Studio Saga Vol. 3b: The Teaching Aspect Revisited

According to the last post regarding this subject I was in contact with the continuing ed. director and trying to contact the ceramics instructor. As it now stands, both the director and the instructor have been contacted and met. The result? No, the instructor was not thrilled with the idea of having a continuing education class in "her" studio, but the class will proceed non-the-less. Yay for Rob!
If anyone reading this is in the southern Illinois area and is interested in taking a class in ceramics, or if you know someone who might be, you can check it out here. It is a hand building class called "Ceramics for Beginners." We will meet Tuesday nights from 6 - 8:30 starting June 14th.

Additionally, I have contacted another school (K-12) about teaching next school year. Initially I did not really know what kind of class to offer. I was given the school's contact information and told they might be interested in offering more art courses or something.
Hmmm.... So I called up the school and talked to the principal. They already have an art teacher who handles the studio side of art, but she is not much interested in teaching art history, which is something the principal would really like to offer. I have yet to fill out the applications and such, and brush up on my art history, but it is another lead. We'll see where it goes.

Mass Production on a Small Scale

A couple weeks ago I wrote a little post/essay thing about mass production. And I do mean I wrote it...on paper...with a pencil. That concept would probably be foreign to most kids today. They would probably say that it was too much work to physically write something and give up before they even started. But I digress. I wrote the post...then lost it. To the best of my recollection it went something like this.

I recently got a comission to make a number of magnets for a local living history museum type thing (Saxon Luthern Memorial...check it out, good stuff). This year is the memorial's 50th anniversary and they wanted to "celebrate" it by giving away commemorative magnets at their major events. Since I already have some work in their gift shop (including magnets) and since my mom is the curator, they asked if I would be able to come up with something. Yay for nepotism!

So how many magnets do they plan on giving away? Over the course of the year they estimated 2000-3000. Whoa. That's a lot of magnets. Being the agreeable chap that I am, though, I said I would take a run at it. I started out doing some sketches and carving up a prototype. After that got the ok I made a plaster mold.

Plaster press molds for magnets

Now this was the first time I had ever made a plaster mold, so I was delving into new territory. It didn't seem too complicated, though, and I think the first mold turned out pretty good. I have since made six more to speed production, but they didn't turn out as well. I think the plaster was too thick. They work, though; the casts that come out of them just require a little more cleaning up.

Cast of the commemorative magnets...fancy.

Thus far I have finished 150 magnets. The glaze did not turn out anything like it was supposed to, so I am not going to post a picture of that. Suffice it to say that it was supposed to turn out gold, and silvery black is not the same thing as gold. But I have quite a few left to make, so I will get it worked out.

Later I will post more about the actual production part of it. How exactly does one man make that many magnets by himself? Is he Superman? Tune in next time to find out!

Studio Saga Vol. 3: The Teaching Aspect

A quick post before I run off to bed. It has been a while since I have written anything regarding the future studio, mostly because there has not been much to write about. Recently, though, I have made a small amount of headway on the teaching front. I contacted a local community college about offering a pottery class in their continuing education program. It was actually way back in January when I first contacted the program director; he said to wait until mid March and send him my resume and such. Done
So now I have talked with him a couple time via the computer box and he seems very interested in offering a pottery course. Apparently they used to have one, but for some reason no longer do. I also contacted the full time ceramics instructor at the school to discuss studio issues. She was not in when I called so now I am eagerly awaiting her reply.
As I think I said before, the original idea was to offer classes in my own studio, but I think the start up costs (space, insurance, utilities, equipment, etc) are a bit much at this time. Hopefully teaching at the community college will work out so I can supplement whatever studio income I can generate. Then I can build the studio up a little at a time and offer my own classes some time in the future.
Ok, that is all for now. I will see if I can scrape some time together tomorrow to rant about mass production.

This killing time is killing me

I have been meaning to post on here for the past week and a half, but it seems like something always gets in the way. Just now I stopped writing this for a few minutes to jot down a strange dream I had this morning (it was about a wombat that was the size of a hampster). See? It is always something. Then last night, after putting off the blog for yet another day, I was thinking; it is not really the typing and posting that takes a lot of time. Even editing and posting pictures does take that long. It is composing the posts that is a bit time consuming. This led to the realization that while I may not have a lot of time in the evenings, I do have quite a bit of time during the day when I could get my thoughts down. Being a hall monitor in a high school is not the most difficult job in the world. My day consists of writing passes for visitors, signing people into the building, checking hall passes and ocassionally breaking up a fight. (It is actually quite sad that a full time hall monitor position is needed to begin with, but that is a completely different subject.) This leaves me with large-ish blocks of time with little to do. I usually use that time to work in my sketch book or stare mindlessly out the door. I think I will start using my door staring time to compose blog posts (I wrote this post this morning and I am posting it during my lunch break!). Then maybe I can post on a more regular basis and perhaps more frequently! Aren't you readers out there in the inter-web lucky?

