Fresh Out of the Kiln

I unloaded the kiln this morning to find a few great disappointments.  I am trying to finish up a commission of large plates--and the final two warped greatly so that they are wobbly and will need to be redone.  It looks like I will have a few more plates to add to my own personal collection.  If you are lucky enough to join us for dinner, you can be sure that you will be eating off of a wobbly plate because I house all of the undesirable pottery in my own kitchen.  I also had the glaze run on a  large serving bowl.

This makes a mess of the piece and the kiln shelf.  Unfortunately plates and large serving bowls take up a great deal of space in my kiln, so that only doubles the disappointment.  However, the vast majority of the firing was just beautiful.  I am very pleased with the casserole dish above.  I imagine it will be greatly appreciated in someone else's home.  I had lots of lidded jars turn out quite stunning, including the one to the left with the interesting shape.  The pitcher and cups below are among my favorites from this firing.  Although they go together nicely, I don't sell things in sets so that you can pick and choose.  All of these fine pieces are available for sale in my studio.  I am trying to build up my inventory for Dixon Studio Arts Tour and the holiday season, so please stop by and see it for yourself.

New Shapes and Forms

I had a rather productive day in the studio yesterday--something that hasn't happened recently due to all of summer's little events.  A quick calculation of the number of weeks until studio tour combined with a day completely to myself made for a nice incentive.  I rolled out a piece of slab and made two slab vases.  These have become some of my favorite pieces.  I love the organic shapes that I get out of the slabs.  I plan on rakuing the one on the left.

I also experimented with a shape I've tried only once before and came up with some nice forms.  I enclose the piece while throwing and make a knob to form the top.  When it is partially dry, I cut it open into a lidded jar with a twist.  I like using an asymmetric shape for the lid and opening.

These little numbers will be making the trip to England in a few weeks with my husband.  I like to make child-sized mugs and carve names into them.  All of the kids in town have them as I have found that they make nice birthday gifts.  My husband will be giving these to a colleague's children that he will be visiting on a business trip shortly.  My husband wanted to take part in this endeavor, so he took over the carving.

The casserole dish to the right is my very first.  I was asked for one last year at studio tour and promptly sent them to another potter down the road.  This year I plan on having a few on hand.  I look forward to experimenting with this form a little more next week.

All of these pieces will be headed to a bisque firing by the end of the week.  I will post more pictures after they are glazed.

Melinda Michelle Photography

My dear friend at Melinda Michelle Photography visited my studio recently.  She took these amazing shots as we talked and I worked on trimming my previous day's work.  I love the way she captures a moment and frames a still life.

Dinnerware

This morning I unloaded a kiln full of dinnerware that my dear friends and neighbors ordered.  It was a successful firing with a nice coverage of what has become my favorite glaze.  It took a little while to figure out this Variegated Blue glaze, but it was well worth the effort.

Special order dinnerware in Variegated Blue

There is something special about making pottery that you know will become an intimate part of someone's daily life.  People tell me  how pleasing it is to eat and drink from my handmade pottery, and I have to say that I get immense satisfaction from this. I'm a foodie, a food snob to some.  Food plays an important role in my family life, as well as any entertaining that I do.  I enjoy cooking and experimenting with food.  It is only natural to me that the dish have as much care put into it as the food that I prepare.

Salad made of lettuce from my own garden; croutons made from my husband's handmade sourdough; and my very own carrot ginger dressing in a bowl handmade by me.

Studio Improvements

I have decided to be on the map for the Dixon Studio Art Tour this year, as opposed to just having a booth at the Mission like I did last year.  So, with this in mind I have made a few improvements, most of which needed to happen anyway.  The first improvement has been to the half mile dirt road that I live and work off of.  We went in with our neighbors to purchase one very old tractor.  My husband has been amusing himself on it while improving the road at the same time.  He has also used the front end scoop to collect some small boulders to put at the corner of our property.  You can see them pictured to the right, along with an old car or truck part that he dug up out of the arroyo.  Although this has led to a few rather heated discussions, he assures me that he has a vision.  Upon this rusted fender will be a sign for my studio.  So for the time being, this image is a work in progress and not just another New Mexico landscape.

