AMAZING YEAR

Although its not over yet 2010 has been a blast. Showed my work in lots of galleries, did a lot of "art" shows, and taught a lot of classes.
Currently I am plugging away at Face Mugs. Those little buggers really sold this season; with a wood soda firing in January at POTTERYWEST I really need to make a new series. Perhaps a exploring the seven deadly sins??

At the end of January I will be in Baltimore for a workshop on making faces at Baltimore Clay Works. Should be fun to get some new pointers, and meet some new folks.

Happy Holidays

BACK IN VEGAS -- BACK IN THE STUDIO

Got back from the East Coast on Wednesday. Loaded glaze kiln Thursday, loaded the bisque on Friday.
Opened both today.

Here are the cups I am entering in POTTERY WEST'S 1st Annual Cup Show: Juror: John W. Hopkins, Sculpture and Ceramic Professor at Riverside Community College.

craziness in the office

YA-HOOO

Had a great Saturday. "BIRD MAN" won first place at the art show portion of BITE AT THE MUSEUM sponsored by Community Counseling Center of Southern Nevada. Juror - Brian “Paco” Alvarez. The event was amazing an we all got a sneak peak the new NEVADA STATE MUSEUM at SPRINGS PRESERVE.

BIRD MAN is approximately 24" tall, Porcelain, and was fired in a Wood Soda kiln at Pottery West in Las Vegas this past spring. He is glazed with shino's and a number of slips and under glazes.

Crazy Busy

Just got back from the Durango (Colorado) Art Show. Amazing weather, we shared the weekend with a Coffee Festival and Beer Festival.
While I was Durango, the kiln was opened, some really great stuff.



The Antelope platter is a commission for Nevada Ballet Theatre. They are going to auction it off next week. A dancers will be displaying it... Ill post a video

Also in rehearsal for a production of FOOL FOR LOVE for Nevada Conservatory Theatre at UNLV....

Death Valley -

Throwing lots of DEATH VALLEY clay from Laguna. Loving it, although I gotta say all my shorts are stained pink.

I need to throw some cups for the POTTERY WEST "CUP SHOW" deadline is November 1 and i'm out of town all of October. Time management challenge.

Blues and Arts Festival

Made it back from Keystone Colorado. We drove up 70 to Keystone through the valley. So beautiful the rock formations, the river and small rapids. Next year I will have to schedule some time to get out of the truck and explore.

The show was "OK"; not very well attended in my opinion. Sold a few pots, met some great people. Two weeks till the Durango CO art show. Time to make the more platters and believe it or not mugs and Face Jugs. Hope I have time to fire it all.

PARK CITY

Park City was really nice! The Redstone show is one week after the huge KIMBALL ART SHOW. But for a first time show the traffic was not to bad. Sunday proved to be a better day then Saturday.. thats was kinda odd

Just packed the truck for the KEYSTONE BLUES AND ARTS FESTIVAL - Keystone Colorado. Send your friends!

6th Annual Blues Festival and Art Show

River Run at Keystone, Colorado
August 21-22, 2010

The RedStone Art Fair in Park City, Utah August 14 - 15, 2010

Prepping to go to Park City UT for the art show. These are some of the new pieces I a bringing to the event.

new photo

Kelly McLendon just got me a cd with some photos she took of my "bird house" called HOME.

This piece is 28" tall and 10" wide. -- images are crazy big so you can see the detail

LAST CALL

SUPER bummed. I didnt get accepted to LAST CALL in St Petersburg FL... next time.
Are the photos bad? I know you dont have the real piece anywhere near you..

let the glazing begin

Although I didnt photograph the stack, I have some 20 pieces to glaze and another small herd to glaze. If a group of pottery really a herd, or is there a better name. A gaggle, murder, or.....

Trimmed 4 platters last night. It's good to be in the studio.

class

Taught the Saturday class today. Lots of fun! Did demonstration of some basic "Vases" - then did slip trailing and altered the forms. Everyone seemed to have a good time.

studio

working in studio last few days. Had bunches of green ware to prep for a bisq firing. I am trying two pieces at 022 to see if I can carve on it. If it works should be great for platters....

AMAZING UT WEEKEND

I had to bail on the Coleman work shop on Friday. When to Ogden UT for the Arts Festival. It was rainy, super windy and 50 or under; the folks there had the good sense to move indoors to UNION STATION. It is cross between a civic building, convention center, and museum. There were something like 50 artists; 5 potters. Lots of great feed back and sold a number of pieces.

The best part of the trip was staying at Crystal Hot Springs/Campground. Although the weather was questionable, it was great to be able to soak in the hot springs after peddling pottery all day.

Can not wait to get back to work in the studio after two plus weeks of workshops and art show prep I need to get some clay under my finger nails.

Still assisting Tom Coleman on his workshop at Pottery West in Vegas. He demo-ed slip decoration today. Lots of great technique and ideas. It was really fun watching the participants using the techniques, and discovering new skills.

Also got a chance to photo this piece I got out of the wood soda the week before last.



This piece is called HOME - he is a birdhouse roughly 24" tall. Used a combination of slips and Matt Longs Red Flashing Slip.

Got to get back to packing for my show in Odgen UT this weekend. Thankfully Peter has been packing and fixing shelves all week.

