So how do you sign your pots?

One of my students bought a plate from me last week. He said he really liked it, but why do I not sign my pots? I said that I do sign my pots, but I choose to use a chop mark as opposed to scrawling my really long signature all over the bottom of a piece. I usually put the mark on the bottom or near the bottom, sometimes I put it beside the bottom of handle attachment points, and sometimes I put it in a more visible spot, as with the two pictures below. I thought he was done with the topic, but this week he came back and said that the reason he, and possibly other students, buy my work is because I made it and in 10 years, he may not remember who the heck make that plate if all he had to go on was some little chop mark. I used to sign my work with a dull pencil, but I wanted something easier and smaller I explained and so I made myself this little stamp. It is unique to me, no other potter that I know of signs with a similar mark. I have never really had an issue with this method, most of the people that buy my work are unknown to me and they are not buying it because I made it (I'm not that famous yet) but because they like the piece. And I guess that is what it should be all about. It should be about the pot, not the potter so much.

So how do you sign your pots? with a flourish? a chop? or nothing at all?

The weekend was muggy (pardon the pun)

I was finally able to pick up a couple boxes of Bmix on Saturday. It has been a while since it has been in stock and I have had to resort to using clay I don't really like to throw and to reclaim all my scraps. I threw the last of my reclaim on Friday night and it was a bit wet, but I wedged it really well and went for a really big bowl. The problems started pretty much right away. I couldn't centre it for love 'nor money. I got it to a reasonably centered state, opened it up, and found a large sponge. It was really full of clay and I never saw it during wedging. I picked it out and continued to throw but there were all kinds of spongy bits still in there. The bowl survived, but it was a bit of a challenge. Saturday I opened up the new non-spongy bmix and threw these mugs. I threw another large bowl but managed to tip it onto the floor on Sunday, overall not a great weekend for productivity.

Relief

If you are a potter and you do not get regular massages, I would highly recommend it. It has been a while (3 months) since my last massage, so I took advantage of a free evening last night and had a 1.5 hour massage. I always go for the deep tissue, theraputic massage. Making pottery puts a lot of stress on your body, what with the bizarre contortions we put ourselves into with odd sitting postures, especially if you throw on the wheel sitting down. If you use a kick wheel, I am sure that adds another level of stress on your body too. We stand for long periods, we sit for long periods, we lift heavy kiln shelves in and out of tight spaces, the list of things we do to ourselves in the name of our art are endless. Then there are the sales, lifting boxes, setting up booths, the mad scramble to pack up etc.
I used to go to a spa for my massages as there was one therapist there that had the best hands. She knew just where all the aches and pains were, even when I didn't. After she quit working there, I was left high and dry without a good therapist. So, the search was on the find a suitable replacement. I am now a member at a local massage place, you pay a monthly fee that entitles you to one 1hour massage a month and you would pay for any additional massages on top of that as needed. The good thing with this is that if you can't make the time one month, it rolls over to the next month. There are a lot of therapists there and you can choose a different one each time or stick to just one if you think they are the right fit for you.
Before I went in last night, I could barely turn my head, shoulder checking was very painful, laying down was even more so. Sleep was not easy to come by and headaches were becoming more common. When I left last night, I was sore, but today I am a million times better. I slept really well, I can turn my head without the jabbing pains.
So I'll say it again, if you are a potter, you should get regular massages.

Condo still looks the same

They say I will be in by next Friday. Things are a bit jumbled in there, what with all the appliances sitting all over the place, but I have some confidence that I will be able to start moving stuff in over the weekend and cleaning it up. I know the contractor claims that they do a final clean, but I doubt their standards are compatible with mine. I'm no neat freak, but I am sure all they will do is vacuum up the sawdust and wipe down the obvious stuff.

Moving soon????

I have probably jinxed it by blogging about it, but I should be moving on the 26th of August. My condo will be ready (according to the new schedule) on August 22nd, but my schedule did not match up with that. So the 26th it is. This whole process will have taken exactly 1 year and 2 months, to the day. They could have built an entire new building in that time. It's been a crazy, stomach churning, nail biting, emotional roller coaster of a ride that I will be glad to finally be able to get off, just as soon as the carny comes back from his smoke/toke break...

