Journey Workshop July 2008 - Oct 2009

renamed and moved my blog

2010-05-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

I have finally managed to transfer all my Steven Hill journey posts to my new blog which is called Centered - Focus on Clay and Creativity. For some reason a few posts would not transfer until now.
For those of you who want to continue to follow my blog here is the link. http://newfoundoutpotter.blogspot.com/
I will continue to write about my work and the creative process. Thanks for following and happy potting!
Eva

Slip and Shellac Resist

2010-04-18T18:57:00.000-07:00

Years ago before I was aware of the dangers of using hot wax I used to do resist "carving" with real paraffin wax. It wasn't until I read about shellac resist a few years ago that I came back to do this type of decorating technique.

The shellac dries quite quickly - in about 15 minutes. By wiping over with a wet sponge you can get relief designs in the clay as the shellac prevents the clay from being washed away. I like to paint an area with coloured slip first and then shellac, so the raised area is a different colour.

I had done some designs with pears, first trying various slips on tea bag rests and then after some sketches on some serving dishes. I use the Bringle slip with 10% black stain and cover it with Fraser Celadon with a bit of stain as well (as per Elaine Coleman's recipe) or just the clear celadon without any iron in it. I don't get a really nice blue nor white colour as I use Harlan House porcelain and it tends to grey the colour a bit, but it is very easy to work with.

New year, new decade

2010-04-18T18:13:00.000-07:00

It took me almost 4 months to complete this post but I hope to get back on track with writing at least several times a month.

Jan/2010 - Time to get focused again on pottery after the holidays. On our way back from Florida visiting relatives we had a great visit to Ashville to see the New Morning and Blue Spiral Galleries. We also found our way into Penland as we decided to drive over Roan Mountain in North Carolina - what a spectacular place - both the mountain and Penland. Visited Cynthia Bringle there - one of my heroes and stopped by John Britt's place who is just down the road a ways. Unfortunately he was out but I could see lots of test tiles on his studio table!
Did lots of sketching on the drive down - it's someting that works well for me as I just sketch whatever interests me at the moment and then for several days I work on variations. Usually I do not have time to do too much sketching at home, but this was great and helped to while away the time on the interstates. On the way back I usually had to drive as my husband found my navigating on the back roads to be rather unreliable.

The sketches for the small oval serving dishes had lots of movement in them but once back home I was had a hard time trasferring that into reality. The dishes are made of porcelain, thrown, altered and a flat base put on. I pierced the overlaps and hoped that the celadon glaze would cover the holes and let light through which it did. Will need to work more on these as I rather like them, but as you can see in the close up the inside of the hole arrangement is rather messy.

Journey's End Oct 24 - 25 A Celebration - Part II

2009-11-26T14:39:00.000-08:00

Part of my journey contract was also that I would write a weekly blog about my journey. I really didn't quite keep up the weekly bit, but I really did amaze myself that I did manage to write over 55 blogs - this is the 56th in 18 months or so.

In fact writing the blog has been really valuable for me - it helps me to focus on my work. By reading back from time to time I can see various stages in my progress. Another thing that it has done for me is to get me to take photographs of my pots - a really valuable record. As I look back over the old postings I can see various stages of my work - some good and some bad, but at least I can review them and learn from them.

So back to the Journey celebration weekend - unfortunately I did not take very many pictures - was too busy having fun!

Saturday morning we were treated to a short workshop on photographing pots. I must say this was the best talk on this subject that I have ever heard. Steven explained his setup to us, explaining where he got his equipment and how he used it. Not being a professional photographer himself, there was thankfully not a single mention of f-stops, etc - all the stuff that I can never understand no matter how hard I try.
He also took some pictures of our pots with his setup and in the evening we saw them on the computer - what a difference a great photograph can do to make a pot look great! I came home eager to get a something similar. Steven should really offer photography workshops as well - they would be well worth it.

In the afternoon the gallery was open and since Rob, Lindsay and Sarah lived in the area or had relatives living close by, there was a great turnout!

I really liked the lighted shelves that Steven had in his gallery - they really did a great job displaying the pots - as seen in this photo of my two fishing lady/boat pots.

Over a pizza supper we celebrated our accomplishments. Two art teachers/potters stayed for supper and it was very interesting to talk with them as they were involved with the Potters for Peace project - making water filters in Third World countries - something that has always interested me.

Sunday came way to fast - and it was time to say goodbye after a fabulous breakfast! Thank you Steven for a great journey! And thank you all, including Kim and Richard for making this such a great weekend! I hope that we can continue to follow each others' work and see how we develop.

This will be the last post under the Steven Hill Journey Workshop July 2008-09. However I am not giving up my blogging. I think I will continue this blog under a new name - Centered - Reflections on From and design or something like that - as I think writing down my thoughts about my pots will be a big help to me, even more so now that I do not have a monthly critique deadline.

However Steven offered us a chance to continue with the journey - either with another journey ending in a gathering in Oct 2010 or with just monthly consultations. Although I would love to go back next Oct, the airfare from Canada makes it rather expensive for me, so I will save that airfare for sometime in the future for another of Steven's workshops like the pouring vessel's and cups one.

However I am opting for the monthly consults which I hope to start after Xmas. I think that Steven will be able to help me define new goals for myself and those monthly critiques will keep me focused on those goals.

Journey Oct 19 - 23 Journeys End - A Celebration! Part I

2009-10-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

Well I got all the pots packed - the 4 plates were stacked and packed into a cloth bag for carry-on. It should fit under the seat, though I hope not to have too much walking as the pots are really heavy. I dread the Chicago airport - coming from Ottawa I am not used to these huge airports with miles of terminals.

After a delay due to bad weather at the Chicago end my plane arrived 2 hours late. Fortunately my fellow journey women, Ann and Marion had not given up on me and I was able to share the rental car with them to Center Street Clay.

It was a great to be back - some changes though with Kenyon replaced by the new resident Richard who has hair just like my son and in fact in profile looks just like him. It was amazing!

Steven got us all to work, unpacking our pots and getting them into the studio. Looking at his agenda sheet we saw we were in for a busy weekend! It was great to see Lindsay and Sarah again and to see all the progress that everyone had made in a year. Ann and Rob had been in the Oct 08 workshop so this was the first time that I had a chance to meet them and see their work.

After a great chili supper with corn salsa we talked about our pots. We had to number and price our pots and with a list take them up to the gallery. I priced my big wall plate higher than the appliqued vases even though in terms of work, vases take way more time. But plates sell at a higher price - as they are considered wall art and so people will pay more for them.

Friday morning we all got together in the studio to talk about our individual journeys while Kim set up the gallery with our pots. It was interesting to hear what everybody else had gotten out of their year long experience. I think we all felt that this had been a very worthwhile experience and it had definitely changed our work for the better. Steven remarked to me that he had looked at the pictures of my pots when I had applied and what a difference a year had made!

In the afternoon we gathered in the gallery for critiques. Here is my corner with some of my pots. I think that I reached part of my journey goals and that was to develop a more unified look, concentrating of form and design. However the other part to develop an appropriate palette for the forms - I think I still have a long ways to go.

I still need to improve my spraying - I need more control when changing colours and perhaps an airbrush would help. Also it always seemed to me that there was something not quite right with my fish plates and Steven felt that the fish looked like dead fish on sand - so I will try a blue version of the stony yellow on the fish area. The stony blue should be a more subdued blue than the blue ash.

I found that whenever I tried to use the blue ash the rivulets competed too much with the fish stamp and the design was lost. As well when the stamped design is done in a darker colour you also seem to lose it. An impression done in a lighter colour makes it stand out, especially when you have some contrasting color in the impression.

That evening we went to the national juried Clay3 (clay cubed) exhibition. Sarah, one of the journey participants had two of her pieces in the show. All pieces were exhibited in 1 foot plexiglass cubes and made for a very effective display. No iron speckled pots (my favorite!)in that show! My favorite was "Overlapped Bowl on Pedestal" - handbuilt and soda fired by Marcia Tami Paul. Some really great pieces and lots of new ideas. I liked the little cricket cages as something new. There was also a great talk by Mary Kay Botkins, who was the juror.

To be continued.

Journey Oct 11 to 18th Time to pack!

2009-10-17T16:35:00.000-07:00

This week was the last firing for my journey and the kiln opening was on Wednesday. I thought that I finally had a winner in the fishing lady pot - the appliques were simplified (no applique where I will have runny blue ash!), the glaze all the right thickness and in the right spots. However a few hours after unloading I examined the pot more closely and saw that there was shivering on the rim! The replacement blueberry pot which did not have good glazing again - however had no shivering.

What had happened I think was that I had sprayed white and blue slips on the greenware pot to brighten the colours a bit on the stoneware clay. However once bisqued, I realized that I had too much blue (I had been tying to tone down the blue - so what was I thinking spraying on blue slip?)and so resprayed again with a thin layer of the white slip. I had used the slips on bisque ware before with no problem, but I think the second time the slip did not stick as well to the bisqued slip layer and so there was some shivering on the rim. However I had used Tuckers Smoothstone which has a lower expansion than their other clays so that could have had an effect.

The blueberry picker which had the same treatment with slips still has not shivered -and it was out of Smoothstone as well. So not sure what is going one. As I was in a rush to get this pot finished I did not applique on a person - just the blueberry bucket. I think maybe it leaves more to the imagination this way- still have the spilled blueberries and shoe on the back.

The landscape plate - I finally got some of the Hannah Ochre ash to run - this complements the runny blue ash . The problem has been that if there is any Stony Yellow present under the Hannah Ochre it stops the rivulets from forming. When I spray I try to get intermingling around the different glazes and so the Stony Yellow tends gets under it. This plate was the one that turned out the best - unfortunately it had cracked on the foot.

I spent yesterday trying to figure out how I will pack the pots - I will carry on the plates, put one of the fishing lady vases into a computer bag. Then I found a hard sided suitcase that was being thrown out by the second hand store next to our Potters Guild and it will hold 2 largish cardboard boxes. My soft sided suitcase will hold another two cardboard boxes. By surrounding the boxes with bubble wrap and clothes I should end up with the double box effect necessary for safe transport. I do have a direct flight to Chicago so that should minimize baggage handling.

Journey Sept 28 - Oct 10th One last firing left!

2009-10-13T17:21:00.000-07:00

Well journey's end looms on the horizon. Looking at my stash of pots that I have I ready I find that I do not have any that I am really satisfied with to take to the final get together at Center Street Clay. If the glazing is good then the pot has a crack and if there is not crack then the glazing is bad. The few that I am satisfied somewhat with are the plates. Unfortunately all the large plates - 14" and up with the woman/fish ended up terribly glazed and it was only the small 10" one that only turned out OK.

In the last week I speed built replacements for the fishwoman and blueberry picker - building and speed drying the slabs pots in three days. They bisqued OK without any cracks except for a small one on the rim of the blueberry picker which I tried to mend by rubbing in a patch of sodium silicate with bisque dust. I also added an extra layer of glaze to see if that would also cover the slight crack.

The kiln opens tomorrow morning and we'll see. I need about 10 pots I guess - about 3 or 4 major ones with some smaller ones. Pots that show a unified look - as that was what I was looking for in this journey.

Journey Sept 21 - 27 More Burnt Toast

2009-09-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well after the August firing where all my glazes were too thin, I tried harder to watch how I was spraying. The resprayed pots looked a bit better, but still like burnt toast. I had really liked the applique on the woman and fish pot - tried to simplify the applique, but I must remember that the drippy ash glazes are distracting on the wavy applique areas. The back would have been fine with just the ash and no fish to distract. Also the dark brown area of very thin glaze could use another coat but I am afraid to refire again as the ash may run down too far. The pot looks better in the pic that in reality as the white background seems to simplify it.

New pots - some where not much better. Somehow the stony yellow did not come out very well and the Hannah blue was too strong. I have changed clays - using the paper version of Sandstone - maybe that made a difference, though I doubt it. I think the firing was rather muddy - I didn't get to reox at the end until after cone 9 was halfway down as the firing was rather fast. I had to slow it down and hold cone ten for an hour or so. Usually I start reox once cone 8 starts so I get about 2 hours of reox instead of one - I think this of what Steven does. Anyway I feel it has made the colours brighter especially the ash glazes.

The blueberry picker pot had one great effect and that was the blue ash runs on the front giving the effect of masses of blueberry bushes in the woods. However the stony yellow around the figure was too thin and resulted in mottled effects that distracted from the figure. The back had too much brown, was trying for a sun effect - either rising or setting, over the blueberry bushes, with a spilled bucket and shoe in the bottom corner - trying for that slightly menacing effect of my mother's painting.

