CAN YOU MATCH THE DRAPES?

Over the years, I have been asked if it is possible to make pots that went with the decorating scheme in a house or apartment. In some cases I was asked if I could match the drapes or upholstery of a couch or chairs and in one odd moment, I was even asked if I could match a set of serving pieces to their dog! The answer to that specific request was that I could not, I would not match their dog. In the case of my "Its Still Life" pieces, I have painted in wallpaper, tables, curtains/drapes and dinnerware that matched with the customers environment and have even made dinnerware to match the dinnerware painted in the pieces, a set of cups from this set was posted on my blog some time back.

Recently, I was asked if I could make a pieces for some dinnerware that matched a surface that I was shown. At first I was rather intimidated as it is a surface that I have never even tried to create and was honestly at a loss as to how to start. I told the customers that I needed to think about it and then came up with a plan which included initial testing before the finished testing could begin. The first step seems to have gone off okay and now I have made up several additional tests which need to be fired. The test rings are triple glazed with the first layer dipped, the second layer brushed on and the third layer was sprayed on using my handy-dandy lung powered glaze sprayer (glaze atomizer). I am waiting to fire these rings in my next firing to get the best and most accurate result in a fully packed kiln, I guess I am back to playing the waiting game.

PHOTO ENHANCED

I found an old photo of one of my winged covered serving pieces with a large spiral knob recently and the time spent making it and others flooded back as if made yesterday. This one is thrown out of stoneware with a notch cut foot , glazed in Shino and then fired at PSUC  while working with Bill Klock sometime in the late 1990s while I was living in Cleveland. This photo came from a bunch of negatives I recently converted to digital images and the platter was made along with maybe 50 or so pots that were intended for the reduction glaze firing at Plattsburgh State or for Bill's wood kiln and in this case, the piece was dusted with a thin coat of ash prior to firing to enhance the effects. I miss those days of going back to work with Bill at the university and to his studio on the old Jersey Swamp Road, making pots, firing kilns and tending the fire while talking about his time with Bernard Leach and visits to see Michael Cardew. It is amazing that a simple photo can spark a number of memories that are held within, well beyond the image captured.

TWENTY-TWO

I have a group of large blue storage containers that we bought at a close-out place before we moved from Cleveland to New Hampshire. They have proven to be incredibly durable and even almost twenty years later they are still in great condition and filled to capacity with stuff, some long forgotten from various moves since that time period. I know there are a number of early pots in the containers as well as clay supplies I have also hoarded along the way from sponges to clock movements and just about everything in between.  While searching for a group of coveted dagger brushes, I came across a bin filled with 22 teabowls from my time at Cleveland State, Kent State, Cleveland Art Institute and Wesleyan Potters spanning from about 1992 to 2002 and decided to make a short slideshow video of the contents inspired by a song by THE NAILS, "88 Lines About 44 Women" but in this case it is 44 pictures about 22 teabowls. The pieces are not in chronological order and don't necessarily present the best of the styles they represent, that just happen to be what I found in the bin.

For those of you not familiar with THE NAILS 1982 classic (though this is the 1985 version), "88 Lines About 44 Women", here it is thanks to YouTube (this is an adult theme and language tune, listen appropriately);

GELT BOX

It is funny how things start and despite the purpose, the origin of a piece sticks with you. I have always made covered pieces, including small covered boxes and the like all the way back to my CSU days. Just after I left CSU and set up my Hillbrook studio, I was making small covered box forms when a client asked me for something a bit specific. What she wanted was small covered boxes with a pre-determined diameter, that resembled tops (upside down mind you), that were brightly decorated and had the interiors covered in gold gilt. As I was to find out the boxes were to be gifts for Hanukkah and would be filled with Hanukkah gelt chocolate coins. The chocolates are wrapped in gold foil wrappers and resemble gold coins and commonly come in little mesh bags but my customer wanted to put them in something a bit fancier so I set about making a dozen of them for her, several which found their way to Israel and France. I have made them ever since, more specifically as small decorative covered boxes, but the origin of this little pot has never left me and even makes me a bit nostalgic for those days making pots in my basement in good old Cleveland.

MAKING CLAY

It gets very easy relying on clay, fresh out of the box, be it terra cotta, stoneware or porcelain. In the case of my terra cotta, I have it made for me by the clay professionals at Standard Ceramics in Pittsburgh. Over the years I have made my fair share of clay including up to 600 pounds a day while I was the tech assistant at Cleveland State. Since then, though most of my clay is prepared clays, I have continued to make up small batches of varying clays for a variety of uses and specific needs. The process I use is quite simple; I measure out the ingredients in a 5 gallon bucket, mix it thoroughly into a slurry consistency, pour it out on plaster to firm up and finish up the process by vigorous wedging. All in all, not a terribly difficult undertaking as long as I keep it under 25 pounds or so.

Last summer I made up a clay body that I wanted to fire slightly darker than the normal stoneware I work with for use with a new Oribe glaze I was testing. The darker body with more iron, tempers the green  and makes for a richer looking surface. I fired several bowls from this clay and glaze combo and promptly sold all of them. About a month or so after selling one of the bowls, I was asked if I could make a mate to one of them and much to my chagrin, I realized, I had misplaced the test notes. I only recently found the notes to that particular conundrum and made up 20lbs of the clay and more of the Oribe as well. In a week or so, I should see if the pieces come out as they did before. I say this because I have taken explicit notes before and when trying to reproduce the results, the pots were just not the same. Most likely some variable that I over looked, but sometimes, inexplicably, the results are just not possible to reproduce, kismet maybe?