New porcelain

I was not in the studio much over the weekend. I had a wedding to attend and was staying at the bride's house overnight on Friday to help set up her back yard on Saturday before the wedding. So Sunday was my only day to get muddy. I picked up a box of the new Polar Ice that is still the first formulation that does not throw well. (the new and improved batch will be coming soon). Regardless, I was able to throw a few bowls of a reasonable size. The biggest is shown above and measures about 14.5 inches in diameter. It got a bit wonky when I accidentally stopped the wheel just a little too fast and it was jerked out of round. I managed to "correct" it so that at least visually, it does not appear to bad. The others were of varying sizes ad I attempted to trim a couple after they had stiffened up a bit. This clay is deceiving in that when you think it is dry, it is NOT. I will be letting the remainder dry very slowly and will try not to get too impatient and attempt any more trimming until they are just right. I was supposed to move back into my condo this week, but that did not happen. They were installing carpet in the common hallways and stairs and that took up 3 whole days. The kitchens for all 4 units are supposed to be going in this week starting today, so I really really hope that next week will be the week. My fingers are crossed, but I'm not holding my breath.

Translucent cone 6 porcelain

I have been mucking about with a new porcelain body. Plainsman Clays in Medicine Hat has been working on a cone 6 translucent body that would be comparable to Laguna Frost. They tested and came up with a body that appeared to throw well, but when they scaled it up to a full batch, the throwing properties were lost in translation. So they are back to the drawing board to tweak it to make it more throwable. That being said, I got my hands on half a box and did throw it. Whipped cream or pudding comes to mind when trying to describe it's consistancy. It did not stand up well, nor did it trim easily. I did however manage to get a few pieces made, mostly mugs. Here are a couple of examples of what came out of the kiln. I love the way it feels. Silky, smooth, fat etc etc etc. I like the finished result enough that I would try to fight another box of this into submission, and will definitely give their next revised batch a shot too.

This pic is of the inside of the little cup. I carved the bottom to see how that would show, and it does, quite well.
 

The little cup with the sgrafitto deco is not very thin, in fact the carving was not easy as the body is quite hard once it becomes bone dry. I really just wanted to know how it would take the OM4 terra sig and it feels really good, no fit issues that I can see.

I sound like a broken record....but I have a new move in date

We told our contractors on Tuesday that we were not happy and were considering the possibilities of firing everyone and starting from scratch. This would not be an ideal solution, but it seems to have made them step it up and move into a higher gear. They have fired some trades and brought some new ones on to the job. They are going to rip out some of the kitchens in other units, mine is apparently OK, but will have a corner cabinet installed where the last installer thought butting 2 boxes up to each other was acceptable (not). They will proceed with other work while the kitchens are being redone. I will need to re select cabinet door fronts as well as hardware. I find it funny that nobody ever asked me about hardware before. I asked, but never got a response. Anyway, they say that my unit will be done with a move in date of August 9th. The other 3 units will require more extensive work to remove the shoddy work. They will apparently be in by August 25th. All work should be complete by Sept. 1st.

My fingers are crossed, I can only hope that this timeline sticks. I don't see how they can't do it, as they are only working on finishing stuff, all the hard stuff has already been dealt with, like the mechanical, plumbing and floor leveling etc.

