Flowers and a dirty floor

Still another couple of pieces from last firing. These are some better photos I tried to take. I still need to work on my lighting a little. I'd like to find three of those cool-burning photos lights. I just need to get off my butt and do it. The tumbler below is pretty big actually. It could be used as a vase.


My firing this time was eh-eh. I did not get my main browny-orange glaze on thick enough on many pots. Sometimes they look okay like that, sometimes not. I had maybe a 60% success rate. So that's better than many firings in the past. However, I did have great success refiring two pieces from last firing where the glaze was too thin, so I will try to refire a few of the pots that I really like but didn't quite come out.

I bought something really special yesterday. You have to wonder about my sad little life when something like this pleases me. I bought a commercial style mop bucket and mop. You know the kind where you dunk the mop into a yellow bucket on wheels and and squeeze out the water in the presser thing. It's by Rubbermaid and is really quality. Nice to occasionally buy something nowadays that hasn't been manufactured like crap. So my little setup does a great job of mopping the floor, which was sorely in need.

New and old/new

These pots are still from my last firing. The pot above is the direction I feel pulled in now.

This pot with the leaves is a direction I was working on before I changed course (again). I really like it, and I like the sprigging. Maybe I can figure a way to incorporate both into the same pot.

These tumblers above are part of that same last direction. I had already had all these pots sprigged, and so glazed the the way I was working before, but now I wish had tried some with the new style I am working on. Oh well.

My kiln is almost to temp. I won't be glazing or making any pots today. I want to see how this batch comes through the fire before I glaze the next one. I'm still learning something from each successive firing that I try and pass on to the next. I have to find out today, but I think I might need to put some serious thought and work into designing a booth. I might need a photo of it to apply to the fair Nov.1. I've studied a lot of other potters' booths trying to get a feel for what to do, and what I've learned is that everyone does it differently. I have definitely formed some opinions of what NOT to do. I'm a little overwhelmed at the prospect.

I just figured out something pretty cool I thought I'd share. I regularly have trouble with the top shelf of my kiln being cooler than the middle. Often close to a cone. The bottom is a little behind as well. I believe the main reason the top is so far behind is because of my vent. I have three tiny holes drilled into my kiln lid where the air draws in, and then exits at the bottom of the kiln. I believe that air draw is enough to keep the top shelf cooler. I could solve this by putting a blank shelf over my top layer, but stacking doesn't always work out so conveniently.

I had the idea last firing, that if I removed a peep plug from the center of the kiln, that the air would then draw through that peep hole instead of the top holes. I tested this with a match and my assumption was correct. I decided that when I reached cone 5 this firing I would pull a center peep and test this. I am blown away as I went to check and ALL THREE cone packs are cone 6 down and cone 7 up. I then became concerned about the kiln making it through the soak without overfiring, and so I skipped the last five minutes (I had only programmed 8), re-programmed the ramp/cool again (quickly before I lost too much heat) and was off and running again. I wasn't expecting this level of success with this approach. See woodfirers! There's a lot of excitement and drama in electric too!

Plates and jars and pizza

Here are a couple more pieces from my last firing. The plate above is actually kind of small-like a lunch plate. I really like this combination, so I'd like to do more with it. However, the lighter glaze is very difficult to apply with a brush, so it's a pain. I have to check into gum or whatever it is you use to make a glaze more brushable.

Here are a couple of jars.

I have the kiln loaded and ready to fire. It will start again at 12:30 am. I think it reached peak around 10 am last time, so that works out well. I'm still trying to get a feel for what to do with the black brushwork. Like what is too much, and what is not enough. Plus just what feels right as far as design goes. Well that will do it for me. I am making a tasty pizza tonight. It is a cheese-less pizza, but that is partially because I have eaten so much cheese lately I need a break, and because the fresh mozzarella was 8 dollars for a pound which was out of my budget. The crust is made with sourdough-rosemary-olive oil dough that I made this morning, and is topped with sliced ugly tomato-which by the way, is the BEST tomato I have had in years, salt, pepper and olive oil. It promises to be tasty.

Vase with ears

Blahhh. Too tired to write. Glazing kicks my butt. Just wanted to put up a little picture of a little pot that I like a little-lot. Chow for now.

A dinner plate

Well here is one of the plates from my last firing. I probably should have taken a detail of the blue area. It has this cool grey-ish -webby thing going on. I am wondering if some free alumina affected it somehow as I've never really seen this before and likely never will again. The plate is pretty simple, but I like it.

