Slab Roller for Christmas!

God blessed us abundantly and more than we asked for. I really did pray for a used slab roller! I told God that the new ones were just too expensive and that old ones were hard to find, but that it wouldn't be hard for HIM. I was right. A new potter just moved to the New Bern area, but she's not doing production any more and wanted to sell her slab roller. I was so jazzed when I heard this. But get this: she also had a Brent CXC to sell (I've been wanting one) and some bats (I've been short on bats) and an extra Giffin Grip (so some little pieces are missing, but we can replace them). So this amazing mass of used equipment is now ours, for a very low price. I won't tell you, because it's gauche to talk about money. O.K you twisted my arm. We got it all for $600. God is good!

I've already used the slab roller and it's wonderful. No more tiny slabs. I'm in the big time now. I'm gonna see just how big a hand-built bowl I can make. And classes for hand-building will be all the easier. I'm gonna make platters, and plates, and tiles and all kinds of big, big stuff! We put the small slab roller in my studio at home, which will be handy. I mostly throw pots at home, but occasionally I need a slab. Up till now I just got out my rolling pin, but now I won't have to. I also got a new Giffin Grip for my home studio. So I had a very merry Christmas.

We are already starting school again this week (because we take off a week earlier than everyone else). As soon as I finish our January store window, I'm starting production on my Bear Pottery for the 300th anniversary. The first thing I'm going to make is a large plate with a big bear on it. It's going on our new store display that we bought from a store that closed this month. Well, that's it for now.

On the home front: Haley is graduated from High School early. She goes to Craven Community College full time next month and next fall, she will go to Campbell University.

Chris had a little car accident the other night. He's fine. The truck doesn't look to happy. But praise God for keeping Chris safe.

First Pottery Festival

Well, I had my first festival a couple of weeks ago. I set up a table, laid out my wares, filled my little cash box with change and waited for storms of people to snatch up all my precious pots. Well, it didn't happen exactly as I hoped, but it was fun. I had a wheel set up next to my table where kids could come and try making a pot. Truly, the most talented newcomer to the wheel was a little 3-year-old Jasmine, who sat down, held her hands in just the right position and proceeded to mesmerize the audience with her potting prowess! Her Grandma, Bonnie, is one of my students.

I met some new potters and a lot of potters I already knew. It made me feel great to see five of my own students selling there. Among the artistic celebrities was my teacher, Elizabeth Priddy. She's a very good teacher and brutally honest. She came over and looked at my mugs and bowls and pronounced them good. This was basically what made the day perfect. I only sold $200 worth of pots, but it was a very good day.

Now my pots are back in the store and the Christmas shoppers are going for the mugs. I added some place mats, cloth napkins and some plastic food to enliven my display. It looks very professional. We started building the store Christmas window today. Hannah is painting a picture, Carly put together some beautiful wreaths, and we turned a large wooden easel into a Christmas tree. After church tomorrow, we put the window together. Haley is designing our new website. She's taking over that part of the business for us for a while. We sure need the help. It's so much fun to have our children in there working alongside us. They are such gifted and talented people.

Mug Shots

I threw 8 mugs yesterday (only 7 made it), 1 pie plate, a dinner plate, a spoon rest, a sauce bowl, a condiment bowl and a lid for a jar. My goal, besides throwing 25 pounds of clay in 1 day, was to make mugs that matched. Despite weighing the clay, marking the height, and diameters, they didn't all match. They didn't even come close! so I'm thinking, there must be something here I am missing. I'm going to have to make, like, 100 mugs to get a set to match.

We have mumfest this weekend. A royal pain in the tush. Literally. I have to ride my bike to work because there's no place to park! I'm going in tomorrow to trim my pie plate and a couple other items. I'll take photos of the mugs.

Update: Here is a picture of one of the mugs!

Glaze Happy

I'm really really happy. I'm finally getting someplace with these Coyote glazes. These photos are some of the really good ones. I love the plum blossom sake bottle especially. I used glaze chalk to draw the blossoms on the greenware, then we bisque-fired the bottle. Afterwards I glazed the bottom in coyote black, and the top in amaco's blue rutile. The tea-bowl set is decorated in wax resist, dipped in amaco's shino, coyote black with some dribbles of coyote's gunmetal green. I'm happy with the glaze but the design is too busy for me overall. I think the wax resist was too much. I'm going to make another with no resist. The bowl is really cool and the recipe was borrowed from Gloria H. at my teaching studio (Bear Hands Pottery). First it's dipped in light green shino, then eggplant is brushed halfway down the bowl (inside and out) then the lip of the bowl is brushed with Pansy Purple, finally I threw a little archie's base in the middle for some interest (all Coyote glazes). It looks kind of like the northern lights!

Finally, here is a photo of the Koi Fish pot that Chris carved. He built it with slabs and carved the picture, I glazed, he fired. It came out beautifully. I used Velvet underglazes like watercolors on the fish, which we fired to bisque. Then I used wax to protect the underglaze, and applied light blue shino (coyote) to the background. We are working on a whole series of pots done in this carved technique and they are really time consuming but fun. I just painted an egret pot last night and it is going to be really beautiful!

