terrim8

I haven't been on the forum for awhile - trying my hand at hand building. Fear (& I hope not loathing) after I fire these things! Its a lamp, drying upside down & its bigger than the ones I throw on the wheel.

I haven't been on the forum for awhile - trying my hand at hand building. Fear (& I hope not loathing) after I fire these things! Its a lamp, drying upside down & its bigger than the ones I throw on the wheel.

Not clay, but glass.  Still goes into the kiln.

Oval oil bottle prototype (to use with silicone and stainless pouring spouts).
 

 

What is your most unapologetic, shamelessly proud, pat-yourself-on-the-back accomplishment of any type in your ceramics life (a terrific piece, a  great sale, a sharp business strategy, a fine friend made, a good deed done, a land traveled, a discovery---etc. etc.)?  

Which "newbie question" has most confused/confounded you?  For example, today, I was asked:  Why do you always tell me to do a glaze test before I use it on something real?

I'd vote for this query to be a new Qotw -it has a beat, you can dance to it. 

podcasts : Marketplace, Planet Money, Freakanomics - its all so interesting & entertaining
 

A rat took up residence in my studio (a converted bedroom in my old-ish mobil home)  while I was out of town for a couple of weeks.  He ate--completely destroyed--the good welder's gloves with the extended cuffs for stoking the big anagama kiln.  He ate my leather studeo shoes. He ate all things cardboard. He ate my foam core and one dry wall shelf board. He ate a plasaic  texture roller. He ate through the old semi-crumbling cement foundation (!) to get in and out. He did not eat any food. I did not have a cat. I highly recommend that you add a second cat. 

I use to have a television on or a radio and my dog sleeping next to me.   Now that my husband has retired  he is in and out of my studio hanging around,  borrowing a tool or just cooling down.  I have to really concentrate on what I am working on because of all of the new distractions.    I don't mind him getting out of the heat,  the garage isn't air conditioned,   I will get use to our new life eventually.  Denice

… reflections on 61+ years in this life, local Public Radio, KPIG (also radio), mp3 library - all through 6.1 surround sound, the local birds (when door is open), passing neighbors, an' good ol' Jack the Nanday conure.
 

Hmmm. I have a simplified kit for outdoor shows, and a few more added items for indoor ones. (You'd think it'd be the other way around!) Mostly my outdoor work is a weekly farmer's markets, and the odd night market. Indoor shows here are more the norm. The outdoor stuff is mostly street festivals here.
The simplified kit has:
business cards, an assortment of writing implements including chalk for some display signs, price stickers (mugs mostly), Square chip reader, backup swiper, credit card payment signs, note paper, email sign up forms, duct tape, packing tape, dressmaker's T pins for tablecloths, scissors, utility knife, multi tool, string, wire, sandpaper and a Kemper stone, business card holder, tissues, lip balm, gum, pocket container of Advil, 2-3 band aids, hand warmers and 2 vitamin c powder envelopes, 3-4 cough candies and a cash apron with float. All this fits in a train case that I found at a thrift store. I have another box for table risers and sandbags to prop bowls on so people can see inside, 2 sizes of paper bags and tissue, my main table cloth and a sign.
For indoor shows, there's more boxes of booth accoutrements, like my lighting setup including extension cords, power bars and Velcro ties (moving away from zip ties because I only need them for cord control), additional risers and sandbags, additional table cloths, curtains, s hooks to hang curtains from pipe and drape....
I think that's it.

I'm not sure that a contemporaneous period, or movement, is possible to be named and categorized while still unfolding and in motion.  History, to me, is an amalgam of hindsight with a mix of alleged and actual facts shoring it up. It is always a bit twisted---sometimes very, very twisted.  I don't see art history as being exempt from the ways in which history (formed from records, opinions & observations, critiques, all kinds of analysis, supposition,  explanations, and relational interpretations) may be, and has been,  "used" as a political, cultural,  socioeconomic, even religious, dynamic that affects entire populations and subgroups, sometimes quite negatively (think post-Soviet actionist art). There are deep roots and reasons why the general U.S. population was initially disgusted with and fearful of the emergence of "abstract" art.  People had to be taught how to be "the viewer", how to enter a new visual reality, how to participate in the dialogue, how to "appreciate" what made no sense to them.  Once history has blessed an art movement/period with the names of the identified heroes and generated enough money to give it credence, even the most impenetrable or nonsensical works, the most blatantly naked emperors, get to assertively confound us with challenges to our discernment of what is art and what is artifice.  Most of us can't tell 'em apart, but once we slap a label on the period or movement in question, it's pretty well settled. One hopes that there is a strong core of intelligence and benign creativity when articulating an art movement or period and that art historians may bless us with insights and context, and not leave us in the dark (think of Ai Weiwei and the urn--you have to understand it to understand it). 
Yep.

It's tiring isn't it!

I throw forms to practice and to test crystalline: the bowls mostly go to family members- 0 profit margin. The shows and shops around here are stuffed with $10 mugs, no need to even attempt competing.
i still make geometric tile: I rarely sell jobs; but when I do $$$$$. It works for me at the moment. I am currently working on a geometric pattern consisting of 12, 8, and 4" interlocking circles. The added bonus of having a professional CAD system, with a 24 x 36 printer- I can create  precise cut sheets.  One of my favorite patterns - makes for a beautiful shower.

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

You will stop looking for new glazes when you "kick the bucket". If you believe in an afterlife, then never.  Firing results may vary in heaven vs hell

The foot control not jumping from zero to 88mph when you barely touch it, good bat pins and the rest I don't care about, although I'm spoiled by the quiet nature of my Bailey, it's really grown on me and now all the wheels at the studio suck, lol.