Pottery books for Christmas

Ive been enjoying reading one of my excellent Christmas presents:

Functional Pottery: Form and Aesthetic in Pots of Purpose

I've checked out Robin Hopper's videos on form and proportion from the library before, and was happy to see much of the same material expanded upon in this book.

This book covers all kinds of kitchenware, plates, mugs, bowls, goblets, butter dishes, pitchers, teapots. He also covers proportions and esthetics of form, along with praticalities like center of gravity, weight, and making things 'fit' the human body for use.

He also has a broad definition of 'funtional' pottery that isn't just dinner service, but includes decorative ware that serves as objects of beauty and contemplation. 

New blogs and old friends

Google Reader had a suggestion of a blog I might be interested in

http://claycraft.blogspot.com

So I was browsing through and found this post about my long-lost first pottery instructor who moved to the other side of the country:

http://claycraft.blogspot.com/2008/11/jamie-kirkpatrick-display.html

You never really know what or who is going to pop up out of the past on the internet these days. And if you haven't given Google Reader a try yet, check it out. I really don't know how I'd keep all the blogs I follow manageable without it.

Pottery section now on Alltop

For those of you that don't know about it, Alltop.com is a nifty blog aggregator that groups blogs by topic or area of interest. They generally strive to have the most popular blogs as determined by their own ranking criteria.

Within each topic, they list their top blogs, along with the last five post titles in an easy to scan 'magazine' format.  Very easy to lose several hours exploring....

The Great news is  -- They now have a Pottery Topic.

Congrats to Jen Mecca, Emily Murphy, and Bulldog Pottery for making the first cut! You need to go and get yourselves a badge for your blogs here: http://badges.alltop.com/

Go check them out...  the more traffic they get from all us potters the better. It might get them to expand the number of pottery feeds in our section!

What color green are you?

All of this glaze testing going on out in the pottery blogosphere got me thinking about color --

You Are Teal Green

You are a one of a kind, original person. There's no one even close to being like you. Expressive and creative, you have a knack for making the impossible possible. While you are a bit offbeat, you don't scare people away with your quirks. Your warm personality nicely counteracts and strange habits you may have.

What Color Green Are You?

Words of wisdom for artists and other creatives

Here's a little gem I found going through the old posts from the Red Deer College'sArt Blog

The Incomplete Manifesto for Growth:

http://www.brucemaudesign.com/incomplete_manifesto.html

Some of my favorites include 

4) Love your experiments.

6) Capture accidents.

34) Make mistakes faster

 and 

26) Don't enter awards competitions - 'Just dont. It's not good for you'

Check it out for a goldmine of wisdom and sanity.

Red Deer College

I had a pleasant surprize this evening. While doing a semi-regular check on my blog stats, I discovered some traffic coming from a blog I was previously unaware of. 

http://robinlambert.wordpress.com/

Turns out it was from a ceramics blog at Red Deer College in Albert Canada.

I've just started exploring but it's chock full of interesting assignments and projects, as well as links to other online resources for ceramists and artists.

Even though I've been an IT guy for almost 20 years, sometimes this whole internet thing just amazes me.

Dorodango!

I'd come across this a couple years ago and it just resurfaced again last week on one of my favorite shows, MythBusters.

A common childhood pastime in Japan is making hikaru dorodango, or 'shiny mud balls' by taking a ball of mud and squeezing, packing and smoothing it, gradually drying it out, and slowly adding dry dirt to it, and finally rubbing it to a glossy shine.

The results are nothing short of amazing.

Looking at the process, it seems like what they're ending up with is a packed, smooth ball finished with an outer layer of finely burnished clay particles, probably not far from terra sig.

Image from: http://www.kyokyo-u.ac.jp/youkyou/4/english4.htm , which also has instructions for making one of these little gems.

There is additional information and instructions here:

http://www.dorodango.com/about.html

and at Wikipedia here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorodango

Thinking Creatively

Yesterday I read an interesting article on how to think like Leonardo da Vinci. It really resonated with me and got me thinking about how I could apply it to my pottery.

(I wonder if da Vinci was a potter.... he certainly tried about everything else..... )

I especially liked the points about choosing a theme and observing things in terms of that theme for a day. Also examining your beliefs, seeing if there are any that you haven't actually verified through experience. Then looking for two or three other possible points of view. 

I've found in pottery that what works for one person often doesn't for another, so taking someone's word for it on what is possible or not isn't always accurate. I know a lot of people who throw without a sponge. This just doesn't work for me for whatever reason. Some people throw wet, some throw dry, I kinda fall in between, tending toward dry.

So just don't forget to keep experimenting!  That's what makes it fun anyways, and that's why we do this, right?

The full article is here:

http://www.wikihow.com/Think-Like-Leonardo-Da-Vinci

Seasons and Cycles

I just read a fantastic piece about business cycles and how to look at slowdowns over at Molly Gordon's blog here:  Seasons of Success

I lke her point about if you spend your energy resisting the slow times in 'autumn' you'll be too spent to enjoy the 'spring' when it returns.

Back to work!

It's been a while.

It was 7 weeks last Friday since the accident put me out of the studio. Countless doctor visits, pills, hot soaks, and ice packs later I'm slowly approaching functional.

I finally made it back to the studio yesterday to see what I could do. I'd signed up for a class that starts this week, and wanted to find out if I could do it, or have to cancel. I'm happy to report that I was able to handle the 25# block of clay, wedge, center and throw a couple 2# 'test pots', a bottle and a vase form. Today I'm a bit sore, but no worse than general pottery soreness from not throwing for two months on top of the lingering soreness, if that makes any sense.  I'm hoping the extra activity at this point helps work the knots and cramps out.

It's also been 3 months for the Brian Fields Pottery blog.

I've had nearly 400 unique visitors from 20 countries and 42 states. I have to say, I'm happliy surprized. 

