July Pots

Harley Bowl :>)

Bloats

I finally got my July glaze fire on this past week. It was a good load with some nice pots (see new Gallery gadget for best pics). Included were a  new berry bowl design (single serving) and pie plates for the upcoming summer fruit season. Of course as always, there was a lemon. Some months back, my cousin Laura asked me to make a large black bowl with red accents for her to give as a gift. This was round two for said bowl. The first time I had bloating and not enough accent colour (what's bloating?, you ask ..... ugly bumpy bubbles in the clay - only visible AFTER firing). This time I had tooo much accent colour on the bowl (looks like it belongs on the side of a Harley motorcycle!) and AGAIN bloating. What's the deal with that! I used the same clay (B-Mix Cone 5) as always plus I had other bowls on the same kiln shelf that didn't not suffer the same fate. I will be investigating bloating causes this week. So re Laura's bowl - round three, here we come - this is the named mug saga all over again. Oh well, Rick has another garden ornament.

On Thurs evening, we were back at the Hot Summer Night Market. Things were slow at the start but picked up towards the end of the evening. Sales went well - almost out of teabag rests again!

I haven't taken pics of the results of the tiles fired in the gas kiln at the Fine Arts Club last week. The results were OK - 3 tiles turned out the way I wanted them to and 3 didn't but I will be able to work with them. I will take and post pics once they are mounted.

Home to Reality

I'm baaack .... I arrived home late Monday afternoon after spending 6 days at MISSA and the weekend at my friend Sue's place in Vancouver. Again MISSA didn't disappoint. Highlights were .......
- 5 days of focused workshop time with Conner Burns. Not only is he a great teacher, his work is inspiring and I can't wait to get back in the studio!
- 6 days to connect with other artists and old friends from MISSA's past
- 3 evenings of MISSA instructor/artist presentations including Lana Wilson, who is a hoot! - best LW line? Lana was talking about her transition from gas firing to electric firing. Opening her arms wide she said she soon realized a gas kiln says 'come with me and we will make great pots together' and then crossing her arms and frowning and speaking in a prissy voice she says an electric kiln says - 'YOU do all the work. I just provide the heat!' ...... tooo funny! (and so true!).
Lowlight of the trip - deja vu of MISSA 2008 - my car decided to get ill just as I approached campus. One BCAA tow and 4 days at Canadian Tire garage later, I paid a $1400 bill to repair the cooling system!!!

So now I am home, back to reality and itching to get to making pots. Also, I didn't get a glaze fire on before heading to MISSA so my shelves are beginning to look bare .... BUT first, book-keeping and volunteer duties take precedent - (admin =  arghhh!) ...... HST (harmonized sales tax) came into effect on July 1st. Good for me as now I can totally opt out of the tax collection business but first I have to update my accounting software and file my final tax report. Add to that, the Powell River Studio Tour is only a month away so my publicity coordinator duties now kick in.

I did sneak off yesterday to the Fine Arts Club to help finish loading the gas kiln and get it set up for a firing today. My sandwave tiles (modified, smaller version of the attached pic) made it in as did 6 teabowls. I won't be there for the firing today but will head back in on Sat to help unload - CAN'T WAIT! Will post pics and results next week.

Did someone say 'Hot' Summer Night Market?

I was hoping we'd left the chilly weather behind with the month of June but brrrrr! ..... it was darn COLD Thursday night (July 1st - Canada Day) at the opening of our annual Hot Summer Night Market. Given it was now July, I just couldn't bring myself to wear long-johns but man, I sure should have - even my poor little pots were cold!

The market runs every Thurs from now until end of August and I will be trying to make it to as many nights as I can. We got a fair bit of traffic given the Canada Day crowd at the park but sales were slow. I've learned over the past year, that the small stuff sells at these events - my textured, multi-colour glaze teabag rests were a hit as they have been at previous markets and fairs - 4 of them will be heading to France - way cool!! Another visitor to town fell in love with one of my teapots (see the pic in May's post). He came back a couple of times and left with it in hand by the end of the night. Love it when my pots go to someone who is buying from the heart :>)

Countdown is 7 days until I head off to 'summer camp' on July 11th. Nahhhh, I'm not really going to summer camp but I will be heading off to MISSA (Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts)  for a 5 day workshop with Conner Burns. MISSA is an absolutely awesome experience and when I'm there, I do feel like a kid at summer camp. I have been workshop starved over the past 2 years since we moved to Powell River and I am so looking forward to learning and hanging out with other artisans.

We've got a busy week ahead of us .... I am expecting an increase in tourist traffic as it is start of summer vacation plus Powell River's Kathaumixw, our bi-annual international choral festival gets underway on Tuesday - grocery store parking lot was FULL yesterday so you know people have started to arrive. Add to that, our typical summer company season starts as well. We have 16 members of our family arriving on Thurs to spend a couple of days .... woohoo! - big family party this weekend!

Friday's bisque fire is ready to unload today so I am going to TRY to get a glaze fire on before I head off to MISSA ..... enough yakking, gotta get to work!

The Mugs Have Been Delivered!

