a little here

 and a little there.
There are no groceries in the house, but I am getting some work done.

It seems as if there are just not enough days in my weeks right now. I am going to work on some tiles and just not think about it.
After all the sun is out today, and that, is a good thing.

Teaching an old dog

 new tricks.

The placing of the tile designs on to thrown forms continues.
 This round Mark threw some of the cone 6 clay body that we have left over after I make tiles. He made me about seven of these and then I put my tile designs on them.

I then used the same glazes that I am using for the tiles to set them off.
These are a ton of work, but a load of fun.

We think of them as vases but we noticed that they could be very fancy beer tumblers. (very fancy)
The discussion then became how to make them less tumbler shaped and more vase like.
That lead to some changes for what is now round 3 of these.







Mark is working on changing the lip area and adding some handles up high and down low.
It is interesting. This round is made in our stoneware clay and will be fired in the gas kiln.
I have my thinking cap on playing with glazes in my head....

I had some tiles in that last kiln and here are a few new designs.
I know- more red.... I am more a red than blue person. I need to work out more blues...or maybe a white.

I like this long shape it has possibilities for being hug across like you see it or turned to hang long. I am always toying with how a shape should hang.

 I'm also playing with leaves to see how I like multiple glazes in the leaves. I think I do like it, I would like to add some other greens into the palette 
This one has been backed for hanging.

It is hard to believe that we are heading into July. I feel as if June just jumped over me.
 I am finally use to teaching 3 days a week and then being here for the rest of the week. We have worked hard to continue to make pots even though we have not fired any yet.
I am pretty sure we will fire as soon as I am done.
I have a full 7 days left, that will take us into the end of July.
I'm betting we fire by early August.
Cheers to all!
Back to school tomorrow.
M

glue and goo.

About those glues.
Gluing anything can be a challenge, much less gluing wood to tile.
When I first started this I used liquid nail. Just the straight up stuff and it worked.
Glue, weight, wait, hang.
Then one day I did this and it would not stay.
Glue, weight, wait, hang, un-glue, I would find the tiles hanging by just one side.

I looked for another product to use.
I went to gorilla glue.
Anyone who has worked with gorilla glue knows how tedious it can be.
It expands and when it expands it is messy.
I was spending way too much time on the messy part of this, even though the glue worked well.
 In fact, it worked great, but I hated the mess of working with it.
I found a liquid nail, small projects, clear, that worked even better.
All I had to do was clean, set, weight, and they were done.
No fuss, no mess.
We were golden.
Until 2 weeks ago when I ran out.

I looked high and low for what I had been using. Then out of desperation I bought the ones in the last post.
What turned out to work for me was the liquid nail that was white and also labeled for small projects and home repairs.
I felt that it worked more like a product for setting tile.
What it reminded me of was using a tile setting products such as thin set. I like it, but it is a tad fussy until it sets up.
The other one I bought I found smelly and messy.
I might use that one for smaller projects, but for the tiles I liked the liquid nail better.

I know that this is all subject to change.
New and improved!
Better!
Environmentally friendly.
Nothing stays the same.
Is there a better way?
I am wondering that as well.
When I make tiles mine are more the thickness of commercial tiles.
 I don't like the cut on the back to hang them on a nail, I just never felt that method was all that stable.
I like bring them out from the wall and giving them a good solid place to hang.

About the goo.
We are helping with the girls when we can.
I like to think that baby loving is a top priority.
They are growing fast, like spring wild flowers.

Why Ms.B

There have been a few inquires about the name of our small gas kiln.
We named her Ms. B for a couple of reasons.
The first one is when she is good and we have a great firing she is Queen B.
The second one is that when she is bad, and the firing is not good, then she is little Ms. B, as in a female dog.

She has been an interesting kiln to work with and with the last firing we are on our way to making pots and glazes to fit this kiln. We were trying to make it work more like our production kiln, but she was having none of that.
She, in her mightiness, wants her own identity, and that is just what she is going to have.
I hope we get more Queen from her.

  Starting last week I made a fat mistake in the gluing of some of the tiles.
Let me just state right here and now that, all glue is not created equal and, just because people sell glue does not mean they know jack about it.
I have been very happy with a glue that I started using in the past 2 years. It was easy to use, glued without much fuss or mess and was working perfectly for me.
So, why change?
I didn't, they did.
I ran out of glue and looked at what I thought should be the same thing.
It was different.
I didn't buy it because it was different, I bought something else that did not set up for me. I gave it 4 days and then I took the wooden backs off, cleaned the gummy mess off both the tiles and the wood.

