back to work.

I'm still here working like a dog. I've been glazing pots this evening and hopefully will finish glazing and decorating tomorrow and if the gods are kind I will begin loading the kiln tomorrow night.

The Elmer Taylor workshop went well...in the afternoon we had about 40 people, standing room only. A nice problem to have sometimes. In true workshop fashion he didn't make too many pots but told lots of stories...along with many of his teaching/educational stories. Very entertaining.

Some of his pots. He decorates with slip immediately after it's thrown and while it's still attached to the wheel. He's very fast and very spontaneous. I've never much cared for Elmer's pots...not that they're bad, they just don't speak to me. But as I've gotten to know him better this last year they've started to grow on me. I certainly enjoy his personality, he speaks his mind, has solid opinions and can be a bit crass at times. I enjoy that.


A personal favorite.


Organizing a workshop sure is a lot more work that I thought...I'm pretty tired, think I'll hit the sack.

Well...I'll leave it at that. More to come as I load the kiln.

Cheers.

it smells like goat in here.

We have a couple of new family members. Lee(white) and Harvey(black) have become our new resident weed eaters. They like to sleep and lounge in my kiln...while that is kind of adorable I fear that it's not too safe. We'll see how this pans out.


Cheers!

procrastinating.

I came up to the studio today just to put these little handles on the covered jars pictured below. I'm supposed to be chopping wood for the upcoming firing but sitting around on a saturday listening to wait, wait... and cartalk on npr sounded much more enticing. To further the procrastination I decided to post some photos of some recently finished pots.

Detail of handle on jar...I really like fat handles.

Some small condiment bowls, or "guinomi" of you're a pottery elitist ;)


Some large casseroles.

Slip decoration as a base for further decoration later.

Mixing bowl, this was a new idea that was moderately successful.

Well...back to work.

Cheers!

full again.

The racks are nearly full again. I've already emptied these racks once, looks like I'll be doing it again soon. I've got a couple dozen pots under plastic for handling/trimming tomorrow and then this work cycle will be coming to an end. I'm sure I'll have some last minutes pieces being produced Kline style.


Here is a texture detail of a big platter I made the other day. I'm pretty pleased with this, it took nearly half an hour!

I'm running a special on shipping over in my etsy shop...you'll have to go look to find out what it is.

9:12pm...suppose I should go eat something.

Cheers!

myth busted.

This last weekend we had a customer in our showroom that made a comment about my mugs being heavy. I mumbled something about better heat retention and left it at that. So today for curiosities sake I decided to measure and weigh one of those standard straight sided mass produced coffee mugs.

Let me preface with this: my mugs are made from one pound of clay and then have an attached handle. After firing they vary in size and shape and hold about 12 oz give or take. After firing they weigh around 13 oz and the walls at the thickest are 3/16" thick.

The mass produced mug holds exactly 12 oz. The walls are consistently 1/4" thick and taper to 1/8" on the rim and it weighs exactly 1 pound. They have possibly the most uncomfortable handles known to man.

What is with this notion that thinner is better? Thin cups chip/break easier and they lose the heat/cold faster. Functional pots should function properly.

I'll leave it at that.

Cheers!

Elmer Taylor Workshop

Pottery workshop with UNT Professor of Art Elmer Taylor.
HSU Frost Center, Abilene, TX
Nov. 5th 10am-5pm.
Free for students
$5 for non-students.
Lunch provided but bring your own beverages.
RSVP @ bphillips@hsutx.edu


For more info on Elmer go here.

Cheers!

kiln shelves.

I recieved new kiln shelves for the university today. We ordered from Larkin Refractories, a place where I've gotten the majority of my kiln supplies since I left school. I ordered a bunch of their 12x24 "Fines Bonded" silicon carbide shelves many years ago(chinese imports)and I have been more than thrilled with them. 30+ salt firings, 15 wood firings, never flipped, never cracked, flat as when I bought them. In salt firings the salt just beads up(or foams up) on the surface and is easily scraped with a rub brick, never once had to use a grinder on these from the salt kiln. The salt and ash combo from the wood kiln can require the use of a grinder but it never takes away any of the shelf, they come out looking brand new. They are 1/2" thick and have relief cuts that are supposed to keep them from warping & cracking, in my experience it works. So at $45 each I thought they'd be fantastic for the school.

The new shelves come with a kiln wash already applied. It's powdery so I'll just scrub it off and apply my own...I don't like not knowing exactly what's on them(can someone say"control freak"?)


I've heard some rumors on clayart over the last couple years that these kiln shelves often show up slightly warped, I thought this may be a fluke since mine were fantastic. I don't know if Larkin changed the supplier or if the supplier changed their quality control but many of ours are warped. You can see in the photo below the gaps between the shelves as they rest up against eachother.

About 1/3 of these are warped enough to notice, but still much flatter than the shelves we use now. If they're anything like the shelves I use they shouldn't go any further out of shape. If I were a production potter making lots of flatware(plates) I probably wouldn't buy these shelves. On the other hand for student work, small work, or kilns where the pieces are wadded I think these are a great buy. Hopefully they're just as study as mine, they'll go into rotation real soon so I'll keep you posted.

Cheers!