prayer of gratitude...

Yo, tho I walk through the valley of old scraps, weird clay out of the box and wet slop,
I fear not, for I have a pugmill!


my hero!

I fired it up today, and the crowd roared and the angels sang...and the dog barked, but that's because there are dogs on the roof across the parking lot and they seem to be having an ongoing conversation.

The pugger is good. I started out just to throw my butt off today, but bag one of clay proved to be just odd enough out of the box that I decided to detour into the pug world. I did two small batches, and I think I'm getting the hang of how it wants to be treated, although I may call the company in the morning just to make sure I've got all my settings good. I've got enough old dry, leather hard and wet slop to mix up to a just right consistency, and the first batch of 'Lori's Mystery Clay' is on the shelves drying.

mystery clay drying on the shelves, and a glimpse of the new storage shelf overhead

I'm still finishing up orders and refills, but I'm thinking ahead to what I want to put together for the show in early September. One thing that sticks in my mind from the workshop last week is working in series. This isn't new, Becca has made that plea in every class I've taken with her, and it's something I know I want and need to do. Now that the last workshop is over for me as resident, I need to start making the transition away from playing with all these cool techniques and working in a more focused way with one or two until I decide if it's a keeper or not. The teaching will keep other things fresh, but my work has to come out of this big pile o' scraps at some point!

Testing out the mystery clay gave me a chance to work on some forms I want to do in series. Since I don't know how this will fire, I won't use it for any orders in process, but I did start a few new commissions with it, and I also started a few forms I want to do in series. If you look closely you can see some new mug forms. Certainly influenced by the workshop, but a shape I've been wanting to get back to.

That's it for tonight - back to the wheel. My wonderful roommate is giving me a spa treatment tomorrow, and I've had to promise to 'chill out' after I do it, which means no hands in clay, but at least I'll catch up on my books and get emails answered. So tonight will be later to get more things trimmed and more into the kiln for a firing. xoxo

whadda week!

I admit it was hard at first to know I'd be out of the new studio for the whole week, but once the workshop started, I was both too busy and having too much fun to notice, and by the end of each day I was too tired to care. It was great to finally meet Gay Smith, and the workshop was wonderful. I really like the way she presented and paced everything, and I got so much from the week. We had plenty of demo, plenty of wheel work and plenty of discussion, and nothing seemed rushed or drawn out. I think I got as much out of it from the standpoint of watching how she taught as much as what she taught.

Thursday afternoon chat session, Gay Smith facing camera in yellow

And we fired the soda kiln! Thankfully, Heather was asked to assist with me for the week, and drawing on her experience pre-Odyssey as well as our experience in the couple of firings we've had with this kiln really made a difference, plus I think it was a great benefit to her as she prepares to fire it twice more for her upcoming class. Lots of good information, and best of all, nothing fell in, over, out or apart, and nothing burned down. Some may chuckle at that, others will nod knowingly...still others may well breathe a sign of relief! Overall the firing was pretty darned good for a workshop firing where folks bring in various bisqued clay and try new decorating and glazing techniques.

front stack & back stack

I'll take some pictures of what I fired after I clean it up. I mainly re-tested some brushwork I started in the McKenzie Smith workshop, and added in more pieces with surface texture. One of the glazes we used is a copper green that I love to fire in reduction (go fig), and in the soda it does something very different. And I even got some pieces thrown during the week, revisiting some faceting and playing with fluting, which had always eluded me. Not sure it's meeting me head on yet, but we're in the same area code. So worth taking a week off!

Not all work on the new studio stopped during the week. Annie & Dan installed the storage shelf, and I spent a good part of today cleaning up and reorganizing yet again. But it's a lot more satisfying when things are going where they GO, rather than 'over here till I get a...'. More pictures of all that coming soon too. A couple more shelves and odds & ends, and a table for the slab roller and we're good to go.

