New bowls from the kiln; pots in a new book

I did a glaze firing Tuesday, delayed by a day because a cone pack exploded at the top and I - fortunately - spotted the clay grenade fragments relatively early on in the firing. So I shut it down, let it cool, then went in and cleaned out the debris. This was a clean-up firing, using up as many of my bisqued bowls as I could, along with bowls from friends Sue Wadoski, Sarah Caruso and a platter from Kim Medeiros.
It was a good firing, with more faceted and stretched Shino bowls from me, continuing my exploration of that process. The Sheffield T3 clay body reacts very well to the three or four Shinos in my studio. I am abandoning B-Mix, at least temporarily, to concentrate on the more reactive T3 for a white stoneware body. But now I have to get a shipment from Sheffield, or travel to western Mass. in the pickup to fetch a load.
In other news, British writer and potter Linda Bloomfield's new book, "Contemporary Tableware" (Bloomsbury and the American Ceramic Society), has been published, with some of my teabowls in it. She kindly sent me an email today telling me about the book and including a link to one of the first reviews. Here's the link.
http://www.thedesigntrust.co.uk/book-review-contemporary-tableware-by-linda-bloomfield/
The photos: Top, a two-page spread from "Contemporary Tableware"; hakeme small plate with Dan Finnegan's amber ash glaze; faceted Shino bowl; faceted Shino bowl; small faceted Shino bowl with blue glass runs.

New pots from the kiln

I fired a load of pots Tuesday, opened the kiln Wednesday morning. Lots of simple bowls for the Cape Cod Potters' Soup Bowls for Hunger event in April, a small batch of handled chowder bowls, a dozen or thereabouts teabowls, some vases and odds and ends. Sarah Caruso put ten cups in the firing, using my glazes and her clay body. First time she's fired to cone 10 in years, she says. I think she was intrigued by some of the results. And there was a single tiny vase by Kim Medeiros, just so I could say she was part of the firing. Her pots have brought good luck the past couple of months.
I had unexpected results from the rutile glaze that I tried for the first time. It's Kim's recipe; she gets a milky blue/white on her pots, a color I thought I would try out. But for some reason the glaze fired to a deep purple for me, only showing that blue/white when it was poured over or otherwise overlapped another glaze. Too much reduction? A different grade of rutile? I don't know.
I did like it splashed over my usual Shinos. It supplied a bit of color where the Shinos tend toward black-and-white or a caramel brown or tan.
Anyway, more studying to be done, I guess. And I think I'm going to fire again next week, to clear out some of my bisque before we get to some remodeling of the studio area.
The photos, top to bottom: Tall jar of mine, small vase of Kim Medeiros; then six small faceted Shino teabowls, some with rutile or ash celadon pours.

"Concepts in Clay" opens Friday

Gail Turner, of Mill Stone Pottery in Dennis, and I talked with a group of docents today at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, answering as many questions as we could about the work now on display there. "Concepts in Clay" is a show of work by members of Cape Cod Potters, a very loosely organized group of clay people here on the Cape. The show was juried by Ellen Shankin, of Floyd, Va.
The show was designed to challenge clayworkers to think about their process and their ideas, and then put those thoughts into words and into clay. That's the way I understood it, anyway.
The result is a fine show of work, from functional to sculptural. Each entrant's work is mounted separately on a pedestal or pedestals, allowing separation from the other pots or sculptures in the show.
And on one wall are eight large photographs, shot by this photographer, showing steps in the clayworking process. Images of Kim Medeiros, Dan Finnegan, Sarah Caruso, Tessa Morgan, and myself make up the wall display. Firing is represented by my loaded kiln and flame protruding from the noborigama of Robert Compton, in Bristol, VT. You can see the photos in one of the overall shots here.
The show opens this week, with a formal reception (that means free beer and wine, people) this Friday, from 5 to 7 p.m. Come one, come all.
Photos, top to bottom: bottles by Toni Levin, Oribe work by Linda Riehl, big serving bowls by Kevin Nolan, coil-built and wood-fired vases from Frances Johnson.

The first Falmouth potter's market

This past weekend, the Falmouth Art Center hosted not only the opening of "Art of Clay: Function and Beyond," but also a two-day pottery market on the green lawn behind the center. Eight potters, most of us from the Upper Cape, set up our tents and tables, sold pots and demonstrated throwing and handbuilding. We were joined also by students from the pottery program at Falmouth High School. It would not be accurate to say that "crowds" turned out, but we had a steady flow of local folks who often bought pots. 

The rain didn't come until nearly closing time on Sunday, so we were lucky with the weather. 

The weekend's pottery activity is a kind of subtle kickoff for the art center's proposed ceramics program, tentatively scheduled to get going by next summer. The five-year-old building is about to get an elevator, which will allow classroom and studio space to be established in the spacious basement (where the potters will live) and the extensive second floor. I think we Falmouth potters are excited for both the teaching opportunities in the clay program and the chance to continue to build a clay-literate community here. I am, anyway.

Much of the credit for the success of this weekend's lobby show as well as the pottery market goes to Falmouth potter Sue Wadoski and her potter daughter Sarah Caruso. Each was a cheerful and persistent worker from the first concept of the show last winter. We all benefited from their effort.

