Take it to the bank

I posted some banks that I was in the process of making a little while ago, but then did not get the finished result posted. Here is one bird bank and the octopi bank that I made for my nephew. The rest will follow as I get them glazed and photographed.

Running out of time

It's been a while since my last post, so here is a quick update. As you can see from the picture above, I have some "new to me" modular display shelves. My friend Susan offered this system to me for free, as it was just gathering dust in her garage. I took her up on the offer and loaded my car with a ton of shelves and uprights. I put up this 7' section last week so that I could take pictures for a sale application. There are many more sections to this, and all of various heights, but I think this will work for application purposes. I have since installed some LED lights on the underside of a few of the shelves as well as a few clip on goose neck LED lights to illuminate the pots. I ordered that banner a while ago and I think it will work just fine with this display. Of course it will not be attached to the shelves, but hung in front of the table at the sale (assuming I am accepted that is). My next task is to take good quality pictures of a few pots, but first I needed to find a battery charger for my camera battery. The original charger was lost in the flood and I have since tried a couple of times to find one that will replace it, but apparently it is not so easy to find an actual Nikon charger without buying a whole new camera. I purchased a universal charger a while ago but it failed after a while, as did the replacement I got. Now I have a different one that seems to be doing the job. We'll see how long it lasts. I also had to re fire a glaze load as it was seriously under fired when an element died mid fire. There were a lot of good pots in there, so I am hoping that everything works out and doesn't just get worse. I will need these for the picture taking mentioned above. I borrowed a photo cube from a friend of mine a little while ago and I have finally gotten around to testing it out. I was only using my iphone for these shots and the lighting was less than optimal, but still OK results. 

Looks like my weekend will be filled with working, potting, making a family dinner (that's my fault, I offered), more potting and hopefully getting some more pictures taken. I need to get that application off before the end of the month. I just looked at the calendar and YIKES, May is only 2 weeks away.

Pots

I have been working on a few miscellaneous items in the studio. I almost destroyed this pitcher while trimming. I trim them the right way up and then roll the base on a table to develop the "foot" and just smooth the bottom. I guess I trimmed it a tad thin in one spot and while rolling the bottom, it started to bulge out at that thin spot. Upon closer examination, it was not so much thin, as just too damp to support the downward pressure while rolling. I coaxed it back into shape though and managed to get a decent handle attached. I threw some tall mugs, a couple of coffee pour overs to test how fluting would work on the inside to aid the brew. I am not really sure that these channels are necessary, but the internet says so, so it must be true. I was also asked to make a large piggy bank for my nephew and since I already had money banks on my mind, I jumped right in and threw a half dozen or so of various sizes and shapes. I did one traditional pig, but then thought that was too ordinary. I had been thinking of a conical, hut shaped bank with various animal sculptures on top and while discussing ideas with my sister, the idea of an octopus came up. She had no idea what I would do, and so after a few birds, I made this 8 tentacled money bank. I hope it works.

Catching up in the studio

On top of what has been going on at my condo, I have been busily beavering away in the studio. Here is a quick rundown of some of what has been going on since my last glazing frenzy

here are some of the pots from that last glaze marathon

 

This is a cup and saucer for a potential project, possibly more to follow on that, we'll see.

 

Because I never make coffee pots, I thought I would change that

 

Must have teapots 

 

More scratching as always

 

White on white scratching, front and back

That's it for now.

Deja vu

I went down to my condo last night after work and took some pictures. They seem vaguely familiar (HA HA). As you may recall, it was at this stage of completion back in October last year, but then disaster struck, again, and the kitchen and floor had to be ripped out due to an influx of mystery water. The new contractor that we hired still has to paint some areas that needed new drywall, install new baseboards and do a final clean. There are some cabinet doors and drawers that were also damaged and will need to be replaced or repaired, but other than that, it is almost done. I am hoping that it will only take 1 more week or even less. I could live with the damaged cabinet doors and wait for the new or repaired ones to be delivered. I don't care, I just want to move home.

Fear and Loathing...

Sometimes setting goals can be scary. Yesterday I was confronted with the looming deadlines for application into a few art & craft shows this year. I had made the decision to apply before the holidays last year and have been busily throwing pots towards that end ever since. Well, I emptied a couple kiln loads of finished pieces on Tuesday and was thrown into a tailspin of self doubt and loathing. One of the kilns did not fire to temperature. the top shelf was OK, but got progressively under fired the lower I went. Although this was due to no fault of my own, just old elements, I was still thrown by it.

I tend to walk a knifes edge when it comes to confidence in my work. I know I can throw pretty nice pots, but apparently I let little issues expand in my mind's eye until they are totally blown out of proportion and obscure the really good things. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday second guessing myself. Thoughts like, what if I can't do this" and "I'm sure there will be waaaay better potters putting their work out there, why should I try"....etc.

