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Marian Williams Pottery
Marian Williams Pottery

A Visit to Clayways in Austin, Texas AND A Problem Solved! Thanks!

Studio ToursTools and Equipment

I recently visited with Kit Adams, proprietor/manager of Clayways in Austin, Texas!  What a wonderful place!

Before I toured Clayways, I stopped in at Armadillo Clay.

Armadillo Clay-Austin, Texas
Armadillo Clay-Austin, Texas
Michael Soto
Michael Soto

At Armadillo Clay, I met Michael Soto (his uncle is the famous potter, Ismael Soto!!).  I was looking for a solution to a problem that I had with my peep/bung hole plug in my gas kiln – it was broken!  He was lovely and offered several suggestions, but none really would solve my problem!

This is what my plugs looked like!  Eek!!

Broken Peep/Bung Hole Plug
Broken Peep/Bung Hole Plug

When touring the studio with Kit, we stopped at the gas kiln and she pulled out a wad of fibre-which was the plug for the bung hole!!! Duh, now don’t I feel silly! Easy solution!!!

Fibre Kiln Port/Bung Hole Plug Kit Adams-Clayways-Austin, Texas
Fibre Kiln Port/Bung Hole Plug
Kit Adams-Clayways-Austin, Texas
Fibre Kiln Port/Bung Hole Plug
Fibre Kiln Port/Bung Hole Plug

Broken Peep/Bung Hole PlugThe rest of the tour was amazing!  What a great place! For more info on Clayways:  click HERE!!!

There is a gallery, work spaces, kiln rooms, supplies, great glazes, and much much more.

I’ve put together the pics so you can view them easily.  Just click on the first small pic and it will open up larger, then you can scroll through the rest of the pics!

Glazed Work
Funny Cartoon With Instructions For Students!
One Example of Studio Space at Clayways
Molds Galore!!!
More Molds!
Real Life Immitating Art!! A Real Lizard Amongst Pottery Lizards!
Students Asking Questions of Kit Adams
Kiln Room
Bisqued Work
Bisqued Tiles For Glaze Tests
Glazed Test Tiles
Glaze Test Tile Wall (Close-Up)
Slab Roller
One Of The Main Work Areas
Lanterns-Made at Clayworks Studio/Gallery in East Austin, owned by John and Chris Gray
Door Numbers-Made at Clayworks Studio/Gallery in East Austin, owned by John and Chris Gray
Gallery at Clayways
Gallery Items at Clayways

A Pottery/Girls’ Weekend!!!

Amazing Potters

Since the 1990’s, I’ve tried to attend, organize and be part of a pottery/girls week or weekend at least once a year.  There is nothing like the comradeship of fellow potters! and WOMEN!!!  These times away are cathartic in many ways.  They make you appreciate the home and the loved ones you’ve left behind, but 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!

The Pottery Girls!
The Pottery Girls!

In the states, our pottery group consisted of my college friend, Judith Wagenseller (Owner of the HOUSE of Clay in OKC -yes, they are ok and were not hit by the tornado!!!); Sue Haile, my cousin and social potter extraordinaire!; Suzi Swinford, the Queen of decorated handbuilt pottery (her work is amazing-Suzi’s Designs!); Fran Ferrell, potter, rancher, and a woman of women!; and Melissa Vanoy, High School art teacher!  We are a dangerous bunch!  The fun we have had is legendary!

But…now I live in Australia.  Previously, I’ve been too busy teaching at Uni to do much pottery, but after a fortuitous closing of the Education program at Bond Uni, I was forced back into a more relaxed life-style and POTTERY!!!  I love pottery and have joined many of the local pottery groups, forging friendships, and learning heaps.  But I still hadn’t found that group to go on a Pottery/Girls’ Weekend with!

In steps the fabulous, Adriana Christianson!

