Logo Mugs Drying

I think I have about enough mugs and other items to bisque fire in the next week.  I had some orders for Little Charger mugs before Christmas Break so I’ve got those ready to go.  I also had some requests for mugs with other logos.  The stamps that I ordered came in at the end of last week so I’ve got a few more logo mugs drying.  I was on top of things this time so no casualties yet and they are now almost completely dry.

Just off the Wheel

Trimmed and Drying

I also decided to make a few more yarn bowls to put over at the Stone Soup Emporium.  I forgot how long cutting and smoothing takes.  I guess I could have made the cuts a little less complex but I like the look of the spiral.  Three yarn bowls are drying with a large mug/stein and a new form that I’m working on: the tumbler.  Most of my previous drinking vessels have had a handle but I thought I should expand my horizons and see what happens.  This first one is “okay” so I’ll try a few more.

Tall Tumblers

And here they are.  Today school was cancelled so I took about 90 minutes to throw some pots.  I cranked out 7 tall tumbler forms and 3 shorter cylinders which I might add some logos to tomorrow.  I used a little under a pound and a half of clay for each tumbler and most of them are right around 7 inches tall off the wheel.  For this first batch I was just trying to get some similar shapes and sizes and become halfway efficient throwing the form.  It’s interesting to see the subtle differences after I put them next to each other to dry.  I think this is a form I would like to experiment with some more.

Up next should be a bisque fire after everything is dry.  I”m also looking to order some supplies and possibly invest in a slab roller.

Lost Mugs

I’ve had a pretty good stretch since about Christmas in which I’ve dedicated a good amount of my extra time to cranking out pottery.  Of course I have to do it around work and visitors and making sure the baby doesn’t stress my wife out too much.  So there are times when the schedules don’t line up and something might dry out too much because I thought I could get to it sooner.  That was the case with some logo mugs that I was working on a couple weeks ago.

Faulty Attachment

I had wheel thrown a number of mug forms and needed them to dry out a little so the clay wasn’t too soft and sticky.  By the time I got back to them they were a little too dry but I attached handles and logos anyway and then let them slowly dry out completely.  Of the 6 or 8 that I was working on, 3 had cracks where the logos or handles were attached that were beyond repair.  There were a few others with hairline cracks that might survive (fingers crossed).

Fallen Logos

So it was a sad day in the clay studio.  But a couple of the logos came off easily and I tore the others off and sanded out the rough spots and I’ll fire the bare mugs or cylinders and see what happens.  Perhaps some brush holders for the studio at the very least.  The good  news is that I have a few more batches in the works.  I’ll have some pictures of some new logo mugs soon.  Maybe some will even have the logos still attached!

About half of these items were commissioned pieces.  The secretary at school asked if I could put our school logo on some mugs so she could give them as gifts to the principal and resource officer.  Another staff member asked if I could make some yarn bowls to give as Christmas presents.  I had never done either but I was happy to learn.

I ordered some custom rubber stamps with the “Little Chargers” logo in a 2″ and 3″ size.  I stamped the logos on the mugs or on a slab and attached the slab to the mug.  I tried it a couple different ways and experimented with the glazes and got some interesting results.  For the yarn bowls I took a look at Etsy to see what was already out there and made a few similar forms.  I also made a set of soup bowls (with handles!) for my mom’s Christmas gift and some large mugs/steins.  I also made some simple Christmas ornaments, even though it might be the equivalent of selling my potter’s soul the the devil?  I’m not worried though, since I haven’t really established myself as any kind of professional craftsman or potter… yet.

I took all of the above pieces and a few more to the 2nd biennial Christmas pottery sale at Ligonier Elementary West Noble Primary.  The Little Charger mugs were gone almost before I got in the door.  We’re talking Black Friday meets Handmade Pottery.  Everyone seemed to like them.  (At least if people hated them they didn’t say anything to me.)  Since they were in limited supply I took orders so everyone has a chance to get one.  I was really happy with the amount of work I sold and even happier with the amount of empty space I now have on my studio shelves.  I might also continue to develop the idea of stamping logos on pottery.  Perhaps this could be a sign of “selling out” or “sacrificing art for corporate greed” but I have to pay for boxes of clay and buckets of glazes.  And now that we have a kid we can’t keep the house at just above freezing to save dollars.

I glaze fired the kiln again on Christmas Eve so I could have a few extra Christmas presents.  I might or might not post some results from that firing.  I’m currently working on some more Little Charger mugs in the clay studio.  Also, after one month of selling at the Stone Soup Emporium I’m only down $10.  Not bad for “getting my name out there” and putting 3 actual mugs in people’s actual hands.  Maybe this month I’ll sell enough to cover the whole shelf rental fee.  Fingers crossed.

