Curious Layman

My new clay

2009-11-09T17:41:00.001-08:00

I recently ordered a batch of clay from Highwater mixed to a custom recipe. I worked with Ron Roy (coauthor of Mastering Cone 6 Glazes) and he saved me a great deal of time by taking the properties I wanted in a clay and getting me a great start. From there I tweaked the vitrification and kept running tests until I got the absorption right where I want it for my firing temperature. Today, the 18 wheeler dropped the pallet off at work and moved it to the studio. It was the first time I have used any of this clay that had been pugged. My tests were just mixed in a bucket and dried on plaster. I’m shooting for a particular reddish color in a clay that will stand up much better than the stock clay I had been using. Highwater has other clays that throw really well too, but not in the color I want. I threw a few large bowls and laid the rims way down to see if they rip apart before they dry!

Honor System

2009-11-07T10:24:00.001-08:00

Batter bowl

2009-11-01T13:50:00.001-08:00

It’s been so long since I used my camcorder that I had forgotten how to get the video back to the computer. So, I took the opportunity to shoot a quick clip of a batter bowl to get the process back down.

I never learn

2009-10-29T18:47:00.001-07:00

I’ve been losing way too many bowls this week. A few days ago I was throwing dessert cups and lost a third within minutes of throwing them. And then tonight when I was throwing what Christy and I refer to as our ‘low, wide bowls’ ( ‘cause we’re clever like that), I noticed later that another bit the dust. See, I put a rim on all my bowls and I’m just too aggressive with the thinness and often don’t leave enough clay to support it. I’m not sure what’s so hard about leaving more clay there. Stupidity and hard-headedness are painful and very often expensive character flaws.

On a more cheerful note, I finally got around to making a yarn bowl. The local yarn shop has been asking about one and when another friend mentioned she wanted one I finally got on with it and made a couple to test. I left these thicker so they’d be heavier and hence stay in one place as you pull the yarn through. I have no idea how that theory will work. The aforementioned friend also knitted a little cover for a yunomi (mom, think mug without a handle. Or a little juice cup.) I had given her, and even as a guy I had to admit it was pretty sweet. She had a neat name for it too, but I can’t remember it now. Huddle mug cover maybe? Something like that. Anyway, if it was huddle mug it is because of the way many women (at least my wife and her) two hand a yunomi as if to channel every last bit of heat from the vessel to their frigid hands (get it, they huddle around it). Of course, at the very beginning the yunomi may be pretty hot, so if you have an appropriately sized knitted cover, you just slip it on until while everything cools enough to go skin on ceramic. See that way, you don’t just waste precious BTUs by doing the "’thumb on the rim, finger on the bottom” hold while you wait on it to cool.

Pumpkin roll

2009-10-24T13:59:00.001-07:00

Today was the pumpkin festival and the almost world famous pumpkin roll. People line the street on “Frog Town” hill and cheer on the pumpkins. Most of them go bounding through the crowd, and I’m surprised there aren’t more injuries. Clean, small town fun. We sold some pots, but the shop wasn’t as busy as it has been in the past.

First snow of the year

2009-10-18T14:24:00.001-07:00

From Newfound Gap in the GSMNP:

Elk

2009-07-26T18:27:00.001-07:00

This afternoon we took a drive into the national park to hang out for a while. On our way out we ran into an "elk jam". Not long ago you only saw the reintroduced elk in Cataloochee, but now they are showing up on the Cherokee side.

Hanging plate

2009-07-05T17:06:00.001-07:00

I'm still (slowly) working on a reasonable photo setup. It has to be small, quick, and simple. I spent the 4th trimming bowls and making a little photo booth. The only pot I had around was this wall plate that is waiting to be shipped out. I need to work on the lighting, but I think this might work for my purposes.

Around the house

2009-07-05T15:05:00.001-07:00

Demonstrating

2009-06-21T17:58:00.001-07:00

Saturday Franklin hosted a festival and I was asked to demonstrate. I'd never done it, so I was a bit anxious to see how it would go. The red clay I use looks good, but takes in water quickly and isn't that great for throwing tall vases. So I bought some buff clay which is much better at that and it worked fine. It allowed me to chat as I made the forms without worrying if I would lose the pot. As it turns out, I didn't loose any - even while giving a short radio interview. Maybe the three people tuned in will come by the shop this week!

Since I wasn't keeping anything I let little kids destroy the pots afterward. That went over well with the boys.

We don't really have any pictures of the actual demonstrations. This is me warming up before the festival started. The two girls were participating in the festival as well.

Sabbath Poem 1979-X

2009-06-06T19:09:00.001-07:00

Whatever is foreseen in joy
Must be lived out from day to day.
Vision held open in the dark
By our ten thousand days of work.
Harvest will fill the barn; for that
The hand must ache, the face must sweat.

And yet no leaf or grain is filled
By work of ours; the field is tilled
And left to grace. That we may reap,
Great work is done while we're asleep.

When we work well as Sabbath mood
Rests on our day, and finds it good.

