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Thursday, June 27, 2013

Thinking About Tea Pots


Thinking of my time in SLV. So I bring you what I learned in my work study... I am unsure if this is the Irish method as well, but it was how I was to serve tea 5 days a week at 3pm.
Instructions for a proper cup of tea:
1
Clean your teapot and tea kettle. If the last time you made tea was weeks ago, chances are your teapot and kettle could have accumulated dust or mold.
2 
Fill your tea kettle, yes a kettle, with cold water. Fresh cold water, maybe even filtered. Set the kettle on the stove and turn on "high." Or you can use an electric one as well.
3
 When water is near boiling, pour a small amount into your teapot, put on the lid. Swirl the water around and then pour it out completely. This warms your pot proper like. Put kettle back on stove. Bring to boil.
4
 Place your loose leaf tea in the teapot. If you must, use tea bags. but know your tea service is judging you. and really why have a tea caddy if you have no leaves? Generally you can estimate 1 tsp. per person, plus 1 tsp. for the pot. Account for approximately 10 oz. of water per person when deciding on the size of teapot.
5 
Pour the boiling water into your teapot. Yes in asian it is said the water should not be boiling, but they are not using dried tea leaves after all. Let steep for t
four to five minutes.
6 
Pour the tea, through tea strainer, into each cup. You pour your own cup first ti insure the color is correct. Try to make sure each of your guests has an equal amount of tea.
7
 Serve with milk, sugar, and lemon as desired. Yes the tea goes in first. If there is tea left in the pot, place a tea cosy on the pot to keep it warm on a cold day.
Now you bloody heathens, buy a damn kettle and tea pot. Or better buy one from me!

Saturday, June 15, 2013

It's something...

So something different. Sounds like I will be co-teaching middle school kids pottery. We will see how this goes.  IDK. I tried to not say yes impulsively.


Different things going on... what you see is the start of the workbench.




Last first friday...

Just a quick look at last first friday.  Raku as usual.  Hopefully this pulled some sales in for the gallery or people wanting to do classes.












movement....

Never confuse movement with progress.....
movements can go round and round....
In my personal life I really cant's say things are worse. They are what they have been. It's the same exact dance it has been for a while.
 This is true for a variety of spots in my personal life...
There are seasons, and like every other year they come and come and come.  True Change is elusive, and noted change is a trick, a job.  It lulls me into thinking it is real... but it is not.

So it seems the cooperative studio (Cup & Bowl), is not in a great place financially.  Nicely it needs less than $2000 steady a month to function. But with the small cut they take off the gallery I would need to sell like 500 bowls to cover the cost.  Not that I have to cover the cost but just to get a sense of it all...

However there are multiple ways the organization can make money. Classes, Gallery Sales, Membership and finally renting out the backyard.  Hopefully this comes together, I know there are many of us that have full time jobs and really can't take on too much more. For us, creating art is under this additional constraint.

Constraints..
Joel Cherrico (http://www.cherricopottery.com) wrote a great article talking about the constraints created when making functional work.  I think (and shared this with him) that this is similar to the constraints folk artist experience. There are set moves, forms that must be respected and ones movement within this is the creation and experience of creativity. Sure there are artists doing abstract ceramics and calling them vessels, but if they are unusable they are not "functional" and therefore by definition not functional ware. This is art as well, but it is not within the contraints. Contrary to what some artists seem to think (seems to be a painter thing especially) breaking with tradition simply to be novel doesn't make you art or original.  Novelty for novelties sake has a specific word... "fad"  ;-)

And, like is usually found with fads, it really isn't original. It is derivative. Why? because EVERYTHING is.  "there is nothing new under the sun." Not ones ideas, thoughts, art or pain, nothing is new or special or original.  Accepting this can create better acceptance of the constraints.

Constraints, self imposed, create what we call.... "style".  It is how you recognize someones work. It has the typical restraints they have adopted for themselves. At this point, I think I really can pick out one of my pots more often than not based on this. It is not just the form, but I tend towards typical ways of dealing with design in glaze and slip.  Even when soda glazed my work seemed familiar if not more so...

One constraint I have is this one of time. As mentioned I have a job.  I also have varying levels of energy to deal with the world. Sometimes my personal life helps with this, other times it drains my energy seemingly to challenge my ability to function. The ebb and flow of energy then dictates, to some degree, if I can create.

Monday, June 10, 2013

Bits & Pieces....

Behold the Progress....

For the workshop part of the Studio:
Space
Kickwheel
Slab Roller
Pugg Mill
Assorted Throwing Tools
Piles of Reclaim Clay
Wood Burning Stove
Motivated Friend that has an Idea as to what this should look like!

Need:
Shelves
Work Table
Intall Pugg Mill

For the Outside of the Studio:
Kiln Shelves
Thermocupler
welding glasses
welding gloves
Old Electric Kiln
Single Venturi burner
Venturi Burners for Soda Kiln
Ferric
Raku Tongs
Kiln Engineer (lol)

Need:
Bricks
metal buckets
possible need for saws?  IDK

GOAL:
WorkSpace that has the major tools I need in a space that makes them usable (Kickwheel, Pugg Mill, Slab Roller)
A Soda Kiln
A Raku Kiln

Thursday, June 6, 2013

sadly....

So the last mask posted, with the open mouth.. it fell apart as the parts came off...

I knew the clay was on the dry side, but the rest of the masks I used ZERO water and was able to sculpt it into place. This was just too dry and frankly I knew better....

Sad still.. I really liked the eyes on this one....

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Masks...

While I wait for the studio to be finished up... I am waiting on a pugmill install and then a workbench.  If I am lucky it will be a workbench, wedging table and some shelves but we will see.
And I am waiting on everything to come in for the kiln as well... so while I wait I am making masks at home. Three in three days, all very different.








