For the past eight months or so I've been making these faceted bowls, cutting the coned clay and then opening up the cone into a bowl. The facets are torqued as I my hand pushes open the clay cone from the inside, the rims go wonky sometimes because of the uneven facets, sometimes the rims break and have to be patched. Ordinarily I wouldn't patch a standard bowl, but these faceted pieces are so misshapen that a patch just looks like one more accidental deformation.
And the bowls take the Shino glazes - and some others - very well. I often overlap two or three of my Shinos on them. And lately I've been adding pours of rutile, copper red, Temmoku, Nuka, even (gasp!) cobalt blue. Makes for lively bowls.
I've sold some of these over the past year, but the test will come in the next few months, as the customer base expands with the arrival of summer visitors to Cape Cod. We'll see.
Here are a few of the bowls from last week's firing. Top to bottom: Malcolm's orange trap Shino with ash celadon overlap; Kim's Genuine Rutile; rutile with Erin's Red; Orange Shino with cobalt, copper red and rutile pours; Orange Shino with cobalt, copper red and ash pours; crackled Orange Shino with rutile pour.

Bigger jars for the top shelf

The next firing is probably a week away, with a bunch of mugs (and other pots) yet to be thrown in the next few days. Should have a group of the collaborative pots Kim Medeiros and I have been working on, as well as some tall jars from my own wheel.
Kim and I have worked in the past couple of weeks on estuary-related pots for a summer 2013 show at the Falmouth Art Center. We were invited to participate together by Suzy Bergmann, the center director. These pots - a wide, shallow platter and a tall jar - will reflect the flow of the water in our Cape estuaries and the life that lives in that flow. We're both pretty excited about both the work and the invitation.
The top photo is of the drying jars in my own studio; next one down is Kim with the estuary platter this morning, after she's finished the decoration. More detailed photos to follow, once these pieces are fired.

New pots from the kiln this morning

This business of making pots can kick you in the ass sometimes. That happened to me this morning, when I realized that something blew up some time during yesterday's glaze firing. I knew it as soon as I opened the kiln door and began to look closely at the pots on the upper shelves. Teeny tiny shards of clay shrapnel embedded in the glaze at the bottom of small cups were the giveaway. Shit.
Looking around the burner ports on the bottom, I could see larger shards of Temmoku-glazed clay that didn't belong there. As firing partner Kim Medeiros and I worked our way down through the stack, I knew something bad was waiting at the bottom. There were ten mugs down there, among other pots, mugs in a color combination that two weeks ago became very popular due to a random Facebook photo I posted. I had several people from the UK to Maryland waiting for one or more of those mugs. They'll have to wait longer. When we got to the bottom shelf, it was clear that every last mug had been hit by a shower of small bits of clay when a small vase blew up. These things happen, though rarely in the glaze firing. Shit ... again.
OK, enough about that. There were good pots in the kiln, in addition to the shrapneled mugs. (Did you know the word "shrapnel" came from the British General Henry Shrapnel, who invented a kind of fragmenting artillery shell in the early 19th century? I didn't ... ) I've been making cut-sided pinched cups lately and there were many of them that survived the clay artillery. And there were many good bowls and pitchers and vases and a couple of terrific pots from the ongoing collaboration between Kim and me. I'll attach a few photos for you, though none will be of the ill-fated mugs.
Here you go. Top: One of our collaborative pots, thrown by me at Kim's studio and then altered and decorated by Kim; a mug, pither and cut-sided cup glazed in Temmoku and then dipped in Michael Coffee's Nuka glaze; a group of small vases; a dozen of the 30 small pinched cups that were in this firing.

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.