I did scratch one sale off my list, the deadline and the sale are just waaay too close and I know I would never have enough stuff by May to make it worth the mental anguish. I will be able to attempt to enter the one in the fall, just so long as my inner Charlie Brown does not get in the way.

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.

Loaded to the gills

Busy doesn't even begin to describe the studio last night. I got there at 5:20 pm and immediately began unloading my shelves of all of the green ware that I have been stockpiling over the last couple of months in order to begin loading up a bisque kiln. The first picture shows everything that I had, but there were a few pieces that did not make it in. Not to worry, there will be another bisque in about a month. The rest of the images show the bottom, middle and top layers. As you can see, it is loaded really tight. This kiln will fire off tonight and will be ready for me to begin the glaze prep on Friday. If I can get my hands on a couple of large buckets, I will also mix up the new Plainsman clear base that is so nice on the Polar Ice. I will also mix up some smaller buckets of the same clear base but will tint each with violet, pansy purple, tangerine and yellow Mason stains. Fingers are crossed that nothing cracks.

When in doubt, make mugs

Since you can never have too many mugs, I tend to always fall back on them when I just can't decide what to do next.

I got these handles attached on Friday night and now I am just waiting for them to dry out completely before I slather them in terra sigillata for another round of carpel tunnel inducing sgrafitto. I really need to get a bisque load fired, but my plans were thwarted when all the student work beat me to it and now I will have to wait until this Friday to fire. Perhaps that was for the best. It is a long weekend coming, so I can spend more time with glazing instead of rushing it, like I usually do.

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

Just a quick update

Just a quick recap of the events leading up to today:
On June 21st of 2013, Calgary and many surrounding areas were inundated by a vast quantity of water in the form of spring melt run off as well as pretty heavy rainfall in the mountains. The result was pretty horrible. My main floor condo was flooded (7ft or so of water filled it almost to the ceiling) and I lost pretty much everything I owned.
It is now 19 months later and I am still not back in. I came close to moving back in October last year, but there was a mysterious water leak that showed up that destroyed my hardwood floor and required that all of the base kitchen cabinets be removed. The source of this water was never found, but possible sources were eliminated. The only remaining cause is human error & or negligence on the part of the contractor.
The good news is that we now have a new contractor & they will be starting next week. The cabinets are to be installed the week of Feb 16th and the flooring will go in 5 days after that. IF everything goes according to plan, I could very possibly be moving back home by the first week of March. Some good news for a change.

In the studio, not much news to report. I was busy making open baking/serving dishes last Sunday, and here is a shot of a few drying their bottoms on the plaster and one that is all handled and just hanging out. I made about 8 of these of varying sizes and shapes. They are mostly round with an altered/pinched rim, but I did do a couple square ones. I do like the round ones the best. These would be good for a shepherd's pie, mashed potatoes, a deep apple crisp, stuffing, anything really.

Production progress and plastic chasing

Setting goals does seem to work. I spent the weekend in the studio ( I managed a solid 12 hours) and was able to trim and throw way more than I normally would. I have a list of items that I will need to have for next fall which has helped me immensely. I know what I need to make now. In the past, I would walk into the studio and would not get down to business right away as I did not know what I wanted to make, or should make. This solves that problem. Now I just need to decide which items to make that are on the list. I managed to bang out some shallow baking/serving dishes. At first I was going to make them a bit square, but thought they looked contrived, so I stuck with the round ones and altered the rims a bit. I am continuing to try to make a new butter dish form. The way I make them is to throw the lid as a closed form and measure the outer diameter, then the base is thrown and I use the measurement from the lid to determine where to place the seat that will accept the lid. The only difference with these dishes is that the area where you would put your butter is actually a 2.5" - 3" tall cylinder that the dome lid fits over. The idea is that when people use a traditional butter dome and scrape their knife off, butter gets into the lid seat and then the lid gets all buttery and it can't be placed on the counter/table without getting butter all over the place. I am hoping that this will allow people to still clean off their knife without gumming up the lid. The trick is getting the lid to fit properly. I have added a little ledge right at the base of the butter reservoir that acts as a stop for the lid. I want to glaze all but the base of the lid and it's seat and didn't want it to accidentally move when being loaded into the kiln and becoming permanently welded to the base. This little ledge will hopefully help keep the lid seated properly during the glaze firing. So far I have made 6 of these new dishes and the proof will be in the glazing.The rest of the time I was throwing bakers, salt and pepper shakers, trimming, attaching handles and generally just chasing plastic around as things were drying.

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. 

Village at night

I picked up some battery operated tea lights and hot glued them into place last night. So here is the completed village all lit up. The lights flicker and it kinda makes it look like all the little houses are on fire inside.

How many pots?

