Saturday at the Studio

It's been a while since I've spent a full day with clay. The past two weekends have been show weekends, and while I enjoyed the experience, I sorely missed the process of creation. So, my fingers aching for the touch of clay, the 8 hours spent at Clayworks today was a welcome balm to my spirit.

Much to my delight, I found an unexpected gift on my shelf --- a batch of clay from Max. He's been doing some tests with clay dug from his family's homestead. And now I can too. The clay was soft...groggy...filled with tiny pieces of harder clay and tiny pebbles. Gnarly stuff. Perfect for parietal pieces. So the first order of my day was to craft a wee bottle from McLeod Clay. I have no idea where I'll take it from here. Yet. But the canvas is prepped and the cave art will come. Thank you, Max, for sharing the clay!

Many of my potter friends were at the studio today, including Amy, Cindy, Dorothy, Ju Ian, Susan, John and Elaine. The work of others is a constant source of inspiration for me.

Elaine's big pots, coiled and lovingly smoothed, have always impressed me. She's been urging me for quite some time to make a bigger bird. Last week Ron suggested I do the same. And today, another studio artist, Scott, said "You need to make a your birds B-I-G." Okay. Three's the charm. So, after modeling 8 more of my usual porcelain flock, I gave BIG a try.

This fella isn't finished yet. Normally I'd sketch him out, view lots of photos, before attempting to create him. But I was feeling adventurous. And, having tried to rescue a Canada Goose last week (to no avail as the poor bird died during surgery) I was feeling emotionally close to the subject. Though he needs a lot more work, he is -at this stage- the biggest bird I've ever made. For reference, here he is with one of my usual bitty birds. Big difference.

His neck's too long, his tail feathers are too small and he doesn't have wing definition yet. But he's been a great exercise in going big. And however he ends up, I'll finish him as a testament to the real-life Canada Goose that was his inspiration.

All in all, it was a great day at Clayworks! 50% of my time spent in my comfort zone --- 50% spent experimenting. The latter is what made the day.

Three Days for Clay

The 3-day holiday weekend found me spending a good bit of time at Clayworks prepping a few birds and getting the new cave art test tiles ready for the bisque kiln. I'm particularly interested in how the latter will turn out; these are the first ones I've tried using mason stains in the clay body. I also did some of the drawings with black slip instead of black underglaze.

This morning I glazed another dozen birds - all in Oribe. They go into the gas kiln tonight and will emerge Thursday morning. I'm modeling birds every night, trying to add to my inventory. Another barrel firing is planned for May 2nd and I'm anxious to try more of the terra sig we made in Jim Whalen's workshop.

I have to confess...my focus is split. While I'm fond of the birds, my real passion is for the parietal art pieces. Four new bottles await "drawings." The largest stands 9 1/4". (That creature topper will go on a different bottle.)

That's all for now. Fred & I going to watch "Bottle Shock" and then it's lights out on the 3-day weekend. I wish they came around more often.

Clayworks Spring Sale

The Clayworks Spring Sale took place today and last night. And while sales may have been down (understandably) I think a good time was enjoyed by all attending. Good food & wine, good friends and great pottery made for a lively evening. I managed to grab a pic or two during the evening, though Amy has some that are much nicer.

Kit Mitra tended bar while guests browsed. I'm a huge fan of Kit's work (and she loves 60s music almost as much as I do!)

Karla's baskets and leaf pieces are exquisite. (Karla teaches the childrens' classes at Clayworks. Some amazing pieces come from those kids' imaginations.)

Just beyond Karla's display, you can see a few of my birds. They're so small I can't get a decent photo of them. But I did get a pic of Jennifer Kincaid's birds. I love Jennifer's birds. That fella three rows down and third from the left came home with me. As did one of Ron Philbeck's possom mugs and 3 of Cindy's barrel-fired cats.

Here's a partial pic of my cave art on display. My sister bought the "Communication" bottle. (Second from the left) I'm glad that piece is going home with her. It was one of my favourites and now I know I'll be able to see it whenever I visit her in Columbia.

As for the "flock", thirteen of my birds are off to new horizons. So tomorrow I'll begin modeling more for an upcoming event in Waxhaw.

Cave Art Bottles & Plaques

At 4PM today -- FINALLY -- I was able to run by Clayworks to see how 5 cave art pieces had fared in the latest gas kiln firing. There were 2 plaques and 3 bottles in this bunch. The plaques were, well, okay, though "Bison" wasn't at all what I thought he would be. And he's cracked to boot. Cracks aren't necessarily a bad thing when it comes to pieces parietal. But this crack didn't look natural and DID look like a maker's flaw, which is what it was. So "Bison" will live out the rest of his days at Storybrook.

