With tomorrow being the kick-off of my Summer Art Fair season, I figure it’s perfect timing to share this brilliant video again. Sadly… it’s oh, so true. We’ve all been there. We’ve all seen it. We’ve all suffered through it. And if I’m lucky, maybe it will happen again this weekend. If it does, I’m sure I’ll have a good story to share! One of my favorite lines… “Like real pottery I buy at a store?”

Just promise me that YOU won’t be one of THOSE art fair people!!!

Click here to watch the video : “Potter At An Art Fair.”

I’m trying to finish up a few loose ends. Tonight I matched up the new salt & pepper shakers with their terra cotta trays. Glad that they all fit together… even though I was more than a little concerned as I kept watching the trays shrink. I was afraid they were going to end up too small. But no… they worked out perfect. And now they’re perfectly matched!!!

I know it’s a little tough to determine scale in these photos. So this should help…

There’s a limited supply of these… headed out the door tomorrow to the Schaumburg Prairie Arts Festival. Not sure how long they’ll last…

Yep… made ’em in February.
You know, part of my monthly Holiday Ornament Challenge with Sarah Chapman.
Then it took almost three months to get them into a final soda kiln firing.
But I think they were worth the wait.

Now I just need to add wire rings to hang them from. Here’s a few sneak peeks…

It seems like I made these pieces so long ago, They survived the bisque firing, but I’ve been worried ever since about warping & slumping in the final cone 10 soda firing. Well, they finally went into the soda kiln last Friday… and made it back out WITH NO SLUMPING!!! Yeah! My first attempt at 10″ cake plates was a huge success! So there will be a very limited quantity of them at my first couple art fairs. It’s going to be first-come, first-served… just like cake. And if they get a good response, I’m sure I’ll be making more. And again, hoping that the new ones don’t slump. Just because they survived once doesn’t mean I can get cocky! And please disregard my poor photos. They were just taken quickly as I pulled things out of the kiln. They’re actually in the Lillstreet spray booth with some packing foam to cover some bad stains on the table! Glamorous, huh?

10″ Cake Plate #1  – with a hint of teal blue glaze

10″ Cake Plate #2  – with a touch of temoku

10″ Cake Plate #3  – with a smattering of matte blue glaze

10″ Cake Plate #4  – with a soft, satin yellowish sheen

10″ Cake Plate #5  – with some crackling slip “sealed” with temoku glaze for this crazy effect

Still a little hotter than I might like… but I couldn’t wait.
I figure as long as I can pull then out with bare hands they’re not too hot, right?!

Tonight I finally got to unload my soda kiln. You don’t know how tough it is to wait. You’ve worked so hard to make the stuff, waited for it to dry, fire it, glaze and then fire it again. You want to see it as soon as possible!!! But of course, the kiln decides to cool off at it’s own speed… and you can only open it when it’s good and ready. So finally… after waiting all day… I finally opened it… revealing the treasures inside brick by brick!

A little closer examination of my pots… and some kiln posts?!!!

So now everything is unloaded, packed up, piled into my car and shlepped into my storage room. Now I need to find some time to unpack everything, do a little prepping, cleaning, pricing and RE-packing to get ready for this weekend’s art fair in Schaumburg!

Today I fired my soda kiln. It was a long day at the studio.
A long day of firing. A long day of firing the kiln.
A long & productive day of cleaning & organizing my studio.

The day starts early in the morning with blue flames going in…

And ends with a lot of orange flames shooting out… exaggerated by the addition of the soda mixture, and flaring out of the reduction environment seeking the oxygen!

It’s always exciting to fire a kiln and know that soon you’ll be seeing the pieces you’ve created finally done. You’ve worked on things for so long. Throwing. Stamping. Trimming. Firing. Glazing. And finally firing again. One step closer to the finished product.

After three days of fun in Minnesota, and thousands of pots everywhere you looked, it’s always tough to keep your cool.. and keep your cash. There’s a certain excitement, and a certain compulsion that takes over as you see more & more incrediuble work. And the quesiton is always “which ones” would be coming home with me?!!! And here they are…

Always a favorite… As I’ve said before, we always go to Bob Briscoe’s studio first. Some of my favorite potters are there, as well as the one responsible for one of my pottery addictions. Matt Metz.And his incredible sgraffito technique!!! Let me just say upfront that I already have too of his pieces in my collection. But when you’re surrounded by so many more, along with Matt himself to talk to… it’s so hard to resist. I tried my best. But apparently didn’t do so well in the self-restraint category.

