Spring 2019, Coming Up Sooner Than You Think!

A few of the Central Maine Clay Artist, the group responsible for Mug Season!

In one of my favorite signs of spring, the Central Maine Clay Artists have begun preparation for Mug Season, during which we partner with local coffee shops to raise money for school arts programs. Customers buy a mug at a crazy-good price ($20 for mugs that usually sell for $36) and get their coffee free. Mug Season runs for the month of April. (That reminds me! Updating that website is on my rather long to-do list for today.)

But before we get to that, I've got NCECA to think about! Super excited to be heading back to my old stomping grounds in Minneapolis (well...close to my grounds. I actually lived in St. Paul.) In addition to seeing the folks I only see at NCECA, I hope to see friends whose smiles I have been missing since September 2000, when I drove that U-Haul outta town, dragging the Dauntless, my old Dodge Caravan, behind it.

And after Mug Season, there's the Maine Pottery Tour!  I'm already working to get that organized. The weekend is May 4th & 5th this year. I organize the tour every year, so lots to do for that! If you are a Maine potter who would like to be a part, give me a shout at info@finemesspottery.com. Do it quick, tho - the deadline is any minute now.

It was a hard winter in many ways; it's not over, not really. But we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It'll be busy in the studio, for the next few weeks.

Busy is good.

The Wheels Turn Slowly

Not that wheel! I mean, sometimes that one turns slowly, and sometimes quickly. Lately it's been turning very noisily, which I need to address but haven't yet.  No, I mena the gears in my brain. I've been working on a couple of ideas for sideline products - and by "working on," I mean briefly remembering that they exist - for maybe two years now. One of those is handmade address numbers for homes. It's been rattling around in my brain since I made a set for my own house. I made a couple of sets for relatives for Christmas, and they came out well - now it's time to make the prototypes and templates.

I did some quick math, first: if I want the numbers to be 4" high after firing, I have to make them...let's see...4.6. So, 4 5/8, if I don't feel like switching to metric. I would, if I had a need to be precise, but a finished size of 4-ish inches works here. I'm feeling good about all the letters except maybe the 8...the 0 also maybe needs the hole a little bigger. I want them to look like they belong together, a sorta-casual, funky, handmade font...the 8 is a little bit formal, the 0 a little bit cartoonish.

Or perhaps I'm over-thinking again.

Anyway, got these cut out, and the edges compressed...now for the slow work of preventing warping. The easiest way would be to dry between two pieces of drywall, but I only have one. So I put down some newsprint beneath the letters, covered them with plastic, and put a towel over that, and a bat on top of that. That's how I persuaded these soon-to-be Christmas ornaments to stay flat.

Yes, I made Christmas ornaments. In February. As I say, the wheels turn slowly! If I want to have them in December, I have to start now. I don't do much Christmas decorating myself - I'm a "quiet contemplation" kinda lady, myself - but when I saw this cookie cutter, it made immediately imagine the fun of decorating these. I'm not much for sweets (WHO AM I KIDDING?? I am TOO much for sweets, that's the problem) but as a tree ornament? Kinda clever, right?

Beautiful Bottoms

At art fairs, I always know when another potter has entered the booth, even before they speak: potters always turn pots over to look at the bottom. Mostly, I suppose, because there's a lot of information there - if it's not obvious from looking at the surface, a glance at the bottom will tell you how the pot was fired. But often, on atmospherically-fired pots, the bottom is as beautiful as the body of the pot.

I've just listed some new items in the Pottery Shop (in keeping with #16 on my 19 for 2019 list! I am actually doing it.) When I photograph the pots, I'll usually take a shot of the most beautiful bottoms. Does that make me weird? Maybe...or maybe I'm just a potter, like you. Yeah, I see you, turning pots over. Can't fool me.
Here they are:

Click here to purchase this Sunburst Bowl

Click here to purchase this Ring of Pearls Bowl

Click here to purchase this Rustic Floral Bowl

Click here to purchase this So Comfy Mug

Click here to purchase this Monday Morning Mug

The kiln did all the work, in the case of these particular bottoms, but sometimes I'll put a little slip-trailed curlique within a foot ring, or stencil on an underglaze dragonfly...I like the idea of a little surprise, a tiny treat for the person who washes the pot & puts it away. It's like a wink, passed between me & them: "Thanks for taking care of my creation."

Might Be a Good Week to do a Firing!

A question I am often asked, when people learn that my kiln is outside, is whether I am able to fire in the winter. The answer, of course, is that yes, I can...but I don't always want to.

I don't mind firing when it's super-cold, but I hate loading. Three hours (ish) in the gelid air, my hands necessarily bare to handle pots & wadding, the wads freezing to the shelf the second they touch...just, yuck. So I tend not to, unless I really need to, for an order or an event. That doesn't stop me making stuff, though, and after a while my studio starts to fill up. I have at least a kiln load glazed & waiting on the shelves in my studio. Waiting for what? Why, an above-freezing couple of days, of course.

