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Marian Williams Pottery
Marian Williams Pottery

Slow Lives! Slow Food On Slow Pottery

CreationHow-To

This is an update of a previous post as I feel that it is timely.  I’ve moved back to Texas from Australia, so this post is slanted to Australia, but I feel that it is essential that THE WORLD!! now takes all of these ideas into consideration.

In the past few weeks, all of us have had to slow down our lives.  We are at home more.  We are cooking more.  We are doing more dishes.

So we need to make sure that we are being environmentally friendly, but also frugal in our use of expendable items-paper towels, toilet paper, paper plates, etc.  The USA is particularly bad about using disposable food items.  It’s a great time to use your pottery and dishes and dishtowels!!

Many of you may have also planted a garden. This may be a usual occurrence for you, but for many, it may be your first go at a garden.  That’s great!  I really feel that some positive things will come out of this stay at home/stay safe effort.  Families are eating at the table, together!  Meals are being prepared at home more!

Slow lives, slow food, and slow pottery!  It might not be bad for us!

However, stay safe and enjoy this slower time with your family.

Source

The slow food movement has been going on since 1986! but I’ve been slow to catch on to it! or even know much about it!  Basically, the SLOW FOOD movement made its debut as a reaction to FAST FOOD.

A recent article in Australian House & Garden about Ben Richardson’s pottery caught my eye and something he said made so much sense to me and made me really think about the Slow Food thing.

Australian House & Garden
Australian House & Garden
Ben Richardson and wife,
Ben Richardson and wife, Pets

Ben said, “The slow food movement places a lot of  emphasis on produce and provenance, but what food sits on often seems to be forgotten.  Its slow food with fast pots.”

His woodfired pottery is gorgeous and just makes serving food on them a necessity!

Beautiful pottery to eat on by Ben Richardson!
Beautiful pottery to eat on by Ben Richardson!

Who started the Slow Food movement?,  you ask.  Well, let me tell you!

Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food Movement Photo Source
Carlo Petrini, the founder of the Slow Food Movement

Carlo Petrini is the guy that got it all started.   He was a food and wine journalist and was so appalled when a McDonald’s opened at the Spanish Steps in Rome that he decided that something had to be done. Carlo founded the Slow Food movement and it has really taken off!  It is now in over 150 countries.  The Slow Food movement really just “wanted people to rediscover the joys of eating and understand the importance of caring where their food comes from, who makes it and how it’s made.”

For more about the history of the Slow Food movement and information about the world-wide organizations, click here.

The Slow Food Australia website is great and provides lots of information on what’s going on and how each of us can be a part of the Slow Food movement.

Slow Food Australia works to:

  • “build networks between grower and eater, agriculture and market, community and world. We champion good, clean, fair and local food in ways that enhance knowledge, respect and passion.
  • Australia has 31 Slow Food chapters, called convivia, in every region of the country. We are part of a world network in 153 national communities. We support localism and defend food diversity. In the past 20 years we’ve helped to save more than 500 foods at risk of loss to agriculture and fishing.
  • Today, more than 300 food communities work with Slow Food to return endemic foods to the table, fight standardisation in our food supply, and support local farmers and fishers.” Source
Source
Source

All of this has been very inspiring to me and as I LOVE to cook and serve up wonderful food on FABULOUS pottery, it just makes so much sense!

Slow Food on/in Slow Pottery should be our motto as potters!

All these folks that see the importance of eating Slow Food must surely be equally impressed with the importance of eating on handmade, non-commercialised pottery!

In the quest to fix amazing food, I’ve found a great blog for cooks and food lovers called Mel’s Kitchen Cafe.

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You really won’t believe all the great recipes she has on her blog!

One of the best things about her recipes is that she only uses homemade ingredients and avoids the ever-popular American standard recipe ingredient, A CAN OF CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP! Horrors! How did we ever get to using that in recipes?

Mel and Family
Mel and Family

Mel states that, “We are trying our darnedest to limit most processed, prepackaged ingredients and I’ve learned we haven’t had to sacrifice flavor, time, or doubled grocery budgets to make that happen. I simply like knowing what goes into my food which is how the whole cooking from scratch thing comes into play. And when my 4-year old asks me, “Mom, does this have high fructose corn syrup in it?” you better believe I am bursting with pride (it’s worth all the flak I get for teaching my toddlers that McDonald’s makes mommy want to throw up).” Source

So that’s one of my contributions to the Slow Food movement, cooking from scratch when possible with great, fresh ingredients.

