So I pulled out all of my bisque today to start the glazing process. Which I must admit is my least favorite part of the whole process?! Every time I start I keep thinking that I need to find someone to do this for me?! Ha… like that will ever happen?!

And this is just the first half…
there’s another bisque kiln firing that I still need to unload & glaze as well!

After my “greenware explosion surprise”... I was ready to some quick loading. Quick because I really wanted to get home for a goo night sleep in my own bed!!!

Layer 1 – bowls, salt & pepper shakers, mini vases & glaze test tiles

Layer 2 – plates for berry bowls, tiles and some porcelain Christmas ornaments.

Layer 3 – More berry bowls, salt & pepper shakers, ikebanas, tiles and mini’s.

Layer 4 – More ikebanas, more tiles, more glaze test tiles and the “exploded” greenware plates!
Really no good reason to glaze them… other than a souvenir and visual “evidence” of my story!

Layer 5 – tumblers, a couple mini’s and some porcelain pieces by studio neighbor Karen Patinkin.

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!!!

While driving the official Pottery Tour route, you’ll pass this great sculpture park on the side of the road between Conne & Guillermo’s studios. I’ve driven past it many times, but this year we finally decided to stop. We had pretty much “closed out” the Tour at Guillermo’s after playing with Delores Fortuna. The weather was great, the sun was slowly setting and we decided to take in even more art. So we stopped off at the Franconia Sculpture Park.

Of course, some of it is better than others. I’ve tried to capture some of my favorites. Trust me, there are a LOT more pieces out there. But my thought is that just because you throw a bunch of stuff together, and weld it in place, doesn’t necessarily make it “ART.” Some times I wonder if I just don’t get it?! If there’s some  concept or message that I’m missing.But I know what I like… and these are a few of them.

This one is actually a boat filled with the large wooden balls. I was especially drawn to the textures & woodgrain of the balls… especially how they’re cracking and the way the shadows played against them.

Then there was this crazy playhouse. Yes, they encourage you to go up inside it. Stairs, slides, swings… and a LOT of colorful pieces all welded together. Kind of made me think of a whimsical take on an post-apocalyptic shelter. Enter Mad Max.

This one was pretty cool. It just looked like clear acrylic triangles arranged in the mulch bed. But as the sun continued to set, the prismatic surface of the pieces started to glow in a rainbow of colors.

I think this one was my favorite of them all… a great metal contraption of a Fibonacci Spiral. Not so bad that it’s all rusty either!!!

Oh… what to do with a bunch of logs???…

I loved the silhouette of this contraption. Again, they encouraged you to climb up inside of it. But it was really the strong silhouette and the really cool dot of blue glass glowing in the top center.

And speaking of rusty metal… another favorite. Basically it’s rebar & wire mesh.

I also loved this one – a combination of weathered wooden crates and classical columns. The balance and precariousness of it was pretty cool.

One last one on the horizon as we were leaving. It was a lot of “art” today – what with the Pottery Tour, Continental Clay, Northern Clay Center and now Franconia Sculpture Park!!!

For more information about Franconia Sculpture Park, click here for their website.

Well, since we had covered most of the Pottery Tour on Friday, we decided to head the other direction today. So we went down towards the Twin Cities to do a little more shopping. Not quite as much fun as buying pottery and meeting great potters… but still a great place to buy clay & supplies. While we were so close, I figured we should stop by for some clay, canvas and tools!

After that we went to Northern Clay Center to do a little looking around. We were greeted by a great girl at the front desk. She was exceedingly friendly & informative. She pretty much gave us a full tour right there from behind her front desk! I was equally impressed about how she encouraged us to not only shop the gallery space, but to also go back into the building to visit the other resident studio artists. And that they all have displays of their work for us to look at and purchase from as well. I think we need that kind of customer service at the font desk of Lillstreet?!… maybe then we’d actually get some people up to the second floor? Instead of just people looking for their birthday party location… or people saying “I never knew this was even up here!”

