Which hat do I wear today?

I see that I haven't posted anything for awhile. I want to be out in the studio making pots. I haven't done that for several weeks now. But even though I haven't been making pots, I HAVE been working on my pottery business.....I've been working 10-12 hours a day on it!!

It turns out that in order to sell one's work, one must market one's work.....basically one's self. And in order to do this, a potter must wear many hats! I know this is true of many endeavors as most entrepreneurs have discovered! My husband had a family business and it was definitely true in his case! To me, the variety of skills required for being a potter seems to run a pretty wide gamut!

I decided to compile a list of some of the things I've had to learn that I didn't realize would be part of being a potter:

Brick layer, writer, photographer, stunt double, merchandiser, teacher, propane technician, chemist, editor, shipping manager, press agent, keeper of the bubble wrap, international shipping manager, menu planner, chef, customer service rep, accountant, trend setter, inventory control manager, web site designer, graphic artist, physical therapist, sales rep, personal fitness coach, self-esteem coach, psychiatrist, interior accessorizer......is that a word?

Ok, I'm getting silly with it now. I suppose I enjoy the variety, to a degree. But it is rather ironic, we think we're "our own boss" but in reality, there are many outside forces that dictate what gets done. Take today for instance. My hands are itching to get on the wheel. But I have 2 pots that need to be shipped. My studio is a complete disaster from taking inventory to and from an event over the week-end. I need to dust my display shelves and re-stock them (in a pleasantly artistic formation!) Then I really should sweep and mop the floor because I made a huge mess recycling clay on Mother's Day. This morning I've been updating listings on my Etsy site and working on tracking inventory. Obviously I detoured onto my blog and decided it was time for a quick update!!

Luckily the fact that I have an Open Studio coming up in about a month will mean that eventually I will be forced to get on the wheel and produce some new pots!! I'm pretty sure that when that time comes, I will experience a mental block and not know what to make first!!

I think what set this whole post off, was that upon entering the blogger site I was informed that I have many new interface options that I can choose from. Just what I need.....more hats to decide between.

Besides all of these choices, I really need to get my garden roto-tilled -, the other kind of dirt I like to play in! Yesterday I planted a couple of decorative shrubs. (I do like my studio entrance to look somewhat attended to!!)

So I will end this post and try to add a couple of pictures for visual emphasis 'cos I know we're a visual society!!

If I had my druthers, I'd put on my mushroom hunting hat and head off into the woods!! But not today.

Clay Day

Today my sister-in-law brought her kids over to do some clay projects. My nephew is in 5th grade and my niece is in 2nd grade (or thereabouts!) Mom and Grand-pa and one of my adult nieces came too and I think everyone had fun.

Here are some shots of their creations............

There was a basket, a cat, and cat basket!!!

Marketing Adventures and Works in Progress

I've been working on some new pieces for my upcoming Open Studio (March 12 and 13; 11am-5pm...FYI!) I've also decided to make another attempt at online sales via http://www.etsy.com/shop/LorettaWrayPottery

I'm going to put up some photos of what I'm working on throughout this post 'cos when I read other people's blogs, I like to have some purty pictures to look at while I scan the writing to see if I want to read the whole blog or not! So........
my first photo is a new line of mugs I'm developing. They have a hole in the handle to store a handmade spoon! The owner of a local coffee shop suggested I make these. He had a sample of a similar mass produced mug. I wasn't particularly enthused about the idea, but now that I've made a few, I'm starting to like them. For some reason, I've enjoyed carving the spoons! It's somewhat relaxing. I may get bored with it eventually, Assuming I start selling them and have to make more!!

Getting back to the subject of selling work, for those who haven't discovered it yet, etsy (which I mentioned in my first paragraph) is an online selling network for handmade crafts. They charge sellers 20 cents/per listing (which will be online for 4 months.) If and when items sell there's a 3.5% transaction fee. I'm also paying around 3% to accept credit cards via my paypal account. The buyer pays shipping and handling fees that are set by me.

Sellers post up to 5 pictures of each item. For me, this has been the most time-consuming/frustrating part of the process. I'd rather just keep potting! Unfortunately, if I start doing a little marketing, I'll eventually be buried under a mountain of pots!! I've come up with 3 other marketing options besides my quarterly Open Studios. I can go to various fairs and festivals, sell at local galleries, and sell online. Each has its own pros and cons.

I've got my work in a couple of galleries and I'm planning to do a few fairs and festivals this summer. But it seems to me that both of these ventures require a substantial commitment of both time and money! Besides the time and money already invested in making the product to be sold or displayed, I have to factor in the time spent packing and unpacking work, manning the booth at the fair/festival and the expense and time spent transporting product to and from the event or gallery. That investment is getting more substantial all the time with the price of gas!

