Callie Beller Diesel

My dog Maggie that passed last year would sometimes curl up under my work table if I put a dog bed down there. She did occasionally eat clay, but not much of it. Our new-to-us dog Bruiser makes an excellent instagram model, but is disinclined to lie on the cold studio floor when there’s a perfectly good couch/blanket combo upstairs in the living room. Also, Bruiser is the worst name ever for this dog. Bruising anyone would involve effort, and wouldn’t get him cuddled, and he is NOT having that.

I think we need a thread on all the intrepid studio pets out there! How many dogs out there are eating dried trimmings? Any cats insisting on “collaborating” while the clay is wet, or on photo day?

I made a thing. I was originally thinking garlic box, but...

I don’t usually do a lot of handbuilding involving slabs. But the bits I do are usually Christmas ornaments. I use paper templates to cut the slabs, and then form the pieces into things like trees and fortune cookies.

I try to limit it to things like bowls, or items I want a foot ring on for either a functional or aesthetic purpose. But I don’t think it’s always necessary. My mugs with a foot ring are priced higher than the ones I make without. It does add an extra step, and I’m finding my time becoming more and more valuable to me.

@liambesaw The one for securing bats to the wheel. I tried to improvise one with a big piece of chamois, but it didn’t work nearly as well.

Recently bought a Xiem bat mate. So far, it’s pretty freaking cool!!!

I started off firing cone 10 reduction with porcelaineous stoneware, and well.... I wasn’t going to be able to get at my usual cone ten gas rental for the summer while they rebuilt the kiln shed, so I thought I’d play around with some cone 6 clay because the electrics were still available, and I picked up some red clay and some underglazes for a change of pace. That was almost 5 years ago, and I never did go back to the gas kiln.

@Pres so you’re also feeling the cliffhanger heck! At least the wait will be rewarded with 2 books this year. Did you check out the free short stories on his website?

If you don’t have a dodgy spider corner, is it really a studio?

Latest is the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. Urban fantasy around a coyote shapeshifter. Very dry humour, well paced and interesting characters and world building. I burned through the latest Jim Butcher last week, and am now stuck in cliffhanger heck until the end of September when the next one comes out.

So far, it’s a mug with a swear word on it, because 2020 seems to be inspiring certain sentiments at every possible opportunity. It’s what my therapist would have termed an adaptive (as opposed to maladaptive) self soothing method, so whatever helps! I did manage to get my hands on 50 or so pump dispensers (they’re kinda scarce as it turns out), and I made my first 6 hand sanitizer/soap bottles. They came out of the kiln yesterday and I think they’re quite nice! My MIL has already claimed one, so we’ll see how those go. I’m playing around with some soap dish designs, trying to find one that’s easy to make AND that I like. I’ve made ones I like, but they are a bit fussy. I need to simplify them so they’re faster.

@Benzine You had to sign up for kilns, so everyone knew I had loaded it.

My personal dumbest moment was back in college while loading the outdoor soda kiln in sub zero temperatures while not turning on the gas burners to heat the inside of the kiln. The posts and the shelves were so cold (they were kept outside) they froze the wadding, and when it melted, it shifted the stack and the whole thing fell over. I was not popular for this particular move.

