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Sectionals Shirt Design

I was asked by the Shirt Shack to design a shirt for the West Noble girls basketball team to wear during the current sectional tournament.  They were looking for a two color design.  I had complete freedom of design but not a lot of time to do it.  I came up with three options using Adobe Illustrator.

Lady Chargers Sectionals Design

Lady Chargers Sectionals Design

The design that they liked also happened to be the one that I liked best.  Pretty simple concept.  I tried a bunch of different strokes and line options for the basketball.  The font is Edo SZ found at dafont.com.  It looks even better as a shirt.  The Lady Chargers had a bye in the first round and beat Wawasee to reach the sectional finals.  Good luck tonight girls!

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Last Year’s Pottery

I decided I should put up a few images of the last glaze fire of 2011 before I got too far into 2012. I like some of the images that I’ve seen of other potter’s work in a more natural surrounding instead of the gray backdrop. So I chose a few notable items and set them on the kitchen counter and snapped away as the sun was streaming in through the window.

It was fun getting shots from different angles with areas of light and shadow. And the sunlight really made some of the glaze colors sparkle.  It was a little more interesting than sticking each piece on a gray back drop but I’m not sure that I really enhanced the feeling of functionality.  Maybe I’ll try the table next time or add some food or silverware…

The full kiln load included a few more soup bowls, a refired platter, a couple larger bowls, another mug? and some Christmas ornaments. Nothing earth shattering but some pretty decent pots overall.

I just unloaded the kiln Tuesday evening after the first glaze fire of 2012. Mostly logo mugs with some great results. Images coming soon…

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Clay Studio Cam

Okay, so I don’t really have a clay studio cam… yet.  But Keith over at Mudstuffing Sketchbook has posted a really cool video from his studio.  Maybe someday I’ll get into those moving pictures but for now I have the old fashioned still images.

Logo Mugs Drying

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.

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Gone Awry… or Too Dry

So what happens when clay dries out too much before you get it put together?  Bad things.

Lost Mugs

Lost Mugs

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Finished Pottery for Christmas

December was a flurry of pottery making.  According to my kiln log I fired the kiln three times.  One bisque fire and two glaze fires.  Here are some results from glaze firing on the 12th.

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.

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Pottery at the Stone Soup Emporium

Display at the Stone Soup Emporium

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.

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Summer Pots: Finished and For Sale

About half a year ago I posted an image of some pottery that I was working on.  I finally finished that batch of pots and shot some photos a few weeks ago.  I literally had to dust off my photo booth since it had been so long since I photographed pottery.  So I’ve been busy…  Here’s what I came up with:

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Murals at West Noble Primary

Giving Tree - West Noble Primary

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. Read More »

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Summer and Fall 2011

Cutting the Cord

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

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

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.

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Drying: plates, mugs, vases

mugs, set of plates drying

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.

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