Clay Times Magazine Volume 14 • Issue 76

Clay art

trends,

tools,

and

techniques

®

TIMES

Volume 14 • Number 3 May/June 2008

James Brooke & Loren Lukens:

Studio Partners for 20 Years

16th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National Naked Raku with Jan Lee Vine Handles & Paperclay Making it BIG: A Step-by-step Wheel Project Another Look at Tomato Red Glaze Formulas $ 7.50 U.S./$9 CAN

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contents

®

TIMES

Clay

May/June 2008 Volume 14, Number 3

LOREN LUKENS PHOTO

Detail of Naked Raku Vase by Jan Lee. To learn more, turn to page 43.

features 34 Partners in Pots: A Perfect Pairing for 20 Years Seattle potters Loren Lukens and James Brooke have developed successful formulas for more than just glazing ...

43 Out of Control: Naked Raku with Jan Lee Handled Platter by Loren Lukens. 14" x 4". Thrown and handbuilt porcelain with multiple sprayed glazes and glaze ‘squirt’ decoration, fired to cone 10 in reduction.

“If you quit being afraid of losing a piece,” says North Carolina potter Jan Lee, “good things will happen.” This is her story.

on exhibit 19 16th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National Juror Linda Arbuckle was faced with the daunting task of selecting pieces from more than 1,000 entries for the nation’s favorite annual show of utilitarian claywork.

40 Dinnerworks 2008 Several potters put their efforts ‘on the table’ recently for this group exhibition in Louisville, Kentucky.

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contents

®

TIMES

Clay

On the cover: Mango Vase by James Brooke.

12" tall, cast porcelain fired in reduction to Cone 10. Photo by Tom Holt.

May/June 2008 • Volume 14, Number 3 Salt & Pepper Set with Tray by Renee Heyer-Starrett

departments

columns

9 EDITOR’S DESK

23 AS FAR AS I KNOW “Tomato Red Revisited”

by Pete Pinnell

Paul Soldner: 87 years and Nothing to Hide!

25 BENEATH THE SURFACE

11 YOUR WORDS Readers offer their feedback & opinions

Large Platter by Frank Massarella

13 WHAT'S HOT

29 TEACHING TECHNIQUES

Clay world news, events, and calls for entries

“Make it BIG! It's Not Strength, but Technique, That Matters”

by Bill van Gilder

33 SLURRY BUCKET TIPS Save time and trouble with these studio-tested tips and techniques.

54 KILNS & FIRING Butter Dish by Jennifer Lawler-Mecca

51 GREAT GLAZES Check out these tried & true formulas in your classroom or studio.

Cheryl Yawata carves one of her lanterns for the holiday sale at Diana Crain’s Tortuga school in Petaluma, California. To learn more about Crain and her work, turn to page 43.

52 THE GALLERY A selection of unique works by CT readers

55 TOOL TIMES “Vine Handles and Paperclay”

by Vince Pitelka

“Know (and Love) Your Clays”

by Monona Rossol

Where you can learn claywork in the U.S. & abroad

62 AROUND THE FIREBOX

63 CLASSIFIED MARKETPLACE

“Cultural Connections”

by Kelly Savino

Goods and services offered especially for active clay artists

6

“Target Bricks: Help or Hindrance?”

by Marc Ward

57 STUDIO HEALTH AND SAFETY

59 POTTERY CLASSES

Works pictured on this page are all from this year’s Strictly Functional Pottery National (see story, p. 18).

“Life Outside the Box”

by Lana Wilson

65 BOOKS & VIDEOS Vase by Chris Lively

“Three Books for Beginners” review by Steve Branfman

7

Visualize ...

S

everal years ago, I was having a discussion with Paul Soldner at a workshop where he was serving as guest presenter. Somehow, our discussion turned to the field of books and publishing, and before I knew it, I’d agreed to publish a series of essays Paul had written in the form of an eventual book.

Upon receipt of the manuscript, I was pleased to find several unusually well-written and well-organized essays on events and topics that have fascinated or somehow intrigued Paul throughout his very colorful lifetime. I was surprised to learn that, along with his wellknown roles as originator of “American Raku” and inventor of the Soldner clay mixer and Soldner potter’s wheel—and his notorious escapades with streaking, hot tubbing, and somewhat scandalous ads and posters—Paul’s lifetime (he turned 87 this year) has been peppered with accomplishments and experiences more colorful and varied than I could possibly have imagined.

I was surprised to learn that Paul was not only raised in the Mennonite religion, but his father was a Mennonite minister. First Sergeant Paul Soldner served as a medic (and conscientious objector) in the U.S. Army during World War II. He took part in the liberation of the Mauthhausen, Austria concentration camp at the end of the war, and brought back home with him several compelling photos he’d taken, depicting the horrifying conditions the prisoners of war had to endure.

Spouting Off I Editor's Desk

Paul Soldner: 87 years and Nothing to Hide

ITEM # MPH-10

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800.231.0397

I also learned that Paul was one of the original innovators of the solar energy movement. He designed and built his own solarpowered home back in the 1950s, when most people had never even heard of solar power. He also was a frontrunner in the use of exposed concrete as a construction material, incorporating its use into his Aspen, Colorado home, too.

After several years of organizational meetings with Paul and his daughter, Stephanie, I’m pleased to announced that the book has now been published and is available for purchase through the online store at www.claytimes.com. The project has grown considerably during its planning and this book is the first in a series of 12 projects we’ll be publishing by or about Paul, to include everything from a collection of his posters and ads to his views on kilns and firing.

With chapters on everything from his amusing encounter with painter Georgia O’Keeffe to his insights into form and the female body, Nothing to Hide is an insightful, humorous, and thoughtprovoking read that will enlighten and entertain. (But please take note: This book is NOT intended for children or the faint of heart, as some nudity and adult content are featured.) Retail distributors interested in offering the book for sale in their stores may contact the Clay Times office at 540.882.3576 for further information.

— Polly Beach, Editor [

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

In the words of Stephanie Soldner Sullivan, who co-edited the book and wrote its introduction, “Nothing to Hide exposes the reader to both [Paul’s] artistic genius and his extraordinary life. Part memoir and part personal philosophy, these insightful, sometimes irreverent exploits recount both important artistic historical events as well as Soldner’s insatiable curiosity and zest for life.”

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CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

Readers’ Letters

If you take some alpha quartz (the stable low-temperature form of silica) and heat it very, very slowly, it will first transform to beta quartz, then to tridymite, then to cristobalite (these are all silica, but they have different crystal structures and different stabilities) until, finally, the cristobalite melts.

The consensus value in the scientific literature for the melting point under these conditions is 1725 ± 10° C (e.g., Hlavac (1982) Pure & Applied Chemistry, Vol. 54, pp. 681-688). This is the true stable melting point of silica, and a value near 1725° C has held up very well since a paper by Grieg in 1927. Now, let’s suppose that instead of heating alpha quartz super slowly, you heat it really fast. You can’t avoid the transformation to beta quartz because no silicon-oxygen bonds need to be broken. But, if you go fast enough, you can suppress the stable transformations to tridymite and cristobalite so that it is quartz that melts, and not cristobalite. The lowest temperature at which this can happen is the metastable melting temperature for quartz, thought to be roughly 1470° C. Liquids produced by melting quartz are ephemeral because tridymite or cristobalite, the stable forms of silica at temperatures between 1470 °C and 1725 °C, will eventually crystallize and consume the liquid. These are, nevertheless, bone fide melts while they last. So, depending on how the silica is processed and what you start with, melting can occur over a wide range of temperatures; but if equilibrium pertains, which is what a phase diagram of the sort discussed by Pete Pinnell usually shows, pure silica will melt at about 1725 °C. For the record, the currently accepted melting point for alumina, which is a secondary standard for the international temperature scale, is 2053 ± 2° C (Bedford et al. (1996) Metrologia, Vol. 33, pp. 133-154). I think the concepts of stability and metastability are worth pointing out, but I certainly understand if you (and/or Pete Pinnell) think this is is too technical for your readers.

Speaking of technical, just in case somebody actually checks the cited references, I converted temperatures to the international practical temperature scale of 1990 (IPTS-90). If you look at Grieg’s paper, he got 1713° C (as I recall) but later changes to the temperature scale bring that number up, and Hlavac et al give 1726° C for cristobalite melting using IPTS-68, but that drops to 1725° C in terms of IPTS-90.

Thanks.

John Beckett

Senior Scientist

Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences

PETERS VALLEY

19 Kuhn Road, Layton, NJ (Delaware Water Gap Recreational Area)

Peters Valley Craft Center offers Ceramics Workshops (May ~ September) with nationally recognized instructors in a professional ceramic studio. Full catalog online.

Peters Valley also offers scholarships and Artist Residencies All the information is at www.petersvalley.org / 973-948-5200

Caltech 170-25 Pasadena, CA 91125 [

Find out full details of the spectacular 2009 Clay Times Potters’ Conference in the Caribbean by logging onto the Web site at www.claytimes.com — Save $100 when you register by June 15 earlybird deadline!

Editor & Art Director: Polly Beach editorial@claytimes.com Circulation Manager: Rachel Brownell circulation@claytimes.com Advertising Manager: Karen Freeman advertising@claytimes.com Accounts Manager: Nanette Greene accounting@claytimes.com Proofreader: Jon Singer Office Assistant: Ingrid Phillips Regular Columnists: Steve Branfman, Books & Videos David Hendley, Around the Firebox Pete Pinnell, As Far as I Know Vince Pitelka, Tool Times Monona Rossol, Health & Safety Kelly Savino, Around the Firebox Bill van Gilder, Teaching Techniques Marc Ward, Kilns & Firing Lana Wilson, Beneath the Surface Contributing Writers: K.T. Anders • Phil Haralam Jean Lehman • Keaton Wynn Published by: CLAY TIMES INC. 15481 Second St. • PO Box 365 Waterford, Virginia 20197-0365 540.882.3576 • FAX 540.882.4196 Toll-free subscription line: 800.356.2529 Clay Times® (ISSN 1087-7614) is published bimonthly, six issues per year. Periodicals Postage Paid at Waterford, VA, and at additional mailing offices.

Annual subscriptions are available for $30 in the U.S.; $36 in Canada; $55 elsewhere (must be payable in US$). To subscribe, call toll-free 1-800.356.2529, or visit www.claytimes.com.

Freelance editorial and photographic submissions are welcome: Please contact Clay Times or visit our Web site for writer’s and photographer’s guidelines.

POSTMASTER: Address service requested. Send address changes to: Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197-0365. Copyright © 2007 Clay Times, Inc. All rights reserved. The material contained herein is derived from various sources and does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. All technical material is offered as general information only and should not be acted upon without expert supervision. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the publisher.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

magazine

®

The comment & reply by Bill Hunt and Pete Pinnell in the November/December [2007 Clay Times] issue suggest to me that there may be some confusion resulting from the difference between a stable melting point and a metastable melting point.

TIMES

Clay

Chemically Speaking ...

Spouting Off I Your Words

ceramic art trends, t oo l s & t e c h n i q u e s

11

Stan Welsh, Dunce (detail)

Juan Quezada, Vase (detail)

Richard Notkin, Teapot (detail)

SUMMER WORKSHOPS 2008 Doug Casebeer, John Neely, Gail Kendall, Alleghany Meadows, Sam Harvey, David Pinto, Joe Bova, Stan Welsh, Mark Pharis, Jill Oberman, Richard Notkin, Tip Toland, Posey Bacopoulos, John Gill, Andrea Gill, Christa Assad, Andy Brayman, Charity Davis-Woodard, Val Cushing, Brad Schwieger, Michael Wisner, Juan Quezada, Mary Barringer, Sam Clarkson, Lorna Meaden SUMMER 2008 VISITING ARTIST Takashi Nakazato

FIELD INTENSIVE JAMAICA

April 25 - May 3, 2008 / John Neely with guest artists: Alleghany Meadows, Doug Casebeer & David Pinto

P 970/923-3181 F 970/923-3871 info@andersonranch.org Post Office Box 5598 Snowmass Village, CO 81615 andersonranch.org

kilns for

potters CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

freedom 2527He– 11.9 Cu. ft., Cone 10

12

23 raku– 7 Cu. ft., Cone 10 Raku, bisque or glaze in Olympic raku gas kilns. The unique firing chamber keeps temperature hot inside the kiln even when opened. Sizes range from 18” to 28” wide to accommodate small to large pieces. Propane or natural gas.

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Olympic commercial electric and gas kilns are heavily insulated (6” of insulation and air space) for energy efficiency and built to last with heavy angle iron frames, stainless steel skins. The electric kilns have options for kiln sitter and limit timer, electronic controller, 480 volts, 3-phase, and 3-zone control.

Olympic DownDrafts are designed to fire on propane or natural gas. Stainless steel or galvanized vent hoods can be added as an option in addition to kiln sitter and timer, electronic control wall unit, pyrometer and blower burners. Olympic commercial electric kilns range in sizes from 5.5-53 cubic feet and the gas kilns range from 9-40 (useable space) cubic feet.

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What’s Hot

Hot Stuff I News & Events

Pictured: Several views of the historic Gladding, McBean terra cotta factory in Lincoln, California, where more than 70 contemporary ceramic works are on view through May 25 for the annual “Feats of Clay” exhibition.

ceramic art world news • events • calls for entries Conferences ‰ SOFA New York 2008, to feature exhibiting galleries and a lecture by renowned ceramic artist Akio Takamori, takes place May 29-June 8 in New York City. Fee: $40; one-day pass, $25. For complete details, contact SOFA; info@sofaexpo.com; www. sofaexpo.com; 773.506.8860. ‰ Community of Fire takes place in Sweet Briar, Virginia from May 30–June 1, 2008 and will feature presentations and discussions by guest artists including Svend Bayer, Robert Compton, Kevin Crowe, Stephen Driver, Victoria Hansen, Mark Hewitt, Micki Schloesingk, and Jack Troy.

Registration fee is $425. To find out more, visit www.kevincrowepottery.com; contact Kevin Crowe at tyeriverpottery@aol.com; or call 434.263.4065.

‰ The International Sculpture Center will present Sculpture in Public: Part 2,

Calls for Entries ‰ The National Cup Show, to take place June 21–August 10 at Barrett Clay Works of Poughkeepsie, New York, is accepting digital and slide submissions through May 15. Entry fee: $30 for three entries; $5 for each additional entry. Leslie Ferrin, co-owner of Ferrin Gallery, will serve as juror. For further details, contact Barrett Clay Works Art Studios and Galleries, 485 Main St., Poughkeepsie, NY 12601; info@ barrettartcenter.org; www.barrettartcenter. org; 845.471.2550. ‰ The Woman Made Gallery of Chicago, Illinois is accepting entries through May 16 for its The Secret exhibition, to take place June 27–Aug. 28. For complete details, contact Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622;

gallery@womanmade.org; www.woman made.org; 312.738.0400. ‰ Digital and slide entries are being accepted through May 16 for the Shelburne Farms 21st Exhibition and Sale to take place Sept. 26–Oct. 19 in Shelburne, Vermont. Entry fee: $15. For more information, contact Holly Brough, Shelburne Farms, 1611 Harbor Rd., Shelburne, VT 05482; hbrough@shelburnefarms.org; www. shelburnefarms.org; 802.985.0324. ‰ The ACCI National Juried Exhibition of Berkeley, California is accepting digital and slide entries through May 30 for its event to take place July 11–Aug. 17.

Entry fee: $30. Jurors are Kate Eilertsen and Suzanne Baizerman. To learn more, contact ACCI National Juried Exhibition, 1652 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, CA 94709; muse@accigallery.com; www.accigallery. com; 510.843.2527. ‰ The SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery is accepting digital and slide submissions through June 1 for its 14th Annual International Exhibition, scheduled to take place July 17–August 13. Entry fee: $30 for three submissions. Juror: Chakaia Booker. Contact SOHO20 Chelsea Gallery, 511 W. 25th St., Suite 605, New York, NY 10001; http:// soho20gallery.com/juried.htm. ‰ Juror Nancy Lindberg is accepting submissions through June 1 for the 6th Around Oregon Annual to take place Oct. 2–30 at the Arts Center in Corvallis, Or-

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

‰ From July 13–17, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in Deere Isle, Maine will present The Language of Craft. The event will feature lectures and panel discussions with artists including Paulus Berensohn, Akiko Busch, Charles Garoian, Janet Koplos, John McQueen, Margo Mensing, Warren Seelig, and Kim Stafford. Registration fee: $310. For complete details, contact Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, PO Box 518, Deer Isle, ME 04627; www.haystack-mtn.org.

Public Art from Oct. 2-4 at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Online registration opens in May; earlybird discounts available through June 30. The conference will offer special exhibitions, panel discussions, and trade fair, along with keynote address by sculptor and installation artist Jaume Plensa. Plensa’s work will also be the subject of a major exhibition at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park. For online registration and complete conference details, log onto www. sculpture.org, or call 202.234.0555.

13

Hot Stuff I News & Events

egon. For complete details, contact The Arts Center, 700 SW Madison Ave., Corvallis, OR 97333; www.theartscenter.net; 541.754.1551. ‰ Artists from within a 150-mile radius of Houston, Texas may submit entries through June 1 for the 3rd Annual ClayHouston Festival, to take place Dec. 5–7. Lisa Orr will serve as juror. For complete details, contact ClayHouston, PO Box 667401, Houston, TX 77401; betsevans@global.net; www.clay houston.org. ‰ Rhonda Schaller Studio of New York, New York is accepting digital submissions through June 1 for Stories We Tell Ourselves, to take place July 12–August 2. Entry fee: $45 for three entries; $5 for each additional entry. Contact Rhonda Schaller Studio, 547 W. 27th St., Suite 529, New York, NY 10001; info@rhondaschallerchelsea.com; http:// rhondaschallerchelsea.com; 212.967.1338.

Crystalline

Glazing

Workshops with

Xavier González

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

June 16-20, 2008 Sierra Nevada College Lake Tahoe, NV www.sierranevada.edu/ workshops Hands on Workshop Throwing Techniques and Crystalline Glazes

14

July 26 & 27, 2008 Boulder, Colorado Potters Guild Crystalline Glazing: Demos and Lecture

To schedule a workshop with Xavier González, call 818.779.0990 or e-mail: xgceramics@sbcglobal.net

‰ Prince George’s Community College of Largo, Maryland is accepting entries through June 1 for its Juried Sculpture Exhibition to take place Aug. 24–Oct. 9.

