Raw Color

 With this nasty weather we have had, I have had to postpone my kiln firing due to the fear of raw pots freezing (overnight and while loading in 20 degree weather), and not being able to get out of the house! If you're reading this from the North, then don't laugh when I say we only got about 4 inches, but also had about 1/2 inch of ice on top of it! I don't care where you live- ice is not fun. For a town, and a state for that matter, that is not terribly well-prepared for winter weather (several counties around us are without salt), our City guys were dutifully out with plows last night and all today!

Raw clay glaze from clay dug at the farm

So I took the extra couple of days when I would be loading to make up some test slips and glazes. I am most excited to test out the clay I pulled from the holes we dug for the barn at the farm. Above is an image of the dried, crushed clay blended with 3134 Frit, in a 50/50 ratio. Bob Armfield recommended giving that a try, and I cannot wait to see the results.

Tests for the raw clay glaze

The color as a raw clay glaze is like fresh pureed pumpkin. Not the pumpkin from a can at the grocery store, but small, fall, pie pumpkin flesh- bright and lush!

Cobalt blue slip

I am always mesmerized by the change of raw materials in the kiln's atmosphere. Above is not a new recipe, but my usual blue cobalt slip. I use cobalt carbonate in my slip, which is bright pink as a raw material. When I paint it on my pots it looks like this:

Cobalt blue painted on a dish

 

And when it comes out of the kiln, it looks like this (usually):

What cobalt blue usually looks like after the kiln firing (painted decoration)

That transition from one color to another never ceases to excite me. In a wood-firing and salt-glazing atmosphere, I really don't have a true notion of what could happen, and whether everything will work out in any planned fashion. I try to do as minimal planning as I can so that I am not terribly disappointed after a firing!

A new slip I am trying is a white slip base with 1% manganese added to it. If you have never seen raw manganese, it is very black and makes this beautiful color when blended with white slip:

Manganese slip

I may have really high hopes, but I am anxious to see whether this color when painted on my pots like this little test vase-

-will turn out anywhere near the color on the inside of the flowers (the purple color) of this German stoneware tankard below.

Tankard with cobalt blue and manganese slip decorations. Image courtesy of Port Tobacco Archaeology Project

Hopefully with warmer weather this weekend I will be able to finish prepping the kiln and get things loaded up next week!

By the way, this is the look my chocolate lab gave me when I asked him if he wanted to come in from the snow this afternoon:

"I'm not done!"

52 Form Project- Week 6

The 52 Form Project 

What is it?

My 52 Form Project is devised to help me stretch my creative muscles, explore new forms, or finally get to making forms I have been wanting to try for a long time. I am planning to make a new or modified form for every week of this year.

How can you help?

Your input on the forms, their shape, decoration, appeal, and function would be greatly appreciated. Some forms, if they seem like they may do well in the market, may become a part of my regular production.

Week 6

Last week's endeavor was into the world of baskets. It was initially just to try an oval walled vessel in several ways, and turned into baskets or what-not holders. Here is the first method I tried for making an oval vessel:

 I threw an open-bottomed cylinder on the wheel and then elongated the sides into the shape of an oval.

 I threw a flat circle at the thickness I wanted for the base.

 While the two pieces were fairly damp I placed the open-bottomed cylinder onto the flat disc. I then cut the excess of the flat disc away from the base and smoothed the exterior and interior with slip where the two pieces joined. Here is how this piece turned out:

 I pulled a somewhat wide strap handle and after it set up for a bit, attached it to the interior of the form and added some little bits of clay to the edge for decoration.

The above method felt very comfortable to me. However, I was aware of another method that sometimes seems a little quicker. Check out this David Cuzick video for more details on this method:

I had a few issues and hiccups with this method. I made the cylinder:

 I wired the bottom, and then cut a 'feather' out of the base:

 When I pushed the two sides together, every time I got this:

One side of the oval split every time I tried this method

 I suspect my 'feather' I cut out of the bottom may have been too pointed on the sides, or perhaps was too wide. I tried this method several times with the bottom cut out being different lengths and widths, and every time I got the little split on one side (as seen in the photo above). Laying a bit of clay and working some slip into the cracks did cover it all up, as the video above talks about, but that seems unstable to me. Shifting the vessel like this also created an uneven bottom on a few of the pieces, which I don't particularly enjoy. I think I am going to stick with the first method of making. Though the second method seems quicker, it's a little bit more fussy than I like.

 At some point, while one of the pieces was sitting on the wheel, I thought, "gee, wouldn't an undulating rim look nice?" Altering is usually something I have an aversion to because I'm not usually happy with the result. This, however, was a pleasant surprise and I enjoyed the outcome very much!

Here are how the somewhat final versions look after I stamped "Liberty Stoneware" on them and put some white and blue slip on the surface. I am not sure that they all will make it into the upcoming kiln firing because they may be too damp, so the final results may have to wait until next month's firing! On to week 7!

