offcntr | Entries tagged with works in progress

Here are a few pics from the latest crash-program glazing cycle. Didn't take a lot of pics, too busy scrambling to finish everything. It was also a bit of a challenge; I usually start a new work cycle after a show, so I know what sold and what needs replacing. This time, because I'm anticipating, I kinda have to guess. It also gives me less flexibility in case of special orders. I'm not making any more pots this year, and not gonna wash and reglaze pots. I've already had to turn down a phone order; she's waiting until January.

The time to get me Christmas orders? October. September would be even better.

For once, it felt like I was getting ahead of things. Early Clay Fest firing allowed me to
get a head start on Clayfolk. Finishing the Clayfolk firing, and pricing all the pots as they came out of the kiln, meant that I could get the van sorted and loaded on one of the last sunny days of October. Starting to make pots for Holiday Market in early November meant I could possibly even do some glazing next week, so I optimistically signed up for a firing the first week of December. For once, I'd actually be well stocked for the beginning of Holiday Market!

Then the rains came.

Don't get me wrong, I love rain. It's Oregon's thing, after all. But when the humidity is 130% in my studio, things don't dry. What in summer is throw today--turn over tonight--trim or add handles in the morning becomes throw today--make something else tomorrow--maybe finish things off a day later? And meanwhile, the shelves fill up, stacked on every available flat surface, and nothing is dry enough to fire.

So my schedule gets scrambled and the studio gets full and even if we get a little sunshine, there's no point trying to dry pots outdoors--between the weak autumn sunlight and the still-high humidity, I'm just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Finally managed to dry enough pots to load the kiln yesterday, but couldn't actually fire it until tonight, because I had two days worth of casseroles, batter bowls, mixing crocks, honey jars, painted mugs and pasta bowls uncovered in the studio, all waiting their turn for trimming, handles and knobs. Finally finished everything about 4:30 this afternoon, so right now the kiln is warming up, and--hopefully--warming up the studio in turn.

I've been glazing steadily since Sunday, banks and mugs first, then, as they came out of the bisque, serving bowls, mugs, pie plates, dinner and dessert plates. Soup and toddler bowls remain for tomorrow; this is why I've shuttered my Saturday Market booth.

I managed to finish all sixty mugs today!

Quietly hums a handles Messiah.

60 tall mugs!

Tomorrow, I gotta make 60 handles...

Been a busy couple of weeks, both in the studio and at the computer. I've currently thrown through all but the last two bags of recycled clay--see below. I've also designed, ordered, and taken delivery on the posters, flyers and postcards for Clay Fest. Designed the Facebook and Instagram panels, and submitted designs for three digital billboards. (Two weeks early, so they're giving us some extra exposure at no charge.)

Hence my absence here.

Still hope to post about the last couple of weeks of Saturday Market yet today, but right now I have to bike down to Walgreen's for my flu and COVID shots.

ETA: Well, one out of two. Apparently, they're releasing a revised COVID booster this fall, so are no longer distributing the previous iteration.

Realized as I was firing the glaze kiln yesterday that it was my fifth firing of 2025--that's somewhere in the vicinity of 1500 individual pots since new years (plus about sixty left over for my next firing).

No wonder I'm so tired.

Here are a few samples from the last glazing cycle:

A busy last week's throwing meant I had basically no shelf space left in the studio. Time to dry things out so I can load a firing.

Fortunately, the sun is cooperating. I love that about summer.

Glazing once again, painting all the animals. Started on Sunday with 75 mugs, some mine, some for Great Harvest Bakery. Monday was a little slower, pies and casseroles, a couple of special orders. Today was cookie jars, pitchers, creamers, some dinner salad and pasta bowls. Studio is a little chaotic at the moment, Jon is spread all over the kiln room getting ready to load the kiln tonight, so I bailed out at 5:30 and went home to make supper.

Pictures mostly from Sunday and Monday:

On the one hand, I've just done a firing. On the other, I have a show in Roseburg at the end of next month. On the gripping hand, sales at Market have been so strong that I really have to do another firing in another couple of weeks.

So here's some of what's been happening in the studio.

Great Harvest is running out of mugs again. Here's forty more.

I'm down to one covered pitcher, and only two or three of the largest ones, partly from sales, partly from clumsiness--a couple tipped over and got chipped in a partially full restock box during load-out.

I'm actually pretty well-set for dinner plates at the moment, but just took an order for a set of four, so back to the wheel I go.

I think I'm down to two large covered casseroles, so I may as well do three of all three sizes.

I've also had an unexpected run on cookie jars. The tool crocks aren't so much needed, as they only come out at road shows, but there is a road show coming up, so it wouldn't hurt to have a few more. Besides, they're easy.

I should totally have posted these pictures last Sunday, instead of today. May the Fourth.

Because they're all Jar Jars.

I'll see myself out.

I still get fascinated by the accidental patterns production pottery throws up. Had a professor who used to do constructed sculptures of multiple repeated units. He said, I don't care so much about individual pieces, no matter how interesting; show me a bunch of things, all alike, and I'll go to town with that sh--t.

Times like this, I totally get it.

I love this shape so much.