Deep breath after the weekend open studio

We've done this holiday kiln-opening and open studio for the past nine years and I'm always anxiety-ridden in the week leading up to it and always happy when Saturday arrives and everything works and the new pots are good, the cop handles the traffic, we don't get two feet of snow and people buy pots. And that held true this past weekend.
The raucous laughter coming from the room over my studio was reassuring early Saturday morning, when Kim Collins, Bryan Randa and Ruth Bleakley were back together again, organizing their wares and catching up with each other. I went upstairs to tell them it was like having the kids come home for the holidays and livening up the house again. Then Lois Hirshberg arrived and Kim Medeiros and then Mike Race with his coffee and pretty soon everything was as it should be. And then the people came and we opened the kiln and my pots and Kim's were good and people bought them and bought from everyone and food came from seemingly everywhere and I was cold in the studio selling pots while everyone else was in the house selling and eating and drinking. But what the hell.
For about an hour after we emptied the kiln there was a line of people waiting to buy my pots and I ran out of my pile of wrapping paper and bags. I don't think those things have ever happened before.
Once again, our neighbors Jim and Bill were close to the new pots coming warm from the kiln and once again they walked off with one of the best. They always do that.
This weekend has become much more than a sale, though. In the week before the firing, more people ask me about what they should bring to eat than asked about how my glazing was going. There was chowder, green chile meatballs, empanadas, thousands of cookies, chocolate truffles (still some in hiding in the kitchen, actually), small and delicious mince meat tarts that somehow never made it onto the communal food table, salmon, chile dogs, vegetarian chili, coffee, vodka, a tomato tart, bacon and mushroom quiche ... much more. And much that I didn't get to eat. There were kids, dogs, old folks with canes, couples, families, relatives ...
Now that it's over, I can say it's a pretty cool thing that happens here every year. Even Angela Rose, a local potter who started this with me, showed up and talked promisingly of making more pots and getting involved again.
Now, some photos, with pots that just came out Saturday: Top, all the craftspeople, except coffee roaster Mike Race, who must have been in the kitchen brewing; left to right above the bearded guy are Bryan Randa, Lois Hirshberg, Ruth Bleakley, Kim Collins and my firing partner Kim Medeiros; white Shino broken-rimmed teabowl; one side of an eight-pound jar with overlapped Shino and Temmoku glazes; another side of the same jar; two small wide teabowls whose upper walls are added slabs.

Kiln-opening and open studio this weekend

The kiln is loaded and the burners are firing. It's around 700 degrees in there right now and it will fire until later this afternoon. Then we'll open at 11 Saturday morning, with what is likely to be a studio full of visitors eager to see the pots that Kim Medeiros and I have inside.
When Falmouth potter Angela Rose and I started this holiday kiln-opening/open studio weekend about nine years ago, I think we had three or four people around us when we opened the kiln door. And I think all of them were relatives. Times have changed. This will be the third year that we have had to hire a Falmouth policeman to manage the kiln-opening traffic. That uniform carries more car-parking authority than the fleece vest or denim jacket worn by whatever unfortunate friend volunteered to help park cars. There will be a lot of people here.
This idea sprang from the holiday home pottery show of the late Shino master Malcolm Davis. When we lived in the Washington, D.C., area, and I was a beginning potter, we would go over to the Adams-Morgan neighborhood townhome of Davis and marvel at his Shino pots. We even bought some once in a while. But what struck us as a good idea was the fact that he always had four or five other craftspeople in other media also selling in his home.

So when Angela and I decided to do a December show, we wanted to include other craftspeople. Since that first show, we've had jewelers, potters, painters, one glassblower, a paper artist, a coffee roaster, a photographer ... maybe some I can't remember. Jeweler Kim Collins has, I think, been with us from the beginning. Glassblower Bryan Randa has been with us for several years, as has paper magician Ruth Bleakley. This will be raku potter Lois Hirshberg's third year and functional potter Kim Medeiros's first. Mike Race will sell his freshly-roasted coffee beans for the second year. 

And everyone will bring food. This is a good place to have lunch on Saturday, even if you don't feel like buying pots. (Though that's encouraged.) For the past five years we've served chile dogs made with genuine New Mexico red chile. That started when a friend arrived with five hot dogs (five????) and five buns. I happened to have made chile that morning, so we combined the two and Ed's strange potluck contribution was consumed almost immediately (well ... there were only five) and started a tradition. Now, chile dogs have to be on the menu. And there will be much, much more ...

Come on down if you're on the Cape. We open at 10 Saturday morning and open the kiln at 11. Sunday we open at 11. Both days we close the doors at 4.

Happy holidays, all.

