Welcome Home Little Whisper

Like any expectant father, I was rushing around getting things ready
for our new baby this weekend. First thing of course is to pick a spot for the
little tyke to live. I think just under the window is a lovely spot.
Once I get chickens again I can see them roaming the yard.

Next step is of course to whip out the reciprocating saw and start
surgically removing the parts of the work bench that were in the way.

Now to build a nice sturdy platform for ma baby. This is built with
nothing thinner than 2 by, and all of it is scrounged wood. I did have
to sacrifice my home made kick wheel frame but it is worth it to have
such a fine spot to stand and throw some pots.

Oo, whose the cuttie widdo googie googie?

A proud papa. Sniffle.

News Flash: WireRabbit Pottery Has New Arrival

First things first, folks.

TA DA

A Trip Of A Thousand Miles Begins With Eight Feet of New Shelving

Still adding more shelf space to the garagio. I had a nice wall for shelves going to waste because I had a filing cabinet, half finished kick wheel, and a small shelving unit in the way. Moved those things out of the way and bob's your uncle.

Now I have lots of room for pots. Now I need to think of a good use for that kick wheel frame.

Filling up the Walls

One of my many shortcomings is a tendency to cover any horizontal surface with whatever I may happen to be holding in my hand at any given time. Tables are my favorite, but counter tops or work benches do just as well.

This becomes a problem in the garagio. Pottery needs flat work spaces for hand building, for fresh pots, for drying pots, for glazing pots, etc. As a consequence, one always feels an acute need for more flat spaces.

Do whatever you can to increase horizontal surfaces in your studio. I like to think of shelving as narrow, floating tables. Yeah that is what they are -- narrow, floating tables that lean against the walls. I'm a genius.
Now that's done, on to the other side of the room. Charge!

One More Go Around

Don't we all wish for one more go around? Well, I do. Here are a few pics of my experiments with various types of naked or sagar raku.


I only had a few naked raku pots. Here is a lidded one (left) next to a larger pot I fired with the clay slab resist, a kind of cave-man version of naked raku.


Sometimes you need to have a few reduction containers and there is no metal trash can in sight. Try using two sizes of flower pots. Fill the larger one with combustibles. I like to plug the drain hole with something that is smoke proof too like damp newspaper or moist clay ball. You can place your raku piece inside the larger pot and use a smaller, inverted pot to close off for the smoking. I like to use several pieces of newspaper in the bottom pot and a few folded pieces stuffed into the top pot. A wad of wet newspaper can plug the drain hole in the "lid" and a wet towel makes a great smoke gasket around the same lid.

Here are the two pieces I pictured in a previous post. In that picture you can see the clay slab with its cloth and wire ties that help to keep the slab in place while it drys and when it's in the kiln firing and again when it is pulled and put in the reduction chamber.

I'll post my tests with two raku glazes soon. I need to do some tweeking for sure, but I like the direction.

Bountiful Bowls 2009 has come and gone

Well, we may be in an economic downturn globally, but I was seeing people walk out the door with packages under their arms. I think the word this year was "jewelry" and it was a very good word. Now I wish I made jewelry...no I don't.

Here are a few pics from the show. I took some pictures of just a few of the regular potters. This year there were many many good pots.


Here is a picture of Betty Shamel, holding the packing paper, and her booth. Betty is a local and is quite a good painter as well as a potter. Folks are always buying in her booth.

Didn't catch Charley Pritchard facing the camera but he's in the red shirt. Charley and his wife run Luling Icehouse Pottery in, you guessed it, Luling TX. Charley is a regular at the clay fest in Gruene.
I have always liked Ron Boling's pots. He has nice raku pieces that you can also see every year in Gruene, TX.
Ken and Brenda Barnett moved to the Coastal Bend several years ago and operate The Potters on Cotter in Port Aransas. I missed Brenda. She must have been at the other booths buying pottery when I took this picture.
Ken volunteers to demonstrate for the folks. Watch it, he throws barefoot.

I don't think you can get any more people in this booth!

Genie Mysorski is another local potter. She teaches art in the elementary school and shows pottery all over TX and OK. She operates Pottery by Genie. She's yucking it up with John Aasp, Director of Visual Arts at the Rockport Center for the Arts.

Here is a better shot of her work.


I caught Jim Bob Salizar checking out his own work. What up whidat? He makes great pots and is an Assistant Professor of Art at Sul Ross State U. in Alpine TX. It's a long haul for him to come every year but we are very glad that he does. This year his donated pot was Best in Show.

Oh, man, who is this dork? Nice pots but why are they still on the table?


I don't know about every potter in the show, but many of us sold enough to make "booth fees and gas money." Yeehaw.

Experimenting at the 11th hour

Okay, I realize that experimenting just a week before your one and only sales event is not the smartest idea, especially when you are experimenting with you only pots. But I never said I was a smart potter.

I did fire about 10 saggar pots as backup pots, but they didn't have the pop that my saggar pots in the past had.



I'm trying my hand at some naked raku using some of my forms. I realize that many of them are not really good naked pots but they are all I have. Here are two pots that will be naked rakued a bit differently. Rather than putting on slip and a glaze layer that will crackle in the reduction bin, I have put color agents etc. onto a moist clay slab and wrapped the pot with the clay. I've used cloth and chicken wire to hold the clay onto the pot until after the reduction.


I have also decided to raku some with nice alkaline glazes, copper, iron. I don't know how well they will all look but I did put one in a kiln today. It suffered a blowout on the rim (boo) but the color of the glaze is nice. I will need to make more so I can dip. This pot had the glaze brushed on and it was difficult to get it on thickly because it was so watery.


Tomorrow and during the week, I do my last firings. Wish me luck!

Gidderdun

I never have time. Trust me, never. February 7th is the one show a year I do. One. And I always end up rushing to get things done in time. Here are the pots I'm going to be preparing for this year's sales. They represent perhaps 6 hours of throwing.



I wanted to throw some shapely pots with lids this year to learn the skills necessary for such pots. I found that an old chewed up wooden spoon made a pretty good throwing stick. Check out this bone dry pot as an example of the shape I was getting.


I like these forms and need to do some for glazing. Bigger, they would make nice teapot bodies, don't you think?