Little Clay, Much Philosophy

I have been carrying Life of Pi by Yann Martel around for over a year now, hoping to read while in waiting rooms and sitting in car line to pick the kids up from school. Instead I always end up chatting with someone or spotting a magazine that begs reading. I finally got a chance to start it and Life of Pi has my wheels turning. This quote about a developing friendship with an atheist professor made me stop and reread it several times:

I felt a kinship with him. It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap.

I'll be honest about it. It is not atheists who get stuck in my craw, but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We all must pass through the garden at Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if He burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted with doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.

My mind has hardly stopped chewing on this for two days. I have always felt there has to be room for the doubter - that true faith has to ask to hard, niggling questions and find a satisfactory answer. I believe that we learn and grow by questioning, but you have to seek and find the answers to those questions. In choosing doubt as a philosophy of life, you essentially choose to not seek answers.

Religion and faith of all kinds intrigue me, but also what really struck me was the idea of the artist choosing doubt. This is the artist who links the value of their art with the number of sales. This is the artist who spends their days at the easel yet turns their paintings to the wall when company arrives.

Is my art valuable because someone wants to buy it? Or, is it valuable because I feel compelled to create it? If no one else loves what I make, should that cause me to stop creating? I believe the satisfaction to my spiritual need to create is in seeing my vision fulfilled, not in seeing cash exchanged for that small reflection of my soul.

We are driven to create. Whether we show in upscale galleries or hide our work in closets, the need to see our visions come to life is ingrained. The desire to create is instilled in us at our creation, when we are made in the image of the Creator - the greatest of all artists. My work... your work.... it is valuable because it is love. It is a sharing of the secret places in our souls and that is more valuable than money, prestige, or fame.

I think I'm in love!

I posted this dish a week or two ago in the leather hard stage. Often, this is the romantic stage with pottery. Either you are in love with your piece - it is smooth, dark, and cool but still flexible enough to bend to your will; or you hate it. Occasionally you might let the hated ones grow on you, but by the time they are bone dry, you should know whether or not the relationship will work.So, this little guy passed the love test and went on to be bisque fired and then glazed and fired again. Sometimes, at this stage, you fall right back out of love. Some pieces go bad in the glaze firing and disappoint you with blisters or pinholes or even (gasp) cracking. I always wonder what I did to make them hurt me so. But this little guy was true to my heart and came out perfect!

Mystery!

These tiles are tests of the same glaze - Xavier's Warm Green Jade - on two clay bodies - a buff and a brownstone.

Last month, I mixed up a round of new glazes to test and possibly add to our studio line. One of the glazes I mixed was Xavier's Warm Green Jade. Initially, I added too much water and the glaze was very thin. I did my first test tile on a buff clay, which resulted in the tile on the left. It suits the name - a warm green glaze.

After the glaze settled out, I poured some of the water off of the top. I mixed it again and dipped a second test tile, this time a brownstone clay which is my preferred clay body. The glaze went on much thicker this time, resulting in the tile on the right.

So, the mystery is... is the difference due solely to the thickness of the glaze, or it is due to something settling out? Was it not settled enough when I poured off the water? I plan to make a large bucket of this glaze, since I love it, but I want to continue to get the results on the right.

Xavier's Warm Green Jade
Custer Feldspar 22
Ferro Frit 3134 16
Whiting 12
EPK-Kaolin 20
Talc 9
Silica 21
ADD
Copper Carbonate 3
Rutile 5

Shopping Spree!

A girlfriend called to see what I was going to be up to while the kids were in school - my so called "day off". "I'm going shopping in Ashville!" I replied. She regretted she couldn't go and I thought she probably didn't have in mind what I did.

I hopped in the car and headed over the mountain into North Carolina. An hour later I pulled up in front of Highwater Clays. I was giddy! I got a squeaky shopping cart and perused the aisles for over an hour! I bought EPK! Rutile! Gerstley borate! Red Iron Oxide! Talc! It went on an on and I was so happy. I restocked my glaze supply shelves and got the supply run buzz!

I have been doing some more typical shopping, too. Christmas shopping! Here are a couple of things I have bought on etsy. Click the pictures to visit the seller's stores.

Custom, Custom, Custom

We enjoy doing custom orders for people, but lately, we have been covered up with them! I do not get over anxious about making the items perfect. I am comfortable knowing they like our style enough to trust us to create something just for them.

