sunday morning

It is a foggy foggy morning- I'm in a quiet hotel room and all of my family is asleep after a late night at my cousin's wedding.  I'm thinking about pottery- specifically picking up a box of porcelain and some new white glazes to test.  I'm still having problems with glaze shivering off the edges of my pieces- it seems to happen at random, and even though I've switched glazes and even the formulations of the glazes, I think I'm ready to try a new clay.   Maybe it's the clay that's been reformulated rather than the glaze?   I've been yearning for porcelain for some time, but my normal clay supplier, as wonderful as they are, doesn't carry much in the way of porcelain.  They have 2 that I've tried but once finished, there's not a perceptible difference between it and the smooth smooth stoneware I usually use.  So, that's tomorrow.

Last week my boy was sick, sick, and I focused on tending to him and delivering pots rather than making anything new.  I boxed up twenty little cups and saucers for my friend and client, Lane.  I finished the botanical dinnerware set, finally,  as well as the bowls for another client who's ordered her dishes by component.  I also delivered all of my bee pieces.  I spent last Saturday hanging them on the wall of my dining room and shooting them.  I'm really really proud of them and can't wait to see how they look all hanging together at the same time. 

 This is a set of 8 small dessert bowls I threw on the wheel and decorated.  Honestly, if they don't sell, I will be more than happy to keep them.  I'm just tickled with how they turned out. 

 And this is a detail shot of one of my larger bowls.  It's a slab piece, one that Natalie made for me.  She really has been invaluable- she and I worked and worked on figuring out how to use the honeycomb foundation to make a nice impression before we laid the enormous, heavy slab into its mold.  I inscribed a bit of Emily Dickinson's poem 58/"the bee" into the side rim. 
All of these pieces hang on the wall- either with traditional plate hangers, small holes I drilled into the foot of the piece, or little lug loops I added to the backs of the larger platters.

I'm ready to begin working and throwing again.  I have very little inventory.  Mugs and bowls are platters and ornaments for the holidays are on my to-make list, as are travel cups.  A friend found some silicone lids for her mugs in her etsy shop.  I'm on a search for some lids to make cups to locally.  This week I'm finishing up my "hope" pieces for the St. Jude event- hopefully early in the week.  I'm motivated to clear my plate and emerge from the land of "swamped" and start being creative again. 

Have a wonderful week, everyone.

invitational

I can't tell you when I've felt such a sense of accomplishment (well, yes, I can, it was when I finished with my dinner set, but that was erased when I broke three of the dishes.  they're almost done!).  I needed to have 10 pieces (or groups of pieces) for the annual invitational at St. George's Independent School.  Now I need to go through them, separate them into groups, and price them.

There is no way I could have possibly made all of these without the help of my friend Natalie.  She wedged clay, rolled slabs and cut out all of the molds for my platters.  I did the finishing, decorating, and throwing, but she was instrumental in helping me work through this task.  I'm grateful and excited and ready to finish my last big assignment.  But before I do, look at what's coming! 

I made and bisqued some hex stamps to speed up my honeycombs.  One of my "eureka" moments came at Heath Ceramics when I was talking to Ali, the kiln-daddy and glaze mixer-master.  I kept staring that the hex nuts on the kiln and finally realized that they were the key to my honeycomb problems.  I'd been using a template to draw them, but I wanted larger shapes.  Hex nuts don't make a good impression in clay, but they do make a fine template for clay stamps.  I know it's obvious, but I'd been stumped and the answer was waiting for me in my hardware cabinet. 

Y'all have a nice end of your week and weekend.  My boys are going on a group camping trip and I'm taking the "extra" time to do a little housekeeping in the studio, pushing through the last of my production obligations, and get started on holiday production.  I'm late in the game and my work will be limited, but I'll have enough for a small studio sale, etsy restock, and to stock my local retailers. 

