The first of many, and cleaning time.

Hey there fellow pottery enthusiasts! This week we'll start a new tradition. Every Thursday I'll try to mention two potters whose work is inspiring me. The number of incredible contemporary potters is truly a vast and deep well filled with awesome pots! So let's jump in with this weeks artists. 

“If I don’t love and encourage a piece of clay, if I don’t help it inch its way along to become the most beautiful thing I want it to become, it’s sort of a futile process to me. The need to feel all of this as humans [support and encouragement] is synonymous to making a pot because it’s intimate in the same sort of way.”  - Matthew McGovern  

Matthew McGovern is one of the potters I've been paying particular attention to this week. The images of his pots have a peaceful quietness to them that is outstanding. He manipulates slip on the outside of his forms with outstanding results. I rarely attempt this for of decoration but whenever I see results like this I can't help but long to try my hand at it. Along with Matthew I've been looking at the wood fired work of Kurt Teeter. Teeter studied in MFA program in at West Virginia University. I heard about Teeter from my mother, and after first opening his web page I've had the colors of his pots in my mind. Especially the earthy deep blues of the pot pictured below. 

 
They are just the best kind soft. To my eyes the interplay of line between the uneven edge of the pot and the blocking of color and lined texture above it. Just visually wonderful and stimulating to me.

It's been a strange week in the studio. It is test week which means there is only about a 50 % chance that I'll make it into the studio. Unfortunately, at least two days this week have had me banished via locked doors and missing keys (you wouldn't think that could be a problem) to the silence of an empty staff room and the endless digital wastes of the internet. This time was immediately put to finding new potters and pottery articles to read up on. On Monday I cleaned EVERYTHING. The ever growing mound of cast off trimmings was beginning to take on a life of its own, so it was time for a fresh start.

 I did manage to glaze pots and load the kiln for a small glaze firing that will be on track to open on Monday.


In a somewhat out of character move there ended up being a lot of blues and greens in this batch of firing. Something in the pots made me want to play with color in a more experimental way than I typically do. I think that I am naturally drawn to earthen tones, and natural glazes. Glossy colored glazes typically turn my eye (just not my style), but I also think there is room for a new level of layering that I have trouble achieving with my matted glazes. I'm hoping that the under-glazes and brushwork I attempted to practice will shine through the semi transparent blues and greens I glazed with this time. That's right brush work and glossy! . . . Where did Andrew go?. . . I know right.

Hey, growth requires experimentation.

The last push of creation and experimentation this week was another attempt at dialing in what an A. Sartorius Ceramics tea pot will look like. Right now this is what is coming off the wheel. For me, it's not there. In rare form I like the handle and the curve of the body, but the lid and the spout need more work. None the less, progress!



To wrap up this week's post. Go experiment. Try something new. Stretch your comfort zones and create something new. It's the only real way to grow, and I am certainly am seeking growth more than anything else.

Return

After a long trip home, the first in 2 years, I'm back in Susaki and in the studio. There is a lot of work to be done before the opening of my show on September 13th. I've been granted space in the Machikado Gallery to display my work. I've never put together a show before, esspecially a solo exhibition, so my thoughts about the best ways to display everything and all the other ins and outs are really racing.

I have always loved texture and surface decorations. They alter the tone and give the eye a reason to pull the hands to the peice. This show's collection is largely going to e peices that focus on texture and giving a sense of agedness to something new, and also atempting to replicate the natural element of an atmospheric firing in my electric kiln with only factory made glazes and changes to the temperature and exposure of the firing cycle. Just come and have a look!

Home was wonderful, as home should be! The whole family came out in force to welcome me back. We soaked eachother in for two weeks, and I even managed to see some of my oldest and dearest friends from both high school and the good old Wooster days. There will be more info and news to come along with more photos of new work, but for now the sauna of a studio is calling to me. Thanks for reading! It's good to be back.

Bisque and News

Today's weather really threw me for a loop. Cool lovely morning, hot mid day, and then humid but cool night. I have some large tiles that have been drying for days in the studio and the humidity is keeping them quite damp still depsite my best efforts. I would really like them to dry so that I can glaze them and try to slip them (yes unbisqued, my god right?!) into Friday's firing. Last week saw a bisque fire come and go smoothly and without any casualties. I've spent the week glazing like a mad man attempting to get everything ready in time because there's big news on the horizon (but for now it must remain a secret)!