We are just about dug out from the avalanche and we are feeling less panicky about the length of our list. Ticked off our list this week are bowls, a tea set, and a number of family portrait ornaments. Still remaining are more bowls, monogrammed ornaments, and mugs. Back to the studio to keep plugging away!

I Could Make THAT Myself!

"I could make THAT." I hear it all the time. I could say it a lot of the time and it would be true.

However, owning the handiwork of another artist is an honor. When I hold in my hands someone else's creativity, talent, and dedication, there is a clear connection between our spirits. I might be able to duplicate the object itself, but I cannot duplicate the joy it brings me to hold in my hands the coffee mug of another potter.

When I wear my Bina Geyer earrings, I am connected to a wonderful woman who lives across an ocean from me. Every time I place a spoon on my David Posner spoonrest, I am reminded of the workshop I took from him and all the knowledge he shared with me. When I bathe with my Shine Your Hiney Soap Company soap, I can feel the love that Diane puts into every bar.

Just as my children connect me more closely to my Creator, these works of art and outpourings of self connect me with their creators. Many times I could duplicate an object, but I could never duplicate the love that went into it.

Swirly Love

I love opening up the kiln on a glaze firing. This pendant's colors were so unexpected. The silvery sparkle where the glaze pooled is something I've never seen before. I hope I'll be able to replicate the results on something like a plate, but there are no guarantees.

Love these!

I just love my rocking bottle and the little handbuilt vase I paired it with. The rocking bottle is handbuilt with a thrown neck. Both pieces are glazed with a cobalt glaze that break to an olive green.

Etsy Mud Team Sale

This past week and a little has seen the creation of the Etsy Mud Team, an online guild of potters selling on etsy. We are excited to be working with other potters in this venture. To celebrate our founding, we are having an inaugural sale!

Great Finds!

In the past six months, I have bought a number of items from Muttsywonder on etsy that I really love. Her silk screened shirts are always perfect; I know because my whole family wears them! I even commissioned her to make me a cute tote bag with a trio of poppies on it. You can see what she has to say and get coupon codes on her blog or see her full line of work at www.harrilu.com.

New Plates

Alex and I have been working to replace a lot of our dishes. Everything we use was made by us, but it has been a while since we kept some new things. These delicious plates were thown by Alex using a dark brown stoneware. I then glazed then using the same bamboo glaze used on the Civil War Cups and a green glaze in the center to highlight the spiral.

Reproduction

For a while I've been working on a printing method in order to make affordable reproductions of my nursery art. I have researched giclee, tried professional printers, and even my own inkjet without finding what I want. Finally, I upgraded my own printer to one that uses archival, lightfast inks and started printing on 80 lb watercolor paper that I trim to glide through the printer. Success! I am able to now offer 8x10 reproductions of my nursery art for $13.00 at my etsy store, Into The Fire.

Still, I've been thinking for a while that what I'd really like to do is screen print simplified versions of my nursery art. I am working on the screens now and gathering what I need. I'm hoping that I'll be able to bring to light what I envision. I think that, having never screen printed before, my undertaking might be a little ambitious. Thankfully, my etsy friend The Milkman, who created the shirt to the right, has offered to share his expertise and encouragement with me. I know he does good work because I have bought two shirts from him already! Also encouraging me in this endeavor is Muttsywonder, who you will be hearing more about very soon.

Catching Up

One of the places I really struggle as an artist is in documenting my work. I get so caught up in what I am making, I let it go without ever photographing it or noting how and why I made it. Sometimes I forget the process I might have used that makes something special. Sometimes I just can't remember what it is I've been doing.

This weekend, I decided to try to go around the house and photograph everything I have missed documenting over the past few months. Everywhere I turned there was something else that needed to be caught by the camera. I felt like I really accomplished a major task, but I am still thinking of things that have escaped being photographed.


The monster and bulldog dolls were little boredom busters that I created while sitting in front of the tv. Alex and I made half a dozen over the course of about a week and then the urge passed and we moved on to other creations. We are holding on to these two dolls and a third that our youngest son sleeps with. The bulldog is made from a wool sweater that went through the wash and the monster is made from some polartec, left over from baby buntings I made a few years ago.