Nerd memes.

This is how I felt at the end of firing XXI.

I'm getting too old to fire alone.  Pictures to come.

Still time to vote for the previous post...154 followers and 8 votes?!  Let your voices be heard.

Cheers!

Vote now!

I'm just taking a break from loading firing XXI to let you know that I will be in St.Paul, MN this next week for the American Craft Council show, April 19-21.  If you're in the area stop by and say hello.

I am attempting to revive the blog.  Maybe not posting as often as I did years ago but maybe once a week...or every couple weeks?  We shall see.  I'm sure I will have a number of photos to post from MN when I get back.  I also have a humor oriented cup giveaway in the works.  But in the meantime...I have a few posts in the works that are a little more content oriented.  The problem I have is a) too many thoughts rolling around in my head and b) not enough time to work those out into a meaningful post.  So here is where you come in:  VOTE!  I have listed 3 options for posts that I have outlined but need to be fleshed out.  Left to my own devices these would sit as ideas for eternity.  So I leave the choice in your hands.  The nominees are:

1. The Yunomi Standard: The retarded economics of pricing handmade pottery.

2. Bringing back the guilds: The relevance of our current educational model with regards to traditional craft and why we should abandon it for a modern adaptation of the traditional apprenticeship.

3. Hoesaling:  Working harder to produce more repetitive work with shorter deadlines for less money.  And why, aside from ulcers, it can be a good idea...at least for the short term.

Much like our own democratic system you hold the illusion of power!  Use it wisely.  Leave me a comment with your choice and I will knock out a post in the next 2-4 weeks.

Cheers!

Go big or go home

These are a few big pots that I'm excited about.  The middle one is about 24" tall.  I have a few more in the works.  It will take awhile to get them all fired but when you're excited about what's happening it's best to indulge in it, right? 

Cheers!

Journeys.

I'm back from another year at the ACC show in Baltimore, I wish I had better news to report but it was mediocre at best.  I picked up a few new wholesale accounts which is great so that will give me plenty to do through the summer.  Here is a shot of my booth during wholesale:

I took Will, an old student of mine, with me this year.  He's in graduate school right now and is interested in what it takes to make a living selling pots.  While I don't necessarily have that figured out I needed the help and he wanted the experience.  Since I wasn't paying him with money I did my best to teach him what I know, pay him with experience.  I am definitely not a great salesman but I have learned a number of things over the years.  There were a number of retail buyers (and one wholesale account) who came into the booth obviously attracted to something, but perhaps not sure what that was, and instead of letting them wander out I engaged them and ended up selling them work.  I would engage them before they had a chance to leave and just start talking to them about pots.  I have a number of questions I ask and when I finally hit on one that they know nothing about I go into my spiel.  I explain the process, my local materials, influences, etc.  Then I ask about them, why are they at the craft show, what are they interested in seeing, what have they already bought, etc.  Engage.  I am a bit of an introvert so that was a hard journey for me but it's second nature now.  Will was amazed at the number of sales we made just by simply striking up conversation.  It goes back to the theory that people don't just want your pots, they want a story and an experience. So hopefully he learned that we just don't make pots, we have to sell them too.

I met Bill Van Gilder a couple years ago and we've stayed in touch through email and facebook.  A few months ago I was lamenting my lack of a pugmill and he told me about one he had that he would let me have for a steal.  Convenient that he lives an hour from Baltimore.  So here is the old gal, she's a beast.  It needs to be cleaned out and a couple minor parts replaced and it will be good to go.  I'm excited to save some strain on my arms and wrists.

 

This is me, my assistant Will and Bill Van Gilder at his pottery in Gapland, MD.

On the way back from MD we stopped in NC to visit the guys.  We had a nice one day pottery summit, talking shop, drinking beer, shooting the shit and gettin rowdy.  I got to meet up with Kyle Carpenter and Scott Cooper-who had recently finished his stint at Penland, along with Ron Philbeck and Michael Kline.  Here we all are at MK's pottery.  We had a good old time.  This is the first time I'd actually met Kyle and Scott even though we've been corresponding through blogs/email/facebook for years.  It's funny how we just fell into conversation like old friends.  I wish I lived closer to these guys but that's life, ain't it?

Here is a poster some student made for my MFA show (it's nice to have student workers.)

 

The week before I left for Baltimore I had to install my MFA show.  It's been a strange journey the last 2.5 years.  I can't believe it's already over, I feel like I just started.  While I didn't see a huge shift in my work I do see a lot of things that changed because of that experience.  I did have the great fortune of already having a cohesive style and clear direction for my pots, so rather than fretting over finding a style I was able to focus on subtleties and details.  I did have a new body of work emerge but that strangely enough didn't happen because of graduate school, but purely through experimentation, but the crits helped me refine that work.  I was also grateful that they didn't try to change me, I see so many programs where students go in as potters and leave as sculptors, or worse yet vessel makers.  I jest of course, but they did take me where I was and help me refine the work and attempt to make me understand more about why I make the work I do.  In Joe Bennion's film "a potters meal" he says something to the effect of: if I could put it into words then I wouldn't have to make pots.  In one respect this is completely true...in another it's a cop-out.  One does of course need to have the ability to speak about their work.  I remember having to write a paper: 10 pages on what it means to be a Leach potter.  On the surface it seems so simple, but think about it.  What does it mean?  I recall spending far too much time staring at a blank screen being frustrated and screaming to myself "what the F**K does it mean?!!" Well, I struggled through that one, I prefer to make pots rather than to intellectualize them.  I'll save that for those to whom it is better suited. 