 All tantalizing secrets aside I find that glazing is still a part of my creative process that is most in need of refining. I don't fully understand the techniques needed to smoothly blend two glazes, or even to get the same effect reliably every time. It is truley a new and fantastic experience almost every time I open the kiln. Sometimes my glazes behave exactly as I have hoped and expected them to, sometimes I'm surprised in the best of ways, and sometimes I'm greated by pots that look as though they were glazed with as much attention to detail as sand blowing in the wind. I've been quite active in the studio this week beyond just my glazing. Every day I have been working to teach myself how to reliably throw (though I should, perhaps, just say center) larger amounts of clay. I find it really challenging to maintain that perfect centered position on the wheel and my work (with one exception) has turned out good enough for the reclaim bucket every day this week. It leaves my wrists and fingers soar, but in reality I find that soarness refreshing!

I know you've seen these guys already, but I just fin this image far more pleasing than the other
and simply had to share it. 

My favorite mug from last weeks firing. 

Go create something TODAY! 

Fired, Blues, and News

About two weeks ago I opened up the kiln of an incredibly rainy Monday. The weather was terrible, and I had the day off from school to dedicate time to cleaning my house and relaxation. What I saw with this firing was really quite surprising. many more muted colors than I am used to, and lots and lots of drips. Now I7m really quite partial to runny yellow glazes, and that metalic blue that fades to slighly crystalized copper burns when exposed to my long back fire firing cycle makes for some pots with a lot of character, but this time the glazes left me feeling like they were a bit . . . rushed.

I'm very happy with this tea bowl.

 

I love the forms, but I really want the glaze to uniformly fade. Granted the kilns "kiss" and treatment of each individual pot is part of what makes pottery so endlessly entertaining.

I'm not the happiest with these two mugs.

Love this carved mug.  

I am still working on coffee mugs and demitause cups. I am amassing so many peices that I really need to do a bisque firing, but the communication barrier at school with my new ceramics instructor, Yamatogi Sensei, hasn't been 100% broken down as of yet. There are some deadlines for compititions at the end of this month that I would really like to apply to. . . so , we'll just have to do some sweet talking and creative gesturing convince him otherwize.

I wrote a few posts ago about my trip to Bizen and how I was equaly in awe and more than a little jealous of all the clay culture that surrounded me while I was there. Sometimes I think young artists, or just young people in general get a restlessness that builds within them. It's the desire to have the life you know you want. I often think that I want a life in pottery. I'm not sure where or how that happenes but 9 out of 10 days I want it more than just about anything I can dream of. So, when I see an artist with a studio in ceramics monthly it's hard to not think, "man they have it all!". The truth is that they are working, and have been working - along their own paths - for YEARS to get to that article. It's the same in any job, for any twenty something. We're hungry for our dreams to come to a point where we feel we're living them not living for the hope of dreaming them. All of that to say that I just got the June Ceramics Monthly and its pages are a wash with artists and pots that make me hungerier than and more excited than a 5 year old at an all you can eat cake and icecream buffet, but I opened it up to a quote on the very subject I've been ranting on by a Potrland, Oregon potter named Brian R. Jones:

"My advice to others interested in a career in pottery: You have to dig your well deep. invest in youself and others will invest in you. Things happen when they happen and that's not something you have control over. Don't get too concerned or resentful with someone else's success. They are not being successful at you. It's just their time. Use your energy to make better work."

So it's off to make better work I go!

Gazed and bread bowl

Bad blogger! Just a week after posting about my efforts to go back to once a week I skip a week. LAME. No excuses, just the promise of two posts this week to make up for it. The studio has been in hyper clean (do not make messy again after deep cleanse that took 2 weeks) mode. Meaning I had (until this week) essentialy sequestered myself to glazing only. I did this mostly to fight of the seemingly inebitable return of floors with drips or splashes of slip, pockets of dust, and the more than occaisional misplaced tool. However I did manage to finish glazing the big vase forms I have been working on for the past several weeks. The'll go in the kiln sometime this week. Also managed to take a photo of my bread bowl. mixing bowls in Japan always leave my big baking recipeis overly full in my mixing bowls and generally feeling confined by the lack of space to stretch, so I made my own big bowl. The glaze didn't turn out astonishing, but I don't need it to be. This bowl was made to use, to have flour, egg, and all things baked good mixed within it. I can't wait to test it out, and baking gives my currently overly cold house both a delicious smell and pleasant warmth.