As to my contributions to Slow Pottery, I’ve starting making plates.  Those lovely white plates in my cupboards are going to be slowly replaced by my pottery!  (They aren’t too scared yet!)

Plates by Marian Williams
Plates by Marian Williams
Joel Cherrico, Potter
Joel Cherrico, Potter

One of my favorite potters right now is Joel Cherrico.  He is such a lovely young guy and so ambitious! (not to mention he’s a cutie! Ok, I know! not PC, but I’m truly old enough to be his mother!) and his pottery is gorgeous!  See my previous posts about him here.

Plate by Joel Cherrico
Plate by Joel Cherrico

He has a great blog post on throwing no-trim plates (that I LOVE! No trimming!), so that’s what I’ve done!

And, finally, (sorry this is a long post, but I find all this so INTERESTING! and IMPORTANT to our craft!!!) here is a post from Ceramic Arts Daily on Cooking With Clay For Slow Food.  Great article!

Remember our new motto:  Slow Food on Slow Pottery!!!

Peace out, friends!

Marian
marcia selsor, obvara, alternative firing, sagger firing, sodium silicate, buckeroo, sagger firing,

Marcia Selsor Workshop

Alternative FiringWorkshops

Marci Selsor is one of the ultimate gurus on alternative firing techniques. Pretty much all I’ve learned about terra sig, feather raku and saggar firing, I’ve learned from her…although it be vicariously through youtube videos and online articles. So when the opportunity to learn from her IN PERSON!!!! Came up I jumped at it! I felt so lucky to be able to attend the two-day workshop with Marcia Selsor in San Antonio at Roadrunner Ceramics.

We got to experiment and play with four different alternative firing methods! Obvara, Using Soluble Salts, Saggars with combustibles and soluble salts, and Bucherro in tins. She also demonstrated throwing a crackled surface pieces (which looks great in Obvara) using sodium silicate.

sodium silicate, marcia sensor, alternative firing
Finished vessel throw by Marcia Selsor using sodium silicate to achieve a crackled surface.
KIlns used for saggar Firing- both gas.
Marcia Should speaking to group.
Alternative firing class at Roadrunner Ceramics.
Prepar The Saggars.
Pots fired tins with soluble salts.
Kiln packed with tons for Bucherro Firing.
Bucherro Firing results.
My pot that came out of a combustible Firing saggar.
My vessel that resulted from the Obvara firing.

There’s nothing like getting to see a great potter in action!

marcia sensor, alternative firing
Marcia Selsor throwing a vessel.

Perissos Winery: Demonstration and Pottery Sale

Events
Perissos winery, Marian Williams pottery, farm girl pottery
I recently had the great opportunity to demonstrate making pottery and selling my work at the Members Sip ‘n Stroll Event at Perissos Winery.
Perissos winery, Marian Williams pottery, farm girl pottery
It’s a lovely winery right in my area, so was pleased to ge to meet people from the area. Lots of potters!
sculptured dogs, dog sculpture, farm dog sculpture, sculpture, Perissos winery, Marian Williams pottery, farm girl pottery
My Pup Sculptures greeted visitors in a little red Radio Flyer wagon.
Perissos winery, Marian Williams pottery, farm girl pottery
Cheese boards and wine cups were big sellers!
Perissos winery, Farmgirlpottery , Marian Williams pottery
Here’s a shot of some more of my work displayed there.

It was a great experience and can’t wait to do it again!

Cheers,

Marian

coyote commercial glazes, cone 6 glazes

How To Decide Between Commercial Glazes VS Mixing Your Own Glazes

Cone 6 GlazesGlazes

On a recent social media post, someone asked, “Is that your glaze?” I answered, “Yes, it is. I purchased it with my money, layered it and applied it in my own unique way, so , yes, it’s my glaze.

