throwing two-part pitchers--stage one

throwing the ring (a)

scoring the top edge of the lower section (c)

scoring the top edge of the lower section (b)

upending the ring onto the lower section (d)

the two parts, together....(e)

joining the top clay to the bottom (f)

I'll try to do this in two posts (though I probably should have done a video)-----When I throw an especially tall form I have various ways of making it easier:  here I'll talk about tall pitchers.  First, I throw the bottom section and take it off the wheel, on its bat, to dry to a soft-ish leatherhard.  Later, when the bottom has stiffened slightly, I measure its opening, and throw an open ring (a) that will fit onto the top edge of the bottom half.  This ring is also taken off the wheel, while still on its bat.  Since I've left the bottom half on the bat, not yet cut off,  I don't have to re-center it.  I now put it back onto the wheel.   Then I take the thrown collar/ring and flip it upside down (d) and onto the moistened (b & c) top edge of the lower piece (centering it). After that, I cut the bat away from the ring (using fishing wire) and then smooth (f) some of the clay in the top ring downward, onto the bottom form---I do this both inside and out.  Now I have a taller piece:  the lower half is stiff enough, though thin, to support the upper half, and the upper half is soft enough to be thrown, still, without distorting the lower half (which I'll show in the next post).

channeling my inner Mick Casson

pitchers and large bowls

I've been working for the last 2 1/2 months on an order for a baptismal font and pitcher, so, as usual, am doing a variety of large bowls and pitchers.  In the next several blogs, I'll show some of the ways of throwing larger pitchers--something I've learned from several potters over the years, but the images and instructions I remember and have tried, myself, most often come from a book I have that was written by Michael Casson, the English potter.  It's called The Craft of the Potter, and has some very practical information.  The pitcher whose pouring spout I'm finishing off, here, is one that is thrown in two parts, with the second part (a ring) being added after the first part has set up.  When the pitchers are dry enough, I will pull their handles.  More, anon.

oh, no! I broke it!

Paul Linhares' mug (which I broke!:()http://www.mudskipperpottery.com/

Steve Smith guards door at Wooster (is that an aura?)

About a month ago I was dragging something heavy (a plant pot, no doubt) across the porch, and I heard a crash!  I had vibrated one of my favorite mugs off of the potting table and onto the big pickle jar of Pete's that sits out on the porch!  Too Bad!  But it made me first think of an earlier post in which I talked about clay bodies, and then about going to Wooster, OH for the Functional Pottery Workshop.  The mug was one of Paul Linhares' ( his website:  http://www.mudskipperpottery.com/), who also fires a red clay body to cone 2, as I do.  Of course I bought another mug from him at the workshop, and then I asked him (again) about which clay body he was using--and he said that it was Laguna's EM 106.  I had mistakenly identified it in a previous blog as being from Standard Clay, which also has a very smooth, non-grogged red body  (103).  So I hereby stand corrected!  I still have to test more clay, however......

more tulip holders

at Red Lodge; click on third photo's caption

Click on the link below each photo for the corresponding site...

off to Red Lodge Gallery http://www.redlodgeclaycenter.com/lists.php?aid=11&type=artist

I'm off to the functional pottery workshop at Wooster, but.....

now at the Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, OH

first, here are several photos of the finished candle holders that I completed for Art-O-Matic, which has one more Saturday to go--this coming weekend, 11 am, to 11 pm, 16th of April---  (but don't look for me that late......), in downtown Toledo  (see previous post for links).  Next week I'll post some of the photos I've taken at the Functional Clay Workshop in Wooster to which I go every April, now, and where I was a presenter in 2007.  Lots of great potters, and lots of friends----a wonderful way to be inspired for the rest of the year!

Waiting for the wax

Soon, I'll be setting up for the Art-O-Matic show in downtown Toledo--This year it's in an old building on Washington Street, right across from the 5/3 Mudhens Baseball Stadium!

"For three consecutive Saturdays in April, more than 300 Toledo-area artists will take over two vacant buildings in Downtown Toledo, transforming them into the largest, most comprehensive and eccentric multi-media galleries in Northwest Ohio. From beginners to seasoned professionals, Artomatic 419! offers a vast array of painting, sculpture, photography, dance, live music, performance art, theatre, one-of-a-kind installations, live art demonstrations and much, much more. See it. Believe it. This is Toledo's arts scene in action.

