Bats, bags and seeing red...

 

I told my wife that 2013 was going to be the year of the beard.  She scoffed at the idea, citing the fact that thus far in my 30 years of life the extent of my facial hair growth has stopped at scraggly chin hairs.  We shall see...

Ok, I have a shit ton of pictures to put up, so words will be minimal.  First up, making a new bast system.  I never seem to have enough bats when making jars and such so I worked up this rig.  Now I will have a copious amount of cheap bats that will store easily and such.

Tools of the trade: 6.5 inch square cut out of one sheet of masonite, glued to a second sheet of masonite, 6.5 inch squares cut for bats.

Holes drilled for bat pins and notch cut for easy removal of bats.

Edges of bat trimmed down to fit inside splash pan.

New bat system on the wheel with bat in place.

In use.

Jar and lid successfully thrown on new bats and taking up very little space.

I think I may need to put a couple coats of shellac on everything to keep it from warping, but all in all I think it will work quite well.

Last week I went up to Krueger Pottery to grab some supplies I desperately needed to finish up some custom orders and such.  I got a bunch of glaze/slip materials, mostly in 50lb bags as they are much cheaper that way.  The only problem now is that I am not sure where I am going to store everything.  Oh well, small problems.

I also got a Talisman hand sieve to work up my slips and glazes.  I had been having a slight problem with clumps and bits of muck in some of the slips. 

The sieve works fine, but it is a bit smaller than I expected.  The description said it would fit on a "normal size" bucket, which I naturally assume means a 5 gallon bucket, but not so...falls right in.  I guess I will have to make an adapter ring so the sieve can sit on the buckets without having to muck about with it.

I also got a couple bags of plaster so I can finally finish up my reclaim bin.  Now I can recycle the many many pounds of slop clay that have been sitting around the studio.

It does, however, weight just slightly less than an elephant, so I will have to find a good, mostly permanent place for it in the studio.

Yesterday I loaded and fired a glaze load, which is currently cooling.  It is probably cool enough to take a peek now, but I am going to wait a little while yet.  Pictures of finished work next post.  For now here are some pictures pre-firing.

Bisque-ware pre-glazing.

Figures for surprise mugs.  Freaking great and much fun to make.

At ye olde pottery shop I also picked up a underglaze pencil to play around with.  I have tried underglaze sticks before with not very good results.  They were difficult to sharpen and almost impossible to get any detail with.  This new one, though, is cased in wood making it very easy to sharpen.  It also seems to be a bit harder than the last ones I tried, so it holds a tip longer and gets better detail.  My only complaint so far is that they smudge a bit, so I have to be pretty careful while working on pieces.  This, of course, is a pretty minor problem and should be an easy fix.

Underglaze pencil experiments.

I really enjoyed drawing on the pots and was very happy with how the illustrations came out.  We will see how they look after being glazed and fired.

And last but not least, a chance to Philbeck it up.

I got a bucket of terra cotta clay from who knows where and it has been sitting around for quite a while.  The other day I finally wedged it up and ended up with about 35 pounds or so of nice red clay.  Not enough to do much with, but plenty to play around with.

Up next...yoga?

Monkeys, pie and how not to fix a truck...

 

 The first monkey to be sent successfully into space was Albert II, a male rhesus monkey, who made it to a height of 83 miles (134 km) on June 14, 1949. Albert II was carried aboard a V2 rocket as well, though his fate was not as lucky as that of the fruit flies: a problem with the parachute on the recovery capsule sadly led Albert II to his death from the force of the impact upon landing.

Courtesy UniversityToday.com.

This past Sunday my sweet wife did something unprecedented...she baked a pie.  Scratch that, she baked two pies.  It is not like she never bakes pie, but it is pretty damn close.  If you count the one she baked for me Sunday, I am averaging one pie every five years.  It is ok though.  She made me a pecan pie and it was freaking fantastic.  Which naturally leads to the question, how long does it take one person to eat a whole pecan pie?

The last piece...such a sad, sad day.

I managed to make this one last two days but it took a great deal of restraint.  I probably could have polished it off  as soon as it came out of the oven.