Etsy seems like a viable selling alternative if I can get work to actually start selling there. The "pros" are that there's potential to reach a huge audience, but the cons are that there are TONS of artists already on there competing for that audience. I've learned that there are ways to make ones work more visible on etsy but it requires spending quite a bit of time photographing work and then more time on the computer. But I think I've decided that for now anyways, it makes more sense than pursuing the fair/festival/gallery venue. To me, it seems like it will require less of a monetary investment, and probably less time, plus if it doesn't seem to work, I can always move on to the next venture.

I decided to try to do a little research and figure out what seems to be selling on etsy in the ceramic area. I think I made a discovery! It seems like pottery that has a specific use for other artists is popular. I'm talking about things like earring holders or yarn bowls. (An earring holder is a small jar or bowl with holes in it to store earrings and a yarn bowl is made to hold a ball of yarn and has a slot to feed the yarn through.)

This makes sense to me! If I can make work that will appeal to other etsy sellers, it seems like I've widened my market a bit. I would think that people who make make and sell crafts (like scarves or earrings) will be more likely to want to purchase hand made items for themselves. So it seems to me like I should try to make some of these type of pieces. I think they're the kind of work that should sell well in New Castle, especially in the Arts Co-op, for the very same reasons they probably sell well on etsy.

Of course I still haven't got all the ins and outs of etsy figured out! I've listed 11 pieces in the last 11 days and haven't sold anything yet. But it's only cost me $2.20 so far and I've probably spent 3-4 hours total taking pictures and posting items.

Having my work on display in Greenfield will have cost me $135 for the last 3 months, plus there was a $50 membership fee. I would estimate I spent $10.00 in gas to take the original work over to display and I'm planning to run over next week to rotate some new work in. If something sells, they get a 20% consignment fee. I also provided my own display unit, so there's that investment too. (Steve put the time in on that!!) I figure I won't spend nearly that much time or money putting work up on etsy. Plus I just remembered that I actually HAVE sold one piece on etsy!! (This was about a year ago, when I first tried it, and a friend bought a piece!)

There are other ways to get more exposure on etsy that I'm still learning about, so I think I'll focus on it for a few more weeks before I get too discouraged.

I have to say that I really don't see craft fairs as a viable sales opportunity. I will do a few local ones just to get my name and product out there and support the community, but I'm going to be very selective about what I do. When I do the math, they just don't make sense.

Just for kicks and giggles, I decided to crunch some numbers for doing Summerfair in Cincinnati. The booth costs $375 plus $30 to apply. It's 3 days, so I would need a hotel for at least 3 nights, I would estimate a minimum of $225. Transportation to and from would run $30-$40 (200 miles round trip.) Factoring in meals means I'll have at least $700 invested. For 2 days, we're talking 4 hours drive time, let's estimate 5 hours packing, setting up, etc. then manning the booth for 23 hours. That's a minimum of 28 hours. In my dreams, my time is worth $25/hour, but let's be realistic. If I got a "real" job with my skills and education, I'd be lucky to make $10/hour. So if we figure that times 28 hours, that's $280 plus my initial $700 estimate for expenses, that means I need to sell almost a $1000 worth of pots to break even and that's not counting the time and materials I have invested in making the pots that sell!!! I think I could find myself in the hole pretty quickly going this route!

So, we'll see if the etsy venture pans out.

Oh, something else I decided to try making is rings......as in bling fo' yo' finguh!! I can't remember how or why I came across it, but I saw this big, gawdy, faceted wooden ring. I think it was on etsy. They were selling for 60 bucks and had supposedly been featured in Martha Stewarts magazine. I started thinking, hmmmm, I bet I could make a ring out of clay. So I made a few. I wasn't sure how big to make them to account for shrinkage, but since it doesn't really matter what size they end up being (within reason) I made a variety of sizes and will see how much they shrink after 2 firings. They could be fun. I'm enjoying having some little hand building stuff to piddle around with too.

Ok, I think it's time to call it a night for blogging. It's pretty bad when I start losing interest in my own blog!!! I wonder if anybody actually read all the way to the end of this!! If ya did, lemme know!! ;D

Something Other Than Pottery....

I have been occupied with a couple things besides pottery the last few weeks. Above is a picture of me with my newest grand-son, Micah Kade Canfield. He was born Dec. 13.

While our daughter and son-in-law were busy bringing him into the world, we kept an eye on his big brother for a few days, Jaedon Asher Canfield who was 19 months old Dec. 5. We had so much fun and I feel so blessed that our schedules allowed us to be able to spend so much time with him!