Well I've reached another difficult situation. The white glaze I used for the last firing, while it dooesn't pinhole and works well with the other glazes, I have discovered is not very resistant to metal marking. So the search is on. I have tried so many it is not even funny. I have another idea I will test today. I have this old glaze I used to use, a cream color, which is very hard, shiny, and metal-mark resistant. I gave almost a full bucket away when I did my glaze elimination thing a few months ago, so I could kick myself now. But I am going to make up a test and see how that works as a liner? It could be interesting.

a good day

I had a pretty good firing. Quite a few rejects-many do to a glazing incident that I didn't share. I have this container of wax that has alumina mixed in that I use to glaze my galleries and lid rims which helps keep them from sticking together. Well for many of my pieces, after I glaze the inside, I wax the rim and clean the excess off the outside up to the rim. I get a nice clean edge that way. Well, guess what wax I grabbed that morning to wax the rims? Fortunately I had only done about 10 pieces, and the next morning I held them on the wheel with my Giffin Grip (a nice new use I discovered) and trimmed the waxed rims off and reglazed them. I think there was still this residue of alumina and I got a lot of pitting on those rims. Oh well.

I'll put up some photos of the successful pieces over the next few days-maybe some nice photos as well, as I believe some of the pieces warrant a psuedo-professional photo op before I send them off to my review never to be seen again (they go from the review to one of the gallery shops). This piece is a honey pot that thank god came out nice. I owe this honey pot in trade for a massage that a massues friend (spell) gave me a while back.

I hope I didn't offend too many people with my tool review. It is just my opinion, and I know that doesn't mean it is the correct one, and that there are many ways to approach a situation. It is not my intent to be judgmental of anyone who would use such a tool. It is just my desire to scream loudly from my soapbox on occasion.

Tag you're it

So I just read about this tagging about a day or two ago, and now I guess I have been tagged. I have Judy Shreeve to thank for this slice of heaven. Since I have read the last two taggers entries, I thought it was interesting learning about six things in their life that they might not ordinarily mention and now I am passing the joy along.

Here are the rules of tagging:

1. Link to the person who tagged you.

2. Post the rules on your blog. (this is what you're now reading.)

3. Write 6 random things about yourself (see below).

4. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them. (This is only a game.)

5. Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.

Six random things about myself.

1. I love watching movies in bed.
2. I accidentally left my door open cleaning the bird-cage and when my bird flew away I was happy for it and glad we didn't find it.
3. I eat tofu because I actually like it.
4. I'm terrified of sail boating, somewhat scared of heights, and extremely uncomfortable swimming in black water.
5. I don't wear makeup and when I try I feel silly.
6. I tell my dog she's sexy all the time.

I don't know if some these guys have already been tagged-but these are my tags.

jeffmartinceramics
Melt My Heart
MudStuffing Sketchbook
coreyackelmire
strangefragments
ang design

Presumptuous tool review

Well the kiln is loaded and programmed to begin to fire at 12:30 a.m. I adjusted the firing program to coincide with what I've worked out in my test kiln these last couple of months. We'll see what happens.

(a little warning, this next passage may be long, so I promise to embellish and use poetic license as much as possible to keep you from nodding off)


So I'm sitting here having a little lunch-some risotto and fish stew of some kind that Adam brought home from work last night-and flipping through my CM mag. I came across a tool that I don't like very much, and since I have never used one or seen the mechanics of it in person, I thought I was perfect to review it. The tool is on page 31 of the Sept. 2008 issue. It is called the Quickcenter, and is made by Brent with a hefty price tag of 274$ (no disrespect to Brent, they have some good equipment). The idea of the tool is that you take this cylinder with a plunger at one end and press it into a chunk of clay, then line the tool up with a bat that has a hole in the center and after pushing the plunger, presto, a "centered" piece of clay. There are several things I find disturbing about this tool and I have no problem sharing them. I will try and address the arguments for this tool towards the end as I know there is more than one way to look at this-although I don't really embrace the other way.

Lets start with the obvious. The clay is not really centered. Putting something in the middle of the wheel barely addresses part of the process and purpose of centering the clay. The photo shows the tool being pressed into what looks like a block of clay directly from the bag. Right away, this tool encourages bypassing of a critical part of clay preparation, and that is wedging. Wedging isn't the most fun thing to do. It can be exhausting-but it can also be meditative if you get your mind right about it. Although I am stating the obvious, wedging also compacts the clay, lines up clay particles, and homogenizes the clay. I'll tell you my opinion right now and that is that if you currently just open a bag of clay and bang it into a ball to put on your wheel, you're skipping part of the process that will noticeably make your pots easier to throw. Sure, by centering your clay on the wheel you do gain some compression and particle alignment, but centering will not be as easy and the center of the clay piece that you are working on, will not receive that benefit.

