My Second Hobby

We took this first hive apart right to the last ‘super’ where we found the queen!
For most of the past 35 years or so I would often quip that I had no hobbies…making pots is what I would choose to do most days even if I didn’t make my living by it.  Then I discovered poker about 5 years ago and ever since then I’ve admitted to having a hobby. Now I have two…today I became a beekeeper! 
I drove to Washington, D.C. (our nation’s capitol) today to meet Todd C. who started two hives last year and today was the day to divide the more active hive and remove the queen before it swarmed! Very exciting to be there and watch as Toni, Todd’s mentor, and Todd go through the entire hive, piece by piece, and find the one and only queen amidst the 40,000 – 60,000 bees that are inside! Very exciting. These are urban bees, sited just a few blocks from the Halls of Congress and the Capitol Building. 
Todd’s hive is so healthy it was overcrowded and was REAL close to swarming.
Todd is a keen beekeeper, but he reacts badly to stings, so he keeps himself well wrapped up. I am less sensitive… a subject for another time…
Box o’ bees!
Todd pretends to be looking for the queen.
Looking down into the hive
 5 frames of bees, honey, nectar, polen, eggs, brood and the queen were packed into the ‘nuc’ box. This was duly sealed up for the 50 mile ride back home.
This is the nuc box for transporting.
 About halfway home I noticed a bee in front of me so I rolled down the window and she flew out. Then it struck me that where there is one bee escaping, perhaps there is another. So I turned around, going 70 mph, to see the following scene on the rear window!
I decided that I just had to carry on as fast as I could and not stop. The red lights were a bit hairy, but they never showed much interest in me and I got home unscathed. Every hobby should start so auspiciously…

Food Show Winners!

Our 5th annual “FOOD SHOW” opened Friday night to wide acclaim.,We always open the show with an “Art made from Food” competition and the entries this year were delightful to behold…and to consume! After the judging is complete, the eating commences! Most things don’t last long. Thanks to all who entered. Start thinking of next years prize winner now!
‘Choc-fil-a’ was my entry, what else could I make? 100% edible…except for Hollis’ plate.
“Mona Lisa’ in jello…coffee, tea, etc. to make the colors
‘The Bug Juice Bar’ was the first place winner by a large number. Great work, Sharon!
Detail of the ‘Bug Juice Bar’
I couldn’t even look at this one and people were funny about eating it….chocolate cake with a twist!
Kathy H. continues to produce exquisite and delicate entries each year. All of these flowers and petals are made by hand.
The ‘White House’ suffered some structural problems as the night went on. Faulty mortar?!
‘Edible Easels’  by a group of under five year olds and their moms! (and Neal)

Snow Falls on Spring

Just as we were getting used to spring-like weather, winter has returned for another visit. I don’t really mind…if spring arrives early here it means summer can’t be far behind…the dreaded season of heat and humidity. 

Bird on a Bowl

This is about 14″ wide.
I’ve got a few proto-types for a bird bowl in the studio but this is the first one that I’ve finished. I know that there is an awesome idea here, and this is just fine, but I think I have to increase the scale to really make it work. I’ve been letting the bird-bowl idea gestate for a while now and I certainly have had the incredible pedestaled fish bowls of a certain Toff Milway in mind as I’ve pondered this form.
The form of this pedestal makes it seem like it is in flight so I’ve dropped the feet back trying to represent that feeling.  It’s hard to see, but I put a rather straightforward pulled strap handle on the backside. It fills an important visual and functional purpose. I think…
Detail of a large ‘double bird’ vase that I’m working on.

A Treat for Doug?!

