Dismal Dungeon Needs Help

After working another art sale last week and sending out a few out-of-state orders, I have decided I will devote some time to improving the dungeon, starting with the walls. The stone foundation of our 1890 home is solid, but the mortar holding them together is not. Moisture and sediment have found their way through the cracks.

I've already done much of the prep work and tomorrow I plan to patch the gaps and prime the walls. I want to build shelves along one wall to hold my finished pots. This wall stands across from my wheel, just far enough that wet clay will not get flung onto the pots, but close enough that they can serve as reference and inspiration. Visualizing what the studio will look like and how I can improve the layout makes this dirty job worthwhile.

Not only has this task become a structural necessity, but it was a pretty dingy workspace to be in. And I believe one's environment profoundly affects their state of mind. So, if a little mortar and attention can enhance my studio, I should be a right jolly old soul by Christmas.

Cyber Monday Sale

In an attempt to keep up with the rest of the cyber world today, I wanted to offer up something for anyone who was kind enough to check out my site. Here is a coupon to use for purchases made through Etsy.com, good only this week: CYLU15

Use this coupon code to save 15% on any of the items for sale at 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/kickedandthrown

Thanks for your support and happy shopping!

Glazed Over

I have been spending most of my time in the studio these past two weeks glazing my pots. I've felt more like a painter than a potter. But paints and glazes are very different. Paints, first of all, are up front about their color, while most stains and glazes are far from being "WYSIWYG", or "what you see is what you get." Also, brushing onto clay is difficult because it is rough and textured from throw lines made on the wheel. Also, the thrown pots are round and not flat like a canvas which can warp your intentions. It takes practice and patience to glaze a pot satisfactorily. 

I have been experimenting with combining my stains and seeing how they contrast with each other and the glazes I have. The walnut against the mulberry, the clear against the black; it is like Christmas every time I go down to open up the kiln. And sometimes it is more like the year my parents were especially low on funds - a big let down. The twilight blue glaze is hit or miss. I've tried to combine it with a cobalt glaze I have, and it ended up dripping all over the shelf. I've had glazes cover and hide the stains underneath.

I am working on fixing these problems by taking notes of what I have done on each piece. Depending on how I apply the glaze, (I can brush it on or dip them), how many coats, and its consistency, I end up with quite a range of results. This is tedious work but has proven to be worthwhile. I have been able to fine tune some of my techniques and am happier with the latest pots.

Unique Character

The process of mastering something is endless. There is always another level of understanding. With pottery, the first several layers deal with technical skills. It takes countless hours at the wheel to get anything that is well made. And then there is beauty. Why does that one mug grab my attention more than the others on the shelf? Even though we work toward perfection, I think the actual answer to this question is that a pot is best when it is perfectly imperfect. 

I often think of the Muslim practice to deliberately create a flaw in their prayer rugs to avoid becoming too proud. But, what if they didn't? Besides ensuring humility, I think it adds interest and dimension to the rug. That touch of asymmetry, that one place that subtly catches the eye draws you in. I think it makes the rug more beautiful. 

A machine can make incredibly precise pieces. A tea cup made in a factory is exactly round, impeccably glazed, and without a single blemish. But it is missing something. The mark of the human's hand. I think as we strive for perfection in our work, it is possible to also miss the point. The energy and attention that goes into a hand-made item gives it a richness that is unique.

I am reminded of this on hand-made items I have purchased that have read something along these lines; "It is precisely the inconsistencies in the hand-woven yarn that gives this product it's unique character." Yes, it is.

Close-up and Personal

I've been carving. Not pumpkins yet, but clay luminaries. I had made a little bluebird luminary a few weeks ago and have received a couple orders for more. So yesterday I sat with the thrown forms and looked into the clay, waiting for an image to reveal itself. The shape of the pot inspires the image. A short, stout clay body can't very well hold a giraffe, right? The widest and shortest could carry a squirrel, though, and the rounded one a frog. The oval, a butterfly spreading her wings; and so on.

