June Firing

Well, we squeezed a small firing on June 9th, tried to get the our large pit, but it was a fun challenge in the 4x4.  We opted to continue to work on our firing in fire pits.  They are much smaller, and easier to control, however we do not reach the same temperature range as we do in the large pit, but is much, much faster.  I've decided to call this new firing "Fire Pit Pottery", since it is faster and much lower temp, we increased the amount of colorants to compensate.  Each piece is individually wrapped in paper with the colorants next to the piece and placed in the fire pit.  once the pit is full with fill the gaps with sawdust and small pieces of wood and light it up.

The results are darker than our normal pit fired pieces, but still have the complex layers and patterns.  We did a couple last year this way because of the drought, but have decided to keep the process and continue to play with it.

New Booth Design

This year we have taken a step back from shows, free up some time to redesign our booth.  It has been a challenge so far, eliminating the tables with skirts and the accordion style shelving.  We wanted to get away from the tables, as they were too long for most vehicles, besides they were beginning to warp and have dips.  The skirts were getting stretched out and needed new elastic.  I cannot complain, I spent less than $60 for the two tables, and I still have the saw horses to use for other things.

The accordion style shelving is very functional, easy to set up, and has stood up to very strong winds without being tied or weighted down.  I have turned down several offers to purchase it, but still keep it around.  You never know when it will come in handy.  It just was not the look I wanted.  I know it sounds rather snobbish, but it didn’t fit in with the look we wanted.  It’s my booth, and I’ll make it how I want it.

The 1^st booth set up was out of necessity, very little to no funds and was built as inexpensively as possible.  Now we have a little more money and experience to see what would work for us.  Here are some of our criteria:

1.      Collapsible/ easy to set up and tear town

2.      Light enough to carry, heavy enough to withstand wind gusts

3.      Unique, something that is as unique as our pottery

4.      Storage, still needed to store items in the booth

5.      Must fit in the Expedition and leave room for pottery

6.      Must be affordable, sorry $1200 for basic Pro Panels is out of our range.

I started brainstorming a little over a year ago, and really started to look at other people booth set ups, and searching the internet for ideas.  By last fall I knew I wanted to do something with natural edge wood.  I purchased a 16” locust log and had it milled into planks.  I have since made a set of 70” shelves using 4 of the planks with all their imperfections left to shine and scream uniqueness.  The brackets for this set is down with square tube steel and it is all bolted together, takes about 5-10 mins to set up/take down.

 Now working on some pedestals, this spring’s ice storm was a great source for cross sections of trees.  These will soon be our pedestals.  It was one of the positives from the ice storm in April.  For those of you who know wood, I did kiln dry the cross sections so I could work with them.  That’s an added bonus for having those kilns in the garage.

 We also selected a curtain material to divide a section of the boot to hide the boxes and misc supplies, designed the support system for it and almost ready to test it out on a mock set up.

Lastly still on the hunt for the other shelving set, I have the designs I want.  I just need to figure out how to do it.  Besides I still have firings to do and pots to make for our shows this season.  I will post pictures after the 1st show, until then there are and will be more sneak peaks on our facebook page.

 

Gallery Demo

Well, the past few weeks have been scheduled almost to the minute.  With running the kids from activity to activity, getting the new booth shelves finished, attending a workshop, and now preparing for a gallery show starting in a few hours.

The ice storm a few weeks ago stopped us in our tracks waiting a week for electricity, but we have met all deadlines so far. Whew!  Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, our bisque shelves are empty.  I guess the next two days doing demos at the gallery will have to go to replenish the stock.

Also with all the rain, the fire danger may be down enough to allow us to do a pit fire.  We did not do any last year and the selection of pit pots is very limited.  I hope I can get enough thrown before it gets too dry.

Its been several, several weeks since I've spun a pot.  I hope I don't make a fool of myself throwing in front of an audience.  I will have my trash can close just in case.

November

Well,  its been an interesting fall, pottery has been on a side burner.  With the extreme drought conditions and the fire bans, we did not do our fall pit fire.  Actually we did not do any pit firing this year due to the drought.  I did not have the typically urgency to throw throw throw to get enough pieces for that this year.

We had all three boys in football this year, between that, the board of directors positions I hold, and the W2 having extreme staff shortages, there was not much time to play in the mud.  I have been doing a few stoneware orders, and that has been interesting.  Currently my drying table is full awaiting me to haul it out to the kiln, it will most likely be next week.  I have a 15# platter that's taking it sweet time drying.

