It's hard to believe I last posted in October. Well, I had a big hiatus in the clay part of my life. I was one of the hosts of an Artists Studio Tour on October 3, and had put a lot of energy into that, firing 3 times in September and working on my studio, so when that was over, other things took precedence for a while. I finally got enough things made to do a bisque firing the end of November and a glaze firing in mid-December, in time to mail off some Christmas presents. These two plates went to some friends in Texas- they had some breakage of a set I had made them last year. I was anxious about getting the iron red to turn out, but followed a successful firing schedule exactly, and they are ok. I've had redder, but it was from when I had a different batch of RIO. I plan to test more iron oxides this year, and find a good one.

Two views of a goofy cow cup.

There is quite a bit of repetitive carving on this cachepot.

A nice serving bowl, ya think? Well, too bad, there is a blue smudge on the part of the border that's hidden.

This berry bowl set (about 10" in diameter) went to my sister in law- her other one had a mishap.

...5 little teacups. The second dip is a deep green when used alone- I was surprised it was so pale over the white.

The first cup shows the deep green I mentioned . The second from left cup had tiny copper crescents embedded around the top. My son gave them to me-they were a by-product of some copper nibbling he was doing. So I gave him the cup for Christmas- he likes it. These are actually all bigger than normal mugs- that's why I did a beer-mug style handle on them.

These small serving plates all have applied strips of clay.

The pitcher on the left pours really well-the one on the right -not quite. It's perfect outside of that, haha.

I made a few things for a meeting of the Iris Society. Doing detailed flowers doesn't come easily to me so I had to get out a book about floral illustrations, and actually practice on paper first. I only made one mug, but set up this arrangement in order to make some notecards.

Here are some things from 2 recent glaze firings. This piece below is in a local show having a basket theme. I thought they should have some ceramic baskets as well as woven ones. I had the manzanita branch, and made a base for it. I called it "Basket Tree". The baskets are to be sold separately.
...a low dish, otherwse called a pie plate...

This is my other entry in the Basket Show. A while ago I punched a lot of holes in some pot I was making, and not being able to throw away anything I might be able to use, I saved them, and bisqued them . They worked out all right, braided into the six strands of copper wire, for the handle.

This is about 7 inches wide.

I showed the potatoes earlier in the blog, but here they are in the dish I made for them.

This low bowl is 13 and a half inches in diameter.

A ten inch tall vase. I may reglaze and refire this. ..too pale, too boring.

An iron red glaze that didn't go red. And the designs are a blue glaze- I've used this combo before, but for some reason the blue is just under the surface.

This one is abut 9 inches in diameter

Over 13 inches across.

This is made from a slab press molded onto a bisqued mold made from our jacaranda tree trunk.

Here is my solution to the problem I created for myself by attaching handles to my baskets before trimming the bottoms....the thin slabs of clay on the bricks protect the rim of the pot, and keep it from sliding. Later I added small dabs of clay at the bottom edge.

The following 8 pictures are of pots from my latest glaze firing, on Sunday August 2, 2009. These little bottles are a commission; they will hold about 4 oz. of fruit-enhanced rum....a nice little Christmas present, eh? I made a few extra ones.



This platter is almost 14" in diameter. It was singlefired, everything brushed on, and it worked better than the other times I've tried it.

I made these potatoes because I have a glaze that I knew would work. They are wheel-thrown, and have a jingle inside.

Next time I won't have them on the bottom of the kiln where it's a bit hotter, to avoid that slight sheen. Well, my mother in law used to rub her baking potatoes with oil before baking, so we'll say that's what happened here!

A seven inch wide celedon bowl.

...a 12 inch plate, and bowl with the same glaze.

These were an order too-they are 8" wide individual chip 'n dips.

Here are 3 views of my space at the Lompoc Flower Festival Arts & Crafts show, held in Ryon Park. I have had this space, just inside the main gate, for many years.

There are a lot more vendors, along several walkways; this picture shows just a few. There is a bandstand (thankfully, not too close to me!) and people gather on the lawn to hear music and eat goodies from all the food booths. There is also a beer tent. The town puts together a pretty good parade, and people come streaming into the park after that. In another building in town, there is a judged flower show-it also attracts folks . Tour buses take people out to the countryside to see the flower fields, then drop them off at the park.

I just realized I never posted pictures of the earthenware pieces I got from the last low-firing before the Flower Festival Arts/Crafts show. This platter is about 14" in diameter. It sold quickly (flowers, ya know!)

I didn't pull standard handles for these mugs- instead I threw a small cylinder and cut rings, which I then cut away a piece of and attached. I don't think it's something I'll do often. I did like the blue porcelain slip on the dark earthenware, with clear glaze over it.

Trying to fill the kiln, I single-fired these two. No dipping, all brushed on slip and clear glaze.

The one on the left is another single fired piece.

The left one is also single fired. The color is applied over the white slip, then clear glaze next, just a thin coating.

The three photos below are of things that were in the last stoneware firing too, but didn't get photographed right away. The earrings take more time to put together than one would think .

The bottle is 8" high. I made this before the urns I showed earlier, to practice doing the leaves.

These are from my latest stoneware firing, cone 7/8 oxidation. The three pots below are a series of covered jars- a customer ordered, and helped design an urn. She ended up taking the two smaller ones, the 2nd & 3rd pictured. The top one is almost 11 inches in height. These pots were all thrown upside down, then I inverted them and finished throwing the top parts.

This ten inch tall vase was started upside down on the wheel, inverted the next day and then the top was finished off.

These guys are about 9" long. I made them on the wheel, sort of coke-bottle shape to start, and shaped the bodies while quite wet, added legs later...fun!

Our daughter Karen made the coil cup.

This bowl is 8" in diameter. I wanted the exterior bare, but fluxed a little and have done this before with soda ash. This time I brushed on some liquid dishwasher soap-seems to work about the same. ...The iron oxide became fixed to the surface, slightly satiny.

These are 5 inch tall jars. Will go looking through my cork collection to see if any of them fit.