The landscape pot - I liked the front top and the stick like figures, and how all that got glazed, but again it fell through with the long wavy appliques and the drippy ash glazes. The blue in that bottom area was distracting so should maybe have stayed mostly with the brown colour schemes and just had the blue in the upper part.

Well I have one more firing before journey's end at Center Street Clay on Oct 22- 25 - so hope to get something that I am pleased with. Right now I like my pots best just in the greenware stage.

Journey Workshop Sept 14 - 20 Paper Clay Pots

2009-09-18T17:57:00.001-07:00

Well I have been having problems with some cracking on my hand built pots so decided to try some paper clay - made from Tucker's Sandstone - the same as my regular clay. I was amazed how strong the slabs were and so I could make them a lot thinner. Whenever I start on a hand built pot I usually need to let the form sit around for a while while my mind churns over various applique designs.

However I did find the paper clay was harder to cut once it was leather hard and even the applique, if very fine detail was required, was harder to cut out. However I really like the way I could add to the rim and base to thicken it. We'll see how it fires and glazes.

The first pot was another fishing lady and the second was a landscape-like decoration. I thought that I would take a picture of the raw glazed pot before it gets ruined in the glaze firing. My last firing at the end of August was a total disaster - the sprayed glazes were too thin on all the pots and so they had to be all reglazed.

The tops were fun to do - definitely I find the wavy tops really enhance the design. What a change from pre-Steven when I felt I needed a plain straight top so as not to distract from the applique design.

Journey Workshop Sept 1 - 13 Do You Want to Fit In?

2009-09-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

Something that Steven said to me in July still sticks in my mind. It was when we were discussing being contemporary or not. He asked me "Do you want to fit it?"
I guess that I have a unique style and I have always been an individualist - going my own way and doing things my way. So I guess even though I love those wonky, altered pots they are not really me. So is it better to be true to myself than to surrender myself to the latest fashion? I have been trying to be more contemporary and so have been whacking pots a bit, altering them etc - but would I have done all those things it I had not seen them done by others? So I guess part of me does want to fit in.

I made some more watercolour water pots, vases, cups and garlic garlic pots - after several variations I came to a point where every ting finally clicked nicely together - I have never had that feeling before - definitely could say that the designs were finally totally resolved - to my mind anyway. What I like about these is
1. appliqued window on my garlic pots and vases - ties in with my other applique work,
2. oval shape and a whack down with the end of a stick gives it a bit of life and a contemporary look,
3. pushing up the foot in front of the whack to give it movement
4. adding the clay button on lids (to designate the front for better fit) off centre to emphasized the end of the stick impression,
5. the curled knob with stick impression on side to tie lid to garlic pot.
6. On the water pots I also pushed out the sides at the bottom to give it a more oval shape and to emphasize the stick impression and kanthal wire addition.

Journey Aug 9 to Aug 30th - Cutesy with an Edge

2009-09-14T14:43:00.000-07:00

It's funny how quickly it is easy to get out of the habit of writing this blog - a 2 week stint at MISSA and I have fallen way behind and it is so hard to remember what I have been doing. I also find that when I was writing regular weekly blog I was also much more focused on my work and journey goals. And its been an invaluable record. I regularly go back and read bits of it for inspiration whenever I get stuck.

Because of other things intruding - like visitors, gardening etc. I cancelled my August critique with Steven as I still not not have much new stuff and no time to put up pictures on Flicker.

The end of July - beginning of August is blueberry time in our area and you see pickers by the highway. It always reminds me of a large painting (about 5 feet x 5 feet) that my mother had painted years ago of some blueberry pickers She never liked the picture and kept it in the basement with the face against the wall. I felt there was something always a bit spooky or threatening about it, so it was never a favorite of mine either.

However our daughter has always liked it and recently hauled it away to her home. I decided to use that painting as an inspiration as I felt I needed a break from the fishing/boat pots. The back of the blueberry picker pot just has a shoe and spilt bucket of blueberries - so as my friend said when she saw it - "cutesy with an edge".

Journey July 26 - Aug 8 - Our job is to make good pots

2009-09-07T13:39:00.000-07:00

As I had been away at MISSA, I did not have too much new work to discuss for my July critique.

I had donated one of the fish plates to the student auction at MISSA. Looking at my pot among the other pieces of ceramics on the donation table I was struck that my piece did not have that contemporary look - it looked out of place and time somehow.
Anyway I discussed this issue with Steven at my July critique - how I was still not satisfied that my work looked contemporary enough. His response was that it is not our job to be modern, but to make good pots. He felt that I had been doing a good job so far in integrating various design aspects of my pots.

I guess one of the reasons that some of the pots look dated is in the stoneware clays that I use to get the iron spots (which I love!.

Steven also mentioned that definitely some of the glazes and colours - the beige and browns are more from the 70's so if I wanted to be more contemporary I should bring in some more colours. Perhaps for the handbuilt pieces use B-mix with grog rather than the stoneware.

Journey Workshop July 21 to July 26 - Back to my Journey Goals

2009-09-02T18:50:00.000-07:00

Well with MISSA over it has taken me several days to get back onto track of working on my "journey" goals - getting a more unified look on pots that really excite and satisfy me.

I started throwing some larger pieces in bottle shapes, with the intent of adding applique work. However I found that shapes with a belly just do not look good with that type of decoration - the belly protrudes and appliques just sticks it out more. So I ended up making bottles with more oval shape, and adding a slab bottom. The flattened side provides a canvas. I often try out designs first with paper cutouts.

At MISSA on the bellied bottles,(see the bottom photo)- instead of hitting the foot with a stick, I decided to stomp down on the foot with the end of a stick and this gives a different look that I like. I also sometimes added a clay button first and then stomped down. Once home I have carried through with this method on my paint pots, bottles, vases, cups etc. and I'll see how I can integrate this into my other designs.

Journey Workshop July 5 to July 20th - Time out from my Journey Workshop for MISSA

2009-08-23T18:44:00.000-07:00

After all my troubles with throwing large platters and Steven's comment saying that he was surprised at the trouble that I was having - I decided that I needed more throwing practice and instruction. As I have always wanted to attend a workshop at the Metchosin International Summer School of the Arts just outside of Victoria BC and I saw that Tony Clennel was giving a 2 week throwing workshop there I got all my pennies together and signed up. It was a fabulous experience - Tony Clennel's 2 week course on throwing was just what I needed to get my work up another notch - getting larger in scale, doing handles and paper resists. I highly recommend him for a workshop!

As a bonus John Britt was there doing his glaze course, and there were two raku courses - one with Joe Brecha and the other with Randy Brodnax who demonstrated one evening his throwing techniques. Awesome!

I also took the weekend workshop with Dennis Meiners on textured slabs. As you could wander around to all the other classes I also got to see some of the extruded work by Bill Shinn and the handbuilt paper clay sculptures of Rory McCrory. All this in a paradise setting of Vancouver Island's old growth forest. The building above houses the three pottery classrooms. Our throwing sessions were held on the ground floor classroom.

Here are some of the things that I learnt at MISSA - in no particular order.

1. "If you don't like glazing your pots will show it" (Dennis Meiners). I think he hit the nail right on the head. However how do I get to like glazing? Spraying and overlapping glazes is helping in that respect as it is sort of like painting watercolours.

2. To get rid of an air bubble prick the wall all the way through to the other side.(Tony Clennel) As I am an impatient wedger I often get air bubbles and this solution works well on some of those really stubborn ones.

3. Tony's method of throwing secitonal pots. Throw the bottom section. Let dry a bit and then throw the next section, placing it right away on top, by flipping it by holding onto the bat. Press the sections together and then wire off the bat from the top section. Continue forming the pot. Tony suggests that you do a join where the pot form changes and that will hide any join mark. Before I would let both section set up. This way with the top section being fresh, it is easier to continue forming the shape and so you get a better form.

4. Handle attachments do have a lot of potential for expression. (Tony Clennel)
I have always liked Tony's expressive handles as well as how he treats his attachments, often putting on a "bandaid" over one end of the attachment. See picture of Tony's demo casserole below.)

The asymmetry works well and this gave me lots of new ideas that I have been playing around with.

5. Use a towel, dryer sheet or other smooth fabric to round and smooth the cut edges of slab work to give it a finished look. (Tony and Dennis)I would always use just my finger or damp sponge, but the fabric works much better.

6. On a slab built teapot, place a small coil around the rim so that the lid is lifted a bit - gives a much more finished look. (Denis Meiners)

7. To get a green in reduction, spray on cobalt with a bit of iron and then a light spritzing of rutile on top. (Randy Broadnax) One of the problems in redux firings is that often copper turns pink/red and it is actually difficult to get a good stable green. Haven't tried the Co and rutile yet, but plan to.

8. Use tar paper templates to cut out your slabs and then put the pot together with the paper still stuck on. The paper supports the slab until they are all joined. (Tony Clennel) As I do a lot of hand building I am anxious to try this.

9. When cutting the lid on square closed hand built boxes, bevel the corners when cutting in the opposite directions from the sides. This is will form a lock so the lid does not slide off. (Denis Meiners)

10. Cedar bark makes great brushes. In one of the painting courses students made these great rough brushes from pieces of cedar bark by pounding the bark gently until it shredded. Seems like they would work for some very free loose slip decoration. I tried to find some bark along the shore, but no luck. I will see if our son can find some out there and send me some to try.

June 29 - July 4 June Gas Firing

2009-07-03T11:48:00.000-07:00

Well this last firing was the best for me so far - finally no blistering on any pots.
The fish plates turned out great, though need a more subdued blue still. I seemed to have gotten a feel for the right spraying thickness finally. The line blend that I did with reducing the cobalt for the Hannah Blue Ash showed that instead of 1.5 % Co, if I use 1% it should tone down the blue. Any less and I get more green, but a army type of green, not very nice - as the glaze without colourants is an ochre colour.

The casseroles were done in several different glazes first two with stoney yellow and the bottom one with bone ash - but all with waterfall green brushed and then rubbed off to highlight the shellac resist and carvings.

June 23- 28 June Critique - How to thicken rims

2009-06-26T11:57:00.000-07:00

The end of the journey workshop at Center Street Clay is on Oct 22-24. Probably just three more gas firings as summer visitors will take up some time in August so I really do not have too much time left. Steven suggested that for the gallery show I have 3 to 4 large pieces either slab or thrown and then several smaller items - again thrown or handbuilt.

I think that I need to take more pictures from more angles for my handbuilt pots as from some angles the form is not at all attractive, but it is hard for Steven to comment on that as he has no way of seeing it - though Steven said that apart from a definite front and back there will always be one view that is not as good as some of the others.

It is strange how completely my views have changed on decorating pots. Pre-Steven I only decorated one side - after all you cannot see all sides at once. Now I find that I just have to do the decorating on the back as well, in fact I enjoy coming up with something different but still meaningful for the back.

After all the talk on Clayart about form over decoration, I wanted Steven's view. It all depends on who you are - whether you focus first on form or on decoration, but in the end you still need to look at form and both have to work together.
I definitely know that I focus on decoration as I don't think that I have ever made an undecorated pot.

We talked about the last two slab pots that I had made - one where I had taken all the best features from each of my previous pots and attempted to make "super" pot. I had also combined shellac resist on the applique work so that it would tie in with the resist work on the plates and casseroles. Somehow i just cannot make applique work look right on plates, bowls and cups. Steven says that it is a matter of scale mostly. The appliques ends up overwhelming the pot.

I have had trouble with cracking rims - where I had added clay strips to the top edges to give the pot a more substantial look. The last two times instead of cutting leatherhard strips and adding them, I rolled a clay coil and applied it quite wet to the leatherhard clay top and voila - no cracking but it is hard to make the rim thickness even!

Steven suggested another method, rolling down the rim with a small clay roller. He used to do that on slab platters that he used to make. This compresses the clay as well as thickens the rim so it no longer susceptible to cracking. You can also use the edge of the roller to make a line along the rim, or perhaps on the appliques.

This sounds like a very interesting technique that I will have to try as the vase with the two ladies I had left the rim unthickened and it definitely did not look very good. As Steven said the base of the vase is quite substantial with the flaring at the bottom, but the top just is very weak. Another suggestion was to use an extruded rim like I had done on one of the vases - and perhaps not even having it all around the top but just on some sections. That sounded like it had lot sod different possibilities - maybe to accentuate a wavy pot.

One of the other journey participants had been to Centre Street Clay to take one of Steven's electric glaze firing workshops. That is something that I want to take as well. Steven has been getting amazing results in electric. Maybe I can persuade the guild in Ottawa to invite him to give a workshop. Will have to work on that.