His mom was hoping to have a home birth with Micah but she had a few complications. Nothing too serious, but she had to go to the hospital. She did manage to have him naturally.....60 hours after her water broke!! She's a trooper!!

They're all home now getting no sleep, I'm sure!! Seems like only yesterday we were bringing our DAUGHTER home from the hospital!! The last 25 years sure flew by!!

Our son came up for Christmas and we got to spend Sunday with both our kids, grand-kids, and all of Steve's family! It was a great day!

Can't wait to get Jaedon started playing in the mud with Nee-na!!

Staying focused

Small, lidded canister w/Gold Ash Glaze

Small, lidded canister with green ash glaze

Well, the big "holiday rush" is over (and wasn't much of a rush at all!!) Instead of having a "Winter Open Studio" I decided to have the studio open the week before Christmas.....Mon - Thurs. 11-7.

Our daughter's second child was due Dec. 4 and we were on "stand-by" to baby-sit the older son in case she had to go to the hospital (she was attempting a home birth.) She did end up in the hospital, so we got to stay with Jaedon for a few days! It was great fun and put a little monkey wrench in my firing schedule, but didn't really cause any problems in the long run.

'Cause I didn't have much business!!!

It does seem like though, that every time I start to feel really discouraged, something happens to bolster my spirits (and get my hopes up again.) I'm not sure if that's good or bad. Sometimes, you should just let a whupped horse die (is that the proper terminology?)

I've talked it over with Steve and we think I can keep plugging away at this for another year and see if I can drum up a little more business.

I haven't fired the soda kiln since early summer. I still have tons of salt and soda pots that haven't sold. I finally put them on "Super Clearance." $5/apiece no matter what the size or original price. Some of 'em were probably only worth that from the start.

Figuring out a price point has been extremely difficult. The prices I charge for work at Bear's Mill have always felt too high to me. Of course I am paying a consignment fee and have to figure that into it and I don't want to under price 'cos it offends the other potters and cheapens their work. By the same token I don't feel like I'm at the same level as some of the other potters so I feel like my prices are set at more than the work is worth!

Then, pricing things here in New Castle has been even harder. I've had the prices too high (comparing them to what they sell for at Bear's Mill.) There are only a few other potters in the area and their skill levels run the gamut. The one thing they all have in common is dirt cheap prices. It amazes me that really talented potters have their work priced so low, but I guess they can crank them out. I understand why some of the less experienced potters charge the prices they do. But most of them aren't doing it full-time as a business, so they don't really care if they make money at it.

Bread Baker

So that means I need to get efficient enough that I can crank out enough pots to make it worth my while. Like I keep saying, I'm just lucky that I have no education or job skills that would pay much more than min. wage 'cos that's about what I think I'm going to make in this business!! Actually, even that goal might be unattainable!!!

The general public probably can't even tell the difference between the work of the various potters. They just look for cheap prices and "purty" colors!!

Of course I'm not referring to ALL the local pottery collectors. I have managed to attract a few regular buyers and they're wonderful people who are willing to spend their hard-earned money buying my pottery. Most of them have become friends and I truly appreciate their support!

Salad Bowl

I'm just trying to come up with a line of work that appeals to a wider variety of local shoppers. Since it seemed like the salt and soda work wasn't really selling, I decided to focus on firing in the electric kiln for awhile. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was working with some potter friends at Bear's Mill on developing a line of functional, reproducible bake ware to sell. In addition, we needed to come up with a new, glossy green/blue liner glaze to complement the green ash glaze that Julie and Rita developed.

I thought when I decided to focus on the electric kiln that it would be smooth sailing. HAH!!! IT has definitely presented its own challenges and frustrations! I've experienced over-firing, bloated clay, pinholes, glaze dripping on my kiln shelves, glazes applied too thickly, too thin of glaze applications, cracked bottoms, etc. etc. etc.

And yet, I'm lovin' it!!! I know I sound like I'm bitching, but I'm really not. Well, not about the process, which can be fairly labor intensive. No, that I love!! I just wish I could figure out a way to sell enough to justify it as my "career." At least I can continue to blame the economy thanks to all the shenanigans the current administration is pulling. Even with the latest election, I don't see things changing much the next few years. But that's a WHOLE 'nother blog post!!!

Anyways, I feel like my forms are becoming more consistent and I've even managed to develop a new glaze that I'm going to use as a liner. Pulling that test piece out of the kiln was a very exciting and rewarding moment!!! Julie had suggested I try adding the same colorants to our glossy, clear base liner that we're using in the ash glaze for the outside of pieces. She said it seemed to need an opacifier and suggested I try zircopax. I did a little reading up in one of my firing books and it was suggested that rutile was a good opacifier and actually made glazes more stable than zircopax. Decided to try it and was quite pleased with the results!! This is the liner glaze with rutile on the salad bowl........

