thing in some glaze and it came off beautifully. So beautifully in fact that I kept the rubber ring that came off in one complete sheet. The texture it picked up was amazing, now I just have to find a way to use it in future work. As I am forgetful, I don't have an image of the textured latex, but these are a couple of the bottles before the oxide baths I gave them....

Flood mugs

Once the flood was over and as soon as I was able to get back into the studio, I decided to scratch a few mugs. Of course the only thing on my brain was water. There are 4 units in my building in Mission that were totally destroyed by the mighty Elbow river. It is normally quite calm and shallow, but on June 20 - 24th it was mighty indeed. Anyway, as a means to commemorate this life altering event, I created this mug, and am working on 3 more as gifts for my 1st floor neighbors. If you are in the Calgary area and would like a Flood mug  for yourself, I may make more of them if there is the demand. Rough guestimate on price is ~$40 per mug. The final colours will be black and creamy white. If you want to contact me regarding a mug, shoot me an e-mail at ashleymorrow@shaw.ca

 

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.

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.

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.

Mugs, mugs and more mugs

These mugs and an assortment of bowls, plates and vases that were done in the same black and white sgraffito decoration were bisque fired on Sunday. I will be glazing them tonight. There are a couple in there that were done with a deep red terra sig slip and I have no idea how it will come out, so I will have my fingers crossed for those. I tried layering the red and black on one mug as well. I am really liking some of my designs, some not so much. One in particular is sort of an accidental homage to Dr. Seuss. It ended up looking like the houses the Who's live in. You can see the "Who" mug in the last picture front and centre.

Sgraffito

The pictures suck, but they were taken with the old iphone under fluorescent lighting on my desk at work.

This is an example of what I was up to on the weekend. The previous weekend I had thrown a few "Christmas" bells as well with the idea that I would carve holly leaves into them. So I did. There were many many bells, and they took me 3 days to finish, including the mugs. I also managed to wear my pin tool and a small kemper triangle ribbon tool down to wee little nubs. They came out of the kiln on Tuesday and I wrapped them up to take home. I did manage to "ring" one bell before I got out the door. I tested it against the concrete floor. Not recommended.

After sgraffitoing 4 mugs and 16 bells I was beginning to get a weird tingling shooting pain running up my forearm. I might have found a way to speed up the progression of carpal tunnel syndrome. I was also doing a pretty good impression of Quasimodo by the end of the day.
On another note, I am going to be learing the art of wood turning. Maybe tonight even. I am leaving it at that though, I don't want to give away my Christmas gift ideas to the possible recipients of said gifts.

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. 

a couple pots from the kiln

Here is a before and after shot of the tall bottle with the tree motirf. I was playing around with different coloured terra sig slips on this one. I started with a mason black stain, graduated into a pale bluish green and finally into a golden rutile. I was not sure how it was going to look as I was just dumping a little of this, and a little of that into the sig.

Here is a really drippy jar. A really thick slip was slathered on all over and then "combed" through with a rippled vegetable cutter (gotta love the dollar stores). The glaze is one I have been testing, hoping for a satin matt surface with hints of pale grey/lavender and copper green, but alas, it just runs all over the darn place.

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.

One before bed

I applied a black slip tonight and then spent the evening after I got home shellacking the pattern and dotting the dots then wiped back the slip to reveal the white clay underneath. Now to bed to dream of dots and swirls.

More shellacky shellackery...

They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…well I sure hope so. I have been working away on my shellacking and have found out quite a few things in the process. One, don’t be so impatient. The first few pieces I shellacked, I was so anxious to find out if it actually worked I may have begun the abrasion process a wee bit early. The shellac did feel like it dried really quickly and I even went to far as to dry them with a fan for a while, but once I started wiping them down with the wet sponge, I could definitely see a loss of detail as the shellac started to dissolve away with the clay. I did get some interesting results, but not enough depth to the texture. I was acting a bit like a kid on Christmas eve who could not wait to get into all the loot under the Christmas tree. I will admit that I have some experience with this as well, but no amount of subterfuge and precision re-taping on my part could ever fool my Mum. So after some so so results I managed to curb enthusiasm and wait it out. My last, and so far the best piece to date was a plain old tall cylindrical vase that I had coated in a purple/blue slip when still wet. I let it get bone dry and then waxed on my first initial design. I let it dry for 24 hours and then began abrading. Once I got enough depth and let it dry out. I brushed on my second coat of shellac, so that the first design was completely covered, as well as a little bit on the outside of the initial design. I waited another 24 hours, came back and wiped down again. After it was dry, I brushed on the last coat of shellac. I filled in most of the unshellacked spaces, leaving only the narrowest gap between the new coat and the previous coats. This time I waited 48 hours and then abraded again, this is where I was able to get the most depth as I wasn’t as worried about the shellac wearing off. Finally, once it had dried sufficiently, I brushed on a coat of black decorating slip that I had left over from a soda/salt firing I did at Medalta last February. It is a terra sig based slip with Mason 6600 black stain and rutile. I put on 2 coats for good measure and let it dry a bit then wiped down the shellacked areas, leaving the un shellacked areas black. When it was all said and done, it did appear very similar to Jim Gottuso’s pots, albeit the brushwork is not as precise and the decoration is definitely not as well thought out as Jim’s, but for a newbie, it was not bad. I also did the slip thing to some mugs I had previously shellacked, but used various other terra sig based decorating slips that were again left over from the soda/salt firing, but had different oxides added. There was a chrome green, a blue/green and a rutile slip. None of these have been glazed fired yet, but will post some in progress pics as soon as I get a chance to take the pictures. I have been a bit sheepish in posting them, as I would never want to be accused of copying someone else’s style, but I will just have to get over it. Like I said at the beginning, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (I hope). In lieu of my bas relief pots in progress, here are some interesting little things I picked up at the studio the other day. Dave was cleaning house and had a collection of pots that he was giving away. They had actually been given to him as the original owner couldn’t sell them, and did not want to consign them to the midden heap for future archaeologists to dig up. Warning, they are very ‘70’s, so if you are easily offended by heavily reduced, dark brown groggy stoneware clay and iron spotted buttermilk glazes, please look away now ;) This little mug was made by Connie Westrom (now Connie Pike of Pike Studios), before she met/married Bob Pike I am assuming

And this slightly bigger mug is by Ed Drahanchuk

A wee little pitcher and matching sugar bowl, maker unknown...

Have a good one

Those sure are nice jugs ;)

The glaze is out, and another went in today (I hope). I was going to take pics this last weekend, but the items I really wanted to take shots of were still waiting to be fired. I did however get my wine jugs out. I took them to the restaurant yesterday, and they are going to decide on a colour. I hope they go for the tea dust with iron rutile accents. It's easy to glaze, and looks fantastic, especially when beside a candle holder, as it picks up the reflections of the flame. Feels nice in the hand too.

It is a typical Italian restaurant, with faux brick fireplace, faux venetian plaster on the walls, terracotta tiles on the floor etc etc...

Anyway, just have to get the owner to approve the colour and price, and away we go.

I am currently working on a set of for eating bowls and a large serving bowl for my parents. They want to give it as a gift to a client. The 4 “eating bowls” would replace a dinner plate and would be used for things like really big salads, stews, pasta etc. I am not sure if they are the right size, but I like them. All the bowls have a flared rim and then some slipwork on the flared part. As this is strictly intended to be functional, I didn't get to crazy with the slip, so it will not have any deep crevices for food to get stuck in. They are all currently drying, all are trimmed and awaiting the bisque, which should be soon.