New Shelving in the Studio (Pictures coming soon!) & Happy New Year

Hi,

Hope everyone is having a great weekend. I have new shelving put up in the studio, so now plenty of extra surface area for even more work! I'm planning to post some new pictures soon after the fallout.

Went to the Mall of America (M.O.A. as it is often referred) today, and it was a lot of fun to walk around, do a little shopping, and eat one of those fantastic crepes!

I'm planning another production run of some dinnerware, vases, and other items, which I'll start after the New Year. I just reclaimed ~600lbs of clay, so I should be set for that project which should take about a month.

If anyone is reading this that is part of a gallery, please contact me as I'm looking for places to sell my work.

Happy New Year to anyone reading this, I hope it'll be a good one. Bye for now!

Benazir Bhutto Dead by Assassination

Sad day for peace.

Studio is Clean . . . Finally! Last Show Pictures and Modern Times on Sunday Morning

Hi,

Thanks for checking in! Here are some new pictures to feast on. Some of them from my in-house show and some of the studio - yes, it's clean! I spent 2 hours cleaning the studio the past weekend. I used this fantastic product used to keep the dust down while I swept, but I also used a respirator too just to be safe.

"The World At Large"

Hi, and thanks for checking my blog. If this is you're first time visiting, welcome. I hope you will visit when you feel like it, write an email to me regarding the content of this blog, and enjoy what I believe is a dying craft here in America. Granted, I do believe there is a few hotbeds in the States, namely the Twin Cities, Stillwater/Taylors Falls, and Seagrove NC, however I don't think there's enough potters - well, relative to how many Walmart's, Targets, and Pottery Barn's. Let me stop this rant for now and share some pictures.

A faceted pilgrim bottle. Small version.

A new yellow glaze that I'm trying out. What do you think of it?

A nice variegated glaze containg yellow, blues, and browns. I couldn't get a really good picture of it, but I do like it!
Lots more vase tests . . .
Tile tests. Most are within my specs, but the one in the third row second tile may need a little tweaking. It's Val's Rivulet glaze.
Nacho dipper. I have made two of these. This one is in Tenmoku brown and Glacial Blue, one of my favorite combinations.

Olive oil decanter in a festive green and red glaze. This could be used for dressings, hand soap, or to hold your favorite olive oil.

Red and black-speckled vase.
Tenmoku vase.
Gravy boat.
Waxed footrings ready to receive a coat of glaze.

Event Change and Rescheduled to December 8th and December 9th

Hi,

Thanks for looking at my blog today. I've decided it's too damn cold to be outside this weekend selling coffee mugs. I've rescheduled the sale for the following.

Saturday, December 8th: 10am-4pm

Sunday, December 9th: 12noon-4pm

Email me at Apt51Pottery@yahoo.com for directions to the sale. There will be coffee and cookies available to snack on, in addition to Charlie Parr or some festive music playing in the background. Coffee mugs will still be selling for $10. I hope to see you there. Bring a friend or family member if you want. There will be over 200 pieces (I haven't counted them all) but about 35 cubic feet = 5 kiln loads.

Here's a picture of the last bisque firing I just loaded before the sale next weekend. The top shelf has small vases 3-4" high, and also test tiles. The middle tier contains spoon holders for the kitchen, a basket, cookie jar, and a few coffee mugs. Two tiers below that are chock full of coffee mugs.

Dog bowls - water and food. One of my relatives requested a few of these. They were easy to make, and I just eyeballed them to be around the same size. I'm planning to coat each with a different color.
Plates. Almost 9" wide. Wall is less than 1" high.
I found this rat at the Macy's nutcracker this weekend, swords and all! He looks happy . . . or scary, you choose.

Evoke Gallery has about 20 of my pots in ther Holiday Bazaar. Go check 'em out, they have lots of cool stuff there! Here's an image from their website, with one of my pots in blue and black.

http://www.evokegallery.com/artists.html

Coffee Mug Sale, December 1st - 10am to 4pm

Hi, and thanks for checking my blog today. I'm planning a sale for next weekend, on the corner of Grand Avenue and Milton Street - one block West of Victoria. Coffee mugs will be $10 a piece, and small vases will be $5 - - one heck of a deal for you Holiday door-busters.

These pots will be glazed by next weekend:
Here's a picture of a Downy woodpecker I had taken at Roberts Bird Sanctuary.
Have a nice rest of the weekend. I might post again later tonight.

