Crappy Day

Over the weekend I spent an afternoon at New Bedford Architectural salvage, and man is that place great. They basically warehouse all of the stuff that gets ripped out of homes during remodeling or demolition. Hundreds of antique, windows, doors, built in cabinets, fire mantels, columns and just random stuff. It has two levels and the second floor is where the real treat is found; it is where every antique toilet and bathtub goes when it dies.


These are super old timey. There was no such thing as an indoor bathroom, because the indoors had not yet been invented.





This is actually a toilet from the distant future that was sent back in time to the distant past. It looks like it runs on jet fuel or was converted into a leaf blower or something. Standing there with all of those historic porcelain crappers made me proud to be a ceramist.

GettingTesty

I have been testing lots of new glazes and having lots of mediocre results....I love a glaze and it cracks off the pot....the color is good the texture sucks....on and on. I like some of these colors.

First Round of Pots

I just unloaded a bisque firing of a few new pots. I will be glazing tomorrow then back in the kiln for the glaze firing. I am working on some new ewers/creamers, trying to figure out a size and shape I like. The bottles are a first as well and I think they are a good solution for a bud vase, or even a candle holder. These kind of look like fishing floats you might see tied to someones nautically themed shed.

Back to work

The studio is more or less set up (I have transfered my mess) and I am back to work.

The Process

My process is very simple, about as primitive as you can get, but I always have a problem explaining it very well. I'm going to try to do it here with the help of some visual aids.

First I throw the pots in terracotta or a new white clay body, both of which are boxed (commercial) clays. For any potters out there who like to geek out about equiptment, I use a shimpo whisper, which I have to say is the best electric wheel there is. Instead of the traditional belt driven wheel , it works by unholy magic or something because it is totally silent and very powerful.

Next I let the blank pots dry until they are leather hard.

Now I roll the pots across my woodblock patterns, working the design into the surface by pressing from the inside of the pot. This is the trickiest part and it's the step where I lose the most pots.

After the patterning I trim the bases. When the bases are trimmed I let the pots dry, then apply layers of slip clay, usually starting with white and ending with black. Sorry I don't have any pics of this but there really is not much to see.

Now the magic happens. After the slip layers are dry I carefully sand back through them with a scouring pad. It is kind of an archaeological process, as I sand the different colors emerge and then the pattern strarts coming through. In the picture I am just using a black slip over a white clay body, which gives a dramatic / photogenic result. I built a special vacuum table to deal with the immense amount of dust I create and I also wear a respirator.



After the pots are sanded I bisque fire them, then glaze them and fire them again to 1945 degrees.

Getting Bigger

I got my MFA in New Bedford MA in 2006 at which point I moved into a studio with two friends not far away in Fall River. It has been great have a studio with them but space has been getting tight so I am moving across the hall into a bigger space that is opening up. Presumably this will mean I can produce things more efficiently since I won't be tripping all over myself anymore. It's a long narrow space with three windows over looking the Taunton River. Here are the before and after shots of the new studio and one picture of what I left behind.

What is this about?

Is it:
1) A narcissistic exercise designed to boost my ego while pretending people care about what I have to say?
2) A shameless ploy to hock my goods?

Yes and yes, but mostly I want to use it as a way to keep up with friends, family, creative people and who ever else cares. I am just embarking on a career in art and would like to document the process as much for me as anyone else...which is a good thing because it's probable just going to be me looking at this. Thanks for looking..me, and if your not me thanks to you too.