This Is How We Do It

My state takes its fair share of licks for being-well, you can fill in the blank.  We do know how to do some things right, like making fiesta ware...  Check out how it's been made for years and have some
pride.

A Good Time Was Had By All

Be forewarned, it's a far piece out a country road before you arrive at Cub Creek. Luckily, I had an excellent travel partner. We arrived on Friday afternoon and were met by two of the full time residents. They pointed out the kilns and clay studio, then gave us permission to snoop, which we did. It's a very nice set up and lots of clay activity is evident everywhere you look. Once we had looked at the kilns and pots, we headed up to where the residents live. If you are a young potter looking for a residency, I would suggest you check out this place. A few years back, the 4000 square foot plantation home, which had been Cub Creek, burned to the ground. After regrouping, John H., the founder and energy behind this foundation, rebuilt. The new resident housing is charming and cozy with room for six with the two kitchens being a nice addition. The clay studio is still fresh and has a nice open layout.


Now, about Chris...

Chris graduated from Alfred in the early 70's, worked alone in his studio, went on to teach at the 92nd Y, Parsons School of Design and he recently retired from his position at Dartmouth. His ability to speak so articulately about his work and how it's evolved, while simultaneously making his work was very impressive.


Chris makes his work in several stages. Throwing a series of bases, allowing them to stiffen a bit and then adding coils. His coiling technique is somewhat unusual. Rather than adding long continuous coils, he adds shorts coils asymetrically, which gives his pots their organic, undulating shape. He uses this approach with both stoneware and porcelain, then fires them in his very large wood kiln. He also manufactures field tile and employees several interns, who are kept fit by the constant movement in the studio.


Going to a clay workshop is sort of like watching a cooking show. It's nice to see someone who is able to make fabulous things look approachable and also to hear of stories on how to manuever around avoidable pitfalls...

Some hot tips I learned that may help you too...

1) How to glaze the inside of a large pot without picking it up? Buy a water pump for a blow up pool and a shop vac. Place pump in glaze bucket, pump in glaze, have someone standing by with shop vac, and voila!

2) Once that big pot is glazed, it needs to be loaded in the kiln. How to protect the glaze during handling? Mix a 50/50 mixture of elephant glue, available at the local craft shop, and spray it on the piece. This creates a hard shell that burns out during the firing-brilliant!

3) Wood-fired pots must be placed on wadding to keep them from fusing to the kiln shelf, but sometimes the wad will flatten out from the weight of the pots and cause headaches. What to do? Mix wadding mixture and roll into log. Slice into marshmellow sized pieces and bisque fire. Then your large pots can be tilted back, the wadding slid under and your ready to fire.




Those are just a few of the gems I learned.

Appomattox Bound

I was happy to discover that Chris Gustin will be giving a workshop at the Cub Creek Foundation this weekend, located in Appommattox, Virginia.

Cub Creek was founded by John Jessiman and offers long term residencies to provide an environment for potters to focus on clay work full time. This will be my first visit and I look forward to meeting John Jessiman and watching Chris work.


I will be joined by one of my favorite people and potters, Kate Harward of Tygart River Pottery. Kate makes these lovely lamps, as well as an extensive line of functional work.


This should be just the thing to inject some extra energy into my work...

Bramwell XIV

Prepare yourself for the Fourteenth Bramwell Oktoberfest...

Stamps have been made, slabs have been rolled, and another year's awards have been made...

Here are the third place awards just before the glaze firing-stay tuned for photographs of the happy winners holding finished pots.

...and a photo of the last blooms of the season.

Turtle

An excerpt from the poem,
Turtle,
by poetlaurette, Kay Ryan

She lives
below luck-level, never imagining
some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience, the sport of truly chastened things.

Recently, I read an article about Kay Ryan and discovered that, in her life, she has been a reluctant poet. If not for the support and prodding of her companion, who stuffed envelopes with self-published books of poetry and sent them to nameless publishers, we may never have read her poetry... I am glad Kay Ryan had such a dear partner.

The article gave me pause to think of my own struggles. For years, I have had an underlying feeling that some day I would wake up and realize the life of a potter is not for me-that I would eventually join the 9-5 world in a more traditional approach to making money...

For some reason, just the other day, out of the blue and in response to nothing, I had this sense of calm and acceptance. The underlying feeling just disappeared. So today, I can say, "I am a potter, and that is that."

In the beginning, I had a road map in my head of what success would mean. I haven't fulfilled my fantasy of big city shows and high end galleries, but something even better has happened... I am part of the intimate rituals carried out daily by people who know and love me. In the end, I think I've succeeded in ways I could not have imagined years ago.

I'm the lucky person who gets to make...

Keepsakes for JK and Vaughn's Wedding Guests

and harvest the bounty from my garden...

...and share my life with lovely people who are always quick to appreciate me.
Thank you.

As The Wheel Turns

An update on the life and times of a non-potting potter...

You may ask yourself, " What has she been doing and what is she building in there?"

Well, I attended a summer party where I had a drink at a tiki bar on wheels... There was also a fair amount of feasting and a very sophisticated fire works display on Saturday night.

I also taught a two week clay class in Putnam County. I haven't taught a kid's camp in years, but it turned out to be a real hoot, plus a bit on an inspiration. It was great to spend time with people who know who they are and where they are going...This is Cora King- such a great name. She has a Johnny Cash voice and a passion for clay.



When I asked the class what they hope to be when they grow up, this guy replied "actor". "You want to be an actor when you grow up?" He replied, " No, I'm already an actor, I just don't get paid for it yet." His largest role so far is young Scrooge-keep an out for this one.




Also, lots of time has been spent on construction projects...

There is now a roof over the pizza oven and the outdoor kitchen is starting to take shape. My studio bathroom has a new window and the claw foot bathtub will finally welcome potential bathers by actually working-such small things bring such big happiness. The long awaited pagoda is half way to completion and my studio sink has been scrubbed and is ready to become a muddy mess again. Clay has been purchased, glazes have been sieved and everything is in place to begin again...


FYI
The Bramwell Oktoberfest is less than ninety days away (mark your calender) and once again the award cups are on my mind. Bramwell master mind, George Sitler, was recently at the Omegang Brewery in upstate New York. He called from the bar to let me know, of all the awards on display, the Bramwell Oktoberfest awards are the coolest. I confess I saved his message and listened to it more than once. Somehow it accidentally got erased from the answering machine-hmmm.

Product Loyalty

The other day, my son's friend was over for a visit and wanted something to drink. He pulled out my Christa Assad cup, said how much he liked it and asked if I had made it. I let him know that it was made by a "hot" California potter. "Is she hot?", he asked. "What I meant by hot, is that she is at the top of her game, but she is rather easy on the eye as well." He admired the cup for another second, placed it back on the shelf and chose one of mine.

I didn't think too much of it until my nieces stopped by the house. Again, the question was asked, "Did you make this?". Pots made by anyone other than me were put back on the shelf.

When I visit other potters, I am always excited to touch, admire and use pots made by others...I assumed everyone would feel this way-who cares who made it? In the end, I got to experience radical favoritism and it felt good.

On a recent visit from friend and potter, Errol Willett, I was presented with a tea bowl he had made. While I rarely feel strong ownership of any pot that comes into this house, I find that I do think of this cup as mine. I am now musing over the idea of ownership and how we define what we think of as cherished possessions...