The Beautiful People

Ryan has decided to produce a DVD and I’ll let you know when it is available.

Union Station, Washington, DC

Hannah’s booth.

I took crap photos, but the show is full of wonderfully crafted work in every discipline…190 of the best. It one of those shows that I often enter and never will get in. I think that the birds would be a big hit there. I’ll let Hannah tell her story, but her work looked great and she is such lovely company, it was a good way to spend my day and a half vacation! We packed her up, had a fine meal in a veggie/asian place and then Jason and I blasted on down the highway. I also enjoyed visiting with Bob Briscoe and Shawn Ireland at the show. Two wonderful potters and really good guys.

Philadelphia has fantastic murals everywhere. A mural tour is part of the tourist attractions!

This last photo is hard to see, but still gives me a thrill to look at. As I drove to the studio last week there were 4! Bald Eagles standing in a wheat field just by the road! 2 adults and 2 teens with the youngsters feeding on some carrion. I stopped and watched them for a while. Inspiring!

Making a teapot that pours well is really important to me. The spout needs a large ‘collecting’ area. As you pour, a large amount of liquid is being forced into an ever narrowing spout. This creates velocity and helps the tea ‘spring’ from the spout rather than dribble.  t

Lots of small holes works best. The purpose of this is not so much to strain the tea (you still need a nice silver tea strainer to catch the stray leaves!) but to keep the loose leaves from getting into the spout and clogging it.

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DON’T let the taper expand towards the end if you really mean to use it! Add that to my pet peeves list.

I use my cut-off wire to describe the arc that I then cut off with a knife.

Then I coax the cut part into a deeper curve, like the opposite of making a lip on a pitcher.

This gives it a jaunty angle to apply to the body of the pot.

I’ll also show you how to cut the spout at the tip next time. Another essential element.

Small mugs – 3/4lb.

The air is cool and clear and my energy  is high. I had a ‘stay-cation’ last week…spending a lot of my time in the studio instead at the beach house that I rented at Buxton on the Outer Banks. Hurricane Irene removed serious chunks of the rather delicate road leading there, so, no holiday at the beach. I would most certainly have enjoyed myself, but I was completely happy to make lots and lots of pots and stay away from LibertyTown. I aim to keep up the pace as I’m hoping to fill the kiln twice before the year passes.

Large mugs – 1 1/2lb.

So, I have more pottery pet peeves than I would ever admit, but here’s one I’ve probably blogged about before. As Hollis recently referenced, I call the little ball of clay that I place at the apex of the handle of a mug a “dustcatcher”. I think that the phrase comes from an old college professor. I like both the look and the feel of this, but it drives me crazy when potters put a great big honking ball of clay at that point. I admire subtlety on this subject! Here below is another way to accomplish the same idea. Instead of a little ball of clay, I place a tiny coil across the width of the handle, then blend it in with three strokes of my thumb.

I’ve been giving the bees their space for a while. After losing the old queen and observing as a new one slowly re-envigorated the hive, I then learned that they got a lot meaner in the heat of the summer and suffered from a few (maybe more than a few) stings. I’m not overly allergic, but I certainly have a strong reaction! This is the hive with the top ‘super’ set aside. You can see all the bees down the middle…I’m waiting for the autumn honey flow and hoping that they will eventually spread out towards the edges, storing more honey for the winter.

Look real close to see two young deer. I got to watch them for a long time.

For those of you have stayed with me here to the end, I’m pleased to announce that Ryan Poe has completed the film about me and my kiln and pots etc. and he has entered it in the film festival held in France every other year. We are planning the world premier for later this fall. Stay tuned!!!

Irene never quite lived up to her headlines. It was more like an intermittent but fierce rain and wind storm that lasted 12 hours or so. Anti-climactic, really. We are to be rewarded now with a week of mild and cloudless days. Sounds boring.

My new bat for platters…a full 1″ thick x 15″w. Hoping it won’t warp?

Another Bird/Book piece

Theodore Roosevelt

This sweet old boy is Theo. He must be 15 years old or more, he’s stone deaf and still as wiley as ever. He now resides at the ‘Washington Avenue Home for Old Cats That Need Spoiling”.

Most people speak of the noise that came along with the earthquake…my first thought was that a big transport plane was passing overhead as it was a low deep rumble of noise. As I think back to the moment, I also realize that some of the noise was my house, creaking and groaning as it was being racked back and forth. Lots of chimneys came down or will come down around town. A couple of pots hit the ground at Libertytown, and it seemed like every painting was at an angle, but mostly we are unscathed and have an excellent story to tell.  There was a gas leak in my neighborhood with many homes evacuated for a while, but all is well on that front. I’m not worried about it, but I am looking forward to checking on my kiln this morning.
“Where were you when the earthquake hit?” is already a common greeting!

Last week I posted photos of these serving dishes and Ron wrote asking for more details. I do love finding ways to add handles to my pots and I’m particularly interested in the seams that result by not blending them in. This type of handle exaggerates that idea.

So, first make yourself a plate…or platter…or bowl. Wide rim optional.

Get some handle clay.

Pull a handle. I usually pull enough to get a bunch at a time. I didn’t this time. (It’s just a demo, y’know).  My thumb makes the groove. This is 4″ long.

The handle is fatter where it meets the rim and tapers on the outside edge.

As I push down I am forcing the clay to divide equally on the front and backside of the rim. (My other hand is usually supporting the backside but it’s holding the camera here!)

First it looks like this…

…and then I refine it like this.

This is the backside.

There is no reason that you couldn’t blend all these seams in and get just as nice a piece. Just different!

If two is good then doesn’t it follow that four is better?!

Still picking blackberries!