"Tortoise" (which was an accident initially) pleased me more. A friend of ours, who just had surgery on her collar bone, believes the tortoise is her spirit animal. So "Tortoise" will be a get well present for her.

I was much happier with the bottles. "Herd" and "Fossil Fish" are pictured here. "Herd" is based on a cave painting found in the End Chamber of Chauvet Cave, Valion-Pont-d'Arc, Ardeche, France. While "Fossil Fish" is based on paintings from the Nerja Cave in Spain. The original creatures might have been fish or, perhaps, seals.

"Herd" had some interesting things going on with the glazes. A side view ---

---and the back of the bottle.

This bottle - "Communication" - turned out to be my favourite from this firing.

The bar & dot designs are part of the main panel in the Lionin Cave in Asturias, Spain. That cave was used as a cheese cellar until the discovery of its paintings in 1971. The bison at the bottom right was my own addition. A close-up---

Once again, the glaze action on the back of the bottle intrigued me.

Keeping the images "raw" while glazing the rest of the form appeals to me. And I like the the "topper" ? His horns pick up the horns of the bison. Just wish I'd made them a bit more curved like the painting. All in all I was happy with the results from this firing. I'm looking forward to further experiments with the mason stained pieces.

Hope you have a grand weekend!!!!

Odds & Ends

The holidays may be officially over but the memories linger.  Here are a few highlights from the past couple of weeks, beginning with a couple of Kent sisters on Christmas Eve...

Those are clay stains on my tee-shirt by the way...not my dinner. This rabbit stole my heart at the Peter Rose workshop (such attitude) but was marked "sold" when the day was over. Little did I know Cinder would put it 'neath our Christmas tree.

The 10 Bean Soup mix was a gift from Elaine. I'm thinking it will be make a fine treat for Barrel Firing #7 this Friday night!
Sis also had another surprise in store for me --- the original US tour programs for the Beatles in '65 and '66! (yeah yeah yeah!)

The programs are in great shape and the ads inside are CLASSICS! Most of my allowance back then went toward buying Slicker lipsticks. (They smelled better than they looked.) I wanted to look like Jean "The Shrimp" Shrimpton. But so did just about every other teenage girl in this galaxy.

Here, Fred gives Spanky the Pit a "pit massage" while Onyx looks on in disdain.

We rang in the New Year with the Avett Brothers. Bad pic from my iPhone but a wonderful show! (Thanks Elaine for getting us down front, up close and personal!)

And lest you think I've been lazy with clay...well I, um, have. But I haven't been totally useless.

The bottles are bound for the cave art treatment. The brushes were a wonderful gift from Elaine! And because there's a saying that goes "whatever you're doing on New Years Day you'll be doing the rest of the year", I had to make something in clay. This will be the second piece in my "Raku Zoo."

So there are a few odd pix to end the old year. Here's to a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year to all!

Cave Art Bottle - Start to Finish

Elaine showed me how to make a bottle form (a technique from Amy's class) which I hope will provide a nice new canvas for parietal art.  Let's see how it all works out...

Step #1...construct the bottle. The clay body is one of my favourites - Loafers Glory (50% porcelain/50% phoenix). The clay is responsive though it tends to crack at times. For cave art, that's not necessarily a bad thing.

The shouder and base of the piece were thick.  But I planned to hack away at the form so it didn't worry me.  And because this was my first try at this, I cut myself some slack. To be honest I also cut through a portion of the wall.  I patched it with porcelain. Might work.  Might not. I view most of what I do as experimental so "que sera sera."

Step #2...characterize the bottle.

That thick base is smaller already, thanks to a Pampered Chef kitchen tool I never use in the kitchen. I really enjoy this part of the process...Go CRAZY with with slips and oxides.  For this bottle I used red iron oxide, ochre slip, gobs and gobs of porcelain slip and accents of hunter green underglaze.

Step #3 is my favourite part of the process - choosing the parietal design I'll paint on the "cave wall." When I found this group of bicolour steenbok, I knew I'd found a match.

The original painting was done after the Ice Age, about 11,000 years ago, in Amis Gorge, Namibia. The artist(s) used red for their steenbok. I chose to go black...with one red doe. I also added red accents to the middle animal. A closer look...

To the side, one more steenbok...

I use black and red under glazes for the "paintings." Black slip might be a nice alternative but I haven't made any yet. I'll try that soon.

Step #4... is the bisque firing.

I love the way the pieces look once they're bisqued. It's almost a shame to cover their bare purity. But I do for...

Step #5 - Glazing.
This time, I compromised, leaving a few areas unglazed but lightly sprayed with an atomizer. Glazes used are Spotted Shino and Tom's Clear. Small glass shards dipped in red underglaze were later positioned around the top of the neck.

