Tag Archives: Art

I am still here…

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Life’s been crazy! I will post more on that later. We did manage to get out of town last Saturday night, and head over to FireFest at STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise. This is where we buy our clay, but it is also a business incubator with lots of other cool stuff going on, one of which is FireFest. FireFest is a two day festival celebrating the role of fire in the creation of art. Along with lots of workshops, there was glass blowing demos, a wood firing, an iron pour, music, food, and beer. 

Each year at FireFest, a large ceramic sculpture is created and fired. This year, Seagrove artist, Carol Gentithes built a sculpture of a magical tree trunk. It was wood fired in this bottle kiln, during the festivities.

The sculpture’s unveiling was the grand finale of the festival.

It was a sight to behold, under a fabulous, full moon.

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The Early Years

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A few months back, potter blogger Lori Buff, posted some photos of her early pottery and sculpture from her high school days. It was really fun to see her beginning work as a budding young artist. As most of you know, we are getting ready for a move. I have been slowly weeding through “stuff”, determined to de-clutter my life. 
Unfortunately, I am also hopelessly sentimental.
I have come across two pieces of early work that I have schlepped around for more years than I care to count…

 I made this weed vase in 9th grade. It was in Mrs. Costa’s art class. She was the most inspiring and encouraging teacher that I ever had. She was also a potter, with a studio at her home. I had my first wheel experience in her class. I was the only kid that had a successful pot that could be fired. I don’t know what happened to that one, but I have hung on to this slab built piece. It has had a place in many of the homes I have lived in. The macrame was replaced sometime in the last ten or twelve years.

The story of the lidded jar:
I made this jar during the first year of pottery at the NH Institute of Art. It was the first thing that I ever made a lid for. When the academic year ends, NHIA has an exhibition of the continuing ED student work. My teacher was none other than Jeff Brown. He asked me what I was submitting to the show. My reply was, “Nothing, I am don’t make pots good enough for a show!”.

He was really disappointed.

He said that no one from his intro to wheel work class was putting anything in the show.

I felt really bad, so I agreed to put this piece in. It obviously didn’t sell because all these years later, I still own it. The next year I was much more confident and submitted a goblet for the show…
and was totally shocked that it sold! I interrogated all of my friends, certain that it was one of them that bought it. So far I haven’t seen it in anyone’s cabinet.

As much as I cringe at some (most) of my early pots, it’s good to have them around as reference point… or heavy weapon should I ever need it.

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Wood Fire Love

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 A couple more pots from the wood firing.  Most of the the square dishes (I think there were five) came out quite nice. A couple of the handles were buried in ash, losing their texture. I may try re-firing one of them in the gas kiln to see what happens.

I LOVE the Albany slip on the interior! 

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2015 Firing of Hamada’s Kiln

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Last month Jeff packed up a few pots and shipped them off to Mashiko Japan. He was invited by Doug Black to have these pots fired in Shoji Hamada’s noborigama kiln. The kiln was heavily damaged in the  2011 earthquake and was recently restored. The kiln had also not been fired in 40 years. It was quite a celebration and Jeff was really honored to be able to participate. He is hoping to be able to pick up his pots on his next trip to South Korea.

These are the finished pots, along with Jeff’s “bitmoji” head, rising from the sake bottle. At least smartphones are good for a little fun!

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Results

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The wood kiln was unloaded yesterday…

As with most wood firings, you have to take the good with the bad. Unfortunately the majority of my pots got the bad. Only one pitcher survived and it looks great, the other got the hammer.

 The pitcher, like this vase, had the blobs all over it, as well as inside.

These were the only two spoons that were acceptable to me. The others have a so much thick, gray ash that the design was obliterated, and they are quite ugly. Most of my pots with ginkgo leaf carvings also ended up this way. There are a couple that might be saved with some grinding and maybe a re-fire in the gas kiln.

Jeff had some pots that were obliterated with ash, but he also had some really nice ones.

I have come to the conclusion that this type of long firing (4-5 days) doesn’t suit me or my work. I am too disappointed when I have spent hours carving a pot, only to have it obliterated with ash. I prefer a shorter firing with just a little salt or soda. In another week we will have some pots in the wood kiln at STARworks. I am planning to put just a few small pieces in. The firing will be shorter, which means less ash. No ginkgo leaves will be sacrificed!

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Feliz Cumpleaños!