Just a couple of weeks until “The British Invasion” gets underway with the arrival of Doug and Hannah in Boston. Doug was hoping to ship some of his local clay over but I’m hoping that this beautiful ocher clay will do the trick. 
I’m sending some to Hollis, Doug, and I think you might like it?! It has some sand and fine pebbles and is part of the estuary mud left behind by the Rappahanock River. It’s a little ‘short’ but has amazing dry strength and I love the color. I’ve used it before as a slip for stoneware temperature and Jason, my new assistant, is putting it through its paces in the electric kiln at LibertyTown.
P.S. John Britt has a great article on roadside glaze material in the latest Ceramics Monthly

Big Boys…and a Return to Chattering

I’ll never be a great big pot maker but it’s thrilling to take ’em on!
10 -15 lb. planters…still to be slipped and combed.
I have, from time to time, played with ‘chattering’ on the surface of my pots.  I like any decorating that involves the wheel going ’round and ’round. Traditionally the ‘divots’ would be filled with a contrasting colored slip and then scraped back to reveal the diamond shape in strong contrast. I used to use glazes that pooled to highlight the effect…now it is slips with salt working the edges. The old tricks are the still my favorites, just adapted to suit my own muse.
6″long metal banding…split length-wise. Very flexible
,
The tool bounces like an old fashioned typewriter…if the clay is right, if the angle and pressure of the metal is right, if the wheel speed is right…it’s easy!

Les Ismore

I don’t seem to have the time to organize thoughts into words these days, so I’ll let my little camera do the talking…with all the news in the world I’m feeling blessed and worried all at the same time.
Fat and juicy handle.
Pies and planters.

Transformer

5lb. +  3 1/2lb. + 1 3/4lb.
= 10 1/4lb
I can’t face any more ‘feathers’ at the moment so I’ve put the birds aside to make some ‘real’ pots…8 pie dishes (that’s for you, Marie N.!) and three large planters. I need to fill up that big-ass kiln!

Got Wood?!

The wood pile has been growing quickly now that Jason and his muscles have joined our crew. We’ve spent several days running back and forth to the old lumber yard I mentioned a while ago to collect fuel for the kiln…free for the taking! This stack is 5′ high by 4′ deep and close to 45′ long. More than a few firings I reckon!

Where Ideas Come From…

I’m not sure who first suggested to me that I turn a piece that I had made upside down, but I’ve been doing it for a long time! Stacking forms on top of each other is another way to try and see things differently. I think that ‘seeing‘ is the most important part of a creative life and I don’t want to get too accustomed to accepting obvious solutions to my work.
Pot on top of pot….a new totem idea…?
These two on top of each other are an interesting, and maybe even better, approach to my totem idea. I would usually have each piece diminish in size as I stacked them up….like the one that just finished, but I really like the ‘posture’ of these two together…very anthropomorphic, don’t you think?  So, I’m asking myself, how high can I take these? 3 high…4…?
I am reminded of the tree pruning technique called “pollarding”.  
Shiva, the multi-limbed Hindu goddess also comes to mind. 
Then I started wondering could I put digits on the end of these spout-like appendages and turn them into hands?! Some ideas are just plain scary…
               I’ve been thinking about these birds as legs or bases for a while and, while I have no concrete ideas yet, I’m sure that I’ll do something with it eventually! I really like the look of this.

Just Photos Today

24″ high
Detail
Before…
After…I tried to make the wings appear to overlap…it’ll be more evident when glazed.

Totemic

At 44″ this is hard to photograph…
A detail in the shade
I made 8 of these so far…still need stoppers
I think this ‘slate colored junco’ must have been stunned as I was able to get within a few inches of it.

Mug Making Ideas

A couple of months ago John Bauman wrote a post about making mugs and I’ve had it in mind to respond ever since. John makes an argument for a simple straight sided cylinder with a turned foot and he extolls the virtues of those horrible diner mugs (the ones that often come filled with tepid hot water for your tea!). I hope that this doesn’t end our ‘bro-mance’, but I must wholeheartedly disagree! My pots are almost always about curves and the intersection where two curved lines meet. I make two basic mug forms: one is a tankard style based on those found in medieval European pots and the other form is a smaller round cup. 
gotta love the slip…
I’ve seen this round cup form in lots of old pots…Persian, Chinese, medieval and English slipware, but nobody made it better than Eddie Hopkins. I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but I have a small series of slides of Ed throwing and handling 500 mugs like this in less than a 5 day week! The beauty of this little one is a full round outward curve which changes rather abruptly to an inside curve that flares out just a little bit. Someday I’ll write about the different ideas of ’round’. This size is made from about 3/4 lb. of clay and usually gets a ‘one finger’ handle.
18 ozs.
This tankard style is the one I’ve made the most of…thousands and thousands. It has the extra added fun of having three distinct segments and I play with the different relationships between them…sometime the bottom bit is very round, sometimes more subtle like the one above. And sometimes the ‘waist’ is higher or lower. The handle springs from the rolled ring that I leave at the top. That little feature is one of the threads that holds my work together. I like how glazes break and salt attacks there.
This is the fruits of last fall’s labors…
Because I see mugs as an everyday item and I make lots of them I would never put a foot on mine. I do give them a fairly thin lip…anyone (man or woman) with a serious mustache will know that thick rims can be dangerous!
Next Up: TeaBowls: Overhyped Juice Cups 