Got a call from my Mom. She hand delivered a mug order to Vancouver Island for me on Monday - yes that mug order! I had an order in December for nine mugs with names for a group of office staff. If you've read earlier posts from this year, you will know that it only took me THREE tries to get them right! Here's the final result .....

Subsequent email from customer - everyone is HAPPY!

OMG! - It's June already!

Time seems to just slip through my fingers .... summer is on the horizon and with it comes tourists (aka customers - yeah!), Hot Summer Night Market (we get to take the pots to town), Blackberry Festival, Arts in the Park and the Powell River Studio Tour. Add a few visits from out of town rellies & friends and I just know, before I blink, it will be September!

June also is garden time. Rick retrieved a broken bowl from the ugly pot pile and found it a new home ......

I began a new production cycle last week - always my favourite time - love getting back to my wheel! As usual, I started with my warm up - I throw off the hump - bowls, cups, whatever suits the mood. This time I did handle-less mugs and tea bowls. After I get my throwing chops back, it's time to move onto the 'planned' pots.  This time around, with fruit and berry season just around the corner, berry bowls and pie plates were on the agenda. All in all it was a pretty good week - only one pot hit the recycle bucket. You know I might actually be getting the hang of this!

As is my nature (I call it my 'butterfly syndrome' - you know, flitting here and there - others might call it 'lack of focus'), mid week, I veered off into making a couple of plaster molds. I have a piece of large beach bark I use to make baguette trays. The inside of the bark has awesome teredo worm tunnels all through it. I lay a slab into the bark and then after it sets up a bit, I flip the slab (texture side down) over a newspaper covered 3 or 4 inch PVC pipe. The worm tunnels give me a nice raised texture on the inside of the tray. I had been mulling over ways to simplify the process and decided a plaster mold would do the trick  (and since plaster mixing is a chore, I decided to make a couple of leaf and berry sprigs at the same time - see  what I mean, this is how my brain works!) To do the bark mold, I applied a couple coats of mold soap (50% Murphy's Oil Soap / 50% water) on the inside of the bark, built up the outside edges of the bark with extruded clay and poured in the plaster. Mission accomplished, right? WRONG! - As I was cleaning the new mold I realized - arghhhh! - smack hand on head! (I always get this male/female mold making backwards) yes, I have a nice permanent mold that I can lay my slab over but now the resulting texture will be an 'inny' texture, not an 'outy' texture! NOT what I wanted. NOW, I realize I need to cast the formed slab not the original bark form. Oh well, from our mistakes, comes ........ new and exciting pots ....

May's Pots

It was a good Mother's Day - celebrated with warm wishes from my kids, dinner with family and my first kiln opening since Feb this year. Wow! - I can't believe it's been that long.

Highlights of Sunday's pots - a jinxed mug order from late last year, that took 3 attempts to get right, is finally done ..... YEAH! .... and Teapots - it's been a long time since I did teapots and they turned out not too bad. As always, though, there is room for improvement. I will give them another go with my next throwing round.

A successful firing, for me, is all about glazing. And glazing is my nemesis so when I watched Cathi Jefferson's video last week on Ceramic Arts Daily, something she said caught my attention. She talked about an article she read years ago that suggested you should limit the number of glaze colours you use, get to know those colours well and understand what you can do with them. I think I will make that my new glazing mantra ...... now the challenge will be to pick the ones I want to stick with :>) ..... to view the video see Ceramic Arts Daily - Cathi's Video. 

I am hoping to get one more fire on before leaving on vacation but we will see. There is a group of potters coming over from the island this week to meet up with the Fine Arts Club Potters for a potluck and a tour of local studios, including mine, so getting ready for that will be a priority.

Next week we will be off to to meet up with the grandkids for a Disney vacation so no potting again until end of May.

Spring!

Happy to be back in the studio (well almost back) after taking a multi-week winter hiatus!

I eased my way back to work with a day at the 2010 Clay Symposium (http://www.canadianclaysymposium.ca/index.html) at the Shadbolt in Burnaby mid March. Talk about inspiration in spades - especially Jack Troy - what an eloquent, captivating ceramicist! See http://www.jacktroy.net . It was also a blast to see and visit with many of my Fraser Valley Potters Guild friends. Some of my new Powell River potter friends also attended for the first time. They were amazed by the variety of pots displayed in the Ceramic Roadshow.

When I got back home I helped out with a gas firing at our local Fine Arts Club - I need/want to get more experience firing with a brick gas kiln. I was hoping to get six of my Sand Wave relief tiles into the firing but unfortunately that didn't happen as I needed to have them fired all together at the same time. We decided I'd wait 'til next time. In between taking my turns to check the kiln, I spent the day throwing high fire clay pots so I could have something else to put into the next firing.

Speaking of the Fine Arts Club, they've asked me to teach again. Depending on numbers we might be able to get a class underway next week. Last year's students are turning out some great pots so I am looking forward to a new group of beginners. 

Last week I was back in my own studio for the first time since mid February but have had to take time away again this week - taxman is waiting and book-keeping, correspondence etc has also piled up and couldn't wait any longer. I will be back at 'er tomorrow. Stay tuned for new pots, new tiles and new glazes!