Clay Times Magazine Volume 14 • Issue 78 by claytimes

art

trends,

tools,

and

TIMES

Clay

techniques

Volume 14 • Number 5 September/October 2008

Terri Kern’s

Earthenware with a Painterly Flair Featured Project: Making Altered Pots and Lids Five Great Guidelines for Writing Glaze Recipes “All Fired Up!” Expo’s 60+ Ceramic Shows in Westchester County, NY Retiring Baby Boomers Find New Life in Clay Peter Jansons and his Prince Edward Island Dunes Gallery & Cafe $ 7.50 U.S./$9 CAN

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CLAYTIMESÂ·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

contents

TIMES

Clay

September/October 2008 Volume 14, Number 5

Pottery plays a major role at Peter Jansons’ Dunes Studio Gallery and Cafe. Turn to p. 36.

Charles Behlow Photo

features 32 Terri Kern’s Painterly Flair for Earthenware Vibrant colors and active designs bring this Cincinnati artist’s world of fantasy to life.

36 Peter Jansons: 21st Century Renaissance Man A visit to Brackley Beach in Prince Edward Island, Canada, reveals his 18,000-sq.-ft. facility, offering a feast for the eye as well as the palate.

41 Clay, Art, History, and Design Joe Campbell begins this series with a discussion of the basic elements and principles of design that guide any medium, and how to be conscious of them.

44 Ceramics with Seniors Retiring baby boomers discover how claywork can provide a new sense of fulfillment. Midnight Landscape by Terri Kern. 9" x 4". Earthenware.

on exhibit 18 All Fired Up! 60+ venues will feature works by 600+ clay artists in Westchester County, NY this fall.

56 Sierra Nevada College Visiting Artists A summer of inspiring Lake Tahoe ceramics workshops culminates with this exhibition.

Ceramic works by Randy Brodnax (l) and Arthur Gonzalez in the Sierra Nevada College gallery.

September/October 2008 • Volume 14, Number 5

departments 9 YOUR WORDS Readers offer their feedback & opinions

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

13 WHAT’S HOT Clay world news, events, and calls for entries

23 GREAT GLAZES Here some great cone 6 oxidation recipes from The Ceramic Review Book of Clay Bodies & Glaze Recipes.

50 THE GALLERY A selection of unique works by CT readers

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

63 CLASSIFIED MARKETPLACE Goods and services offered especially for clay artists On the cover: The Secret Keeper, earthenware plate by Terri Kern. 11" x 5" x 4". Photo by Jay Bachemin. Inset photo: Jar by Michael Corney, part of “All Fired Up!” Exposition.

contents

TIMES

Clay

John Teti is among the rising number of inspired individuals who are taking up claywork as they transition into retirement. Story begins on page 44.

columns 21 AS FAR AS I KNOW “Writing Out Recipes: Five Guidelines We Could All Follow” by Pete Pinnell

25 BENEATH THE SURFACE “The Guadalupe Arch” by Lana Wilson

28 TEACHING TECHNIQUES “Making Altered Pots & Lids” by Bill van Gilder

49 KILNS & FIRING “A Few Words About Expert Firing Advice” by Marc Ward

53 TOOL TIMES “Tools for Handbuilding” by Vince Pitelka

55 STUDIO HEALTH AND SAFETY “Grindwheels Again” by Monona Rossol

62 BOOKS & VIDEOS “Searching for Beauty” review by Steve Branfman

65 AROUND THE FIREBOX “The Power of Yes” by Kelly Savino Pictured at left, top to bottom: Ceramic works by Jacqueline Wilder, Kristin Pavelka, and Charles Birnbaum are among more than 600 pieces to be featured in the “All Fired Up!” Exposition in Westchester County, New York this autumn.

“Pots seem to throw themselves on these wheels” —Robin Hopper

Ask a potter who owns one.

Photo by Judi Dyelle

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I do want to respond to his July/August 2008 Clay Times article, entitled, “Creative Thinking.” When I read his opening quote by Pearl S. Buck, I had one of those “dumbstruck” moments when I realized someone felt exactly as I did, but was articulate and driven enough to put their feelings into words. I am middle-aged and have been making [clay] work since I was seven. Recently, I have been doing a lot of thinking about just why it is that I make large-scale ceramic sculpture or for that matter, why I bother to make work at all. You can’t store large-scale sculpture under the bed, in the attic, or in that spare closet in the hall—and selling everything I make is a dream I don’t even bother to have.

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/cruise.html — But Hurry—Registration Closes October 31!

Ideal Autos for Potters I have been thinking about the question that [David] Hendley posed in [his] article, “One Word: Plastics” (July/August 2008 Clay Times). To wit: “It has always been hard for potters to decide what kind of car to drive.” I should think that there must be a car with a name that could settle this conundrum. As a driver/clayologist for Clay People, in Richmond CA, I see many cars in the course of a day. The first art-related car was the Ford Focus, perfect for the photographic arts. Then I saw an Infiniti, but that does not seem to fit this line of thinking—oh, wait, conceptual arts. There are a lot of Accords in the greater Bay Area, which seem to work for social practices artists. Ah, here is one that works for clay artists, even if somewhat difficult to afford: the Mercedes Kompressor. This would be best for tile artists and/or kinetic sculptors. Our musician friends could drive an Echo. Then there is the Geo Prism, great for glass artists. After a couple of days of deliveries, I finally saw the mythical-seeming “potter’s vehicle:” an older Sentra, with the letter ‘a’ tragically ripped off in some washing mishap, so now it phonetically sounds like “Center.” Or one could add a couple of spaces, and a place a picture of a pot ... Bill A. Lassell, Oakland, CA Correction In the “Tea Bowls, Teabowls” article appearing in our July/August 2008 issue, actual exhibition venues should have been listed as follows: Asian Influences Gallery, Pittsburgh, PA, Mar. 1-21, 2008 (an NCECA Concurrent Exhibition); and Ch’i Contemporary Fine Arts, Brooklyn, NY, June 12-July 7, 2008. We regret the error. Polly Beach, Editor [

Clay magazine

Editor & Art Director: Polly Beach claytimes@gmail.com Circulation Manager: Rachel Brownell ctcirculation@gmail.com Advertising Manager: Janie Herdman claytimesads@gmail.com Accounts Manager: Nanette Greene clayaccounts@gmail.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 • Joe Campbell Victoria Clayton • Collin Taylor 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 © 2008 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 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

I am a professor, and make a great living doing that. My wife and family camp and hike all over the world. I now have two grandchildren, and could just as well sit out the rest of the game and enjoy myself. So why bother? Every summer, the other professors do other things, but invariably I am up at 5 or 6 a.m., start drinking good coffee, read my Bible, pray, and then it’s to the studio for a full day of making. Why? I am far from the “tortured artist” model, even though I will confess I am often borderline ‘emotionally unstable.’ I am ... 50, balding, overweight, and broken down from years of banging clay into forms—but for what? I have a show or two a year and get into a sculpture tour here and there, have some articles published in clay magazines ... for what? At this moment, 8 a.m. in my studio listening to NPR [and sipping] good coffee, with three large works started just behind me, I am taking time to respond to an article on art—but for what? Why? I’ll let someone who is better at words than I explain: “By some strange, unknown, inward

Aaron Lee Benson, Jackson, TN

I want to begin this letter by saying that I have the utmost respect for Mr. Pinnell, his work, and his knowledge in the ceramics field. I regularly use his glaze formula, Pete’s Gold Shino, in my own studio.

urgency he is not really alive unless he is creating.” —Pearl S. Buck

Spouting Off I Your Words

Creative Thinking

TIMES

Readers’ Letters

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Page 1

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Sieving Made Easy have found found that that the the easiest easiest way way to to force force glaze glaze through through aa sieve sieve is is by by II have using a stencil brush. The brush is easier to hold onto than a rib, and using a stencil brush. The brush is easier to hold onto than a rib, and the bristles bristles allow allow you you to to get get into into the the corners corners of of the the sieve. sieve.Theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re They're also also the easy on on the the screen screen materials, materials, and and come come in in different different sizes, sizes, too. too. easy Debbie Lewis, Lewis, Asheboro, Asheboro, NC NC Debbie

Try these these great great texturing texturing tools tools in in the the studio studio or or classroom: classroom: Try 0URCHASE aA wooden, WOODEN patterned PATTERNED rolling ROLLING pin PIN from FROM aA kitchen KITCHEN or OR â&#x20AC;˘s Purchase restaurant supply supply store. store . restaurant â&#x20AC;˘s #ONSIDER TRADING A MUG OR TWO FOR SHEETS OF EMBOSSED WALLPAPER Consider trading a mug or two for sheets of embossed wallpaper from your your local local paint/wallpaper paint/wallpaper store. store. from

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,OCAL hardware HARDWARE stores STORES usually USUALLY sell SELL pre-packaged, PRE PACKAGED narrow NARROW 1"-long LONG â&#x20AC;˘s Local springs that that can can be be stretched stretched and and used used to to create create linear linear patterns patterns in in springs SLABS !LSO TRY LENGTHS OF PLASTIC hGUTTER GUARD v 4HIS WIDE MATERIAL slabs. Also try lengths of plastic â&#x20AC;&#x153;gutter guard.â&#x20AC;? This 6"-wide material < CAN BE USED TO PRESS A DIAMOND SHAPED UNIFORM PATTERN INTO SLABS can be used to press a diamond-shaped, uniform pattern into slabs. [

Sendus usyour youruseful usefulclay claytip tipor ortechnique techniqueto toshare sharewith withour ourreaders. readers.IfIfitâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;spublished, published,weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;llsend sendyou youaaClay ClayTimes Times Send T-shirt. Mail your tips (and T-shirt size) to: The Slurry Bucket, c/o Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197. T-shirt. Mail your tips (and T-shirt size) to: The Slurry Bucket, c/o Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197.

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ceramic art world news • events • calls for entries

Hot Stuff I News & Events

What’s Hot Conferences ‰ The International Sculpture Center will present Sculpture in Public: Part 2, Public Art from Oct. 2-4 at the Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The conference will offer special exhibitions, panel discussions, and a trade fair, along with a 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. ‰ Advance registration will remain open through Oct. 31 for the second annual Cruisin’ for Clay Potters Conference in the Caribbean, to take place Jan. 11-18, 2009. Sign up now to beat next year’s mid-winter blues with an incredible week of fun in the sun and clay presentations by Tom & Elaine Coleman, Susan Filley, Bill van Gilder, and Xavier Gonzalez on board Royal Caribbean’s “Freedom of the Seas” cruise ship. Destinations include San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Virgin Islands ports of St. Thomas and St. Maarten, with Miami, FL port of departure. For full details and registration materials, log onto www.claytimes.com/cruise.html, or contact Clay Times, PO Box 365, Waterford, VA 20197; 800.356.2529; claytimes@gmail.com.

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

‰ 2009–2010 Solo, Collaborative, or Curated Exhibition Proposals, to be juried from digital submissions at no charge, are being accepted through Sept. 19 by Castle Gallery, The College of New Rochelle, 29 Castle Place, New Rochelle, NY 10805. For full details, contact Katrina Rhein, Director, at 914.654.5423; krhein@cnr.edu; www.cnr.edu. ‰ News broadcaster Morley Safer will be jurying works from digital and slide entries received by Sept. 29 for In the News, an exhibition open to work by women artists, interpreting or relating to historic or current events. Entry fee is $50; members, $40 for three images. To request a prospectus, log onto www.penandbrush.org, or contact In the News, The Pen and Brush, 16 E. 10th St., New York, NY 10003; 212.475.3669; info@ penandbrush.org. ‰ Digital and slide entries are being accepted through Sept. 30 for Life’s Unique Journey, open to all media and to take place Nov. 18–Dec. 30. Entry fee is $25. To obtain a prospectus, log onto www.northwest

culturalcouncil.org, or contact the Northwest Cultural Council, 500 N. Hicks Rd., Suite 120, Palatine, IL 60067; 847.991.7966; nwcc@ northwestculturalcouncil.org. ‰ The 5th World Ceramic Biennale 2009 Korea (CEBIKO) International Competition is accepting digital and slide entries through Sept. 30 for its exhibition, to take place Apr. 25–June 21, 2009 in Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea. There is no entry fee. Contact World Ceramic Exposition Foundation, Icheon World Ceramic Center, Curatorial Dept., 467-020, San 69-1, Gwango-dong, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Republic of Korea; tel. (82) 31 631 0580; cebiko@gmail.com; www.wocef.com. ‰ NICHE Magazine is accepting digital entries through Sept. 30 for the 2009 Student NICHE Awards Competition, open to all craft media and to take place Feb. 13–16, 2009. Entry fee is $15. For additional information, contact Melissa Becker at NICHE Magazine, 3000 Chestnut Ave., Suite 300, Baltimore, MD 21211; 410.889.2933 ext. 224; melissab@ rosengrp.com; www.americancraft.com.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Calls for Entries

Outgoing President George W. Bush is the subject of this tile mural by Richard Notkin, on exhibit as part of the Westchester Arts Council’s “All Fired Up” ceramics exposition beginning in October.

Hot Stuff I News & Events

Dan Finch Pottery 2008 Fall Workshop

Family Affair! Featuring Dan, Justin, & Kathryn Finch. Enjoy a weekend of multiple points of view with Finch Family Potters. The threesome will share their techniques and talents and a

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

southern-style barbeque. Enjoy!

Registration: $150 Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, 2008. To register, please call (252) 235-4664 or e-mail dan.finch@earthlink.net

‰ Digital entries are being accepted through Sept. 30 for In Progress, a multimedia exhibition to take place Oct. 20–Nov. 14. Entry fee is $25 for three entries. To obtain a prospectus, visit http://arthurbutcherartgallery. googlepages.com/home, or contact Concord Ceramic Arts Association, Concord University, Campus Box 50, PO Box 1000, Athens, WV 24712; 304.384.5351; ceramics@concord.edu. ‰ NEXT: The Invitational Exhibition of Emerging Art is accepting digital entries of all media through Oct. 1. Entry for this Feb. 2009 exhibition is free. For information, contact Drew Leshko, West Collection, Oaks, PA; 610.804.7794; drew@westcollection.org; www. westcollection.org. ‰ Juror Elaine Levin is accepting digital and slide entries of all media through Oct. 1 for 5" x 5" x 5," to take place Dec. 11, 2008Jan. 11, 2009. Entry fee is $35; $3 additional per slide. For details, contact Target Gallery, Torpedo Factory Art Center, 105 N. Union St., Alexandria, VA 22314; 703.838.4565 ext. 4; targetgallery@torpedofactory.org; www. torpedofactory.org. ‰ The 2009 NCECA Regional Student Juried Exhibition, to take place Jan. 24–Apr. 11, 2009 in Tempe, Arizona, is accepting digital entries through Oct. 1 from current undergraduate and graduate students in the states of AZ, CA, CO, KS, NE, NM, NV, OK, TX, and UT. Geoffrey Wheeler and Michaelene Walsh will jury the show, for which there is no entry fee. For complete details, log onto www.nceca.net.

sity Galleries, Yue-Kong Pao Hall of Visual and Performing Arts, 552 W. Wood St., West Lafayette, IN 47907; 765.494.3061; cdmartin@ purdue.edu. ‰ The Feast: About Food, Made from Food, Including Food is accepting digital and slide entries through Oct. 15 for its multimedia show, to take place Feb. 2–Mar. 5, 2009 in Pittsburg, Kansas. Entry fee is $20. To obtain a prospectus, log onto www.pittstate.edu/ art, or contact Pittsburg State University, 1701 S. Broadway, Pittsburg, KS 66762; tel. 620.235.4303; sbowman@pittstate.edu. ‰ The Clay Mix of Fresno, CA is accepting Solo Exhibition Proposals through Oct. 15. For more information, contact the Clay Mix, 1003 N. Abby St., Fresno, CA 93701; 559.485.0065; info@clay-mix.com; www. clay-mix.com. ‰ The International Festival of Postmodern Ceramics: Nature as Adventure, to take place Mar. 6–Apr. 4, 2009 in Croatia, is accepting free digital and photo submissions through Oct. 30. To learn more, contact Kerameikon, Croatian Ceramic Association, Krizaniceva 13, 42000 Varazdin, Croatia; info@kerameikon. com; www.kerameikon.com. ‰ The Beaumont Art League National is accepting digital or slide entries through Oct. 31 for its Mar. 1–31, 2009 event. Entry fee is $35. For details, contact BAL National, 2675 Gulf St., Beaumont, TX 77703; 409.833.4179; bal-dana@gtbizclass.com; www.beaumont artleague.org.

