Mug shot.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7Fa1B7cAGE

I'm beat and ready for a holiday. Last week we loaded and fired Scarlet our beloved wood kiln. I really like ceremony and I'm convinced that its required for a good firing. I always go to the wood kiln before, say a few words while I remember how the kiln fires and the sweet spots that will suit the pots. I think this is the best firing yet that I've led, we made ^10 in 18 hours and held there for a further 5 to really soak that temperature and drop ^11. The pots left with awesome colour development and lots of ash ion the first 1/4 of the shelf nearest the firebox.

It was Proper Cold loading Scarlet

Our kiln log

The door might just be the most beautiful thing I've seen in a while

My pots and the way I think about them.

Then again because I'm gluten for a punishment we loaded our first Salt Kiln of the year since its re build. Salty fired like a dime and I began to remember how to make it work. My biggest stress is now we have a temperature reading to tell us where we are. I got so annoyed because it was so easy and addicting to look at the temperature. I use to be able to fire that kiln by Sight, sound and smell and could accurately tell you where we were in a firing and what needed to happen. Now a computer is telling me if what I'm doing is working or not. bah humbug  Next time I'm going to cover that up because computers break and if I'm more focused on the numbers presented to me then I feel like I can't trust myself to make a decision based on the knowledge that I've worked so hard to Understand.

ah dang

Frack Ya! Salties Back

are pots about People

The Cremation of Sam McGee

We're loading our wood Kiln today, and I always like to begin the firing by reciting this poem. My first wood firing one of the students at the time recited it from Memory. Thats always stayed with me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhFNYll_mU

Another week in paradise. Now I'm back onto great things in my studio life, discussing challenging and making. Its been difficult outside though, my computer has gone the way of the Dodo so its less convenient now to do the extra. 

I've got so many ideas right now about what I'm doing for my thesis. The major overarching concept was to put together an installation of pottery like you'd see in a museum. I've always been interested in the way things are presented. But rather than it being called installation, the word Accumulation has come about from on high. Maybe thats a better way of describing what it is that I see.

Safety First

Edge of Chaos

Bottoms up

Hey, I learnt how to wright my name in Mandarin

Kiln tuckers

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vST6hVRj2A

How the heck do you decorate a large Pot? the answer is simple. Make a lot and hope that you can figure that out at some point. 

So two things happened today. First, I was told that I should keep posting to Instagram because I'm so awesome... second, a good friend told me that my new hair cut was awesome. 

In the morning I'll be demonstrating how to throw large pieces to the first year class. But really I have no idea about what the heck I'm doing so I've had to get comfortable again with these bad boys so that I don't make too much a fool of myself. The process is in stages, bowl to coil throwing for the walls then finish with a nice rim for a lid. 

I've also been continuing my study on why those coin mould were so interesting to me. Some models have been made, I like to take my time on things like this. doing something, walk away and coming back to it later. letting myself stew on the process.

Seeds

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4

Is is possible to miss someone you never met? My Grandpa Green died long before I was born. I keep his knife with me at all times, my mom gave it to me because she says that I'm exactly like him. I don't give a shit about the rules if they get in my way of enjoying myself the and I have a terrible sense of humour. Not to mention that I look exactly like him. Every time some sees me who knew him really well, well they always get gob smacked. Theres so many stories about the nonsense he did and the way he looked at the world. The knife followed him to Holland in the 40's, its a real special object. So the question is, do I miss him because the reminds me of him? What power do objects have?  

I'm just a potter. Theres really isn't anything special about me. But I love to do it. I grew up knowing what it meant to make things grow. My Grandparents bought our family home when they were young. They wanted a peaceful life of farming. I'm floored when I meet people who have no idea what it takes to get food. So I make Seed Jars. These are not useful today. But I hope that people stop to think about what food is.  

www.greensgrow.org/urban-farm/what-is-urban-farming/?gclid=CjwKCAiApJnRBRBlEiwAPTgmxJQk3KW_1Cl_r1du0Y48myYMVjekIeL9qAiB4EnIOzxtvT9nDCG0QxoCPz0QAvD_BwE

surface

I sometimes go back and forth about what "Stuff" is and my part in making more of it. George Carlin did a hilarious skit about "Stuff" www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac it also ties in with a personal belief that I have about how much stuff is wasted and used. Today I went dumpster diving and found great stuff that was being chucked out. I was thinking that the school should have a "room of stuff" for students to take and leave as needed. However I can live in mild comfort when I can tell my customers about the process of my stuff.  www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GorqroigqM 

I don't really enjoy sharing my process because I don't find it very interesting to talk about. Other peoples processes are so sweet. These are gas fired stoneware and porcelain pots all with the same glaze. But I was able to change its surface quality depending on how thick I applied it. 

golly gee

Something that's been going through my mind is "what is material" and "how does it impact". So I've recently put gold luster on some pots. Thinking a lot about this all precious material...yadda yadda yadda. I just slapped that lovely stuff on where and how I felt it would have maximum effect. The Wood fired Bowls to give contrast to the grey brown that tickles me, and a few copper reduction pieces that first thought looked like liver... "never give up, never surrender". I've never done this before, and it was a hoot. I'm already planning for the future. and so totally excited.

You know what else I miss, Spring Heres some ontario Wild flowers. So beautiful.
www.wildflowersofontario.ca/colours.html

Get back in Line

Heres a little ditty before you go ahead with what comes next.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISmgOrhELXs


I've been going back into my archives and found this Coin Master Mould and thought to myself...Hell ya. Such a beautiful object and what it represents is something that I'd be interested in really exploring. Where things come from is freaking cool eh. I'll be making moulds that take inspiration from this object exploring what about the piece I really love.