Display at the Stone Soup Emporium

My pottery can now be purchased in the booming metropolis of Bristol, IN.  Visit the Stone Soup Emporium to see some of my recent work.  The display isn’t exactly fantastic.  Most of each shelf is in shadow because the main light is directly above. But the owners said I could add some extra lighting if I wanted.  I might try some kind of paper or fabric first.  I’m open to suggestions.  I also wish some of the shelves were a little taller so I could fit some taller pieces.  View the facebook page here.

My wife hauled over a few items at the beginning of the month and rented some shelf space.  We’ll see what happens for the month of December.  I’m not expecting big numbers but it would be nice to sell a couple things.  Especially since it is the gift buying season.  I don’t know how much traffic they get but hopefully at the very least new people will see my work. If you see anything you have to have but aren’t in the area let me know and I’ll go grab it.  I need to go add a few more things.  I’ve got some stuff left over from the school sale.

I took a couple tubs full of ceramic ware in to West Noble Primary for the annual Pottery Sale by Fuzzy.  I had a lot of good feedback and a good number of sales.  The Lil’ Charger mugs that I made were a big hit.  Think “Black Friday” meets “wheel thrown pottery” and you have some idea.  The secretary had the idea to order mugs with the school logo to give the principal and resource officer.  Everyone else really liked them too.  I even took orders from people who didn’t get one.  Another teacher wanted two yarn bowls.  I made about 6 of them including two smaller “test” bowls.  I sold a couple of the larger bowls to other people.  I also made some slab ornaments and maybe half of those sold.  I think I made enough to pay for my last supply order and get myself some more glazes and a couple boxes of clay in the near future.  I also have my eyes on a portable slab roller but… it is quite an investment.

I hope you are having a great holiday season.

All items are wheel thrown stoneware clay with cone 6 glazes. Most items have Pam’s Blue or Saturated Iron glazes by Coyote because I still have a large quantity of both. The plates were “commissioned” by my wife.  I have about 5 more to glaze and fire at some point. The vases came about mostly because I wanted to try some different forms on the pottery wheel.  I really like the teardrop shaped vase with the Red Gold and Espresso Bean dripping down over the Pam’s Blue Glaze.  The bulb vase has some interesting glaze effects but if you look close you might be able to see that it was my first real glaze problem.  I had too much Red Gold and it ran all the way down onto the glaze shelf.  Luckily, the kiln wash helped it to pop right off the shelf.  Unfortunately it also took chunks of the pot with it so there are some sharp edges at the bottom.  The root beer steins/mugs were just a chance to experiment with a mug form only larger.

I also tried to add some imagery to some of the mugs in the form of lightning bolts or “WN” for the school corporation I work at, the West Noble Chargers. I think it would be cool to eventually add logos to mugs for local businesses or schools.  I rolled out some thin slabs and cut out the letters or lightning bolts and then attached them to leather hard mugs. I used wax resist to help glaze the logos a different color than the mug. I was happy with the result. Perhaps this will lead to some additional sales? I will have some items available at West Noble Primary and I currently have a few things at another location.

As I’m typing this I have another load glaze firing in the kiln at about 2000F. It has similar items to those above and a few ornaments for the holiday season. I’m excited to see the results of mugs that I tried a new stamping technique with. I’m a little nervous though because I’m using some glazes that I haven’t tested before. I started feeling the holiday crunch about a week ago so I was in full production mode for a little while.  It worked out well because my mom came down to spend some time with her granddaughter so I got to spend some time with my studio. After bisque firing Friday evening I unloaded, washed and glazed everything Saturday and Sunday morning. I could have fired Sunday but there were a few things that didn’t look completely dry so I didn’t want to risk it. I got it loaded Sunday night and had my wife start it up at about 1:00 today. I preheated for an hour just to make sure there was no pesky water in any of the pieces. I’ve still got my fingers crossed…

Giving Tree in the Hallway

Over the summer another teacher and I were commissioned to paint murals at West Noble Primary.  The school, formerly known as Ligonier Elementary, was becoming a K-1 building as part of the plan to realign the elementary schools in our corporation.  The principal wanted all the old dog-themed murals replaced with Little Chargers.  So Carol and I set out to transform the school before the end of summer.  Carol is quite an illustrator and had already come up with a Little Chargers logo last school year.  It is a cartoon of a boy and a girl in knight armor holding lightning bolts… so that was where we started.

