Playing With Fire

Eye Candy!

2012-02-09T19:22:00.000-06:00

I fired a sample pot in the new series- a teacup and saucer glazed in Kiwi Celadon- an old standard we had back at Parkland.

Turned out pretty well! Now to try some further tests- I have buckets of blue and green variants of Meerfield Ash sitting around...those are going to be my next test pots. I'm also going to start experimenting with an undercoat of Tile 6 slip to brighten up our rather gray porcelain.

Last Saturday afternoon I threw 16 bowls, and re-filled the reclaim trash barrel...a good day's work!

Just for the record the following photos of snowdrops and witch hazel were taken on January 30th...and the cold snap that came in last week has mostly flattened the flowers.

Back to the Weary Grind

2012-01-28T18:15:00.000-06:00

A brief rundown of the last month: back to teaching and books; massive studio cleaning, and drying and bisqueing of some of Michael’s work for the February shows while he was away on a trip; the annual post-Christmas head cold, and the descent of said cold into a nice little case of pneumonia- dee-lightful. On the bright side, it’s been fairly warm, I mixed eight glazes last weekend (and had help sieving them, thanks Deb!) and kicked butt on the January studio to do list...and I’ve gotten some nice pots made too!

Amanda Thatch, one of the out-going Core students said something this Fall that I found interesting: that in all of the Penland classes that she’s taken, she’s always found that the last piece from each class is the one that has the most influence and direction for her. Since I started making pots again I’ve had that not-so-subconscious thought in my mind- where did this particular class leave me, and what direction will I take after it, particularly through the lens of the last completed pieces I made there. Before getting to the new pieces I’ll just state two main conclusions that I’ve come to, the second of which is not really a surprise at all, come to think of it, neither are...just a question of acceptance. 1. The things I value most in my (and others’) pots are function, technique and process- I am a fairly practical, quiet, straightforward person with both feet firmly nailed to the floor; when I try a new, trendier, less simple, style of work in trying to be clever, to impress others, then I tend to get bored with it after a few months (see the figure-based pots I was making this last Spring). The work I keep coming back to (my own, and others’) is simple and loose, but structured and with intent; having graceful lines in the form, and with the bones, the skeleton of the pot, showing through in the throwing lines. 2. I need a soda/wood kiln, or at least a soda kiln...and, since I don’t have one, and won’t for the foreseeable future; I need to find a surface solution that doesn’t blatantly show that I’m grinding my teeth and wishing it was something else. On that cheerful note, let’s look at some pots!

This is the pot that started the latest batch- one of the sets of auction mugs I made post session at Penland, and soda fired in Julia with Susan Feagin.

This is the first set of pieces that I made back at Boneyard- similar decoration, different forms. I think the decoration is a little sparse, and some of the vines have an unfortunate resemblance to zippers.

...Now the second set- I tried increasing the coverage of the decorations, and tried coming up with a few different patterns. Also the scale and shape of the canister lid knob is changing- the new ones are thrown hollow...

...and this jar is the latest permutation.

I’m thinking kiwi celadon and some transparent ash recipes for glazes, but I’ll run the plain cups as tests before I do the rest...I also may start thinking about using a brighter white slip (maybe 6-tile or Grolleg) as a base coat for the transparent glazes.

It’s been several months since this blog has seen a recipe, so here’s a seasonally appropriate one that I’ve been sitting on since mid September.

Clam Chowder

¼ pound Bacon

½ cup Shallots, chopped

1 small Yellow Onion, chopped

¼ cup Flour

½-1 tbs Bourbon

1/3 cup Dry Chardonnay

6-8 cups water

½ tsp crushed dried Thyme

3 cups diced Potatoes

10 oz can small or chopped Clams

1 cup raw Ocean Perch filet, chopped

1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

(Preferably organic- it tends to be far thicker, and taste better too.)

Fry the bacon until just cooked, then remove, and reserve. Sauté the shallots and the onion in the bacon fat until transparent and starting to brown. Add the flour and stir just until well blended, then deglaze the pan; first with the bourbon, then with the chardonnay (don’t put your head over the pan when adding the bourbon- the fumes will knock you flat!), then add the water (more or less depending on how thick you like your chowder), thyme, potatoes, and the juice from the clams (reserve the clams). Chop the reserved bacon and add to the soup, simmer 8-10 minutes. Add the ocean perch and continue to simmer until the potatoes are soft. Stir in the reserved clams, remove the pot from the heat and allow to cool for 1-2 minutes, then stir in the heavy cream just before serving.

Please note that this tastes best the first day- after that the cream tends to separate on re-heating...perhaps fixable by adding cream only to individual portions just before serving.

Penland After Concentration, and Back Home

2011-12-19T20:10:00.002-06:00

Back home and getting back into the swing of things- scuzzy books, working at the pottery, going to my cousin's wedding...and catching up on sleep.

Let's go back a tetch, shall we?

Just because the session's over, doesn't mean you have to stop firing... The Tuesday after Concentration ended I headed down the road to Bandana Pottery, where I had volunteered to work a shift on their wood kiln firing. Bandana has an interesting setup because Michael Hunt, one half of the operation with Naomi Dalglish, has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia, including an apprenticeship in Korea, and their kiln is modeled on those he saw in Thailand. Pictured above is Michael stoking the kiln.

After Concentration my mom came down for a few days, and for Thanksgiving we went hiking on the Roan again. Not as colorful as last time, but still very pretty, and not too cold. The corgis were thrilled to go on the walk of their furry little lives- they've never been on a long hike before, and they had more energy than we did...note the big corgi grins!

One of my excuses to stay at Penland was to make mugs for next Summer's benefit auction patron breakfast, Susan needs 500, so my 50 will make only a small dent, but they all help. I made some for every taste! ...Love the titanium yellow slip!

Here's Susan and me soda firing at 2 am in wonderful Julia- totally kiln happy! (The kiln contained Susan's pots for the Toe River Studio Tour, my auction mugs, and some pots made by and for the Penland Kitchen folk.

Finished Auction mugs...

...and more drying to get in one last bisque before I left for home.

And here are some last pictures of Penland in the snow. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everybody!!!

Penland Fall 2011, Last Post.

2011-11-18T19:36:00.000-06:00

Well, it's over now...or it will be after helping with cleanup tomorrow...but let's go back a bit, shall we?

Here are the pots from the last wood firing...

Here's a beauty by Fletcher, one of our Studio Assistants.

Two weekends ago was Suzanne's Birthday party (at my house)...here's the birthday girl with Gay Smith's dog Bodhi.

The pots from the first wood firing were so good that everyone was excited enough to do another firing...

...and once we finished firing (only 15 hours!!!!!! The last one was 28!) we roasted marshmallows in the passive damper (!) and made S'mores...here's Roberto, one of our two Brazilian students eating his first s'more.

Things That Make Me Happy #395- Love this bumper sticker seen on a truck in front of the Pines!

...and #396, chicks with chainsaws- Sofie, Marie Claire...and me!

Once we chopped the replacement wood, we unloaded the kiln...

...here are Scott, Day, and Bill from the kitchen, all happy with their new Sarah mugs.

And here we are, back where we started, at the end- here's our last session of porchification, in honor of our classmate Bill (not of the kitchen) who had to leave early...

...And our last dinner together. (Penland tables are ever expanding- after this picture was taken we added a twelfth person!)

Just a Brief Little Note...

2011-11-11T22:55:00.000-06:00

Just letting y'all know that I haven't dropped off the face of the planet...This week has been total insanity- last week for wet work...the batch of wood kiln pots came out so fabulously that we decided to do a second firing on only a week's notice (we loaded this afternoon, and will light up at 6am tomorrow...thank you Kitchen people for the snacks!) ....Let's just say that there will be one, maybe two, more real posts this next week, and then it's curtains for the blog until early December.

Penland, Week 5

2011-11-01T11:40:00.000-05:00

First thing's first- last Thursday we unloaded the shino firing from Juanita, the small gas reduction kiln. What was done differently with this firing was to reduce early for carbon trapping, to add coal to the firebox at around cone 012 for extra heavy reduction, and to reduce more heavily throughout the entire firing. I didn't have any pots in this firing (saving them for the wood kiln!), but I definitely have some ideas for the next shino firing!

This was one of the best examples of the Malcolm Davis Carbon Trap Shino glaze (this is the exact same glaze that I've been using back home for all the faux woodfire pieces with the wood ash and soda solution. The one consistent problem with this glaze in this firing was that it crawled like crazy on the in sides of anything that was more of a closed form than this bowl. I've seen that happen before on student pots back at Boneyard, but never on my own pots. The primary theory I've heard is that there's dust on the pots that is preventing the shino from adhering properly- I'm wondering if thickness of application has something to do with it as well, (I never wipe or dust off my bisque!)- my pots are pretty thin and are porcelain, so they don't absorb much glaze at a time, and I keep my shino bucket of a consistency to spray (thin), so if I want a thick coat I double dip- hmmm...if any of y'all have any ideas on the subject, let me know.

These are some of Kent's yunomi in his white shino recipe (the light areas are the result of setting the pots next to others immediately after glazing- the proximity to other wet pots slows the drying of the glaze in that area, changing the way that the salts that cause carbon trapping rise to the surface of the glazed pot)...