And after she finished making my pecan pie she made a chocolate pie for herself.  The thing I have always thought was kind of funny about chocolate pie is that it is just chocolate pudding in a shell.  Why not just put it in a bowl and save yourself the trouble?  

On a side note, these are the egg yolks she used to make her pie.  Now those are some big, orange yolks...definitely NOT from factory farm chickens.

 And now for the (unfortunately) continuing saga of the truck.  I thought the fuel filter did the trick.  I took the truck for a spin after I switched it out and it ran fine.  The next day I went into town to run some errands and my trusty, reliable truck shit on me again...twice.

Luckily I was right next to the sweet wife's place of employment and was able to swing it into the parking lot.  There it sat for the past week plus; I finally go it home today. 

 Now, it could be fixed.  Since the fuel filter didn't correct the problem, it is probably the fuel pump...or something else fuel related.  The alternator also appears to have gone by the wayside, though.  Again, it could be fixed, but the sweet wife and I have been dabbling with the idea of getting a new truck anyway, so now seems like a pretty good time.  I am actually going to look at a truck tomorrow, so hopefully the saga will conclude by the week's end.

**Wait!  There is late breaking news on the truck front!  My two year old son just said he could fix my truck with prunes...perhaps...perhaps...

In studios news, I would like to again sing the praises of the portable, home made damp box.  I think I did a post on it a while back, but I couldn't find it.  The idea originally came from Meagan Chaney and I have been using it successfully since I read her post.  Basically you fill the bottom of a plastic container with plaster.  When the plaster is set you saturate it with water and add a lid...boom, instant damp box.

I have had a lid in one for a few weeks that was actually too dry to trim when I put it in.  I pulled it out today and it trimmed just fine.  Perhaps a little on the dry side still, but good enough to get the job done.

Compost crock says, "Me eats garbage, me makes good dirt!"

 And thus ends the Simple Circle Studios blog post number...whatever it is.  Now I have to go brush my teeth; good oral hygiene and whatnot.  

Next time...how tall is a kangaroo?

-Rob, Simple Circle Studios

A commercial venture for a commercial holiday...

Those of you who follow on the facebook may or may not know that I participated in a Valentine's day sale yesterday.  A very romantic way to spend a commercially created holiday.  So, a brief sale review.

In short, it was not good.  But to be fair, I wasn't really expecting it to be great.  The sale was an annual Valentine's day sale in the student center of the local college (SIUC).  There were only 20-25 vendors, not all of it handmade, and there was almost nothing for signage directing people to the sale; so it is not like there was a stellar set up to begin with. 
Much as I suspected there was not a lot of buying or even browsing traffic.  A very small number of people coming to the student center just for the craft sale.  Roughly 94% of the traffic through the space were students going to and from class. 
The sale started at 10 and I had a few sales in the morning; but pretty much everything dropped off after noon.  It was supposed to go until 5, but a few people were packing up at 3:30-4 already.  I must say I was very tempted to join them.  By that time even the students had stopped coming through.  I couldn't bring myself to leave early, though.  I always sort of thought of it as a contract when I attend an art/craft sale.  If I leave before the sale is officially over I am breaking that contract, even for those sales that don't specifically stipulate that you must stay until the final bell.  And you never know when that last minute sale is going to come through.
All in all it was pretty much what I expected...not much.  I almost made enough to cover my time and expenses.  As it stands I almost made minimum wage.  Needless to say I will not be attending that sale next year.

And now a few shots of the Valentine's day schlock that didn't sell.

Happy heart jar

Another little happy heart jar

Little heart bud vase

"Heart This" bud vase

"What the f*** is this?!" robot mug

"Cut your heart out with a" spoon rest

I guess I can see why some of this stuff might not have sold.  As I get time it will be posted on Etsy though.

Oh!  I almost forgot the art/craft fair quote of the day!

Elderly female rug vendor reacting to the skull heart jar and human heart spoon rest - "Really?!  Come on now...and I'm not too sure about this one either." (After looking at the rest of my stuff)  "While I'm not into skeletons and bare organs, you do nice work...your flowers and stuff."