We've had a few, but I need a pair together landing on days when I don't have class, ideally. If it's not too cold, I can load one day & fire the next, or even the day after that, as long as the temp doesn't drop too much overnight. If it gets too cold, the wax separates from the pots, taking with it some glaze and flashing slip, so I have to watch out for that.

Anyway! Since the ware is all glazed, I am ready to fire at the drop of a..well, a raindrop, it looks like. No problem, I am not made of sugar!

Pot Shots

In keeping with my 19 for 2019, one of which was "Increase online sales," I needed to do some product photography. I want to be creative with it - find tablecloths that complement but don't distract, choose fruits or veggies as accents to highlight functionality...but that was getting in the way of just getting it done, so I set all that aside for a bit to just take some basic shots. Even that is a several-hours-long-project, which involves rearranging my living room. I'm not sure I'm doing the lights right...should they be that close? idk.
Some are easier to shoot than others! Matte glazes or exteriors that are mostly flashing slip/soda glass present less of a challenge than, say, this super-glossy oribe vase! This looks moderately like crap, with all the reflections - can you see me? I should have waved - but the better ones are not all that much better.

I have about 10 more pieces to photograph today. Then comes processing! Each photo will need to be cropped & renamed, and in some cases have the light rebalanced. After that, I'll need to take dimensions, write descriptions, and then post these online. This pottery gig is a lot of work!

The Pause

There are some things for which life stands still; death is chief among them.

We lost my mother-in-law yesterday. Karen had been ill with cancer for months. At Christmastime she was still fighting, hoping to come home & maybe live a year or even a few more months. She never got well enough to come home.

Doug & I drove down to Massachusetts on Friday, after his brother called to say she was failing. She was heavily medicated for pain but we were able to say "I love you" one more time. My nephew was briefly home from the Army base where he works; shortly after he said his goodbye, she passed, almost as though she had been waiting.

Her sons, my husband and my brother-in-law, were both very close to her. I loved Karen, too; she made me part of the family from the very start. Grief is a dreadful weight and yet as the price we pay for love, it's a bargain.

Some people process grief through making, but it doesn't work that way for me. All my impulses to create dry up, because everything seems so trivial. I know from experience that this feeling does not last forever, but while I am in it, it feels like it should; that the return to normalcy is the illusion, the drawing of the curtain over the reality of the insignificance of life. I want to draw the curtain, but I can't. Not yet.

Hug your loved ones, and I'll hug mine. Even knowing that one day we will feel the pain or losing them, or them us, still the love is worth the price.

Cryptid Crafts

I have a new favorite Etsy shop! Check out these fun embroidered cryptid critters, made by my beloved niece:

Cryptid Crafts Co. 

What's a cryptid, you ask? According to Wikipedia,

Entities that may be considered cryptids by cryptozoologists include Bigfoot, the chupacabra, or Mokele-mbembe. Related pseudosciences include Young Earth creationism, ghost hunting, and ufology. Some dictionaries and encyclopedias define the term "cryptid" as an animal whose existence is unsubstantiated.

 Nessie, Yeti, and Mothman are currently on offer at Cryptid Crafts.

Goal Setting: 19 for 2019

I've been listening to a podcast called Happier in the studio. It's all about small habits & practices that contribute to a happier life. Since I listen to several episodes at a time, so many ideas flying at me can get a little overwhelming, but there are valuable nuggets in there. One that came up a couple episodes ago was 19 in 2019, a list of 19 things you want to do in the new year. It was remarkably clarifying for me, as much for the things that didn't make the list as for the things that did. In considering the candidates, I had to weigh whether committing to doing this thing was realistic. and if not why not. Several of the things I'd like to do I left off the list - get the house painted, take a yoga class - after realizing that, though I might like to do those things, there are reasons why I haven't already. I haven't had the house painted because I don't have money for that. I haven't done it myself because there are more urgent/ important demands on my time. I don't take a yoga class because more committed blocks in my schedule make it harder to find days to fire. And so on. I had a feeling of releasing burdens by acknowledging that some things just are not going to happen, for legit reasons.

Here's my list, with the studio-related items highlighted. As you see, I was (so far!) only able to come up with 17. This is also a relief: there isn't really much about my life that I would like to change.

1. Pedal 100 miles a week
2. At least one canoe trip
3. Finish the kitchen counter
4. Learn how to felt soap
5. Get credit card down 30%
6. One social thing per month
7. Studio work & firings on schedule
8. Declutter hallway desk
9. 20 hrs per week in the studio
10. Use Instagram better for business
11. Pour concrete front walkway
12. 5 postcards to voters per month
13. Almost-daily 2 minutes of yoga
14. 1 blog post /wk
15. Drink more water
16. Increase online sales
• Keep better track of inventory
17. NCECA
18. .
19. 
    

