Brette and Nina on the broken bridge to nutabithia

oh Brette, where are we? this doesn't look right at all.

i don't know Nina. we were supposed to be at the golden orange bridge of nutmeg and somehow we've ended up at crap mountain.

how did we get here Brette? did you find a recipe and make up a five gallon bucket without testing it first and then glaze an entire kiln load of pots with it?

of course not Nina-i'm no dumb-shit

then how did we get here Brette?

Nina i can only guess that we've ended up at the mountains of poop because we have spectacularly bad luck and always get the shaft. that and maybe something has changed with my yellow ochre. that is the only thing i can think of, except when i tested again with the old yellow ochre it still didn't look right, which leads me to believe it might be my new batch of clay.


oh brette, what should we do now?

i think we should eat chocolate, drink beer, eat a grilled cheese sandwich and chips and feel sorry for ourselves for now Nina.

i like your style Brette.

Keep On Keepin' On

I'm pretty sad this morning. If you remember from a few posts back I had an issue with one of my main glazes. I had mixed up a new batch, tested it and it was not good. So I made two new tests with my old yellow ochre, and my new yellow ochre and fired those with some other tests yesterday. Something is still not right. I could post some photos but this post is not so much about what is wrong visually but what is wrong with my heart. It's crushing. I've worked sooo hard and was finally turning the bend a little. I'm not giving up, but this is a real log on the path and now I've got to figure a way through or around. It started raining this morning and I was glad. I told Adam it was like a big warm blanket around my heart. Now it's no longer raining and I just want to smack the sun.

Serendipitously, I checked Emily Murphy's blog this morning and found her post on Ira Glass from This American Life. It's dead-on and I know these things already but I needed to hear it now and it really helped to turn my negative energy around a little. So I'm closing that gap but it's cracked open a bit. Maybe it is meant to be and the necessity to go down a different path could lead me to something really great that I never would have seen before. But for now, I am sad.

Peepholes, pots and clay goop

I bisque to cone 06. Cone 04 is for sissies. (juuust kidding)


Yesterday I took some steel wool to my wheelhead which had badly oxidised then gave it a bath. Pretty sweet?

Today my goal was small covered pots. A friend who gave me a massage said she wants a honey pot for payment. I threw 20 pots and lids, and then about 10 small tumblers and called it a day. I'm beat.

The same sweet wheel after 20 honey pots and 10 tumblers. It's like . . . why? what did I ever do to you? Yuck. I find this whole messy business a little grotesque, but it comes with the job.

Guitar strings and clay thangs

One side of pitcher
Other side of pitcher
Some tumblers
Another pitcher
A couple of vases and jars

I'm pretty excited about finishing all of these pots. I have an idea of how I would like for them to all look, but of course no idea of how they will actually look. As you can see I put some white slip on some of them. I plan to put white glaze on those areas probably so it really pops out on my clay. The white glaze I use is a little translucent, which I like because it allows the clay body to show through a little, but some bright white contrast might be nice too. I've got a lot I would like to write, but I have to go back to my studio. I'm trying to treat all of my work days as work days and not screw off too much. My guitar thang is tonight, so I only have until 6:30 to work. Then I'm off to be a rock superstar (and live small?-how's that right?).

Seven pitchers

Seven pitchers, seven hours. Kind of. I trimmed 16 tumblers also. Plus a couple of meal breaks so maybe seven pitchers, five hours. Still, I hope once I get my groove on making these that I will become a little more efficient time-wise. The spouts were kicking my butt at first. I kind of like adding the spouts as hand made additions, rather than pinching the rim to form a spout. In the past however I usually cut into the rim to create an opening and attach that way. You know the drill. I hate cutting into the rim. There's something about it that gives me the willies. I don't mind altering the rim as in making it wavy, or making square or triangle plates. But just to take a round rim and cut a chunk out is very distasteful. So then I realized I might be able to just add the spout on top of the rim (yes, I just realized this, I know) and I like it that way much better. The four pitchers on the right are made that way. I think the second and third pitchers from the right are my favorites. Too tired to write more.

Two new friends

At the dump today, huddled together within the rubble I found these two world adventurers. They were stranded and needed a ride and so I offered to help. After spending a moment with them I discovered that their names were Brett and Nina.

Brett and Nina spent much of the morning with us and then it was time for them to go. We dropped them off at a place where they thought they might have luck catching their next ride. They thanked us for our hospitality and we waved goodbye. I was sad to see them go.


I hope I haven't heard the last from Brett and Nina. I have a feeling I haven't. Good luck Brett and Nina!

Old pots, fresh pots and an outlaw

Thought I'd post something with a little color for a change. From my last glaze firing I think. I like the idea, but it's a little flat to me.

Adam said I should make some pitchers and I always do what he says so that's what I'm working on above.

Some beer, ice coffee, whatever tumblers.

If you see this woman on the street, run, don't walk to a safe place. I hear she is quite dangerous.

Polka Dot Pot

I kinda like this pot. Hope it comes through the glaze well.

Mmmm, eze zalright.

I trashed a lot of the jars I had going. They just weren't working for me. That's alright. Part of the process. I'll know it when I see it. I have enough pots ready for a pretty packed bisque now, but everything is taking sooo long to dry. Raining constantly lately and humid on the days it's not.