 I then tried another glue.... the next day I pried off the wooden backs again and cleaned all the glue off them. This time I carried them to the house and washed them in hot soapy water.
The only answer was to load Mark up in the car and carry him to the hardware chain store and get him to look at the glue with me.  We looked and read and looked and read. I picked a glue "product" took it to a floor person and asked for someone who knows glue to talk to me.
I got a person who mostly, kinda, sorta knew about glue, not really... she pawned me off on someone else who took me back to the glues and proceeded to read the backs. Hey, I just did that, get me someone who knows about glue.
We have a guy, but he is at dinner.
I finally picked a "product" to try.

We then went to another store and I picked yet another product to try.
What can I tell you.
I loved the one I had.
The 2 I brought home seem to be working, but they are fussy and messy to use.
My plan is to call the company and "talk" at them to find out if they still make the other stuff and where I can buy it.

I now have 8 tiles that I have glued, scraped, de-glued, washed dried and re-glued 3 times.
I'm not whining, I am frustrated.

If anyone has a glue or a product that they would like to recommend to me I am willing to look at it and read all the information on the back. I know how to do that.
Of course you know what I want, I want the old stuff, that worked.  

Meanwhile, I need to go pinch on the babies.....

We are all over the place and Mr. Doubt comes for a visit

 I am working on tiles while Mark is finishing making pots for Ms. B.
Oh, yea, what could possibly go wrong?

You would think that we never doubt what we do. The only time I think we don't is when we are making work.

As soon as you stare at that piece of clay that is ready for the glaze old man doubt comes rolling in the door.
He says to me, "do you know what you are doing?"
I always say, "no, but don't tell."

I have gotten to the place where I know the glazes that I like to use on the tiles for the featured images. I get my head stuck on background.
Then I like to argue with myself on the steps that it takes to finish glazing one.

"You should try slips," Mr. Doubt loves to tell me.
"You should try spraying a glaze."
"Yea, I say let's add that to the mix."
"Raku!", he screams at me.

 I yell back at him, "Hey, I like the glazes!"
"And, I have worked this out, you want me to start all over again???"
"Why not?", he laughs.
Why not indeed.

Get out of my space....


What goes through your mind when you are working?

 Mark is staying on the wheel making pots for Ms. B.
We are going to work that little girl out this year.
Stay tune.

(you could get a real job) Quiet!

“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
― Bertrand Russell


“We’ll never survive!”
“Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.”
― William Goldman, The Princess Bride 

The grid

This looks great in the store. Not much going on here so I will cut this short and save a good story for later in the week. Happy Thanksgiving. Roll out those pies! M

How did it go?

All shows have their plus and minus signs in your brain.
How could you,would you, do it better the next go round.
It helps if we sit down with a clear mind and talk through what worked and what did not.
The new set up worked wonderfully.
The shelves held plenty of pots, the frame for tiles brought folks into the booth to look at them. The lighting, having them hung up and in groups meant that many folks could see how 2 or 3 would work together.
It worked well, I was very happy with it.
I would like for us build a second set and carry this around the other side of booth , leaving the last side as all check out.
The thing that just seemed awkward  for us all, was the side where we had the check out.
I had another table of pots on that side and it was too crowded for me and Leslie or whoever else was helping check out.
 On Sunday I condensed the pots and moved the check out over using just the end of the 6 foot table for a few tall pots. 
That was much better.

 The other thing we plan to do for next year is have our own sides.
We had been using side curtains at the show.
This year it was decided that we would pay for the sides, but they had not shared that with us.
It was an unexpected expense.
We figured we could just do without them since on one side of us the potters had backing to their booth.
We had set up on Thursday, then back on Friday morning, but when we came back we found that the other side was filled with a lot of hanging Christmas tree ornaments that seem to take over.
We ended up going home and taking curtain down in the house, bringing them back up and sliding them very carefully into place between their booth and ours.
It was good to have that separation, but it was tricky and I sure don't want to do that again.
For next year we will plan to have sides.

 Overall, with a few snags here and there, it was a good show, about what we expected.

The fun part is unpacking and restocking the store.
We took the new tile grid and put it in the store. It is looks great!
I'll get a picture today to share.
Best get to working.
M

Next weekend

is the Celebration Of Seagrove Potters a show put on by the local potters .
We all donate works to be auctioned off by either live or silent auction.
Above you will see a tile that I donated to the silent auction.
Now let me ask you, "what is wrong with this picture"?

