New Brushes on Etsy

I've just finished uploading a whole bunch of deer tail brushes to my etsy page.  There are a variety of sizes available and they all ship for free in the US.  Generally speaking the fuller the brush the floppier it will be and will tend to leave more gestural marks. Straighter tips will tend to be less floppy and yield better control but will not give as loose of a mark.  If you have questions about the brushes or need advice on what may be best for your application you can convo me on etsy and I'd be happy to help you figure it out.

Here is a picture of the brushes I use.  I've been using these for about 4 years, the two on the left make all the stem/leaf type patterns as well as some line work.  The middle brush is much smaller and stiffer and it's used for small lines and banding, the fourth brush is used for large leaf type marks as well as for laying in glaze.  The last one is used for applying glaze dots.  One might think that I saved the cream of the crop for myself but these were all brushes that had some sort of flaw, seconds if you will.  The first two have brush tips that were too small for the openings, even though the epoxy holds them in place just fine, they look a little silly.  But they do the job just fine. 

You can see my etsy page here.

Cheers!

Brushes!

Happy new year to all my blog readers!  I haven't been working in the studio for quite some time now, since mid-October!  I had a few shows for the holiday season as well as two weeks out of town visiting family for the thanksgiving and Christmas, so I haven't been slacking the whole time.  I don't have any pending shows or orders looming so it seemed a good time to take a break and figure out my kiln/firing situation.  I have a waste oil burner all set up and ready to go, I'm going to test it out this week to make sure it works as intended and IF it does work I will test it out on one of the kilns up at the school and see what kind of power it has.  If all that works out I will be dismantling my wood kiln in short order and I will be building a smaller 30-40 cu. ft. salt kiln.  This means that I will be able to continue the body of work that I've been producing, which to be honest would be a huge load off my shoulders.  When I decided to stop wood firing my first plan was to switch to reduction firing which meant having to find a way to translate my work to a new type of firing or develop a new body altogether.  Not to mention clay body, glazes, etc.  If I can't get these waste oil burners to work then that might still be the way I go but we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Since I have had plenty of free time it has given me the opportunity to get back into making brushes.  I had a pretty good run of making brushes back in 2009 but with graduate school and wholesaling I didn't have the time to keep up with it.  I started making them because I needed some brushes that would make the specific types of marks that I like to make.  There are a few brush makers out there that make really nice brushes but they tend to be very expensive due to the embellishment.  I used to have a couple really nice brushes from a guy named Keith Lebenzon that were awesome...until my dog got ahold of them. I think I paid in the $50 range each for them back in 2002.  So I just wanted to make some no frills simple brushes that make nice marks and hold a lot of liquid for painting on clay...that won't break the bank if the dog gets ahold of them.  The brushes I use to decorate my work are from the first batch of brushes I made back in '09, they've held up great and they've certainly taken a lot of abuse.  I rarely follow my own recommendations for caring for the brushes, I don't even know how many times I've left them sitting with slip or pigment on them for days.  I know for certain I have one sitting in the studio right now that has been caked in Reeves Green since October, I'll give it a rinse and it will be good as new (though I don't recommend this). 

I'll be putting the brushes up for sale on etsy starting next week.  They're priced in the $18-25 range with free shipping. 

I'm thinking of putting together a website for the brushes, so if you are a satisfied user of my brushes and would like to contribute a photo of your work and/or a glowing recommendation of my product I'd love to include it.  You can email me brandon(at)supportyourlocalpotter.com

If you are a clay supplier or a retailer that might be interested in selling my brushes I'd be happy to talk with you about that opportunity. 

Cheers!

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.