Arts in Education

As a followup to my post a while back 'But what's it good for?' the Colorado Council on the Arts has recently put out a study on the importance of the arts in education. The arts being under attack in public schools is hardly a new thing, but I had no idea it was so bad in Colorado, having been cut from $1.2 million in 2002 to $200,000 in 2004.

And ironically, at the same time this is going on, employers are asking for more creative, innovative workers...
http://www.coloarts.org/programs/education/study/index.htm

There's also a great resource at Keep Arts in Schools.
http://www.keepartsinschools.org/

As we go through these tough economic times, we need to remember the importance of the arts to our children who will take us into the future.

Great resource for artists

I discovered this site today during an aimless surfing session. It's for an organization called Self Employment in the Arts

Lots of good info and resources for artists trying to make their way in the business world. They also have conferences several times a year around the country.

Cold weather potters

I read a post over on Deborah Woods' blog about throwing in cold weather and it got me wondering....

She said she uses a crock pot in cold weather to keep her throwing water warm so her hands don't freeze, which I actually think is kinda brilliant.

Are there any others out there that use warm/hot water in cold weather? I guess whats bothering me is that I've actually tried it a few times, sometimes by accident, pushing the lever more toward warm, sometimes on purpose when it was cold. It took me a while to put it together, but I seemed to have a lot of trouble throwing with warm water. When I mentioned it to a more experienced potter, they said 'Oh, yeah, you don't want to throw with warm water, always use cold.'

For you warm water throwers, do you have challenges? Or is it something I'd eventually adjust to? I'd also imagine it's probably dependent on the clay body.

I've got to get back into the studio soon.... WAY too much time to think lately.....

Annual Pullen Art Center Fair

Although I was unable to participate, I was able to get out and see the annual Art and Craft fair at Pullen Art Center on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, sunny and warm with a nice breeze.
There was jewelry, fabric, paintings, prints, beads, paper arts, and of course pottery.

It was good to see everyone from the center, and all their creations. I find it's always a bit disappointing sometimes to see everyone's work in progress and then miss out seeing the finished work when they pick it up and take it home.

I did go inside to rest at one point and overheard many nice comments about the current Circle of Eight exhibit in the lobby gallery. Beautiful work there. I tried to take some pictures before the accident, but the glass fronted cases made it difficult to get decent images. If you're in the Raleigh area, definitely go check it out.

There's a 'participant's work' show in November, so I hope to get a piece or two of my saggar work into that.

Notes on terra sig - part 3

So where am I headed from here?
Being on injured reserve these days, I have plenty of time to think.

What my experiments have shown me is that I definitely want to explore this direction further, maybe take it somewhere no one else has. I've already had some happy accidents with streaking, I'm wondering what else is waiting out there.

For starters, I want to go ahead now and get some proper equipment and materials and see if I can make an even better terra sig using Vince Pitelka's instructions.

I've been using sig on my saggar pieces, and I really like them that way. I'd also like to try it on raked raku, although I've heard mixed results of getting the resist slip to adhere properly to a smoothly burnished pot.

The high shine of low-fired sig is lost when the pot is fired up to stoneware temps, but I want to experiment with that anyway. The more satin finish might be just what I'm looking for.

Notes on terra sig - part 2

In part 1, I talked a little about proportions of clay and water and basic clay prep.

Deflocculants will definitely improve your results over mixing only clay and water. What they do is help separate all the individual clay particles and keep the smaller particles of clay suspended until the larger particles settle out. What to use is a whole other matter.

By far, the most recommended deflocculant for terra sig is sodium silicate. It's very effective, and only a few drops are needed. Other choices include soda ash and tri-sodium phosphate (TSP).
For my first experiments, I used TSP since it was readily available at the local building store as a cleaning agent. Make sure you get actual TSP, and not TSP substitute. I used about a teaspoonful in a gallon or so of slip and it was plenty. Later I used about a tablespoonful in a 3 gallon batch of red sig slip.

So then you mix well - I used a paint mixer attachment on an electric drill for a few minutes.
Depending on the clay you'll usually see an almost oily appearance to the surface when you stop stirring from the fine clay on top of the water.

Then walk away. Let it sit. 24 hours minimum. My first try didn't sem to be separating into distinct layers, so I let it sit for 3 days.

You'll either get layers or not, but either way you'll then want to carefuly siphon off either the top 2 layers, leaving the heavy third layer behind, or siphon off the top 1/2 to 2/3 of the liquid if there isn't distinct layering. This is the terra sig you've been after.

You'll need to experiment with the consistancy. As I said earlier, my first batch used WAY too much water, so I had to evaporate some of the water away to get a usable product. I actually poured it into an old bisque bowl I had laying around which let it evaporate and also absorbed and wicked away water through the bowl.

Next time - Future testing

Notes on terra sig - part 1

I've been looking at all my various notes on all the variations of terra sig. I thought I could put it all together and maybe make sense of it all.

Up to this point, I've just been trying to see what kind of results I could get without a whole lot of trouble, gram scales, deflocculants, and measuring specific gravities. I think I did pretty well, I even surprised myself a bit on my first tries I suppose. But comparing notes, and sitting down and doing a bit of calculation and comparison, I probably could have done a bit better.

This first time, I used about 2 pounds of dry clay to a gallon of water. From what I'm looking at, that's probably way too much water to start. It made the slip easier to mix, but was probably overkill and all that water has to be evaporated back off. The trend I'm seeing is something more like a little less than 1 cup water for every 100 g dry clay. What I used was 16 cups to 1000 g, it should have been about 10 c.

And do yourself a favor, use dry clay, it will mix a lot easier. I busted up some scrap throwing clay in a heavy bag with a big hammer. Don't do it in the open, because 1) you REALLY don't want to breath that fine dust, and 2) that fine dust is actually what you're after, so don't waste it.
If your clay is still moist, just use a sur-form tool or cheese grater and shred it into a bucket and let it dry. Then add it slowly, a little at a time, to the water, then let it sit for 20-30 minutes or so. then use the power tool of your choice to give it a good mix. I used a paint mixer attachment on a drill.