June 15 - 22 "Batik" Type Resist with Underglazes

2009-06-22T15:34:00.001-07:00

Well in one of my posts to Clayart I mentioned all the different techniques that I use, include "batik type resist with underglazes". A clayarter asked me to elaborate so I have included two pictures of 2 plates done a couple of years ago in that method and a brief explanation. They were done in oxidation fired to cone 7 1/2 and sprayed with Stoney White over non-commercial brown and blue underglazes. There is also a bit of overspray with rutile/gerstley borate and rutile/gerstley borate/red iron to give beige and darker beige highlights.

I refer to it as "batik" because you do it backwards as you would batik. First I wax all the areas where I do not want underglaze which is usually most of the pot. Then on the wheel I brush on the first base underglaze. Doing it on the wheel gives you an even coat. You also get little beads of underglaze on the waxed areas that add to the design. The beads kind of are reminiscent of the crackle lines that you get in batik.

I usually use a brown iron underglaze first. Then I wax the areas that I want to keep brown. So then I brush on the blue underglaze. If I wanted a third colour like green, I would wax out the areas that I want to stay blue and then brush on the green etc. I usually just use brown and blue. Now you have to rebisque to burn off the wax. So it is more time consuming but it gives a totally different effect than drawing directly. Try it and you will see what I mean.

I use this technique as I do not have very good drawing skills. I could let's say draw a flower in blue and brown underglaze but it would end up amateurish. By using the "batik" method I draw around the outline of the flower, the leaves, the petals, the stem and somehow that gives a very different effect and takes away some of the need to have good drawing skills - it adds a bit of naivety and simplicity. Not sure if that makes sense. In the 70's and 80's I guess that was my style, trying for a reduction look in electric. As I now have use of a gas kiln I no longer use this as much, though I am trying to find a glaze for cone 10 redux that would work with underglazes like the Stoney White.

June 7-14 Contemporary is even harder!

2009-06-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

One of Steven's comments about one of my pots was that the reason that he liked a particular pot better than another one was that the woman applique was more contemporary. It got me thinking - my influence was my mother as she is an artist and she loved to draw figures. Her favorite painters are Picasso and Gustav Klimt. Here are two of my favorite paintings that she did many years ago. After the 1970's she rarely painted any more as she had to look after my father who had had a stroke and so perhaps her figure style was somewhat dated, though I don' really think so. Sadly now close to 90 she no longer has the energy to paint.

I was determined with this last vase to make the appliqued figures more contemporary - perhaps with torn or unfinished edges - to give it a more abstract look. However it ended up even worse - over designed, too cutsy. In making these pots, I find that often even though I hate what I am making I find that I cannot help myself and cannot move away from the direction that I am heading.

The rim also has way too much stuff. I was not too satisfied with the wavy top and so decided to cut some out on the back - that was mistake! This is the first vase where I have not thickened the rim by adding extra clay strips. The thin rim just does not do much for the pot - just a bit too delicate.

Whenever I added leatherhard pieces to the rim, usually I got some cracking at the joint. So for the last two pieces I tried something new. I rolled out a coil and added it fresh to the rim. So far, the first pot - no cracks and next one comes out next week and we'll see!
Otherwise I'll have to start using paperclay.

So I have ended up with a vase with two women - I tried to make them look like they have berries. My mother years ago had painted a picture of women picking blueberries and so I thought I would maybe reference that. Sort of blueberry bushes at the sides and back. However it looks like a wedding instead.

Actually I may be contemporary in a social sense - a pot with two woman getting married!

June 1 - 6 Trying to Pull It All Together

2009-06-06T13:05:00.000-07:00

Well I have lined up along the living room window all the handbuilt pieces that I have made so far in my "journey" - landscape vases, fishing lady and fishing boat vases. I now have a flotilla! I tried to pick out what I liked best from each piece and then make an ulimate piece incorporating all these best features.

I decided to incorporate the following:
1. the tall shape was better than the longer boat shaped ones.
2. the kanthal wire "ladder rungs'.
3. a wavy top
4. some foreground slab for a 3-D effect
5. the figure has a fish tail
6. some cutouts in the foreground slab
7. simplified fish - one large fish as opposed to lots of little ones
8. wavy hair
9. When I glaze use the lighter pale yellow colour rather than the beige as it contrasts better with the blue.

After all this I am not sure if I really like it. I had used shellac resist and carving to make some of the pattern on the large fish and on the tail. It is the first time that I used this with the appliqued work and I find that I like it. However not sure that I like the whole piece - and after I thought I should have ended the tail not as a tail but as a large fish head as I had in another one of my pieces. It would have made for a more original and surprising picture on the back side.

May 25 - 31 Spraying is Hard to Do!

2009-05-25T18:02:00.000-07:00

My spraying is improving! We talked how much concentration it takes for me to spray my pots - with all the different glazes and different thickness. I have to really pay attention to what I am doing and at the end of a spraying session I am beat. So different from before when I would just blast away with mostly one colour! Steven agreed. He also finds that spraying is the most difficult part of his process, while throwing is very relaxing.

In the fish plate that just came out this week I lost my concentration at the end and pressed the trigger a bit too hard blasting darker spots near the upper right hand side. (There is quite a bit of glare on the pot so it is not as obvious in the photo.) Once I realized what had happened, I tried brushing with a stiff brush to smooth out the spot and it might have helped a bit. The other alternative was to wash it all off and start all over again. In retrospect I should have washed it as I find that area really distracting and I had spent quite a bit of time decorating that pot.

The Hannah Blue turned out less harsh and I think it might have been due to some Stony Yellow spray on top. Again whenever I get some great results somehow I seem to have missed out in making notes on it. Note taking is hard to do as well - I definitely need to concentrate more on my notes!

Journey May 19 - 25 May Critique

2009-05-21T18:02:00.000-07:00

Well 2 months is waaaay too long without a Steven Hill fix! I was ready well ahead of time for the monthly critique as I had uploaded all my pictures a few days before, unlike most months when I am still frantically getting it all together the night before.

We talked about how my plates had slumped on one side - I guess mainly from being drier on one side. Steven says one way that he prevents that with his large platters is to keep the pots spinning slowly on his extra wheels. I also still have trouble getting a smooth continuous curve in my shallow bowls and seem to end up with a bit of a flat bottom and if my foot in not just outside the flat area the wall will slump. As Steven says with a continuous curve it does not matter where you place the foot. He explained how he makes the continuous curve and I will try his method. I really do need more throwing practice.

We discussed how to get more of a subdued contrast between the Stony yellow and Hannah blue on my latest fish plate. Finally got one that did not slump. I had thought of lowering the cobalt but not maybe adding some cobalt to the yellow. As well I could spray some yellow on the blue. Will try both of those - I could also spray more Hannah Ochre over the yellow than I have been doing - enough to get some ash rivulets which I am not getting now and that would give me a third colour contrast.

We again discussed feet. Unlike some potters whose work is recognizable by their feet, I don't really have a standard foot - sometimes they are round, sometimes narrow, sometimes wide. Steven felt that feet should be round as rims are round and so the foot should match the rim for a unified look. Also a round foot has less surface area to touch a table top and so also less area to sand/polish for a smooth surface.

I had used the center area for my signature as I find that often it gets obliterated by the glaze. I may try rubbing in some contrasting slip or underglaze to highlight the signature.

I had been working hard on my spraying and Steven felt that I had improved in my spraying - both the fishing lady and the cylindrical pot were well glazed, though the cylinder could have had a bit more contrast on the rim. He feels that whenever you have a strong feature you should emphasize it a bit - so a touch of darker brown would have highlighted that a bit more than the thinish layer of Stony Yellow.

In order to get the rim to be continuous and still go to form the loop I had thrown a wide rim, cut it and then added it to the top of the pot, forming the loop and joining the ends on one side of the loop for a continuous look.

Well I will write up the rest of the session next week as I need to go and make some pots!

Journey Workshop April 27 - May 18 In a Holding Pattern

2009-05-02T18:49:00.000-07:00

Well I have had a slab pot sitting on the kitchen counter waiting for inspiration for the last three weeks. Originally it was to have some figures appliqued from the "Revolution" book but I just have not been able to get my mental idea into clay. I usually try a few paper cut outs first - but nothing ended up looking right. First of all what am I doing thinking about a Revolution? It all started because I loved the style of the figures in the book made form torn and cut out paper strips.

I also think I ended up with the wrong shape for the vase - sort of looks like a sports trophy - enough to uninspire anyone. I finally tried a bunch of little people appliqued and then covered them with ladder rungs. But I think I will have to use paper clay for the ladder rungs as they will undoubtedly crack when drying.
Not sure if I will finish off properly or recycle.

Anyway it's about a week later and I have not done anything about the piece - I think I should recycle.

Spent some time glazing some work for the May gas firing - did a lot of reglazes - to get them out of the way. I reglaze by heating up the pots in an electric kiln and then spraying.

I need to work some more on my fishing lady series - so I lined up all boat/fishing lady pieces up in a row in chronological order to see where I should go next. I will try and pick out the things that I like about each piece and incorporate them into the next one. I guess that I like the taller pieces best in terms of shape. I also like the wire additions. The figures need to be a bit more contemporary - maybe use some torn clay in places.

Spent most of the last two weeks doing a lot of yard work as my husband was waiting for hip surgery so was not able to help much. Now with my husband home from surgery last week, I can finally get back to clay!

Journey Workshop April 17 - 26 Stress vs Creativity

2009-04-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

Well I cancelled my critique session with Steven this month as my husband was supposed to have hip replacement surgery last Friday. In the end the surgery was cancelled at the last minute because of lack of beds. With all our plans turned topsy turvy I was not able to refocus on pots and sort of fritted away the week with nothing accomplished. I should have re-scheduled with Steven as he suggested, but just did not have the energy to get my thoughts together, but now wished that I had as it would have helped to get my act together. Definitely stress has in impact on my creativity and focus - I really don't know how artists that are undergoing major life crisis manage, as a minor thing as hip replacement for my husband has such an effect on me.

We did do another gas firing with some good (but not excellent) and some so so results. I finally figured out how to adjust the spray gun to get just a very light spray (it's just taken me a year to figure that out!) and that has helped to stop all the drastic running with the Water Blue/Green. I just need a very light overspray with that glaze to get things moving.
I like how just a light coat of stoney yellow with .5% Fe looks with a slightly thicker coating of Hannah Ochre - nice light yellow to rich orange tones. My plate with appliqued figures turned out well, expect that it slumped. I am having problems with plates that I have thrown on hydrobats. Somehow I end up with the foot too small so it does not support the sides enough. Together with uneven drying of these 16" plates I end up with slumping on one side. Now that the warm weather has arrived and the furnace is no longer blowing hot air that should not be so much of a problem. Plus a lot of the figures had cracks - I had applied them to the plate after I had trimmed it and it was getting too dry. I think I will try several more of those and see if I can do a better job.

I made the mistake of using Leach White for the interiors of my garlic pots instead of a Temmoku and the white is just too glaring inside and also shows around the figures and seems to clash somehow with the rest of the glaze. Plus there is tiny surface crack in the bottom of one where I whacked one of the pots - you wouldn't have even noticed it with a Temmoku glaze but it is very noticeable with the white. The crack has no effect on the function as it would not leak, is not even a mm deep so is purely cosmetic. The garlic pots were glazed at the end of a long glazing session and I did not take as much care as I should have and it showed. Also the lids ended up a tad small with too much of the unglazed gallery showing.

I tired a new glaze - Caramel - which seems to look good with Hannah Ochre on top - it's smoother to the touch and runs more. The garlic pot with it was the best of the lot. Also I used Alberta Rust for the dark brown on some of the bottoms and I think that i like that better than temmoku as it's not so shiny and my spray both mix which is very dark brown but does not give a good colour with Hannah Ochre over it.

Well I have a couple of stress free weeks until my husband's May 11th rescheduled surgery so I had better make the most of it.

Journey Workshop April 12 - 17 Garlic Pots

2009-04-12T17:02:00.000-07:00

With the summer tourist season coming up I have to get some saleable items into the Valley Artisans Co-op. My page on the Artisans website has pre-Steven pots - sort of different from what I am making now.
My appliqued pots that I make now are all big ticket items - selling for $175 to $250 and in this economy and our small town are just too expensive. One hundred dollar to $125 items tend be OK and after that there is resistance.

My large garlic pots sell well for $48 and so I decided to work on some, using as before the people in the window theme - (my "parade" pots) - and seeing if I can update them a bit. Before I would make them squared off with several windows and lots of people as in the top photo of the glazed one. (Has Rhdoes 32 on it).

