Birding

A few months ago there was a bunch of blogs about pots and birds. It inspired me to make a press mold of these lead birds; one of the many ideas that sit around waiting for the right nudge to be brought to fruition. I intend to use them as a knob on some bigger lidded jars but for now I'm putting them on little tile pedestals to do more glaze and slip tests.
The lead birds have a great history. There used to be an amusement park on an island just below the route 3 bridge here on the Rappahanock River. It's hard to believe it to see the island now, it is rough and overgrown. But it was once a lively social spot that included a shooting range. A couple of years ago someone found a trunk full of the targets from that range in a basement downtown.

Setting the Date

I spent the day hauling wood with Beth Jordan, who's worked with me for the last year or more. She is good company and we got a lot done today. The next firing will be #5 and I'm still figuring out new 'rules' such as...get the wood cut and under cover one month before firing. I've been avoiding setting a date, but as she and I talked today, it seemed clear that the weekend of October 17,18,19 was the right one. So now to buckle down and get some serious pot making done. Nothing like a deadline for incentive.
For years I fired a small gas kiln a couple of times a month and I was forever setting a firing date and then putting it off at the last minute...for a day or three. But like most wood kilns, there is a lot of coordination involved now as I prevail upon friends to help out. So I can't be quite so cavalier about timing.


Here are some finished pots that I showed in an earlier stage. I raw glaze so they are ready to go now. I really like that. I do biscuit fire some pots to use with a crackle slip...I'd like to figure out how to get the same surface on greenware, but until then, it works.

Toff Milway

I've been slacking off on my blogging duties, mostly because I can't find my camera (I think it might have been lifted from my car, but I'd still like to think that I just left it somewhere). I have been busy in my studio, but I'll use today's musings to introduce you to my best friend and the best salt glaze potter I know, Toff Milway. We met at Winchcombe in 1978 and no one has had more influence on me and my work. Toff and Ray Finch had a unique working relationship... I think Ray really admired Toff's technical mind and they would talk for hours, offering questions and possible answers about a variety of technical problems. This was particularly true with the new salt kiln ("Peardrop") that the three of us spent many of our free hours working on. I will tell many more stories about 'Milway' as time goes by. Below is part of the beautiful Cotswold stone cottage and pottery that the Milway family has maintained for many years. The rest is a sampling of work.

Rye Arts Center

This is a group of teapots I'll be packing up today to ship for an upcoming exhibition called "Southern Exposure: Atmospheric Pots and the Penland Connection". This show is part of a county wide celebration of clay arts organized by Westchester Arts Council.
Years ago I was invited to be part of an exhibition of 'southern' potters. It really gave me pause...I was born and raised in Buffalao N.Y., and while it is true that my entire professional career has been spent in the south, I still identify myself as a 'yankee', so it was interesting to be given a new label...one I have since embraced.
Here's The Rye Arts Center link.

Bedrock Pots

This is a body of work that goes back to my earliest introduction to clay. My college experience emphasized sculpture over function (this is TOO common) and I divided my time between both. My functional pots are finely made and maybe a bit too tight, sometimes...these pieces are the opposite in every way. In fact, a lot of the surfaces start with the scraps from the pottery process. I press all kinds of slips and junk into the surface of a wet slab and then stretch and distort it before shaping. later I spray more slips, glaze and ash mixtures. These were all gas fired to cone 10.
I've never made a lot of this work because I've never been quite sure where the market might be. But lately I've been back at it again and I've got some new things in the works.

From Here To There

I'm a little behind in posting this blog. We welcomed a terrific exhibition to our gallery last Friday night. The Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Va. is celebrating their 35th anniversary this year with a traveling exhibition and invited us to host the first show! It is a real honor for us to be included and is a nice acknowledgement of what we've accomplished at LibertyTown in a few short years.
The show arrived last week in two nice crates and we repainted and spiffed up the gallery before hanging the show. Just as we were opening the doors Friday evening 4 fire trucks roared up the street and parked out front while they investigated a curious odor in a house across the way. They spent about an hour blocking the way before they felt that they could leave safely. It worried some of our guests arriving as we've already had one fire in the building a couple of years ago...I just told everyone it was part of a parade to celebrate the opening!

Hatchville Pottery

I'm happy to direct you to my long-time pottery friend Hollis Engley's new blog. Hollis was a good writer long before he made pots...blogging was made for him! We used to wood fire together and he helped me build my kiln. He makes pots on Cape Cod which is too far away but
a nice place to visit.

This Week's Pots

I needed to throw some simple things the other day, so I revisited these crock/spoon pots. I've made thousands of them over the years. The second photo shows some more challenging pots I'm working on and a 'cider jar' that I'm very pleased with. We have a big show opening this Friday at Libertytown, so I'm fighting to get out to the studio this week. It's usually pretty buggy by the time I get out there and close to pitch dark before I head home.

Another Cool Book

This is my other new favorite book...the Chinese version of the previous post. There are 34 plates reprinted from beautiful, rich watercolors depicting the entire process of producing 18th century export ware from mining clay to selling the finished pots. The photos here depict mining by hand, oxen stomping the clay in pits, packaging prepared clay into 'bricks' for transport, making pots, cutting wood for the firing, loading pots into saggers, and an enameling kiln. Just like the Olympics that just passed, the sheer amount of human exertion is impressive.

L'Encyclopedie Art De La Ceramique

I'd forgotten about the richness of bookstores in New England and it was great to know that they still seem to thrive. I love books about the technical aspects of pottery and two I found are particularly delightful. This is the French one...beautiful detailed engravings of clay processing, settling pits, production studios and all kinds of wheel diagrams including templates and details of several different types. The detail is fine, I hope it translates on your computer.
Next, the Chinese version.