Juror: Kristen Hileman. For details, contact Sarah Wegner, Marlboro Gallery, Prince George’s Community College, 301 Largo Rd., Largo, MD 20774; wegnersx@pgcc.edu; www. academic.pgcc.edu/artandmusic. ‰ Lillstreet Art Center of Chicago, Illinois is accepting digital entries of functional porcelain works through June 2 for its 1st Annual Lillstreet International exhibition to take place Sept. 1–Oct. 1. Fee is $30 for three entries. Juror: Sam Chung, ceramics professor at Arizona State University. To request a prospectus, send your SASE to James Mitchell, Gallery Director, Lillstreet Art Center, 4401 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, IL 60640; james@lillstreet.com; www.lillstreet.com. ‰ Entries are being accepted through June 6 for the 28th Annual National Juried Fine Art Competition: A Sense of Place. The event takes place Sept. 19–Oct. 17 at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art in Augusta, Georgia, and will be juried from digital and slides by Amanda Cooper, curator of exhibitions for The Arts Center of St. Petersburg, FL. Entry fee: $25 for three entries; $5 per additional entry. For further details, contact Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, 506 Telfair St., Augusta, GA 30901; ghia@ghia.org; http:// www.ghia.org/exhibit.html; 706.722.5495. ‰ Home: The Planet Dreams of Survival, to take place Sept. 5–Oct. 2 at the Rhonda

Schaller Studio in New York, New York, is accepting digital entries through June 7. Fee: $45 for three entries; $5 for each additional entry. Contact Rhonda Schaller Studio, 547W. 27th St., Suite 529, NewYork, NY 10001; info@rhondaschallerchelsea.com; http:// rhondaschallerchelsea.com; 212.967.1338. ‰ Digital and slide submissions from artists residing in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico are being accepted through June 15 for Clay Continuum III, to take place July 29–Aug. 23 in La Veta, CO. Entry fee: $25. For details, contact Clay Continuum, c/o Polly’s Pottery, 1849 County Rd. 521, Walsenburg, CO 81080; pollythepotter @gmail.com. ‰ Hands on Gallery of Houston, Texas is accepting submissions through June 15 from artists who reside in Texas and Louisiana for the August 2008 For the Table Show. Entry fee: $10 for five entries. For a prospectus, visit www.18handsgallery. com, or contact 18 Hands Gallery, 249 W. 19th St., Suite B, Houston, TX 77008; info@18handsgallery.com; 713.869.3099. ‰ Residents of several states including IL, IN, KY, MO, OH, TN, VA and WV are eligible to submit their digital and slide entries through July 3 for the KY7 Biennial, to take place Oct. 18–Dec. 21 in Lexington, Kentucky. For complete details, contact Lexington Art League, 209 Castlewood Dr., Lexington, KY 40505; www.lexington artleague.org; 859.254.7024. ‰ The Arts Council of York County in Rock Hill, South Carolina is accepting digital or photo submissions through July 7 for its 19th Annual Juried Competition to take place Aug. 20–Sept. 21. Entry fee is $30. For further details, contact the Arts Council of York County, 121 E. Main St., Rock Hill, SC 29732; info@alfredmccloud.com; www.yorkcountyarts. org; 803.328.2787. ‰ Woman Made Gallery of Chicago, Illinois, is accepting entries through July 11 for Object of Desire, to take place Sept. 5–Nov. 13. To learn more, contact Woman Made Gallery, 685 N. Milwaukee Ave., Chicago, IL 60622; gallery@womanmade.org; www. womanmade.org; 312.738.0400. ‰ Digital or slide submissions are now being accepted through July 15 by the Art Center of Estes Park, Colorado, for its 12th Annual Lines into Shapes show, to take place Sept. 19–Oct. 4. Fee is $13 per submission. To obtain a prospectus, visit

Nothing to Hide

Exposures, Disclosures, and Reflections

by Paul Soldner

Join us at Clay Times booth #112 at NCECA in Pittsburgh for exclusive daily book signings of “Nothing to Hide”

by Paul Soldner!

The man who revolutionized modern ceramic art with American Raku, hot tubbing, clay conference tattoos, and streaking has now published a limited edition book — the first in a series of fascinating reflections on the extraordinary life of Paul Soldner.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

15

Hot Stuff I News & Events

www.artcenterofestes.com, or send an SASE to the Art Center of Estes Park, PO Box 3635, Estes Park, CO 80517; 970.586.5882. ‰ Digital and slide submissions are being accepted through July 16 for the University of Indianapolis 2008–2010 Sculpture Walk, to take place Sept. 25, 2008–Aug. 29, 2009 at the University of Indianapolis, Indiana. To obtain a prospectus, send your SASE to the Dept. of Art and Design, University of Indianapolis, 1400 E. Hanna Ave., Indianapolis, IN 46227; or visit http://art.uindy.edu.

‰ Pottworks Gallery of Hamilton, Michigan, is accepting entries through July 18 for Artful Drinking Vessels, to take place Oct. 3–Nov. 1.

Entry fee: $30 for three entries; $40 for five.

Obtain further details by contacting Pottworks Gallery, 3765 Lincoln Rd., Hamilton, MI 49419; wmcp@verizon.net; www.pottworks. com; 269.751.5839. ‰ Funeria of Graton, California will host the Fourth International Biennial Ashes to Art/Scattered exhibition from Sept. 26–Nov. 30. Digital and slide entries may be submitted through

WE WANT TO BE SURE THEY’RE SAFE The FIRST glaze company to commit to being 100% LEAD FREE

Aug. 1 and must consist of either non-traditional funerary urns, ritual objects, scattering vessels, or reliquaries. Entry fee: $35 for three entries; $5 for each additional entry.

Jurors are: Nadine Jarvis, Sylvia Seventy, and Adela Akers. To obtain a prospectus, send your SASE to Funeria, PO Box 221, Graton, CA 95444; pros@funeria.com; www.funeria.com; 707.829.1966. ‰ The Clay Studio of Missoula, Montana is accepting submissions through August 1 for its Soda National IV exhibition, to take place Nov. 7–28. Jim Koudelka will jury the show from digital and slide submissions.

Entry fee: $30 for three entries. To request a prospectus, mail your SASE to Hannah Fisher, The Clay Studio of Missoula, 1106 Hawthorne Unit A, Missoula, MT 59802; info@ theclaystudioofmissoula.org; Web site: www. theclaystudioofmissoula.org. ‰ Juror Simon Levin is accepting digital submissions through August 1 on behalf of ClaySpace Ceramic Studio of Warrenville, Illinois, for the Clay³: National Juried Ceramics Exhibition. The show takes place Oct. 24–Nov. 21 and is open to functional and sculptural ceramic art that fits within one cubic foot.

Entry fee is $25 for three entries. For more information, contact ClaySpace Ceramic Studio, 28 W. 210 Warrenville Rd., Warrenville, IL 60555; info@clayspace.net; www.clayspace.net; 630.393.2529.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

‰ Former and current residents of Indiana are eligible to submit their digital entries through Aug. 8 for Clayfest 2008, to take place Sept. 5–Oct. 3 in Indianapolis. Entry fee: $25 for three entries. To learn more, contact Abbey Pintar, c/o Basile Center, Herron School of Art and Design, 735 W. New York St., Indianapolis, IN 46202; apintar@iupui.edu.

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GLAZES INC. 94 Fenmar Dr Toronto, ON Canada M9L 1M5

P.O. Box 874 Lewiston, NY USA 14092-0874

Phone: (800)970-1970 or (416)747-8310 Fax: (416)747-8320 www.spectrumglazes.com info@spectrumglazes.com

‰ The Archie Bray Foundation of Helena, Montana will host its ceramics exhibition, Beyond the Brickyard, in January of 2009. Patti Warashina will jury the show from digital entries of clay works received by the Aug. 15 deadline. Fee: $35 for three entries. For further details, contact the Archie Bray Foundation for Ceramic Arts, 2915 Country Club Ave., Helena, MT 59602; www.archiebray.org; 406.443.3502, ext. 18. ‰ The Wayne Art Center of Wayne, Pennsylvania is accepting digital and slide submissions through Sept. 19 for Craft Forms 2008, to take place Dec. 5, 2008–Jan. 22, 2009. Standard entry fee is $40; just $30 for online submissions. For more information, contact Wayne

Ceramics Exhibitions ‰ Out of Madness – Seven Potters Follow Ohr; Pots by the River: Treasures from the Waynesburg University Collection; and Women with Wood – Three Generations continue through May 18 at the McGuinn Gallery, Heinz History Center, 1212 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Andreson, Peter Voulkos, Ruth Duckworth, Hans Coper, Philip Cornelius, Shoji Hamada, Jun Kaneko, Kanjiro Kawai, Bernard Leach, Kenneth Price, Billy Al Bengston, James Lovera, James Melchert, Mineo Mizuno, Gertrud and Otto Natzler, Lucie Rie, Paul Soldner, Beatrice Wood, and Betty Woodman—most of which is culled from the Marer Collection of Contemporary Ceramics at Scripps College. ‰ Taste of Power: 18th Century German Porcelain for the Table may be viewed through June 30 at Harvard University Art Museums, Busch-

Reisinger Museum, 32 Quincy St., Cambridge, Massachusetts. ‰ Cheers! A MAD Collection of Goblets is on view through August 2 at Museum of Art and Design, 40 W. 53rd St., Wayne, Pennsylvania. [ To list your clay conferences, calls for entries, exhibitions, and ceramic news items in Clay Times, please e-mail announcement details to: editorial@claytimes.com, with “What’s Hot” in the subject line.

‰ Feats of Clay XXI, an exhibition of 70 contemporary ceramic works displayed in the historical (still operating) Gladding, McBean terra cotta factory in Lincoln, California, takes place with docent-led tours on Wednesdays through Sundays through May 25, 9 am-noon. A donation of $10 per person is requested. Reservations are required and early bookings are encouraged as desirable dates fill quickly.

Tours begin at the gallery and are handicapped accessible. Closed-toe shoes are required for insurance purposes. School and club groups can be accommodated with prior arrangements. For further information or to make reservations, call Lincoln Arts and Culture Foundation at 916.645.9713.

Hot Stuff I News & Events

Art Center, 413 Maplewood Ave., Wayne, PA 19087; www.wayneart.org; www.craftforms.com.

‰ David Hendley, Pots and Process is on exhibit through May 30 at the Museum of East Texas, 503 N. 2nd St., Lufkin, Texas. ‰ The Industrial Hand: Tableware Design

by Heather Mae Erickson will be on exhibit through June 1 at The Clay Studio, 137-139 N. 2nd Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ‰ Voices: 2008 NCECA Invitational Exhibition continues through June 7 at the Society for Contemporary Craft, 2100 Smallman Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

‰ Within Two Hands: The Eye of The Collector is on view through June 29, 2008 at the San Francisco Museum of Craft+Design, 550 Sutter Street in San Francisco, California. This show features more than 70 ceramic objects, including works by Laura

Highwater Clays’ new Web store:

WWW.HIGHWATERCLAYS.COM The most comprehensive online potters’ catalog with more than 2,000 items, including The Earth’s Best Clays.

Highwater Clays 600 Riverside Drive Asheville, NC 28801 828.252.6033

Highwater Clays (Florida) 420 22nd Street South St. Petersburg, FL 33712 727.553.9344

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

‰ Eating Wonderland: Recent Works by Sue Johnson will be on exhibit through June 15 at Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, Virginia.

Yeah, it’s something like that.

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2008

Strictly FuNctioNal Pottery NatioNal

by Phil haralam and Jean lehman, Co-direCtors

CLAYTIMES¡COM n MAy/june 2008

Blue Storage Jar

by Jeremy D. Randall, Tully, NY. 15" x 9" x 9".

Electric-fired earthenware with terra sigillata and steel tacks.

18

O

ne hundred and four outstanding utilitarian works selected from more than 1,000 entries comprise the 16th Annual Strictly Functional Pottery National, which opened April 19 and runs through May 18 at Kevin Lehman’s Pottery, 560 South Prince Street, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The show, sponsored by the Market House

Craft Center, part of the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, and the Wayne Art Center, then travels to Wayne Art Center at 412 Maplewood Ave., Wayne, PA for exhibition from May 27-June 27, 2008.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Pitcher by Emily Free Wilson, Helena, MT. 8" x 6" x 5". Porcelain; cone 6 electric.

Clay Times Award of Merit recipient.

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A

merican studio ceramic artists continue to develop new and creative interpretations of traditional craft forms with new techniques, observations, and technologies. The utilitarian object provides the artist with a set of functional boundaries, but does not necessarily define the final work. Some contemporary works focus on design, form, texture, and color. Others express more conceptual ideas like love, humor, and memory. The works may be functional, but they also have the possibility of awakening us to our surroundings—evoking emotions and bringing art and beauty to our daily lives.

The Strictly Functional Pottery National is an important venue for showcasing these new works. We continue to provide one of the most diverse exhibitions of functional work in the country. This year we received more than 1,000 images from almost every state. Onethird of the selected 104 pieces are by first-time applicants. Our show represents the best work from full-time potters, part-time potters, instructors, college students, and graduate students.

Each year, a highly respected artist and educator in the ceramics field is invited to be the exhibition juror. We are honored to have University of Florida Professor and renowned ceramic artist, Linda Arbuckle, as the SFPN 2008 juror. We encouraged Linda to apply her knowledge and experience when jurying our show, and asked her to keep in mind the “Strictly Functional” theme of the show when selecting work. Linda Arbuckle selected an exciting and diverse group from a strong pool of candidates for this, our 16th exhibition.

We are proud of this year’s exhibition, and we are honored to work with the many volunteers who have made this show possible. We are greatly appreciative of our sponsors and friends who have made this show financially feasible. We will continue to work hard and carry this momentum into our 17th year.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Double-Handle Platter by Matthew Hyleck, Baltimore, MD. 2" x 16" x 16". Stoneware; cone 10 gas reduction.

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Deep Brown Bowl by Richard Aerni, Rochester, NY. 7" x 17" x 17". Stoneware; cone 10 gas.

“To me, handmade pottery in the 21st century is all about values. I think the clay community has some very good ones, although we are not a monolithic group. Handmade functional work champions attention and engagement in daily life; this really matters and makes a difference.”

— Linda Arbuckle, Juror, 2008 Strictly Functional Pottery National

Pitcher by Lauren Sandler, Philadelphia, PA. 8" x 5" x 5".

Earthenware; cone 04 electric.

Lidded Pitcher by Lorna Meaden, Durango, CO. 10" x 5" x 4". Porcelain; cone 10 soda.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

“What a Pair!”

by Paula Smith, Rock Hill, SC. 9" x 11" x 7".

Stoneware, earthenware; cone 04 electric.

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Dan Finch Pottery

Tell a story.

Natalie Blake began traveling the world at age 13. From the Caribbean to Indonesia to South America, she absorbed

2008 Fall Workshop

the warm, steamy colors of the tropics. Today, her

Family Affair!

hand-carved pots express a gypsy wanderlust and a simple joy of creation.

Featuring Dan, Justin, & Kathryn Finch.

Tell your story to shops & galleries at the Buyers Market of American Craft.

AUGUST 2-4, 2008 PENNSYLVANIA CONVENTION CENTER, PHILADELPHIA, PA

Enjoy a weekend of multiple points of view with Finch Family Potters.

WWW.AMERICANCRAFT.COM

INFO@ROSENGRP.COM

410.889.2933

The threesome will share their techniques and talents and a southern-style barbeque. Enjoy!

M.F.A. in Ceramic Arts The M.F. A. and Graduate Certificate in Ceramic Arts provide students with skills and knowledge from which to build a strong aesthetic direction.

Resist and Surface Finishes Adam Spector July 25 - 27

KEVIN CROWE Multi-chambered Kiln Wood Firing May 10, 17 and 24 Prelude to Community of Fire Conference

Throwing Large Forms: June 23 - 28 SHAWN GROVE Ceramic Sculpture CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

June 30 - July 12

22

JOYCE MICHAUD Ceramic Decoration July 19 - 31

Master’s Throwing

Registration: $150 Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, 2008.

August 7- 10

UPCOMING SPECIAL EVENT! Ceramic Art Tour of China May 13 - 27, 2008

Hood College Graduate School Art Department (301) 696-3456 � Fax (301) 696-3531 www.hood.edu/ceramics Hood College subscribes to a policy of equal educational and employment opportunities.

To register, please call (252) 235-4664 or e-mail dan.finch@earthlink.net

A

few months ago, I completed a series of columns I’d written on glaze calculation by doing a column in which I used glaze calculation techniques to look into a kind of ironred glaze known as Tomato Red. In that column, I mentioned that tomato reds appear to be distinct from other high-fire reduction glazes by having both magnesium oxide and phosphorus pentoxide in their formulas. The article described how a series of tests showed that both these oxides were essential for this glaze to develop an iron-red color, rather than a temmoku black. After receiving requests from several readers, I decided that it would be fun to take a more in-depth look at iron reds and see if it would be possible to improve on the original formula.

The original recipe is one I was given as an undergrad at Alfred. Every other tomato red recipe I’ve seen is either identical to this one, or incredibly similar. Using UMF (unity molecular formula) and the Hyperglaze glaze calculation program, I developed ten variations of this glaze in order to test varying proportions of the original oxides. In each test, I pushed one oxide either up or down, to the limits possible with this particular set of raw materials.

“TR” stands for the traditional Tomato Red, which I believe is one of Val Cushing’s glazes. It can vary widely in color and texture depending on the firing. In a cooler, faster firing, it can be mostly brown or black (like a temmoku), with just a few small dots of iron-red/ orange color floating against the dark background. A longer, hotter firing with a longer, slower cooling will increase the amount of orange, up to the point when it can become a solid, metallic orange.

1. In the previous column on this subject, tests showed that phosphorus pentoxide

Result: Not very interesting. In two different firings, the glaze was an uninteresting liver-brown color with small, smudgy spots of green.

2. If you’ve ever studied shino glazes, you might have noticed that those containing lithium oxide (Li2O) tend to break into a brighter orange color. Those that are higher in aluminum oxide also tend to be more orange. In this test, Li2O was added at the expense of CaO, to equal the amount of magnesium oxide (MgO) in the unity formula. Spodumene provides the Li2O, along with some alumina (Al2O3) and silica (SiO2).

Result: Even less interesting than #1: brown, runny, slightly flat (less reflective) with some tiny brown dotting.

3. In this test, boron oxide (B2O3) was added, while the level and balance of every other oxide remained the same.

I really didn’t know what this would do. In general, B2O3 can tend to impede crystal growth, and broadens the firing TR Kona F-4 Feldspar Nepheline Syenite Spodumene Ferro Frit 3134 Ferro Frit 3124 Bone Ash Nytal Talc Wollastonite Whiting Magnesium Carbonate Lithium Carbonate Kaolin (EPK) OM-4 Ball Clay Silica Add: Bentonite Red Iron Oxide

45.0

by PETE PINNELL

range of a glaze. I added .1 moles (on a unity basis), or about the amount that would lower the maturing temperature of a glaze about two cones. The B2O3 is being supplied by Ferro Frit 3134, which also provides the oxides of sodium, calcium, and silica.