I fired a load of stoneware bisque a few days ago, and included some earthenware glazed pieces. The mug is about 6" high, the vase is 9" high. The vase was pictured in an earlier post, but I didn't care for the color, so re-glazed the outside, and it's better now. This platter is 17 inches in diameter.

I made buttons...rolled a thin slab, punched the circles with brass tubes of varied sizes, then impressed them with a seed pod I have here. The larger ones are an inch and an eighth in size, and the smaller ones are about 7/8ths of an inch. The backs are not glazed, but are sanded smooth.

These pots are from the stoneware glaze firing I did March 28th. Below is a small bottle almost 6" high. Eight inch diameter; Idaho 2 glaze on exterior.

About 13 inches in diameter-can't measure it now-it's in the local gallery for the Spring Art Show.

This is a small dish, 5 inches. Glaze is Idaho 1, with white added.

I made these for a friend, for her kitchen. She will use a demitasse spoon with the Salt Pig.

I really like this set....even if it's true that you don't find mugs and saucers together, as a friend pointed out to me. I still think it's handy to have a place to put your teaspoon, etc, even if one is drinking out of a mug. The underglaze decoration is Death Valley clay slip, (Laguna).

I think I posted a picture of these when they were bisqued, last fall. The exteriors are Idaho 2. I love the subtle range of shades this clay slip has.




The bowl on the left has survived it's 3rd glaze firing, always to fix some little thing. I would say it's done now. The other one is the blue/Idaho 2 combo again.

The low-fire firing I did about 4 days ago was a mixture of earthenware bisque, glaze firing, and glaze re-fires. This first pot below was a re-fire and it's done now. It's about 6" in diameter. The exterior of this was much greener the after it's first glaze firing- I did go somewhat hotter than usual and some of the color burned out. It's about 9" in diameter.

Here is a baking dish, about 11 inches across. The color is from copper, and from Mason turquoise stain, plus some Zircopax.

This glaze is the same base, but a little more copper, and no Mason stain. I do have the amounts written down, if anyone wants to know...

Ah ha, this cachepot was not especially improved by refiring. (see picture below from previous firing) I DID wax the leaves and flowers and pour some creme colored glaze over the exterior, hoping for contrast, but I guess not enough, because it barely shows. And the refired leaves faded to a weird color. Not quite how I pictured it. But someone will like it, I hope.

This is the new blue- same base glaze, but colored with cobalt. It's a nice clean blue- I like it.

The following pots were glaze-fired February 27. They are earthenware. The first one below is about 7 inches across- a small serving bowl. ...a salad set, or could be for soup too. On "Clayart" (a pottery discussion group) there has been a lot of talk about sources of inspiration. Nature is often mentioned. Actually my inspiration for the poppy design is second-hand... my customers love nature. They will buy anything with flowers on it. I never feel I can adequately represent even the simplest things, but people make allowances.

This vase is 6 inches high. You can see how it was made.

This cachepot is about 9" in diameter. I am going to refire this one, waxing the flowers and leaves, and pouring a lighter glaze over the exterior of the pot, to get some contrast. The new turquoise glaze I mixed up turned out stronger colored than I expected. All it needs is some more opacifier, which I will add to the whole batch. It is a bit more transparent than looks good on earthenware. You'll see this pot transformed after the next firing.

These vases are just under 9 inches tall. The impressions on two of them were made with the edge of a peach pit. The vase on the right is made of a clay from New Mexico given to me by a friend. It has sparkles you can see on the bare clay.

This pair of vases is made from the New Mexico clay too. I want these two to stay together- hope some buyer agrees.

These two pots are of a fine-textured earthenware from Laguna, which I've used the last few years since I haven't been able to get the local clay from the river banks near here. However, when we took off in our plane last Saturday, I looked down (the runway is next to the river) and could see the typical cracked pattern of clay where the water had receded. So I'll go down there and take a look and maybe stock up again.

I thought I'd show off the quilt which our daughter Karen made for me. She made the quilt top a few years ago, incorporating my favorite colors. She went into some marathon quilting sessions to finish it in time for this past Christmas. I was really surprised.

I'm trying a new style of handle on my cups (new for me). I noticed that sometimes my thumb started to slide of the top of a normal rounded handle so am trying a horizontal top for a change. There is also a eucalyptus seed imprint on the top. I think of these handles as "elf-ears" instead of the rounded ear shape of most handles. The negative space is what I'm talking about here-it also looks leaf-shaped. The cup on the left comes nearest to the look I want. (yes, I see the top of the right cup is skewed- a fault since it's not on a tea bowl, eh) This 10-inch heart shaped dish was pink and had some glaze faults so I refired it. Those refires can be interesting! I didn't expect to make a "broken" heart...

This bowl is about 7 high and 9 inches wide. I brushed the copper on the leaves on bisque, instead of over glaze.

...a 12" bowl

Here's the comic relief. These were my quick demos when I was entertaining a child who was visiting.

...about nine inches in diameter

ten inches across

An 8" high teapot, glazed in unaltered slip from some clay from Idaho. A wash is applied on the impressions. This is not a great color, so I may try a few alterations in my next high firing.

I call this glaze "Idaho #2"...it's also just thinned earthenware clay

. It's very dry-I may do some tests of additions to get a satin. I feel like I should make some rock shapes and use this glaze. The box is 6" in diameter.

Same glaze- the pitcher is 9" high. I'm showing both sides to show the variation in glaze color.

This pot is 7.5" in diameter, with the Idaho#2 on the exterior. The inside color is a blend of several blues I had here.

More of the same...I never liked brown so much before, but I love this glaze.

Here are some earthenware pots I fired this past week.
The piece is 10"x7"....an experiment. Not sure if I like it.


This is a double-walled vessel; 8" in diameter.

Vase is unglazed on outside (lt. blue slip) and 8" high.

This one is 7" in diameter.

This low bowl is 13"x3". Don't even try to identify the flowers.

Small poppy plates, about 3 and a half inches across. There were four, but one broke when I dropped it while unloading the kiln (there was a hole in my glove).

These ladles are kind of fun to make; the bowls are 3 in. in diameter.

I did a ^7 oxidation firing last week and here are the pots.

