I'll have a slow Christmas, plates by the dozen and finally finishing this post...

I'm not sure this guy has real vocal cords.  He may have had them removed in favor of a small speaker attached to a synthesizer in his brain.  That, however, is just a guess.  Check out some of his work (here) for a dose of aural delight.

Now there are other people out there who can do this, and maybe just as well, but I have never heard of them, so today you get Kenny Muhammad.

Editors Note:  This post was actually written last week (or two weeks ago maybe?), but I never got around to posting it.  Everything still applies...not that it makes it any more interesting or exciting.  Oh well.  Enjoy if you dare!

As far as studio news goes...not really a lot to report.  I have not been extremely busy lately.  Last week I was tied up with Thanksgiving related activities most of the week.  Now I have a freezer full of frozen pig!  Sorry to those folks who are not big on producing their own food or are put off by meat production.  I have nothing against you but, yeah for butchering!

This week I am working on getting stuff decorated for a final firing before Christmas.  I have a number of special orders that need to go out for the holiday.  That being said, I am not super busy like I am sure a lot of other people are.  I have not had a show in a little while so...out of sight out of mind which means fewer orders.  I wish it weren't so, but...oh well.

Actually I did have a show just this past weekend, but it was not a typical "set up your booth and hock your wares" kind of show.  It was a department store style show, so all I had to do was drop off my inventory and work a shift over the weekend.  Good in that I was not tied up all weekend.  Bad in that my work was intermingled with other work and I was not there to talk it up or anything.  Financially it was not a rousing success, but I may give it another shot next year to see how it shakes out.

It is terribly confusing and frustrating.  I usually get a very positive response to my work, whether it be at a show, online or wherever.  It seldom translates into much of anything in sales though.  I guess there cold be a few explanations for this.  A: My prices are just to high...but I have seen other folks' prices and I do not think that is the case.

This just in...I just, as I was typing, received notification that I got the bid on a large order I was shooting for.  Sweet!  This will hopefully go a long way to financing a new studio.

Random vase

Ok, everything up until this point was written a while back and I really don't remember what I was saying or where I was  going with it, so...new content!

I got a big order for plates that will be used as awards early next year.  This means that over the next couple months I will be makes hundred, no thousands, no dozens of plates!  Time to go into mass production mode.  Thankfully this will be made easier by the plaster bats that I made a while back.  And really it is not the throwing that will be a harrowing experience.  Rather it will be decorating dozens of plates with the same design.  That is not how I usually work, so it will be an interesting experience.

Air Whales!

I almost, almost got a new studio this past week.  A local company was having a sale on portable storage barns and I had my eye on a 12 x 24 foot one.  After checking it out a bit though, and not wanting to make a rushed decision (it was an auction type deal), I passed on it. Instead I will be working on plans for building a new studio next spring.  More on that as the story develops. 

And since this post is stretching over a couple weeks and getting kind of long, I will wrap things up.  So long for now.

Pickles, ruination and a dog...

 

According to this page, that may or may not be reputable,  the world record for the largest potato is 8 pounds, but an unconfirmed contender may have topped it with a 25 pound behemoth that looks like Slimer,

Now, pots and such.  Actually we are going to start off this week with a bit of putting by.

What are these?  Why pickles, of course.  I planted some cucumbers in the garden this year for the specific purpose of making pickles.  This is only the second batch as I only put in four plants and it has been pretty dry, so not many cucumbers.  These are freaking delicious though, and ridiculously easy to make.  I heard about it on the Survival Podcast, or you can check out the recipe here.

In studios news, I got a load of stuff glazed and fired.  Here are some before and after pictures of the top shelf.  I am really digging the tall oval vase forms.  They are fun to make and create a very nice "canvas" for decoration.  Now I just hope they sell so I can make more.

There were also a couple other new forms in this load...small planters, small lidded jars and garlic keepers.  The small jars are possibly one of my favorite forms thus far.

And the culmination of the red clay (again with these references to stuff I put on Facebook!)...

Before...

After.

This teapot and all the other red ware got a nice coat of white slip before decoration.  It worked out much better for some pieces than it did for others.

Alas!  I shall be resting no spoons!