Results: Practically indistinguishable from the original in color and texture.

This seems to indicate that we might be able to use even larger amounts to lower the maturing temperature to cone 5-6.

4. Like test 2, this one contains Li2O at the expense of CaO, the difference being that the Li2O is provided by lithium carbonate, which (unlike spodumene) contains no alumina or silica. Other than the Li2O for CaO substitution, this formula remains identical to the original.

Result: Orange in places, but with a brown, abrasive surface wherever the glaze is thickest. Surprisingly, this one is less runny than test 2, which contains more alumina (which normally raises the viscosity of a molten glaze).

5. How glossy or matte a glaze may become can be predicted and controlled (to some extent) by manipulating the ratio of silica to alumina in the unity firing. In general, when the ratio of silica

1

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44.7

41.1

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18.1

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CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

This glaze often also has areas of dark purple/brown crystals on the surface, which have a slightly more matte, crystalline texture. My personal preference is the result seen when there is a variety of colors, with a variegated surface showing red, orange, black, and green—not like any tomato I’ve ever seen, but more interesting than a straight metallic orange.

(P2O5) was essential for the formation of the red/orange crystals. In this test, I pushed the amount of P2O5 to the maximum possible with these materials (while still keeping all other oxides the same). We get the P2O5 from bone ash, which also contains calcium oxide. I increased the bone ash at the expense of the whiting (which also provides the glaze with calcium oxide).

Perspectives I As Far As I Know

Tomato Red Revisited

23

Perspectives I As Far As I Know

Tomato Red Revisited

continued from page 23

to alumina rises (within limits), the glaze becomes glossier; when the ratio is lower, the glaze becomes more matte. This test lowers the ratio from 8.6 (SiO2) to 1 (Al2O3) for the original to 6 to 1 (written as 6:1, Si:Al) for the test. In this case, I was wondering if the crystal growth common in matte glazes would help or hurt the formation of red.

Result: The test is a dull, flat to semigloss, slightly greenish/brown color where thin, with dots of orange against black in the field.

6. As I mentioned earlier, my initial tomato red tests indicated that the two essential oxides that cause an otherwise temmoku brown/ black to turn red are phosphorus (P2O5) and magnesium (MgO). This test raises the MgO at the expense of CaO, to the maximum possible without decreasing the P2O5. Remember, we’re getting the P2O5 from bone ash, which also contains CaO. Result: Brighter and more red than the original, with larger, more dramatic variegation. The red and orange dots are large (mostly covering the surface), with smaller dots of black and gray-green interspersed. It is a nice glaze, a bit more dramatic than the original, and was consistent through several firings.

7. I mentioned above that alumina (Al2O3) can increase the viscosity and thus decrease the runniness of a glaze. It can also impede the formation of crystals and other phase separations. In this test, the alumina was decreased to the lower limit allowed by the materials so we could see if the alumina is preventing the formation of red.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Result: Glossy, with orange dots in a brown background: the dots are larger where the glaze is thicker. It is not as runny as I thought it might be, not as orange as the original, but kind of a nice glaze anyway.

24

high-fire glaze, so with this test the level was raised to something like you would see in most high-fire clear glazes. At the same time, I didn’t raise the silica level, so the ratio of Al to Si drops, from 8.6:1 to about 6:1. Note that this isn’t the same test as #5, which lowered the SiO2 to get a low ratio: this one raises the Al2O3 to get the same ratio.

Result: Nice, small crystals and satin texture in places. More brown in tone, and less red/orange overall than the original. An interesting glaze, but certainly not more red or orange.

Cone 9-11 Reduction Custer Feldspar

44.2%

Bone Ash

10.8

Magnesium Carbonate

12.9

EPK

10.0

Flint

22.1

TOTAL

100.0%

add: 10. Sometimes the choice of raw materials makes a difference, so this is simply the same chemical formula as the original, but shifted to alternative materials to see if that would make a difference in either the fired result, or its manners in the bucket. It doesn’t shrink as much as it dries (as the original), since it doesn’t have any magnesium carbonate in the formula. Magnesium carbonate can sometimes cause crawling, so eliminating this material would lessen that possibility.

Result: I really can’t see any real difference in the fired glaze, and it seems to feel fine in the wet form. I used NytalTM talc, which has gone off the market since these tests were mixed, but I doubt there would be any problem using a different brand of talc.

I certainly could come up with a greater range of tests, but a pretty clear picture seems to be emerging, which is that this glaze is pretty well pegged at the ideal proportions (which is not at all surprising for a Val Cushing glaze).

Yes, it is possible to make it different, and test #6 is a very nice glaze. I actually prefer it to the original, but for someone who wants a consistent, overall red/orange, that new formula might not work as well.

8. This one is similar to #7—also with a lower level of Al2O3. Instead of just removing the alumina, I replaced it with an equal mole equivalent of B2O3 (about .09). I didn’t lower the silica, so the ratio of alumina to silica goes up, with a very high ratio of about 11:1 (Si to Al), which often will cause a glossy surface.

Since the final test showed that alternative materials don’t seem to affect the results, I decided to take advantage of that. The original feldspar in this glaze, Kona F-4, is a soda spar that contains a small amount of calcium oxide.

I mixed one more test in which I replaced the Kona with Custer Feldspar, which allows us to raise the magnesium oxide level even a bit more than test #6. That reformulated version appears here as “Pete’s Tasty Tomato.”

Result: Similar to the original, but with slightly more brown dotting and slightly less orange.

It’s also glossier, with less of a crystalline texture on the surface.

There are several conclusions that I’d like you to take away from these tests:

9. In this one, I chose to raise the alumina, rather than lowering it. In the original glaze, the amount of alumina is below average for a

Pete’s Tasty Tomato

The first is that calculations alone won’t tell you the whole story: all calculations need to be followed by repeated testing to find out if reality will conform to theory.

Bentonite

2.0%

Red Iron Oxide

8.0%

Result: Bright red and orange crystals in a brown background with some gray-green dotting. The crystals are larger than in the original, and more dramatic where the glaze is double-dipped.

The second is that testing is most effective if it can be focused into a rational pattern, rather than flinging tests in all directions (which is surprisingly common in ceramics).

All of these glazes worked, and the variation from best to worst is still probably less than I’ve witnessed from this glaze when it is fired different ways. In other words, firing (and cooling!) still probably play at least as large a role as the compositional tweaking I’ve just engaged in.

I haven’t looked into the the division of alkalis to alkaline earths in the flux category, and I’ve barely touched the subject of boron. I have started a series of tests with boron, and in a future column I’ll provide some recipes for tomato red that work well in electric firings at mid-range temperatures.

Pete Pinnell teaches at the University of NebraskaLincoln. He has been a potter for many years and has numerous exhibitions and workshops to his credit. He may be reached via e-mail at: ppinnell1@unl.edu.

Anna Chrietzberg is dedicated to her ceramics and keeps reinventing her life so she can continue to work in clay and support herself. She found living and floating around on

by LANA WiLsoN

boats in England a fine source of material ...

A Bit of History Lana Wilson: How long have you been working in clay?

Anna Chrietzberg: I took my first ceramics class in 1991. I would have taken one the year before but that dang movie Ghost came out, and the ceramics classes were full! I grew up in the performing arts and didn’t take visual arts classes until my second go at college. I started at a university, wasn’t really motivated, and took some time off before going back.

I have a B.F.A. from Texas Woman’s University, which I completed in 1996, and an M.A. from a place that will go unnamed, so as not to bring any publicity to an awful teacher. I had a very nurturing undergrad experience at Texas Woman’s University with John Brough Miller, James Watral, and Susan Mollet, who was a grad student at the time. I only realized later in the chaotic atmosphere of other studios what a wonderful atmosphere Miller fostered. The temperament and expectations of a teacher set the tone for the whole studio, and I’m thankful my formative ceramics experience was in a supportive and sane environment.

thick. I suppose I have suffered the usual amount of rejection. Lately, I’ve been on a roll, so I haven’t thought about the fat rejection file too much. I don’t dwell on the rejections for long, whether they are for writing submissions, shows I don’t get into, or ideas for crazy projects.

What helps me with this is having wide experience with assisting, curating and running galleries, and organizing classes and workshops. I’ve seen people have to say “no” and have been in the position of having to say “no” myself. I certainly wish I had learned how to say “no” sooner!

Wilson: Patterns seem to fascinate you.

What do you use for your patterns?

When I make an inquiry, I try to leave a respectful space for a “no,” and let the person I’m asking know that I am okay with it. When I am okay with “no,” it gives me the freedom to really dream. I have a theatre friend who told me once that she admired the fact that I was okay with not being liked. That’s not an entirely true statement. I, of course, have emotional needs and approval issues, but I also have a fairly well developed attitude of not caring too much. In other words, I have what is handy: a thick skin. I also throw a lot of ideas and projects out there all the time. Usually something hits. By the time the rejection letters or e-mails arrive, I’ve got other strings in the water. I’m not saying I don’t have to deal with a bit of sadness, or low self-esteem; I do. I tend to let those feelings move on through without trying to make myself feel better. I’m self-indulgent, anyway, when it comes to treats and food and clothes and things. I don’t tend to phone a friend to talk about it, because that just seems to keep the negative vibe going, or give importance to it, or perpetuate it if they ask about it again. I mostly let rejection pass and dissipate.

Chrietzberg: I wear a lot of patterns and bright colors. When people are looking to develop their surface, I tell them to look at their favorite outfits and dress their pots to match what they wear. The tools I use to texture clay now are a piece of tin I found on an old rusted-out farm back in 1991, a 200-year-old piece of French patterned glass that a friend in the antiques business gave me, batik blocks I picked out of a barrel in a London market, flooring samples, perforated metal, rubber floor mats, and bisque negatives of some textures.

Dealing with Rejection Wilson: I wish I had kept a file of all my rejections. I assume you have had at least some, too, and wonder how you have handled it? Do you phone a friend, go right back to your studio, mope, or eat chocolate?

Chrietzberg: I do put the rejection slips in a file. Lemme see here—okay, it’s kinda

continued on next page

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

As an undergrad, I was hypnotized by the wheel. Miller said to me once, “Don’t worry, one day you’ll get over the wheel and get around to making art.” That got under my skin, but what he said came true. It wasn’t until after I graduated that I ‘got over’ the wheel. In between undergrad and grad school, I took classes at various studios to keep making pots while waiting tables.

Once I began dealing with the politics in other studios—such as being treated like an outsider by the students who

were officially enrolled in the programs, and really disturbing teacher/student dynamics (including one teacher dating a student half his age who was still living at home with her parents)—I realized just what a great superior environment the ceramics studio at Texas Woman’s University truly was. I never again found a studio where everyone met in the middle of the room to share things for lunch, or if you wanted an impromptu critique, all you had to do was pop some microwave popcorn and put it near or in a pot you wanted to talk about.

Perspectives I Beneath the Surface

Life Outside the Box

25

Perspectives I Beneath the Surface

Teaching & Learning Wilson: When did you first teach clay?

Chrietzberg: There was a wonderful program that started the summer after I graduated from Texas Woman’s University, called “College for Kids.” Miller handed me the gig to teach the ceramics classes. It was a three-week program, with four hour-long classes back-to-back in the afternoon. I had 15 students per class, and really had no idea what I was getting myself into. Since we only had eight wheels, I prepared myself by starting to work with slabs. I was particularly inspired by Virginia Cartwright’s teapots in Electric Kiln Ceramics by Richard Zakin. I started cutting abstract flower shapes from slabs and joining up the edges, and I can now trace shapes that I cut from slabs back to those initial explorations. I also came across a project using paper templates to make forms with built-in handles in an old ceramic projects handbook. I came up with some ideas for other projects and jumped right in.

It almost killed me. By the end of the third week, I was exhausted. I didn’t know how to conserve my energy and I did way too much for the kids. I never ever wanted to see another kid or roll out another slab of clay until I got the children’s survey back and found that I was voted the favorite teacher of the whole program by a landslide. I was shocked and very pleased. I immediately negotiated to have my best friend team-teach with me the next summer and increased the enrollment to 20 per class. My friend and I taught those classes together for the next three summers, until circumstances at the school changed and it was just time to go. That was still one of the best and most successful things I’ve done.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Wilson: Please tell us a bit more about your grad degree program?

26 26

Chrietzberg: One of the worst decisions I made in my life was my choice of grad schools. All I can say about it is that I survived it, barely. I was actually pretty physically ill by the time I got my M.A. Luckily, I met a wonderful English man who scooped me up and took me to England, where I was able to heal myself on a Narrowboat while having amazing adventures.

I gave a couple of slide presentations while in London, and worked out of two different studios, but mainly just faffed about on the boat, creating massive container gardens on the roof, playing with my kittens, and interacting with waterfowl.

Inspiration from Travel Wilson: And your ideas for your pieces come from that experience in England?

Maybe for Butter, Perhaps for Cheese by Anna Chrietzberg. 4" x 9" x 9". Wheel-thrown, altered, and handbuilt stoneware with pinwheel texture from an old piece of tin. Cone 7 oxidation.

Chrietzberg: Yes, some of the groupings are based on my life. I just riff on the memories.

For example, I lived on a boat in England and one summer was spent on the river between Bath and Bristol. Before that I was on a mooring where a duck we named Maude roosted on a friend’s boat. Now the duckess Maude becomes a teapot, and I dress her like Stevee—the woman whose boat she roosted on. I think it’s funny to put a duck in a dory so she can row across to the pub. I’m not attempting to create specific narratives, but to provide characters and accessories that will allow the viewer to create their own narrative. I tend to use longish titles not only because I find it funny, but also to give a cue to the viewer to get a story going in their mind. Essentially I’m amusing myself, and naming things after people, animals, and experiences that are dear to me.

Attention to Detail Wilson: In your work you put several pieces together. How do you get those edges to join and look so clean?

Chrietzberg: Practice and attention, and practice and attention. I am looking for edges that don’t reveal all the digging around required to keep the parts together. Since I am connecting elements of clay that have been moving in different directions, they tend to keep pulling in those disparate directions. I dread cracks, so I do a lot of slipping and scoring over and over to create an interface that will hold things together, but I don’t want that effort and mess to show.

Design Elements Wilson: Form seems so important in your work and grouping of forms. What are your ways of deciding if the form is good by itself, and then, if it looks good with the other pieces?

Do you look for proportion of height to width, do you refer to architectural shapes you see together that look good, or shapes from nature that are wonderful together? Do you use the golden mean (Christian cross height-to-width proportion) for a reference?

Chrietzberg: I wish I were that academic, but I tested out of two-dimensional and threedimensional design, so I was never taught to design things according to rules. I missed out on color theory, too. For better or worse, I just keep working with a form until it looks right to me. Often, ‘right’ means cute or funny. And this is important: I make extra components and use only the best, reclaiming the rest. If I’m working on something complex, like a teapot, I’ll start two that are similar, in case one doesn’t work out. If I get them both, that’s a bonus. The hardest part can be abandoning a piece when something goes wrong or just doesn’t look right, and determining where that threshold is.

Wilson: I have found that to be amazingly important, too—make extra components—and you are so right, only use the best ones. Visit http://earthtoannie.com to see Chrietzberg’s Web page, where you will find many images of her work and some of her downloadable cup templates.

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In Form I Teaching Techniques

It’s not strength, but technique, that matters ...

Necessary Supplies • (1) 2-lb. piece of clay • (1) 3-lb. piece of clay • (2) bats • a throwing/finishing rib tool • a rule or calipers • an undercut stick • a trimming tool • a cut-off wire • a scoring tool • some water and a small sponge Optional • an erasable board and marker

I

n our classroom studios there is often a small group of students who are impressed by the larger pots they view in our subscribed-to clay magazines. They ask, “So, are these pots thrown with one piece of clay?

Do you think we can do that? Will you show us how?”

Get your students’ attention and announce, “Hey, everybody … weigh out and knead two pieces of clay: one 2-lb. piece and one 3-lb. piece. Set up your wheel with a bucket of water, your tools, and get two bats ready.”

1 I sometimes hear a few groans at this point, like, “I can’t throw three pounds of clay!

A mug I can make, but three pounds?” I add to my announcement, “Most of you have thrown a 2-lb. piece of clay on the wheel, and some of you have thrown more than that. This two-piece, 5-lb., larger pot project is going to push your envelope a bit skill-wise, but that’s a good thing. So come watch, and bring your notebook.”

As the class gathers at your wheel, gather the items listed in the preceding “Necessary Supplies” list.

The Project As you sit down at your wheel, tell the class, “I’ve asked you to prepare two pieces of clay: one weighing two pounds and one weighing three pounds. But for my demo, I’m going to use a 3-lb. piece and a 4-lb. piece. The extra weights will make a larger pot (Fig. 1), and it will be easier for you to see what I’m doing.

“I’m going to make one pot using these two pieces of clay. The base section will be made first, using the larger 4-lb. lump. The rim diameter will be measured and recorded, and then the top piece of the pot will be thrown. The rim diameters of both pots, outside to outside, will be identical.”

At this point, it’s helpful to illustrate the project (Fig. 2). Explain, “First, draw the shape of the finished pot you want to make.

Then figure out where the dividing line will be to separate the top half from the bottom half. Now “see” the making of the base piece as a normal, thrown pot. But the top piece?

See it as a bowl form. It’s made upside-down, flipped over later, and attached to the rim of the base section. The rim and neck of this two-piece pot are completed after the two parts are securely attached to each other.

“Beware that the two parts have to dry a bit and set up to be soft leather-hard before they can be assembled. The base pot has to

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

My response is, “Sure, I’ll show you the way I do it—which may not be the method used to make the large pots you’re looking at—but it’s the technique I usually use and it’ll make a good demo for the whole class. We’ll start with a smaller ‘big’ pot just to learn the technique, and you can take it from there.”

2

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In Form I Teaching Techniques

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be stiff enough to support the weight of the top piece.”

Also, describe this rim-forming detail: “Make the rims of both pots rounded, or slightly domed, and extra-wide. This will make the attachment of the top piece to the bottom piece pretty easy.”

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Throwing

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Put your drawing board aside and throw the base part of the project on a bat. Show and describe this method of pulling up the wall of a large piece of clay: “Here’s an easy way to make the first pull using a piece of clay that weighs more than two pounds. After centering and opening your clay, grip the thick wall at the 6 o’clock position with one hand. All your fingertips

are inside the open form with your thumb positioned outside, resting on the wheelhead (Fig. 3). Your other hand overlaps the thumb, palm open, with that thumb hooked firmly over the wall (Fig. 4).

