Getting a groove on...

Its just been in the past few weeks that I felt like I was getting in a groove as far as making work goes. Its taken a while and now my situation will be changing again.

I'm finishing both classes that I am currently teaching...ceramics and online 101. Its been a busy summer and the final week is ending with a bang. I have a mass raku firing planned for Thursday evening with my ceramic students and then Nancy and I are firing the salt kiln over the weekend. I thought this was a good chance to fire all my space eaters...bowls, oval serving dishes, more bowls, and bigger bowls. We will be firing the salt kiln at the university...nothing like a little "free" gas.

I promise to post more potter porno ...I kind of like that right now. Sometimes even I get a little tired of all the verbal explorations and would rather just make work and deal with the jibber-jabber of flapping lips and blistered typing fingers later. So lately I have been letting the pictures do the talking and today is no different.

Here's my quick preface: In between trips to the studio and back home, I tend to get caught in my garden like a fly in a spider's web. Its the heat of summer and the dahlias and zinnias are tall, the sunflowers are opening and the tomatoes are beginning to ripen. Its past the peak for most of my perennials and there is a bit of un-choreographed overgrowth happening here and there. Please enjoy some images from the tangled late summer symphony happening in my yard until I can post more sexy ceramics.

C'mon, lets linger a little longer...

Porno for pyros...

That's right...potter porn. That's what is on the menu for homefry today...

We un-bricked the kiln late yesterday afternoon after about a 16 hour or so firing that we snuck in under the less humid and hot comfort of darkness. Nancy started the kiln in the evening and we fired it through the night until around 11:00 am the next day...in this heat, it was the best way to "git-r-done". Nancy and I were both very pleased with the rich and juicy results of the firing...and I am finally happy with some work this year. There will be decals down the line for me on some pieces, and for others...they will stay just the way they are now. But its back to work making more pieces because we are planning another firing in a short two weeks from now in the salt kiln over at the university...before I finish teaching my class. So I'm going to let my pictures do the talking today, here are mugs and pitchers and bowls and even a detail of one of Nancy's big baskets and a pair of her tumblers...enjoy the images...mmmm,hmmmm.

Back at it...

Just a brief post...

#1) I'm dead tired...got home this morning from firing the wood kiln up at Little Mahoning Creek Pottery with Nancy. I have only had a few hours sleep in the past couple days...I pulled the late night shift from 2 to around about 10 or so...and I am looking forward to the un-bricking on Saturday already! It feels good to be making new wood fired pieces. I promise to post the results this weekend.

#2) I still have not finished off any of my mid range work...too busy firing student work and making high fire pieces for the wood kiln... but I am sure going to make the time to fit them in next week...(how long have I been saying this?!)

#3) I'm escaping this oppressive heat wave and the un-air-conditioned studios by hiding out at home under the cool vents and fan.

#4) By the way, did I say I was dead tired... I'm going back to bed, new wood fired work coming soon...

Dramarama ding dong...

Sorry for the long pause but I have been busy being a grump. I am really good at it actually. In my own defense, there has been a few doses of drama that have kept me busy. OK, here come all the other excuses too: work, goddammit I'm teaching...in the studio with clay and online art 101...Im being a Dad and Husband, it aint too bad being around the house and my daughter has been going to theater camp 5 days a week...I gotta power-wash and re-stain my deck...somebody's gotta pull weeds from the garden...yeah, yeah, yeah. You know how it is, and I admit to knowing very well how it is sometimes. And right now, I just wanna go on a vacation.

But back to reality, if you remember from my last post, I alluded to the fact that there was some crappy ceramics happening in my life. This is true and it really put my motivation on the back burner. I made a couple dozen or more small pieces with this really dark body clay and it was bleeding through all my glazes. It is so full of iron, it also blisters the glaze. As of the other day, I re-bisqued all those pieces(after doing all the wax resist work) up to 04. Hopefully this will burn out more impurities and allow for a better glazed surface. In the mean time I found a recipe for a white crackle slip for bisque and applied it to 5-6 pieces.... I thought I would approach my failure to produce these dark body mid-range pieces from a different direction. I am swapping the laser transfer decal image for a paper stencil, Tahitian, floral motif. I will fire these guys to cone 5 and then later an 018 for something fancy. I will also glaze the remainder and keep my fingers crossed...I guess we will see...

In between everything else, I have also been making pieces for an upcoming wood fire with Nancy Smeltzer. It felt good to switch gears back to wood fire work. I'm not sure if it was more comfortable or what, but I'm enjoying making these mugs and pitchers and jugs. Im using a clay body from Standard Ceramics that Nancy suggested...#119...very sandy stuff but I like it. Here's a couple of high drama black and white pics of some of those pieces in the high drama ceramic studio there at IUP. Nancy is planning on firing the 20/21st...something like that, so I have plenty of time to make more work...this has got me thinking about firing the salt kiln here at the university's studio now too. I have seen a lot of good work come out of that kiln and I am teaching until August 5. Time to make, make, make.