These 4 pieces are tests. Upper left: the inside is an earthenware slip from Idaho which turned out to be a smooth stony mat, a rusty blush where thin and dark yellow/gold where thicker...makes me want to make some fake rocks! Upper right- a different batch of slip of Idaho earthenware- it's a satin mat. I put streaks of a Gerstley Borate wash on the inside; those are the lighter areas. I see good possibilities for this stuff.

Lower left plate: I managed to collect a little of the material that was bubbling out of a "mud pot" in Lassen Park ...just had to see what would happen when it melted! Well, it didn't...just became flakes that didn't stick to the pot, not even where I brushed some GB wash. Wonder what it is composed of?...something really refractory, for sure.

Lower right plate: I brought home some material from a parking lot in Lassen Park because it looked like ash. I sifted out the larger material and sifted some of the fine stuff on this plate. It melted enough to adhere, but will need a higher temp. to melt. I might add some to a stoneware body, or test it as specks in a glaze.

I'm calling this a paperweight (it's weighty!). I was making an enclosed sphere and it got too soft and started settling down. I guided it into a fairly even shape and spent way too much time carving the double wall. But it was worth doing, and when you hold it to your ear, it sounds like wind on the prairie.I tried a slight change in the handle shape on these cups...flat on top to prevent your thumb from sliding down the curve.

Some pots our grandsons made recently...no, our daughter made the triangular pinch pot.

This is a 15" low bowl which I refired. It was pictured here before, about a year ago, but it was creme in the middle and greyish on the sides, with a fairly sharp transition. The creme was a Touchtone base (like Randy's red with only a little RIO) and the greyish part was where it had Touchtone Red (15% RIO) dipped over the creme. So for this firing I dipped the whole thing in Laguna's cone 5 Italian Straw and you can see it fluxed everything and flowed nicely. The picture below, of the underside shows it's action well too. Good thing I didn't have a thicker coating of the Italian Straw or I would have had too much running.

Another refire: it was a plain yellow tray with copper on the edges, so I used an ear syringe and gussied it up a bit.
I had an order for one of these, so I made two.
These were made by the grandson of a friend as a Scouting project: he needed to make both slab and coil items.
These are 8 and a half inches in diameter; a customer wanted individual snack dishes.

Can anyone identify this insect? It was parked on our bathroom wall. It's wingspan is about half an inch.

Here are some Salsa Sets I made to take to the local Flower Festival Art/Craft show. I've made them for a few years now and they sell well. They are about 6" in diameter.

Below are some earthenware pots I made this summer. Some are sold, others available. Their sizes range from 9 to 12" in diameter.

I guess this will be a conversation piece at my booth at the Flower Festival Arts & Crafts show this weekend! Maybe I'll put a hang tag on it that says "See-it ain't all easy!" You can bet I'll be extra careful attaching handles in the future....although I've never had this happen before, in over 25 years of firing.

The exterior on this mug has a thinned earthenware slip, from some clay my grandsons in Idaho found for me. ..like Albany slip, but lighter in color.

The slip here is Death Valley clay from Laguna; applied thinly, it's brown under my light glaze- thicker application turns a rich purplish blue.

I fired this vase on it's side, with dried glaze bits piled on top. The other side stuck to it's stilts and to the protective clay slab, so I'm thinking of something imaginative to do to the chipped off spots.

This iron red bowl was yuck brown the first time it was fired...better now.

...about 15 inches across, with carving in slip.


The bowl above is 14" in diameter. The Death Valley clay slip was applied when the bowl was leather hard.

The pitcher is a refire; was supposed to be pink with spots! I guess at ^8 the pink burned out. The cup below has Death Valley clay slip with two figures quickly carved into the slip.

These pots below are from a firing the last week in May. Cone 8 oxidation.

A ten inch plate. I think this is a sweet blue, from copper carb. Usually copper will go greener, but with this particular glaze, I'm getting a light blue.
This bowl is 10x4. See the chatter marks?
...just a tumbler, with a wash at the rim (same as the one described below the yellow bowl)
An 11" dish, about 1 and a half inch in height.

A nine inch bowl. The whitish areas are a wash (Gerstley Borate, rutile, titanium) I applied streaks of it over the yellow glaze thinking to alter the copper stripe.
This is actually a small bowl, about 8 inches in diameter.
This is a pizza stone requested by a friend, and the sandwich plates complete the dinnerware set shown in previous posts.

These little fortune cookies were in my most recent firing. A few months ago I made a similiar necklace, but with red orange beads, and a friend saw it but wanted turquoise beads. These are "reconstituted turquoise" from Michaels, not expensive.

I did a glaze firing last Saturday and will post pictures of the pots, below: I like making tumblers of differing shapes. Yes, those are iron spots on the far left one-volcanic ash added to the glaze. There are more inside. I expected more outside too!
This little pot is about 3.5 inches high. The top was dipped in a rutile/titanium wash.
I made these for myself, because I had a need for them, and made extras, of course. I need a catchy name for them...Page weights, Pageminders, Book weights?

The pot on the right was thrown upside down, and a pad of clay added for the bottom. I had some extra bowls in this load for our local "Empty Bowls" event, but didn't get them fired in time.

These go with the set of dishes from an earlier posting (a few ran past the foot in that firing, so these are replacements) Below are dessert dishes for the set-

This is a ten inch baking dish. The glaze is Italian Straw from Laguna. Actually a cone 5 glaze, but it went to cone 7, no problem.

This firing was one of the few where I had cone packs on each shelf. I used 6,7, & 8 cones. The top shelf went to cone 7, and the rest of the kiln went to cone 8 really flat! I have both digital and analog pyrometers. The analog one registers low at the top of the firing, and the digital one went to 1240C, which is only between 6 and 7. But I do hold at the top, so it's heat work, I guess.

I used all the cone packs because I was doing some tests with rice hull ash, replacing the silica in one of my recipes, and wanted exact info on the temp. I reached.

New pottery pictures below, but first 2 views of my amaryllis, blooming like mad. It was a Christmas gift, and I'm enjoying it all this time.

Finally did a glaze firing this week-earthenware this time. Here are some pictures. Am not showing the ones that need to be refired...either because they have some blemishes, or are boring and will get some added decoration.