Enjoy the photos!
We'll see you later this week with a small change of pace perhaps.

Trips and Travels

 Happy new year dear readers! Above are a sampling of works that came out of the kiln before the Christmas Holidays came knocking at my door step. The blue and green cup pictured above are actually not my work. These fine yunomi were created by a friend, Mark, who asked for
my assistance with a gift for his fiance. The three cups show in the bottom left now dwell in
the Gray family home, where I hope they are used every day!

I've been been bad to you. Neglectful even! In part my absence of postings has been because of a two week travel explosion to Vietnam where I traveled by plane, taxi, bus, van, big boat, little boat, train, and my own two feet to Hanoi, Sapa, Ha Long Bay, Ho Chi Minh, and The Mekong Delta. It was a holiday season to be remembered by its vast difference from any other experience I've had. Vietnam was an almost completely sensory experience (at times borderline overload). The colors, smells, sights,
and taste were all challenging, vivid, and mostly delectable. I even managed to squeeze in a small traditional pottery exhibit while I was traveling, but I can't say the small selection I saw really sparked
my fancy.

The year to come will be full of many great and grand adventures, and I have so many hopes for the growth of my work. Because my life seems to be a bit busier than before, and because I don't want to promise more than I can deliver I am going to shift from promising two posts every week to one post for now. If the new year proves to be less busy than the tail end of 2012 then I'll return to two a week, but for now we'll go for one more meaningful post.

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season! Go out and create something in the new year. Can't wait to get back in the studio!

At Last, at LAST!

spouted bowls 

salad bowl 

inside with copper melt trailing 

This last firing did some really crazy stuff friends and muddy handed pottery lovers. The longer firing cycle I have been using, the one the focuses on an extended down fire after the peak temperature has been reached, did some really unexpected things to some of my glazes this time. When I first went to open the kiln last week I was expecting to see a lot of reds and patina bronze blues. Instead I was greeted by deep milky whites with trails of turquoise, purple and silver amidst the off earthy yellow of the clay body I have been using. At first I was mortified. The results were far from what I wanted. The active coloring agent in my new glazes is some type of copper oxide and The results from my longer and higher heat exposure look very similar to my playings with melting copper wire to my sculptures in the kiln. 

Despite my initial disappointment in my work, no father can stay away from his children for too long, and after some extended time studying I am actually very happy with the new colors I have managed to create. After all, isn't have the fun of ceramics the element of mystery the kiss of flames and heat bring to the table. That kid on Christmas morning feeling when you go to open up the kiln for the first time. It's the best! 

More new photos will follow. I've been focusing on vase forms in the studio this week! I hope to upload some shots of them on Friday. Thanks for reading! 

Little Glaze and Back to Bisque

November is the cruelest month! It brings the promises of winter travels taking shape, the sorrows of turkey-less Thanksgivings, new friends, ever new experiences, and more classes, after school extra lessons, and night time classes that an angry bigfoot can shake a mulberry stick at. More specifically, November Mondays and Tuesdays are hell on this busy Bear's earth. None the less, my ceramics still manages to squeeze its way into these busy days. A few nice bowls and two big sculpture pieces came out of the kiln on Monday. The sculpture work will make it's way to these pages in the days that follow. I have more bowls about to go into the next glaze fire, and even loaded up the kiln again tonight for probably the last bisque fire of this year. More to come around on Thursday, I hope. Have a great week ya'll

Fired / tired

Well today was just a dreary Monday like we've not had for some time. The sun never quite woke from its slumber today, and the promise of rain hung heavy about Susaki all day. The days themselves are getting shorter and shorting, and it is now no longer light at 5:30 when I return home from work. BUT! The light of a newly repaired kiln and successful bisque fire is brightening my days (along with all enumerable joys that fill all the non ceramic centered portions of life). The bisque was a success and the students work that got fired all survived ta boot! We've stated the glazing cycle and should be completing it within a week or so. I recently was informed that the gallery on the eastern side of Kochi where some of my work is on display has been selling several of my pots! So that was a pleasant surprise to overhear. Enjoy the photos and we'll see you as soon as I have more new work to post. Here's some pictures of some of the various finished works ready for glazing and some of the new work that has just reached the bone dry stage and will go in with the next bisque fire.