‰ The Unbreakables: A Juried Ceramic and Glass Exhibition open to California clay and glass artists, is accepting entries through Oct. 1. Fee is $25 for three entries. For full details, contact Cabrillo Gallery, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA 95003; 831.479.6308; www.cabrillo.edu/services/artgallery.

‰ Solo and Collaborative Installation Artist Proposals are being accepted through Dec. 31 by the Craft Alliance, Attn: Exhibitions Coordinator, 6640 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130; 314.725.1177, ext. 323; exhibitions@craftalliance.org; www.craft alliance.org.

‰ The Perfect Fit–Shoes Tell Stories is accepting digital entries through Oct. 3 from all craft media, for its show to take place June 6, 2009–Jan. 3, 2010. Entry fee is $10. To learn more, contact the Fuller Craft Museum, 455 Oak St., Brockton, MA 02301; 508.588.6000; www.fullercraft.org; www.callforentry.org.

‰ Juror Gail Brown is accepting entries from students and under-represented emerging craft artists through Nov. 3 for its 2009 Lydon Emerging Artist Program (LEAP) Award, to take place Sept. 4–12, 2009. Entry fee is $10; an honorarium of $3000 will be awarded. For details, contact the Society for Contemporary Craft, 2100 Smallman St., Pittsburgh, PA 15222; 412.261.7003, ext. 17; www.contempo rarycraft.org; gallery@contemporarycraft.org.

‰ Urban Legends & Rural Myths is accepting free digital and slide entries of all media through Oct. 10 for its exhibition to take place Mar. 9–Apr. 26, 2009. Elizabeth K. Mix will jury the event. To obtain a prospectus, log onto www.purdue.edu/galleries, or contact Craig Martin, Director, Purdue Univer-

‰ Artists in AL, FL, LA, MS, and TX not presently represented in New Orleans are invited to submit digital images through Nov. 10 for the 2nd Annual Gulf-South Regional

‰ The 75th Crocker-Kingsley: California’s Biennial is requesting digital entries from California residents through Nov. 15 for its exhibition, to take place Jan. 10–Feb. 6, 2009. Michael Bishop will jury the show; entry fee is $40 for three works. To learn more, contact Allison Henley at the Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., Sacramento, CA 95814; ahenleyreed@cityofsacramento.org; www.crockerartmuseum.org/kingsley.

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Hot Stuff I News & Events

Contemporary Art Exhibition. The show takes place Jan. 3–Feb. 28, 2009; entry fee is $25 for four images. For a prospectus, log onto http://becagallery.typepad.com, or contact BECA Gallery, Bridge for Emerging Contemporary Art, 527 St. Joseph St., New Orleans, LA 70130; 504.566.8999; beca gallery@gmail.com; www.becagallery.com.

‰ The Regional Juried Ceramic Competition of Irving, Texas is accepting digital submissions through Nov. 15 for its show, to take place Jan. 20–Mar. 6, 2009. Entry fee is $30; Dick Hay will serve as juror. For information, contact University of Dallas, Art/Ceramics Regional, 1845 E. Northgate Dr., Irving, TX 75062; 972.721.5319, hammett@udallas.edu; www.udallas.edu/art/regional.cfm. ‰ Juror Patti Warashina is accepting international digital and slide entries through Nov. 26 for the International Cup show to take place Feb. 6–28, 2009. Entry fee is $20 for one entry; $25 for two entries. For additional details, contact The Clay Studio of Missoula, 1106 Hawthorne St., Unit A, Missoula, MT 59802; 406.543.0509; info@ theclaystudioofmissoula.org; www.theclay studioofmissoula.org.

‰ The Craft Alliance of St. Louis, Missouri is calling for solo and collaborative installation artist proposals through Dec. 31. For complete details, contact the exhibitions coordinator at the Craft Alliance, 6640 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, MO 63130; 314.725.1177 ext. 323; exhibitions@craft alliance.org; www.craftalliance.org.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

‰ The State of Clay 6th Biennial Exhibition, to take place Mar. 30–Apr. 25, 2009 in Lexington, Massachusetts, is accepting digital submissions through Dec. 5 at a fee of $30 for three entries. Jim Lawton will jury the show. To learn more, contact Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, 130 Waltham St., Lexington, MA 02421; 781.862.9696; lacs. lexington@verizon.net; www.lexingtonma. org/lacs.

Hot Stuff I News & Events

Ceramics Exhibitions ‰ Respite, to feature works by Barrie Gross, Patricia Majorel, and Eric Steppling, will be on view Sept. 17–30 at Ruby’s Clay Studio and Gallery, 552A Noe St., San Francisco, California. ‰ Chris Miller solo exhibition takes place through Sept. 26 at The Schein-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art, Alfred University, Alfred, New York.

‰ Cut, featuring works by Robert Briscoe, Marty Fielding, Steve Godfrey, Sequoia Miller, Warren MacKenzie, Jess Parker, Kristin Pavelka, Brad Schwieger, and Stacy Snyder, takes place through Sept. 26 at Red Lodge Clay Center, 123 S. Broadway, Red Lodge, Montana. ‰ Dinner Party: Works for the Table takes place through Sept. 27 at Red Star Studios, 821 W. 17th St., Kansas City, Missouri.

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‰ The Lillstreet International takes place through Sept. 28 at Lillstreet Art Center, 4401 N. Ravenswood, Chicago, Illinois. ‰ Environmental Ceramics: Art in Living Spaces takes place through Sept. 28 at Kent Island Federation of Art, 405 Main St., Stevensville, Maryland. ‰ 30 Special Edition Pots takes place through Sept. 30 at Maine Potters Market, 376 Fore St., Portland, Maine. ‰ Clayfest 2008 takes place through Oct. 3 at Basile Center, Herron School of Art and Design, 735 W. New York St., Indianapolis, Indiana. ‰ Sergei Isupov, Androgyny takes place through Oct. 4 at Ferrin Gallery, 437 North St., Pittsfield, Massachusetts. ‰ Compositions: Abstract and Figurative Sculpture, to feature works by Jorie Berman, Naomi Dalglish, Mary Fischer, Erik Haagensen, Asia Mathis, Holden McCurry, and Pandra Williams, takes place through Oct. 4 at MudFire Gallery, 175 Laredo Dr., Decatur, Georgia. ‰ 5 Objects, to feature works by Stephen Heywood, Brian Jensen, and Lai Montesca, takes place through Oct. 5 at Celadon Gallery, 41 Old Mill Rd., Water Mill, New York. ‰ Firing Partners: Stonepool Pottery, featuring works by Mark Shapiro, Michael McCarthy, Daniel Garretson, Maya Machin, and Emmett Leader, takes place Sept. 13–Oct. 12 at Ferrin Gallery, 437 North St., Pittsfield, Massachusetts. ‰ Soaring Voices: Contemporary Japanese Women Ceramic Artists takes place through Oct. 18 at Crocker Art Museum, 216 O St., Sacramento, California.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

‰ SAC Artist Awards Exhibition takes place through Oct. 19 at Society of Arts and Crafts, 175 Newbury St., Boston, Massachusetts.

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‰ The Crystalline Spectrum, A Journey from Student to Master takes place Sept. 27–Oct. 22 at Tyler Gallery, Northern Virginia Community College, 3001 N. Beaureagard St., Alexandria, Virginia. ‰ Texting: Print and Clay takes place through Oct. 24 at Pewabic Pottery, 10125 E. Jefferson Ave., Detroit, Michigan. ‰ Handle with Care takes place Sept. 12–Oct. 25 at Pelham Art Center, 155 Fifth Ave., Pelham, New York.

Jake Allee Earns 2008 Clay Times “Excellence in Teaching” Award

‰ Surface, Form, and Substance, featuring works by Debra Fritts, Ovidio Giberga, Susan Kemenyffy, Eva Kwong, Jeffrey Nichols, and Lana Wilson, takes place Sept. 25–Oct. 31 at AMACO/Brent Contemporary Clay Gallery, 6060 Guion Rd., Indianapolis, Indiana.

Congratulations to Jake Allee, professor of ceramics at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas, for achieving the Clay Times 2008 Excellence in Teaching Award! His prize: a free trip on our 2009 Clay Times “Cruisin’ for Clay Potters Conference in the Caribbean” in January! To find out how you can take part in the conference cruise, visit www.claytimes.com/cruise.html.

‰ Artful Drinking Vessels takes place Oct. 3-Nov. 1 at Pottworks Gallery, 3765 Lincoln Rd., Hamilton, Michigan.

Hot Stuff I News & Events

‰ Three Dimensions of Expression: Sculptural Clay, featuring works by Joe Bova, Victor Spinski, and Roy Strassberg, takes place through Oct. 26 at Craft Alliance in the Loop, 6640 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri.

‰ World Ceramics: Transforming Women’s Traditions takes place Sept. 19–Nov. 2 at Northern Clay Center, 2424 Franklin Ave. E., Minneapolis, Minnesota. ‰ Ceramic Expressions takes place Oct. 2–Nov. 2 at Blue Door Artist Association at Yonkers Riverfront Library, 1 Larkin Pl., Yonkers, New York. ‰ Platters and Pourers takes place through Nov. 6 at Baltimore Clayworks, 5707 Smith Ave., Baltimore, Maryland. ‰ The Artful Tabletop takes place Oct. 6-Nov. 16 at Lyndhurst Mansion, 635 S. Broadway, Tarrytown, New York. ‰ Terra Forma: Perspectives in Clay takes place Oct. 13–Nov. 22 at Westchester Community College, Fine Arts Gallery, 75 Grasslands Rd., Valhalla, New York. ‰ Owen/Owens: A Family History in Clay is on view through Nov. 29 at the North Carolina Pottery Center, 250 E. Ave., Seagrove, North Carolina. ‰ Warren MacKenzie: Legacy of An American Potter takes place through Nov. 30 at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main St., Houston, Texas.

‰ All Fired Up! Salt Wares: 1700s to 2008 takes place Oct. 5–Jan. 3, 2009 at the Rye Historical Society, Square House Museum, 1 Purchase St., Rye, New York. [ To list your clay conferences, calls for entries, exhibitions, and ceramic news items in Clay Times, please e-mail details to: claytimes@gmail.com, with “What’s Hot” in the subject line.

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

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‰ Confrontational Ceramics takes place Oct. 3-Dec. 13 at Westchester Arts Council, 31 Mamaroneck Ave., White Plains, New York.

Yeah, it’s something like that.

Pictured on this page (clockwise from top right): Works by Kathryn Finnerty, Keith Renner, Joe Pintz, Novie Trump, Lynn Ainsworth, Jason Briggs, and Jury Smith. Pictured on opposite page (clockwise from top left): Works by Janis Mars Wunderlich, Jessica Broad, Karen Thuesen Massaro, and Dave Eichelberger.

“All Fired Up!” Exposition Opens Oct. 3 in NY State Sixty venues throughout Westchester County, New York will join together to present “All Fired Up! A Celebration of Clay in Westchester,” from October 3 to November 30, 2008. This consortium project is being organized by the Westchester Arts Council and the Clay Art Center, with a steering committee of eight cultural institutions. All Fired Up! will include parallel exhibitions at museums, multi-art centers, library- and college-based galleries, and alternative sites. Together, they will host regional, national, and international works of art that explore the breadth and depth of ceramic expression, from

folk arts to fine arts, both historic and contemporary. Core components of the celebration will include curator’s talks and panel discussions at exhibition sites, with additional events including a panel discussion on contemporary ceramic arts, a symposium, and skill-based and specialized workshops for ceramic artists. Educational activities will include a teacher institute, family/kid introductions to workshops, artist residencies, and kiln instruction for teachers. For complete event details, log onto www.allfiredup.info, or call Leigh Mickelson at 914.937.2047. [

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To learn about our Raku, Cone 5/6 and Crystalline glazes visit:

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Five Guidelines We Could All Follow by PETE PINNELL

’m a “dump cook.” I may start with a recipe, but my natural instinct is to treat it as a starting point for improvisation. I enjoy playing in the kitchen and following any impulse that happens to strike me. Because of this, the quality of my cooking is admittedly uneven. When I happen to get it right, my very supportive wife will suggest I write down what I did “so we can have it again,” which really means “so you’ll stand a better chance of making something edible.” A couple of years ago, I really nailed some beef stew—it was good, really good. At the prompting of my family I wrote the recipe down and Julie put it in her recipe book. Yesterday I made that dish again, and noticed that the recipe was rather odd. I’d written it for me—that is, I’d written it out assuming that I would be the only one to ever use it to cook this dish. For instance, I didn’t include celery, carrots, or potatoes in the recipe, even though I always put them in beef stew. Why bother writing it down if I know I’m going to do it anyway? I was also really vague on certain details. For instance, my recipe calls for “½ medium onion.” It doesn’t tell me what kind of onion (white, yellow, red, Vidalia, etc.—I used yellow) and it doesn’t tell me how to prepare the onion (chop fairly fine and sauté in olive oil until it begins to caramelize).

I’ve been thinking about recipes lately because of an e-mail I received from my friend, Jon Singer1. Jon is a perfectionist (in a good way) and he wrote to complain about some of the odd and unfortunate recipe-writing habits of our fellow

In an attempt to reform our standards and practices a bit, I’ve combined Jon’s list with mine and assembled this list of five guidelines for how we might improve the way we write our recipes.

(like Kona F-4) work, though the glaze takes on a different look. This leads me to my second guideline: 2. But don’t be more specific on materials than is necessary! Specificity is good if it’s actually necessary. Otherwise, I think a generalized term (such as “whiting”) is just fine.