The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army. P.82

Dang it.

Dang it, 

Its my Last stop in a 6 year journey to  get my Bachelors degree and my professors have been on strike for a month. Now I'm a big supporter of the strike and I think that the people in charge of the Ontario Colleges are a bunch of weenies. I should be writing my thesis but instead I'm setting deeper and deeper into madness.... Sigmond Freud would say that the creative thought is madness (not that I've every read any of that but teachers love to quote him), Hmmm... so much is explained. but I kind of like it. Living day to day not knowing wether I'll be in class tomorrow or not. Basically I've been in the studio eating up our Tech's budget and watching moving on the projector at night. 

32bowls, Korean, British Museum

Dishes, Shipwrecked, egina Krahl, John Guy, J. Keith Wilson, Julian Raby. p.100

I really Like making these small dishes. Conceptually they make me contemplate what the heck im doing with my time. The first picture I took at the British Museum 2 yeas ago and I'd be darned if I could find a better sitation for it... dang it. and the second it Tang Dynasty Chinese found on a Persian shipwreck. Transportation of ceramics and the cultural exchange is so cool. My original thesis was suppose to be about "Flow" but the more I do read about it the less I seem to care. Ceramics as a vehicle for cultural exchange is so freakin cool. 

                                   

                                      

                                      

Chinese Ceramics, Nigel Wood, Royal Ontario Museum, p.146

This pot is beautiful in its own right, but thats not why I love it so much. If you read the description you'll see that the person who decorated it stopped before they were finished. Not sure if this has been mentioned or not but I love when I see an unfinished work that made it through the kilns. I can only imagine the maker said "F" this shit I'm going home. put the thing on the shelf and said good night. Its so hard to imagine something like that happening in Canada today...and if it was done intentionally its not really truthful to the spirit of the concept. It has to be done on intentionally. The more I look at the works that I love the more I think, was this done for expedience reasons rather than aesthetic. If you've got a job to do and your not making much for your skills what 

Back to the Drawing Board

I haven't glaze fired pots since April last year, and its been making me nervous. Im normally all into atmospheric firing. Salt, Soda and Wood. However until Salty is repaired I'm in a place where I tell my professors about how excited I am about the challenge, and on the other hand I say nothing about how irritated I am about how its not been repaired ;). I've got my fingers crossed. 

I've been making some casually gnarly stoneware pots and some clean porcelain that make sweet music. Though I must be honest about how little time I've spent in the studio since this heat wave hit, we're in a big steel box with no air-conditioning, slow going. I've got my fingers crossed for cool weather.

This last firing had a few really good pots in it, but for the most part they were the kind of pots that will end with a long drop and a sudden stop into the dumpster. Back to the Drawing Board. Luckily I've got more firings booked for this week to try and get it right so I've got my fingers crossed. 

 I'm running out of fingers to cross 

Luckily this weekend theres a wood firing with the Second year class that I'm going to follow. it'll be a hoot. 

Plumb Tuckered

Into week 3 at school and I'm already starting to feel concerned about how I'm approaching my work.  The gears have been turning and I've been thinking that the 200ish production pots that I've made since classes started wasn't a valuable use of my time. I love them for testing and sketching out my ideas, but my focus was more on them than my larger more considered work.

Interestingly enough I went to that scary place Toronto for Fan Expo before classes started and a guy who claimed to be a monk gave me this and asked for some money. He walked like a monk, talked like a monk and dressed like one too, well golly gee he must be a monk and I'm a sucker for giving my last dollar away to someone who needs it.  Perhaps I should of payed more attention to it.

Now I'm back onto my large guys in preparation for something big that's brewing in my head. Thought I should take out this book from the Library to help me get through this confusing time.

 

Eh, one more thing. Here's a link to a song that I like to jam to when throwing. Cheers, 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkkIwO_X4i4

What Would Ben Doon Do?

I'm back into the swing of studio production and the thought it starting to stir about where I will keep all the things that I'll be producing. See I'm a maker, last year I was very lucky that a studio space was provided for me even though I didn't have any studio classes. Trouble was that I always felt that it was inappropriate for me to make as much as I wanted. So its been one week since my now studio heavy classes started and I've already used more than 200lbs of clay and mixed ten new glaze tests. 

See the thing is that I'm Canadian educated and English trained, which makes me a freight train in the studio, the uncomfortable part for me is telling the world what I'm up to and how I do it. See it stops me from being in the Flow of my making, not denying the quality of how important it is to slow down, have a cuppa tea and some biscuits and wright a little whats on about the work. 

This blog is a required weekly assignment for one of my Thesis Classes. I'm required to include a minimum of: 

3- Images of whats going on (work, recipes, a firing schedule, stuff), 

Written Content about my goings on and whats going through my noodle of a brain

as well as 1 Link to something related to thats going on.  

I think I should tell you of Ben Doon, a potter who greatly admire. See Ben Doon is an educated man, Ben Doon travelled the world in his youth, Ben Doon saw many things and decided that people in love with things, Ben Doon lives in seclusion in a converted mill on a hill about a glen in Scotland, Ben Doon has no need for worldly things, Ben Doon makes potter from locally sourced materials that he then trades for the things he needs, Ben Doon makes his own Whisky, Ben Doon is a potter, Ben Doon is very well read and believes in science, Ben Doon suffers no fools, Ben Doon has no time for BS. When I'm working in the studio, I'm always thinking to myself,

 "What Would Ben Doon Do?"