Now squeeze and compress the wall with your “6 o’clock” fingertips against your palm and, at the same time, squeeze the wall between your hooked-in thumb and palm.

Slowly pull the clay upward and slightly inward (Fig. 5). Use plenty of water during this first pull.”

After the first pull, direct students to pull their cylinders upward and slightly outward as they continue to thin and raise the wall.

“Flatten the rim into a wide, flared shape by compressing it between your thumbs and fingertips (Fig. 6). Lastly, use a stiff rib to smooth and shape the outside wall of your

11 base form, and measure the rim diameter.

Do not wire-cut your pot from the bat. That will happen later.”

Remove your bat with base piece from the wheelhead, and attach another bat in its place. Center and open your next piece of clay. Now open the clay all the way down to the bat, leaving no floor. Pull it up into a cylinder shape, similar to the base form.

Flare and widen the rim, then measure it.

Adjust the diameter to be identical in size to the base piece diameter. Lastly, belly

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In Form I Teaching Techniques

the form outward as per your illustrated drawing of the finished form (Fig. 7).

Use an undercut stick to trim a small bevel at the foot of the form. “This will eventually guide your cut-off wire beneath the form very evenly. Like the base piece, the pot is not wire-cut from the bat until later.”

Assembling & Finishing “As I said when I was illustrating the project, both pieces now have to set up a bit. The rims will naturally dry first, but we’ve got to watch that they don’t get too dry. That would make the attachment difficult. If you attempt to stack the forms too soon, while they’re too soft, the base will slump and collapse. Just be aware.”

This next step—the joining of the two parts— takes a bit of nerve, but it’s often a “wow” factor for the class. When your two pots are at the soft leather-hard stage, gather the class at your wheel again. Re-center the bat with the base pot attached, onto your wheel.

“The next step is to lightly score and dampen the wide top rims of both pots. Pick up the bat with the top piece attached and flip it over. (“Wow … that’s cool!”)

Position it as centered as possible onto the rim of the base pot (Fig. 8). Now, wire-cut the top piece from its bat. Remove the bat and gently trim away some clay from the inside base edge of the top piece. Dampen this widened edge and, with a water-laden sponge in hand, put your hand inside the stacked form and liberally dampen the inside rims. (Your students can’t see this happening because it’s taking place inside the pot, so you’ve got to verbally describe what you’re doing.)

Dampen the rim connection at the outside of the form, and with the wheel spinning at a slow speed, squeeze the two rims together, top rim to bottom rim, inside and outside (Fig. 9). Now, slightly increase the wheel speed, and fold the rims upward, tightly against the wall. Again, you’ll have to explain to the class what you’re doing as you perform this step inside the pot.

At the outside of the pot, where the rims now form a large, bump-shaped band, use a trimming tool to cut away that bump (Fig. 10). Dampen the trimmed surface and use a rib tool to smooth the joint (Fig. 11). Shape the final form from foot to shoulder, again using your rib tool.

tt

“I’ve added several small lugs at the shoulder of my form, which are just pieces of “eye candy”—small details to stop the viewer’s eye for a moment. They have nothing to do with the actual function of the jar, but they’re certainly part of the overall visual image.

“So, let’s make it BIG! You can do it. Start small.

Get the technique down, and go for it!”

Bill van Gilder has been a full-time potter and ceramics teacher since the 1960s. He is creator/host of the Throwing Clay DIY Network TV series and teaches functional pottery-making workshops. He may be reached by e-mail at vangilderpottery@ earthlink.net. His potters’ tool line, van Gilder Tools, is available via the Clay Times online store at www.claytimes.com, or by calling toll-free 1.800.

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“The last making step involves completing the neck and rim of the pot. Dampen the top area of your jar and carefully shape the thick remaining clay into a flattened rim. You can use your rib to give it some final definition, but just be aware that too much push-and-pull pressure at this time can cause the pot to slump and lose its nice shape. Be careful.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

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Looking for helpful studio tips? Got some to share? This is the place...

Homemade Bisque Filler

A Clean Edge

I have found a way to fill pits in bisque. I apply air pressure to the pot to expose any defects. Then I dig the hole open and fill it with a mixture of 50% kaolin and 50% alumina mixed with Elmer’s Wood Glue® and a little water. (It should be a little thinner than the original glue.) Next, I apply the mixture to the open hole, and sand the area before it dries. This way, it’s easier to clean up and gets a little bisque dust in the gap, too.

Readers Share I Tips & Techniques

The Slurry Bucket

I’m getting no pinholes! It works even after a glaze-fired item has a pinhole (I’m doing only crystalline glazing). I still fill it with the glue and re-glaze, and the pinhole goes away. This glue mixture is used to attach the base to the pots for crystalline firing, too.

(Note: The water and dry ingredient ratio of 2:4 needn’t be exact; I would say 1 Tbsp. glue mixed with 1 tsp. dry ingredients and ½ tsp. water is a good place to start.)

After pouring glaze inside several bowls and vases I found that if you put wide masking tape on the rim and then pour the glaze in, when you roll the glaze around the edge, it doesn’t spill out!

Sieve Improvements

Another Tool for Sanding

I purchased the Talisman® sieve and quickly discovered what a hassle it was to use when filled near its capacity because all the glaze spilled over the edge, away from the brushes!

So I made an inner collar by cutting the bottom out of a 1½-gallon plastic bucket. Now I can sieve 1000 grams—dry or wet—four times in five minutes.

Tile Grout Sealer Tile grout sealer waterproofs Raku-fired pots of all kinds, from dry mattes to crackles. I have treated many Raku pots with this mixture, then filled them with water and put flowers in them, and they’ve never leaked.

To use, pour the grout sealer into the pot and let it sit for a couple of hours. Pour it out and let it dry well. (I have found that Thompson’s Concrete Seal® works well, too, but it takes many days to seep completely into crackle-glazed pots.)

Thanks to Jack Clift of Reno, Nevada, for supplying all of the great tips listed above! [

FREE CLAY TIMES® T-SHIRT! Send us your useful clay tip or technique to share with our readers. If it’s published, we’ll send you a Clay Times T-shirt. Mail your tips (and T-shirt size) to: The Slurry Bucket, c/o Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197.

CLAYTIMES·COM COM n n MAY/JUNE MAY/JUNE 2008 2008 CLAYTIMES ·

For my ceramic sanding needs, I use hook-and-loop, or Velcro , palm sander pads by Alranet® (pictured above). They are opennet pads that are very flexible and extremely long-lasting.

They can be washed, too, so they’re re-usable. As far as I know, they can be found at specialty carpentry tool supply stores. ®

33 33

partners in

pots A Perfect PAiring for 20 YeArs

LOREN LUKENS PHOTO

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

It looks like a relationship that’s going to last.

It began when, as mere acquaintances, they were both looking for studio space in Seattle. Along with another potter, they leased and renovated what Brooke calls “a crummy run-down building.”

After two years, the third potter left, and Lukens and Brooke just kept going.

“I’ve always had a studio partner since I started being a potter,” notes Lukens.

“I wouldn’t know what it’s like to do it any other way. We were equal partners in the studio, sharing space and dividing all the expenses equally.”

Oblique Teapot by Loren Lukens. 9" x 9" x 3".

Slipcast and handbuilt porcelain with multiple sprayed glazes and squirted glaze decoration, fired to cone 10 in reduction.

TOM HOLT PHOTO

“W

ell, it may not be a perfect pairing,” says Loren Lukens, “but it’s pretty durn good.” He and James Brooke have shared a pottery studio for 20 years. “We’ve been together longer than some marriages,” adds Lukens.

“It’s not as long as I’ve been married, but it’s longer than Jamie has.”

By K. T. Anders

Sea Urchin Globe by James Brooke.

Cast porcelain with lacework slip. 12" tall. Fake ash glazes sprayed with teal accent glaze on bottom.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

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CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

TOM HOLT PHOTO

Pitcher by Jamie Brooke. 12" tall, cast porcelain fired in reduction to cone 10.

TOM HOLT PHOTO

Oblique Bowl by Loren Lukens. 15" x 5". Slipcast porcelain with multiple sprayed glazes and squirted glaze decoration, fired to cone 10 in reduction.

That arrangement ended ten years ago when Loren and his wife, Beth Kirchhoff, a vocal coach and chorus master for the Seattle Opera, bought a former drug store that had been built in the 1940s on the bluffs overlooking Puget Sound.

They moved into a house attached to the studio.

But it wasn’t the end of life with Brooke. They brought him along as a tenant in the 2000-sq.ft. Brace Point Pottery studio. “Jamie’s rent is crucial to paying our mortgage,” says Lukens. “I made a deal with him that I’d never raise his rent. It’s been great for both of us.”

It did, however, change the relationship some. “It’s not exactly a rub, it’s just that his involvement in day-to-day studio stuff has changed,” adds Lukens. “I’ve been putting a lot of money into the place. Understandably, he’s less inclined to want to invest in the space.”

They each have their own work space. Their gas and electric kilns share the 1500-sq.-ft. patio. In a corner of the studio, two spray booths for glazing share the same evacuation fan. “We share slip and glaze mixing equipment, some of the packing room supplies, and general maintenance,” says Lukens. And perhaps most important for all

Is it difficult for two potters sharing space for so long to keep their sense of identity? “I’m sure we’ve influenced each other, but you would never mistake our work for each other’s,” notes Brooke. “We approach it in such different ways.

You have to work it out for yourself—because you don’t want to copy someone, do you?”

Their work does have some things in common.

All those gestural lines, for example. “Yes, we both use lines,” says Lukens. “I saw Jamie’s work before we began sharing studio space and I was drawn to it because it had elements of what I was doing—a decorative style that I think is influenced by the Northwest style that evolved in the 1960s. But over the years, we’ve each made changes in our work. We’ve been together long enough that we’ve seen our work evolve toward each other, and then away. I never really saw it as a problem.”

Being studio partners can be fortuitous when both are learning new techniques. “We got into slipcasting at the same time, and we were working some things out together in the early days,” recalls Brooke. “There was no one to teach us, so we were mixing slip in a mixer with a washing machine pump. Loren would see me blow a mold, and he’d say, ‘Well, we

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

However, both landlord and renter have worked out a comfortable coexistence. “It’s nice to have somebody to talk to,” says Brooke. “And also someone who isn’t going to tear you away from your work. We can keep our heads down and share a conversation and keep working. And if we don’t talk, that’s okay, too.”

those hours together in the same space, they enjoy the same music. “We listen to jazz in the studio,” says Lukens. “We might switch when one of us isn’t around, but fortunately we have pretty much the same taste.”

37

won’t do that again.” Adds Lukens, “We kind of grew up together in the slipcasting thing.

Watching someone else make mistakes is real useful.”

But what about, you know, the green-eyed monster? Don’t they feel a twinge of competition?

“I don’t think there’s any competition between Loren and me,” says Brooke. “We both want and need each other to succeed to keep the studio and our businesses going. The competition that’s going on is out in the marketplace where we are both competing with all of the other artists for display and shelf space.”

LOREN LUKENS PHOTO

Lukens agrees. “I don’t think there is competition in a negative way,” he says. “In a positive way, when we see where one of us is selling, we might think, ‘Oh ... I should be selling there, too.’

We end up selling in a lot of the same places.”

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Aurora Borealis by Loren Lukens.

24" x 4". Handbuilt porcelain with multiple sprayed glazes and squirted glaze decoration, fired to cone 10 in reduction.

38

Brooke and Lukens have both put out a catalogue of their work and both have done their share of the big craft shows. Now Lukens restricts himself to the stable of galleries that he’s been working with for years. Brooke has added craft fairs to his wholesale business since dropping the wholesale craft game. “I pick up about one account a year,” he says. “I choose my shows.

I don’t do any festivals that don’t have ‘art’ in the name. My marketing strategy is that I sell or trade a piece of pottery any way I can: wholesale, consignment, retail at shows. We do a little retail here, and I’ll trade. I used to trade with my barber until I went bald.”

So let’s get to the real stuff—is there a downside in this blissful togetherness? After 20 years, don’t they occasionally grind on each other’s nerves?

Is there any mud-slinging? “We just haven’t had anything come up between us that we couldn’t talk out,” says Brooke. Adds Lukens: “After 20 years, we know each other pretty well. If there is an issue, I know Jamie’s going to stew around for a while, and he knows that if he just waits me out, I’ll settle down. We don’t really get angry.”

This “pretty durn good” pair could probably teach some married couples a thing or two.

James Brooke can be reached at: jamie1brooke@ aol.com. Loren Lukens can be reached at: llpots@comcast.net. His Web site is: www.

LorenLukensPottery.com.

LOREN LUKENS PHOTO

Lukens and Brooke credit their successful sharing of this studio space to their similar tastes in music and the fact that there’s never been a disagreement they couldn’t resolve by talking it over.

LOREN LUKENS PHOTO

Along with their shared gallery and studio space in Seattle, Washington, Loren Lukens and Jamie Brooke also share ideas on everything from slipcasting to marketing.

inspiration & technique James Brooke

Loren Lukens

“i like to use a fluid line in my pots and form is very important to me.

After working for 20 years on the wheel, i wanted to get away from the round form. Handbuilding is too slow, so i began to slipcast many of my pieces, creating my own molds.

“My forms are extensions of traditional pottery brought into contemporary variations. the glazing has a landscape feel—a horizon line, dark color on the bottom, lighter colors on top— although i try not to make it representational. i vary the textures and the opacity of the glazes to provide a depth of field. the eye is brought into the piece with clear glazes, and brought up short with the more opaque glazes.

“My work is inspired by the glaze-on-glaze tradition of Mashiko, named for the town in Japan where the technique originated centuries ago. on the bisqued pot, i use a series of fine syringes filled with different accent glazes to make the flowing lines i call “squeeze art.” i have half a dozen swirling glaze motifs—spirals, loops, slashes—that i mix together and can do freehand quickly.

“Because the surface of the piece is fragile to the touch once it’s sprayed, i do the decoration under the final glaze. i can handle the pot and if i make a mistake in a line, it is easy to wipe away. the fusion of the two layers of glaze melting together gives the pot its final look.”

“i spray multiple overlapping glazes, including a fake ash glaze that gives me the runny look. then i apply my repertoire of squiggles and lines and squirts, using steel-tipped syringes. Mixing propylene glycol for half the water in the glaze mixture extends the drying period of the glaze so i get a longer squirt. i can nuance combinations of matte, gloss, and reactive glazes and tie them all together with the linear elements. i struggle with the notion of applying a skin of decoration over a form—i want decoration and form to be integrated.”

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

“i use a hake brush, which is very expressive, to add a wide stroke of thick, clear glaze. the brush is old and pretty dry, so the bristles are malformed on the end and give a kind of ragged stroke. in the next step, i spray two glazes, used in combination—a gold, high-titanium glaze and an iron-saturated temmoku glaze. the decoration appears in relief underneath the overglaze.

“to cure the warping problems i was having with press molds, i began to slipcast. now about half my work is slipcast; the other half is thrown. slipcast work can look pretty dead—perhaps because the clay doesn’t have that little bit of a give here and there that humanizes it. to give the slipcast pieces a more spontaneous feel, i add pulled handles and various thrown and handbuilt attachments, and i try to keep them alive with decorative glazing.

39

BARBARA TIPTON PHOTO

The 21st annual Dinnerworks show featured handmade ceramic foodware exhibited in dinner-table settings. The works were put to actual use during events ranging from a formal gala and cocktail party to an afternoon tea.

Dinnerworks from studio to table in Louisville, Kentucky

BY KEATON WYNN

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

The Louisville Visual Arts Association has once again honored the ritual of dining, with its celebrated Dinnerworks exhibition for 2008. The choice of Sarah Frederick as curator by Louisville Visual Art Assocation’s Artistic Director, Kay Grubola, was intended to set a new course for this established event, through plans for selection of different curators in years to come.

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After 21 years, the list of artists who have participated in this event is a veritable who’s who of contemporary American ceramics. Sarah Frederick, a nationally-known clay artist from Kentucky who has been producing work for the past 30 years, is 2007 recipient of the Rude Osolnick award for “outstanding achievement in the field of craft.” During her career she has mentored, nurtured, and

encouraged numerous artists through providing employment as well as introducing them to the essential business practices of the studio artist. Through this show she has continued to support young artists by selecting a diverse group of both young and established potters who express her own eclectic aesthetic in the arena of functional clay.

Within all the work selected, a unifying quality was evident.

Whether porcelain, white stoneware, stoneware, or earthenware, all pieces clearly presented a respect for and celebration of the unique characteristics of the materials used.

Artist Michael Imes’s processevident pinched forms touch us on a primal level. They seem to reach back to the origins of

pottery making. Their persistent bowl-like forms, defined by the space between skilled fingers, seem to be the essence of what we call a container. Their archaic, heroic immediacy touches the origins of pot making, while also communicating the properties of malleable clay. Handling the pieces, it is easy to connect with the unique human experience of squishing mud from formless material to purposeful form, within the timeless state of play.

Through use of this ware, this recognition of play nourishes us, just as the food it contains nourishes the body.

Barbara Tipton developed her place settings as sculptural groups that carefully relate the vertical of the tumbler to the horizontal of the plate.

The porcelain forms are an opportunity for painted and appropriated botanical imagery.

Influenced by 16th-Century woodcut illustrations, she has applied them as decals and arranged them on the ware, contrasting the appropriated image with the loose and fluid plant forms she also brushes on the ware’s surface. This results in porcelain forms with a disciplined use of color and elegant line.

All of the 14 ceramic artists, and one glass artist, selected to participate in this year’s event are worthy of the attention this show gives them. Most surprising about this exhibition were the reasonable prices, making the work accessible art that will serve everyday life.

Dinnerworks as an exhibition, event, happening, performance, and party speaks well of the health of contemporary functional ceramics. [

History & Overview Dinnerworks began 20 years ago as an exhibition with a goal of attracting a broad audience to functional ceramics and to encourage people to think creatively about the things they use in their daily lives. The concept was to create an exhibition that would present some of the best functional ceramics being made, in a format that would attract an audience of not only the existing ceramic enthusiasts, but a broad spectrum of the public. By presenting the work in designed table “vignettes,” inspired by the place settings, many people would come to see the table designs to get ideas for entertaining; and in the process, would develop a better appreciation of handmade dinnerware. The format was a success, and over the years, a number of related events have developed.

First and foremost, though, Dinnerworks is an exhibition.

Artists from all over the world have shown at Dinnerworks and it continues to be a showcase for the best in functional pottery. It is an enormous asset to the Louisville Visual Art Association, clay artists and designers, and the Louisville cultural community.

