rainstorms

rainstorms last night added a new leak and did this:

time to stop procrastinating i suppose, i can't be having anymore melted and cracked pots from the rain.

here are some test slips for the next firing. impressive, i know.


this is what my studio looks like when you walk through the door.

same spot turn to the right.

well, thats all i have for now. i'm heading out of town for a couple days and then next week i may start clearing this stuff out of here so i can rip that roof off. you know i'm not very tall but 7 foot ceilings, come on, what were they thinking?

pots.

here are a few shots of the current pots in progress.


9#vase.


teapots, i usually do 4-5 at a time, but i'm out of clay so 2 will have to suffice. the fluted one is a new shape for me, i've done tons of fluting but never on a teapot.


here is the lone spout. i always throw an extra spout or 2 in case something happens to one or one doesn't "fit" right. i can't stand straight spouts, i never understood why potters will make a curvacious form and slap a straight as an arrow spout on it. it just kills the form. so i give it this gentle curve.

i've been making lots of pots that can be stacked rim to rim to better economize the space in my kiln.

i "stole" this pattern from guillermo cuellar. i think it looks almost like a sort of basket weaving.

6-15# bowls.

well, i'm off to the other job for a few hours and then i'll finish slipping and glazing tonight. i'm out of clay so i'll be thinking seriously about that new roof and the 102 degree days.

hail to the thief

i was going to take some photos of this last run of pots but the lady of the house stole the batteries from my camera. i'm a little too tired to go looking for batteries so maybe i'll get some shots up tomorrow. needless to say the pots are getting made, now we just need to find their owners. i have read more than one post in the last few days that shared the experience of losing money at shows. it's a bit discouraging to say the least when people are excited to break even. i know i'm not the only one working on the side to support my habit, so it seems. hopefully the storm won't last too long! i have been very selective with my shows this year and have chosen to omit some shows altogether rather than gamble. it has paid off for us but the downside is as i said before having to work on the side. one does what one has to to keep the soul nurtured. forgive my rambling, this is where ones mind goes at 1am after a long day.

mac.

this video is pretty neat. i like what he has to say about pots being centered.

well, the worlds still here.

in some non-pottery related news, our neighbor yisrayl hawkins predicted the ending of the world today. jokes on him i suppose, well i guess the days not over yet.

the house of yahweh is a religious sect(or cult) that has a massive compound about 15 miles out of town with hundreds of members. they also own about 20 acres next door to us where they have their printing facilities and dozens of trailers stocked with who knows what. there are just a few who live on this property, they keep to themselves and don't bother us. you can read an abc story about his prediction here.

here is a photo of their property, the fences are our property line. as you can see they've been nice enough to place some of their pretty trailers right along the fence line. as a religious organization they don't have to abide by many of the building codes in the city(like placing trailers right on the property line.) maybe its time to invest in a tall wooden fence.

they've been in a heap of legal trouble lately(bigamy, pedophelia, typical cult behaviors) and we've been hoping that maybe they would be disbanded, but we'll see.

well, i'm off to finish pots.

back to work.

this weekend was awesome. everything went smoothly and it was so great to have all of our friends from all over in one place at the same time. we both took monday off so we had time to relax before heading back to work today(we're taking our honeymoon in july.) we don't actually have any photos from the shindig yet so maybe i'll share those when we get them.

the yunomi were a huge success, i saw a few people trying to sneak extras but i guess i'll take that as a compliment. we printed wallet size copies of this photo that we put inside all the yunomi for the guests. i saved a few yunomi to send out to some folks that couldn't make it, but other than those i'm "sold out."


i got back to work in the studio today but i just couldn't get in the groove of things. most of my pots ended up like this.


a small run of tall footed cereal bowls.


a couple 6# jugs. i don't like the one on the right. you know i actually don't like the one on the left either. eh, one of those days.

i debated leaving my ring on while working in the studio. i'm ok with it getting scuffed a little over time. i tend to lose things in my studio and i don't want that to happen here so i think i'll leave it on. what do you other guys do? just curious.

i am going to finish this small run of pots and then i may go ahead and work on replacing the roof to my studio. i don't have any imposing deadlines, so i guess i should just go ahead and get it done. no time like the present.

cheers!

p.s. does the fact that i write in all lower case bother anyone? i think its kind of lazy, so i may try to stop.

moment of truth.

well, here they are. i didn't actually count them, but i lost 12 in the firing so i'm guessing 144? i figured i'd lose about 10%, so i'm good. the kiln reduced a bit too much, i'm thinking because it was a tight pack. the ash glazed cups looked a little funky, they have that drippy/splotchy look that some people are fond of, but not me. i think the glaze was on the thin side and then when the salt hits them it gets worse. they actually look fine, i'm just being picky.



check out the variation in surface, these were in one of the "sweet spots."


some of my favorites.


more favorites.

all of the non-yunomi pieces in this kiln were with my new clay body. they were all in spots that got a little too much reduction so this isn't the most fair assessment, but they're not bad.

cereal bowl.

when my green ash glaze gets lots of ash in the firing it does this, i love it.

pitcher.

here is one of those platters with the trailed glaze. that slip should've been a red/orange but the kiln had other ideas. the trailing glaze has talc as one of the ingredients and i was out so i substituted baby powder, it seemed to work alright.

i wanted to make a large test piece that would have a mixture of slab/thrown assembled together to see how it would stand up in the kiln. i've always love randy johnston's boat forms so i decided to try making one, not to sell of course-this one will stay with me.

well, overall i'm very pleased. i lost less pieces in this kiln than any other so thats good! our wedding is this saturday so there won't be much posting for awhile.

cheers!

done.

it is 6:22am and i just threw in the last stoke. i'll let it burn down for a few and then go seal it up real tight. just being outside yesterday afternoon i knew firing was a no-go, it was 102. i waited until about 6 in the evening and decided to pull an "all-nighter," much better.

here is a picture of the last stoke while i was walking back to the house. timed just perfect with the sunrise, sorry for the crappy quality, i took the shot with my phone.