Here are a few shots of the show.  I feel pretty good about these pots.  The show was about 2/3 the new slipwork/ash glaze combo and the rest of it the usual brushwork fare. 

This bottle...I wish you could get up close and see all the crazy stuff that is happening on the surface.  One of my favorites.

 

Big ole' fat jug.

Dessert plates hung on the wall to mimic art.

Brick clay.  Yum.

That bowl right there...I like to keep my ego in check but yeah, that bowl is the shit.

 

Well, that's enough blither for now.  It's nice to have time to sit and write a post.  I have some free time over the next few weeks, free time-what the hell is that?!!  In April I'm going up to Minnesota for the ACC show in St. Paul, so that and filling a few orders are the only thing on my plate for the next 8 weeks.  Pretty nice. 

Cheers!

Moving forward

I just fired off the wood kiln this last weekend.  It was a very good firing, I'm still digesting but so far I'm very pleased with it.  I've been working with this new slipware kinda thing with an ash glaze and it's been a struggle, but I think I've finally gotten the glaze just right.  I only had a couple of wasters in this kiln which is very good, considering that I've lost about 100+ pieces out of the last 2 firings.  I've been having a problem with my ash glazes blistering but this time around I slowed it way down from the time cone 7 was down.  With slips there is nothing to mature so there isn't really a need to slow it down or soak it.  Different story with the glazes.  I had a handful of pieces blister and I'm going to attempt to refire them, usually a waste with ash glazes but they're platters/bowls so I think it will be okay.  It was localized in the part of the kiln that got the hottest the fastest(the bottom backside) so I'll just have to watch that next time.

Here is the back stack:

 

The front stack.

 

The front wall of my kiln has been doing a lot of moving and needs a rebuild.  I'm seriously contemplating building a new kiln this next year if it's financially viable and if I can do that I'm not going to waste time and materials rebuilding part of my kiln.  I bought a couple sheets of cement board and clamped them tight to the front of the kiln, it seemed to do the trick.  I usually have so many gaps it makes the temperature and atmosphere erratic, smooth and steady this time.  Not very pretty though.  I'm a believe that kilns should be aesthetically pleasing as well as functional.  They shouldn't look like crack whores.

 

Here is the stack post-firing.  Not a great photo but you can see some good color in there. Yee-haw!

Here are a few pieces from this firing.  I'm super excited about these. 

This is a piece from a previous firing, this will be at a show during NCECA called "Stoked in Texas".  A group show of Texan woodfiring potters curated by Gary Hatcher.  This is the piece they photographed for the catalog.

That's all I have for now...back to work!  Firing again next week.

 

Cheers!

Pribilof Stare

It's about midnight here and I'm waiting a bit so I can turn up the electric kiln and go to bed.  The end to yet another 15 hour day. If you are a Deadliest Catch fan you might catch the title reference.  I was spoiled up at the school with the computer controlled kiln.  The studio is mostly finished and I've been working steady in there.  I've been pulling a lot of long days since Thanksgiving. My two biggest events of the year are coming up in about 5 weeks.  My MFA show goes up mid-February(can you believe that is already coming to an end?!!!) and the week after that I'm heading off to Baltimore for the ACC show.  After those I'm going to NCECA in March and then up to the ACC show in St. Paul in April.  This MAY be my last year for the Baltimore show, I've given this wholesale thing a shot but I've not been that happy with it.  The money has been good but I don't like the compromise.  I've burned a couple bridges this year with my biggest accounts so it may not be as profitable to me as it has been, but we will see.  I like to think that I'm sacrificing to hold up the flag for artistic integrity, or I could just be an uncompromising bastard.  I have to say though, it's easy to stand behind the flag of artistic integrity when you're pulling a teaching salary, I'll admit it.  If there is one thing that Elmer Taylor has impressed upon me (ad nauseum) it's that the University is a patron that affords me the opportunity to work as I please.  Well, anyways. Here's a few photos from the last couple weeks. 

Some leatherhard teapots.

Large vase, I liked the texture on the ridges.

 Slab dishes, lots of slip work!

Bad construction practices keep my kiln going. 

Large bowls, more slip work.  These are made with my batch of Ocmulgee brick clay.  Gnarly stuff. 

The pots are stacking up.

My goal was around 500 pots for the Dec-Feb cycle, I'm sitting somewhere around 300 at the moment.  The problem for me is working that far ahead.  Once I've produced enough work for a firing it's hard to keep working because the question for me is what do I make?  I'm not immediately firing and getting that feedback that I can take into the next cycle.  So instead of working non-stop and then firing back to back I'll try and get a firing out next in about a week and a half and that will give me 3 weeks to get a some last minute work done for the second firing.

Well, time to turn up the kiln and head to bed.

Cheers!

Free Shipping!

Free shipping in my etsy store through next week.  Wednesday is the last day I can ship out to arrive before Christmas. Coupon code Free12