Conservatory Pictures

Hi,

Thanks for checking in. I went to the local Conservatory yesterday here in Saint Paul, called the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. Here are a few pictures I had taken:

And a nice variegated orchid, not sure on the species...
I loaded another Bisque load last night, which will fire for 12 hours. I have found that a slower bisque is best for me and my clay. I used to fire to cone 05 in about 8 hours, and sometimes a few pieces would crack because the water didn't have a chance to escape. It's a common misconception that pottery breaks due to air bubbles not being liberated.

I'm planning a pottery sale again soon, likely either next weekend or the following - I haven't decided. Lots of work in progress, most of which are pictured in earlier posts. There will be about 150 pieces at the next sale, plus it will be indoors with a few candies, finger foods, and beverages. I hope you will be able to join me. Have a nice rest of the weekend; I'm planning to update again tomorrow night.

Happy Thanksgiving & It's Snowing! . . .and some new pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have much time to post today, but I wanted to update you with what I've been working on recently.

This is a butter dish with a textured design. I think it will look really cool with a tenmoku - brown to black glaze which will highlight the textures.

Cookie jars and spoon holders for the kitchen.
Small creamers or pitchers. These are about 2-3" high.
The bottom of a bisque load I unloaded today.
New coffee mugs.
Nacho dipper. These just need a coat of glaze and they'll be done!

The back of the nacho dippers. A nice textured design made by a twisted wire.

Gravy boats! I think these turned out pretty well. They have a nice handle opposite the spout.I hope everybody has a nice Thanksgiving weekend. It's snowing right now here in Saint Paul, coming down quite heavy too!

Lots of pots in progress

Hi,

Thanks for checking into my blog for a few minutes. Here's what I was up to for the most part of the day:


Sorry for the short post, my dinner is ready and I'm going to put in a movie before it gets too late. Pictures are fun to look at anyway!

Take Your Time, That's All You Have

I woke up this morning and felt completely engaged with my life. It's sad because I feel like I should be everyday.

I had good conversations with people around me, and that made me feel really grounded.

Sorry for not writing so much recently. Here's what I've been working on though: 25 small, 4" high vases. I think they're really fun to make on the wheel, different shapes and not a lot of clay if I mess up - which I occasionally do!
Cereal bowls, set 0f 7.
Handles for coffee mugs. Do they look like elephant trunks to you?
I'm 20% done with a project I've been working on. I'm planning to make 100 mugs, all different sizes and shapes with 6 colors.

It was my brother's birthday today. It was nice to see him. It's been too long, and I'm planning to make a conscious effort to invite him over for pasta more often.

"The locals don’t know you, they’re the ones you want love from." Ike Reilly

Work in Progress and The Support of Local Art

Hi,

Thanks for checking out my blog. I hope you will enjoy the pictures and reading about the pottery process from my perspective. If this is your first time to my site, welcome!

My goal as a local potter here in Saint Paul is to offer my friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens an alternative to store-bought wares. I don't have a retail store, I'm not a business, and I don't advertise in the newspaper, and that's the way I like it.

My work is reasonably priced, functional, and made to the highest quality. Why?

1. I make pottery for my personal enjoyment and serenity, and I don't make you pay for that!

2. I don't have retail space to pay for like galleries and pottery shops do, and yes they do charge extra for that!

3. I've been formally trained and making pottery for 7 years, so I make the work to withstand abuse by the dishwasher (or if you are rigorous handwasher!).

Thank you for considering my work for your home, office, and holiday gift ideas, and thank you for checking in here when you can.

Here's a picture of four dinnerplates glazed in Anderson Ranch Red. This is a food and dishwasher safe glaze. I have a set of these in my own kitchen.

In fact, here's a picture of a penne rossa dish served on the dinner plate above. If you'd like the recipe for this dish, let me know, and I'm more than happy to provide it. It costs less than $12 to make, and I think it is so much more flavorful than Noodles and sometimes even Broder's Pasta Bar, which the latter I'm completely infatuated with!

Nacho Dippers! These are so much fun to make. They are one piece, and are perfect for salsa and other dipping sauces, coupled with your favorite chip lined on the border.
My Man from Fiery Hill T-shirt almost completely engrossed in clay.
Hope to write more soon. Have a great day!

Prep Work for Throwing

Hi, and thanks for checking in!

Over the past few days, I've been preparing my studio for more abuse. It gets pretty messy around here after a few throwing sessions, making a few glazes, and firing the kiln. I'm planning on throwing about 350-400lbs of clay on Saturday. Here's a list of things I'd like to make:

Butter Dishes
Coffee Mugs
Yunomi
Small Pilgrim Bottles
Medium-Sized Bowls for Cereal and Soup
Small Bowls
A few "O's" - I'll write more on this later because at my pottery sale last weekend there were a lot of questions.

