Getting It Done

I am so jazzed!

It's been a very busy 2 weeks since the last post and lots of stuff has come and gone since the last post... I had work accepted into PBS's local on air Art auction (it's the big faceted canister that took out 2 kiln shelves in the process 4 weeks ago). This show was a big tado this year... the event organizers turned away lots of great artists this year so I'm feeling pretty good.

I made a huge mess in the studio over the past 2 weeks cutting a dozen billetts of stencils for 25 plus large and medium canisters for my local markets and a good number went twords creating yunomi for FetishGhost's BoneOrchard collection this fall too. This is going tobe the best load yet! (my wife just reminded me that I say that every single kiln load... yeah well.. but it is true!) Over 40 peices are being set aside the soda kiln (BIG, big mojo!) and another 30 are going to be glazed with this springs experimental cone 6 slips and glazes.

NEXT was the juring of art work for the local "Hands in Clay" exhibit. That was this Sunday and I am SO happy to have this behind me! Nearly everyone involved in this project has been really great to work with, but there have been a very small handful of people who seem to feel that this needed to be more difficult than it was. (I think it's a chemical thing...) Needless to say, it has been a learning experiace and I can't wait to do it again, (with out all of the speedbumps).

The show's jurors, Tom Collins and Bruno Kark, seemed to have alot of fun selecting the awards for the show. ( They were great sports and insparational optimists! THANKS GUYS!!! I can't wait for the workshop August 1st!)

My submission for the show, an urn titled "Winds of Icarus", took 3rd in the functional catagory. (that scores another Happy Dance). We even got the entire show installed before the end of the day. Still have to take down and move the art work on the walls, but hey. DONE IS DONE!

For a quick hoot, check out the time laps video of us setting up the show.

The Cup

I had to post this video as soon as I saw it. It's Pete Pinnell talking at length about the lowly cup. It's a fantastic discussion and worth popping up some corn and sitting back to soak it in.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=302550256698394321

Wanna see my Tool?

Ahhh... the love of an old favorite tool. Long thought lost, but now is found!

I use my little tool to incise lines around a pattern laid out with stencils. It's just a thin brass tube cut with a jewelers saw.

This time I'm trying something new and leaving islands of detail that are simply slipped.

A Self Indulgent 41st B-Day Weekend

Well, my initial plan this weekend was going to be really self-indulgent and meet up with Matt of MossBeach Ceramics for a soda fire for my birthday, but the dreaded cliché, that I hate, finally caught up with my household… “It’s the economy”… I couldn’t afford to go out to San Jose for our scheduled soda firing… whaaaaaaa!!! (Aw hell, we can barely afford a week’s worth of rice and beans right now.) Fortunately the optimist in me loves rice and beans and I’m looking forward to watching my kids finally get hungry enough to quit complaining and dig in. I’m figuring that should be tonight. Hehehehhheh… this should be better than TV.

Well, the poor man in me tapped me on the shoulder and suggested that I dig though my reclaim bins and get really self indulgent at home.

I got to enjoy spending the weekend in the studio throwing large canisters and trying out new strategies for surface designs. Now I know no idea is as good as done until it’s actually done… but I really like where this weekend's series is heading. With this series, I’ve gone back to incising my stenciled designs and I’ve combined the incising with multiple pockets of cobalt slipped areas as well. Maybe I didn’t word that as clearly as I could… but you can just check out the photos to see what’s happening. Me and the kids really like how they turned out, now I just have to foot the buggers. Woof!!!

Something for the Marvelous MisTwist

Here's a quick pirouette of 6 bowl choices.

A

B

C

D

EF

New Sidebar Feature Links

Well it seems like a really good idea.

I've set up 2 hotlinks on my side bar to link to a menu posting that I use as a libraryed jumpsite to a whole lot of other postings.

One is my studio glazes. This will continue to be filled out as this moves along. It at least proves helpful when I can't find my recipe book.

The other is the Demo Library. This is worth checking out if you haven't had the time to dig through the past postings to see what's buried back there. I'll keep adding to it as we move forward so stay tuned....

Oh yeah... and any feed back REALLY helps!

Doh!