Untitled by Darby Ortolano. Dinner plate diameter is 11"; salad plate, 7"; bowl, 6". Wheel-thrown and altered stoneware glazed with mix of clear glaze and stain, electric-fired to cone 5.

The first Dinnerworks was a one-week exhibition. The Gala was Saturday night. Sunday through the following Friday, the exhibition was open to the public, and then it came down.

This year, the exhibit ran from Jan. 20-Mar. 2, and thousands of visitors attended four events and open visitation times. Annual events associated with the show are each aimed at a different audience: the black-tie “Gala” is attended by many serious collectors and the Louisville art elite. The “AfterDinnerworks” cocktail party draws a young and hip group. The “Tea” has become a wonderful introduction to proper etiquette for many little girls, but it is also a fun outing for girlfriends and couples.

Finally, the “Luncheon” is, for many, a break in a busy day or a way to entertain business associates.

The perfect creative collaboration of art, design, and fine dining—to quote Diane Heilenman, Visual Arts writer for the Louisville Courier-Journal, Dinnerworks “has set the bar for craft as form and function.” Each year we wonder aloud if this Dinnerworks should be our last, for surely the artists and designers could never top this year … and then when next year arrives, they do.

Watering by Barbara Tipton. Wheel-thrown porcelain, 10½" diameter with brush decoration. Cone 9-10. Ceramic decals taken from an image of a French gardener, with altered parts redrawn and colored.

Untitled by Michael Imes. Dinner plate diameter is 11".

Iron stain on exterior; wood-ash glaze on interior.

Pinched and coiled stoneware, reduction-fired to cone 10.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

Over the years, many celebrated chefs have cooked for the Dinnerworks Gala. Eddie Garber, owner/chef of the famous 610 Magnolia, was the first to cook for the gala, and it was a buffet dinner of Paella. Each guest took their beautiful handmade plate and went to an elaborate buffet table. Knowing the importance of the presentation of the food at this first event, the buffet table was lavishly decorated with whole lobsters, crabs, shells, fruits, and vegetables prepared by Garber. He was a wonderful supporter of the arts, and a great friend to the Louisville Visual Arts Association. He actually flew in from Paris to cook for the party that first night, and then flew back to Paris the next day! By the following year, the meal had become a formal sit-down dinner, and the event has continued to attract renowned artists, designers, and chefs throughout the years.

41

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The front-loading Iguana is easy on the back muscles.

With the optional 22” high stand, the interior floor is a comfortable 34 ½” high.

• Saves electricity with 3” firebricks.

• Proportional power elements for more even heating • Heavy-gauge steel completely covers the bottom under the firebricks.

The Paragon a standard IguanaIguana plugsplugs into ainto standard • 1 ½” air gap between the The Paragon switch box and kiln. socan you fire canitfire onoutlet the outlet 6-50R6-50R outlet,outlet, so you onitthe Electrical components stay most studio most studio kilns already kilns already use. use. cool and last longer.

• Sentry 2.0 digital controller with controlled cooling • Available in 200, 208, 220, 2011 South Town East Blvd., 240, 480 volts, Mesquite, Texas 75149-1122 1 and 3 phase 800-876-4328 / 972-288-7557 Call or email for a free Toll Free Fax 888-222-6450 www.paragonweb.com catalog. See your local Paraparagonind@att.net gon dealer.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Scott Creek Extruders

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Out

Of

Naked Raku with Jan Lee

BY K.t. ANDERS

t

hose are the words Jan Lee uses when she talks about her process of naked raku. Before you blush, let’s be clear that Jan Lee is not in the buff when she fires raku. Naked refers to the surface of the finished pot, which is fired with both slip and glaze on it, but which, once cooled, peels off its outer layers like a shirt to reveal the naked pot beneath.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

“

Fire hot, fire cold. See the dimples. Hear the crackle.

Hope to peel. Burn the hand and crack the pot. ‘It’s all my own,’ I say to myself. ‘Go ahead! No one has to see the work. It belongs to you.

Do what you please.’ And I do!

“

TIM BARNWELL PHOTO

Expanded Form. 7" x 6". Ball clay terra sigillata. Wally’s Resist Slip with overglaze splashed on after slip layer dries overnight. Overglaze consistency is thicker than for poured application. Fired to 1325º F. Heavy reduction on wood shavings; cooled and peeled.

43

Expanded Form with Lid. 9½" x 8½". Ball clay terra sigillata tinted with crocus martis (½ tsp. per cup).

Heavily reduced in wood shavings, then cooled and peeled.

B-mix, a smooth clay, and I rib all the throwing lines out of the form, refining the surface as much as possible. That’s the only part of this process I can totally control.”

TIM BARNWELL PHOTO

When the pot is bone-dry, Lee pours either a white or an orange terra sigillata over it. “I use a big metal pan on the wheelhead, put the pot on a glass jar in the center of the pan, and pour the sig on as the wheel turns.” She then lets the pieces dry and bisque fires to cone 08.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

The result is a buttery-soft, unglazed surface marked with smoky crackle lines similar to those in regular raku, yet more subtle and diffused.

It’s a firing process in which the potter has little control of the outcome, and that’s exactly why Lee loves it. “It’s all about experimentation,” she says. “I thrive on the anticipation of the unknown and the adventure of getting there. You never know what will happen. I love the uncertainty and the excitement. When I fire, I just give it up to chance. If you quit being afraid of losing a piece, good things will happen.” Lee was not always into such risk-taking. She was raised on a farm in western North Carolina, and her first introduction to clay was when she and her young friends slid down the muddy clay banks of an old farm road they called The Clay Road.

44

“The word clay was in my vocabulary probably ever since I learned to talk,” she says. It wasn’t until college, however, that she ventured into ceramics. She dug some clay from the pit where her grandfather watered his horses, processed it at school, and fired some pots. “It was a beautiful, soft pink at cone 02,” she says. “Tat was my first interest in unglazed clay surface.”

That interest lay mostly dormant as she focused on teaching art, painting, and jewelry making. When she finally gave in to the lure of the wheel, she made functional pots—

earthenware, majolica, cone 6 stoneware, and high-fired reduction pieces. For 25 years, she sold functional pots in her own shop. “But I always kept a little time for myself to do the experimental work,” she confesses. “On the side I was doing some naked raku, saggar firing, and pit firing, all unglazed.”

Then she decided to forego the functional work and follow her heart. “It was hard to give up the shop,” she admits, “but I felt that it was time to narrow my focus and I wanted to spend my time in the studio experimenting with unglazed surfaces. At first I felt really guilty about giving up functional work, but I knew that I needed to do what felt right for me.

This work feels like it’s really mine. It speaks to people of the beauty of natural surfaces. I love the excitement. It keeps me young.”

the naked ProCess Like all pottery, naked raku begins with the form. “I’ve always been pretty much of a purist with form,” notes Lee. “The form has a lot to do with how the crackle comes onto the pot.” She favors the high-shouldered, necked-in globe because it’s the best canvas for the most variety of crackle. “I really control the surfaces of my forms,” she explains. “I work with Laguna cone 5

The first step after the bisque is to apply resist slip, which acts as a barrier layer between the pot and the overglaze. “You get a lot of variation in crackle lines according to the thickness of the resist slip,” Lee explains. “If it’s thick, it blocks out the carbons, so you get less black.

Where it’s thinner, it allows more smoke into the cracks.” She makes up various batches of resist slip, measuring the specific gravity to make it denser or thinner.

The resist slip is poured on, never brushed.

She may do one, two, or three layers of the slip, waiting until the wetness disappears before applying the next layer. After the shine has gone out of the slip, she pours on a thin layer of overglaze. Areas that she wants to be completely black are waxed out before applying the slip and overglaze.

As a precaution against pots blowing up in the raku kiln, Lee takes out any residual moisture in the pieces by heating them in her electric kiln before placing them in the raku kiln. She fires the raku kiln to about 1325º F, more or less, depending upon the thickness of the pot, the glaze, etc. “The trick is to remove the pot from the kiln when the surface resembles an orange peeling—sort of lumpy,” she explains.

“You don’t want that shiny surface you wait for in regular raku because then the glaze won’t peel.”

The pot goes quickly from kiln into the reduction trash can. Lee uses wood shavings as a base and piles more shavings on top. “Wood shavings give the best blacks,” she notes. The lid is put in place and stays on until the pot is cool enough to remove with gloved hands. “It

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

TIM BARNWELL PHOTO

Altered Bottle. 15" x 5½" x 4½". OM-4 ball clay terra sigillata. Slip and glaze are peeled after cooling. The bottle was thrown without a bottom, squeezed into oval, then the floor was added after the clay stiffened somewhat.

45

Covered Jar. 11" x 7". Orange terra sigillata; four layers of Wally’s resist slip; one layer of Overglaze (recipe on p. 47). Very heavy reduction in wood shavings.

can take up to an hour,” says Lee. “I’ve cracked some really good pots by taking them out too soon.”

At this point, the pot looks as if it’s falling apart.

The outer glaze has cracked and the resist layer, which has kept the glaze from adhering to the pot, has started to release, allowing the glaze to begin peeling away. The glaze is literally in pieces, flaking off the pot. “Most of the time, it just falls off,” says Lee. “Sometimes I have to flick off some of the areas with an old credit card.” Where both the glaze and resist layer have cracked, smoke has seeped through into the clay body to form the markings. To finish the pots, Lee coats them with Trewax® and buffs them with a soft cloth.

Lee calls the whole naked raku process ‘Black Magic.’ “After working with the process for several years, there are still those moments that I can’t fully explain,” she says. “All I know is that when it works for me, it is truly magical. The surface of the naked pot is just like silk—it’s so wonderful. My husband teases me, asking, ‘Are you going to caress that pot all night?’”

It’s the natural look of the unglazed pot that Lee likes so much. “I was never really satisfied with the surface of my pots until I began doing naked raku. I always felt that they were artificial surfaces put onto the pot. Now the surface and the pot seem to be one.”

TIM BARNWELL PHOTO

Lee says she loses a lot of pots, but she doesn’t mind. “I’m willing to let them go. Some of my losses are self-imposed because I’m experimenting. I take the pot out of the reduction barrel before it cools and it cracks. I mist it when it’s red hot and it cracks, or when I lift it out of the reduction barrel for a few seconds to quick cool, and it slips from the tongs! All these techniques can give you some fantastic crackle lines, but you first have to be willing to take the risk—to give up the pots.”

46

Jan Lee lives in North Carolina. She can be reached at raku2day@yahoo.com.

“

“

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Obviously, naked raku is not for sissies.

After working with the process for several years, there are still those moments that I can’t fully explain. All I know is that when it works for me, it is truly magical.

Left: A pot during the process of peeling— truly “magical”!

Right: As slip and glaze layers are peeling, a clump of wood shavings still remain clustered around the bottle neck. Ball clay terra sigillata was tinted with crocus martis(1/2 tsp. per cup).

Expanded Form. 6" x 5". Ball clay terra sigillata. The neck was waxed before application of resist slip.

The variation in crackle comes from using more than one layer of slip underneath the overglaze.

BaLL cLay TeRRa SigiLLaTa 28 lbs. Water 14 lbs. Ball Clay 3½ Tbsp. Sodium Silicate Let settle 48 hrs. Decant. Apply by pouring, dipping, or spraying.

ORaNge TeRRa SigiLLaTa 14 lbs. Dry Clay (Orangestone from Highwater Clays) 28 lbs. Water 3 tbsp. Sodium Silicate Let settle 6-7 hrs. Drain off all but sludge. Store uncovered and check with hydrometer until mixture has evaporated to a specific gravity of 1.15 - 2.0. Apply by spraying or pouring.

Orange terra sigillata can be diluted with the above ball terra sig mixture for a lighter color. The ball terra sig can be altered with small amounts of crocus martis for a pinkish color that sometimes reduces to a beautiful blue under the resist/glaze layer.

WaLLy’S ReSiST SLip Highwater Raku Clay (dry) EPK Silica

50.0 % 30.0 20.0

TIM BARNWELL PHOTO

OveRgLaze LayeR (Fire to 1325º F) Gerstley Borate Frit 3110

35.0% 65.0 TOTAL

100.0 %

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

TOTAL 100.0 %

47

cruisin’ for clay 200

HOW DO THEY DO IT? Find out along with a boatload of fun potters on the second annual Clay Times® Cruise to the Caribbean!

Jan. 11-18, 2009 & Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands Earlybird Registration Now Open—Save $100 thru June 15!

View complete conference details at www.claytimes.com

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

susan fil ey

48

tom coleman

elaine coleman

bil van gilder

xavier gonzalez

REGISTER ONLINE AT

n-loving

WWW.CLAYTIMES.COM

09 guest artists

     

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Stamped Platter by Rick McKinney.  

Visit www.MKMPotteryTools.com 

Wholesale: Fax: 920-830-9394   Voice: 920-205-2701  Retail: Your local distributor.  

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The Steve® Tool

50

Distributors Welcome

CLAYTIMES·COM ■ MAY/JUNE 2008

TM

Distributors Welcome

OneTexture Tool - Many Wild onResults Pots! www.graberspottery.com One Tool – Many Results

How to use it? See Athena throwing www.graberspottery.com sample pots on our website.

How to use it?

See Athena throwing sample pots on our website.

Great Glazes

Share your glaze with us! If it’s published, you’ll earn a FREE Clay Times T-shirt! Send glaze recipes, photo of glaze (if you have one), and your T-shirt size to: Great Glazes, c/o Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197.

Cone 6 Clear

“Batman” Satin Blue

cone 6 oxidation

cone 8-10 from Byron Temple’s personal glaze book

Feldspar (G-200 or Custer) Ferro Frit #3134 Kaolin (EPK) Silica (325 mesh) Wollastonite Talc TOTAL

20% 20 20 19 15 6

Potash Feldspar Kaolin (EPK) OM-4 Ball Clay Whiting Talc

100%

• Use thinly (gets cloudy if thick).

54% 5 25 8 8 TOTAL

100%

add: Cobalt Carbonate

1%

• Good over colored slips or underglaze pigments.

van Gilder’s Decorating Pigments to be brushed over glazes cone 6-10

Gold/Bronze Metallica*

These pigments are best brushed over white or light-toned glazes and fired in the cone 6 to cone 10 temperature range.

*NOT food safe! cone 6

Khaki-type Rust/Brown

Red Art Earthenware OM-4 Ball Clay Silica (325 mesh) Manganese Dioxide Black Copper Oxide Cobalt Carbonate TOTAL

48% 4 4 36 4 4 100%

• For sculptural work only; unsafe for surfaces that contact food.

Yellow Ochre Rutile Red Iron Oxide

1 tsp.

1 tsp.

1 tsp.

• Add to ½ cup of the sieved liquid glaze onto which you will apply brushwork. Stir well.

• Add water to thin as needed so pigment flows easily from the brush.

• Use appropriate safety precautions, such as wearing gloves, when handling Kaolin (EPK) 1 tsp. all manganese-based materials.

Cobalt Oxide 1 tsp.

All recipes are given in percentages (by weight). Results Red vary Iron withOxide clay bodies and firing conditions; 4 tsp. always beifsure you’re • Willtest flowfirst andtorun applied toohappy thickly.with the results. To mix a glaze batch to store in a 5-gallon bucket, multiply each percentage ingredient by 50 grams (for •a Mix half-bucket and thin with with room water,for as dipping) above. or 100 grams (for a very full bucket). It is the responsibility of the user to have glazes tested for stability.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/junE 2008

Blue Pigment

51

Readers Share I Art Works

The Gallery

Cody’s Urn. 11" x 8" x 7". White stoneware, handbuilt with cut-in lid and thrown knob. White and red terra sigillata; pit-fired. Lauren Bellero, Mudslingers Pottery, 39 Leroy Place, Red Bank, NJ 07701.

E-mail: mudslingers@att.net; Web site: mudslingerspottery.net.

Turtle Teapot. 10" x 11" x 8". Wheel-thrown and altered body with handbuilt appendages and airbrushed underglaze, fired to cone 06 & 04 in oxidation. Eileen McDaniel, 318 S. Park Ave. #1, Aztec, NM 87410. E-mail: theteapotlady@live.com.

Floral Bowl. Wheel-thrown stoneware/porcelain mix with white glaze and handpainted stain decoration, oxidation-fired to cone 6. Sandy Kreyer, Kilnhouse Pottery, 780 Avenida Codorniz, San Marcos, CA 92069.

E-mail: QueenCrmcs@aol.com; Web site: www.kilnhousepottery.com.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

GEORGE POST PHOTO

Vase. 5¼" x 5¼" x 8¼". Porcelain, wood-fired to cone 10.

Kevin McCreary, 1984 Arndale Rd., Stow, OH 44224.

E-mail: mccreakr@yahoo.com.

52

Readers Share I Art Works

The Gallery

Such A Clamor! Slab-built porcelain; layers of wash and matte glazes; fired in oxidation to cone 04. Richard Nickel, c/o Art Dept., Old Dominion University, Visual Arts Bldg. #203, Norfolk, VA 23529-0186. E-mail: rnickel@odu.edu.

Vase. 7" x 4" x 14". Tenmoku-glazed stoneware fired to cone 10 in a reduction atmosphere. Chris Rupp, 955 La Paz Road, Santa Barbara, CA 93105. E-mail: crupp100@hotmail.com.

Dragon Oil Candle. 20" x 16½" x 10". Thrown, altered, and carved stoneware mixture with wiped iron oxide finish and glazed eyes. Fired to cone 5 in oxidation. Christy Crews Dunn, 230 Clark’s Farm Rd., Keysville, VA 23947.

E-mail: ccdunn@mail.kerrlake.com; Web site: christycrewsdunn.com.

To have your work considered for publication in The Gallery, please send a high-quality color print, slide, or 1050-x-1500-pixel digital image to: The Gallery, Clay Times, P.O. Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197. Please include your name, address, telephone number, Web and/or e-mail address, type of clay, glaze, firing method, and dimensions of the work. (Enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope for photo/slide return.)

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

On A Pedestal. 11" x 7" x 7". Wheel-thrown, altered, and incised; pit-fired.

Jackie Lanier, PO Box 7814, Jupiter, FL 33468-7814.

E-mail: jlanier2@bellsouth.net.

53

Shop Talk I Firing

Target Bricks: Help or Hindrance?

BY marc ward

Protecting Your Equipment Through Sensible Heat Distribution

O

ver the past dozen or so years, I’ve seen the use and overuse of a particular type of kiln fixture.

When I first caught the clay bug 35 years ago, I don’t recall even seeing these little critters. Now they seem to be everywhere.

Sometimes they help; sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they even cause problems. But somewhere along the line, folks have become convinced that they have to use these guys. So, what is this mysterious element? It’s the little ’ole target brick.