Next time - Deflocculants, settling, and siphoning.

Getting back on track

It's been a week tomorrow since the big wreck, and I've been at a bit of a loss as to what to post. It's pretty clear that I won't be back in the studio any time soon. One of the more painful injuries is a very bruised, very sore sternum. I don't even like to think about trying to wedge or center clay.

I do have some pieces from my failed attempt to re-familiarize myself with the old #112 claybody that are coming through the bisque firings at the center, so I'll be able to glaze them soon. I did take the remainder and wedged it up on the tables and sprayed it down. Hopefully it got a good dose of microbes to help it age. It should be good and ready by the time I'm ready for it again.

I never got a chance to say anything in all last weeks excitement, but I'd thrown in the towel, raised the white flag and went back to my old familiar white stoneware. I'd been trying and trying to get the 112 to work for me, and was just being frustrated. My clay time is precious to me, and I just decided I didn't want to spend my fun time being frustrated and pissed. I threw a 12" vase on the first try.

I'm also spending some time going through old notes I've collected, ideas, sketches, etc. (when I'm not sleeping... I'm doing a LOT of sleeping). Maybe I can get them more organized and possibly share some. And there's been some interest in more details of the naked raku and aluminum foil saggar techniques, so I hope to post more stuff about all that too.

The blog has been up for a little over a month now and I'm having a lot of fun with it. I'm enjoying the community, and have made new acquaintances from around the world.

Very sad news from Scotland

I just got some horrible news from my friend Nicola at Argyll Pottery.
http://www.argyllpottery.co.uk/
She tells me that Alan was in an accident riding his motorbike on Monday and was killed. I don't have any more of the details.
There's a little more info at Hannah McAndrew's blog.

She wanted our assistance in spreading the news and letting people know. I know most of you have a lot more traffic and bigger blogrolls than I do.

Please keep his family and friends in your thoughts and prayers.

Crunch time

So Friday after work I came home and went back out to get gas for the lawnmower to do some yard work this weekend.

I'd usually have just went Saturday morning, but the gas stations all over the area were raising their prices to outrageous levels in a panic over what hurricane Ike might do to Houston.

But I went Friday night.

And I normally would have turned right to go to the closer independent gas station that's usually cheaper than the one by the highway exit. But I'd just driven past that station and it had the highest price of ANY of the 8-10 places I drive past on the way home.

So I turned left.

Halfway there, a Ford pickup truck (F150 or bigger) in the oncoming lane swerved directly into my lane. Accounts vary as to whether he was swerving to avoid rear-ending someone in front of him, or simply passing in a no passing zone. Regardless, all witnesses put him clearly in the wrong. I swerved to the right to the side of the road/ditch, as they teach you way back in driver's education, but so did he, and we hit head-on.



Looking at all the carnage, it's amazing, but I'm mostly ok. After a trip to the hospital on the body board, cognative tests, blood tests, and a CT scan I 'walked away' from this.

I feel like I went 16 rounds with Mike Tyson, but no broken bones, no internal organ injuries. Just some major bruising and muscle aches that I'm sure I'm just beginning to experience. Actually found a big one last night on my left hip from the seat belt, to go with the big one on my left shoulder.

Moral of the story: Seat belts and airbags save lives. Plain and simple. Being a nice day, my driver's window was down. The seatbelt kept me IN the car, and the airbags saved my life. The first responders were amazed I was in as good of shape as I was. These people deal with this every day, and it really shows on their faces when they can take someone out alive from something like this.

Couldn't help putting this one in.... When my wife went to clean out the car, she found a bisque pot that I had in the trunk. Intact.


Those Toyota engineers really know what they're doing.

Clay Review -Standard #112

Today's clay review is Standard Clay Co. #112

It's a buff cone 6 stoneware with dark specks of manganese. The same clay is available without specks as #225.

Lots of people like this clay. It's generally the recommended clay for all the beginning wheel classes here at Pullen. I used it myself exclusively for several years, before branching out and experimenting with other clays.

I'm still struggling to re-adjust to it after using the smooth white stoneware for my saggar work. I'm better able to control it when throwing small work, 1, 1.5 pounds, but run into serious issues over 2-3 pounds. At this point I think I'm going to take the advise of Deborah and Gary and age the rest. Just divide it, wedge it a bit, and take it home for a while.

The iron and manganese react well with glazes giving nice results. As usual, the grog, grit and manganese make for a poor surface for burnishing. As the clay shrinks in firing, it all pushes through the surface. It's still an interesting surface though, just not completely smooth.

Saggar Firing - Lessons Learned

After going over the test results of the experimental pieces I did at the last saggar fire, I learned a few things. Some are probably obvious to those more experienced than I.

For any color at all besides black, some kind of metal salts/oxides are required. I probably should have realized this, but I was hoping perhaps some of the trace minerals in certain organics would be strong enough on their own, trapped under the aluminum foil. They weren't. Their main function seems to be to influence the colors/shades of any major metals already present. Ferric chloride, copper carbonate, and copper sulfate are all good starting points.

Pieces of broken off pinecones give a nice dark black. If you want good blacks, pinecones and needles are a good bet. It also doesn't take much, start conservative.

Brushing on ferric chloride works just as well as spraying. And it's a LOT safer, in my opinion. Airborne ferric chloride is just bad news. You still want to wear plastic gloves and be very careful. It'll also ruin your brush, so use a cheap one, foam works well. I want to experiment with building up varied layers of diluted FeCl in the future.

Tinfoil saggars are the way to go, in my opinion. Comparing with other work from clay saggars, and pit firings where some was wrapped in foil the same way and some not, the colors just seem to come out more intense. You can also achieve good results with much less raw material since you don't have to fill the space between the saggar and the pot. That's just my personal taste. Some people like more delicate, muted coloration and that's cool too. And despite reading in several places warning about not firing past the melting point of aluminum (1100F), I've never seen or heard of a problem with it. The aluminum foil doesn't melt, it simply burns away. I think the regular weight stuff works fine, but experiment with some heavy duty and see what you like.