...and a student pot (I think one of Wendy , one of the assistants') with another nice example of what surface variation can do for this kind of glaze!

The first wild rush of color is over for this Fall (the tulip trees, many of the maples, and dogwoods and sassafrass), now most of the color is the red of oak trees mixed with the green of the pines, and the brown of the bare branches of the other trees. Some of the tulip trees are still clinging to a few leaves on the uppermost branches- when a strong breeze comes through and shakes the leaves, it looks as though they are glittering with several shades of gold...quite lovely.

I had to stop and take some pictures when I was coming back up the hill from a town run the other day- it had been raining for much of the day, and having everything wet really made the colors pop.

HALLOWEEN! They make a big deal about it up here... These two ghouls are Suzanne and me dressed up as clay-themed kabuki actors...

...and here's Susan Feagin as a dust bunny!

These jellyfish are two of the benefit auction volunteer coordinators, up for their annual October meeting.

...Oh, and a further bear report- sightings at Horner, Cynthia Bringle's, dumpster diving at the Pines, and walking around the new dorm on Halloween night (the school ferried people housed there by car to and from the party).

Lastly for the week- we just finished firing the wood kiln last night! The firing was just under 30 hours, and pretty even- we spent a lot of time trying to get the bottoms of both chambers in the same range as the top (a lovely problem to have in a crossdraft!) with pretty good success.

We fired through Sunday night...

...all day Monday...

...and into Monday night.

I was finally convinced to go through the haunted house that was made in the soon-to-be-not-so-dearly-departed Homosote- really well done (we saw a whole new side of Day Dotson and Big John...), though I may have deafened Dean, the glass coordinator, by screaming in his face...

This week- two more weeks of making, only one more field trip (Bandana Pottery and Michael Klein's) and few demos= cranking out lots of pots!!!!

Fun and Excitement on Penland Road

2011-10-27T11:35:00.002-05:00

A whole bunch of Penland folk drove out on the Parkway late last night to try to see the Brown Mountain Lights...We didn't see anything there, but coming back we passed a BEAR on Penland Road, right by Shawn Ireland's studio. The bear was walking right up the road in the other lane, and was roughly the size of a small sofa- a big fat bear!

Suzanne took pictures- I'll edit one into this post once I get them from her!

Penland Week Four

2011-10-25T08:49:00.000-05:00

First, let's just register the sad fact that the session is halfway over now...a depressing thought. On the other hand, there are another four weeks still to go!

Dinner last Friday was truly phenomenal -it knocked over the Chicken and Wild Mushroom Fettuccine Alfredo from the previous Friday's Core Show Dinner from it's position as "Best Penland Meal Ever"- This time it was pork loin stuffed with goat cheese, red peppers, wrapped in bacon, and topped with a sauce of artichoke hearts; served with Tuscan white beans (herbed white beans and a little butter in a sauce), rolls with lavender honey butter, and the usual salad bar...I think the kitchen just earned some more serving dishes, don't you?

No kiln firings this last week -though Juanita the little gas reduction kiln is firing today with a little heavy-reduction shino firing. The form for this last week was bowls, cont'd, and yesterday we started in on lidded pots. I threw and slipped some tumblers, a box, and a large 25lb open bowl, the last of which met an unhappy end when the weather changed and became much drier overnight. This weekend I threw and trimmed 15 bowls for our Empty Bowls event, and softened another 75+ lbs (the donated clay is STIFF) for more throwing yet this week.

On Sunday Suzanne and I took a quick trip down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Crabtree Falls, and hiked the loop trail to and from the waterfall.

This week- covered jars, slipping and glazing for the wood kiln, loading the wood kiln on Friday, helping to funkify Homosote and turn it into a haunted house for Halloween Monday, and Saturday night is the Penland Halloween Party!!!!!

Things That Make Me Happy #395

2011-10-18T23:54:00.000-05:00

Late night tonight- I'm waiting for slip to dry so I can finish decorating some mugs before bed (not happy about this)...however in the quest to kill a little time I've been catching up on a blog I haven't looked at in a while: one of my favorite NPR shows (National Potters Radio to y'all) is Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and on their blog they have a semi regular feature called "Sandwich Mondays" (see it here). Kind of a foodie Ripley's Believe It Or Not, with a little Mythbusters mixed in... or a contemporary Regrettable Foods.

The KFC Double Down was invented for these people...probably one of their healthier selections, too.

Penland, Week 3...or actually, last Sunday...

2011-10-18T10:40:00.002-05:00

Quick synopsis of last week: form of the week, bowls; firing day, Wednesday; kilns, Ginn-Ginn (salt) and Big John (reduction); no field trip.

Friday night was the opening of the annual Penland Core Show, which was very impressive. Some pieces I particularly liked were an almost carnival-like wind powered machine with moving portions of text welcoming visitors to the show, and a very finely crafted toolbox with many small drawers, both by Ian Henderson; some sculptural hammers by Seth Gould; and a highly entertaining piece by Rachel Garceau chronicling her first year as a Core Fellow...in the form of breakup letters to clay! Afterwords there was a raucous party down at the Core house lasting into the wee hours of the morning...which I went to solely to see the inside of Morgan Hall...I came, I saw, I left...nice house though.

Saturday night was our clay party...with the best clay party poster ever, courtesy of the magic Photoshop skills of Bill Jones from our class...

Suze and Kent were not in on the making of this, but have put up with it with good grace...including all the comments from passersby. The party was pretty good too- we lit the studio with Christmas lights, decorated with crepe paper, and had Brazilian cocktails, courtesy of Roberto and Andrea.

Now to Sunday....

It started with a particularly funny daily chalkboard in the Pines...I liked the part on clean sheets...

After brunch Suzanne, Susan Feagin, Joe from Glass, Bill Jackson from the kitchen and I went hiking up on Roan Mountain, which is phenomenally beautiful, with grassy balds that stretch for miles, with fantastic views.

Once we got back we unloaded the kilns... (nice expression, Suzanne)

...and tested the pots out.

Wendy, one of our assistants, had a beautiful tall lidded jar out of the Salt kiln...

...and Suze had some beauties too...

I had a number of bowls in the salt kiln that had some funkola issues with the slips acting out in the salt kiln (a lot of people did), but I still had plenty of nice pots from both kilns. Love the Oribe on some of these teabowls!

Also a project this week was making my contribution to the on-going scavenger hunt/hiding of cool stuff on campus...Mini Mugs!

More bowls, and maybe getting into lidded jars this week...a little shino firing...making stuff for the wood kiln...making bowls for an Empty Bowls event, and the official field trip to Energy Xchange.

Penland Week 2.5

2011-10-11T09:13:00.000-05:00

First firings are out!!! We unloaded our first two kilns last Thursday- here are some pix of what I got out of them. I had only one pot in the reduction kiln, but it was a beauty (the pitcher- my shot at layering glazes a'la Kent), the salt kiln pots were slightly less gratifying, but now that I know what works and what doesn't in the type of firings that we're doing, I can adjust accordingly, so the next batch should be better.

No pix, but Friday we went contra/swing/square dancing down in Celo- fun, fun, fun! There's some talk of making the clay party an old time dance party!

Now I know I talk about the food here all the time, but have never given an example...until now! I present Saturday's dinner: the usual salad, pesto pasta, antipasti, caprese salad, rustic baguette with your choice of tarragon or pesto butter...with coconut cream pie and whipped cream for dessert....not an atypical meal either!

Sunday Suzanne (aka "Satan" to the Fall 2010 crew) and I took the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is in peak fall color, ...

...up to Mount Mitchell, which was cold, misty, and thinking about raining...

...and did the two mile hike from the top down to the park office, and then back, for four miles total, through woods which bore no small resemblance to Fangorn Forest.

This week we've been working on bowls- I haven't thrown anything yet this week, but here's a shot of Kent's demo yunomi...and martini glasses!

This little beastie has been taking up a big chunk of my glazing time...it's for the Penland Kitchen. The leaves will be blue/green, and the background white with whatever pop-throughs of the underneath glaze (Reitz Green and White Salt, KW).

Yet this week: more bowls, firing Ginn-Ginn (big salt) and Big John (big gas reduction), making pots for the wood kiln, a visiting artist (Bill Griffiths from down at Arrowmont), another class occupying lower clay (Margaret Bohls teaching ceramics for collectors...and Bobby Kadis is up for that class!)...and this weekend a whole crew of us are going to go hiking up on Roan Mountain!

Photos From Week 1.5

2011-10-05T10:24:00.000-05:00

A couple of views to start with...

Last Wednesday we went on field trip # 1 to look at the pots in Suze and Kent's studio gallery to get some ideas for glazing combinations...

Kent's

Suze's

...and drooling at the pots in their personal collection...including pots by my two favorite potters!

McKenzie Smith, Sarah Jaeger

On Saturday we went up to Energy Xchange (see previous entry) to watch them fire the big pallet fired wood kiln...