 A couple of these I feel funny about...like, surely I shouldn't have to set a goal to get myself in the studio 20 hours a week! It's my vocation, and my calling, and more than that it's my freakin' job! Should that happen effortlessly? But when I looked at the other things in my schedule - teaching 6 classes, 6 hours of commuting a week, household stuff, helping out my elderly mom - I realized, no wonder I have a hard time finding enough time! Again, it was with a sense of laying a burden down: I'm not just lazy or disorganized or a fuck-up - I have a lot on my plate. So setting that goal no longer seems silly.

Anyway, as Gretchen Rubin says at the end of every Happier podcast: Onward & upward! Next thing to do is make a list of what I need to get these things accomplished.

Trimming Hack: Throw a Wet Clay Chuck

I enjoy almost every aspect of ceramics. I love throwing, I love handbuilding. I love pulling handles and stamping and slip trailing. I love glazing, and loading the kiln, and firing. I can even enjoy the quiet focus - the zone - of mixing glazes.

What's missing from that list? I do not love trimming. I find it tedious, so anything that I can throw without a trimmed foot, I do. Bowls need to be trimmed, because the extra clay is holding up the curve of the bowl while it's still wet. Cylinders, on the other hand, I can get all the clay up into the wall, and pull the whole wall to the thickness that I want.

And that's a good thing, because cylinders are a bear to trim - anything that the rim is not the widest point is more difficult. Nevertheless I occasionally get a whim - or a compulsion, more like - to make mugs with foot rings. Cylinders, in other words, that need to be trimmed.

Like yesterday! So today I had the job of trimming these shapes which, when placed rim down on the wheel would have high centers of gravity & little stability. Here's how I deal with that:

First, I center a hump that is narrower that the mouth of the mugs at the top, and wider at the bottom. I's also taller than the interior shape of the mugs.

Next I place the mug upside down over the hump, adjusting it this way & that until the bottom is horizontal and the mug is centered. Then I give the bottom a little spank, to suction it onto the hump. 

Then I just trim as usual. This photo is deceptive - trimming is a 2-handed operation for me - but I needed one hand to hold the phone. 

And, boom, foot ring. 

If your mugs are not all the same height & width - I was playing around with different proportions yesterday - you can just recenter the same hump a little taller or wider or whatever is appropriate for the next pot on deck.  

Two of These Things

♫ Two of these things
Belong together
Two of these things
Are kind of the same
But one of these things is not like the other ones
Tell me which one
And win the game! ♪

I used to make clay fruit - apples & pears, mostly -  not out of any great creative compulsion, but often just to amuse myself. I wasn't aiming for a trompe l'oeil effect; what I liked was getting the shape & surface right, then choosing a glaringly incorrect color. I'd forgotten that - even that I used to make them - until I was cleaning out some kitchen drawers & found this one. It happens to be a perfect albino twin to the two real apples I had on hand.

Hope your Wednesday has been great. 🌝🍎

Committed: See You In MPLS!!

Just booked my flight for NCECA, which is in Minneapolis this year. I can't afford to go to NCECA every year, but since I lived in the Twin Cities for several years, and haven't been back in almost 20 years, I couldn't resist the opportunity.

Our first real snowstorm of the year is happening right now (18-24" predicted, although forecast have been a little less reliable since the federal government has been shut down - some of the folks who interpret the data are furloughed, I guess? IDK) This weather is making me remember that Minneapolis is not a garden spot, in March! It will still be deep winter, in fact; but it's not the weather I am travelling for.

Workshops, demos, discussions, exhibits, those are all marvelous reasons to attend the conference, but I am mostly excited to see old friends, and maybe make some new ones.

I've been listening to a new podcast in the studio - this one is called "Happier," and it's all about little actions and habits that make overall for a happier life. A theme the main presenter, Gretchen Rubin, keeps returning to is the idea that relationships are one of, if not the, key feature in happy lives. During the Week of Reflection, I arrived at the conclusion that I don't put enough effort into maintaining friendships, and resolved to do better. Here's me, keeping a promise!

Hope to see you there.

MAKE IT STOP

My wheel has started to make a horrible grinding noise, like so:

The annoyingness ...that's a word, right? Hmm, maybe not. How about the "irritateousity?" Wait, no, "vexatiousness!" That is a word!...OK, the vexatiousness of this sound does not quite come through in the clip; it's so loud IRL that I can't hear my podcast while I am centering. I have a vague sense that it's something to do with bearings...anybody know how to fix this?