GREAT DAY

Finally got the pieces from last months photoed. Kind of excited by what came out of the Wood Soda fire. We sprayed at cone 9. Cone 12 was bending, cone 11 was bent --



This guy reminds me of an Opera Singer --- or a friendly devil (16" tall)


Always like the jugs of smokers (he is about 5" tall)



This teapot was a combination of Tom Coleman's Orange Carbon Trap Shino, Malcom Davis' shino, and Orange Crystal Matt -- I spattered it with Elemer's Glue working on trying to create some patterning with carbon trap. (10" Tall)




Crushed Spirit is my darkest piece from this firing. From the other side you see the where I crushed the head causing the porcelain to crack. The glazing is a combination of shinos and blue glaze and clay which was dug from a local dinosaur dig. (10" tall - 14" long)


Tomorrow is day 2 of the Tom Coleman workshop at Pottery West --- I an the studio assistant; amazing amount of information to take in!

SODA FIRING

So the firing was really great. Cone ten down, eleven and twelve bending. Put in soda at cone nine. Used a 50/50 formula. Now if I could just find the widget to get the photos off the camera and phone life would be golden.
Can not wait to post the new bird house and the teapot.... both super hot!

BACK IN VEGAS

Wow- After a month I am back in Las Vegas. I really hit the ground running. Got in on Tuesday night at 10:30p, Wednesday I glazed a number of pieces for the Wood Soda fire; got up at 4am on Thursday and w0rked with John Gregg, Derek and Mark to do a 24 hour firing.
Did laundry on Friday, and taught the beginner and intermediate class all day today. It is great to have my hands in clay again!


I have photos of the load on my phone, I will try and post the before and after pictures tomorrow or Monday. I can not wait to open the kiln

RAINY DAY IN PHILLY

MAGIC FLUTE is open; go team! check out the information. Getting to spend a few days in Philly.

I missed NCECA; but I was still able to catch some of the pieces still up from the gallery shows. Gotta say I found the the work of Alex Irvine very interesting. His "Ugly Jugs" are/were being shown at the Snyderman-Works Galleries (www.snyderman-works.com). Rick said they were painted with acrylics, but I think he might be mistaken.

Also got to stop by The Clay Studio. The Small Works collection is a riot! I forget the artist but they created a miniature wood kiln with a tumble stack ready for firing; it has a solar collector... made me laugh a lot.

HENDERSON ART SHOW

Although I am still in Baltimore, I was involved in the Henderson (NV) ARTS FEST. The turn out was really wonderful. Lots of folks looking for last minute Mother's Day gifts. My work is not really the kind of thing you give to most moms I guess but the work was not flying out of the booth either through selling or the 60mph winds.

The best part of the weekend was having my partner in the booth hearing the feedback and getting called with updates and his excitement about what people had to say.

MOTHER'S DAY SALE

Although I was not in attendance, POTTERY WEST had its 1st Annual Mother's Day Sale. Seems I sold I few piece. That is always a good thing.

So its a warm and muggy day in Baltimore, I am kind of missing the dry windy days in Vegas.

Has anyone tried the the Ben Owen Red glaze

Copper Red cone 9 to 10 (red.)
Nepheline syenite-25
Flint-14
Whiting-12
EPK-7
Bentonite-1.5
Copper carbonate-.5
Copper oxide-2.5


Need to find a more stable red then the Tom Coleman that I am currently using

THE SET

This is the quick sketch of the set.... With luck the "HON" letters are deliveres on Sunday or Monday

BALTIMORE

Crazy few days building the set for MAGIC FLUTE. I forgot how much work it is to hang doors and build walls - it is super fun, but it has only been three days and I miss hum of my wheel and the dust of the studio. In three weeks I may be climbing the walls.

Reminds me I need to call Heidi Kreitchet and see how the dog is...

hope to post soon!

MAGIC FLUTE

So working on the opera MAGIC FLUTE. I have a few people helping me build my set, and a super supportive Artistic Director at OPERA VIVENTE in Baltimore. Feeling super lucky I get to create work on this scale. Although I gotta say carrying bags a clay is a lot easier then lumber, doors, and large 4'x8' platforms.

Hoping to go visit the folks at Baltimore Clay Works I am very interested in the recent announcement of their TEAPOT show.

Cynthia Bringle PT2

Cynthia's workshop continued.... Two best things for me:
She made this great bottle stopper - so simple feeling dumb I didn't think of it myself.

The second thing that got me all tingly: the one piece small wine goblets. When I get back from designing MAGIC FLUTE in Baltimore (opera vivente) I will be cranking some of those out. Can not wait to see the "gargoyle" heads on them.

Rumour in the studio -- Wood firing in late June. Sure it will be 115 outside, but its cooler then in the kiln.

Cynthia Bringle

Just got back from the first day of a two day workshop, here in Vegas at POTTER WEST. Cynthia threw a small bunch of pots. A few mugs, a square container and a large pitcher - nice demos! I have lots of new tricks and way of explaining things for when I teach..

I also was able to pull a few pieces of the Geil "Car" Kiln. Hope to post them tomorrow after I clean them up.

1st entery

BUG MUG -- Head is the handle
BLIND VISION - Wood Fire Soda atmosphere

LOCK JAW - Gas Reduction
I have been working the last two days to update the webpag. Editing lots of photos...
These are three of the mugs I just posted.