Once you eject this tube of clay onto your wheel it will need additional work to truly get it centered. I can't imagine-at least I hope-that no one would think that this tool has removed all aspect of centering from throwing. Really all it has done is placed a pug of clay in the middle. Nothing more really than what I do when I sit down and bang a properly wedged piece into the center and pat it to pre-center. Now if your idea of this step is to try and 3-point shoot if onto the wheel from the other side of the room, you will definitely have better results using this tool.

Here's where I have my biggest problem with this tool. It tries to make part of the job easier that is almost the first thing you need to learn and accomplish before making a pot on the wheel. What is the saying? Anything worth learning is difficult? Something like that. Maybe that's not true, but part of learning anything using involves pushing through a wall where there is a part of you that wants to give up and you decide that instead you will go forward. Many walk away. I think why this tool really rubs me wrong, is that it is dumbing people down, or allowing them to dumb themselves down. Don't get me wrong-I LOVE TOOLS-I'm almost a tool and gadget-aholic, although I restrain myself greatly because I am also a poor-aholic. I just can't seem to stop being poor.

I have:

A Talisman Sieve (one of the greatest tools ever invented; albeit a pain to clean) a slab roller, a Giffin Grip (bought with my first pottery sale money in college-after I learned how to center a pot for trimming), an immersion blender (good for pre-mixing glazes that contain the dreaded, clumping Bentonite, before sieving) two digital scales (because one just isn't enough), multiple wire tools, needle tools, ribs, sponges, brushes, etc., a ware cart (because I don't like to walk back and forth when I don't have to), an extruder (makes rapid fire compressed coils-love it). What I don't have yet, sniffle-sniffle, is a pug/mixer mill (to help with recycling clay and de-airing freshly made clay) and a treadle wheel (because they're so purrrty). But that's due to my pooraholism.

I imagine that some might see a conflict between what I am preaching and what I am practicing as involves my using a Giffin Grip. I don't see it as the same thing. I suppose you could say that tap centering, or needle centering the pot and then taking clay coils to hold the pot to the wheel, is a crucial part of making the pot. I don't think so. If it's part of the process for you and you are kind of Zen about it, then that's great. I wasn't zen, it seemed like a lot of time spent doing something that wasn't that important to making a pot. The clay has already been wedged, centered, thrown, partially dried, and now I just need to hold it on the wheel so I can trim some excess clay off which which this tool does a great job of doing (usually).

I just think that part of mastering a craft is learning and using the process. By attempting to remove centering, this tool allows us to think that we either can't or shouldn't bother getting the clay (and our hearts and minds-"we are the world, we are the children . . .") to center, and makes the beginning part of making a pot into a paint by number enterprise (no offense to paint by number fans). So I think some of the arguments against my thinking is that this tool will be good for:

a. beginning learners
b. children
c. people with weak wrists, arms, bellybuttons, whatever
d. clay classes for the hobbyist

As far as beginning learners go, I think I've already addressed this. Learning to center is part of learning to make a pot. It's not about skipping the hard stuff to get to the fun stuff (which is still hard, and probably will be harder since you have not gotten a true feel for the clay yet). As far as kids go, I know that everyone might think I am an evil ogre, but I don't believe in dumbing kids down, and that they shouldn't learn struggle and failure . That doesn't mean they should never be helped. Of course not. But I don't think this tool will really help them much, as it will take about 10 seconds for them to get the clay off center again. I'm just not a fan of this "there are no losers, every ones a winner" culture that we try and create for our kids. It does NOT prepare them for the real world. The weak wristed-you still have to get the clay to full center and turn it into a pot-things still requiring strength, which is largely built by wedging and centering. The hobbyist in a clay class? Is there a different argument for them?

While I'm at it, there is an ad for what I think is a FANTASTIC tool on page 69 in the same mag. It is called The Bump, and made by Mudtools (Michael Sherrill). This is a throwing stick, made with a flexible neck, what looks like an easy to grip handle and a firm-centered sponge end . I have never used or seen one in person but I'm telling you it's ingenious and I gotta have one. Sometimes, you just know.

Oh, if you read this far-thanks.