Jer...Who...What...Ware?

Field Trip!!!

2009-11-19T13:24:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow a group of us from our potter's guild is going to visit the Freer Gallery, part of the Smithsonian Institution. A guild member has arranged for us to go into the stacks that house their ceramics collection. We will get to observe and handle many incredible pots that are not on display to the public. I was able to do this once in the distant past, when I was fairly new to clay. I think that I will definitely get more out of this trip.

I am not sure about the photo policy, but if I can take pictures I will be sure to share. By the way, if you are going to be in the D.C. area, I believe it is very simple to set up one of these tours. I can get you information about it, if you are interested.

When one door closes...

2009-11-17T06:25:00.000-08:00

another one opens, right? Let's hope so!

Our guild just got official notice that our tenancy for our gallery space will come to an end on December 28. While we knew that it would be happening sooner or later, it is still unfortunate news. At least we were able to have this wonderful space through the holiday season. The building's owners have been very generous to us during our residency at the gallery and we are very thankful of the time that we have been there.

So what does this mean for the future? It means that people local to the Frederick, MD area only have a few more weeks to come into the gallery to purchase lots of wonderful pots! Please help support our guild and local artists by coming in buying some functional or decorative ceramics. We have such a wide variety of pieces, from mugs to wall sculptures to vases, that I am sure you will find some pots that need to go home with you. Get some gift shopping done! Our new holiday hours are listed on our web page.

It also means that we are searching for a new retail space. We have been so lucky being right across the street from Volt and hope to find another fantastic location. If anyone knows of space in downtown Frederick that may be available, please let me know. We are looking at all of our options at this point and hope to find another suitable space as quickly as possible.

Pots for the People

2009-11-16T18:03:00.000-08:00

I had a chance this past Sunday to clean up most of my pots from the woodfiring (save the 2 or 3 that have a date with the grinder in the basement) and snap some quick pictures of them. As I have mentioned in previous posts, all of these (except for the vase with the two strap handles) are Porcelain for the People from Matt & Dave's Clays and were fired in the manabigama at Monocacy Pottery. I am continually impressed with the surfaces that this kiln provides in 8 or 9 hour firings. I am quite pleased with this clay, from the ease of throwing and trimming to the final products.

Rather than upload a gazillion pictures, I whipped up some collages that feature a lot of my pots from this most recent firing. Now I just need to finish cleaning up the last of the pots, price them and get them to our guild's gallery.

With the exception of two cups which were glazed on the outside, all of the surfaces are raw clay flashed by the fire. A number of liner glazes were used, including shino, blue ash, amber and celadon.

Fresh from the kiln...

2009-11-10T18:26:00.000-08:00

Just general pictures for now, no pics of just my pots. I'll try to get those up soon. It was once again a great firing. The Porcelain for the People gave nice gentle flashing and glossed up very nicely.

Nice 360 degree pots from the entire kiln. There were one or two spots in the middle of the kiln that were heavily ashed. I had not really seen that before. There was also heavy reduction in the back bottom corners, which we have seen before. Some strong carbon trapping on a couple of pots back there.

Back at it!

2009-11-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

How did three whole months go by since my last post?!

The summer was busy and fall has been, too. I guess that is how. We had a great trip to the Outer Banks in September and other than that we have gotten much done on our house and our rental next door. We've seen some concerts and some movies, not that I can remember any specifics at the moment. And I was busy keeping up with all of the other pottery blogs that are out there, the ones with authors that are good about posting!

In my ceramics life, I had a bit of a slump for a while during which I was not very motivated. At least once I did not even touch clay during an entire Tuesday night class. But then a while back I was reminded that I had a woodfiring coming up in early November. Yikes!!! Time to make some pots.

I had heard such good things about the porcelains from Matt and Dave's Clays that I knew I wanted to try them. I had gotten a sample size of their cone 6 porcelain, The Coup, and I liked it. They had mixed their test batch a bit on the moist side (as they had given me the heads-up about...their customer service is the bomb) and I found it a bit tricky to throw while trimming was a dream. For the woodfire I ordered 60 pounds of Porcelain for the People, their cone 12 clay. This clay was heaven to throw and trim.

I had plenty of pots ready in time for the loading on November 7. Once again I was part of a group firing at Monocacy Pottery and it was fun as it always is. We loaded the kiln with only one minor glitch. A post on the bottom of the final stack shifted at some point. Upon finishing, the final stack was less than optimal.

