I Know! I Know! I Know!

I know it has been way too long since I last wrote on this blog. A lot has been going on since the middle of February - a couple of snow storms, a bout with a bad cold, and beginning panic about the upcoming End of Grade exams my students have to take and pass to be able to move up to the high school next year. In the midst of all this, I have applied to a couple of juried shows, have been working on building up my inventory of pottery to sell, and have just tried to keep up with the glazing. (Have I been able to generate any sympathy out there???)

Right now, I am doing my usual multi-tasking; eating supper while working on this update as I watch William and Mary's men basketball play against Old Dominion for a chance to go to the NCAA (Go Tribe!). I really haven't had too much to show for my efforts because we are still a little behind in firing at the studio. I should be able to pick up close to thirty pieces this Thursday that have been waiting for glaze firing for the last couple of weeks. I am not even quite sure of what is in the kiln right now without looking in my log to see what I left for firing. I do know that I have been working to increase my face jug population. It still amazes me how popular these little guys are at shows. Last week, I threw/handbuilt seven face jugs which I should be able to glaze this week. The pictures are of them sitting on the drying shelves at Finch's.


Some of my latest work shows some experimenting with new glazes. The matte green is Willie Helix and, although it seems to burn out easily if the glaze coat is too thin, I hope to use more of it in the future and be able to produce reliable greens. The Iron Yellow is quickly becoming a favorite. I especially like how it breaks into the browns in areas that have texture. This is very evident on the small face jugs and the set of coffee cups show here.










I am also working more at carving designs and using homemade stamps to add decoration and texture to the pots. The thumb tabs on these two mugs are a good example of the results of using a star stamp I made. And, the carving on the inside rim of the shallow dish is really accented by the use of ash glaze.













Time to wind this up, finish watching the game (W&M are losing by 14 right now :( and need to get things going if they want that chance at the NCAA), and try to throw some pots after the game ends. Hopefully I will have some new things to show after pottery on Thursday evening. In any case, I will definitely try to update this blog much quicker than I have in the last couple of months.