from start to finish

Thank you all for the well-wishes on my new nephew! So far his little personality is quite laid-back (he is only 2 days old, but it's what everyone hopes for in a 2nd baby)- he has a quiet cry and slept for a 4 hour stint the first night! Can't beat that.   It's so nice when babies are born during the day, so everyone starts out with a good sleep pattern.  Not that you can plan when the birth is going to happen;-)!

Ok, back to business here.  Life over the past couple of weeks has had us in spring break mode, so while I did take a week off (which was so needed), I sent the boys off to my folks' place earlier this week so I could get a day and a half of work done while Dean was away in sunny Toronto and Montreal. I did manage to fit in a glaze firing just before we left- I posted a few pics on facebook and instagram.  I had some good results, but must admit that I was pretty tired trying to glaze this load.  Tired = mistakes, ie not quite getting it all right with really minor but frustrating things wrong.  I'm having a bit of trouble with a few things that seem to creep up on occasion- tiny glaze bubbles forming close to the base of the pot (vases on the bottom shelf- perhaps the wires are going in the kiln and the glaze is under-fired), some dryness to my white glaze in spots (not mixing the glaze enough or run-off of glaze from my 'masked off areas'), and of course- the never-ending finding the correct clay and location in the kiln to use for my satin-matt grey glaze not to form small little bubbles occasionally here and there.

I won't bore you with more details, but when these glaze issues start creeping their way into my work, I find myself wanting to throw in the towel on all my complicated glazing method and simplify things in a big way.  It would be hard to re-invent my work after all this effort was made to create such a signature look, but I find myself envying the 'one-dip-wonders' or the glaze on the inside/ bare clay exterior.  Anyways, we all know that's just not my schtick so I'll just proceed as I've been going along here and hopefully these little things will work themselves out in the next glaze load. 

Have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by my blog! I'm off to NCECA later next week so I'm pretty excited about meeting a whole wack of ceramic people.  I'm also going down and staying with a few potters from the city and am looking forward to that.  Lots of clay-shop-talk to come!

New directions in clay

This past year hasn't given me a lot of time for veering off in new directions, trying new things and gaining new inspirations. It's been a lot about making my 'trademark' designs of Poppies and Ginko stems and shipping them off to galleries and shops or for shows as soon as they've been made. Which is good, don't get me wrong, but as an artist at heart, I have been craving new experiments, trying things for my own inner satisfaction, not necessarily for the satisfaction of the next sale. Since there is always a reason behind everything I try, I thought I'd give you the background before these pots have even gotten in the kiln for their first firing!

Some background: Technical
A couple of years ago I had the privilege to attend a 2 day workshop with Paul Scott, the author of Ceramics and Print. It was an inspiring workshop with some hands-on approaches to printmaking and clay. I was excited about trying some of his techniques out in the studio, but with my current work evolving nicely, I set his book aside for another time. I was feeling like that time had come again, and I have been wanting to explore the monoprint technique with clay. For the most part this technique seems to work best on flat, rolled out clay where you can press down your print and it nicely adheres itself to the clay in a clean way. My way involved some newly trimmed vessel/vase forms out of this very white, translucent porcelain I decided to try a box of (a new clay body is always a good reason to try something out of the ordinary with). Using only stain and a little water brushed onto a smooth surface, I left it to dry while I drew my inspirational Dutch Motifs onto the smooth side of tissue paper. Gently placing the tissue onto the now dried layer of stain I redrew the pattern with a pencil. When you lift off the tissue, the drawn line appears underneath with the stain and you can transfer it onto a damp piece of clay! I found it helpful to use a scraper over the tissue, and although my lines didn't transfer on perfectly, there is something really fresh about the drawing on the clay.

Some background: Pennsylvania Dutch Folk Art Book
I have a great Aunt who was a potter living and working in Ontario. Years ago when she found out that I was taking a ceramics class at college, she started shipping me supplies, books and even a wheel that she didn't need any more in order to inspire me to keep at it. I still use several tools that she sent me on a daily basis. One book I have from her is called Pennsylvania Dutch American Folk Art and it's filled with images of furniture, quilts, tin crafts, pottery, and etched glass, along with these beautiful and simple motifs of animals, flowers, people and designs. Also in the book are drawings my aunt made of some of these motifs or patterns that she was planning on putting on her own pottery. My great aunt phoned me recently, just to talk pottery with me. She lives in a care home and is no longer mobile, but her passion for pots is still just as strong.

I'm hoping to put these pots in the kiln and will glaze them (pretty minimally- probably just my celadon glaze on the inside and over the edge and either clear on the bottom or unglazed) over the next week. Will post the results later, but as always, appreciate your thoughts and feed-back!