Customer Service is Dead

I got an automated call last night letting me know that my fridge and stove were going to be delivered today between 8 and 11am. I sent out an email to my office letting everyone know that I was going to be late as I was getting my appliances, because that is the courteous thing to do. Well, I sat there, in front of my condo (the one that is still not finished) for 2.5 hours. I called the store (sounds like The Crick) to check on the status of the delivery, but they couldn't contact the driver. I waited some more, I called back, they told me the truck had technical difficulties and had to go back to the warehouse. I left to go back to work. I get to work and not 5 minutes later the driver called to say they were 5 minutes away. I told them, I was 20 minutes away. They told me they couldn't wait. I said "So I waited 3 hours for you, but you can't wait 20 minutes? That is really inconvenient". Driver said they had to go back because they couldn't fit everything on the truck. and that I will have to reschedule the delivery. Wouldn't it have been better to call the customer to let them know that they were going to be late? I was so hungry, I hadn't had any coffee. All I had were a few chocolate mint things that I threw in my purse yesterday. Talk about healthy. So unimpressed. They fall all over you to take your money when you are shopping, but dropped the ball when it came to delivering the goods. When I called to reschedule, it took me 4 tries to get them to answer the phone, and I still have to call back tomorrow to get the delivery times.
I did get a human phone call while I was waiting from Home Depot. They were calling to let me know that my washer and dryer were unfortunately still in transit from the manufacturer. They called, it was a human being, and they will call again to confirm a delivery date once they have them in their warehouse. We shall see how these guys do when it comes to delivery time.

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....

construction standstill...

This whole flood and rebuilding thing has been a total nightmare. When the rebuild phase started, we were told by the contractor that this project should not take more than 14 weeks. I can't exactly remember when they officially started, but it was in February. It is now July 8th, and we are at least 4.5 weeks past the original move in date. We were told at first that we would be in by the first or 2nd week of June, then it was "before summer", then Jul.y 4th, then the 10th, now we have absolutly no idea. The contractor can't seem to get his subtrades on the job, they are always making excuses as to why they are not working. I mean seriously, don't these people want to get paid? We do not pay anyone until the job is done, so what the !@#$%*^*?!!* are they doing?
I would post a picture, but sadly, the last ones I posted are pretty much the same as what I would be able to post today. The only thing to have changed would be that the ladder moved, and some more crown molding went up in the kitchen, but not much........

Condo rebuild status

As you may or may not be aware, my condo was flooded last year on June 21st. There was 7 feet of water in there and reached almost to the ceiling. It has now been 1 year and 2 weeks since the flood and this is the state of the rebuild. It has been a long haul, and it looks like it will be a bit longer until I can move back in. I was told we would be in before the summer, well, that deadline was missed. Then we were told we would be in by July 4th. That is tomorrow, and by the looks of these pictures, that deadline will be missed. I don't have any expectations now that I will be in before the week of the 14th, but that might not be the case either. The City needs to sign off on the inspections, and the contractor does not want to bring them out until there are at least 2 completed units ready to go to grant occupancy. So, it is close, but still far away. I had a somewhat early welcome back to my condo gathering at a local pub with some of the people I work with at Ceramics Canada last night. Those people are fantastic and if you ever get a chance to go there for clay or other clay related items, they will help you out with all your clay needs. They truly are great.

Here are a few shots of the current state of the rebuild
This one shows the kitchen with the redone tall narrow cabinet, and the silly upper corner cabinet that needs to be revised...

And this one is of the partially completed bathroom. The toilet is in the bathtub right now to make room for the cabinet installer...
 

More pots

I took a 4 day long weekend due to Canada Day falling on a Tuesday this year and I spent most of it in the studio. These are just a few of the things I finished off. I did manage to throw some more mugs, a tall urn for a commission and some porcelain that Plainsman Clays is developing for cone 6. The porcelain was a chore to throw, but I knew it would be, they said it was no good for throwing, but I took that as a challenge. It sure was. These pics are just a few of the things I finished off...

This little 40lb lunatic also tried to kill me on Saturday... I took her for a walk around 8:00 pm, but it was windy and cold and starting to sprinkle so we turned around to go home. Half way there she wanted to run and jump and act like a jerk. She lunged in front of me, I tripped, she kept going and dragged me down to the sidewalk onto my knees and then immediately onto my face. The end result was skinned knees, both bruised, bruised upper left arm and sternum, strained muscles along my right side and hip, skinned and bruised palm and rattled brains. To top that all off, when I hit the ground, she kept running and the momentum of the fall dragged me forward, but not my pants....

I want to eat your hand....

This picture captures just how much Lucy would love to chew my hand off at the wrist. And this next one, I'm not sure exactly. Is she looking for lost treasure in the couch cushions or just shy? Maybe someone lost some bacon down there(doubtful).