April 2nd, 9th & 16th, 2011, 11 a.m. - 11 p.m.

407 Washington & 25 S. St. Clair (across from 5/3 Field)
Downtown / Warehouse District, Toledo Ohio

Be sure to join us for the Artomatic 419! After Party at The Event Center,
23 N. Summit St. 9:30 - midnight, each Saturday"

FREE & Open to the Public www.artomatic419.org

Candleholders, tiles, mugs and bowls

       I'm doing the show with Margaret Mazur and Carol Lehmann, and we have, thanks to Margaret's adroit choice, a 6 foot long countertop.  Carol and I painted the underside on Sunday, and did a reality check  (Margaret had photographed it, and I had taken measurements, but it's always good to see it in person.)  I'm doing some tall candleholders to go on top of the counter---they're here, on the AV cart, fresh from the fired bisque kiln, waiting to be unloaded, waxed, dipped in water and then dipped in glaze.  The stacks of 6" tiles, next to the candleholders, are also waiting to be waxed and will go with me to Ann Arbor on Saturday for a Maiolica glaze class at the Ann Arbor Potters' Guild.

getting started (& if I were out there, working, I wouldn't be in here blogging.)

Juliana and Denise check out the clay

Juliana's clay and slip tests

Denise cuts one of her stencils

Denise at work

Denise

Juliana

I'm pretty sure I've talked about this aspect of working before, but, for me, it is a reoccurring phase of working:  how to get started on a big project, or simply how to go from one area of work  (like glazing) to another (like throwing).  There seem to be different mind-sets for different areas of work; maybe I feel it more in the maiolica work since there seems to be a jump from the forming, three-dimensional creating, to the somewhat two-dimensional work of decorating--even though I am decorating 'in the round', as it were.  Now and then I have friends who go through the same difficulty as I do, and this fall, my friend, Denise Fleming, who writes and illustrates children's books, said she just needed to get out of her studio and force-start (my words) a stencil-cutting job.  I was in the same place, needing to do tests of clay bodies, and slips, so I invited her over to my studio, and then talked Julianna Clendenin, potter, jeweler, seamstress, into coming over, too, to help me with the slip and clay testing--here are some photos of us working, and of actually getting those hard-to-finish jobs done......
So, thanks, Denise and Juliana, for getting me started!  I'm in that same place, now, I guess, and reading other people's blogs:  for example:    http://baumanstoneware.blogspot.com/2011/03/word-lite.html    has a good effect, as well.  (plus, as you can see, I've discovered captions for the photos!.....)  Technical details:  we're testing three red clay bodies from Standard Ceramics in Pittsburg, PA, which I got from Mike Taylor over in western MI--and, actually, the woman who works for him brought them over when she and her husband were visiting her parents!   Two of the bodies worked for me with my glaze at cone 2: (wait, I have to run out to the studio and look them up......!!)   OK, here are the ones that worked:    #104, and #417. The third, #103,  is a beautiful, smooth, red body used by Paul Linhares, an Ohio potter whose work I admire, and whose mugs I have--he says it is like working with red porcelain--so I had to try it.  Unfortunately, under my maiolica glaze, the tensions were dramatically uncooperative, and the little bowl test that I did cracked open in a spiral from the top edge down.  too bad!    ( I am currently using Rovin's RO82M which has a 40 mesh grog, and find it works very well, and is close by --- I can drive up to get it, in Taylor, MI---coincidental Taylors, here?) but always feel I need to test, since I am not currently making my own clay body. 

It's Cold!

We had an ice storm, followed by a snow storm, last weekend, and lost a lot of branches. Others did too, and we went without electricity for several days.  Things got pretty cold!  Work in the studio slowed wa-a-ay down.  We put on all the clothes we could and still move around.  The cats complained! My hands were so cold they turned blue....... But after a day or so, I could ski around the yard, and it really was beautiful  (though destructive.)  

scroll to the Very Bottom to see another photo of the ice on the sumac  :)

the Show at the Clay Gallery in Ann Arbor, MI

Monica and Shirley, to the left and right of me

Just before the start of February I took my work in to the Clay Gallery in Ann Arbor to set up for the month-long show I was having  (Jan 30 - Feb 28th).  I'll continue to be in the gallery through March, but the show in their 'gallery space' was February.  Monica Wilson and Shirley White-Black helped me set up, with shelf-hanging expertise from Yiu-Keung Lee, and post card help from Donna Williams.   In addition, Marcia Polenberg introduced me at my talk on Sunday, and will be writing an article for Ceramics Monthly.   Lots of expert help!