This spoon rest, for example, I tried to move too soon after dipping it in the slip.  Did you know that if you dip a leather hard pot in slip it will rehydrate and become soft again?  Good, because that is just plain common sense!  Only a foolish individual like myself would forget this and ruin a good pot because of it.

 But wait...there's more...

One of these things is not like the other one... some on, sing!

These mugs looked great after I dipped them, all slippy and just waiting for some sgraffito.  When I came back to check on them though, the handle had broken off every single one.  Not sure why. 

Not all of the red ware broke though; and I really dig how the survivors turned out...more folky than my usual stuff.  I definitely want to give this stuff another shot, but without all the ruination.  If anyone out there has any experience with this sort of work and knows what I may have done wrong, or even if you just have any tips in this area, please give me a shout.

As for the stuff that did make it...

The aforementioned small lidded jars and a couple of spoon rests immediately post dipping.

Jars and teapot after being decorated.

Large (16-17 inch) platter with a crane.

The larger pieces (platter and teapot) were sprayed with slip as they would not fit in the bucket, and that seemed to help the breakage problem, but the handle of the teapot still cracked at the bottom.  Knackers.  

These are all in a bisque firing right now.  I am quite anxious to get them glazed and see what they will look like all finished up.  

Actually I would really like to go to it on these things with an underglaze pencil since the experiments and the stuff in the last kiln load came out so well.  Unfortunately my underglaze pencil is almost used up.  And even if it wasn't, my electric pencils sharpener (which is apparently the only way this pencil likes to be sharpened) is jammed, so I cannot even sharpen what is left of it sufficiently.  Oh well, next time.

Speaking of platters, (We weren't really speaking of platters.  That was just a nice way to switch to a different subject.  It's called a transition; I learned about those in English class.  And even though that was a pretty poor transition, we are going to roll with it.) the platters I have been working on are all scratched up (decorated, that is) and in the kiln.  No pictures yet, other than this one.

The platters were too large to fit in the make-shift spray booth that I normally use, so I had to move operations outside.  Luckily it was not windy at all, so the spraying of slips went off without a hitch...the dog helped.  I enjoyed it so much in fact that I may (weather permitting) continue spraying work out of doors.

And last but not least...Saint Vitus!
Old school doom metal band ala Black Sabbath. 

Up next...Timmy Tabasco!

Post Script:  I have a show coming up this weekend in Belleville, IL.  Midwest salute to the Arts.  It kind of sneaked up on me, so I have been rushing to get some stuff done this week.  If you happen to be in the area feel free to stop by and say hi!

Squirrels, platters and how to store your butter...

 

As many of you may be aware, the world did not end in 1954.  The planet Clarion did not come to call but Dorothy was undeterred, even though the doctors were watching.

I was actually going to write this up last night, but firefighter duties put a stop to that.  Which brings us to the PSA portion of the blog post.

Fire Prevention Tip #089:  Do not allow squirrels to store their acorns and such in your electrical fuse box.

Oh well; so it goes.

I am firing a bisque today, so I don't really want to be out in the studio anyway.  Air conditioned blogging sounds like a much better option.  I did get a large platter trimmed before the studio got too hot, though.

Here is the platter in question right after being thrown.  I say it is large, but when it is all said and done it will only be around 14 inches or so across.  That is pretty weak considering I used about 18 pounds of clay to make it.  I have not made very many large platters, so it still a bit difficult to stretch the clay to where I really want it. 

Here is the platter in question after a lot of trimming.  I may not be great at throwing platters yet, but I think I got it trimmed up pretty nice. 
I did not take a picture of it, but the foot is undercut on the inside to allow for easy hanging on the wall.  I have tried making holes for a wire, but that just seems like and extra, unnecessary step when this works just as well.  And this way I do not have to worry about orienting my decoration to the wire.  I'm not saying I have failed to do that in the past...I meant for those pieces to look crooked. 
I am going to be making quite a few more of these, both because I need the practice and because that large surface area presents some very enticing decoration opportunities.

Speaking of decoration...

I am totally digging how this one turned out.  This fancy little french butter keeper thing is in the kiln right now.  I have made regular butter dishes in the past and liked the end result, but they are pretty laborious to make.  These are not as complicated (less components to put together) and are probably more practical.

And finally, Mitchmatic: Why Don't You Know?
Hip-hop-ish music, but not really.  Fun stuff.

Up next...ligers!