Also this week, we had the last class for my beginning wheel class. They were such a great group, and working till the last! I'm proud and thrilled of the progress each of them made, some even with missing one or more classes. I'd look forward to having any of them in a class again, and happily a good many of them are going on to the 7 week session at Odyssey for more classes.


I didn't get a picture of everyone, but the early birds are here, from L-R: Helen, checking out her kiln results; Adam, not at all in a posed picture (but what's up with the hair?!), and Mary, Anika & Nelle, proudly showing off their fruits.

Speaking of the next session, I've decided that as tempting as it is, I'm not taking the classes I had planned to take. I'll be assisting with the Bowl Project class, but not taking any others as a student. And I'm ending the Residency just a couple of weeks early to start making the new studio the main focus. Plus, I've got OrganicFest coming up on September 6 and I need to get ready!

So today it was cleaning and organizing, putting things together and prepping for a day of throwing tomorrow...and cleaning. I started loading the kiln, and I've got just over half of it loaded with more greenware drying. With any luck, this load will catch me up on orders and commissions, then the next load can be for OrganicFest.

I smell the rice cooker finishing up, and Lissa smells it too, so off to kitchen pursuits. peace!

starting to look like a studio...

Today I took a slightly less crazed pace as compared to the rest of the week. The old studio is just about worthy of another picture, as it's getting to be more and more empty, and yet oddly, it looks smaller to me the more I take out of it. Not so oddly, the new studio also seems smaller the more and more I put into it! So after a nice romp in the park with Lissa, I left her in the relative cool of the house while I packed up another car load of stuff from the old studio. Found some test tiles that'll be handy when the kiln starts firing, a few empty buckets (oh what a treat to find an EMPTY bucket!) and more tools for the student stash, among the boxes that made the trip west.

And I will do more pics soon, but here are a few quickies:

wedge central

Between the flourescent lighting and my inability to get the white balance to stay put on my camera, things just seem to come out a bit yellow. But it's still a beauty of a wedging table under any tint. You can just make out the detail of the legs that show they came from an old bowling alley, and this puppy is solid. I may have to buy the building and the land it's on to avoid moving it once the plaster is in. Among next week's projects is making the mold and pouring the plaster for the two sides.

oh how I love these shelves!

The ware shelves going in really made a difference in getting this end of the studio set up, and in getting me back on the wheel. More pictures later will show the wheels more in place, but the great thing about these shelves, that you may be able to see, is that all the attached holders on the side give me a lot of options on height between shelves, and each layer is two shelves deep. My first attempts at the wheel with the wedge worthy clay on hand are on the shelves. And you can see part of the magnet strips I put up on the wall next to my wheel for some of my tools. I've got more plans for that little corner of my world to come...

pugger in progress, kiln ready for action!

And in another corner of the world, two big players just about ready to start the game. The kiln and vent are all hooked up, thanks in large part to my wonderful landlord Mimi and her fabulous power tools and generous help! Tomorrow I make another fun shopping trip to Highwater for shelves, cones, posts, etc. and then the test firing. Tomorrow I also call the nice folks at Peter Pugger to talk me through a couple of things on my little cutie before giving him the test run as well.

And tomorrow I'll pick up a phone for the new service at the studio, which should hopefully arrive as well (router for service), and then to revise some work on cards, work up flyers and other promotional materials...work on the class schedule, pricing and open studio hours...try to get the online bank to talk to my QuickBooks one last time before updating it all manually to get the reports I need...and in my spare time throw more pots to fill the first bisque, catch up on orders and start making ware for OrganicFest in September. But first, a walk in the park...peace.

happy, happy, joy, joy

Among all the other remarkable things that were accomplished today, the most satisfying was finally getting back on my wheel, if only for an hour or so, and throwing in the new studio.