Wonky stack.

We had to pull the whole stack and re-load it, but it looked so much better once we had done so. We then bricked and papered the door and we were ready for firing on Sunday.

We decorated the kiln with signs of the season.

The firing went very smoothly. We built up the ash bed from about 6am until 8am. Proper stoking then continued until 2:45pm and we shut it down at 3:15. It was a great group of potters and we had a blast. A number of us will be there tomorrow to unload the pots, warm from the kiln. I should have pictures of the results up later this week.

Some of the kiln gods watching over our firing.

Protect local farmers!!!

2009-08-04T09:18:00.001-07:00

No new pottery news yet, but I thought this deserved its own post. I recently learned about a new bill that was introduced earlier this year, HR 875 - the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2009. You can read about it here. Once you have, I hope that you will contact your local representative like I did. Please tell them that you are opposed to this bill.

Buying local makes sense for so many reasons, it will be horrible if this bill passes and crushes small farms, farmers' markets and community supported agriculture. Please contact your reps, re-blog the link, post it on Facebook...anything to build opposition against HR 875.

Thanks!

Pots at the gallery

2009-07-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

I worked a shift at the gallery this past weekend and switched out some of my inventory while I was there. Here is a short clip showing some of the pots that are now at the gallery. If you are in the Frederick area, feel free to visit them. I'm sure they would love to go home with you.

After I made the movie, I realized that the cup whose interior is shown is not for sale. There was a small S-crack on the bottom. Lucky for me, because it is now on our shelf at home. But there are some other cups with that blue ash glaze at the gallery. And here are a couple of the pics from the video in clickable format:

We are off to FloydFest this weekend. It is an incredibly fun music festival that we have gone to for a few years. I highly recommend it. Super music, very family friendly, yummy food & drink, great friends and tons of fun. It is located in southwestern Virginia, right off the Blue Ridge Parkway in the town of Floyd. Some of the bands that I am looking forward to are Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Railroad Earth, Toubab Krewe, Yard Dogs Road Show, Groupo Fantasma, The Dynamites feat. Charles Walker, The Duhks, EOTO, Forro in the Dark, Lee Boys, The Sadies, Boulder Acoustic Society, Morwenna Lasko & Jay Pun, Barcelona Institute of Gospel, American Dumpster, The Bittersweets, Soulhound and many more!!

Meanwhile, over in the flowerbed...

2009-07-17T05:08:00.000-07:00

Blackberry lily

Spent blackberry lily, just like a twist cone!

Blackberry lily plant

Um...flowers.

Crocosmia buds, getting there.

Pitchers

2009-07-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

So I made a couple of pitchers. They did not turn out exactly as I pictured them, but they are a starting point. They both have a white slip detail on either side. They each then had a full dip in oribe, followed by latex resist on opposite quarters and a dip in amber. I was hoping that the white slip would show through the double-glazed areas, but it was too muddy. There ended up being too much going on, I think next time I will stick to the oribe only, at least on the body of the pitcher.

I also think that the spout on the first pitcher could have been shorter. I quite like the scalloped spout on the second pitcher and how the slip design mirrors the spout (it would have been better if all of the slip was visible).

I've got a couple of more in the works, so we'll see what happens with those. I am also going to work on handle refinement, which has always been a problem for me. Any thoughts or suggestions regarding any aspect (form, glazing, spout, handles, yadda yadda yadda)?

Like Buttah

2009-06-18T07:23:00.000-07:00

Or at least for buttah.

There are some more waiting to be fired (Briesa, that means one for you). Thanks to Jen, my instructor, for the idea & lid template.

I also have some pitchers in the works. After all, it is white wine spritzer season. Or iced tea I suppose. Sadly, no pitcher pictures yet.

Riding my bike to save the world!!!

2009-05-19T07:45:00.000-07:00

Though I haven't posted much lately, I'm still alive and kicking. I've been going to pottery every Tuesday and have some things in the works, mostly handbuilt. Hopefully some will be finished soon and I can post pictures.

But, this post is not about pottery. In the next month I am going to be participating in two bike rides that are fundraisers for two causes near and dear to me. I will be doing the Ride for Autism and Bike MS: Beyond the Beltway. Friends and family have been affected by both of these conditions and I am glad that I can do my part in helping. Here is some more information about each event.

