All Those Butterdishes!

I made at least a dozen butterdishes in preparation for my Process Room demo at NCECA; now I get all the fun of decorating them! This batch I have been asymmetrically quartering, alternating slip decoration with smooth surface. It's always difficult for me to stop decorating at leather hard, to leave something for the glaze to do, but I am stepping away now. Most likely, the slip-trailed areas will be glazed over, the smooth reas will be flashing slip & soda vapor, with a pattern of glaze dots. Probably white. Or some other color.

The upcoming firing will be The Mugs & Butterdishes firing, as I have a number of large (for me!) orders for mugs due in the next month or so. I am also in the process of organizing the Maine Pottery Tour, always a stress-fest for me. (Q: Why do I do things I know will stress me out? A: Good question.)

Still have lots of NCECA photos to share, but I left my nonDroid at my sister's house, so.

Soon! I promise.

Rolling into Mud/Mug Season

I had hardly deplaned before it was time to head off to a meeting of the Central Maine Clay Artists to plan Mug Season, a fundraising event we do in conjunction with local coffee shops every spring (known as Mud Season, in Maine; get it?) to benefit local arts programs.

It's kind of a three-way fundraiser: the coffee shops supply free coffee with mug purchase, the customer buys an $18 mug where maybe they had only planned to spend $2 for a cup of coffee, and we, the artists, provide mugs, at a bargain cost. It works for us, as these are typically mugs that we've had kicking around the studio for awhile - you know, the ones that just won't sell for some reason.

This year I approached it a little differently, as I didn't have any mugs that wouldn't sell - I've even sold almost all my demos. So I made some mugs specifically for Mug Season.

These have simpler decoration than most of what I make. I sometimes have a hankering to do that anyway. I do love me some highly decorated ware, but once in a while I like to let the flame do more of the work. Some of these have only flashing slip, others have a bit of slip-trailed floral design, and all of them have a lot of directional patterns from the soda ash.

Here's a list of coffee shop in Kennebec County offering Mug Season mugs:

Downtown Diner, Augusta, Maine
Slates Bakery, Hallowell
Bagel Mainea
Gardiner Food Co-op, Gardiner
Green Bean Cafe
Olde Post Office
Sheepscot General 

I'm pretty sure I am missing one - I think there were eight - so will update this list when I figure out what it is.

In other news, it was announced that NCECA will be in Pittsburgh in 2018. Yay! Portland, OR is right out, for me, barring a lottery win or similar, but Pittsburgh? that's doable.

I kind of think every other year might be better anyway, from both a financial and experiential point of view.

Home Again!

I'm happy to report that my trip went without a hitch. At least, the important part did: my Process Room demo was fine.

I got in to KC later than expected on Wednesday, due to some little issue with the plane losing an engine and having to make an emergency landing in St. Louis. Super fun. I am not a white-knuckle flyer usually but I made an exception during that landing. Anyway I got to KC too late to do much more than find some friends and drink. Oh, and sing karaoke. And take this photo with my NCECA-wife, Soozie:

I was so nervous on Thursday that I couldn't enjoy the conference. I couldn't concentrate on anything, and eventually just gave up around 2 pm and went back the the hotel room, read a book (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms), made myself breathe slowly, and snoozed a little bit. Then I got up, found some lunch, and made my way to the Process Room to await my execution. I mean, demo. But at the time it felt more like the former.
And then a funny thing happened: we set up the wheel and tables, I arranged my tools, Paul Dresang made my introduction, I started talking...and all my nerves fell away. I was completely comfortable, just did and said my thing as rehearsed, answered questions, and it all went perfectly. Just another class, like I do several times a week.
In a way, it was like karaoke. You can't enjoy karaoke until you lose your fear of looking foolish. And once you do, karaoke becomes a no-consequence proposition: do well, or do poorly, it doesn't matter. I highly recommend it, actually. Once you understand that you don't die of looking silly, the world opens up.

I don't have a video of the demo yet.That will, eventually, be on NCECA's website. I did however, take about thirty-squirty million photos of work I saw in the various shows around town, bought some new tools, and a Victoria Christian mug; all of which I will share with you soon, maybe even later today. However, having been away for four days, I have 43 emails which need replies, pottery tour work to catch up on, and a kiln to unload; so it may take a bit of time.

Anyway, glad to be home, and excited and energized to start working again.

Where Shall We Go For St. Pat's? KC Irish Bars

Some of you may know that my brother and sister-in-law are musicians, specializing in Irish music. As a result, St. Patrick's is my favorite holiday! I am not much of a drinker but I do imbibe a bit at their shows, just enough to not feel self-conscious pretending I know how to step-dance. This year they will be at RiRa, one of Portland's best Irish pubs, from 10-5.( I will have to miss, it, of course, as I'll be at NCECA, but that doesn't mean you have to.)