I have taken many photographs of small critters through the years. In the old days, the poor images were blurry and pathetic. The endless rolls of film that included inevitable shots of unrecognizable macros became food for amusement. I continued to push the limits of the cheap cameras I had. Finally was able to buy a good camera. This camera can handle my instinct for getting close up and personal with the world. Now I can actually capture the detail of the monarch's proboscis! I can peer into the little frog's face and detect a grin. These are the images I reference for my pots. Hopefully some of the joy I feel when looking at them is transferred onto the pots, and eventually to others.

The Grind

I like to make things, not clean them up. Where's the fun in that? The problem is that clay is messy. When clay dries, it creates a lot of dust. Dusty footprints were being tracked from the studio into the kitchen, (my kids like to poke around the studio barefoot). My bucket of scrap clay is overflowing and needs to be re-worked. Not to mention, the spiders have been having a hay day (or maybe a spinning group has formed).  Point is, the dungeon needs scouring and tending to.

Progress is being made. I've given the floor a good mopping. I've swept away the cob webs. And, I've gotten down and dirty with the angle grinder. The kiln shelves had been terribly neglected, allowed to gather drops of glaze and residue from many firings. Glaze becomes glass at the temperatures to which I fire and it takes some serious grinding to get to the bottom of it. This is supposed to be avoided with a layer of kiln wash brushed onto each shelf, but mine wasn't applied properly, (the problem was either that the brush I used was leaching into the wash, or that I had the wrong proportions of kaolin to alumina.) This time I hope to have better success.

I made a couple of the moorish design boxes last week and am excited to fire them, now that I'm getting the studio back into shape. Creating is so much more fun!

Art Crawl, Wrapped Up

A successful weekend at the Art Crawl! My homeschooling friends were tremendously generous to let me show my work in their studio, and I am grateful to know such kind and creative people. Their Lowertown loft is designed with amazing style and has a view of the river that never stopped impressing me.

I enjoyed talking with many of their friends, neighbors and all the crawlers; hearing where others are from and where their journey is leading. The feedback I received from what people held in their hands, (or didn't), speaks to where I will go from here. For example, I brought the carved moorish-inspired box I had made last Christmas for my husband to use as a moneybox, and put it in the back of the table. I didn't realize folks would circumvent the table to get at it. After the third person lifted the lid and discovered my cash, I emptied it and moved the box to the front of the table. That evening, I got two serious offers to buy it. But I can't sell something that isn't even mine, right? So, I'll be making more carved boxes this week.

The other big draw was the mulberry ("pink") glaze and hot chowder blend. Especially the large bowls with a wide lip. The iridescence at the top and the pooling swirls down on the inside captured a lot of attention. I will be making more of these bowls too.

On the other hand, the candle holders, or luminaries, that I thought would be the hottest seller, are all packed up and still with me. I know some of the reasons why that may be. One woman explained to me that she didn't realize they would open up or understand what they were. My display did not highlight them properly. They were lost between the other pots. Maybe their price was daunting. Their greatest allure is in the dark, with a candle lit inside, illuminating the carved shapes onto the walls. Lessons to be heeded: I need to make signs, the display should have had more vertical dimension, inexpensive pots are easier to sell.

I gathered my remaining pots, all the mental notes from the weekend, and headed home. I am a whole wonderful weekend wiser.

Getting Ready for the St. Paul Art Crawl

My focus these past couple weeks has been to get ready for the Art Crawl next weekend. Because, not only did I NOT have enough pots to sell, I have recently come out of the mom-zone that has been my mantra for the past twelve years. I need to get this blog up and running, my etsy account updated, and finish designing my logo and business cards. This morning I have to decide if there is enough time to get a few more pots thrown, trimmed, fired, glazed, and fired again before Friday. I may try. I have some platters and cups I threw on Friday and trimmed yesterday drying in the dungeon; waiting now for them to dry enough to get bisqued. And then there are the candle holders I carved out last week, and the sample glaze pots from the week before, and maybe ten or fifteen large bowls and vases from the previous week, but it is never enough. Ideally, I would like a sample of everything. We'll just have to see how much actually ends up happening. Off and running now.