Know Your Goat!

Earlier I promised more on goats. I know how the goats keep people coming back for more. Well here, today, we have more on goats.


Recently while talking to my wife and possibly other people in a context that I do not remember the topic of animals was brought up.
(Side note: My lack of memory was not due to anything untoward. The situation was just unimportant.)
Much to my suprise my wife says that she would not mind having a goat. My jaw would have dropped, but I'm a pretty cool cat so I kept it together. You see, I have wanted to expand our current animal ownership for a while in an effort to be more self sufficient. My wife has not. Thus when she said she was open to an animal larger than a basset hound I was quite taken aback.

Eventually we got to the crux of the matter, though. Why would she be ok with having a goat? Because she thinks it would be cute to see our son playing with it...she wants another pet. This is not exactly what I had in mind. When she says goat, she is thinking this...



When I say goat I am thinking this...

Missed it by that much.

Regardless, the issue is now on the table. The wife is ok with goats; I am ok with goats...the only question now is would it be worth it? In an effort to help make this decision a little easier I purchased some goat products (which are rather expensive!) to give them a try. Not much sense in raising goats if you don't like what comes out of them. I liked both the milk and cheese; my wife was ok with them. We have yet to try the goat meat. Perhaps this weekend.

Similarly I have started doing a small bit of research on raising goats and I can tell that I have barely scratched the surface. In that regard, if anyone has any good resources on raising goats (books, websites, magazines, etc) I would appreciate it if you tossed them my way.

Ok, enough goats for one night. I have to go do dishes and whatnot. (This is where a clever sign off would be if I had one. Any suggestions?)

-Rob

Insert Clever Blog Title Here

I had a three and a half day weekend this weekend, which was nice. I got quite a bit done, but nothing in the studio. Instead it was a weekend of getting outside, taking care of animals, house work and playing with motorcycles. I also spent some time just hanging out with my wife and son; something I don't get to do enough of.

Today was especially good as I got some eggs pickled (the chickens are producing an abundance of shelled goodness) and got bread baked. I also got our microwave fixed; a chore that has been hanging over my head for quite some time now. Things are looking up in the kitchen.

Another high point of today was getting the motorcycle (Hank) running. Oh I wouldn't say that he runs well by any means, but at least I can get him started. The plan now is to get him a seat (he is lacking that essential component), get him licensed (another missing component that the government thinks is important) and get him a good tune up. Hopefully I can get these things accomplished pretty soon as I have been hankerin' to get out on two wheels. I would have been able to take Oscar (the smaller bike) out, but I think I fried an electrical component messing with the battery. So it goes.
The ultimate plan is to get one bike running decent so I can ride it while I tear down and rebuild the other one. Do I know how to build a motorcycle? No. Do I even know how to work on engines and such? No. Am I going to let that stop me from wasting large amounts of time and money trying? No.

Now, as far as pottery goes (this is supposed to be a pottery blog after all), not really a lot happening. In late January/early February the art club at school was making ceramic pendants for a festival at the school. We made them pretty quickly with a variety of bisque stamps the school had on hand (sorry, no pictures of these). Despite being free they did not go over very well (folks were more taken with the henna "tattoos" we were also doing), but I did enjoy making them. I don't know that it is something I would want to do a lot of on my own, but it might be a fun distraction every once in a while. And it could be a nice little something I could throw in for lagniappe.

I did get a chance to sgraffito a couple mugs...
Oh! Side note: I got a new spray gun for spraying slips and glazes! Perhaps after I have used it a little more I will do a little review post.
...The first of these I made for myself. I make hundreds of pieces and ocassionally keep seconds, but rarely if ever do I make things specifically for my own use. Oh sure, I make stuff for my wife from time to time, but never something just for me. So finally last week (or some time, I really don't remember) I up and made myself a mug.

Rob's owl mug - side A

Rob's owl mug - side B

Apparently I was working on this mug at the same time Ron Philbeck was working on his fantastic owl and branch yunomis (check them out here and here). He got his posted first, though, so now I look like some kind of Johnny-come-lately. Oh well; maybe I will just call it a Philbeck cover pot (you know, like a song cover but with pots).

The funny thing is that when I was deciding what kind of decoration to put on my mug it ended up being exactly the kind of decoration I have been wanting to do on all my work. I think I mentioned a while back about wanting my work to be more narrative instead of just decorative, and I think that is how these mugs turned out. Or at least it is a step in that direction.