Ride for Autism

Autism is a developmental disability characterized by atypical, repetitive behaviors and deficits in social and communication skills. Current estimates suggest that 1 in 150 individuals in the United States (and 1 in 94 in New Jersey) are affected by autism. There is no known cure for autism at this time, but early diagnosis and intervention can be effective.

The Ride for Autism benefits Autism New Jersey. Autism New Jersey is a non-profit agency providing information and advocacy, services, family and professional education and consultation.

If you would like to contribute towards my fundraising for the Ride for Autism, please click here.

Bike MS: Beyond the Beltway

MS interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and wears away the control a person has over his or her body. When someone is diagnosed with MS, it can dramatically affect their future, their career, and their daily life.

All donations support the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which funds more MS research, offers more services for people with MS, provides more professional education programs and furthers more MS advocacy efforts than any other MS organization in the world. The National Capital Chapter of the National MS Society serves many thousands of people affected by MS in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area.

If you would like to contribute towards my fundraising for the Bike MS, please click here.

I know that times are tough these days, but anything you could do to help would be greatly appreaciated! Feel free to pass along this post to anyone that may be interested in helping.

Thanks everybody!!

Woodfire Unloading

2009-04-29T07:46:00.000-07:00

It was a fantastic firing!!! Everyone had wonderful pieces come out of the kiln and we are all thankful for that. It was another hot day as we unloaded the hot kiln. I'll let the pictures tell the story (as always, click to enlarge). Hopefully soon I'll have some set shots of individual pots.

Thanks to John Thies and all of the other workshop participants for a great weekend and firing! I can't wait for my next one.

Woodfire - day 2

2009-04-26T13:58:00.000-07:00

The firing went very well. We built up the coal bed from about 6AM until 8AM. Then we stoked every 10 minutes until 3PM. The last stoke was allowed to burn until 3:25 and we shut her down.
The only dicey moment was during that 25 minute period. We were all sitting a ways away from the kiln when we heard a horrible crash from the kiln area. My stomach flipped as I thought a shelf had collapsed in the kiln, but it was just a wood pile falling over behind the kiln. Whew!

We will unload on Tuesday. At this point I do not think that I will be able to be there for the unloading, which really sucks. It'l like watching Santa come and leave presents under the tree and not being able to open them. But maybe I can finagle something at work and be able to show up.

FYI, for those of you who read the woodland mystery post, I found out what it was. Nothing too exciting, just some non-hazardous resin from a water softener, no creeping crud in these parts!

Woodfire - Loading the kiln

2009-04-25T14:24:00.000-07:00

The report from Monocacy Pottery...

Here's the first stack:
Here's the second stack:

And here's the third and final stack:
Then the door was bricked and sealed with slip soaked newspaper. Makes for a quick and easy seal.I'll be back at the kiln at 6:25 tomorrow morning to begin the fire in the firebox. More to follow!

Before & After

2009-04-23T13:06:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, much better. (Thanks Michele!)

Now that the hairs are cut, I can worry about the woodfiring coming up this weekend. The pots are all slipped, glazed and in the car ready to head up to Monocacy Pottery. We load on Saturday and fire on Sunday. It is a quick kiln. John Thies will have warmed the kiln in the wee hours of the morning and we start with a small fire in the bottom of the firebox at 6AM. Proper stoking begins at 8 and we should be closing it up around 2 or 3 that afternoon. Hopefully we will be unloading on Tuesday. Plenty of pics to follow!

Officially Sprung - selections from our flowerbeds

2009-04-05T07:25:00.000-07:00

Some adorable little narcissus, faces are 1 1/8" across.

Wood hyacinth (with some grape hyacinth in the background).

Various daffodils.

New Members Show Reception

2009-04-05T07:02:00.000-07:00

Last night was a definite success! I showed up at the gallery at around 3:45 and the previous shift said that it had been a steady day with a lot of sales. That continued on through the night. I had a surprise visit from my dad, which was great. He brought along a very nice note from my mom, who was unable to make it for the opening. They have always been so supportive of me, thanks mom & dad!

We had good crowds all night long from about 5PM until 15 minutes after closing. I was thankful to have a number of friends stop in to look around the gallery and purchase some pots. It is people like you who make the gallery possible. Before it got too crowded, I did remember to take some pictures of the featured artists display area. In a couple of the pictures you can see the listing of the featured artists (just click on the pics to enlarge).