Terra Sig takes the color just as well as burnished or unburnished clay. I thought that maybe since it is a tightly packed surface of smaller platelets it would be less permeable to the smoke and fumes, but it didn't seem to be a problem. Your clay, however can make a big difference. Earthenware bisqued to cone 06 is much less permeable than a mid/high fire stoneware bisqued to cone 06. The colors are still very nice, but are lighter and more delicate. Again, lots of room to experiment.

More detailed instruction is available in Alternative Kilns and Firing Techniques by Watkins and Wandless. It's chock full of ideas, many of which can be mixed and matched between the different techniques. This one will really get your imagination flowing.

For more posts about saggar firing, click on the SAGGAR tag below.

Tagged...

So I was tagged last weekend by Judy Shreve.

My dilemma being, every other blogger I know has already been tagged at this point. Whoever started this thing should have more carefully examined the mathematical consequences of each tagger tagging 6 more taggees.... I'm just not comfortable guerrilla tagging bloggers I don't really know.

In the spirit of playing along, here are my 6 random things:

1) I studied classical piano from age 4 - 18. I also played flute and trombone in school band.

2) I was briefly trilingual, after studying French 3 years in high school and German 2 years in college.

3) I am Reiki master, finishing my teacher certification.

4) My other love is landscape/nature photography, growing up the son of a wedding photographer.

5) I took my first, last and only roller coaster ride last year. It was not my idea of fun. Maybe if I had started as a kid...

6) I can hold my own in the kitchen.

Odds and Ends

It was a non-typical week here, since Hanna's impending visit shifted everyone's priorities, especially with her big brother Ike close behind.

I spent time preparing the yard, mowing, bringing things inside, while my wife shopped, cleaned, and organized and restocked the hurricane kits. She did an outstanding job.

Hanna is now passing to the east of us, giving us some much needed rain and some wind. And Ike looks like he's headed for the Gulf. I just really don't know what they're going to do with another major storm down there so soon after Gustav.

Overall, not much time for actual claywork - priorities... It does get me thinking about the whole new level of readiness involved if I had my own studio, at the house or otherwise.

Clay Review -Highwater Little Loafers

Today's clay review is Little Loafers, from Highwater Clays.
Formulated as a cone 6 version of their cone 10 Loafers Glory, it is also a smooth, white stoneware with no grog or grit.

I started using this body last spring, after another potter suggested that if I liked the Standard 563, I'd probably like Little Loafers. They were right! To me, it has all the smooth response of the 563 without as much of the fussiness. It seems to stand up better, and the S cracks have been nearly non-existent. The ones that did appear were clearly my fault, and were on pieces intended as tests and not at all properly thrown.

Like the 563, it takes a beautiful burnish and saggar fires well. I haven't done any handbuilding with it, but from the way it throws, I'd suspect that while it might not be ideal, it's probably better behaved than the 563.

It quickly became my favorite. But alas, there was none on the latest clay shipment.

New Blogger feature: Following

Just added a new gadget over in the sidebar, Google Following. They've been rolling it out gradually and today it finally became available for me.

You can follow a blog either publicly, which creates a link to your own profile, or anonymously, and can stop following at any time as well.

Followed blogs will then appear in a Reading List inside the Blogger Dashboard, as well as adding the subscription to your Google Reader. It seems like they're just tying all these tools together.

It seems like it could be fun. We'll see how it goes.

Clay Review -Standard #563

I thought it might be useful to share my personal thoughts on the various clay bodies I've used and loved or hated.

First up is Standard Ceramic Co. #563. It's a white stoneware, cone 6, no grog.
I really liked this clay from the first time I used it. In the beginning, it was a bit harder to control because it was so much smoother and responsive than what I was used to.
Having no grog, sand or grit, it burnishes very well if you're into that sort of thing. I am.
It can be a bit more prone to S-cracks in the bottoms if you leave your bottoms a bit too thick or don't compress them well, so pay attention to your technique and don't skip steps.

I've not handbuilt with it, but others have said it doesn't have enough grog (none) and is difficult to work with. Your mileage may vary.

Clay challenge pt.2

Deborah Woods had a good idea regarding my recent clay challenges, thinking it could be the clay hadn't aged sufficiently yet.
I hadn't considered the aging factor. But now that I think of it, it could be contributing to the problem. The clay I got was 'fresh off the truck', so it hasn't really aged. However, so is the white stoneware I've been using, as well as all the other clay available at the center, so there's some sort of baseline usability there that the buff clay doesn't seem to have.

The instructor that used that clay also had multiple bags in various states of age, with trimmings and reclaim constantly being wedged in, so that probably improved things a lot. And as I mentioned, he throws very dry. The first thing I think I'm going to try is cutting way back on the water.

For me, an idea clay would be serviceable 'off the truck' and any improvement with age would be a bonus... That probably isn't very realistic, and it make sense to age your clay, I'm just not in a situation where I can age clay right now.

Cookout!

This Labor Day weekend we enjoyed barbecue-teriyaki grilled chicken, roasted Olathe sweet corn, and ice cold watermelon.

August poll results

Granted, it's a very small data sample and very unscientific, but among those that responded to the poll, the majority throw at the wheel standing up and/or elevated in some fashion. In an unrelated conversation, someone told me they knew a potter who kneeled at the wheel.

Standing - 3
Semi standing - 2
Sitting - 1

Which reinforces something that's been bugging me for a while now.
-Even before I hurt my back this last time, I was putting my wheel up on bricks to raise it even 3". . .
- Nearly all of the serious potters I know have jerry-rigged their wheel(s) to raise it in some way
- The ones that haven't either complain of back problems, and/or have a hunch (whether they realize it or not)

So -why- are wheels built so low in the first place?