2/2 Make!

Well now that you know of two weeks ago's happenings, it's time for a recap of last week. So last week was midterm at Susaki High School. This meant that my time was largely dedicated to studio time. However, with the kiln on the fritz I didn't feel hugely motivated to just create, create, create. I spent a huge chunk of my week cycling through the happy step bye step of scoop from reclaim bucket, dry on plaster bricks, wait, wedge, bag, and repeat. So help me, that bucket is empty! Although, today's pottery class began the battle anew with their bowls of slip.

Tuesday was a really productive day of wheel work. I worked specifically towards honing in on a bowl shape I am rather fond of after warming up with some yunomi and smaller coffee bowls. It was one of those rare days where centering came easily, and the clay and my hands just seemed to be on the same wavelength.

Also in the good news bracket since my post this morning I have just been informed in a friendly little message that the kiln was fixed today, and the pots are firing as I type these happy words. I trimmed the pots pictured above after school, and prepped the last of the reclaim clay for the students use throughout the week. We'll be onto a glazing cycle by the end of this week, and that means the best part is only a few weeks away! Nothing's better than opening up a fresh glaze firing, and, preferably, cradling the still slightly warm pots in your hands for the first time as finished works. I love it! Here's to hoping we're back to our regularly planned life hence forth eh! Come back on Thursday for more updates. Have a great week!

Play with FIRE

Happy holiday Monday! So, last week I posted a link with a video of a man throwing HUGE pots, as well as the first shots of my first attempts at working larger. Well, on Friday whilst trimming I might have (to my utter horror) trimmed through the bottom of my huge pot. This yielded a squeal of terror and the quick hunt for a means to fix said mistake. The answer came from Tabe Sensei (who surprised me by hanging out in the studio as I worked and taking all these lovely photos). So, a patch of wet clay, some creative paddling with small wooden anvil, and some tender blowtorch love later and my bread bowl seems patched and as good as new. Only the eventual firing will tell.

Tomorrow is a day off from work to make up for a Saturday worked last week, and I mean to enjoy it by sleeping in, cleaning, and in general just being a homebody. If you live in Kochi I hope the rains of this weekend didn't keep you from adventures and joy. Go out and make something with you hands! DO IT!

BIG

The week's come and gone like a flash of lightning, and as between the cracks of thunder I managed to have a wonderfully productive week in the studio. I finished trimming the dessert bowls I made last week, and am quite happy with the way they ended up. Two days ago my father sent me this a fantastic video of a man making HUGE pots. This, naturally, led to me wondering how I would do if I tried my hand at working in larger quantities of clay. I've always been a bit scared of bigger work, but this week I made some steps in the right direction for making my work big. I'm especially excited for the large bread bowl I threw today. Also finished a lovely salad or serving bowl.

The nights are starting to cool slightly, but the days remain hot. As the they roll on bye I plan on just keeping on keeping on with the work that my hands find their way into. Have just the best weekends possible!

Back to Basics

Of all the beautiful places I've frequented in my time in Japan this view is the one where I continue to find the most peace. With the wheel before me, my neon orange apron on, and my hands submerged in a slurry of earth and water. It is such a great space. Finally had a productive day in the studio after my long vacation. Threw 12 pots of those 12 you can see the 5 that made the final cut. I'm sticking with very basic bowl forms until I've fully shaken my finger's coating of rust from these joints. It's just good to be back and working at it again. I also managed to dry and wedge about 2 or 3 kilograms of reclaim clay, and prepped the studio for the pottery class tomorrow afternoon. We'll see you all on Monday! Have a great weekend, and go out and make something! This guy watched me work all afternoon. I couldn't resist posting a photo of him.