1. Be specific about materials. If you e-mail me and ask for my clear glaze recipe (and I happen to be in a hurry), you might get back something like this: Feldspar Whiting Kaolin Silica

25 20 20 35

The problem with my recipe (as written) is that it tells me a lot more than it tells anyone else. For instance, living in Nebraska, it makes sense that I’d use Custer Feldspar, which is mined right next door in South Dakota and costs little to ship. But how would you know which feldspar to use? Alternately, I could write it out like this: Custer Feldspar Duramite Whiting Grolleg China Clay Sil-Co-Sil Silica, 90-micron

25 20 20 35

This is better, but in some ways just as bad. Does it have to include Duramite brand calcium carbonate? Well, no—that just happens to be what I have in the studio. Any finely ground, reasonably pure calcium carbonate (“whiting”) will do. How about the Sil-Co-Sil? No, other brands of finely ground quartz will also work. As for the Feldspar, it doesn’t have to be Custer: G-200 (or other potassium feldspar) will work fine. Even soda spars

Interestingly to me, when I provide a more complete recipe for this glaze, Grolleg is the material that experienced potters are probably most likely to alter, substituting EPK or some other kaolin/ china clay (they’re two names for the same thing, by the way). Yet, the use of Grolleg might be the real secret for why this is such a beautiful, clear glaze. Grolleg has a very low level of titanium dioxide contamination, so this glaze can have a fresh, bluish-clear color over a porcelain body. Of course, you don’t know any of that because I didn’t provide any title or description for the glaze. I also didn’t tell you what those numbers represent (i.e., percentages). Let’s start over and write it the way I should:

Pete’s Clear Cone 9-11 Reduction (Best on a Grolleg porcelain body, where it turns a beautiful transparent blue-green with a high-gloss finish. It has good durability and glaze fit.) Custer (or Potash) Feldspar Whiting Grolleg China Clay Silica Total

25% 20 20 35 100%

Now, there’s a lot more I could tell you about his glaze, but I think this is sort of a minimum amount to get started.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

That’s one of the problems with a lot of recipes—mine and everyone else’s. We tend to leave out the “obvious” things that other people might not think are obvious.

potters. I tend to not get as apoplectic about these things as Jon (I’ve been a teacher for too long), but I agree with many of his preferences.

Perspectives I As Far As I Know

Writing Out Recipes

Perspectives I As Far As I Know

Writing Out Glaze Recipes 3. Write the recipe in the form of a percentage (i.e., the recipe should add up to 100). If nothing else, this makes it easy to compare one glaze with another, or spot odd or unusual proportions. It also makes it easy to convert the recipe to any size of batch. If the numbers in the recipe add up to something random (1,749.66), you’ll have to do a lot of altering before you can make anything other than a 1,749.7 gram batch. When I was new to ceramics, I did what every excited new student does: I collected a notebook full of glaze recipes. On my birthday one year, the guys I lived with all chipped in and bought me a calculator (they were expensive in the ’70s). I was playing with my new toy (I’m easily amused) and decided to take all my glaze recipes to percentage. In the end, I was shocked to find that I actually had only about three different recipes in my entire notebook. Sure, they used different names for some materials, or added different colorants or had slightly different percentages, but they were essentially just three different glazes. I never would have known that if I’d left them in the random formats in which they’d been published.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

4. Don’t call for greater accuracy than is necessary (or even possible).

I have to laugh a bit whenever I see a recipe call for something like Custer Feldspar, 31.364%. Even if you have access to a scale that’s accurate enough to weigh this out, you needn’t bother. The plain truth is that most of our raw materials are truly raw materials: they are mined, screened, bagged, and shipped just as they come out of the ground. While the companies do these things as carefully as possible, the materials can still vary a surprising amount from bag to bag. If you look at the preceding recipe for Pete’s Clear, you’ll notice that it not only is rounded to whole numbers, but that it’s also rounded to the nearest 5%. This recipe came about because I liked the look of the classic Qing Dynasty, Chinese clear porcelain glaze. I found several similar analyses, converted them to unity formulas, and then used those to construct a recipe.

Like most calculated recipes, it was specific to the tenths of a percent. While still a student, I rounded this to the nearest whole percentage and found it was unchanged. When I got out of school I couldn’t afford a gram scale, so I tried rounding this (and many of my other recipes) to the nearest 5%, so that I could weigh out a bucket of it in my cheap pound scale (at the rate of 5% equals 1 lb., you can mix a 20-lb. batch, which is just right for a five-gallon bucket). What I found is that a surprising number of my glazes easily made this transition and were essentially unchanged. There are exceptions, of course, especially with colorants. Cobalt (as either the oxide or the carbonate) is extremely potent, and differences of a tenth of a percent are easily distinguishable. Likewise, the amount of copper in a copper red can be very finicky and must often be measured in the tenths of a percent. Of the ingredients that one might encounter in a base glaze, the ones that usually demand a fine degree of accuracy are lithium carbonate and bone ash. Otherwise, I’ve yet to run into a base glaze that can’t be rounded to the nearest half of a percent, and it isn’t a stretch for most glazes to be rounded to the full percent. Don’t believe me? Weigh out two 500-gram batches of glaze, one rounded and the other specific. Mix each the identical way in a kitchen blender, dip your test tiles in, and fire. You probably won’t be able to tell the difference. 5. Separate the base glaze from the additions, such as colorants, opacifiers, or materials added to improve application, such as bentonite. Have the base recipe add up to 100%, with additions listed as percentages above 100. OK, I’m well aware that many potters (including Jon) disagree with me on this, some quite vehemently. It’s true that colorants and opacifiers affect a lot more than color and opacity. Some colorants are also potent fluxes and can drastically alter maturing temperatures and viscosity. Others can have a strong effect on glaze fit and durability. When I calculate the unity formula for a glaze, I’ll sometimes include colorants to see how they might change things. Still, in the recipes themselves, I like to separate the additions from the base glaze ingredients for a number of reasons.

For one, I like taking the base recipe to 100% because this convention allows us to easily compare base glazes with each other. You can learn a great deal about glazes from these comparisons, and you can easily spot duplications. I often find that “new” glaze recipes are simply old friends with different additions (masquerading under new names). If you really want to understand how colorants and opacifiers affect a glaze, then work a little extra step into your glaze mixing routine. Each time you mix a glaze, do your mixing and screening of the glaze without any colorants or opacifiers, and dip a few test tiles into it. Next, mix your colorants in a kitchen blender with enough water to allow thorough blending. After you’ve dipped the tiles in the base, just pour the colorant mix through a screen and into the batch. The wet colorant mix will easily blend with the base, so you won’t need to rescreen the whole batch. You’ll not only learn more about your glaze, the blending will also do a better job of mixing your colorants. (This is how I prevent specking from iron or cobalt, for instance). My other reason for preferring this convention comes from my experience as a teacher. When a glaze is in this format, there is a strong implication that the existing colorants aren’t the only ones a person might use, which tends to encourage students to develop other variations. After all, if a base glaze makes one terrific color, it will almost certainly produce others that are just as interesting. Finding new colors from an existing glaze is also a great first step toward formulating one’s own glazes. Well, those are my preferences. If you’d like to add to my list or comment on my druthers, please send me an e-mail. If there’s enough interest, I’ll do a future column on the topic. [

Footnote: 1. Jon Singer does research in a number of fields, and is funded by the Joss Research Institute. Peter Pinnell is Hixson-Lied Professor of Art at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. You can reach him at ppinnell1@unl.edu.

by Sylvia Hyman

F-4 (Soda) Feldspar Kaolin/EPK Whiting Talc Silica Lithium Carbonate TOTAL add Rutile add Cobalt Oxide add Bentonite

37% 9 9 18 19 8 100% 0.6% 2.0% 2.0%

Transparent Base Glaze • Cone 6 Ox. by Barbara Tipton

Kona (Potash) Feldspar Gerstley Borate Whiting No. 6 Tile Clay Silica TOTAL

40% 15 15 15 15 100%

Smooth Ivory Matte • Cone 6-7 Ox. by John Chalke

Nepheline Syenite Whiting Zinc Oxide Kaolin Silica TOTAL add Vanadium Pentoxide

56.8% 11.8 10.9 18.9 1.6 100.0% 5.8%

All recipes are given in percentages (by weight). Results vary with clay bodies and firing conditions; always test first to be sure you’re happy with the results. To mix a glaze batch to store in a 5-gallon bucket, multiply each percentage ingredient by 50 grams (for a half-bucket with room for dipping) or 100 grams (for a very full bucket). It is the responsibility of the user to have glazes tested for stability.

Jan. 11-18

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Goggleworks Center for the Arts, Reading, PA www.pacrafts.org

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NCECA (VANGILDER TOOLS), Phoenix, AZ Ph: toll free (866) 266-2322 • www.nceca.net

May 31-June 12 Haystack Mountain School of Crafts, Deer lsle, ME www.haystack-mtn.org July 20-24

Sierra Nevada College, Incline Village at Lake Tahoe, NV www.sierranevada.edu/workshops • Ph: (775) 881-7588

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Greater Lansing Potters’ Guild, Haslett, MI

Sept. 27-Oct. 3 Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Gatlinburg, TN Ph: (865) 436-5860 • www.arrowmont.org

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

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All of the above recipes are reprinted from Clays and Glazes, The Ceramic Review Book of Clay Bodies and Glaze Recipes, Third Edition, with permission from Emmanuel Cooper, Editor. To order it or learn more about this book, which features more than 900 recipes for clays and glazes, visit the Web site at www. ceramicreview.com/publications.asp, or contact Ceramic Review, 25 Foubert’s Place, London, England W1F 7QF.

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Readers Share I Glaze Recipes

Great Glazes

Bill van Gilder 2009 Workshops & Presentations

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DONNA OTTER PHOTO

by LANA Wilson

project in the clay studio for almost four months. There they produced 162 golden rays of light, a 36-inch-high flaming heart, a 36-inch-wide mosaic rose, and hundreds of pieces of colored tile shapes. On site, Alejandro Cruz Franco was hired to help work the often 12-hour days during the summer to mount about five rays a day. The longest rays were four feet long and were heavy when filled with concrete.

Perspectives I Beneath the Surface

The Guadalupe Arch

Alejandro and Nicolaidis installed the 46 largest ones first. Go ahead—start counting those hours and days! On July 28, 2002, as they were installing the rays, they looked up and saw a long cloud in the sky, almost perfectly echoing the Virgin’s figure, in the inner negative shape of the arch. This experience offered great encouragement.

During construction of the arch, an inspiring cloud formation in the sky appeared to echo the interior silhouette depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe.

Endowment for the Arts awarded Nicolaidis a small grant through the Border Art Workshop program. As the grant only covered start-up costs, Nicolaidis herself had to continuously foot the bills as the project progressed.

The community leader, Hortensia Hernandez, and the residents loved the design Nicolaidis presented. After three years of applications, the National

Part of the grant called for student involvement, so just outside San Diego at Southwestern College, Nicolaidis and student volunteers worked on the

She contracted with Armando Munoz, experienced in large-scale figural constructions, to build the metal and concrete structure that would form the Arch. She also accepted his advice to increase the height to 20 feet. She readily admits she had no idea how enormous her commitment would be in money and time.

Even though so much work had been completed, Nicolaidis realized she needed to hire a regular worker besides the volunteers. She was teaching four days a week and then preparing and traveling on Fridays to work on the Arch for 10 to 12 hours a day on weekends. So Ignacio Rojas—a.k.a. “Nacho”— was hired for the next three months. Together they brought the scaffolding to the top of the arch, which rose up 20 feet from the ground.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

fter only two visits to Maclovio Rojas, a very poor border community in Tijuana, Mexico, Judith Nicolaidis accepted the casual offer to start a ceramics program there. Women founded the community in 1987 and, in spite of its poverty, they had built a Women’s Center, an Art Center, and a Community Center. Nicolaidis, a full-time ceramics professor, had done figurative sculpture work that celebrated the feminine. So she decided to use the Virgin of Guadalupe, a nurturing, well-loved saint considered to be the Patron Saint of Mexico, as inspiration for the project.

Although Nicolaidis worked alone on a number of days during that summer, volunteers from both sides of the border worked to place the mosaic tiles. Occasionally, even passers-by joined in the process. Nicolaidis found that after she established the main design on the Arch, she had to forget control and let the volunteers pattern and install the tile. She was excited to see their work because she felt their mosaic patterns were much more vibrant than if she had done all of it herself or exerted tight control over the process. By Thanksgiving, 2002, the mosaic tile work was complete up to the shoulders of the Arch.

CLAYTIMESÂ·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Perspectives I Beneath the Surface

Finally they were ready to install the flaming heart at the top of the Arch. For Nicolaidis, the flaming heart serves as a symbol of passion—spiritually, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. Now it seemed like an improved system to install the heart was needed. So Edgar Rose of Tijuana, an engineer who volunteered to film a documentary of the project, helped design a better system to install the heart. Marco Antonio Cruz was the next hired helper, who worked until the Arch was complete. Together they built up the concrete form at the top of the Arch and filled the heart with concrete. Then volunteer help dwindled dramatically, as enthusiasm was low for working while high on ladders or scaffolding. Yet by the end of May, Nicolaidis and Cruz finished the central part of the Arch. At this point, Nicolaidis thought the hard work was over and that building the surrounding platform and benches for the Arch would be much easier. But she and Edgar Rose discovered that the foundation was minimal, and design modifications were needed to deal with future stability and rainwater drainage. Nicolaidis became depressed for a solid week! Here was another huge component of the project that she didn’t know much about. Yet Rose, with his engineering knowledge, helped her figure out what needed to be done and how to tie it all to the base of the Arch.

They worked 14 hours on the day of the big concrete pour for the platform surrounding the Arch. All the concrete was mixed and poured by hand, as electricity and running water were not available at the site. By the end of June, 2003, Nicolaidis had repeatedly opened her wallet, and hired labor and a few volunteers (no tall ladders to avoid) until the concrete platform and benches were complete. With donated tile and stone, the walkway through the Arch was

The walkway through the Arch, along with the benches and platform surrounding this monumental project, were decorated with donated tile and stone. Note the shadow cast by the Arch, depicting the silhouette of the Virgin Saint of Guadalupe. completed. Finally, on knees that will never be the same, they tiled the benches and rest of the platform. On August 16, 2003, 16 months after the project had begun, the Guadalupe Arch was complete.

Looking back, Nicolaidis wonders how she managed to do such a huge project. But she says she is ready to do more. [

The local Catholic priest blessed the Arch on “Guadalupe Day,” December 12. Two more celebratory dedications were held with rituals, flowers, music, and food. These culminating events included 100 people from Mexico and California, and included the residents of Maclovio Rojas and their children.

Judith Nicolaidis may be reached via e-mail at: jnicolaidis@cox.net. To see more images of the Arch, visit the Web site at www. judithnicolaidis.com. Columnist Lana Wilson is a passionate handbuilder whose work may be seen at www.lanawilson.com. She may be reached via e-mail at: lana@ lanawilson.com.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Then Paulino Garcia Avalos joined in, who helped build curved wooden forms, made metal rings, and cut and tied plenty of rebar. He and Nicolaidis built the metal structure running through the base of the arch, and tied it to the outside ring. Next, they poured the concrete for the shaped exterior ring of the platform and the high center section. Nicolaidis bent and placed the curved rebar to form the benches. One day Garcia Avalos told her it was the first time he had ever worked on a construction site with a woman.