10" diam.
about 11" in diam.9
This one is 14" in diam.

9"
10"
10"

Here is a start on a dinnerware set: plates and bowls so far. The glaze is Touchtone Red, which I use a lot, with blue glaze accents applied with an ear syringe. The bowls are 8 inches across- a good soup/salad size. The plates are ten and a half inches in diameter.

This is Walter, our new dog. He was left at the local animal shelter with a note written in a child's handwriting, saying: "I'm a fox terrier, DOB 7-24-06, Good dog, just not with young kids. Housebroken. Love to run, play fetch, and car rides." We have had him almost two weeks and are enjoying him. He is not an indiscriminate barker, he actually comes when you call him, and sleeps all night outside of our bedroom, in his dog bed. He will sit on command, and expects a little treat for it.
Our previous dog was Jack, a smooth fox terrier, and Walter looks quite a bit like him, but doesn't have quite the right shape of head, or the perky stance that Jack had....so I don't think he is 100% fox terrier, but he has a good disposition, seems to care about pleasing us, and has figured out how to get us to play with him.

I think he likes living here.

I've posted pictures of a show of works by members of the Lompoc Sculptors Guild, which is installed at the Grossman Gallery, adjacent to the Lompoc Library, for the month of October 2007. We have ten members, and quite a variety of styles and use of materials. We called this show "Wall Art" because we were given the restriction of "no pedestals". The gallery is also a multi-purpose room for the library, and they said everything had to go on the walls. After a little moaning and joking about calling the show "2.5d"....we all managed to come up with pieces for the wall. Below is the graphic designed by a member, G.R. Stroup, for the posters and invitation cards. ...a welded aluminum piece by Eric Morlan, at the entry of the gallery

...during our reception October 6

This is the west wall of the galleryArtwork by Judy Clifford, G.R. Stroup, Dee Frasher ...a tile piece by Noreen LaPointe, metal piece by Ron Barrows, and a slate and aluminum piece by Eric Morlan
Masks incorporating gourds by Dee Frasher




This is the east wall with pieces (l to r) by G.R. Stroup, Carol Moore's soft sculptures, Eric Morlan , my 18" platter, Dee Frasher, Judy Clifford.

This is by G.R. (Rocky) Stroup



...a soft sculpture by Carol Moore, my flat teapot, which was the first thing I decided to make when hearing we were having only wall art, and a welded metal piece by Ron Barrows.

...a larger view of "Fanciful Teapot". I made the shadow box of redwood, to keep it light.Pieces by Judy Clifford, Ron Barrows, Noreen LaPointe....a ceramic piece by Noreen LaPoint, soft sculpture by Carol Moore ...a grouping of my related "meander" pieces. The framed one is a beach ball, cut along a meandering line, creating two puzzle pieces.


The white pieces are by Judy Clifford, and the ceramic one is by Noreen LaPointe.

...ceramic and driftwood by Dee FrasherWe also were given the use of a glass cabinet in the main body of the library, where we placed "pedestal pieces". It all looks confusing in the picture-not bad in actuality.

This piece is called "Separation" and is one of the pieces just installed in a local gallery- The Lompoc Sculptors Guild is having a show during October '07. Everything has to be on the wall, because the room is also a multi-use room at the library, so we called the show "Wall Art". Our reception is Saturday Oct. 6, and I will post some pictures of others' works as well

A friend ordered two baking dishes. I did standard dips while glazing them, and the glaze ran just enough to form those "corners".
-a ten inch high vase, iron red glaze. I think I posted a picture of this earlier. I re-dipped and refired it- it's redder now.

This is another re-fire. It had the same combination as the bowl above, which I didn't care for on this vase. So I gave it another layer of a creme glaze and since I happened to fire this load a bit hotter than usual (don't ask) it ran nicely.

more refires, same load.

I planned the alternating runs on this bowl and the plate below, by brushing areas of flux before striping.

Here is an 18" platter, fired a bit hotter than I meant to, so the colors are softer, but that's ok. It is intended for a show next month, where it has to hang on the wall, so I will be either buying or rigging up something .

I did a glaze firing a few days ago (cone 7). The four pots below are some of the ones I showed at bisqued stage a few posts ago.

Overall height of the teapot is 15". It is only about 4" in depth. The other side has a carved peony and leaves.

The bottle is almost 14" tall. The slip under the glaze is Laguna's Death Valley clay.

This vase is about the same height, almost 14 inches.

The bowl is 15" in diameter. It, like the vase above it, have a base glaze of Touchtone Creme w/volcanic ash spots, and re-dips or pours of Touchtone Red, which turns brownish over this glaze but does feather runs if I hold the temp. long enough.

The 3 pieces following, are of earthenware, with a creme glaze and California poppies. Will be packing up to sell at the Lompoc Valley Flower Festival this weekend. Looks like the weather will be foggy and cool in the morning, nice later.

Sometimes I enjoy looking at pots in their bisqued state-picturing what sort of glaze would be best. ..a light color for the teapot, I think.

I had to make enough tall things to fill up the shelf holding the teapot. It's 17" tall at this point; will shrink somewhat in the glaze firing.

The pots in this post are all from a firing last week. (oxidation, cone 7)

...2 views of a departure from "round". -about 12" diam.
The next 5 photos show the use of a slip of Death Valley Clay from Laguna, applied at the leatherhard stage. I'm getting color variations from brown to blue and lavender. The covering glaze is a creme color with specks of volcanic ash from northern California.The bowls are 9-10 inches in diameter. The plate is 10.5".Nine inches in diameter. The creme glaze doesn't show off the carving too well.This pot is 7 inches high.


Six inches high.

These cups were from my last firing, but I decided to make saucers for them, so they reappear here.
The tops of these sets were all dipped in the creme glaze.
The coffeepot is 7" in height.

This is a glaze test of something called "Old Seto Yellow"...didn't work for me, obviously! It has only 3 ingredients: feldspar, ash, & yellow ochre. The little sample piece is only an inch & a half in diam- I used the macro setting to take the picture. You can see a few specks that are y. ochre color.