This is what is wrong with this picture.
So, if you have seen this tile posted upside down and that is the way you want to put it on your wall, then by all means do so.
But, if you are taking pictures of someone work for publicity then please take the time to get the work right, as in right side up.
Good grief......


Here are the pumpkin jars waiting to be picked up.
I put a blue stain in the flower with a bit of a gold rutile in the middle. The leaves did not go as green as I wanted but I think they will be fine.

Or do you like this picture better?

Crisp and cool out there this morning.
It was 29 when we hit the trail this am. I thought, not bad for chilly weather.
The best thing was no wind.
I think that you can walk pretty well an any weather as long as the wind is not whipping.
I am off to finish up more tiles.
I might just have to see what they would look like hung upside down.

or sideways.....
Cheers,
M

Sunday 7-14-13

I can not tell you why this picture turned sideways on me, seems that I can not do anything about it so, here it is, as is.

Yesterday, I had the human pug mill help me wedge and block the holly heck out of the reclaimed clay.
Once it was blocked I covered it and left it to rest a bit while I went about the day working on throwing.
When I had some time I took the blocks and flattened them by gently tossing them down.
When I had the thickness that I wanted I ran them through the slab roller.
I saw little to no air.
I placed them between sheets of plaster boards and have left them to set up before I cut out tiles.
They should be ready later today or tomorrow.

Making the pancake.

Juice/wine/whiskey/anything you want to put in it cups drying under a fan.

These are a customer favorite, like potato chips, you can not just have one.
Once you have one, you need more.

I am in love with doing close up of these red flowers.
I love the flower inside the flower.
I love how the green of the leaves behind the flowers looks to be part of the flower.

It really is the little things that show up in your life.
Bring on the Unicorns, I think I am ready. 

Nature just does it thing for us while we work so hard to make something look this easy.

M

For the most part

I have always been a thrower.

But----- I always wanted to make tiles.

For the most part I am not and never was a"girly" girl, but I have these frilly things inside me that come out on tiles.

I have packed them up to take up to the show this weekend.
They are looking for homes.

This may be the last of the outside blooms as winter plans to come in this week taking out some of the things that have been hanging on.

Cheers,
M

Mugs delivered,kiln and tiles

 While we were waiting for the kiln to cool I started working on a glaze load for my tile kiln. I have these round disk shaped pads of bisque that I made many moons ago.
Gee, I thought it would be great if these had a hole in the top so that they could be hung.
Me- Mark I want to put a hole in these, can I drill them?
Him- let me see what size drill bits I have.
Me- hummm......
Him- will this one do?
Me- yes.
Him --sets up drill press.
Me- I drilled holes.
He loves when he teaches me something so he caught me working the press.
It worked great.

 When I was done it looked like a termite had been busy in there.

 The inside of the big kiln looks so empty right now but I wanted to talk about this work horse of a kiln. It was built by Mark and I in 1986 with a loan from our bank. Back then it cost just under 5K and that was a lot of money for us to borrow. We had some good advice in the borrow and pay back category so that is what we did.
We built the kiln and then paid it off.
 It has now been in production for 26 years. In that 26 years we have had many firings. I was always going to keep some count of how many fires we did a year but I was just too busy working and raising kids to take that time. Right now we try to fire at least once a month if we can. In the day we fired every 3 weeks. We had one part time employee and she helped keep things cranking. There was a time we had two part time employees and cranked even harder.
Then one day we decided we would down size.
We made a decision that we either had to jump on a big business plan or a smaller one.

 We chose the smaller path.
Make what we want and process it all with just the two of us and that occasional helper.
Yes, I miss those extra hands.
Yes, there are parts of this that I would love someone else to do.
Yes, I would love to get more work out.
But, working with just the 2 of us maintains a control over what is being made that we like.

Now that kiln.
It is still a work horse, seeing some wear these days.
The picture to the left is of the floor bricks. Years of stepping inside with NC red clay dirt on our shoes has given the bricks this wonderful patina. Recently a visitor asked it we salted the kiln because of the color of those bricks.
No salt, just the trail of a lifetime of hard work.

The mugs- delivered!

Many things to work on.
Mark is putting lamps together and this is one handsome crop of lamps. I have picked out 2 no 4- well maybe 6 that I would keep.
I will get some pictures of them.
These are going to look great in someone's home.
Let's get busy.

Cheers to you all!
M

And, what are you doing?

Over here at Whynot we are just hanging out. Isn't she a beauty?

There is work going on.

 Tiles and planning a load for Henry.
Mixing glazes and hanging out with spiders.
And you?
M