In Form I Teaching Techniques

A Thrown and Handbuilt Project

Making Altered Pots & Lids by BILL van GILDER • PHOTOS BY CHARLES HOFFACKER

Necessary Supplies • one 2-lb.-8-oz. weight of clay (for the pot) • one 1-lb. weight of clay (for lid) • one 8-oz. weight of clay (for handles) • one 8" or 10" bat • a stiff rib tool • an undercut tool • a small sponge and water • a cut-off wire • a fettling knife • a rolling pin • two ¼" thick wooden sticks • a rasp or edge-rounding tool Optional: • a short 1" diameter wooden dowel • a sheet of embossed wallpaper

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

s described in my previous Clay Times column, altered pots have become an interesting and important part of the student’s learning curve. “What else can I do to this round pot?” is a question often heard in the classroom. “Put a lid on it” is a great answer … and here’s the project: a two-step, thrown-andhandbuilt lidded container (Fig. 1). This lidded pot is a variation of the oval dish made in my previous Clay Times column, but when making this project, the emphasis is on the rim and the lid— not the floor or feet. The container part of the project is thrown, and a gallery

1 (or ledge) is created at the inside rim. When leather-hard, the pot serves as the ‘mold’ for making the lid. The shaped lid is formed by slumping a thin clay slab into the pot to create a perfect fit. It’s basically a two-step project: first throw the container and add side-handles, then create the lid and knob, and trim the lid to fit the container. Begin by preparing the 2-lb.-8-oz. piece of clay listed in the Necessary Supplies list. This piece of clay will be used to throw the container. Gather the throwing tools and supplies, move them to the wheel, and attach an 8"- or 10"-diameter bat to the wheelhead.

Throwing the Container Throw a 7"- to 8"-wide cylinder, leaving a thick roll of clay at the rim. Immediately split this fat rim to form an interior gallery ledge (or refer to my column in the Nov./ Dec. 2005 Clay Times issue to learn how to roll a thinly thrown rim inward to create a gallery ledge).

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In Form I Teaching Techniques

Next, use a stiff rib tool to give the container its final shape, and undercut the clay from the base of the pot. Remove excess water from the inside and sponge the rim and gallery edge smooth. Don’t wire-cut your pot from the bat now—that happens after the next step. Remove the bat and your attached pot from the wheelhead, and allow the pot to dry for an hour or so, or until the ‘tacky water’ or the pot’s slick, wet surface has dried somewhat.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Altering and Attaching Handles

Now choose the altered shape that you want at the rim of your container (Fig. 2) and with dry hands, press, poke, and alter the soft rim into that shape. In Fig. 3, I’m pressing the rim into a soft-cornered oval. Press and oval one end slightly, then the other. Then, again press each end a little tighter into shape. The process is gradual … apply a little pressure, pressing several times. Set your altered container aside to dry until it becomes stiff and leather-hard. If you choose to attach a pair of handles or lugs to the sides of your container, do

it before the pot reaches the leather-hard stage. In Fig. 4 I’m using a sharp-edged stick to press some textured lines into a few fat coils, two of which I’ll attach to my pot as handles. As in Fig. 7, I use a 1"-diameter wooden dowel to press each coil end to the pot, securing the lugs to the wall. The handles are positioned just below the rim for both visual and functional balance.

Making the Lid As your container reaches the stiff leatherhard stage, it’s time to make a slab, which will become the lid. Roll out a ¼"-thick slab with flat dimensions that are at least 1" larger than the widest area of the rim. For example: for a pot with a rim that’s 7" at its widest exterior rim measurement, your slab will need to be 9" wide. In Fig. 5 I’ve used a rolling pin to press a sheet of embossed wallpaper into my slab, adding texture to the lid’s surface. The next step is to form the lid using a slumpmolding technique. With your now leatherhard container placed on a work surface in

front of you, pick up your slab at one end and drape it over the rim of the container with the textured surface facing down. Use your palms and fingertips to gently coax the slab edge inward and toward the center of the pot. The slab will drop or slump downward into the pot like a hammock as you slowly press the slab inward. When the slab has curved downward at least an inch or a bit more, use a rolling pin to gently flatten and mark the slab onto the rim (Fig. 6). Now allow the slab to dry on the container until it’s stiff leather-hard, like the pot it’s resting on. Then lift the slab from the container rim and place it upright onto a clean, flat work surface or small ware board. Before trimming away the excess clay from the lid edge, which is the next major step, make a handle and attach it at the top center of your humped lid. Again, use your wooden dowel to firmly press each end of the handle to the lid (Fig. 7). I’ve repeated the textured lines on the coiled lid handle—lines identical to those pressed into the side-handles. These lines ‘connect’ the appendages and serve to visually complete the form.

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Next, use a sharp fettling knife and, following the rim-impressed line on your humped slab, carefully cut away and remove the excess clay from around the lid (Fig. 8). Use a rasp tool, potato peeler, or one of my ‘van Gilder Clay Tools’ edgerounding tools to further trim and shape the lid rim (Fig. 9). Trim the lid rim edge in small increments, constantly testing it for a good fit. During this trimming step you can hold onto the attached (and now stiff) top handle. Finally, lightly sponge the lid rim smooth and round. Trim and finish the foot or base of your container, place the lid into the pot, and allow them to dry together until bone dry. Then bisque, wax, glaze, and fire.

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. 356.2529.

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In Form I Teaching Techniques

National Juried Ceramics Exhibition

Jay Bachemin Photo

Midnight Snack Salt & Pepper Set. 3" x 2½" x 2½".

CHARLES BEHLOW Photo

A Painterly Flair for Earthenware

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Karma. 18" x 3". All works are made with grog-free Standard #105 white earthenware and are decorated with Mayco, Gare, or Duncan underglazes with clear glaze on top.

here is a tile that sits on a shelf above the desk where I write. It is a vibrant, colorful tile adorned with a bright orange-and-yellow bird that swoops through a pastoral twilight, still and deep. From its beak streams a banner. On the banner is written; “Learn to desire what you have.” The presence of the image is like the poignant memory of a dream: austere and unforgettable. The tile is the work of Cincinnati artist Terri Kern. Terri’s work comes in many forms and has been exhibited widely in the United States as well as Germany and France. Terri

is equally at home creating sculptural forms, functional vessels, or decorative tiles. Each piece is complex and rich, like the story of a human life. Indeed, it is from her life that Terri draws her inspiration. Having been told by a graduate professor to “make work about what you know,” Terri pushed headlong into the courageous practice of creating images, forms, and sculpture that draw upon her most important, private, and daily influences. From her grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s to pieces about marriage, and more whimsical work about vegetables and television, the past 13 years have seen Terri develop her

symbolic vocabulary into a sophisticated, colorful interpretation of human experience. I recently sat down with Terri in her studio and asked her to explain to me the process of how one of her pieces develops from the initial spark to its final form. She told me that she begins with an image that she likes. Quite often this can be an animal or an object in her home. Surprisingly, she does very little sketching or drawing before she begins to work directly in clay. She keeps extensive journals, and is always writing about her life and work. When one of these images strikes

STORY By Collin Taylor

Jay Bachemin Photo

CHARLES BEHLOW Photo

photos by jay bachemin and charles behlow

Above: A Journey Begun. 15" x 11" x 2". Below: Iguana Afternoon. 7" x 4" x 3".

Daisy Chain Salt & Pepper Set. 3" x 1½" x 1½".

CHARLES BEHLOW Photo

When I asked her whether the recurrent symbols that show up in her work—chairs, rabbits, ladders, birds, and snakes—were meant to evoke consistent ideas, she said there is continuity, but the images are adapted to the concerns of each particular piece. For instance, while she was working on a series of pieces regarding her grandmother’s battle with Alzheimer’s disease she often used a chair to symbolize a kind of middle ground of comfort that she wished for her

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

her, she holds on to it. As she begins to manipulate the clay and find ways to integrate the image, she finds that it becomes clear to her what the image means and why it is important.

person to want to buy, then she can’t pay her studio rent. Most of her work is sold at indoor/outdoor fine art shows, which Terri feels offer her the best venue for getting to meet the people who buy her work, as well as to educate them about the process and story behind each piece. It is through this first-hand interaction that Terri gains additional inspiration. As we spoke, Terri recollected numerous stories that had been shared with her of how her pieces have factored into people’s lives in unforeseeable ways. “Such accounts remind me that what I do—making art, putting real emotion and experience into the work—has value. It means something. Occasionally, it touches someone’s life in a meaningful way.”

When pressed about why she works in clay rather than in a two-dimensional medium like painting or printmaking, Terri smiled. “I like the physical aspect of the work. I like to think of myself as a blue-collar girl. I like to get in there and get my hands dirty. Not only that, I like the fact that it’s a natural material, it helps me feel close to nature to work in clay.” Terri doesn’t really think of herself as a painter, despite her accomplished skill with a brush. In the only painting class she ever took, her instructor told her that she had no sense of color, and that her real strength was in three-dimensional work. “She was a nun. I believed her,” she recalls with a wry grin. Terri’s work is made using a mid-fired earthenware clay body. She employs various construction methods including wheel

Jay Bachemin Photo

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

grandmother during her long and confusing trial: security, comfort, and support. Similarly, in a more recent series about marriage, the chair shows up again (this time, as symbolic meditation of her husband’s unwavering acceptance, steadfastness, and support). The shift in symbolic meaning is subtle, but it allows for a wide-ranging freedom of association. This symbolic flexibility is important for Terri. While she doesn’t worry that not everyone can “read” her work, her hope is that almost anyone can find some aspect to relate to. “For some, perhaps it’s as elemental as an attraction to color,” while for others there may be a symbolic resonance. This built-in attractiveness has a pragmatic side as well. She makes no bones about saying that if she can’t make work that is visually appealing enough for the average

throwing, slab building, and carving to achieve a wide variety of forms. The depth and richness of color is achieved by layering commercial underglazes in a complex and methodical process. These are applied with a brush during the greenware stage. This process requires an intimate knowledge of the eutectics of the colored underglazes. Too much of one glaze before you apply another, and the results are flat, washed-out, or muddy. In some areas, the semi-transparent underglazes can require as many as 15 to 20 coats to achieve the depth and richness so characteristic of her work. The black underglaze is added last, and is easily the most time-consuming part of the process. One look at the detail in one of her pieces is enough to understand why this is the case. It is brushed on with the greatest of care, often meticulously repeating a sophisticated brush stroke detail. At times, Terri will sgraffito through the black to reveal the color below. The pieces are then fired to 2018° F in oxidation. Once this is accomplished, a clear gloss glaze is applied and the pieces are re-fired to 1945° F. It is the saturation of the glaze into the

The Navigators 4” X 4.5” X 4” earthenware 2007 Jay Bachemin photographer

Opposite page: The Year of Living Dangerously. 19" x 19" x 5".

underglaze beneath, which occurs during this final firing, that produces the vibrant, striking color and contrast.

And so she has. [ Terri Kern may be reached via e-mail at tkern@fuse.net; Web site www.terrikern.com. Author Collin Taylor is a librarian/potter who lives in Northern, KY. His wife is also a potter and together they make up Union’s Bloom Pottery. To learn more, visit www. unionsbloom.com.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Since I have followed Terri’s work for a number of years, I was curious to find out what artistic influences were important to her. Her work is so vastly different from any other ceramic work being made in the Cincinnati area that I was not much surprised to hear her say that she doesn’t look at much contemporary work. She wants to be very careful that her work doesn’t start to look like someone else’s. So what about historical influences? Her answer: Frida Kahlo. The work of this famous 20th-Century Mexican painter might seem a rather strange source of inspiration for Terri. Although their work is not similar aesthetically, Kahlo’s influence makes sense when considering the commitment of both artists to courageous self-examination and disclosure. Terri explains why looking at Kahlo’s example inspires her: “If she could go through all that she went through, and have the courage to make art from those experiences, then so can I.”

Jay Bachemin Photo

Below: The Navigators. 4" x 4½" x 4".

CHARLES BEHLOW Photo

At right: So Much to Tell You. 15" x 11" x 2".

Jennifer McCurdy’s Carved and Pierced Porcelain

Above: The Dunes Studio Gallery and Café in Prince Edward Island, Canada, is open for business from May through October. Opposite page: Dunes founder Peter Jansons works at the wheel while his associate, Joel Mills, pulls a handle.

Peter Jansons: 21st Century

Renaissance Man Sometimes making pots is only the beginning ... by K.T. Anders

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

ottery was always going to be part of Peter Jansons’ life—he just wasn’t sure what part. And the truth is, 42 years later, maybe he still isn’t.

a furniture designer, and an importer of Asian art. Yet even with all the aforementioned roles and responsibilities, he remains an accomplished, talented, and prolific potter.

Jansons grew up in Toronto, Canada, where his mother was a night school potter. “When I was 13, she let me tag along to some of her classes,” says Jansons. “She set up equipment at home and I became a spoiled adolescent with an in-house technician. She washed the floors, mixed the glazes, and loaded the kilns. I just zoomed in and made my mugs and bowls after school.”

A visit to his playground, the 18,000-square-foot Dunes Studio Gallery and Café in Brackley Beach, Prince Edward Island, Canada, is an art feast for the senses, the eye, and the palate. Jansons has done it all! Lush gardens full of flower beds spill a myriad of colorful blooms amid meandering pools and fountains, accented with all types of garden art. Some of PEI’s best food is to be found in the charming restaurant overlooking the gardens and adjacent to the open pottery studio. Galleries are filled with Canadian artisans’ work in glass, jewelry, and wood. “All the areas of my life feed one another,” says Jansons. “Building design is one of my real passions. I designed this complex in three phases. My dad is a structural engineer, so he made sure it all held together, and rendered the working drawing from which we could build.”

It was hardly a career commitment, and in college he briefly turned to dance before realizing that professional longevity would not be on his side. So he went to the Sheridan School of Design. It was a life-altering choice, because Peter Jansons didn’t just become a potter—he became a designer, an architect, a gardener, a gallery owner, a restaurateur,

Jungle Leaf Vessel #2. 12" x 12" x 12".

CLAYTIMESÂ·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Top and right: Jansons’ pottery consists primarily of wheelthrown and hand-carved stoneware decorated with matte glaze and fired to cone 7 in oxidation. Below: His Ikebana planters evolved to showcase florals from his gardens.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

First Came the Pottery

But it was the pottery that was the foundation. “I’d done cycling trips to Prince Edward Island as a teenager, so I thought I’d go to PEI and hang out and make pots,” says Jansons. Business was good, so he stayed. His trademark is beautiful carving by hand. “The carving was born in an odd way,” he explains. “I was living in an old house in Toronto that had minimal cupboards and drawer space. So I made some “wall-alls,” which are thrown wall pockets that hang on the wall to hold utensils. I started to do some patterns—clouds and rainbows—but they needed more dimension, so I began cutting away and carving.” Jansons uses no patterns; everything is incised freehand. Somehow, he says, it all just works out as he gets into a rhythm on the banding wheel. “I make a vertical cut, then a sideways cut on an angle to take away the clay. My mother is a traditional Latvian potter, so all her work has geometric designs that flow in repetition around a plate. My patterns are more modern, but seeing her designs as I grew up inspired me.”

Functional ware is the mainstay of his line, but he most enjoys his sculptural creations, such as his fanciful teapots. “The sculptural forms are like play time with blocks,” he says. “You put a series of forms together, attach a few, crush it all down, make it larger. The more enthusiastic you get, the higher your vibrational level, and the more the feeling from the spirit level can wash through you and become inspiration.” Work is fired to cone 7. “I use glazes that I’ve used since I was a teenager, adding new ones over the years. Because of the carving, I really like a matte glaze, as it highlights the sculptural look of the decoration.” But pottery, Jansons confesses, is no longer his main event. He leaves much of it to his associate of 25 years, Joel Mills. “Joel gets about 9 months in the studio; I have about 5 months,” says Jansons. “Joel does all the glazing and kiln loading and weighing clay, etc. He does some production pieces—mugs, butter dishes, slab plates, etc. I’m the main designer, thrower, and carver guy, but he’s the studio manager and the true driving force in the pottery.”