This sweet little rectangle box was the first piece I picked up. Then I put it down. Looked around more. Picked it up. Put it down. More admiring. Picked it up. Put it down. Eventually… after being drawn back to it so many times, I knew it was coming home with me!

And then I decided that I needed an Matt Metz “tumbler?” to actually use in the kitchen. So many of his pieces are part of “the collection” and they’re too cherished to use. So this one I purchased with the intention of actually using it… and loving it everyday!

Sure, I should have stopped. Sure I should have kept my wallet in my pants pocket. But then I saw this tall cylindrical vase. And it was over… mine.

And while I was getting a Metz to use everyday, why not get a Suze Lindsay tumbler too?!

Then we moved on to the other studio locations and we made it to Will Swanson’s studio. Another batch of incredible potters. Karin Kraemer was there once again. I remember last year being enamored by her colorful work. But it’s really not my style. I knew I liked it, but not sure why. Then this year I was drawn to it again. And had some time to talk with Karin as well. I kept going back to the same cheerful bowl… and I realized they just made me happy. So colorful. So fun. And if it makes me happy… I think I need it.

And another mug for my official “mug collection.” Again, who wouldn’t smile every time you see a rooster smiling back at you every morning?!!! So two of Karin Kraemer’s colorful majolica pieces made their way back to Chicago. And they continue to make me smile!!!

After a LONG day in the car driving home from Minnesota, we finally made it to my parents house where we switched cars and I continued back into the city. It was late. I was tired. But I knew that I still had work to do. With my next soda kiln less than a week away, I knew that I had to fire one last bisque kiln if I was going to have time to glaze the pieces. So it was a very late night at the studio loading my bisque kiln.

So there I was bringing pieces in from my studio, and taking them down from the shelves in the kiln room. Only to notice some “explosions” on three of the berry bowl plates! And I have no idea what happened?! Three of the plates appear to have had “explosions” while I was out of town.

So here’s the sequence of events… I threw the plates. Dried them to a soft leatherhard. Did a little stamping. Dried some more. Trimmed them and then let them dry in my studio. The next day, I stacked them up and took them down to the kiln room for storage. There were five stacks of four plates. Now I know for a fact that I would never stack plates  if there was ever a chance they were still wet. So the tray of plates was sitting in the kiln room for a couple weeks while I continued to make more work in my studio. And I do this all the time. I frequently have trays of greenware drying until I load my next bisque kiln.

Anyway, when I took the tray of berry bowl plates down, three of the plates had “explosions” on them. It was the top two in one stack, and the top one on another stack. Cracked. Broken. Exploded. And if you look closely, you can even see some of the “rubble” that exploded up and out of the plate?! Someone suggested that maybe something fell and landed on them?… but if that was the case tey would have cracked downwards, not up! And so far… the best “solution” is that there was some moisture trapped inside even though they appeared to be dry. And then somehow the temperature in the kiln room exceeded normal levels… which would have to be hovering above 200-degrees for this kinfd of damage?! Any other possiblities? Any other thoughts on how this might happen???

Okay, sure. Our weekend had been jam packed full with clay, pots & potters.
We did the official St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour, we did a little shopping, we did a little chatting. We also went down to Continental Clay, Northern Clay Center and Emily Murphy’s pottery studio. We also played with the Rogue Potters and toyed with Steven Hill. But today was our day to head home. So why not make one more stop along the way?!

So we drove to Hudson, Wisconsin… right across the river from Stillwater, Minnesota. It’s a cute little town with a very nice art gallery. It used to be located on the east side of the street, but Seasons On St. Croix has relocated to the the west side of the street to a much larger facility. And when you see a big sign like this on the side of the street… you’ve got to stop by!!! You know we love ART!!!

We’ve been tot he gallery before. They have a lot of great artists, and generally quite a bit of nice pottery. And this newer gallery space has room for even more pottery! Including some really large pieces by Joe Christenen If you’ve been to the One-Of-A-Kind Show in Chicago, there’s a really good chance you’ve seen his large vessels on display there. But his is a much larger collection of his work… large urns, bottles and newer pieces with some sculptural animals on them. I know my friend Nancy loves his work!!!

And while you’re there, you need to go downstairs to see Joe Christensen’s studio. It in the walk-out basement of the gallery building. There’s a large work space and a separate kiln room. Unfortunately, Joe wasn’t around today while we were there. But luckily, his studio space was unlocked so we got a chance to look around.

And a great pot that he had apparently just finished sgraffito carving as it was now drying.

For more information about Joe Christensen’s pottery, click here for his website
or check out Joe Christensen’s LINK the right hand column of my blog.
And you’ll be glad you did… there’s a time lapse video of him throwing a 5-foot tall pot!!!