What is it that inspires you to go to the studio everyday and make art?
For me, it is a variety of things, but mainly images that get me going! Here are a few that I believe start my fire!
I started throwing this week and found myself making mugs! Gee whiz! Can’t I get past that? I keep trying to push myself and find myself falling back into the COMFORTABLE ZONE!
So I took those mugs and altered them! Finished product is a sugar and creamer set with a tray and spoons!
I also made a sake set! My first and it definitely needs work. Next time!
Ronnie covered another table for me beside the slab roller-you can NEVER have enough work surfaces.
Hope this finds me moving forward!
Reach for the stars – or at least the top of your brain!
Need more Copper Red Glaze Recipes?! I can’t seem to get enough!!! Here are previous posts on the topic of Copper Reds: Click Here!
I’m not sure most potters (and definitely most people!) understand the obsession for copper reds. Basically, it is the adventure of seeking something that is hard to find – a true treasure!! That’s the fun of it!!! Steve S. Saroff explains the passion well in a guest post on Carole Epps’ blog, Musing About Mud.
When going through some old Ceramics Monthly journals, I came across a couple of interesting articles on Copper Reds!!
This article gave some recipes for Cone 9 Copper Red Glazes that had some interesting hues and effects!
Although many of the chemicals are not ones that I normally use, it might be worth giving them a try.
Here are the recipes:
Crazy tho….found another article on Electric Kiln Copper Reds – Cone 6!!!! and I’ve worked so hard to get them in high fire gas reduction!!!
No matter, one of my best copper reds is a Cone 6 recipe that I use in the high fire reduction to cone 10 and it works great!
Here is a link to the recipes in the article onMore Electric Kiln Copper Reds by Pearson
Interesting in the instructions the amount of time to “dip” the piece is significantly longer than I usually dip a piece – and it is different for each glaze – up to 10 seconds!
Good to find more copper red recipes!! I may give some a try! The quest for copper reds continues! Let me know what you think and if you have tried any of these recipes!!!
Upward and onward!
I recently attended a workshop taught by Helen Charles on handbuilding large vessels. The workshop was offered by the Gold Coast Potters Association with Lynette Rogers as the convenor. Short version: IT WAS AWESOME!!!!
I never actually WANTED to hand build GIANT POTS! I am a thrower!
But when I saw the offering, I signed up! I really didn’t think much about what I wanted to make and there in lies the problem! I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to make!
So I quickly made a drawing on the back of the workshop handout!
Once we had decided on what we wanted to make, we then had to MEASURE the drawing! Cripes! Maths! Hate math! But…I did it! By multiplying each measurement by an increment (I did 3), the final pot will be, say 3 times, as large as the drawing. Works like a champ!
And…that is ONE of the secrets to successful large pot building! We had to measure each step of the way and then correct if we were off course.
The other secret was to use BRT-a groggy raku clay that didn’t need slipping or scoring!
The final secret is to dry the pot as you are building it with a gas burner. This permits you to work more quickly and the pot can sustain the weight of each addition of clay.
The pot is built by rolling out coils, then flattening them with a rolling pin. These are then attached to the pot.
Blog Tip: On any of these small pics, just click on them and it takes you to a larger pic and then it will run a slide show of the pics in that group.
Here is my pot and the progression of building it:
My Pot: 1
My Pot: 2
My Pot: 3
My Pot: 4
My Pot: 5-leaning!
Marian Williams With My Pot at Its Critical Juncture!
My Pot: 6 Helen (The MASTER!!) had to come in and straighten up my pot and help me decide on a “new direction” for the final pot!
Helen Charles and Marian Williams with the Final Product!
Marian’s Pot-FINAL!
Ultimately, I had to have the MASTER!!! help me out as it had gotten off course!
Helen is a genius and helped me re-engineer my pot. She also SAVED!! several other pots!
Here are all the pots at the halfway point:
Kirsten Hague midway on her large jug.
Helen Charles and Paul Button with his vessel.
Claire Byrne’s umbrella stand.
Anne Mossman working on her large vessel.
Ann O’Connor’s pot mid way.
Robyn Roylance working on her large pot.
Midge Johansen working on her big nude pot.
Lynette Rogers working on her big vessel.
From Left: Camilla Murphy, Anne Mossman, and Wendy Hodgsen at the mid-way point.
Sandra Tafe’s Big Jar!
Marian Williams with my almost complete pot.
Here are pots in progress:
Kirsten Hague making coils and working on a handle for her jug.
Robyn Roylance adding coils to her pot.
Claire Byrne making great progress on her umbrella stand.
Camilla (first time potter!) with her lovely large potato chip bowl!
Lynette Rogers getting to the top edge of her pot.
Paul Button started on a SECOND vessel!
Midge Johansen’s sculpture pot now has boobs!
Sandra Tafe’s pot is getting much taller!
Marian Williams pot is almost done!
