raising money

 This is the second of two fundraisers in which I have participated---for the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art, in Santa Barbara, CA.  Their fundraiser is called 5X5: Celebrating Five Years, and will be on view the first two weeks of September, 2014. This year I did several sketches in watercolor, sitting at the edge of a small, person-made pond in Suttons Bay, MI, after the fair, there--and painted the fish, reeds, and frogs (who came up onto the stones next to my feet and sat in the sun while I painted.  I had been given a 5"square of Rives BFK  paper, along with a stamped, hard cardboard envelope, in which I will mail back the finished work.  You should be able to click on the museum's name, above, and be able to go to their site and see more of the work!.

The 2014 Ann Arbor Fair

Seems like all I am doing, lately, is uploading show information......  By fall, I should be a little more 'squared away', with all the work needed to be done to keep my business going, and I will have some time to work on the blog and etsy. We have been tearing apart (and putting back together) our old farmhouse kitchen, and I am going to be making tiles for the counter and backsplash.  For now, though, it's fair season, and the big one is coming right up!  My booth is A-257--the same place as last year, near the bell tower.   I have some new shapes (generated from several orders that I was working on this winter).  One is a long oval, a press mold shape whose form I got at Rovin's, last year.  I'll post some photos of it, soon. 
here are some links to the art fair, itself:  www.artfair.org

The official #AnnArborArtFair app is here, so download it now!
Android users: http://bit.ly/1jjBre0
iPhone users: http://bit.ly/1ztKwG7

Potters for Pets: a fundraiser

OK, everybody--we are working really hard to get pots ready for this event!!! Make sure you put it on your calendar, and come out to see us!!  The event, itself, is free; money towards the two non-profits will come out of the potters' sales and donations. Help us make a difference!  For more information, click on the Potters for Pets link below the colored ad: (or, here:  Potters for Pets ) Though that may be just for fb members.  The sale is at Manabigama Pottery Center, 13270 Bishop Rd., in Bowling Green, Ohio, on Saturday, 5th April, from 5 to 9 pm.  Hope to see you there!  (Plus,I have a new, long, oval platter form--this will be its debut!)
 Join

Potters for Pets

Saturday, April 5 at 5:00pm

Manabigama Pottery Center in Bowling Green, Ohio

summer fairs are over

Bruce and I have just unloaded the van, after the last outdoor fair.  Hard work.  But I love doing the fairs:  I get to talk with people (which I don't, working in my studio), and I get to hear their stories.  and what I hear are the most amazing stories--often of resilience, in the face of extremely hard times (theirs, as well as the state of health care and politics).  People who have had to leave a job because of health-related problems, which aren't fully being solved, and who now have to find more work, because they aren't old enough to 'retire', and people who, as artists, have had to stop doing one form of art, because of incredible physical impediments, so have figured out another way to work.  I am just amazed by the tenacity and ingenuity of all of us!

a great honor!

I was one of the ten chosen for the award of excellence at the Original Art (Street) Fair in Ann Arbor, this year (ten categories, ten awards).  Now back to work!!1

I'm showing at the Original Art Fair in Ann Arbor!

and here is the link to copy and enter in your browser:  https://workspaces.acrobat.com/?d=Bi8tCY0JmZALgV*MnZk8jQ

or the link to click on:
 Ann Arbor Original Art Fair, booth A-257

I am by the bell tower, Booth A-257, on Ingalls Mall, between E. Washington, and North University.  The Fair runs from the 17th of July through the 20th; hours are:  W - F: 10 - 9, and Saturday: 10 - 6.  See you There!

So, Finally, I got my kiln rewired!...

So, Finally, I got my kiln rewired!!  And it wasn't really all that hard.  (Remember how bad it used to be? Elements looping down along the inside wall, totally out of their grooves? It was still reaching temperature, until that fateful firing during Art-O-Matic in Toledo this spring......) So I finally ordered the replacement parts to do the entire set of 6 elements (but not the switches--they were fine)  I also ordered a replacement kiln sitter ceramic sleeve.  They came from Runyan Ceramics in Clio, Michigan.  When they came, I set aside a day to work on the kiln.  It all went very well (and thanks to Paul at Runyan's for the technical advice!)   I just wasn't able to  cut off the end of the loops on each end of each element, nor crimp the sleeve that goes over the element wiring and the wiring to the switch, connecting the two.  So, I got Bruce to do that for me  (though I understand, from my friend  Robert Rueger, who roasts coffee and sells it at the Toledo Symphony, that there are $150 ratcheting crimpers which would do the job very nicely, without the bone-crunching effort.)  Now the kiln not only looks good; it fires like greased lightening. 

