Honey Pots--How Sweet!

First round of honey pots

I've said before that I love when customers makes suggestions on what they would like to see on my market table, and these little gems are a result of their suggestions. There was a fourth, but it didn't dry in time to be fired with the other pots, so I'll likely only have these three to take to market Saturday--if it doesn't rain. There's a 60 percent chance of rain, but I'm hoping the weather man will be wrong!

Other customer-suggested pots are in the bisque kiln and should come out today; I'm excited! Two of the three French butter crocks, one with scraffito and one plain, should be ready to glaze today. They may also make an appearance at the market--it all depends on the final firing. While working on decorating one at the market last week, I had plenty of opportunity to talk about them to people visiting my table, and two people said they definitely want one. My husband's been talking to everyone about them, and he has said a couple of folks sound interested in purchasing one, so I need to get busy! A good problem to have, I'd say.

Happy Hump Day!

Playing Around

I feel as though I wasn't as productive as I could have been this week in the studio, but I did get a second round of French butter crocks thrown (an observable improvement from the last batch, but more on that in another post), threw five mugs, and hand built a tall vase. I also played with some surface decorating techniques, namely slip trailing and scraffito.

Dunk and go is not my preferred style of decorating pots, but it is quick. I've made several attempts at shellac resist with mixed results, but the last pot was so disappointing that I decided to try something else.

Shellac resist with Spearmint glaze; below, the
underwhelming pot with underglazes.

The only glaze that I've really liked with this technique has been spearmint on a dark clay body. It breaks nicely and shows the depth of the design, but really, how many people are going to love this glaze. Plus, I don't like having too many of the same thing floating around out in the world.

The most recent pot, a vase, was less than pleasing to me. I tried highlighting the design with underglazes and covering everything with a matte clear glaze. Everything disappeared. It looks like random splotches of color with the subtlest of subtle designs. Hmm. Maybe this June is the month of disappointing firings.

Anyway, I tried my hand at slip trailing for the second time. Previously, I used a 19-gauge tip and felt the lines were much too thin. I used a 15-gauge and 17-gauge tip this time with better results, I think. The pot is back in the studio and can't be shown just yet.

However, the scraffito pots, though firsts for me, show promise. It's early. The pots are still leather hard, so nothing is certain until the final glaze firing, but so far, I'm pleased.

I took one butter crock to the market to carve while I sat there. It helped to bring my salesman with me (my husband) because he kept prompting, "Tell them about the butter crock," so I did. Now I have two orders for butter crocks! I'm crossing all my fingers and toes until they make it out of the final firing!

Mugs and butter crock with simple scraffito designs.

Ideas, ideas

We went to Uptown Market Saturday, which didn't go as well as some Saturdays, but that's okay. It's always fun to talk to people and watch the parade of pooches prance by. A few people stopped to admire certain pieces, and while they visited, they made some suggestions of items they would like to see on my tables. I'll try my hand at yarn bowls, honey pots, bacon cookers, and yazamashi pots (Japanese water cooling vessels for delicate teas) this week in the studio.

Attempt #3 in French butter crocks

Hopefully my attempts at the above pieces will be easier than--or rather, more fruitful than my attempts at someone's suggestion that I make French butter crocks. About two weeks ago I sat down and threw three crocks as a first attempt. The first crock never made it to bisque as the inner cylinder was too big around and split the base when I tried forcing it apart. The second crock has been bisqued, but it's just too long to work properly, I think, and will probably end up in the garbage.


So here is the third one, which I think will be good enough for me to try out. I certainly have to think of a way to jazz these babies up--so boring as is. The lid is also a wonky fit because I couldn't get the groove quite right. The tube was a bit long while in greenware stage, so I tried cutting it down with my fettling knife. It fits but has a rather ragged edge. As I said, this will be good enough for me to test.

I may throw a few more of these this week to try and get it right.

My thanks to all who gave me new tasks to try. I really have enough berry bowls and sponge holders, so this gives me a break from some of the normal pieces I throw. Whenever I try something new, whether a new form or new decoration, it's like play time for me!

It's Time for Berry Bowls

Berry Bowls with Lady Bugs

 I had sworn that this year I would get a big batch of berry bowls ready for The Market at Blooming Colors and for the Uptown Market, but my execution of this plan went very slowly. I think, in part, it's because I wanted to try something new instead of sticking with last year's design (shown above) with a simple Heiner Render glaze and lady bug accents.

One of my goals for the year is to do more hand building, so I had decided I would hand build berry bowls using strawberry leaves to form the bowl, and I wanted to put strawberry feet on the bowls as a decoration instead of the lady bugs. It was a disaster! I didn't spray the forms, so the clay stuck fast to the forms, and the bowls were destroyed in the process of trying to remove them. Next, I thought perhaps I could throw the bowls and cut out the strawberry leaves. That didn't work very well either. Add slow firing last month to the mix, and the result is berry bowls delivered at the end of May.

