Results are in...

Good News!... We unloaded the salt kiln yesterday morning and were very pleasantly surprised. For the most part we all agreed that it was a successful firing and everyone got some nice work. I got a handful of real nice mugs and some cups, a few vases, a beaked pitcher,bowls...the usual fare I guess, but boy they do look nice.
As we obsessively examined all our work we all decided to fire the kiln again and quickly made new clay. Great flashing throughout the whole kiln and a nice salt sheen all around. For a number of the pieces we threw a salt body recipe that was given to us by visiting faculty Frank Martin and I was really pleased with the fired look ...oh and by the way, Frank , your big pot turned out real nice... a little blush and a pebbled surface around the large leaf areas! In the above picture from left to right: Sam Howell from Maryville in Tennessee, Dan Kuhn from IUP, just north of Pittsburgh, and Bobby Tso from Hong Kong via Missouri.

Above are a few images I shot informally of some of my own work that came out of the kiln and also a couple pieces of Bobby Tso's.

Here's another couple of "ify" shots but I think you can get the idea of what the firing looked like from this. Well, gentle reader, I have allot of stuff to post in the upcoming weeks. We are in high gear here and I am getting a good bit of my own work done too. I am also posting a bunch of pictures on facebook.com, so if you use facebook, search me out and check out the rest of the images...until next time, happy firing.

Almost famous...

Here in the bubble of the Chautauqua Institution at the art quadrangle, we have marathon "Raku Fridays". They can be long and grueling starting around 9:00 am and going on until well after lunch most of the time. We fire the class work as well as visiting faculty and resident students' work too. Mostly its small things but once in a while we get some whoppers...I'm always up for a challenge and a new burn. This past week we did our little Raku circus for the benefit of a film crew that was here making a documentary on the history of the visual arts at Chautauqua. It was a blast and thanks to Maria Mangano, who serves as the print studio tech, we got a whole lotta great images as they shot their own of us. (She also has a great blog that you should check out too.) The ceramics studio tech Dan Kuhn and I have both done plenty of raku in our lives and we have the firing/pulling and holding of the breathe down to a science.

We went through the motions with the film crew so that they could get their set up for the shots over and over and then we went for it! They were an easy going crew led by producer John Grant. They are from a PBS station called WNED out of Buffalo, NY. and the entire program will air a year from this coming Fall. The above shots are of Dan and I rolling back the handy dandy raku kiln and then us being as dramatic as we could be while handling the hot pots. The below is of me being a ham for the camera...grrrrr, be a fire tiger...rowrrr...much more Cha to come...

A garden interlude...

I fled the Chautauquan bubble this weekend to get home and whip my garden back into shape and also whip up a fresh batch of pesto. The Echinacea was thick and in full bloom with the Black Eyed Susans hot on their heels. I am overrun with Nasturtium but I imagine there are worse things to be taken over by...I have several varieties of Nasturtium, its one of my very favorite things in the garden. Enjoy the photos as I enjoyed being home to commune with my outdoor space. Monday morning its back to the bubble where I am as busy as these bees buzzing through the cone flowers. We are loading the big salt kiln on Saturday...stay tuned.

Big Pots/ Big Hedge...

OK...hey, it may not look like much, but I call it my Chautauqua summer studio. Its not big, but its cozy and it works for me. There is not any water out there and I have to haul two five gallon buckets from the main studio for clean and dirty water usage... But...it is removed from the hustle of the community studio and I really do like that idea...I don't care about hauling a little water. Recently in my space, I threw a bunch of large vases to hold some of the great flowers that are still in bloom up here around Lake Chautauqua...three for the upcoming salt firing that we will be doing next weekend! Speaking of the upcoming salt firing, the above piece is a big pot made by one of our last visiting faculty members, Frank Martin, that will be going in the kiln. Its already slipped and ready...we are hoping to fire it off next Sunday...Thats my studio space outside the window...see, not such a long haul. We also had a recent visitor in the art quad... Porta Hedge - Mobile Observation Lab. This rolling art piece is the brainchild of artist and Chautauqua summer art school alum Justin Shull. I am hoping to have Justin stop by the IUP area in the Fall with his mobile installation. He is currently hauling it and parking it across the country and will be back my way in November. Please see more about this very cool piece and all its secrets at portahedge.com.

The Porta hedge was an interesting addition to the art quad. The interior was outfitted with spy holes, observation cameras and swinging seats. ...I am looking forward to seeing him again in the future. I leave you now gentle reader with an image of Dan Kuhn, our dedicated studio tech learnin' them dedicated work study students some...Sam Howell, Heather Couch, and Heather Kopek(right to Left)...more Cha to come later.

Chautauqua again...

I am back in the bubble that is the Chautauqua Institution. I have resumed my role as KILNMASTER!!!!!...did you here the echo? That is the title...I fire all the kilns along with maintaining them...and I manage the ceramic facility for the season. I have five dedicated work study students that help keep the studio chugging along and my full time assistant Dan Kuhn. Dan is finishing his MFA in ceramics at IUP where I work and has had several experiences in residencies and community oriented pottery studios. That's Dan in the above picture...below are a couple images of the throwing room and the hand building room before the onslaught tomorrow. Classes start in the morning...not only do we in the ceramics dept. service the students that have come from all over the country, but we also allow for the Chautauquans, who are here spending their vacation time in the Institution, to sign up for classes. It makes for a busy, busy summer.

