Hello and welcome to the humble beginnings of my pottery blog. My goal is to not only showcase my current and past work, but also to educate family and friends (or any curious stranger that manages to stumble across my blog) about the processes behind creating wheel thrown ceramics. My hope is that every reader, be they a ceramic artist themselves or a ceramic art admirer, will be able to glean some information from my ramblings that will inspire them or satisfy their curiosity about the craft. Should you like to know a little more about the man whose art and utterances reside on this site, then click your way over to the about page. Otherwise, sit back and take a look around the site and be sure to stop in again to see what kind of new things I am currently spinning up on the wheel.
Jun
13
Mar
14
More Gallery Updates!
After two months of both successes and failures, I have finally added some more pots to my picture gallery. As you can tell by perusing through the new gallery, I have been working on refining old styles as well has fleshing out the details of some new ideas. Most of the pots pictured in the new gallery have been shipped up to The Yellow Umbrella in Bemidji Minnesota. If you are in that area, stop in and check them out. Currently, I am working on building up a body of work for summer sales and for my etsy shop which I hope to open in a few months. So, check back for updates as to where and when I will be selling this summer.
Feb
26
Something New
Plates are something that I have not really focused on in the past, so I have decided that it is time to start developing some plate designs. One particular idea has been floating around in my head for some time now, and I have just begun to run some tests to flesh out problems. The desert plate you see above is the first test to come out of the glaze firing. I am quite happy with the results, but as with every new pot I throw, there is always a bit of a learning curve. Just check out the side view below.
Yep, I miss judged how much the rims would slump in the firing. Regardless, I see a lot potential for this idea. I just need to figure out what angle to leave the rims while throwing the plate on the wheel to compensate for how much they will slump. Once I get that figured out, I have some further deals that I would like to add. So, hopefully we will see the idea become fully realized in the very near future.
Feb
05
Back To Work
With The Christmas decorations reluctantly packed away and the Christmas tree that had certainly become a fire hazard finally tossed out, it is time to throw some pots. But first, with this being the time of year that we reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future, I thought I would do just that.
Sometimes, progress can seem so small until you take the time to look back at where you were at this time last year. 2011 was a year of a lot of experimentation. Most of the year was spent exploring shapes and glazes as i tried to find my own voice. There were technical issues to resolve, techniques to learn, and skills to hone. Many pots later, a style finally emerged that reflected my personality. Now I need to keep moving forward.
So, what does forward progress entail? Well, for one I would like to push my designs even further and broaden my new glaze pallet to include more color. Second, I would like to get more aggressive with sales, including participating in art festivals and actually setting up the Etsy shop that I keep telling everyone is coming soon. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to get more active in the community in which I live in order to enrich the community around me with my art and inspire others to do the same.
So with 500 pounds of porcelain waiting to be turned into pots, it is time to get to work.
Dec
26
Gallery Update
At last, the gallery has finally received a long overdue update! Under the album Current Work, you can see a sample of pottery produced over this past fall, demonstrating my current style and direction.
There are a few developments made over the fall that are worthy to be highlighted. First, a break-through in glaze development has promoted me to focus almost entirely on firing in an electric kiln instead of a gas kiln (more on that in future posts). Secondly, my style and aesthetic choices have become more focused. My work now follows a more cohesive direction, allowing me to spend much more time refining shapes and designs instead of spending energy chasing other styles. Finally, my quality has improved greatly as I strove to focus on the minor details and craftsmanship of each pot.
I owe a lot of gratitude to my sister-in-law, Katie Blommel, for taking pictures of my new pottery. They are a great improvement over my older pictures and reflect the color and nuances of the glaze of each pot much more accurately. Thank you Katie!
Jul
24
Summer Raku
Well, so much for my goal of one post a week. I faltered on that goal right out of the gate, but now I am finally breaking the long silence with a little show and share (as they put it at my daughter’s daycare). One thing I managed to squeeze into a busy summer was to take a raku class. For those of you who have never heard of raku, it is basically a type of low fired ceramics. To summarize the process, the pots are all placed in a small kiln and fired up to around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit (about 1000 degrees Celsius). Then, while the pots are still at this temperature and glowing orange, they are taken out of the kiln and placed in what are called reduction chambers. These chambers can be constructed by something like metal trashcans with combustible material such as newspaper and sawdust. The goal is to have the glowing hot pot ignite the combustible material and fill the chamber with smoke, magically causing interesting effects on the clay and glazes. Well, okay, maybe it is not so much magic as it is chemistry, but it is a lot of fun none the less. Perhaps in some future post I could say a little more about the history of raku (once I learn up on it myself), but instead lets look at some of the results I had from the class.
Green and Copper Jar
This first jar was glazed with a copper luster glaze called dragonfly. It quickly became one of my favorite of the raku glazes, gaving such a variety of results as you will see in some of the next photos.
Naked Raku Vase
This vase was the result of trying out a technique called ‘naked raku’. Basically, I dipped it in a very thick slip which cracks while the pot is fired in the kiln. When it reaches temperature, it is placed in a chamber lined with newspaper and sawdust for the goal of producing lots of smoke. The smoke then makes it’s way into the cracks of the slip while the slip shields the rest of the pot from the smoke. Once the pot has cooled enough, the slip is removed from the pot leaving behind the black on white pattern.
Small Apple Jar
This is just a little apple-like jar made for my daughter. She is my biggest fan and tries to claim every pot I bring home, so I try to make something specifically for her on occasion.
Copper Matte Jar
This jar had a copper matte glaze. I didn’t get as much color on it as I would have liked.
Yellow and Orange Vase
Believe it or not, this vase also had that same dragonfly glaze on it as the first jar in my post. However, this vase was in a different firing and also cooled more before I was able to get it into the reduction chamber. So you can see have much variation you can get in raku by changing some of the variables of the firing.
Green Jar
Finally, one more jar that has the dragonfly glaze on it once again. It was in the same firing as the first jar of this post and placed in the same reduction chamber, so both had similar results.
I first took the raku class just to experience that type of firing, but I had a lot of fun with the process. In fact, I had some much fun that I suspect I will do some more raku firings this fall.
Recent Work