We're in stage 2 relaunch here in Alberta after some pretty harsh nationwide shutdowns. We're down to 220 active cases in the Calgary area, and we were a hotspot for a while there. Things like restaurants, retail, aesthetic services, libraries and some museums and other things are open, but with capacity restrictions and rules about mask wearing, distancing and cleaning. Kids aren't going back to school until the fall, and daycares are only for essential service workers right now. There are supposed to be some summer camps and childcare available, but they'll probably fill up very quickly. We're still not supposed to engage in non-essential interprovincial travel like holidays, although we can travel for things like funerals. The maximum gathering size does vary by province, but here they're 50 people indoors and 100 people outdoors. Mask wear indoors is strongly recommended, and the government has been handing out free ones (the disposable surgical kind) at Tim Horton's drive through's because we're predictable that way. Compliance on the mask wearing thing seems to be 50-60% at a rough eyeball at the grocery store. Phase 2 just started last week, and they're watching for any increases before deciding when they're going to go to phase 3, which is all systems go. School systems are still trying to form official plans for the fall, but they won't be able to declare anything concrete until late August. The kids usually go back the first week after Labour Day. My weekly farmers market starts up this weekend, and my first round is the weekend after. Even though the whole thing is outdoors in a very large area, they're still doing headcounts, and only letting a certain number of shoppers through at a time. All foot traffic is one way, and we all have to provide hand sanitizer or hand wash stations, even if we're not food vendors. Food vendors need to prepare samples in a commercial kitchen in advance, and have them in sealed cups. We have to restrict the number of people allowed in a booth and set up 6' markers so people can maintain distances. All tables need plastic coverings so that they can be sanitized regularly, as well as any payment keypads. I plan on having bleach solution on hand to clean each piece in between people touching them, in addition to having sanitizer available for people to use before and after picking things up if they wish to do so. My display will just be across the front of the tent to discourage people from crowding. I'll be wearing a fabric mask, as per provincial recommendations. We have to go through a check in every week to declare we haven't traveled or been sick, and are currently not experiencing any symptoms before we're allowed to set up. There's other rules for people from different households working together, but I'm usually by myself so I haven't checked those.

Or even throwing it with a rim similar to the dish on the right, but maybe a bit higher? Closer to your own aesthetic.

The extended family is another story entirely! When I was speaking to some of my sister's in-laws at a gathering one time, one of them expressed horror and disgust that you coud get a degree in Ceramics. He thought because his mom did some scratch and bake gnomes in the 70's I was doing the same thing.

I make my living throwing pots, so it’s not like I’m just at the wheel for relaxation. I’m not making 100K of pots a year, but I manage a respectable wage. A Giffen grip simply isn’t ideal in all situations. I’m not for a second saying people shouldn’t use one, nor am I some kind of Luddite. Currently I have a skill set and a demand level that renders one unnecessary. Lots of people pull handles rather than extruding them too, even though the extruder is a lot faster. Some of it’s preference, and what’s wrong with that?

Wayne and I got together when I was halfway through art school for pottery, so he knew it was part of the package. He tried one afternoon to center a bit of clay on the wheel and decided it was NOT his thing, but that it didn’t need to be. He has been my biggest source of emotional support the whole time. He made sure I got my pottery wheel at a time it wasn’t the most financially sound move ever and I told him not to. When we moved into our current house, my birthday present was him stripping the carpet out of a basement bedroom and scraping the floor so I could have a studio space. He gets me out of my head when I’m overthinking myself into anxiety. I truly have one of the best ones.

I borrowed a friend’s Giffen grip once and had a lot of problems using it because the point I needed the holder pads to be on to centre the pot was also the point I needed to trim on. I gave it back. I didn’t like it even a little bit, although I liked the idea of what it was supposed to do. At the time, I tended to pull too quickly in the beginning stages and the rims didn’t have the same centre point as the shoulder or the foot. It took me about an afternoon or two after that to get the hang of tap centring, and I usually don’t come by manual skills like that easily. That said, if I get to the point where I do Mark or Mea’s quantity of production, I’ll buy one in a heartbeat and re-learn a skill. I happened to meet half of the couple that runs the Giffen company in the hotel lobby last year at NCECA. She was an absolute heartwarming delight to talk to, and based on that I wouldn’t hesitate to reach out to them and ask questions. They stand by their stuff.

A sugar jar from last fall, but playing with photo editing.

@liambesaw Yeah, that’s screwed up. I mean, how much work do they want to have to re-do, essentially, by making everyone apply again?

The big commercial shows here almost never have a jury fee, but they also don’t usually ask people outside the organization to jury, either. It’s all done in-house. The only time you see application fees are in gallery shows, where they do ask for outside help. Mind you, door fees for shoppers are also almost universal now, as it’s considered a way to keep tire kickers out. Usually it’s only a couple of dollars, they’re good all weekend, and organizers use it to keep track of the number of attendees they get.

Someone was asking on one of the Facebook groups the other day of vendors would be interested in paying a fee to upload your work to their site, they’d handle all the sales and you do the shipping and some of the promoting. A number of people pointed out he’d just described Etsy. I pointed out that there was no value proposition if I was still doing all the work. I could just spend the money on some other form of advertising. He complimented me on my website and sent me an invite. Smh.