The Heat of the Night

Color in the kiln at 10 pm

After a rough day & a half of alternately trying to fix my burner and then despairing of same, yesterday afternoon my baso valve recovered from its ailment. Not immediately after I whacked it with a steel wrench, but not long after either! (I'm told the term for this is "percussive maintenance" 😄) That was around 3:30 pm. So, YAY, my burner is working but also...how long will it continue to work? If the valve is balky, it might not still be working on Wednesday, the next full day I have off. 

I have already pretty heavily advertised the kiln unloading Saturday morning, and people do turn out for that. I knew I'd feel like an idiot if I didn't have a firing to unload, and I needed to change the marketing sooner rather than later if it wasn't going to happen. Wednesday felt too late, Monday & Tuesday I have to teach my classes, so...that meant overnight. 

I haven't fired overnight (not counting electric, which doesn't need my attention, usually) since graduate school. As my mom so kindly reminded me, I was a lot younger then! But one thing hasn't changed: I do what it takes. (Within reason! I wouldn't, like, kill a puppy or idk steal a car. Luckily ceramics rarely requires such measures.) What it was going to take this time: firing the kiln overnight. I was kind of dreading it, to be honest.

It was not nearly as bad as I thought! I did have to do a brief candle, to avoid blowing up the cone packs, so I didn't light the burners proper until around 6 pm. There's not much to do in the early part of the firing, so I just kept an eye on it. I went to bed around 9 pm (see also: older than I used to be!) but set an alarm for 1 hour. I just kept doing that until body reduction was finished, after which I set my alarm every two hours. At 3:30, ^10 was falling & I had to hurry to get the soda mix ready. Spraying was done around 4:15, and the draw rings looked good. I was only worried that I'd be too keyed up to get back to sleep. LOL: no problem there! 

Anyway! That's they story of how I felt like a grad student again, peering at cones in the wee, small hours. Public unloading Saturday! If I can get my act together - always a big if - I will have an unloading video up at Patreon. 
I hope you can visit during the tour! 

Baso Bother, Valve Vexation

ETA: We're back in business! Against all odds I got my burner fixed (after I ordered another one, of course) I'm firing right now, even though I will likely have to be up all night with it. See you Saturday for the unloading!! Or pop by any time during the tour, it's gonna be fun! 

I guess it's time for me to learn something new! I love learning new things...in theory. I love it le
ss in those urgent, figure-it-out-or-fail situations that I seem to find myself in all too often. On the other hand, things turn out ok a ridiculous amount of the time, as well, and not always or even usually because I figure things out. 

Let's hope I do this time.

Last night I turned the pilot lights on, to candle my firing overnight. This is the firing that will be unloaded during the Maine Pottery Tour, so I kind of need it to happen on time. The pilots lit, no problem, although the gas pressure on one - the one which later had a problem - did seem low; they were still burning in the morning, no problem; then I opened the flow regulator to turn on the burner proper. 
What should have happened: gas should have flowed out of the burner & immediately ignited when it encountered the flame of the pilot. Exactly like a gas burner on a stove, except larger. What did happen: nothing. 

There are only a few things that could have gone wrong here. Gas is getting to the pilot, so we can eliminate the valves upstream of where the line to the pilot diverges from the line to the burner. There are three valves involved beyond (or at) the point of separation: the baso, a safety valve that shuts off the gas if the pilot goes out; the solenoid, which senses whether there is power to the blowers; and the flow regulator valve, a very simple device that controls how much gas is passing through the line. 

The Baso Safety Shutoff Valve

The Solenoid

The Flow Regulator Valve

We can...I think...eliminate the solenoid as the problem. I can hear it click open when I plug in the blower.

We can probably eliminate the flow regulator, as it is such a simple device that there's not really anything that can got wrong with it - at least nothing that could have occurred in the two weeks since I last fired. (This short interval, along with the season here in Maine, rule out things like insect activity.) 