This mug is the Bomb!

You can still see the pencil marks on this one where I was playing around with the final design. I decided to go with just one skull bomb though and suggest the others with the dotted drop lines. I was thinking the lines might look good with some luster embellishment. I forget what color the slip is, though, so I don't know if it would work. (Don't ask me what the imagery means because I have no idea.)

Now the problem is finding a clear glaze that is not going to distort the images. The one I have been using has a tendency to run and smear the sgraffito images a bit. Not a big deal with the more abstract, decorative designs, but I think these would need to be more crisp to be effective. Actually I am not sure if that is due to the glaze or the slip. Either was a bit of testing is in order.

Ok; unfortunately I have to go to school tomorrow, so I better knock off.

-Rob

Post Script - Goats! More on that later...

A Nice Little Pat on the Back

I have been sick for the past few days. Nothing too big; just your garden variety severe cold/flu. I went home from work early Friday, spent the next three days in bed (my wife has quarantined me to the bedroom so Noah doesn't get sick), and stayed home from work again today. It pretty much sucks. One bright spot though. When I haven't been sleeping I am getting caught up on my blog reading. While doing so I noticed that Julia over at Henhouse Pottery was kind enough to bestow upon me the Stylish Blogger Award. Julia writes a fantastic blog about her trials and triumphs living simply and providing for their family on their homestead. I have the utmost respect for her and her family and for what they are doing. It is something I would like to do myself some day.

As part of accepting this award I am required to reveal seven things about myself that most folks probably do not yet know. I am not usually the revealing type, but I suppose I have to play by the rules to get the award (there is not a real award or anything. it is just a nice little pat on the back of recognition). And for all you know I might be lying anyway. Let's go!

1. I am a book snob. I am very particular about how my books look on the shelf. I will buy an additional copy of a book if it looks better or is in better condition than the copy I already have. I actually have a grand scheme in mind to print and bind copies of all my books so they are all of uniform appearance on my shelf.

2. I have very little faith in America's public education system. Having attended a private school, then having worked in a public school for 4+ years I can tell you there is a marked difference. Even in the short time I have been working in public schools they have gone down hill. Perhaps it is just the school I am working in, but I am afraid it is not.

3. I am not in the military, nor have I ever been in a fight. This is somewhat related to no. 2. For some reason many of the students at school think that I used to be in the military. They doubt me when I tell them I was not. Similarly, many students are astounded to learn that I have never been in a fight. I try to explain that there are very, very few instances when fighting is necessary; that there are other ways to deal with problems. Sadly, they do not seem to understand this concept.

4. When I was younger my family once went for a year or so without a t.v. Again, many people do not understand how this is possible. I was glad when our current t.v. stopped getting reception. A computer is bad enough.

5. I cannot stand having hair. I have had my head shaved to varying degrees since high school. I don't think it has been longer than 1/2 an inch in the past 14 years.

6. IT by Stephen King is the only book (the only thing really, book or otherwise) that has ever scared me. Once, shortly after reading it again, I was hanging out by the river. The water was down, exposing a 6ft or so drain pipe. I knew it was foolish, but I was a little creep-ed out to go look in it. I made myself do it anyway and no clowns came out to eat me. Take that Stephen King!

7. One time I saw a UFO. What was it, you ask? Well I'm really not sure...that is what makes it unidentified. It looked like a long silver...shape in the air. I would have dismissed it as an airplane or blimp or something, except it did not move. For almost the entire ten minute drive from work to the babysitter it did not change position. Weird.

And now this has taken far too long. I will come back later with the other requirements for the award. 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

Mugs, Jugs and Ornaments...I'm not going to say "Oh my."

This is really unprecedented; two blog posts in one day. Sure, one was really from yesterday, but still. See what being home and actually working in the studio leads to? I'm not going to say I have anything interesting to write about, but at least I have something to write about.

So today there was no shopping or anything to take care of, just studio time. I made myself a little list of things to get done and started hacking away.

My go to mug shape has a tendency to tip when it is near empty due to a combination of a narrow foot ring and a sizable handle. It is not a big problem, but I am working on correcting it. I am playing around with the foot ring mostly. I do not really want to make the handle too much smaller as it would affect how it is held and how comfortable it is.

Rob's go to mug shape. Note the large-ish handle, small foot and flaring rim.

I am also toying around with different mug shapes. I use the shape I use because I like it, but also because it is simple, uncomplicated. I'm not a big fan of complications. Thus this new mug shape is also simple. It is kind of the inverse of my standard, having a narrower rim and a wider base. I am hoping this will push the center of gravity low enough that I can use pretty much the same foot and handle as on the other mugs. I am pretty happy with how they look so far.

