Wood Kiln firing

Lately I have been throwing with a CA-2 clay body made by Laguna Clay Co. This is one of the two clay bodies that they make specifically for wood kiln firings. I met a local potter named Frank Gray and he invited me to be part of the next firing. We are hoping to do this firing the first or second weekend of November. The pictures are of some of the pieces for the firing. I took about an hour on Monday to sand them all and get them ready. Above is the best butterbell or french butter dish I have thrown yet. Below are my first attempt at this style of mug.


I have never been involved with a wood kiln firing before but have been desiring to do so for a while. The kiln was built as part of a Concrete Couch project. Concrete Couch is a non-profit art organization that does all sorts of community art projects. The kiln is located on the south west side of Woodland Park. They allow people to pay a small fee for a full or half share and then ask everyone to help split wood and keep the fire going.




I pushed myself a little bit and threw some of the biggest pieces I have thrown so far. I am happy with them and also happy with some of the mugs and tumblers I threw. As of today all the pieces are sanded and ready to be bisqued fired. Frank is able to bisque fire my pieces right here in town and also has community glazes available for the wood firing.

In other news, I threw around 50 pieces with a Redstone cone 6 clay body, also made by Laguna, and those should be being glaze fired this week. They would have been ready last week but my friend's kiln needed to be repaired. Between these two firings I should have around 50-60 pieces that will be available for sale or barter.

I have been really encouraged with the results of my throwing lately. These last few months have been awesome and these pieces are the best I have thrown yet (for the most part). I do not know if I have reached the 1000 pieces thrown mark yet but I do feel like a real (amateur) potter.

Stay tuned for pictures of the pieces from the electric firing as well as updates on the wood kiln firing. If the wood kiln firing actually happens I plan on taking lots of pictures and posting them so you all can see the process. I am not sure how much pottery I will be doing this winter for two reasons: 1) I do not have a heated studio space and 2) I have a job!

poetree

Pottery Ponderings

Recently I have been posting about hikes and other things rather than pottery. In the past month I have been reunited with pottery and love it! I purchased a used electric wheel and set up a make shift studio in a storage room at the house we are renting. The space is small but wonderful. I leave the door open so I get fresh air, sunshine and can look out at the pine, cedar and aspen trees in our yard. My soul is happy and feeling very restored.

The first few weeks I threw many random things and tried throwing with larger amounts of clay. My wrists have been feeling so much better and this has been a great encouragement. Some folks at a fellowship we visit prayed for my wrists a few times and they are truly being healed! In the past few days I have been working on some really fun mugs. I have nailed down a few mug shapes I really like and am having a blast creating beards and mustaches to put on the mugs. I will post pictures of the first step (pre-Bisque firing) so you can see these beauties.

That was the update. The following paragraphs are my most recent pottery ponderings from the wheel.

Yesterday as I was centering some clay Jesus spoke to me very clearly. This clay was a little difficult to center and I knew there was an air pocket somewhere. When this happens, for those of you who don't know, you have to push the clay down with a lot of pressure. If the clay is in a cone or cylinder shape you have to flatten it out. This forces the air pocket to 'surface' so you can poke it with the needle tool and 'pop' it. As I was pressing the clay down and looking for the air pocket Jesus spoke to me about how he uses circumstances, trials, seasons in life to press me so that he can address the 'pockets' that are keeping my life from being truly centered. Let me expound on that a little.....

We often wrestle with the reality of God's goodness in the midst of the reality of the hardships of life. Most of us go one of two ways in our thinking and living. Some of us fall for a theology that says God is an angry judge sitting 'upstairs' waiting for us to screw up so he can punish us. This is terrible theology. Those who do not think and live with that theology usually have to compromise the absolute goodness of God. This results in a fatalistic theology and leads to skeptism and cynism. Neither of these are good or true theologies.

