Ten lives

Yesterday was cat bank assembly day. I'd made the bodies Thursday, thrown as closed forms on the wheel. I sketch out faces with my index finger and thumbnail--a great improvement over early days, when I made individual eyes, eyebrows and cheeks--dimple the bottom on a bisque form, and leave them to firm up to leather-hard overnight. Meanwhile, Denise and I flopped on the sofa and watched a Leverage episode on DVD while I made parts.

In the morning, I re-impress the bottom (if the air vent I made the previous day closes, air pressure can flatten it out again) and smooth with a rib.

Next I add the features: score and slip ears, nose and fore paw first, as well as their attachment points. Firmly attach, clean up edges, and repeat for the other three paws.

The tails start as extruded coils--it's just faster and more consistent than rolling them out on the tabletop. I do roll the ends to give a nice taper, and a pointy end. Leave them straight overnight, then curl them into an amusing shape this morning. Score, slip, attach. The last thing to go on is the tongue made of pink-colored porcelain clay. It will brighten up considerably in firing.

The last bit of work is subtractive, not additive. I have a sheet-metal cutter just the right size to punch out a hole for the stopped, under the bottom; because the bottom is dimpled, the pot won't wobble on its cork when it's finished. With my hole punch and fettling knife, I cut a coin slot in the back of the head. Lastly, I stamp my signature chop down next to one of the feet.

Repeat nine more times, and I'm done with cats for the day.

I leave them uncovered overnight, to let them stiffen up. Once they're hard leather-hard, it's safe to put them out in the sun to finish drying.

No surprise

Art and the Vineyard has been canceled for 2020; per the state, Fourth of July weekend is just too soon for a major gathering or festival.

Anacortes Arts Festival sent out a survey to accepted artists, asking how many of us would still come if they postponed from early August to sometime in September. I'm afraid I said "Not me;" at that point I'm busy with Graphic/Publicity for both Clay Fest (in October) and Clayfolk (November). Booth fees for Anacortes are due May 15, so I expect we'll hear yea or nay before then.

Eugene Saturday Market has once again postponed its opening from May 23 to God-knows-when. They're reviewing Governor's orders for phased reopen--as a Market, rather than a festival or gathering, the rules are different. They're hoping to have something definitive next week. In the meantime, the Tuesday Market (in association with the Farmer's Market) is going on, with only 10 craft booths. I'm not going to try that--lots of people need the opportunity to sell way worse than I do.

Take a little clay

I often think it would be cool to have a digital video camera, like a GoPro. Show a potter's eye view of the throwing process, how amazing and magical it is to spin a lump of clay into something beautiful and useful. I even looked into buying one--do you know how much they cost? I have friends who set up their cell phone to take video while they work, post it to their Instagram, but I don't have a tripod for my cell, and can't really work one-handed while I hold the phone in the other.

Then I realized, this morning, that I do have a tripod, Denise's (and her father's before her), from when we both had 35 mm cameras. And also, that my Canon digital camera has a tripod mount on it. And it takes video.

I couldn't set up for a potter's-eye view--my throwing stool is backed up tight to the wall, elbow-to-elbow with the ware shelves. But I could set up from the front, and at least show the pot taking form. It's useless for instructional purposes--you can't see what my hands are doing half the time, and besides, I throw left-handed--but for showing the magic? Hell yeah.

I played around with video editing this afternoon, decided to throw in one of my favorite songs as a soundtrack. That's the late Freyda Epstein with her band, Acoustic AttaTude, singing Bill Danoff's Potter's Wheel.

Earth and water and wind conspire/with human hands and love and fire...