MORE PROCESS

   
   A recent visit to our studio by members of  a Charleston WV Presbyterian Church resulted in a custom commission of patens (plates), chalices, small dishes and a large pitcher to be used in their services. I had done similar commissions in the past and was happy to accept -- especially since their deadline coincided with my current schedule. 













I wish time had allowed me to photograph the work in their leather-hard, slightly damp stage (except for the pitcher) since that look appeals to most potters, including myself, more than dry or the bisque stage.











So, upon opening the kiln after about 30 hours of cooling, I was greeted with a perfect set -would have been a fool to want more....

 

                       I kept the look on the restrained side since that is what was needed.

                                                  ( click on any photo for full size)

Kiln opening- Sept. 29

Just a quick note today about the latest firing - these pieces were nice - I was quite happy with the 2 vases and they will be available, along with much more, at the Cincinnati Winterfair during Thanksgiving weekend.

not about clay

of course, this diatribe is about clay but most of all or "like" if you've been educated since the 90's. Like, I'm not happy with my country, "right or wrong". I'm throwing that in since it's a big flag and I apparently like-hey I said it- like the attention.. Yes, that was the point.
  Somalia, Nicaragua, spelling, Iraq, Afghannie, ---you and I live in a world  where the haves step on the bodies of the havenots. If you think the oppressed poor and minorities of the USA are something to think about, and it is, considering. But what we- and that is a "We= the taxpayer" support in this increasingly unjust and uninformed world, please wake up!.

So-in between, I shall insert unrelated self-promoting photos. Lmao as they -like -say.
Of course this not quite true- I use my medium as an outlet for my "view expressione" -may be the label.
Are you aware of how many people died in the US bombing of Fallujah during the height of our assault on Iraq? Probably not.
   30% of  the population of Iraq during our invasion under GW Bush was children under the age of 15. A million died during the bombing and starvation which followed. A lot of "bad guys" was the term used.
So you see- it's not really about clay- although it seems to be involved.

PROCESS

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   Recently a prospective customer asked me if I would make her a tea bowl just like my large decorative bowls with the added thrown feet. I replied that I would love to, but added that it would be quite a bit of work since it takes time to add detailed handles, draw, incise and paint
 my landscapes on both sides. I gave her a price. I told her I would make two of them - she could choose her favorite - and she agreed that was fair.
   So these photos are a  partial progression of the process. Over a period of a couple weeks, I sent her a pictorial series of where the two cups were in their journey. After they were glazed, fired and removed from the kiln I emailed her photos so she could choose one; and so she did - but that was the end of our correspondence. Maybe it was the economy that doomed my sale; maybe there were other reasons. However, I was quite glad I had made them; thinking that they were both very successful pieces that just haven't found their home yet.
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Update- Feb 13, 2011- sold in the Tamarack Gallery during an opening show

New Work

These are a few things from the last firing- in September. I had some pretty spectacular results this time, due to trying to get the bottom of the kiln evened up in temperature with the top- which was hotter. So I ended up with several lost mugs due to the dreaded "meltdown syndrome", as potters sometimes say. Take the bad with the good, as usual.
http://www.gr8clay.etsy.com

Great Books

I've been buying books at antique shops, flea markets, auctions and even at bookstores my entire life- and have decided to let others share them. So--I'm also listing (slowly) my lifetime collection of vintage books. Some of them are quite rare, with many first editions, and I have a book to please about anyone- please check them out:
http://gr8books.etsy.com
including: westerns, sci-fi, children's, art, mystery, boy scout handbooks, philosophy, cooking, etc...

My influences...

Noticing a small landscape framed within one of my larger porcelain pieces, a customer recently asked me what kind of influences I had in my pottery... I answered that there is quite a long list overall, but that the particular vase he referred to was actually an environmental statement veiled behind the play and dance of the reaction of metallic oxides in glazes with each other within the fire... These results are somewhat controlled but total success depends on chance... I am heavily influenced by early Asian pottery, particularly Sung dynasty work; and I appreciate the American arts & craft movement and the European studio art potters of the past century as well... Since becoming an artist-in-residence at Tamarack: The Best Of West Virginia, I have found new influences, such as the incredible mountains and streams in the area... Music is also a constant part of my creative process... As a self-confessed news junkie, political statements find their way into my work, as well, mixed with elements of building structures of the past, present, and future... http://www.tamarackwv.com