Will Baker stoking a half-pallet

No pix, but Saturday night we went to the Music in the Mountains old time music and dance festival in downtown Burnsville, which was really good- a mix of old time, bluegrass, shape-note singing, with clogging and flat-footing...and at the end of the evening they wanted to re-create the feel of an old-time dance party, so one of us Penlanders, who knew the organizers, recruited the Penland crew attending (including yours truly) to come up on stage to dance the local permutation of square dancing! ...And we've all been recruited to go down to Celo for the Contra/Swing dance on Friday night!.

We did our first firing yesterday too, salt (Julia), and gas reduction (Juanita).

Judy back at it

Michael pulling a ring

Last night's slides were two visiting artists, one from print/letterpress, and an art historian who is visiting metals. The art historian, Howard Risatti, gave an interesting lecture titled "Art and Artifice", which was based on an exhibit that he had curated about how since the handcrafted object is no longer integral to everyday life with the advent of mass production, Craft now frequently produces "functional" objects that, while aesthetically pleasing, lack functionality, and how the switch to the mass produced object has produced our modern throw away culture. Each grouping contrasted a functional handmade object with its "pretty" and less to non-functional modern version, and with its mass-produced counterpart/replacement.

Up this week- pitchers, studio visit this afternoon with Shawn Ireland (a wood fire potter just down the road), that dance on Friday in Celo, and this weekend is the Spruce Pine Potter's Market (potters from Mitchell and Yancey Counties).

Penland, Week One

2011-10-01T08:43:00.000-05:00

So wonderful to be back on the hill- not just for Penland, but it's also a bit of old home week too; there are some familiar faces this time- Suzanne from last Fall, and Judy from this Summer, and up in Hot Glass is Joe from last Fall...besides Suze, Kent, and all the people who live up here. This time is a little different as I'm living off campus (just up the road a bit), but it's nice to have the ability to escape the madness at will.

So far this week we've been working on Cylinder based forms -mugs, tumblers, and re-shaped bottomless cylinders with added slab bottoms- and some slab built and slumped plate and bowl forms, plus demos on glazing and slip decoration. We also went over to Suze and Kent's house Wednesday afternoon for a couple hours to look at their extensive pottery collection and get some ideas (and drool).

Last night was the opening for the Resident Artist show down at the gallery (very nice) and also the instructor show (also very nice. Suze had in a canister set, and Kent had a 2-foot lidded jar). There was apparently quite a party down at the Resident Barns afterwords, as there were lots of cars passing my house into the wee hours of the morning.

It's gotten quite cold here (sleeting as I walked up to Northlight)- time to pull out the wool sweaters and hats. Later today some of us are heading out to the Energy Exchange (a series of craft studios that get much of their energy supply from burning landfill gas) where they're firing a pallet kiln (a wood kiln using shipping pallets as fuel).

I'll post pictures after we get back from Energy Exchange.

Ahhh...

2011-09-28T17:16:00.000-05:00

Back on the Hill, working like crazy, very happy, heading to dinner.

More posted at the end of the week!

ps...Biscuits and Bacon, check, check!

Things that make me happy #394

2011-09-12T14:05:00.000-05:00

Seen this morning in the grocery store parking lot: a woman riding a shopping cart across the lot to her car, at a pretty good clip too, and texting on her cell phone at the same time!

A Little Bit of Everything

2011-09-06T19:51:00.001-05:00

This post is going to be a little scattered because, frankly, I'm a little scattered. (Let's re-phrase that shall we? How about "more scattered than usual"?) It's getting down to the final sprint before heading down to Penland for Fall Clay Concentration, and there's so much left to do: clean, pack, finish and photograph a final piece for my Core Fellowship application portfolio, finish preparing and mail the Core Fellowship application, clean some more, pack some more, clay work, book work, dogs...did I mention cleaning?

First up, books:

Most of y'all have some idea that my day job is book conservation, yet I haven't yet shown a sample. With items that come in the general idea is to repair the item into a structurally stable, and hopefully visually harmonious, whole. Frequently "visually harmonious" means that you select materials that camouflage into the book- new black cloth spine on an old black cloth bound book with a ratty or missing spine...but every once in a while you get to really have fun in quiet way. This lovely item came in possessing pages mostly no longer sewn together, missing end bands (the little folds of cloth or cord at the head and tail at the spine of hard cover books), a spine that was shredded and torn beyond use, and an added spine label that was badly creased, starting to tear, and hanging on by only one corner. The original book had been entirely bound in burgundy cloth on beveled edge boards with a mustard yellow spine label. Since adding a second burgundy would have looked garish (no good cloth color match) and we had a close match for the yellow, after re-sewing the whole book, I decided to use the contrast color for the new replacement spine and to use a burgundy Japanese paper (perfect match!) to reinforce (and accent!) the damaged spine label, to make new, custom, endbands, and to cover the dogeared corners where the original cloth had worn away. On the whole, I think this is one of the niftiest repairs I've done- not the most difficult, but quite fun!

Clay:

Since I didn't want to make any new work in the down time between sessions, I've been doing other to-do things around the pottery- cleaning the floor, cleaning student shelves, studio surfaces, the glaze booth, processing reclaim, bisqueing...and making cookies.

Not edible cookies! These are reusable kiln washed clay disks with rims for potentially runny student pots to sit on when being fired in the glaze kiln- no shelves to grind, and these are cheaper than new shelves!

Future metals project in planning stage:

Source material...

...and sketch.

Now I just have to figure out a way to take it on and off without bending the snot out of it, and to figure out when I'll be in a metals studio again so I can make it!

Two weeks...

things that make me happy #393

2011-08-29T18:08:00.000-05:00

Seen parked in the lot of a local movie theatre: a new, shiny white hearse. Dunno what movies were showing, but one of them must have been pretty bad...

Ahhh...Pictures!

2011-08-22T19:17:00.001-05:00

Alright, ladies and gents, here comes the picture marathon! Do note that the selections are a bit haphazard due to time constraints...

Phil's demo yunomi (untrimmed)

Phil's demo chawan (untrimmed)

Assorted pots of Phil's from the demo on carving through slip, and hakeme slipwork

Eacles imperialis- these lovely critters were everywhere...so lovely to see so many of one of my favorite moth species out and about- this charmer kept flying in and out of the clay studio one evening.

(See Colin, I'm still a bug lady!)

Phil posing with the loaded Ginn-Ginn...and gingerade!

Kiln god for firing #1...one guess at who this guy is.

Judy and Melissa salting Ginn-Ginn

Mike and Melissa salting Ginn-Ginn

Pots from that first firing

One of my yunomi from that first firing- nice oribe glaze, crystals on one side, hare's fur on the other!

Foster the service dog, imprisoned on Foster Island, watching Gail glaze

Melissa, Ann, and, I think, Phil side stoking the firebox of the wood kiln

Anne modeling the height of woodfire fashion

Cooling day- one of the places we went on our field trip was Bandana Pottery, Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish, who make wood fired pots out of local clay...we also went to Michael Kline and Shawn Ireland's studios, and to Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville.

...And then back home to fire Julia (I love this kiln!)
(Y'all- I have no pictures of all the pots together from this firing- and they were lovely...I'd love to have a copy if any of y'all took pictures of them)

Sunday's wood stacking party

Followed by un-bricking the wood kiln doors (note Susan monitoring the door brick stacking situation)

Wood kiln, first chamber (ash only)

Wood kiln, second chamber (residual salt- no new salt added)

At Penland, everyone mops- here Phil demonstrates his mopping prowess...either that or the 80's British Gold on the stereo was too much for him, so he had to get up and dance...I heard some singing coming from his end of the room...

Pieces from upper textiles floating on the breeze at show and tell

...And that empty studio...waiting for us all to come back.

...Four more weeks...

...and then there are really crazy people.

2011-08-10T22:15:00.000-05:00

...but that's all over now. We finished up a fabulous session yesterday, and now pretty much everyone has left, which is kind of depressing. The next fun item on the agenda will be working the annual Penland Benefit Auction, but I'm getting ahead of myself. Please note that the lack of pictures in this post is not due to not taking them, but to the inability of the Northlight computer to find them in a speedy enough manner- I'll post them on a more cooperative day.

We started out on a roll by blowing up all of our low temp cone packs for our first firing by not having them quite dry enough for the speed of the kiln- this meant stopping and cooling the kiln, unbricking the door, vacuuming out the cone pack dust and pieces, re-bricking the door...and getting up even earlier the next day to start it again (4:45 am as opposed to 5:45 am- a kiln, an airplane flight or driving to Penland are the only things that will get me out of bed at that ungodly hour). Once we finally got it going, our first firing, in Ginn-Ginn the new salt kiln, was smooth sailing (none of the gas-leaks, scary-looking door, and other fun that went with firing Ol' Rusty), though when the pots came out, they were not as heavily orange-peeled in texture as Phil had hoped for- and that was with 29 lbs of salt (new kiln!)!

