Hope

There really is a chance for spring! I have these daffodils popping up everywhere, stretching tall towards the sky on this sunny bright day! I even got to eat my lunch outdoors soaking in the sun. I'm so ready for spring, I really need it!


I've been moving through some bowls, some medium sized ones above and smaller one serving size bowls below. I emphasized the "dimples" or lines more that I carried through the foot up to the rim.

Off to teach my class tonight. Tonight I'm demonstrating how I form my reed handles. Have a good day!

Basic Digital Craft Photography Workshop

Basic Digital Craft Photography Workshop

March 28, 2009
Joy Tanner and John Britt will conduct a one day, hands on class on how to take digital photographs of your three dimensional ceramics/crafts using a simple, low tech approach for the beginner.

Saturday March 28, 2009 - 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

$60.00 (includes digital photographs of 2 – 3 pieces)

The goal is to learn how to construct and set up a simple photographic display and learn the basics of photographing your own work. We will discuss various cameras, digital vs. film, back drops, how to create a handmade light box and adjust for appropriate diffused lighting, basic terminology and everything you need to document acceptable images of your work. With a few simple instructions, you can end your fear of documenting your own work with this easy and inexpensive way of doing it yourself. During this tough economic period, why pay someone $75.00 an hour to photograph your work when digital photography makes it accessible to everyone!

Bring 2 -3 pieces of your 3 dimensional ceramic work, no larger than 12” x 12” x 12” that you would like for us to photograph. (Optional: You can also bring your own camera with your manual if you need help in how to use it for this purpose.) Please call to discuss your choice of objects that you will be bringing. Also, bring a jump drive or a blank CD so you can take your beautiful new images home.

For the cost of photographing three pieces you can learn how to do it yourself!

A lunch, of soup and homemade bread is included.

Class size limited to 8 people.

Please send a check to reserve your space:

John Britt Pottery Studio
154 Sparks Road
Bakersville, NC 28705
828-688-6615
jbritt@main.nc.us

Question Everything

Hello everyone!
I made another small round of goblets adjusting a few things on the form to get them better this time. I think they might be a little bit better.

I'm working on a small change in my wall pieces where more of the texture is on the top. I've been playing around with putting the texture in different places just to try something different. Lately I've been noticing that I've been questioning everything I do even more intensely in the studio. Should I do this texture, should I do that to the form, where should I put it, should I make this, try this, try that. All these options are flying through my head. I don't know what's brought about this reasoning, but I guess I'm wanting to push through to change some things. It just can take a while for these things to come out well sometimes, so it's caused me to work much slower in the last two weeks.

I've been wanting to get into making homemade bread more regularly and found this great recipe over at the clayclub blog. I just made a fresh loaf today, easy bread no kneading or fussing. Thanks Michael for the suggestions on the goblets and the caraway seed!

Teaching

I'm headed off to teach my clay class tonight, the first part is manning the open studio hours and then on to my class. We're learning glazing tonight! I'm going to try to continue teaching there for the year. It's a good chance for me to improve my teaching skills. I've been working along in the studio for a few years now without getting out and teaching much. So I feel like I need to improve those skills and be more of a part of this community. I also like using that time to work on a new idea for my own work that I in turn teach to the students.

Tomorrow's my day off in the big city!

Bowls, Wood and Lizards?

Moving along in the studio I threw these dimpled bowls today out of stoneware with new thoughts on the surface treatment. I think I'll have alternating panels of different kinds of slips on the outside from light to dark, like a crackle slip with a red slip. Inside I'll put one of my new bright cheery glazes.

Today seemed to go by pretty fast, as days often do, after running some errands in the early part of the day and then stocking up the porch with some firewood for the wood stove for some more cold weather coming through. My water comes from a natural spring here from the mountain I'm on, named Bad Knob, which is overflowing this week and creating a soggy marsh in the back which is also going under the house. Out of curiosity I looked in the water reservoir and there are LIZARDS in there! Luckily I have a water sanitation system that is currently working!

In My Head

I winded down today with some more of these textured tiles, and some larger ones, too! I feel like my goblets were "uptight," yet when I find myself handbuilding with these new soft forms I wonder what feelings they elicit. I think you can learn so much about a person by their pottery yet I feel like some of these qualities are disparate in my wheel thrown and hand built work.