Adriana Christianson
Adriana Christianson

Adriana is the mother of MUD COLONY, which is a blog that brings together pottery bloggers.  She is such a wonderful cheerleader for our cause that she has organized a get away weekend in Inverloch, Victoria for the Mud Colony Bloggers!!! Unfortunately, only 6 of us are able to participate, but we are all looking forward to it with great excitement! 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!

Loch Food and Wine Festival

Woodfire Pottery Kiln Opening – Gooseneck Pottery

Woodfire Pottery Kiln Opening – Valley Plains Pottery

The Cracked Pot by Melissa Glazer
The Cracked Pot by Melissa Glazer

For the plane ride to Melbourne, I’ve downloaded the second of the 3 -book Clay & Crime series, by Melissa Glazer (hehe-get it?!) , The Cracked Pot.  Melissa Glazer is a pseudonym for Tim Myers, a successful mystery writer.  The Clay & Crime books are actually quite light, but fun and entertaining, especially if you are a potter!  I recommend them for a fun read.  They are in order:

A Murderous Glaze

The Cracked Pot

A Fatal Slip

Woodfiring at Murwillumbah!!

FiringWood firing

Last weekend we had a woodfiring at Murwillumbah Potters’ Group.

The process is arduous and requires lots of wood, muscle, endurance and patience!

Here are some pics of the process.  Click on the small pic, then it will enlarge.  From there, you can click the arrows to go through the slides.  Enjoy!

Lovely Pots Ready for Firing
Pots ready to be loaded into the woodfire kiln.
Ann Lee inside the Kiln-Loading
Stilts for holding up the shelves.
Ann Lee Loading the Woodfire Kiln
Holly, Holly’s Mom, Ann, Lorraine assist in the woodfiring.
Lyndall Bensley Stoking the WoodFired Kiln
Warwick Anderson checking the loading of the woodfire kiln.
Carol, Ann and Jim – checking the chimney for smoke, flames, reduction
Woodfirng Kiln Shed
Fire Coming Out of Kiln Door
It’s hard to look cute when wood firing, but Lyndall has pulled it off!
Flames! It’s HOT!
Emma and Lyndall-Stokers Extraordinaire!
Handbuilt Container-Sprayed glazes-shino, teal, and black
Woodfired Cups
Woodfired Pots
Laura’s Green Glaze-Left, Reduction Gas fired; Right, Woodfired on Groggy Clay
Woodfired Platter
Woodfired Cups
Teadust Tenmoku on Tenmoku-Left, Gas Reduction Fired; Right-Underfired in Wood Kiln

 

My She -Totem Is Up!

CreationHandbuildingTotems

 

It is FINALLY up!! I have been waiting for this for a long time!

My She-Totem (looking for a name?  Any suggestions would be welcome!) greets you as you turn the corner to my studio.  Although she looks a bit crazy, she is welcoming all that love and believe in pottery and giving the “halt sign” to nay-sayers.  All in all, she is making a statement and that is all we all want out of life, right?  To be noticed or make a difference while on this earth.

She is a caricature/symbol of me – her creator.  Each piece is symbolic and I’ll explain those with the pictures.

BE SURE TO CLICK THE FIRST PICTURE, and that will enlarge the photos. And you can then view the pictures as a slide show.

Ronnie and Sam are ready to start the process of putting the totem together. Notice the “oh shit” handle in the jeep! That sort of was the motto for the day!
The base we used for the totem – Sam is SOOO excited!
Ronnie came up with a good solution to wobbly legs!
Lying in wait.
This is the base on top of the legs for the belly!
Ronnie places the belly in place.
Ronnie helped me engineer the whole thing!
She’s all put together – now to move her outside!
The She-Totems head symbolises ME! I have a few “snakes” in my head, thus the curly spirals; I think I have ESP; thus the Third Eye; and I constantly speak too much, thus three tongues coming out of a BIG MOUTH, with the words on the tongues – “Blah, Blah, Blah”, “When are you due?” (true story!), and “Oops!”
Here’s a closeup of the tongues and the words!
The hands are inscribed with the words “Create”, “Hands” and “Love” -which describe the hands of potters!
The breast/chest indicates my big boobs and my big heart! On the front, I’ve written words of things that I LOVE! On the backside, I’ve written things that are “behind” me.
The belly portion shows my intestines with a big E – which stands for my one and only pregnancy, Elizabeth!! Although the belly cracked I feel that is indicative of the birth process!
Here’s the crack in the belly – part of the art!
As you drive up to the studio, she will be one of the first things that you see.
Here she is in her place outside the studio -welcoming all!
Here’s her view from the pottery studio – Not bad, eh?!
Of course, Samantha Scout supervised the whole project!