The art department is celebrating its 100th year birthday this year! The Institution itself has been around for more like 120-130 years. For those of you who do not know, its a very interesting place that houses schools of visual arts, dance, theatre and music along with absolutely every kind of religious denomination in an open and all embracing community.

The images below are of the faculty studios(my space is in the first one ) and the other is of the wondrous kiln palace...their both in that groovy, retro, Dwell magazine, brown and orange Brady Bunch color scheme. That's my best buddy for the season peaking out of the kiln palace doors...the Blauuw Kiln. Its a fully programmable digital gas kiln...fancy shmancy.

Frank and Polly Martin are here to teach for the first couple weeks and then Alec Karros, Jeff Greenham, Chris Miller, Adam Paulek, and Jim McDowell are all coming in for a couple weeks at a time until the last week in August. All really good people with a little something different to offer the students.

In the down time of the last weekend before classes start I wandered down to Strohl Art Center, which is the department's "new as of last year gallery" to check out the opening...Roberly Bell's bright, blobject pieces were installed in the sculpture garden and there were 3 other exhibitions happening inside. One exhibition I really liked was Anne Lamanski's sculptures...very cool stuff.

Roberly Bell's work in the sculpture garden...

Anne Lemanski's very cool work...

This weekend has certainly been an easy way to ease on into the awaiting season. Monday morning there will be people beating down the doors and we will be making and firing all week. The upcoming weekend will be packed here for the 4th and I will be giving my talk on Sunday the 5th...Sometimes hectic, sometimes frustrating, all the time interesting...stay tuned for more updates from inside the bubble. Let the season begin!

That's wood firing baby!!

I am back in rural PA all suntanned from my FLA vacation with my other souvenir from the sunshine state...an ear infection. Other than that I am fairly rested and preparing to leave for Chautauqua on Friday. I will be back in the Chautauqua Institution for the entire summer firing kilns and managing the ceramic facility. I am currently working on my "talk" that I will be giving there on July 5th..."To Function or not to Function"...my continued back and forth bouncing of utilitarian work and sculptural work and how they intertwine...its like therapy for me. Chautauqua is a great place to blog from because there is a never ending stream of stuff happening so stay tuned for the upcoming Cha-posts...but on to the real business at hand...The last firing of the train kiln!

Well, everyone that fires a kiln and uses glazes knows that there is a certain amount of acceptance involved at the end. I tell this to all ceramic students...sometimes the finished piece is not exactly like the glaze tile...sometimes bad and sometimes good. Giving up the work to the random effects of a glaze firing is a big part of what I am interested in with my own work. This is why I wood fire, it was why I used to raku...it is that unknown variable that makes it unique and unlike anything that is mass produced. I say this because the firing was not altogether super. Nancy said she was a little disappointed and after seeing my pieces, I was too. This was a different firing that did not yield a perfect kiln load but did yield a handful of really awesome pieces. We both ended up with some real beauties, allot of pieces that can be re-fired and will be great, and also group of pieces that are beyond salvation. I will be doing re-fires in the Blauuw kiln at Chautauqua and then decal, decal, decal, and some gold luster. Some I will not even fire an image on them because they are so perfect. I'm posting a few pieces that were indicative of the whole firing...lots of drippy ash, some ash stuck here and there that didn't melt, and rich colors and juicy shinos. After 34 hours of firing, I would have hoped for more but I a bow to the kiln gods and happily accept the winners that I came out with and also know the potential of multiple firing the other pieces that were not exactly what I expected. My motto: "It ain't over until it falls apart...even then, you might want to think about it before its tossed on the shard pile." Click on the images to see bigger and to really examine the surfaces.

These two pieces below were right up next to the firebox and are the ones that took the lion's share of ash...they will probably stay just the way they are...drippy bowl and crusty vase forever...mmmmm.

I got a great new wall platter out of the firing (below) as well as a handful of other nice pieces that I will be doing post firing work on...

Next posting...Chautauqua, NY!

loaded...

Nancy and I finished loading the kiln yesterday around 8pm. As I type away at this very moment, Nancy and Cindy Rogers are firing it...my shift comes about 4:00am. I'm a morning person these days, but 4:00am barely qualifies as morning... The loading is sort of tricky as far as having to climb up and into the chamber but it goes quick because the highest we stack the shelves is 2 high. When its loaded, we slide over the industrial shelf lid, layer that with soft brick, then smother it with fiber blanket. Its the kiln loading equivalent to getting a mess of hash browns at the Waffle House..."scattered, smothered and covered". Here is a great picture of Nancy's head popping up to tell me what size pieces to bring over. Sorry Nance but this pic was to good not to post!

Here is another of Nancy as we had a moment of silence...praying the new glazes work out...!

I'm off to bed early tonight seeing how I will be up around 4 am and most likely will hang until the end of the firing.. Unfortunately, I will be unable to post the results for a couple weeks because I will be heading down to FLA to visit the family and the BEACH! It will be difficult for me to have to wait an extra week to see the end result but laying around in the sand and surf will help to ease the pain of waiting...ahhhh, Summer is here!

Until next time gentle reader...