This evening I spent some time photographing work to send out for some upcoming deadlines, but couldn’t resist putting these guys on the table, or sharing them here.

Cups. 2008. Handbuilt of low fire clay, white slip interior and rim. Lowfire glazes. Electric fired to c.04. Each 3.5h, 3w, 3.5l.

A little more attitude, showing off the profile. In some ways these cups are a new creation - different clay, glaze, form. But the details have my hand written all over them: glossy interior spilling over a rounded edge onto a soft exterior, exposed seam, turned up bottom edge, off-round body, dent in the side.

In the first wood+salt firing, I fired a bunch of my little cups. In the last few days, I over-ambitiously created a bunch of boxes for the next firing of the same kiln - overambitious because there simply wasn’t enough time to allow for a proper drying and bisque firing. So it’ll be a few months more before they’re finished. I enjoyed and was struck by the contrast of brilliant turquoise interiors against soft surfaces of brown and gray and white clays, and so I here share them with you.

I set my pieces on newpaper in part to leave something to be peeled off the wet slip, and in part to avoid contamination by the ware boards, as I prefer to control the bottoms of my pieces. If the greenware shelves for dry pieces are especially dusty, I’ll lay a bit of newspaper down there, too. This shot felt particularly architectural.

I’ve become so accustomed to the boxes’ oversize, accounting for shrinkage, that I wonder if I’ll be shocked by the smaller finished sets, and need some time to acclimate to the new scale of them.

The light is great in this shot. The browner glaze is a thin application of my Woo Blu, the turquoise is a copper blue glaze that Jay Strommen uses.

Got back a dozen whiskey cups, the fourth pita plate, a set or two of rock blocks, the remainder of my sets of houses, and my really big box from the soda kiln (photos soon!). Everything looks nice; the box is exceptionally cool. Fifteen or twenty whiskey cups and two smaller boxes that I posted here came out of bisque, as well as a few more pita plates. And I made these!

I’m really excited about these new sets. The details are wonderful. The way the wall joint is articulated, how the wall meets the bottom. I made little wood signature stamps; the cups deserve it. These are for the wood+salt firing at the end of the month.

At the beginning of August, I got a bunch of work back from bisque. I’d stacked up a couple dozen whiskey cups inside a pretty big (20″ long, 3″ wide, 8″ high, or so) clay box, set it to get fired. It was so exciting to have a box of work, rather than a handful, that I decided to make boxes to put some of the cups in. It’s pretty darn exciting. Look for some finished results soon!

These are the images that I used when applying for my first shows earlier this spring. I’d intended to sell these pieces, but in the end will probably keep them. However, I have other pieces in the same vein. It’s just these particular ones that I’ll keep.

Nesting bowls. First warped bowls I ever did.

I selected geodes from my collection based upon which ones looked good together. I tried lots of ways of arranging various numbers, trying to find a view that described them. In the end, the four-square was really strong from a graphic standpoint; this was the pair that photographed well together.

The most time consuming tumblers of all time. It takes about two hours to carve away all that surface. Per piece. A good friend has one of them, I’m keeping these, and have a couple more (I think) packed away and for sale.

This happens to be the first house that I made. I was going to sell it, but realized that I really like it for a napkin holder. If you would like a napkin holder shaped like a house, let me know.

Started the house last week; figured out the roof and put it on tonight. Carved the big vessel this evening after letting it dry slowly under plastic. Tentative title is “[I want] the sun, the moon, and the stars.”

Finished the vase I started last night! Porcelain tends to be a finicky clay; this piece was pleasantly easy.

Also cooking is another larger vessel; we’ll see where the design goes on that one.

Porcelain vase made over a few days (it’s been humid). Rolled slab and made body, added bottom. Since this is a larger piece than the tumblers, I used a different tool for carving, and the proportion of figure and ground is different. As I was carving the vase yesterday, I was thinking about a drawing assignment I once had - to fill some number of pages with beautiful marks.

More whiskey cups. The rocket ships have made a comeback (they’ve appeared on bigger cups) as have the dancing people. Also added the slash indentation; even on the small guys, it catches the thumb nicely. The gloss is a little bit of wax on the rim (it burns off) to help the clay dry evenly. I like how these are going.

Have a few pieces in the soda kiln right now; they’ll be unloaded Friday afternoon.