demi-lune, in progress

I'm finally finishing a demi-lune that has been sitting on my glaze table for about three months (or more).  And because doing landscapes is hard (you don't see exactly what you're going to get), I usually work on several at a time, and get ideas from one to the other.  Here are two photos: one, of how the demi-lune looked for several months, and, another, of how it appeared after more color and structure had been added.  The next blog will show the finished tiles; however---I have to say, my old kiln which needed rewiring finally broke during the glaze firing, yesterday, and never quite reached temperature.  I may have to re-fire.

Yunomi Invitational--more to come--opens on Friday, 19 April 2013

http://www.akardesign.com/shows/index.asp?page=20#515

4/19/2013 - 5/17/2013
2013 Yunomi Invitational
(ONLINE ONLY) 200 Potters, 5 Yunomi each for AKAR's 2013 cup show. Donations to Studio Potter Magazine.

the show is open, now, and work is selling!  

a landscape tile--a second look

 

 In the early evening, as the sun is going down, and the light through the west windows is warm and encouraging, I sometimes sit in the old chair that my dad used to sit in (with his kitty, Gus, who now lives with Janet Kelman) and share a glass of wine with Bruce, and take a moment to reflect on what I'm doing, and at such a breakneck pace.  I often miss seeing things that I might really like, but for the fact that they didn't sell last season, and are now hanging on the wall just opposite the chair, and, hmmmm.....so I have the chance to take another look.

Oval forms: final finishing work-----Part three

a. smoothed and ready for the handles

Here is the final explanation of the making of an oval form (hand built, not using the wheel).  The first two parts, # 1, here, and # 2, here, are used to illustrate the way one might work through this project.    And now for the third, and last part:  once the clay oval form has dried enough to pull away from the walls of the plaster mold, I can gently lift it out.   I now have to smooth the outer joint between the walls and the base, as well as the joint at either long end where the two sides came together.  Sometimes a little extra clay can be added to make the joint area smoother.  In addition, the underside of the base is pressed in, to give it an area which will be glazed (see illustration 'c').
Then I pull long coils, and twist two together.   Two lengths are cut simultaneously, so that they will be even, and with a little vinegar I add them to either end of the casserole form (illustration 'b').  These are the 'braided' handles.

b. adding the handles

the finished leatherhard form

c. the under side of the casserole, which is glazed and decorated..

Oval Forms; slab-built: part two

cutting out the patterns

bevelling the edge

(this is the second part; part one is here)
    Once I've tested the patterns with an actual clay trial form, and know that the patterns are going to work, I roll out a clay slab, flipping the slab over each time I roll it.  To keep the slab even, I use two 1/4 inch  dowels on either side, like train tracks, on which the rolling pin can roll.  The table surface is a piece of granite, smooth, and slightly absorbant.  The sheeting (part polyester--doesn't wrinkle as much....) makes it easier to lift the slab, each time it's rolled out, so that I can flip it over before I roll it out, again.  Then I cut as many forms out of one slab as I can fit--I hate having to recycle the slabs if I don't have to!  The oval base goes into the bottom of the plaster mold, and its outer edges are pressed and thinned once the base is in place.    The side pieces get a bevel cut at each end, where the ends will overlap each other.  The top edge of the curved side piece is smoothed, now, as well.

placing the cut shapes into the mold

 Once all the pieces are in place, (I scrub the areas to be joined with a toothbrush dipped in vinegar) they're smoothed down, and pressed against the bottom and side with my fingers.  I also put a soft coil around the oval, at the inside base of the piece, and up the sides at
 the joining of the two sides. 

fitting the side pieces on top of the base

 Then I dip a small blue (or red) rubber rib into water, and smooth all of the inside. The top edge is smoothed, again, with a chamois, and the the top edge is fluted.  At this point, I have to let the piece dry out enough so that it can be lifted out of the mold.  If I'm done working for the day, then I cover the mold and clay form with a sheet of plastic, and come back to it in the morning.  Otherwise, I can let it sit out for a while until the wet/leatherhard clay will release from the plaster.

 Final work on this piece will continue in a third post.

