Unloading #13

My usual group of good friends joined me yesterday in the cold and rain to unload some hot pots. In spite of changing bagwalls & exit flues and using untested wood ash in a glaze, all my worries were for nought. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect black and blue slip, but most of my tests bore some fruit and I will continue to chase that idea. I may forever fight to get more heat to the bottom of the first chamber (changing the bagwall didn't seem to help).

I need to go back out today and go through everything one by one and start to sort out the work for "Pottery on the Hill" which is less than 3 weeks away. 

Will you be coming to the show?!

Waiting for ...

My 'happy place' in the woods.

It is a good thing that the firing marathon leaves my wiped out...2 and a 1/2 days of waiting could be an eternity, but mostly for the first day I'm too tired to care. But today was day # 2 and I spent most of it poking around the kiln, peeking in the spy holes trying to get a read on the results. There are a number of questions that need answering, but if my tiny windows into the interior are any indication, unloading tomorrow should be a happy occasion.

The sounds of big tractors are the background music these days...harvesting beans and planting winter wheat. I watched a big wind gather leaves from trees that stand on the far edge of my field and spread them across the tall grass and expired wildflowers...it was a quintessential autumnal moment and I was in just the right state of mind to see it properly.

I haven't fired my kiln with a show looming in many a year and it brings with it a different level of stress because we all want to look good amongst our peers, don't we? So, with a little extra pressure it was a good time to change bagwalls and exit flues and employ a new (untested) batch of wood ash in my favorite glaze. You've gotta love living on the edge!

Just the right mix of pickling and kosher salt.

Ellie's depiction of the firing

 I asked Ellie about what appears to be a beret on my head...she said that this is how she draws short hair. That's Jason on the left, myself, the kiln (both chambers!) and the door to my studio...excellent perspective for a 5 year old! ) I do like the french bohemian artist look she has given me.

Part of last firing's log and the frontespiece of Ellie's card

Salt delivery system

Fire in the hole!

Ready to Burn Some Wood

I've been happily loading the kiln for most of the last week. The weather has been grand and today Jason and I buttoned it up and gave it a couple of hours of pre-heating. We'll light up at 5PM tomorrow and than stoke for 24-26 hours. I want to soak the first chamber for a couple of hours at the top temperature to see if the bottom will catch up. We also opened up the bagwall some with the same idea in mind.

Full moon rising over soybean field.

The last pots made for this firing.

Making wads.

Gluing wads to foot

Each chamber is 40" dep. I first stack two 24"x12" shelves in the back and than a stack of 24"x16" in front. It's a lot of pots. I'm always amazed how it eats them up. That's my medieval jug/Doug Fitch homage in a sweet spot.

First chamber/ backstack

Second chamber/ backstack

Front chambers loaded and ready to go!

Pottery on the Hill

                          potteryonthehilldc.com 

We have a nifty new website that you should take a look at. The show is just about a month away and I imagine kilns being fired from Minnesota to Massachusetts and south to North Carolina via Pa., Md. and old Virginny. Check out the ad in Ceramics Monthly! Tell your friends!                               

Treats from a Scottish Lassie

Only Hannah would think to send me whiskey flavored tea...2 of my major food groups! Thank-you, dear! It is tasty, although not overly reeking of scotch.

Clay box totem....the empties

Long Trousers

before

Autumn has always been my favorite season and it arrived in serious fashion this week...bright clear skies, cool crisp air, geese flying in from the north, squirrels gathering nuts, apples at the farmers market, and the harvest just begun. In our part of the world most fields are planted in soybeans and corn and they are the first things to change color...the leaves on the trees will soon follow. I am never more energized than at this time of year. And that's a good thing because i have lots to do. I'm winding up my making list today before turning to glazing and kiln loading....the "Pottery on the Hill" Show is coming quick and there is much to accomplish by then.

after 

This is the first time this field of wildflowers has appeared

I really like this teapot...scritchy, scratchy

now that the weather has turned it's whiskey (single malt scotch, please) season

I haven't made a cider jar in years...thinking of Ray

empty boxes

I'm always happy to put the shorts away and break out my blue jeans!

First Friday September

This was a large art weekend in our fair city, starting with our opening reception for our friend and former intern, Sarah Perry. Titled "Curios", Sarah's work are close-up photos of a variety of objects that are printed on round aluminum plates. She also included some small sculptural work which I've yet to photograph. It was a great night  with plenty of folks joining us for our monthly fun and games.

These are details of my work

 "little" Beth Sperlazza, our artist-in-residence, is developing a new body of work and I'm excited to see the results of her exploration. We've had a number of red clay potmakers visit the art center lately and she has been 'infected' by their work! (with apologies to Ron, Doug and Hannah!). Below are a few of her latest.

This young lady visits every first Friday and gives the best hugs! 

Me and Sarah

So, that was Friday. Next up, "Art Attack"!

Filling the Kiln - Day by Day

Tea jars

Candlestick bases

Oval creamer 

Putting a few parts together

4 lb. bases to be capped

While it is fun and manly to get out the torch and make 2-part pots in one sitting, being the gentle soul that I think that I am, I throw them one day and finish them the next, letting them air dry to the perfect condition. Same with the candlesticks. They are actually made in 3-parts.

Scored

Capped

Re-thrown 

A few finished, ready for the fire

The jug on the right is my homage to medieval pottery via Doug Fitch!

My Mug

1st stage

We have more than 50 talented artists at LibertyTown and one of our rising stars, Jenna Anderson, asked me to sit for her while she took some moody photographs.  She then spent the summer working in her studio and entered this charcoal drawing in the Strictly Fredericksburg show and took a first place award for the Drawing category. I'm not sure if it's a compliment when a lovely young woman says that my face has character, but I'm flattered nonetheless and I think that the results are amazing.

2nd stage

detail

Moving Forward While Looking Back

(As you may recall, I sometimes suffer from some critter nibbling on my pots...I often blame the mice, but now here's an interesting one...that hole beneath the beak was not there when I left for the summer! You can see the bits on the books below, but I'm guessing that a flying critter bored its way through. It's almost a perfect hole!)

Tracheotomy bird!

I've been home for 2 weeks and I'm just now beginning to feel like I'm finding my groove again. I am feeling some pressure to be productive immediately with The "POTTERY ON THE HILL" show coming up at the end of October. I'd like to fire as close to the end of September as possible and that means making plenty of pots between now and then. It hasn't been as dreadfully hot as July was, but I still feel listless and unmotivated. Today was an excellent day, though, and the week-end weather looks promising.

I have lots of photos from my journey that I haven't posted, so I may include a few more as the days go by. Starting at the end and moving back to front.

The morning after Toff and I did Potfest we took the scenic route back home, first enjoying our breakfast amidst 'Long Meg and her Daughters' (an ancient stone circle that was once credited to the druids, but that has been refuted. Still I love the sign!) and then visiting a flour mill driven by an old water wheel. We then drove along the eastern edge of the Yorkshire Dales, which might also be called the Pennines, a beautiful and unexpected landscape.

That's Long Meg on the left..the skinny tall one.

 What can I say about a brew with this name. There are those who claim that I am bottle-conditioned. I'm certainly conditioned to a certain bottle. Speaking of which, it's just about that time!