In non dog news, I have been given a semi firm date of July 3rd to move back into my condo....sigh In pottery news, come on out next Sunday to the Moe Shelley Craft Market in the Bamboo Lounge, next to the Drum & Monkey Public House. It starts at noon and goes until 5.

I know that the saying says that there is no rest for the wicked, but I think it's backwards. It should say that the wicked get to nap. Lucy (aka Lucifer) seems to be able to get some zzzz's. I on the other hand, don't seem to be able to get any rest. I am dealing with condo stuff, condo board stuff, work stuff, pottery stuff, no end to the stuff I am trying to juggle. I was calcining alberta slip yesterday so that I could mix up a large batch of our new glaze "purple rain". It is really just Plainsman clay's GA6-C rutile blue, but purple rain sounds better. I mixed in the calcined AB slip a bit hot, as I needed to get it done before I left for the day, but that shouldn't cause an issue (i hope ;) ) Oh ya, I am going to be in a sale on June 22nd from noon to 5pm at the Bamboo Lounge, next to the Drum an Monkey Pub. It is a family friendly event and all are encouraged to come and check it out. There will be a wide variety of art and craft there to satisfy your every need. So ya, busy busy right now, the condo is still in reno mode. I am not sure when I will be moving back, but the appliances are arriving on Wednesday...The furniture too, but I might change that to next week if I can. It was supposed to be done this week, so hopefully next week... fingers crossed.

Floors and doors

The early morning progress meeting went well and things are moving along. The hardwood floors are all in and the doors are mostly all hung or at least in the space waiting to be hung. Bathtub is next (today) and then tile starts tomorrow. Cabinets are still a bit of a jumble and I have yet to pick the cabinet door fronts and counter top laminate. Not sure if I will be in by the 11th, but I am hoping it will be that week... The Fairview Pottery sale was this past Saturday and although there were only 9 of us in the sale this time, I think our individual sale numbers were good. The turn out for the spring sale is always a bit on the slow side compared to the Christmas sale, but with less participants, we don't have to spread the dollars as thinly. After the expenses were accounted for, it looks like I cleared more than double what I did at the last Christmas sale. That kind of tells you how much that last sale sucked (I blame the polar vortex). Every time I think I have this pottery selling thing figured out, the game changes, the people change, the market changes, mugs become either the hot new craze or you can't give them away because everyone wants goblets or have stopped drinking liquids or something silly like that.

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.

Go Go Gadget!

I have been compiling a list of the things I will need when I move back in to my condo and then slowly checking them off as I get them. So far, I have made all of the really big purchases and now I am left with the small items like kitchen utensils, bathroom accessories, area rugs, place mats etc. Once I started the list of these smaller items it started to feel like I was in a tornado of spatulas, potato peelers, toilet bowl brushes etc. The list just keeps getting bigger, because you never know when you might need a battery operated garlic press/lemon squeezer, or a deviled egg maker, or an ergonomic/wind powered melon baller. You just never know.

As it stands right now, I will have somewhere to sit, eat and sleep when I move in, if all deliveries occur when expected. I won’t be able to wash my clothes until mid June, but I can deal with that. I should also be able to cook, store food and wash dishes. So all in all, things are going well. I should be back in my place by June 11^th ( I hope). It might be sooner, but I’m not counting my deviled eggs until they hatch. 

Come on, who DOESN'T need a waffle maker that makes keyboard waffles, or one that does doll house furniture, or a wiener dicer, or even an alien inspired silicone egg basket? 

Paint!

I was up bright and early for our 7:30 am progress meeting for the condo restoration. This is what I was greeted with. Paint on the walls and cabinet bases waiting to be installed before the flooring goes down. There are a few details to be worked out, like how to finish/hide the gaps between the walls and the ceilings and the un paintable fire stop caulking that had to be installed to meet code requirements. The floors need to be polished/ground down where the leveling compound was troweled on and then the flooring can be installed. We asked for a move in date, and although a specific date was not given, he did say the second week of June, possibly as early as June 5th. Anyway, here is a blurry picture of one wall of my condo with it's new coat of "froufrou" yellow.