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.

Journey...

I've never gone very far on trips. I've been out of my mind more than out of this country, USA. We are all on a journey, however, and mine is particularly interesting. A home-schooling mother of four children, living in a small town, doesn't sound particularly exciting. But it's all in how you look at things. Take the laundry- is it a task that is finished at the end of the week? NEVER. It is a journey. A stinky, long, boring journey. So I won't be writing too much about socks, believe me. The laundry is never done, so that indicates that life is on-going at least. Dishes are there again sooner or later too. Floors get dirty again. Home-makers have a lot of symbolism to deal with, I guess. I don't measure my days in laundry and dishes, but in how I've influenced others, information and encouragement given, and great memories made. I don't think anyone has a more influential or powerful job than a mother.