SF, 2- some things I learned

I learned a lot when I was touring pottery studios and galleries- by looking and talking to folks.  Some new techniques- like this, which is very similar to the crayon scratch-art we did as kids- though I don't think I *quite* got it, I'm mostly pleased with the results.  And wondering how I'd like it with another color as the base layer.  It isn't what I anticipated, but I'm not disappointed with the results, either.  I saw some pieces in process like this at Fourth and Clay, so I'm not 100% sure how they were supposed to turn out.  That may be good, because where I take the process from here will be entirely up to me.  It's very painterly, isn't it?

I also learned that I need to take greater care with the bottoms of my pieces.  Sometimes I don't catch things in time to make the bottoms smooth and pleasing, or trim them quite properly.  There might be a rough spot from an air bubble that I let pass because it's on the bottom.  I need to pay more attention to those details.  On the flip side, I saw some very expensive pieces by celebrated potters that had some quirks would have made me scrap the pieces entirely- handles not attached smoothly, some uneven/peely glaze issues.  Potters aren't perfect.  Neither is the work of our hands.  We aren't factories and some things slip by us.  Lesson for me- Melissa Bridgman needs to cut herself some slack.  Point taken.

So- it is Tuesday, the kiln needs loading and firing, and I'm looking forward to a large pot of soup on this first really cold day of fall.  Hope y'all have a good week.

R&D- San Francisco

This trip was fantastic.  I toured Heath Ceramics (This is such a wonderful small company.  Everyone there was so incredibly kind and open and I learned SO MUCH), several individual pottery studios (Diana Fayt, Fourth and Clay, the studio of Josie Jurczenia, Rae Dunn, and Christa Assad), and Trax Gallery, which is both a ceramics gallery and studio for Sandy Simon and Robert Brady.   There was a drive-by of Whitney Smith's studio and shop in Oakland.  Bought unavailable-locally glazes, underglazes, and tools.  Spent several hours at SF MOMA, which, happily, featured a ceramics collaboration .

I returned home inspired to clear my plate of my obligations (this week will be a veritable glazing festival) so that I can work on new pieces, using new techniques I learned on the studio visits and try my hand at adapting some pieces that were particularly inspiring.  I am ever grateful to Diana Fayt for sharing her time, knowledge, and passion for this medium with me, and even more grateful to call her my friend.

(top, L-R Josie Jurczenia's studio, Heath Ceramics, test tiles at Diana Fayt's studio.  middle, L-R Rae Dunn's studio, Diana Fayt's studio, Trouble Coffee and my friend Monica Bodnar-Pharr's teacups.  bottom, L-R Heath Ceramics, work in process, Christa Assad's cup, Nest, Louise Nevelson at SF MOMA)

preview

to say that I am thrilled with these is an understatement.  Bisque firing a bunch more of these today.

This weekend I also went to see this show and lecture.  I bought the book that accompanied the show, which is something that I rarely do, but I think I'll go back to it over and over again.  I drew and took notes furiously throughout the lecture- not so much on this potter's style- it was very much in the folk, utilitarian style of the NC mountains (read- really, really thick), but he used a slip-painting style that was reminiscent of Wedgwood Jasperware (without knowing about Jasperware) and crystalline glazes.  Crystalline isn't something I'm interested in pursuing- they're not really food safe- almost, but not quite, too soft and leachable, and frankly, too finicky in the firing.  I'm not into finicky.  Nope.  But I did fall in love with how they cascade down the shoulders of large vases, and that, friends, is something I can draw.  If you're in Memphis, the show runs through mid-November.  There's also a nice impressionist exhibit up through Oct 9.

working and sorting

I may have mentioned that I was sorting out my options for the foreseeable future,  what I wanted to do, what I wanted to make more of, what I didn't want to do this year(a holiday home sale) and what I didn't want to make anymore.  This is a process that's been difficult for me, and that I've been wrestling with for the better part of this year.  Difficult because some things have been so so good in the past but don't feel quite right anymore.  Difficult because I'm used to them and changing how I do business or make pottery is scary.  Difficult because I've been in survival mode for so long that I haven't let myself ask big questions since, oh, 2009, when I decided to quit my job, one that I loved but knew I wouldn't want to do forever, and go out on my own.