Next we swung by a friend’s home & studio in Minneapolis. Emily Murphy was one of my studio “neighbor” (and total instigator of me even starting this blog – yes, it’s all her fault) until she moved up to Minneapolis. We stopped by to visit, see her adorable daughter Ada, see her studio and pick up a box of pots that she wanted me to take back to the Lillstreet Gallery for her. Yep, so much better to save postage with hand-delivery!!! While there, she also mentioned that she had a lot of old glazes from her cone 10 soda firing days that she was looking to get rid of. And she thought of me! So the same buckets she moved from Lillstreet up to Minneapolis were now making the same trip back from Minneapolis down to my studio at Lillstreet.

After some time in Minneapolis, it was time to head up north to the Tour… well, kinda.
We made a trip to Taylors Falls, which is in between stops of the “official Tour” for a visit with the Rogue Potters. It’s a great group of potters who have pulled together in a small dilapidated farmouse with a wonderfully decrepit kiln shed. No kidding. It’s all kind of falling a part – but in a GREAT WAY. So charming & so quaint. And sure it doesn’t hurt that you’re immediately greeted by Buddy the golden lab who comes running right up to the car to say hello. So we did a little shopping and a little chatting with Randal and the rest of the Rogues. We also went back to the kiln shed to look at their wood fire kiln. So lovingly charred, crusted and well-used.

For more information about the Rogue Potters, click here for their website www.roguepotters.com or click on their LINK in the far right corner of my blog.

After our time with the Rogue Potters, we went back to the “official Tour” to re-visit a couple of our favorite studio locations. And to make more fun of my friend Steven Hill. But first, we decided to go to sculpture park that we’ve driven past for several years, but had never stopped.

These are not my normal style. If you’ve known me or read my blog for a few years, you should know that I’m drawn to rich, dark, saturated colors, textures, patterns and rusty-crusty things. So it kind of surprised my how much I loved the work of Karin Kraemer. She was part of the Tour last Spring as well, and I liked them then. But I wasn’t sure why. When I saw her again this time, I liked them once again. And now I know why. They just make me happy. Simple as that. And I got a chance to talk with Karin and she makes me happy too! Such great patterns, bright colors and such happiness in every pot.

If you’d like to see more of Karin Kraemer’s colorful majolica work, click here for her website www.duluthpottery.com or in the LINKS section of my blog in the far right column.

I’ve know Steven for several years now. And I’ve loved his glazed textures even longer.
When Steven moved from Kansas City to Sandwich, Illinois, my friend & incredible ceramic artist Cory McCrory introduced us. We ended up working together as I did a lot of graphic design work for him while he was opening up Center Street Clay. He has since moved on, and moved back to Kansas City, Missouri. It’s always so much fun to see Steven on the Minnesota Pottery Tour at Richard Vincent’s studio location. Not only does he bring a lot of gorgeous pots, but he’s also a lot of fun to talk with and make fun of!!! And if you ever run into him somewhere… remind him that he still owes me a bunch of dinnerware!!! I know I remind him EVERY time I see him. And frequently on his Facebook too!!!

For more information and details about Steven and his work, click on his website here www.stevenhillpottery.com or from the list of LINKS in the right side column of my blog.

Okay. So I’m a Matt Metz fan.
And I’ve got quite a collection growing of his work. I love his crisp sgraffito style, the geometric patterns, the natural themes of leaves, trees & birds, as well as the subtle colors and flashing from his firings. And for those who don’t know, sgraffito is a great technique where you paint a solid coat of colored slip on top of the lighter clay body (in this case porcelain). Then you painstakingly carve away portions of the colored slip to “reveal” the patterns. So in this case, the white sections have all been carved away… and if you look close enough, you can even see the little tool marks that made them!

Along with all of the wonderful pots on the Tour, it was also a beautiful Spring weekend.
With a little chill in the air there were great signs of Spring everywhere we went.

And some great milkweed pods bursting open to fee the seeds.