The wheels I speak of are SO short, they couldn't possibly be at the right height for any normal human. OK, maybe a 3' child.

Potters from 'across the pond'

Just thought I'd mention some potters I've been following 'across the pond'.

There's Alan from Argyll's blog and companion website -beautiful domestic ware, interspersed with gorgeous views of the Scottish countryside.

Paul the Potter - Barrington, Sommerset, UK.

Douglas Fitch's A Devonshire Pottery, Devon, UK

Hannah McAndrew - more beautiful slipware, located in SW Scotland.

Check them out! They make some great work.

Just had to share this

Always on the lookout for interesting art forms, this one is simply mind-boggling...

This guy makes life-sized bears out of pine needles. Amazing.

and people call -me- patient.

Don't forget to vote!

There are only 2 days left to vote on the poll in the sidebar.

I am interested in finding out how my fellow wheel-throwers prefer to throw. So far, the standers and semi-standers are in the lead.

So go ahead and vote! And feel free to comment here as well, the Blogger tool doesn't leave much flexibility for freeform 'Other' choices.

Clay challenges

I'm having a much more difficult time adjusting to the 'old' clay I used to throw with than I thought I would. Even though it's supposed to be good for beginners to learn with, I'm finding it a lot more finicky than I remember. It's soft, yet stiff at the same time. And STICKY. It doesn't want to move when doing a pull, instead preferring to carve off in my fingers and on my sponge. And yet, I somehow keep putting thin spots in the wall at random, which later either collapse or tear. aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh!!!

I did manage some small 1.5# bowls Tuesday, but the misbehavior seems magnified on larger amounts. I tried a 4# vase tonight which took an hour of finessing to get into shape. Then it collapsed when I put the plastic over it to dry. And then there was a good pound at least in the bottom of my slop bucket when I cleaned up. -- not happy.

Not giving up, but definitely frustrated. I'm going back to small bowls and mugs until I get a handle on this sticky stuff. I remember my begining wheel instructor throwing VERY dry with this clay. I'm thinking that's the only way to battle the stickyness.

But, what's it good for?

I got asked this one again the other day from someone admiring my 'beautiful' saggar pots (their words). And in the same breath, 'But what's it good for?'

It seems to be happening more and more as the economy gets worse, and I'm thinking that this same tendency to connect value with utility is connected to the recent problems at Arrowmont and the NC Pottery Center, and every other arts organization in the country struggling to keep their doors open. As living get's more difficult, it seems the first things to go are those which can lift us out of the dark spaces of 'just surviving'.

Then I read this today over at the ArtBizBlog --Overheard at an art fair 'I don't mind spending money on art--as long as it's useful.'

While I do understand this on a level of someone looking to get the most for their art-purchasing dollar, I think pottery is more connected with an expectation of function than other art forms. I'm not aware of anyone asking 'what's it good for?' of an oil painting for example. You would not expect the buyer to use it as a functional canvas, a pillow top or shower curtain perhaps. (would you??) But make something out of clay and people immediately want to brew tea in it, eat breakfast out of it, drink coffee from it, or stick flowers in it.

'Because it's beautiful and uplifts the human spirit' just doesn't seem to make it with the more practical customers out there. So I'm working on a more concrete list of benefits; here's what I have so far -- please add any others you have in Comments

Studies show that contemplating art lowers stress. (full paper)

Art enhances patient well-being in hospitals.

This is not news to those of us involved in the arts. So let's all start a new campaign -- "Buy Art and Live a Longer, Healthier, Happier Life!"

Now available on Google Groups

For those of you not using feed readers, you can now subscribe via email to Brian Fields Pottery by joining my Google Group. You'll find the subscription box in my sidebar. Just enter your email, click subscribe, and then confirm the subscription email you'll get.

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Circle of Eight at Pullen Art Center

I don't know where my head has been but I just realized that Jennifer Mecca and the other Circle of Eight potters have a show at the Pullen Art Center in Raleigh, where I do my clay work.

It will run from September 2 until October 31, so if you're in the area, check it out!

I know I'm looking forward to it!

Circle of Eight:

• Adrienne Dellinger


• Jennifer Mecca


• Ron Philbeck


• Amy Sanders


• Greg Scott


• Sandy Singletary


• Julie Wiggins

Changing gears

About 2 years ago I made the decision to concentrate my efforts on learning to throw the white stoneware clay as well as I could. Until then, I'd been switching between 3 or 4 different clays, all with drastically different feels, and I felt I was not making much progress with my skills.
I'm still no expert with white stoneware, but I do know my skills have improved farther and faster than they would have had I kept changing clay bodies every time I threw.

So now with the saggar firing behind me, I'm considering a change. I've had some requests for bowls, and I'm thinking I might give some functional glazed ware another try for a change. I just used up the last of my white, divided it up into 3 1# balls and did some quick pieces. It was fun to throw some quick one-pounders.

To get the requested glaze colors, I'll need to change back to the grogged, buff stoneware we have at Pullen. It'll be a fun change, but I'll be back to white stoneware soon. I can't help myself.

Two more saggar pots

Here are two more saggar pots from last weekend's firing. The tall vase has terra sig, the rounder form is unburnished, natural finish.


I'm hoping to get the last of them cleaned up and finished this weekend.
I've already been examining them, gathering ideas for the next time.

New site established to save Arrowmont

There is now a place to go for news and updates on the situation at Arrowmont as they unfold.

From their About Us page:

The Save Arrowmont! blog was started to raise awareness and share information about the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts (AKA: The Pi Beta Phi Settlement School, founded in 1912) and their struggle for preservation.

The blog is run by a loose-knit conglomeration of concerned citizens, community leaders, former staff, artists, writers, reporters, grandmothers, teachers, you, whoever has an affinity and concern for Arrowmont and its future in the arts & crafts community.

http://savearrowmont.wordpress.com/

Light red/pink swirl vase

Here's one of the experiments that turned out.