When you have a kiln with two burners (usually facing forward and located on either side of the flue and chimney), many folks feel the need to stand up a brick in front of the flame to deflect heat upward.

This appears to be a recent phenomenon in the last 20 years or so. It can work fine in many situations, but I believe its use is questionable in most kilns.

Here’s a taste of one of my typical phone conversations on this subject: “I seem to be going through thermocouples. Sometimes, a new one only lasts for one firing.”

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Target Brick Placement

54

The first thing I ask when I hear this is, “Do you have target bricks?” When the answer is “yes,” we start talking about distance from the burners, and it’s usually the case that the target bricks are too close to the burners. This closeness creates excessive back-pressure at the burner ports and fries the thermocouples, which are attached to, and control, the safety—or Baso—valve. I generally tell my customers not to place a target brick any closer than 18 inches from the burner. If it is a forced-air burner or a Venturi burner running high pressure with lots of flame velocity, 24 inches is a

better distance. Now, if your kiln is 27" or 36" deep, what’s the point of this? Well, people tell me it’s to get the heat to move up in the kiln. I tell them that the bag wall and adjustments to that bag wall will do the same thing.

Bag Wall Adjustments If you’ve been using target bricks and the kiln is firing great, I wouldn’t change a thing. But if you’re having problems with failing thermocouples, or the kiln does not fire at an even temperature, I’d pull those target bricks out of there and start focusing on your bag wall. A good place to start with a bag wall is one with three courses laid on the 4½" side. This wall will be 13" tall with some spacing between the bricks. Start out by leaving about 30% of the wall as gaps between bricks, with the remaining 70% comprised of brick.

Make the bottom course the tightest, with the second course a little looser, and the top course the loosest. This is just the start. It may take 6-8 firings to get a good feel for what’s happening in the kiln. Make sure you place plenty of cone packs around to indicate temperature differences. Think of the bag wall as stones in a stream: they’re there to divert the flow.

Balancing Kiln Temperatures If the bottom of the kiln is cold, you would open up the gaps in the bottom to allow more of the flame to enter the load in that area. If the top is cold, you might want to add another course to the bag wall, and tighten it up a little to force the flame to go higher in the kiln. But, by far, the most common problem I hear about is a stack of ware that’s hot in the middle.

I refer to this as a “short circuit” (no, not the electrical kind of short circuit, but a

shorter circuit as opposed to a longer circuit). Ideally, you want the flame to enter the bottom of a downdraft kiln, go to the front of the kiln, come up to the top, then work its way down through the ware and exit at the bottom again. When the middle of the stack is hot, the flame is entering the kiln, jumping up to the top of the bag wall, then running through the middle of the stack and dropping down the back wall and out the flue. To stop this, add a little more dampering to slow the velocity, and add some extra height to the bag wall.

I know that there are other configurations.

Updrafts, burners on the side, burners underneath facing up, burners in the front, and that particularly English configuration—the downdraft with one burner in the front on one side, and one burner on the back on the other side. I personally prefer the downdraft design with two burners in the back on either side of the chimney. The reason for this is the flame path I mentioned in the previous paragraph: back to the front, up, through, and down. This is the very longest flame path that can be achieved in a kiln. The longer the flame path, the longer the flames and hot gases are in the kiln. The longer this juice is in the kiln, the more energy available for transfer to the ware.

This is efficiency. It’s getting more expensive, gang, so get the most out of your fuel! [ Marc Ward is owner and operator of Ward Burner Systems, PO Box 1086, Dandridge, Tennessee 37725. He invites you to sign up for his free newsletter, and can be reached by phone at 865.397.2914 or through the online catalog and Web site at this address: www. wardburner.com.

Used kitchen appliances offer a clever solution for unusual challenges in the potter’s studio.

T

his column is devoted to a pair of minor inventions that I think are fairly clever, but may appeal to others as worthy of the Rube Goldberg hare-brained invention of the year. Both of these offer solutions to challenges we have faced here in the clay studio at the Appalachian Center for Craft, and I am hoping that they will prove useful to others. If you put either of these to use, I’d love to hear your feedback.

A Simple Steamer to Bend Vine Handles If you go to the trouble to make fine teapots, don’t settle for ordinary handles. Your options are numerous.

There is a variety of thin cane materials that can be bent into shape after soaking in water. Tony and Sheila Clennell have done an excellent video on the subject. But some other materials, such as thicker cane, natural vines, and various woods, need to be steamed before bending. A student

of mine named Graham Richardson has been making handles from natural vines, and wasn’t satisfied with the degree of flexibility achieved by soaking in hot water, so he came up with a clever solution. He and I talked it over, and he went through several versions of the device before coming up with the one described and pictured here. This thing is about as simple as it can possibly be, and it works very well. The steam generator is an inexpensive Black and Decker vegetable steamer minus the lid. Search Google® online for “Black and Decker Food Steamer” and you will find them brand-new for around $25. One of the important features of this steamer is the 75-minute timer with an alarm bell, although I can’t help but wonder if anyone would really want to steam vegetables for that long. (Well, yes, in hospitals and school cafeterias in order to blanch away every trace of flavor and nutritional worth, but they use big industrial units.)

The steaming chamber is an inexpensive plastic storage box, available from

by VINCE PITELKA

any home-improvement center or department store, of whatever size and shape is appropriate for the materials you wish to steam. Cut a hole in the bottom a little smaller than the top of the vegetable steamer, and place an inexpensive wire roasting rack over the hole in the bottom of the box to elevate the materials being steamed and encourage good circulation. A row of 3/8" holes drilled in either end of the box allows the steam to escape and further improves the circulation.

Don’t fasten the plastic storage box to the top of the vegetable steamer. Just let it sit there by gravity. You don’t want to do anything to confine the steam pressure. In this case, if pressure were to start to build, the box would simply lift off the steamer and release the pressure, so there is little risk. Do avoid contact with the hot steam, of course.

In practice, place your handle-making materials in the storage box, snap on the lid, fill the steamer reservoir with water, place the box on top of the steamer with the holes aligned, and set the timer to turn on the steamer. We have found that 20-30 minutes is enough to soften smaller vines, but larger ones may require the full 75 minutes or longer. Once the materials have softened, bend them to the desired curvature, tie the ends with twine to hold the bend, and let them dry.

When walking through the studio recently, I found one of our students tearing toilet paper into tiny bits in order to make paperclay slurry for repair of a dry piece. She was only making a small quantity and already had enough torn paper to make her continued on next page

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Making Paper Pulp in Volume

Thick cane, natural vines, and various woods can be easily shaped after steaming in this homemade device, consisting of a Black and Decker Food Steamer® paired with an inexpensive lidded storage box.

Shop Talk I Tool Times

Vine Handles and Paperclay

55

Shop Talk I Tool Times

A roll of toilet paper is rigged to feed into a used Vita-Mix blender for automatic processing of bulk paper pulp to make paperclay mending slip.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

pulp, so I left her alone. But for making larger amounts of pulp, a standard countertop kitchen blender works well, and the more powerful, the better. I’ve been a breakfast smoothie addict most of my life, and many years ago bought an old stainless steel VitaMix blender on eBay. These things have about two horsepower and are indestructible. It was a great improvement over the standard home kitchen blender, but I wasn’t entirely happy with the early VitaMix. Several years ago I invested in a newer model, which does a far better job on smoothies. The older one eventually ended up in my studio at the Appalachian Center for Craft, and we use it for making paper pulp for paperclay.

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For our needs, toilet paper (TP) works well, and until recently I simply filled the blender with water, snapped on the lid, turned it on, and fed torn-off wads of paper down the vertical feed tube. One day it occurred to me that the streamlined, flared opening of the feed tube on these old units might allow for a self-feeding operation.

I poked one end of the TP into the feed tube of the blender and held the roll above with two fingers in the cardboard tube, and the blender sucked in the TP with enough force to rotate the roll.

I improved on this system with a simple holder for the TP roll. If

you want to try this, go to the local building center and get a cheap TP holder (select the one that spins most easily). I mount the holder on the shelf above the blender as pictured on this page. With the blender reservoir ¾ full of water and the lid snapped in place, I turn the blender on high, feed the end of the TP into the tube, and just stand back and watch until I hear the motor starting to bog down a bit. When that happens, I stop feeding paper and let the blender run for another minute or so to thoroughly pulp the paper.

It doesn’t take very long, so you do need to monitor it closely. In several minutes from start to finish it will make enough loose, wet pulp to fill a 10" kitchen sieve. This pulp is very thoroughly divided, and ideal for making paperclay or repair slurry.

Because these old Vita-Mix blenders are so well built, they command a good price used. You can find them on eBay for under $100, and if you are serious about making pulp, they are well worth the investment. Many of the ones that sell on eBay are

missing the original wood plunger, but you don’t need that for making pulp. However, you must ensure that the lid is otherwise intact. It has a rubber gasket around the bottom (replacement gaskets are available), a snap-down clip on either side, and a removable clear plastic feedtube that fits snugly in the opening at the top of the lid. The feed tube extends down inside the blender reservoir several inches and almost completely eliminates spattering.

The flared opening allows for the self-feeding operation, so make sure that the feed-tube is included.

With these two devices in your studio, you can also make steamed vegetables and milkshakes—but be sure to wash them out well, first!

Vince Pitelka is professor of clay at Tennessee Technological University’s Appalachian Center for Craft, an active participant on the Clayart Internet discussion group, and author of Clay: A Studio Handbook. You can contact Vince through his Web site at http://iweb. tntech.edu/wpitelka.

Even materials that seem harmless—like the clay you can dig from your own backyard—can pose serious health hazards ...

I have a reverence for clay—all clays. I like the feel, the look, the smell, and especially the unique way each behaves when you work with it. Some clays are smooth and slippery for good wheel-throwing.

Some are rough and groggy, and make beautiful textured surfaces when used in handbuilding. Some stand up stiffly, while others sag at every opportunity.

Provided they fire properly, there are no “bad” clays. They just have different personalities.

Each clay tells you what it wants to do.

MY WORK As a potter, I felt it was my job to listen to the clay and go where it wanted to take me. This philosophy will not work if you make utilitarian ware; but my work was sculptural and decorative.

I also liked teaching pottery. One reason was because the many different schools that employed me over the years often had different clays. It was fun doing demonstrations the first day of class, when I was introduced to both my class and the clay at once. This meant my first conversation with the clay was held with an audience. I still get letters and calls from potters who remember my classes and demonstrations.

A SPECIAL CLAY

I recently googled “Alsey Refractories” and found that the company I knew back

The clay was a fire clay consisting of a mixture of fine and chunky grog-like particles. This “grog” was actually bits of unground Alsey fire clay. The clay matured at between cone 9 and 10 with no additions. All you needed to do was add water and work. And how it worked! Like chewing gum in terms of plasticity, and with great texture as well. I think I cried when the last of this clay was used up.

Sadly, you will never know the joy of working with this Alsey clay. Jim told me the clay deposit ran out some years ago and the land it was taken from has now been reclaimed. Today, Alsey deals primarily in Missouri refractory clays that mature at cone 29 to 32, and they fire the brick from which kilns and hightemperature furnaces can be made.

RESPECT FOR CLAY While I love clay, I also respect it. I know that every clay contains many substances that can ruin my life forever if I’m overexposed to them. Potters must be as familiar with these substances as they are with the working properties of their clay.

SILICA Every pottery clay contains crystalline silica. Tiny particles of silica, too small to be seen with the naked eye, are the ones that do the damage. They can be floating about in the pottery for hours after doing any dusty operation such as mixing clay, sweeping the floors, cleaning with an

ordinary household or shop vacuum cleaner, or sanding a piece.

Once inhaled deep into the lungs’ air sacs (alveoli), each particle remains for life. These tiny silica particles cause scar tissue as the lung tries unsuccessfully to remove them. Large amounts of silica in the lungs also may cause lung cancer.

We all have a little silica in our lungs just from living on this planet. This silica and the other dusts we have inhaled over the years are one of many reasons we lose lung capacity with normal aging. But we will lose lung capacity much faster if we have inhaled too much silica. Then the lungs become inelastic with scar tissue and breathing is seriously compromised.

This disease is called “silicosis.” One important potter with silicosis is Warren MacKenzie, a professor at the University of Minnesota.*

CLAY ITSELF Even ordinary clay minerals such as kaolin can harm you by causing lung problems.

However, it takes much more of these to cause significant lung scarring, and they are not associated with lung cancer.

TALC Pure talc also causes lung scarring when inhaled in large amounts. The disease is called talcosis. Pure talc is essentially as toxic as kaolin. However, some talcs also contain asbestos fibers. Check the previous articles in Clay Times** on this subject, and avoid products containing asbestos. There is no safe way to use asbestos-containing products.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

I made thousands of pots over the years.

But those made with one particular clay dominate my own personal collection.

These pots were made between 1965 and 1980 from a couple of tons of clay I bought directly from the clay mine owned by Alsey Refractories in Alsey, Illinois.

then still exists. It has been continuously operating since 1906. The next day, I talked to Jim Riggs, who has worked with this company since 1957. He remembered the clay that I was using back then. In fact, Jim owned that particular clay mine.

by MONONA ROSSOL

Studio I Health & Safety

Know (and Love) Your Clays

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Studio I Health & Safety

DIOXIN Dioxins are among the most toxic chemicals on the planet. There are many industrial sources of these nasty substances, but only two known natural sources: 1) forest fires; and 2) ball clay and a few other mined minerals.

All of the ball clays commonly used in pottery clay mixtures contain dioxin. No one knows how the dioxin got into these deposits. Clay Times covered this interesting problem in 2001.*** You can be exposed by inhaling the ball clay dust. Unlike all the other clay hazards, you also can absorb significant amounts of dioxins through your skin.

NEW DIOXIN STUDY This past January, I went to Washington, DC to attend a peer review workshop on the Environmental Protection Agency’s draft document called, “An Exploratory Study: Assessment of Modeled Dioxin Exposure in Ceramic Art Studios.” The study looked at the dioxin exposures of students and a technician in a well-known university’s ceramic art department.

Bill van Gilder 2008 Workshop Schedule May 15-18

June 13-15

July 11-13

Mud Puddle Pottery Studio, Pegram, TN 615.646.6644 • mudpuddle@bellsouth.net Arapahoe Community College w/Mile Hi Ceramics, Littleton, CO 303.797.5948 • kathy.holt@arapahoe.edu Goggle Factory, Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen, Reading, PA 215.485.1150 • www.pacrafts.org

At the meeting, the peer review panel determined that this paper needed to be reworked before publishing. It is going back to the drawing board, so to speak. Since EPA draft documents cannot be cited or quoted, there is not a lot I can say about it.

However, after looking at the data obtained for this study and at some other quantitative data on dioxin in various ball clays, I now recommend potters increase their precautions when using ball clays and suggest the industry develop a ball clay-free product for children.

July 28-Aug. 1 Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village, NV [Lake Tahoe]

775.881.7588 • sierranevada.edu/workshops

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

Aug. 16-17 15-17

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Aug. 27-30

Pottery West, Las Vegas, NV potterywest@cox.net • www.potterywest.com Rehoboth Art League, Rehoboth Beach, DE 302.227.8408 • www.rehobothartleague.org

Ceramics Studios, Guilds, Universities, Colleges: To schedule a van Gilder workshop call 301.416.2970 or e-mail: vangilderpottery@earthlink.net

ALLERGIES That lovely “clay” smell is hazardous to some people. The odor is made up in part of emanations from microorganisms such as bacteria and mold. Some people are allergic to them.

No one is allergic to “clay” itself. Clay is an inert mineral. So you can inform people who claim to be allergic to clay that they are actually reacting to the other organic

materials associated with the clay, most often the molds.

CLAY RULES Love and respect your clay and your health by following these simple rules: 1. Eliminate dusty processes. For example, shape clay when it is leatherhard rather than sanding. Buy premixed clay rather than mixing your own.

2. If you must do a dusty process, spend money on a proper ventilation system.**** 3. Wet-mop or use a HEPA-filtered vacuum ... and clean every day.

4. Work neatly. Don’t get excessive amounts of clay on your skin, especially if one of the ingredients in your clay is ball clay.

5. Don’t wear pottery work clothes and shoes in living spaces.

6. Don’t work where you live. Keep even very small amounts of clay dust out of your home, your kitchen, your bedroom. [

Footnotes: * Silicosis was covered in Clay Times: Jul/Aug 2005. ** Talc was covered in: Nov/Dec 2007, Sept/Oct 2000, & May/June 2000. *** Dioxin was covered in: Jul/Aug 2001. **** Ventilation was covered in: Nov/Dec 2007 & Jan/Feb 2008.

Readers who would like one or more of these back articles may send me an SASE and I’ll mail them copies.

Monona Rossol is an industrial hygienist/ chemist with an M.F.A. in ceramics/glass. She may be reached at ACTS, 181 Thompson St. #23, New York, NY 10012-2586; telephone 212.777.0062; e-mail ACTSNYC@cs.com.

Check out these listings to find local programs for wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculptural techniques, & more …

U.S. classes are listed first, alphabetically, followed by classes outside the United States.

ALABAMA

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

INDIANA

Imagine Partners in Art — 210 South 41st Street, Birmingham, AL 35222; 205.706.8308; www. imaginepartnersinart.com; imaginepartnersinart@msn.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, clay-and-cocktail workshops.

Eastern Market Pottery — New location on Capitol Hill. 320 3rd Street NE, Washington, DC 22002; 202.544.6669; cbrome@earthlink.net; stoneware, wheelthrowing, glazing, decorating.

Indiana Memorial Union — 900 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405; 812.855.2328; www.imu.indiana.edu/studios; studios@indiana.edu; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, glazing, firing. Adult classes and children’s workshops.

ARKANSAS Flat Rock Clay Supplies — 2002 South School Ave. (Hwy. 71), Fayetteville, AR 72701; 479.521.3181; www.flatrockclay.com; info@flatrock clay. com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, tile, special topic classes and workshops.

CALIFORNIA The Community Center of La Cañada Flintridge – 4469 Chevy Chase Drive, La Cañada Flintridge, CA 91011; (818) 790-4353; www.cclcf. org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, firing, raku, classes for children and adults.

COLORADO

Hinckley Pottery — 1707 Kalorama Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009; 202.745.7055; www.hinckleypottery.com; info@hinckleypottery.com; wheel-throwing.

FLORIDA Carla’s Clay — 1733 Northgate Blvd, Sarasota, FL 34234; 941.359.2773; www.Carlasclay.com; cobrien@ carlasclay.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, gallery, tools, and supplies.

Craft Gallery – 5911 South Dixie Hwy, West Palm Beach, FL 33405; (561) 585-7744; www.thecraftgallery.net; bettywilson@thecraftgallery. net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, architectural sculpture, glass fusion, workshops, gallery, supplies, and kiln rental.