One of the orders was slightly challenging and would have been a struggle without modern technology.  I was contact via email for a cookie jar.  I said I could and she describe what she wanted.  I threw several forms and sent pictures of each and she adjusted until I had what she wanted.  I made larger glaze samples of most of the glazes I had, and purchased a few new ones and sent her photos and we together came up with the correct glaze.  Piece was paid via paypal, shipped and is sitting on her doorstep.  We never once met or talked over the phone.  Granted the process took a little longer as the delays between emails, but I'm certain she will love the piece.

I also realized this week that our annual Holiday Open house is a month away!  Don't worry Kiesha already has the food and beverages planned, so there will be that part.  I was hoping to have at least one of our new shelving units ready to go, but chances are getting slim I will get them done in time.

More info on the Holiday Open House Soon....

2012 update

Well the 2012 festival season has ended this past weekend.  We have now put the booth away, and put all the remaining inventory back on the shelves for now.  It has been a challenging year, most shows level, few were down, few were up.  Gallery sales have increased which is good.  Since we introduced Obvara in our last 3 shows, it has comprised of 70% of our sales.

Fall is the time we submit to a few exhibitions, We currently have two active now the 5th biennial South Dakota Governor's Show that opens in it second venue, SD State Art Museum, later this month on its 18 month tour.  Also the 1st Juried Exhibition at the Washington Pavilion is going on now, where we have 1 of 60 pieces selected for the show.

Tonight I'm finishing our annual Paint the Night Pink submission, it's a great night, 10/19/2012, of fun, food,drink and art.  If you are in the area I strongly urge you to purchase a ticket and attend.  Also working on another one, but we have never been accepted, maybe this is the year, submitting two Obvara pieces.

Fall is also the time of year we look for additional galleries, I think we are looking at trying to add one or two  this year.  We are also in negotiations with an interior design firm to market our work to their clients, may have that finished by the end of the month.

With the extreme dry conditions in South Dakota, our fall pit fire is cancelled, so the pits on hand is all we will have until next year unless it is dry again.

Its great when things work...

Last year I spent several days building our website www.upinsmokepottery.com , and have been watching the stats and working on getting it to show up in searches.  Well it paid off!  A guy was looking for an anniversary gift for his wife, had to be either bronze or pottery, (8th anniversary), and he google'd Sioux Falls   Pottery or South Dakota Pottery and he found our site :)

We conversed via email for a couple days, and I directed him to the local gallery that handles our work.  He went and checked it out, but didn't find anything that jumped out at him.  Now the gallery has some great pieces of pottery from many talented artists, but the guy wanted one of ours :)

He contacted me again, and we were able to meet up and looked over what I had in the studio, although it is in quite a disarray, he kept pulling pieces and set them on our ironing board as he whittled down his selections.  He narrowed it down to two pieces and he could decide so he took both!

It's great when technology works in our favor.

Upcoming shows and a rant

Well as the end of our festival season is in sight, here are the final 3 shows we have scheduled for this year...
8/24 ArtRocks in Luverne,MN
9/8  Sidewalk Arts in Sioux Falls, Sd
9/14-9/15 Hutchinson Arts and Crafts in Hutchinson, MN

Last evening I finally was able to catch up on the Ceramic Arts Daily forum, I haven't read it at all almost all summer.  We have been burning the candle at both ends so to speak, between making pottery, Custom Stoneware, Festivals, our W2 jobs, and the kids activities; time has been stretched.  I read a post regarding comments/criticism from fellow potters at festivals.  Typically potters are a group of easy going, willing to share and enjoy each others craft and borrow ideas from each other, which I agree with.  One of the comments was regarding comments made to a potter at a show from another potter belittling their work because they were not a true potter firing to cone 12.

 Well that happened to me this summer as well, wonder if it was the same potter.  We were visiting about our work and I explained it was all glazeless.  He  stated "Not everyone is able to be a true potter."  I was rather taken back by that comment, but decided not to point out that every piece of his was severely crazed from cooling too fast, and bordered on no longer being food safe despite being glazed.  I realize some people like the crazed look and some potters want that appearance, but I guess to me it is a flaw you try to avoid and work like crazy to adjust your glaze formula to prevent it.  Just because I don't use glazes doesn't mean I don't know how to use them.

