Oktoberfest Neighborhood Street Fair

This was a fun one! It was spur of the moment for me, I got pulled into this just a few days ago but I have been looking for opportunities like this, (a block and a half away with a beer garden parked in the middle of the street with a sampling from our neighborhood micro brewery Valley Brew.) I loaded up the wagon with a wheel, a stool and stuff and headed out. This was nothing but demos, no sales pressure so it was just entertainment. They blocked off the street near dusk amazingly enough, a lot of people showed up; it looked to be easily a few thousand over the course of 3 hours.
The only down side is getting home and looking at the pictures and realizing that, despite my best efforts, I still work with my tongue hanging out. Nice…
Got to meet a whole bunch of wonderful new faces though and got to let a few of the next generation of potters have their first go at the wheel. It was totally worth it. It was a really fun night.

Thanks everyone!

Soaking Past Midnight

Getting in a quick midnight post while the kiln is soaking… I’ve been bustling around to get 3 bisques and what looks like 4 glaze kilns pushed though over a 2 week cycle. (I’m not looking forward to this next electric bill). I spent a bit of extra time this summer building up a library of greenware and bisque. The thought was that it would be nice to have lots of bisque to pick through when you’ve got an event in… What! 9 days!

I’m on track, but still… things do seem to happen at the most inopportune times.

Ran a short series of small 2 pound canisters with carved outlines with the crackel glaze through this last load and they did well. So many things can go wrong with this glaze, so I'm pretty happy with the results... At least they feel great!

The above glaze came out of the kiln with a sandstone matt finish. I had set-up a spot in the kiln to fire a cone cooler than the rest of the kiln for a cone 5 glaze and this was set in the zone for testing. I really liked it but the texture set my teeth on edge.

More yunomi for the Bone Orchard.

A Foot in China

I’ve had a few a neat encounters over the past month via e-mail, (the web is notorious for that), but I’ve was pushed by the curiosity of one in particular. I received a note out of the blue from someone in China that wanted to purchase a few yunomi, but could only pay in large denominations of cash. The circumstances raised question marks and even if this was on the up’n’up I just didn’t feel comfortable telling someone to stick cash in an envelope hoping that it’ll make it to my mailbox. Likewise, I had no idea whether any package I sent would make it to its destination. No clue.

But, at the same time, the writer seemed sincere and I could think of a few reasons to try and send something to him, least of which is to simply have a piece I made actually in China. The solution was a gift… he picked a piece and I boxed it up and sent it out. If it didn’t make it, I’d just be out a piece and the cost of shipping, no sweat… if it got there, I potentially have a new friend!

It made it! My new friends name is Shangguan. He’s a scholar and artist and has sent back some old Chinese characters for FetishGhost.

The word "Fetish" is made up from 3 characters and Ghost is one. But there are many characters that can be used for ghost. My favorite for ghost is the character he uses on his personal seal to sign his art work. It's the red character at the top of the page. It’s a rare character unknown to but a few scholars. Beautiful!

Checkout his Tea Website at http://www.chinese-tea-culture.com/ lots of info...

Thank You Shangguan!

Weekend Bisque

It's finally the weekend and the last load of greenware thrown earlier in the week is dry enough to throw into the bisque kiln. It's a sprint the the finish. It's a spot less than 2 weeks till Witchapalooza and I'm looking at running 3 glaze loads through the kiln. I really hope Old Bessy doesn't decide to kick out on me now...

Here's a look at some of the ware waiting to get cook'n

A few small 2 pound, carved and stenciled canisters.I'm hoping that they come out of the kiln looking similar to their big brother that went through last month.

Another load of paper stenciled Bone Orchard yumoni and chawans just in time for fall. Unfortunately, this will probably be the be the last load of spooky ware for the year... Bumm'n.

A pleasant surprise... I found a few of the "Time Flies" stencils left over from last year. They were well hidden in a pile of paper that was headed twords the recycle bin. I guess cleaning the studio has it's rewards after all.

Now the fun of mixing and sifting glazes! Yea!

Blah, blah, blah...

Alright, it’s time to play devil’s advocate and then bury this post as fast as I can…

I’ve been watching the Arts here in Stockton, CA. go through a very big change. Admittedly… a good amount of changes have been way overdue, but almost all of these changes are unthought-out knee jerk solutions to our local and state budget crises. Without elaborating on the full scope of the dilemmas that I've been watching, I want to wade in on just one negative topic that I see that can really change the dynamics of our arts community in a positive direction.

Our local community college has decided to restrict the amount of time that non-continuation students (i.e. seniors) can spend taking up seats in common studio classes. This seems innocent enough, but a whole lot of seats are taken up with a few handfuls of adults “students” that have been taking classes for 10 years or more. In our local community college system, adult students can make their way to the front of the line for class registration and (get this) they pay $0 to use the facility. This pushes out the next generation of students that need the studio resources’ to begin learning.

Ok… before this turns into a long monolog, I want to go on record to suggest that everyone that has the energy to bitch about this change funnels their energy into creating a new extended learning class format or work to develop a new community arts center. Either of these proposals can start small and grow as needed, but as I see it… If you feel free enough to bitch about change, you can help steer change in a positive direction… There are many community arts models that work very, very well. But first, many of our local arts elders need to stop whining and dodging their responsibilities and become the leaders that the community needs. Unfortunately… I’m fearing that everyone that chooses to complain is merely hoping that someone else will sacrifice their time and effort to serve their interests. Well…

WAKE UP!

You need to help create opportunities for yourselves outside of the system to appreciate the opportunities that are at your fingertips. If you don’t think it’s worth your time or treasure… You have no class… I hope the next generation can rise to the challenge.