More hand building

Yesterday I did quite a bit.  I made 4 slab built oil and vinegar bottles, a casserole, another long fruit bowl and a punch bowl.  I will still need to make 8 cups to go with it.  There is already a ladle that should fit it.  Today I met with fellow pottery guild members to discuss the administrative side of the pottery business.  It was a good day getting others thoughts on photography, pricing, wholesale, etc.

This weekend we go to our cabin near Bat Cave, NC.  Our plan is to work on the shed we are building, but rain is forecast all weekend.  We are hoping that it starts late Saturday and we can get some work done.

Next week I will be back to work trying to get enough pieces for the Claymatters Pottery Festival.   I am going to mix up a few more glazes and can't wait to glaze again.

New pots fresh out of the kiln

Yesterday I unloaded the kiln.  It contained test pieces of my new glazes.  Check out the video for more.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Still having fun in the studio.  Yesterday I prepared the slabs for these three pieces and today I put them together.  Afterwards I loaded the bisque kiln.  Tomorrow I will mix up my new glazes and Thursday I will glaze my first load with the new colors.  The first load will by a test so nothing really time consuming will go into it.  I can't wait until I can glaze the pieces I made this week.

Saturday I purchased a new (used) booth display.  It includes pedestals, curtains and a lighting system.  I can't wait to set it up and see how everything looks.

So Happy to be creative again

I am so happy to be back to creating. This weekend I decided to just have fun.  The weather was great all weekend and while my husband worked on the yard I "worked" in the studio.  In a few weeks I hope to have enough items to do my first glaze load with the new glazes.  I signed up for the Clay Matters Festival on May 11th and I hope to be ready with my new work.  I also need to make more work for all the galleries.

I would wish I could get some good photos of the nicer pots for new business cards before the first show but I am not sure it will happen.  I am also considering a new booth display and new signage.    I don't want to rush it but it's hard to not move forward.  This year is supposed to be all about starting over with a whole new look.

My First YouTube Video

I made my first YouTube video yesterday.  There is a challenge from our local clay guild to produce an instructional video.  For the last year I have been thinking that I should make one but this pushed me to get it done.  The video is 15 minutes and takes the viewer from throwing, designing a rim, trimming and punching the holes.  It was alot of work in filming, editing and loading onto YouTube (took 5 hours to upload) but I think worth it.  I will probably do it again.

Spring Cleaning

Today was a very exhausting day for my oldest son and I.  First we packed up the 155 plates for the restaurant order. You can see them stacked on the far side of the studio.

Next we cleaned the studio.  I wish I had taken a before photo so that you can understand how much cleaner it is.  There were boxes and bubble wrap that I had been collecting from neighbors over the last few months.  The boxes to cut up and place between every two plates for extra protection.  Usually my son parks his car on the far side but the last month I had taken it over to glazing.

I decided to empty the table that usually holds all the full boxes of pottery and booth display items and use it for the slab roller.  For the last few month I have been using it on the glaze table and removing it when I needed to glaze.  I placed the (now empty) boxes, etc. on the floor in front of the shelving units.

You can see that my wedging table is still a mess but my body just couldn't handle wedging.  During the last month working on the plates I just kept stacking bags of clay scraps aside.  You can't see it but there is also a stack in front of the wheel on the floor.

The glaze tables over the last year had gotten stacked with miscellaneous items (flawed pottery, parts for the extruder, and other junk)

We finished up by wiping down and mopping the whole studio.  My husband came home tonight and asked if I went out of business. LOL

Tomorrow I will start filling up my green ware carts again.  I would like to show my new work at the Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Festival on May 11th.

Glaze Tests II

Lately I have been working on formulating some new glazes.  The photo on the left shows some of the tests.  The upright tests on the left came out today and I am testing them on the heart shapes tomorrow to see how they behave on texture.  I still need to find a good yellow and maybe a purple.

As I have talked about earlier, the past month I have been working on an order for a restaurant in Memphis, TN.  I still have two more glaze loads of the rectangular trays but I decided to take a photo of the plates I have finished so far.  Next week I will start packing them up for shipment.

I am hoping that once this order is out the door I can move forward with work on my new line.  There will be more glaze tests on larger items and I also need to make more work.  My hope is that I can have enough pieces ready by May 11th for the Carolina Clay Matters Pottery Festival.  I do all the online advertising for the festival and it would be a shame if I can't even do the show.

Yesterday I listed three mugs that I made at the John C. Campbell Folk School in December on Etsy.  It is funny how hard it is to give up pieces that are made at a workshop.  I am keeping one of the vases I made.

Plates finished glaze firing

Today I unloaded the first load of plates for the Italian Kitchen.  Tomorrow I will glaze again and the round plates will have a green rim.  The brie baker is just a test for a brown rim that I am waiting approval on.  I tested both spraying and pouring glaze on the rectangular tray and decided that the spraying looks better.  So I guess I have to spray even though it's harder with that shape than the round plates.  All I will be doing for the next few weeks is do load after load of this order until all 155 plates are finished.

Also, my pottery can now be found at JK Moyles Pottery and Gallery in Lenoir, NC.  Jane has opened a teaching studio which includes a small gallery in the front with different North Carolina artists.

Preparing to Glaze

Yesterday I finished up throwing the plates for Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen order and today I trimmed.  The original order was 150 plates but it ended up being for 155 plates (80 round plates and 75 rectangular plates)  Today it is very windy so I decided to put kiln wash on my kiln shelves.  I have already put 2 layers on and will probably do another layer on the two newest shelves.  Later I will mix up the glazes I am going to use.  Tomorrow I may glaze but the forecast calls for lingering wind and I will be spraying outside so that may not happen.  It looks like the next week or so will have mostly nice weather so I am hopeful that I will make a dent in glazing.  I am estimating 13 glaze loads, hopefully less and I have a month to finish.  Within those loads I hope to test some more glazes for my new line.  I am hopeful that I can have something to show at the Claymatters Festival in May.

Over the next few days I will be listing new items on my online shop.  I am starting to stock up on items for Mothers Day.