...a small pitcher w/ meander design, 5.5" in height. This one is 8" in diam.

"3d Yin-Yang" is the name of this stoneware sculpture. It is suspended, to enable it to slowly rotate, as seen in these three pictures. It is about 12" diam.

This concept has interested me for a while, and I have made several copper tubing pieces which are essentially the circumfirence of the stoneware one. Here are three views of one, below. It's fascinating to watch the shape change as the piece rotates. A slight breeze on our patio is enough to make it turn.

These six wall sculptures were made utilizing bisqued plate forms that weren't quite right for plates. I tried some crawl and crackle glazes and played with clay shapes. The shapes were bisqued separately and dipped in glazes, then laid on the plates. They are 9.5" in diameter.

Here is a flat beach ball; an experiment in going from 3 dimensions to two.
The text on the round paper in the lower right-hand corner reads:
"A beach ball,
cut along an endless meandering line,
loses a dimension
and becomes two puzzle pieces,
intricate and flat"
I liked the total change of state: sphericality to flatness. The frame measures 21"x37".

"Communication" is the name of this wall sculpture. The large disc is 17" in diameter. The piece is high fired stoneware.

This is "Wheel of Fortune". There are small bits of clay inside the revolving wheel, which jingle. In my more pessimistic moments I feel the bits of clay are a metaphor for humanity- trapped in an unknowable situation, subject to unknowable events and conditions. Of course this is too extreme; we do have some choices and can affect our situation, within this unknowable setting. Anyway, this sculpture is actually a fun piece; people like to give the wheel a gentle turn and listen to the sound. The base is of birch wood.

This sculpture is called "Death of Innocents". On 9/11/2001, I had to do something related to what I was hearing and absorbing, so I sat down at the kick wheel and began throwing small jars, one after another, of earthenware. I was making miniature urns. The next day I did the trimming, separating the lids, and applied white slip. Each of the jars has a heart sgrafittoed on one side, and the date on the other side. After single-firing them, I inserted a rolled paper into each, with this on it:


"Death of Innocents"
"This memorial urn is one of a series
Made on September 11, 2001,
to mourn the sudden death of thousands
who were taken unaware
by murderous acts of terrorism
unprecedented in our land,
and to signify the grief and sadness
felt by all who knew each victim."

I constructed the "tower" and the piece was in a show at Alan Hancock college in Santa Maria CA. After the show I gave away several of the urns to people who had lost loved ones that day. I would have liked them all to go to family members, but haven't known how to go about this. I think at some point I will just keep one, and bury the rest somewhere.

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Here are two views of a ceramic sculpture of a lotus seed pod. It is of high-fired buff stoneware, finished with Barnard clay slip and iron oxide washes. The first view-head on, shows the moveable seeds, each in it's own pocket. The head of the seed pod is 19" in diameter. When you jiggle it, the seeds rattle nicely.
I fired the pod and stem separately, then joined them . The overall length of the piece is 31".

I went to a rummage sale Saturday and bought this little cup; it's about 4" in diameter. Has character stamp on the bottom. I wonder if it's contemporary, or old. It looks press-molded instead of slipcast. I could swear I've seen something in this style in one of my ceramics books.

These are earthenware. The exteriors are partially unglazed. Six cups-same motif.
Creme-glazed earthenware serving dish-11" diameter.

This is an 11" dish; the sides are 3" high. ...a slightly smaller version, with a creme glaze instead of green.
This is a 15" platter. Some of the striping drifted when the background glaze shifted a little. Will fire somewhat lower next time.

I call this a "Lucky" necklace. The fortune cookies were made of that very thin layer of clay that stays on the bat after you cut off a pot. It was B-mix clay, I believe.

These are some little things I just felt like making; they were in my last glaze firing (see pics below). The ones with the question are reversible, asking the two complementary questions. "Wake up!" and "Persist" have an iron red glaze on the other sides. I am going to make little stands for the ? ones.

The following fifteen pictures are of a stoneware glaze firing last week. These cups are small, espresso size. They measure 2 and 3/4 inches each way. I'm not too knowledgeable about sizes; I like plain coffee in a normal size mug, but one day I felt like throwing small cups. I made this set and the 4 cups directly below them. They are slightly taller.These three mugs are 5 inches high. The bluish areas are Death Valley slip applied when leatherhard, and the creme glaze turned the reddish slip this nice color, with good variation. Odds 'n ends: I made a salt pig, after reading about them on the Clayart discussion group. Will buy a small wooden spoon for it. The small teapots hold one cup.
This bowl is nearly ten inches in diameter. The glaze is Laguna's "Italian Straw" . The dish below is 8 inches in diameter. The glaze is one I've been tweaking to get the blue I want, which was inspired by a picture in Smithsonian magazine of Blue-footed booby...it's legs are this amazing blue! So this glaze is called BFBFB (blue-footed booby foot blue)

About 10" diam....a different blue, shinier too
My creme glaze with volcanic ash bits.

Touchtone Red, (belabored in earlier posts). Not as red as should be; I think I went too hot.
A blue I got from a friend- pretty vivid!
Touchtone red (not)...refires; the first time they had misc. blemishes.

More touchtone red. Turns navy where thin.

About ten inches across.

12 inches diameter. I put yellow flowers on this plate; they faded.

And now for something completely different: this is a picture of the Tamale Pie we had for dinner tonight. No, I didn't take the picture; Bill is the one who loves Tamale Pie and thought this one looked especially good, so he took the photo. Yes, it's rewarding to cook for someone who is appreciative!

Here are two pieces from last week's firing. They were "refires"...they came out of their first glaze firing with blemishes, so got another coating of glaze on the interiors and came out OK this time. They are earthenware. I like doing a "meander" design with a slip trailer.

Here is a stoneware platter, 12" diameter, which is finally presentable after multiple firings: First-bisque, of course, then a glaze firing (no leaves) after which it was fine except for an obvious small flaw, a tiny hole where something organic must have burned out of the clay, but your eye went right to it. I refired it with more glaze over the interior but the flaw was still apparent. So in my latest firing which was a mixture of stoneware bisque and glazed earthenware, I added some leaves using lowfire glaze with copper carb. and RIO brushwork. Also made some repetitive marks on the border to add interest. I think there is a "before" picture in a post from Dec. 06.