This time I tried various oval shapes. I put on a slab base and threw the lid and then stretched it as Steven does. I gave the pot a wack with a stick for hopefully a more contemporary look. In order to tie these in with the rest of my appliqued and stamped work I made a stamp of a window frame and used it on the pot and then cut out the window inside the frame.

With another, I appliqued the frame and the back door - all this trying for a more unified look.

I also like effect of the wack which shows the end of the stick. This resulted in a corner and horizontal line impression. I will cut the stick at an angle next time so that the line is truly horizontal and see how well the window fits into that.

In terms of function the pots with a wider top are better as your hand fits in more easily than the one with the narrowed top.

Journey April 8-11 - More appliqued pots

2009-04-10T19:29:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get some inspiration from the picture book "Revolution" - I love the pictures - they are made from torn paper as well as a few cutouts - but the figures are so expressive and yet so simple. However so far have not been able to transfer those type of images into clay. I did do a wall plate - with lots of little figures on it - sort of expresses conflict and hence perhaps revolution - not sure if that comes across. The picture is not very good - will see how it turns out once glazed.

I have continued with the factory ship/fisherwoman. I have tried to simplify all aspects - the shape as well as the figure. Empty net and basket vs the factory ship.

I have managed to make an improvement to the bases of these handbuilt pots. Before I would undercut all around the base. This time I am under cutting, but beveling in the opposite direction where the base curves out. This seems to gie a more polished and elegant base.

To get my point across more about the negative aspects of globalized shopping I have put some logos on the shopping bags. I have also tried to guide the viewer to the back with a different top profile on the back as viewed from the front.

I had a lot of trouble with the homeless person on the back. Just does not seem shoddy enough. At first I tried adding a scarf - but he ended up like a tired Superman. I ended with narrow scarf - though now it looks like a tie - perhaps an out of work Wall street banker?
Anyway having lots of fun with these.

Journey Mar 29 - Apr 7 The Decorated Pot

2009-03-28T18:11:00.000-07:00

After my last session I realized that I wasn't always putting form first - I was getting carried away with the decorating, the handles and all the other "gimmicks" that I like - in fact thinking up new "gimmicks" is something that I really have fun with. Fortunately they don't all get used on my pots.

So looking back over the decades I think that almost every single pot that I have ever made has always been decorated in some way before it is glazed - and in a few others I have used the glazes to make a decorative design. Yet I love pots that are simple, undecorated and have a well designed form. Why can't I make those?

We did our March gas firing on Tuesday. We tried some Malcolm Davis Shino in this last firing - but again did not get any carbon trapping. Just could not get the kiln into heavy reduction at 012.

However did get a orange and light grey on some test bottles - orange for the waxed areas - so that might be a start in the right direction. The bottom half of the bottles is a temmoku.

My porcelain plates with the stony yellows - did not turn out that great - one slumped though it is hard to see in the pic. I trimmed it too thin on one side - I guess it just dried unevenly beofre I got around to trimming it. I rather like the diagonal lines, though both areas should have had the lines going in the same direction. I may do more of them on plates.

The other I had glazed too thickly with the stony yellow so the water blue underneath is not vivid enough.

I think also I could have had more layering of other glazes - such as Hannah ochre and Blue as the yellow area is rather boring. They still all look sprayed - somehow I will have to develop more transition areas when I switch from one color to another.

Journey Mar 20 - 27 Form, Form, Form - Sixth consult

2009-03-20T19:27:00.001-07:00

Well it's getting down to the home stretch - just a few months of consults left! I was starting to panic as the end-of-the-journey get together and show in July was coming up fast. However Steven just told me it was postponed to Oct. Whew!! Now I can relax a bit.

I always feel energized after talking with Steven! Lots of suggestions to mull over. I still need more control in my spraying - pots still look sprayed as well. Need more subtly. I still had not ordered the sprayers that Steven recommended from Harbour Freight. He also suggested that I try an airbrush on some of my appliques to get more detail. Will have to buy one - they are not expensive but will need a smaller connector to our air hose. Some of the small fish would stand out more if there was some contrasting colour.

The children with a balloon - in order to guide the viewer to look at the back of the pot I put a balloon showing up on the back rim - Steven suggested that if I had made the back balloon sticking up more than the front one it would have guided the viewer even more. In this pot I had used a wire for the balloon string. I epoxied on silver wire. Steven thought that the kanthal wire would have been better - especially if I could have incorporated it into the pot and fired it part as part of the pot. A close up of the pot shows that shiny silver wire really does not fit with the earthy colours of the pot. Will try again incorporating those suggestions.

The parade pot - I have not made any for quite a while and was wondering if I should continue. Steven thought that it had great possibilities, but somehow the tree and people separately were OK but together did not really mean anything - my other pots all had some sort of message. Will think about this and see what I can come up with. The Parade pots actually do mean something to me - as I remember growing up in Montreal and having to go downtown to see the parade. I used to always envy the people who lived along the parade route and could watch the parade out of their apartment windows. However this is not communicated to the viewer.

The teapot - I was asked to critique it first - I mentioned the handle - no quite fluid where it attaches, the knob - the wire loops do not really go with the more U shaped wire additions on the handle. I also did not really like the way the throwing rings got erased by the spout attachment and perhaps the spout could taper just a tad more. (That flaring spout creeps in again!).

Steven mentioned that I had seen all sorts of valid stuff but not the thing that had struck him right away and that was the belly - it was just too flat and this made the spout attachment look a bit strange (and perhaps the spout could have been a little bit longer). Now that I look at it through his eyes - it really is rather obvious. I guess I was so concerned with all the details - the wires, the spout and the handle that I had not really considered the basic form. Another lesson that need to be hammered into my brain - I really have to consider first of all the basic form - I always get carried away by the decorative details and I love thinking up gimmicks for my pots - so have to remember - form, form, form.

Journey Workshop Mar 16 to - 20 The foot fits the pot

2009-03-15T19:14:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking about Alex Solla's comment to my Jan 20 - Feb 20 blog. It was about a show years ago that Steven Hill had juried in California. Alex had a pot in it, and he still remembers Steven's comment about it - that the foot related (or not) to the pot and lid. I have been mulling over that comment and have been looking at my pots trying to analyze the feet in relationship to the rest of the pot. I have trouble with feet. It finally hit me when I was polishing the bottom foot of my large stamped fish platter. The rim was nice and thick. The foot was also quite deep, and set off the platter nicely but in cross section was not very wide - so it really did not look like it went with that pot. You would think that it would be obvious - but not to me.

Well after the disappointment of not making it into the Masterworks East Show hosted by the Ontario Craft Council, I decided to enter 4 pots (maximum entries)into the Ottawa Guild of Potters - I had joined them last summer as I wanted to get exposure to other potters. All 4 were accepted - which was fantastic, including the piece pictured called "Our Fragile Earth" (homeage to James Lovelock's 1970's theory of Gaia) and the platter with the weak foot. I guess Steven was not the juror! As 3 of the 4 pieces that I entered were very different in style I wonder if the juror thought they were picking three different people?

While in Ottawa I visited Octopus books - to see if they had any pottery books but quickly learned what a wonderful store it was - it labels itself as a different book store specializing in books that encourage analytical thinking on politics, the environment and society. I ended up buying two books - both of which I will find inspirational for my pottery work. The first was a short picture book "Revolution" - pictures done in red, black and white and simple figures done with paper - cut out and torn. The other book I have just started reading and found that I am having a hard time putting it down. It is called Dark Ages America. Very depressing - and perhaps sensationalist and extremely anti American - but lots of good points being made about the future of our society.

We had another pot session at the Guild - this time looking at cups and how they functioned. Definitely no consensus about what handle works best! However handles must feel smooth and several handles had rough edges - definitely would not make it into the favorite category. Same with the lip - some just lacked that slight indent at the lip to make sipping a little more comfortable. Almost all the cups had flat bottoms - no holding pools of water in the dishwasher that way!

To see a slide show of the Masterworks Show - http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj224/crag_photo/MASTERWORKS%20EAST/?albumview=slideshow

Journey Workshop Mar 7 to15

2009-03-07T18:08:00.001-08:00

I am having difficulty getting the fishing lady design to fit the curved rim of bowl/plate. The last one I also made the fish bigger - to simplify the design - less fish. I also textured the background on some parts to make areas stand out a bit. I plan to use the water blue under the stony yellow in these areas as that seems to highlight the texture.

Somehow the my applique designs are beginning to loose their appeal to me - they seem now rather old fashioned - sort of 1950's 60's look. The shellac versions also don't seem that successful either. So tried some freer designs - but hard to do for me successfully. Hard to use applique on plates and platter. The one pictured was just an experiment that I did not keep. Instead of applique perhaps I should try a similar design in shellac.

Well we had a functional teapot session at the Guild - members brought in teapots - either commercial or handmade - by themselves or others and we had a testing session to see how they handled and poured (did not get into critiquing form). We had about 30 teapots and could see huge differences among them, mostly in how easy they were to pick up when full. All poured not too badly, though ones with the flaring spouts tended to gurgle or splash when pouring. A few had tea coming out of the lid as well as the spout when first pouring if the teapot was full, even though the spout end was quite high.

I can see Steven's point when he suggested that I make non-flaring spouts. The trouble is I like the look of flared spouts, though I am slowly getting to like the tapered ones. Several Japanese and Xixing teapots poured just beautifully - so smoothly and quiet - these had very small spout openings, and as the teapot was small they fit the form. I never thought that a smooth pour was such a big deal, but after seeing the two types of pours side by side - smooth and gurgling - it is amazing how much better and classy a smooth pour is.

We decided if the teapot held more than 2 cups, a side handle should also have a small lug above the spout to help in lifting the pot, or else an overhead handle should be used. Side handles also needed thumb stops to help with the lifting.
The flat bottomed teapots seemed too heavy for a side handle and so an overhead handle would have been better.

On my teapots I do not like the steam hole in the lid as it detracts from the lid form unless it can be hidden by a knob. So I have been putting the hole in the rim of the pot at the side opposite from the spout. However when there is a side handle, a finger might be placed over the hole when lifting the pot - and this could cause an uncomfortable hot spot on the finger so will have to be careful in placing the steam hole in relation to side handles.

Journey Workshop Feb 23 - Mar 6

2009-03-04T19:09:00.000-08:00

Well I did not make it into the Masterworks East Show. There were about 140 entries with 80 crafts people entering. Evidently ceramics was the largest group - so that makes me feel a bit better. Anyway have been a bit slow to do any work in the last week - seem to be running out to ideas and steam.

I did work on several vases again - but ended up refraining from putting on any appliques - will try just to do the decorating with the glazes.

I also worked on another teapot with wire additions - adding a double loop for the knob to give it more presence. I also made the handle wider as with the last ones the wire created some cracks near the edges. I have tried to make the spout non flaring - maybe finally I have succeeded, but it seems a bit small for the teapot. The others had spouts a tad big. I wanted to get a handle that has some movement - but this handle again looks rather static. Will have to work on that.

I have long been trying to make some plates and bowls and tie them into my other applique work, without using appliques. I feel that the applique does not work well on plates and bowls. So have been trying out similar designs - fish/hair/ladies but using shellac resist and some carving.

I carve around the shellac design after rubbing with a wet sponge, as that gives the design a bit more depth. Also if you rub too much the shellac comes off. A bit is okay as that softens the design. The best way to use this techniques is to use hot paraffin wax as I used to 40 years ago, but that is messy, plus hard to work with when using a brush - though I have used a brass batik pipe(?) (not sure what they are called) to make lines.
On the deeper bowl I first painted on coloured slip - metallic rust and Titanium white mixed 1:1 and then used the shellac resist. Will see how that reacts with the stony yellow.

I also did another plate with stamps and carving and will redo the same glaze - stony yellow/Hannah ochre and try to get a better result with less Water blue on the hannah blue ash.

Journey Workshop - Feb 15 - 22

2009-02-23T06:49:00.000-08:00

There was a Guild gas firing while I was away in Florida and so came back to some fired pots. The firing was not very good - somehow there was no copper red and the shinos on some tiles turned out totally white just as in oxidation, though other glazes seemed OK.
I did get one reasonable pot out of the 10 or so pots that I had in the firing - a large porcelain platter with stamped fish.

The blue/ green area may be a bit strong, but still not too bad. It would have been nice to have blue ash rivulets in that area instead of a solid wall of blue green. Water Blue is very fluid and a little goes a long way.
I used Steven's suggestion of using water blue on the stamped area, rubbing it off and then glazing over with the stony yellow - this accentuated the stamps very nicely. I was a bit worried about using a very fluid glaze under a stiff one as I might get bubbles but it worked beautifully. Thanks Steven!