gotta work on the white balance

I know the picture looks like I'm backed into the corner but it's a bit of an optical illusion. The wheel is in the corner, but I think it's the cart in front of the wheel that makes it look small. From my perspective, I've got the whole studio in front of me and it's very open. Felt gooooood. I didn't have too much time, so I just played around a bit. I had the shot cups already in the wet box ready to trim, and then another lump of reclaim. I threw all the bottles off the mound, some flat bottomed and some to be trimmed out later. I even got a wonky little tray with the scraps, which as I write this I remember I left uncovered on the plaster, so it shall be a dry, wonky little tray when I get back in tomorrow. Just before the picture was taken, Lissa moved, but she's decided her favorite place to be when I throw is on the floor in the corner behind the wheel. She's a mama's girl!

my wheel, my studio
happy, happy, joy, joy

Other notable events for the day include getting the electric kiln delivered, thanks Bob again for your help and your truck, and thanks Beth for coming along to see the studio just in time to help move the kiln! The kiln placement motivated all sorts of other domino moving and reorganizing, but nothing actually put together yet (cue electrician, vent install and reassembly please).

Annie & Dan came by with quotes for the work tables and storage loft, and now those are under way. And that visit motivated more cleaning and moving things around that opened up the wheel area a bit. Actually, walking in the door motivates moving things around at this point.

The weekend will be split between studios. Sunday I'll load the gas kiln with Joey for a pre-Craft Guild fair firing, so I need to excavate all available bisque for glazing from the Odyssey studio. While I'm at it, that studio needs some serious attention to make it again functional for the next few months, and as I realized today I need to bring some of my tools over to the new studio to make that one more functional as well, although it was fun working with found tools I don't usually use and/or may have had another intent. And now I have a starter on the student tools!

sweet dreams..

Progress!!

the studio...are we still in the before?

Ok, so this may not look like progress, but it is! With the help of two guys and a truck...not the established business, but actually two guys and a truck, I was able to move the majority of my studio furniture, equipment and all sorts of odds and ends into the new space.

my heroic hired hands, Joey & Bob

I even got my wheel in, thanks guys! Haven't been on it to throw yet - still need to put the sink trap in, but that will happen this week.

gas kiln, going into hibernation

I also picked up the gas kiln, and along with a couple of raku kilns and other parts, it's now stored on the grounds of Studio de la Chouffe, courtesy of Holly (visitor from an earlier post).

my #1 assistant and studio mascot, Lissa, hard at work supervising the re-organization

A trip to Lowe's later for hardware, and new shelves are up, secured and already full! The empty tubs in front of the sink will be part of the trap, and the leaning tower of boxes behind Lissa are accumulated clay scraps eagerly awaiting the arrival of the pug mill.

thanks to Jillian for the white shelf and the shelf next to the sink (and also a grinder!), thanks to Alan from CraigsList for the chrome shelves, thanks to my landlord Mimi for the use of her slab roller (resting on a cart on the right). thanks to Lissa for keeping after me to get all this done!

I'll check on the electric kiln tomorrow, and hopefully that will go in at the end of the week. Might get internet and phone service scheduled as well, and one more trip to Lowe's for the rest of the sink trap parts, schedule the electrician in for the kiln and get the venting hooked up and we'll be off to the races!

Another day closer, and another day very grateful!

and another day dog-tired!

xoxo

The Beginning...

Greetings all - I'm taking the suggestion many friends have made and am creating this little blog to keep everyone updated on the new studio. For those of you getting here for the first time, welcome! I'll be adding pictures and more information soon and often.

To get everyone up to date: I've been in a Residency at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Arts in Asheville, and the Residency ends in September. I've just signed a lease on my own studio space in West Asheville, and I'm in the process of getting it outfitted for me to do my work and teach private lessons. I'm just taking a few minutes to get the ol' blog up and running, and then I'm off to meet with the insurance agent. Had the electrician out this morning, and with any luck I'll get a truck this week to move some of the larger equipment in. Met with a way cool woodworker yesterday who I hope to work with to make some pieces for the studio.

I'll introduce the full cast of characters and put up some pictures soon! LT