My husband has also tackled the portal, that's a porch here in NM, off of the studio.  This is where my kiln sits and where I mix glazes.  I tripped and fell over the uneven surface several months ago, spilling a rather expensive bucket full of dry glaze ingredients. He purchased some larger pieces of flagstone and revamped the space.  Now I just need to level the kiln again and I am off to the races, or rather the next firing which should be next week.  The next project was all mine.  I tore down these 10 feet tall sections of white board that covered two of the walls inside my work space.  They were used by the previous owner that just happened to be a painter.  He pinned his paintings to them and added some rather interesting quotes, or you may view them as propaganda.  Anyway, they weren't mine and I want this to be my space.  I carefully peeled them away from the wall and was happy that the mud surface didn't came away with them.  I put up a couple of shelving units that I have used for displays and started unpacking the pottery from my bins.  I have had a number of people come to my studio recently looking to buy some of my work and I knew that I needed a different arrangement.  I have asked a local woodworker to build me another unit, so I look forward to that happening so that I can unload that last bin and remove the finished pieces from my "works in progress" shelves.                           

The next thing on my list is paint.  There are a number of unpainted walls with bare dry wall and mud that need some attention.  I have picked up the paint samples and chosen a nice warm buttery yellow hue.  We'll tackle that as soon as the weather cools down a bit....and according to the weather reports, the monsoons should start on Wednesday.  That's a tantalizing thought.  Anyway, please stop by the studio and inspect these changes for yourself.  You'll know that you have arrived when you see the rusty fender.

My First Solo Raku Firing

Before the Firing

The high winds of a spring in New Mexico kept me from firing until this past weekend. We had gusts around 50 mph on Saturday, but I took my chances with an open flame on Sunday morning when the winds were a little calmer.  I was feeling rather conservative with the flame, so the firing ended up taking more than twice as long as I expected.  Monday morning I was feeling more confident and corrected this fault, although I feel like one of the glazes responded to the slower firing in a more appealing manner.

I built my kiln out of a metal trash can modeled after my friend Miya's kiln, which you can see in an earlier post from the raku workshop I did back in December.  The one difference is that I am using one burner where she is using two.  I used newspaper and straw for my post-firing reduction material, but I'll be experimenting with sawdust once I get some from a handy woodworker here in town.  I mixed up four glazes and applied them in varying thicknesses for an interesting mix of textures.  I had the clay holding a cone explode in my second firing, which also added to the texture on a few of the pieces.  Unintentional catastrophes can sometimes offer an interesting effect.

I have posted pictures of my favorite pieces down at the bottom.  All of these are available at my studio, and I am happy to ship if you can't make it out here to Dixon, NM.

Adding the pots to newspaper for the post-firing reduction

New Items for the Los Alamos Spring Arts Fair

     I have been working furiously for the past few weeks to get ready for the Los Alamos Spring Arts Fair.  This will be my first outdoor show, so I have been learning the ropes of what to expect there and how to prepare for the spring winds of northern New Mexico.  I fired the kiln up three times this week and pulled out a few rather large disappointments, but some great ones as well. I have been experimenting with a number of slab pieces and having a lot of fun with it.  I made several very large slab vases which took up a considerable amount of room in my kiln and none of which will ever be seen by the public.  The three pictures I have posted here are all of slab pieces that I feel pretty good about.  The large square platter is not a flat piece, but one that curves upward at each corner.  The mask below is one that I put up in a earlier post when it was still greenware.  I love this mask.  Although I will take it to the fair, I wouldn't mind if it doesn't sell because I know exactly where I will hang it if it doesn't sell.  The business card holder is one of those items that I made because I needed one myself.  I am fond of putting these textured buttons on my slab pieces, and I like the way it looks on this piece.  One of these buttons graced each of my slab vases, but I'm still trying to let those go.

     So, if you are free on Saturday, please come up to Los Alamos and check out the Spring Art Fair .  It will be going on from 9am until 4pm on the Fuller Lodge lawn.  The weather has been beautiful and I hear there will be lots of great artists showing their work.   I will have all of these pieces for sale, as well as all of my wheel-thrown work.  I pulled out lots of salt cellars and butter dishes which seem to go quickly.  Please stop by and say, "Hi!"