This is a small pot, about 6" diameter, of earthenware, with impressions made by the edge of one of my favorite tools, a peach pit. The small round impressions are from a eucalyptus seed pod. This bowl is 14 inches across. It matches a set of small bowls shown in an earlier post.

A few years ago I was in that "almost awake" zone one morning, still dreaming I guess, when I seemed to be standing at the door of a large art gallery, and on a wall ahead of me I saw an enormous string of ceramic beads, hanging on the wall. I could see they were mostly white, with some pastel colors with gold accents....They were way outsized, like 4-5 feet in height, on the wall. I knew I had made them (in my dream)

I felt the dream was a gift, and I made the beads. All ovoid wheel thrown shapes, with spacer beads between the larger ones, also thrown. ..strung on a nylon cord, with a brass clasp from the hardware store . The larger beads are about 5" in length. They are high-fired stoneware. The gold is applied post-firing.

These are four images of an item I bought at a surplus store yesterday. The wooden cylinder is one and a half inches in height, and 5/8" in diameter. There are four "monk" or "Buddha-figures"...two under a tree, and two with a pot shape. And there is a small figure that slides out of the bottom.
I would like to know more about this item.

Ah, the day after Christmas!...hope everyone will have a relaxing day after the high-intensity day yesterday.

Here are pictures of two things I made for Christmas gifts...the first, below, is for a friend in Texas who has a place on the coast, where fishing is one of his main activities. This is supposed to be an American shad. It's about 20 inches long. I used a net onion bag for the scale texture. This is what I made for our son for their place near Paso Robles CA. It is made of seven bottomless cylinders, each 7" high. I suggested he put a bead of silicon seal between each one. The post is PVC pipe. I set it up in our back yard to take the picture.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU
& HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Another bowl set similiar to the earlier one, with volcanic ash specks in the glaze. Fired to cone 7. A long-time customer ordered this bowl set as a gift to her niece.

These 6-inch bowls are part of a set, but the large bowl needs to be refired...it didn't get quite enough heat in the firing.

Earthenware bowl- about 11" diameter

More Oct. 31st pots...for some reason Blogger WOULD NOT accept these last two pictures. So I opened a second post and it's working.This piece is 9" high. I'm calling it a reliquary...a customer wanted to give a rattle to a friend who will be having a baby. She is going to put a few small special items in it, which will rattle. ( I included 3 miniscule porcelain hearts, in case she wants them-the sound is good). She said it didn't have to be standard baby rattle shape, "Use your imagination-surprise me."she said. She also asked me to choose the glaze- just not pastel pink or blue. I told her I would make some holes to let the sound out. So this is what I came up with. It has a rubber stopper inside the foot. BTW, this piece will never be handled by babies (if you are thinking of safety issues( - it's a commemorative piece for the parents.This little pot is 6" high. The picture is crooked-I can replace it later- but look, you can see me crouching with my camera! Yes, my pottery is better than my photography...

OCTOBER 31ST STONEWARE FIRING These tops were thrown off the hump. The low wide ones work the best.
The specks are volcanic material from Alturas CA
Experimenting with handles: when I start making a mug, I first throw a loop which will be the handle. It was used whole on the yellow mug, and cut first on the center one. For the cup on the right, I threw a small column, and cut it off leaving a pad of clay to attach to a quite wet cup. I impressed a pattern to attach the pad.
More thrown loop handles. The glaze is Laguna's "Italian Straw". ..one of the few purchased glazes I have here.
This piece is about 8" wide, by 6" high.
13" wide...the blue glaze is a mixture of misc blues I had here.
Odds 'n ends...I mixed 2 iron reds together, and it's not very red. I should have cooled down a little slower for this one.
about 13"

9" wide-

Oct. 24, 06 earthenware firing: About 7 in. high.


This compote has a 2 inch long firing crack on the inside bottom. Must have had opposing tension where the foot attached. It's a keeper (that means I keep it instead of sell it)


The plate above had pink flowers. They burned away and only the outlining stayed.

Here is a BUG which showed up the other night on our front porch: It is about an inch and a half long. It's a Jerusalum beetle-don't know it's scientific name. Nice color, eh?

Stoneware pots from a September 06 firing:

This little vase is 8" high. It got an "Honorable Mention" in the Fall Show at the Cypress Gallery in Lompoc.
The yellow rose bowl is about 5" across. I combined a high rutile cone 10 glaze with a yellow cone 6-8 glaze and got nice vivid color. Will use this again. These are about 9 and a half inches in diameter, 5 and a half high.
The tray is 17" in length. It has thrown feet, about 1 " high.
Another in my favorite glaze, about 6" diam.
A little over 10" diameter, and about 6 inches high
About 10 diameter. ..and 6 high

Here are several recent earthenware pots:

The low bowl is 12" in diameter.

I show two views of the jar, since the appearance changes a lot as the piece is rotated. The jar was thrown upside down- the "top" shaped into a square, and a slab added. Next day I refined the top and made the lid. Approximate height is 9". (It's not here for me to measure)

These were made in June for the Arts & Crafts show the last weekend in June (Flower Festival). Was too busy to post them earlier. People especially liked the large platters.

Second attempt at getting several photos where I want them-looks like the solution is to open another post....anyway this is a tabletop I made for an old rusty base I like. There was a small wooden top on the table and this "dish" just fits over it and is glued with silicone. The spots you see are volcanic ash.These two bottles were made of rolled slabs with thrown tops. Before I added the tops I rolled the cylinders in what I am calling my "Tray of Surprises"...consisting this time of bisqued glaze bits, and dried glaze chips of varied colors. After the bottles were assembled I brushed some glaze over everything. The one on the right is definitely more successful, IMO.
Here is an 8" bowl with iron red glaze, cone 7 oxidation. Note the chatter marks.

August 7, 2006--some pots from recent glaze firing: I see I last wrote here in May! That doesn't mean I didn't make lots of pots meanwhile (and sold quite a few at the Lompoc Flower Festival the end of June)

This coffeepot and the one following will hold two quarts; the friend who ordered it said "Make it big!". This one is 8" high.