Northern Colorado Potters’ Guild — 209 Christman Drive, Fort Collins, CO 80524; 970.416.5979; www.coloradopottery.org; ncpg@comcast.net; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, glazing, fused-glass jewelry.

The Lake Eustis Arts Accord — 205 & 211 North Grove Street, PO Box 1619, Eustis, FL 32727; 352.589.4ART (4278); info@lakeeustisartsaccord.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, raku, firing, sculpture.

Workshops and classes.

Trails Recreation Center — 16799 East Lake Avenue, Centennial, CO 80015; 303.269.8400; www.aprd.org; arts@the-trails.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, glazing.

GEORGIA

CONNECTICUT

The Ocee Arts Center — 6290 Abbotts Bridge Road, Building #700, Duluth, GA 30097; 770.623.8448; www.oceearts.org; dcocee@bellsouth.net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, mosaic, firing, glazing/ decoration. Apprentice programs and workshops.

Louisiana Pottery — 6470 Highway 22, Cajun Village, Sorrento, LA 70778; 225.675.5572; www.louisianapottery.com; lapottery@eatel.net; handbuilding. Special focus classes.

MARYLAND Baltimore Clayworks — 5707 Smith Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21209; 410.578.1919; www. baltimoreclayworks.org; matt.hyleck@baltimoreclayworks. org; workshop contact: forrest.snyder@baltimoreclayworks. org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, mosaic, decorating, printmaking, slipcasting, wood firing, salt firing.

Columbia Art Center – 6100 Foreland Garth, Columbia, MD 21045; (410) 730-0075; www. columbiaartcenter.org; art.staff@columbiaassociation. com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, alternative firing methods, summer teen wheel camp, workshops, youth and adults.

Shiloh Pottery, Inc. — 1027 Brodbeck Road, Hampstead, MD 21074; 410.239.8888; www.shilohpottery.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding.

The Frederick Pottery School, Inc.— 5305 Jefferson Pike, Suite C-2, Frederick, MD 21703; 301.473.8833; www.frederickpotteryschool.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, wood firing, cone 6 oxidation.

ILLINOIS

Montpelier Arts Center — 9652 Muirkirk Road, Laurel, MD 20708; 301.953.1993; www.pgparks.com/places/artsfac/mac.html; montpelier. arts@pgparks.com; classes for children and adults include handbuilding, wheel-throwing, raku; special parent/child workshops offered.

Clay Space — 28 W. 210 Warrenville Road, Warrenville, IL 60556; 630.393.2529; www.clayspace.net; clay.space@yahoo.com; adult & children’s classes, wheelthrowing, handbuilding, sculpture, firing, glazing/decoration.

Glen Echo Pottery — 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, MD 20812; 301.229.5585; www.glenechopottery.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, raku and soda firing.

DELAWARE Center for the Creative Arts — 410 Upper Snuff Mill Row and Rte 82, Yorklyn, DE 19736; 302.239.2434; www.ccarts.org; skgabor@ccarts.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, firing; children and adult classes.

LOUISIANA

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

Creative Arts Workshops – 80 Audubon Street, New Haven, CT 06510; (203) 562-4927; www.creativeartsworkshop.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, firing.

Callanwolde Fine Arts Center — 980 Briarcliff Road NE, Atlanta, GA 30306; 404.872.5338; www.callanwolde.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, reduction, salt, soda, raku, and oxidation firing.

Resources I Classes

Community Pottery Classes

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Resources I Classes

Jayne Shatz Pottery — 452 Laurel Valley Court, Arnold, MD 21012; 410.757.6351; www.jayneshatzpottery.com; jesclay@aol.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, sculpture, glazing, firing, wall relief and tile, workshops, critiques, marketing strategy, group and private sessions.

MASSACHUSETTS Mudflat Pottery School, Inc. — 149 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02145; 617.628.0589; www.mudflat.org; info@mudflat.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, tile.

Sound Advice + Reliable Equipment = Excellent Results

2 Rivers Ceramic Studio — 77 Elm Street, Amesbury, MA 01913-2503; 978.388.2212; www.2riversceramic.com; hamovit@gmail.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, classes and workshops for adults and children, 24/7 studio access for independent artists.

MINNESOTA

Custom DECALS

Edina Art Center — 4710 West 64th Street, Edina, MN 55435; 612.915.6604; www.edinaartcenter.com; artcenter@ci.edina.mn.us; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

Northern Clay Center — 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406; 612.339.8007; www.northernclaycenter.org; nccinfo@ northernclaycenter.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

MISSISSIPPI Bodine Pottery & Art Studio — Rebuilding: New location: 432 West Frontage Dr., Wiggins, MS 39577; tel. 601.928.4718; www.bodinepottery. com; hukmut@bodinepottery.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, PMC (precious metal clay).

NEVADA Pottery West — 5026 North Pioneer Way, Las Vegas, NV 89149; 702.987.3023; potterywest@ cox.net; www.potterywest.com; wheel-throwing.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

NEW JERSEY The Art School at Old Church — 561 Piermont Road, Demarest, NJ 07627; 201.767.7160; www.tasoc.org; info@tasoc.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, glazing, raku.

Thompson Park Creative Arts Center — Monmouth County Park System, 805 Newman Springs Road, Lincroft, NJ 07738; 732.842.4000, ext. 4343; www.monmouthcountyparks.com; sliu@ monmouthcountyparks.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, workshops, raku & electric kilns, beginners thru advanced for adults, children, parent/child.

Visual Art Center of New Jersey — 68 Elm Street, Summit, NJ 07901; 908.273.9121; www.artcenternj.org; Deemick@artcenternj.org. All things clay.

Kissimmee River Pottery — One 8th Street #11, Frenchtown, NJ 08825; 908.996.3555; www.kissimmeeriverpottery.com; riverpots@earthlink. net; beginner to advanced classes, wheel-throwing, handbuilding, workshops, cone 10 reduction firing, single firing, raku, adult day and evening classes.

NEW YORK Clay Art Center — 40 Beech Street, Port Chester, NY 10573; 914.937.2047; www.clayartcenter.org; mail@clayartcenter.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, special topics, programs for kids and adults.

The Painted Pot — 339 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231; 718.222.0334; www.paintedpot.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture.

The Potter’s Wheel—120-33 83rd Avenue, Kew Gardens, NY 11415; 718.441.6614; www. potterswheelny.com; potterswheelny@earthlink.net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, raku, saggar firing, kids and adult classes.

92nd Street Y Art Center — 1395 Lexington Ave, New York, NY 10128; 212.415.5562; www.92Y.org/artclasses; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture; intensives in plaster, glazing, and complex serving pieces; open studio available.

NORTH CAROLINA Blue Gill Pottery — 4522 W. Wilkinson Blvd., Gastonia, NC 28056; 704.824.9928; www.bluegillpottery.com; bluegillpottery@bellsouth.net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, and throwing Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts — 236 Clingman Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; 828.285.0210; www.highwaterclays.com; odyssey@ highwaterclays.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

Sawtooth School for Visual Arts — 226 N. Marshall Street, Winston Salem, NC 27101; 336.723.7395; www.sawtooth.org; ceramics@sawtooth. org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, classes and workshops in other fine arts and media.

Finch Pottery — 5526 Finch Nursery Lane, Bailey, NC 27807-9492; 252.235.4664; www.danfinch.com; dan.finch@earthlink.net; wheel-throwing.

OHIO Yost Pottery Studio — 1643 Massillon Road, Akron, OH 44312; 330.734.0763; www.yostpottery. com. Wheel-throwing, handbuilding, tile, firing.

PENNSYLVANIA Allen Stoneware Gallery & Pottery Studio Classroom — Colony Plaza, 2602 West 8th Street, Erie, PA 16505; 814.836.0345; www. allenstoneware.com; pottery@allenstoneware.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, sculpture.

The Clay Studio — 139 North Second Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106; 215.925.3453; www.theclaystudio.org; info@theclaystudio.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture.

RHODE ISLAND The Cole Center for Creative Studies at the Newport Art Museum — 76 Bellevue Avenue, Newport, RI 02840; 401.848.2787; www. newportartmuseum.org; jhambleton@newportartmuseum. org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, firing; children and adults.

SOUTH CAROLINA Adele’s Pottery Studio & Gallery — 1659 Middle Street, Sullivan’s Island, SC 29482; 843.883.9545; wheel-throwing, handbuilding for children and teens.

TENNESSEE

Jacksonville Center for the Arts — 220 Parkway Lane, Floyd, VA 24091; 866.787.8806; 540.745.2784; www.jacksonvillecenter.org; info@ jacksonvillecenter.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, mosaic, raku and pit firing, glazing and decoration.

LibertyTown Arts Center — 916 Liberty Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401; 540.371.7255; www.libertytownarts.com; liberty townarts@verizon.net; wheel-throwing, hand-building, glazing, decorating, tile, raku.

Nan Rothwell Studio Pottery — 221 Pottery Lane, Faber, VA 22938 (near Wintergreen); 434.263.4023; www.nanrothwellpottery.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, glazing, firing.

Manassas Clay & Tin Barn Pottery Supply — 9122 Center Street, Manassas, VA 20110; 703.330.1040; www.manassasclay.com; manassasclay@ aol.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, glazing, and raku.

Potter’s Wheel Studio – 25050 Riding Plaza, Suite 145, Chantilly, VA 20152; (703) 542-8956; www.potterswheelstudio.com; info@potterswheelstudio.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, firing, glazing/decoration, kids and adults.

Mud Puddle Pottery and Supply — 538 Highway 70, Pegram, TN 37143 (20 minutes outside Nashville); 615.646.6644; www.mudpuddlepottery.com; mudpuddle@bellsouth. net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture.

White House Ceramic Studio – 16 E. Pennsylvania Avenue, Lovettsville, VA 20180; (540) 822-4803; www.whitehouseceramicstudio. blogspot.com; kristen-koch@hotmail.com; wheelthrowing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, mosaic, firing, glazing/decoration, workshops, kids and adults.

TEXAS

WASHINGTON

Dry Creek Pottery & Supply — 8400 Cleburne Highway, Granbury, TX 76049; 817.326.4210; www.drycreekpottery.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding for adults, reduction, low-fire and raku firing. One daily/weekly.

Northwest Ceramic Art Institute (The Clay Zone) — 2727 Westmoor Court, Olympia, WA 98502; 360.943.7765; www.theclayzone. com; ddurso@theclayzone.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture.

VIRGINIA

ITALY — South of Rome

Creative Clay Studios — 5704 E General Washington Drive, Alexandria, VA 22312; 703.750.9480; www.creativeclaypottery.com; daisy_gail@msn.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, classes, workshops, studios, retail supplies, tools, clay.

Maiolica Ceramica — South of Rome,Via Pellico 15 - Medieval Fondi, Italy. Italy: (+39) 338.139.4244 USA 714.600.9535; GotuzzoWorkshops@gmail. com; www.GotuzzoWorkshops.com. Italian Maiolica and decorative art.

The Art League School — Located near the Torpedo Factory at 105 North Union Street, Alexandria, VA 22314; 703.683.2323; www.theartleague.org/school; school@theartleague.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, mosaic.

A year-round listing of your community pottery class in CT and on our Web site is available for just $99—a real bargain!

To feature your classes, call Karen Freeman at (540) 882-3576 or e-mail: advertising@claytimes.com.

$-": 500-4 3&'&3&/$& ."5&3*"-4 $-": 500-4 3&'&3&/$& ."5&3*"-4

New New Instructional Instructional DVD DVD $69.95 + $4 S/H $69.95 + $4 S/H

PO Box 722 PO Box 722 Honeoye, NY 14471 Honeoye, NY 14471 585-229-2976 585-229-2976

www.pcfstudios.com 61

Opinion I Around the Firebox

Cultural Connections by kelly savino

N

ear the end of my hour-long commute to Eastern Michigan University, there is a roadside billboard, put up by some government agency for emergency preparedness. It features a Google-type map with a big arrow with the text, “YOU ARE HERE”.

The smaller print beneath reads, “Where is your family?”

Some nights it seems like a cruel joke, as I head for school, missing Tyler’s saxophone concert, a scout awards ceremony, or supper and a family game night at home.

My graduate studies in Ceramics have been a two-year tug-of-war for me, between home and school, the constant demands of kids, and demands of professors. If I am doing a stellar job as mom and wife, my professors grumble about not seeing me in the studio. When I pull off a successful all-weekend wood firing, my kids have to figure out algebra, find clean socks, and forage for meals without me. If my studio shelves are full of fresh work, the refrigerator is empty. My kids have had too much processed food and too many carry-out pizzas during these past months. My husband? I barely remember what he looks like. He’s the sole source of income now, and I leave for school before he gets home from work, returning long after he’s asleep for the night.

But the end is in sight. In June of 2008 I will have my M.F.A. show and defense, and the two years of juggling will be over.

It’s been a long, strange journey.

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

I spent the first year of study completely losing my bearings.

62

I lost my cockiness, first. As a middleaged studio potter, I walked in to the EMU studio quite sure that I knew all there was to know, because I could throw just about anything. I quickly learned, though, that the harder task was to decide what was worth making.

Critique was like dental work—painful but necessary. Little by little, I rejected all illusions about my skills and started from scratch, with new and unfamiliar clay, glazes, kilns, and techniques.

Then I lost my complacency. I was stirred into a mix of students half my age— idealistic and radical artsy kids—looking

for new ground and challenging the status quo. I was enrolled in seminars where we read criticism and debated art theory. For the first time in my pottery life, I was surrounded by artists in different media, and had to step outside of the potterly assumptions with which I had been so comfortable.

I was challenged to make work I had never attempted before. I was required to abandon familiar ways of working, and the looks that I thought were “me.” By the end of the first year of school, I was overwhelmed by new ideas, and became completely disoriented. I wanted to respond to exciting work that I saw, but didn’t want to make “derivative” work. I dutifully mastered skills and techniques my professor presented, but the finished products often felt like “assignments.”

I was full of ideas from sculpture and printmaking classes that I wanted to incorporate into my pottery. In short, I was lost.

Then, after my mid-program review last spring, I was told it was time to find my own “voice” as an artist, and make my “signature” work for my final M.F.A. show. Luckily, I had the summer to go home, regroup, and try to figure out who I was as a potter and an artist.

For a while, I couldn’t bring myself to go to my backyard studio. I planted the heirloom tomatoes I had started from seedlings, and built nesting boxes for my feather-legged hens. I worked over my beehive, sorting out problems with an infertile queen. I did the kind of home-school activities with my kids that we had been unable to do during the over-scheduled school year: whole days at the park with nature journals, drawing beetles and seed pods and lily pads or using a microscope to identify single-celled critters in rain-barrel water.

But the part that really grounded me happened in my kitchen. After a year of lonesome leftovers warmed in the studio microwave, I had time to cook in a way that felt more like artistry.

If you visit my kitchen in mid-summer, you’ll find a little crop of green alfalfa sprouts growing in a mason jar by the sink. Next to that will be a gallon jar of kombucha tea, with a SCOBY (Symbiotic

dOmmodip etum dolenis molorerci blamet andigniam velismo doloreet lore commolore dio doluptat, diametfdasfdas fdasfdasfa

Colony of Bacteria and Yeast) floating on top like an opalescent jellyfish. Lined up on my countertop in an assortment of crocks will be kefir grains culturing in fat white milk, a crock of sourdough starter bubbling away, and a gallon of sauerkraut fermenting. In a warm spot you’ll find jars of yogurt (unless the kids find them first) and in the fridge I’ll have homemade tofu, and mozzarella cheese waiting to be sliced with fat garden tomatoes and basil leaves for supper.

Making bread offers me the same kind of physical, hands-on satisfaction as making pots, from the mixing of powdery ingredients to the “wedging” of the dough. I can “fire” it on a stone in my electric oven, or “wood-fire” in my backyard cob oven.

In jugs on a high kitchen shelf I have gallons of homemade wine, elderberry and peach, (my grandpa’s recipes) with continued on page 66

Classes • Celebrate CERAMICS in SPAIN with SETH CARDEW at the wheel.

Weekly residential courses or daily private tuition. Four-bedroom cottage for weekly rental at the pottery. www. cardew-spain.com.

For Sale • Ohio Slip. A natural glaze from a new deposit of clay in southwestern Ohio — a very clean and consistent material.

Comparable to Albany Slip. Ohio Slip matures at temperatures from cone 6 through cone 12. Prices: 10 lbs.@$.80/ lb.; 25 lbs.@$.70/lb.; 120 lbs.@$.60/lb.; 350 lbs.@$.50/lb. Family-owned; mined and processed by A&K Clay Co., LLC. Phone 937.379.1495, or visit our Web site at: www.akclay.com.

Opportunities • Ahead of the Need, an invitational exhibition to benefit the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF). Curated by Lana Wilson & Anthony Schaller. Online Hosting: www.claylink.com (Charlie Cummings Gallery Web site). Exhibition dates: Saturday, April 5 through Wednesday, April 30, 2008.

• ClayParent — A new Internet forum for potters who are parents, and their issues. After many requests for this type of interaction, the Clayworkers’ Guild of Illinois is donating Web space to open up this forum to members and non-members alike. Registration is free. The forum is located at: www. mudmamasandpapas.com.

• JOIN AMERICANPOTTERS.COM TODAY! Be a part of a national, searchable database for FREE. Or an “online gallery/ portfolio” to sell your work, without commissions. If you have a web site, join with a “link” page. All information is editable by you, without web knowledge. Go to the site and click on “FAQ” for more info.

tion to Frog Pond Pottery, PO Box 88, Pocopson, PA 19366.

• The National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition Foundation, Inc. in conjunction with NCECA and our Generous Sponsors invites you to attend our opening of The 11th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition March 19, 2008 at 4 pm at The Pittsburgh Convention Center. Entries for the 12th Annual National K-12 Ceramic Exhibition in Phoenix in 2009 may be submitted online this summer at: www.k12clay.org.

Travel

Kiln Repair • Kiln and Studio Repair Service — Mike Swauger, The Kiln Doctor; licensed and insured; 877.545.6362; mike@thekilndoctor.com. Equipment sales, delivery & set-up, installations. Most parts and accessories are in stock on my full-service vehicle. Serving VA, MD, WV, DC. Rely on more than 17 years of experience.

• Kiln Repair. All makes — Washington, DC metro & Northern Virginia. $45/hour (one-hour minimum) plus parts. Larry Safford, The Studio Resource: 703.283.7458; larrysafford@comcast.net.

Pottery Tours • The 16th Annual Minnesota Potters Studio Tour and Sale is anticipated by all who enjoy handmade pottery. May 10 & 11, 2008: 28 potters from 12 states at six hospitable studios. See map & more info at www.minnesotapotters.com or call 651/674-4555.

