Here are forty-two cups and teabowls that I dipped in slip on Wednesday evening, setting out to dry. I’m trying some new things here. Forms that’ve been on my mind for weeks. I’m simultaneously pretty sure I’m crazy and pretty sure I’m not crazy for trying seven new slip recipes at once. And did I mention that they’ll recieve an assortment of new shino recipes and get sent through the next dirty firing?

I think it’ll be great.

Contemplating the wonderful wood+salt-fire results have given me a lot of food for thought. (I know, I know, I haven’t shown you the results yet. Soon, dear readers, soon! Here’s one to tide you over. It’s one of my favorite cups from the firing, and went to its new home this morning.)

In the last weeks I’ve been busy preparing for and conducting three events.

First, my first dirty firing at Lillstreet - so called for the extra reduction and serious carbon trapping. Jayson Lawfer had done a few, and I’m aiming to get the process well-documented and fine-tune it. The firing was full and had several enthusiasts - heartening for my first run! And we were not disappointed; the results were outstanding. I swung for the fences with a couple of new projects, and got really exciting, I-have-to-continue-this results. To tide you and me over, some pretty rims.

New cups. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI. Temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10, reduction cooled. 0h, 0w, 0l each.

Second, my first fair of the year, NSUC. Hours were spent photographing pieces, packing up work and grinding off stray bits of wadding, when necessary. Seeing my work together provided an encouraging perspectivew: I have a very strong aesthetic, and my pieces hang together well as a body of work. Here’s a section of one table: it doesn’t have a little bit of everything, but it’s close.

Third, a wood+salt firing in Galena. It began on a rainy day, poured the first night, went below freezing the second night, and was beautiful on the last day. The process may be a post in itself. I haven’t yet photographed my pieces from the first one - but soon will, along with the pieces below. One new form made its debut. Another upcoming post will contain lots of images and a lengthy discussion of the results.

The studio is pretty quiet for me right now. In the last week I’ve been catching up with life - bills, cleaning, and recovering from all the new work created by events #1 and #3. I need more display space at home, so I can spend more time living with and contemplating my own work. This will entail a major shuffle. I’m also planning to start a shop at Nancy and Andy have been encouraging me to do so for the last year.

Meanwhile, many experiments are forthcoming. A clay experiment has been underway, successful, and needs to be fine-tuned. A few beauties below; a little distortion from being behind glass. I’ve been researching flashing slips, have a dozen to try. And glazes - likewise, a big handful. A couple of us will be mixing up several recipes for carbon trapping glazes for general use in the next dirty firing. Any of these may fly or flop: experimentation keeps things fresh, challenges boundaries, keeps my eyes open to possibilities.

Pods/Apertures. 2008. Handbuilt of porcelain with additives. Unglazed. Soda fired in reduction to c.10, reduction cooled. To 4″ in length each.

I draw images on my work to create spaces of refuge, built of experience and imagination. I particularly enjoy nighttime solitude with nature - walking in the woods, kayaking on the lake, watching the shadows of tree branches dance on a surface, letting my mind imbibe what I see with a secret life of its own. Creating the surface and drawing is as much a salvation as contemplating the subtleties added by the firing process, letting my imagination wander to a sweeter place, or experiencing those spaces myself.

In my last post I mentioned entering work for a show at Womanmade Gallery, themed “Drawing on Experience”. The paragraph above accompanied my submitted images, and the piece pictured below (and, I’ve realized, above, as my blog banner) was the one accepted: word arrived this week.

The sky swirled all night around me; I lost track of who I was. 2007. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Unglazed. Soda fired to c.10, reduction cooled. 1h, 14w, 10l

Drawing on Experience runs June 27 through July 24, 2008. Womanmade Gallery is located at 685 N Milwaukee. The opening reception is on June 24, from 6-9pm.

These are a couple of my favorite cups to come home and see, finally getting some time under the lights.

Two cups. 2006? Handbuilt of Tile6 slip over stoneware FCSI. Woo blu glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 6.5h, 3.5w, 3l.

I sent a few pieces to a call for entries, titled “Drawing on Experience”. While I have a history of drawing on clay, that may not be a medium anybody expected. Writing the statement of work was a wonderful and surprising experience.

The sky swirled all night around me; I lost track of who I was. 2007. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Unglazed. Soda fired to c.10, reduction cooled. 1h, 14w, 10l.

These nesting bowls are my favorites - the flashing is lovely and the glaze runs are nothing short of amazing - and they’re endlessly useful. I’ve shown up with them at a friend’s house and filled them with fresh-cut melon to serve a crowd, taken fresh-baked cookies to work, enjoyed a salad, eaten ridiculously spicy homemade peanut noodles. Just to get the photos, I had to displace their cargo - bananas, this time. The big one holds two quarts of liquid, but there’s no need to fill them up: anything seems to look good on that glossy amber-black. Everyone should have a gorgeous set of big bowls because they’re good for everything.