The reality is that God is truly absolutely good. In all he does and in all he allows. My life experience has shown that, much like when I am centering clay, God works through pressure to bring to surface aspects of my life that are keeping me from being centered in him. An air pocket can cause a noticable wobble in the clay which will show up as I pull up the wall, trim the piece and in the end will look terrible in the finished product. In the same way there are places of our heart, mind and soul that cause a wobble in our journey of life and in the end, if not addressed by God's love and mercy, will result in an imperfect piece of art. So, when you are faced with trials, stresses or just gloomy days, first thank God for his absolute goodness, then come before him with your prayers-earnest and honest prayers.

Paul wrote to the church in Phillipi. "Always be joyful, then in the Lord; I repeat, be joyful. Let your good sense be obvious to everyone. The Lord is near. Never worry about anything; but tell God all your desires of every kind in prayer and petition shot through with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond our understanding will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:4-7.

May this be an encouragement to each of us. God is truly good and is in control of everything all the time. Our response needs to be one of thankfulness and our prayers need to be "shot through with gratitude." After thanking him we can then tell him honestly what our desires are. A quick example: my wrists have been affected by carpal tunnel syndrome over the last year. I am just now realizing how God has used this as a 'pressure' on my heart to address deep issues keeping me from being centered such as trusting his goodness. The times I respond in anger, asking God 'why' result only in my heart growing bitter. Over the last month, by his grace, I have been able to respond with gratitude first and then saying, 'Father, I want my wrists to be healed. I trust your goodness.' My heart remains humble and thankful and I still ask for healing.

glaze refiring.....

Well, the results are in......

The re-firing went pretty well. I was not even sure if you could refire pieces so I am thrilled that we even have finished pieces of pottery. I love pottery because it is always a learning experience. Most potters, I think, would argue that there are few to no 'master' potters. It is a discipline, art, craft that reinforces humility, even for those who have worked with clay longer than I have been alive.

Once again I am in awe and fascinated at the change that fire and heat bring out during the glaze firing. In the previous post I shared a picture of the pieces with the dry glazes on them. I wish I would have done pictures of individuals pieces so you could see the transformation. I learned a lot from this first firing and re-firing. I have some fun ideas for more things to attempt in the next round of wares.

The one bummer from the re-firing was that the Teal Blue glaze got overfired. Every piece with Teal Blue turned tar black. I was really excited for a mug I made for my friend Chris but Teal Blue was the main color. I am still proud of it and going to give it to him, but hopefully can do something similar to it with a better turn out of the Teal Blue.

My two favorite pieces are a butterbell with Amber as the underglaze and Cream Rust as the overglaze and a honey jar with the Amber glaze. These two pieces alone are worth all the time, money and energy I've put into all of this.

As of right now I am planning on taking a hiatus from pottery until my wrists get better. I am not thrilled with this but know that I need to be serious about getting better. If you think of it, please pray for grace, wisdom and healing. Thanks. Stay tuned for more fun pottery putterings with Poetree. Love!

Pottery Putterings

Hello world!

I have not posted much on here in the last several months in regards to pottery. I believe the last thing I posted was that we had just installed a new wheel in our studio. The past several months have been a dance of two partners: joy and frustration.

I have been overjoyed at the proximity of creating with clay. It is amazing to be able to go out to our front porch and spend time creating with clay. I have a whole list of different shapes I want to develop and have been able to make several of them 'successfully.' For me, success is usually not measured only by having a finished product. For me, success is when I have fun, work peacefully, know when to take breaks and learn from the experience. Some of the pieces I have been working on have been: 'French' butter dishes aka butterbells, a pinch pot (to left), a bowl with a handle, a garlic jar (below right) and a honey jar. See pictures for some of the unfired pieces. We are hoping to do a firing in early February.

The frustration has come from a 'handful' of things. I am still having difficulties with my wrists and hands. This definitely affects my ability to throw pottery. So far I have been taking it very easy and throwing only small pieces every once and a while. I go see a specialist tomorrow and hope to get some answers and direction. It has also been frustrating balancing family, work and pottery. Also, the fact that it is winter has been challenging as well.

Overall, it is really wonderful to have the ability to create. The studio is very much a shared space and I am excited for the possibilities that this space holds. I will be posting soon to let you know how the first firing goes. We are going to be mixing on our glazes from the raw ingredients and I will let you know how that goes as well.