Tools for Potters • GlazeMaster™ glaze database and calculation software for Windows and Macs. $50.00 + $4.50 shipping in North America. Visit www. masteringglazes.com for a free trial download and more information. Or send your check or VISA/MC informa-

• AWESOME! Bill van Gilder’s Professional Hand Tools. 13 very functional tools for handbuilding and wheel work: classroom and studiotested! Visit the online store at www. claytimes.com to view and order tools.

• “Mata Ortiz Contact” — A one-stop connection to the incredible potters of Marta Ortiz, Mexico; workshops, visits, pots for sale: www.mataortiz contact.com • Potter’s Workshops and Tours in an Undiscovered Mexico. Explore the immense, but little known, ceramic diversity of deep Mexico. Hands-on learning and uncommon, small-group travel among the ancestral masters.

Visit us at NCECA booth 512. Web: www.traditionsmexico.com, e-mail: traditionsmexico@yahoo.com.

• Tuscany Workshop: May 25th June 7th. Focus will be on drinking vessels. No throwing skills required.

This two-week course also includes trips to local beauty spots, special dinners, wine tasting, cooking classes, and more. For more information, contact afarabow@hotmail.com or visit www.danfinch.com.

Videos & Books • DVD: Advanced Pottery Projects with Doug Oian — Enhance your skills to include Large Bowls, Pitchers, Handles, Lids, and Carved Candle-lanterns. $50 includes shipping. www.SunrisePottery.com; tel.

210.494.8633.

• Five Teacher Clay Lesson Plan Books (K-12) by Janice Hobbs on CDs or binders. Each book includes objectives to closures, pictures and diagrams. www.drycreekpottery.com or 817.326.4210.

• Order Great Glazes II for just $15 at the Clay Times online store at www. claytimes.com. This second hands-on studio glaze book features dozens of favorite glaze recipes for all firing temperatures and atmospheres. continued on next page

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

• Gary Hootman: Kiln Opening and Pottery Sale. On Wednesday, March 12, 2008, at 6 pm Pacific time, Vasefinder.com will be launching an online kiln opening and sale for woodfire potter Gary Hootman of Swisher, Iowa. Please see Vasefinder.com Events for more information.

• Potters for Peace — Potters for Peace works in the developing world offering technical and design assistance to potters and training in the fabrication of inexpensive Ceramic Water Purifiers. Get to know us at NCECA, visit our table in the non-profit area of the exhibition hall. www.pottersforpeace.com.

Resources I Classified Marketplace

Classified Marketplace

63

Resources I Classified Marketplace

Classified Marketplace Videos & Books, cont.

• PotteryVideos.com — DVDs with Robin Hopper, Gordon Hutchens, and Graham Sheehan. Video workshop for potters at all levels of experience. Choose from 21 titles. Email info@potteryvideos.com or call 800.668.8040.

• TOM TURNER’S POTTERY SCHOOL AND HIS TWO-DAY WORKSHOP 4-DISC DVD SET available at: www.tomturnerporcelain.com, or call 828.689.9430.

Workshops • Grand Junction, Colorado, May 3 & 4: “Techniques in Carving and Throwing in Porcelain Clay” with Tom and Elaine Coleman. Fee $275 Members/ $250 Non-Members. Contact csilverman@gjartcenter.org or call 970-243-7337 ext 6, The Art Center. Registration Deadline April 1.

• “Revealing Glazes Workshop” by Ian Currie of Queensland, Australia will be given at Dan Finch Pottery, Bailey, NC April 5-6. This is a hands on workshop and all materials are provided. Ian will teach his very effective grid method of developing glazes. His two books will also be available. Saturday dinner provided. For more info contact afarabow@hotmail.com or go to www. danfinch.com.

• Rocky Mountain High: 1-2 week summer ceramics workshops near Aspen.Choose from 17 different ceramics workshops employing a wide variety of media and techniques. 2008 Anderson Ranch Ceramics faculty includes Gail Kendall, Mark Pharis, Juan Quezada, Stan Welsh, Val Cushing, Tip Toland, and more. Call 970.923.3181 x201, e-mail info@andersonranch.org, or see www.andersonranch.org/workshops/ for full details.

clay workshops

June 1- August 9

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summer

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAY/JUNE 2008

20 08

Two-Weeks Jason Hess & visiting artist Daniel Murphy

One Week Bruce Cochrane Sam Chung Andrew Martin Nick Joerling Jane Shellenbarger Virginia Scotchie Mikey Walsh Apply now for summer studio assistantships work study | scholarships application deadline: April1

556 Parkway, Gatlinburg, TN

(865) 436-5860 info@arrowmont.org

w w w . a r r o w m o n t . o r g

continued from p. 63

• Teaching Clay Workshops with Janice Hobbs. Learn new clay projects you can teach in your classroom from elementary through high school. www. drycreekpottery.com or 817.326.4210.

• vanPrice Studio: April 26 & 27, Karen vanPrice—Raku & Aluminum Foil Saggar. Fee $100.00. May 10 & 11, Lana Wilson. Fee: $125.00. May 12 thru 18, Karen vanPrice—Intensive Handbuilding and Coiling. Fee: $650.00. June 28 & 29, Cindy Teyro— Whimsical Clay. Fee: $75.00. Call Karen at 928.443.9723 for additional info.

• vanPrice Studio will host a Rio Rewards PMC Certification class, sponsored by Rio Grande, from 9 to 5 PM., April 11, 12, & 13, 2008. Taught

by Tonya Davidson, well-known author and PMC expert, the class will be held at 2057 Heavenly Place, Prescott, AZ. Call toll-free 866.346.2698 or e-mail education@riogrande.com for additional information. [

review by steven branfman

H

old onto your hats. Here is a genre of pottery books that I have not previously written about in this column.

In fact, it is a category that I tend to shy away from. Mind you, we are not talking about the genre of pottery textbooks. This is a totally different kettle of fish. Examples of books that fall under this heading would be The Craft and Art of Clay, Hands in Clay, and Ceramics: A Potters Handbook.

Not that basic handbooks for beginners are unimportant. On the contrary, books that address the specific needs of those new to our craft are very valuable and form the foundation of our entire bibliography. So why am I hesitant? Two reasons come to mind.

There’s a truckload of so-called beginner books for potters, and there is rarely much that distinguishes one from the other. Sure, there are stylistic differences, variations in content, degree of detail, as well as number and selection of photographs. Writing styles vary, as do the aesthetic biases of the authors. Some are paperback and don’t take very well to the abuse inherent in a studio, and others have coated pages to resist water. There are books that are spiral-bound and designed to lie flat to ease reading while working on a project, while others are hardcover, supposedly to last longer. When it all comes down to it, it is the personal preference of the reader picking the book for their particular needs and interests that allows one book to stand out above the others. I will go out on a limb and say that of all the categories, basic books for the beginner is one where it is hard to pick the wrong book. Having said that, there is nothing wrong with a little guidance. So I have chosen three recent books, each with a slightly different approach, to present here.

Started” covers basic introductions to tools, health and safety, kilns, clay, forming techniques, and methods of decorating.

“Techniques and Projects” presents 12 distinct projects, each addressing the specifics of a different method of clay forming. The section includes a variety of handbuilding and throwing methods.

The final section, “Surface Decoration Library,” gives the reader tastes of various decorative approaches. Carving, inlay, glaze application, underglaze painting, wax resist, and sgraffito are among the methods described. There are a few glaze recipes, a glossary, and a section of suppliers and resources.

Pottery Basics is very well illustrated with color photos. The process images offer excellent angles and views. The instructions are clear and easy to follow, and there is a nice variety of forms shown throughout the book. The book has a very comfortable feel to it as it flows nicely from page to page and chapter to chapter. Beginners will be impressed by the apparent breadth, and comforted by the simplicity.

Don’t be fooled. If the book is going to function well for beginners, it cannot be comprehensive.

It would be too complicated, too confusing, and too long. It would be a textbook.

Pottery Basics is divided into three sections. “Getting

An exceedingly good-looking book, The Art & Craft of Ceramics is very handsome and well-designed, with color photos on every page. The instructions and directions are very clear, and a beginner will find them easy to follow and understand. The Art & Craft of Ceramics is the most international of the three books, and that comes as no surprise. The author is Spanish and the book is published in Spain. Though it is published and distributed in this country by Lark Books, it is not in their mold, so avid readers of Lark Books will be surprised ... yet, pleasantly I might add. Not that there is

Pottery Basics by Jacqui Atkin, Barron’s Educational Series. Hardcover, $23.99

The Art & Craft of Ceramics has a very professional feel to it, but stops short of being intimidating. The beginning potter will find The Art & Craft of Ceramics very useful, extremely informative, inspiring, and fun to read.

The newest of the three is The Potter’s Studio Handbook. It is subtitled “A Start-to-Finish Guide to Handbuilt & Wheel-Thrown Ceramics,” and of the three, it is the most narrowly focused.

It is also the only pottery book I know of that is introduced through a forward by an admitted beginning potter.

Is this refreshing or what? In fact, it is more than refreshing. It is a testimony to the The Potter’s Studio Handbook effectiveness of

by Kristin Muller, Quayside Publishers. Paperback, $24.99. the book.

The Potter’s Studio Handbook begins with the expected and necessary chapters on tools and equipment and clays, but these two chapters are preceded by Chapter 1, “Your Studio.” In it, the author presents the workspace: studio design, organization, and work flow. Muller talks about lighting, electricity, water, flooring, and furniture.

She offers for consideration ergonomics, shelving and storage, air quality, and safety.

What relevance does this have to the beginner, you may ask? An introduction like this serves to acquaint the student. It puts students at ease, and orients them to the environment of the pottery workplace. It allows the student to focus on the clay, and not be distracted by the unfamiliarity and unknowns of the pottery studio.

The sections on tools, equipment, and clay also serve to help make the reader comfortable with not only the objects and materials found in the studio, but the terminology and language as well. By the time the reader opens to chapter four, “Preliminary Clay Techniques,” a foundation of basic knowledge and confidence has been established that allows for an approach that will breed experimentation and freedom— two very important aspects of learning the craft.

continued on page 66

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Pottery Basics is very handsome and welldesigned. (You’ll be hearing me say this at least two more times). It is typical of the wide selection of basic books available. It is also typical in that beginners’ handbooks tend to present themselves as comprehensive and all-inclusive.

The Art & Craft of Ceramics aims toward the pottery textbook category, though it is much abridged. It opens with a brief historical perspective and continues with a rather well-written and crafted essay on contemporary ceramics.

Five well-organized chapters on raw materials, tools, forming methods, glazing, and decorative techniques are The Art & Craft of Ceramics by followed by a Maria Dolors Ros i Frigola, Lark section with stepby-step, detailed Books. Hardcover, $29.95. instructions on making six different objects using both handbuilding and throwing techniques.

anything disappointing about Lark. It’s just that the style and flavor of this book are unusual for them.

Resources I Books & Videos

Three Books for Beginners

65

Opinion I Around the Firebox

continued from page 62 their pottery. Culture is that part of the past that enriches our present.

One spoonful of last week’s yogurt culture will turn a gallon of fresh milk into this week’s yogurt. That little bit of the past, held-over and nourished, will continue to transform new recipes and new ingredients with the old magic. To make sourdough bread, I have to keep a bit of the past loaf alive with the yeast handed on from years of sourdough loaves, and mix it into the new flour, tending and caring for it so it can grow and continue to feed us all.

Like human culture, food cultures transform, and are assimilated. The sourdough starter I have nurtured month by month came from a friend, who ordered it from overseas; another originated in San Francisco. The truth is, though, regardless of exotic origins, in time the local yeasts of my Ohio flora will settle into the dough and change the character of my starter into something uniquely local.

The same thing happens with my pots.

When I look at the pots the Romans used for straining and storing honey, wine, and garum, I want to echo some of the elements. But other aspects are infinitely impractical for my 21st-Century purposes. When I walk through the NCECA conference looking at marvelous pots, or when I attend workshops and learn new techniques, I come home and imitate

them; yet after a while, my own culture all but obscures the original influence.

So I began the last year of my M.F.A. with a clear purpose in mind: one that felt authentic to me, original, and useful. All the new skills, technologies, ideas, and images I had absorbed in the first year needed a bit of my personal history to pull them together into work that felt like mine.

My M.F.A. show is entitled, “Culture.” It will present pots meant strictly for cultured and fermented foods. Flasks for mead and wine; ewers for soy and fish sauce; crocks for pickles, kim chee, and kraut will join sourdough starter crocks and baking cloches. All are inspired by ancient forms, but evolved in the way last year’s long-forgotten sourdough loaves live on in the loaf in my oven this afternoon.

Between now and then, I have a lot of work to do. Late at night, working at the wheel while my family sleeps, I am alone in the quiet to ponder the symbols and cycles that have laid themselves out in the long, strange journey to my M.F.A. The two separate worlds of home life and academia seem to have found each other in these new pots. Like the process of my long commute to a college across the state line, my philosophical wanderings and loss of direction in the first year of studies has given way to a feeling that I know where I belong: with my pots.

In the larger world, I am finally finding my way home. [

CLAYTIMES·COM n MAy/june 2008

Index to Advertisers

66

Aftosa 9 AMACO 67 Anderson Ranch Art Center 12 Arrowmont School Arts & Crafts 15 Bailey Pottery Equipment 10 BigCeramicStore.com 50 Bracker’s Good Earth Clays 50 Buyers Market of American Craft 22 Carolina Clay Connection 61 Ceramic Supply Chicago 60 Clay Times Products 27,31,48,49 Clayworks Supplies 60 Continental Clay Co. 32 The Cookie Cutter Shop 66 Euclid’s Elements 4 Finch Pottery 22 Flat Rock Clay Supplies 60 Georgies Ceramic & Clay Center 42 Giffin Tec 8 Graber's Pottery, Inc. 50 Great Lakes Clay & Supply Co. 22 Guild Sourcebooks 3 Highwater Clays 17 Herring Designs 61 Hood College 22 Japan Pottery Tools 27 John C. Campbell Folk School 9

The Kiln Doctor L & L Kilns Larkin Refractory Solutions Master Kiln Builders MKM Pottery Tools Muddy Elbow Mfg./Soldner Wheels Olympic Kilns Paragon Industries PCF Studios Peter Pugger Peters Valley Craft Center Pottery West Scott Creek/Clay Art Center Sheffield Pottery Sierra Nevada College Skutt Ceramic Products Soldner Book Spectrum Glazes Thomas Stuart Wheels Trinity Ceramic Supply Tucker’s Cone Art Kilns U.S. Pigment Corp. van Gilder Workshops Ward Burner Systems Wise Screenprint Workhouse Arts Center at Lorton Xavier González Workshops

60 2 15 61 50 28 12 42 61 3 11 27 42 58 14 68 15 16 7 27 64 32 58 60 60 56 14

continued from page 65 will breed experimentation and freedom—two very important aspects of learning the craft.

The author’s teaching style is very sound, and the text is very well-planned and wellpresented. There is a balance of instruction in the form of directions and information to be digested. There is ample encouragement, and few details are left out. But the strongest aspect of the book is that it doesn’t try to be too much. It doesn’t attempt to unearth every method and nuance of handbuilding.

It doesn’t demonstrate or try to teach every variation of throwing by presenting too many different projects beyond the understanding or ability of the beginning student.

The Potter’s Studio Handbook does one thing, and does it very well: it introduces the beginning potter to the necessary and essential aspects of clay—what it is, where to work with it, what can be done with it, how to work with it, and where you can go from there. It also has plastic-coated hardboard covers, making it durable enough to last in the clay environment of the studio.

And oh, I almost forgot, it is very handsome and well-designed!

All three of these books are well-written and aimed directly at the beginner. All offer a wealth of information and encouragement, and will serve the reader with useful information that will help them in their early stages of learning. So which is the best? It should only be that easy.

When it comes right down to it, only after looking them over will you be able to choose one over the other. Your personal preferences and biases will prevail; and even then, it will be somewhat of a crap shoot. I will say that in choosing among these three you won’t make a mistake. But I should emphasize that all three books are more effective when used in concert with a class, and all beginning potters should take this to heart. Despite the quality and content, regardless of the detail of instruction, even with the hundreds of color photos, there is no substitute for the hands-on experience of watching a demonstration and taking a class. Until you can get there, though, pick one, two, or all three of these. [ Steven Branfman is an accomplished potter, author, and teacher of pottery and ceramics at Thayer Academy in Braintree, Massachusetts. He is the proprietor of The Potters Shop and School and may be reached at 781.449.7687 or via e-mail at sbranfpots@aol.com.

”I’ve had my brent for over thirty years.

That’s a lot of miles without a repair.

I wish they made cars like that.” ®

Ron Korczynski Artist and Educator Natrona Heights, PA

amaco.com

American Art Clay Co., Inc. 800-374-1600

THE ARTISTS:

Photography by hanlonphotographic.com

ProSeries use what the pros use

“Our Skutt kilns are the most predictable part of the whole process.”

The Wizard of Clay, Jim and Jamie Kozlowski

Jim Kozlowski started what is now The Wizard of Clay Pottery over 42 years ago. Together with his son Jamie, they have been working on perfecting Cone 10 crystalline glazes for the past 6 years. As you can see by the pictures they are experts at what they do. The Wizard of Clay supplies over 80 galleries throughout the world. They have eight Skutt kilns and fire every day to keep up with the demand.

THE TECHNIQUE:

Macro Crystalline Glazing

Crystalline glazes are one of the most difficult glazes to develop. To try to develop them on a production basis is close to impossible. High zinc based glazes are used to “grow” these beautiful fan crystals on the porcelain vases. In the glaze firing the kiln is brought to Cone 10 and then precisely cooled to one or more holding temperatures which allow the crystals to develop. Everything from the glaze formulation and application to the kiln firing needs to be perfect.

THE KILN:

KM1227-3 PK with APM Elements

This kiln has the size and power needed to fire a production load of Cone 10 pots on a daily basis. They use Type S thermocouples which are made of platinum for long life and extreme accuracy.

“Whether it’s 9 layers of plates or a load of 24” pots, the kilns fire perfectly even top to bottom.” The APM upgraded elements are specifically designed to handle these high temperatures. “We get well over a hundred Cone 10 firings before we even think about changing elements. Some of the Cone 5 kilns still have the original elements from six years ago.” says Jamie.

COME SEE US AT NCECA: BOOTHS 301, 303, AND 305

CERAMIC PRODUCTS

We help you make great things.

If you would like more information on The Wizard of Clay Pottery or would like to become a ProSeries Artist, visit our website at www.skutt.com/proseries