It's not the same hearing me own flesh & blood, o' course, but there are - surprise!* - Irish bars in Kansas City. Here are a few:

The Dubliner - 170 East 14th Street at Power & Light
O'Dowd's Little Dublin  - 4742 Pennsylvania Ave
Kelly's Westport Inn - 500 Westport Rd

I do have an invite to the Skutt party, repping for Portland Pottery, so I'll stop in there first. It'll be right after my demo (whichisat4pmintheprocessroomincaseyouforgot!!) so I'll be either giddy with relief or drowning my shame (let's hope for Option A.) After that, I'll be looking for Celtic revelry!

*Not really a surprise!

Ovals in my Dreams

Having anxiety means I tend to over-prepare...that's when I don't freeze up and fail to prepare at all. This would be one of the former instances: I've been making stretched oval butter dishes all day, so that I'll be able to make them in my sleep come Thursday, when I will be demonstrating this form in the Process Room at NCECA. I even talked as I worked, describing what I was doing as though I had an audience, so I won't have to think of all the words while the eyes are on me.

In some ways this is silly: it's a half hour demo, of a piece that I have made about eight hundred thousand times before. I do demos, with people watching, all the time; it's part of my job. I just really want this to go well.

And, you know, I'm feeling pretty good that it will. I will finish these up tomorrow, and throw a few more, and then pack my bags.

Not leaving until Wednesday, but, you know. I want to be prepared.

Trying Something New (Edit: Nope, no, I'm not)

When I find something that works, I tend to stick with it, particularly when it comes to firing. Failure is just too expensive! I have been wanting for a while now to try a new method of soda application, but it has taken me years to buy the one, very readily available piece of equipment that I need:

Yup, that's it: just a weed sprayer. Many, maybe most, people who fire with soda use the spray application method. I use the Gail Nichols method of mixing my soda ash & baking soda with wood curls and water, and dumping it into the kiln on a length of angle iron. I like that method for the direction effect it creates, and the additional carbon in the kiln for the soda vapor to trap. I've done the weed-sprayer method before, in Watershed's soda kiln, and it resulted in a very even coating of soda glass, almost like an applied glaze. Like having more than one rib or trimming tool, however, I think it would be good to have a vocabulary of soda-application methods: different means for different effects.

I have a couple of points of hesitation about using the spray method, one being that there are some Advancers in the kiln, and they do not react well to the sudden and uneven cooling that being sprayed with water during the firing might create! It's a risk, but because my soda ports are so low, I don't think the Advancers will take direct spray. And, about those ports: they were really constructed for the angle-iron method: low, so the wood chips get dumped directly into the flame. I am not entirely sure the spray method will work as well to get the soda up onto the ware. A dry firing would be a major (and spendy!) bummer.

So I'm going to hedge my bets, and apply the soda both ways for this firing. I'll weigh out a little bit extra - further hedging - and apply half via spray nozzle, half via angle iron.

Though it is only Friday, it will likely be more than a week before I see the results of this experiment, because I am in Portland Monday & Tuesday to teach my classes, and early Wednesday morning I am leaving for NCECA. Very nervous about my turn on the Process Room stage, but also very excited!

Hope to see you there. When I get back I will post the hopefully-fabulous-but-who-knows photos from this firing!

ETA: ARRRGH! The weed sprayer that I bought has a brass nozzle - fine - but the hardware that attaches it, and the tube it is attached to, are plastic. So, obviously, not going to work! I am applying the soda in my usual way, but keenly disappointed not to get to try this out. I didn't even ask what the bits were made of because every other one I have ever seen has been metal. Probably because the only place I've ever used one is at Watershed, or at another potter's studio. Damn it damn it damn it.

Oh, well, next time.

Turns Out It's Not Just Potters

Psychology Today has an interesting article this month on why we get so attached to our favorite mugs. They offer six reasons, including the association with warm stimulating or soothing beverages, and the circumstances in which we use our mugs, which can have a ritual aspect. All of the reasons make sense, and I'd add this: the way in which we use mugs - with our hands wrapped around them - is more intimate and personal than the way we typically use plates or bowls.

And, let's not forget: some mugs are just objectively awesome! I threw some mugs today, hoping one or more or them will grow up to be somebody's favorite.

Obstacles and Joys

Last Wednesday I made a trip to Lewiston (the Dirty Lew, as we cal lit here in Maine) to get hardbrick to raise the stack a couple of courses, as a reuslt of my bad firing in Jauary . I had decided I might as well get enough to rebuild the bag walls, because they'll need to redo sooner than later.