Salad Bowl with Rutile Blue/Green Glaze

So, now I think I've done quite enough blogging for one sitting so I will close this session and try to improve my blogging frequency. Not that it really matters to anyone, but it does seem to help me stay focused.

Prep Bowls or Ramekins

**I was checking to see when was the last time I had done any blogging....wow, it's been awhile. I found a draft I was working on over the summer. Decided to post it now just for kicks and giggles and will start working on an update.**

I did a dumb thing last week. I decided to organize my "business file" and that led me to add up my pottery sales so far for this year. I was a bit heartened by the total.......UNTIL........I decided to tally up my expenses for the same time period.

As of last week, it seems I have barely broken even! That was a bit of a blow!

I had just participated in a local event the night before, a "Wine and Art Gala" sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. I had produced some "wine related" pottery for this event which I fired in my electric kiln.

I know that some of my potter friends will feel that I "sold my soul" by firing my little electric kiln rather than loading up my soda kiln, but I need to start producing some work that I can turn over quickly and sell at a reasonable price. The electric kiln seems to offer this opportunity.

I ended up selling less than a hundred dollars worth of work, Ok, more like 75 bucks worth! That in itself was rather disappointing, so when I tallied up my expenses vs. income the following day, it was a sort of "icing on the cake" moment (with the cake tasting like liver, and the icing tasting like brussel sprouts!! In other words, YUKKY!)

Of course I participated in a bit of rationalization at this point, telling myself, it is only August (well almost September) and sales should increase dramatically in the next few months as the holidays approach and my expenses should have leveled out for the year now. So I told myself (as I've done before) that I just need to try to hang in here until after Christmas, and then decide if I should continue to pursue pottery as a business, or go back to my pottery being a hobby and find a part-time job to produce some actual "income."

Then Friday evening, I was informed that 2 of my higher priced pieces on display at Bear's Mill (in Ohio) had sold.

On Saturday I sold another wine chiller while unpacking the leftover from the Wine Gala to display at the local artist co-op. While I was there I met a woman who home schools and is interested in enrolling her child in a pottery class. I told her I had tried to teach a class earlier at the local Art Center, but had been unsuccessful in generating enough interest and she told me that she thought she might be able to find enough students for a class by talking to some of her fellow home-schooling parents!

Oh, and I almost forgot, at the Wine event, I met a man from Richmond, IN (about 20 min. from us) who owns a winery there. He said they're going to have an art event later in September and told me that I could sell my work and not have to pay any consignment or booth fee! We decided to check the place out Sat. evening with some friends, and it looks like it could be a nice venue to sell some pieces! I think I'm going to try.

I also am going to begin working on producing some pottery for Bear's Mill. The other 2 potters and I have decided to come up with a line of "Bear's Mill Pottery" that will always be available and will consist of classic, functional pieces that customers always seem to be looking for. Things like mugs and bakers and pitchers, etc. We're going to make them with the same clay and glazes and come up with some sort of "Bear's Mill" stamp that we can put on each piece to tie them all together.

So I guess I'm not giving up yet.

Unloaded the kiln today

I unloaded the kiln today. I was fairly pleased with the results. None of my worries panned out!! Shwew! Of course not all the glazes behaved as I envisioned, but nothing too hateful. I think some of the pots have so much speckling it's almost pretentious. Need to adjust placement in the kiln.

I added some blue pours to some of my wall pockets. I was afraid that a whole kiln full of brown, speckled pots would just be too much brown speckled pots. And even though I'm not a big fan of "blue" it seems like customers find it attractive. And if I don't start selling some of these things soon, I'm going to have to figure out where to store them all (and get a paying job!!)
So, I'm telling myself that "blues" can complement "earthy".....sorta like the sky and the ocean complements the trees and earth. Yeah.......works for me!

My friend, Scott, stopped by. (the designer and foreman of my kiln build.) He said some nice things and gave me some good advice. It's so nice to have a knowledgeable potter around who's willing to share his wisdom and experience (are you reading this, Scott??!!) Seriously, I think it would be hard to stay inspired with no other potters around.

And I love my kiln. It fired so nice for me. I had a few panicky moments during the firing. I wish I understood the process more. I don't have a lot of technical training since I only took a few classes at a community college. And I've gone to a few workshops. John Britt's workshop was great, but way over my head!!
I'm sorta like a cook who can follow recipes but doesn't do much tweaking and definitely doesn't start from scratch!!
Thank goodness for neighborly potters and those online who so willingly share their experiences and processes!

