What did you do for lunch today?

Today I took a little lunch break and threw a cylinder....
That is a 12" ruler...
Will finish it up this afternoon....Most likely a bottle, but might go for a jar.
The walls are about 3/8" - 1/2" and I plan to facet or flute the finished surface.

Back to work!

Back in the studio and it feels good!

One of the nice things about working in a college art department is that there is a ceramic studio nearby. During the summer months it is a great space to get away, spread out, take a break, and spend some time after working a long day. So this summer, as in past summers, I have been staying after work and throwing for an hour or two each day. The results have been good and some new ideas and forms have had a chance to develop from sketches into actual pots. In the last couple weeks I have thrown about 8 large serving bowls (14"-20" diameter), a couple larger platters (20"-24" diameter), a couple vases, a dozen or so faceted, fluted, and paddled mugs, maybe 10 jars of varying sizes, and some new basket forms.

Bisque firing sometime in the next week and will hopefully have enough bisque ware to complete two glaze firings. Many of these pots will be glazed with a matte gray, tenmoku, iron red, and a heavy crawling white shino I regularly use. I will post pictures of some of the finished ware....

A great potter and better friend (cont.)

I learned last night of the passing of my wonderful friend Norm Hendry. I am completely at a loss for words to say....Norm was a caring friend and mentor to me as an artist and potter. To say that he will be missed does not even begin to describe the sense of loss I feel right now. He made such an impact on so many people's lives, including my own.

As he would say at the end of many conversations, "to be continued." I can only look forward for that time to come.

A great potter and better friend.

Norm Hendry

One of a couple visits over the years by the SB Fire Department during the salt firing action.

Recent Commission

Here is a new project I have been working on over the past week. I received a recent commission for 48 small planter pots of "any form and size". After throwing a few experimental/exploratory pots, I decided to make them from 1.5 pound balls of clay, and include an attached one piece drain tray. I ended up making 53 pots, planning for a few that don't turn out how I hope. All in all it took about 5-6 hours to throw and finish all the pieces.

This was a great project to play with different forms and ideas that have been floating around in my head. They are headed to the bisque firing later this week or early next week and pictures of the finished pots to come....

Home from the Warren Mackenzie workshop!

Just got home from seeing the Warren MacKenzie Retrospective Exhibition at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art in San Francisco and spending time with Warren today for his workshop and exhibition at Trax Gallery in Berkeley. Here is a teaser....More pictures to come.

Cameras, Lighting, and Backgrounds Continued

Today I finished setting up my soft box and hung the background. The soft box is installed with eye hooks in the top of the box and eye hooks in the ceiling connected with a loop of rope. This enables me to adjust the soft box easily and it position is held in place by the box's own weight and friction. The soft box has two baffles to disperse the light evenly, both baffles are installed with velcro so that they can be easily removed for light bulb replacement. Believe it or not, the baffles are pieces of a white vinyl shower curtain from Target. They work great! (The soft box is a little crooked which does not really matter, but something I intend to fix!)

Once I got everything set up, I did a quick test shot with my wife's "point and shoot" Canon SD400 Elph. The result is a low resolution, non white balanced photo, which turned out really nice! The piece in the photo is a wonderful tea pot I own, made by a great New Zealand potter, Chris Weaver.

A big thanks to Michigan potter, John Glick, for providing such great advise and helpfullness on how to build this soft box.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!