Oval forms; slab-built

this first form was cast from a flat pan (seen to the right)

some of the oval shapes I work with; the one on the right is the commercially made mold

 In the following 3 or so posts, I will be talking about constructing an oval, flat-bottomed form which could be used as a casserole without a lid (though a lid could be added).  I'm intrigued by the oval  because it is not something which can be made on the wheel (unless you intentionally distort the form after it is thrown). I'll start, here, with some of the forms which I make using a plaster mold.  One of the molds was a commercial shape; the rest are forms which I have cast, myself.  All the patterns for cutting the clay to put into the mold were made after the plaster mold was finished.
 In order to make the patterns, I first work with a lightweight paper like newsprint. To start, I push a slightly larger oval  piece of paper into the bottom of the mold.  Then I run my fingers around the outer edge of what I perceive to be the bottom until I can see where to cut the oval base shape.  Then I take a pencil and draw the cutting line, and then cut the shape, itself.  I then do the same thing with one-half of the side.  The shape of the side is something like the shape of a lampshade that is laid out on a flat surface.  It's like a rhomboid (OK, not really, but...) with a curved top and bottom edge.  These first thin paper patterns are done on a trial basis, and, after using them to cut out the initial clay forms, and after pressing the clay forms into the plaster mold, adjustments can be made so that the pieces fit together more precisely.  The third image, here, below, shows the final patterns, (along with one of the finished and fired pieces).  The final pattens are made from a sort of plastic paper: impossible to tear, and fairly easy to cut with sharp scissors.  It was 'paper' given to me when I was a den mother for Pete's cub scout group.  I was never able to figure out what to do with it with the boys, but, years later, I discovered that it made good patterns for cutting out clay shapes. It's strong enough to be laid on wet clay without wrinkling up, and strong enough to have a needle tool run around its outside edge, over and over, without distorting. In the next post, I'll show how the clay is cut and placed into the plaster mold. 

Here is the mold (which I call 'long'), with its patterns, and with the finished pot

mid-winter gallery displays, part 2---

The American Gallery

This coming Saturday, 2 February, from noon til 3 pm (what could be easier!), the American Gallery will be having its 8th annual jewelry trunk show! (they also carry my pottery, pictured above)

a new shape

the new plate shape

Over Thanksgiving, Bruce, Pete and I stopped at a garage sale on the way to the Mazur's, and I found a new form to use as a press mold.  It's one of those papier mâché dishes made in Japan in the 50's and 60's.  I have tried about 5 or 6 of them, and this is the decoration I like the most---

patterns for inspiration--from Alisa

 I had finished a number of the four-legged pots, and now needed to decorate them.   Because of their form, with the little legs, and twisted handles, and the inside/outside aspect, there are all sorts of ways I can approach the problem.  This winter, for Christmas, from Alisa Mazur, I received a set of hand-made cloth zippered bags which had a very intriguing set of patterns, so I decided to take them out to the studio and try some of the combinations of stripes, flowers, and colors.  Here are a few of the beginning applications: 

Mid-winter gallery displays, part 1

my work on the beautiful cherry table at the Hudson Gallery, downtown Sylvania, OH www.hudsongallery.net

It's the middle of January; time to take stock!  Several local galleries have collections of my work which will be on display during their openings this winter.  Hudson Gallery, 5645 N. Main Street, in Downtown Sylvania, Ohio,  (www.hudsongallery.net) will be having an opening this coming Friday, January 25th, from 6 - 8 pm, for the 'Group of Nine'.  Next week, I'll post photos from another local gallery.  In the meantime, I am finishing the decorating on a number of pots that were either made before the studio sale in December, or in the break after the holidays.  Some of this work has been for orders!  (I'm late in finishing them..)  When they are done, and the glaze firings are caught up, I'll start on raw clay work, again.  There have been several galleries which have asked that I participate in shows beginning in May, or that I re-supply them in May before their summer sales season begins-----so I have lots to do before then.  This is also when I make work for the summer fairs.  And, if there's time, I'll also get some experimenting in--new shapes and surface designs.  More to come!

demi-lune finished in late November, 2013

One of the recently 'twigged' demi-lunes, using cuttings from the wild grapes that are taking over some of the wild crabapples. They are meant to hang over a door, or above a sink , or cooktop  (though I wouldn't keep all the little extensions, so near the stove top).  Customers have sometimes bought the 2 tiles of the demi-lune, without the backing and the twigging, and have set the tiles into the wall, itself:  a more permanent arrangement.