So, I will shut-up now and attach a few photos of the pots. Haven't gotten the photo cube out yet, just took these under the shop lights. Oh, the first one is unloading the kiln. Yes, I got a little carried away with draw rings!!

I apologize for the layout. I haven't been able to figure out how to control where the pictures end up!

First Annual Summer Pottery Open House

The kiln is loaded and I'm planning to heat it up tonight for a couple hours, let it soak all night, then fire it off tomorrow!

I haven't been feeling stressed out until this week. It seems like so much of the preparation is going to have to wait until a few days before the event!! I can't prepare the food too far in advance (and I'm not sure how much, or even WHAT I'm going to serve!!!)

No reason to clean the house yet, it'll just get filthy again. The studio's not ready, Steve's still working on my exhibit. Most of the work I already have made is priced. I'll need to have some cash on hand for change.....well, hopefully I'll need change. I'm wondering if I should have made arrangements to accept credit card payments. From what I've read about fees, it may not be worth it at this point.

I have sent out an event invitation via facebook and am considering using Constant Contact. It's an email marketing tool that we used when I worked at Bear's Mill.

Here's the part that's probably got me stressed most. I ordered post cards from an online service called "Overnight Prints." (Again, a business I dealt with when working at Bear's Mill.) I ordered the cards by a date that I thought would give me enough time to distribute them. I ordered them May 26 and they estimated my delivery date to be June 4. That should've given me 2 weeks to hand-out and mail the postcards. I don't recall that we ever had a delivery problem with this company when I worked at Bear's Mill. Unfortunately, my order didn't get "processed" in a timely manner.

Even thought I kept checking my online status, I wasn't too concerned until last Friday when I realized that the cards should've arrived in that day's mail. Of course I didn't realize this until after business hours. Which means that my problem wasn't addressed until Monday. I was loading the kiln that day and didn't check my email until after hours again.

They had responded to my inquiry, apologized for the delay, refunded my shipping cost and assured me that they were "working around the clock to get us back on schedule." Unfortunately, no mention was made of when that might be!! So I sent another email thanking them for their response and asking if it might be possible to get an estimate of when my postcards might be arriving.

I received an email yesterday stating that my order had "gone into production." OK, that still doesn't tell me when it's shipping, or how. Suddenly I'm getting panicky (note to self..........panic sooner next time!!)

Here's what I've learned from my experience:

• Place printing orders early enough to allow for mistakes and delays
• Check order status online and by phone if necessary.
• If the estimated delivery date and the order status don't seem to correspond - CALL!!
• If they haven't sent me tracking information a few days before my estimated delivery date - CALL!!
• The squeaky wheel gets the grease - CALL!!

Yesterday I started debating whether or not I should change my Open House Date to the following week-end and put computer labels on the postcards with the new date. I decided not to do that. Hopefully it wasn't a mistake.

I'm glad to have had this happen for my Summer Open House. I will utilize what I've learned and apply it to my Christmas Open House which I'm hoping will attract more customers. I'm sure I'm going to learn a heckuva lot MORE once I've actually had my Open House!!!!

I need to make a trip to Bear's Mill to pick up a few more pots to beef up my inventory. And, for some DUMB-@$$ reason, I agreed to start teaching a pottery class at the local Art Center. It starts next Tuesday (IF anyone signs up for it) and I'll be teaching Tuesdays and Thursdays for 4 weeks. So I need to pick up clay for the students before the first class. I think in my mind I was envisioning being able to tell students and parents about my upcoming Open House. Now I'm thinking it was not a smooth move.

OK, DEEEEEEEEEEEEEP breath. maybe another deeeeeeeeeep breath. Burst into tears. Cry on husband's shoulder. All better now.

I will end with a quote that helps me keep things in perspective:

"Do what you love, love what you do, leave the world a better place and don't pick your nose."

- Jeff Mallet, Frazz, 08-03-04

(I would add, "...in public.")

Hootchie Mama!!

The title of this post has absolutely nothing to do with the contents. I just couldn't think of a catchy title and I'm watching Seinfeld re-runs. Maybe I should've called it Serenity Now........

Since my last post, I've fired my kiln twice and have garnered many, much informative information, yes I have.

As I mentioned before, I was hoping to find a firing method that would produce rich surfaces, with flashing and texture. I have 2 other potter friends who are interested in learning more about soda firing and were willing to help. (Julie and Rita.) That's us, pictured above, basking in the glow of my venturi burners. I'm holding a small, cardboard figure named "Flat Stanley" that arrived in the mail the day we fired. He was a kindergarten project for a friend's grand-daughter and was supposed to spend the day with me, so he "helped us" fire the kiln!

