Tiles… tiles.. and more tiles!
I spent last night making a lot of tiles in the studio… more than I had planned!
Each tile is handmade from a slab of fresh clay. Each tile is textured by hand
creating one-of-a-kind tiles that will later be put together into hanging
wall pieces or installations. My sister has “requested” a wall installation
for her living room between some cabinets, around the wall mounted television.
So I’m back in production mode – making a lot of tiles! Many of them will be used
for her wall installation, while others will get to travel on the summer art fair circuit.

This batch will be for the soda kiln, so not only were they textured,
most of them are also covered with a layer of soda slip which will help give them
different colorations in the final glaze firing. So now they need to dry, then be
bisque fired. When I get ready to do my next soda firing, they will all need to be wadded
individually, as well as given a quick wash of dissolved soda solution and some get
a minimal spraying of glaze for a splash of color. A lot of work for a little tile, huh?
Now multiply that by hundreds of tiles…

I met Cory McCrory a few years back at the Hinsdale Fine Art Fair.
She was a row over, and I could barely see her booth from mine… but the little
I could see definitely piqued my interest. She had clay fish swimming in her tent!
It was love at first sight… the colors, the patterns, the textures, the whimsy…
oh, and she was really nice too!!! Since our initial infatuation with each others work,
we’ve become good friends over the years. We shared ideas, fears, inspirations and meals.
We are both working our way through the world as self-employed ceramic artists…
both trying to carve out our own niché… both playing with textures!

Cory McCrory Workshop at Terra Incognito
Last weekend, Cory was the “headliner” at a ceramic workshop at Terra Incognito
in LaGrange, Illinois. As the supportive friend and Cory-enthusiast, I had to go.
It’s not every day that one of your friends is presenting a workshop!

She worked her way through the day presenting her techniques, making a couple pieces
and sharing her thoughts, inspirations & passions along the way. Cory’s work is more
sculptural in nature, filled with a wonderful sense of whimsy, yet often functional
at the same time. Tough to get all three to work in balance like that. She also works with
“paper clay” which affords her more time to “work the clay” as though it were more like fabric.
Paper clay is regular stoneware clay that has a large percentage of hydrated paper pulp
mixed into it. The result is a lighter clay body that retains moisture longer so it extends the
“workable” time before it dries out. She has also had great results with re-working pieces
even after they’ve dried to greenware. Apparently the paper pulp helps with dry attachments?!

As with a lot of my friends, I have quite a collection of Cory’s work… and always want more!
I do here graphic design for her… postcards, business cards, etc… in exchange for more.
I have a teapot, bottles, whistles and an entire school of her clay fish. And more to come.
There’s never enough whimsy in the world… and Cory just keeps adding more!

So I’m back at the studio – trying to get back into the swing of things
and get the pottery production started up again. I figured a good place to start
would be by making some new stamps for the New Year! With even more to come…

I make my stamps with fresh clay – and start by rolling out a coil.
I let the coil dry up a little bit so it’s not too soft & squishy. Then I will create
different patterns on both ends of the coil. That way, I get two stamps with each.
As the coil dries, I make sure to scratch my name into the side… you know how
things tend to “travel” around the studio?! When the stamps are dry, they will be
bisqued to make them solid, yet porous. They are then ready to use. You want to
make sure not to high-fire them as that would make them non-porous…
and they would stick more to the clay when making impressions.

With less than four weeks until my annual Holiday Home Show,
I’ve been trying to stay productive in the studio. Keeping pieces at different stages
in the process… some freshly thrown, while stamping slightly dried pieces,
then trimming the leather hard work. The it’s off for firing…

“My Home For The Holidays” Home Show
Saturday, November 22nd & Sunday, November 23rd
10:00am-6:00pm  -  always the weekend before Thanksgiving!

More updates to come… please e-mail me for complete information.

Over the years, I have made hundreds of stamps.
Each of them making a different impression.

I make my stamps out of a little piece of clay, rolled into a coil, then carved with a design on both ends. The stamps are then bisque fired before using. With hundreds of stamps in my studio, it always surprises me how a handful of them have become the favorites that I always reach for.

To make the textured surface of my pots, I typically take one of the stamps and press it into the leather-hard clay to make the impression one… by one… by one. Sometimes well over a hundred impressions on a single vase! Each one pressed in by hand. It is this repetition, and the textural pattern it creates, that intrigues me.