Busy days

Busy days at Liberty Stoneware!

Me in presentation mode before things got started

Last week was my presentation at the Randolph County Arts Guild on my historic kiln research. It was well attended and there were many great questions from the audience. I am especially grateful for the opportunity to start formulating some thoughts about my research and getting some of it on paper.

Inside at the pottery festival

A few weekends ago I was at the Greensboro Curb Farmer's Market for the Triad Pottery Festival. I had a new location this time and got to try out my new sign which came in the mail the other day. Always good to talk to potters and make new acquaintances.

My booth layout-- check out the new sign on the wall!

Smattering of wares

And if that wasn't enough to be going on, this past weekend was an event I have been helping coordinate for several months now at our local museum, the Patterson Cottage Museum. We had a Heritage Festival, which, despite the nasty weather in the morning, was decently attended and I think rather well for our first year.

Inside the Patterson Cottage Museum

Outside the Patterson Cottage Museum at the Heritage Festival

I am working on getting pots thrown for a firing with Joseph Sand. We are loading next week. I am doing a combination of single-fired pieces as well as bisqued ware, so we will see what happens!

Recent Firing

Fired goodies in the kiln

My kiln firing one week ago went well and yielded good results. I was pleased overall with the color and the variation in salt patterns and flame-flashing.

Table of ware from the kiln

Medium jar with faceting

There is always that amusement which comes out of the kiln. This time it was the fact that the pieces below one of the ports where I put the salt in were actually kind of dry-feeling. The faceting jar in the photo below was one such piece. Usually the pieces below the ports are coated in salt and rather shiny, this piece and another one were rather matte.

Another medium jar with faceting.

Good salting on the teapot

Overall, the kiln had an excellent salt coating on everything. I think closing the damper when I salt makes a huge difference in the coating on the pieces.

Twist handle pitcher

                                              

I love the orange peel which covered some of the pieces!

I am still playing with the blue slips. The ones which got a really good salting turned really vivid blue, which is beautiful! The pieces which were closer to the top and may not have gotten quite as much salt turned rather dark and near-black as the other trials have rendered.

Good blues

Excellent blue!

Somewhat black in color, but still blue!

The brown glaze I use for a liner came out of the kiln with a look I had never seen before! It has an illustrious gold flecking through the bottom, and is really quite spectacular!

If you follow Liberty Stoneware on Facebook, you may have seen my update last week when I said the kiln pack at the top of the kiln blew up. After unloading, I found there were no direct hits from the explosion, and it more or less looks like it just crumbled and fell off of the front of the shelf. I made the next firing's cone packs earlier and let them dry out more, so here's to hoping that it goes well!

The next kiln was loaded up yesterday and I finished firing it today. I should be unloading on Thursday just in time for the Fall Festival this coming weekend!





Mad Potter of Liberty

George Ohr, the Mad Potter of Biloxi. Courtesy, http://northernwebdesign.com/gohr1/artist.htm

As a nod to the Mad Potter of Biloxi, George Ohr, I have been feeling a little mad myself throwing two or three kilns worth of pots in about two weeks! Medium-sized kiln, mind you, but for someone (me) who does not make pottery full-time, it's been a bear! I am getting ready for the Randolph County Arts Guild's Fall Festival, dropping pottery off to Bramble Ridge Orchard, and pots to sell at Bramble Ridge's Apple Butter Festival on October 8th. This should explain my negligence of this blog, and I apologize.
Here's a sneak peak of what I have been up to.
Here is about one week's worth of throwing all glazed up and ready to go:

Table full 'o' bisque ware!

Bisque ware awaiting transport. Check out the new slip color!

And here are those pots loaded into the kiln just today for firing tomorrow. I got everything on those tables into the kiln except for three of the bigger pieces!

First kiln all loaded up

Here are the newer pieces I have made over the last week which will be put into the bisque kilns this coming week:

Lots of twist-handle pitchers!

I am excited about the lidded pitchers. I think they will be perfect for lemonade or sweet tea!

Decorated mugs

New stemless wine cups

I have been trying to make more compost crocks and have decided to stick with these two designs:

Compost crocks!

I'm testing out a new cobalt slip, so my slip when it is just put on looks purple, and if you noticed in the pieces which have been bisqued, it is REALLY blue! I also have put some red slip onto a piece which will be fired in about a week and a half:

Cobalt slip (purple color) with red slip floral decoration

I should unload the first kiln by Friday, so I will let you know how the results turn out!

North Carolina Potters Conference

This past weekend was the 24th annual North Carolina Potters Conference in Asheboro. It was hosted by the Randolph Arts Guild. It was my first time attending this conference, and was a great opportunity to meet potters, see other work by potters from universities, North Carolina, and a few other states, and to have the unique opportunity to see demonstrations by potters from Jingdezhen, China. I am still sorting through my notes and photos, so I will share a few images and tidbits from the conference.
Something I appreciated as a potter was having the opportunity to have a few items in the exhibition space at the Moring Arts Center. All attending potters were given the opportunity to bring five items to sell and have on exhibition for the weekend. This was a great chance to see other potter's work and to have a conversation starter with new potters I met.

Exhibition gallery at the Moring Arts Center

My little display

The first few days were held at a local church, which provided a lot of room for the demonstrations and for people to walk around.

Setup of the conference at a local church

I liked how the room was set up. There were five stations: one overglaze painter, one underglaze painter, a trimmer, a thrower, and a slab builder. Each station had a camera dedicated to that demonstrator, and a screen which was set up behind them. No matter where you were in the room, you had a pretty good view of what was going on.

Large screen for slideshow presentations and small television screens behind the demonstrators

One of the demonstrations on Saturday was to have randomly chosen potters draw designs for the thrower to make. Another potter gave me her sheet of paper, since the challenge was to draw a piece he had not thrown that weekend (and I'll get into this in a later post, but he went through I think over 1000 pounds in a day and a half, so you can imagine the array of forms made!). My first drawing was of a bottle, but I decided to change my design and I drew a large pitcher. Clearly I did not have my thinking cap on because after the potter finished throwing the body, it was announced that he does not pull spouts, and that if I wanted a pulled spout I would have to put it on myself! So rather than do that, when we were told we could take the pieces home, I kept it as a nice vase form.

My "unfinished pitcher"

Signature of master potter Zhan Shaolin

Here are photos from another potter's design of a large 19th-century style ovoid bottle. If the photos make it look like throwing this piece was a breeze for him, it was. I do not think it took more than four or five minutes to make this entire piece, from centering to finishing!

Finished form