Looking for spring out my studio window as I work these days, I often scan the brown hillside that's slowly filling in with green. I'm looking for some of my favorite early wildflowers that bloom scattered among the brown leaves. I often have to venture out and carefully walk around those deep fall leaves in order to even see those favorite flowers of mine; bloodroot and trout lilies. I think they're coming soon! Until then there are always cheerful daffodils bobbing their heads up and down. These days like today I find myself being pulled outdoors and am reawakened by the freshness of spring. Sometimes simply going outside is all it takes to help me gather my sense of place.

In studio news, I'm working along on various pots. Below are some oval jars I thought I'd try making. They are just a few from the first batch to see how they work, and I'll work on making more soon with some improvements.

Digital Photography Class

Sign up for our next photo class on May 15, 2010 near Penland, NC. Join John Britt and me as we teach how to photograph your own artwork similar to the way I have photographed mine below.

One day, hands on class on basic craft photography.
Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.

$75.00 (includes digital photographs of 2 pieces and a delicious lunch).

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.

Space is limited to 8 people.

John Britt Pottery Studio
154 Sparks Road
Bakersville, NC 28705
828-688-6615
828-467-5020 (cell)

johnbrittpottery@gmail.com
joy@joytannerpottery.com

Email for further questions.

Happy Spring!

I'm headed off to Ohio to teach a workshop in the ceramics classes the beginning of next week at Bowling Green State University. Here's an article Ceramics Daily did on the graduate program.

Will Baker and I are teaching this two day demonstration together. My friend and ceramic artist Tommy Frank is there in graduate school so I'm excited to see what he's been doing up there. Tommy was a resident artist with me when I was at the Odyssey Center in Asheville, NC.

I'm so happy it's officially spring- there are signs everywhere. Today driving around I even saw the yellowy green arms budding on a weeping willow tree.

Have a great weekend!

My choice

I'm having some fun with these little lunch plates. Although function is a very important consideration when I make my pots, I also like to push the parameters sometimes. I've done these in the past with the carving around the rim, leaving the interior of the plate smooth for food. But this carved panel of lines encroaches directly into your eating area, right so you can't help but notice it while you're enjoying your lunch. I enjoy this 'free will' of the artist. Plus, I have one of these plates that I eat off regularly and I don't find the carving to be intrusive when it comes to eating off of these plates. Students often ask, how do you find your own voice? Often your own voice is in the simplest of things; in the choices you make and don't make in your work.

And, because the bottom of a pot should be given equal consideration as the top, I included an additional surprise of carving on the base. (Just so the dishwasher doesn't get bored!)

Out of my Box

I was invited to be in a show at Crimson Laurel Gallery, here in Bakersville, NC, called "Containment," that is opening April 1 through June 30, 2010. The subject that will be on display from a variety of potters across the country is 'boxes'. Having never made actual boxes before, I took this as a neat challenge and a way to try something different.

So I asked myself, what is a box? When is a box a box and not a jar? Are there rules for making boxes? Or does the artist decide what their own guidelines are? I took the latter. I believe that a box is a box, or a jar. There are some qualities in the lid that perhaps makes a jar seem more like a box, but I was excited for this invitation to express my own interpretation.


I busily started sketching forms in my sketchbook and then started throwing all sorts of parts for my boxes. What I realized quickly is how 'out of my own box' I was getting, just by making boxes. The form I sketched wasn't being translated in reality through my hands. It was a new form, a new kind of lid. I found myself in that crazy frustrated place similar to the feeling of my first days in clay at the wheel! I didn't want to be in that uncomfortable place.

It's hard to come out and push yourself in new directions when you realize you have to make bad work to make good work. It is much easier to stay within your own comfort zone that you have created for your work. I had several attempts that didn't make it but still serve as prototypes for later attempts. I'm glad I pushed myself to take on a new form, and even though there are still things I want to work out and resolve, I'm happy I made that first step. The thing I did learn, is maybe don't try to make a perfect show pot when you have a deadline and you've never made that pot before! Oh, it's good to learn things the hard way I suppose!

Lucky for me, I fired these jars in my little soda kiln and got some nice flashing results that I hadn't had before. The jar above was made with a rich dark stoneware and I love the buttery slip result. For the other form, it was fun to try a new oval form with an oval lid, yet still apply some of those 'comfort zone' patterns in the carving and the reed handle that I often do. I'm eager to try another round of these boxes where I push myself further out of my comfort zone. Until then you can you see the oval carved box that I pictured first in the show at the gallery.

Visit this great gallery here.

Pots and thoughts

Here's a view from the handle shop. As you can see, I've been busy making lots of mugs. These will be fired in Will's wood and soda kiln in early April. I love spending more of my time on altered and complicated pots, but for the past few weeks I've been working on several batches of mugs and bowls. A potter can never have too many of these. They are perhaps the most important pot I make. Such intimate and personal little pots for cradling in your hands and nourishing your body, physically and through other more tactile senses.

I hope you are still out there reading. I've been a quiet blogger lately, although I'm still behind the scenes spinning pots and thoughts. The days tend to fill up pretty quickly it seems. As usual, I'm always seeking balance between my work in the studio and my 'off' time, which sometimes occurs and sometimes doesn't. The business part out of the studio for the self employed artist seems to be never ending and overwhelming! (This link takes you to a post I wrote a year and a half ago: I still have these same thoughts.) Even though I love my work and feel fortunate that I have the opportunity to express a part of myself and share it with others, I have grown to notice that I am seeking more contentment and peace in my life. I have always been a strong little worker bee and now that I'm not in my twenties anymore I feel that sometimes I have pushed myself way too hard in the past which takes a huge toll on me physically, mentally and emotionally. The wheel is always spinning around and around with me, either with pots or with thoughts. Not that I don't believe in hard work and pushing myself to new heights anymore! In fact I don't think I would be where I am today without that persistence and dedication, (or you could call it stubbornness I suppose). I think I am just in a more reflective stage in my life, where I am continually working on actually slowing down and just being still and quiet. Being present in the moment instead of spinning off in another direction keeping busy. I feel that by learning and practicing this way of thinking, or being, I will gain more contentment and peace in my every day life, and in turn, this new energy will be reflected in my pots.

Spring Bowls

Longing for spring, I suppose these bowls are as close as I can get for now. These are my usual porcelain lobed or 'dimpled' bowls, but with a few extra details this time around. I carved two panels on them and added 'peaks' to the rims. I think they look like little sprouts or bud openings.

They're destined to be fired at the end of the month for the wood and soda kiln, so I'm hopeful these will get some exciting surfaces on them.

After calling out for spring in my last post, I think it might have heard me! Today and the next few days are full of sunshine - exactly what I've been needing for my solar-powered-self. Today was the first time in months I enjoyed my lunch while basking in the sun on the front porch!

"Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower. ~Hans Christian Anderson"

Spring? Spring?

Hello?

Spring?

Are you out there?

Are you coming back?

I might not even recognize you when you come! If you ever do!

I'm suffering from too much winter, I think I'm going slightly crazy! Cold winter days sure seem to slow my productivity down in the studio. I crave springtime here in the NC mountains, it energizes me like nothing else. I need to see a sign of spring, anything would do. A green blade of fresh grass, a daffodil stretching out of the ground, or the song of a spring bird. This picture below is a tease from this time last year, although we're far behind that this year here with an ongoing accumulation of white stuff piling up out the window as we speak!