That’s a good thing, because our chat about pottery is interrupted as Jansons discusses with an employee where to put the seaweed in the herb, vegetable, and cutting beds. And that brings us to all the other elements of the Dunes Studio Gallery and Café.

Then Came the Restaurant Café? Why did a potter want to be in the restaurant business? “Well, that was a bit stupid,” he says. “I’d never even been a busboy: [there’s] nothing worse than a designer opening a restaurant. I’d imagined high school students making sandwiches.” But it turned out that, while working on a fundraiser, Jansons met one of the top chefs in Canada, who became his mentor. The upside was boffo business and great reviews. “Unfortunately we couldn’t get a handle on the

costs, so we were operating at 53% food and 56% labor. No wonder we did so well, we were giving it away.” It took a couple of years to navigate the choppy sea of chef egos. “In the beginning, it was the overwhelming business,” confesses Jansons. “I was still making pots. It was pretty hairy. One year I decided I wasn’t putting enough of myself into the restaurant, so I worked up the recipes and hired all women chefs, thinking we’d be ego free. But it was a cat fight. I ended up spending much of my time in mediation meetings. If there was any way of getting rid of the restaurant I would have, but it was central to the whole complex.” Settling down with the right chef finally solved those problems; now the restaurant is a roaring success with chef Emily Wells at the helm, and the food and the art live in harmony.

The Dunes Studio Gallery and Café features several different sun-drenched rooms filled with works of clay, glass, wood, and jewelry handmade by local artisans.

“One gets all these ideas, and they are only as good as the follow-through.” — Peter Jansons

Garden Time Early on, a journalist criticized the restaurant and gallery because of its sterile exterior. Jansons was mobilized into action. “I looked at the dusty gravel parking lot and thought, ‘I‘ve got to start doing something.’ So I started planting.” A year and a half later, another writer noted that the building was enveloped by flowers.

Because Jansons’ most popular pottery series are his sculptural and round ikebana dishes, he began with plantings for cutting gardens to best display the pots. “I got carried away and planted more and more,” he admits. “Then when we expanded the building, we needed regular maintenance to take care of the beds and we just kept adding beds. I thought, what have I done? It takes three people to get the gardens up in the spring, and I’m one of them. I just finished 10 days in the garden, and I’m just into my first day of potting.” It wasn’t long before Jansons began taking three months off to hit the road. “I went to Bali, Jogyakarta, Thailand, Vietnam, and Brazil, and began collecting things—carvings and paintings, fabrics, sculpture.” Trips to Asia became an annual event and he began shipping crates home to feature his purchases in the galleries. “For the last ten years I’ve been shipping containers,” he says. “There wasn’t room in this building, so with my Indonesian partner, Nash, a fashion designer, we built another addition to hold the collections.” There are bound to be many more trips and containers in his future. His fascination with Asian art and culture has led him to purchase a house in Bali, where he and Nash live and work four months of the year.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

After 25 years in the pottery/gallery/ restaurant/art business, Jansons says the only downside is that he’s busier than ever. But he has learned some lessons over the years. “I have to learn not to act on all my ideas,” he confesses. “One gets all these ideas, and they are only as good as the follow-through.” So far, he’s managed to follow through on quite a few of them. [

Peter Jansons can be reached at the Dunes Studio Gallery and Café, RR 9, Brackley Beach, Prince Edward Island, Canada, C1E 1Z3. His Web sites are dunesgallery.com and balimaja.com. K.T. Anders is a potter and professional writer who resides in Upperville, Virginia. She is a regular contributor to Clay Times.

Clay, Art, History, and Design Understanding & applying the basic elements and principles of design, and the role of ceramics in art history

STORY AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY JOE CAMPBELL

f you will allow me, two points please:

Point #1 — The “Clay as Fine Art or Handcraft” battle is old, musty, and just not worth fighting about.

When was the last time you enjoyed an aromatic Earl Grey, or a fine single-malt Scotch, from the depths of a watercolor? It’s a simple fact that paint or bronze or clay as a medium can be used to create great works as well as poor works. It is the mind and hands of the maker that determine the quality. Who in their right mind would not include Peter Voulkos or Shoji Hamada on the Art side of this discussion? This list could, and should, go on and on.

Content What is it that you are trying to do or say with your work? Some pieces are very narrative, in that they have a story to tell, however obvious or subtle. At the other pole is work that is simply about “beauty” via shape and design. Hybrids of these two are

most common. One path does not trump the other, as both are valid goals for our work. We simply should be very conscious of where we are going, and why we have chosen to go there.

Style Where does our work fit into the big picture of the ceramic arts? Ceramic history, due in large part to the permanence of fired clay, has the oldest and largest number of examples of “Art” left on the planet by humans. If we are ignorant of this vast treasure, and how it relates to the work we are doing, we have wasted our most precious design resource. Whether your influence is easy to categorize, like Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, or more difficult to define, such as Korean folk pottery, learn all you can from it! If you think your work really doesn’t “look like” any other ceramic work produced, chances are you need to look deeper into history: something very much like your work is most likely there.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Point #2 — You should probably think again if you believe that something handmade, which can be useful in the kitchen or the Tea House, inherently has less value as an art object simply because it is “useful.”

With my aforementioned conclusion comes some work on our part as ceramic artists. If we expect others in the field of visual arts to take us seriously, we must first take our work and our roles as artists seriously. To do so we must first understand, and then apply, the basic elements and principles of design that guide any medium—and be conscious of them! Second, we must recognize how our work fits into the vast history of Art and Ceramics. Honestly now, this does not have to taste like overcooked spinach! Quite the opposite, it can and should be an engaging part of our skill set that makes the quality of our work improve and leads us to a better understanding of why this is so.

A. A tall shoulder gives strength and elegance, making the foot look small and graceful.

Jars. It is always a good idea to work in a series—it gives us the opportunity to look at both form and surface decoration in subtly different ways. Jars pictured above are by the author and are wood-fired, with the largest being 12" tall.

Principles of Organization

them relative to our medium and our working methods.

Harmony: How all of the “parts” we have used (even in a single, simple jar, the neck, lip, foot, belly, decoration, etc. tie together to make the whole work as one). Variety: Those large or small “accents” we use to prevent the work from being static and lifeless. If harmony is our only concern, we usually create dead and boring works.

How Do We Create Harmony and Variety? 1. Proportion (relationships about size within the piece) 2. Scale (size compared to the world around us) 3. Repetition (of elements including shape, texture, color, line, value, etc.)

Basic Design Elements

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

B. The midpoint “belly” with its lower weight creates a quieter form with less grace at the foot.

4. Pattern and/or Rhythm

1. Shape (form, silhouette, profile) 2. Texture (incised, applied, impressed)

5. Contrast (smooth and textured, light and dark, round and square)

3. Color (body, slips, engobes, glazes)

6. Elaboration (focus, importance)

4. Line (incising, sgraffito, “implied” lines)

7. Balance

5. Value (contrast, patterns, imagery)

8. Symmetry/Asymmetry

Theses are the “things” we have to work with. Although these terms are generally applied to the formal 2-D world of design, we as clay artists can easily understand

9. Economy/Complexity quiet, loud and crazy)

(simple

10. Movement (angular or calligraphic)

ILLUSTRATION AT LEFT: Form The three jars illustrated at left are identical at the lip and the foot. They are also the exact same height and width. C. Very low weight is bottom-heavy and “dumpy.” There is no grace left here!

and

There is surely no “formula,” golden or otherwise, that assures good forms. Strive for good balance and look at the relationships of all “parts” very carefully.

The preceding list includes the major players, but is surely not complete and exclusive. In most cases, these “methods” are not used in an isolated way, but combine and are seamlessly interrelated.

singular. It is all the makers of coils and slabs, of wheels and kilns, with brushes and tools, over thousands of years, that give you and your work its presence. Know this strength, and use it wisely.

A reasonable understanding and use of these design concepts is of great help for making good work, but it is only one part. Good pieces bear the personality, facility, intelligence, and passion of their makers. However “touchy feely” this may sound, it is our hands and minds that elevate our work above the industrial and commercial objects made of clay.

Subsequent articles that will follow in this design series will draw upon the strengths of ceramic artists who have graciously agreed to share their ideas of design, influence, legacy, and artistry with us. I’ll be on the road to visit Angela Fina, Phil Rogers, Peter Callas, Dick Lehman, and Mark Hewitt. Their interviews and insights will follow in upcoming issues of Clay Times. [

No matter how well “designed” and how well machined it is, there is a life and breath that is missing from machine work. Great ceramic pieces have a strength and assurance that can only be imparted to them by humans, and this humanity is not

Joe Campbell is a wood-fire potter presently on sabbatical leave from his position as Professor of Ceramics at Frederick Community College in Frederick, Maryland.

A. A large portion of this jar is covered with balanced imagery. The undecorated bottom is roughly twice the width of the undecorated neck.

B. Fluting creates a very strong vertical presence and “thins” the jar. Again, areas above and below the decorated portion need good balance.

“Vases” Multiples: Those things learned from vase #1 can transfer immediately to #2, #3, etc. while our thoughts are clear and we are still engaged by our task. Pictured vases are by the author and are wood-fired, with the largest being 14" tall.

The form of these three jars is identical. Where you place decoration is crucial, but don’t forget to look at the “undecorated” parts and how they relate to the whole. Again, there is no formula for good “placement” of imagery; rather, it should fit onto the form with balance, and accent the curves, angles, and changes of the form. Think about using double lines to “enclose” decorated areas to create a sense of strength and clarity.

C. Minimal texture pattern at the shoulder is given more strength by the addition of small lugs.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

ILLUSTRATION AT RIGHT: SURFACE

Ceramics with Seniors by VICTORIA CLAYTON

“Seniors registering for a ceramics course will exhibit a wide range of experience, talent and motivation. Some may take the course out of idle curiosity, while others may be retired professionals, happy for studio facilities.” —Penny O’Brien

Pictured: Senior clay artists in the classroom. Above: Harriet L. Peretz. Opposite page, clockwise from top left: Sonja Pagac, Levern Allen, Rita Olson, Jean Otte, and Bill Heineman.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

he goal in teaching a ceramics class to seniors is to offer something new and interesting, while enjoying the learning process together. Students who enroll in this class are looking to work with others in a stimulating and creative environment.

Teaching ceramics to seniors for the past three years, and learning with the students what does and does not work, has led to the development of a series of recommendations other teachers may find useful when starting up a ceramics class for seniors. For many students, this is their first experience in working with clay. Simple foundation techniques for building with clay, such as coil bowls and pinch pots, are easy beginning lessons and provide immediate gratification. It is important to make sure each student understands the lesson before moving on to another method. Reinforce the experience by

making two or more pieces using the same techniques. Beginning pieces may be thick, and those will require longer drying. A thick piece is okay, but you should emphasize the need to maintain even thickness throughout the piece. Encourage students to come to class with a concept they wish to explore. Some may initially be hesitant about bringing in original ideas. A classroom resource library of books covering such topics as handbuilding and sculpture techniques, gallery catalogues, and picture encyclopedias of plants, mammals, birds, and fish facilitates the creative process. Students remark that they often spend time during the week prior to each class thinking about a new project. Each student often has three or four projects in different stages of completion. For example, while one piece is in the drying stage, another is being modeled, while a third is ready to glaze. There is always a project and process ready to explore.

Once several pieces are completed more involved lessons can be introduced, such as sculpting portrait busts and other vertical forms (bas-reliefs and vases). Models themselves, particularly visiting family members, may come to sit for their sculpture portraits. Pictures work well when models cannot be present. As camaraderie and trust grow amongst the students, the classroom becomes a safe environment to take artistic risks, gather constructive feedback, and learn from each other. If a project does not turn out as expected, it is not seen as time wasted. The entire class benefits from social and learning experiences. Challenges particular to seniors’ physical needs, such as walkers and wheelchairs, require special attention. To ease movement around the room, space tables far apart. Combining two or three tables together gives the students an opportunity to talk to each other as they work.

—Levern Allen

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

“I had no real expectations except to learn something new and to have fun.”

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Rock and Roll guitar. Created by a middle school student. Article in the January 2008 issue, “ART Rocks!”

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Make sure to project your voice during demonstrations and ask if it would be helpful to repeat the demonstration. Students with sight challenges, although limited in doing fine detail work, may find they enjoy working on large, three-dimensional forms. Begin by wedging a relatively large ball of clay (approximately 2 lbs.) for them. They can create their piece by squeezing, stretching, and rolling the form. Legs and arms can be extruded from the original ball of clay, which makes for a structurally sound piece. Not to be overlooked is the therapeutic value of modeling the clay with arthritic and stiff hands. The motions used in working with the clay (wedging and extruding forms) exercises the joints of the fingers and hands. The benefits are increased flexibility and comfort. An instructor’s typical threehour class period involves demonstrating new information, assisting students with wedging clay or cutting clay for tiles, going around the room and watching as projects get underway, giving one-on-one assistance with works in progress, and discussing glazing/finishing options. Basic instruction on the difference between underglazes and overglazes may need to be repeated often so the appropriate glaze is applied at the proper time. Glaze-fired test tiles of classroom glazes provides a useful reference for color choices. Pint jars of overglazes are easy to carry to and from the workspace. Some students may prefer not to glaze their pieces. Since the color of the glaze in the jar is not the same as the color of the fired piece, this opens the possibility of applying an undesired color. Alternative techniques to add color to a sculpture can provide strikingly satisfying outcomes. Acrylics, watercolor paints,

latex wall paint, boat paint, nail polish, lipstick, or black shoe polish have all been used successfully. A survey of students on what standard they would use to measure the success of the class has brought interesting findings. Penny O’Brien, one of the students in the class, said she believes “success should be measured primarily by individual satisfaction rather than by an external achievement standard. What is the purpose of the class? In one case, it could be physically therapeutic for hands and muscles. In another, working with clay can provide an emotional release. This is probably different for each person registered, which requires a lot from a teacher.” A low attrition rate, where students return every semester to build on their experience, is a good indication of success. Seeing residents of the community stroll by to observe the activities in the classroom, stopping in to talk with the artist and to admire the progress, is also a good sign. What seems to matter most in teaching ceramics to seniors is to provide a curriculum offering a range of foundation-building exercises that challenge students at each level of learning, while keeping the spark of creativity alive throughout the whole process. Class participant Bill Heineman summed it up this way: “The only standard I recommend is to achieve the joy and enthusiasm that has been generated in this group where people are able to amaze themselves by their own accomplishments, and are encouraged to continue to extend themselves by seeing the accomplishments of others.” [ Author Victoria Clayton is a ceramics student at Hood College in Frederick, Maryland.

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STRONG, DURABLE AFFORDABLE! Olympic Freedom kilns really free you up! Each Freedom kiln comes with their own emergency repair kit — 2 elements, crimping tool, pint of mortar, wiring schematic and extra thermocouple at no additional cost to you! And Freedom furniture kits contain shelves and posts to fit your kiln and a free bag of assorted stilts (33 stilts) for firing glaze ware. Freedom kilns are equipped with electronic controllers and fire to cone 10. Sizes range from 14” wide x 14” deep to 25” front to back, 37” wide x 27” deep.

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.

CLAYTIMESÂ·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Who knows best about firing your gas kiln?

