Watching Clay Dry

Working in clay can take so LONG! Wedge, make, apply three coats of this, dry, wait, fire, glaze, wait, fire and wait some more and hope the pieces haven’t exploded in the kiln because you haven’t waited long enough for drying or didn’t wedge the clay long enough –holy cow! The amount of time put into one piece can require a lot of dedication and PATIENCE. Working again with clay I’m quickly reminded to toss any need for instant gratification and quick completion of a piece out the window.

For successful clay projects there can be so many steps that all take attention and time. I’m feeling that prices for pottery are greatly undervalued. I’m reading through my favorite clay artist’s Blogs and am starting to better understand why so many potters work in volume production, stick to one type of clay body, limited palettes of glaze recipes and firing styles. It seems in working this way there can be a higher rate of success and a larger body of work in which to sell and make a living.

My main clay rack is now full of Tile White ^05 drying greenware. I’ll need to remind myself to be PATIENT and let the sgraffito trays dry before I fire them for the first time. Patience isn’t exactly my middle name, but I’m doing my best. It’s just that I’m so excited to see how some of these color underglazes are going to turn out and I’m even more excited to glaze the bisqued trays with some new matte and satin clear glaze I bought and see how they turn out. So see, I’m already IMPATIENT for two whole steps ahead!

For my latest sgraffito work I experimented with using some Duncan E-Z Strokes underglazes I had bought off Cr@igs List last year. I really liked how the Black and Midnight Blue flowed from my brush onto the greenware and loved carving the softened greenware. I’m worried that the first Amaco Black underglaze I used on the Raven sgraffito pieces isn’t going to be intense enough. I did paint the recommended three coats, PATIENTLY waited in between coats, so we'll see.

I’m hoping I can fire up the kiln loaded with sgraffito trays in a couple of days. The good news is that right now the Alaska winter air is really, really dry –tough on my skin but GREAT for my trays!

Artmaking Just For The Heck Of It

Finally had a CLAY DAY –yaaay! Which will turn into a clay week, which will evolve into rotating my clay medium back into my artmaking production schedule. Though I admit it was tough to get rollin’ because it’s been awhile since the studio has seen any water and mud action. I'm down to the last two bags of some Tile White, a ^06-1 clay. I wanted to use it up before the new shipment of higher fire clays arrive. I was out of sync remembering where all of my favorite tools are and had to re-acquaint myself with the clay shelves. I picked up these sweet “clay tool” finds for $3, a glass tray and vintage rolling pin at my favorite Thrift store, Bishop’s Attic, which I think helped shift me into 4WDrive. When I saw these gems I immediately thought of the making marks on clay. The glass tray actually has the coolest circular pattern on the bottom which was perfect for mark making on a tray or trivet. The circles reminded me of my friend Katie Sevigny’s work.

It was a bumpy start to my clay day even with the Thrift store treasures waiting to make their marks. I needed to prime my “clay brain” so I broke out a couple of my favorite clay books and thumbed through them -before my fingers were muddy.

Fortunately, I have a wonderful library of highly visual art books –a must-have for those days I’m a little lite on inspiration. It really only took about ten minutes of looking at the incredible images in “The Penland Book of Ceramics” and my head was clear of all the other "mommy, wifey, welder, puppy care-taker, bills payer, laundry doer, inventory taker, accounting" stuff that has accumulated in my brain and I was OFF! The “Handbuilt Ceramics” book put it best in chapter eight on “Inspiration,” that it’s important to grant yourself some “play” time which can be very difficult when we’re self-employed commercial artists. I tend to put a lot of expectations on every day I’m in the shop or studio. I try and make each piece of art “count” either financially or try and ensure that the outcome is successful. This is a dangerous path for artists to walk –I know, I’m in therapy for it. No, just kidding, I’m not in therapy but probably should at least be doing some sort of palates-yoga

moves to tone down my screaming, entrepreneurial, artmaking brain. I admit (though a bit embarrassing) when I was rolling out the slabs for some mark making, I was actually thinking about how much clay to use, what size, what the finish would be, the turnaround

time, could I make multiples if I had a good design and how much these new pieces would sell for! Geeze, let it go Shake, have some PLAY time for goodness sake! So in the name of play, I don’t know how any of the pieces are going to be glazed, though one of the large slab rolled trays is screaming for some Raven sgraffito work -which my customers HAVE been asking about…