When it was bone dry greenware, I first put a layer of white terra sig on it, then a couple layers of red. I originally intended for it to be much more red, and more of a solid coat, but the clay had other plans. Turns out the red sig streaked as the pot spun on the wheel, I'm guessing because it was still too thin/watery. I think it's far nicer than what I was going for.

One of my favorites

I really like the way this one came out. The dark grass-like line left by a copper wire couldn't be better if I'd planned it that way.

Arrowmont Update

There is now an e-petition available to help save Arrowmont.
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/savearrowmont

Arrowmont is a unique and valuable institution for the arts. If it is lost, it won't be as easily replaced as yet another tract of generic high rent condos.

http://www.arrowmont.org/arrowmontnews.html

Pi Beta Phi's side of the story:
http://www.pibetaphi.org/pibetaphi/

Meagan Chaney also has listed contact info for Pi Beta Phi's Grand Council

Natural finish

Here's two views of one that wasn't burnished or terra sig'ed. It has a natural raw clay surface.

It's possible to seal it with an acrylic resin type product, but I think I prefer the softer colors. But it could bring out the lavendar/purples a little more...
What do you think?

World gone mad?

So, having been following the saga of the NC legislature pulling funding for the NC Pottery Center, threatening it's very existence, Meagan brings my attention to the story that Arrowmont is also being threatened with having their land sold to developers for likely another golf/condo/resort complex.

Has the world gone mad??

It's stunning how short-sighted some people can be in pursuit of a few bucks, neglecting or outright selling our cultural resources and heritage. What kind of world are we leaving to the next generation, devoid of art and beauty?

I'm just hoping this trend of bad news doesn't come in threes this time.

Another one waxed and polished

I got another pot finished --

Results

Overall, the results were very good. There were five of us total, and everyone was happy with their pots. It was cool seeing everyone else's forms. Some small, some large, some handbuilt from textured slabs wrapped into vases.

Unlike glazeware, after the firing the work has only started. We had to unwrap and the scour the pots to remove the ash and residue from firing. Today I began the process of waxing the burnished / terra sig'ed ones. Kinda like waxing my Dad's van as a kid, only smaller.

Here is today's effort, after mowing the yard in between raindrops and other weekend chores.

What do you listen to?

Meagan Chaney's recent technical difficulties got me thinking, I know what I like to listen to when I'm in the studio, I wonder what other people listen to? Do you need music?

For throwing and general working around in the studio, I prefer more instrumental stuff. Usually classical, but depending on my mood it could be anything from Alan Parsons to Kodo. Bach is an old standby, especially the Brandenburg Concertos.

What about podcasts? I find I can't concentrate on them and do pottery at the same time, but outside the studio I have a few I like to listen to. The Firing Log is interesting to me, not being even remotely capable of building my own anagama kiln, just to hear how other people work. I like the people he finds to interview.
Robert Briggs at www.corvusmoon.com does the Pottery Pod, with short videos of different techniques. NCECA has also done a podcast series of the conference the last two years. None of these are very heavily updated, so it's easy to keep up to date on them. For lighter non-pottery listening, NPR has most if not all of their regular shows available through podcast too. All of these podcasts can be found by searching the iTunes site. And you don't have to have a Mac or an iPod to use iTunes. I have a MuVo TX from Creative Labs that I love. It's tiny, holds plenty of music, can do double duty as a USB thumb drive, and has an FM tuner and voice recorder as well.

I have a feeling I'll be listening to something a bit up-tempo as I clean, scrub, wax a buff my pots from the saggar fire yesterday. Stay tuned for pictures!

NC Pottery Center

There's been a lot circulating in the blogospere recently about the financial plight of the North Carolina Pottery Center. If by chance you're not up to speed on the situation, their plea for support can be found here.


In addition to preserving and exhibiting the history of North Carolina pottery, and holding exhibitions, classes and workshops, they are also responsible for giving me my first real taste of how wonderful and creative this art form can be.

There are many ways you can help.

Mark Hewitt is raffling off a salt-glazed jar on August 31 for $20 a ticket here.

AKAR Design is putting 100% of the profit from the sale of pieces marked with the NCPC logo toward the fundraising effort.

Or you can donate directly to the NCPC, or become a member here.

Saggar firing prep

I finished prep work for the saggar firing this weekend. I wrapped these at home Wednesday night. They're experimental test pieces, so I hope some useful information come from them.


Then last night I wrapped the rest where we'll be doing the actual firing on Saturday. Some are unburnished, some are only burnished, some have terra sig. I really don't know what I'll get, but I'm hoping for some interesting surfaces I can develop further.

For some reason I'm craving a baked potato....

Getting Things Done

Do you ever feel overwhelmed by all the 'stuff' that needs to be done? I know I do. Sometimes the stress of it all leaves me drained and not able to access the inspired, creative side when I finally get some studio time.
Do you ever have all these fantastic ideas and new things to try streaming through your brain.... when you're in the middle of something else, headed out the door, or otherwise occupied? Then when you get to the studio sit there trying to figure out what they were? Me too.
Do you own a day planning calendar, and use it (or not), but still have the feeling of 'there's GOT to be a better way?'

Since I have a full-time job and do pottery in between, it's a challenge both finding the time and making the most of it when I do. But time management isn't the end of it, otherwise we'd all have a calendar and everything would be perfect.

About a year ago I found a different way of looking at the problem, called Getting Things Done, or GTD. Pioneered by David Allen, it picks up where Stephen Covey's 7 Habits and the Franklin Planner leave off.

One of the principles is that every task/idea has a Context. This filters your todo's and projects so that when you're near a computer, you look at your @Computer list, and don't have to sift through a big list of unrelated tasks. Or if you're in the mood to do some phone calls, you look at @Phone. A few of my contexts are @home, @work, @studio and @PC.