This recent kiln full showed some progress and, yet I'm still working on getting "my look" so to speak. I haven't settled into a style quite yet and I keep wondering what it will be. I am experimenting with lots of recipes and clays. I love the white clay with bright flowing colors, the shinos with their soft breaking browns and the rich black which contrasts so nicely with other colors. It really depends on my mood which clay I want to throw on any given day. Maybe it's a case of too many choices? I look at millions of pottery pictures, and, very few pots I hate. My tastes range so far, yet my knowledge is very limited. Oriental pottery, for instance, appeals to me more now than ever. I love not the fancy Chinese paintings (although admirable) but the rustic tea bowls, fired with wood and painted with salt or ashes. I enjoy looking at slumpy, organic looking structures as well as more precise ones. I love majolica, and other painted techniques, and clay that isn't glazed at all.

Right now, I'm working on my line of bear pottery. I'm throwing and decorating right now, several different styles of mugs, plates, covered dishes etc.,. trying to get a feel for what style I like best. It's really weird, but I'm designing everything around a cookie mold! It's a very cool mold of the Berne Walking Bear popular symbol of Berne Switzerland, our sister city. Since our big 300th anniversary is coming up, I want to have pottery ready to commemorate it! I'm even going to bring some to the Tryon Palace and see if they will sell it in their gift shop. I decided on speckled brownstone for the clay body, but I might go to red-stone with no speckles. I'll see how this first batch comes out of the glaze. There are some glaze techniques I am working on that include laying glaze into lines in the clay and scraping it away from the higher points and using wax resist. I'll post pictures of the first bear pots when they come out.

Switching Gears Now

I've been teaching beginning wheel classes so long now, that I can tell what someone is doing wrong just by looking at the clay on the wheel. Sometimes I have to watch them actually trying to throw, but now, more often than not, I can just look at the clay.

I've been throwing little loafers clay, which is very soft and white. I've been enjoying it, but now I want to change. I'm going back to speckled brownstone. I'm going to make a series of mugs, pitchers, plates, casseroles, salad bowls that have bears on them. The 300th anniversary of New Bern is coming up and I want to be ready for it.

Ever feel like you see something big coming? That's how I feel. I think next year is going to be good for my pottery.

Haley is a senior this year. Hannah is a junior. At the end of next year, I'll be down to two students at home. I'm really really looking forward to that!

Collaboration!

Chris and I just finished a series of pots together and they came out quite well. The hard part about working on one piece of art with two people is trying not to ruin each others' vision. Chris hand-built a few bottles/decanters and carved in images based on some of Picasso's paintings. He bisque-fired them and then handed them off to me to glaze. I was worried and a little scared that I wouldn't glaze them as he pictured them. We talked about it a lot and I decided to forge ahead. I looked a the prints of the paintings while I glazed. Although I couldn't get the exact colors down, I did mimic the feel and color values (lights and darks). I chose to use Speedball glazes because I'm very familiar with how they look when fired on Raku clay and, they don't run. I needed these glazes to stay exactly where I put them, but I didn't want to go with underglazes. I did use a few underglazes with no glaze over them to add some variety. I use Amaco, Velvet Underglazes. The combination worked out quite well, and overall, I'm pleased.
update:
We took the pots to the Craven Arts Council Gala a few weeks ago and sold three. We sold a couple at the Village Gallery in Oriental as well. There's only two left and they're at our store. I need to find the pictures we took of them and add them to this post!

Cooperative Art

Chris and I are doing a series of pots together. He really enjoys hand-building and he has made a group of vessels with carvings of paintings by Picasso on them. I'm glazing them. I sure hope I don't mess them up. I'll post some pictures when they are done.

Glazing things over

What is it with glazes anyway? I am not happy. Not happy at all with brushing on glazes. I like dipping them better, but how do I buy enough buckets of glaze to make me happy? I'm not happy with just four colors. I'm not ready to settle down just yet. I need to find out what the trick is to brushing on glazes and I need to find out quick. Meanwhile, I am still in artistic angst over my lack of time to potter around my studio. Good news, I'll be getting a kiln soon. Bad news: no money to hook up 220 to the garage. The frustrations of being an artist!

Burning things up

I'm off to a wood-fire today. There are many ways of firing pots and using wood is one of the more traditional and spectacular ways. The electric kiln is convenient and predictable (until the stinking elements burn out or the pyrometer gives the wrong reading or the cone-sitter breaks or the digital thingy stops working) but wood firing is very exciting, noisy, messy and fun. This kiln belongs to my teacher, Elizabeth Priddy, out in Beaufort. There's a whole group of us this week learning to fire her mini wood kiln. Traditionally, a wood-fire takes several days, her kiln takes about 9 hours. Yesterday we glazed and loaded, today we burn. If I get anything good, I'll post a picture of it.

Putting art on the back burner

Here is a picture of one of my recent pots. I did a few of them. They are gone too. They sold at the gallery where some of my work is. Don't be too impressed, it just a co-op gallery. But still, I was invited to join and it does feel good when someone buys my work.

Sometimes when I visit our studio (the one in the store, not my own personal studio at home) I see some pretty cool pots. I think to myself "I could do that..." But I'm too busy cleaning up the studio, helping people, working, taking care of children, home-schooling, supporting, nurturing. All the while I know, in the back of my mind, that I have the skill inside me.

Once in a while I get some time, but not very often. Not often enough. It almost drives me crazy. But this is the time in my life when I have a lot of responsibilities. I don't think God would be pleased if I ignored them, even though I sometimes desperately want to. It's not that I don't want to be a mother. I would discard all my artistic desires in the trash heap if forced to make a choice. But I just want someone to know that it's there. I want to remember that the skills and talent are there. I yearn to use them. It aches inside sometimes to spend the day cooking beans and washing floors, but I know I'm doing more than that. I'm loving my family and investing myself in them. That is important stuff. Eternal stuff. I need to remember that too.