The photographs of a few of my pots available this weekend: Top, two side-handle teapots, appropriately decorated; small lobed vase fired in the Truro wood kiln; mugs from the Truro wood kiln;  fat vase, from the same kiln.

Opened the kiln today

We're preparing here for our annual holiday open house/open studio/kiln-opening creative extravaganza. It happens Saturday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 16. I'll fire another load of pots Friday and open it Saturday morning at 11 to what has become quite a crowd of spectators.
Kimberly Sheerin Medeiros (of The Barn Pottery in Pocasset) and I shared the kiln I fired yesterday and we'll do the same next Friday. She's appearing here for the first time with the regular group of exhibiting makers. Kim was also responsible for connecting us to Cape Cod View magazine a few months ago, resulting in a lead story about our holiday show, in the current issue. We certainly owe her thanks for that, and it will be great to have her pots here with the other clay, glass, beads, paper and coffee on sale.
Yesterday's firing had all the giveaway eggnog cups in it. I like to have them on hand here for the first 25 people to choose when they arrive before the kiln-opening. Kim offered to do half the cups and I happily agreed. True to her style, she's made lovely, colorful and highly-decorated work and I suspect people will fall all over each other trying to get to her cups.
I'll attach a few photos of the pots that came out of the kiln today. Lots of overlapped Shinos and ash glazes, fat round jars with stone wedged into the clay, many nog cups. And there should be some good things in Friday's firing. Please join us if you can get to Cape Cod, or if you're already on Cape Cod.
The photos: Top, the eggnog cups for the first 25 visitors this weekend, Kim Medeiros's work in the foreground; three fat little Shino and ash vases; two Shino mugs, two amber ash over crackle slip; big Shino jar.

And just a few more wood pots, refired ...

I refired about 15 of the underfired pots from the Truro wood kiln, opening my own kiln yesterday. It was a pretty good firing. Most of the wood pots, whose glazes looked reeeeaaalllly bad at cone 2, matured nicely, particularly with the amber ash going lovely and transparent over crackle slip (a technique adapted from Virginia potter Dan Finnegan).
And Kim Medeiros, my stoking partner in Truro, got several pots into this firing, too, coming out with very nice work, both refired and first-fired. Her glazes do well in my kiln.
I'll just post a few pictures of the pots for you. I'm throwing again for the next firing here, but I haven't thrown in a few weeks and it feels like I never knew how. Jeez ...
So, to the pots: Top, a lovely fat jar, crackle slip under a gray Shino; squared jar, crackle slip under amber ash, ash celadon on the bottom; trailed crackle slip under amber ash on a small cup; larger teabowl faceted with twisted wire, with amber ash; my prize from the woodfiring, one of Kim's tumblers, traded for one of my small cups.

Wood Pots, Part Deux ...

I'm posting a few more good pots from the weekend's Truro woodfiring. And I urge any of you Facebook users to keep an eye on Kimberly Sheerin Medeiros's "The Barn Pottery" Facebook page over the next few days. She was here today and I photographed about 20 of her pots for her. Kim does a lot of sliptrailing and decoration on her pots and they took very well to the Castle Hill kiln. They're worth taking a look at.

Now, on to my pots. At top: Brian Taylor, ceramics director at Truro Center for the Arts and the guy who guides the firing, unloading; a fully-blasted vase, fired right in the firebox; a transparent celadon/Shino vase; very small faceted cup; a lovely little cup, traded away to Kim Medeiros for one of her tumblers. An even trade, I think.

Lisa Hammond in the mail ... and Facebook

I've been an admirer of the work of the British potter Lisa Hammond for some time. I love what she does with Shinos. Well, this summer she apparently was moving her studio back to London and relieving herself of some pots. My friend Dan Finnegan harvested a few and one of them showed up in the mail Saturday. A lovely little faceted Shino cup. Thank you, Dan, and thank you Lisa for making it. It held coffee, above, for me this morning.