Does not liking someone's work give you the right to be condescending toward them?  Oh well; she wasn't really mean, she was just expressing her opinion.  It was actually kind of funny.  Ok, that's all for now.  Until later...

-Rob, Simple, Circle Studios

How to Fail at a Craft Fair

Ok, I don't really know exactly how you would go about failing at a craft fair as far as what step you would take.  I do know that I was pretty good at it a couple weeks ago, though.

Two weeks ago I had a booth at an art and wine fair near where I live.  It wasn't a big thing; one day, 30 - 40 vendors, but I figured it would be a good avenue to get my stuff out locally.  I was wrong.  During that 6 hour art and wine fair I sold exactly...wait for it...nothing.  I did not sell a single piece.  Now I have had bad fairs before, but I have always sold something, even if it was to other vendors.  Selling nothing was a first for me.  I think the biggest problem was that it was an art and wine fair.  97.4% of people were there to listen to music and drink as many free wine samples as possible, not buy stuff.  Oh well; now I know.

Last weekend I was at a fall festival in Missouri and that went a bit better.  I didn't sell quite as much as I sold there last year, but it was a slow year for the festial all around.  And now I am getting ready for a couple more fairs coming up in November and December.  These are bigger shows (I think) and are closer to the Christmas season, so I have somewhat higher hopes for them. 

Here are a few more shots of the stuff that came out of the last kiln.

Salt Jar (NaCl stamped on the lid)



Bunny mug  There is a carrot on the other side.



Salt & Pepper Shakers  Possibly my favorite color combination.

Cloud Mug  Not really fond of the color, but I dig the design.

More later.  Until then.

-Rob

Pondering the Pig Problem

I meant to post this last weekend, but you know how things go. And quite frankly, posting crap on the internet is not really my first priority...ever. On one hand I understand how this can be used as a sort of journal as well as an important part of marketing myself and my wares. On the other hand, I just don't care. It is sometimes annoying and feels like an obligation as opposed to something I want to do.

And on that note, here we go. The past few weeks, while school was on semester break, I got quite a bit of work done. I was pleased. School started the 3rd, though, and since then studio work has come almost to a stand still. So I guess this is actually a look back at what I accomplished the last week of break.

These are a couple simple wine sets. They are pretty simple, just cylinders, so they are good to warm up with. And they are largish, so they provide a good surface for decoration. I made these with wine cups as opposed to stemmed glasses. Not that I have anything against stemmed vessels; I have actually been working on making some to include in a wine set. In my mind, though, the stemmed glasses seem much more formal. I like the idea that these are for the more casual wine drinker; someone who is taking them on a pic-nick or just hanging out on the back porch. A cup seems more suited to that.


Salt & pepper shakers. Nothing groundbreaking or anything. I am refining the shape a bit, but you can't really tell here. And aren't potters always refining the shapes of their work a bit? At least I am.


These are parts for some banks I am working on. My wife said make banks...so I make banks. I made a few of these a while back actually, and was ruminating on how best to get the money out. I went with lidded banks for these. Perhaps a bit more difficult to save money if they are so easy to get into, but I guess folks will just have to learn some self control. (A tall order these days, I know.)

So these are bases and lids. I made sure to leave enough clay on these lids to trim an ample knob. They are actually all trimmed now, but no pictures yet.

And the one below is an almost completed bank. I obviously did not leave enough clay to trim a knob on this one, but that was intentional. The plan for this was an animal knob. A pig, specifically. Easy enough, right? Well, apparently not. I attempted to make a nice little pig to stick on top there, then I attempted to make another...then I attempted to make another.

I even had a nice little toy pig to look at when making these attempts. But alas I could not come up with anything I was happy with. Part of the problem is that I want to have at least a somewhat realistic animal. I do not, however, want to spend a great deal of time modeling and carving the animal.
Solution? Obviously practice is the most logical one. The more animals I make the better and faster I will be able to make them. I am looking into other options, though, to expedite the process. I have considered finding or making a plaster mold of a small toy pig, leaving a knob and stamping the top of it with a pig stamp, carving the image of a pig into the lid, etc. I would really rather have a three dimensional animal on there, though. Any suggestions send them my way.