Expanding on an Idea

Jason and I fetched more wood for the kiln yesterday and there is a few years worth on the site now! Wood has been a struggle lately and my friend Rudi’s connection to the old saw mill in Massaponax is the gift that keeps on giving! We will go back again next month for more. 
9″ high – this is a (successful!) prototype modeled on a drawing I did of an ancient pot.
Today I was able to spend the entire day in the studio. I threw parts to make a half dozen more of these ‘carafes’ (above) which I think are quite jaunty. I’m thinking that they need some kind of a stopper. After the last firing and the success of the birds I filled pages in my composition notebook with sketches of new possibilities. Making a totem pole was one of those ideas. I’m not a great big-pot maker, but I can stack forms to the moon (or rather, to the top of the chamber…)
the first bird totem  pole in progress
This will have 4 birds in all…that’s 4 beaks, 8 eyes, 8 feet and who knows how many hundreds of little balls of clay for feathers…it might take a couple of days to finish making it…I’m thinking about a bird bath next.
44″high/18 pounds…reminds me of those Volkous/Soldner pots from the ’50’s!

By the end of the day I had attached these bits to the lids and ‘beaked’ them. I’m enjoying the character variations that different bases and body shapes seem to take on. I hope to finish these in the next couple of days.
future bird jars
I was trying to make a bowl-shaped pot here below, but it ended up being too much like a teapot missing a lid. I have another bowl that I pulled oval and I’ll put a head on each ‘corner’.
another prototype…it might pour…

Revelations

1976 – Tempe, Arizona
I must say that blog awards strike me as silly at best. In fact, I’m not too big on awards of any kind…somewhere in my attic are the various ribbons etc. that anyone making art for decades accumulates. Years ago I got a best in show award at a local fair…my sweetheart at the time was over the moon with the ribbon…I myself was much more interested in the check that came with it. She got the ribbon…I got the cash!
    You might have guessed by now that I have recently been given one of these blog awards by Meredith. Normally I’d ignore it, but I really enjoyed meeting Meredith and Mark when they visited recently and out of respect for her and in the interest of general prurience, here are 7 things you may not know about me!
1) I am the oldest of 6 kids in my ‘small’ Irish family (5 boys -1 girl) and I went to catholic school until leaving for college. (8 years with the Sisters of Mercy – an ironic name at best – and 4 years with the Jesuits).
2) My first interest in the arts was theater…Tom Stoppard is still my favorite playwright after W. Shakespeare.
3) I went to college planning to be a lawyer. Instead I discovered clay.
4) I didn’t own a car until I was 25…this led to lots of hitchhiking…a trip to NYC, then on to Montreal, then Bartlesville, Oklahoma before including several cross-country trips back in the swinging ’70’s.
5) I am a huge sports fan…I played lacrosse in college and Ultimate Frisbee for close to 20 years after I moved to the ‘Burg. I think that athletics could be described as a  ‘physical’ art…the movement of the human body interacting with others across a field is a beautiful spontaneous expression. Just as I train myself to make better pots, a ball player trains himself to be ready for the challenges of the moment.
6) I did a two-month, 1,500 mile bicycle/camping trip through New York and New England in the summer of 1977 with a great friend of mine.
7)  I was a rock’n’roll roadie off and on for a couple of years, working a hundred shows or more…some of the acts included Frank Zappa, Blue Oyster Cult and Johnny Winter…also acts like Dolly Parton, Bill Cosby (the biggest hand that I ever shook!) and the Vienna Boys Choir.

