The race to Christmas ...

This week has seen the last of the holiday show throwing in our studio. I finished up Wednesday afternoon with some small orders of white clay pots. Alli came in after I finished and got a few more pots done, which with luck will end up in the firing next Friday.
All of this is in preparation for our holiday kiln-opening and multi-artist show, which we've done for about six years now. It's an idea I happily stole from Malcolm Davis, the Washington D.C. potter, whose home we used to visit at holiday time every year when we lived in that part of the world. Malcolm sold pots downstairs and friends of his sold jewelry and other creative things upstairs. That's more or less what we do here. I'll open the kiln in my studio Saturday morning at 11 and upstairs will be jeweler Kim Collins, glassblower Bryan Randa and paper artist Ruth Bleakley.
People bring food for the weekend crowd, I make New Mexico red chile for chile dogs, and lots of local folks show up to share the food and conversation and maybe buy a few things for their last-minute gifts.
We also stole an idea from Harry Holl's Scargo Pottery by giving away eggnog cups to the first 20 people who come to the opening. I make it as complicated for myself as possible and actually fire the eggnog cups in the kiln the day before. So as people show up, they're given a numbered piece of paper and after the kiln is empty they come up as their number is called and choose a cup. I spent an hour or so one day earlier this week throwing the quarter-pound faceted eggnog cups from brown stoneware. There's a photo here of some of them.
A fair number of three-pound vases were thrown this week for the top and bottom shelves of the kiln. I thought I had that part covered last week, but an unexpected miscalculation in the bisque kiln resulted in many, many, many vase shards Tuesday ... many shards. So I threw another batch and it's drying now. Good thing I was ahead of myself for once. Also, a good thing I didn't write this blog entry right after I cleaned the shards out of the kiln ...
More to come. Stay tuned ...

Hangin' at Hatch St. Studios

The Hatch St. Studios in New Bedford are in an old brick mill building, two floors of which are occupied by artists and craftspeople. Every year they do their holiday show just after Thanksgiving and I've been lucky enough to be invited the past five years. I share space in the big, airy and bright studio of furniture maker Mike Pietragalla. Mike makes beautiful Craftsman-inspired furniture and listens to a lot of Beatles music.
The three-day show this year was not as lucrative as past years, which is worrisome. It's always hard to tell whether the economy is bad (which it is), whether the weather is keeping people inside or outside (hard to say on that one), or whether I'm just not making pots that those folks want to buy (another question impossible to answer). You can make yourself crazy trying to figure out why things are not selling. I should add that another potter on the floor below us seemed to do well, so this may just not be my crowd.
Income aside, the two floors are filled with good people, most of whom I see only once or twice a year, at this show and perhaps one other. Potter and painter Kim Barry and I always trade work when we do shows together. She has a growing collection of my bowls (that's Kim with a very nice Shino/ash glazed bowl, which is now in her kitchen) and Dee and I have a number of her beautiful tiles of fish and vegetables. (Look for Kim's earthenware flowerpots in the new Sherlock Holmes film that opens this month; she'll be looking, too. She supplied them, but doesn't know for sure if they were used.)
Sheilagh Flynn makes very nice functional ware in her studio on the floor below. Sarah Peters does stunning bronze work. Huguette May is across the hall, doing massive black-and-white drawings of old rope. And painters Pat Kellogg and Michael Hecht always have good artichoke dip and wonderful paintings next door to Mike. This year, muralist M-C Lamarre shared Mike's studio, too, dancing, laughing and selling her photographs of Boston's Fenway Park. M-C cooked barbecued pulled pork for our Sunday lunch and I made fairly fiery barbecue sauce.
It's a great place, full of good people and good art and worth visiting.
Here's a list of websites for some of the artists at Hatch St.:
- Huguette May, at huguettemay.com
- M-C Lamarre, at mclamarre.com
- Mike Pietragalla, at floatingstonewoodworks.com
- Kim Barry, at claytroutpottery.com
- Pat Kellogg, at http://www.hatchstreetstudios.com/artists/patkellogg/index.html
- Sheilagh Flynn, at http://www.newbedfordopenstudios.org/Sheilagh_Flynn.html
- Nicole St. Pierre (textiles) at, http://www.newbedfordopenstudios.org/Nicole_St._Pierre.html
- Marc St. Pierre (paintings, prints and photography), at http://www.newbedfordopenstudios.org/Marc_St._Pierre.html

This one was a "quiet firing"