One of the most enjoyable things for me was seeing the other new members' work. Although many are from the Frederick Pottery School, they are not in my class, so I rarely see any finished pieces. What a great collection of pots! It is always a blast to see so many ideas and techniques. We had a lot of fun and sold a lot of pots.

Thanks to everyone who made it out and for those who could not, the show is up for the rest of the month.

New Members Show - April 2009

2009-04-01T06:02:00.000-07:00

Press Release

Frederick MD- The Potters’ Guild is pleased to spotlight their new members and welcome them into the guild by making them the featured artists in “What’s New?” for the month of April.

“What’s New?” will be on display from April 1 through 30 at the Potters’ Guild of Frederick’s Yellow Brick Gallery, located in historic downtown Frederick at 227 North Market Street. There will be a reception on Saturday April 4 from 5 to 9pm with all six displaying artists there to meet the public and answer questions about their work.

“What’s New?” will display creative works of art as well as functional pieces for the home. There will surely be a piece to catch everyone’s eye! Our newest members are inspired by many things but they all share a simple love of clay. These artists are an electrifying addition to the gallery. The Guild is truly excited to showcase their diverse talents.

For more information please contact Potters’ Guild President Ann Hobart at 301-662-3160 or go to our website http://www.pottersguildoffrederick.com

That is our guild's press release for this month's featured artist show. As a new member, I will be one of the featured artists and I am really looking forward to the reception this Saturday. It sounds like this week's rainy weather is going to turn sunny and warm for the weekend, so hopefully that bring people out and into the gallery. We have had very good luck with the weather for the past couple of First Saturdays.

If you are in the Frederick area, please stop by to look at the guild members' work and to pick up some new ceramic goodies for yourself or friends. We'll have some munchies and wine and I'm sure a good time will be had by all.

Wrapping up making for woodfire

2009-04-01T05:50:00.000-07:00

Well, we need to have all of our woodfire pots ready for bisque by April 5. So these are the last of my pots that I've made for the April 25/26 woodfire.

These are a combination of thrown parts, slabs and sprig feet. I was not planning on having feet, but once I had the vases/bottles sitting there, they looked WAY too heavy and dumpy. The feet give them some lift. I think that most will be fired on their sides, so the wadding will give some nice patterning.

The next step for the woodfiring is waiting for the glazes and slips to arrive at the school. There was a bit of a clay mix-up, so instead of B-Mix Wood many pots were made with B-Mix10. They would be duds in the wood kiln, so we are going to use a flashing slip on those. There are also a handful of glazes to use, mostly as liners. I hear we are going to have a blue ash glaze, which I am really excited about!

I guess from here on it is back to Red Rock and ^6 on Tuesday nights. Gotta get back to making pots for the gallery. I'll have to see what (hopefully) sells during the upcoming show. More about that in the next post.

Better than Prozac

2009-03-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have any videos on my iPod, but if I can make it happen, this one is going on. I would really love to be carrying all of these fantastic fabulous dance freaks in my pocket. Instant Happy. Sha-ZAM!

Thanks to Mary for passing this along.

Stacked & Lidded Bowls for Woodfire

2009-03-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

I mentioned in my previous post about the stacked bowls that I trimmed over the weekend. Here are some pictures. They are almost as I pictured them in my head. I had wanted them to stack a bit differently, but for a first effort I'm pretty excited about them. I am planning on glazing the interiors with celadon and maybe the insides of the finger grips as well. The clay is Loafer's Glory, so it should flash nicely in the woodfire.

I threw three bottles and handbuilt one at class last night. But did I remember to take pictures of those? Of course not.

World Cup & More

2009-03-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

This first part goes out to all of my readers who are on Facebook. Another potter, Simon Levin, has developed a couple of fun applications on Facebook. His newest is World Cup (hopefully that link works, if not just search for it on FB). It is along the lines of his other application, American Mug. In World Cup you can give cups by various potters to your friends. There is even one of my cups in there. It is a great way to spread the joy of clay amongst your friends. There are some really nice pieces in both apps, so be sure to check them out!

In other clay news, I now have work in the Potters' Guild of Frederick gallery in downtown Frederick. I am very excited to have pots available for sale in such a great space. Every month there is a different featured artist, this month being Georgia Geisser. She does some really wonderful sculptural pieces in addition to wheel thrown work. Next month will be a "New Members" show, so I am looking forward to that.