A Whole New Pace

I’m starting to get an idea of what full time bird making is like. I am used to making LOTS of pots when I get to the studio…some weeks I’d throw and finish a 100 pots or more. That’s the Winchcombe way and it has served me well all these years. Now it can take all day to finish a couple of pieces…and I’m starting to grow more comfortable with this new series of ‘tasks’ that make up a clay  day.  Throwing the pieces happens in just an hour or two…assembly is another story.
 Putting the birds on top of pots is an obvious next step and each becomes it’s own little (or eventually big) pedestal. I plan to keep the bases very simple this time around, but there is lots of potential for involving them more in the future. 
These Martin Brothers inspired pots are starting to morph into something more ‘me’ as you can see from the photo below. I’ve twitching I’m so excited about making a giant ‘totem pole’ version of this.
My first ‘Bird on Bird on Bird Action’

The British Are Coming!!!

OK  kids, it’s time to mark those calendars and make a date to join us as we spend a weekend with these two masters of red clay 
Hannah McAndrew and Doug Fitch! 
You can join us here in Virginia…or with Hollis and the Cape Cod Potters in Massachusetts to the north of us, or with Ron in North Carolina (which is, of course, south of us). 
Please help us pass the word around….we already have folks from Ohio and Pennsylvania signed up to come! Don’t miss out.
In addition to a reception Friday evening we will have some sort of social event/meal planned for Saturday night. This is a rare treat and I know that we are going to enjoy ourselves!
Check out our website at www.libertytownarts.com or phone us at 540-371-7255

The Year of the Bird!?

It’s been several months since I’ve made pots (such is the life of an art center owner) and this week I’ve been slowly working in my studio, trying to build some momentum. The studio starts out somewhere between 32 degrees F. and 40 when I arrive, but my little heater gets it up to the mid-50’s in an hour or two and I’m happy with that. 
While I can quickly clutter the studio with every tool and teacup and notebook until there is no more useful horizontal space remaining, I try to begin each cycle with everything in it’s place.
I wasn’t sure what I’d feel like regarding bird making after a long layoff…they’re such a departure from the last 30 years. But I find that I’m still having fun making these and I really do have pages of new doodles to try and bring to life.
So. I apologize in advance to anyone celebrating the year of the rabbit, but I declare, in the land of Dan, that this is to be the year of the wood-fired salt-glazed birds! Look out world…

More Handles from the Met

I spent a couple of hours on the wheel today…the first pots I’ve made since my November firing. I need to ease back into a routine…I have so many ideas at the moment that it’s hard to slow down and be as focused as I’d like to be. 
Feast your eyes on these beautiful appendages!

The Mongol Rally Fundraiser

Hugh Milway, son of Toff and my favorite godson will graduate from Durham University later this year and before putting the engineering degree he is earning to use he is determined to see the world and go exploring. A man after my own heart!
Stock photos of previous rally-ers
So some time this summer he and a few friends are undertaking The Mongol Rally! The Rally is described as “10,000 miles of bad roads, no roads, bandits, 3 deserts, 5 mountain ranges and adventuring bliss” This is semi-organized by a group called The Adventurists and they have a big web site that tells all about it. In addition to the challenge is a great goodwill component…each team raises funds for a charity and Hugh’s team will be driving an ambulance which they will also donate when they get there. His team is keeping a blog which won’t be too active until they get on the road. In the meantime we are having a raffle here at D.F.S.P. in cooperation with Conderton Pottery.
     I left parts for 2 birds at Toff’s workshop last summer and he finished them, making what seems to be a cross between his fish and my birds. What’s kind of crazy is that these are our first collaborations after more than 30 years of friendship! Fired in Toff’s salt glaze kiln, they are rare beauties indeed and you can take a chance, or two, or more by purchasing a ‘raffle’ ticket. 
  
