Gotta sell pots

The big sale is tomorrow morning. Gotta get up early and sell sell sell!
Still have to do some pricing, but I'll do that when I get there. Should be an interresting sale, as the community clean up day is going on at the same time and the parking lot is gong to be closed to everyone except our customers. We might get some increased foot traffic, but it might interfere with our regular customers if they think they can't get in. Oh well, we shall see how it goes.

Glaze Tests

These are the glaze tests I have been working on in the glaze development class that I have been taking. We have all been getting some really interresting results, and these are mine. I will post the recipes once I get all my notes together.

New job???

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since I went on an interview for a position at a big construction company. The interview was arranged by a placement agency and after the 2nd week with no word, I assumed that I had not gotten the position. Then yesterday, out of the blue, I got a call from the agency letting m know that the company still had not made a decision but that I was one of their top two. We decided to put it on the back burner as we did not know when a decision would be made and I didn't want to not be considered for any other positions. THEN I got a call this morning asking if I would be willing to temp for them until they made a decision one way or the other. As I am quickly coming to the end of my financial rope, I said yes. So... I start on Monday, and have all my digits crossed that they will decide to keep me once they get to know me.

What to teach?

I have been teaching at Fairview Studios for approximately 6 months and the one thing that I always struggle with is coming up with new ideas to teach. The only time I never have this problem is when there are new students. I always demo a bowl to the newbies. I am endlessly searching the web for new and exciting ideas. So, if anyone out there can suggest anything that they think would be a good demo for a pottery class, please let me know. I am always willing to try something new in either the basic form, the function, or in the decoration. I'm thinking of covering some new types of lids and incorporate them into various lidded objects like casceroles, teapots, cannisters etc.
I better make my mind up soon, class is tomorrow....whoops, I guess I should say today, I'm posting this after midnight.

The Mad Potters Sale

These are just some pictures of my tables at the Mad Potters Sale that was held this past Saturday at the Hillhurst Sunnyside Community Centre.
I think it went "OK", I don't have a reference point as this was my first time selling with this group. It should be interresting to see how the Fairview sale compares. The Fairview sale is May 1st. The only thing that might cause problems is that the community association is also having their neighborhood clean up day on the 1st as well, and there will be lots of people dropping off their junk. Maybe this will improve the foot traffic to our show.

new pots

I just picked up the latest pots. They are currently wrapped up and ready to go to the show on Saturday. They are also pinging away in the background.

Big Bowls

I went down to Galleria a few days ago to pick up a cheque for last month's pottery sales, and they mentioned that they were in need of more large bowls and platters. I was in the studio this past weekend and decided to throw some really large bowls. Once I started, I couldn't stop. Each one is half a bag of reclaimed studio clay. I used the reclaim because even though it is soft and easy to throw, it has lots of grog and stands up well. I am guessing on the weight, but I think each bowl would be about 11 or 12 pounds each and they are probably 2 feet in diameter. I don't think I can do too many of these marathon giant bowl throwing sessions, my arms and shoulders ate killing me.
I will take some pictures once I get them all trimmed up. I managed to trim the ones I threw on the weekend, but the last couple that I made yesterday and today are just too wet.

2 upcoming sales - gotta get cracking

Well, it is that time of year again, and I find myself faced with 2 spring sales this year, and am running out of time to get ready for them (nothing new there).
My first spring sale is the Mad Potters Sale, and is at the Hillhurst-Sunnyside Community Centre on April 17th. The 2nd sale is the Fairview Studio Spring Sale, and is at the Canyon Meadows Community Centre on May 1st. I have never participated in the Mad Potters Sale, but they have been in operation for a while, so hopefully the turnout will be good. Fairview is always a good sale. The students get together twice a year and offer up their work for sale to help off set the cost of classes and firing. You can usually get a good deal on all kinds of pottery.
Oh ya, I have glazed the new "mountain" pots I was working a couple of weeks ago, and as of Tuesday, they were waiting to get fired. I will be in the studo tomorrow, and hopefully they were fired, but I am not sure there will have been a full load ready. Chances are they will still be in the kiln (if at all) tomorrow, and I wont be able to get at them until Saturday. If they are ready, I will take some pictures and post asap. I am eager to see how they turned out. I am worried that the rims will be too fragile (they were very delicate in the bisque state), but my hope is that the porcelain will yeild some strength. I have had a lot of comments on them. Some people were confused by the delicate nature of the pots rims, but others were very enthusiastic about them and thought they exuded a certain "Zenness". I glazed them with a commercial glaze on the lower half of each pot (Mayco "stoned denim"), and then the entire piece is glazed in the studio clear glaze. The commercial glaze turns a smokey blue under the clear, and I am hoping will accent these pots nicely. I wish I could afford to do some lusters on these pots. I think they would look very nice with a little platinum around the rims.