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?

Ferocious felines, a portmanteau and how to make the change...

 

 They are quite possibly the greatest dreams ever.  Enough said.

Now, on to the good stuff. 

There is a serious lack of craft breweries, and breweries in general in southern IL/southeast MO.  Oh, there are a couple in the area.  There is Big Muddy in Murphysboro, Buckner in Cape Girardeau and a couple wineries that have jumped on the band wagon.  I am also eagerly awaiting the opening of Scratch Brewing in Ava.  When you compare it to say, Chicago though, this area really doesn't have much.  Certainly not enough to do a proper brewery trail (although there is talk of organizing one).  As a lover of craft beer, I would like to see this changed.  Somebody get on that.
Actually, if there was anything I could do aside from being a potter it would probably be working in a small brewery/brew pub.  I would be fine with doing little stuff, but it would be wicked cool to help create the brews.  So if there are any breweries in the Carbondale, IL area that have a few extra bucks to throw around (HA!) and need some part time help, give me a shout.

Say hello to Maggie.

  Maggie is the new cat my wife and I decided to get recently.  I am not entirely sure why my wife wanted to get a cat.  I think it has something to do with thinking it would be cute watching Noah playing with one.  It is kind of cute, but only for us.  Maggie seems terrified.  Of course that may be because Noah's idea of playing with Maggie is getting 2 inches from her face and laughing hysterically. 
I am hoping Maggie grows up to be a ferocious beast and hunts down all the moles that have been tearing up our back yard.  In the mean time she has been running around the studio pestering the dogs and such.  She seems quite interested in whatever I am doing, trying to jump in my lap and get on the wheel whenever I am throwing or trimming, attacking my elbow when I am decorating, etc.  It is not too bad having her around the studio most of the time.  She has only broken a few pieces...so far.

Luckily these were not among them.

Baa!

 

Baa?

 

I made these beer steins recently featuring people with sheep heads, or "sheeple" if you prefer.  Now, there are some particular associations with the word "sheeple."  Although this is where these pieces started, once I got working on these they became more about the visuals and less about the meaning.  I was really just having fun with the images, seeing how different sheep heads would look on different bodies and such.  They start a story in my mind.  I am hoping they do the same for other.  I think I may continue this line of decoration and do a little run people with various animal heads.  Swine-dividuals?  Cow-mans?

  Last post I was rankling about the oppressive heat.  As luck would have it two days after that post my wife's grandpa brought over this little gem! 

Sweet, sweet conditioned air!

He has owned numerous rental properties and now has quite a collection of things that were left behind, this being among them.  I thought it was going to be a bit too small at first, but not so.  I usually only run it at about 20 - 25% power and it cools the garage-io plenty for comfortable working conditions.  Freaking great.

And finally, I have been seriously thinking about making a major style change with my pots lately.  Currently my work is sgraffito decorated stuff fired to cone 5/6 in an electric kiln.  I enjoy the pieces I make, but came on this style more as a result of circumstances rather than choice. 
 Originally I wanted to get some sort of graphics on my pots.  The more I work on pots and in my sketchbook, though, the more I want to see the illustrations on paper instead of on pots.  That idea has been floating around in my head in a sort of insubstantial way the past few months or so, but was really solidified in the past two weeks.  I have been working on building up inventory and have found myself putting off the decorating part of the work in favor of throwing more.  A pretty fair sign that it may be time to move in another direction.

In addition to graphic pots (and probably before those, actually) I have always been extremely interested in wood, salt and soda firing.  The pots that come out of those kilns are just plain beautiful.  There is definitely something to the interaction of the clay and the flame.  Those pots seem to have a different, more natural life than pots that I have been making.

So now the question is how to transition from what I am doing to what I want to do.  Whenever I figure out what I want/need to do I want to get to it right away.  I have plans to go to a wood firing workshop next year, but that is an awful long ways away.  I have looked for other potter wood firing in this area to sit in on or help with firings, but to no avail.  I know SIU (the college 'round these parts) has a wood kiln, but I am not sure how often it gets used.  I am thinking about contacting the ceramics professor there to see if I can help with anything there or maybe even audit a class or something.  If I can get in on something like that I may even try to stretch it into getting into the graduate program.  I am sure my work would benefit from some serious critiques, especially if I am going to try my hand at wood firing.