That fiasco with the cone packs meant that the day of rest and sleep, that we had planned to have between firing the salt kiln and firing the wood kiln, evaporated- so instead I slept in until lunch on the first day of the firing (not counting the brief kindling from the night before, an 8 am start time). this still meant that from lunch Thursday, up until lunch Friday when the wood kiln went off, I had a grand total of one hour of sleep in 24 hours...But then I slept most of the afternoon once we finished the firing! The firing itself went fairly quickly -we had to hold the kiln back- a big part of this was that the wood was very dry, as no session has fired the wood kiln since last summer. We did have one cool spot in the back chamber that resisted all attempts at evening out- Phil tried his best to even it by packing the firebox full of wood, pushing the damper in and reducing like crazy (it sounded and looked rather like a dragon with the roaring rumble of the fire, and the 8 feet of flame spouting out of the chimney), but in the end we had to leave it, as cone 11 was down, or low, throughout the rest of the kiln. What Phil later said must have been the problem was that the back stack was placed too close to one side, thus creating the cold spot. With the under-fired exception of that one corner, the pots from that firing came out beautifully- not heavily salted (we added no salt beyond the residual on the walls of the second chamber), but nice and toasty, with nice flame movement over the pots.

Our last firing was in Julia's kiln, which was enjoyable for me because it was the first one that I really felt that I had some significant participation in, and (ready, session 6ers?) I Love This Kiln! The pots that came out were beautiful too- nice and warm, with a varied surface; a little more variety than in the first salt...just nice. 12ish lbs of salt. I Love This Kiln!

After all the firings, and indeed throughout the session, I was very impressed by the eagerness of the students to volunteer and contribute to get things done and to clean up in a prompt fashion- no chasing people down, just "what can I do?".

All four of us assistants, plus the wonderful Susan the clay coordinator, spent today cleaning the studio like OCD crazy people- the school is having a lunch for its more generous donors in the clay studio (?!) on auction weekend, so it needed to be spotless. FYI- that floor was mopped 2-3 times by the students on clean-up day, 3 more times by us assistants today, and will be mopped several more times by a volunteer crew tomorrow. All I can say is that the incoming session 6ers have the cleanest floor of the year- enjoy it.

Welcome to the land of crazy people!

2011-08-01T20:05:00.000-05:00

Total insanity up here in the clay studio- yesterday was the last day for wet work that will be fired here, and I was up until 3:30am getting bisques loaded and fired up. We've been loading firm leather hard pots into bisques, with 12-hour pre-heats on the kilns, and the dry boxes have been crammed full to bursting- no exploding pots yet! Today was a madhouse of glazing, and then kiln loading (in Gin-Gin, the new large salt kiln- Ol' Rusty's brand spanky new replacement). Everyone chipped in impressively to clean the trashed studio afterwards (no shortage of volunteers, very Penland), and we're going to celebrate all the good mojo with a root beer float party after evening Slides! (The Paper, Print and Letterpress instructors and assistants are up tonight.) Tomorrow will be firing Ms. Gin-Gin all day; and a glazing frenzy again, for the wood kiln this time. We'll be wood firing Thursday and Friday- come up and watch!

Penland Pictures: Monday, Week One

2011-07-26T00:35:00.001-05:00

Well, here are some Penland pictures for you deprived folk who aren't here.

Coming up the hill this morning on my walk...

...And looking down the hill- this is the view from my room in Craft House.

What with the rain and all the humidity up here, some of the stuff popping out of the ground is pretty wild- these Indian Pipes were growing on the side of the road across from the Gallery.

And here are some pictures of Yunomi, and larger Chawan-style Teabowls (untrimmed) that Phil threw for the demo today:

I'll have pictures of my pots tomorrow, post trimming. In three 'here and there' days of throwing I've already made more pots than I made in two weeks last summer...I haven't counted the total tally of pots, but I've already blown through 65 lbs of clay!

Tomorrow's excitement includes the demo on trimming these bowls, and CLAY SLIDE NIGHT! (Which includes the studio assistants!) If you're in the area: 8:15pm @ Northlight.

First Night

2011-07-25T01:22:00.000-05:00

Okay, no free time for pictures- we'll see about that when it happens...maybe take the camera with me on my morning walk for some misty mountain pictures.

A lovely surprise this weekend: the class description that was given for this session said that we would be doing only gas reduction- this being rather surprising considering that the instructor is Phil Rogers, guru of salt and wood fire. Well, once he got to campus and looked at the kilns the plan rather changed- now we will be doing a wood firing and probably at least two salt firings...no plain gas reduction at all. Y'all have no idea (or maybe you do) how excited this makes me! I'll be even more excited after Tuesday night, once the pressure of having to give a slide presentation of my work to the entire school (plus all the area potters who will probably come up just to see Phil's slides) is removed!

Re-adjusting to throwing stoneware clay is proving interesting- it's not as stretchy as porcelain, and I keep trying to push it too far. (I have not gone over to the dark side, I have not...so don't gloat, Joce.)

Beddy bye time- Yunomi demo tomorrow!

Back on the Hill!

2011-07-22T23:42:00.000-05:00

After a 11+ hour drive it's back to wonderful Penland! A nice pesto, roasted garlic, and olive pizza for dinner at Pizzart in Spruce Pine with Susan the clay coordinator, Cyndi from last Fall's Concentration, and other Penland folk, a little socializing on the clay porch with some old friends (and their new friends from this last session), and then off to bed to catch up on sleep in preparation for a day of studio cleaning tomorrow! I'll have some pix on Sunday, when hopefully I'll have some free time!

Brief Hiatus!

2011-07-11T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hey y'all, there has been, and is going to be, a brief hiatus of the blog as I get ready to head off to Penland later this month where I'll be assisting for Phil Rogers in Session 5. I have pots in two firings that will be out before I go...and I'll try to post the pix after I do the snazzy shots for Studio Assistant Slide Night.

Things That Make Me Happy #392

2011-06-30T14:08:00.001-05:00

Nice foreign sports cars. Today, on my way to work, I walked past a bright cherry red Ferrari...very, very nice, but I still lust in my heart for a black or silver Porsche 911...

New Firing!

2011-06-25T17:46:00.000-05:00

Just finished unloading, and by the looks of it I have a wood/soda kiln... but I really don't! (Just gas reduction and an abundant supply of wood ash, plus some soda ash solution in a spray bottle!) Here are some pictures:

Here's my control pot- same glaze (Malcolm Davis Carbon Trap Shino, + 6% Redart), just with no additional salt, soda, or wood ash

Other Studio Stuff...

The May/June Classes are over, now for a week of cleaning the studio before the next session starts!

The teapot experiment is coming along nicely so far- no cracks, and I slipped it yesterday.

Beautiful!

2011-06-21T13:00:00.001-05:00

There was such a gorgeous sunset last night on the way home that I had to stop and take a picture! I love the velvety green-black of soybean fields when back-lit at twilight. (Sooo Illinoisan!)

Moving Forward...Slowly

2011-06-20T19:00:00.003-05:00

Slow forward motion this last week; all geared up to throw like crazy, but pretty much zippo inspiration on what to do, thus instead I puttered around doing a back burner idea, trimming, and finally getting to a major project that I’d been putting off. The clay classes are winding down for this two month session, this last week it was getting all the students to finish trimming everything in time for the last bisque, classes this coming week will be a glazing extravaganza. The most interesting item of the week happened Thursday evening. One of my co-workers from the Conservation Lab, who just graduated with an MFA and is heading off to be a K-8 art teacher for the summer, came over to the pottery for a two hour crash course in beginner ceramics and how to fire an electric kiln. Doing handbuilding was rather fun, my friend did very well, especially on slab work and pinch pots, though the coil pots were a little sad (mine included- that was always a weak spot) if acceptable- the technique was good...the aesthetics, not so much. As for Electric Kilns 101, I think she was rather intimidated- from the ‘it’s big/hot/expensive and I don’t want to break it/melt it/burn the school down’ view point. Somehow I have the feeling that she’ll be calling for help if or when she has to fire one!

Major Project du Jour

A few (okay, I’ll be honest, over 6) months ago I inherited this very lightly used raku kiln from one of my studiomates who, after a string of disasters, decided that 20” raku platters were no longer in his future. Not that I have a desire to take up raku again in any serious way, but there’s no way that I’m passing up some free kaowool. Well, after several months of cold, ice, wind and snow, it warmed up, and Michael started making noises about wanting the kiln out front to disappear. This last Saturday I finally got around to deconstructing it for transport. (This photo is from halfway through deconstruction, after snipping out all the support wires, and just before flipping it and peeling out the kaowool.) Despite knowing better, I still stupidly wore short sleeves while doing this job, and afterward had a rather prickly afternoon. Should have worn long sleeves and brought a change of clothes. Idiot.

While I was having lunch on Friday I was trying to think and sketch through my case of potter’s block, when I started thinking about alternative solutions to a design problem that I’ve had floating around in my head since December or so; namely, how could I transpose the soft, figurative, Venus-like cup form that I’ve been working with lately into a teapot. Well, I finally came up with the sketch on the right. The body, lid and spout were the easy parts- the handle, however was far more tricky. For weight and balance considerations I knew that it had to be hollow-built, but slab building in this wonderfully crack-prone and troublesome porcelain is something to be avoided if at all possible. Nevertheless, I wanted sharp edges, so that’s what I did. (Spray, wrap up for a week, and sloooow dry, knock on wood.) After finishing the handle, I realized that the totally rounded spout made the pot look un-balanced, resulting in that getting some tweaking. So, maybe not totally zippo inspiration, but maybe more helpful if it had occurred a tetch earlier... Oh well, this teapot design will give me something to work on next Fri./Sat.. ...Besides washing the floor, that is!