At tall "Parade" vase finally made it into the refire - turned out better glaze wise, as the blue and green areas turned out less black after reglazing. However the whole form is not very good too narrow if you look sideways and the top window cutouts look weak. I must remember not to focus so much on the decoration, but on the form as well.
I may try another one - with a better tree and the windows integrated better.

I also finished another mirror - this time using the fish hair - but it may have ended up too complicated. I again dried it very slowly and this time used a heavy bat on the mirror frame as that is where I got some warping last time in the firing.

Journey Workshop Jan 30 - Feb 20th

2009-02-21T18:49:00.000-08:00

The end of the week was spent photographing some pots that I planned to enter in the Eastern Ontario juried craft show - Masterworks East. I decided to enter the social commentary pots - the shopping ladies and the balloon pot. The glazes turned out pretty well on those.

The glaze runs on the chins, give the shopping ladies a self righteous expression that works well with the theme. I called it "Only 265 Shopping Days Left". I was going to call it, "And I encourage everyone to go shopping more", Dec 20 2006,- George W. Bush. But as this was a Canadian show I felt using an American quote was not appropriate.

I did not enter the balloon pot with the wire as I was having trouble adding the wire. Not sure quite how I will do that. I used the other one that had the balloon string done with clay. I called it "Why?". I was going to call it, "So long as governments set the example of killing their enemies, private citizens will occasionally kill theirs." - Elbert Hubbard, but again it was an American quote.

In the balloon pot, I managed to get enough copper red on the balloon, and on the blood area. As well the ash glazes ran enough to give the effect of trees - both sides ended similar so that you are left with the impression the action on both sides takes place in the same place. Both of these were made with Tuckers Sandstone instead of Prostone. It seems to be a bit lighter in colour and so gives a whiter effect that I prefer with the stony yellow.

I think several of my other pots may have been better - like the mirror - but it would have been hard to photograph and I was not sure how to finish the back. One of my pre-Steven pots "Ladies Who Lunch" was a possible as well, but then after looking at how they were glazed with just one colour - it looked just too bland. I can see Steven's point that you can go more with glazes on my pots.

Along with digital photos I had to submit a bio, CV and artist's statement. I had never done that before so it was a bit of a struggle to write that.

I will find out at the end of February if I had my pieces accepted. I heard that they had about 80 entries - so lots of competition but maybe not as much as in other shows.

I did not get much else done in February as we had to visit my father-in-law in Florida and did not get back until the 20th.

Journey Workshop Jan 19 - 29

2009-02-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

Well I am falling behind in my blog - about a month behind - so will try to remember what was happening.
I tried to work on Steven's suggestion for my balloon pots - to try to get the viewer to realize that there is another side to the story pictured on the front. I made another one and added another balloon protruding at the top at the back, hoping that this will entice the viewer to look at the back. I couldn't really use a wire to hold up the balloon but will add the wire once the pot is fired. I was also able to add a notch on the back side to guide the viewer to that side on the shopping ladies pot.

The rest of the week was spent glazing - it's always so time consuming. I also did a whole series of test tiles - with the stony yellow, Hannah ash glaes and other - with lots of overlapping glaze tests.

Our January gas firing came out on Thursday and I feel that finally I had passable results with the stony yellows/Hannah ash glazes and water blue. I find that the stoneware clays need only .5% iron in the stony yellow to get good colour and up to 2.5% for porcelain. Also on stoneware using a white slip under the yellow also gives it a whiter/yellow look that I am aiming for rather than golden hue. Too much Hannah ochre ash also gives you a browner, golden hue.

The fishing boat ended up looking almost the same as the first one from the December firing. Unfortunately it cracked again on the upper right corner. I may have to try some paper clay on those large handbuilding projects to prevent cracking.

The bowls with the stamped fish on the rim - I have not been very happy with them This time I had used the blue on the fish - so that the stamp and blue colour were all in the same area - otherwise the fish and the blue area competed for attention. However after looking at all those bowls from various firings it seems that the one with just one colour on the rim were the best - the stamp was enough. Sometimes less is more!

The Devolution pot - the lady with the fish hair - turned out not too bad, but unfortunately again has small cracks at the bottom front - may not be large enough to affect it as you have to look closely to see them and they are just surface cracks where I added a bit of clay to the foot.

Journey - Jan 12 - 18 Fifth Consultation

2009-01-15T19:50:00.000-08:00

The great thing about the monthly consultations with Steven is that you get to see your pots through another person's eyes. Often we disagree on pots that we like, but after looking at Steven's viewpoint I can see where he is coming from and that indeed his point is very valid.

Well I put in a flurry of handbuilding to get some pieces for feed back from Steven this week. They will all be fired at the end of January.
The first piece of a woman with long hair - it ended up looking rather like the Virgin Mary so turned one side with the hair into fish and then at the back ended it with a fish tail. Added all the Kanthal wire loops down the front as a decorative touch. Not sure that I like that piece. Called it "Devolution". We may have to go back in evolution if we want to continue living on this Planet if James Lovelock's prediction comes true.

However this was the pot that Steven liked the best - felt that it had lots going for it - the fish going up as hair and then the tail going round to the back. His suggestion for to make it just a little bit better - he felt that the back (the area behind the tail as this was part of the woman's body) should have had something there to indicate that it was the back side and now that he has mentioned it, it does seem to be missing something there.

The second pot that Steven liked was the landscape vase - he felt that the contrast in glazes really helped with the decoration, unlike in the fishing lady one - the brown and blue was not a good as the cream/blue (Stony Yellow with .5Fe and topped with Rhodes 32 with .8%Mn. Unfortunately the picture does not show the glaze runs - it's Waterfall Blue on top of Hannah Blue Ash and are really distracting - as they are very shiny and dark versus the rest of the pot which is mostly matt. Steven's suggestion as that I perhaps try sandblasting. My brother is Montreal has a sandblaster and next time I visit I may try that.

The lidded pot was his next choice - the knob gave it that something extra. I could perhaps add a bit of swirl to the dots on the top front so that they would complement the curled knob. Unfortunately the other side had too much rutile overspray and looked a dull brown and so when I was trying to respray the pot it developed a hairline crack as it was too hot when I resprayed it. It glazed with Hannah ochre ash with Shaner red on the bottom. Well another reject pot for my kids.

We talked about my social commentary pots. I guess the problem is how do you get the person to look at the other side. Also if you start looking in the on the back side then the pot may not in some cases make too much sense. His suggestion for the kid and balloon pot was to show the balloon showing up above the rim from the back as well (perhaps on a wire) so you know there is something there and it makes it look at the back. Will have work on that on the next one. Since the shopping ladies pot was still leather hard, I will cut out a corresponding notch on the back of the pot - hopefully indicating that there is something on the back.

Another great session with lots to think about and work on.

Journey Workshop Jan 1 - 11 More Handbuilding

2009-01-13T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well the new year is starting with more handbuilding. As my last fishing lady/boat had a serious crack on the rim, I needed to make another one. Unfortunately, even with the old one as a model, the new one does not seem to have the same pleasing proportions. It bulges out too much so distorts the frontal view. As well using 7 ladder rungs instead of 5 seems to add too many and does not look as "right" as just the 5. However it will give me glazing practice.

One of my more successful pieces from the December firing has been the mirror. It didn't warp as much as I thought that it would. So will work on some more mirrors at those should be a more readily saleable item than the fishing lady vases- as everybody asks what are those for? What do you do with them?

I also decided to do a social commentary one - a child with a balloon on the front and then the back - his companion has shot him/her. My husband's comment was why do you want to show that? Also the shooter does not look evil.

But that is just the point. It is often the ordinary person who ends up committing an act of violence. We hear so often of senseless attacks/murders especially where children are concerned, acts that are impossible to comprehend, the attacker remembered as an ordinary person. So this is my attempt to highlight this issue. Should be fun glazing - I can do some red for the blood.

There is a call for entries for Eastern Ontario craftspeople for a show by the Ontario Crafts Council and am not sure what to enter. In case none of my more recent sculptural forms come out, I am reworking an older piece that consisted of 4 egg cups (one egg cup has an egg in it) on a firebrick. I need to replace the real egg and make a porcelain one. I am also handbuilt a "firebrick" with the words GAIA stamped on the side.

This piece is called "Our Fragile Earth" and represents the interaction of the biological world (the woodpeckers) and our industrialized society(the brick) with the physical environment. The woodpecker chippings refer to the damage that we are doing to our planet (as represented by the one egg - we have only one earth). The words GAIA refers to James Lovelock's theory of GAIA - that the earth is a series of self regulating systems much like a living organism and when one system is damaged or unbalanced it will affect eventually the entire planet. According to Lovelock by the year 2040 the earths regulating systems will be irrevocably damaged resulting in extensive habitat and human destruction. So not sure if people looking at this piece will see all of that.

Dec 31 - An Incredible "Journey" so far!

2008-12-20T08:17:00.000-08:00

The end of 2008 brings me to the halfway point in my Journey Workshop and I have decided to review my progress so far. The pot pics posted are from the last firing of 2008. Some successful, mostly not, but getting better.

Since starting my journey in July, I can see a decided change for the better in my work. I attribute this directly to the fact that Steven's superb critical eye and hsi helpful suggstions are never far from my mind. I find myself continually asking, "Is this the best that I can do?"

I find that I am working on several themes - the handbuilt appliqued pots, oval covered pots, bowls, teapots and cups and trying to tie them together into a more unified look - one of my goals for this year long journey workshop. A unified look is something that is hard for me to achieve as I love trying new ideas, especially decorating ones.

There have been many other lessons learned from Steven as well.

1. I try to examine all the details, front and back, top and bottom. As Steven says , "God is in the details". Steven has an incredible eye for detail. Nothing is too much trouble for him. When I complain about something being difficult to do, such as a tedious decoration or a difficult handbuilding section, he says, "But that's not the point. " I continually try to remind myself of that and try not to take shortcuts.

A good example is his view that a pot is a 3-D form so decoration should be on all sides. It does not have to be a lot - just something that ties in and catches your attention.

2. He emphasizes making lots of sketches of pots. Although I had already been doing this, I am doing this even more now and this has been invaluable - even if I draw the same form over and over. I may then set it aside for several days/weeks. When I come back to it, often forms are refined and new ideas developed.

3. Focus on the rim and foot. Steven says those are like punctuation marks on a pot. One should not overwhelm the other, unless one deliberately intends to, for the sake of the design. One thing that I have noticed with potters who have had formal training is the strong feet and rims that their pots have. Self taught potters tend to have especially weak feet. I have been trying to makes stronger rims and feet - the bowl pictured below has a stronger rim than I used to make.

4. Handles. Although I had tried over the years to make handles pulled off the cup I had never succeeded in making those my standard handle. Several years ago I had ordered the DVD from Tony Clennel on making handles and that helped a lot. It wasn't until I finally made myself try them again at Steven's suggestion at Centre Street Clay that I am finally beginning to get comfortable making them.

I still have a long way to go, but as Steven says, "They are miles better than they were before." Yet I had thought my handles before were not bad. Again that is another sure way to often spot whether a potter is professionally trained or self taught (and that's me mostly).

5. Asking myself, "What do I like, not like about the pot." Steven usually starts a critique with - "Well what do you think?" What he thinks is sometimes different and together it makes for an in depth look at the pot.

Verbalizing my opinions to him during our consultations has helped me really think about my pots and to remember my ideas. I feel this has directly led to an improvement in the overall look in my pottery.

7. Emphasis on form - is the total in balance, resulting in a pleasing shape? What is the pot saying to you? What do handles, knobs, decorations add to the pot? In the small covered jar the knob adds elegance, but the copper red glaze on the lid is off centre (it is hard to see in the pic) and so very distracting from the overall design and central placement of the knob, which is more formal. This ties in to point #5 below on how glazes empathize the form - rightly or wrongly - wrongly (to me at least)in this case.)

5. How glazes emphasize the form, bring out the best features in a pot. As well a sprayed pot should not necessarily look sprayed. Glazing is still a major weak point with me. You can see from the pics posted here that my pots still mostly look sprayed - no subtlety there. I hate glazing! You can see that the painter's water jar and brush rest on right would have been more attractive without such a strong central blue area - I need to think about my spraying more carefully. As well I have difficulty with color combinations - I need to try to better visualize the final result.

Although my work is still all over the map in terms of style, glazes etc, I am slowly getting to a more narrow focus - to achieving that unified look. Thank you Steven for a marvellous, inspiring 5 months and there are 6 more months to go!