Giving Tree Mural

We didn’t have a lot of direction from the boss other than “Little Chargers” and something about the Giving Tree.  Carol started by painting the Little Chargers from the logo just inside the main entrance.  I took the Giving Tree and started work in the reading corner, a corner of the hallway with a table used for small groups.  The concept was pretty simple.  I took the cover of the Giving Tree and added some knight armor and a quote suggested by the boss.

Medieval Market Mural

Our next order of business was the cafeteria.  After some thought and discussion Carol came up with the idea of turning the whole thing into a castle/courtyard.  Of course, this meant repainting the walls a light tan color to simulate castle walls.  This little idea probably added a week to our project but we decided it would be worth it.  My wife, being nine months pregnant might not have had the same exact thought…

Little Charger Cafe

I decided to work on murals around the lunch window first.  I added two banners which weren’t too complex and then painted “Little Charger Cafe” above the window.  This was a lot more complex because I tried to make it look like it was carved into the bricks.  It took a lot of time but I think it turned out pretty well.

Watermelon Cart

Cafeteria Market

Carol painted a series of murals on one of the long walls that gave the impression of looking out the castle windows.  I was responsible for the other long wall and I came up with an idea for a market scene.  I painted a barrel of apples, a bread and vegetable stand and a cart full of watermelon.  I really like the way the stand came out but I wish I would have had more time to add some more texture or details in some areas.

Horses and Helmets

In one of the corners, by the doors that students enter the cafeteria for lunch, I painted a barrel with two stick-horses and a shelf with some knight helmets.  Like a medieval coat rack?  This was at least partially Carol’s idea.  I think the cafeteria was our best project just for the sheer magnitude of it.  We also had to work around piles of desks, chairs and other items since it was one of the staging areas for the big move.  Then we also had to scramble to get it finished so Tim could clean the floor on schedule.

Little Charger Football

After spending so much time on the cafeteria, we didn’t have a lot of time or effort left for the gym and we both decided that we would scale back a little.  Repainting the floor was originally part of the plan but (luckily?) Tim said it couldn’t be done, at least in our window of time.  So there is still a giant dog in the middle of the court with paw prints all over the place.  Maybe next summer?  Carol, though great at cartoon characters, wasn’t too confident about making Little Chargers playing sports like the boss had requested.  So I sketched out some sports characters that were highly influenced by some that I found on the internet.  I got the football player finished just in time for my wife to have the baby.

Little Charger Baseball

Due to some complications my wife needed me by her side instead of finishing murals for a few weeks.  Even when school started she needed help so I missed some time.  I didn’t finish the baseball and basketball player until sometime in November when I stayed after school for a few nights.

Little Charger Basketball

Originally I was just going to paint the characters but Carol’s kids on the opposite wall had some ground to stand on so I added some grass for the football player, dirt for the baseball player and a slightly reflective court for the basketball player.  Now they are definitely not floating in the air.

So… Pretty big project, pretty good results.  I learned a lot and it was nice to do some drawing and painting again.  I scanned my sketches into the computer and then used the mobile projector to trace the picture up on the wall.  The painting went a little slower than we anticipated.  First of all, the walls are far from smooth.  Second, most of the paint we used needed at least two coats to look good.  Third, these were the largest paintings that either Carol or I had ever done.  We both might have burnt out a little at some point but I’m glad I got to do it.

Cutting the Cord

Well, according to the time-stamp on my last post, I haven’t posted in nearly 6 months!  Half of a year…  There have been a few changes since then.  First and most importantly my wife and I are now parents.  Quincy Blue was born August 12th.  At first we spent a lot of time driving to the hospital, doctor’s office and medical supply store but now everyone is doing very well.  The only problem so far is that Quin hasn’t learned to type yet so she can’t update my blog for me.  She also doesn’t have enough experience in the clay studio to be a proper apprentice and attach handles to mugs, reclaim clay or mop the floor.  So I’ve had to do all of that sort of thing myself (as you can see from the lack of blog posts).  Luckily my wife let me spend a good amount of time in the studio recently to finish some commissioned pieces and Christmas items.  (She wasn’t exactly thrilled to take care of the kid while I got all dirty but I guess I’ll count it as my Christmas present.)  I just bisque fired everything last night so I hope to start glazing later today or tomorrow.

Mural in Progress

The new school year started a few months ago.  As previously mentioned, I’m back at West Noble Primary, formerly known as Ligonier Elementary.  We are now a Kindergarten and 1st Grade building while the other elementary school has grades 2-4.  The “Boss” wanted a new look to go with the new staff and building name so he hired another teacher and myself to paint new murals all over the school.  It was a huge project.  My wife, again, wasn’t exactly thrilled that I was off painting while she was 9 months pregnant.  But she is the best.  I finished all but two of my murals before the kid arrived and then finished the last two in November.  More details will follow in a later post.