I'm going to share as much detail from our experience here as I can, because I was so thankful for the information we were able to gather on the internet and utilize in our firing! Even though experience is the best teacher, I hope this can at least give interested, inexperienced potters like myself a starting point. I had never ever fired a gas kiln before last fall!! So take my findings for what they're worth! (Liability disclaimer.)

We used a couple of books, Soda, Clay and Fire, by Gail Nichols and Soda Glazing by RuthAnne Tudball. We found our most helpful information on Emily Murphy's pottery blog. (Luckily we also love her work and the dynamite results she gets on her pottery!!) This particular page of her blog was chock full of information!

The first firing we mixed up a batch of Emily's soda mixture recipe and decided to introduce the whole batch. We weren't absolutely sure what size of a kiln this amount was intended for, probably larger than mine, but we thought it may also have been intended for a seasoned kiln. We decided to start with this amount and if the draw rings made it seem as if we didn't need to use it all, we could always stop. On the other hand, if it didn't seem like we were getting enough coverage we did have some extra dry ingredients mixed together, all we would need to do is add water.

For reference, my kiln is a sprung arch down draft with a hard-brick interior coated with ITC, soft brick exterior with ceramic fiber insulation on the roof. The interior dimensions are approx. a 36 inch cube, with a little extra at top for the arch. That's about 27 cubic feet of firing area. The stacking space is about 14 cubic feet. I have 2 burner ports in the back, one on each side, and a soda/salt port above each burner. I have 2 spies on each side near the top for cone viewing and draw rings, and a spy in the bottom front door. Before our first soda firing, I had done 2 salt firings in this kiln.

The soda mixture consisted of:

• 1.75 lbs. of soda ash
• 2.25 lbs. of soda bicarb (arm & hammer baking soda)
  
• 4 lbs. of whiting

Mixed together with 1/4 of a 5 gallon bucket of wood chips. (I bought a huge bag of pine horse bedding from our local Tractor Supply store.) Mix together well, then add enough water (while mixing) to the consistency of oatmeal cookie dough. We formed it into "turd-like" logs and layered it in a bucket with newspaper. It hardened up quickly, and we crumbled the pieces and placed them on a piece of angle iron. We would introduce it through the back ports of the kiln when c. 9 was soft. We would fill the angle iron as full as we could and add the mixture to each side and wait approx 10 min. before repeating the process.

I didn't do a body reduction, I think the atmosphere of the kiln was pretty neutral until we added the soda. We did some things in the first firing that we decided were incorrect, so we didn't do them in the 2nd firing.

One of those things was placing small bowls of salt throughout the kiln. I had talked to a couple of potters who do this. One of them salt fires and the other soda fires. I gather that their reasoning is that there will be less chance of dry spots on pots if there some salt in there to provide additional "fumigating." (?) I made a huge mistake in doing this by putting the salt in raw clay. I'm sure that any experienced potter would know better than to do this. (as I know now!) I remember thinking in the back of my mind, "maybe we should use wadding." That would've been a good idea. I did dip the bottoms in kiln wash (as I do my cone packs) so they wouldn't stick to the shelves. Unfortunately, they reacted with the salt by melting into lava-like lumps that dripped through shelves onto various pots and had to be chiseled off my shelves after the firing!! Luckily, I only lost one piece due to my stupidity!!

We decided that besides causing a huge mess for us to clean up, introducing this extra salt was not giving us a true presentation of the soda vs.salt firing so we didn't do it in the second firing.

The results from our first firing were acceptable, but not what we had envisioned (even though we told ourselves we were trying not to have preconceived expectations......(yeah, right!) When we unloaded we tried to make note of how the flashing that did occur traveled, but we felt like the results were affected by the salt pots, so we weren't absolutely sure what to think! We got some flashing and orange peel, but not as much as we expected and somewhat localized to certain parts of the kiln.

We introduced the soda similarly to the way I had introduced salt in my other firings. I would turn the burners down or completely off, close the damper, add the salt and leave the burners on low and the damper closed for about 5 minutes while the salt fumes wafted throughout the kiln. Then we would open the damper and turn the burners up and fire in oxidation for about 10 minutes to clear the atmosphere. We would repeat the process about every 15 min. until the the draw rings showed significant coverage. Then we heated the kiln up til cone 10 was bending in the coolest area.

We read some interesting information in Gail Nichol's book about doing an hour or so worth of heat work after the last introduction of soda to enhance the results. She mentioned achieving different results depending on the kind of atmosphere the kiln was in during this time (oxidation vs. reduction) but we didn't quite understand her descriptions of exactly what kind of results each environment would produce. We decided to keep our first firing in a fairly oxidized state as a starting point.