That leaves the baso valve. The function of the baso is to shut off the flow of gas to both burner and pilot if the flame of the pilot goes out for any reason. It's attached to a thermocouple, a sensor which contains two pieces of metal that expand when hot, closing an electrical circuit which then opens the valve. Conversely, when the metal cools, the pieces shrink and are no longer in contact, so the circuit is broken and the valve it shut. The default position of the baso is in the closed position. There's a button to temporarily open the baso valve, which allows us to light the pilot only. My theory is that my baso is stuck in this intermediate position. 

The baso is an expensive part and sort of messy to replace - I have to disconnect a bunch of other stuff to do so - so I'd rather not replace it if I don't have to. With that in mind, I started googling, and found this article from 2003 by Marc Ward, with some wisdom about first steps before you go disassembling your burner to replace a baso valve. In short:

• Make sure your pilot is a continuous blue flame. Mine was not! I scrubbed the ports of the pilot & cleared them with a needle tool. Now the flame, while still low, is steady blue. This did not solve the problem.
• Ward suggests hitting the sensor end of the thermocouple with a handheld propane torch, until it glow orange. I did this. This did not solve the problem, but it did change the problem: whereas before, when I went opened the flow regulator, nothing happened, now when I open the flow regulator the gas shuts off to the pilot as well. Open flow regulator, pilot turns off; close flow regular, pilot relights. I'm gonna count this as progress. 
• He also suggests cleaning the contact between the thermocouple and the baso. That's next on my list.
  
• Lastly, if cleaning the contact fails, I will replace the thermocouple. That's a relatively cheap fix - might cost me $15 - and even if it's not the problem, it's good to have a spare thermocouple around. 
  
  

Not that it's worth mentioning but all this is happening in the icy, pelting rain. Rain doesn't much affect the firing but the potter? That's another story. 
Anyway, I've finished my coffee & it's time to venture back out into the cold wet. I'll let you know how I fared. 

Where Does the Lone Ranger Take His Trash?

 

🎵To the dump, to the dump, to the dump-dump-dump...!🎶

I didn't see him while I was there today, though. I had a mattress & box spring to dispose of, as I finally got a new one. Replacing those has been on my list for like 20 years! Other than that, here are my three days in the studio. You know the ones: Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow. 

• Yesterday: A couple hours in Vassalboro to help my sister move (although I mostly waited around to meet the movers.) Also made chicken vegetable soup & loaded the kiln for the firing I will unload during the Maine Pottery Tour. 
• Today: the aforementioned dump trip; an hour or so posting my Maine Pottery Tour event to community calendars, and sending out press releases; the last few things into the kiln; and tonight I've got class
• Tomorrow: hopefully firing the kiln! And doing a bunch of yardwork to get ready for the tour. 

Hands, Brains, and Happiness: It's all connected

My pottery friends often say of their messy hobby: "It's cheaper than therapy." It's meant as a joke, of course, but like the best jokes, it contains a grain of truth. Neuroscience has some possible explanations for why your pottery hobby can help prevent or ease depression. 

The Effort-Driven Reward Circuit

Dr. Kelly Lambert, a neuroscientist at the University of Richmond, has written on the subject of behavior-induced neuroplasticity Lambert believes that human brains are innately wired to induce well-being when performing certain physical tasks. She calls this the Effort-Driven Reward Circuit, involving brain regions connected to emotion, reason, and creativity, and it could be key to a happy brain. Lamberts notes that in the 19th century doctors sometimes prescribed knitting to address anxiety. It makes sense to her:  "Repetitive movement, increasing certain neurochemicals, and then if you produce something - a hat, or a scarf - there's the reward."

Work has changed since the environment our brains evolved in! For many of us our work tasks are almost exclusively intellectual, with very little physical activity. A hands-on hobby with a creative aspect can help spark up that neglected brain circuitry & generate some of those happy-making brain chemicals. 

This must be what inspires me to say I am a dopamine queen. (I sometimes think I've never been interested in recreational drugs, because I sort for employ brain chemicals for a similar purpose. I used to be an oxytocin queen - yeah, don't do that. Lotta bad decisions came out of that.) 
Anyway: tl;dr: get into your studio & make stuff! You'll be happier for it. 

