Representation in Omaha!

Up in Smoke Pottery now has great pit fired pottery and saggar fired pottery in Omaha, Nebraska! We have reached an agreement with White Crane Gallery in the Old Market District in Omaha. It is a awesome little shop in the passageway. If you are near Omaha, it is worth a visit.

Sidewalk Arts

Thanks for a great Sidewalk Arts. It was great to meet and chat with you. That concludes our festival schedule for this year. We now will decide where we will be next year, keep checking the blog for updates. We have a couple gallery things in the works, dates and details will be released as they are finalized.

Sidewalk Arts

The weatherman cannot make up his mind on what is going to be like so I guess I will bring my Weather Rock. Hope to see everyone this weekend in downtown Sioux Falls for Sidewalk Arts. Up in Smoke Pottery will be in booth 71, which will be just outside the east Pavilion doors unless that changes before we set up. Here's a couple pics of some of the recent work that we will have down there.

Up in Smoke in the News!

Just found a photo of me on the Rock County Star Hearld website from Art Rocks. It will be the 2nd photo from the left.

Here is the link:
http://www.star-herald.com/detail/19271.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=photos&town_id=

New Piece

We will have new pieces for the Sidewalk Arts next weekend. We have been playing with making tiles and framing them. I spent today making the frames, we are going with simple wide width frames much like the Craftsman style. The tiles I have done so far are 3" x 6" and a couple 3" x 3". The tiles turned out really neat, we may have a couple in our home to accent the walls. I might post a few pics when I get them completed, or you may just have to wait until Sept 12 to see them at Sidewalk Arts.

Pit Fire part 1

I have been asked at recent show to show a few photos of the process. I know some people do not believe I use white clay, but you can see for yourself in picture #2. These are from the firing we did on 8/24/2009.

Here is a pit, yes it truly is a hole in the ground.

This is the base layer, organics such as leaves, grass, etc plus sawdust and the first colorants.

The pieces are set in the hole, notice a few paper bag saggars in the mix.

Now add some wood, and some more wood....

light it up and watch it burn.

Pit Fire part 2

Once the fire is going we let it go. We watch to make sure the grass doesn't start burning outside the pit area. This fire was very hot, the dark orange flames put the temperature of the fire between 1800-2000 degrees (according to a old book from 1905). The pots are not at that temperature just the flames at their base.

Here are photos of some of the pieces, notice there is not a lot of color yet. The pots go in white, initially turn black from the smoke and as they heat the black burns off at about 1000-1200
degrees. The clay will remain white until it cools more of the color becomes apparent.

Pit Fire part 3

Above is the the pit when we went back in the morning.

Here are some of the pieces out of the pit. They will be washed and waxed later.

I Hope you enjoyed the photos of our recent firing. It was not our best for color but you at least get an idea of the process. Thanks for looking and feel free to comment or send me and email with any questions.

Chad

ART ROCKS!!!!

It was a great weekend for the show. Great weather, it was so nice to be on the ground of the Rock County Courthouse. There was a steady flow of people to visit with, I enjoyed meeting and talking with you all. It was also a great weekend.....Up in Smoke Pottery won Best in Show! That was a honor. Tomorrow back to the pit to get stocked up for Sidewalk Arts on Sept 12. See you there.

Luverne Art Rocks!

Up in Smoke Pottery will be at Art Rocks in Luverne, MN this Saturday from 9-4. Our booth will be somewhere on the Rock County Courthouse Square. There is a 2nd art show event downtown Luverne, that means lots of great art to look at hope to see you there!