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Sunday, March 24, 2013

a bit of a glitch.. sigh..

so giant glitch.. all my photos were eaten by google.. sign.

I could repost everything but really?  that takes a lot of time to find them all again...

sad sad...

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Greenware from today wet wet wet

So all of this is very wet right now. So all of this is the cassuis clay, black when fired. The bowl there is 4#, there will me a small foot.

Here you can see some slab build small mugs. This is for Cafe Cubano, which is a latin american style espresso. Unrelated you can see a slab built bottle.



Ok this will have a lid, and I will trim the lid to fit. That is my new "trick" to make lids fit tight.  This too was about 4#, so we will see how tight we can get it.



I have not real thoughts on glaze at this point, the clay will fire black in oxidation so ... not sure.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Two large 4# Bowls

So below are two bowls. These are 4# each. This is a red Laguna clay, ^6 as usual. The slip design is ^6 Porcelain. 



The bowl above has a much wider body and a smaller foot. The bowl below is smaller in body but a much more substantial foot.  The foot is not the easiest thing for me. The trimming of a pot is as much of a distinct skill as throwing is.  The bowl below I burnished the outside, I am uncertain how much of this will be noted after the final fire. It is a low fire technique... I may glaze only the inside and keep the outside "raw" just to preserve the texture.



I hope these bowls have a "feel" to them. I don't talk too much about it, almost because I am uncertain how to create the right words. But a good pot, especially functional ware, has a sense of balance that is quite literal one of balanced weight that can be felt with the hands.

But balance goes, of course, beyond this. There is a sense that the pot is simply "right".  The weight, the texture and even the way the food or liquid moves in the pot.

So the foot and rim hold a lot of importance, disproportionate to the body. The top and bottom draw the eye and create the balance of weight. Rolling the pot in your hand for use, such has holding the bowl or cup, the extremities literally offer or violate a felt sense of balance.

Ok but beyond this, I want the pot to feel like it has, movement. Energy. It seems silly to say this but this is the idea and the pots I make that I really like, have this. The saturday I created these bowls as well as the container from the last post, a buddy said he liked my bowls because they had movement and energy...

It was nice to have someone who I never articulated this to, saw what I was attempting to convey. The body, and all pots echo the human body at times in an almost blatant sexual manner, contains movement and life... At least in the good pots.

So not all the pots are good pots, some are dead and deformed and mutant in unfun and uninspired ways. But some, even or especially with random flaws, have life.

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Pots & Lids

So these are two pots with lids that I made recently. I did not get a pic of some of the ones the predate these and they are already bisque. I am struggling with lids and just need to make a lot of containers to fix this. But the jar right below is the most successful lidded container I have made thus far. The lid fits well, I like the lid's relationship to the container, and I really like the form of the jar.





This jar is a different story. I don't like the nob as much, it's a bit much. I like the form of the jar but the lid does not fit well.




Finally this is a decoration note below, some help from a friend.


Saturday, March 2, 2013

1st Friday

So in Pueblo, we have "First Fridays".  I am unsure how common this is, but here every 1st Friday the various galleries in town are open and often have some type of event. Usually there is a featured artists. Some places keep it low key, others do it like a gallery opening.



A few years ago (I believe) this spring/summer event shifted to a year 'round event.  At Cup & Bowl this is handled like a gallery opening and there is food and wine. And there are Raku Demonstrations.  People can of course see and purchase out of the gallery, but they can also purchase bisque pots and raku fire them.

So one, no sales on any of my stuff  :-/  But here are some pictures Linda Cates took of some of my pots. She is a photographer, so of course her pictures come out a ton better than mine. I thought they were worth sharing.