Kirsten Hague is wondering if the braided rope adds to her pot??
Here are pots being presented and critiqued by Helen and the group:
Paul Button presenting his gorgeous (pot 2) bowl.
Paul Button presenting his lovely altered form.
Ann O’Connor’s amazing jug-great handle!!
Claire Byrne’s umbrella stand turned out wonderfully.
Robyn Roylance’s pot was covered in fantastic flowers and leaves!
Kirsten Hague’s large pitcher/jug turned out great!
Lynette Roger’s large vessel was just gorgeous!
Midge Johansen’s nude vessel was fantastic!
Wendy Hodgson’s large envelope/package vessel was too cool!
Camilla Murphy’s big bowl was just incredible!
Anne Mossman created two (count them!!!) amazing vessels!
Marian Williams’ – yep, there it is!
Helen Charles class is awesome! I highly recommend it!
One of the most enviable students was a total newbie to clay, Camilla.
She built the most amazing large bowl! I told her that she should be very proud of herself as most people’s first pot is an ash tray (at best!). In fact, that is what I want to make next! A great big bowl.
So I went to Picasso’s Ceramics and Brad loaded me up some BRT!!!
Pot on, my pretties!
Hello to all! You know how some weeks you are super productive and others – not so much!!!
Well, this was one of those weeks!
But got heaps done in general and moved ahead in several areas.
Firstly, Ronnie graffiti’d my raku shed that he “fixed up” for me last week!!! Funny guy!
Secondly, lots of stuff made last week was drying!
Thirdly, I took some pots by Sheoak Gallery to see how they sell there!
Fourthly, I started making some clay angels!!!
Fifthly, I finished editing and then uploaded the video about Rob Barron!
Rob Barron’s Studio/Kiln Visit and Throwing Demonstration
Sixthly, I purchased this cane patio set-3 piece!!! in great condition!!! for $50.00!!! Unbelievable!!! and they threw in the drink/magazine stand for free! Don’t need them-just couldn’t resist such a bargain! You can’t buy much of anything for $50.00!!!
So…fairly eventful, but nothing much new! I’m off to Raku at Tweed Arts Unlimited on Saturday and a Helen Charles workshop on building BIG pots on Sunday!!! Yea! more pottery!!!! It’s raining, so nothing to do anyway!
Hope you have a great next week and be sure to check out the pottery goings-on on Mud Colony!!!
Here are the before and after photos of my most recent refire. All did not look this different and some looked worse. But I think it is obvious that these did reach temperature in this second firing!
Rob Barron’s Gooseneck Pottery
I have made a video of Rob Barron’s Gooseneck Pottery kiln opening which the Mud Colony group visited recently. The video also includes Rob talking about his firing and shows him throwing a large jug.
Enjoy!
This week was filled with refiring a bunch of marginal pots and raku-ing my little wood-fired raku kiln to make raku totems!
Refiring Glazes:
I made the decision to refire some pots from the last firing.
It was either toss them and take a hammer to them or give it a go and see what the results were. It’s a big exercise in futility if nothing looks better, but because my last firing didn’t reach temperature, I was pretty sure that I would be happy with SOME of the results and that was good enough for me!
The process was:
- Select pieces that could benefit from a refire.
- Make a thin solution of CMC and water-paintable.
- Coat the pieces with CMC where you want to add new glaze.
- Add new glaze to the CMC’d pots by dipping, spraying, trailing or simply painting.
- Fire as usual!
In general, I was quite happy with the results. The ones that STILL look ugly to me, will either go in the Seconds box or I will destroy them with the same glee that went into making them! Sad, but true!
I’ve tried refiring before-here’s the post about that.
Wood-fired Raku Kiln:
I haven’t fired my little wood-fired raku kiln much-just lazy I suppose! Here’s the previous post on building it!
So put it to the test and fired lots of little pieces for a totem. Some came out good-others bad, but I did construct a totem!
Ronnie decided I needed a proper raku shed (code: Get your raku stuff out of my barn!). So he took the tractor and cleaned out an area and took the junk out of an old ramshackled silo! So now I have a raku shed outside the barn, but still under cover. It is a bit messy, smoky, and trashy! But is it worth it? Oh Yeah!
Here’s some pics of the finished totem and one that is a work in progress. Just a bit of fun to test out my raku glazes and the little kiln!
I also did a bit of throwing, slabbing, and making of test tiles.
Truly Southurst posted this on facebook and I LOVE it! Something to remember as the week goes by!
And, of course, cutey Samantha was there by my side! My pottery buddy!
Ever wonder how to get “into” the pottery market? Well, one of my facebook buddies out there is doing it his way and finding success.
Joel Cherico!! I love his work! Copper REDS!!! ooooohh my fav and my passion – so I’ve watched what Joel has been doing.
See former blog post about Joel’s work here.
