Survey says...

A big thank you to all the friends who came by yesterday.  I am feeling the love!  I am especially grateful to my survey takers who helped confirm some of my thoughts about how handmade ceramics is shared and used.  Since I do not get to meet my customers directly very often I wanted to gather some feedback.  I asked about kitchen and dining room decor, how often they used handmade ceramics and kinds of dishware currently used including shape.

Of course many of my friends have an eclectic mix of styles and objects in their home.  It is one way we can create balance and harmony in our surroundings while developing our personal aesthetic.  I apologize to any of you whom may have felt a little stress about not having a specific style or theme.  Although, if you are thinking about redecorating feel free to use one of my pieces to inspire you.   HGTV designers will often latch onto an object for inspiration.  One of my favorite episodes of Trading Spaces was a whole room inspired by an artichoke. My dining room is a spring green which complements almost all of my ceramic designs.

Over half of survey participants use handmade ceramics daily and a third use it for special occasions only. No surprise there given survey demographics.  I will continue to focus on service ware that accents current table ware.  I have both Fiesta ware and simply embossed cream ware.  We use my ceramics interchangeably with both.  And as one survey reminded me, the best thing about buying a handmade mug is the coffee, a wonderful daily ritual to warm your hands and spirit however you prefer your caffeine fix.

Round dishes are certainly the norm.  But a number of people actually eat from dishes with corners.  I wouldn't recommend them for drinking hot liquids but new shapes are certainly stimulating providing a new frame for composing healthy meals full of texture and color.  One day in Target while checking out the trends in tableware made in China I overheard the best conversation about square plates.  Clearly these women were on opposite sides of the fence on this one.  My early dishes were wheel thrown and therefore circular until I started squishing them into softish squares and clover shapes.  Then I started to look at glass ware and plastic mold injected forms which come in a multitude of shapes as well as textured surfaces.  I should add there are a lot of fabulous contemporary potters who also manage to make production work "off wheel."  Stacey Esslinger, in Corning, patterns thin porcelain slabs of clay into bowls, vases and pitchers  as a seamstress would to create a bodice with darts and gussets.  Tossing out fat hunks of clay into silky smooth slabs while wielding a giant lethal rolling pin, more fun for this gal than spinning mud.

That reminds me I would rather be in the studio than clicking keys!

Pots Own Mom

Brightly colored pots
A studio of her own
Happy Birthday Mom

This is the lovely haiku my daughter wrote to decorate the cookie cake we ordered for Sunday's celebration.
It's a shame that not everyone will get to read it and quite funny to think if we eat the cake from left to right it may say  "pots own mom."

I am super excited to show off my fully functioning studio and share my creative process with anyone brave enough to dodge the labyrinth of furnace duct work in my basement. Tuesday I decided I could probably fit three firings in this week before Sunday.  I think it was an adrenaline rush after having fired the wood kiln in the snow Monday morning.  So stubbornly I am well on my way to completing three firings in five days and not because I necessarily need the pots.  But because the pots own me.  The entire ceramic process can be lengthy and as I consider new forms and glazes I have been completely indecisive.  Having a deadline or series of goals has really pushed me this week.  Hopefully the turn out and  feedback on Sunday is worth it.  Looking forward to it!

Studio Grand Opening

Spring is blossoming early all around us as it does year round in my cozy new studio.  I began carving out a work space in the basement with the unpacking of 20 some life-size sculptures.  Some of you may remember that event when my smallish urban back yard garden was filled with elegant statuary.  

In the fall of 2010 after much cleaning (flood of '72) two walls went up along with new basement windows, ten new outlets and six light fixtures.  The space was very raw for the last Elmira Open Studio Tour.  I still was working between the Elmira College Studio and 171 Cedar Arts Center to get work fired and glazed.  

The following winter I drove back from Boston in a blizzard with a kiln a dear friend of mine scouted out. Shortly thereafter a real floor was installed, faux wood linoleum.  My dad put in a ten foot counter top with cabinets and task lighting during a summer visit.  In mid-January he put up a mini wall and door between the kiln room and work space.  At last we insulated using the rigid foam board from all of those card board crates I dismantled long ago.  Now the studio is warm and pleasant.  I do miss my mid-morning workout playing Just Dance Abba to unthaw. 