Sunday, June 2, 2013

Mask

Two slightly different pix (mostly it is a light issue) of three masks I have made. From the top this was a black clay with Amber Glaze. To the right is "raw" dark brown clay. I fired it without glaze but dusted ash on it. The left is the Soda fired mask with B-Mix.



This is wet greenware. A mask made of SB-Red and then white Porcelain slip.


But Masks...
mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise , performance or entertainment. Masks have been used since antiquity for both ceremonial and practical purposes. They are usually worn on the face, although they may also be positioned for effect elsewhere on the wearer's body.

 Roxanne Swentzell ( http://www.swentzell.com  ) a Pueblo Potter from Santa Clara Pueblo, makes some masks that are reflective of the sculptures she makes.

I have always had a pull towards masks, it is a common attraction I think.  The idea is often discussed in terms of "parts of self", the idea that we all have many masks we put on. Jung however, used the term for only one very specific part of the self. The Mask, for Jung, is also called the Persona. This is the public self or public face of the SELF.  In these senses the Mask is a part of the self that is tailor made to present to others... hiding or "masking" other parts of the self. For Jung, this is especially true of the Shadow. That is a totally different conversation.. the Shadow and art...

But in ceremonial uses Mask is part of the ritual. The taking on of something outside of ones self. The mask does not cover and hide (like the mask in a masquerade or robbery) nor is it a created part of the self that hides the rest of the self (as discussed above). In this case the mask is a representation of someone or something else...

So the mask can be a connection to something in the spirit world, allowing one to "stand in" for a spirit, a santo, a loa. As a stand in you take on that thing.

So what about the mask not being worn. The mask on the wall.  It is a representation of this "other" that one would take on, spirit or santo or loa or part of the self. It represents this on its own, its connection only exists because of your emotional connection to it rather than literally putting it on... yet this is the connection between the viewer and any piece of art.


Saturday, June 1, 2013

My Soda Fired Work

The dark clay is SB-Red from Laguna. The White is B-Mix (^6) from Laguna. We used flashing slips, white slip and orange.  We also used a set of glazes that are ^6 reduction glazes. Now this is not the best look at these glazes as the soda has interacted as well. So they might look different under reduction (no soda) and will for sure be LESS runny. Below is only my work. There will be more firing pictures and a vid link when Zeke gets that all down.

So this is a Sake or "fine liquor" set. It is make for "sipping spirits".

there you can see the outside. It is all SB-Red, white slip and an orange flashing slip. The inside is Tenmoku Gold with Cobalt added

Sadly, this is my favorite piece. But as you will see there is damage to the lip. It was fine going in, but when we pulled it it had fallen.

You can see the dark clay flashing to some degree on it's own. It is almost a salmon color and shiny is places. 

This is a bottle with a wide mouth, if I can find a cork to fit it can be a nice small storage jar.  You can see the same decoration of white slip, bare clay and orange flashing slip.

Similarly you can see the soda effects on the clay body.

Here is a look at the inside. This is Rutile Ash glaze, the lip was also dipped in this. I like this glaze and would like to try it only in ^6 reduction.

This is a small cup or bowl. Now this one shows the same problems I have experienced before. But here you can see really good orange from the flashing slip.

I like the simple foot and here you can see soda effects on bare clay.

And this should look familiar...  :-(
The glaze inside is Satin White. Now if you look close you can see GREEN! That is a chemical reaction to the soda. But you can also see a huge glop of soda... I have created this problem before. I assume this slip off the shelf. We need to not spray the shelves if we can help it.

Masks!  I haven't done this for a while. A guy and a coyote (yes it is, I know cuz I made it.). This is my only work in white.

Here there was flashing slip that you cannot see.... but the whole thing looks as if it was clear glazed?!
The lips above and cheeks below are  Tenmoku Gold with Iron, the blue is Tenmoku Gold with Cobalt.

Here you can barely see the slips...
We think that flat work needs to be tilted and not allowed to lay flat as it gets only the soda covering but no flashing... IDK.

This is a larger lidded pot. Sorry no size reference. The decorations are all done with flashing slips. The body has been effected by the soda.



Here the white slip was put on thick to create a crackle effect...

You can see the inside, this was done with Yellow Salt.. you really can't see anything


This is not a new crack, it came out of bisque this way. But as we were learning I opted to fire it.

This is a small bottle. The inside is Mint Julep, but really looks like nothing when you look inside. Almost a grey glaze. It did not like the soda.

Here you can see a better cracking with the thick white glaze, this is on point for what I wanted.


I did this body shot as I did not think the orange flashing was noticeable in the other pictures as it is subtle. Further, it is odd the white slip here, and only here, turned grey... it reminded me of crock salt pottery...

The glaze is... YUP! Tenmoku Gold with Cobalt. It ran only a little bit but I hate how fat that dragon fly is.

I really liked the effect of cutting through the white slip.


Here this lid has the white slip but thinner. I like this cracking.

Inside of this pot, Selsor Oriba. Not bad. IDK, I need to see it on white.

The inside of this is Rutile Ash, and the outside is white slip and a bit of glaze you really can't see for ignore that part.





This is one of my small pitchers. Almost mini, I use them for a cup of tea. Think of how you order a single cup of hot tea in a restaurant and they have only enough set aside for two cups. It holds your other cup.

Again this is the blue glaze inside and the lip is dipped as well.  The rest is the dark clay body.

Here is the foot, I carved this rather than trimmed it. I like the effect.


So the Rutile Ash was a nice glaze. The Tenmoku Gold with Cobalt was good too but I do wonder if a different blue glaze would be easier. Frankly I don't see any "tenmoku" look to it at all. This is true on other folks work as well....