Ronnie gave me an enormous amount of help and we figured out how to get this poorly-designed totem to stand up!  Thanks, sweetie!!

She’s certainly not perfect – but nor am I!

She won’t last forever – but nor will I!

But, she’s finished and out front and UP!

So happy.  She makes me smile!

 

Pottery ROCK STARS at NCECA! PotterLoves

Amazing Potters

I suppose that every career/interest group has its “ROCK STARS” -those of that profession that shine above all the others and create a following that is evidence of the reverence, admiration, adoration and sheer LOVE of that person and their work by those of us striving to achieve some level of expertise.

Pottery or Ceramics, as a profession, is no different.  In fact, we definitely have our Pottery Rock Stars! It may vary amongst potters, but there are a few potters that are at the top of the heap and I got to see some of them at NCECA 2013!

I’ll go into more depth about each of them in a later post, but in this post, I just wanted to share with you my excitement at seeing these amazing potters!!!

First person I saw that I recognised was the famous and oh-so-talented, Cynthia Bringle!

 

Cynthia Bringle & Marian Williams
Cynthia Bringle & Marian Williams

Then I saw Tom Coleman, King of the Copper Red Glaze and spokesman for Geil Kilns, speaking to a group!

Tom Coleman
Tom Coleman

Next, I bumped into Steven Hill, potter extraordinaire!, and he was lovely to chat with!

Steven Hill
Steven Hill

And for me and all Aussies, the Rock Star of Glazes, Greg Daly was there!

 

How cool was that!  I have more to tell you about each one, but that is for another post.

Sleep well, my little ones.  Sweet dreams of pots!

Inspiration: Spirituality, Religion, & Pottery

Inspiration

I love this!!! It speaks volumes doesn’t it!?  Haven’t we all been in a place where we were supposed to be contemplative – a class, a meeting, church, yoga or meditation – and all we could think about was potting!  And I have been potting when I think of the most incredible ideas, solutions to problems, or at least have thoughts that sooth my soul.  Yes, pottery is spiritual – it is a passion, a joy, a way to live one’s life.

This was written on the chalkboard at Murwillumbah Potters Group in Fernvale, NSW.

Texturing Clay Slabs-I Got My New Shoes On!

Studio and EquipmentTools and EquipmentTutorials

My New Shoes!

Here is a couple of pics of my new runners! Solomons! I love them-so comfy-but I bought these pretty much on cute value.

For some reason, I seem to attach songs to my work.  Do any of you know and like the song:New Shoes by Paolo Nutini?  Well, It just makes me happy! and it really fits my mood when I wear my new shoes!  

And then…..da da da da…I looked at the soles of these beautiful new shoes!

These are the greatest clay stamps I have seen for quite some time!
These are the greatest clay stamps I have seen for quite some time!

At NCECA there were many booths selling all sorts of texturing devices!

DSCF3218
Metal tools!
DSCF3201
Wooden Tools!
DSCF3155
More Wooden Tools!
DSCF3141
Rubber rollers and individual rubber stamps
DSCF3140
Rubber Mats!

 So when I saw the rubber soles on these shoes, my heart leapt!  I had a billion new stamps for texturing  slabs AND a new pair of shoes!

