Last chance!

I'm taking my etsy shop offline Thursday morning as I'll be headed out of town for a week.  If you'd like something before Christmas now is the time to get after it!  The sales on etsy have been really good this year and I'm appreciative of those of you who have supported me. 

In other news, I still have one last wood firing slated, I was supposed to fire it off in early November but we've had some crazy weather patterns here so I've been holding off.  Hopefully I'll get if fired off soon!  I've been thinking about rebuilding my kiln as a downdraft and switching to waste oil fired salt glaze.  I've spent a plethora of time the last few weeks learning everything I can about oil burners and waste oil firing.  I've come up with a design for a burner that should be relatively efficient and high in BTU's.  I won't get a chance to fire it up until after the holidays but I plan on doing a little video to show how it works.  It seemed overwhelmingly complicated at first but when you break it down it is really straightforward.  

This is the burner without the fan attached.  It is a siphon and/or gravity feed model mixed with compressed air. 

 

Cheers and happy holidays!

 

More pots on etsy

I've uploaded some more pots to my etsy page.  A few mugs, pitchers, serving dishes, and a really nice platter.  Head on over and check them out!  $5 shipping on everything.

Cheers!

Holiday Sale

I've posted a bunch of pots on etsy for the annual online portion of the holiday sale.  We had a crazy arctic blast with lots of ice and impassible roads this last weekend, so it turns out this is the only portion of the holiday sale!  Check them out here.  I offer a flat $5 shipping on all pots.  Happy holidays!

Cheers!

The beginning of the end.

I am an adjunct instructor that teaches a full time load but unfortunately I have no say in matters of curriculum outside of my own classroom.  I am not permitted to attend general faculty meetings and as such I am usually out of the loop with regards to changes.  But every once in awhile I get an email or notice that keeps me updated, and today this is one that caught my eye:

Dear SOM(school of music) and COFA(college of fine arts),

 

Tomorrow we will be meeting with Dr. ***** for further discussion regarding the revision to the General Education Curriculum.

Last time the SOM met, there were some questions about terminology between Core vs. Distribution. In order to best prepare for the discussion tomorrow, here are some descriptions of the words:

 

1)      A “CORE” Course:  this option would be a  single class that all students would have to take to satisfy the degree requirement for fine arts, like “Fine Arts 101”.  There would not be any variation to this course.

 

2)      A “DISTRIBUTION” course: this option would allow for students to satisfy their fine arts degree requirement through many varied choices among the arts such as band, choir, orchestra, private instruction, photography, sculpture, painting,  intro to theatre, costume design, etc.

 

One idea that the committee is considering is combining the fine arts with some other disciplines into one HSU distinctive class. Dr. ***** can describe this more to you tomorrow.

 

I hope this email helps you to come to the conversation with a better idea of what is to be discussed AND I hope that you will come to the meeting tomorrow with good ideas to be discussed in pleasant manner.


Of course the faculty who spend their days working with students and understand them as uniquely individual beings with varied interests are heavily in favor of the "distribution" option.   While the administration who views students as numbers and dollar signs is heavily in favor of the "core" option.

80% of the students who take my course do so for general art credit.  A change like this would effectively end the already fledgling ceramics program.  For the art dept in general that is a small hit, less than 30 students a year.  We would also lose our "Introduction to the fine arts" aka: art history for dummies,a lecture course that brings in over 400 students per year, that is a very big hit.  Photography would take a hit with 50-60% of it's students, the remaining mediums wouldn't take much loss as they require prerequisites which discourages students from taking them for gen. ed. credits.  We would probably lose all of our students who come to art after taking an art course as a gen. ed. requirement, I don't know what percentage that is.

I understand the administrations argument, the school could potentially save tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars by implementing this change.  They would be able to drop a number of courses taught by adjuncts and combine the students in to one big lecture hall, or heck, it could even be an online course.  It makes sense on paper for about 2 seconds.

There are several dangers here, while losing my job is not something to disregard it is the least of my concerns.  What concerns me is the schools complete disregard to the value of the arts.  The thought that someone considered creating one mandatory fine arts course at the expense of distribution courses leads me to believe that they keep art around only for the sake of appearing to support educational diversity. They simply want to meet the basic requirements for accreditation, which requires a course in the fine arts.

We are already taking hits, I'm losing one of my ceramics sections starting next fall.  While the class is not bringing in the big bucks, I fail to see the math of how my class has ever lost the university money.  This is my sixth year of teaching and I've been exposed to just enough administrators and university politics to start becoming jaded.

I've been of the belief for some time that the modern university model is no longer the right place for the arts, and certainly not for the crafts.  That said, I have no answer to that problem, or this one.

Cheers

B

Farewell old friend...

Five months?!!  Must be a record.  I prefer to view the lapse in posting as the ever increasing time that passes between getting together with old friends, instead of...ya know, neglect.  

I've never really looked at my pots as precious, and while I hold back a few pieces here and there I've never had the desire to hang on to my own pots.  Make em, fire em, sell em.  Repeat.  In fact I have very little to show for the last ten years.  I spent today sorting and packing pots for the last shows and orders of the year and I had a really difficult time letting some of the work go.  I know why, my relationship with woodfiring will be coming to an end this month.  I want to hold on to them because there might not be anymore, maybe just for a year or two, or maybe forever.