Ah, The Joys of a Liquid Diet...

2011-06-14T18:15:00.000-05:00

...And before you start leaping to conclusions, the circumstances requiring the liquid diet (namely the other two wisdom teeth) preclude the consumption of bourbon and other alcoholic treats! Thus we (painfully) arrive at the soup du jour:

(Note the pureed version I'm getting, tastefully packaged!)

Gazpacho

1 Red Onion, minced

2 large Sweet Red Peppers, minced (Not Bell Peppers. The ones I used are mild, with just a small amount of heat.)

1 Tbs Cilantro, minced

1 Cucumber, peeled and finely diced

8-9 large fresh Roma tomatoes, pureed

Juice of three Limes (I used two regular Limes, and two Key Limes, which are sweeter.)

1 large Avocado, diced

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir well and chill before serving. Serves 4-6, depending on serving size.

My mom noted that it was even more phenomenal when topped with Minneola segments (Tangerine-like citrus), and a little lemon juice.

Cream of Asparagus for dinner...

More Therapy...

2011-06-10T17:51:00.000-05:00

This was Wednesday night’s baking therapy, A.K.A. breakfasts for the rest of the week. It’s really too hot to bake (94 degrees!), but that’s what exhaust fans were invented for! (When it’s this hot I really should pre-chill the flour, so as to keep the butter cool until it hits the oven- keeping the butter cold keeps the scones tender and not tough and doughy.)

Papaya Almond Scones

2 C. Flour

¼ C. Sugar

1 ½ Tsp. Baking Powder

¼ Tsp. Cinnamon

¼ Tsp Nutmeg (With a pinch of Mace included, I use ground nutmeg with the aril [mace] left on it.)

4 Tbs. Cold Butter

2/3 C. Dried Papaya chunks

½ C. Almonds, chopped

1 Egg

6 oz. tub Whole Milk Cream-Top Vanilla Yogurt

Pre-heat your oven to 350F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and spices together in a bowl, then cut or rub in the butter until like oatmeal. Mix in the papaya and almonds. Make a well in the center and beat together the egg and the yogurt before stirring in the dry ingredients, blending everything just shy of mixed. Turn the dough out on the counter and knead very briefly, just to finish mixing and even the consistency. Shape into an 8” disk, and then cut with a sharp knife into eight wedges. Place the scones 1’’ apart on a cookie sheet covered with baking parchment and put in the hot oven to bake for 30 minutes, or until set and just browning. Makes 8.

Today at the pottery- loading the kiln...probably a couple weeks before this one gets fired though... Also lately I've been mentally gearing up for two sessions at Penland in the next 6 months, and thinking about ideas and forms that I will want to work on while I'm there: for one thing, I can't wait to see what these new forms I've been doing will look like with some flashing slip and some salt and soda, but beyond that I'll be interested to see how the big thin bowls will stand up to the warping potential of soda, I'll try to make thin bottles consistently, stretch myself to work bigger, but not clunkier, and to see if I have indeed gone over to the dark side of porcelain (I don't think I have totally done so, so don't start gloating yet, Joce.)

Things that make me happy #391

2011-06-06T12:59:00.000-05:00

Not something silly, but serious this time: On June first civil unions became a legal option in Illinois, a long time coming. Congratulations to my friend Tedra who was finally able to tie the legal knot with her partner Suzanne, many years after their wedding!

The Rest of the Metals, And Then Some Therapy...

2011-06-04T17:32:00.000-05:00

Here’s the last of the metals from this spring...

These are two separate Parkland Student Art Show entries; the necklace and earring are from this year’s show, the pin is from last year. I made the pin last spring, with the intent of making earrings and a chain of leaves and pearls at some future date, when I had more metal and some definite design ideas...so onto the back burner. Well, last summer I lucked out at a garage sale and cleared about 20+ ounces of Sterling (plus some tools and gem rough) for $20 from some people who had no idea what they were selling (sterling was around $14/oz at the time, so it was worth over $300 for the metal alone). This really freed me from the materials standpoint this past semester, and let me play. After much thought, this spring I decided to ditch my original leaf-chain idea in favor of a simple chain with a massive leafy focal point. While I was finishing the two branch forms I was thinking about how I was going to put them together after casting, (they were too big to fit in one casting flask joined) when I realized that this piece needed a central stone, which the branches would then frame. After rooting around in my rock box, I found that one of the wild horse jaspers I had was the perfect shape, and had very appropriate coloration...et voila!

This piece is an extension of an idea- from the single magnolia pin I did earlier in the semester. This piece was commissioned by someone who wanted a larger pin with multiple flowers, but in the same spirit as the earlier pin.

This last piece is my final stone-setting sample project with Robert- channel setting. Having done this little toy, I now have several ideas for elaborate ribbon patterned pins and necklaces to be done in the future- with lots of cubic zirconia! The rocks in this are as follows: the main stone is a green amethyst, the smaller channel set ones are simulated alexandrite.

As my friend Jo Zalea has pointed out many times, baking is very therapeutic. (Her strand convenor at Durham U. asks questions about her mental state whenever she brings in goodies!) My personal favorite form of baking therapy is scones, though other quick breads will do in a pinch. Here is my all-time favorite scone recipe, White Chocolate Apricot Walnut Scones, followed by Thursday’s baking experiment.

White Chocolate Apricot Walnut Scones

2 C. Flour

3 Tbs. Sugar

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

4 Tbs. Cold Butter

8 oz. White Chocolate, coarsely chopped (Moonstruck Chocolatier’s white chocolate is best, Baker’s is acceptable- you need one with a stronger flavor than Ghirardelli or any of the chips commonly available, which are too sugary.)

14 Dried Apricots, coarsely chopped

½ C. Walnuts, chopped

1 Egg

6 oz. tub Brown Cow Cream-Top Vanilla Yogurt (If you can’t get Brown Cow, which is less acidic than other brands, at least be sure to get a whole milk vanilla yogurt: the cream provides some of the fat in the recipe, and the vanilla adds flavor.)

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a bowl, then cut or rub in the butter until like oatmeal. Mix in the white chocolate, apricots and walnuts. Make a well in the center and beat together the egg and the yogurt before stirring in the dry ingredients, blending everything just shy of mixed. (Add a little milk or cream if the dough seems too dry, you want to be able to handle it without it being sticky, but it shouldn’t be crumbly.) Turn the dough out on the counter and knead very briefly, just to finish mixing and even the consistency. Shape into a 9” disk, and then cut with a sharp knife into eight wedges. Place the scones 1’’ apart on a cookie sheet covered with baking parchment and put in the hot oven to bake for 15-20 minutes, or until set and just browning. Makes 8.

Almond Cornbread

This is a standard cornbread with a whisper of sweetness and almond flavor, good with tea or breakfast. If you like things sweet, then double the sugar; if you like things richer, then double the butter; if you like things decadent, then do both...and take up jogging. I make my own millet flour and grind the almonds with my handy-dandy coffee mill, which is reserved for everything but coffee.

I C. Millet Flour

¾ C. Fine-Grind Cornmeal

¼ C. (Chinese) Dried Almonds, ground (I found these at Am-Ko, one of the oriental groceries here in C-U. They’re sold blanched, are about the size and shape of the fingernail on your index finger, are more brittle than regular almonds, and taste like the almond flavor in the almond cookies you get at Chinese restaurants.)

2 Tsp. Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

¼ C. Sugar

1/8 Tsp. Almond Extract

3 Eggs

3 Tbs Butter, melted

1/3 C. Milk

Pre-heat your oven to 350°F, and butter a 9” pie pan, or a standard loaf pan. In a bowl, combine thoroughly the millet flour, cornmeal, ground almonds, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center, and beat together the eggs and milk, and then drizzle in the melted butter while continuing to beat. Once the liquids are well blended, quickly mix in the dry ingredients until just smooth. Pour the batter into the buttered pan and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until set and just browning. Once you remove the pan from the oven, flip it over and set it on the counter to cool for 10-15 minutes, keeping it elevated by setting the rim on two other pots, or do as I did, and use two butter knives. The idea is to allow the bread to retain some of the moisture that would otherwise be let off as steam, not to mention that this steaming action further softens the cornmeal, and helps to loosen the bread from the pan for easier removal when serving.

This I what I'll be doing for my studio time for the rest of the day... glazing!

Things that make me happy #389 and 390

2011-05-25T12:25:00.000-05:00

#389
When life imitates comic books: yesterday I was awoken in the morning by the sound of two squirrels beating the tar out of each other on the ridge of the living room roof (which is rather steeply canted, I should state). I got to the window in time to see the two squirrels wrapped together in a little squirrel ball, biting, scratching, and lashing away at each other with their tails, go rolling down the roof, off the eaves and smacking on the ground below, where they continued to beat the tar out of each other. All I could think was "Calvin and Hobbes".

#390
Driving home on a warm night with the sunroof and the windows open, playing the soundtrack to "the Commitments"... and singing along, of course!