The Grand Opening is scheduled for my birthday, Sunday, April 29th from 1-5pm.  Come join me for cookie cake if you are so lucky to be in or near Elmira.

For the Love of Plaster

Just finished teaching a four week class on Basic Mold Making. I'm afraid I may have learned more than my students did.  It's quite a mind bender going back and forth between positive and negative, hump vs. slump...  At the end of the fourth week it was just beginning to click.

I personally have come a long way in my distaste for mold made work.  In my own work I have found a way to create unique forms from the molds.  My favorite mold is a clover shaped bowl made from three separate masonite templates (Andrew Martin style).  The clover shape evolved from thrown and altered square dishes made on the potter's wheel.  I have long since left the wheel not that I was ever that devoted to it.  I prefer slab building.

Thrown and altered

The desire to excessively decorate each form inside and out sent me looking for quicker methods of forming.     I scour the shelves at the thrift store for inspiring shapes as well as vintage glass ware with interesting textures. In the basic mold class we cast simple one piece molds from such a prototype.  Some shapes are better suited as a slump mold such a textured candy dish.  The soft slab is laid inside the mold.  Other shapes we cast the interior/negative space to create a hump of plaster that the slab can cover.  Texture can be applied to the exterior with hand carved stamps. I also try out different styles of feet.  If there is a particular foot I really like or I want to make a set of bowls.  I can set up the clay on the hump mold then cast the form with plaster to create a slump mold.

Clover shaped press mold

Secondary molds are those generated from the primary/basic mold.  I fill the basic mold with clay alter it and cast the new form in plaster.  Sometimes multiple parts of the same basic mold or different molds can be assembled together to generate fresh new shapes.

Plaster sets quickly but the subsequent steps to a finished fired form takes weeks.  Each mold takes a week to dry out after it is made.  If you try to use it too soon it will still take days to a week to get the clay to release from the mold.  I play with the mold for another week.  Casting it with different edges or feet.  A third week for playing with pattern. Dry. Bisque. Glaze.  A month later I'll know if the shape works.  Some are prone to warp or distort.  Trial and error can resolve most such problems.  I have the most problems with circular molds.  Reinforcing by thickening the edge usually helps the circle stay true.

Pumpkin Doughnut Muffins

http://www.food.com/recipe/pumpkin-doughnut-muffins-martha-stewart-441904
Hopefully, my image gets matched with the recipe at food.com.  I wonder what other recipes need to be displayed on my dishes.  I picked up this recipe last fall when we were growing a pumpkin.  The prolific mystery squash in the garden this year turns out to be butternut.

The muffins were still good despite forgetting the buttermilk. They're best warm.  The doughnut part happens to be the melted butter drenching post baking and roll through cinnamon sugar.

First Day of School

Pretty excited to get the kids off to school today.  I have a cupboard full of pots to decorate.  They are staying quite damp with all this rain.  I guess I should have taken a picture of the bottoms too!  It's like having decorated 8 pots instead of four.  

Still playing with the ikat pattern.  It's really fun to paint so that it has a tromp l'oeil woven texture.  Thinking I should spend more time in the fabric store.  A trip to Mood in NYC would be excellent.  Perhaps I have been watching too much Project Runway when I start to think of my pots as fashion models while designing the pattern to compliment the form.  

The leaf pattern when fired should reveal a layer of leaves below the sponged straw surface.  I had to force myself to give up the tulip pattern for now.  I guess I'm not ready for the seasons to change.  For someone who paints lots of flowers it's hard to get all wintry in September.  After the kids got home I finished one more piece.  Wheat is a happy compromise from this Kansas girl.

Thanks Mom and Dad!

My parents had the awesome foresight to rent a minivan when they came to visit so we could tool around the finger lakes in one vehicle. Of course anytime I have access to that much cargo space I jump on the opportunity. We hit the ReStore in Corning and found two excellent lower cupboards for next to nothing. They are nicer than my kitchen cupboards. The thought did cross my mind to do an IKEA kitchen makeover and salvage the old kitchen cupboards for the studio. If only there was a store nearby. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a complete kitchen at the ReStore. Now I have a beautiful ten foot counter which holds exactly a kiln load of work or thirty gargoyle masks. My parents enjoyed the temperate climate so much in the basement they purchased and put in more lighting. Had they stayed a few more days I think I could have gotten them to plumb a sink as well.