April Rewards!

I had no idea so many people were into stickers! Since I started the patreon page a year ago, I've had several people ask if I would offer stickers. Like everything I do, it took me a while to get around to it, but I did get there: this month's reward at the $5 level (the Water tier! Earth, Water, Air, Fire, get it?🙂) and up, is a sticker! You may remember this image from the t-shirts I created - you can still get one of those here -  and I still had the .jpg lying around. Stickers it is! 

I used a company called Sticker Invasion, who are reasonably priced but maybe a bit slower than the larger operations? My sense is that it's one guy, doing everything, not unlike Fine Mess Pottery, and I do have a soft spot for very small businesses. 

I ordered some extra, so I will have some for sale at the Maine Pottery Tour (come visit!) 

I've also ordered screens made from Little Chair Printing, with which I can screen print tshirts, aprons, and tote bags. I did make the sane decision not to try to offer a screen-printing event at the tour, but now I have a whole year to re-learn this process, so I can do it next year. Those practice pieces - the ones that are actually successful - will probably find their way to patrons too, probably at the Air & Fire Levels. Maybe I will make artwear out of the ones I goof up! 

Maine Pottery Tour 2025

It's the same, only it's different. 

Longtime readers may remember that I founded the Maine Pottery Tour in...2012? Or 2011, I forget. I didn't have grand ideas, at the time; I just needed an event after a long winter. Here in greater Augusta, we're blessed to have six or seven studios within a few miles of each other. I persuaded my potter-neighbors to all hold our spring open house events on the same day, to share promotional efforts & make it more of a thing. 

And what a thing it became! It has grown every year. 

But this year, I'm not organizing it. I did, up until last year's tour, and while it was a lot of work, it was also a lot of fun. Or maybe fun isn't the word I want...it was satisfying, like figuring out a puzzle. How much/fast can we grow without each individual event suffering? I tried to grow the audience along with the tour itself, because the individual studios' success was the whole point. The tour itself was just a means to that end. 

Inevitably, it grew beyond my ability to manage it. It was always a volunteer effort, and everything we did to make it better also made it more work. More studios also mean more work, and more questions to answer. I couldn't carry it anymore. 
Lucky for me, Milly Welsh of Zwellyn Pottery was willing to pick up the torch. We both understood that it had to become a paying concern if it were going to continue - and Milly thinks she can do that. 
So far it seems to be going great! There are 80 studios this year. Because Milly & her team run a web development company, they were able to automate many functions, lightening some of the load. 

Anyway! This year I was looking forward to having time & energy to promote my own event as zealously as I previously promoted the tour as a whole. It didn't happen quite like that - I spent more time making pots and - confession - more time just not working. That's actually pretty nice, not working sometimes, have you tried it?
Now here we are three weeks out & I'm back in the groove. I sent out the 75 postcards that came as part of my tour package, but my mailing list is like 300 people. It's actually cheaper for me to create my own Fine-Mess-specific postcard & send those out to the rest of the folks. The image above is what I came up with. I wanted to include some process photos, because to me that's what makes the tour a happening; without the demos & the projects & the kilns, it's just shopping. I've always worked to make my event more than that. The shopping is what makes it possible, but building connections between artists and audience is its real purpose. 
If you're anywhere near Maine the first weekend in May, I hope you'll come visit me. Read more about what's on offer at Fine Mess Pottery here; plan what studios you'd like to visit with the Plan My Tour app. 

Photo Dump: So, This Happened...

 It's been a minute since I did a photo dump! The biggest thing that happened in the last two weeks is, I fired the soda kiln. Here's a shot from the first peek inside: 

It was overall a good firing, a no-more-than-expected rate of flawed pots & a nice even coat of soda, with just enough directional effect to make things interesting. Possible I am crazy, but I'm hoping to get two more firings in before the Pottery Tour: one for inventory to sell, one to unload during the event.