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Those of you who look at both my blog and my Hatchville Pottery Facebook page might have seen the top couple of paragraphs on Facebook a few minutes before the blog post went up. I have had a personal FB page for more than a year, using it to lurk and see what my FB friends, many of whom are my actual human friends, are up to. But I rarely used it professionally to spread the pottery word. 
Now that's changed. I was persuaded a couple of weeks ago by my friend Tessa Morgan, sgraffito potter from nearby Woods Hole, that an FB page would make sense for the pottery. It's one more way of reaching out to not only friends (or "friends") but to people who use Facebook when they come to Cape Cod and are looking for potters or art of any kind. 
This past summer just about fried me on craft fairs, as I've said before. And faithful reader Tracey Broome of Chapel Hill, NC, kicked my butt a little and basically said, "Well, stop doing that!" And she's right. So that's my aim for next year, to avoid all craft fairs with the possible exception of two that I feel personally invested in. 
But where does the money come from? I still need to buy clay and pay the gas bill.
We plan to add on to my workshop over the winter, with our friend Mike Race doing the building. That will give better space to allow visitors to see my best pots in the right light.
The Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce is doing a wonderful thing by creating a mobile app for the ever-increasing visitors who use smart phones and tablets to plan their trips. Free app, easily updated site for Hatchville Pottery and all those other art people, minimal cost. I've already given them my $150 check and bought into the app game.
Cape Cod View magazine is out now, with a story and photos about our holiday kiln-opening and sale. I haven't seen the story yet, but will post it when I get a copy of the magazine. That kind of attention can't possibly hurt.
And I need to find a gallery (or ten) that will show my pots. Probably off Cape Cod.
All of that (and any other ideas) might add up to the already meager amount I need to keep going.
Ideas still being accepted.
And for my great potter friend (great friend and great potter) Tracey Broome ... I know, I know ... you hate Facebook. So did I. But if someone you know is a member, take a look at Hatchville Pottery's page. There are two pictures of you on the "Other potters" section.

(And for those interested, the FB url is https://www.facebook.com/HatchvillePottery)

New pots from Thursday's firing

It's always startling for me to see Kim Medeiros's pots in my kiln, next to the rough, cut teabowls I've been making the past several months. Kim, who owns The Barn Pottery in Pocasset, spends a lot of time on slip-trailing, sgraffito and very particular glazing of her pots. It shows in her work's color and precision, whereas I dip and pour and spatter on my pots. And she loves those jewel colors, which are so not carbon-trap Shino and ash. So when I open the kiln after firing, as I did this morning, there's always a contrast between her work and mine, as you can see in the top photos. I love that.

She was happy with her pots this morning, and I was happy with most of mine. I've still got problems to work out. More about that in another post, I guess.

Meanwhile, another dozen or so big teabowls came out of this firing, layered in Shinos, ash celadon, copper red and Oribe. The faceting of the pots early in the throwing process, then the pushing out of the bowl shape torques the walls, thins them, sometimes breaks them mid-wall or at the rim. I patch these pots and get on with it. They're going to remain rough and imprecise right through the glaze firing, so I'm not concerned with symmetry or exactitude. Good thing.

There were also, as you can see, some simple squared vases with added lugs, glazed more or less as I glaze the teabowls.

Killing time ... waiting for buyers

The Cranberry Festival arts fair in Harwich last weekend was full of strollers and lookers ... tons of them. Very few buyers of pottery, though. Or, I should say, of my pottery. Enough about that, except that this craft fair business is wearing on me ... there's gotta be a better way to sell a pot.
So while the crowds flowed by in the early Sunday morning sunshine, I took a look at my pots and decided to photograph the brilliantly lighted glaze patterns.

The glazes I use - overlapping Shinos, Kaki, Temmoku, Nuka, ash celadon, copper red, Oribe, a few glass flows - often react with each other like the surface geology of an alien planet or Earth's occasionally rain-soaked desert or a Yellowstone hot spring. But you have to look closely to see that effect. Most people probably won't see it in a stroll past my tent, and even people who like my pots probably won't get close enough to see the glaze landscape.
With my two Nikons, their close-focusing lenses and the straight-on September sunshine, you should be able to see in these photos what I'm talking about.
The photos: Oribe over Shino on a teabowl, ash celadon over Shino on faceted teabowl, copper red and blue ash over Shino on plate, ash celadon on small shallow bowl, finger wipes through Shino on shallow bowl, Nuka overlapping Temmoku on large vase, blue glass run through Temmoku on large vase.