Thoughts about my wheel thrown pots: classical, clean, careful, thin, rigid, cautious, organized, quiet, sectioned, sharp, decorative, elegant, delicate, fluid, organic

And my hand built pieces? thick, deep, aggressive, loud, brave, daring, confident, bold, rugged, soft, organic, earthy, textural, rough

Do these qualities reference the potter?

Okay, maybe I need to get out of my head and see some green! These ferns are all the green I have seen lately. I'm yearning for green, warmth and flowers!

A Slow Potter

I feel like I'm moving slow in the studio. I've been trying to work out some new ideas, yet even though I had plans before I began that I had sketched, when working on them they didn't work out. So I'm in that stage where I guess I have to make bad pots to get good pots, if I don't push myself then I'll never try new things. Yesterday ended up in a heap of torn up textured slab pieces...I should have shown you THAT picture. I ended up with these wall tiles below that I finished today, with a slight change. There is now texture on the top that I'm hoping to put a line of glaze in. Yet this poses a problem....I don't want glaze in the deep edges on the sides of the piece, so will I like the glaze just ending abruptly at the end of the textured panel? I'll just have to fire some to decide, but something tells me I won't like them that way. Then as I was working along, more thoughts came up as I asked myself why have I always put this bark texture on the BACK of my plates? So...with my new small tiles I did earlier last week, I'm now devising a plan for some new ones that have texture all on the top, but still have the deep textured areas on the sides. I've got all these ideas but I think they all need to be separated into different types of hand built pieces, each with textures in various places now with splashes of color: wall plates, lunch plates, soap dishes, tiles, platters.


Then I went to work on the goblets I've had covered up. I use this handy little level for attaching the top of the cup to the bottom piece.

Then as I was trying new things on these, I did the upside down trick. Do you ever notice that the form you are working on looks better upside down? I think this happened today. I often turn my pots upside down and sketch that form just in case it's a form I never have thought about doing.

The finished goblets have problems, I think they look better as vases turned the other way! The problem was, where to put the carving? To blend or not to blend. It is difficult connecting pots together in a manner where you can't see the seam. I left it on two of them, so the seam shows and it specifically divides the carving area. But the first two I tried to blend in seamlessly so that later the carving pattern would be fluid, but it didn't work that great. I know I'm being picky, but that's just the nature of me.

Any ideas? Suggestions for blending? What do you like or not like? Each one has small differences.

Which Plate?

I was going to tell you which plate above I like best, but then I thought I should ask you. What do you think?

I finished up the first batch of new tiles I made and this one pictured above is after a fresh coat of slip, which gives it a surface which is my favorite stage of this whole process! Ah...fresh clay and slip. Although I love the end result of soda and wood firing, the impermanence and softness of clay at this wet stage just amazes and completely excites me!

Then I made some more tiles with some newer textures and some of my favorite textures from the first batch. For these I'm envisioning bright colors of my new test glazes pooling in the deep ridges of the texture, with the wide edges being left bare clay for the soda.

Special Orders

I've been working along in the studio on some orders lately. I like doing special requests for people when the requirements are loose and I have room to play. I often try to use that time for discovering something new. These cups above will be trimmed round and made into wine goblets and I've also got a few plates in progress too. Today was a good trimming day...

I'm trying the carving area in different areas on the plates. The others aren't quite dry enough to carve yet. The clay really needs to be leather hard for a good clean carving line.

That's all the news from this studio...

Have a great weekend!

Salt and Soda Fired Leaves

I found these leaves on a hike the other day through a deep forest of rhododendrons and hardwoods. There was a blanket of these large honey colored leaves smothering the forest floor and I almost didn't notice them while I was walking along. But as I knelt down on my knees, I noticed all of these interesting patterns and colors. I think these patterns in these leaves come from the varying stages of snow, frost and then back to melting stages we have around here.
It reminded me of what I love about soda firing!

Today's a half day in the studio, with not much getting dry enough to work on. I'm waiting on these plates to dry so I can trim them. But instead I'm headed out with the pets for a vet checkup this afternoon.

A Revisit to the Beach

well, in the studio.

Back into the clay, I made some new tiles with an idea that's been percolating in my mind. I decided to play around with some of the texture tools that I have sitting about and after I finished I realized that my inspirations from the creek bed at the beach came out!