And Now For Something Completely Different

2011-05-17T17:51:00.000-05:00

The last few weeks have been decidedly Metals-centric (and there will be one last post with the pictures of the remaining pieces, later this week) But I haven’t totally neglected clay- I’ve just neglected to bring the camera with me to the pottery! So...

Two weeks ago:

Tumblers galore! With a little less than two hours left on Friday I decided to try throwing some smaller, and slightly differently balanced, versions of those black slip/shino tumblers from last month (that would be the 2nd and 3rd boards in from the right). When I threw this batch I weighed out all the clay equally, but eyeballed the rest...while I was cleaning up, Michael said “you should really try throwing thirty or forty consecutively, and not just weigh them, but measure bottom thickness, opening diameter, etc. for each one, and get a feel for the rhythm of working for a long time on the same form.” Well, come Saturday I wedged up 36 balls of clay (our boards hold nine cups) and got down to work. Not totally continuous (break for lunch and frequent pauses to help an open studio attendee) but I did definitely get the experience: the first couple boards were fun, the third was a little harder, especially towards the end...after which I had to stop and do some yoga to stretch my back out...and that last board was something that I had to force myself to do. All this showed in the cups, too: the first were a little stockier, they peaked in evenness and grace of form from the second board to three-quarters of the way through the third...and that last board looks belabored- the individual cups are good, but there’s less continuity between them. But...54 cups in a total of 6 hours of actual throwing time is pretty darn good- now I just have to do all the slip work on them!

Last weekend:

Saturday: Weight and size success record- I’ve centered 25 lbs before, but never have actually produced anything successful that weight, and never anything of this size: this baby's 20 lbs, 20 inches in diameter. Let me just say right here that I LOVE my heat gun (for those of you who weren’t already aware): after bringing up the walls on this charmer I dried it some, did one pass with a rib to bring it out, dried it more, ribbed it again, dried, ribbed, dried, ribbed, cont’d ad infinitum, never doing more than one pass between dryings...let me just say here that this was after a Friday in which I toasted several of these 20lb stinkers due to being overly impatient and trying to go too far too fast too wet, and having left the studio feeling like wet spaghetti. Title this one “Learning From Past Mistakes”. Needless to say this one is going to be babied through a very, very slow drying!

Note from the next day... Trimmed that big bowl beautifully, nice and even and balanced...picked it up and thought "this is so lovely and light too"...and that instant had it fold in half and fall on the floor! Sigh, title the next one "Really Learning From Past Mistakes Now".

(Insert Large Sigh Here)

2011-05-11T09:59:00.000-05:00

I could go grandiose and say “an era has ended”, but one really has: Robert Laible is now retiring from teaching after 21 years as the night metals instructor at Parkland. For those of us privileged to have taken his classes they have been an institution, for Robert’s knowledge and gift for explaining things, and for the atmosphere of comraderie that he has created and encouraged. As I have mentioned in previous posts, the man is an extremely gifted metalsmith and jeweler, and a stone-setting genius, but more than that he’s a brilliant teacher. In all the classes I’ve taken in various places I’ve never seen such total respect and affection for an instructor from all their students: Robert’s class may have seemed like near chaos at times, but the trust and respect we all have for him created order- and even when several people are (were) simultaneously yelling “Rooooberrrrt!!!!”, he always got to everyone, and made you feel that you had his undivided attention while you had him. Even when it was late and tempers were fraying, he still kept the mood upbeat and fun (The 80’ British Gold as a soundtrack helped...not so much the B-52’s- I really didn’t need the lyrics to “Love Shack” permanently imprinted on my brain...none of us did.), though as any of his students would attest, his favorite bon mot “are you done yet”, perfectly timed for moments of supreme frustration, has frequently made even the most pacifist students want to slug him. He’s gone far, far beyond what your average instructor would do just on time alone: even though the listed hours for the class were always 7:00 – 9:45pm, Mondays and Wednesdays, in actuality they were 4:30 – 10:30 on Mondays and 5:30 – 10:30 on Wednesdays, but also on so many occasions he (and his wife Denise) have juggled their home and work schedules to let students get that one last casting in, to come in really early to allow extra time to finish that last piece for the student show, and (back in the day before Parkland Security cracked down on it) allowed students to stay and work clear through the night (that would be you, John).

But also one of the things that I value most is his emphasis on the importance of thoroughness and attention to detail: to learn how to do a technique / make something manually the “hard” way before using power tools, or ordering a component, etc, not just to allow greater control, but also to give an appreciation for and understanding of process and craftsmanship...and the insistence on doing things precisely right -down to that last .25mm- yet also knowing when to step back and realize that humans aren’t machines!

Oh yes, and he can spot firescale at 50 paces, with his back turned, in the dark. (And probably with his eyes closed too.)

Now for the party...

For a retirement gift for Robert, my benchmate and friend Tedra Ashley, a bookbinder by trade, and I, organized and made this little class gift for Robert:

Photos: Tedra Ashley

The box and hammer rest is Tedra’s work (check out her other goodies at Fineblankbooks.com), the book is mine (putting that day job in book conservation to use). The book contains notes of appreciation and thanks from current and former students, and the hammer is a lovely little toy that we know he’ll use.

Now one of our metals finals would never be complete without the obligatory bench load of sugary sweet and deadly chocolatey rich desserts, and this semester was no exception. A few selections include: John’s Strawberry Crisp, Tedra’s Chocolate Chili Rum Soufflé, Hanna and Denise’s (Robert’s daughter and wife) Cherry Pie, plus the usual assortment of cookies and assorted other sweet stuff. Erin should be commended for being a voice of sanity, and contributing Cheesy Potatoes, and ham and cheese sandwiches to cut the sugar. My own contribution was this:

Raspberry White Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:

1 cup crushed Digestive Biscuits (Carr’s Whole Wheat Biscuits would be an acceptable substitute.)

3 tbs Sugar

3 tbs melted Butter

Mix together the crumbs and the sugar, then mix in the melted butter and blend well. Cut an 9” circle of baking parchment and place in the bottom of an 9” springform pan (this allows for easy removal later), then evenly press the crumb mixture in on top of the parchment.

Filling:

3 8oz packages of Cream Cheese, softened

¾ cup Sugar

8oz White Chocolate, melted

3 Eggs

Cream together the cream cheese and the sugar until well blended, then beat in the chocolate a spoonful at a time (now taste it- good, eh?) then beat in the eggs. Pour over the crust and bake at 325° F for 55 minutes, until almost set at the center. Allow to cool.

Topping:

¾ cup Raspberries

1/3 cup Sugar

1 tbs Flour

Simmer the fruit and sugar, stirring frequently, until the berries have disintegrated. Slowly add the flour to the berries, and continue simmering, stirring constantly, until it thickens. Set aside to cool, just until lukewarm.

Decorations:

Melted White Chocolate

Raspberries

Assembly:

To make the outer border, dip the base of each raspberry in melted chocolate before placing on the cake. Once all the berries are positioned, allow the chocolate to harden for a few minutes. Once the chocolate has hardened, spoon on the raspberry topping and carefully spread to cover. The chocolate leaves are made by piping melted chocolate onto baking parchment that is wrapped around a cooler ice pack, and then once set (almost instant) popping them off with a butter knife to position on the cake.

Refrigerate before serving.

Oh. My. Goodness.

Robert, we’ll miss you on Monday and Wednesday nights...but you won’t have a chance to miss us at the rate we’ll be lurking around your shop.

Things that make me happy #388

2011-05-03T13:02:00.000-05:00

Recently seen on a garbage truck in town: a very well crafted hood ornament in the shape of a seated pig with wings, spray painted to look like chrome.

Metals...No, Wax, and Finally Some Food

2011-05-02T18:23:00.000-05:00

I finally finished the wax for that 3-Magnolia pin/pendant commission, and here’s a process picture I took just before attaching the sprues and investing it in plaster for casting.

One of the perks of making things is that they frequently look just as interesting while in process as they do when they’re finished. On this type of project for instance, the sculpted pink sheet wax has an ethereal semi-transparent quality through which you can see the layers of petals overlap, and then later on, just after I’ve cast it in silver, cleaned, annealed and then quenched it, the petals will be flushed with the dark rose pink glass of the flux that I painted on before annealing (to prevent firescale). Just as a note, this is also one of the many reasons I like Clary Illian’s A Potter’s Workbook- because nearly all of the photo illustrations are of greenware, thus removing the distraction of glaze and leaving you with the form itself.

And now for some food, as it has occurred to me that I’ve rather neglected the 350° end of things...though neither of these dishes are baked. If you want more foodie fun, (plus postcards of life as a grad student in England), check out my friend Jo Zalea’s blog Not an Everyday Circumstance.

I’m not sure quite what to call this dish, I suppose it is a variant of chicken fricassee, by technique, but what I loosely based it on was the “Cornish Hens Shoemaker-Style” from the Silver Palate New Basics Cookbook that McKenzie Smith made while I was in Florida last month.