    If you go to this page of Toff’s website and scroll to the bottom there are three charities that you can make a donation to. 5 pounds (about $7.50 these days) is the minimum donation. Each donation gets your name in the hat for the drawing in July. Don’t forget to leave your email address in the message area…that’s how we’ll track you down when you win. (someone has to! it could be you!)
Fish/bird detaul

Fish or bird…you decide!

You can donate via paypal if you’d like…eventually they’ll ask you for a British address. Just type in “the Old Forge” and “GL20 7PP” for the postal code. It’s Toff’s address.

Handle Primer NYC Style – the first

I like the way the decoration emphasizes the handle shape.
I spent an entire day at the Met in New York and took dozens of photos of pots…mostly looking at handles. I’ll post more as the week goes by. If you read the literature that the Met provides, you would wonder if there were many pots at all. In fact, there are thousands of amazing pots in every nook and cranny of that spectacular building.
How cool to make a double handle an animal head!
There are pots there that I’ve seen in books for years with plenty of room for them to be examined. It’s always awe-inspiring to be reminded of how much the history of humankind is told through ceramic objects.  
Never lose your lid again…
These double handled pots are huge…5′-6′ tall and 4′ wide. Maybe bigger. In fact, there were lots of huge pots made thousands of years ago. The technology is fantastic to produce such beauties…long before cones and burners and store bought materials, potters were true masters.

60 Hours in the Big City

Times Square
I’m still a bit worn out from my trip and still reveling in the glow of big city life. As much as I love my small town I am always energized by a visit to any city of note, I love the energy, the cultural life, the food(!), the architecture and the people watching.
I took the train from the ‘Burg to Penn station and then walked from there to Times Square and on to THE POD, the funky hotel I stayed in. Tiny rooms nicely furnished and a fair price. I then took the subway uptown to the New York Ceramics fair.
 After an interesting visit there I started walking…across to Central Park and then a visit to The Plaza Hotel. I thought I might have afternoon tea there, but at $45.00 per person…I kept walking..
Tea room at The Plaza
 That evening I saw the Broadway play ‘Lombardi’ at the Circle in the Square Theater… I love theater, and I love football, but this was not a particularly good play. Fun to sit in the second row in a theater in the round, but it’s not good when the stage is more interesting than the play itself.
Walking back to the Pod late night took me past Rockefeller Center and Radio City and the famous ice rink at 30 Rock. Fantastic art deco buildings!
 I spent all day Friday at the Met (the Metropolitan Museum of Art). A fabulous day filled with pots everywhere. I’ll write a separate post on that later this week.
The Met
What about food, you ask?  Felafel, pizza, mushroom ravioli, sunflower bagel and cream cheese and a couple dozen bagels to bring home. Hard not be a glutton there, but walking keeps the appetite up!
Obligatory pizza shot
 The highlight of my stay was spending Friday evening with my adorable niece Courtney and her boyfriend Matt…we had a great meal and then went on to see the musical ‘The Fantastiks’ at the Jerry Orbach theater. We sat in the front row for this one in a tiny theater (I almost tripped one of the actors they were so close). This is an old fashioned musical with very simple staging and a bittersweet story of love and redemption…with lovely music. Surely you recall”…..try to remember that time in september….” A delightful production and evening.
Saturday after loading up on bagels I walked and rode the subway to Greenwich Village to visit my favorite tea shop in the world. McNulty’s is run by two Chinese gentlemen with Brooklyn accents and smells of tea and coffee and world long gone.
I then visited the American Folk Art show which was another home run as far as pots go. Everything I liked seemed to cost $6,000.00 or more…and my tastes are fairly humble!
I’m back home now and hoping to finally get back to my studio…I haven’t made a pot since October(!) and I’m full to bursting with ideas!

The Big Apple

I’m off to New York City for a couple days of museum visiting and theater attending. See you when I come back.
Coming Soon; “the Mongol Rally”!

The Big Apple

I’m off to New York City for a couple days of museum visiting and theater attending. See you when I come back.

Coming Soon; “the Mongol Rally”!