Custom geekery, the big restock and a surprising lack of content...

 

I recently started watching the  cult sci-fi classic Battlestar Galactica.  Not the newer version, but the original 1978 series.  I am not really sure why I started watching this, but it has been mildly amusing.  Imagine a Star Wars TV show.  The production is pretty disappointing though.  I know, it is from 1978, but once you have seen what is possible it is hard to go back to 70's production value.

Right now I am slogging through the last 11 episodes of the original series so I am caught up before I start in on the 2004 continuation of the series, which (I hope) will surely be made better.

On to the surprising lack of content, especially for a two week hiatus.

  

 The sell-out pumpkins are all finished up.  Well, mostly.  The bottoms still need to be sanded and such, but they are out of the kiln. 

I like how the brown ones turned out but I wish I would have added some color to the white ones.  They are just a tad too...sterile?  sparse?  I don't know; something is just not quite there.  No mishaps or stuck lids or anything though, so that is good.

 And here we have a few planters I have been working on lately.  They bear a more folk-y style in their decoration...a bleed over from the red earthenware cups I have been making.  And I just realized that I never took any pictures of the cups after they were decorated!  Well, suffice it to say the decoration theme was more folk/traditional than what I usually do.  And now that is starting to influence my other work apparently.

Below is a picture of some custom geekery.  Not sure if it is really evident through the blog, but every now and then I get a little geeky.  Not in the biting the heads off chickens sort of way (although I can't say I have ruled that out yet), but in the gadgets, comics, sci-fi sort of way.  That is why it was kind of fun to get an order for a computer geeky, fortress of solitude surprise mug.  It would be better if I knew exactly what kind of geeky this individual was, but I guess a computer is as good a start as any.

And in the background you may spy a custom oval planter featuring a pheasant.  Quite a bit of detail going into that one what with the feathers and all.

This past Saturday I made a run up to Krueger Pottery in St. Louis to get more clay.  I was down to my last 25 lbs then...

...Shazam!  1100 pounds of fresh clay!  1000 of the utility Laguna B mix for the regular ware, then an extra 100 lbs of L & R Red Earth for further explorations into the earthenware genre.  I am always surprised at how little space one thousand pounds of clay takes up.  

And finally, something completely unrelated to pots.  

For a while we have had a small fire pit thing on the back patio.  I have spent many hours on many brisk spring or fall evenings enjoying the fires it contained.  The only problem was that it was completely contained by metal mesh lattice stuff; top, bottom and all four sides.  This meant that the heat was also somewhat contained and any wood used had to be cut pretty small to fit in.

So this past weekend I got a wild hair and decided to build a new fire pit out of a pile of extra patio bricks that has been sitting around for the past 4 years or so.  

I think I will end up buying a few more bricks to even out the top.  The barrel will be cut down so it is shorter than the bricks...or I could build bricks up around it and make a mini barrel kiln!  No...no I am probably not going to do that...yet.  Either way, I have already spent a few hours enjoying the warmth emanating from the fiery barrel.  And with pieces of wood as tall as me!  No more cutting wood into bite sized pieces! 

And with that I am done.  Up next...dugong!

Stuff that doesn't sell, stuff I've never made and selling out...but not really...

 El Chupacabra!  The nefarious goat sucker!  Most sightings of this cryto-zoological oddity come from central and south America.  Quite a few of the sightings have also been attributed to unidentifiable canines with a severe case of mange.  Still, makes for a pretty cool folk tale. 

This past week has seen the beginning of the various orders received at the last show.  While these orders were not quite enough to get me a wee bit tipsy, they are certainly much appreciated.  Let's start with bowls.

Part of one of the orders was for a couple bowls to be used as awards.  I do not generally make a lot of bowls because, well, they just do not sell.  Large and small alike sit in the booth show after show and very rarely make it to a new home.  The bowls in question, though, were quite enjoyable to work on, being larger serving/mixing type bowls.  This is a shot after throwing.  They weigh in at (going counter clockwise from the left) 4, 4, 7 and 10.

Another shot of the 10 pounder.   I do not usually make stuff this big (although I have been doing so more lately), but I was really happy with how this turned out.  I did not measure it, but I would guess it is roughly 7-8 inches tall and 12 or so inches in diameter.  A good size for mixing or serving.

Here is a fancy lighting shot of them after trimming.  Next (probably next week if I am being honest) comes deco...yippy ska-doo!

Another part of the same order was for oval planters...another item I do not sell a lot of.  I don't think people really know what they are for.  And it has been my experience that if people do not know what exactly they are going to use an item for, they tend not to buy it.  I am considering retooling the design to turn it into some sort of bread pan/casserole.  Anyway, here are some planters.  Not the ones for the order but made in the same batch.

Despite the fact that they will probably not sell worth a damn, I like the way they turned out.  They are sporting a fancy new rim and ears.  I'm not sure exactly what it is about them, but they have a kind of boat-y feel to them. 

Another order was for dog bowls.  I have never made dog bowls before, but I have seen dog bowls before, so I figured I could give it a go.

 The customer said they had a medium sized dog and that the bowl probably needed to be 7-8 inches across.  After throwing them that looked a bit big, but who am I to judge?  I am not sure these will become a production item, but I am not ruling it out.  I did see an awful (Editors note: I just got totally mixed up by the spelling of the word "awful"...that just doesn't look right...) lot of dogs at the last show.  Some were in coats and such so I know people will spend money on stuff their pets do not really need.

I am also working up a load for my next show.  It is a one day deal at a living history/historic site kind of thing.  The Saxon Lutheran Memorial (opperated by my mother, conveniently enough) is having their annual fall festival on the 13th of October.  I will have a pared down booth and be demonstrating.  It is a pretty cool to do.  Check it out if you are in the area.

Terra cotta tea bowls with white slip, soon to be decorated.

And here I sold out just a little bit.  I decided to make pumpkins for the fall/Halloween season...I am slightly dissapointed with myself.

Before:  hollow forms fresh off the wheel.

After: scary cute pumpkins.

More scary cute pumpkins.

I actually had a good time making these.  Is it really selling out if you enjoy what you are doing?  I say no.  I am not sure how well these will go over, but they will probably become an annual offering either way.

And with that I have run out of steam.  I am sure I can conjure up something more for next week.

Up next...Battlestar Gallactica!