White Crane in Omaha

Just delivered this week, several new pieces from last weeks firing ended up at White Crane Gallery in the Old Market district in Omaha. Be sure to check them out if you are in the area.

Opening

Anyone in the area of Worthington, MN is welcome stop by and visit the open house at the Noble County Arts, in the basement of the library. It runs from 1-4 pm, and is showcasing its annual spring show. I know when I dropped off our pieces this week I saw several nice pieces of art I am looking forward to checking out closer when they are displayed. Hope to see you there.

Studio pics

I had a couple minutes, so I took a couple pics of the "new" studio to share. Although it is not finished it will give you the idea of the space.

The wheel area and storage cupboards. The sink is the the left of the cupboards. Behind the chair is the clay storage. I can hold approx. 1 ton of clay at a time.

Here are the storage areas: the one on the left is the finished ware, I still need to move the rest over. The photo on the right is the drying table. Eventually it will be replaced with a rack similar to the finished ware race. The to the left of the drying table I may put a slab roller. I welcome your comments.

Summer Schedule

Here is the start of the summer schedule...

April 11-May 9 Nobles County Area Art Show, Worthington, MN
June 11 & 12 Arts on the Shore, Worthington, MN
July 9 - 11 Brookings Summer Arts Festival, Brookings, SD
August 28 Art Rocks, Luverne, MN


There are a few we are waiting to hear from, but we will update as they come in.

Firing photos

Here are a couple of the pieces finished over the last weekend. It was great to get out and fire again. I hope to be doing another one in a couple weeks.

What a weekend!

Its been a great weekend, the weather held in the 30's in the morning and hit 60-70's in the afternoon. We got out and prepared the pit for firing, cleaned it out and repaired any damage from the cows. We fired a load in the pit, and a load of saggars, and last week spent the week doing blackware pieces. In my opinion we got some great pieces, I especially favor the saggars, they have the same hash marks, but are deeper gray/brown and the oranges are more diffuse giving the pots a warm glow. I might have to keep one for myself, We will see if Kiesha can find room for it.
As for the Pit Firing, another potter suggested I try some bacon grease. He advised he gave interesting results....well I can say this, it did make some interesting patterns on the side of the pots. I placed approx. 2 soup cans of grease in the pit in two different locations the colors of the pots were what I would call swamp green/brown. The pieces gave the appearance of a quilt, with areas of different shades of the swamp green/brown, but the unique part is they had a defined border.
The rest of the pit was normal, lots of great red, pink, burgundy, gray, black, green, and some blue. The new clay held up great, did have some breakage, but I contribute most of those to being inpatient and me lifting the pieces out from the fire. OOPS
This week, wax, photo, and inventory.

Functioning Studio

Well on Friday I moved into the new studio. I love it! It still has the old paint on the basement walls, the studs are still showing. I have played with a couple different configurations and think i have settled on it. I been throwing some commission work for a person in Canada and then back to stocking the shelves. The snow is about 75% gone, the flood waters are rising so we are still hoping we can start firing in 2 weeks. Keep checking back I'll get pics posted once the pieces start coming out of the pits. I may post the studio, but I'll wait until i have the walls enclosed.

Updates...

Well, it been over a month, just a little to keep you informed of our progress. Our son's hockey is winding down, so now there is more time for clay! I have our new clay body done and have nearly gone through the 1st shipment. It is AWESOME!!! It throws great, takes abuse and torture of stretching it out, I have successfully saggar fired it, and raku'd it with no problems. I even took a piece at approx 1000 F, and threw it into the snowbank, and it survived no cracks. I cannot wait to get into the pasture to the pits. I have several other tests lined up including Cone 5-6 stoneware, salt firing, soda firing, and a wood firing. Can't wait to see the results.

We are also remodeling/creating a new studio. The wheel will be moved in the laundry area in our basement, since we moved the washer and dryer out last year. I will have water nearby, no more dripping slop all over the basement as I walk to the sink. I am adding a lot more shelves for drying and storage. and a new work counter. I am looking forward to the increase of space. Currently I only have room for about 10 pieces to dry on the bats, so I throw 10 and I am done for the day, or at least several hours.

I am also attempting to give lessons on the wheel. I have a couple a students starting in the next couple weeks and several others on a waiting list. So if you are interested shoot me an email. I will have more time ( i think) in the months to come. This summer I could be in the studio just about every night with a student or two.

We are also applying for shows for the summer, we are staying with 4-6 shows, about the same as last year, we will let you know when the details are finalized.

Recent firings

Although it is January and it is cold in South Dakota, I was able to fire a couple pieces. Here are a couple of them. One is a recent Stoneware load. Chad & Kiesha

Piper Custom Framing

Just to start the year off, one of our local galleries that allows us to present our wares just started a blog. www.pipercustomframingandfineartgallery.blogspot.com Up in Smoke pottery is doing a seminar at our kids school tomorrow, it should be a great time. It is the same pinch pot pottery lesson Kiesha did all summer at the public library and was asked to do it again! Also this year, we have decided to open our studio/basement to lessons, and have worked out our spiel for the pit firing seminar tentatively scheduled for June. If you are in the area or are interested shoot us an email. I did do a saggar firing and a stoneware firing over the past couple weeks. I may post pics when I get time. Its time to buckle down and throw pots for the summer shows, but I will try to update as I get them. Thanks for checking out our blog.