From A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems 1979-1997 - Wendell Berry

Afternoon Walk

2009-05-23T19:44:00.001-07:00

Christy and I found a new place to walk right behind our house. There is a development that really never got off the ground, but it has a road all the way to the top of the mountain behind our house. It's a nice walk, going up about 500 feet. The view at the top is nice too:

Arboretum

2009-05-23T19:41:00.001-07:00

John Sill, a local artist has a show at the NC Arboretum in Asheville, so Christy and I headed over today. The show was great and after checking it out we walked the grounds. I was most impressed with the metal work, particularly the gates:

Christy's recent work

2009-05-05T14:58:00.001-07:00

Small Mention

2009-04-27T16:53:00.001-07:00

Many fellow Western North Carolina artists are featured this month in WNC Magazine in an article about the economic impact of crafts on this region (hint: It's a lot).

As it happens they also did a short article on Franklin, and the last paragraph is dedicated to our shop. The online version can be found here:

http://www.wncmagazine.com/feature/road_trip/bright_prospect

New Arrival

2009-04-25T17:12:00.001-07:00

Our new slab roller was delivered today. It wasn't that bad to assemble, except for the handle. I beat that thing for a half hour with a rubber mallet before taking the entire roller assembly off and slamming it handle down on the concrete to seat it fully. I think they need to machine that part with a little more tolerance. Are you listening Axner?

Plate molds

2009-04-20T18:55:00.001-07:00

Christy and I decided that we'd like to make some almost square plates. So this Saturday I made some hump molds and decided to take some photos along the way. Basically we drew out the shapes, cut them out with a jig saw, and sanded them down. Finally I drilled some holes partially through the molds so I could get a finger hold to pull the mold off of the clay.

We made a set of three nesting plate molds and a rectangular tray mold.

Really Slow Cooling

2009-03-22T05:35:00.001-07:00

For quite some time I've noticed that my blue glaze works better in the cooler parts of the kiln. I've just put up with the middle of the kiln turning my stuff the wrong color. I call it NyQuil blue-green. I put our cheapest dessert cups there. Other people didn't seem to care but it really bothered me.

I slow cool my kiln so that my glazes with crystallize some to make them matte. And even though the middle of the kiln is hottest I would assume that it cools at more or less the same rate and so I didn't think the issue had anything to do with cooling rates. But the other day I decided to slow REALLY slowly. As it turns out, this was perfect and made even the hottest sections of the kiln turn out the "right" color. Go figure.

While I hope to get a bigger kiln this year (because I can easily out produce it at this point), I'm thankful to have had a smaller one to allow me to fire so often and learn so much over the past couple of years.

Butter? Oui!

2009-03-20T18:43:00.001-07:00

The other day a customer came in and asked if we made french butter dishes. We don't, but I decided to make one that night for kicks. For those that don't know, you pack softened butter into the little cup. Then you fill part of the base with water. That way when the two pieces are together you have an air tight seal. You can keep butter un-refrigerated up to 30 days that way. And it keeps it a nice spreadable consistency. I hear it needs to be actual butter. As in from a cow, not a lab.

Christy even carved a little bird so that when the butter was out and on the table you'd see the decoration.

Inside the studio

2009-03-01T18:58:00.001-08:00

Misfire

2009-02-23T18:23:00.001-08:00

The first firing in my little kiln shed didn't go so well. For starters an element burnt out so it never reached temperature. Of course, I've never had that happen yet so I didn't know what was wrong. Oh, and by the way, opening a kiln at 1400 degrees is not good for the pots inside. I knew this of course. But when I came out in the morning and the kiln had shut off at 1900 degrees, and was now at 1400, I just had to see what it looked like inside. Glowing red. I didn't hear it happen, but the bell of a cloche was cracked entirely down the side when I unloaded the kiln to change the element.

The good news is that I changed my first element without destroying more than a pot (so far). So I have that going for me. As I tell my nephew sometimes: If you're going to be stupid, you better be tough.

Kiln Shed Ready

2009-02-21T20:47:00.001-08:00

I spent the last week digging a trench to get power to the shed, mounting the sub panel and installing heat shielding in the kiln shed in the evenings after work. Today I was able to finish the last bit, including installing the kiln vent.

Bread Cloche

2009-01-30T18:14:00.001-08:00

A friend asked if I could make a bread cloche yesterday. Since I had no idea what one was, I got busy finding out and decided to try a couple yesterday.

This evening I trimmed and handled them, while Christy applied the carving:

Waiting on the Kiln Shed

2009-01-21T18:58:00.001-08:00

I ordered a steel shed from friend in that business this week. It will take about two weeks and then I'll have to get electricity to it and build some piers to support it. In the mean time I need to fire a few things, so here is a shot of how I'm set up. The hoses running to the window vent the gasses outside. This is to increase the likelihood that we wake in the morning.

New Studio

2009-01-06T17:59:00.001-08:00

We are moving the pottery operation to the other side of the basement, which doubles the space. I need to get my volume up for the shop and I'm hoping this will help. I was glad to tear out the last bit of carpet in the house and for now we just painted the floor on this side.

I've also got to figure out what I'm going to do with the kiln. I need to fashion some type of shed or something. Anyway, whatever I do I better get to it quickly.

Also, there we may have an opportunity to move our gallery around the corner to main street. It would be a much bigger place. More on that soon hopefully.