The height of this one is 9".The vase is 9" high.
These teacups were made to match a teapot someone bought last month. They have an iron red glaze-oxidation fired-cone 7.
Same glaze as the coffee pots- about 9" diam.

^06 earthenware, fired to ^01 (about 2050F)---no problem! I didn't mean to go that hot, but now I know that the clay (Laguna's EM344 w/grog) can take it without deforming, and my glazes were fine too, except on several pots that were on a different clay (Laguna's EM334-Ward's Red). I have a turquoise glaze that was fine on the first clay, but appears to have boiled, leaving craters, on the EM334. These two dishes have a thin wash of clear glaze on the outsides- see how dark the clay got at that temperature. Here are the dishes with the glaze that looks like it bubbled. I will reglaze them and re-fire them. The salsa dish has clear glaze on the exterior. The square dish has no glaze. I combine bisque and glaze-firing at earthenware temps.The same turquoise glaze bubbled on the spoons too, but the blue didn't...it's a different base.
Here is a 10" baking dish. The blue color didn't photograph accurately at all- it's really a colder blue...same with the 13" bowl below.
This 15" platter had Mason blackberry brushwork on the flowers...all gone, too hot. Good thing I outlined with cobalt.
Again, this blue photographed more "electric" than it really is. I can send a color-corrected version if anyone asks.


This platter is about 14" across. Everything got soft and subltle at this temperature.
You can see chatter marks on the interior of this bowl. I don't normally do any trimming on interiors, but did this for the textured effect.

HOT-AIR BALLOON RIDE PICTURES

Our children surprised us with a balloon ride, to celebrate our April birthdays and upcoming June 23rd 50th wedding anniversary. We went up on April 17, EARLY in the morning. We took off from a winery near Paso Robles, and landed ?miles south of there, after "floating" for about an hour. It was a wonderful experience!




.

Cups and Saucers... someone on CLAYART was wondering if potters only made mugs these days...whether anyone was making cups and saucers. I made these last fall for our own use; thought saucers might be nice for a change for people to have a place to put their teabag or teaspoon. These are oxidation fired to cone 7. The spots are from some volcanic ash I mixed into the glaze. I plan to make some to sell as well.

Here is the first teapot I made, apparently 10 months after I started learning pottery. This is going WAY back- the date scratched on the bottom of this teapot is 10/28/81.

The walls are actually quite uniform, but sort of thick; even though it's a large teapot, over 4 lbs. empty is kind of hefty!

Yes, that's a brass knob on the lid, all I had to do was leave a hole.

These were school glazes, cone 10 reduction.

I still tend to make teapots bigger than people seem to want, but they ARE lighter now!

Above are photos of the two vessel sinks I unloaded from the kiln on Valentine's Day; I am SO pleased that nothing went wrong...no cracks, crawling or any of the things that CAN go wrong during the whole process. They have been fired to cone 7 with a soak of 40 minutes, oxidation. I made them thick and sturdy-they each weigh about 16 lbs. The top one is from 13 to 15" inside diameter , and the other is 13 and a half inches ID. The inside depth is 6 inches.

These are the first sinks I ever made and I was helped by several hints I picked up on CLAYART (internet discussion group). One idea was to throw sinks upside down, which I did, and in stages, adding coils as the previous section stiffened somewhat. Another suggestion I used was to fire each on it's own separate thrown base during the glaze firing. Thanks to the people who shared their knowledge.

I don't have plans to make more sinks, necessarily, but I'm going to use the upside down technique to make some BIG bowls!

Mugs should feel "just right"... just right in the hand, and to our lips. Figuring out what features are desirable in a mug is what is making them interesting to me again; I see that just small variances in handle placement, rim angle, and width to height proportion can make a big difference...The other day I made 8 mugs, changing proportions slightly. When it came time to glaze them, I wanted them to work as a set if a buyer wanted more than one, so they all have vertical stripes of a rutile/titanium wash, and horizontal copper stripes, but I tried different Mason stain stripes in between the copper . From left to right, the pairs have stripes of 1-an iron mixture, 2-blackberry, 3-pink (burned out) 4-turquoise. Iwanted to have the rutile wash stripes cause the horizonal stripes to sag, but I need to use a heavier application next time.

And yes, of the eight, two or three are my favorites. They have a slightly thinned lip, exactly 3 and one-quarter inch top diameter, and the handle placement and shape give a feeling of balance. Actually they all feel pretty good, but the human hand can distinguish slight variations. If you've read this far, you must be a potter !

I want to post a few pictures from my Oct. 9 glaze firing (^7ox). In one of my earlier entries I was wailing about how my favorite iron red glaze was not coming out right. Well, it turns out this glaze likes a soak on the way down at about 1600 for several hours . I learned this from John Hesselberth on "Clayart". Another Clayart member, Tom Buck clarified some of the reasons for a "muck" olive color replacing the red ...overfiring most likely. Anyway, the top photo shows 3 pieces which I redipped and refired- they are much improved. The mug was not a refire, and shows a decent color too. (the turquoise mug is there to make the other one look redder, haha. I didn't know the handle on the red one was so "sturdy"!!- someone else must have sneaked into my studio and attached that one. Feels OK, though.

At the suggestion of Dannon Rhudy, I tested adding a little bone ash to this glaze and sure enough, a side by side test looks promising enough to try a larger amount next firing.
This is an 11" plate. As is the following one of gourds.
This next one is an 18" tray. It turned out to be somewhat of a "spinner". Well, hey, is that all bad? It's big enough for me to call it a lazy susan-done intentionally, of course!

SCULPTURES- three of wood, and a stoneware fountain


"Faces" is the short name for this one. It is made of two mahogany planks. All pieces are moveable, making many combinations, or "relationships" possible. Another name for this piece is "Is it really you?". I used a sabre saw to cut the outlines, did lots of filing to round the edges, and lots of sanding, ending with 600 grit paper. It feels lovely.