The new standard? Perhaps...perhaps...perhaps.

This is another mug shape I am playing around with; not to fix any problems, just to mix it up a bit. It is a fun shape that is simple, but also has a lot of potential for variation. If anyone is actually paying attention they may notice that this is the same type of mug I used for a commission a couple weeks back. Just a fun fact for ya.

Volcano mugs. I call them that because they kind of look like volcanoes!

And this is just another shot of the mugs that I thought was kind of neat. It looks like they are marching off to battle or something.


After the mugs I threw a set of bowls. Now these I am in a bit of a quandary over. I have finally found a bowl shape that I am happy with. The only problem is that they do not stack worth a crap. Ok, they do not stack bad, but because the bottom is wider than the rim they do not stack inside each other. Thus they are very tall when stacked and do not fit in a cabinet well. Hmmm... I suppose I will just have to get these trimmed up tomorrow and give it a good think.

A family of bowls drying on their heads.

Next came ornaments. I know it is a bit late for ornaments, but, well...I don't care. I made ornaments and there you go. I started out with eight but dropped a few when I was moving them...foolish, foolish Rob. These will probably be sgraffitoed (I'm not sure that is a word) and/or glazed as opposed to previous ornaments which were barrel fired.


And finally, I threw my first cider jug today. It is not exceptionally large (12 inches tall by 9 inches wide); nor is it especially well made. I threw it in two sections, using about 7 pounds of clay for each. I think I let the bottom section dry to much, though. When I put them together they did not really blend very well. You can still kind of see the seem where they are connected.

Shabby cider jug.

Construction aside, I am not really pleased with the overall shape either. It is too wide for its height. It needs to be either taller or skinnier. It actually was taller before I collared in the neck. I was contemplating throwing a third section with the neck on it but decided to go this way so I could get it finished. Now that I look at it, it probably would have been better to throw a third section. Oh well, maybe next time. I guess I will put a handle on this tomorrow and see if that helps any. If not it may end up going in the scrap heap.

That's all for now. I probably will not be back on here until next week, so merry Christmas & whatnot.

-Rob

December 21st: A Blog in Three Parts

Editor's note: I was actually going to post this last night, but technology is a harsh mistress. Here it is now, though, chocked full of bloggy goodness.

Part 1: Shopping

I hate shopping. I had to finish getting some Christmas presents this morning as well as do some grocery shopping. I was not amused. Oh, I don't mind browsing through a book store or checking out the new arrivals at the local record store. But a list of crap I have to go track down, usually at multiple locations? Not my cup of tea. Alas that is what was required of me; so I spent this morning getting groceries, not finding what I need at one store, waiting for the other store to open, driving across town to find the other store is still closed 15 minutes after it is supposed to be open, driving back across town to the grocery store again, etc, etc. Once again, I hate shopping.


Part 2: Lost Time...or Perhaps Gremlins

Have you ever had one of those days where you work and work and work, but when you look at the output for the day it looks like you got nothing done? That was my day today. I worked; I know I worked. But all I have to show for it is a few cups and a few ornaments trimmed. Sure, I spent the morning shopping (see above if you forgot), but what the hell happened to the afternoon? It's like gremlins came along and destroyed any evidence of my work. My day was quite unproductive pottery wise, leaving me unsatisfied and a bit confused. Consarnit gremlins! Leave my work alone!
(Editor's note again: Thus far today has been much more productive. Perhaps more on that later.)

Part 3: The Holidays

Don't get me wrong, Christmas is great, but it is really quite over done. What started out as a religious celebration of Jesus' coming has been superseded by a celebration of Santa and consumerism. Not officially of course, but for all practical purposes. I suppose that is somewhat appropriate, though, as Christmas was used to replace the pagan celebration of the winter solstice, among others. What goes around and all that.

Personally I do not mind the celebration of the winter solstice. Not because I am a sun worshiper; I just really hate winter. It's cold, it's wet, and the days are so blasted short! If I didn't have family here I would probably up and move to someplace warmer. Hawaii sounds nice, or maybe somewhere along the gulf... But as that is never going to happen I will look kindly on the winter solstice as a turning point in this dreary time. Sure, around here (southern IL) we still have at least two and a half months left of cold, wet weather, but at least the days will start to get longer again, and that is a step in the right direction.

So tonight I am going to eat a few tacos, drink a couple beers and maybe some wine and celebrate the beginning of the end of winter. Here's to longer days, warmer weather and being more productive tomorrow.

(Editor's note yet again: I did indeed eat tacos and drink beer. They were both tasty. Then I lit into some Mark Twain goodness. All in all a good night.)

-Rob