just before the studio sale---

Just before the studio sale in early December, I decided to 'twig' the two demi-lune tile sets.  It's an addition I learned from my friend Will Case-a jeweler in northern Michigan. I had been using a small drill bit to drill small holes, and then was nailing in small nails to hold the branches (wild cherry, apple) in place.  Bruce saw me struggling,  outside, in the cold, and said:  "why don't you use the pin gun  (works on compressed air, a Senco).  So, I did, being careful not to shoot a 'nail' into any of my fingers.  I also used some of the wild grape vines that I had been trying to cut out of the crabapple trees.  It's amazing how easy a job can be with the right tools.........Just be sure to follow proper safety standards!:  Eye protection, etc!

Sale of Edith Franklin's final works, tools, memorabilia, and donations of other artists' works

Around three years ago, 2009, perhaps, Edith came out to my studio.  I had just been filming a video of my throwing on the wheel, and the camera was already set up. We decided, quite on the spur of the moment, to do a video, ourselves---and to talk about the beginnings of pottery:  How we would start a new student, what the importance of a pinch pot was, ------and so, without any further preparation, I set the camera, and started the process.  Here is Edith, so clearly herself, and so quintessentially Edith  (you really shouldn't eat that much!), while holding out a pinched pot the size of a hummingbird's nest.  I will always remember her.  Come to the sale of the last of her works, this Sunday,

• • Sunday
  • 1:00pm until 4:00pm

• The Secor Gallery, 425 Jefferson Ave., Toledo, OH 43604

• Celebrate the life of Edith Franklin and help support Edith's  life and work, and the Youth Arts Fund she created to ensure the promise of Toledo's young artists of the future. Join us as we celebrate at the Secor Gallery, 425 Jefferson Ave., Toledo on Sunday, November 11 from 1-4 p.m. Selected archival works by Edith and personal mementos will be sold at her request, along with other local artists' works donated in her honor. All event proceeds go to the Edith Franklin Youth Arts Fund at the Toledo Community Foundation. Donations to the fund may be made at the event or mailed to The Arts Commission (1838 Parkwood Ave., #120, Toledo, OH 43604). RSVP requested, 419-254-2787.

selling my potter's wheel chair

I am selling a potter's chair/stool which I bought to use with my sit=down wheel (when my hip/back was bothering me) Now that I have had hip replacement surgery, I no longer need the chair, and am selling it on ebay--if you go to the ebay link and enter 290782517949 in the search box, you can see the link------

Studio Repairs

shakes are going up on the gable end (to match the house)

Tar paper, before the cedar clapboards

After 25 or more years my studio is in need of repairs  ( OK, it's always in need of updates...)  and having replaced the crappy T-1-11 that was on the outside of the studio at least once (esp. on the west end, where the heavy weather hits, during the winter) the outside was in serious need of fixing-up!  This summer I purchased some cedar siding (clapboards) from a friend, and then hired the Bieber boys  (Jared, Raymond, and Steven) ' when they were little' to help stain them.  It was, of course, the summer from hell, at 104 degrees F., and we all were so hot we could hardly move, but we all managed to stain enough boards to redo parts of the outside, if not all.   (The boys  also helped scrape and stain the back side of the studio, not visible to incoming customers, but in need of re-staining!) so that that area will be the last to get an upgrade of new siding.)  Here are some photos of the work in progress for the west end, which should be finished before the snow flies.  I have only done the minimal amount of work this season  (hip replacement, and now an upper back injury, of old...) so I am very lucky to have had Bruce's expertise and his and the boys' labor!  These repairs are especially needed since the December studio sale will be out in the studio this year (and not in the house).  Things should be looking good for the sale and for the customers!

New Work at Schaller Gallery in Western MI and Online!

my work in the show

photo by Anthony Schaller

including a little house

I SHOULD be throwing mugs, but....

the leather hard tiles, back in 2010, when I was musing about where they would go

the finished desk top

buttering the back of the tile

spreading more mastic

setting the tile into the mastic

wiping off the extra mastic. 