Journey Workshop Dec 15 - 22 Fourth Consultation with Steven

2008-12-17T18:37:00.000-08:00

Well it was a mad rush last week and this week to get stuff bisqued and glazed for the Dec gas firing on the 17th. I also needed to get all my pics posted on Flicker for the Thursday consult with Steven. From the Nov firing, the one with the muddy results, Steven agreed that they could have been a result of the accidental reduction during the slow cool.

We discussed the handbuilt sculptures. Steven felt that I needed to concentrate more on my spraying - I was delineating the different areas too much - you can see the the dark brown bands on the back of the boat/fishing woman sculpture where the different glazes separate and he felt this was a distraction. At first I rather liked them, but now in terms of total design I can see where he is coming from. He mentioned that he feels that it should not be too obvious that a pot has been sprayed - the areas should blend together.

Our Guild sprayer does not work that well - it tends to get clogged and the control is not that good. Steven orders his sprayers from Harbour Freight in the US and I got the item numbers from him. I will order the small one as that will work with our small compressor.

My last boat/fishing woman sculpture was still in the greenware state - I was really pleased with it as I felt that I had finally improved by simplifying - as well I was designing with the glaze in mind. In my previous vases the runny ash glazes were interfering with the appliqued design, yet I loved the effect of the rivulets. So this time I left large blank areas and kept the appliques to a small area in the forefront. To add some interest to the front blank areas I added a Kanthal wire ladder. Steven liked the Kanthal wire addition, as it fitted the design. As well when one looked down from the top the resulting wave shape also fitted in with the boat theme. I still felt the top edge when looking at it from the front was a little wishy washy - it was supposed to be scooped out front and back and swoop up in the front middle protrusion. I think that a stronger projection in the middle and on the right as well would have helped.

We discussed the anchor. I have put an anchor on all the sculptures to indicate that it is a boat. However I have to agree with Steven they were just too obvious and to me, just too angular. The rest of the design is more curvy. Now when I look back at all the other sculptures, the anchors just scream out at me. Next sculpture no anchor!!!

I had included Kanthal wire as a knob in a teapot. Steven asked me what I thought of the wire knob. I felt that it was not substantial enough and perhaps spiked up too much in relation to the rest of the pot. Steven felt that although it was a novel idea it was too out of place on that pot - in relation to the handle etc. He felt that if you use that type of wire knob you need to add more of it somewhere. The Kanthal wire worked on the sculpture because of the repetition.
After thinking about it for a few days, I now am excited about the possibilities of more wire additions on a teapot such as on the handle and under the spout - ala a nose ring like Tony Clennel has on his gravy boats.

One of the big advantages of being able to discuss your work with an experienced teacher such as Steven is that you end up seeing so much more than you had before, even if it was something that Steven had not pointed out. These discussions also generate a lot of new ideas over the next few days as I mull over his comments.

The glaze results will be out this Saturday - I had decided to concentrate on the Stony Yellow, Hannah Ochre and Blue Ash Glazes, using the Waterfall Blue and Fraser Titanium overglazes which create crystals and movement. So lots of pots in that combination - let's hope they turn out.

Journey Dec 1 - 14 - teapots, bowls and mugs

2008-12-17T18:24:00.000-08:00

Along with a few others I brought in a few pots for the critique during the workshop with Robert Tetu. He had several good suggestions. When I glaze the foot of my bowls I tend to glaze just halfway down. He suggested either all the way or not a all. On stoneware I don't mind an unglazed foot though on porcelain the white clay somehow is rather jarring. Also regarding the bowl with the fish stamped on the rim - liked the bowl but wondered why the fish were there. Well I am trying to get a more unified look to my work - as I have stamped fish on the appliqued work. Someone else suggested that there was too much symmetry with the two fish - so that week made some bowls with just one fish and I think I like those better now. Also tried to get the spiral in the middle more fluid and less symmetrical as Steven had suggested.

I continued with several more teapots out of HP porcelain - again pulled the handles off the pot and these seem to be getting easier now, though I am still not very pleased with them. I think that I finally got the spout straight - with the end not tapering out.
Also made some more cups - for once I knew how I was going to glaze them as I was making them. One set with stony yellow and Hannah blue ash as in the bowl and covered jar from the Nov firing and the others a shino with Gosu brushwork underneath. However not very pleased with the brushstrokes, but need some new designs for the Co-op for Xmas.

I continued with the fishing lady theme - this time I like the shape a lot better, as it is a more of a vase shape and the appliqued is more restrained. I used kanthal wire to make a ladder on the side of the ship - I used to watch the huge frieghters coming up the St Lawrence river to Montreal and remember those ladders on the sides and they aways stopped partway down before they reached the water.
Sales at the Co-op seem to have slowed quite a bit - maybe there will be a last minute rush.

Journey Nov 23 to 30th. Third consultation

2008-11-24T19:20:00.000-08:00

I discussed the October firing with Steven as I felt we had rather muddy overall results - I felt that we had had too much reduction. Steven mentioned that he felt that the best reduction results were when the reduction was controlled by the damper. You get less physical signs of reduction but get a more even result in the kiln. If by the gas, then you usually get lots of flames up the chimney. Even minute changes in the setting of the damper and gas can make a huge difference.
I seem to be carrying through with the applique theme with my other pots - though will try some of the stony yellow glaze instead of the Hannah ochre ash. The Hannah ash gives me blistering sometime.
Regarding the teapots - Steven still felt the end was not tapered enough - opening on spout was still a bit too big. As well the squared bottom teapot - the spout addition - the corner was too jarring - did not blend in well. So will work on my spouts and other aspects of the teapot.
The bashed teapot he felt had possibilities - liked the knob which I do as well - I may try some more though I don't think they will sell here. But it was fun to make.
The fish bowls - the circular finger marks were too predictable - acceptable but the uniformity did not go well with the looseness of the rim. Anyway another good session - keeps me enthused and focused a lot more than I was before as I was getting rather discouraged what with the bad glaze results and I felt at a dead end with regards to creativity.
We had our November firing on Thursday - this time the results were even muddier. In the slow cool (from around 1900F to 1500F) for the first half hour the kiln was accidentally in reduction - maybe that muddied the glazes? The fishing lady pot had the blue ash almost an olive colour and the ochre lacked the rich orange brown where thin.

The Stoney Yellow glaze worked quite well on two pots - especially the covered jar.
The fish bowl was not too bad, but the second fish bowl had a lot of blistering on the underside edge - even with the Stoney Yellow. It was on the front bottom shelf and I will try refiring it to see if I can get rid of the blisters. Again could have been due to the reduction during the slow cool. I have been trying to extend the bisque firing or bisqueing twice to see if that reduces the blisters by eliminating all gases from carbon burnout.

On Sat and Sunday our Guild had a workshop by Robert Tetu, a functional potter from southern Ontario. He demonstrated his economical methods of making his pots as time is money when you are trying to earn a living as a potter. Every movement counts - e.g. using a sponge (which he already has in his hand) instead of having to pick up a shammy and using it. Everybody is now anxious to try his faceting techniques.

Journey Nov 9 to 23

2008-11-23T18:47:00.000-08:00

I decided to carry on the theme of the fishing lady but incorporating a mirror. Years ago I had made these mirrors, but used a landscape theme. I dried the slab very slowly - pressed between drywall for several weeks before I worked on it - cutting and insetting the thrown mirror edge. Again all was left to equalize for several weeks under plastic.

I made another couple of teapots incorporating Steven's suggestions - a spout that does not flare at the end and a shorted knob. On the first teapot the stamped applique ended up not looking right so I bashed it a bit and then kept bashing the teapot until it looked right. Very therapeutic.

On the second one I decided to apply the stamped applique at a slight angle to give it a looser look. I don't know that I like the spouts - perhaps I should cut them off parallel to the bottom.

Journey Oct 21 - Nov 9th

2008-11-23T17:50:00.000-08:00

We had to postpone our gas firing for a week as there was not enough for a kiln load. It seemed to be a rather poor firing - colours a bit muddy. Could have been too much reduction - maybe our oxyprobe is not working that well or it could just have been the loading. However after having all these fishing woman pots sitting around the house I realize that they really are not a very attractive form. Will try and work on that.

I had double bisqued the stoneware pots that were to be ash glazed hoping that it would eliminate some of the blistering. It seemed to have helped though in most cases the ash glaze was a bit too thin so blisters would not have formed anyway.
The fishing woman again ended up badly glazed - not the right thickness in the right spots, though the back again was great. When will I learn - the plain back with the runny ash glazes looks great. The front with all the details is just too much with those glazes. I think I will have too try another glaze on those appliqued pots.
The stony yellow glaze that I got from Steven looked not too bad on stoneware once I had reduced the iron. So will perhaps try that glaze on with those pots. An overspray with Rhodes 32 and .8% manganese did some running and crystal formation so that looks promising.

On Friday several members of our Guild did a workshop at the Golden Lake Algonquians Reserve. We had about 15 participants - both adult and children and we showed them how to make coiled pots. They are trying to set up a cultural centre and bring back some of the traditional crafts. They had a kiln donated to them and we so will be back after Christmas and help them set it all up as well as fire it.
After Steven's consult I have tried to make the fish stamped handles more loose - so tried small dishes with cut edges and then wrapped the two ends with a stamped slab. Now not sure how to glaze them as these were done on procelain. I also made a porcelain knife to go with the dish - will be a challenge to glaze it.
I also stamped rims directly and then impressed a couple of lines, pinching and twisting the rim at the tail end to give the fish movement. I liked that effect best. Will see how it ends up glazed.

Journey Oct 21 - 26 - Wider rims

2008-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

At Center Street clay Steven's and Kenyon's platters had very wide rims. I love them! Compared to mine, mine are way too thin to my liking, so have been working on getting more clay into the rim. This really frames the pot and gives it what Steven calls a generous look - have been generous with the clay and not stingy. In our firing at the Guild we pay by the pound so we tend to aim for thinner pots. However, a thicker rim does not mean the rest of the pot has to be thick.
I still have a long way to go - somehow by the time I stretch out the rim, it is back to a thinner edge. So will work on that.
I spent Sat and Sunday glazing as there may be a gas firing while I am away in Toronto next week. Looking forward to visiting my daughter there as well as lots of galleries and the annual Fusion Clay and Glass Sale. Fusion is the Ontario Association for clay and glass artists.

Journey Oct 13 - 20 Second Consultation with Steven

2008-10-24T16:49:00.000-07:00

The weeks go by so fast - and so few pots made, but having a deadline is really helping. Had a great feedback session with Steven on Monday. Steven's comments on the fish plate - could have done better - fish going through the middle, need more asymmetry etc. I thought that I had created asymmetry by varying the location of the fish - but never looked to see that they go right across the middle. The glaze was definitely too thin- looked sprayed. May try to reglaze.

The fishing lady was definitely much better, but still need to control my spraying better, the lower part of the woman is a totally different colour so disruptive to the esign. So will try to keep better notes - how many layers, how thick is the glaze in the jar etc.
The pots that Steven liked the best were the small oval dishes. I had thrown them very fast as I needed some small items for the Cooperative. It was the thickness of the rims, that the foot match the rim as well in definition. He said they looked generous.

He could see that I had struggled with the knobs on the covered jars - the curled one he felt was OK - though it looked like it was just dropped on the lid - it suited the pot.
The others looked like I was trying too hard. He suggested that I look at some of the work that Nick Joerling does - as he has fantastic knobs. Also the lugs on the pots - looked just stuck on - did not meld with the pot - so need to work on getting those lugs looking more like they are part of the pot.
The teapots - yes I think I heard him sigh- and yes I also realize that they need a lot of work. The best one was the flat bottomed one - but he felt all knobs were too tall, and spouts just a tad too big. So much so trying to make them "manly". (I have a commission for a teapot for a friend's brother). Also he felt that in order for the spout to pour smoothly it is important for it to taper and not flare at the end which I have been doing as I really like that look.

So back to work - will work on knobs, teapots and continue with my fishing lady theme.

Journey Oct 5 - 12 Lidded Jars and Teapots

2008-10-24T16:26:00.000-07:00

Finished work on the fishing lady on the front of the boat. However when looking straight on the pot the lady is too much up front so that you cannot see her too well. So started another one this time with the lady near the back. I also put a top on the boat - as I was getting some cracking on the corners, hoping that this will tie the corners together better.

I had quite a time trying different knobs for the lidded jars, and mostly I was not satisfied with them. I also made some small oval dishes as well as oval baking dishes, trying to get some continuity in my work.
Since the jars had dried too much to stamp properly I ended up adding some appliqued fish to one - did not look that great. So I ended just give them mostly a quick bash to loosen up the work. I liked the small oval dishes best.
I also have a commission for a teapot so made several. It's for the brother of friend so I was trying to make something manly - with larger spout and knob - ended up not happy with any, but will continue with them.