In a large frying pan, sauté in 1 tbs. butter:

2 cloves Garlic, minced

1 med. Yellow Onion, ¼ inch dice

8 oz Mushrooms, diced

2 med. Carrots, sliced

2 tsp dried Marjoram

pinch of Cinnamon

pinch of powdered Savory

½ tsp dried Thyme

Remove the veggies from the pan when the carrots are just starting to soften, and set aside.

Dice 1 lb Chicken Breast into 1-inch cubes, and toss in ½ cup flour, then brown in the frying pan with 1 tbs butter.

Once the chicken pieces are browned on all sides, return the veggies to the pot and add 1 to 1 ¼ cups of Chardonnay. Simmer, covered, over low heat, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are tender (about 8 – 10 minutes). Serves 3-4

This would be really good with steamed asparagus... Which leads me into the next recipe, not to be served at the same meal, for reasons which will soon become apparent:

Heart-Attack-In-A-Bowl Cream of Asparagus Soup

I make this recipe once or twice a year, only in peak asparagus season. Whether the heart attack comes only from how good the soup is, or the calories from fat involved is debatable, and would depend on one’s constitution and genetics. The seriously sinful version can be made by using heavy cream instead of half and half.

1 ½ lbs Asparagus

Water

1 pint Half & Half (or Heavy Cream)

1-2 tbs unsalted Butter

Salt to taste

Wash the asparagus, remove and discard the bottom inch or so if they’re store bought and not from your garden, then snap off the tips and set them aside. Snap the stalks into 1-inch pieces and put them in a saucepan with just enough water to cover, and simmer, covered, until tender. Remove the stalks from the pan when done, and add the tips to the pot to simmer, also until tender. While the tips are simmering, purée the stalks with the half & half or cream, and set aside. Once the tips are done, remove them from the cooking water and set aside. Melt the butter into the cooking water, then whisk in the asparagus purée. Then chop up the reserved tips and add them as well. Continue lightly whisking the soup over low heat until just heated through, then add salt to taste, if you wish, and serve. This soup is best accompanied by slices of a good crusty baguette, from Mirabelle if you’re in C-U, and maybe a nice brie or camembert with a light, dry, white wine. Serves 2-3

Metals Again

2011-04-28T13:25:00.000-05:00

Winding down to the finish in Metals class, I finished that earring commission tonight: another pair of snowdrops...

...and a pair of violets so cute I want to keep them myself!

I also have the wax model of the channel setting pendant project ready to cast, and I kicked some serious butt on the magnolia pin commission- two flowers down, one more flower and the support structure/branch to go... Tomorrow the rest of the magnolia pin, and spruing up the channel set pendant in preparation for casting. For the record, that’s about twelve hours of work, and 1 extra-dark and ginger chocolate bar on what I’ve finished so far! Let me also observe here that Robert and his wife Denise did a decent amount of logistics juggling to enable casting these earrings this last Monday- THEY ARE WONDERFUL!!!! (April 28^th, 1:30 am)

Note from the next day- magnolia wax finished, down another half a chocolate bar!

Metals Spring 2011

2011-04-25T09:51:00.000-05:00

I’ll start out by saying that this is an incomplete catalog from the standpoint that it’s not over yet... and that my major headache from the first couple months of the semester is currently in the Parkland Student Art Show, so I’ll be posting pictures of that in a couple weeks, but here are the rest:

These lovely charmers are aquamarine prong set in silver- the design is based on flower anthers, and the findings are a special pinch finding I invented for my as yet un-pierced ears! The impetus behind this project is the fact that the wonderful Robert, my metals instructor, and stone-setter extraordinaire, will be retiring from teaching at the end of this semester, and thus I want to cover all (well, most of) the setting techniques that I have not yet attempted. Fabricated wire basket prong setting, check... next up, channel setting!

These snowdrops are me branching out with a hot wax/wax sheet sculpting technique I first tried last spring, only then I was just doing leaves and twigs...

...and this is really taking it to the next level. I’m particularly proud of this saucer magnolia pin as it took me just over a week of classes to complete, and it also contains my first use of gold in any of my work. (Just gold leaf, and if gold stays over $1500 per ounce, leaf may well be all I get around to using for quite some time!)

For the remaining two and a half-ish weeks the menu includes finishing that channel setting project, finishing two pairs of those sculpted wax earrings (violets and another pair of snowdrops), on commission, and doing another magnolia pin, this one with three flowers, also on commission. That’s about three, maybe four, extra dark and ginger chocolate bars worth of work to do...

Things that make me happy #387

2011-04-20T12:21:00.000-05:00

Okay, I'm picking an arbitrary number here, there are a lot of quirky things that make me happy- such as the sign I saw last year around graduation time hanging off of an apartment building on campus that said "Graduation is for Quitters"... Well, my latest is 50-something guys wearing mismatched print hawaiian shirts and shorts running around campus trying to look like frat boys complete with popped collars, flip flops, and that self-conscious saunter-combined-with-looking-around-to-gauge-the-reaction-you're-getting-while-simultaneously-trying-to-look-like-you-don't-care. Delicious!

I Think I’m Back in Love With Shino

2011-04-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

It’s been so long... I liked it back at Parkland, but didn’t know enough about it to really play with it, then I took that first Penland Concentration and learned a whole bunch of Shino tricks (speed drying, wax painting, ash sieving, glaze layering, & etc.) ...but also got swept off my feet by soda and salt on flashing slips, to which nothing else stood a chance! Well, after nearly two years in a gas reduction-only studio, during which time I’ve been pining away for some atmosphere by making salt/soda style pots and then trying to make them look good in plain reduction, with varying degrees of success; I’ve finally gone back to Shino to get some variety back in my pots!

For these pots I tried a couple tricks, one from Penland, one of my own conceit. I wanted the pots to look both wood fired, and to have some atmosphere to them, so I started by (with Michael’s permission!) spraying a soda ash solution on the pots in a directional manner, to simulate flame movement. The next step was to spray the pots with what is now my favorite glaze, Malcolm Davis Carbon-Trap Shino, +6% Redart clay. I immediately followed the glazing with a heavy sifting of wood ash on the wet glaze over the area where I had sprayed soda before, trying to duplicate the ash deposit pattern that you get on wood fired pots, and then I sprayed them with more soda for good measure!

This pitcher is so good I have to show both sides! (I’m keeping this one!)

The black/Shino tumblers had black slip (tinted with mason stain) bisqued onto them before glazing. The lightest tumbler has two bands of bare clay with trailed flashing slip that I absolutely soaked with soda solution before waxing them off and then glazing.

Most of these pots, plus some others, will be over at the Artists Against Aids show/sale held two weeks from now: this event will be held in the Blue Line Station at 804 N. Neil Street, Champaign, IL From Friday, April 29^th until Monday, May 2^nd. Artists Against Aids is a local fundraiser for the Greater Community Aids Project, affiliated with United Way. Check out their site here. Come out and see the show, buy some art, and support a good cause!

NCECA 2011: Tampa ... and post NCECA fun!

2011-04-15T20:20:00.000-05:00

Finally we get to the NCECA post... completed at 2am, but oh well.

A terrifically fun time: I went down to Tampa for this year’s NCECA conference (for you non-clay people out there, it’s the clay conference/trade show for North America). It was nice to get out of C-U, which was still holding on to the last gasps of winter despite the calendar -and the flowers in the garden- saying it’s spring; there was snow coming down during the drive to the Indianapolis airport!

On arrival I met up with a couple of Penland buddies from last summer -Sandy Payson and Bobby Kadis- who were my comrades-in-arms over the next few days. Wednesday morning and into the afternoon we went on one of the bus tours to North Tampa where we saw a couple shows of note, and a lot of ghetto Tampa thanks to the out of town bus drivers hired for the conference (not all bad, the architecture was really nice- lots of beautiful Arts and Crafts bungalows with deep shady porches). Back to clay though- the first of the good shows was an exhibit of some of Don Reitz's recent work at the University of Tampa; I was particularly interested in seeing the show, as Michael Schweigmann, back home at Boneyard, had told me that Reitz was someone he really admired. I was really impressed by the sheer level of skill involved in making such massive pieces that still had a sense of refinement and care, and I liked the interaction of the firing with the coarse clay and the ability to see the movement of the flame over such a large 'canvas'. The second really interesting show was the Soldner Society show over at the Heights Waterfront Trolley Barn; I found it fascinating because of the sheer range of type of work shown, yet in reading the notes and essays in memoriam that were written by the contributing artists you saw the same themes over and over in how Soldner contributed to their work, careers and lives- the creative exchange between mentors and mentees can be really fascinating.

I spent Wednesday afternoon looking at the gallery areas at the NCECA Expo- lots of really nice work...such a treat to see and handle (and flip over to look at the feet on!) work that I've been admiring in magazines and books for years! I spent a lot of time drooling my way through all the beautiful functional pots in the the Artstream Gallery (an Airstream *love!* that has been totally retrofitted to be a travelling gallery). But then I wandered over to the the Red Lodge Clay Center booth...and there I found them: Sarah Jaeger pots!

This creamer and sugar set in particular had me seriously considering the logistics of say, not eating for the rest of the trip in order to buy them, but in the end logic won out, and I went away potless...but only after I had spent a good fifteen minutes caressing and photographing them! After all this gushing, do I really need to add that Sarah Jaeger is one of my two favorite clay artists of all time? (And to the other one- you know who you are!) Oh yes, and the Matt Long, Malcolm Davis, Steven Hill, and Elaine Coleman pots were pretty nice too!

