In the moment

I have a particular fascination for making cairns about the yard with the various rocks I've found digging up gardens, kiln pads, etc. It's fun to see them during the day, their presence making me feel connected and grounded, reminding me to be content with the present moment.

This particular present moment in the studio is feeling a little cramped as I continue to crank out pots faster than I have time to bisque fire them and get them moved around. The list is shrinking and soon I will cut myself off and begin glazing. Still have another week or so to keep my hands dirty, though...I have this habit of pushing the making til the last minute possible...'if I could just get some of these made, and some of these, oh, and I definitely need some of these.'

Sawdust and Peanuts

My fellow potter and blogger of Sawdust and Dirt, Michael Kline is having his first online sale from his latest kiln opening of his wood kiln. I photographed all of Michael's pots for this much anticipated event for him. You can check out his show at 10 am August 25 here.

As for the dish, this is one of my favorite bowls by the potter Kline himself. And in it is what you do when you have a million cucumbers from your garden. A Thai cucumber salad, complete with chopped peanuts and cilantro on top!

Pots and thoughts

Hello there,

I've been happily working away in the studio making lots of pots, or at least getting them thrown. It's slow going sometimes in this studio with getting the pots to dry out and ready for the next step. I've been throwing a batch of small and medium sized lidded jars and am finishing up some oval bakers. As usual the studio is getting full to the brim of pots...I need more shelving!, no I need more space! It's funny how fast one can outgrow a studio, I've taken over ever square inch plus some more and have lately been feeling like I wish I could spread out more. Well, there is always room for change on the horizon. I've been considering thoughts of finding a different studio situation lately, although the choices remain infinite. In my time at this studio I have decided that I would like to share a studio with someone. The solitude is nice, well, sometimes. It's bittersweet. But after working alone for over two years, I have found I would like some company while in the studio. I think it would just keep the energy flowing better and could be a pleasant, cheerful interruption to my thoughts that are always circling 'round my head! I don't know how or when all this can change but it's definitely something I think about as I think of the future. I'm sure I'm not alone in this desire as I know other artists/potters out there probably feel similarly.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Busy

Between making pots, cleaning soda kiln shelves, and doing some photography for this local potter, I've been feeling pretty busy these last couple of days. Need to get back to a full day in the studio tomorrow.

Local Food

I went to do my favorite Saturday morning thing. Headed off to town to the tailgate farmer's market in Burnsville where I found a huge variety of the things in season. If you're not growing it yourself, find your local tailgate market and buy local food! Combine it with handmade pottery and life doesn't get much better than that!

I have a lot of eating ahead of me!

Community

I finished up four new altered oval trays this week. They are for a pitcher and tumbler set. Although I made two that will hold one pitcher and four tumblers. The other two are slightly narrower and will only hold a lineup of four tumblers. I like the way the form turned out and causes your eye to move around the piece. There seems to be a nice flow to the form. I hope it visually works once the pieces are in it. (The kiln posts inside each piece are to help this altered piece from not warping. It keeps it very flat as it dries. I picked up this little tip from Linda McFarling.)

I made this set for a 'Community' exhibit at Crimson Laurel Gallery that is coming up. It's made me think of how pots suggest such wonderful things, an open vessel waiting to be filled up with nourishment to feed our souls and our community. It makes me hopeful for Liz's benefit auction to be a great success this weekend. It's really amazing how the benefit has come together and it really speaks a lot of our community, and not just the Bakersville, NC community. Artists nationwide have donated beautiful artworks for this event and people have put in a lot of time to pull this thing off. I hope to see you there this weekend if you're planning on coming!

One day at a time

I got stuck making lots of bowls again, ever hopeful that I will get them all fit into the next firing. I always want more bowls in but somehow not enough get into each kiln load. I altered the style a bit on these dimpled bowls and put some light texture on the inside of them that will look nice with a translucent glossy celedon glaze.


I'm feeling overwhelmed at the moment with a big to-do list and extra things piling on before I finish up all of the pots I want to make before the early September soda firing. After that firing I must continue on and make make make some more!

[deep breath] "One day at a time" is my current mantra I've been telling myself!

Liz Zlot Summerfield Benefit

I wanted to announce this to those of you who have not heard about this great benefit auction that has come together from the help of our community for Liz Zlot Summerfield and her family:

From Lindsay Rogers:

I am writing to announce a benefit auction to assist my friend, and fellow ceramic artist, Liz Zlot Summerfield. In April of this year Liz was diagnosed with a type of cancer called non-hodgkins Lymphoma. When she got the news of her cancer all studio work for Liz and her husband, glass blower Scott Summerfield, stopped. For most artists a halt to work, combined with illness and bills, is a hardship too large to manage alone. Like most plans, our ideas for this benefit started out small and have since bloomed in to something that I believe will be a wonderful, fun and supportive event. With all that said, there are several ways that you can participate!

1) Attend the live auction at Penland or visit the online sale as a buyer!