I am still making pots for my upcoming woodfiring. I am working on some lidded bowl stacks that I am quite pleased with so far. I'll be at the studio tonight, so hopefully I'll snap some pics of work in progress.

Jumping into the deep end

2009-03-01T14:42:00.000-08:00

Today Kevin and I took a drive to Baltimore to attend the ACC show for the first time. Wow. It's big. Really big. We had been to the Smithsonian Craft Show before, but that is teensy compared to the ACC show. We felt like we were thrown into the deep end of the pool and it was wonderful to flail about in the sea of art surrounding us. Now I'm going to throw you into the deep end with a lengthy post about what we saw. Dog paddle like you never have before!!!

It was great to meet some of the potters in person that I have interacted with on line through the blogosphere. I got to meet Linda Johnson of Little Flower Designs. She was a delight and we picked up a lovely rectangular platter as a gift for someone.

We also talked to Kent Harris for a while. He was really friendly and we had an enjoyable conversation. We learned some interesting tidbits from him.

I got to meet a former teacher from the pottery school that I attend. Both Eric Hendrick and his wife Heather Van Horn used to teach at FPS prior to moving up to Vermont and starting Zpots. Erik taught the Tuesday night class of which I am now a member and all of the people who had him as a teacher hold him in high esteem. It was great to meet him and Heather and we came home with one of their bowls. I'm looking forward to Eric's upcoming workshop at FPS in May. Be sure to check out their website and read about Cow Power.

We also purchased a piece by Justin Rothshank. He does great work with decals. We got a bowl for a friend's grade school aged son who is a complete presidential nut. Lincoln is his favorite, so we think he will enjoy his new bowl. (Cindy, if you happen to be reading this, mums the word!)

Other potters I was looking forward to seeing inclued Kirke Martin (who is located about 10 minutes from our house. I hope to woodfire with him in the future) and Munemitsu Taguchi. If you ever get a chance to handle Munemitsu's pots, be sure to feel their bottoms...they are smooth as glass. He was so cheerful and pleasant to talk with.

I also discovered some new potters, which is always fun. I really liked pots by Ryan J. Greenheck from Philadelphia. His work was so lush, with great forms and textures. Another find was Aaron Sober from Minneapolis. Engaging salt fired work with wonderful surface deco. I got a great teabowl that I absolutely could not pass up. It is a joy to use and I think that my beer is tasting extra good out of it.

One non-ceramic artist that I definitely have to mention is Chris Roberts-Antieau. Had I one or two grand to drop on some art today, it would have been a no brainer. Her stuff was so funny and slightly twisted and just laugh out loud wonderful. Her pieces were about such topics as uncomfortable social situations, how you can help around the house, proper table manners and bird anatomy. Be sure to poke around her site and see what she is all about. I am going to keep an eye on her and hope to get something of hers when I can.

If you have made it through all of this, well done! Hopefully you have enjoyed it as we enjoyed the real deal in Baltimore today. Now you can go get yourself a beer.

Pictures of bowls...

2009-02-25T15:58:00.000-08:00

Here are some quick and dirty pics of the bowls I mentioned in the previous post. The first is a bowl that I glazed in Cream Rust. It never goes yellow. We are at a loss as to what happened. It was the end of the bucket, maybe that had something to do with it. I love the way it looks, but may never get that result again.

Then we have the orbit bowls. They were a bit tough to photograph on the dining room table because the oribe is so glossy, but I did my best. I'll try to get better pictures soon.

Neko Case & Pottery Update

2009-02-25T06:16:00.000-08:00

While I was brushing my teeth this morning, I got a pleasant surprise when Kevin popped his head into the bathroom and said that NPR was streaming Neko Cases's new album, Middle Cyclone, in its entirety. Guess what I'm listening to at work today? It's great as I expected and I can't wait until I can get my hands on it next week.

Pottery class was a tough haul last night, as I was beat down & worn out. Some white wine and a ham sandwich or two got me back on my feet and I managed to throw a couple of things. But more importantly, the orbit bowls and one other bowl were waiting for me after coming out of the glaze firing. The orbit bowls came out just how I wanted them to, so I'll be doing more of those. Pics to follow this evening I hope.

Off to enjoy Neko some more...