During this process, I've been off-line from social media sites (that are useful but harmfully addictive for people who need to actually get things done).  The only on-line form I've kept up with has been flickr, and if I weren't committed to taking and posting a photo a day, I would have foresworn that, too.  Surprisingly, I haven't missed it.  Not at all, which leads me to wonder how much of it I'll add back in October, once the heavy part of my current workload is over.  I've also just finished a 30 day vegan course, which was challenging and stretching and good.  There's been a lot of navel-gazing in the midst of a heavy workload, but I'm seeing lots of progress in both the work and clarifying my goals for the future.

These berry bowls, which have happily (but more frequently, frustratingly) paid my mortgage for several months of each year for at least the last four years,  are on the don't want to make anymore list.  Maybe forever, maybe not.  These are the last three berry bowls I made.  Even with new techniques in throwing and piercing the holes, the percentage of breakage (which never shows up until after they've been glazed, leaving me with a functional but non-sellable bowl) is just too too high.  One in every four or five bowls cracks, even when pierced with a sharp tool, a drill, compressed on the edges, etc. etc.  No more.  I have one (not pictured) tucked away in my cupboard in case the one I use most breaks.  Two of these are being sent away.  I haven't decided what to do the last bowl.  It will probably go into my gift closet.  I love to use my berry bowl, but I will not miss making them, nor will I miss explaining that despite its diminutive size, it is a colander.  Not a coffee cup.  Ahem.

Next week I should have lots of pretty pretty work to show you.  I've been throwing and glazing and drawing on pots every day.  There's no more shelf space in my studio.  I have another hour's worth of either glazing or drawing to do tonight (probably glazing, so that I can fire the kiln overnight).  I have conquered the "how to hang it" issues I was having last week, happily.  I'm knocking through long-standing orders.  I'm super-tired, but my goals are clear(er) and I'm moving past the post-stress exhaustion, thank goodness.

Hope your week ends well, friends.

deadlines

Good morning!  It is mid-morning here, now, and I'm ready to start my day in the studio.  I've been spending a lot of time planning and drawing this week because I realized, late last week, that a deadline was approaching much faster than I'd anticipated.  As in, weeks sooner.  And that I was somewhat behind in both planning and production, given this new deadline.

This summer I accepted an invitation to show at St. George's School here in Memphis.  I had a plan and was thinking through how I'd be hanging my plates, platters, and bowls on the wall.  I'm still working through that- have had some successes and some abject failures in the hanging department.  The show is in November.  Plenty of time, I thought, to work steadily and give myself some days off to regroup, refocus, re-evaluate.  Friday I shuffled through the papers that came with my contract and realized that photos and artist statements are due this week.  Eek.  Work needs to be finished by mid October.  Eek.  I have several pieces in process, but only a few pieces are actually finished and ready to be shot.  Eek.  I have a plane ticket for Oct 3, and wanted a clear plate before I leave.  Well.  Time to revise the plans.

My solution is eating breathing sleeping drawing bees on pieces that I've thrown and handbuilt.  I've made a good bit of progress (my plans, roughly sketched out, above) but I have miles to go.  Realistically, one can only sit hunched over a plate/platter/bowl you're drawing on for 3 hours a day.  The actual making of the pieces is a breeze, but the surface design/detail work is hard on the body.  Yoga has become my good good friend.  I'm excited about the work that I'm making.  That helps.  The other work (those large cylinder vases) are on the back burner for another week or so because I'm 4/5 finished with those large pieces and they aren't due until November.  Progress and process.  I don't work well when I'm freaked out.  I do work well when I have a plan.  So I have the plan, and it will all be well.

See you soon.