As for this site, it seems to have been forgotten.  But that’s not true!  I’ve been working on it behind the scenes a little bit at a time.  I moved the site to a new host as an add-on domain.  (Use StableHost by clicking this link to help support my endeavors.)  I’ve tweaked the Basic Gray theme for the blog and I’ve added content to the process, studio, and artist pages.  There aren’t a lot of images yet, and the gallery isn’t up (which, I suppose, is ironic for a visual artist’s website).  But there will be images.  My goal is before 2012.

Clay Blog Review

I’ve also spent a little time working on a web project: Pottery Making Info.  I’ve started a new series of posts called Clay Blog Review which highlights some of the best pottery related blog posts of the month.  Take a look at the top pottery posts of November.  I have a few posts lined up for December and hopefully another Blogs of the Year post over Christmas break.

Other than all that, a few T-shirt designs, another website, painting large cartoons of half a basketball team, changing a few diapers and coaching cross country it’s been pretty boring for the past 6 months.  I’m hoping to add some more detailed posts about recent projects soon.  And announce some big news…  Stay tuned.

mugs, set of plates drying

I’ve had a chance to spend a few hours in the clay studio over the past few weeks.  I threw a set of simple plates for my wife.  The only other set that I’ve thrown were part of my senior exhibit in college 7 years ago.  I’ve thrown a plate or platter every once in a while, to remember how to do it or so I have a large flat area to do something fancy with glazes, so I think I’ve improved slightly since then.  I’ll reserve judgement until after they are all glazed and fired to see how they hold up, and how they stack, and if I like the functionality of the set.  I threw 9 total.  They are all pretty similar in size but as I was trimming the bottom it was interesting to see the slight differences along the outside edges.  I also tried a few root beer mugs (or beer steins, depending on your choice of beverage).  I think I started with about two pounds of clay and added some thick handles with thumb rests.

test pots, vases drying

I usually stick with one type of clay – Amaco’s Warm Brown Stoneware.  But I threw and altered a few items recently with some low fire clay because I want to do a little experimenting with a pit fire.  (Notice the small bottles in front.)  I want to try some different clays, bisque fired and not bisque fired to see what gives interesting results.  I’m also looking forward to testing some glazes.  I have a pretty good sample of chemicals and a few glaze books.  So I decided to throw a handful of little test vessels (pencil holders?) to go along with my test tiles.  Since it will be my first major glaze testing session at the home studio it seems like a few more items, especially items with some curves, wouldn’t hurt.  I threw the little test vessels “off the hump” as they say, and each one only took a couple minutes and weren’t exactly challenging.  So to challenge myself and hopefully improve my throwing skills I worked on a few vase-type forms.  I’m pretty happy with the “light bulb vases” because I felt like I got a pretty good form without making the walls too thick.

wheel thrown bottles and vases

I also threw a few bottles and taller vases to work on my skills.  The clay was a little too soft for what I was trying to do but I decided the worst that could happen was that one of my mediocre vases would collapse into a spinning blob, I would get mad/depressed for a few seconds, I’d start over… and life would go on.  So that nearly happened a few times.  But I got things straightened out except for a few minor lumps and ended up with what you see in the photo.  The bottles are a little heavy, mostly because I couldn’t really trim much from the bottom because my chuck was too wide.  I eventually put another vase in the chuck and then put the bottles in the vase to clean up the bottom.  Pretty unstable but it works okay in a pinch.  As I was trimming I thought I might be able to throw and attachment piece to put inside/attach to the “super chuck” to make it more narrow for bottles or other long-necked pots.  I haven’t trimmed the vases but I have a feeling they might be a little bottom heavy as well.

I hope to do some more throwing in in the next week or so.  My brother and his wife are back from China on summer break so they are staying with us for a few days.  After they leave I’ll probably have to hit the murals hard so I’m not too far behind.  But I might be able to squeeze a little studio time in here and there.

I do plan to spend a lot of time at Ligonier Elementary this summer, but not to move boxes.  The Ligonier Elementary era has come to an end so the West Noble Primary era can begin.  A new name, new staff, and new mascot means a new look.  So I’ll be working with another teacher to cover the walls with murals that have less to do with dogs and more to do with Little Chargers.  Currently we’re working on sketching out some ideas.

I’ve also been spending a good chunk of this week in the clay studio.  But now I’m going to the library with my wife.  Updates on murals and pottery should follow.

Ultrasound

Here’s a screen capture of the ultrasound from today.