INFAB is a pretty small operation, and they sell things other than brick. Sometimes in the past I have made the trip only to discover that the brick guy is on a delivery and nobody there was able to help me, so I called down to let them know what I needed. Unfortunately when I got there, the brick dud ws in fact present, but the brick weren't. :( They had medium duty and high duty straights, and superduty arches, but no superduty straights.
So, decision time: the high duty are obviously not gonna work for the bag wall, because those are interior to the kiln. But they will work for the top of the stack. My only hesitation was: someday I will rebuild this kiln. If some of the brick are not appropriate for the interior of the kiln, I run the risk if getting them mixed up during some future rebuild and having a minor disaster. But it'll be a couple of weeks before they have the supers, and I didn't want to wait that long.

Think, think think! Hmm. I decided to get enough high duty brick to raise the stack, and then just spray paint them, and try to remember, when I do my rebuild some years from now, what the hell the spray paint meant.

Since then I have not had a good day to get up on the roof. We've several small snowstorms. Today is clear, but below zero! I ain't going out there, not when I can stay in here and join the cat pile.

Fire Monkey Shines

In the Chinese Lunar calendar, today is the first day of the year of the Fire Monkey!

I'm not one for superstition; good thing, too, because the Fire Monkey sounds like a handful. The Monkey is always clever and adventurous; fire can make him irascible and unpredictable. The year is associated with fast-moving change, that the quick of wit can successfully navigate and benefit from.

That's what the literature says; take it for what it's worth. I prefer to think of ours as a tribe of Fire Monkeys, and if so, this is our year to shine.

Yesterday In Bed I Lay

Yesterday I was stuck in bed with either a cold or the flu - I can never tell the difference. I'd have been kicking myself for declining the free flu shot because I hate shots, but I was too wrung out. It was the kind of illness where you feel fine until you try to get up, and then you are weak as a kitten.

It was probably better that I stayed in bed anyway. I don't have anything urgent on my to-do list, and because I stayed down I am feeling much better today. And - as the self-employed among my readership will recognize - even when I am too sick to work, I get some work done.

Yesterday I crossed off a task that has been on my list for a while, and create my new Etsy shop, Sweet Life Bath and Body. Check it out, if you are into that sort of thing.

WELL THAT SUCKED

Pasty, lutefisk-looking pots

The Demon Crudebake has been at work.

Ugh, it's been so long since I had a bad firing I forgot how much it sucks. I was prepared for this one to be less than stellar; I knew the kiln wasn't firing right: climbing very slowly, and unevenly. When I shut it off I knew I'd have some refires in there...Wasn't quite expecting three-quarters of the kiln to be refires, but there it is.

Pots from the top shelf

So, here's the weird thing: it looks like a draw issue. The top shelf was good - juicy, even. Everything below it was as pasty as the denizens of Lake Wobegone. Even those top-shelf pots, you can see their bottoms quarters got less soda.

 Insufficient draw would make sense, because when I rebuilt the stack I rebuilt it two courses shorter, because it drew a little too hard before. Except, I've fired it since then, and it went perfectly. My firing in December was great! It's a mystery.

For now I'll be grateful that I got just enough pots to pay or the propane, and that I know (or hope I know!!) the cause and cure. I don't have anyone urgently waiting for pots now, so it is not a bad time to do kiln repair. I needed to rebuild the bag walls anyway, so looks like a trip to INFAB is on my list this week.

Notes from the Martha Grover Workshop

Yesterday Portland Pottery hosted Martha Grover, Maine's returning prodigal potter. (We didn't kill any fatted calves - I'm still using mine - but there were some excellent sandwiches on offer in the cafe.)

If you get a chance to see Martha in action, go. She is informative and engaging, generous with her techniques and recipes, and utterly inspiring. She throws porcelain, then stretches and cuts and alters but somehow preserves the very soft, almost skin-like freshness of the material. She works much stiffer than I am used to, and gently persuades the forms into rolling curves. I came away with that feeling - you know that feeling? The almost achy need to go home and start making stuff coupled with a faint wash of despair: "I will never make anything that amazing ever in my life."

Or maybe that's just me.

Anyway, we had a ton of fun. It was an interactive workshop, so participants had a chance to try some techniques on the spot. I wasn't delighted with my efforts, but of course I wouldn't expect to be; the workshop is more about learning than producing anything great. I tried to get the hang of the double-ended handle...mixed results, but I plan to keep trying.

Martha has a few workshops coming up - check them out here, maybe there's one near you.