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 Jeff had a birthday yesterday and last night we celebrated with a Mexican fiesta. Our potter friend and neighbor Phil joined us for the fun. The evening got started with a virtual toast, shared on facebook ,with Jeff’s friends from the MunGyeong chasabal festival. Since some of them live on the other side of the world, in a different time zone, they toasted with tea. We chose to enjoy some good tequilla.

Dinner was carnitas, rice, and beans. The birthday cake was key lime cheesecake. It’s a really simple cheesecake to make and the recipe is here. I cut back on the lime and if you can’t find key limes in the market, regular limes are fine. I have made it with both and I don’t think you can tell the difference.

While the carnitas was slow cooking in the crock pot, we glazed pots and loaded the kiln. Today is firing day which means new pots will be coming into the world on Sunday. Sort of like another birthday. I just might have to get another bottle of tequilla 😉

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Through the Fire Box

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Jeff was on the late night stoking shift, at the wood kiln, and snapped this awesome photo with his phone! I especially like the “hot” lady sculpture and the face jug, grinning in the heat.

While Jeff was on kiln duty, I worked in the studio, then settled in for the evening with a dinner of leftovers, while streaming “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”. I am not sure if I had ever seen the movie in it’s entirety! I enjoyed it, but found the stereotypical portrayal of Holly Golightly’s Japanese neighbor rather appalling. There is also lots of littering in the movie. Every package that’s opened and cigarette put out, is tossed carelessly to the ground. Those are just some of my pet peeves and perhaps I noticed them more because of it. I just might stream some more classics when I get the time. Readers, if you have recommendations, please post in the comments!

Our “Mugs for Moving” campaign continues. Thank you to EVERYONE who has ordered a mug. Jeff and I decided to add a give away to the fun. When the campaign ends (probably late spring), we will choose one contributor at random, that will receive a collaboration pot from us. We haven’t decided what it will be, but are bouncing around a few ideas.
Click on this link to place an order: “Mugs for Moving”

All mugs will be shipped by late summer 2015

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Roasting a perfect chicken

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The cold winter inspired me to use the “big” oven, as opposed to my cuisinart mini oven, a lot more. Not only to create some good ol’ comfort food, but to take the chill out of the kitchen as well. Nearly every week I have roasted a whole chicken. A good size roasted chicken feeds us for quite a few meals. I always make a stock with the bones, which gives us a nice soup for dinner and a couple of lunches. Instead of a roasting pan I have switched over to my trusty cast iron skillet. I have combined methods from a few different recipes and have settled on this…
Place cast iron skillet in the oven and heat to 425 degrees
Rinse chicken and pat dry, season the cavity with salt and pepper. Place a lemon wedge, half a celery stalk, and a slice of onion inside the cavity. If you have fresh herbs you could throw some in as well.
Chop a couple cloves of garlic and tuck them under the skin. Brush the skin with vegetable oil and season with with salt and pepper.
Take the hot skillet out of the oven and transfer the chicken to it. Place in oven and roast for about 1 1/2 hours. I alway check the temperature at an hour. When done, transfer to a platter and let the juices settle for about 15 minutes.
What I like about using the cast iron skillet is that if you want to make gravy, you can do it right in the pan. Jeff is the gravy pro in this household, so I always leave that to him.
TWICE I have taken photos of my chicken roasting process. The uncooked chicken in the skillet looked a little icky, I didn’t want to turn off my vegan friends, so that photo was nixed. The photos I took last night of my perfectly browned bird were way out of focus. I will blame the wine for that!
Instead of chicken pics, I will leave you with a photo of a pig (of course).

New piggy bank combo… green and shino!

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Glazing for a Wood Firing

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Jeff and I have the opportunity to put pots in David Stuempfle’s wood kiln, and help with with the firing.  At the last minute Jeff suggested I make a few square bowls using STARwork’s Seagrove Clay. I kept the decoration simple. Stamps but no underglaze or slip. I hadn’t used the fish stamp in a long time. Maybe it’s time for it to go back into the rotation.
Since there won’t be time to bisque fire, these will go into the kiln raw. Liquid wax was applied to the rims and handles and then the interiors coated with Albany slip.

 A few weeks ago I had thrown some vases and pitchers with the Seagrove clay. I had time to slip, dot, and bisque fire those pieces.

It’s hard to believe that the pots above will come out of the kiln looking (hopefully) like the mugs below!

The magic of the kiln.

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