As potters sometimes our identities can become wrapped up in the way we work.  I'm not just Brandon the potter, I'm Brandon the woodfire potter.  I think it's fairly safe to say that people identify me with a specific type of work.  We could argue ad nauseum whether or not it's healthy to be synonymous with your job, but regardless, it's the way it is.  I think most potters might understand where I'm coming from.  I've spent a third of my life so far completely immersed, in love, first thought in the morning, last thought at night kind of obsessed with this process and it's hard to wake up one day and not feel that passion anymore.  I may sound a little melodramatic but as a craftsman there's a bit of my soul tied up in that kiln and it's hard to let it go even when you know it's the right thing to do.  I'm trying not to make this sound too analogous to a relationship but really, that's what it is.  We're not happy together anymore and it's time for us to go our separate ways, maybe a short break is all that's needed, or maybe it's farewell for good, time will tell.  But it sure is fucking sad.

Time for a change.

New pots at Schaller

I have a bunch of new work over at Schaller Gallery.  I feel really good about these pots.  I feel like I'm finally getting somewhere with them.  Here are a couple pots that I'm particularly happy with.  Check them out!

Cheers!

Firing Schedule

I posted on facebook awhile back and referenced a new firing schedule and some folks have asked about it.  Given that I am sick and have nothing to do I thought I'd go ahead and write about that.

This last firing was a very good one.  I've been tweaking my firing schedule to find a way to fire quickly but also keep my glazes from blistering.  Blistering has been the bane of my existence for the last couple years but I finally have it worked out.  I'm a believer in fast firing, for economic reasons.  Save fuel, save time, save money, make more pots. 

I learned to fire gas kilns in college...my professor would start the kiln in the morning when he arrived and be finished by the time he went home at 5.  8 hour firings were the norm and I just always took for granted that everyone fired that way.   I was baffled(and still am) when I hear that people fire gas kilns for 20+ hours.  My thought is that you're either wasting gas or you kiln isn't set up right(or you have a hardbrick beast).  Of course there would be exceptions to this, some glazes need different schedules.  My ash glazes need a soak or slow climb at the end.  I fire our reduction kiln at the school in a similar fashion, I hit cone 012 in about 3.5 hours, cone 10 in about 9 hours altogether. 

Many people think that the pots will crack when fired so "quickly".  Industry fires bathroom tiles in as little as 45 minutes from raw.  Raku.  Need I say more?  At this point hopefully we all know that color comes in the cooling so all you need to do is hit your atmosphere and let your glazes melt, the cooling will do the rest. 

Now, when it comes to woodfiring I have a theory/personal belief.  Fire short or fire long.  I fire for flame, not ash, time is not required.  There is nothing nice about 2 day firings.  Long enough to get enough ash to cover the flame work, not enough time to let the ash do its thing.  So less than 18 or more than 48.  Just my theory.  (example: bandana pottery, 300 cu ft kiln, pots raw glazed and single fired in 16 hours). 

The best firing I've ever had was done in 6 hours.  The ash glazes I use nowadays can't handle that, they do need a longer firing to settle out otherwise I'll have a sea of blisters.  When I was firing slips I could go faster, after all...the slips don't need to melt, I just needed temp for vitrification and atmosphere for color. My kiln is approximately 75 cu ft, holds around 200 pots.  I currently fire in about 8 hours.  I fire to cone 9.5.  Which means I have close to 11 at the fire box and 9 at the flu.  I let the kiln cool for about 36 hours. 

I bisque all my work, it knocks several hours off the firing and also time spent gathering and prepping extra firewood.  I used to be an advocate for raw glazing (well, I still am but...) if you have access to an electric kiln it just makes sense for wood firing to bisque and save the time.  I've done 24 wood firings without having to worry about single firing, knocking off 5 hours per firing that's 120 hours.  I certainly didn't spend 120 hours loading and firing bisque kilns, definitely a more efficient use of my time.  This is what works for ME and my kiln. 

I don't track the temp per hour but here is the basic idea:
I have cones in 4 spots, top and bottom on both sides(cones 07,05,03,01  1,3,5  7,8,9,10):
Hit cone 07 at 3:45-4 hours.
Cone 3 at 5-5:15 hours- at this point I make adjustments to even out the kiln if necessary.  I want all cone 5's to fall together. 
Once cone 7 begins to fall I pull the passive dampers to slow the draft of the kiln, I want about 2 hours from cone 7-9.5. 
I salt once all 7's are down, about 1# per salting, every other stoke, total 7-8#'s.  I want to be done salting before 9 is flat.
I shut it down when the tip of 10 is horizontal, I call this "cone 9.5". 

One of the most critical aspects of this schedule is the beginning because in a wood kiln it is very easy to over stoke and put it into reduction.  I fire with the dampers wide open and the passive dampers shut, this ensures maximum airflow through the firebox.  I also have plenty of holes for air at the firebox.  I've seen a number of kilns similar to mine that don't have near enough ports for air in the firebox, this equates to longer firings and/or too much reduction.

Here are a couple pots from the last fring.

Questions?  Comments?  Slander?  Let me know!

Cheers!