Ok... this is one one unexpected surprise from this weekends firing. The crawl glaze let go on this larger piece and created a mess on 2 kiln shelves. I've recently have been going light on the kiln wash (ok, I admit it... I've been omitting kiln washing the shelves for a while now to reduce some of the problems associated with the kiln wash flaking up inside of the footrings of pieces. It's proven to be a positive move up until now.)

I should be able to grind off the detris...

The piece does look good though.

Expecting the Unexpected

Another kilnload of question marks was fired off Saturday night. Sunday was spent pulling out the work and looking at it without expectation. Not always an easy thing to do, but after last weeks jaw drop, I'm at least expecting the unexpected.

Whoa!

Ahhh, I meant to do that...

That different...

Didn't mean to do that...

Lumpy bumpy...

Subtly cool

Glossy Clear Liner

20 G-200 Feldspar
20 Ferro Frit 3134
15 Wollastonite
20 EPK
6 Talc
19 Silica

The sample picture is of an agateware with the clear over it.

This is the simple Cone 6 clear liner base recipe that I've been using in my studio since 2005.

Very stable from cone 5 to cone 7.

To create my creamy white liner, I add 4% Tin Oxide.

One of June's PostCard Splits

I've been promoting to my local markets with postcard splits. These are full sized post cards that I have shrunk down to half size and doubled up on a single printed postcard. I cut these cards in half to create minis that I can liberally hand out at farmers markets and drop off at any coffee and tea shops that I visit.
For the price, I'm starting to create and hand-out moo-card sized minis for several of our local artists that are partisipating in the PortCity Mud Project as well.

Prospective designs are tested at my neighborhood coffee shop by dropping a card design on the floor and noting what happens. If someone picks up a card and drops it in the bin... it's literally garbage. If they pocket it after picking it up... it's a decent design.

Variation of Blue Hares Fur

47.3 Nepheine Syenite
27 Gerstley Borate

20.3 Silica 325

5.4 EPK

2 Red iron Oxide

1 Cobalt Oxide (altough I sometimesuse cobalt Carb)

4 rutile

2 bentonite

This is a very versatile glossy blue cone 6 glaze that I've been using in my studio since 2006. It's very stable by itself and interacts well with my most of my other glazes, and more inportantly, it reacts beautifully with my standard white liner glaze creating wonderful optics breaking at the rim.

When applied thick, it produces an amazingly rich blue hares fur.

When applied thinly it produces a transparent iron blue.

This glaze begins to glass up at bisque temps, but can be taken to cone 7 quite well.

I'm most commonly using it to create my GhostBlue glaze for cones 5 to 7. The GhostBlue is a combination of my studio clear glaze with a thin application of Hares Fur over it to produce a transparent rich blue glaze that really works well with my cobalt slips.

PortCity Mud Project

Time to start another large community project...

Everyone around here has been garumping about how the art community in Stockton is non-existent. Maybe I'm not looking at the same city, but there's a lot of arts happening here! It is a stratified community of young to old, with a unhealthy dose of pessimism and apathy spread through much of the older crowd, but there is an amazing amount of unshown talent just walking around.

The PortCity Mud Project is a grass roots project aimed at reengaging our local ceramic artists with their community using guerrilla gallery exhibitions, plain air demonstrations, and online media.

Hey, when you have nothing to lose... it's time to play!

Demo Library

A Handful of Racers

Well... for all my whining this morning about everything in yesterdays kiln load of work conspiring to challenge my preconceived expectations, there were a good number of pieces I did really did enjoy pulling out of the kiln.

These works still play the edge of what I need to come out of the kiln verses what I personally think is fun to hold and explore. Unfortunately, these are more often than not, 2 totally differing ideals. This point is actually becoming a point of personal internal philosophical contention, (but that is definately another post).

Our Studio's Cone 6 Glazes

Here's my studio's recipe book for the cone 6 glazes that I use.

I'm a very firm believer in sharing recipes. I also know it's how we use what we are given that determines the out come.

All of the listed recipes are hot-linked out to detailed postings through-out the blog.

Oribe Green

Clear Liner











Blue Hare's Fur

NutMeg

SDSU Texture & Crawl Glaze

Satin White (aka MoonCrater White)