Another piece I finished the end of October 2005 is called "Of Two Minds". I started with a 14" wide oak board (36" long) and cut out a profile of a man's face. I wanted to use a continuous line to show his cheekbone, eye area, and nose; this resulted in sort of a jarring area when I first sketched the design. However, it interested me enough to want to see it created, so I went ahead and made it. The panels are mounted on a cork background, but are floating above it by means of 3/4 inch spacers. The first picture shows it hung in the Grossman Gallery in Lompoc CA during a show in November 05. The second picture is the image I will use if I make prints or cards.
A few people have professed to like the piece, but I can tell most do not, or just find the contrast of positive and negative spaces interesting. Anyway, at least I picked a good title for it!






The mahogany sculpture below can be oriented any direction. I've usually hung it vertically. I'm always interested in the tension between positive and negative spaces. Size is about 42x24".

No, it's not a pile of rocks! A friend asked me to make a fountain for her, "something naturalistic". This is what I saw in my mind's eye; this piece actually turned out very much like I envisioned it. The "cliff" part is separate, and the tube for the pump goes up inside it, and water flows down the front. Did I say it it's all ceramic? ...even the little stones. To get rocky looking glazes, I added barnard clay to some brownish or greenish glazes, and quite a bit of alumina to be sure they weren't shiny. The 2 black boulders in front are shiny anyway, but the rest of them look about right. The thing is about 19 inches across, and yes, HEAVY. It is set up and working at my friends house. I should replace this photo with one showing the water.

Feeling uneasy the last few days...ever since Hurricane Katrina blew in and did so much damage on the Gulf Coast. At first, after dire warnings for New Orleans seemed overstated, newspeople were saying New Orleans managed to come off lucky again. Then the water began rising in the city, and stories of horrible conditions in surrounding areas began to be told. You hear of floating bodies being ignored because it's vital that rescue workers concentrate on finding people who are still alive but need help. I'm sure there are people all over with friends and family in the flooded areas that they haven't heard from, who are are having nightmares about their loved ones being dead, undiscovered and unattended. A lot of heartbreak yet to come.

Here's a poem: I was really into painting in the summer of 1965, and wrote this while working on an abstract painting called "Sleep".

REFLECTIONS WHILE PAINTING

How can one express the inexpressible
or picture something without form;
define with lines the essense of elusiveness?

The art has not been born
where paint can show the shape desires take
nor colors indicate a glow of pleasure;

Perspective on a canvas does not reach
where my imagination stretches;

Pure white is not as light as thoughts that soar in air
nor ebony as dark as feelings plunged in black despair.

But lack of hues precisely true
has not kept man from trying all his life
to fathom mystery with a brush, and thus,
a mortal canvas often has been touched by immortality
and stained with pigments that the soul alone can see
as tones the artist felt, when by approximation,
he gave vent to inspiration;

Mere tints suggest and hint at ecstasy
and knowledge beyond pedantry.

Copper Tubing Sculpture: Posting the wall sculpture photo just now reminded me of one of the hanging sculptures I made a while ago. It's about 14" each direction, and rotates slowly on our patio. It is fascinating to watch it's shape change as it moves. Here are three pictures of it:

This piece is called "Numbers". It's a 13" diam. wall sculpture, high fired stoneware with Touchtone Red glaze under the white additions. (that's a "1" at the top, BTW, not zero.

Sometimes you just have to go ahead and make something you've been clay-doodling with for a while! You can see it doesn't take much to entertain me- I like looking at shapes made with loops...

It will go into our local art association gallery next Monday and may provoke some conversation; it will be interesting to see if it sells...ok if it doesn't.

Rutile wash over high iron glaze This vase was glazed with what I am calling "Bad Touchtone" (the batch prior to the latest one) and I purposely gave it just a quick dip, and got a very deep brown/black. Just what I wanted, as a base for this rutile, titanium, and GB wash (recipe from Clayart) which generally adds life wherever you put it, and would, I knew from previous tests, do a sort of nutmeg almost crystal looking effect with slow cooling. The marks are made with a slice of hickory nut.

Touchtone Red Glaze, ^6 to 7, oxidation

I started using this glaze a few years ago (got it from Rebecca Varner in a Clayart mug exchange) and have loved it for the excitement it gave to opening the kiln. ..never quite sure what to expect. Where thinly applied it is often a deep navy color. There is often a varying amount of sort of an olive color and whoopee! look at all that red, lovely iron red. This vase, which I call "Red Dancer" has the kind of result I hope for from this glaze. It is of white stoneware.

When I ran out of this glaze a while ago, I mixed up a new
batch, and was very disappointed; there was a lot of the olive, but not a nice olive, some sort-of black, and some brownish red, or faintly reddish brown. I didn't even take any pictures- all the pieces were designated to be re-dipped and refired. I remembered that I had used some red iron oxide from a different source, and thought that might be the problem. I also checked my firing logs to make sure I didn't go hotter or cool down faster. That was all about the same.

So, last week I mixed a new batch (half recipe, actually) and fired over the weekend. The result: better, but different, sort of spotty- maybe I need to strain it a few more times.

You can see my liner glaze was fluid enough on the rim to carry down the stripe I did just under the rim. The stripe was half RIO, half rutile. Anyway there is some decent red here, as well as pale olive. I actually don't mind the blotchy look, at least on this piece. I took a macro of the area where the glaze is thinner- you can really see the color change. This bowl is a buff stoneware, by the way.

I swear there is no cobalt in this glaze. I rolled the bowl around in the glaze pan and didn't quite go all the way, so here's the area of thinner glaze.

The recipe is in the Clayart archives, I'm sure, but here it is anyway:

TOUCHTONE RED, cone 6/7, oxidation
15 minute soak, slowed cooling

Gerstley Borate 31
Flint 30
Feldspar 20 (I used Kingman)
Talc 14
EPK 5

Add Red Iron Oxide 15

Well, FINALLY, after a day of intermittently being frustrated trying to get the hang of getting my blog started, I changed templates and everything works! I've already deleted about 4 test messages, etc.

I managed to finish glazing a load of pots and will fire tomorrow.

Just getting started here...

Well, I succeeded in getting my picture uploaded to this post...let's see if anything will show up on the page now. Once this works, I can edit out these posts.