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.

Pottery Sale! October 27-28th, 9am-5:00pm

Hi Everybody,

I'm pleased to announce a pottery sale!

I'm planning a pottery sale on Saturday, October 27th and Sunday, October 28th. The sale will start at 9am both days and end at around 5pm. There will be a wide variety of pottery vessels available for purchase including vases, sake sets, pasta bowls, dinnerware, pitchers, necklaces, coffee mugs, (maybe even a pottery sink, crossing fingers) and mochaware! If you've never heard of or seen mochaware, I urge you to come take a look. I've perfected the art of this 1700's technique, and it's taken me 8 months to do it! No one else in Minnesota makes Mochaware, and I've checked!, so I'm excited to share my neoclassical approach to the process.

I'm planning to have cookies and beverages available, but I'm betting it will be a perfect day to grab a hot cup of coffee or mocha from one of the nearby coffee shops and stroll the Avenue with friends and family before the bustling holidays encroach anymore.

Directions to the sale are simple. It will be on the corner of Grand Avenue and Milton Street in Saint Paul, 1 block west of Victoria. If you get lost or need more specific directions from your origin of travel, please feel free to call me directly at 763-439-2546 or email, apt51pottery@yahoo.com.

I hope to see some of you!

Sake!

A very productive night in the studio. I made sake sets and 5 plates. I really like how everything turned out, especially since I wasn't precise in any of my measurements of the sake glasses or plates. I think the more I've made pots, the better I've become in manipulating the clay and eyeballing how wide, how tall, what shape, and how the clay will react when I do different things to it. Thanks for checking in, I hope everyone is having a good week so far. Wonderful weather here in Minnesota, cool 50's with the Fall in full swing. I hope to see some of you at my show in a few weeks, I'll keep you posted. I've made a lot of pots, so it should be great!

A Fall Weekend in Minnesota

Hi,

Thanks for checking in! What an absolutely gorgeous weekend here in the Twin Cities. I ended up traveling to Fort Snelling State Park, which is nearby the international airport. Here is a picture of some yellow wildflowers I found in a field.

A picture of a small lake in Fort Snelling State Park.
And some captivating orangish-yellow mushrooms growing in water-saturated log.
A wooly bear caterpillar dashing under some fallen leaves.
My coworker running the Twin Cities Marathon. She's on the left in this picture, and smiling on Mile #24. Only 2 miles left! Sorry if the picture isn't crisp, she was running really fast!
Two 21" diameter bowls waiting to dry. It might take up to 2 weeks for these to dry and be able to put them into the kiln.I really like the following vase. Sorry I don't have any fancy artist backdrop, but the variation in color on this pot is really worth noting.The bottom glaze is a traditional tenmoku, and I've dipped the top 1/3 in a red kaki glaze, which yielded this rust red to purple. I think it would be interesting to have a whole pot with this variation, and the next glaze firing I do I'll make sure to have a few like it.

And lastly, my small attempts at cleaning the studio up. I'm waiting for about 500lbs of clay to dry, so I can wedge and throw, so I've settled on cleaning the studio for a few days and mixing up some glaze chemicals.

Vases and a pottery sink to boot!

Hi,

I've got great plans this weekend! Making pottery, eating pasta, and watching the Twin Cities Marathon.

I went to Broder's Pasta Bar tonight, which in my opinion serves the best pasta in the Twin Cities. I had the penne alla puttanesca, and it was tastier than ever . . . mouth-watering capers, spicy red pepper, fresh tomatoes, halved kalmata olives, and even a bit of anchovy paste to taste, yummy! If you don't like to make pasta, or really like good pasta, Broder's is worth a try.

Here's a picture of a few pottery vases I made on Thursday night, along with a vessel pottery sink for the bathroom.

I put in a bisque load last night which fired today, and I will take out tomorrow morning. I'm planning to have more pictures of my glazed works coming soon on this blog.

Large-shouldered vases and Small Pilgrim Pots waiting to dry

Hi,

Thanks for stopping by and checking out my new pieces, fresh off the wheel! The following picture contains one of my favorite pieces to make, large-shouldered vases. They are ideal for flowers or just for decoration around the house. I made about 12 of these last night with different shapes on the same concept of having a wide belly.

This next picture is a small version of the Pilgrim bottle seen in an earlier post. I envision that these would be perfect for holding hand soap in the bathroom or a smaller amount of liquid detergent in the kitchen.

I hope to have more coming soon, hit reload often!

Picture of Walker Pug Mill, Brent Wheel, and Tests

Hi,

Thanks for checking in. A very successful night in the studio. I mixed clay in the Walker Pug Mill (see picture below), a machine made in Duluth, Minnesota back in the '70s. Josh Grenier, whom I met at a wood-firing at the Edina Art Center gave me the pug mill, and I'm so grateful that he did because it is getting constant use with all the scraps I've built up over the past 6 months. Check out Josh's blog if you have a minute; he's the Ceramics Teacher at Edina High School and one of my good pottery friends (http://joshgrenier.blogspot.com/). Josh and I also participated in an Urban Firing Project this past summer where we converted an old electric kiln shell, and fired it to cone 8 with a propane weed burner.

Tonight, I wedged about 100lbs of clay, made a few large-shouldered vases (I'll get pictures up soon), and called it a night. I have found that the recycled clay that is mixed in the Pug Mill and hand-wedged for a bit is very easy to throw, and has better plasticity than right out of the box. I think the reason it has better throwability (i.e. why it's easier to work with) is that the clay particles are being forced closer together and that facilitates air pockets being removed and greater overall strength. I'm looking forward to throwing more of the recycled clay.

Here's a picture of the Walker Pug Mill, which I have coined The Beast.

Here's a picture of my wheel and wedging table; the electric kiln is directly behind me in this picture.

These drinking cups are perfect for about 200 grams of glaze test, and I can easily mix it up with a handheld mixer.

I'm planning to have a sale in a few weeks (likely October 20th and 21st), and I'll be sure to let you know more about it as soon as I firm up the details myself.