Shop Talk I Firing

A Few Words About Expert Firing Advice BY marc ward

’ll start off with my familiar, “I’ve had a call from a customer” thing. This customer has just bought burners for their new kiln. Not only is the kiln new, but the potter has never fired a gasfueled downdraft kiln. They’ve also never used power burners. Their only experience is with small, updraft kilns using atmospheric burners. Four firings into the process, and they’re freaked out. The kiln’s firing fine, the pots are fine, but the potter is not. The potter’s problem? Too much help! You see, this potter lives in an area of several experienced potters, and is friends with really, really famous potters—I mean some of the most famous potters in the world. So you’re thinking, “How could this be a problem?” It’s not a problem when you want a great party with fun and interesting people. It’s not a problem when you want to share some of life’s inequities with your buddy on the phone. But it can be a real problem when it comes to kilns and firing.

The young or inexperienced potter with the new kiln calls on the older, experienced potter for advice. The grasshopper asks, “Master, how far should I slide the damper when I’m at cone 06?” The Master

The master has an 80-cubic-foot hardbrick kiln with an 18-ft. chimney and multiple atmospheric burners, using low-pressure propane on top of a windy mountain at an elevation of 7,000 ft. It’s the only kiln he has fired for the past 20 years. The student lives down the mountain at 4,000 feet, and has a 40-cubic-foot soft-brick kiln with an 8-ft. chimney and two forced air burners using natural gas. It’s not rocket science to see we have two entirely different situations! Yet I see it time and time again: people come into these situations and give advice—wellmeaning advice—that creates more problems than solutions. The novice, lacking experience and suffused in the glow of potterly sainthood, is slow to question the advice given. But things aren’t working right, so the student then turns to another guru and gets different advice. Ouch! Then another well-meaning guru offers something different, too! How can this be? The novice is hearing someone else’s local truth, masquerading as universal truth, that isn’t their own truth at all. Leaning to fire a gas kiln is like learning to drive a car. The fellow that has only driven buses—even if he is a very accomplished bus driver—may not be able to teach you to drive your antique AlfaRomeo without some confusion. The potter who drives a record-setting dragster may not be the person to teach you to drive your compact hybrid. When you learn to drive, you need to learn how to operate the individual components unique to your vehicle. What does the wheel do?

How do the brakes work? “When I do this, here is what happens: too fast around the corner, and whoa—I almost flip the car!” This is how you learn to drive. This is also how you should learn to fire a kiln—by learning how to operate one component at a time, to yield the desired result based upon the unique qualities of your kiln. So many folks call me and ask things like, “At cone 06, what should my gauge read and where should my damper be?” You know how I answer that? I say, “I really don’t know,” then I give them the car driving analogy. It’s not that I don’t want to be helpful, it’s just that I’ve learned not to fall into the “Universal Truth” trap. I’ve learned enough to know that I don’t absolutely know everything about your kiln by what I know about other kilns— nobody does. But you need to learn about your kiln. Suggestions are great; rules are questionable. When learning to fire your kiln, you need to trust your own instincts. I see this far too many times. People don’t trust their own gut about what should and shouldn’t be done. They naturally turn to the “experts” for help. That’s OK, as long as you’re aware of the bias toward local truth that I’ve discussed in this column. If you want some advice while learning to fire your kiln, trust the person who says, “Try this and we’ll see what happens.” Be wary of the expert who is only armed with rules concerning their own kiln. [

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.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Human beings tend to use their personal experiences to create an all-inclusive narrative about those experiences. It’s the way we seem to be wired. It’s the thinking that fosters the premise, “I’ve found this true for me, so it should hold true for all” (i.e., real estate always goes up). I run into this thinking all the time when it comes to firing kilns. This is especially true the longer the person has been doing the thing they view as “true.” The problem lies in the fact that they often mistakenly assert their local truth to be a universal truth. How does this play out?

answers, “Leave four inches open.” What should our student do but blindly obey? But the kiln stalls, they get “black-coring,” and then there is much howling at the sky—of course it must be the wretched student’s kiln!

Readers Share I Art Works

The Gallery

Serving Piece. 10" x 10". Handbuilt stoneware with layered glazes and wax resist, fired to cone 6 in oxidation. Gloria Singer, 14 Disbrow Court, East Brunswick, NJ 08816. E-mail: gloria@gloriasingerpottery.com.

CLAYTIMESÂˇCOM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Tall Plant-Leaf Form. 20" x 6". Handbuilt white stoneware decorated with glazes and multiple-fired to cone 10 in reduction. Lynnette Hesser, 1092 Seven Springs Road, Wellington, AL 36279. E-mail: hesserloucks@bellsouth.net.

Tall Spiral Pitcher. 18" x 7" x 5". Wheel-thrown stoneware with layered glazes, fired to cone 10 in reduction. Steve Loucks, 1092 Seven Springs Road, Wellington, AL 36279. E-mail: hesserloucks@bellsouth.net.

Custodian of Honor. 9" x 10Â˝" x 4". Handbuilt white stoneware fired to cone 6 in oxidation. Thelma Shotten, 3117 Victoria Ave., Cincinnatti, OH 45208. E-mail: shotten@fuse.net.

Readers Share I Art Works

The Gallery

Quatrefoil Vase. 9" x 14" x 8". Thrown and altered composite form with slab construction, glazed with strontium and fake ash glazes and fired to cone 9 in oxidation. Made by winner of 2008 Clay Times “Excellence in Teaching” award: Jake Allee, 2813 Birdwell, Tyler, TX 75701. E-mail: jall@tjc.edu.

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 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Monarch. 10½" in diameter. Handbuilt porcelain plate with feather-combed slip and slip inlay, clear-glazed, and fired to cone 5 in oxidation. Dennis Furgerson, 6206 Longford Dr. #3, Citrus Heights, CA 95621. Web site: www.dennisfurgerson.com. E-mail: furgerson2001@yahoo.com.

Ekkehard and Uta. 12" x 7" x 7" each. Thrown and altered porcelain, slipped and sgraffito-carved, and clear-glazed. Fired to cone 6 in oxidation. Jean Goddeau, 2115 Chagall Circle, West Palm Beach, FL 33409. E-mail: jgoddeau@comcast.net.

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The Steve® Tool Distributors Welcome

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

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.

Visiting Artist: Sukjin Choi Korean Techniques Oct. 3-5 (Exhibition Oct. 3-26)

NANCY ROBBINS

Understanding Pottery Glazes: Sept. 20-21 Properties of Clay: Sept. 27-28 Properties of Glaze: Oct 16-19 JOYCE MICHAUD

Glaze Application: Sept. 6-7 Photographing Ceramics: Oct. 25-26 Kiln Technology: Nov. 6-9 Wood Firing: Nov. 13-16 XIAOSHENG BI

Decorative Techniques for Porcelain: Oct. 25-26

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

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

japanpotterytools.com

From rasps and blades to old table legs and simple wood blocks, plenty of objects exist to help you simplify the process. by VINCE PITELKA

Shop Talk I Tool Times

Tools for Handbuilding

The Surform Shaver, the Surform Pocket Plane, and the round and half-round replacement blades work well for fine handbuilding applications.

I’ve written about Surform® tools before— the Surform Shaver, the Surform Pocket Plane, and the round and half-round replacement blades (pictured above in that order). You can find the Shaver and the Pocket Plane at your local hardware

or home improvement store, but for the round and half-round blades, log onto www.amazon.com and enter “Surform” in the search box. Surform tools are among the most useful that we have adapted from other media (such as wood and, until the Microplane graters came out, hard cheese). But in using them and watching my students use them, I’ve come up with some pointers that will help you in their use. • The clay really must be at the right stage to use a Surform tool. Too soft, and the tool will clog with wet clay, and it can be a pain to clean. Too firm, and you will be eroding the cutting edges off the teeth. That can make a huge difference in the life of the blade. If a Surform tool is used on very hard leather-hard or dry clay, it will become dull quickly.

Surform tools work best on leather-hard clay, but we often refer to soft, medium, and hard leather-hard consistency. Soft leather-hard is barely acceptable for using a Surform tool, and may still clog the tool. Medium and barely-hard leather-hard are ideal—what the British refer to as “cheesehard.” That term might seem pretty vague, but I think that we can all assume that they are talking about a mature cheddar or some equally dense, hard cheese. That is a good comparison. When the clay is stiff enough, the trimmings will fall free from the Surform blade, and will not bunch up in a gob of plastic clay on the back of the blade. If the clay is slightly on the soft side but still trims okay, some clay will accumulate on the face of the Surform blade between the teeth. If that clay hardens there, it will restrict or even eliminate the tool’s ability

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

t’s apparent that a lot of people want to know more about handbuilding. During the past two years, I have been invited to teach handbuilding workshops in ten states and two Canadian provinces. My first 16 years in clay, including ten as a professional potter, were entirely focused on throwing. It was in grad school during the mid-’80s that I fell in love with handbuilding, and all of my primary work has been handbuilt ever since. I try to follow the trends in tools for both throwing and handbuilding, but all these handbuilding workshops have made me reconsider some of the tools and approaches we use.

Shop Talk I Tool Times

The

Fulwood Measure

The perfect tool for same-size production pottery. Unique hinged pointer measures height and diameter of the pot and moves out of the way when not in use. With the Fulwood Measure, you can get it right every time. Handcrafted in beautiful hardwood and made in the USA.

Kissimmee River Pottery

One 8th Street #11 Frenchtown, New Jersey 08825 908.996.3555 riverpots @ earthlink.net www.kissimmeeriverpottery.com

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

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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.  



• The round Surform blade is very useful for cleaning up openings and shaping tight curves, but it does tend to get clogged with trimmings inside the tube. When that happens, just whack the side at the end of the tube against something firm like a concrete block or a brick. Rotate the tool as you whack it, and after a few seconds, a chunk of clay will drop from the end of the tube.

In mid-May, while teaching a handbuilding workshop at the Eastern Shore Art Center in Fairhope, Alabama, all the students brought the correct X-Acto knife, and I dulled the blades with my dulling stone (just a sharpening stone used improperly, although properly for this case). One of the students also had a beautiful, woodhandled clay knife with a razor-sharp blade, and didn’t want that one dulled at all. I joked about sneaking it from her tool box and dulling it, and she apparently took me seriously because she brought it home with her that evening.

• At the end of a day of using your Surform tools, drop them in a bucket of water and let the clay dissolve from them. Remove them after an hour and let them dry completely before using them again. If you attempt to use them wet, all the trimmings will stick to the blade and it will be a mess.

Later in the evening she was using that knife in her home studio. Her hand slipped and she cut herself quite badly, then showed up at the workshop the following morning with her hand bandaged. This woman is a skilled clayworker with a good eye and plenty of common sense ... so please take care!

I have also written about knives appropriate for use in clay, and my favorites are the standard fettling knife (make sure you get one with a spring steel blade) and the standard X-Acto razor-knife. The best one is the ubiquitous X-Acto #1 Precision Knife, with the 1" tapered blade and pencil-thin handle. For a superior model, spend a little more and get the X-Acto Gripster Soft-Grip Knife, which features the same blade. On the Gripster, the adjusting handle is at the end of the handle opposite the blade, and it never comes loose on its own. It’s worth it just for that.

In these handbuilding workshops we work with coil and slab construction, and I have spent a lot of time thinking about jigs and forms that assist in shaping soft and stiff slabs. For tapered tube forms, as in the base of a spout on a teapot or ewer, a cheap, modern, tapered table-leg is ideal. You can purchase them from an online woodworkers’ supply or from your local home improvement center. Almost any size of cardboard or PVC tube is ideal as a slump form for making arches and cylinders. Kids’ balls of varying sizes are great for making small domes.

• The X-Acto #1 Precision Knife is one of the very best clay knives you will find anywhere. The longer fettling knife is appropriate for many applications, but for precision cutting and for almost any other trimming or carving applications, the short blade of the #1 knife gives you great control.

To maintain some degree of precision in laying-out and cutting stiff slabs, a draftsman’s square works great for smaller forms, and a carpenter’s square is good for larger forms. When assembling those forms, some good-sized blocks of wood cut to 45° and 90° angles (or other angles as needed) can be very handy set-up tools, allowing you to get the angles right the first time.

to “dig in” and trim the clay. When that happens, a stiff wire brush is best used to knock that clay loose.

The X-Acto knife works so well because it is about one-fourth the thickness of a standard needle tool, and the cutting edge and planar shape make it glide through soft or leather-hard clay. But as I have written numerous times before, to do its job in clay, the X-Acto knife does not need to be razor sharp. It doesn’t need to be very sharp at all, so why take the chance of seriously cutting yourself? Dull the blade against an abrasive surface, and while you’re at it, dull the tip a little as well so that it does not snag on canvas or other surfaces.

Okay, I could go on for hundreds of pages, and am in the process of doing so! I am hoping that my new handbuilding book will be done in 2010. [ 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.

Improper Grinding is Cause of Blindness and Several Deaths by MONONA ROSSOL

n my September/October 1996 Clay Times column, I covered abrasive grindwheel hazards. Since there have been a blinding and several deaths from these wheels since then—including another death as recently as this past May—I think it’s time to cover this subject again.

A GRINDWHEEL “EXPLODES” The July 22, 2008 issue of the Erie TimesNews in Michigan reported that Michael E. Robinson, 35, was killed when a grinding wheel that he was working on exploded on the morning of May 27. These kinds of “explosions” occur when abrasive wheels, turning at rapid speeds, become worn or unstable. Then they can shatter, throwing pieces of the abrasive wheel at the speed of bullets—capable of penetrating the safety glasses and face shield of the user.

To review for potters, the OSHA rules for grinders (in 29 CFR 1910.215 of the code) are: • a metal housing must cover covering ¾ of the wheel including the spindles;

• a tool rest must be in place and adjusted to within 1/8" of the face of the wheel; • a break out plate must be seated at the top of the housing and adjusted to ¼" from the face of the wheel; and • the wheel must be dressed (re-ground to have a flat working surface). It must be checked after each use and as soon as the edges of the grinding surface become rounded, a special tool must be used to grind off the surface of the wheel and make it flat again. Any evidence of grinding on the side of the wheel renders the wheel unstable and it must be immediately discarded. In addition, it is an OSHA violation for a worker to use a properly guarded grindwheel unless they: • are wearing eye protection and sometimes face protection, in addition; • have all of the guards in place; and • have dressed and inspected the wheel before use. From this list of rules, every potter should know that abrasive grindwheels are not suitable for grinding glaze drips off of pottery pieces or kiln furniture. To do this, the guard must be raised to get these items to the grinding surface of the wheel. Often potters will also lower or remove the tool rest to expose more of the wheel for these tasks. Grindwheels are only suitable for sharpening flat objects such as chisels that can be guided on the tool rest

underneath the lowered guard. If you use chisels to clean shelves, then grindwheel use should be restricted to the sharpening of these tools.

SUBSTITUTES So how do we grind glaze drips and globs off pot bottoms, kiln shelves, and other objects? There are many other types of grinders to consider. Some of these include: • The larger and higher quality hand-held Dremel tools with assorted tips. • Die grinders with assorted carbide and diamond bits. • Air compressor-powered die grinders with bodies measuring 2" in diameter or larger. • Flexible shaft grinders like those used in the jewelry industry. • Dental drills for delicate work. • A horizontal flat wheel, which uses wet abrasive grits to grind flat areas. Investigate some of these types of grinders. One of these should be in every pottery. Used with protective eyewear and following the manufacturer’s directions, these will be much safer alternatives for grinding. [

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.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

I have written about a number of these accidents before, but this column is to remind ceramists that abrasive grindwheels usually do not even belong in the pottery. Yet I see them in almost every pottery business and school I inspect. Often the guards are missing or not properly adjusted, the wheel is not dressed (i.e., the grinding edge must be reground to be perfectly flat after each use), or the wheel is being used improperly. Failure to do these things are Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) violations as well as safety hazards. In fact, Mr. Robinson’s employer was cited for the lack of a proper guard on the wheel.