There is always a lot of discussion around whether or not using commercial glazes vs glazes that one makes themselves is legit…acceptable in the grand scheme of things in the world of pottery.

cone 10 gas reduction firing results
Gas Fired Cone 10 Bowl

I’m going to give you my take on that question.

I recently moved from Australia to the USA. In Australia I’ve been mixing my own glazes and firing gas reduction kilns for about 10 years.

gas kiln, fibre-lined gas kiln
My first gas kiln, Thelma.

Prior to moving to Australia, I fired oxidation, mixed some of my glazes and finally bought a few Coyote Glazes just before moving to Australia. Here’s a blog post on using Coyote Glazes in Australia. Click Here.

glaze buckets
Glaze buckets!

Now I am back to firing cone 5/6 glazes in oxidation in an electric kiln.

I’ve made the decision to NOT MIX MY OWN GLAZES! I’m buying commercial glazes (Coyote Glazes) and LOVING IT!

Why? And how can I not keep making my own glazes?

Firstly, I do love gas reduction and the cone 10 glazes. However, the work, expense of buying all those chemicals, storing all those chemicals, and the work (again) to mix those glazes is HUGE! Also, I spent a great deal of time making glazes and firing, with a very high failure rate. When I did get great results, I was euphoric! But I’d say that the percentage of failure versus success was 70/30 – success being the 30%.

I’ve decided to use the testing, expertise, and professionalism of all the commercial glaze companies instead of depending on little ole me for all the work to get the glazes just right.

Here are some of my recent Cone 6 Oxidation results. Although the glazes are not cheap, I have more time to make, less failures, and firings are more repeatable and predictable. All in all, I’m loving it!

farm girl pottery, recycled clay, handbuilt vessel, plowed ground, altered clay, raw clay
Large Plowed Ground Vessel – made from recycled clay, thrown, handbuilt and altered. Raw clay depicts the plowed fields, blue glaze depicts the life-giving water filling the rows to water the crops.

So criticize if you must, but I’m seeing tons of great midfire range glazes on social media that rock – from all sorts of companies – Amaco, Mayco and others – and I plan to try them all!

Let me know what you think??

Glaze on!

Marian

totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,

Making Totems – Old Farm Implement Parts And Clay

Totems

As part of my farm girl pottery series of work, I decided to make some totems that incorporated “pieces” of farm life. These “pieces” of farm life were old rusted pieces from farm equipment – equipment essential for the process of farming – plows, tractors, rotary hoes, etc.

totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
Here’s a trial totem in the bisqued stage.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
Bisqued clay pieces to the totem, waiting to be pitfired.

The totems used the farm implement pieces as the base or topper of the totem and clay pieces were created for the top part. Each clay piece was handbuilt out of raku clay, bisque fired, fired to cone 6, then pitfired to give them some color. I actually pitfired them twice as I thought they looked too dark and finally came up with a look that I liked.

totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
I refired these as I thought they were too dark.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
All pieces were pitfired…twice!

I found a guy in Fredericksburg, Texas that had a barn full of old, rusty farm implement parts. I bought a few and started stacking them up on rebar and metal conduit pipe. They were awesome!

totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
What a treasure trove! Rusted farm implement parts!
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
I selected a few pieces to stack up for the base of the totems.
totem, farm implement parts, rusted iron, rotary hoe, disc, tractor plough parts, plow parts, totems, farm totems,
Each piece of rusted iron has so much character – so fun! These are parts of plows, tractors, and other farm implements.

Here’s the final look!

I placed them at the end of our driveway.
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,
farm equipment, rust, tractor parts, old tractor parts, totems, ceramic,

If you’d like to commission totems -one or several – contact me @ marian@farmgirlpottery.com

Or if you’re interested in a workshop on making your own totem, contact me – marian@farmgirlpottery.com

Happy totem making to you all!

Marian

How I Made Farm Girl Sculpture

Figurative SculptureHow To's

This farm girl sculpture came to me as a vision of my farm, the land and she represents that. She is the dirt, the furrows, the crops, the rusted nails and implements. But she needs love to produce crops, and water – thus the title of this sculpture: Tell Me You Love Me And Bring Me A Drink.