Monica  looks for holes in the wall to spackle

Fletcher's Dream--a porcelain clay notebook

 Here are some photos of the setting up---Monica contemplates the next hole in the wall that needs filling, spatula in hand, and Monica, Shirley and I discuss how to handle the numbering of work on the wall.  No job is ever done alone, and it's always great to have good advise and help!  I decided to take in two of my clay notebooks, and the porcelain one is pictured, here "Fletcher's Dream".  For those of you who heard me say that I was going to have more masks done  (Randy..)  I apologize.  I just didn't have time.  I'm thinking, though, that I will get two more masks made in time for the Toledo "Art-O-Matic", in late March!  Hope springs eternal.....!!

the compost pile in winter

Last year I did a set of yunomi  (every-day tea bowls) which had a compost pile theme   (they were chronicled in an earlier blog entry).  This year we have a visitor to the compost:  a young opossum.  I think he/she's eating the birdseed, as well as the compost.  Here is North America's only marsupial!  A slow and thoughtful creature.  I have been packing pots for a delivery up to the Clay Gallery in Ann Arbor tomorrow morning, and will be helping to set up for a show of my work in February.  It's the second to last month that I will be showing there--and it has been an energetic six months of work!

fixing the defects

Maiolica glaze does not move and heal during the firing process, and , in addition, because there is such a clear difference between glaze color (white), and clay body (red), things such as finger marks are very obvious and not well integrated into the whole after the glaze has been fired. Part of this is the fact that I fire in an electric kiln.  I've often thought that firing in an electric kiln is a lot like cooking vegetarian.  As an omnivore, it seems that one could  simply throw a chunk of meat, along with veggies, into a pot and put it into the oven for an hour or so, and have a tasty meal, one whose flavorings were enhanced by the meat and its fat and juices.  Being vegetarian (or using an electric kiln) means you have to be smart up front.  Everything is in the preparation before the work goes into the oven (kiln). I remember Richard Zakin telling us about how to fire electric kilns and get good effects.  You had to know about the clay body, and the glaze, and the colorants, and you had to use that knowledge before you ever got to the firing process.  So, here are some examples of potential surface problems which, if left, would turn up, again, after the firing:  pinholes (on the edge of a yunomi), and fingermarks--you can see the whorls of my fingerprint, and drips--on the waxed foot, and a small area that escaped being glazed.  I will take the back of my fingernail and flatten the pinhole, then paint more glaze over it.  The glaze for repair has been thinned somewhat with a mixture of cmc gum (helps with the flow) and macloid (keeps it from settling)--- (this is a Walter Ostrom technique which I also use to mix the colorants).  Then I will smooth the edge of the platter that has my fingerprints, and paint more glaze over the bare spaces, feathering the 'patching' glaze into the main body of glaze.  I'll then take a sponge and wipe the drips off of the waxed foot, and fill in the unglazed area (which shows the red of the clay body).  It will take me several days to re-finish all of the pots that I want to decorate for the next kiln load.  Sometimes the best time to see all the defects is late in the day when the sun is coming in the west windows of the studio---and lays long shadows over the glazed pots I'm working on.  The defects--drips, and pinholes, sometimes hard to see in direct light--show up better. 

winter snow

The white snow outside and the white glaze inside the studio --- a sympathetic, seasonal coloration.  I've unloaded one bisque kiln and am loading up another.  The pieces from the first kiln have been dipped into water, and then glaze, and now need to be gone over in detail to fix the pinholes and fingermarks and drips.  It's probably my least favorite of all of the processes and I often find other jobs to do, just to get out of the studio and avoid the fixing part.  This afternoon, after I went skiing, I pruned some of the sucker branches from an old crab apple tree.  I have an idea for a plate holder, and I think I can use the branches as side pieces, instead of dowels. And, now, in another clever avoidance technique, I'm working on the blog instead of on the glaze.