Remember this picture?

Instead of carving this ripple texture that I normally do, I instead impressed a tool into the clay to create this soft texture that feels so fresh and full.

I still have some cleaning up to do on these tiles, and to work on the back of them so they can hang on the wall. But I really like where these are going with the thick edges being plain and the deep texture being on the top. Sometimes I see neat patterns and textures out around me but they take a while before they absorb into my work. This was so much fun to do!

New Photography Shop!

I've branched out in a new direction and have created a new Etsy shop for my nature photography. When I'm not potting, I'm happiest when I'm out with my camera in hand, discovering new textures and beautiful lines and forms of nature. It seems only fitting to share these inspirations I find with everyone else!

I'll be updating often with new images. Hope you enjoy!

Check out my new shop here: www.joytannerphotography.etsy.com

Now finally to the clay studio, my computer business is done for now....I'm aching to get into some clay after all this web design!

John Britt

Here's a shoutout for John Britt:

For all the interested potters or ceramic artists out there needing some glaze chemistry help, I highly recommend taking a class from John Britt. His teaching schedule through September is listed here at his website, John Britt glaze workshops. He is an amazing teacher seeping with information for a potter at any level. He can really help you form a basic understanding of the materials you use in your clays and glazes and suggest how you would form and modify glazes to your needs. Whether you are just beginning or have done this for 40 years, John LOVES testing glazes and can help you! He travels with his workshops, but if you take one here at his studio, you also get a chance to see the vibrant clay community and beautiful scenery here in Bakersville!

A week with John Britt is not only informative, but highly entertaining as well!

New Website!

I've designed a new website and it has been moved to a new address:

www.joytannerpottery.com

For now, this blog will remain at this current address at

www.joytannerpottery.blogspot.com

I welcome any comments or suggestions. I designed it using WordPress so it will be very easy for me to update it frequently!

Hope you enjoy it!

Thawing

Today there is a lot of activity going on outside. I found these icicles hanging off the roof and as they melt they are crashing down creating a huge commotion that my dog seems to be very concerned about. She's been barking protectively at them all morning!

I also have the same old bird back pecking at my studio window that was here in December. Every day it pecks all day long at the window. Now my cat is involved with a watchful eye. I also have a lot of winter birds that suddenly appeared and they've been gorging themselves at my bird feeders.

As things are thawing and melting around here with beautiful blue skies I'm eager for this weekend when they say it's supposed to be "spring" like. Today I'll get some small things started in the studio, I'm playing around with some square wall pieces like my bark plates but using a different texture this time. It's just so cold in the studio it's really hard to work with the cold clay! Later today I go to teach my pottery class down in Bakersville, which I've really enjoyed so far.

Enjoy your day!

Snow Day

It's a cold day here today with blustering snow, I could barely stay outside for long to save my fingers and toes!

I've been drinking a lot of hot tea today....today's tea quote wisdom:

"On with the dance, let joy be unconfined!" Mark Twain

Busy but not potting

I've been not potting and I'm feeling guilty. I've been busy on the computer a lot these days between working in Photoshop on images and making business cards and postcards. I'm not that familiar with that program so I'm a slow learner. I've also been gathering a lot of shipping supplies and organizing mountains of packing material. A whole post could go to packing pottery.

I just updated Will's Etsy shop with some of his new pots to sell. He and I help each other out a lot trading help on various projects from chopping wood to website design to photography, etc. etc. Another huge winter project we're working on is a new website for me. I'll announce it once it's ready. I'm lucky in that I can do this right now because I don't have any winter deadlines or early spring shows. So it's okay if I don't get rolling in the studio...at least I'm telling myself that. All of the other things involved in this potting business takes so much time out of the studio! I just am ready to get off the computer, I'm not usually a happy camper when I'm on this too much, and it takes away from my creative blogging!

So please bear with me those of you who keep checking in on me, I'll explode out with fresh pots soon enough.

Have a good day!

Photographing Your Own Work

I just wrote a post describing my method of photographing my work over at the Clay Club blog.

I created my own photo booth setup and really find it helpful to shoot my own work. It's easy to do so don't be afraid if you are interested! Check out the Clay Club post here.