New glaze? Probably not.

I am working on a new glaze. I preformed a quadratic blend of four ingredients and picked one of the tests that looked the best. With that base glaze I preformed a series of line blends with 4 different oxides. The results have come out of the kiln and I have to say that it was a complete failure. I am doing these tests as part of a glaze class and there were some really nice results in other groups. I new that my ingredients were going to yeild some interresting results, even if they didn't form a good glaze. The ingredients were neph sey, borax, a local clay, and bone ash. The glaze that seemed to work nicely as a clear base was just 75% borax and 25% bone ash. Very clear and felt very slick and glossy. Once we added the oxides however, the "glaze" went all crusty and then the clear gloss ran down the test tiles. Not very successful, but informative none the less.

Thank you!!

Ok, so I absolutely hate shopping for clothes. Knowing this, my mother took it upon herself to arrange a day of shopping with her friend Linda in order to get my wardrobe renewed for interviews (I have one tomorrow afternoon). Linda has a good eye, and I really appreciate the help with this chore.
No pots today, but will be in the studio on Friday night. I will be at the fairview sale meeting tomorrow night and then refreshing centennial gallery as the ccaa "out of the box" show is over.

A little singed around the edges

I did a raku firing on Friday for a group of chemistry students from SAIT.
They were covering reduction/oxidation reactions and their instructor thought this would be a fun way to demonstrate a real world example. As I was checking the kiln, peering inside to see if the kiln was close to temp, I caught a bit of the heat from the flu, and I got a little bit singed around the temples, and eyelashes :)
I think it went pretty well. They all made their own pieces and of course there was a pipe, ooops...vase in the group.
I will have some pictures and perhaps some video clips to post soon. In the mean time, here are some of my results from the firing.

Finally!

I have a job interview tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers and toes.

new pics

Here are the pots I posted about last time.
I was teaching this evening, and was able to get these trimmed up and take some pictures. I threw a couple more this evening, as well as 6 cups in a similar style. One is a shallow dish, and the 2nd is similar in size to the large one pictured here.
I will probably glaze them in a clear glaze, but a smoky blue on the lower half. I think a simple clean glaze is called for with these pots. I will post pictures of the final result.

New Shapes

I was at the studio on Sunday, and was working with a new (to me) porcelain. I am not a fan of it yet, and in response to it's lack of workability, I decided to make some bowls that take this lack of workability into account. The walls are straight, with a slight inward angle, and the rim is thin and wavy, which will hopefully look nice when glazed in a clear glaze. These bowls acutally have a nice, clean look to them, and have a mountainous feel. Maybe working with this cranky body will have a nice side effect...a new shape that is fun to make, and not the same old, same old.
Again, pics will follow. I will see if I can get them trimmed up tomorrow, and then take some shots of them "in progress".
My laptop's power port is not working right now, and so I have been using the battery from the laptop my parents loaned me to power my laptop while their laptop is charching my battery and vice versa. I guess the next step is to find a cheap monitor so that I can use the PC tower they gave me, and use that instead of my laptop. I checked out getting it repaired, and it will take 2-3 weeks as it would need to be sent away. I don't have that much patience, or time to be away from the computer, so I will tough it out, and wait to get a new computer after I find a new job...

testing, testing and more testing

Good Grief! I just got home from mixing 25 glaze tests. I am taking a glaze formulation class, and we had to pick 4 ingredients (1 feldspar, 1 melter, 1 clay, and 1 other ingredient from a specific list). My partner and I chose Nepheline syenite, Doc Mills (a local clay), Borax, and Bone Ash.
We mixed 25 tests of all 4 of these ingredients using a predetermined percentage of each ingredient totaling 100 grams.
My feet hurt, and my hands are chapped.
I am pretty sure we will get some interesting results, most of them will suck, but I am hoping for at least 3 or 4 viable tests.
Must go to sleep now, I need t be at Ceramics Canada first thing tomrrow.
I will take some pics of the resulting tests when they are done.
We will be doing some line blends involving different oxides next week.