Four temoku bowls. 2007? Handbuilt of BBSFAO over stoneware FCSI. Temoku glaze. Soda fired in reduction to c.10. To 11w, 9l, 4h.

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.

This is the first of probably many posts dealing with my experiments. This series began because I had been reading about some ceramic materials and wondered what would happen if … so I experimented with some little pieces I had on hand. Temoku glaze tends to be stable and predictable, and is one of my staples. Side note - most of these happened to go through one of Jayson Lawfer’s firings for heavy reduction firing and reduction cooling. Here are my results.

Sauce dish and tiny dish. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Whiting sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 1h, 2.5w; 1h, 3.5w.

Macro shot. Whiting serves as a flux in glazes, so it seemed like a good pick. The whiting came out very dry but can be brushed away with water, leaving a dry pitted surface and some very opaque glaze. I may be able to modify this, mix whiting with water and brush it on rather than sprinkling, but this experiment didn’t knock my socks off, so I’m letting it go for now.

Three sauce dishes. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Frit3134 sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 1h, 3.5w; 1h, 3.5w; 2h, 3.5w.

Macro shot. Another ceramic artist told me Ferro Frit 3134 is nice to work with. I knew it would melt, but didn’t know how it’d look. I used varying amounts of frit; while a little bit does the job, a lot isn’t too much. The frit melted and ran down, making a puddle that resembles an oil slick. This has potential, especially if there are places for glaze to pool.

Three sauce dishes. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Bone ash sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 2h, 2.5w, 3.5l; 1h, 3.5w; 1h, 3.5w.

Macro shot. I don’t remember why I thought this would be a good idea, and I had no idea what would happen. This piece had the least sprinkled on. The bone ash wasn’t all absorbed into the glaze, it showed a lot of potential. I love the crusty surface, and it appeared to be very stable when hit with soda. I’ve applied it on four pieces since then with success on three - the fourth is in the kiln and cooling as I type. Look for an update soon.

Two bowls and a sauce dish. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Bone ash sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 2h, 4.5w, 4l; 2h, 3.5w; 1h, 3.5w.

Individual shot. Granular nickel has the ability to form crystals. What couldn’t be cool about that? So I sprinkled some on (I tried to sprinkle on wet glaze, but sometimes had to spray the glaze with water to get my materials to stick). A little goes a long way; too much gives a crusty metallic surface. That might be good for sculpture but the same effect can probably be gotten with glaze, too.

Macro shot. Where it was applied lightly, I did get some neat little crystal formations. I don’t know how I’ll use it, but this is pretty cool.

Three sauce dishes. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Titanium dioxide sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 1.5h, 3.5w, 4l; 1h, 3.5w; 1h, 3.5w.

Macro shot. Titanium dioxide is the primary component of rutile, which has been a favorite colorant for years - an obvious choice for this experiment. The crystals don’t surprise me and is something I’ve seen before with my Woo Blu slowly cooled. Some of the powder sprinkled on in fine clumps; they melted but didn’t really move. Most of the surface was smooth and glossy; the titanium in combination with iron in the temoku yielded a golden color, deepened by reduction, but creamy in some places. As with the bone ash, the thickness of application seemed to be an easily solved problem. For my next applications I mixed some titanium dioxide with water and brushed it onto the rim of a tall vessel and into huge bowl.

Three sauce dishes. 2008. Handbuilt of Tile6 over stoneware FCSI with incised drawing. Soda ash sprinkled over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 1.5h, 3.5w.

Macro shot. I know soda ash is a flux - we use it in the kiln! Applying it directly to a glaze ensures that it goes where I want it. The pool at the bottom does get a greenish tinge to it.

Three sauce dishes. 2008. Handbuilt of Helmar slip over porcelainous stoneware with incised drawing. Granulated nickel brushed over temoku glaze. Soda fired to c.10. 1.5h, 3.5w, 4l; 1h, 3.5w; 1h, 3.5w.

Individual shot. Because the nickel had potential last time, I mixed some with water and brushed swirls onto more pieces. It turned out well.

Macro shot. The gold flecking is from soda hitting the piece. Very nice.

Backside of the above. Really pretty inky black.

Macro shot. This is nice too.

Seven houses. 2008. Handbuilt of FCSISi. Unglazed clay. Soda fired to c.10, reduction cooled. To 5.5″h, set 15″w, 4.5″l.

It’s time for me to apply for shows again. I’ll be headed to NSUC and Bucktown once again, and trying for a couple other shows, to be determined. The house project continues; I’m excited to keep making them. This will be a fun year!