And finally, my wife said make salt cellars...so I made salt cellars. The lid of the one in front is small enough that it doesn't really need a knob, but I think it would probably look better if it had one. Neither has a space for a spoon, but these were fun to make so I will undoubtedly make more in the future, perhaps with spoons.

I guess that is all for now. We did not have school today due to inclement weather. I may post something regarding that topic later.

-Rob

Beware the school kiln...and school in general for that matter.

A while back I was asked to make a couple mugs and a canister for someone who was retiring. Good deal; I can do it. Only problem is I don't have time to get a full load put together by the time they need to be done. Solution? Find another firing to jump in on before the deadline. As luck would have it the ceramics teacher at school was generous enough to let me put a few pieces in with her classes stuff. Good deal; I can still get it done. Throw throw throw, decorate decorate, and here we go.

Two mugs ("Retirement coffee is the best kind of coffee."), one and one extra, just in case. The designs are pretty similar, but not exactly the same. I like the movement in the first one better (I don't know that it comes through in the picture too well). The second one just has straight sides; too static. I do like the design on the second one better, though.

The client (my mother in law) took the second one. I hope the recipient was happy with it.

She also requested a canister to store well wishes & such in. I was not very happy with the results, but she thought it looked good. Unfortunately, due to the condition of the shelves in the school's kiln (unwashed, glaze puddles all over), this piece was glazed to the shelf and took some pretty good sized chunks out of the bottom edge when it came off. Thus it was unfit for sale. My mother in law still liked it though, and after I ground the bottom pretty good she decided to keep it for herself.


And for the random child update, we started Noah on cereal the other day. He wasn't too sure what to make of it at first, but after a few minutes he got the hang of things. I guess I have a new commission for some baby dishes coming up.

I should have plenty of time to get that done, though. School just went on semester break for two full weeks. That gives me quite a bit of time to get the banks, ornaments, bowls, serving dishes, oil lamps, etc done that I need to finish. And now I guess baby dishes too.

On a completely different note, someone stole my sketch book the other day! (My wife is laughing about me writing this because she has already been hearing about it since it happened.) It was in my desk at school when I left on a Friday; there was some sort of school function over the weekend, and when I came back Monday my sketchbook was gone. Who the f--- steals a sketchbook?! I can understand why people steal cars or jewelry or whatever; they have something to gain from it. What does someone gain from stealing a sketchbook? It is not like there is some big black market for sketchbooks, is there? GARGH!

Ok, I am done ranting...for now. Until later.

-Rob

The biggest thing I've ever thrown...

Here it is...the biggest thing I have ever thrown. Sure it does not look that big in the picture, but I assure you it is huge, at least by my standards. Which means it is really not all that big. This here is going to be a flour keg. It is roughly 13 inches across and 11 inches tall, with the lid adding another couple inches. I know this is pretty small potatoes for some folks, but considering the average size of my work is probably around 6 inches in any direction this is a pretty big achievement for me.
I went with the coil and throw method to make this guy. For those of you unfamiliar with this method, this is how I did it (that is not to say that this is the proper way of doing this technique, though). I started by throwing a flat base as wide as I wanted my jar. To this I added a thick coil around the edge and pulled it up to start the wall, leaving extra clay on the rim. After that had set up for a bit I added another thick coil and pulled, etc, etc. Today I will make sure the lid fits and try trimming. Hopefully it does not completely fall apart as it dries.

This is some other work I finished up yesterday. Flower baskets in the back and a couple of teapots up front. I was not really satisfied with how the teapots turned out. It has been quite a while since I have made teapots and, especially now looking at the picture, I am not happy with the proportions. Oh well; something else to work on I guess.

A wine set I threw yesterday. It consists of a ice bucket/bottle chiller and a few small cups. Not sure how many I am going to include when it is all said and done. My wife does not think this item will sell very well, at least not with the cups. "Who drinks wine out of cups," she says. I decided not to remind her that she has drunk wine out of cups on many occasions while sitting around a camp fire.
Besides, I am not a fancy wine person. I know stemmed wine glasses serve there purpose for people who want to be fancy and talk about clarity and legs and bouquet. I am more of a homemade wine kind of guy, though. I just want my wine to taste good; and if I can drink it out of a nice piece of pottery all the better.