Got the family presents packed and shipped by New Years Eve, took some time on the day to clear out box tape and cardboard scrap, and now I'm back at work! Pie plates and casseroles and batter bowls, so far, and a dozen bowls for Food For Lane County's Empty Bowls sale. Only 200 lbs. of clay left, so I placed an order for another ton this morning.

Because of the four-stack firing I did Thanksgiving week, I had only a week to glaze everything for my next firing. No leftover pots on the shelves. And by a week, I mean four-and-a-half days; Saturdays and Sundays I'm at Market, Friday afternoon is set-up. It made for some long days.

I powered through it, though. Two bisque-loads of plates, mugs, table ware. Pastas and platters and pie plates. The stuff I made during the last firing took longer to dry than I'd hoped; I finally got it Friday morning, so did all the batter bowls, casseroles and gravy boats before I had to go to the Fairgrounds at 3 pm. Sitting down in the booth Saturday morning was, by comparison, relaxing.

A small sampling of the work:

Tall mugs,

Pie plates,

Baking dishes and pasta bowls,

and some very cool Platters.

Pretty much all the shelves in my studio are full, after two weeks of concentrated throwing. Blew through all of the recycled clay, about 300 lbs., plus another couple of boxes of new clay. If I can get enough of it dry that I can load a bisque kiln, I'll have things to glaze when I get home from Clayfolk.

If.

I'm back in the studio again, getting a head start on pots for my end-of-October firing. I'm pretty much caught up on graphics for Clay Fest and Clayfolk, just have the CF map to do, and soon I'll need to be sorting and stickering pots, loading up the van. So I figure, busy is coming, lets get in some throwing time while it's still relatively quiet.

Started with two bags--50 lbs.--of mugs for Great Harvest Bakery. Figured they hadn't reordered in a while, so it couldn't hurt. As it happened, when I stopped in for bread on Thursday, Gordo told me they were completely out, he'd be happy to take all 40 mugs when they come out of the fire.

Went from there to stew mugs, 32 of them; even after my last firing, I'm running low again. For some reason, they're suddenly more popular than soup bowls, which makes no sense to me. The bowls hold more, and stack neatly in the cupboard. But what do I know, after all? I'm just the potter.

Also made a batch of batter bowls, as they're also flying off the shelves. Always liked this shape, and the handles--not yet attached in these pics--are so cool.

Next, I went for silly. I'm running low on dinosaur banks and salt and pepper shakers. The shakers are pretty quick, since most of the detail is painted on with the glaze. The banks... not so much. I made 25 lbs.--a dozen--each of brontosaurs and stegosaurs. Actually, that only counts the bodies. With heads, legs, and all those spines, it's easily another bag of clay, so 75 lbs. total. I made the parts on a Thursday, let things get leather hard--or cheese-hard, as

rachelmanija recently discovered--overnight, then spent a very long Friday assembling all the bits.

Lastly, I took some time to make some weird special orders, definite one-offs. One of these pots is for weighing coffee beans before they go in the grinder. The other is a grease tray for a cast-iron bacon press. Can you guess which is which?

Here's a recap of the last week's glaze marathon. Note the plethora of aquatic patterns: crab, octopus, otter, whales. Going to Anacortes in a couple of weeks, and want to be prepared. (As I told my friend Jon when I took beaver pottery to Corvallis Fall Festival--home of the OSU Beavers--if it doesn't sell, it's pandering. If it does, it's marketing.)

None of our house is air-conditioned, but it's well insulated. We close all the windows and draw the blinds during the day, open up at night and turn on window fans. My studio has two half-doors, for cross-ventilation, and I've covered over one of the skylights, to reduce the amount of sun exposure.

Even so, my work pace has had to accelerate. Things I throw in the morning are ready for handles by afternoon or evening, and half-dry overnight. Quite a change from winter, when I can leave things totally uncovered and still not have leather-hard by morning.

This past week was just one complication after another. I'd already planned for a glaze firing before my June show in Roseburg. As it turns out, the only available dates were the first week of June. Which means I worked right through Memorial Day weekend. In addition, I got a last-minute, time-sensitive order from my gallery in Olympia, so couldn't even take a day off to celebrate our anniversary.

On top of this, I wasn't even sure I was in the Roseburg show. Didn't remember getting the email, didn't find the booth fee payment recorded in my ledger. I was getting show updates from them, but they were general-purpose email blasts. What the heck?

I finally called down on Tuesday morning, after leaving a slightly panicked phone message Memorial Day. Turned out I had gotten my acceptance--last December. And paid my booth fee, by check, recorded on last year's ledger. Which I hadn't opened since I finished my taxes in March.

Sometimes I'm too organized.

Meanwhile, Denise got called up for jury duty on Wednesday, and against all expectation, found herself seated on the jury for a criminal trial. It's gone two days so far, Thursday and Friday, and will reconvene on Tuesday. Since she can't easily make the walk from the parking structure to the courthouse, I've been dropping her off on my way to Club Mud, picking her up when she calls to say they're done. So naturally, the day they adjourn early is the day my cell phone ran out of charge and shut down. Fortunately, someone picked up at Club Mud, as the room I glaze in is at the far end of the studio from the land line.

But everything got done, even the sixty tall mugs. Did not get it all in the kiln, however, and I'm wondering if I can push out a second firing with the leftovers before the end of the month.