For a number of years I have wanted to fix up the top surface of the old Steelcase desk that has been in my studio.  It actually belongs to our son, Pete, but I am 'storing' it, and have painted the drawers and sides.  But the top remained a little raw, so this week I decided to tile it.  I had done tiles (4" hexagonal, unglazed, fired to cone 2) which I thought I might adhere to the foundation of the house up by the porch.  But I only had enough to do one section, and once I started looking at the area, I realized that I had an old farmhouse on fieldstone foundations, with a kind of cement covering to the foundation, and the tiles would be out of character, and I probably would need years before I got enough done to do the whole house.  Instead, I decided to tile the top of the desk!  I wanted it to remind me of the old tile floors in France---

My work at the Ohio Craft Museum, Columbus, OH

I have work at the Ohio Craft Museum in Columbus, OH, http://ohiocraft.org/  and Ann Starr, in her recent blog, reviewed the work--here is the link for her blog!   http://starr-review.blogspot.com/

upgrading the exhaust vent window 'exit'

new way of exiting the hot exhaust pipe from the kiln

Many years ago (15, more or less) when I bought my new kiln, I added the "enviro-vent" to the base of the kiln, and vented the kiln, via a rigid 4" metal pipe, to the outside of the studio.   At the time, and with my limited skills in construction (but fertile imagination as to how something might be), I fashioned a way of taking the exhaust pipe out through an adjacent window without having to break any glass, or do too much fussing.  I opened the window, and then inserted a 2" piece of rigid foam insulation, into which a 4" hole had been cut, at the bottom edge.  Then I put the pipe through this hole, and voilà!  The pipe exited the building without much fuss----with the pipe essentially rested on the wooden window sill.  As time passed, however, and as I changed out the rigid pipe for a flexible pipe this last year, I felt, more and more, that the temperature of the pipe was fairly hot, and that my method of construction wasn't the best. I also knew that wood, exposed to high heat over time, undergoes a change, and eventually has a lower flash point for catching fire.  SO, about 2 weeks ago, during one of our increasingly hot spells, and as I was starting the last kiln, I convinced Bruce to help me put in a safer exit hole for the exhaust pipe.  He found a collar from one of our woodstoves (we used to heat both the house and studio with them) which wasn't being used, and which was large enough for the piping to pass through.  Then we took off the (black) plastic from the outside of the window, and the styrofoam from the inside, shut the window, and removed a pane of glass.  On both the outside and the inside of the window, just slightly larger than the pane of glass, he put two pieces of plywood, into which a hole had been cut, large enough for the insulated stove collar to fit. Now the hot piping no longer touches either the wooden sill, or the styrofoam.  When winter comes, and I need to cover the window, again, I'll be making more changes........

layering patterns for 'surface depth'

As I decorate a pot (the large flower pot, from the last post), I follow a series of decisions.  The first has to do with what 'theme' I'll use on the pot:  lemons, olives, hand with red pears, part of another decorated plate, etc.  Then I usually work with the largest forms for that particular theme, and lay down the lightest, largest color shapes, setting the pattern (or, working out what I might want the pattern to be) for the shape that I'm decorating. For example, I'll do lemons, and leaves, first, then smaller forms (grapes or olives, branches, and stems, and thin grey leaves).  The background is the last to be considered, and is sometimes, but rarely (these days) left entirely white.  I want the viewer's eyes to travel around the space, and I want there to be a sensation of depth, so I decorate the 'white' areas with smaller lines and swirls.  Low fired maiolica has a tendency to be flat in appearance; the glaze and clay, fired to cone 03 or 04, do not fuze to the extent that a cone 2 maiolica firing does (and I fire to cone 2).  So, in addition to the higher firing, I then add smaller lines, dots, and swirls with a very fine brush, or very small brush, or with a brush that has been opened up so that the bristles paint two closely parallel lines.  I also shade, with a pale taupe, each of the larger forms before I add the final black lines that go around the shapes.

loading the kiln in summer

the kiln gapes open in the background, waiting to eat up whatever I can decorate

after the kiln is loaded, the colors are scattered and drying out

I seem to be slower, this summer, but am about to finish loading a glaze kiln!  There are some orders in this firing, along with work for the next fair, in August. Because of my hip surgery, I've not been going to fairs in July, but will start, again, next month. Maybe it's also the heat and drought, this summer, that's slowing me down.....

Setting up, and Saturday at the Fair

Jared, Steven and Raymond Bieber do all the unloading for me!

Edith, Doug, and Bruce, in the back of my booth, Saturday

More Crosby Gardens--I had great help setting up, and being at the fair!  The weather's been great, too--now if the rain will just hold off until we've packed up, this evening!