More Faster Better

My daughter is asleep next to me. She doesn't like to sleep during the day. She wants to be a part of everything that's going on. Her swing is in my studio, and this past week she's spent a lot of time there supervising my work. On the days when she absolutely needed to be held, I worked while wearing her in a Moby wrap.


A glaze fire is currently in process-- the batch that was bisque fired on Monday. Mostly the glaze-work is dip-and-pour, otherwise I never would be able to work so quickly. Both this most recent bisque and this glaze load did not fit into the kiln; each time a few pieces were left out. In this batch are six mugs, three bobbin bowls, and two regular bowls as well as a boatload of buttons and magnets.

The buttons and magnets are new additions, as are the earrings. I love the buttons, by the by. They are perfect for knitters and crocheters (as opposed to crotchetiers, spell-check) who want a unique accent. I'm trying to expand my price-range for Eastern Market; both of the former sell for $3 each or two for $5, whereas the latter sells for $5 or free with a bowl or mug. These items are not yet available on the website.

On the high end, I am more aggressively marketing custom work. I have done pieces for weddings, a graduation, and band art. The pieces can be as intricate as desired and as big as twelve inches in diameter. To start work on an order, I require a fifty percent deposit. Please contact me with the information you would like to use and I will give you a quote.


I am also changing clays. I had been using Amaco's White Stoneware #38. At the beginning of this year, the clay body was poorly mixed and significantly deflocculated. After returning an unusable batch, I gave up and used it as a base to recycle my old clay. Near the end, I was adding a great deal of borax. I decided that I may as well work with kaolin and just switch to porcelain. Porcelain was what I worked with primarily while in college.

Enter local clay arts supplier Rovin Ceramics! If you work with clay and are in southeast Michigan, check them out.

In the next few weeks, I will be making a full new set of test tiles. Also, Eastern Market's Artisan Village, which is where I sell, will move. I'm not entirely sure of details, but I do know that we will not be just outside Shed 5 while it is under construction.

In summary:
1. Newish cheapish stuff is available at Eastern Market.
2 New awesome stuff will be available next week both at the market and on-line.
3. You should place an order for custom work.
4. My kiln is getting to small to keep up with me.
5. Lucia is awesome.

Grumpy?

The only time I don’t like being a vendor at Eastern Market is between 4am and 6am on Saturday mornings. Artisan Village is back, and The Delicion is an enthusiastic participant. The topple popple, who oversees all work done in my studio, supervised this weekend.


I love the sign that reads, “No grumpy people.” I love watching people carry out flowers I had never seen before. I love the produce and freshly baked bread that my husband collects while wandering. I love the little old ladies dressed to the nines. I love the musicians—good and bad! I love the insanity, like when the man we call Shower Cap Guy shouts about not having enough bubble gum. I love the shiny, well-maintained old cars parading about. I love the vehicles that have plywood parts, windows made by cutting a hole in the sheet metal, wheels that don’t move or have a bit too much of a wobble, or make a sound that probably should stop once the engine has been turned off. I love observing the politics of navigating the parking lot from the outside. I also like guessing which niche of Christianity will be proselytizing for the day. Yesterday, we got Harold Camping.


Some of the stuff I make feels a bit slutty; I’m gluing magnets to test tiles so that people can buy something inexpensive. Yep. That’s the biggest disadvantage to being a ceramist who sells at farmers markets.

I have been having issues with my clay recently. I have used Amaco’s white stoneware almost exclusively for a matter of years now. I did have a stint with Rovin’s low-grog stoneware, but it wasn’t low-enough-grog. Amaco sells this particular clay pugged and de-aired, in two 25-pound bags per box. That is, the clay is ready to use. I generally buy 100 to 150 pounds at a time quite regularly.

In January, I bought a batch that was completely deflocculated. It wasn’t clay. Working with it was like working with some kind of quicksand Jello. I hate blaming my tools, and so I was determined to make it work. So what if it won’t hold its form? So what if it doesn’t dry? HOW DOES CENTERING AND WEDGING CREATE AIR BUBBLES?!

 I took it back and exchanged it for another batch. It’s clay, but it is still lacking flocculants. In order to get the clay workable, I added old dry clay. I cut the blocks in to little pieces and let the pieces dry a bit. I wedged and wedged and wedged and mixed and wedged. I was, essentially, using this new ready-to-use clay to reclaim and extend the old clay from failed pieces. I was grumpy.

My current experiment is borax. Anhydrous borax is a flocculent, and the laundry booster might just work. The small amount of clay I’ve tried it with has oxidized quite a bit, but I’m not convinced that’s it’s a good enough reason to stop doing it.


Experiments!

If you know anything about the Amaco white stoneware situation, I would love to hear it.

In the meantime, I’ll see you at the market!

test tiles

1. chicory, 2. light green shino, 3. opal, 4. chrome green, 5. cedar shino, 6. steel gray shino, 7. sunrise shino, 8. silk black, 9. salt buff, 10. deep firebrick, 11. chun plum, 12. shino, 13. seaweed, 14. ironstone, 15. albany slip brown, 16. temmoku, 17. deep olive speckle, 18. textured torquoise, 19. blue rutile, 20. midnight blue, 21. saturation metallic, 22. translucent cream, 23. atlantis aqua, 24. power torquoise, 25. chocolate mesa

Something Amazing

My new website is live. Please go see it in all of its amazingness.
Full of Delicion!

My designer did a great job. If you would like his informtion, I will gladly share it.

In The Loupe

A website that has been a favorite for years is InterfaceLIFT. My computer desktop changes every five minutes (not an exaggeration-- it's a setting), and several of the images are from this site.

User-submitted images are posted in "The Loupe," where other users can vote for them. These images are available for voting for two weeks. If they get enough votes, they will be posted on the main site.

I currently have five images in review. Please vote for them!

Portree
Have a Cookie
Flight
Deep Firebrick Red
Frabjous Fiber



Yes, I took each of those photos. And yes, I made the cookie. It was delicious.

thoughts

"That which achieves its effect by accident is not art." Seneca
"Just stick the right formula in-- a solution for any fool." Indigo Girls


"Socrates said, 'I think, therefore I am.'" Koho

Please Work!

After the kiln trouble I've been having, I've been getting too attached to recent works. Last night, I broke these pieces for the cathartic release of gravity’s effect in action.


I was pretending that I couldn’t see the small crack in the lip.


Adding a vent was much messier than I expected.


Cutting the bottoms off pieces is a disappointingly common phenomenon.

Aren't these pieces pretty? Couldn't I have saved them? Can I possibly make others nice enough to replace them?

I'm currently five months behind on a commissioned piece. That beautiful lid was part of the project. I can blame the kiln trouble and pregnancy for part of the delay, but those wouldn't have been factors without the initial faulty math. (π * h * r^2) ≠ (π * [h * r]^2)

Below is my first attempt on the project at the correct size:



The current version:



Dramatic improvement, wouldn’t you say? and I was heartbroken that the first didn't survive the firing.

This one needs to work, though. A severe discount makes up for only so much lack of punctuality.



By the by, is anyone interested in writing a small amount of php for me for a small amount of money? Or barter?