• a clear, unbreakable guard must be easily adjustable over the work during use;

Studio I Health & Safety

Grindwheels Again

Tangential Thinking by Bobby Scroggins. Mediaramics.

Summer Workshops in Paradise:

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Lake Tahoe

he Sierra Nevada College Summer Visiting Artist Workshop Program had a gorgeous display of their Visiting Artists’ work this summer in the Tahoe Gallery, located in the Prim Library. “We had an outstanding lineup this year; one great workshop after another,” said Sheri Leigh O’Connor, workshop director. The ceramics program was host to Linda Arbuckle, Mattie Leeds, Sam Chung, Xavier Gonzalez, Randy Brodnax and Don Ellis, Vince Pitelka, Bobby Scroggins, Arthur Gonzalez, Randy Johnston, and Bill van Gilder. Workshop topics included majolica decorating, fast firing, handbuilding, ceramic sculpture, thrown-and-altered forms, and lidded pots. Students traveled from across the United States to study with these nationally known artists, and thoroughly enjoyed their experience at Lake Tahoe. As stated in the workshop program brochure, “You can take a workshop anywhere, but there’s

no place as gorgeous as Tahoe”—and it’s definitely true. The turquoise water in a 22-mile-long lake, with perfect sunny weather and breathtaking alpine scenery, add a tremendous bonus to the workshop environment. Sierra Nevada College is Nevada’s only four-year liberal arts college, and its campus is absolutely beautiful. SNC offers B.A. and B.F.A. degrees in ceramics. Most of the workshop students attend the workshops for self-enrichment, but they can also be taken for college credit. The art department moved to the lake campus in late 2006, and is now located within a few steps of the dorms, so students have easy access to the ceramics studio. “It was difficult to move out of the ceramics studio on the mountain campus that was so rich in ceramic history, but our new studio is great,” said O’Connor. The program has been host to numerous ceramic greats such as Daniel Rhodes, Rudy Autio, Tom Coleman, Anne Currier,

Malcolm Davis, Ken Ferguson, Vivika and Otto Heino, Robin Hopper, Yoshi Ikeda, Marc Lancet, Marilyn Levine, Warren MacKenzie, Fred Olsen, Robert Piepenburg, Jim Romberg, David Shaner, Jack Troy, and many other amazing ceramists. Next summer will be the 25th-year anniversary of the SNC workshop program. The workshops are offered in week-long and weekend formats during the months of June and July. Lunches are included in the workshop tuition, and optional oncampus housing is available. Lake Tahoe is within walking distance, and there are numerous outdoor activities including golf, hiking, biking, and water sports to enjoy after the workshops or for accompanying family. For more information about the summer workshops at SNC, please visit the Web site at www.sierranevada.edu/workshops, or call Sheri Leigh O’Connor at 775.881.7588. [

Copper Matte Raku by Don Ellis.

Teapot by Sam Chung. Soda-glazed porcelain.

Wood-fired Boat by Randy Johnston. Decorated with kaolin slip.

PHOTOS BY WILLIAM AND Carole Hutchison Teacup by Linda Arbuckle. Low-fire clay with majolica glazes.

CLAYTIMESÂ·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Jessie by Mattie Leeds. Low-fire clay with brushed glazes.

James Watkins is a superb West Texas potter and an excellent guy. We are big fans of his book “Alternative Kilns & Firing Techniques” Co-Authored with Paul Andrew Wandless. Now available in paperback.

Get it at Trinity for only $12.50 plus shipping.

Trinity Ceramic Supply, Inc.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

9016 Diplomacy Row Dallas, TX 75247 214 631-0540 www.trinityceramic.com

Chinese Clay Art

Texture Mats

www.katonahartcenter.com

Katonah

Center

www.ChineseClayArt.com

Round Edger

Glaze Sprayer

131 Bedford Road, Katonah, NY 914.232.4843

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.

ARKANSAS

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

ILLINOIS

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.

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.

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.

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

LOUISIANA

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. Echo Ceramics – 2856 S. Robertson Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034; 310.815.1525; www.echoceramics. com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, firing,glazing/decoration, adult and teen classes, supplies.

COLORADO 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 Pottery Studio — 1541 W. Oak (in City Park), Fort Collins, CO 80521; 970.221.6204; www. ci.fort-collins.co.us/recreator/; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, glazing, firing oxidation, reduction and raku. Child, teen and adult classes.

CONNECTICUT Creative Arts Workshops – 80 Audubon Street, New Haven, CT 06510; 203.562.4927; www.creativeartsworkshop.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, firing.

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. 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.

GEORGIA 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. 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.

MAINE Portland Pottery — 118 Washington Ave. Portland, ME 04010; 207.772.4334; www.portlandpottery. com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, firing, glaze/ decoration.

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.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

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.

FLORIDA

Resources I Classes

Community Pottery Classes

Resources I Classes

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Ceramic â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Pottery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Glass â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Studio Equipment Discount Packages â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Delivery â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Installation â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Instruction -IKE 3WAUGER s 4/,, &2%% +),.$/# TOLL FREE 1-877-KILNDOC (545-6362) mike@thekilndoctor.com www.thekilndoctor.com 202 East Main Street, Front Royal, VA 22630 Serving VA, WV, MD, DC & DE

The Smooooooooth Alternative to Canvas! SlabRolling mats HandBuilding mats 30â&#x20AC;?x50â&#x20AC;? $33 16â&#x20AC;?x22â&#x20AC;? $9 22â&#x20AC;?x50â&#x20AC;? $20 14â&#x20AC;?x16â&#x20AC;? $6 14â&#x20AC;?x50â&#x20AC;? $16 NEW! Ideal for small slabrollers

Larger Custom Available â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Inquire New Prices: OrderYardage before 4/1/05 to SAVE â&#x2030;&#x2C6; 10% Order from retail distributors, or contact us Herring Designs, LLC www.HerringDesigns.com PO Box 3009 888-391-1615 970-547-4835 Breckenridge CO 80424 pjh.mae@aya.yale.edu

MARYLAND, cont.

NEW JERSEY

Glen Echo Pottery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, MD 20812; 301.229.5585; www.glenechopottery.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, raku and soda firing.

The Art School at Old Church â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 561 Piermont Road, Demarest, NJ 07627; 201.767.7160; www.tasoc.org; info@tasoc.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, glazing, raku.

Montpelier Arts Center â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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.

Kissimmee River Pottery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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.

MASSACHUSETTS

NEW YORK

2 Rivers Ceramic Studio â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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.

Clay Art Center â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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.

MINNESOTA

The Potterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Wheelâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;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.

Edina Art Center â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 4710 West 64th Street, Edina, MN 55435; 612.915.6604; www.edinaartcenter.com; artcenter@ci.edina.mn.us; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

0ITNER !VE s %VANSTON ), 4%, s &!8 WWW CERAMICSUPPLYCHICAGO COM

Northern Clay Center â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 2424 Franklin Avenue East, Minneapolis, MN 55406; 612.339.8007; www.northernclaycenter.org; nccinfo@ northernclaycenter.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

MISSISSIPPI

CHARLOTTE NC

CLAYTIMESÂˇCOM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Setting up a studio? Your full-service pottery supplier featuring clays by Standard, Highwater and Laguna; kilns, glazes, chemicals and equipment. School orders welcome!

CAROLINA CLAY

Bodine Pottery & Art Studio â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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).

MISSOURI

CONNECTION

704/376-7221

e-mail: carolinaclay@aol.com www.carolinaclay.com

Red Star Studios â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 821 West 17th Street, Kansas City, MO 64106; 816.474.7316; www. redstarstudios.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, workshops, gallery, studio space.

The Painted Pot â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 339 Smith Street, Brooklyn, NY 11231; 718.222.0334; www.paintedpot.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture.

92nd Street Y Art Center â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 236 Clingman Avenue, Asheville, NC 28801; 828.285.0210; www.highwaterclays.com; odyssey@ highwaterclays.com; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile.

NEVADA

Sawtooth School for Visual Arts â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 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.

Pottery West â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 5026 North Pioneer Way, Las Vegas, NV 89149; 702.987.3023; potterywest@ cox.net; www.potterywest.com; wheel-throwing.

Finch Pottery â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 5526 Finch Nursery Lane, Bailey, NC 27807-9492; 252.235.4664; www.danfinch.com; dan.finch@earthlink.net; wheel-throwing.

VIRGINIA, cont.

ITALY — South of Rome

Yost Pottery Studio — 1643 Massillon Road,

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.

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

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.

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 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. The Clay Lady’s Studio: The Teaching Facility at Mid-South Ceramic Supply Co.—1416 Lebanon Pike, Bldg C, Nashville, TN 37210; 615.242.0346; www.midsouthceramics. com;danielle@theclaylady.com; full schedule of ongoing pottery classes as well as weekend workshops.

TEXAS

LibertyTown Arts Center — 916 Liberty Street, Fredericksburg, VA 22401; 540.371.7255; www.libertytownarts.com; liberty townarts@verizon.net; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, 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. 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.

A six-time, year-round listing of your community pottery class in CT and on our Web site is available for just $99 total—a real bargain! To feature your classes, call (540) 882-3576 or e-mail: claytimes@gmail.com.

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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.

WASHINGTON 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. Seward Park Clay Studio — 5900 Lake Washington Blvd. South, Seattle, WA 98118; 206.722.6342; www.sewardparkart.org; info@ sewardparkart.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, kids and adults.

VIRGINIA

WISCONSIN

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.

ADAMAH — 4651 County Road ZZ, Dodgeville, WI 53533; 608.257.3577; www.art-ventures.org; bhorizon@ bethel-madison.org; wheel-throwing, handbuilding, sculpture, tile, glazing/decoration, raku, woodfiring, kids 16+ and adults. Family workshops.

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865.397-2914 info@wardburner.com

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CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

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.

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.

Resources I Classes

OHIO

Resources I Books & Videos

Searching for Beauty: Letters from a Collector to a Studio Potter review by steven branfman

collector of pots for sure, but for him the pots only partially stand on their own—for a connection with the potter is critical. He is a world traveler and a lover of history and culture. He is a gifted speaker and writer. He is a scholar. He speaks with clarity and a wisdom that he himself denies. Jacobs is a voice worth listening to. Searching for Beauty: Letters from a Collector to a Studio Potter by Richard Jacobs Kestral Books • $40

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

’ll begin this column with a disclaimer of sorts: I generally don’t review books that have already received positive exposure online or in other magazines. I do like to spread the wealth, so to speak. Yet when a book of such attraction, uniqueness, and provocativeness comes along, it’s difficult not to share it with as many others as possible. Searching for Beauty is one of those books.

Richard Jacobs is a collector; Christa Assad is a potter. They were brought together by chance when the collector entered the potter’s gallery. Eyeing a piece by Assad, they had a brief conversation, he bought the piece, and left the gallery. End of story? Not in this case. Shortly afterward, Jacobs began writing a series of letters to Assad in which he reveals himself, probes the potter’s personality, art, and intentions, and poses questions to which the answers are all but simple. There is no denying the inspiration for this book emanating from Rainer Maria Rilke’s classic, Letters to a Young Poet. In fact, Jacobs is clear to not only acknowledge this fact in his first letter to Assad, but he quotes from it and uses it to lay the groundwork for what will follow. But don’t prejudge. Searching for Beauty is no clone. Some background of Jacobs is called for. After all, why listen to him at all? He is a

Jacobs’ letters began in 2002, and the subsequent three years of correspondence constitutes the book. His first letter is quite revealing of his personality as he talks of the pot purchased from Assad and how it has become part of his daily ritual and life. He describes the importance of art and how this new acquisition fits into the milieu of the many visual attractions and stimuli around him. He offers advice to Assad, but not in the lectural or instructional sense. Instead, the advice he offers is written between the lines: subtle, kind, calm, non-confrontational, and even fatherly. Curiously, he ends the letter with wishes for the very best, with no clue that the letters will continue. I’m glad they did. Searching for Beauty is Jacobs’ search. It is the underying theme of all he writes about. His letters to Assad explode with honesty, directness, and an urgency reserved for only the most important pursuits in life. In Assad he has found a target, a recipient, or a container (if you will allow the pottery analogy) for the direction and collection of his deep thoughts and commitment to aesthetics. But he not only writes about art, he also muses about philosophy, politics, and the human condition. Jacobs ruminates over education, passions, fame, criticism, war, and peace. So where is Assad in all of this? There are no letters back. No direct responses. The narrative is one-sided—albeit hardly. Assad appears in every letter. Not in the literal sense, but figuratively, for Jacobs is writing to her and there are clues as to her letters or conversations back. Jacobs asks

many questions for which answers are not expected. But he also poses questions expecting answers, and from continued reading we can assume that Assad has replied. Though it is not obvious to the reader, there is a give-and-take exchange that helps drive Jacobs, Assad, and the story. I’ll refrain from quoting from specific letters or giving away any particular insights. The book is full of them, and you will have to trust me when I say you will be captivated and absorbed. You will feel privileged and exposed. Reading this book will enlighten and educate you. Jacobs’ words and thoughts will provoke you and inspire your creativity. You will be angered and calmed. Reading Searching for Beauty will validate your involvement in art and craft—something that, as potters and artists, we often find difficult to explain to others. Searching for Beauty is a seminal work that will become a standard tome for the study of questioning and attempting to understand and communicate why we do what we do. As potters we will find these words inspiring, depressing, and encouraging. Jacobs’ advice will be taken with trust, skepticism, and confidence. He asks all the right questions and provokes us to question ourselves and think outside the box. Take the book in hand. Run your fingers over it. Flip the pages slowly, calmly, and with care. Visually skim the content. Then take a deep breath, sit down, and begin your journey with Richard Jacobs as your guide. It may be a trip that lasts forever. [

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.

Classes

Opportunities

• 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.

• Canton Clay Works (Connecticut) has internships and residency positions available immediately. Seeking individuals with extensive experience in throwing, altering, and manufacturing vessels in stoneware, as well as teaching experience. Job includes 15 hours of unpaid studio work duties, but there is a generous hourly rate for teaching. Individuals may enroll in CCW classes and workshops free of charge as well as exhibit in our shows and gallery. Access and use of our studio kilns (wood/ salt, gas, electric, raku, and saggar) included. Materials and firing fees are complimentary (within reason). Visit www. cantonclayworks.com/intern.pdf for more details and application. Questions may be directed to cantonclayworks@yahoo.com or call 860.693.1000.

Events • Fourth Annual Vasefinder Nationals. Please see vasefinder.com for details.

For Sale • RETIRING: Studio Assets for Sale — 22 cu. ft. propane-fired sprung-arch kiln $2000; 50 cu. ft. forced-air burners sprung-arch kiln $5000; Shimpo wheel $200; motorized kickwheel $200; 14" Brent slab roller $300; Skutt 27" kiln $300; pug mill $250; chemicals/colorants/ etc. Gas kilns pdf available. David L.Davis, Flemington, NJ; 908.782.0788; davidldavis@comcast.net. • For Sale: Pottery Store consisting of retail, classroom, and studio. Established 1986 in a shopping complex consisting of 20 shops and 2 restaurants. Enjoy yearround tourism and local business. www.Sunrisepottery.com. Doug Oian: 210.494.8633, San Antonio, Texas.