Ok, that was a lot of eff-ing writing, so enough of this.  Next time...beards!

Kangaroos, the good folk and the complexities of the quadrupel......

 

Apparently the largest kangaroos are the reds, which can grow to a height of 6 1/2 feet.  Disappointing...I thought they got bigger than that. I was really hoping for a nine foot behemoth that could stand on its tail and put a foot through a brick wall...oh well.  On to the meat and...you know.

This is a quick shot of some volunteer potatoes I pulled out of the compost yesterday.  They are all just little things, but they were unexpected so it was just a nice little bonus.

It has been hotter than a...something that is really, really hot...I'm not very clever.  Anyway...as such I moved my decoration operations indoors today (I usually do my sgraffito scratchy scratchy outside, better light & such) in an effort to keep a little cooler.  

It did not work.  My studio is in my un-airconditioned garage, so it is still pretty warm in there.  Not as hot as it is outside, but still quite uncomfortable.  (And don't worry, the dog in the background is not dead, just resting.)  Thus I am now inside working on the computer and whatnot.

Excessive heat aside, here are a few of the things I have been working on the last two days.

Hopefully these wine buckets/crocks will be occupying shelf space in a local gift boutique.  I like the one on the left with the offset feather/leaf thing.  The one in the middle with the lattice pattern is so-so.  And I am really digging the one on the right with the art nouveau-ish flowers.  Thoughts?

One of the things I am working on while escaping the heat is drawing.  I try to work in my sketchbook whenever I get a chance, which is unfortunately not too often.  It is usually when I have a custom order for a subject I have not really worked with before.  Thus is the case today.  I recently got an order for a mug with a fairy on it.  Now I am not really a fairy kind of person, so I need to do a little research and drawing first.  Where to turn (aside from the computer webs)?

A fantastic little book called Faeries by Brian Froud and Alan Lee.

I originally saw one of Froud's books in the Barnes and Nobles and loved both the style of the art and the fantasy theme (I am a bit of a geek some times).  Being remarkably cheap though, I passed on getting it.  Later when I needed reference material for a fairy order I knew exactly what to look for.  Off to the Bookworm (our local book store) to get this classic tome. 

And lastly, while in town getting a great book on the wee folk I also acquired a fine bottle of beer to celebrate yet another year of not dieing.  

In case you cannot read that label, the brew is Three Philosophers from Brewery Ommegang in NY.  It is a very complex, very tasty quadrupel ale with a dash of a cherry ale thrown in for good measure.  It takes some time to work through all the different things going on in this beer; definitely a sipper.

Up next...dreams of flight.

-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

Here be Dragons!

Today I sat outside in a t-shirt and decorated pots.  I know everyone has been talking about the mild winter, so it is old news, but come on.  February 2 and I was perfectly comfortable outside in a t-shirt.  That is some strange brew going on up there in the atmosphere.

Anyway, I have been decorating for a firing coming up next week.  I have some consignment stuff in there, some Valentine's day stuff in there (as previously discussed), and some new designs that I have been hankering to try out (sheep, whales, fish, etc).  Today I also worked on a dragon design. 

I have thought about doing some dragon designs before.  I mean, dragons are just freakin' cool.  They always seemed a bit complicated to put on a pot in any sort of expeditious way though.  This being the year of the dragon, however, I figured what better time to give it a go?

I sketched this guy out the other night at a meeting and put him on a cup this afternoon.  Not too shabby if I do say so myself.  And it didn't take near as long as I figured it would, so good news there.  The question is, do I make it year specific or just leave it a generic dragon tumbler?

Now that I look at it again I think this one will get a "2012" to finish out the design.  There will undoubtedly be more dragons wares in the future though.  

On a completely different topic, has anyone else been getting show stuff lined up for the coming year?  I am probably getting into this stuff a bit late for some people.  There are probably veteran art fair folks out there who already had 80% of there shows applied for and in the bag half way through January.  Oh well.  My goal for this year is to do at least 10 art fairs.  I have two lined up for this fall and am anxiously awaiting responses for a handful in late spring/early summer.  For those who have experience with this stuff, do shows generally let you know if you did not make it into a show, or just if you did?

Well, I guess that is all for now.  Until later...

-Rob, Simple Circle Studios