I was planning to do a silk screening activity as well, but my friend Ellen, of Peeper Pond Studio (also known as the voice of sanity) persuaded me that it was too ambitious, considering that I have not silk screened anything for 30 years. In my recollection, it is not difficult to do, but making, loading & firing two kiln loads, as well as all the other prep for the tour, really does not leave time for me to remind myself how to do this.

Unloading day means grinding, sanding, sorting, pricing, packing, & delivering. I brought new pots to the Maine Potters Market and to the gallery at Portland Pottery.

You've probably seen some of my clay critters, if you've been reading for a while. I feel pretty confident making bears, cats, birds & rabbits; I've been wanting to figure out otters for a while. This was my first attempt. It's recognizably an otter, but needs work; the head is too big & the forehead too domed. It's a start. 

 Then, this happened! I was shopping an antique store in Hallowell when I saw this mug on the shelf:

The one there in the middle? That's my mug! Not mine as in it belongs to me, but mine as in, I made it! Maybe like 10 years ago? I'm not sure i am old enough to have made any actual antiques! 😄 I was tempted to buy it, as it's only $12, and it's a really good mug, but to be honest, I do not need another mug. If you're local to Hallowell, it's at the Hallowell Antiques Mall.

I might make some more like that, though. I had forgotten about that style.

And last, but hardly least, my crocuses have come into full flower. I am fond of crocuses, and in fact they may be why I am a gardener at all. I have an early memory - I was maybe 6? My family had moved a few months before, from Brewer, Maine to Scarborough, and this was our first winter in our new house. There had been a heavy snow, but it must have been a spring storm, because my mom brought my sister & I outside to the southern corner of the house. She knelt down & brushed away the snow, and lo & behold, there were flowers! Blooming under the snow! To my child's mind it seemed magical. Crocuses still seem magical to me.

And, here's the blah-blah: crossposted from Patreon! If you enjoy this content & want to support, you an subscribe for as little as $1.50/month. 

Thanks for reading! 

Shop Update is LIVE!

Practically hot out of the kiln! 😄
Check it out here. For discount codes, (future) early access to new pots, and great exclusive content subscribe at the Pottery Patron level or above. This month's discount code gets you 10% off, so if you're planning to purchase it might be worth it for that alone. 

 

Shop Update Preview

 I spent the day today photographing ware. I'll spend most of tomorrow listing them online. Choose your faves now! 

Maine Magnets

I found this stainless steel cookie cutter from a shop on Etsy - I may have mentioned, I hate Etsy as a seller but enjoy it as a buyer! I got it for a specific purpose: to make what will become refrigerator magnets for the Maine Pottery Tour. 

Two quick tips for using cookie cutters with clay: 1) cut your shape through think plastic. It rounds the edges, giving a pillowy effect, and saves you some time when smoothing the edges; they will already be pretty smooth and 

2) Place the rolled slab on a piece of smooth fabric before cutting; otherwise it's hard to get the cut piece off the tabletop without distorting it. 

These will be available only at my studio during the Maine Pottery Tour. 

The Fiscardo Wreck

 

Enormous Roman Shipwreck Found Off Greek Island

One of the things I love about being a potter (side note: I start a lot of sentences that way) is how it connects me to history. People have been making things out of clay for tens of thousands of years. The oldest known piece of fired clay is estimated to be 27,000 years old!
With that in mind, I'm interested in stories that highlight the role ceramics has played in human history, like this one: Enormous Roman Shipwreck Found Off Greek Island

We don't know the name of the ship that went down; it's called the Fiscardo Wreck for its location at the northeastern tip of the island of Kefalonia, close to the entrance to the...[read more]

An Opportunity!

 ...for the right person. 
The Northern Clay Center, an institution in the ceramics world for decades, is seeking an executive director. 

I taught at NCC in the 90s. It was an amazing organization then & it has only gotten better. I was (briefly!) tempted to apply for this myself until I remembered that A) I'm probably not qualified and B) I no longer live in Minnesota. (Even then I was like, but I could work remotely? Briefly.)

Anyway, maybe you are qualified, and do live in Minnesota, or are at a life stage when moving is a reasonable possibility. If so, here's your chance! I am the tiniest bit jealous of you. Briefly.