She’s also partly ME – I’ll always be a farm girl, but part of me wanted to be more…fancier, more dignified- but I’ll always be a farm girl, especially at heart.

farm girl sculpture
by Marian Williams

I certainly don’t claim to be a sculptor, but I do like to try.

This current effort had its fits and starts, disasters, start overs, but….eventually…she showed up!

farm girl sculpture, figurative sculpture, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, marian williams
This was my first attempt at ‘farm girl’. Thankfully, she blew up in the kiln – so I started over.
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
I started by building the chest and adding the initial adornments – all in white raku clay.
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
I would sculpt features on the head, then wipe them off and start over.
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
not good….
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
This was her “pig nose” stage…wtf!?
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
At this point, she was starting to show up, but her neck with too short. So I decapitated her!
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
I added more neck and let the clay really firm up.
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
Now that her head was off the torso, I could work on the face and hair a bit better.
farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture
After the head was reattached, I could then refine the features a bit more.

The beads of her necklace were made from recycled clay with “farm glass” melted in the center. Farm glass is the old glass found around an old “dump” on a farm- back in the day when we burned trash and then dumped it in a hole, glass was often strewn around the site-it’s beautiful!!

The blue and white floral transfers are indicative of the sewing of all good farm girls- we had to do it- no alternative!

farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture

Her headdress is composed of rusty nails, a horseshoe and stems of cotton and wheat – crops of the farms I’ve been associated with,

farm girl sculpture, marian williams, marian williams pottery, farm girl pottery, figurative sculpture

farm girl is made of white groggy clay and recycled clay.each clay shows the contrast of the “dirt” of the farm and the “clean” of town. Farm girl is full of dichotomies.

I can’t even explain it, but I can be sitting in front of her and all of a sudden- she changes…she “becomes” someone.

I hope you enjoy her journey and I hope you can understand that, although I’m not a sculptor, the creativity comes and expresses itself through my hands- such a privilege!

Let your creativity flow!

Marian

How To Save Pots By Grinding Pot Feet That Have Stuck To The Kiln Shelf

Tutorials

First up, try to avoid this annoying problem by avoiding glazing too close to the foot or using runny glazes or not using kiln wash…but as we all know…s… happens! So when it does, don’t always throw in the towel, or the pot as it were, try to save it by grinding the foot.

This recently happened to me and here’s what I did:

grinding pot feet, grinding glaze drips, grinding glaze stuck to kiln shelf, diamond core tools, diamond core grinding disc
This mug had a drippy glaze that stuck it to the kiln shelf. Thanks goodness for kiln wash! All it needs is a little grinding to make it look great!


Attach a Diamond Core Grinding Disc (self adhesive) to a bat that will easily fit on your wheel.

Buy a simple water pump (like an aquarium pump), attach a piece of plastic tubing and figure out a way to have it drizzle over the grinding disc. (I used a VERY make-shift holder from a set of chopsticks and duct tape -my husband wasn’t around!) Have a bucket placed under the drain of the wheel table/pan to catch the run off water. It can then be recycled by the pump onto the grinding disc.

While running the wheel at a fast speed, and water drizzling onto the wheel, press the pot’s foot that needs grinding against the grinding disc. This will take a bit of time, but the result is AMAZING!!!

Diamond Core Tools also have a wide selection of grinding tips for your dremel tool and come in extremely handy! I recommend all of their products- excellent!

Good luck and let me know how it works or if you have any questions.

All the best

Marian

Llano Estacado Wine and Clay Festival

EventsPotterySelling

We have returned from Lubbock and have recovered enough to write this post! It was a great adventure and I was so fortunate to have my beautiful daughter, Liz, along with me to make all the work – loading, unloading, setting up, selling, etc – actually happen! She’s the best!

Liz Williams- best daughter EVER!

The market was hosted by the Llano Estacado Clay Guild and they did an outstanding job of making it work smoothly, making us feel welcome, and providing a great venue for the market. On top of all that, they had a hospitality room, fed us breakfast, lunch and dinner – plus t-shirts and goodies and on and on! Great group!

Llano Estacado Clay Guild, Janis Hubble, George Nalle
Janis Hubble and George Nalle
llano estacado clay guild, clay studio, clay, wheels
The Llano Estacado Clay Guild has a really great studio!

