Well, tonight was the final night of the 10-week Winter Session of my Tuesday night
Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing Class at Lillstreet Art Center.
We all had a wonderful time making pots and sharing our clay experiences.
Everyone had a great time, lots of demos, lots of laughs, and a LOT of great pots!
Tonight we capped it off with a potluck dinner, informal critique & discussion…
and the ever-popular “bowl exchange.” Where everyone contributes one bowl (or mug?)
that they’ve made, and then we do a secret, White Elephant sort of random drawing & trading
game to exchange bowls (or mugs?) so everyone goes home with someone else’s treasure!

And oh, but wait there’s more…
I also found out tonight that my class for the Spring Session if already full.
More than two weeks before the session is scheduled to start may be an actual record?!
Sorry if you were planning in signing up, but waited too long. I tried to warn you
that the class fills up fast. I know at least a handful of this session’s students are returning,
but the rest are going to be newbies joining in on the fun! Sorry if you didn’t make the cut.
I think there’s a waiting list, but no guarantee that you’ll get in. Check it out at Lillstreet!!!

So I loaded another electric bisque kiln tonight before class. I love loading kilns.
It’s like a three-dimensional, spatial-relationship puzzle trying to fill every space,
fit it all together and get as much in as possible! The beauty of a bisque kiln is that you can
carefully stack the greenware to optimize the spacing in the kiln. I always do good
at the bottom layer, but it always seems tougher as you get towards the top and start to
run out of “options” and no more smaller pieces to squeeze in. I hate leaving open spaces.
It seems like a waste of space. I should have made more!

Layer One: All mugs!

Layer Two: More mugs, bowls and berry bowls…

Layer Three: Bowls, berry bowls, berry bowl plates… and a couple mugs!

Layer Four: Plates… and my new butter dish “prototypes”!!!

A lot of little plates thrown today… hopefully I’ll get them all trimmed tomorrow?!

And hopefully… everyone will want to buy a ceramic berry bowl this Spring!!!
So today I spent the day at the studio turning the stamped bowls into berry bowls.
I trimmed the foot, then pierced the bottom with drainage holes. Once they were done,
I needed to find a place to let them dry… so I used “The Annex.”

“The Annex”… which is my friend Karen Patinkin’s empty studio which I so kindly refer to
as “The Annex” every time I need to “sneak” in and borrow her empty table top. So while
she’s off traveling somewhere in Timbuktu (literally) and won’t be back for awhile. It’s the
perfect place for me to dry the berry bowls! She’ll never know… unless she reads my blog?!

So now that they are drying… I need to make the saucer to go under each one!
Small plates with the same fluted rim treatment – no stamping, just keeping ‘em simple!

Also, I have found another great tool for making the holes in the bottom well-spaced and even.
I used to just guess visually and hope for the best. Some would work, some would be a little
wonky. This simple plastic disc has made all the difference in the world. They come in different
sizes, but this little size works great for me. It came as a set of two… one disc is divided into
even-numbered segments, the other disc is divided into odd-numbered segments. There are
little holes in the plastic to help mark the pot with even spacing before you actually go in
to cut the holes. Evenly spaced every time!

If you’re interested in getting your own disks, they cone from MKM Pottery Tools.
Phone (920) 205-2701 – or e-mail to:  mkmtools@sbcglobal.net

As the summer art fair season comes looming ever closer, day by day, week by week…
I’m trying to get a head start on my studio production. Focusing on producing more work
instead of lollygagging and letting the days slip by. So tonight I stopped in the studio
to stamp all of the bowls I threw on Wednesday. They were a little damp, but I stamped
anyway… sadly, too wet to trim. That will have to wait until tomorrow…

So… on the first night of my Beginning Wheelthrowing class, I asked my students
what they hoped to get out of class. What they wanted to learn. What they wanted
to make. One of my brand new beginners said she wanted to make a butter dish.
I explained to Abby that they are typically handbuilt, and not wheelthrown…
but I was willing to take on the challenge! Last night, we tackled the butter dish!

But before I could teach it… I had to learn how to make them myself!
I had never made them before and questioned how to make them “my own.”
So with some measurements, some textures and some basic handbuilding skills…
these are the first two! The first “prototypes” now in the drying stage.

By the way… Abby made her first butter dish last night – and was VERY excited!!!

After another great class last night with my “not-so-beginners-anymore”…
where we played with some stamping, faceting, texturing and had some more fun with slip…
we even made slip squiggles in our bowls. So in the studio today, I continued to “squiggle”
and made a few more bowls!

