BoneOrchard TeaWare

The studio has been a flurry of activity over the past 3 weeks. Between all of the hours and hours spent blissfully gardening, 28 cubic feet of bisque has been put through the kiln and 17 cubic feet of glaze has gone through as well. Well over half of that work was in prep for an experimental soda firing this weekend at Clay Planet in Santa Rosa, CA. with Matt Brown from Moss Beach Ceramics, (more on that in a later post). Finished works are finally beginning to flow out of the studio again. Most joyously, I’ve been very happy with the new works coming out of the kiln for my BoneOrchard collection of teaware. Here are a few works selected from the last firing that will be available at FetishGhost’s Etsy storefront.

The Akar Yunomi Invitational is Up!

Ok... this is a little off track but I have to post it. A lot of you may be familiar with this site , but I'm guessing that for a whole lot of reader this will be something new, so I have to share this site with you. It's one of the best art ceramic gallery sites that is currently online. If you haven't seen this years event yet then you have got to check it out. Amazing work by amazing artists! You may even recognize a few of the artists and their work...

Click here to check out this year's 2009 show.

If you like that you can still check out last year's 2008 show. Click here...

Wax working

Ok… It’s been nearly 2 weeks since I last had a good opportunity to share what’s been going on around the studio. It’s been busy, busy, busy for us here. The monkeys have all finally been cleared away from the wax bench and I’ve been working on new work and spruing up wax trees for a silver pour. I was hoping to squeeze a pour in before today, but the incessant rain this week hasn’t helped. It did give me a little extra time to mix up some new test glazes and design, cut, and test a new group of paper stencils for my local summer markets. Ferns, gears, and bones… ooooh the anticipation is killing me!

With spring officially here I’ve been spending more and more time in my client’s gardens getting ready for the new season. I love the chance to get out of the studio and get some really good exercise but it tends to create chaos with my schedule… Lots to do and never enough time!

Darn Studio Monkeys

For the past 2 days I’ve had to cough-up the newly appointed wax bench to the house critters and close my eyes and walk away. Encouraging the next generation and all that… but anyone that has young intrepid studio kids knows, reclaiming studio resources from the monkeys will make you wince. It’s totally worth it, but… hey, it still sucks.


Ok, so while the kids took over the wax bench, I used the time to get some of this spring’s Bone Orchard yunomi started moving through the pipe. This collection is just getting better and better. The approach to creating our designs is getting more and more refined and complex as the project evolves. I seriously enjoy creating the new works for this collection.

Confessions....

This may come as a shock, but after 50 plus postings about clay and ceramics, I've got to reveal something... My big Love is... Silver.

Yep... I'm a closet metalsmith. I love making Gothic silver. I've been in denial for about 2 years now, I even considered medication, but there it is... I'm a metalsmith. My kids know, they pieced it together after finding daddy in the garage with a blowtorch. My wife has always known and she still loves me. She's just worried about the children... "What if they grow up wanting to be metalsmiths? My god! What if they want to go to Art School! What if the neighbors find out!"

No worries... So now that the cat is out of the bag we are going to start sharing what's happening at the bench.