spouted pouring jars

As I work towards the delivery date for the next show, which is the end of January, (for a Feb. show), I am trying to take time to re-visit forms that I have done in the past, liked, and now want to try, again, to see how they will change. The initial ones are usually a reconstruction of the earlier shapes.  I usually save several from a grouping so that I have visual reference for the future.  Then I combine ideas I've had, doing other like forms, and sometimes end up simplifying the shapes. 

upcoming issue from Studio Potter:

---

 

yunomi by Ann Tubbs

from Earth's Body,

in the winter issue

Greetings of the Season

Winter Solstice is December 21, 6:38 pm ET in the northern hemisphere. Time to celebrate light! The full moon is also that day, and, to round out the energy, a total lunar eclipse will take place early in the morning, mid-eclipse at 3:17 am  ET in the northern hemisphere.

Winter Issue:  Vol. 39, No. 1 SUSTENANCE
Look for your issue of The Studio Potter in your mailbox soon. It is now at the printer and will be mailed in early January.
Three broad categories of sustenance covered in the winter issue are:
      * What sustains us in the studio
      * Sustaining and being sustained by community
      * Teaching and the connection between clay and sustenance

Here are some excerpts from the forthcoming issue:
“I felt privileged to be able to handle the few remaining pieces in her booth (she was in the enviable situation of having almost sold out). Her work was beautifully designed. The surfaces and colors were rich; the patterns, complex. We talked briefly while I studied the work, my hands and eyes learning as much as I could from every piece of visual and tactile information.”                              

-from Support and Sustenance by Frank Ozereko

photo:  JJ McCracken

"The world he knew brimmed with endless discouragement. It was not that they hadn’t wanted to help those less fortunate, but cash-poor and incessantly worried about their own plight, they just couldn’t process the needs of others while barely meeting their own. The Hunger project allowed them to give in the only way they could—in a non-cash form."

          - from Teach Them to Fish by JJ McCracken

.

Annual Appeal Letter
Our annual appeal letter went out recently and you should receive it soon. While membership fees underwrite much of the cost of publishing The Studio Potter, we appreciate any and all additional support. Contributions are tax-deductible. The Studio Potter thanks you!

Your Thoughts
Mary Barringer, editor of The Studio Potter, is always interested in what our members think: about the latest issue, the newsletter, and the world of clay in general. Send your thoughts to editor@StudioPotter.org.
www.StudioPotter.org

Thank You

http://www.vegetarianrecord.com/

Thank you to everyone who helped make the studio/house tour and sale so successful!  Both the holiday sale in the house, and, the following weekend,  the studio and gallery tour (part of Sylvania Arts Commission's brainstorm) went very well, and we missed the snowstorm!  which came along the day after the tour was over.  Indigo Fleming-Powers did the wonderful baked 'finger food' delicacies for our Holiday sale---here are some photos of her display, and of her parents helping with the last minute details of set-up.  (Her mom, Denise, used to help Marcia Derse and me set up for our holiday sales---and, believe me, I always need all the help I can get!  For some reason, I seem to think it's quite enough simply to make all the pots, and get them from the studio into the house -- after having cleaned everything out of the downstairs.....)

after the sale is over

I can never believe how much time shoots by--in clumps, seemingly.  Max is waiting in the studio for me to finish the next glaze kiln load.  The sale is over, and went well, and Indigo's "Goodies" were wonderful.  More photos to come.  Meanwhile, I have orders to complete before the holidays are over. 

honey pots

I have an order for honey pots.  They are due by the middle of December, so I make double the amount needed, since the time is short; that way there will be enough of a choice---   Here they are drying, and then bisqued, waiting for me to unload the kiln, wax the bottoms and the lid area, and then glaze and decorate.  (yeah, yeah, I know, the top coil of the kiln needs rewiring.  I'm just hoping it fires another 4 firings; then I'll do it....)

Help in the Studio

Pat Ligibel, a long-time potter and friend from our days at the Toledo Potters' Guild came over, today, to help me work on some tiles for metal trays.  The trays - and baskets - had to be measured out, and then patterns made for the tiles that took into account the shrinkage of the clay.  It's a job I've been putting off for a while, but having a friend in the studio working with me is great motivation!