I was very excited to get an e-mail the other day from Kristen Kieffer.
Not only did she announce that she will soon be publishing her first instructional DVD…
which I will need to add to my collection as soon as it’s published. But it also
said that she’ll be coming to the Chicago area for a two-day workshop in September!

It’s already on my calendar. I can’t wait to see her working and showing off her technique.
She’s the queen of elegant stamping, beautiful slip trailing and other surface decorations!
Still a summer away, but something great to look forward to – September 22-23, 2010.

As I was writing the past couple posts, I was reminiscing about some of the potters
I’ve met over the years. In particular, the workshops I’ve attended that were taught
by “famous” potters. Being kind of new to the clay scene, I was impressed that the people
teaching were also the one’s showing their work in the gallery at Lillstreet Art Center.
Let alone, the potters you see in the pages of Ceramics Monthly. Clay rock stars!

Each workshop takes on a different tone – based on each artist and their perspective.
The very first one I went to was also left the biggest impression – Julia Galloway.
I had seen many of her pieces in the gallery, very detailed, elaborate and intricate.
Beautiful formed porcelain, altered, attached, carved, inscribed, drawn, glazed, etc.
I thought it a bit little too-”foofy” for my personal taste, but amazing & inspiring nonetheless.
So I signed up for the workshop… a little apprehensive because I thought it would
all be WAY over my head. I was still just a beginner.

But as soon as she introduced herself and started her shpiel… I was mesmerized!!!
I’m always intrigued & inspired by people who are truly eloquent, passionate about life
and can express their personality through the words the choose. Julia is one of those!
The workshop was incredible – a little beyond my skill level, but I could have just sat there
and listened to her talk. I had my first pottery crush.

So a few years later, when I found out that she would be coming back to Lillstreet for
another workshop, I was right there, the first one volunteering to be her workshop assistant.
So not only did I get to hang out with her, listen to her musings, assist during her workshop,
but I also got to help her set-up her gallery exhibit – and go out to dinner! But I digress…

The coolest part of her gallery exhibit was her new “installation” of tumblers.
A not-so-simple grid of 112 tumblers. Each placed on the right shelf. Each in its place.
Here’s the cool part… when they were all in place, and you stepped back to look…
it created one large glazed image on all of the tumblers. And oh, but wait there’s more…
if you turned all of the tumblers around 180-degrees, the same image would appear
but this time in a simple line drawing, not colorfully glazed! Crazy, I know…

As I have been cleaning, organizing & labeling my collection… I’ve been reminiscing
about the potters I’ve met. Some of the “Clay Rock Stars”… Julia Galloway being the first.
One of the favorites. And I got a couple of her beautiful tumblers as a souvenir…

As many of you know, I have been collecting mugs for several years now.
All handmade, one-of-a-kind ceramic masterpieces!!! Never been used…
Yes, sad, I know… but it makes for a fun collection. And for the word “mug”…
I use a loose interpretation that includes, cups & saucers, teabowls, tumblers, etc.
I’m not a mug snob… any one can play!

During my recent bathroom remodeling project, my mom and I took some time
to clean & organize the kitchen… which includes the mug collection shelves.
So we went through, dusted the shelves, washed the mugs… and labeled them all too!

Mugs made by my “talented friends.” Mugs by former teachers & studio mates.
Mugs from workshops I’ve attended. Some I’ve just purchased because I loved ‘em!

From top to bottom, left to right…
Amy Higgason, Julia Galloway (2), Jeff Oestreich, Kathleen Guss & Stephen Robison,
Steve Lee, Kristen Kieffer, Christa Asaad (2), Suze Lindsay, Allison McGowan, Matt Metz,
Allegheny Meadows (2), Autumn Cipala, Julie Johnson, Shannon Blakey, Ellen Shankin,
Michael Corney, Margaret Bohls, Aaron Nelson, Simon Levin, Matt Metz, Jeff Oestreich,
Ellen Shankin, Katie Biderbost, Xiaosheng Bi, Steven Hill, Sam Clarkson, Cynthia Siegel,
Steve Lee, Cheryl & Ron Husby, Ernest Miller and Malcolm Davis.

Now don’t get me wrong… this is by no means the entire collection!
For those of you who have been to my place, you know that there are lots of “things”
everywhere to see. Things here… things there… a collection here… a collection there..
I have hopes of some day soon installing a new shelving system in my living room
that would hold around a hundred mugs. Until then, some mugs have been “displaced”
and forced to “live” somewhere else… over doorframes, fireplace mantle shelves, etc.
And still… there’s always room for more!!!