atlantic beach art walk

Anyone in the Jacksonville area come visit me at the Atlantic Beach art walk this Thursday evening. I'll be hanging out in front of sticky fingers. stiky sticky. I may even buy you a beer.

Q & A

Q. From Amanda

adore the mugs! what glaze are you using? I'm trying to find a translucent celadonish blue for cone 6-7 and am having no luck!
also- those drawings are all done with the wax resist method? how do you get the shading and the lines?

sorry for all the pestering!


A.

Hi amanda, no pestering at all.

The glaze I use is one that I learned of/ tested during my workshop with John Britt.

The base is Chun clear

F4- 38
Whiting-14
Silica-30
Ball Clay- 6
Zinx Ox- 12
2% avacado mason stain

sometimes i'll do 2% bermuda instead of avacado for a bluer green.

I use highwaters helios and the glaze is a great fit for the body. I've only used it at ^7 ox.


A few posts ago i wrote about the wax resist technique. This yielded results like this


I wanted something with a little more depth so I busted out the latex wax resist. I carve into the cups in the leather hard stage, after the bisque take a brush and latex resist around the carving. Wipe/ wipe off underglaze on the drawing and then remove the latex buffer. Dunk in glaze and go.

hope that answered all your questions. Anyone is more than welcome to purchase an awesomly made cup at etsy and drink out of one to support my quest for making happy objects!

finally in the kiln

Glazed this morning and I'm feeling good. Now not to mess this ^7 up and I'll be a happy camper. I feel like I've come a long way with the drawing / glaze technique.

these are pictures before getting dunked in my translucent blue green glaze.





a chair and stack of books for my friend mike. the side reads "eat sleep read"


partygoat!


rubber duckie you're the one!


anyway, i'm looking forward to the morning and then glazing more. I have 30 or so cups and 10 ish bowls that are bisqued, but only have room for 10 cups and 1 bowl in my ittty bitty work horse of a kiln. So i'll be glaze firing all week. Someday I'll get something bigger.

just moving along

here are some new greenware pieces, they will be bisqued by saturday and hopefully glaze fired by tuesdayish.

I started drawing animals with pieces of human paraphernalia, like glasses, hats, party hats, coats, shoes, etc. I was rereading " The man who mistook his wife for a hat" by Oliver Sacks. Great book. He writes about 24 case studies with patients with various brain function "mishaps" This is probably where/why i started drawing this old man (see 2 or 3 posts ago) The new cups and book have a strong connection for me about altered perceptions and animal symbolism.

Rhino with Hat


deer eating hat


moose with bird, glasses and scarf


Hopefully everything comes out fine because this "series" is the most meaningful I have gotten with my functional work. (and i dig the drawing style)

latex resist

oh how i love you so.



I'll have to post some photos of the process as a part 2 of what i started a few weeks ago.

i love this statement

This century will bring an even more digitized life to the developed world; the information river will be up and out of its banks and the pressure to eat it in the car will seem normal.

Many of the functions we make pots for will merge, transform and disappear. Making pots will be an act of civil disobedience. Time has become money. Our pots will be needed more than ever before.

A bowl of tea between silent lovers, the salad bowl at the table of noisy friends and family, the coffee mug just before the kids rise---all quietly keep our souls alive. They make love stay.

When the moon is right, we make pots that recognize and define sacred spaces, mystery and tenderness.

At this brittle and exciting edge of the 21st century, we will make pots within a renewed awareness of how essential our work is --- that what we do matters.

We make a quiet difference and sometimes ----that’s all it takes.

Kevin Crowe


Somedays I wish I were a writer, and if i was, I would write what Kevin Crowe said.

new cups and photographing issues

I'm kinda excited, again.

I tried a different technique and really like it. Makes the cups look like they have a pencil drawing on them.





I made 8ish tumblers but had a heck of a time trying to get a good picture. I consulted Joy Tanners post on photographing... but i'm still getting clear glaze looking tumblers (and glare... lots of glare) when they are a celedonish color. Going to buy a top light tomorrow and figure out where i put the tripod.

I also joined twitter today. Why? I have no idea. Seemed like a good thing to do.