• Two Kansas Houses for Sale. Kiln, 2 fireplaces, concrete lofts, raku kiln, hoist, solar panels, Brent potter’s wheel, ample storage. Photos — http:// www.eggshellmosaics.com/keeney. html. Information — TessMichaelis@ aol.com.

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. • MAKE POTTERY WEST YOUR HOME in Las Vegas, NV. Live in a community that’s devoted to clay! Pottery West is a 10,000-sq.-ft. facility with on-site housing and a full-service kitchen. 21 potters’ wheels, a 27-cu.-ft. Geil gas kiln, a 100-cu.-ft. wood-fire Train kiln, a 50-cu.-ft. wood/soda kiln in the works, and a 16-cu.-ft. electric kiln. We also have a slab roller, wall-mounted extruder, glaze chemical lab, spray booth, bench grinder, sandblaster, and audio/video equipment. It’s a great place to continue building your body of work, and it’s very affordable! Start anytime. Contact Amy Kline at 702.987.3023 or email potterywest@ cox.net. Website: www.potterywest.com. Academic credit is also available through Alfred University. • JOIN AMERICANPOTTERS.COM TODAY! Be a part of a national, searchable database for FREE ... or an “online gallery/portfolio” to sell your

• K-12 Ceramic Exhibition — The 12th Annual K-12 Ceramic Exhibition opens in March 2009 at the NCECA Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Open to K-12 students by teacher entry. www.k12clay.org. • Potters for Peace — Visit the potters of Nicaragua with Potters for Peace, Jan. 25 - Feb. 7. Fee of $1400 covers all expenses except R/T airfare. Nicaragua is warm and beautiful in January. Wood-fired terra cotta and local materials equal beautiful pots made by the rural women potters we visit. www.pottersforpeace.org or e-mail peterpfp@gmail.com.

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

Tools for Potters • 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. • Manabigama Wood Firing Kiln Plans — Fires and ‘flashes’ 30 cu. ft. of pots beautifully in 8 hrs., or extended firings to c.12 using approx. ½ cord stove wood. Great teaching tool: 6-8 students/firing: 25-30 pots ea. Plans include: Complete materials list, step-by-step kiln building photo disc w/descriptive notes; plus kiln prep, loading and firing, cooling/ unloading details, glaze & slip recipes, more. Kiln building workshops available at your site. Questions? Contact: John Thies, Bill van Gilder at www.monocacypottery.com or tel. 301.898.3128.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

• KILN FOR SALE — 64-cubic-foot soft brick downdraft. Includes shelves, stilts, plumbing, burners, etc. Located in Maryland. $3,850. Contact Steve Wright at 800.990.4263, e-mail: steve@ wrighthanddrums.com.

• ClayParent — A new Internet forum

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.

Resources I Classified Marketplace

Classified Marketplace

Resources I Classified Marketplace

Classified Marketplace Travel

Videos & Books, cont.

â&#x20AC;˘ Mata Ortiz Contact â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Week-long workshops for potters in Mata Ortiz. Learn several unique handbuilding, decorating, and firing techniques in the Mata Ortiz pottersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes. $900 fee includes transportation, food, lodging and all workshop expenses. Small groups, all skill levels welcome, a high quality experience. Next workshop will be Nov. 12-19. Visit www.mataortizcontact.com or e-mail peterpfp@gmail.com.

â&#x20AC;˘ 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.

â&#x20AC;˘ Potterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Workshops and Tours in an Undiscovered Mexico. Explore the immense, but little-known, ceramic diversity of deep Mexico. Handson learning and uncommon, smallgroup travel among the ancestral masters.Â Winter 2008. January: Zapotec Handbuilding; February: Great Masters of Tonala; March: Potters of Michoacan; March: Mata Ortiz Workshop.Â www.traditionsmexico. com;Â traditionsmexico@yahoo.com.

Videos & Books â&#x20AC;˘ DVD: Advanced Pottery Projects with Doug Oian â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Enhance your skills to include Large Bowls, Pitchers, Handles, Lids, and Carved Candle-lanterns. $50 fee includes shipping. www.SunrisePottery.com; tel. 210.494.8633.

Nothing to Hide

â&#x20AC;˘ 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 a wide variety of firing temperatures and atmospheres. â&#x20AC;˘ PotteryVideos.com â&#x20AC;&#x201D; DVDs with Robin Hopper, Gordon Hutchens, and Graham Sheehan. Video workshop for potters at all levels of experience. Choose from 21 titles. E-mail info@potteryvideos.com or call 800.668.8040. â&#x20AC;˘ TOM TURNERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S POTTERY SCHOOL AND HIS TWO-DAY WORKSHOP 4-DISC DVD SET available at: www.tomturnerporcelain. com, or contact by telephone at 828.689.9430.

cont. from p. 63

Workshops â&#x20AC;˘ 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 telephone 817.326.4210. â&#x20AC;˘ Throwing Large & Saggar Firing with Tom Radca & Brenda McMahon. October 25 & 26, Port Washington, Ohio. Triple the amount of clay you throwâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and learn to saggar fire. A demonstration and firing intensive workshop. Visit www.BlueMoonClay. com, www.TomRadca.com, or call 740.498.4303. Check out our blog: http://mcmahon-radca.blogspot.com/. â&#x20AC;˘ Steven Hill Workshop: November 14, 6-9pm reception and slide lecture. November 15, 9am-5pm throwing and altering. November 16, 9am-5pm trimming, assembly and glazing demo at Kissimmee River Pottery, One 8th Street #11, Frenchtown, NJ 08825. For more information, go to www. kissimmeeriverpottery.com or e-mail riverpots@earthlink.net. â&#x20AC;˘ JACK TROY WORKSHOP â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Woodfiring master Jack Troy will demo and discuss making/altering of pots for wood-firing. Sat. & Sun. Sept. 20-21, 10am-4pm, at the Frederick Pottery School, 5305 Jefferson Pike, Frederick, MD21703.www.frederickpotteryschool. com. Telephone 301.473.8833. [

Limited first edition hardcover Limited first edition hardcover now available exclusively available from the online fromnow the Clay Times online at www.claytimes.com storestore at www.claytimes.com

CLAYTIMESÂˇCOM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

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“Don’t do the things you hate. In the time it would take you to clean, make pots instead. Sell the pots, and pay someone else to clean.” — Edith Franklin

her own. “It was exciting,” she remembers. “Everything changed. For the first time, a woman could go places alone—go out to eat, travel, go anywhere!”

rom toddler days to our elder years, it seems the world is full of people telling us, “No.” It seems there is no limit to the amount of discouragement an inquisitive mind can be offered on a daily basis.

Whatever idea you might dream up, whatever creative notion wakes you from a sound sleep with excitement, whatever firing adjustment or glaze approach you might want to try … somebody, somewhere will predict failure. Many seem eager to be “the voice of logic,” providing what they consider a reality check intended to keep you in your chair—taking no risks or chances. For whatever reason, people will always line up eagerly to rain on your parade. So we learn (sometimes at a very young age) to keep our big ideas to ourselves. Or, if we are very lucky, we meet a person whose favorite word is “Yes.” Fortunate, creative types find a mentor who lives as if everything is possible, and such a person is the gift of a lifetime. For many potters and artists in my town, that “Yes” comes from a very small, 85-year-old powerhouse of a potter named Edith Franklin.

“Nobody wore jeans back then,” she remembers. “We used to throw, standing there, in our skirts.” (She’s pretty sure the titanium hip she acquired at the age of 83 was a result of all those years at the kickwheel.)

And boy, does she go. Wherever there is an art show, a community festival, a pottery event or a gallery, you can find Edith— small and energetic, in tight jeans and a black sweater, sporting some marvelous art-fair jewelry. Gallery openings large and small, student shows, art fairs, theaters, and concerts are all likely places to spot this diminutive, enthusiastic potter.

Edith Franklin

Harvey Littleton, a founder of the American studio glass movement, brought his own enthusiasm to the art of clay, inviting others to try something new as well. He had helped to organize a potter’s guild in nearby Ann Arbor, Michigan, and encouraged Edith and her friend Joanne Cousino to start their own guild in Toledo. Making pots energized and excited Edith, even though her spouse and many “society page” peers were unsupportive. Some disapproved of her decision to be a “potter.” But Edith had no time for negativity. There were glazes to mix, pots to make, and new things to try. “We had a lot of fun back then, in ways that potters today wouldn’t understand. You didn’t pick up a phone and order clay. You made everything from scratch: the clay, the glazes, the damp boxes. We didn’t even have plastic, in those years! But it was a wonderful experience. We learned a lot.” Edith remembers that Gloria Steinem and the women’s movement offered her some well-timed encouragement, when her marriage ended and she found herself on

I travel with Edith every year to the annual NCECA conference. She is an unabashed extrovert and a delight in airports, engaging interesting strangers and asking them about their lives. We have paused for her to interview a young soldier returning from Iraq, or to meet and marvel at a towering pro basketball team waiting for their luggage. I have a great visual image of a dozen six-foot-or-taller men standing in a semicircle, grinning down at Edith. She gazed up at them with her hands on her hips, saying, “Look at you! You guys are just marvelous!” She is truly excited by other people, always introducing one artist or potter to another, with a quick summation of everyone’s finest qualities. I always enjoy her company during the trip, knowing that the minute we arrive, she’ll disappear into the crowd and not be seen again soon. She’ll resurface days later for the return trip, energized, and full of stories about the people she met and the pots she saw. If I mention an idea to Edith—maybe notions of building a soda kiln, or driving to some distant workshop—I can count on her positive reaction. “Let’s do it! Let’s get a group together, and go!” While she often credits luck for the successes in her life, I suspect that her willingness to jump at every opportunity has enhanced her luck dramatically.

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Edith took her first pottery class while studying occupational therapy in Boston during World War II. Since that day, she has been unable to contain her dangerously contagious enthusiasm. When she moved to Toledo’s Old West End, she walked to evening classes at the Toledo Museum of Art, studying under teachers like Harvey Littleton and Norm Schulman.

Opinion I Around the Firebox

The Power of “Yes”

Opinion I Around the Firebox

publication, but it was confusing. I had a pamphlet—put out by Paul Soldner—with pictures. I just figured it out as I went.” She knew she could build an arch without needing to weld metal, and once it was up, she charmed the gas company guys into running large gas lines to her suburban patio.

Works by Edith Franklin have ranged from her “love” pots—a 1970s hit (pictured above, left)— to her more recent raku-fired vessels (pictured above, right).

In 1966, while living in an upscale neighborhood, Edith got word that a downtown factory was being torn down. She jumped into her station wagon and went to explore, and then made trip after trip to bring home the salvaged 2300° hard

bricks that had once been the factory’s furnaces. On the back patio of her upscale suburban home, she built a catenary arch kiln. “There wasn’t much information then,” she remembers. “There was some Leach

CLAYTIMES·COM n SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008

Index to Advertisers

Aftosa.................................................... 20 AMACO................................................. 67 Bailey Pottery Equipment........................ 48 BigCeramicStore.com............................. 52 Bracker’s Good Earth Clays.................... 58 Buyers Market of American Craft............. 10 Carolina Clay Connection........................ 60 Ceramic Supply Chicago........................ 60 Chinese Clay Art USA............................. 58 Clay Space............................................ 31 Clay Times Products................ 11,29,31,64 Clayworks Supplies.................................. 9 Continental Clay Co.................................. 3 The Cookie Cutter Shop......................... 61 Euclid’s Elements...................................... 4 Finch Pottery.......................................... 14 Flat Rock Clay Supplies.......................... 60 Fulwood Measure................................... 54 Georgies Ceramic & Clay Center............. 47 Giffin Tec.................................................. 8 Graber's Pottery, Inc............................... 52 Great Lakes Clay & Supply Co................ 52 Guild Sourcebooks................................. 10 Herring Designs...................................... 60 Highwater Clays..................................... 17 Hood College......................................... 52 Insulating Firebrick.................................. 47 Japan Pottery Tools................................ 52 Katonah Art Center................................. 58 Kentucky Mudworks............................... 31 The Kiln Doctor....................................... 60

L & L Kilns................................................ 2 Larkin Refractory Solutions...................... 23 Lorton Arts Foundation............................ 24 Master Kiln Builders................................ 61 Mayco Color.......................................... 20 Mid-South Ceramic Supply..................... 20 Minnesota Clay USA............................... 20 MKM Pottery Tools................................. 54 Muddy Elbow Mfg./Soldner Wheels........ 26 Olympic Kilns ........................................ 47 Paragon Industries.................................. 24 PCF Studios........................................... 61 Peter Pugger............................................ 3 School Arts............................................ 46 Scott Creek/Clay Art Center.................... 24 Scupture House..................................... 15 Sheffield Pottery..................................... 10 Skutt Ceramic Products.......................... 68 Spectrum Glazes.................................... 16 Speedball Art Products........................... 15 Texas Teapot Tournament....................... 31 Thomas Stuart Wheels.............................. 7 Trinity Ceramic Supply............................ 58 Tucker’s Cone Art Kilns........................... 40 U.S. Pigment Corp................................. 46 van Gilder Workshops............................. 23 Ward Burner Systems............................. 61 Westchester Arts Council........................ 12 Wise Screenprint.................................... 61 Xavier González Workshops.................... 31

Edith then covered the whole thing in thin, pop-riveted sheet copper. “Look at the rivets!” she laughs, showing me her handiwork. “I did this myself! And I don’t even know how to sew.” Over the years, Edith had her hands full with ceramics. She ran the ceramics program at the 577 Foundation in Perrysburg, Ohio. In a recent retrospective at the Center for Visual Arts, Edith’s body of work included porcelain, stoneware, raku, oxidation, and reduction pots. She made pots as tall as she is, as well as smoke-fired mezuzah, jewelry, functional work, and sculptural work. The pots that began to earn her money—and became her signature work—were a series of plates and bowls in a blue-grey mutton-fat glaze, featuring the word “LOVE.” Edith’s Love pots were a ’70s hit, and brought her both fame and a bit of fortune at festivals like the Ann Arbor Art Fair. Edith’s approach to all things domestic is refreshing to me, as a potter, wife, and mom who has often felt torn between the laundry and the studio. Edith doesn’t cook, and takes no joy in cleaning, ironing or yard work. She says, “Don’t do the things you hate. In the time it would take you to clean, make pots instead. Sell the pots, and pay someone else to clean.” Artistic souls learn quickly that their very best ideas and plans need to be handled with care, and not offered up to be trampled by those who, having failed, will predict your failure as well. I have learned that there are certain special people in the world who have enthusiasm to spare, and time spent in their company can energize and embolden us to pursue our wildest notions. Some think themselves wise, old souls when they lay out the pitfalls for beginners. But the truly wise potters are more likely to say, “Try it, and then let us know what happens!” Edith is one of these, yet she will even take it a step further and say, “Great! I’ll come and help out. When can we start?” [ Kelly Savino can be reached by e-mail at: primalpotter@yahoo.com.

”perfect slabs every time”

Corey Jefferson Ceramic Instructor Herron School of Art and Design

Amaco® Glazes Brent® Wheels Amaco®/Excel® Kilns

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.

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