Blue period

Picasso had his blue period, so it should only be befitting that my pottery came out blue. However, my intentions were not to convey sadness, despair, or poverty behind my work. In fact, it was pure accident.

Hallelujah, the kiln I operate out of is fixed! After some test runs I decided to load it up with all of my porcelain casted greenware pieces that I painted an underglaze on, and give it a whirl. I had also forgotten that I had mixed some stain into a couple of the pieces when I was slip casting.

Well, to make a long story short, everything has a blue tint to it. I like it, because it mimics a rustic speckled look.

Since this was pure accident, then I'm certain I'll never be able to recreate it.

Ohio bowl.

I also have a suspicion that the kiln is firing a little bit hotter than expected, or it's ramping up too quickly, because I noticed on this load that a vase I had made for my Grandmother completely slumped over.

Also, I noticed that all my pieces were so smooth like they had a small hint of a gloss to them, but I had not added a clear coat to any of them. This to me is a sign that the kiln might to firing too hot, too quickly, so I'm going to venture out this evening, and by Cone 4 pyrometric cones to see if firing it to a lower heat will cure my problem.

I've been firing all of my pieces to Cone 6, which is considered high firing, which is more common for Stoneware, than porcelain, but I was assured that the porcelain slip I was using could go up to cone 6. Anyways, these pieces will all get a nice clear coat, and then be fired to a low temp, and then they should be good to go! HORRAY, finally some completed pieces!

Fur Sho'-

I have a lot of deadlines coming up soon. I have to get some pieces completed for the Member's Show at the Houston House Arts Center, and then I have a deadline at the beginning on September for an alternative craft show that will happen during the winter holiday season.

Pinup bowl-bisque fired.

Maybe it's a good thing I wasn't able to finish for the deadline for Crafting Outlaws, because I found out over 190 people applied to be a vendor, and they're only picking 50 people to represent. A lot of those people will most likely be vendors who were grandfathered in from previous years, and who have sponsored the event.

Birds on a wire.

OH YEAH---- I almost forgot! If you have a Facebook the you can 'LIKE' Little Black Dog Pottery now! Cool, right?

Click HERE for Facebook.

I have FINALLY, set up an Etsy store for purchases!

Click HERE for my Etsy Store!

PROGRESS!!!

Separation Anxiety: A potters perspective

Separation anxiety?

So.. we’re going on like almost a month since the kiln took a turn for the worse, and lost it’s screws, and is sitting abandoned and broken at the Houston House, and I’ve found myself extremely agitated and just… not myself for the past week.

People have drugs, booze, and OCD disorders as coping mechanisms for stress. I’m truly starting to believe that mine was merely pottery. I’ve been feeling down with the stress of NOT getting a house, my sick Grandpa, and juried show deadline that is most likely going to pass without me be able to submit anything, which means most of my year will have to be written off as waste. It all agitates me.

I’ve spent a couple hours trying to pry rusted screws from this electric box from hell attached to the kin sitter, but I have no luck. I simply need someone with a power tool that has a screw extractor, or someone with a dremel who would simply slice it away.

I have no outlet to go to after stressful and dull days at work. I go home, watch TV, surf the web, and repeat, and my creative energy has nowhere to go but out the window. I feel like my enthusiasm is being crushed slowly by a compactor. I wonder if this is what Van Gough, or Monet would feel like if someone just took their oils, and drawing materials away. How can one cope when they’re consumed with ideas they can’t relay outward. Interesting.

I’ll be leaving for vacation to go out west in some hope to rejuvenate some passion and creativity from a new perspective without green fields, blue skies, and farms. I’m excited and anxious to see what awaits for me even with the growing wildfires only miles away from where we were planning on stay.
It should be an interesting trip. I’m excited to see what emotions it will provoke, and what ideas it will plant in my head.

I have nothing to show today, because I have no finished products, but hopefully I will soon when I can finally fire the glazed pieces.

Down Time: Inspiration Time

With the kiln temporarily out of business. All you can do is surf the interwebs, and be inspired, but other’s works. It’s nice, because it gives you some time to prep for what you need to work on, and also learn new ideas to test out.

I have a lot of things happening this summer that are keeping me anxious. In July the husband and I will be adventuring out to the wide open West. Well, we’re going to Amarillo, TX anyways, to visit my Grandparents who are in need of a long overdue visit. This will mostly be a bigger adventure for my husband, who has really never been out west. I can’t say that the Vegas strip counts. So, he is in for a very, very, VERY long drive.

Since my Grandparents are so close to New Mexico we have decided to adventure over to Santa Fe, and up towards Taos for the week. I can’t really tell you how excited I am about this, because I don’t think words can describe. I hope to check out the Georgia O’Keefe museum, and the New Mexico Folk Art museum and Folk Art Market. I’m REALLY crossing my fingers that I can come by some cool day of the dead goodies to bring back home.

Though it’s not highly seen in my pottery, I have a lot of Mexican influences in my personal paintings, and drawings. One of my favorite artists is Frida Kahlo in which she can tell you so much about her life within one painting. I can only inspire to be like that, and it is amazing when you draw out your problems how they can bring so much closure to the soul. A painting is as if you are screaming out to the world what is bothering you, but it’s not in a sense so literal. I love the secrecy behind it all. It is my way of coping with the knocks that life brings to me sometimes.

Anywho, I wanted to share some ceramic pieces from different artists that have inspired me in some way, or another.

Meredith Host-- Ceramic Art Daily's "2011 Best Emerging Artist"

Kathy King-- "Delicious Plate"

Kathy King-- "Home Stacked Vase"

Cary Weigand-- "I am really just the surface of a Grand Ocean"

Just reading how Cary makes her pieces is interesting in itself. She constructs some of the pieces almost like origami, and just attaches everything in small pieces until she reaches the desired mass she's looking for.

What happens when an electric kiln does not shut off

Lets just go ahead and file this past week under the folder titled “Week from Hell”, because it was. Besides a lot of personal conflicts going on with cars, houses, repairs, and finances, I walked in on Saturday opened the kiln, which hadn’t been unloaded all week, and saw that my pieces had completely melted down into stone pancakes.

So after some chiseling, slicing my finger, and a mental breakdown, it was labeled a loss, and the kiln shelf was placed in the basement until I can configure a better way to pry my pieces off without breaking the shelf. I was successful on one of the smaller half shelves in getting it cleared, but the plates are proving tricky, and time consuming.

Yes, I am greatly disappointed, for the financial fact that I am out two gallons of slip. However, I am thank-ful that these were not hand built pieces, which took a lot of time for me to construct. These were just some cast molded pieces, but either way it’s sad to see your work go to the garbage.

Not everything melted down. One of my wheel thrown creamers made it, Paul’s sculpted head bust made it, and another stoneware piece survived. I did however, have two pieces that exploded on the bottom level. This kiln firing could be seen as absolutely disastrous.

What caused this mess?

The small electric box on the side of the kiln, which holds the mechanisms for the kiln sitter had fallen out of place after the screws rusted off the side of the kiln, which caused the lever that sits on top of the pyrometric cone to not fall, thus it had no way of cutting off the electric to the kiln.
I am only thankful that there was a class the next day, and they turned off the kiln after complaining about the heat… otherwise, this could have turned into something much more than just some melted pottery.

Another day, another lesson and -$20 in the bank.