I mentioned previously (twice actually, due to a moment of senility), that after 14 years of potting, I am finally thinking hard about putting on my big girl pottery pants and entering a large craft show next fall. I have spent the intervening time thinking about just how many pots I will need to have for this endeavor and then asking myself just how many do I think I can actually make. Unfortunately, the answer is not coming easily to either of these questions.

Over this past holiday season, I spent quite a bit of time in the studio (8.5 "days" solid - from 9:30 am to 2 or 3 pm). When I say I spent a day in the studio, that seems to average out to about 4 - 6 hours. Some days I need to get other stuff done, like laundry, getting gas, sleeping etc. In this time, I think I managed to make 29 mugs, but then I knocked one off the ware board and I only had 28 to show for it. I made four 5lb casseroles, but then I had to make another lid as I managed to trim right through the first one, so now we are at 3 casseroles until I get the 2nd lid to fit, if at all. I also made some small bowls (17 or so), so the total pots thrown count is at about 47 after taking into account the destruction I wreaked on a few pots. I did fire a bunch of work, but that was made over a period of a month or 2, so I am not counting it as work made during this time. I destroyed a bit of work through negligent handling on my part, like letting the big porcelain bowl dry way too fast and probably not trimming the foot enough (upon inspection it was probably 1/2 an inch thick down there).

The question is, can I actually physically DO it? can I make enough, well enough to get in the show and then will I actually be able to sell it all. That is the other side of the teeter-totter. I could potentially have enough work, but then what if I don't SELL enough? There seems to be a whole lot of uncertainty going on here. I still need to account for the time spent decorating. I do a LOT of detailed sgrafitto on some of my work, but for this show I think I will need to pare it down and really think hard about how much work should be committed to this torture.

I have even taken this question to the level of creating a stock list and estimating how many of each type of pot I could conceivably need to have on hand. I think I got a bit out of control there. The first estimate was in the range of 1800 pots. I revisited the list to see where I should pare my expectations down and it came in at just over 1500. The show that I am really thinking hard about entering takes place over 4 days and each day is approximately 12 hours long, You need enough work to not sell out early, the show organizers probably frown on empty booths, but you don't want to over produce to the point where you are packing up almost as much as you brought with you. I have a feeling my issues will be in making enough, not making too much. I don't think I could actually make that many pots even if I didn't sleep or eat or work at my other jobs. My hands and back can only take so much. I'm only 43, but my right hand is starting to get stiff and achy in the mornings and well, potters know about sore backs, especially if you sit at your wheel instead of standing.

It looks like every moment I have where I am not working elsewhere will be spent at the wheel for the next foreseeable future. I just did the math, and I will need 18.75 hours to make 600 cups. I am by no means a speedy potter, I think that works out to 32 an hour. I have been told that when my instructor was making production pots, he would throw at least a 100 mugs an hour. We can't all be superstars I guess. I can only hope that the pots I DO make are the best pots that I CAN make. 

~~~~~~~THIS JUST IN !~~~~~~~~~~~

I just did a quick guestimate - Starting this week, if I only spend 6 hours in the studio from now until just before the sale, there will be about 282 hours for me to get all this done. I tried to conservatively guess how many of each form I can make in an hour and it looks like I can THROW all that I need in just over 135 hours, leaving 147 hours for everything else. Then I calculated how much time I would need for the carving, knowing that I will need to speed the process up, I guessed at how many pots I could carve in an hour and guess what, I came to 147.17 hours. So, I need to find a couple extra hours a week to fit in trimming, glazing and loading kilns, but it looks like it might just be possible...if my body doesn't fall apart first that is.

Of course, somewhere during this time I will be moving back to my condo, so I will lose some time, but there is the 2 months in the summer where I don't work on Saturdays, so I gain a bunch of hours too...

I have a feeling this is just a bunch of whishful thinking....

My muscles hurt

I began the 2nd day of the new year with the notion that if I cleaned up my shelves at the studio, I would have lots of room to put all my pots in progress. During this moment of purging insanity, I found all kinds of dried up clay, bags of trimmings and slop. What to do? Pug it I guess. We had a small Shimpo pug mill donated to the studio a while ago (donated because they lost the key and couldn't make it go, but we got it fixed to run on a switch instead). Anyway, I pugged all my stoneware scraps and lumps up and it turns out I had over 60lbs of clay just wasting space on my shelves, but now it is fairly usable. Still quite wet, so I will need to age it a bit. I also reclaimed about 25 kilos of the polar ice clay by hand, the pug mill would have ruined it. Needless to say, my arms and abs (such as they are) are a bit sore with all the wedging and pugging. That little pug mill is on a table that is a bit too tall so you can't use your body mass to push down on the plunger, you need to hang off the handle a bit like a monkey, so ya, my arms are sore. Now I can see what I am working on, I can see where I have been and maybe a little of where I need to go.