Posts By: Dan Finnegan

I’ve resisted showing photos of our big snow today…almost 2″ which brings this part of the world to a complete halt. I wish I could have been making pots in the woods on such a rare day, but I’m building a wall in one of the studios at LibertyTown to create a little storage hideaway… Read more »

I raw glaze and slip most of my pots, but rather than dip them I invert them over a series of containers set in a wide plastic pan. This is a typical group; it varies pot to pot. This allows me to pour everything which gives me more control of thickness and drips. This whole… Read more »

It’s been a quiet week as I’ve been staying on the farm looking after dogs, cats and horses while the Cymrots are away. Our freezing temperatures have remained and I’ve been chopping through ice to keep the horses in water. But the days are clear and this is my kind of weather. In case you… Read more »

Living so near to DC, it is hard not to be caught up in Obama fever. I had dinner with Hollis and a bunch of friends who are all here for the festivities. As I am allergic to being surrounded by millions of people, I won’t be there for the event, but it was good… Read more »

For those of you who are paying attention, I will now tell you about yesterday’s mystery.A few days ago my assistant, Beth, mentioned that she had seen a big mouse or a small rat in the pottery studio at LibertyTown. Eventually, with the help of Stephanie’s dad’s Hav-a-hart trap, we caught him/her. I never got… Read more »

I appreciate the responses to my last post and as you can see from the second photo I’ve taken a little advise by combining stamps and texture. The pot in the first photo has been slipped and I really like how it runs off the sprigs…it’s subtle, but it varies the thickness in a way… Read more »

I’ve never seen myself as a decorator, but that’s mostly because I have a narrow sense of what that is. (I’m not proud of that fact!) When I use that word I’m thinking about work that involves brushwork like Michael or sgrafitto like Neal or even the overglaze work of Susan. Just the same, I… Read more »

I can never make these bottles without thinking of Ray Finch. Like Cardew before him, these were one of Ray’s signature pieces. When I was training at Winchcombe I took a series of black and white photos of Ray making one almost 4 feet tall! I’ll have to digitize them one day. Toff and Georgie… Read more »

It’s really good to be back in the studio; the weather was very English (cold gray relentless rain) for a few days and then turned to clear, bright and cold. I’m not as tempted to work outside and once I make that first pot the obsession is unleashed again. It is good to wake up… Read more »

After a long season of building (outhouse and emporium) and the end of the holidays, I am getting underway with work for my 6th wood-firing. I’m aiming for an early March firing so I will have new work for the first of two workshops this year in Cape Cod.This could be a big year for… Read more »

I am proud of the influence that my training at Winchcombe has on my work, but I’ve never been interested in reproduction. I want to make work that is rooted in the past but speaks ‘of and to’ the present. I really think that is what tradition is…slow evolution. Another way to say it would… Read more »

Tomorrow is our Open House at LibertyTown and I have started a new tradition of saving a bunch of my favorite pots through the year for this event. We are open from 10AM until 5PM. I don’t have a lot this time around as my autumn firing was a bit grim, but I really like… Read more »

…and his name is Mr. Kline! A box arrived today and inside was this wonderful mug made by himself. I filled it with some root soup to make sure it didn’t leak (that’s a joke) and I’m happy to report that it works just fine! This makes us even, which is no fun at all…. Read more »

Photography has always been a week link in my pottery career. I’ve never been interested in learning…nor have I ever found a local photographer that could really do the job. So, with the inspiration of fellow bloggers John Tilton and John Glick I am beginning to teach this old dog a new trick. See the… Read more »

We had a sold out crowd (that means 70) for our concert Saturday night. Gaye Adegbalola is a founding member of ‘Saffire – The Uppity Blueswomen’, as well as a solo artist of note. The blues is her speciality and her latest album, “No Shame”, is a journey through a variety of blues styles, from… Read more »

I was inspired by Michael’s blog yesterday when he was writing about being reminded that he was a potter. Even when I was making pots full time I was always amazed at how little time we really spend actually making. There are so many things to be done. Now that I run an art center,… Read more »

Don’t buy it either…I was very excited to spot this new book that claimed to tell the story of ‘Dave the Slave’. Seldom do I pay full price for a book, but this promised to be fascinating, because, to the best of my knowledge, very little was known about this unique and wonderful pot maker.Sadly,… Read more »

I’m just now feeling like my old self again after a grueling week and a half spent transforming our gallery into our new ‘Emporium’. I filled my trailer twice with furniture from Ikea and then spent days assembling…with the help of Beth and Elliot. Once we had the display in place Susan Wyatt then came… Read more »

I spent a few hours on a beautiful Thanksgiving day finishing off my outhouse ‘folly’. I reckon I’ll be making additions to it for quite some time, but for now it is christened with a few pots down the hole. In a couple of hundred years it might be interesting to a privy digger. I’ve… Read more »

One day I would like to see this place…just about everything here is carved from salt. It goes on for miles.

For those of you who are not salt glaze potters, you might not recognize the pattern that develops on the bottom of silicon carbide shelves during the firing (see below). It reminds me of the pattern on the black and white composition notebooks that I’ve been filling for close to 40 years. It’s probably a… Read more »

I drove to the outer reaches of the county this morning to deliver some pots to the gift shop at the new Visitor’s Center in Carmel Church. They have a big fossil of a whale hanging in the lobby. It was dug somewhere nearby. As I headed back to my studio I took some back… Read more »

My studio is only 10 miles from town but it is very remote just the same. You could call it ‘primitive’ since there is no electricity or running water. It is certainly basic and one of the results of that is that I pay extra attention to managing my ‘utilities’.Dave Twinberrow is an ancient friend… Read more »

Next up for my ‘comfort station’ project is roofing and a door. I was trying to puzzle out why I’m feeling compelled to build this (aside from the obvious reasons…) at this time. Today’s theory has to do with results. After a rough firing, when pots that I had high hopes for have not met… Read more »

I think that every potter has a bit of architect in them…and I know a couple of architects that have pottery envy. Kurt Vonnegut’s father was an architect who struggled all his career, finding satisfaction in his retirement as a pot maker. Making pots…making buildings…they both share ideas about interior and exterior space..line and form…. Read more »