Television inspiration

While watching television a few weeks ago, I saw an infomercial for a stoneware piece of pottery! It has a hollow handle and a hole in the knob so the steam can vent while microwaving your food. So I said to myself, "I can make that." It soft cooks an egg nicely, but that is the only thing I've tried so far. The glaze on the inside is a nice shiny white....Colonial White by Laguna and the outside is my scrap glaze that is a years collection of cleaned glazing brushes. I like where white overlaps the brown and pulls some brown with it. I'll have to try that combination again. Just looking at this make me think of the future fall season that I've been looking forward to all summer. Utah had the hottest summer on record...3 straight months of over 90 degrees. I don't care how cold or how much snow we get...I will not complain! I promise!

A little bit of crackle

Wow, does time fly when you're not blogging. Here are some pieces I've completed as of late. The glaze is Laguna's Catalina Crackle and Tang Lime crackle. If your pieces lay flat, the glazes pool nicely and blend with the plumb glaze to soften the edges, which I like. If you put the crackle on a bowl, it runs like it's in a marathon! So my pottery mentor, Jack Jarvie, "tweeked" the Catalina Crackle for the bird. He used some feldspar (alkaline) so I was told. It did the trick and made the glaze behave itself at cone 5/6.

No melt down here

This is a Jack Jarvie pot that I selected and purchased from his home collection. It was done back in the day, when he did a lot of teaching demonstrations and very creative/experimental pottery. I think that paddled  area with the in-set  cat tail design is a very clever and beautiful detail. I am really enjoying the fact that he comes in regularly to my Thursday clay class. It is a great opportunity for me to chat-it-up about clay and glazes...especially about their chemical make-up and what ingredients to add to adjust their characteristics. How often does that usually happen?!  He has a wealth of knowledge and I am thrilled he is still able and interested in sharing it with me. A teacher for the teacher....how great is that!

Almost doesn't count

The vase above was made and glazed by my friend and master potter, Jack Jarvie. He has been making pottery almost all his life and he now comes to the senior center to impart some of his vast expertise and knowledge in the clay arts...hence my nickname for him "the professor". Well the professor has tons of clay he has dug from all around Utah. We tested a few batches to see if it would make it to cone 5/6 and we thought we were all set. Well, it almost had a melt down. It slumped and bubbled and buckled at cone 5/6. (I'm thinking we might have had a clay mix-up) Even though the glaze is quite blistered, and the firing actually immortalized some clay bubbles, it still holds water somehow and looks beautiful next to my petunias and dianthus. No shelf was harmed in this firing. As I like to say, "almost" doesn't count.

Summer Inspiration

This is the work of a potter I met at the Utah Arts Festival. Of all the pottery, his work caught my eye. Both eyes actually, lol, and I had to come back to his booth to buy a pot. The work had a lively, spontaneous look that I strive to have in my own work, colorful glaze combinations and a gloss/matte finish I really enjoy. I appreciate that he gave me permission to photograph his booth, which was lovely, I might add....booth set-up is an art in itself. Check out his website at www.bradhenrypottery.com  The pottery is his, the daisies are mine.

Utah Arts Festival

A few weeks ago, I enjoyed attending  this festival in downtown Salt Lake City with some friends. The high level of quality of the artwork was very impressive. I appreciate that the set-up did not focus on food vendors and that the art booths dominated the festival. Of course, I enjoyed focusing on the pottery. Some potters were local but many, to my surprise were from, Washington State, Oregon and California. All was very inspirational. Next year, I hope to attend in the evening when the temperature is cooler and catch some of the music at the same time.

A close up