Postcards are ready for the holiday sale:

burning the midnight oil

I have a big delivery for the Ann Arbor Clay Gallery on Sunday---so I've been working late the past few months...

One day it's there; the next, it's gone!

All summer we live with corn surrounding our 2 acres.  It grows, green and dark, and surrounds us in a green-walled outdoor room, providing both privacy and isolation.  In the fall, as the leaves yellow and dry, we anticipate the cutting.  We know that our now golden-walled room is soon to be opened up to reveal where we really are, and what has, all along, been around us.  Just before the corn was cut, Anna Gale came over to visit, on her brief trip back from Portland, OR, to visit her family.  We decorated some little hands  (like the ones on the banner of the blogsite), and talked for a while.  The wind rustled the corn leaves, and the sun lit them like golden shafts, and Anna said it was like a magic space.  But like all magic places, it soon disappeared. And now, I go back to work decorating the final glazed forms, and I must start planning what comes next:  tests of a new clay (more in the next blog) and re-organization of the studio space as Peter takes the shelving that I was borrowing and stores his belongings while he makes the move to Chicago.  I have work to prepare for an ongoing sale in Ann Arbor and the Clay Gallery. 

What Really Happened This Summer:

 

I know it looks like I haven't been working in the studio very much this summer. But the truth is, I have had a different schedule. I decided to eliminate several fairs, most of which took place in July. I did this because of the fact that my back and hip, by the end of a regular season, are compromised to the extent that, in October, after the fairs, I walk with a roll somewhat like a drunken sailor (my apologies to the sailing industry). I also added several gallery contracts. Providentially, this was also the year that Bruce retired and began tearing apart all of his work and storage studios for french horn repair. More importantly, our son, Peter, was free only on the weekends, and could help Bruce. The two of them work together very well, and it's always good to pass on information from one generation to the next! Together, they built the twin shedlet on the back of the shed, so that the shed itself would be more efficient for Bruce to work in during warmer weather.

Once I began to do fairs, again, in August, I found it much more difficult, because I had semi-unloaded things (tools, pots, chairs, etc) from the van, and I then had to find them again, and re-organize myself for the weekly run to another fair. Has anyone written about the artist on the fair circuit? It's grueling, with the punctuated reward, on the actual weekend, of getting to talk with your customers, and to talk about the work that you do, and how much you love doing it! As soon as I return home from a fair, however, either Sunday evening or Monday at noon or so, I begin working in the studio, again. There is the kiln to unload, pots to wax and wet and glaze, glaze to fix (prepare by eliminating pin holes and finger marks), a final thinner coat to be layered over the original, after having sponged the first efforts off. All must be timed according to the weather and humidity. Then each pot must be decorated. If the colorants are in need of reworking (sieving, replenishing), that must also be done. The kiln has to be reloaded by Wednesday at 2 pm in order for me to be able to fire it, and have it cool in time for unloading Friday morning as I pack for the next fair. Thursday is the day I do laundry, repack the suitcase, buy food for the next fair, clean the cat litters, do some cleaning, pick flowers for the next fair, and attempt to finish any other jobs before I leave for another fair. There's barely any time to think during this schedule. We're lucky to have had Pete close enough to take care of the cats while we are away. We also now have the Bieber family, who live just west of us, who can help---Sheri has been working with me several hours a week, and her three sons are also very good workers! I try to make enough work for another bisque during the middle of the summer, so I can then continue to do glaze kilns into the fall. This year, for the first time, I am completely out of clay, and have not had time to make more, so will purchase ready-made clay, and will try out several other brands, to see how they might work with my glaze at cone 2.

So---during July, I though I might actually enjoy the summer and get much needed exercise---thus you saw me out at Juliana's, swimming in her pool before she went to Russia. I also rode my bike, and walked more regularly---hard to do with the weekly work schedule I have when I am doing a fair every week. I know that my summers are not very different from all the other artists whom I see at the fairs; it's sort of like the life of a circus roustabout.
Oh, wait!  Did I mention????  I can't REALLY get a large Skutt kiln loaded in 2 and 1/2 days............but I do.  (though, clearly, I can't go filming dancing plush chickens any more, just to amuse my niece, Becca....)(see below, in case you missed it...)