Other principles address the need for a 100% idea-capture system, a simple fast filing system for all those ideas, and a reliable follow-up system. He contends that keeping all your thoughts and ideas in your head leads to stress and forgetfulness. If you can capture them into a system where you know you'll find them when you need to, it frees you to give your' full attention to whatever you're doing.

I've been using GTD for a while now, and although I fall off the wagon for periods of time, it really does help better manage my time. And when I'm not, it doesn't take very long to notice and get back on track.

How do you throw?

Jen Mecca was kind enough to post about her throwing technique after I'd asked her about it. Jen throws standing up, which I've recently switched to after compressing a disk in my back this past spring. It was non-pottery related, I was changing a flat tire, but it got me even more motivated to minimize the strain of what can be a physically demanding craft.

I'd already started putting my wheel up on 3 bricks to raise the wheelhead, which was better, but still not high enough. The art center has one Brent wheel with the leg extensions for standing, so I've been using that one ever since.

Robert Compton has a nice page of different potters working. My favorite is with the wheel mounted on the ceiling. I'd actually thought of that myself once while musing the challenges of gravity. Now I find out someone else was doing it back in 1971... I was taught to throw pretty dry, but I can't help thinking you'd need a rain poncho and a shower cap for that one!

John Glick has written some great articles sharing his hard learned lessons in back health. His 'To Sciatica and Back' should be a cautionary tale for us all, as well as the followup 'Down the Spinal Canal: From Herniation to Rupture'

So my informal, unscientific poll in the sidebar asks you: How do you throw?

Photo montage

So this weekend I finally got around to taking pictures of my past and present work so you can see what the heck I'm talking about. I'm also going to backpost some of these into my previous posts for future newcomers.

Naked raku


These are from my one and only attempt at this. It was in a class at the art center and there wasn't much leeway for experimentation. I like the overall effect, and I can see the potential there, but I'd like to try some different masking slips to see if I can get a larger crackle pattern.

Saggar firing


These are more recent, using the tin-foil saggar method described in Alternative Kilns and Firing Techniques. Great book, full of ideas. It covers raku, sagger, pit and barrel firing, with dozens of variations.

Works awaiting the flames....

These are a few of the pieces I have waiting to be saggar fired next Saturday. The orange is the first attempted application of red terra sig. The shinier ones have had white t.s. applied and been polished. This is the last look at them before they're wrapped in aluminum foil in a cocoon of plant materials and metal salts.

First attempts with terra sig

Short for 'terra sigillata' the Romans used it to cover their pots. It's a clay slip made of only the finest clay particles. Brushed on in several thin coats, it almost shines itself. It's very cool stuff!

For my first attempt, I just used some old dried out white stoneware clay scrap I had. Searching around on the internet and the clayart archives, I'd found several recipes, the most definitive being Vince Pitelka's procedure. Not having all the equipment and chemicals needed, and just wanting to do a rough first draft, I found this article on Ceramic Arts Daily by Joan Carcia.
(Ceramic Arts Daily is a nice site, and free to join)

Being a rough test, I found I had about 2lbs of dried clay, so I used about a gallon of water, and a tablespoon ful of TSP that I found at the local building/home store.

After settling and siphoning, I poured it into a biqued bowl I hadn't gotten around to glazing yet to evaporate/absorb some of the water off. (Tip: soak the bisqe in some water first to get the pores of the clay 'siphoning' quicker)

I'm finding the white sig is working very well. Outstanding actually, for the sloppy way I followed the directions. I now have a larger batch made with red clay scraps settling, and will need evaporating. I just tried using some I siponed of the top yesterday and it's just too thin. I rubs right off when I try and polish it.

This time around, I was looking for the quick and dirty way, since I wanted to try it on some pots headed to a saggar firing in a couple weeks and I had to get them bisqued. My next attempts will be following Vince's process, and I can't wait to have some super sig to experiment with!

Saggar firing

Saggar firing is the most recent technique I've tried. The term comes from clay containers that the ancient Asian potters would put their pots in to protect them from the wood ash in the giant wood fired kilns they used.

While clay saggars are still used, their purpose is now often transposed. Many potters now use them to trap ash, smoke and other fumes with the pot inside, in order to concentrate the effect on the surface.


The particular method we used was actually wrapping the pots in aluminum foil, after placing sawdust, bits of steel wool and copper pot scrubbie and more inside. After tightly closing the foil, they're tumble stacked in the kiln and fired.

After firing and cooling the pots are unwrapped, washed and scrubbed clean. Again, if the original ware was burnished, they can be waxed and polished.

For more posts about saggar firing, click on the SAGGAR tag below.

Naked Raku 102

After the bisque firing, we prepared for the final firing. All of this work took place on the final class.

We coated our pots with a special crackle slip that's made to shrink. This makes it crack up and peel a bit during the firing and smoking process, like a mud puddle in the summertime. It won't actually melt and bond to the pot in the firing, and it will be scraped off afterward. Any larger areas we wanted to be black were left bare. Some people left the rims and collars exposed, or a design on the pot itself.

Then a thin 'glaze' is brushed onto the slip coating. It's job is to try and hold the slip together through the firing. You don't want to get it on any exposed areas of the pot, since it will bond to the clay and makes an ugly blistery mess. Unless that's the look you're going for.

The pots are fired to temperature, which is done more by feel than anything, observing how the surface looks and how the glaze is melting. They are then pulled out and placed in a metal can with sawdust or similar in the bottom. This instantly ignites, and after the flames are going good, an airtight lid is clamped in place. This makes the fire smoke, and this smoke penetrates the clay where the cracks in the slip coating are. After the pot cools, the lid is carefully opened since once air is allowed back in a flare up is very possible if the pot is still hot enough. The still hot pot is sprayed with water which helps crack off the slip/glaze coating now that it's job is done.

We finished by scraping off the slip/glaze coat with metal ribs. After they had dried off the burnished pots could be waxed and buffed with a hard paste wax.