The venue was the Llano Estacado Winery just on the southern outskirts of Lubbock, so we were amidst the wine tanks, casks, and tasting areas – nice!

farm girl pottery, llano estacado wine and clay festival, llano estacado winery
Our booth was set up in the winery amongst the wine casks, barrels, and tanks.
farm girl pottery, llano estacado wine and clay festival, llano estacado winery
Llano Estacado Winery

It was a great experience and the booth looked great! Here are some pics of our booth. We had new cards, a new banner, handmade price tags, my grandma’s old lace table cloth, antique tables and rugs and lighting…it was awesome!

farm girl pottery, llano estacado wine and clay festival, llano estacado winery
farm girl pottery, llano estacado wine and clay festival, llano estacado winery

It was a great kick off to my new farm girl pottery series of work. New cards, new website, facebook, instagram – the works! So follow along and see what’s happening with farm girl pottery

farm girl pottery,

Introducing “farm girl pottery”!!!

Selling
farm girl pottery,

I’m so excited to announce that I’m relaunching my pottery in the USA as farm girl pottery!!!

It’s going to be fun and interesting to veer off in a new direction, but I’ll continue to blog here on general pottery topics. Marian Williams Pottery won’t be going away…I’ll just be adding a new selling component: farm girl pottery

I hope that you will follow me on my new instagram, facebook and website!

Instagram: @farm_girl_pottery

Facebook: farm girl pottery

Website: www.farmgirlpottery.com

Growing up as a “farm girl” on a farm in the Panhandle of Texas has left indelible impressions on me which are now evident in my work. The new direction I’m taking feels so right and good.

Ronnie and I returned to my farm after college.

My mom died shortly after moving back to my farm. I think Ronnie built me a kick wheel to help me get back on track…it was devastating. The wheel had a tractor seat and I set up a “studio” in the barn adjacent to our house. Little did we know that the shaft that held the wheel head was off-centre, so I had a lot of difficulty centering pots! But I loved it then as much as I do now. And as most potters know, pottery has a healing effect.

This is me – I was 27, my mom had just died that year, and this wheel was the bomb!

So the circle keeps turning and I’m back in Texas with a pottery studio and work that is reflecting my earliest recollections – plowed ground. It just feels so right.

farm girl pottery, marian willialms pottery, vessels, llano estacado winery wine and clay festival,

Tell Me You Love Me And Give Me A Drink

Musings

Since moving back to the USA after living in Australia for 15 years, I’ve been amazed at the creativity surge in me that has occurred! Different than in Australia – I never felt that there.

In Australia, I learned so much – from so many wonderful potters. I was amazed at their creativity, centeredness and focus. I, on the other hand, floundered – chasing every bunny down every bunny trail and never really sticking to one thing! The great part about that is that I got to learn so much, experience so many types of pottery, firing types, and glaze techniques. And each potter in Australia seemed to be so inspired by something….the beach, the ocean, the landscape, the culture…but I never found that. Instead, I focused on glazes, chasing gas firing nirvana and trying to achieve copper reds.

When I started making again here in the USA, I just KNEW! My hands just worked and my mind KNEW what it wanted to create and especially what it wanted to SAY!!!

As a result of about 6 months of work, I have created a body of work that I have entitled, “Tell Me You Love Me And Bring Me A Drink”.

This series of vessels came from my background as a “farm girl”.

Watching my father plow the fields, check his irrigation water fill the rows, dance when it rained that precious water and praise when harvest came in – gave me a rich vision for these vessels.

His love of these furrows, and ultimately mine, give my work a voice saying, “Tell Me You Love Me And Bring Me A Drink”.

My first marketing venue is coming up this weekend in Lubbock, Texas (in the Panhandle of Texas) at the Llano Estacado Winery at the Llanco Estacado Wine and Clay Festival. I’m really excited to see how this new work is received. Actually, it doesn’t even matter if it sells, it’s just going to be great to see it displayed and get people’s reaction to it! I feel like the people in Lubbock will “get it” as that is a huge agricultural area, but who knows. Maybe I’m the only one that the work speaks to…if so, I’m ok with that. It feels good to be speaking my truth.

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