Next up for me is the OysterFest in Wellfleet, this coming weekend. The crazy and crowded event happens every year just after Columbus Day. This year, I have a Studio Potter magazine meeting scheduled for Saturday in Boston, the same as the first day of the OysterFest. A friend, Dafney Shufelt, has offered to tent-sit for me Saturday, so I won't actually be on the Wellfleet premises until Sunday. It's going to be an early and looonnnnggg Saturday, since I have to set up the tent and pots around dawn and then hit the highway for the Boston meeting. Not looking forward to it.

OK, here are some photos from the weekend: Top, Kim Medeiros of The Barn Pottery in Pocasset at work during her demo session at the wheel; next, Denny Howard of Howard Pottery in Sagamore deep into his pot; the view to the west from my booth.

A day away from clay

We went to Sandwich today with some friends to watch David McDermott and our friend Bryan Randa work with glass. Bryan has been part of our holiday show here for a few years now, charming the customers and making money from his beautiful glass. He works at McDermott's studio in Sandwich and today was the studio's September open house.
(Bryan also had the tent next to me at yesterday's Art in the Park in Charlestown. Falmouth potter Sarah Caruso was nearby. It was a windy day of rapidly passing clouds, with lower attendance than years past, but still a good show in a pretty city park.)

I shot a few photos of Bryan at work with my iPhone. While we were there, Bryan was gathering molten glass for David and doing preliminary work for tall and elegant wine glasses.

Below: Bryan Randa at work on the glass, and then two finished vases from David McDermott's gallery.
Links to see more of their work are randaglass.com and mcdermottglass.com.

A busy weekend of pots

This was as packed a weekend as I hope to have.
Saturday morning I drove to the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society, beyond Boston, for a day-long throwing workshop with Doug Casebeer, director of the clay program at Anderson Ranch in Snowmass, Colo. I was in a workshop at the Ranch about 15 years ago with Doug and Takashi Nakazato, two weeks that helped push me toward full-time potmaking. (Doug was the juror for this year's State of Clay statewide show at the LACS gallery, organized by Joan Carcia and Alice Abrams.)
Doug is comfortable talking in front of a crowd about the way he works and his philosophy. And he makes wonderful, relaxed pots. Both his pots and his sculpture make reference to his upbringing in the agricultural and more or less flat American Midwest.
That was Saturday during the day. I left the workshop a bit early to get back to the Cape in time for us to go to the opening of "Harmony and Balance: The Art of the Japanese Tea Ceremony" at the Cotuit Center for the Arts. The show, a mix of pots, metalwork, prints and paintings, was organized by our friend Lois Hirshberg, a raku potter who lives near here. I have several pots in that show and it looks great. Sunday, there were two sessions of the tea ceremony, which I missed because ...
That day we went back up north, Dee to a massage meeting in Newton and me back to the official opening of State of Clay. I walked into the opening and show organizer (and fine potter) Joan Carcia grabbed me and steered me to my four shallow pasta bowls, which now had a Juror's Award notice posted on them. It's enough to have a couple of pots juried into the show, but a special award (and a check) is pretty cool. Doug had good things to say about the bowls and about all the other winning pieces during his gallery talk.
This morning, I packed my truck with lights and tripods and graduated background and went off to our monthly Clay Club meeting to show people how I photograph my pots. We have a show coming up in the fall, with the jurying deadline in about a week, and some people barely knew which end of the camera to hold. So a few of the regulars got to shoot their pots on the spot and the others took lots of notes.
Now I have to mow the lawn. Then, tomorrow, I start glazing for firing later in the week.

Photos: Top, Doug at the wheel; the bowls that won the Juror's Prize; contemplating Ben Ryterband's "La Tendre Difference du Monde"; Susan Varga's magnificent "From Venice to Istanbul"; and my small, quiet squared bottle with poured Shinos amid some colorful work including, at right below, Frances Johnson's woodfired vessel, at far left Sarah Caruso's "Red Octopus Charger" and, above and to the right of my bottle, Alice Abrams' "Club Sandwich."

Genuine handcraft ... Kline and Philbeck

I have always been one to notice hands. I have no idea why. But I could pick out my son, my grandmother, my friend Jim Beckman from elementary school, my friend and pottery teacher Dan Finnegan ... hundreds of people, I think, just by seeing their hands. So when I shoot photos of people at work, somewhere in amongst all the images you will find hands. More so with potters or woodworkers or musicians, all of whom do their work with their hands.

Because Ron Philbeck and Michael Kline transmit the work of their brain to the clay through their hands, they made great subjects for photographs. Michael with big, strong hands and one missing forefinger digit on his right hand. Ron with more slender but no less strong hands from his years of throwing pots. Centering, throwing, pulling up, pulling out, picking off the wheelhead, trimming feet, adding handles, brushing on slip or cutting through it. It all requires hands.

So, here are four images of the two men at work on Sunday at the workshop they presented at Barnstable High School on Cape Cod. Extremely talented and well-spoken men, quick with stories about their lives and jibes at each other, well worth scheduling if you're looking for a traveling roadshow of two very different but equally talented potters. And there is one image here of the hands of Falmouth potter Sarah Caruso, trying her own hand at Ron's sgraffito style.

If you want more photos of them throwing or trimming, let me know and I'll post them.

Photos: Michael Kline showing newly attached handles; Ron Philbeck rabbiting up a yunomi; Michael demonstrating slip-dipping style; Ron knobbing a lid (note the turtle on the splash pan); Sarah Caruso working on a spider tile.