I usually like writing down a few forms before I start working, so I don't get too consumed in making one thing. I'm not a production potter, and that's the way I like it. It's not that I can't do it, because I have. Making 100 mugs, 100 bowls, 100 whatever . . . it gets old. Why not just jigger the damn things with a machine?! I'd sell out though, if someone paid me $20 per mug for 100 of them, it's just mind numbing to make them all the same size, caliper measuring for the rim diameter, blah, blah, and blah. Wabi-sabi is the way for me! You can look it up on Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi), and I'm sure I'll be writing a separate blog on the idea sometime soon.

Introspection into Clay as a Medium for Expression

Have you ever felt that you don't have control over certain parts of your life? The alarm rings, it's 7am. You rub your eyes, it's still dark outside, and your thinking to yourself wouldn't it be nice to just lay here for another hour or so. You gradually pull one leg, then another over the side of the bed, and your feet are now planted into the first parts of your day. You make your way through the bedroom door heading down the hallway to the bathroom. You stop for a second, look at yourself in the mirror and think to yourself, "I don't remember how I got here, wasn't I just sleeping?" and then something cues your brain to keep going. Now, onto the rituals of teeth brushing, showering, (and run on sentences); you know the usual hygiene stuff your parents taught you when you were 7 years old. You pull your clothes on, one leg then another, one arm then the other, and before you know it your head is popping through an 8 inch diameter hole some poor factory worker in Sri Lanka made on 50 cents an hour pay(http://www.verite.org/news/View%20from%20Sri%20Lanka.htm). These are the things I think about getting ready in the morning. It keeps my mind occupied and fresh. I'm always asking: Why? What if? Who am I?

And then, there's the feeling of the Earth between my fingers. Clay, with its excellent plasticity, yearns to be manipulated. I feel in control. My mind oscillates for a few seconds, between the hum of electricity coming from my pottery wheel and a spiritual connection between my fingers and the soft clay. Before I know it, I've made a vase, a drinking vessel, whatever. It doesn't matter, I feel in control, and I'm making pottery that pleases my mind and soul. There's no sense of urgency when making the pieces. I'm not trying to make $3,000 worth of pots in one night. My goal is to make pots that I find appealing, and don't resemble a manufacturing mold. I'm a potter by choice, and I love it. There's no better compliment in the world than when someone buys a pot from me or wherever, uses it, enjoys it, and realizes its energy that it's handmade among all the factory-piled plates and cups from Target, Ikea, or ____, piled in the cupboard.

Ken Chin-Purcell has the motto, "The Future is Hand made," and I believe it (http://www.bungalowpottery.com/index). I hope that this phrase is realized before I'm dead. 6.6 billion strong, I hope we figure it out.

Thank You to All for Coming to the Grand Opening Sale!

Hi,

I would like to say thank you to everyone that stopped by this weekend. It was a really beautiful Fall weekend in Saint Paul! The leaves were falling off trees, kids were running around in costumes for pre-Halloween events, and the Grand Avenue citizens and guests were so very welcoming. Many came by and chatted for a few minutes and some even purchased a few pottery vessels. I was so delighted to offer the pottery to the Grand Avenue folks, as I think they really appreciate the fine arts in the neighborhood and this really encourages me in offering my functional wares to them in the future.

I want to share a few pics that I had taken the past few weeks. First, here is one of the bisque pots waiting for a coat of glassy glaze. I make all the glazes myself and don't purchase them from a supplier like most hobby potters do I think. There's nothing inherently wrong with either a homemade or commercially available glaze, but making them myself just saves me money in the long run to glaze so many pieces, and second I like the variability I'm offered in performing my own testing.

Anyway, a picture of the "pink" pots in bisque stage, i.e. fired once to drive off a lot of the organics.
A picture of the hay ride galloping down Grand Avenue! These horses had to work! Later on, those hay seats were filled with many kids!
My setup; a few tables procured from Craigslist and cement block from Home Depot. In total, $26 spent on these tables and block, not a bad deal I'd say!
Mixing Bowls. I sold these on Sunday, and I'm planning to make more of these for my home. I envision that I'd use them for baking and eating cereal out of them.
Coffee mugs with a glacial blue glaze floating down one of the oldest glazes I'm aware of: Tenmoku, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenmoku).
I hope to see some of you again soon. If you want, don't forget to sign up for my monthly newsletter on the right side of this web page by simply sending a blank email with your first name to Apt51Pottery@yahoo.com.

I'll write more again soon! Thanks for your support.