Slice and dice

As you can see, this is my huge clay wedging and slicing area. I do however have a creative way of slicing bricks of clay into same size slabs that I then quarter or sometimes cut only in half. I make sets of mugs, etc. and I get them to come out close without weighing them out any more by choosing a set of sticks that has been ripped down to a certain thickness.

In this picture, you can see I'm using 1 3/4" thick pieces on each side. I then push/slide my taut cut off wire across the top of them leaving me with a slab of clay 1 3/4" x 6" x 6". I then quarter that by eye on the wire mounted to the wall and bat to the right and each quartered piece gets packed into a ball that will be 1 lb. That will give me a nice sized mug or a small bowl... I could also turn these two sticks on their side and have 2 1/2" slices for a 1 3/4 lb. ball. I have several thicknesss' and even stack them for thicker slices. Works for me!!

Beads, beads, beads...

I wanted to show you the latest. I, (with lots of encouragement from Mary Ann), made lots of beads to wood fire next load. I like throwing on the wheel and I find the beads are small to hold in my fingers and I find it challenging. After dropping many them, I, (being the good sport I am), did finish them and they made it into the bisque load. I did like using some of my techniques that I use on my pottery like paddling with wood texture and pressing with clay stamps I've made. My least favorite is the smoothing/sanding part. I have this great desire now to throw a couple of 28"-30" tall vases. (I am entering a "Carved Vase" competion and have a couple of ideas that I want to enter. Both will include large pieces thrown in sections.) I will fire most of the beads with the turquoise oribe like the last ones. They were very popular, and did sell them right a way to one of her big customers and I like making them upstairs while watching a TV show like CSI or Burn Notice. I set up on the coffee table and shape away, a nice change from the studio.

My modular system for small studios...

This is an overview of my compact studio. I started my module system, world wide patent pending ;-], based on the bread rack I bought from the scrap yard years ago. I have plywood shelves cut to fit the bread rack, and because space is tight, but I'm not complaining because I HAVE a studio...with WINDOWS... and a VIEW, I built the storage areas all around the same shelves. So I can take my freshly thrown pieces (on bats) and put them on the bread rack parked next to me. They can then be moved to a different more inconveinient height on the rack if needed. I get a nice rythym going this way. Later, when it's time to trim/turn pieces, again I can move pieces from shelf to shelf. When dry, I take the rack over to the door of the kiln room, on the left, and load, and later unload, the kiln. The pieces can be stored at various stages on the rack or on the different shelf areas. One on top of the table where I hand build and the other next to the wheel. You can see the ends of the shelves behind the rack in the picture. The bisqued pieces can be glazed and returned to the same areas.


Here is another idea that might help someone. I have 13"x26" shelves for the kiln. I have drawn with a magic marker the shelves and where the bricks go on the table so I can plan inside the studio where I want to put what out in the kiln. This is handy if it is cold, rainy or windy out and I want to stay inside as long as possible. And then I can switch and move around the pieces from where they are all stored inside. I usually like to pack the shelves with slightly taller ones in back and more openly spaced and shorter items in the front, giving everything more exposure to ash.

New addition

Seems like everyone has been busy. I have been throwing a lot of mugs, lidded containers and bowls lately. I like to have a lot of useful, functional pieces in an economy like this. Not that thats all I've been making... I'm also making soup tureens, vases and more, and have been doing a lot of sketches for sculptures that I want to make.
There is also a new addition to our family, Chloe Vaughn, our second grandchild. We are enjoying her and her sister Lacey so much.

Long-johns Firing?

I took this beautiful, winter picture of our home coming up the driveway the other day. You can see the kiln to the right of the house (my studio is on the bottom right corner...with windows!!... my last studio/house had no view). I designed and built most of this house with my wife and two of our children, CJ and Jay. We hired out some of the parts; heating, plumbing, drywall (I've had my fill thank you),basement walls and floor, and I hired a few extra hands to do the framing with us. I'm glad to be done contracting on top of teaching, creating pottery and oil paintings. Where did all that energy come from?? Oh yeah, I was younger ;-] !! All those years training and participating in sports really got me in great shape. I'm still in shape, it's just a different one, LOL...
I love snow scenes with the sun out, I use to do oils of these. I really can't wait to fire again, just need to make more potssplit more wood down finer from the regular sized, dry splits. I mix bigger and smaller pieces depending on if I need to increase my coals/embers. My bigger pieces are dry but need to be re-split to about 2" x 3" or so for gaining temp. Easier to oxidize and gain temperature if the wood is finer.

I looked out my bedroom window today in the middle of this snowstorm we are getting and I have to admit I'm not thinking of firing as much... Boy is it coming down!! I guess I'll continue to concentrate on amassing lots of pottery for when it gets warmer.
I'm glad for Emily Murphy getting her new studio together. She is on Facebook posting again. I enjoyed reading her old blog and am looking forward to her new posts. She always has good ones to read. I'm kind of new at this blogging, Facebook, Flickr, Etsy.... but getting the hang of it. I am up to about 15 blogs I read now. Mostly wood-firers, but a nice assortment. Great inspiration and a great feeling of community. I also met Richard Aerni a couple of weeks ago. I have had my work for sale in the same gallery as him but never met him in person. Not only is he a full-time potter that "made it" doing what he loves, but a great person. He was exhibiting in Ithaca. Got a chance to add his mug to my growing collection of mugs made by fellow potters. He is also on Facebook. There is also a new chat for potters that someone mentioned on Emilys wall. It's called Welcome to Pottery Chat! and the link is potterychat.org. Back to the studio... Need to finish lids for the pieces I made yesterday.

burning off those extra calories... with some throwing

It is "warm" today, up to 41 degrees. There was some serious fog early that filled up the whole valley. I could just see the tops of the ridges on the other side and you can just make out the barns and house of my neighbor Tom through the trees.

Then the sun came out. I took the dogs out for some exercise, me throwing the ball, they bring it back and we repeat again, and again and again and... See, they have me trained well. A lot of the snow has melted and we are due for single digit temperatures tonight. Gotta enjoy this when we can. I've got some neat pictures of them, Buddy you have met and the white one is Jake. He's 9 now.



Here is some of the other throwing that I'm doing to burn off those extra holiday calories... Looking forward to a "long-underwear firing" in the near future (as Jack Troy told me he calls it when they fire the Pixiegama in the beginning of February.) I have a lot more shelves to fill before I'm ready for the wood kiln. Better get burning those calories.
I hope everyone had a great holiday and has a Great New Year!!
Our Best to you.
Mary Ann and Bill

... watchful eyes and warm buns

Buddy likes to keep an eye on me. He is watching me grinding off wads without his safety glasses on. I've told him about the need for eyewear but for some reason he doesn't wear them. Dogs.... He does watch carefully doesn't he? Talk about intense concentration!!


Then it was picture time for my beautiful wife and me. Posed, but nice. We needed a new pics for avitars, web sites, photo albums... and the fire was going and our buns were getting very warm.

Happy Holidays to all!