Handcrafting Pottery in North Carolina
Here's wishing all of you a beautiful night, and Happy Holidays.
Fired version of some of the little candy dishes/trays I am making. These have small feet to elevate them off the table. I suppose you could use them for soap dishes and candles as well. This is a white clay body with dark slip painted for the vine design.
Book for inspiration for these.
Drying version . Brown clay with white slip background, cobalt slip for water, green wash for foliage and dark slip for pine needles. I was so pleased with these in the greenware state. Hope they meet my expectations in the glazed.
This is an "S" shaped form in the series I have started. I cut out all the body pieces at once and am working on them individually. Plastic boxes keep the other pieces damp until I can get to them. They take a fair amount of time to assemble and then I always "fool" with them until I say ENOUGH. This one got feet which I do like. I did cut outs rather than braided lattice.
This is the one I finished yesterday. You can look back at the last blog and see the sketch. It definitely changed in the process. I have used a white clay and a brown clay. When Jim walked into my studio, his comment was "Nice boat". It was looking rather steamboatish to me at the end and I am trying to figure out why, because that wasn't the intention. Looks like I will be working on more of these to figure all of the changes out. I have one more body form cut out and then I want to throw some quick things to balance all the labor of these pieces.
These are some sketches I have made on these container forms that I want to make. I want to do a series of them, using different colored clays, making pairs, one of which is convex and the other is concave.
Texture I decided to apply to the first piece.
The size of this piece is about 21" long and 6.5" high, not including the spouts. I like the opportunity that posting this offers me to look at the changes I made in the making process.
These are some images of work at the open house this weekend.
Holiday Open House at Bluegill Pottery
What I saw when walking in the woods.
What you will find when browsing through the studio.
This is a little kiln filler that I used to test an overlap of two glazes. Green plus red makes purple in my glaze universe. How could this be, you say? Well, the green glaze does have some cobalt in it. I tried a blue and red combo first, in case you were thinking I started off doing things the hard way. Apparently the cobalt in the blue glaze was too strong and pretty much just looked blue in the trial.
These are also kiln fillers, original red at left, green at right. In between you see a red variation at middle left, which was taking the red, adding some clear and adding some very pale light blue in the hopes of a pink. Needs more work. At middle right is the liquid combo of the green and red glazes. On the leaf above I simply dipped one glaze, then overlapped the second. Here I have taken a small portion of green and mixed an equal portion of red. This method makes for lots of small containers all around the studio. Good labelling is essential for recreating your experiments using this method. I will try adding just a bit more red. I haven't gotten the color I want yet, but this is the closest I have come to it so far.
This is a shot of the 30 small bowls that went out of the studio for an order this week. I did a little color enhancement to the image so they are not this VIVID.
A view from up above Lake Lure, hiking a trail we found about 5 years ago. Nephew Jeremy is playing King of the Mountain. We spent time with my sister, parents and one of my nephews and his friend Alyssa. There was still some lovely color but just not much of it. The day after this was taken my snow crazy family drove north to around Bakersville to see the snow and tobaggan. I had to head back home to finish work. They were thrilled with all the white stuff.
The ledge over the kitchen sink. Left, Mr. Philbeck again! Gosh do you think I have a lot of his pots? This jar holds my scrubbies. Various bowls in the garden window, very handy for veggies and salads. A gargoyle my daughter made at school many moons ago. My "2nd" teapot that I steep tea in. A saki bottle by Kent McLaughlin (I think? I bought it with two sweet little saki cups at the NC Potters Conference several years ago.) displaying just a few flowers to brighten my morning.
This is a little scene in my dining room. On the left is a saggar (a container used to either protect pottery from ashes, etc. in a wood firing or used to contain combustible materials and a piece of pottery within it, so that it doesn't affect the other pots surrounding it) which I made at Penland. It was only fired one time. I'll have to post a picture of the little sculpture that was inside of it later.
This is one of the pieces I threw while at the Fair at the beginning of this month. It is a vase with four Koi fish carved in a water pattern. You are looking at the head and body of one of the lower ones. I use a brown glaze that is brushed on over the carved areas, then sponged off. Then a dip into a light blue glaze. That is followed by brushwork with an orange glaze over the fish bodies. You can see the iridescence that happens when the overlapped glazes pool. The blue glaze is fat and creamy, with tiny bubbles under the surface that reflect light. I think this is as close to a Chun glaze as I will be able to get with the way I am firing. One of the descriptions for a Chun glaze is "a milky, opaque finish where tiny bubbles are clearly present"
Sometimes you are asked to do "odd" jobs because you have artistic tendencies. A lady contacted me back in the summer about "fixing" a crucifix for their church. I told her I would be happy to look at it and when she brought it, it was in a box that was 40"x48". It was a turn-of-the century statue that had been removed from it's cross for cleaning, gotten left outside and the arms and legs had broken off. They had already had it repaired and appendiges reattached, but wanted more color and detail added to the plaster work. I said I would try, did a bit of research on the internet and became terrified that I would mess up the restoration work if I "fiddled" with it. So it has sat, awaiting a return of courage. 
These are a few shots of the pierced flower vessels, more of the slip painted trays and some of the new combos of warm glazes all grouped together. Today I will be glazing work from the bisque kiln, which is more of the slip painted trays, using different slips, underglazes, etc. for more color.
These are a few shots of the area around Gatlinburg, TN about a week or so ago. I met my mom, sister and friends for a short visit and it was really beautiful up there. Fall color was just beginning to turn. It was a great little rest and calming experience. Of course I laughed until my sides hurt, just as I always do when my family gets together.
Here's the post card for the Open House this weekend!
A couple of beautiful pots from Jen Mecca, who will be my guest artist on Oct. 18 and 19. The details in her work are incredible and I love the whimsy and joy with which her pottery is made.