Raku Demo - March 26

I will be doing a raku demo next week for a chemistry course at SAIT (Southern Alberta Institute of Technology). The teacher has arranged for a field trip for her class so that they can witness oxidation and reduction reactions first hand in a fun setting (albeit a bit smokey and stinky).
Dave(the studio owner), hates doing Raku, but thought I would like to do it. I don't really like the flashy raku, I am drawn more to the simple white crackle glazes contrasting with the blackened clay body, but for this class, I think the iridescent copper sand type of glazes would work quite well, as they show the reduction quite nicely. I will take some pictures of the stuff that comes out of the firing and post them if there is anything really nice.

These pics are a pot that I raku fired last summer, and I was quite happy with the result.

massage

Just came back from a 1 hour massage. Gotta use up all my health benefits before they expire at the end of the month. Even though they can be painful, they sure do loosen you up. I highly recommend massages if you can find a really good therapist. I go to Sante Spa (1.5 blocks from my house). I have had massages from other places, like physio therapist offices, but the spa setting is much more relaxing, and peaceful.

The photo that I have posted with this is of my first painting that I did that I really really like. It is currently hanging on my living room wall, and I took it with my cell phone, so the quality isn't that good, but I think you get the gist. I was using acrylic molding paste and acrylic ink. The squiggly lines were created by embedding yarn in the molding paste, and then once it dries a bit, I pulled the yarn our, leaving the imprint of the yarn behind.

UNEMPLOYED, BUT STILL POTTING!

These are some of the things I have been working on recently. The Pictures were taken by by friend Barb Clarke. She is studying photography, and these were her first "commissioned" photos.
On another note, I have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately. I was restructured out of my job. Oh well, I am not angry, just ticked off. I am looking for work now that will take advantage of my creativity, and allow me to grow and develop my skills.
I have a couple of pottery sales coming up. The first is the Mad Potters Sale on April 17th, and the 2nd is the Fairview Studios Pottery Sale on May 1st.
I am also currently participating in a glaze development class for cone 6 offered through Fairview Studios, and hopefully this will result in some interesting new surface treatments for my work.
The painting that I have included in the photos above is one the paintings I have been working on. I have been part of a painting group that meets once a month. We are not all professional painters, but some of the members do make a living at it and are quite good.

Well, it's been a while since I last posted. What can I say, I'm just plain lazy. The year has been full of challenges. The studio moved locations almost 1 year ago and we moved to cone 6 as well. Talk about a compete 180. We were firing to cone 10 gas and now we are working at cone 6 electric. I am just now beginning to get a handle on how to successfully glaze at this temp and in this neutral atmosphere.
I have been teaching every Tuesday evening for the past 3 months and for at least 1 of those months I have been teaching a glazing class. I think the most intimidating part of pottery for many students is glazing. It is so final and they want their pieces to come out perfect so are hesitant to let loose and experiment. I am willing to let pieces fail as it is simple to just make another.
Lately, I have been changing the way I throw. I have been shaping completely by hand or "wet" shaping as opposed to "dry" shaping using a rib. It actually let's me achieve more fluid shapes with more motion. They are less stiff looking to my eye at least.
I have recently found a photographer that will be willing to take pictures of my work for me. I don't have the proper set up at home and she has recently begun studying photography and has all the equipment. As my friend, she has offered her services in exchange for referrals to my potter friends.

Good grief Charlie Brown, it sure has been a while since I have posted anything.
Oh well, better late than never.
Well, since my last post in February, the studio installed 2 new kilns, both electric. It was way too expensive to Install the old gas kiln from the last place. It sure has been a steep learning curve gettng used to firing to cone 6 in oxiatiion.
The studio had it's bianual sale on June 13 th and all things considered ("world economic crisis", new glazes to get used to etc), we didn't do too bad.
I have taken up paintng, and meet once a month with a few other potters that paint to have some fun and fool around with colour and texture. I will have to post pictures of what I'm up to once I get around to it.
The Calgary Clay Arts Association and Ceramics Canada put on a one day workshop with Katrina Chaytor on June 14th. It was fantastic and even though she hand builds all her work, I think I can incorporate
some of her ideas into my own thrown work.
I have less than a month to submit my piece to the CCAA's juried show in September. The show is titled "goodness gracious...Great Bowls of Fire". If I can ever get around to photographing it that is.
The CCAA is finally having a propped sale this fall. It will be held at the bearspaw community centre on November 1st. I think I will be busy throwing pots from now until then. I may have a go at repeat ware like bowls, mugs and plates. It won't be the majority but it will help fill the table.