Joel’s business acumen and creativeness is the focus of a recent article in Ceramics TECHNICAL
It’s a great article and a good “HOW TO” on how to work with a business to promote your pottery.
To learn more about Joel Cherrico and his pottery, go to his website.
Well done, Joel! You’re my current PotterLove!
On a recent Mud Colony Road Trip to Inverloch, we visited two woodfiring potters! It was amazing to see their studios, kilns, and the beautiful woodfired pottery!
The lessons about woodfiring learned are:
The wood that is used is CRITICAL!!!
Too much stoking and you will NEVER get to temperature.
Glazes are NOT required!
Wadding impressions on the pieces can create the art.
In a previous post, A Pottery/Girls’ Weekend, I wrote about my expectations for this trip:
“The weekend should be wonderful – plans are for food, chocolate, wine, pottery, and making friends! What more could you want! We hope to do some of this and who knows what else!”
Well, I wasn’t wrong! We had great food from Victoria Market. We had wonderful chocolate from Koko Black and from Anna! Wine from Adriana’s uncle! Tons of pottery viewing!
We ate the most amazing thing!-Boreks!!
How ’bout a little espresso with creme-only in Melbourne!
Kim and the cool new combo-Brocolli and Cauliflower??
Romanesco! New to me!
Victoria Market-purple and yellow carrots!
Anna and Sadhana selecting eggs at Victoria Market
Koko Black Chocolates -Marian’s fav!
Kim Jaeger’s work
Craft Australia
Craft Australia
What a beautiful collection of pottery at Adriana’s.
Anna’s Teapot! Beautifully decorated with tissue transfer designs on bisque and iron brush work on shino-high fired!
And, for me! making friends was at the top of the list! I had only met Adriana previously. The rest of the girls were completely new to me and me to them! I think it was marvelously successful!
The first studio that we visited was Rob Barron’s Gooseneck Pottery.
Rob talked with us a length about his firing process and showed us his kilns.
His pots are truly amazing!
Gooseneck Pottery Brochure
Here is a map of WHERE we went!
Arriving at Gooseneck Pottery
Lovely! setting
Huge woodfired platter
Rob Barron speaks to Sadhana, Kim, Anna, and Adriana
Rob Barron and Adriana
Woodfired Pot by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery-Kiln in background
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfire Kiln-Sadhana at entrance
Rob Barron speaking with Sadhana-so generous with his knowledge on wood firing!
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Good to know-everyone has mistakes!
Woodfired Pot by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pot by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Rob Barron-Gooseneck Pottery
We also visited Zak Chalmers at Valley Plains Pottery. It was a smaller, gentler kind of woodfiring and seeing his process, smaller kilns and the beautiful results was amazing!
Zak also demoed throwing for us with the help of 2 of his 3 children! So cute! But they would make throwing a bit difficult!
Zak’s kilns are much smaller, so it was fascinating to hear about them, as this made building and firing a wood kiln on my place a possibility for the future!
His work is absolutely stunning and the setting is too!
Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery-throwing with his children’s assistance!
Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Platter by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Bowl by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Pot by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Check out the jewels on the edge of this-Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Truly Southurst and Woodfired Pots by Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Going out to the woodfire kilns with Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery
Sadhana and Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery-discussing his kiln
We all have mistakes!
Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery-explaining his kilns and woodfiring process.
Truly Southurst examines the inside of Zak Chalmers- Valley Plains Pottery-kiln
Wow! Look at that Woodpile-This is the amount required to fire his kiln.
Smaller of his kilns.
Close- up of a small jewel on this woodfired pot.
A small jewel on this woodfired pot.
Closeup Details of Woodfired Pots
Closeup Details of Woodfired Pots
Closeup Details of Woodfired Pots
Closeup Details of Woodfired Pots
Closeup Details of Woodfired Pots
Woodfired pots by Zak Chalmers-Valley Plains Pottery
Woodfired pots by Zak Chalmers-Valley Plains Pottery
Kim Foale happy with her purchases!
We ended up with some gorgeous pieces and my purchase sort of looks like boobs! Thanks for noticing Truly!
Another thing I wrote about in a previous post, A Pottery/Girls’ Weekend, was MY Personal expectations for the trip:
“…these times away REALLY allow you to assess WHERE you are in your work, personal life, and general state of being. The silliness, laughter and freedom to just CHILL (in a very frantic potters’ way) is good for the soul!”
We did have lots of silliness, laughter and freedom to CHILL-in exactly the way I imagined! A very FRANTIC POTTERY WAY!!
I did get to assess where I am in my work-no way where I want to be:
New resolutions:
Don’t be afraid to make the stuff in my head.
Make BIGGER!
Stick to my plan for glazing-get better and bigger!
Use all the resources at my disposal.
I have NO OBSTACLES IN MY WAY-SO GET CRACKIN’!!!
A great big thank-you goes out to Adriana Christianson who organized this trip! Amazingly fun and wonderful!