Monthly Update?

    I am just now getting into the groove of this life as a 'retired gentleman'. The second annual Pottery on the Hill Show passed in a blur of great conversation, excellent sales and plenty of plain old labor to put it all together. The scale of the show is by its nature an intimate one and this ends up being one of its delights. Big enough to be of great interest to collectors and pottery lovers, it is also small enough for all the potters to spend time together and even fit into the back room of a restaurant to share a meal. Mark Hewitt joined us this year and he had fantastic sales, including one of his enormous lidded jars which I delivered to a house in horse country outside of D.C. It was great to get to know he and Carol better. In fact, the chance to spend time with these wonderful makers is one of the real pleasures of co-ordinating the show.
    We were also privileged to have Cheyenne Kim join us at Hill Center to arrange beautiful flowers in a wide assortment of our pots as part of 2 sold out workshops. He is a humble and quietly hilarious master.
    On Saturday, former Washington Redskin tight-end and present day potter Chris Cooley gave a couple of entertaining and casual talks about his love of art in general and pottery in particular. He was excited to meet us, a situation that he admitted that it was a role reversal for such a well known and liked celebrity. He has a gallery in Leesburg and is a great advocate for the work that we do.
    Of course, now that it's over we're talking about plans for next year already.
My assistant of many years, Jason, has moved south to the mountains of NC to work with Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish. I'm back to digging my own holes and handling all the odd jobs that make up a pottery life and I'm glad of it.
I have a bunch of greta opportunities next year. I'll write about that next.

My work.

Samantha, Stacy, Bruce and Bob.

Louise Cort with Matthew and Ryan.

# 15

Too much time has passed to catch you up since my last posting. Let's just say that 'retirement' so far seems just as hectic as ever. The transition from 'Art Center Director' to full-time potter is still quite new. Once my travelling shoes were returned to the closet I had to go on an accelerated making regime in order to get a firing in before the 2nd annual "POTTERY ON THE HILL" show in Washington, DC (our nation's capitol!). I made plenty of pots and cleared out a few old things that have been lying around the studio (I think that there is still a serving dish from 2007 on the shelves.) Jason has also returned for a month or so before he moves back to NC to work with Michael and Naomi at Bandana Pottery and he has been a great help getting to this point. We still have to brick the doors up, which I despise, but otherwise we are ready to light up the kiln on Friday evening.

Bagwall Tiles and dishes.

Back stack / first chamber

First chamber done

I'm very excited about these new dishes and tiles... thick and rough!

Back stack - 2nd chamber

Front stack - second chamber

400 pots or so and lots of hope and expectation. A message from my friend Jill has prompted me to get back on the computer and write this here blog. I'm always amazed at the folks who say they read this, so, if that happens to be you, thanks! And how are you doing?!

British Birds

    Well, I am back home (again!) and, after 4 months on the road this year I am ready to hunker down and make things!!! I am in a serious organizing mode since my return, but I must get a bag of clay opened soon and see what happens.    

    I saw so many old pots on my trip to England that it's hard to remember any one in particular. Maybe that's a good thing...I'm looking for inspiration not reproduction. I will be posting photos from London for a bit, starting with birds and bird parts. There are a few Martin Brothers' pieces included. They were my original jumping off point, but I enjoy all the different variations...I think of looking at old pots as building an encyclopedia of form and surface to feed my own creative ideas.

Detail

Church Pulpit, Overbury Church

My first bird with book in hand.

A gem of a bird.

Outer space bird?

Dead bird society.

So, it's not really a bird...

Fierce.

Bird, woman, dog???

Bird-like.

Home Away from Home

Toff and Georgie's home in the Cotswolds

I depart for the U.K. tomorrow for my 34th visit. I first came to that Sceptered Isle in January of 1978 and I can't explain how much I value all the time I've had and friends that I've made...I love being a part of this tiny village and the community that continues to welcome me. I always think that i should arrange a show somewhere with Toff, but then there is tea to drink and cake to eat and plums to pick and before I know it, I'm back on the plane home! But I'm open to suggestions...

Hollyhocks!

Parry, my arch enemy. I have 5 lbs. of peanuts for you, pal.

The old bottle kiln at Winchcombe.

I'll be recording my cider friends history.

Important to avoid the sheep poo.

"Just Before I Go- Again!"

    I leave Monday for my summer retreat to the Cotswolds (that's England don't you know!) where I'll spend a month with Toff and Georgie Milway, beating the heat of Virginia and enjoying the company of my many friends there. When I return I must turn my mind to some serious wheel throwing to prepare for the 2nd annual "Pottery on the Hill" show in D.C. 

    This has not been a big year for pot making with workshops in East Lansing and Penland, my trip to the St Croix show in Minnesota and selling Libertytown all filling up the time.

    But I have been playing with a new variation on an old theme of mine and these slab dishes are the result. Mostly to amuse myself I have long made a body of work that I refer to as 'Bedrock' pots. Rough and stressed and often massive, they are the polar opposite of my finely wrought functional work. I have always kept a number of different explorations going with clay. It is too great a material to limit oneself!

    So, here is my summer tile and slab works...an old laboratory table top with a well liner as a base...

 ...And...my favorite...my mortuary sink 8' of enameled cast iron goodness! I don't reuse my scrap clay to make new pots with...rather I dry it out in the tub and break it into chunks and then add several buckets of coarse wood shavings before slaking it all down and 'harvesting' it when it is still a bit sloppy.

 I have made a bunch of these tile frames and I soak them in water before using them. Lately I've been coating the inner edge of the frame with sand from the property to help with the 'release'.

 I tried these little 'l' brackets as handles, but I don't like them. I have another idea to help remove the frames a little cleaner. This frame is set on a piece of concrete backer board.

 Then I sprinkle dry clay inside.

 I just put a big handful in and then work it to try and fill the frame well. But I don't strive for perfection....it's the anomalies that I think make these work for me.

 Sticky stuff.

 Here I've finished forcing in...in the old days they called the stick I use for leveling a 'slicker stick'.

Scraped and compressed.

 I place a board on top and press it down while lifting the frame off.

I use a piece of newsprint to keep the board on top from sticking.  

I then let them get stiff-ish.

This is a tile after I've flipped it back over with the dry clay on the surface.

 I place a piece of wood (or two) in the middle.

 And then I flip it over again, gently persuading the slab to bend over the wood form and give it shape. I use a paddle and or a paint roller to help give the curves that I want. 

These are thick!

 Once again I flip the slab back with my foam to maintain the shape.

 And then remove the wood block.

I'm trying different proportions of blocks/frames and having a great time. Lots of these small ones will be stacked on edge on the bagwall. I intend to glaze the inside square and leave the rest to the wood and salt..