I really NEEDED to put this new “tool” to use, so I decided to make a big platter for the upcoming wood fire at Murwillumbah Potters’ Group in May.

Step 1.  Roll out a big slab on my slab roller.  Place the rolled slab onto the floor on the canvas mat.

First step was to roll out a slab of clay.
First step was to roll out a slab of clay.

Step 2.  Spray the bottom of the shoe with WD40 so the clay won’t stick to the shoe sole.

IMG_3881

Step 3.  Lightly step on the slab, using the toe, heal and edges to fully texturize the slab of clay.

IMG_3880

Step 4.  Spray the intended slump/hump hold with WD40.

IMG_3892

Step 5.  Carefully place the slab of clay into the mold.  Use a tennis ball to push the clay into the edges and bottom, being careful not to distort or erase the texturing.

IMG_3890

Step 6.  You can support the overhanging edges of clay with door stoppers or draft stoppers (got mine at Bunnings-they work great for all sorts of clay supporting issues!).

IMG_3887

TA DA!

Oh, and don’t forget to check out your old runners!  They probably have cool stamps on their soles too!

IMG_3875

Be sure to check out Mud Colony posts this week!  Heard some good stuff is coming up!

And…tadadada!!!! Here is the final result of that platter from the woodfiring at Murwillumbah Potters’ Group in Fernvale!

Woodfired Platter
Woodfired Platter

Avital Sheffer

Amazing Potters

Just came across the work of Avital Sheffer!!

So great!  and she’s a neighbor!  Only about 30 miles or a few kilometers from me!

So happy to meet her on the WWW!  Now I need to meet her in person!

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Work of Avital Sheffer

To see more of her fabulous work, check out her website at Click Here!

Why?

Musings

We are burying the ashes of my father-in-law today.

I think anytime we lose some we love we have to ask ourselves some heart searching questions.

Questions like:

Why am i putting things off?

Why am i procrastinating?

Why am i wasting my time?

Life is too precious and too short not to do the things we love, create the art that is within us, and create our dreams.

So I’m putting it in writing.

I WILL teach again- hopefully pottery.

I WILL master copper red glazes.

I WILL become an excellent potter.

And I will write my book.

 

nuff said!

 

It Was A Love-Annoyed Relationship! My Giffin Grip!

Tools and Equipment

I LOVE my Giffin Grip! I know there are those who feel that trimming pots using this kind is aid is sort of “cheating”, but for me, it is a lifesaver!  I think that this quote in a Giffin advertisement states why I enjoy using the Giffin Grip so much:

Recently, howere, I’ve had to go back to trimming pots the old-fashioned way – centering and attaching with clay – because my Giffin Grip was just off-center a bit- but enough to really make the pots impossible to trim neatly!  I NEED my Giffin Grip!  Soooo annoyed!

While at NCECA 2013, I stopped by the Giffin Grip booth and inquired as to how to solve my problem. Low and behold, there was Brian Giffin who is the originator of the Giffin Grip!

DSCF3150

I was so excited to meet him and he was wonderful!  He handed me a new set of bottom brackets, which is the three brackets on the bottom of the Grip which hold it onto the wheel head.

image

I asked “how much” they were and Brian Giffin said, “Nothing,  just take them.”  Wow!!! How nice is that!

I have had my Griffin Grip for about 10 years and I assume that this is a fairly common problem with this fantastic tool!

I have already re-attached them and am excited to see if the trimming is more precise!  I know it will be!

Giffin Grip
Giffin Grip

In addition to the old tried and true Giffin Grip, they have a couple of new products as well!  One assists in trimming altered (not round) pots and the other is for really large pieces-Perfect!

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The New Giffin Grip for trimming large pieces
DSCF3151
The new Giffin Grip for throwing altered or “not round” pieces.

And thank you very much, Mr. Giffin Grip, Brian Giffin!

Here is there website if you need more info.  Click Here!

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