We were pleased with the results on the phoenix clay body and we liked the 50/50 slip (half epk/half ball clay) the best. The Helmar slip was pretty orange, as was Bauer. Also, we had some cone 10 B-mix in there, that came out mostly grayish white without much flashing except where it had been slipped.

As far as glazes, we used some celadon liners developed by June Perry She recommended various colorants to try. They were very consistent, and we especially liked one that had cobalt as a colorant. It was a deep, rich blue that complimented the dark brown of the phoenix quite well.

I had a turquoise oribe recipe I got out of John Britt's book. I had used it in my salt firings and wasn't pleased with the results, but thought my application might have been too thin. Tried it again, with a thicker application - - YUCK!! and DOUBLE YUCK!!! It came out a bright, gawdy, terrifying blue!! I am chucking that glaze and trying to find a new one. I want one with some iron and matte areas, that can blush red.

My Malcom's Shino worked well on cups and bowls, but on highly altered pieces that didn't have an exterior glaze, it seems to cause the pots to crack.

I had also mixed up a batch of Yellow Salt. I got the recipe when I was at the Odyssey Center in NC. It can come out nice when it gets hot enough, but it can also look dead. It's a yellow matte glaze that will get some speckling.

We also had a crackle shino, but it didn't seem to be thick enough. I also told Julie I thought she should apply it over a flashing slip to make it crackle more randomly.

After a couple of days spent cleaning shelves and chipping and grinding off the melted salt pots, we were ready to fire our second load. We mixed a few additional liner glazes. I had a recipe for The Glaze from Scott Shafer, and Julie found an Ash Celadon recipe in an article in Ceramics Monthly that was written by Tony Clennell.

We decided that we hadn't introduced enough soda in our first firing. We just didn't feel we were getting the juicy results we longed for and came to the conclusion that if a little is good, more must be better!!! We decided to introduce 1.5 times the amount we had used the first time. We also decided that we would put the kiln into a bit of reduction when we did the last hour of heat work.

Things were going relatively smoothly and we had added about 2 rounds of the soda mixture when Julie had a major epiphany. She asked me why we were turning the burners down and closing the damper when adding the mixture. I didn't have a good answer for that one. I thought that I had read it somewhere or heard a potter saying that was how they did it, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like that method was better suited for a salt-firing atmosphere. Since the soda mixture was heavier, and tended to drop down into the firebox, Julie's idea about keeping the burners on full blast and the damper opened seemed like it might give us better results. We searched both books and even got online to try to find specific information on this, but couldn't find anything! So, we decided to give it a try with the remainder of our soda introduction.

I think it made a huge and wonderful difference!! We achieved the results we were looking for! We got some beautiful directional flashing, and some dark, pebbly orange peel surfaces. The ash celadon glaze seems to have some promise as a liner also.

Tomorrow we're going to try to take some really nice photographs of the best pieces! I think Julie and Rita were pleased with the results. I know I was, I just need to make some bigger, more substantial pieces now, with shapes that will be enhanced by the soda. I'm looking forward to getting back in the studio!! I'm beginning to feel like I've figured out some things about my kiln and this method of firing and I'm hopeful that I'll be able to repeat some of the successes we had (and avoid repeating some of the mistakes we made!!)

That's what it's all about, right?!

Firing Today

Spring has sprung on the Indiana tundra!! Up at 4:30 this morning to fire the kiln. We loaded it yesterday and pre-heated it last night. It's cooking along right now. I tell myself I can go back to bed once I get the burners started up again, but I never do. It's peaceful this early, especially on a Sunday. Heard a few coyotes yipping in the distance.

Julie is firing with me this time and has some pots in the kiln. We are going to attempt a soda firing, instead of salt this time. While I'm pleased with the results from salt-firing, it's not quite exactly what I'm craving. It's sorta like when you want an Esther Price dark chocolate, bourbon cherry, but you're eating a hershey bar with almonds. It's good, but you know you can do better.

I want a surface with more flashing and variation. Something that doesn't require so much decoration and brushwork. I am enjoying the brushwork, but I think I'm doing too much of it and it's detracting from the beauty of the clay itself. I suppose it's a common problem to be worked through. I'm hoping to apply more subtle brushwork and get more surface variation from the soda. I think I want something in between Emily Murphy and Linda McFarling. (To anyone reading this who is not a "pot-aholic" I will try to find photos of the work to which I refer!

Emily Murphy:











Linda McFarling:

So, we shall see if we can figure out the nuances of the soda vs. the salt. I won't go into the boring details, we'll just wait and see what the work comes out like.