Some of the books I have been looking at for inspiration and learning are: Val Cushing's Handbook, The Potter's Manual by Kenneth Clark, and Wheel-Thrown Pottery by Bill Van Gilder.

Stay tuned!

Albuquerque Pottery #1

We arrived at my parents' two weeks ago. My dad has been working 7 days a week so his time is very limited. I spent the first day moving, cleaning and rearranging my dad's pottery studio in the garage. The first week I spent practicing, practicing, and practicing. My dad's equipment is a decade older than I am and so it has taken me some time to adjust. That and the climate in significantly different. I can throw something, take the bat off the wheel and be able to trim it in a few hours!

I had two very frustrating days in a row where everything I touched fell apart. I was having a hard time with the basics like centering and getting very upset. I asked my dad for some help when he got home and after dinner we went to the garage. The first thing he asked me was, "Is the wheel how it has been all day?" Yeah, why? He then showed me how it was rocking back and forth and not level! Ha! After a few pointers about centering I tried it again. Needless to say, I am much more encouraged and had two full days of pottery Friday and Saturday. To the left is a tea mug and infuser/filter I have been developing.

One really exciting thing in my time here is that I have been able to sit down, sketch out ideas, wedge clay and throw pretty much what I had in mind from the beginning of the process. This has been very encouraging. I have been spending many hours at the wheel and just started keeping things this last week. I have been sketching some pitchers, mixing bowls with spouts and handles as well as mugs. Below is a picture of some mugs, pitchers and mixing bowls I threw Friday then trimmed and applied handles on Saturday.

pottery #2

Today I went back to Patti's studio to practice cylindrical shapes. Today was the first time I was truly independent. I started out by combining clay and wedging them into cone shapes. I have been practicing a form of wedging called 'ram's horn.' I felt the most comfortable wedging today out of the three times.
I started out throwing smaller amounts of clay (1 1/2-2 lbs) but last time I threw some that were between 2 1/2-3 lbs. Today I decided to do more that size. For a beginner like me some of these wedges seem immense but master potters threw much larger pieces of clay.
Today I got to threw 5 pieces practicing the cylindrical shape. I felt very comfortable with the clay and could easily critique what I was doing wrong and how to adjust it. My 4th piece (see picture) was the best one I have done yet. I was able to pull the walls up about 2 inches! I also was introduced to the saying, 'It takes a thousand pots to make a potter.' I have made 22 so far! Ha ha!

I reflected on God creating humanity today as my hands were covered in slurry (excess clay). I thought about God's hands dripping with slurry as he paused to admire Adam. I thought about how God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life. Woah! Imagine if you were throwing a piece of clay, shaping it in your image and then could breath life into it?! For me it is wonderful to think about God breathing new life into us each day by his Spirit. Apart from Jesus we can do nothing. Each day we need Jesus to breathe his life into us that we can be image bearers in this world.

pottery

I started a pottery internship and decided to make this a poetry and pottery blog. So, he is my first pottery entry and pictures.
I have the privilege of learning the art of pottery with my friend Patti Olson. It is a wonderful opportunity and i am very excited. I feel alive and awake again for the first time in a long time. Working with my hands to build something out of a lump of clay is amazing.
As a Christian, Patti believes pottery is an act of prayer. Thus learning from her is an act of prayer. I meditate on different Scriptures and pray while wedging clay and throwing. One thing that she recommended was coming to the wheel with peace not anxiety, frustration or anger. These will show in the pieces you throw. This connected with me on a deep level as a new parent. If i come to parenting with anger or frustration it will show in my son. Viewing Shiloh as a piece of clay to be shaped or molded in love, calmness and peace is very helpful.
Thus far i have had two lessons with Patti. The first was basic knowledge of clay and throwing. The second lesson was recapping throwing basics and talking about the three basic shapes: cylinder/cup, bowl and plate. I learned the cylinder/cup and threw 8 pieces and kept the best. I learned a little bit of how to trim as well.
Check back here for updates and photos. I am absolutely thrilled at learning this skill and cannot wait to learn more with my dad who is a potter. Enjoy the pictures!