Journey Sept 28 - Oct 4 September Firing

2008-10-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

I have finally managed to correct the spelling fo Steven's name in the title of my blog - had to copy it all into a new blog that had Steven's name spelled correctly - Spent a lot of the week glazing for the gas firing we had on Friday. Pots came out on Sunday! Did quite a few glaze tests - using variations of the Rhodes 32 as well as well as Steven's Stoney Yellow and a few others. With Xmas coming up I threw some large "parade" garlic jars and butter dishes. Butter dishes are something that I find people come looking for. One customer in our Artisans Gallery mentioned it was her third butter dish as she had broken the other two.
I had put off finishing the last fishing lady-factory ship as the design was just getting too complicated and I was unhappy at how it was turning out. However on Thursday I decided that I had better finish it even if I did not like it as I had already put a lot of work into it.

I also decided to throw some oval lidded jars. At Center Street Clay Steven had showed us how he makes his rectangular jars and how he makes the lids for them. For the jars, he cuts off the pot (has a bottom) and then using flat paddles squeezes from both sides. For the lids he throws a flat pancake with deep throwing marks in the center. Once dried a bit the pancake is thrown and stretched. I decided to do oval jars as I wanted a less severe look - throwing them without a bottom , cutting and then lifting and shaping into an oval. I then placed them on a slab bottom. I will try to decorate them so that they fit in with my other stamped/appliqued work.

The firing gave mixed results again. The appliqued fishing lady - I had sprayed iron saturate on the figure from the side and wiped it off the top, hoping that would acuntuate the edges of the applied clay. I then sprayed it with Hannah ochre ash and Hannah blue. The front bottom past turned out just right, the rion satrate showed through a bit, showing the cut edges black, but it culd have been thicker so tht it would show up more. However for the upper part of the figure I had the glaze too thin - everything there looked burnt. However the back of the vase was just gorgeous. Everything was just right. Now if I can just repeat that. However after all that the pot cracked in the upper corner - it opened about 1/2 cm so obviously some stress there.
My one stamped fish plate - used a slightly lighter stoneware clay called smoothstone. Used an iron underglaze on the fish and wiped it off so tht it accentuated the stamps. I sprayed Aerni colour active slip with 3% CoCo3. The result was not too bad, though the glaze could have been thicker to get some running and a richer finish.
The tests that I did with Rhodes 32 - using 1% Cr and .8% Mn ended up rather stiff and do not break much over texture, unlike the base version of Rhodes. The Stoney Yellow was not too bad on pocelain but turned out too dark on the Prostone. The best test tile a B-Mix with Stoney Yellow with Rhodes 32 with Mn on top with ran and gave some crystalization.
I had also sprayed ash glazes - Leach Ash and Blue Van Gilder ash - again not much action on the Rhodes, the stoney Yellow ran bit bit and was not too bad.

Journey Sept 21 - 27 First Consultation with Steven

2008-09-28T05:21:00.000-07:00

Well I finally found a time to have my web based consultation with Steven. We used Skype and Steven had a webcam so he came through really well - both the photo and voice. I only used the mike on my laptop and I had posted the pictures of my pots on Flicker so we both could look at the same pic. I had glazed and fired some pre Steven workshop pots using Rhodes 32. He felt that although the Rhodes 32 pots were acceptable, they could be a lot more interesting, by perhaps barely hitting the edges sideways of the design with a very fluid glaze like Watercolor Green or Blue - that would accent the edges of the design.
The shopping ladies definitely could stand some highlights. However it is important to highlight areas that are in relation to the drawing. The monk vase was better as the glaze there was more fluid (it was a reglaze) and so the edges of the design were delineated better.

He felt that the least successful of the Rhodes 32 pots was the fishing lady as the top right hand corner and face were all emphasized in white - the white area really did not relate to the rest of the drawing. I will need to be more careful how I spray.

I really liked a Stoney Yellow glaze that Steven had on one of his pots in an older CM article that he had posted on his webpage. I thought that it might be a more interesting glaze than Rhodes 32 - more lively colour than just the cream of Rhodes 32, yet still show darker brown where thin. Will try that glaze as well as some from a line blend that I did from Rhodes 32. One sample with .75 manganese was the colour of cafe au lait, but dark brown where thin and that may be another more interesting choice. Another with 1% chrome is a warm tan so will try that as well.
We discussed my disastrous firing with the ash glazes, how the ash glazes relate to the design and how they can overpower the design. When using two colours, I will need to be careful not to abruptly separate the colours.

Actually the back of the vases where there was no or little design were best. Hi suggestion of having pots with little or no design as supporting pots around a more complicated pot seemed like an excellent suggestion and will work on that as well. Also looked at my mugs. I could really see the difference between the handles pulled off the mug and some of my pre Steven handles which now really look horrible - yet I had thought that they very quite good. Sometimes you cannot see what you are looking at until someone points it out to you. I had tried from time to time with handles pulled off the mug but until Steven's workshop did not have the perseverance to keep trying.

Also the white glaze going over the top was distracting to the overall design - and I had to agree - there was just too much going on.
So I will continue working on the appliqued pots - even though they are getting more and more complicated which I do not really like. Steven thought that I should continue and eventually I will take from these pots what I like best and will end up with much simpler forms. So lots of stuff to work on in the next month - it is nice to have specific goals to work toward and this year long journey workshop seems to be keeping me at it so far.
On Sat and Sunday took part in an Art Fair that was organizied at a local nursery that was taking part in the "Rural Ramble". Attendance was really poor and was not worth the effort as sold only seconds. However got several ideas from the imported items that the nursery was sellng as they sell home decor items as well as plants.

Journey Sept 18 - 21

2008-09-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

Did a lot of sketching of designs for fishing woman/factory ship last week and so started working on one. They do take a long time to finish as I need to let them harden up and dry slowly. My sculptures seem to be getting more complicated - I would rather see them more simplified. This last one will have the fishing woman at the front, with the ship holding lots of fish on the sides. Somehow I seem to have lost the elegance of the design with this one - too many add ons. However will continue and see what Steven has to say in the consultation next week.

Ended up doing a lot of work at the Guild insulating the kiln shed and in helping with our open House on Wednesday. We had 12 new members sign up for lessons - several who had done pottery before so that is always encouraging as they tend to stay with it.

Journey Sept 8 - 15 "The Parade" Pots

2008-09-28T05:19:00.001-07:00

I had made a slab vase pre-Steven Hill under "The Parade" theme, and decided to do another one. Not sure how successful this one was, it looked at bit like a prison tower with inmates rioting out the windows, so I added a tree to help it look like a street. With the tree partially sticking out it added another dimension to the vase so can work on this aspect for my slab vases in the future.

Well this was a rather frustrating week - not much time for pottery - lots of time spent cleaning up the Guild in readiness for the Open House next week. We hope to get many new members - the more members, the more inspiration and ideas get passed around. Whether I am helping a beginner or watching/talking to a more experienced potter I always find there is something new to learn. We are lucky to have this facility in Deep River, as for a yearly membership fee of $100, members get 24/7 key access, use of wheels, slab roller, electric and gas kilns. A series of 6 lessons is included in the fee - taught by Guild volunteers. Members buy their own clay and then pay for the firings according to weight. This includes the bisque fire, glazes and glaze firing. Ninety six cents/lb for electric and $1.28/lb for gas. This makes pottery affordable for everyone and it seems like over the 54 years that our Guild/club has been established someone from nearly every household in our town of 4500 has tried out pottery. As a result the townspeople are very supportive of the 6local potters that sell their work.
I did a lot of sketching for the fishing woman/factory ship theme, but having a hard time moving forward with that. I also made some more fish stamps based on medieval woodcuts, trying to get away from the cutesy look for my fish stamps.
I will also continue to make cups, practicing my handles pulled from the cup.

Journey Sept 1 - 7 Garbage Can Platter

2008-09-28T05:15:00.000-07:00

Well after the rather disastrous firing last week (had lots of other small pots in the kiln - temmoku over celadon with wax resist (again too thick a temmoku). Also I was trying to get some nice red-gold spots on the temmoku by overspraying some rutile, iron combination. One combo from a recent clayart post recommended some clay in the wash so that it would not get dissolved - but it ended up rather dry. The best seems to be rutile / gerstley borate in 1:2 ratio which seemed to produce gold streaks.
I made another boat/fishing woman - this time much bigger. I think that I made the slabs too thick as it is very heavy. I also wanted to incorporate the curves of the woman into one back edge of the boat - to make it more interesting. Took quite a bit to time to get the edge to look right - ended up filling the upper left corner with lots of hair.
Not sure if my message of small fisherwoman vs factory ships comes across. My visiting daughter and her boyfriend both thought that it had something to do with the sea - a mermaid, perhaps the woman protecting fish - but the idea a a big factory ship did not come across at all. So will work on that. I do like one back edge having a curve. Also like the waves in front - again the diorama theme.

I have wanted to make some large plates so thought I would slump a large slab over the top of a garbage can. I tied and taped an old sheet over the top of the can and then used another thin cloth to transfer the slab that had been precut into a circle into the top of the can. It slumped beautifully. I extruded a wide rim and penciled in grooves using a ruler. Once it had stiffened up a bit I attached it to the plate/ I tried some fish paper cutouts - with shark etc. Then I threw a foot and which later attached once they were all stiff enough. In the end I decided no fish, but put on some slab handles. With the nest plate I think I will try some stamping on the slab before slumping and so that way they would tie in to my other work.

This week with visitors and it being the annual cleanup at the Guild - I really had little time for making pots.

Journey Aug 25 - 31 Bearded Ladies

2008-09-28T05:13:00.000-07:00

Well this week had to glaze stuff for the Friday firing. I had my stamped mugs - those I used VCAA green and a clear on the inside. They turned out OK - in fact several have already sold.
I did a few more in the blue version of the VCAA but I put on the glaze too thick and they turned out a very strong blue black - not nice at all. However all the handles ended up a loose one finger handle - maybe need to make them either a tad smaller or bigger (for two fingers).

With the two large stamped plates - one I used a rutile blue which shows up texture well and the other a temmoku center , ringed with hannah ochre ash. Both turned out a disaster - no rutile blue - just a grey- brown, though the texture was OK and then my temmoku was too thick so the fish disappeared.
I decided to do the fake ash glazes on the figured pots. The landscape one used iron saturate on the bottom, wiping it off the high appliques. Then I sprayed with the blue ash and Ochre Ash and some more blue ash in the upper right hand corner.

With the women pots I just used the two ash glazes, wiping off the blue from the high points at the bottom. I think that I also did a light overspray with rutile/gerstley borate in some sections like the sun and the trees. However I mostly had too thick an application on all these pots - the backs turned out better as I did not put on such a thick layer - so ran and pooled a bit too much especially on the chins - like a beard. will have to see if I can grind those down - perhaps do a little sandblasting as well next time I visit my brother in Montreal. Well I will have to be more careful on the spraying to get more exacting results.

I am not sure if in the end if I like the ash glazes on these pots better than
the Rhodes 32. There is another glaze that I am thinking of using - that's the VCAA base - but should do a line blend to see what colours I can develop - the VCAA green and blue are both too strong and vibrant I think for these pots. I have the the tan version - but it is a bit dark.

I tried a variation of the landscape on a large plate - but used a wax batik method to apply the iron underglaze decoration and then used a semitransparent that is supposed to be good for iron reds. Unfortunately it is quite shiny - so do not really like the result - though the iron came through beautifully. So perhaps will try to work on that glaze to develop a matte version.

Journey Aug 18-24 "What Do You Think"

2008-09-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

Marian sent me an email on Tuesday and reminded me that our first session with Stephen was coming up in a couple of days! Yikes - I rapidly finished the third vase that was sitting under plastic for the last week. On this one I decided to do a landscape as I feel that it will be easier try different glazes and have success than with the woman pots. I also need to make a bunch of smaller sample pots with appliques and test out glazes.
Fortunately I received an email from Stephen delaying the monthly session, giving me more time to get my pictures together. On Wednesday I finally pulled handles on 11cups that I had thrown last week. I use an old fridge as a damp cupboard and the cups were still soft enough to attach the handles. Did a rather messy job - but will keep at it. I really need to start with smaller rolls of clay at the start and the attachment point is still very thick - out of proportion to the rest of the handle.
Maybe the cups have too much on them - throwing rings at the top, stamp and then the wacks at the bottom, though I like the long wacks that go up the cup - look like sails of a boat and go with the stamp of water and sun. Actually I find the throwing rings also repeat the water waves in the stamp.
I tried stamping some smaller bowls but found the flat stamps did not work well on the curves - so made some fish stamps on rounded surfaces and so will see if these work better.
Had to make more teabag rests - almost sold out of them - sold over 50 in July - so they are a nice source of income. I will try some appliques on the teabag rests so then can use them as glaze samples as well.
Also need to make some more olive canoes - as these sell well for the tourists. Will try to incorporate stamps, appliques to those as well.
On Saturday helped with a culture grant workshop for kids at a farmers market in Killaloe - about an hour away from us. As the market was just in its first year the attendance was very poor - but it was a nice location with a beautiful old barn and a great little band with a neat washtub bass. Get an old washtub, tape off the holes for the handles, attach a bass G-string with washers to the middle of the tub and the other end to a stick. Notch the bottom of the stick and rest it on the bottom ridge when playing.