Furniture Romp and Potter Visit

Investigating furniture at MESDA during the 2011 Summer Institute

 This morning I had the chance to basically be a glorified chaperone for a group of furniture makers who were visiting the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts (MESDA). It was great to go through the rooms and watch what objects they were attracted to, and be a part of their close inspection of the pieces. I became a part-time guide at MESDA late last fall and really enjoy spending time with the objects, sharing the collection with visitors, and learning from experienced visitors like these furniture makers. It reminded me of my days in the Winterthur Program which sometimes (more often than not) looked like this:

Learning about tea tables, their construction, and identification

 I really enjoy teaching and learning about history and culture through objects. Learning about the manufacture of those objects just makes the whole study even more exciting. Following ceramics, furniture is probably the close second in my material culture interests (and then a close follow-up is glass and textiles). I will have to tell you about my boat building and furniture making experiences some day. Luckily, this morning we did not have anything happen like this:

My reworking of a Lewis Miller print from Pennsylvania with a cupboard being toppled by a bull

 This afternoon I had a lovely excursion to meet up with Dennis Allen from Whistle Creek Pottery at the North Carolina Pottery Center and show him through the exhibition I put together. Some time ago, I had the small-world experience of reading Dennis' blog and then poking around to learn more about him. I noticed his shows were primarily in Southern Ohio (where I grew up) and then saw something about Lebanon, Ohio (where my family is from). Long story short, Dennis is from Lebanon, and it is nice to make a connection with a distant, yet local (to my roots), potter! It was great to walk through the exhibition and talk about my thought processes with developing the exhibition and the various pieces and potters involved. It was also a great chance to get to know Dennis a little more! Thanks, Dennis for visiting!

Dennis Allen at the North Carolina Pottery Center

 I have been wrapping things up in the studio this past week for a firing next weekend. Last-minute glazing and some decoration will take place in the coming days. I also have some minor work on the kiln to complete (just some mortar issues). Here are a few snapshots from the studio this past week:

Finished basket form for this week's 52 Form Project form

Decorated plates and smaller plates

Square Bottles

Something that developed out of the 52 Form Project in Week 3 was finally getting around to squaring up some bottles. I have long admired case bottles as an historic glass form- squared bottles for storing in a box- and also love the German Westerwald squared bottles.

Book, Steinzeug, Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Koln

Picture the dark part of the bottle being bright, vivid blue!

I lived in Austria and traveled through Germany in the summer of 2007, and went to as many museums and potteries as I could stuff into my time. The book above is one I picked up and am glad I did. It includes photographs of all kinds of German stoneware ("Steinzeug" means "stoneware"), and includes photos of squared bottles.  I saw numerous squared bottles, all highly decorated across Germany. I suspect that the squared bottles were not exported as much as other vessels were, because to my knowledge, there have not been any archaeological excavations with German squared decorated bottles here in the States.

I noted the downfalls of faceting in the aforementioned blog post, and decided to not go the route of faceting the bottle to be square. Instead, I whacked it a few times or more into a nice shape. I made a narrow, ovoid bottle, and as it the clay set up began working it into shape.

I brought back a technique I had not used in several years and mentioned in a 2010 blog post- basically taking the flat end of a tool and by rocking it, created fan and floral patterns on the piece. I used both blue and red slip for the patterns over a white slip ground.

I am excited to see how these turn out in the kiln! 

52 Form Project- Week 5

The 52 Form Project 

What is it?

My 52 Form Project is devised to help me stretch my creative muscles, explore new forms, or finally get to making forms I have been wanting to try for a long time. I am planning to make a new or modified form for every week of this year

How can you help?

Your input on the forms, their shape, decoration, appeal, and function would be greatly appreciated. Some forms, if they seem like they may do well in the market, may become a part of my regular production.

Week 5

SALT PIGS! These little beasts have long fascinated me, and though I don't tend to salt dishes I make on the stove a whole lot, we do salt at the table, and pinch or spoon salt from a dish. So, the function of the piece makes sense to me to have no lid and be open. I admire the shape of both Paul Jessop and John Leach's salt pigs, which resemble a mug tilted on its side, but I find myself having a design conflict of interest. My conflict is with the opening. I live in an old house that seems to have dust (literally) coming out of the woodworking all of the time, and wonder about the slanted opening of a salt pig collecting dust or kitchen debris.

I investigated some designs that had a more hooded design, so the hole would be on the side, or protected in some way or another.  I tried a few variations. I started with a basic, closed form with about 1 1/2 pounds of clay. By closed, I mean that there is not any opening or hole on the initial vessel, so it's like a small, clay balloon!

For the first version, I threw a ring to add to the front for the opening. I figure this could protect from falling debris and dust and makes (in my opinion) a fairly appealing design.

The prototypes for this variation initially looked like the photos above. 

 

Stamped "Liberty Stoneware"

Stamped "SALT"

Stamped and decorated

I added some stamps to say "SALT" and "Liberty Stoneware" along with some white slip and a little cobalt blue decoration around the opening.

Variation on the salt pig form

I also tried a few other shapes without the hood-looking addition, but am not feeling as drawn to these designs. The cut into the side feels a little shapeless and just looks like a general hole, rather than a feature of the design. It could look different when they are fired.

I understand the need or want to fit your hand or fingers in the jar to scoop out the salt, and all of the forms passed in that regard. The first prototype with the more round opening seemed more welcoming and less likely to have a sharp edge compared to the other shape.

Two different prototypes for the salt pig

I'm torn about which shape I enjoy more. I'm leaning toward the one made with two parts, but perhaps making it a little shorter, or making the opening more oval. What do you think?

In other notes, the fondness for the mug-like salt pigs has led to an interesting development in a lidded jar form:

New development in the studio

Stay tuned for more on that!