There are patches of soda ash on the shino and sprinkings of granulated rutile on the Tom's Clear.

The last step is the least predictable of all. For me, it's heady anticipation laced with a hearty dose of anxiety.

Step #6 - High firing in the gas kiln.
We unloaded the gas kiln yesterday afternoon. Personal taste, of course, varies from person to person. But I got most of the results I was hoping for on the Steenbok Bottle. (Yes, it now has a name.) It's the first time I've left the "paintings" untouched, except for a fine misting of clear glaze. It won't be the last.

So there you have it. A Cave Art bottle start to finish. Three more are sitting on the kitchen counter, ready for Step 3. (Wonder what I'll be doing tonight?)

Cooking with Gas

Just a short post tonight. It's been a long (enjoyable) day at Clayworks and I'm ready for a fire in the fireplace, a bowl of hot soup and a few episodes of "Mad Men" on DVD. But before I settle in for the night, here are a few pieces that came from the gas kiln yesterday.
Images like the one above appear numerous times in the caves of Southern France.  The originals are much larger & absolutely breathtaking from what I can see in photographs.  Photos are as close as you can get to the originals.  The caves have been closed to the public for years.

This piece was thrown.  Ordinarily I prefer the way cave art marries with pinched forms, not thrown. But I was pleased with this one. 

Spotted horse.  

Three horses.  (Though you can only see two.)  I apologize for the blurriness of the photo.   This is one of my favourite images from the cave walls.  

Pinched at Pawleys Island, these sake cups were made to celebrate the hatching of the loggerhead turtles we were lucky enough to see while we were there.   The actual image is Honu ... Hawaiian I believe.  

The Lone Horse.  This is one of the pieces shown (prior to glazing) in the previous post.  Not a good shot but it really did turn out quite nicely.  This was thrown on the wheel, then thrown on the table to alter it.  The liberal addition of red iron oxide, porcelain slip and various under glazes served as the canvas for the mare.  It's gnarlier in person than it is in the photo.  I'll make more of these.  
And finally, the bison (also featured in the previous post). This was the pinch pot that benefited from an unexpected shower.  I have no idea how to replicate what Nature wrought but I'm sure as heck going to try.  The dollop of blue comes from a small glass shard positioned on the rim after glazing.  I'm very fond of the way this fellow turned out. 

Many folks had amazing results from this latest firing in the gas kiln.  The reduction was very good.  And I was delighted (and relieved) that the glazes Elaine & I made are good.  I'm encouraged now to continue working with the parietal theme.  I'll still be making birds, for the barrel-firings and for the gas kiln.  (There are 50 in the bisque kiln even as I type.)  But it's good to be back to the cave art. 

Hmm.  That wasn't such a short post after all, was it?   Guess I got carried away.   Enjoy the rest of the weekend!  

Spelunking in the Gas Kiln

We loaded the gas kiln tonight at Clayworks. Inside are 13 new cave art pieces, all of which were put on hold until Elaine & I were satisfied that our glazes were okay. The kiln is candling now. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this one.

I also have high hopes for this pot. It was pinched at Pawley's Island. There are scallop shell impressions in the clay...and the makers mark of a passing shower (lower right) that carved away at the clay while I was off to dinner.

Another eleven cave art pieces await their fate.

Again, many were pinched while we vacationed by the sea, including a set of four small cups (sake?) dedicated to the loggerhead turtle babies we saw making their run to the sea.

I'd like to think there's some magic there.

While I love barrel-firing my birds, experimenting with parietal images is my primary focus. We'll see what this spelunking adventure yields on Friday when the gas kiln is unloaded.

Bisque kilns revealed

Elaine & I fired two bisque kilns on Sunday - one at ^010 and one at ^06. The ^010 firing always signals an imminent barrel firing. Barrel Firing #4 is this Saturday and I'm especially excited about this one because we'll be including lots of seaweed collected at Pawleys Island as well as seaweed Amy collected on her trip to the Northwest. Eighteen porcelain birds, five small rattles and three pinch pots I made at the beach will be my contributions this time.

I've also been stepping up work on my cave art pieces. Three of these were wheel thrown; the rest were pinched on the porch at Pawleys. The clay is Zella (which I haven't tried with the parietal motif) and they feature a combination of porcelain slip, yellow ochre slip and various underglazes.

Eventually these pieces will go to the gas kiln, but not until we've done some test tiles on the glazes we made on Sunday.

Next post will be apres Barrel Firing #4. I picked up about 300 lbs of sawdust today and gathered logs we saved when part of our apple tree died this past summer. Now I'm off to scavenge coffee grounds, banana peels, cat food and glossy magazine pages to feed the flames.