Dee and I and our friend Donna Sutherland openend and emptied the kiln this morning. Someone described this as "a quiet firing." It was that, actually, with a fair amount of white Shino on white stoneware. Not a lot of golden brown Shino fireworks, though there was some, and there were the inevitable few copper reds to liven up things.
I remain excited about these faceted and pushed-out bowls, both the teabowls and larger serving bowls. The process of cutting the thick clay walls after a couple of pulls creates an uneven thickness in the walls and results in a randomness in the rim that I like. These bowls can be taken right to the edge of collapse and produce a lively and seemingly precarious pot. I've been doing this for a few months now ... maybe I should only make teabowls and smallish serving bowls and forget the teapots and big jugs and plates. Though I guess it would be helpful to know there's a market for such things.
This weekend, after Thanksgiving Day, I'll be headed to New Bedford for the three-day Hatch St. Open Studios sale. Two floors in an old factory of artists of all kinds. I occupy a space in Mike Pietragalla's furniture studio. This will be, I think, the fourth year I've done the show.
Also in the photographs here: Three small bowls made and glazed by Alli Connolly, the intern who works with me; two handbuilt vases by Marstons Mills potter Lois Hirshberg and a nice little Shino bowl by Shelley Fenily. Both are friends and fellow members of the Cape Cod Potters.

Inertia defeated yet again ...

I have been slow about getting pots together for this next firing. (Which makes no sense, given that I have several shows over the next two months.) It takes about 100 pots to fill the kiln and I can throw that in a couple of days, if I'm working steadily. A week if I'm otherwise engaged part-time. But there are periods of time when I'll do anything but throw pots.
Fortunately, once I made the first few teabowls, I catch on again pretty quickly. And it's been good the past few weeks to have Alli Connolly in here, eager to make her own pots.
So ... here's a bit of a look at the dry-stacked kiln. Did this yesterday and talked with Alli about why I do it, wadding pots, arranging shelves, making sure I can see the cone pack, that sort of thing. Sometimes it helps to explain the process so that I understand it better myself.
The last bisque firing happened yesterday, with very necessary mugs and more faceted teabowls coming out of the electric kiln today (pictured at bottom). Will have to find a place for them in the glaze firing.
I'll start glazing tomorrow, with Alli coming over to glaze her teabowls and a couple of vases that will be in the kiln this time. Onward ...

New potter, old potter ...

I had a good talk today with Dan Finnegan, who is back in his own home in Fredericksburg now, still recovering from surgery, but able to manage by himself. He's been well taken care of by his friends in Fredericksburg and is grateful. He's doing well and happy with the clean bill of health he's gotten after his cancer surgery. Good for Dan. And good for all of his friends. He'll be back making pots within the month, I'd say.
The "new potter" part of this is Alli Connolly, shown here mating two thrown pieces to make one good-size vase. Alli works with me a couple of days a week and even comes in for free studio time when she can get away. She's working on some larger pieces for next year's student/mentor show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art and this is the first one that's been put together.
I'm working toward a glaze firing in the next week, possibly by the end of this week but more likely Monday or Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Lots of faceted serving bowls and teabowls, mugs and vases. This firing will have four of us in it - pots from me, Lois Hirshberg, Donna Sutherland and Alli.

Finnegan is enjoying baked goods ...

I received this tonight from Jerry Brent, Dan's good friend and, with his wife Lou, our faithful reporter in Dan's condition since his surgery a week ago. It appears Dan is out of the hospital and being watched over by friends. The coveted Fredericksburg baked goods and other heartier meals are apparently flowing Finnegan's way. I'll just post the note I got tonight:

Hollis, this from Eric Olsen.
Also, the delicious pies, cakes, casseroles and soups have started to arrive. I'm extremely envious.
Jerry

On Thu, 11/12/09, Eric L. Olsen wrote:
From: Eric L. Olsen
Subject: An Update from the Friends of Dan Finnegan
After 2 days of his release from the hospital, nothing but good news on the Dan Finnegan progress report!
Without going into too much detail, Dan had surgery to remove the cancerous tumor and the fixing, patching and sewing that followed the procedure went exceedingly well. Dan is progressing as the doctors had hoped and is up and around as much as he should be.
He is in pain, but not too much, and all parts that should be working are working.
He is being closely watched and someone is with him around the clock.
We (collectively, all of his friends, neighbors, well-wishers and loved ones) have been successful in allowing him to focus on his recovery and that is thanks to everyone who is sending all that good Kharma his way. It continues to have a profound impact on his health, so keep bombarding him with your thoughts and prayers.




Friends of Dan Finnegan

Online auction to benefit Dan Finnegan

The Cape Cod Potters would like everyone to know that we are holding an on-line auction to benefit Dan Finnegan.
Most of you know that Dan has medical problems and no medical insurance. Earlier this year, Dan donated demonstration pots he made at a Cape Cod workshop to raise money for the Potters' scholarships and support projects. The executive board of the Potters, taking notice of Dan's situation, decided to redirect the funds from the on-line auction to help with Dan's medical bills. The auction also includes the multiple-level vase - pictured above - that represented Dan when he juried last year's show of Cape Cod Potters' work at the Cape Cod Museum of Art.
You can visit the auction by going to this link: http://www.capecodpotters.org/capecodpottersorgcgi/auction/auction.pl?category=Dan