Naked Raku 101

Naked raku gets it's name from the fact it's fired fast in a small kiln, and naked because it's not glazed. I took a class a few years ago and had a blast. Depending on all the variables, you get white pots with various black crackle patterns. Everything from large branches looking like lightning, to thousands of tiny ones.


The recommended clay body was just a standard raku clay that many clay suppliers make. It has a larger amount of grog and/or sand to help it take the thermal shock it's going to get later. Grog is coarsely ground, fired, fireclay. With the sand, it's the 'grit' you feel when you're throwing on the wheel. It s VERY rough on your hands!

The other clay a few people used was a high talc earthenware called Miller 10T. The talc also helps with the thermal shock. Since it didn't have any grog, they were actually able to burnish their pots to a smooth shiny surface. For my first raku attempt, I opted for the raku clay. I didn't want to end up with a pile of shards for my efforts!

As far as throwing, you want to make sure your walls are not too thick, and they need to be uniform thickness. A very thick wall will expand and contract at a different rate on the inside and outside, cracking. The same goes for any thin or thick spots. If you have a thin section going around your pot, it very well could crack around the ring, decapitating your pot.

When the pots were leather hard, the talc people trimmed and burnished theirs, the raku people just trimmed. After they were bone dry, they were bisque fired in an electric kiln to cone 05-06.

Continued at Naked Raku 102 . . .

Alternatives (pt. 2)

So what else is there, if glazing isn't your thing?

LOTS.
You might want to explore Naked Clay by Jane Perryman.

I found it almost liberating once I took glazing off the table. It was as if the whole time I was wedging the clay, throwing the piece, shaping, trimming, drying, I was worrying 'How am I going to glaze this??'

My first expedition into the unknown was Naked Raku. It was a 7 week class taught at the art center that gave a great overview of the process as well as advice and guidance in what types of forms may or may not (there are few absolutes) work well. Most of us used an actual raku clay body, meant to withstand the shock of being pulled out of a 1700-1800F kiln into the air with tongs, and sometimes even plunged into water to cool! We weren't quite as hard on our pieces, but it's still amazing what clay can survive. The raku clay gave the pieces a somewhat rough texture.

Then I took a class on burnishing and saggar firing. I really loved it. We used regular white stoneware and burnished the leather hard pots with a stone. After firing, they were scrubbed clean and waxed with a hard floor wax. The burnished surface is silky smooth, yet still very natural.

Lately, I've been playing with using terra sigillata for an even smoother surface with less fuss than burnishing. I'm really liking the results. I can't wait to see how these pots take the color of the saggar firing in a couple weeks.

Alternatives (pt. 1)

Currently, I've been focusing my work on what I'd call alternative surfaces and firings. This is not your standard high-fired, glazed stoneware dinner service. While I still do a few functional glazed pieces, mainly bowls and vases, most of what I've been making will end up low fired, unglazed, porous, and not food safe. Not to say it's entirely non-functional, since you can always slip a vase liner or glass votive holder inside for flowers or a candle.

Honestly, I've just never been fully comfortable with glazing. That may very well change some day when I have control over my own glaze kiln and glazes. But as things stand now, I find it difficult to get the more consistent results one would expect from glazed ware. Even then, I tend to prefer the more 'predictably unpredictable' glazes like crystalline, ash effects, and layered crawl glazes. Again, things you can't really experiment with in a community kiln, and with good reason!

My first teacher also gave me an appreciation of the bare clay surface. As you work with clay and see it through the stages of becoming a finished pot, you gain a sense of the texture of the material. For me, after a while, covering the natural surface with a uniform, hard, smooth layer of glass started to feel wrong.

Continued . . .

Beginnings

So how did I get started in all this?

When I was a kid, my mom took some ceramics classes at the local college and it just always looked like fun. The idea that you could make something out of mud and bake it and turn it into ceramic was just cool! I was too young to take a class, but she found a lady across the street from my piano teacher that made slipcast pieces you could paint and glaze and she would fire. I must have made a hundred various things.

Fast forward 25 years. I've been transplanted to North Carolina. My wife and I are visiting the NC Zoo in Asheboro, and exploring our new state, when we discover Seagrove, NC and the North Carolina Pottery Center. After looking at the exhibits in the main building, we went out to the education building where Linda Russell was giving a demo. We were the only ones there, and after about the 10th question I asked, she cleaned off her wheel, got up and said 'Sit down. The only way to know it is to do it.' I still have that small, squat pot I threw that day. I was hooked.

Months later, I discovered Raleigh Parks department's Art program, and that I'd been driving past the Pullen Arts Center twice a day on my commute. I've been taking classes and using the studios ever since.

Who is this guy ??

Short answer:
a guy who got bit by the pottery bug years ago and just can't stop being fascinated by the endless techniques, textures, forms and colors that are possible in clay.

Longer answer:
As long as I can remember, I've been attracted to clay. From the soft, slick blue-grey clay on the shoreline of a Michigan lake, to running straight into a bright red Georgia 'mud puddle' (I was probably about 4) and getting stuck! My dad had to pull me right out of my shoes to get me out of that one. (thanks, Dad!)

And the fires.... cook-out fires, charcoal grills, brush piles... I just loved watching (and playing with) the flames.

Now that I've 'grown up', my expression of choice is wheel-thrown vessels. I've tried hand-building on several occasions, but it never seemed to click for me. Most of the hand-builders I know say the opposite, so to each his own!
I work in stoneware, mainly because that's what the pottery center has available, but I also like it for it's versatility. I like being able to low fire it, or do a more traditional glaze firing.

I'm experimenting with different low-fire processes, raku, saggar, horsehair, and naked raku. (no, it's NOT what you're thinking.... the -clay- is naked, the CLAY...) Don't worry, I'll have more stuff up here soon to show what these all look like. But mainly, I'm having fun exploring the texture of the unglazed clay surface.

For more on how I got started, look here.