I had chosen not to post about that experience, but reading the forum made me begin to start to wonder if it is not the same person, considering the all the potters involved are in a 3 state area and may have overlapping shows.

Anyway, off my soap box, hope to see you at one of our upcoming shows.

New technique

Late last week I learned of a new 19-20th century technique that is also naked!  I have spent the the last several days trying to find out all I can on the topic, which to say there is not much on the Internet (yet).  I have contacted the artist who pieces I found and she has been helping me by directing me to information and answering questions.  I am planning the 1st trial firing for next week and can hardly contain myself.  Since learning about this "new" old world technique, I have been coming up with variations to try, but I need to work on the original 1st.

more to come....

Urns

I have been making ginger jars / cremation urns for a few years now.  It’s not something I go out and market it, but people ask me from time to time if it is something I can do.  I have spoken to other potters who surprisingly freaked out by the idea of making cremation urns.  I’m not going to go into great detail about it is only a vessel, you know darn well what it is for when you are making it.  I’m sure some of those potters who are uncomfortable with the notion of making cremation urns, probably don’t realize that one of their lidded vessels may be holding someone’s remains.

I have never really put much thought into making the urns, it just another vessel at the time.  It began with adding a lids to various vessels, most had knob and/ or handles.  One in particular I added an elaborate handle with lots of flair and flourish.  Of course the flair and flourish broke off, leaving me with a flat lid.  I fired it anyway.  It turned out really cool with great depth in the smoke marks.  1^st show I brought it to it was nearly immediately commented that looked like an urn and it made the lady uncomfortable.  It did continue to venture to a few shows, and I started taking orders for urns, and stocking a few in my studio.  Typically have 2-3 for each person to choose from when they request urns.

Earlier this month, I sold my last finished urn and took an order for another. It was not a big deal.   I had 2 thrown waiting to be finished.  I finished them the next week and completed the order.  Unfortunately, during this week, my sister lost her battle with cancer and her children asked me to make her urn.  This has been a challenge for me this week.  These have been more than a vessel. I have always considered it the utmost honor to have one of my works used for this purpose.  This set of urns have truly been my honor to be part of.

2012 Show Season

With less than a month remaining until the first festival of the season, I was reminded that our shelving unit needed repairs :(  the massive downpour we endured one weekend last year ended up warping the shelves into nice arcs.  Unfortunately, curved boards don't do well to show our booth visitors that our pieces don't wobble.

I guess I procrastinating, since I purchased the new shelving material, and just not working on it yet, but today needs to be the day, at least to start on them.  We debated on building a whole new unit, one larger and much, much lighter, but I'm only going to do the shelves to start with.  With that said, I better get going.

1st show is May 19th in Orange City, IA at the Tulip Festival.  Hope to see you there!

throwing

My Mother-in-Law was so kind to point out this week that my shelves were looking rather empty...So a throwing I will go. Bisqued a kiln load last week, and have one starting this morning and enough pots to light it again in a couple days. It's not that I haven't been working, just not as much as I normally have by this time of year.

I hope to do a foil saggar firing in the next couple weeks, but the W2 is keeping me busy working extra hours. Hours that come out of my throwing time. I guess I need the feel the crunch more than I do right now. I do have enough finish work for the 1st few show, lots of great Pits, just no foil or paper saggars. I have about 8 platters ready to go, which don't see to stick around long at shows or galleries, but I want to do more once my drying containers are emptied.

I figure I've throw just shy of 350 pounds of clay in the past couple weeks, for some of you that not much, but it been all I've managed to get done in the half to one day I've been averaging.

I am working on a couple test piece of a new design inspired by Michael Eden, 3 test pots are under plastic drying now, these are much more labor intensive than our standard pots, lets hope they turn out.

So Far this year we will be back at Sidewalk Arts in Sioux Falls, Artburst in Orange City, and Art on the Lake in Excelsior. Also have a piece touring South Dakota for 16 months beginning in May.

Until next time...

Workshop info

I have been getting a couple inquires about Pit Firing workshops. Yes we do have a workshop format developed modeled after many of the ones I have attended. It scheduled for 1.5-2 days in length. Day one is starts with digging the pit, after an introduction and seeing who many and what sizes of pieces that have been brought. Once the pit is done, we will go to a wheel work, showing how i get the smooth sides, and talk about clay selection, terra sigg vs burnishing. We will also take some time going over various colorants and their effects or reported effects. Somewhere in there will be a lunch break. We will also work on saggars that i use in the pit and build some along the way. We will finish the afternoon wrapping pots for the firing, building the firing base, and packing the pit. At this point we can either light it before dinner or after. I do enjoy lighting the pit at dusk so the color in the flames are more evident. We will meet again on day two, and empty the pit as soon as it is cool enough. We will discuss the results of the firing and talk about sealants, trim the pieces that were thrown yesterday, question and answer period and clean and fill the pit back in.

