Grounded

My pots at Schaller were sent to be part of a group show, the only other person I knew that was going to be in the show was Warren Mackenzie, enough for me, I'm in!  The show finally went up today and man am I stoked about the company that I am in.  I'm a hard workin mofo and it's nice to see that paying off. 

In other news I fired off XV today.  It was an erratic firing, the front stack was a little looser than the rest and so it was a fight to keep it from getting too hot.  But, we got a nice little snow fall at the end of firing, it was purdy.  I'll unload on Tuesday.  I'm leaving this Saturday for Baltimore, not sure if I'll be posting again before then.  Gonna be a busy week!

Cheers!

New work at Schaller Gallery

I just sent some of the best work from the January firing up to Schaller Gallery.  This lidded dish was one of my favorites.  Check em out!  The etsy store will come down in a couple days and be down for about the next month as I'll be traveling for the ACC shows.  So this is a good place to pick up some nice pots! 

Cheers!

Firing XIV

I fired off XIV this past Sunday and it was a very good firing.  I met a gal named Anna awhile back who studied ceramics and just graduated this last spring.  She has been doing some work for me from time to time and I decided to let her help me with this firing.  I've never had someone help me and I don't even allow people to come around while I'm firing, too much distraction.  It was nice to have someone who had no experience with wood firing, they have no idea what's going on and are there for the experience of it.  That makes for a much smoother firing.  A friend of mine told me that other potters can be the worst firing partners, backseat drivers and such.  A valid point, if someone were to try and commandeer my firing I'd boot their ass out.  Anna took some photos of the firing and I'll share a few of them here.

The first few hours of the firing can be fairly boring.  I leave a pile of these little blocks of wood to chop as it gives me something to occupy my time. 

Stoking. I'm wearing gloves so this must be sometime after cone 5, that's when the pull bricks start to get too hot for the hands.  Yeah, that's right no gloves, I'm a tough guy.

The coal bed, this is later in the firing, somewhere around cone 7 I think.

Blowholes.  I had that spyhole pulled because it was hot spot, sometimes pulling the spyhole can slow it down a bit.

Test ring.

Obligatory spyhole flame shot.

Good surfaces.  Very pleased with this firing.

This piece was an experiment.  Tile 6 slip over an ochre slip, ash glaze on top.  I am absolutely in love with this.  I'm bummed that I don't have more time before my ACC shows to do some more of this.  You can expect to see more of this type of work in the future.

 

Forgot to wad the bottom of a 15# jar.  F**king amateur hour.

Cheers!

Tools.

I noticed this guy Troy Bungart on etsy a while back was making some nice looking pottery tools, but none of them seemed to be what I was interested in so I had kind of forgotten about it.  Last week I noticed that Kyle Carpenter had snagged a couple and had them custom made and so I contacted Troy about making me a large rib and a paddle.  I've really wanted a longer straight rib for some taller pots, the one I had him make is 7" long.  I sent him a crude MS paint sketch of what I wanted and I had them in my hands in 6 days.  I'm a big fan of do-it-yourself but when there are people like this who do it far better than I can and for very reasonable prices, I would prefer to support them.  The quality is top notch.  I really look forward to using these tools and giving a couple of my ten year old Kempers an honorable retirement. 
http://www.etsy.com/shop/burlchaser

Cheers!

This month on the facebook.

Here is a recap of what's been going on around here for the last month or so.  I had some orders to get out and really wanted to get them out before xmas but I ended up firing off #13 right after new years.

It was a bit chilly so I brought the pots in to wad them.

 I received a call from a builder with some scrap wood right around the time I was getting ready to fire, serendipitous

Grinding shelves and taking names.

Glazing some pots out of the back of my truck, it was beautiful day, so why not?

Ground and washed shelves, and a gnarly wood pile.

 XIIV Partially loaded up.

Rippin off my buddy Scott.

Cone 10, time to eat!

Missed the bucket.  There's a joke about guys and toilets somewhere in here.

Leaf deco, 25# bowl.  

My baby girl trying to get warm.

View from the wheel.

Lidded pots.

 Some stellar pots packed up for a show, stay tuned for that one!

Cheers!

Two Curmudgeons

Scott and Kay Roberts had a show at the university this past fall and were here to pick up their work and we got to spend a good amount of time visiting and catching up.  It was good to see them.  Kay says Scott and I look like a couple of curmudgeons.  Eh, what can you do. 

Cheers!

Little Help?

I'm looking for a little help so I thought I'd reach out to my blog readers.  If there is anyone that lives in the Atlanta region: I am looking for a safe and secure place to store my truck and enclosed trailer for about a week and a half from Feb. 28 to March 7.   There are a number of places I've found for long term parking but I have no idea how secure they are.  So if there is anyone out there that has any leads or suggestions I'd be grateful to you.  Closer to the airport is better but beggars can't be choosers.  You can email me: brandon(at)supportyourlocalpotter.com

Cheers!