In other news, I attended a workshop a couple of weeks ago in Louisville that was about art as a business. They talked about formulating a business plan, and a lot about marketing, especially online. One of the speakers claimed that in this day and age, the need for a business to have a website could be likened to the need for a telephone twenty years ago! Probably true.

They provided many online resources with templates for business plans. So I made an attempt to at least begin formulating a plan of action. It was actually helpful because it felt like it gave me some focus and direction. I also built myself a website. The cost of having one really isn't that expensive from a marketing standpoint. The hardest part was trying to decide which host to use. There are a TON of them out there and I'm not sure I picked the best, but when you're talking under $10/month, it feels like you can't complain much.

One thing that was brought up at the workshop is that a lot of artists don't figure the time they spend marketing into the prices they charge for their work. That's probably very true. I don't know if anyone could afford my work if I started figuring all that into it!!! It amazes me how much time it takes to set up a website or design a brochure. Something I think should take an hour or 2 ends up taking 6-8 hours!!

Of course it doesn't matter what you charge, if you're work's not selling you're not even breaking even, let alone making a profit. I don't have a lot of work out there right now, just some pieces at Bear's Mill. But they're definitely not selling so I guess I need to figure out why.

Well, it's almost 8:00 and this chick is ready for a nap!! Not used to getting up this early, may have to brew a second pot of coffee. And need to go check the kiln again.

Hopefully some pictures of juicey pots will be posted in a couple of days!!

Snow Queen

"Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." Was it Mark Twain who said that? Oh wait, I can do a google search and find out the truth!!

**************************************be right back**************************************

And I'm back!!! Apparently it should be attributed to Charles Dudley Warner, a writer who collaborated with Twain on The Gilded Age. Well, I learn something every day!! Some of it's even true!!

But, back to my musings. I just wanted to say that I'm a leeeetle bit tired of hearing complaints about the snow. THIS IS FEBRUARY. WE LIVE IN THE MID-WEST. It's supposed to be cold and snowy. (Regardless of what the climate change fear mongers would have us believe. But that's a different rant!)

I actually have enjoyed all the snow we've gotten this year. I think it's beautiful, and if the weather's going to be cold, I'd just as soon have snow around. I don't really mind shoveling it, or driving in it, or walking through it. And now that it's the middle of February, I'm pretty sure it won't be with us too much longer. And it really hasn't been with us that long. I might be more tired of it if it had been around since last Nov. or Dec. But it's only been a few weeks. I haven't had time to get tired of it yet.

I've had a few interesting bird experiences. I've been trying to keep the bird feeder full for the local birds. The other day, during the most recent snow fall, I was out taking some pictures and as I walked up the deck steps, I scared the birds away from the feeder. Except for one little junco. I decided to walk out and get a closer look. He didn't move at all. When we lived in Ohio, I had a similar experience with a mourning dove. It turned out the bird must've just died peacefully sitting in the snow. I decided to take some pictures of the junco since I could get so close to it.

After snapping a few, I noticed that it looked like it was breathing. Then it opened its eyes! I was discussing with Steve whether or not we should try to bring it in and warm it up...when I got up from my photo shoot position, it flew off! I'm hoping it was was just resting a little and got its second wind!

A few days later, I was unloading my groceries on a sunny, but cold day. I left the hatch back on the car up while I brought some of the groceries in and spent a few minutes in the house before going out to get the rest of the groceries. When I walked up to the car, I noticed about a dozen birds flew out from underneath the car. Apparently they were cozying up to the warmth of the engine. As I shut the hatch, I thought to myself, surely no birds would have flown into the car because of the warmth of the sun shining in the windows. Right as that thought crossed my mind I noticed 2 or 3 sparrows flittering around the front seat area. I opened the driver side door and they flew out. So far I haven't found any "presents" from them in my car!!

One thing I'm not looking forward to is when all this snow starts to melt! I do hate the thaw!! All that mud and muck. Yuck!! It was my least favorite time of year when we lived on the farm in W. Milton, and had horses, goats, etc. Too much mess!

The other thing I don't like is that I can't fire the salt kiln in this weather. But it's given me opportunity to get some things done around the house.

I am beginning to think about the garden. I saw seed packets on display at one of the local stores. I need to figure out a way to build a cold frame, so I can start some seeds. That would make it seem like spring's on the way. Altho, like I said, I'm not in that big of a hurry to let go of winter. February is a short month anyways. I have no idea why winter's not bothering me much this year, but I guess I'll just enjoy it!!


Here are a couple of pictures from when I was a kid. We'd go to my cousin's house and her dad loved to tie a sled (or several) behind his VW Beetle and tow us around behind it in the snow!! They also had an awesome sledding hill (as long as you were careful not to land in the creek at the bottom of it!!) Fun winter memories!!