The 2012 base cost is $600 plus lodging, meals, and mileage from Sioux Falls, SD. ($1 per mile, one way) Material costs are extra if I provide them.

January 2012

Wow, where has time gone. It has over 2 months since i was on the blog, sorry about that. Since I last posted we have had our Holiday Open House, lot of great pieces found their way out our door. Kiesha had prepared a delicious spread of food, I got leftovers for a few days but I didn't mind. The family Christmas came and went. The kids have been busy with hockey, and so have I as a league manager/supervisor, also was talked into being a tournament director.

The end of the year also meant inventory, ugh!, double ugh!! and I am at a point the taxes information is ready for the accountant, just waiting on the w2s from the w2 jobs.

January is also the time we empty the bank account with show applications, this year we are planning on 7 festivals, 5 we have done before, and two new ones. I can say we will definitely be in Sioux Falls at the Sidewalk Arts in September. Other than that we will wait and see.

On the throwing side, I have not touched clay or the wheel since November. I set it up again last night, but not sure when I will get to play in clay. But I do have a couple custom orders due in February, so I best get going soon.

Pit Firing 11-6-11

Well, we did what is likely the final pit firing of the year this past weekend. We dug a new pit, using a trench style vs our old standard a large circle or square. We only had 25-30 pots to fire so space wasn't a big necessity this time.

Using the trench was an learning experiment, I believe I can accomplish the same firing with less materials, since there was less square footage. I used definitely a lot less wood, I left a good size pile from what we would normally use for the firing. The fire also burned longer and the ash bed was very large and took a long time to dwindle down. I also used a lot less chemicals this time, notice a little less of the copper reds, but it produced a lot more greens.

I also encountered higher wind delays, was planning on firing at 8 am, but ended up waiting until 5:30 pm as the sun was setting. This turned out to be a great experience, not only watching the fire in the dark and easily seeing the different colored flames. I also utilized the coal bed to test colorants and see what they produced. I only wish I had brought more alone.

There are a few photos of the firing on Facebook, it will most likely be a while before I clean and seal the pots. We are planning a foil saggar firing this week, and then it hockey nearly every night and weekend from now through March. Don't worry I still get my shelves filled so I can fire once the snow goes away.

Thanks for reading,
Chad

Stoneware

Recently I did another stoneware(cone 5) firing, mainly to complete some custom orders/special requests. this typically not something I do often, but find myself doing more and more of to increase revenues.

This last firing I continued to play with Amaco Potter Choice glazes, and am really liking the results. Very smooth and easy to apply, and doesn't run. I did play a little with layering the glazes over one of my DPS Standbys and the results were wanting me to play more.

I posted pics of what I call the tri-batter-bowls, basically a bowl distorted in to a triangle shape, has 3 spouts and up to 3 handles. I use a different glaze on each side with overlaps in the spouts. The two are sold. the 3rd was a test piece, but will most likely be out for the Open House in December. Kiesha wants a few more also by the open house. given the feedback on both Facebook and Google+, I just might have to do it. It also in encouraging me to delve back into stoneware. I have been toying with it all year, but I think I need to narrow down my color spectrum 1st.

Until next time, take care. I attached the photo of the tri batter bowls incase you don't follow FB or G+

Winterfest

As promised a little more about Winterfest, our 1st indoor show. It is an annual event in downtown Aberdeen, SD. The lights are dimmed and all exhibitors are required to light their booths. We decided to try this indoor show mainly because of 2 reasons, one it is in a market we have not been in, and two it is during a time when we typically have no shows. Also it seemed less like a flea market, which is one in town that keeps trying to get me to pay the $400 booth fee to join every year.

So the Arts Association behind Winterfest recommended to use a canopy to help reflect light in the booth area, so instead of using our 150-200 pound Craft Hut, we found an inexpensive "easy up" style canopy on clearance for $60, it weighs about 60 pounds and takes considerably less room in the SUV. That was purchase number one.

