Rick Rowland and I unbricked a lovely kiln this morning, our second very nice firing this year. In addition to several of Rick’s vases of various shapes and sizes, the firing brought me, among other things, three Summerhaven jars: one the usual size (about 11″ high), but two of my first attempts at larger versions (one 16″ and another 14″), both produced by combining together two separately thrown cylinders.
My take also included my first dinnerware set in about two years. A commission from friends in Tennessee, it consists of four plates, four serving bowls, and four small tumblers. They’re all lined with woos blue, surrounded by tomato red.
Finally, the firing included about three dozen mugs, including a number of 16-ounce versions of what I call modified double barrel mugs, with a flared base and a fluted top. I’d been throwing these for about a year, but they were consistently bottom heavy. A new throwing technique, involving aggressively trimming a slightly damp, tall cylinder before shaping the finished form, helped me get the mugs down to an acceptable weight.
All the mugs, including about a dozen 12-ounce convex forms, were festooned with drippy slip and glazed with woos blue; shino; woos blue covering shino; or white salt.
This will be my last firing before heading to Alfred (New York) University for two, two-week clay workshops.
July workshops at Alfred (NY) University
/in Uncategorized/by johnsnyderFeeling the need to at least temporarily remedy my state of relative creative isolation, I’ll be attending two July pottery workshops at Alfred University in Western New York. Situated about an hour west of Ithaca, Alfred features arguably the country’s top academic clay program.
I’ll be combining a two-week workshop — led by Linda Sikora and Matthew Metz — with the last two weeks of a four-week workshop, led by John Gill and In-Chin Lee. Sikora and Gill are professors in the Alfred ceramics program. I’ve long been familiar with the work of Sikora and Metz; Gill and In-Chin Lee, not so much.
Hopefully, the month will provide experiences and benefits I wasn’t expecting. At a minimum, I’m looking for some serious creative recharging, and some bald critiques of my recent work. And, unlike all my previous workshop experiences — which were the traditional 3-day, weekend affairs — this extended program will provide me the opportunity to apply new things on the wheel in the more long-term presence of the sources of instruction and inspiration.
Beyond the clay, I’m looking forward to some pastoral biking in much less than 99-degree temperatures; a meal or two at Moosewood; a couple of minor league baseball games in Auburn, involving the Pirates’ New York-Penn League affiliate; and perhaps a day at the roots and zydeco-tinged Grassroots music festival.
“Hot” summer 2015 firing
/in firings/by johnsnyderMy take also included my first dinnerware set in about two years. A commission from friends in Tennessee, it consists of four plates, four serving bowls, and four small tumblers. They’re all lined with woos blue, surrounded by tomato red.
Finally, the firing included about three dozen mugs, including a number of 16-ounce versions of what I call modified double barrel mugs, with a flared base and a fluted top. I’d been throwing these for about a year, but they were consistently bottom heavy. A new throwing technique, involving aggressively trimming a slightly damp, tall cylinder before shaping the finished form, helped me get the mugs down to an acceptable weight.
All the mugs, including about a dozen 12-ounce convex forms, were festooned with drippy slip and glazed with woos blue; shino; woos blue covering shino; or white salt.
This will be my last firing before heading to Alfred (New York) University for two, two-week clay workshops.
Dinnerware
/in In the Studio/by johnsnyderBut, dinnerware sets are also exceptionally gratifying. There’s little more enjoyable, in the potter’s world, than seeing a group of friends enjoying great food and wine out of a set of their dinnerware.
Though I’ve not made a full dinnerware set in several years, I am making a set of plates, on request, for a good friend in Tennessee. She already has a bunch of my pots, many of which she uses at a Christmas dinner her church has every year. She wanted four plates to complete what she already has. I’m obliging with four plates modeled after those in the first two sets in the Dinnerware section of my gallery.
If you have any interest in dinnerware, please get in touch and we can discuss it.
Spring mug sale @ Vine
/in Sales/by johnsnyderThe just-opened March 2015 kiln
I’ll be selling a new batch of mugs at Vine from Friday, April 10th through Friday, April 17th. Most of them came out of a very nice, mid-March kiln firing at St Pete’s Morean Center for Clay.
Last week, some examples of the sale mugs were integrated into the Vine stock sitting atop the refrigerated pastry case.
The sale will include a half-dozen, tall, 16-ounce shino mugs with black splashes, which turned out particularly well.
The mugs will be priced somewhere between $$20 and $28, depending on their complexity and vintage, with more recent mugs generally being more expensive.
I will be either physically at, or within a few minutes from, Vine during the week. Vine is located at 627 N Main St, Gainesville.
Though I prefer cash and personal check, I will have my Square charger at hand.
Like the last sale, the proceeds will go to Vine and one or more charities.
New 16-ounce Shino, black-splash mugs
New batch of mugs delivered to Vine
/in Uncategorized/by johnsnyderThe best results occurred in what I’m calling the “Graphic” and “Shino Blacksplash” mugs, captured in the front and back rows, respectively, in the accompanying photo and in the first two of four images on Page 1 of the Mugs gallery page.
Mugs similar to these, out of the same March firing, will be on sale at Vine from April 10th through the 17th.