Journey Aug 10 - 17 Fish Stamps

2008-09-28T05:10:00.000-07:00

Started on my second vase - using the fishing woman with lots of waves that I had made at Center Street Clay and not sure if I improved on the top - just a short indent rather than going around corner. Also tied in the "waves" into the base by building up the ends. It gives a more complete look I think to the vase. Put a fish on Kanthal wire at the base as well.
Made two large bowls which I plan to stamp. I love making stamps, but getting around to it is another thing. I finally got some fish stamps carved at our farm on Monday since it was raining and couldn't do any of the grass cutting around the kiln shed that I had planned. The grass was waist high in places and preventing some of the stoking wood from drying. It finally got dry enough on Thursday that I could cut the grass. I'm hoping to do a wood firing in September - as long as we get a good dry period as right now everything is totally damp as we are having the wettest year ever. I've been cutting and drying white pine branches as I need more soft wood to mix in with my ironwood.

I also had to make some cups as I was running out of them at our artisans co-op. Will try out the handles pulled off the cup with them.
My stamps were bisqued on Saturday and so stamped the plates with fishes - I see all sorts of possibilites with this so will work some more with them.
I will have to start thinking about glazing these works - so far my appliqued vases are all glazed with Rhodes 32 but will look at applying some slips and perhaps ash glazes. Not sure how ash glazes will show up the stamps in the bowls.

Journey Aug 3 - 9 Pots with a Message

2008-09-28T05:09:00.001-07:00

Sunday I had to pick up my mother and niece in Ottawa and was busy with them until Wednesday when I drove them back to Ottawa. Tuesday I volunteered for an afternoon to demonstrate making First Nations pottery in nearby Pembroke as part of their waterfront celebrations. The kids and even some adults really enjoyed making the pots - using the upside down coil method as they did 2500 years ago. My 15 year old niece was a big help with the kids.

I managed to make a third slab vase - a horizontal one like I made at the workshop and spent Friday thinking out the design and Sat working on it. I decided to stick with the fishing woman and the issues of hunger, sustainability, etc. - issues important to me. the vase itself will be a large fishing boat, with the fishing woman with a net on the front - Third World vs large factory ships. I decided to add the 3-D fish on the front base - sort of tieing in the diorama theme - the dioramas that I used to make with my father as a child. Also one fish would be on Kanthal wire - so that would tie in with the birds that I make on Kanthal wire.(trying to make more unified work)

Friday an art student at the Ontario College of Art joined our Guild. She mentioned how taking courses in art really stunted your creativity. Since they were graded, students would try to make work that they knew their teachers would like. She also mentioned how hard it was to do art with a message - it would be graded either too obvious or not obvious enough. I had never considered that being too obvious would be a no no.
Looking at my fishing woman and boat - I see that maybe things are too obvious - so will need to work on that.

Journey July 28 - Aug 2 Summerfest Raku

2008-09-28T05:07:00.001-07:00

Well got off to a flying start Monday as I made slabs for two more slab vases - as I want to continue working on them. However stalled after that as had to glaze slab vases that I had made pre-Stephen Hill as we were loading the gas kiln on Tuesday. Our daughter's boy friend Ken, was arriving in the afternoon, to drop off their dog. We'll be looking after their dog until they have finished moving to Toronto from Victoria in September.

Loaded the kiln on Tuesday and fired on Wednesday. It was the smoothest firing that we had done so far - needed very little adjustment of gas, air, damper after body reduction. I decided to reox the kiln after cone 9 was down as that was something Stephen said he did for the last hour from 9 to 10. Also did a bit of a slow cool from 04 for about an hour and a half.

I have been having a lot of trouble with blistering with fake ash glazes on my iron stoneware, even after a slow bisque. Opening the kiln on Friday - the results were really great - great copper reds and hardly any blistering on the fake ash. We'll try to repeat again in the next firing. Managed to put together the slabs and so have 2 vases ready for decorating.

Thurs - Friday had to help get things ready for our big Raku firing for our Summerfest on Saturday. This is held in Deep River every second year, with music, crafts, etc. The Guild makes small pots for the public to glaze and raku. This is very popular - we sold out of pots (152)and so raised approx $1200. The pots are sold at $8, but if people had a Summerfest wristband (cost $20 that allowed them to see all the music events), they got a $4 discount on the pot and the Summerfest committee then makes up the difference to us.

We were a pretty tired out, smoky crew at end at 5 pm.
We also had a pottery sale and sold about $900.

Journey day 9 "The Contract"

2008-09-28T05:06:00.001-07:00

Well Sunday came too soon and we had to pack and leave. We all had had a fantastic time, the workshop exceeding my expectations - along with the accommodations and food! I took a final few pictures of Stephen's unique architecural ceramic additions to the outside of his house.

The evening before we had to make up our contract and sign it - that is what we hoped to accomplish over the year. Mine states:
1. To develop a unified body of work - both functional and non-functional, concentrating on form and design.
2. To have this work ready approximately one month before the show date next July.
3. To develop an appropriate palette for the forms.
4. To document my progress every week via photos etc in a blog.

Marian (the other out-of-town student) and I shared the limo back to O'Hare airport. On the plane I munched on the delicious banana bread that Kim had packed for us while sketching some more ideas. Sunday evening it was back to reality - housework, cooking, house guests, etc, etc - but determined to make pottery my first priority - after all I have a contract that I have to adhere to.

Journey Days 7 & 8

2008-09-28T05:04:00.000-07:00

In order to try for a more unified look to my work, I tried to incorporate some of the design ideas from the appliqued vases to the bowls. As I also like to use stamps I thought that by applying a few stamped appliques, it would allow me to also just stamp directly on some pots without any appliques and yet they would look unified (see first pic with small pot stamped with fish next to slab pot with stamped and then applied fish). Appliqued work on small items like mugs just never looks right to me, though just stamps are OK.
It was also difficult to get the appliqued work to look like it was part of the bowl, but a few suggestions from Stephen - like to delineate edges with a rib mark helped to somewhat unify the decoration to the pot. The bowl with the 3 squares (2nd pic down) was done very spontaneously and because of that I don't feel that I can reproduce it easily. Also it just did not feel right to me. I analysed why I felt like that - it was because it felt like a fraud - it was not me - because I did not spend much time working out the design ahead of time, unlike my other ones. May be I need to work on spontaneity. None of the bowls that I tried really satisfied me but it will be an area that I will definitely work on.

Friday afternoon we went on a field trip to Starving Rocks State Park to view the wonderful rock gorges and hiked up to the lookout over the Illinois River. The talk about the flying carp set me off to do a bunch of fish stamps.
Saturday was a busy day, trying to get various pieces finished - and wished that we did not have to leave. Had a great supper of blackened catfish - first time that I had catfish - as it is not a popular fish in Canada. During the week we also showed pictures of our pots so that everyone became familiar with the other's work.

It was wonderful to work with the other participants - kindred souls who love clay and I learned so much from them as well. There was quite the contrast - Marian and I as the two older students where clay is a second career versus the 3 young students who are just starting their careers - hoping to make clay a part of it. Their idealism and enthusiasm made me think back to the heady days of the 60's and 70's when I still had my all my life ahead of me and anything was possible. With so much determination and drive I'm sure that they will succeed in their clay journey wherever it will take them. Every studio needs one of these students! Thanks Kenyon, Sarah and Lindsay!

I found Stephen to be a natural teacher - he taught me to really look at my pots so that I can become more critical. Whenever anyone asked him for an opinion of a pot his first remark was always - "What do you think?" And only after struggling to articulate what I thought would he give his opinion and reason. Every time that I look at a pot now I think of Stephen's remark. I found that I also learnt just as much when he talked to the other students about their pots - I never realized there was that much to say about a pot.

Journey Days 5 & 6 Cups and Bowls

2008-09-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

I continued to work on my vases - concentrating on simplifying the design, and incorporating the design into the tops, and Stephens suggestion that perhaps the hair lines would add interest were spot on.

I also wanted to improve my bowls - how to get that wonderful curve in the bottom and his demo provided many tips. He leaves up to 1" for the base, and always makes sure to dig in at the bottom to get all the clay up. Be sure to throw higher that you want the bowl to be as once you start shaping and widening it, it will get shorter. Don't start with too bulbous a belly on the bowl and use a large stiff rib on the interior first, then continue shaping both the inside and outside with ribs. He tries to avoid shadow throwing rings - so the interior of his vessels are always smooth. When trimming a fresh pot while still on the bat he keeps one hand inside for support - making sure to spray the inside with water if the surface is too dry. When throwing plates, be sure to throw them with slight curve so that when you cut them off they will not hump up.

I also threw some cups as that was another area that I thought I was weak in and Stephen's suggestions helped me to see what I was doing wrong. He regards the foot and rim as punctuation marks and he likes them to be balanced so that neither one screams out at you. His handles are either 1 finger or 2-3 finger handles, with the 1 finger handles having the lower part of the handle coming in almost parallel so that it can support the other fingers.

I know that I will have to work on handles pulled off the cup - something that I have tried from time to time but never perfected. When a handles is not pulled off the cup there is a "gap" in the top area of attachment that detracts from the overall shape.

Kenyon, the resident potter showed me how to make a pinched handle - a technique that I had never seen before. His cups have great one finger handles that he makes that way.

Journey Workshop Days 3 & 4 Attention to Detail

2008-09-28T05:01:00.000-07:00

We were also encouraged to sketch - something that I always do and I have lots of sketch books from past years. As most of the "doodles" in the books have little merit I think that I will eventually cut and paste the more interesting drawings into one large scrap book - so I can easily scan if from time to time.

I made two large vases and tried to apply Stephen's suggestion to doing something more to the top - rather than just keeping it flat (as in first picture of a pre-workshop vase).

I was going to put figures on the vase with the wavy top, but found my figurative style was very linear and did not suit that wavy topped vase so ended doing a rather abstract decoration. The other vase was thrown and altered into an oval and so I worked on figures for that one, and I ended up adding a round projection to the top rim to add interest.

Stephen also felt strongly that since I was working with a 3-D vessel I should look at putting something on the back of my vases. It did not have to be much - just something that would add interest. So far I had been looking at them as just a piece of canvas and so had not taken full opportunity of the artistic possibilities for the pot and had not looked at every possible detail.

I was not really satisfied with either piece, but felt that the top treatments had possibilities. I have difficulty not making the designs too "cutesy". I also threw several bowls as I felt that I needed help with the inside curve.

Steven Hill Journey Days 1 & 2

2008-09-28T04:55:00.001-07:00

Well what a fantastic week it was! On arrival Saturday we had a tour of the facilities - ground floor dormitory with kitchen facilities, the fully equipped studio and then the first floor gallery (first and second pictures) and dining room and kitchen - all decorated with ceramics not only made by Stephen but by many of America's best potters. Stephen had just finished several extra large platters (last pic). We had a great supper of blackened BBQ salmon served on great pottery!

Sunday morning was spent on discussing our respective backgrounds, what our interests are and that was followed by individual interviews with Stephen. We had been asked to bring along any sketches, pictures and pots that particularly interested us and we were asked what our goals were. My goal was to make great pots that truly satisfy me.

The studio was open as early and late as we wanted and we were free to work on what we wanted. Stephen felt that I should work on unifying my work more and that was one of the goals that I had identified as well. I decided to start with my slab pots with the clay appliques as these were something that I had always been interested in.

Each day we were assigned several chapters from Robert Piepenberg's book "Treasures of the Creative Spirit" and they formed the focus of our discussions most afternoons - discussions on what constitutes our spirit, our creativity and how we can express our creative self. Later in the week we played a game designed to give you insight into your creativity. I learnt that I was very literal and tight in my creative thoughts, unlike the other workshop participants who were much more loose and "far out" in their associations. Perhaps that is reflected in my pottery which tends to be rather tight.