The live auction is August 16th in the Northlight Building at Penland School of Crafts. Doors will open at 1:00pm at which point there will be light refreshments, Bandana Klezmer will provide fabulous entertainment and visitors will have a chance to take a good look at the work available in the live and silent auctions. The live auction of work will begin at 2:00pm and is expected to last around an hour or so. At the end of the auction visitors can pick up and pay for their pieces knowing that 100% of the proceeds will go to helping Liz, Scott and their young daughter, Roby, get through this really hard time.

The online sale will be held on Etsy.com and will begin September 1st. I will post more information about the online auction (including the web address) as we get closer to the date.

2) You can make a monetary donation to a PayPal account created for Liz's benefit.
By using this link below, you can be assured that all donations will go quickly, safely and directly to Liz.

The link to this account is: https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=XMYBAEHMPQXEE&lc=US&item_name=Liz%20Zlot%20Summerfield%20Benefit&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted

Thank you so much for your generosity!

Repetition

There's such beauty in repetition of form and line. I got the bisque kiln loaded up with the first round of pots. Call me crazy but I always like the way a good bisque kiln loading looks. It also makes me feel good to see progress. Today in the studio was one of those slow moving days of finishing up pots under plastic. I'm working on several large ovaled tray for a pitcher and tumbler set that is slow in the making. What's slow is mainly in the decision making of how I want to alter the pot, add the handles, and add the texture. Decisions, decisions!

Interesting

I unloaded the pots from the little soda kiln, this was from the second firing. Overall it was much improved from the first firing.

Those are Will Baker's pitchers on the top shelf showing interesting spotting marks that comes from the uneven wave in and out of reduction. The top shelf proved to show some good color, so I thought there would be more color/reduction as I went down into the bottom shelves.


But the bottom shelf was still pasty and not reduced enough, at least on the porcelain pots. This bowl below, though was definitely the winner from the firing:


This bowl below of Will's shows some traces of carbon that landed on the pot during the soda time. I had also tossed in a few 'chalupas' (aka: sawdust wrapped burrito style in newspaper) during the time I sprayed in the soda. Interesting.

So...I've determined this little kiln isn't an easy one to fire to match my high standards I've also looked for in soda firing, as far as getting the reduction just right in all of the areas. Then again, I've been spoiled with a cross draft soda kiln. More tweaking for the next firing, perhaps changes to the burner, or I might even look for an additional burner or try to stack the shelves differently. The other thought is just to use a darker stoneware clay in the areas where I'm not getting enough reduction. What was interesting is some of the pots looked like when I used to use a Tile 6 slip, one of my favorites that I've not used in a while, a soft buttery white/yellow slip. That's the fun part right? tweaking this and that, keeping on going...never is a potter bored.

Round 2

I managed to fire the little kiln for a second test firing this week and I'll unload it soon! I used a lot of old leftover bisqueware so I could use this as another 'learning experience' to get out information of my slips, glazes and clay. This time I threw in sawdust and soda by making some 'chalupas' out of the sawdust. (aka: wrapped sawdust up in newspaper burrito style and threw them into the fire, while I was spraying soda in the kiln).

Keep posted...this little guy wasn't an easy one to fire...definitely tests the soda brain power. I purposely reduced the kiln MUCH more heavily this time so we'll see if I went too far and get dark chocolate colored pots, or if the reduction is the right amount this time. Either way should tell me something.

I really am a potter

I really am a potter although I know many of you know and can see in all of my blog posts I'm also obsessed with my camera and sometimes I disappear from the blogosphere. I'm still out here making pots! It is photography that is my outlet while it also serves a dual role in being what brings the inspiration into my clay work. I feel it has helped me in growing a discerning eye, as well as an observant one.

I've been working along in the studio checking off pots that are on the ever growing 'make list' for the next big soda firing. Between some old, hard clay and some really soft clay, sometimes the pots don't come easily. For me I have to have the clay just so, as well as my stool, my sponge (which I've been having issues with finding the right sponge), and my head! I don't know what made me grow so picky but a potter must be centered. As pots go round and round the wheel, so do my thoughts go round and round. Maybe that's why I like to alter my pots more and more, to get them out of the round, out of the unexpected.

...working on some medium sized bowls and what will be an altered oval tray for a carved pitcher and tumbler set for an upcoming exhibit at Crimson Laurel Gallery if all goes well!

Tea Break

I'm working through some more bowls in the studio. These are larger, wider and thrown out of porcelain. I'm envisioning a pretty liner glaze inside...not sure yet how they'll be glazed. As usual I'm always wanting more glazes yet don't find myself making the time for testing and then the continued testing that follows that.
Sometimes I'll test a few new ones out but then I don't go much farther than that. I hope to use this little kiln to test more glazes so I can bring more bright and colorful glazes into my work rather than relying on the tried and true ones I've used for a while. I'm excited about these bowls, I textured them immediately on the wheel, which is something I usually wait until the pots are drier. The texture isn't very deep since it's in the inside of the bowl. I want it to still be a smooth surface for food.

I also finished up a large batch of these textured wall tiles, some large and small, also which I textured a panel on the top that glaze will pool into. The shelves are filling up and soon I'll have to load up a bisque kiln just to clear up some working space in the studio. It's amazing how you can fill up a studio with so much stuff!

I'm off to finish up my tea break. Thanks for reading! Happy Monday!