Thursday started bright and early with an 8am panel on reduction cooling. I found this really interesting; the premise being that you fire to your final temperature in oxidation (though with an early body reduction), thereby saving fuel, and then after having shut the kiln off for an hour or so, put it into a reduction cycle for a couple hours to achieve that nice toasty color. As I recall, one of the panelists said that the shorter you reduce in a hotter kiln the lighter your color will be, and on the flip side, the longer you reduce in a cooler kiln, the darker the color. Do note that this was particularly in relation to wood kilns, though I imagine that it would probably be true in gas salt/soda too- maybe a little too hard on some glazes for gas reduction?

Pete Pinnell's lecture on the Art of Drinking came next- a historical overview of the development of the drinking vessel, combined with a lot of humor, and a little commentary on the differences of how men and women hold cups (women always try to use too many fingers, and hold cups at a right angle to the arm, and men use too few fingers, and hold the cup as an extension of the arm- raising the elbow to drink). This was followed by a lecture on historical curation of ceramics in a domestic context- from 18th century porcelain rooms in palaces to the expulsion of art from the home thanks to modernism, to the re-entry of ceramic art into the home in more recent times. Thursday night was spent gallery schmoozing in St. Petersburg with Susan Feagin and Simone Travisano from Penland, followed by more schmoozing at the Hyatt bar...

Friday was April Fool's Day -and no, I didn't prank anyone!- but there was a good one pulled that day by someone; a rumor was put out that there were free drinks at the Hyatt bar. You could definitely tell it’s a clay conference; one guy came sprinting past, headed for the Hyatt! Sandy and I headed for St. Pete for the afternoon. We started at St. Pete Clay where there was a good show of Montana clay (more Sarah Jaeger pots!), but the gem of the afternoon was when we headed up to Clearwater to St. Pete College and saw one of the best clay shows I have ever seen, hands down. It was of Islamic influenced ceramics (already a topic that interests me) and not only was full of drop dead gorgeous work, it was well curated too. The participating artists were: Sam Chung, Sanam Emami, Cary Esser, Julia Galloway, Steve Godfrey, Steve Grimmer, Chris Gustin, Andrew Martin, Lorna Meaden, Jeff Oestreich, Aysha Peltz, Allison Reintjes, Steve Roberts, Jane Shellenbarger, Linda Sikora, and Todd Wahlstrom. Linda Sikora is definitely on my workshop want list now!

We raced back to Tampa in time for the suburban wood and soda lecture- this was one of the big NCECA draws for me. It was worth it, basically a very detailed how-to talk on retrofitting an electric kiln into a wood/soda kiln to be fired in a suburban context- plus tips on how to do it without flipping out your neighbors! Lots of ideas, which I may may modify to really play with it- updraft? Cross draft? Chimney placement and base/ firebox alterations... On my way out of the Convention Center I saw the Artstream people celebrating their 10th anniversary with a rather fantastic Artstream cake:

...Then after dinner, and some rather disappointing shows at the University of South Florida, I spent the evening giggling like a schoolgirl with my friend Jocelyn from spring ’09 at Penland...at the Hyatt bar.

Saturday morning was spent packing up, and then Sandy and I went over to the Convention Center to catch the end of the Emerging Artists slideshow, which was followed by the most hilarious closing address (make that 'karaoke') by Robin Hopper... this defies description- Michael Kline says he'll post video on his Sawdust and Dirt blog, so you'll have to wait for that.

After the conference I spent four blessed days up the road in Ridge Manor with my dear friend McKenzie Smith, one of the instructors from my first stint at Penland. McKenzie also had his old friend Jeanette Rakowski (from his residency days at Archie Bray in Montana) staying with him, who turned out to be another kindred spirit of the first degree.

Amongst other things McKenzie took us canoeing twice- Sunday on the Weeki Wachee, and Monday on the Withlacoochee. (Oh glory, what names!) Sunday’s trip took us though one of the most beautiful places I think I’ve ever seen- floating on clear aqua water through a peridot and chrome diopside landscape of maple and cypress trees hung with spanish moss trailing over the water from the riverbanks lined with patches of palmetto and ferns, with glowing islands of reeds, willow, and lilypads. (And four foot long gar cruising the bottom!) The Withlacoochee was a little less scenic, but provided ample compensation in the form of at least ten alligators (two 6-footers!), lots of turtles, and no small biting insects! Now as a side note, I remembered from McKenzie’s slideshow from Spring ’09 Concentration at Penland that his work was inspired by not just by the Ruggles and Rankin pots from back at Penland, but also by the landscape in Florida that he grew up with and still lives in. Well, after having seen for myself, I can really pick out the references- overlapping plant forms are turned into gestural drawings, the water is the same clear aqua color as soda fired oribe glaze...

Unfortunately for anyone hoping for pictures, I was having way too much fun to spoil it by hauling out a camera!

So, after having lived something similar to the movie “Lost in Translation” for a few days, I’m back in the reality land of day-job work, taking and teaching classes, and happily back to the studios... though less happily to the umpteen buckets of reclaim awaiting processing!

I have some experimental shino glazed pieces for the upcoming C-U Artists Against Aids show/sale (more on that in the next post!) that I glazed before leaving for NCECA and are now out of the kiln, there also some new metals pieces finished in the last month... but that’s for the next post, after I photo-doc them, and get those pots turned in by Sunday! In the meantime, if you’re in this neck of the woods, The Annual Parkland College Juried Student Art Exhibition is up in the Parkland Art Gallery until the beginning of May, so go check it out- there’s a necklace/earrings set of mine on display, amongst lots of other good art!

Home from NCECA...

2011-04-14T17:09:00.000-05:00

...And still working on the writeup! Between the whirlwind of the convention, the post-convention "glazed" feeling (sorry, couldn't resist!) and the four fabulous days wandering around greater Ridge Manor, Florida in the company of the inimitable McKenzie Smith, and his occasional partner in crime and clay, Jeanette Rakowski, I'm still a little dazed...

First Post!

2011-03-28T16:22:00.000-05:00

Hi! I’m Sarah. I’m a functional potter and jeweler in East Central Illinois who’s just getting started as a professional craft artist. This blog is a way for me to develop a web presence, and to give all my claymates, benchmates, and fellow Penland junkies from over the years a way to see what I’m up to.

I’ve been working in clay and metals since 2003 and 2004 respectively when I started taking classes in both media at Parkland College in Champaign, IL:

In clay at Parkland I mostly worked with cone 10 gas reduction fired stoneware, though I also experimented with low fire earthenware and raku firing (I particularly liked the raku, as I could actively take part in those firings). I also saw my first salt and soda fired pots at the Parkland Art Gallery’s spring ’08 Ceramics Biennial Invitational- as I was working for the gallery at the time, I actually had the opportunity to handle the work when unpacking and packing the show, and thus was able to experience it tactilely as well. In 2009 I took my first clay class at Penland School of Craft, the 8-week Spring Concentration on wood, soda, and salt firing with McKenzie Smith and Gregory Hamilton Miller. This class was something of a revelation, which, as I gather, first experiences with Penland very generally are...but this was also my first chance to really participate in firings in a major way, and having had no prior experience with atmosphere firing, I had no pre-formed expectations; thus I was amazed that it was possible to have something of the elements of variety, spontaneity, and surprise that I liked so much in raku firing, available to me in a high fire, very functional form. Since that first Concentration I have been back on the hill a few times (with more yet to come!) to learn even more about clay and atmosphere firing. When I’m not at Penland, I’m at Boneyard Pottery back in Champaign, where I’m the studio assistant for Michael Schweigmann, and I also teach beginning to intermediate level pottery classes. My own work at Boneyard is restricted to porcelain fired to cone 10 in gas reduction, though I lust for a soda kiln...and spend much of my time practicing forms to try out the next time I get my hands on one!

In metals I’m still at Parkland, where I have had the good fortune to work during most of my time there with a truly gifted instructor, Robert Laible. If there is anything that can be done to metal (especially involving stone-setting) that he can’t do, and do well, I’d be surprised (bow to Sensei!) During umpteen semesters of independent study metals classes I’ve been working in sterling silver using casting and fabrication methods to make nature inspired forms involving varying degrees of realism: plants and insects are favorite sources (a gardening mother, and entomologist father...), and I frequently use bezel and prong setting techniques to add gemstones to my work.

My philosophy on craft is similar to that of the Arts and Crafts movement of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries which revolted against the mass-produced products and lifestyle brought on by the industrial revolution. I believe that the use of handmade objects in everyday life provides an important personal connection between maker and user, and that exposure to intellectually and aesthetically stimulating surroundings deepens and broadens your personality, your taste, and the way you respond to life. I want my work to be functional (wearable, useable) art that will be used in everyday life- not stored away, put on display, or kept at a distance in a museum or gallery, but experienced on a subconscious as well as conscious plane (i.e. morning coffee out of a handmade clay cup vs. a mass produced plastic or cast ceramic mug from the store).