Also since it is in November in Northern SD, camping or sleeping in the SUV is out of the question, so hotel for two nights. It will be a nice getaway for the weekend.

Then came the task of lighting the booth, we had considered using christmas tree lights, but were concerned about the amount of light actually produced. So I put the question out on various pottery forums I participate in, and it was nearly unamious not to use the christmas lights. The big recommendation was to invest in a track lighting system. I did look at and began to design, but since we are wanting to redesign the entire booth in the next couple years, I went with option "C". Clip on lights. I selected narrow brooding lights and utilizing 50 watt halogen flood and spot lights.

We tested the lighting set up last week on a moonless night, it was very bright and the colors seemed true under the lights. I will definetly take photos of the booth once it is set up and illuminated for future use. Now we are trying to figure out if we want to invest in a portable pattery system to light the booth during the summer shows. We will have to see on that one.

So if you are near Aberdeen the weekend before Thanksgiving, stop by and see us. We leave the light on for you! hahaha

Paint the Night Pink

Paint the Night Pink was last Friday Night, what a great time.  I don't think a whole lot of art is sold, but it is such a great night to mingle and chew the fat with other artists and John Q.  Next on the Horizon is Winterfest, our 1st indoor show. More on that later this week.

Holiday Open house update.

Been distracted lately, or busy not sure which.  With the upcoming Holiday Open House in December we decided we needed to refresh the studio/gallery/basement before too many people saw it.  I mean we have had a few people over to purchase pieces, but it was not pretty with the holes in the walls, dingy lighting. 

Well we started by recycling some old barn siding from my Grandparents barn that was torn down about 20 years ago to give a real rustic feel to the wall separating the kids area and the studio.  Gives it a separate feel.  I got the idea from the recent home builders parade of homes, and it was used in a very high end home that was the feature home this year.

I then put us white masonite on one wall in the studio behind the drying / slab rolling table.  Its not that this wall got that dirty, but there were several holes in the drywall, and this way it will be easy to clean.

In the actual gallery area, we moved all the pieces out, and then the shelving, repaired one wall and covered the others with drywall, so instead of looking at framing studs there will be a wall.  It already looks better, and it is only mudded, no paint yet.  Speaking of paint....found plenty at the reuse store for free!  Once the walls are ready, i'll prime and start painting. and get everyting back to normal.  Since we realized we need more pots for winter.

Our gallery in Bemidji, MN nearly ran out of pieces, so we sent a shipment this week.  I am happy to report for the 1st time everything arrived as it was shipped no breakage.  We switched to Fed Ex, not only less expensive, but higher survival rate.

We do have a shipment ready for Piper Gallery here in Sioux Falls, so be checking there soon for fresh inventory.

saggar firing 9-20-11

This week worked on getting a quick firing for the piece I was planning on using for the Paint the Night Pink event here in Sioux Falls.  The deadline is this Friday.  the 20" platter/low bowl turned out AWESOME, it did exactly what I wanted it to do.  Got it home and washed up with all the others so I could start sealing today so I can photograph it and write an blurb about.  When done today and there was a chip in the rim!  I don't think I did it, and the kids were not in the studio, I blame the cat.  She has been hiding down there a little too much lately.  Anyhow, I have other pieces for the benefit, and Kiesha will get another broken piece for her wall.

Sidewalk Arts

Could not have asked for a more beautiful day for the Sidewalk Arts Festival in our "hometown" of Sioux Falls.  Sales were roughly double last year, had two different sales of mulitple (3) pieces each.  WoW, I believe it was the addition of accepting credit cards.  Thank you Sioux Falls.

The frames tiles did not get touched much, one got petted a couple times, but that was it.  Not nearly the reception they recieved in Luverne two weeks ago. alas back to the crate.

As the weather gets cooler, kids are back in school, getting back to regular sleep schedule, I now find myself with time to play on the wheel again.  Will have roughly 1-2 days per week , plus some odd times here and there.  This week spun 50#, I realize it not much, but that is more then I threw in the month of June, July, and August combined.

Next on the horizon for us is the annual Paint the Night Pink event, which is a benefit for Breast Cancer research, I need to let them know next week what pieces we will have there, we give 50% of the retail price to the cause.  The same day we have the kids raku workshop at our youngests school, which I just spun all the pencil cups they will be firing.

Have no updates on the two winter/indoor shows, but still working on having our holiday open house.  currently scheduled for Dec 10th, but that may change.