This is a tile mold I am working on. I made an original a while back and let it dry out (that is what is in the middle), then packed wet clay around it to make the mold. I know I could have done the same thing with plaster a little easier, but I am not especially fond of working with plaster, probably because I just have not worked with it much. Bisque molds work just as well, and you don't have to worry about plaster chips working their way into your clay.

And finally, another installation of rattle sculptures. You cannot see very well from this picture, but I really like the gesture on this guy. He is leaning forward quite a bit and looking down. Rather menacing, especially with his horns. I think I am going to try making this a regular thing; maybe make one or two a week and post the results. Until then...tschus.

-Rob

Howdy all...

Wow! It has been forever since I have posted on here. Not that I haven't wanted to, but technology is the devil, especially when it is not working properly. Internet service at my house is notoriously unreliable. Of course the fact that we are really just filtching wireless internet from my in-laws 100 yards away may have something to do with it. I cannot, though, take any credit for the storm that put many without electric for days on end. Being that we live in southern Illinois, we were hit by the inland hurricane or mega cyclone or whatever the hell you want to call it. And while, thankfully, there was little damage to our house, it did mess up all kinds of stuff around here and southeast Missouri. Needless to say, blogging was not on the top of my priority list for a while. Anyway, the stupid internet appears to be working right now so I thought I would pop in and let everyone know I was still around; and that there will be more posts regarding a number of things in the near future. Now for those of you (like myself) who like posts with pictures in them...

Lidded jar, 4.5 or so tall & wide, cone 10 reduction stoneware

This is a jar I made a number of years ago when I was still in school. One of my absolute favorites. It just recently found a new home after a sale over mother's day weekend.

Burnishing my balls on spring break

That title is a double entendre, by the way. It has one meaning which is rather innocuous and one which is...not. Keep reading to find out which way I meant it!
So this past week has been a good week, with the exception of Wednesday which was a little demoralizing. It’s never fun having someone tell you that what you are doing is little more than a glorified hobby, especially when it is what you are trying to turn into a career.
But anyway…it was spring break this week so I didn’t have to worry about being interrupted by teaching. The only thing that took me away from the studio was applying for a job at the SIU library. Sure, it is not exactly what I would like to be doing, but it would be nice to have a steady income for a change, and I would still have plenty of time to get in the studio. Here’s hoping that goes well. In the mean time I got a decent amount of work done. Not as much as I would have liked, but decent.

In order to keep myself motivated I have decided to take the 100 MUG CHALLENGE! (doesn't that sound like something you would hear on Oprah? "Next time on Oprah, the 100 Mug Challenge and how it can change your life...") You can check out the inspiration for this at the Fine Mess Pottery blog. I do not have a deadline or show set up for my 100; I am doing it more for the practice and to build inventory. I started this week and have 13 green mugs thus far.

These are a few more of the mugs and a couple canisters I made as tests. Man, those were a trip! I didn't realize how long it has been since I made lidded jars. The forms are close to what I was looking for, but I had quite a time getting those lids to fit properly. There are definitely a lot of flaws with these canisters, so they may end up being used for saggars or just in the scrap heap. Maybe my next project should be 100 lidded jars.

12 glaze testers. Since my last glaze testing went horribly awry I had to make more pieces to retest. I decided to make things that could actually be used, though instead of just little tiles. So...bud vases! And they were pretty fun to make to boot.

And finally, bowls. I have been wanting to try some bigger stuff and bowls seemed like a good place to start. The walls might be a bit thick, but even. They would work well for mixing bowls. Now I just need to get those handles figured out. It is the first time I have tried that type of handle and it was troublesome getting something I was half ways ok with. The balls inside the bowls are more christmas ornaments like the ones I talked about earlier. They are all burnished (hence the title) and ready to go in the kiln. I guess that is all for now. Back to the studio and moving a kiln.