Ruffled Berry Bowl with Strawberry Feet

But, my experimentation did lead to some different shapes, different glazing, and different decoration. I stayed with hand-sculpted berries for feet. These are going with me to the Uptown Market in Columbus Saturday, although it seems that people in Columbus are not familiar with berry bowls. I had one a couple of weeks ago, and everyone who picked it up asked what it was. One person must have thought it was to store berries in because he commented that he had more berries than the bowl would hold. Someone suggested I make ceramic strawberries to put in the bowls as display. I have noticed that props can be helpful when selling some items like my sponge holders.

We'll see what Saturday brings. I'm learning that certain markets are better for certain pieces, and it may be that Columbus is not the right market for berry bowls. Or, maybe I'm the only one who likes the berry feet.

Still Superstitious

Last month I wrote about breaking with superstition, but I'm afraid I'm still superstitious. In that post I wrote about my fear of photographing pieces before they complete the process; however, I was going to dare to break that superstitious thinking by posting a pair of carved candle lanterns-the third in the set was not available to photograph at the time.

Candle lantern with carved dogwoods and texture

The lantern that wasn't photographed came out beautifully and sold the very next market day. These are time-consuming but so much fun to make!

Another lantern carved in dogwood leaves somehow cracked in several places during bisque-firing. The studio director apologized, saying it was her fault, but in the back of my mind I thought, "I didn't expect this piece to make it." I tried to fix it during glazing, but there was not hope--it just fell apart in my hands; too many cracks. I can't imagine what she could have done that would've caused so much damage.

What should have been an easy fix in glaze firing wasn't.

The other lantern photographed at that same time was also damaged in the bisque fire, but it suffered only minor damage. The handle had broken from the saucer, but it appeared an easy fix. I "glued" it with glaze and sent it back. Still, I wasn't getting my hopes up; after all, I had photographed it in its raw stage. Sure enough, either in placement or during firing, the top shifted just a bit.

It's still a keeper!

That's okay, though. I love candles, and it's still a pretty piece despite its imperfection. Though it isn't fit for the market, it looks just fine on the bookshelf in our dining room. Maybe one day I'll have more than the imperfect pieces, but for now these will do.

I need to get busy making more of these as they seem to be popular!

Simply Fun

As I struggle to juggle work I must do and work I love (pottery), I often forget to have fun. Now, don't get me wrong; I only make what I enjoy making such as garlic pots and candle holders and teapots (why, I don't know), etc., but I don't often spend my time to just have fun doing something in clay. Today, I had fun three times (makes me think I was unproductive today!).

This face pot was the most fun I had today--I'm planning to plant tarragon in him IF he makes it through the process. I explained my superstition in an earlier post, which has proven partially true in that one of the candle holders broke beyond repair, and the fate of the other is yet to be known. Perhaps Friday it will come from the kiln.

After throwing the form for pot man, I threw some clay that was a bit more than this guy. I made the tallest piece yet, though I'm not divulging measurements since it's still nothing to brag about. I also practiced slip trailing for the first time today on a covered pot. As Anthony (my husband) would say, the result was fairly adequate. Not a bad first attempt but not spectacular.

I plan to make more face pots for the season, and I would like to try to recreate, in some fashion, small pots my grandmother had of women with dangling earrings and stylish dresses--at least they looked stylish from the bust view, anyway. It seems comedy may be easier to attain than elegance; we shall see.

All in all, it was a good day in the studio.

Market Saturday

My non-pottery job, the one that feels so much like a job, is seriously impeding my time to throw pots. Add cruddy clay to that, and not much has gotten done this week. However, the kiln opened today, and a beautiful pot was sitting on top. This little gem, and a mug to match, will makes its way to Uptown Market in Columbus, Ga., tomorrow. I hope the rain will hold off until after noon!

Cedar teapot

I also have one berry bowl to bring with me. I'm still working on two with strawberry "feet" and the other one that should have traveled tomorrow did not make it out of the kiln in acceptable shape. Grrr. I have thrown three others, which are already spoken for if they make it out of the kiln!

A veteran potter said today that she doesn't get upset about the ones that don't make it. She just smashes the failed pot and makes another. I'm trying to adopt that attitude, but I'm not quite there. I said it didn't matter if the teapot didn't turn out; I wasn't counting on it until it came out of the glaze kiln. Well, when I thought we had a kiln stop during firing, I was singing a different tune.

Hope to see some familiar faces at the market tomorrow.