Mugs Continued

I have been working on the same mug form and made a few changes. I changed the handle by making the bottom attachment similar to the top. I also made the handle a little bit thicker and wider. I really don't like small skimpy handles and I felt that the previous ones were a little thin for my liking. I have also been working more with throwing these off the hump. I found that I would cut them off so that the bottom was very thick. Since I do not want to trim these this was a problem. I think judging the thickness of the base will come through practice more than anything but I have definitely been paying more attention to it. I want the handles to taper to both ends. I want the bottom attachment to be the thickest and significantly larger than the top attachment.

I have also started to make a sort of travel mug shape. I am not interested in making big bulky travel mugs, in fact I really don't like the idea of travel mugs at all. My idea is to kind of mock the form of a "travel mug" but bring it down to a smaller size, and also tweak the proportions a little. Since I find these "travel mugs" big and ugly I thought it would be an interesting challenge to make some that I actually like.

I have also been working on a new yunomi form. This form is kind of inspired by a Michael Simon cup that I saw at Guillermo Cuellar's house. I think that it is a very interesting form with a lot of potential. My cups are definitely still in a very rough prototype stage but I am interested to see how they work out. I like how the foot kind of stands out in the profile of the cup.

I have been looking at a lot of Michael Simon pots lately. I think Michael is probably one of my favorite potters. I think he is very under appreciated currently, it is pretty obvious when looking at his pots to see how many people have been inspired, or flat out copied them.

Working on Mugs

I have started to work on a new mug form. Its kind of Ruggles&Rankin/Clary Illian/Sequoia Miller inspired. This mug form is pretty different than the mugs I have been making recently (Simon's mugs). I just got back from a trip, which I will write all about soon (I promise Ryan). Anyways, this trip made me think a lot about the pots I am making and the pots that I want to make. Being surrounded by a lot of good pots and potters made me think a lot about what makes a good pot. This is kind of an unanswerable question but it is very thought provoking.

The point that I am trying to get at is that I am back in a very "investigative" place in making pots. I am trying lots of new things and following lots of new influences. I am very excited about these new influences and new ideas to try out. This has caused me to get back into the mode were all I want to do is make pots. I am trying new things with clay bodies and also I have been throwing almost everything off the hump. I was inspired to throw and trim off the hump by Simon. He throws most of his pots off the hump, including plates.

Throwing off the hump can be difficult to begin with but provides many advantages in my opinion. There are the obvious benefits of not having to make individual balls of clay and increasing how fast you can make pots. But for me one of the biggest things is that the pot is raised up on a pedestal of sorts (the hump). This allows you to see the pot from a more objective angle while you are throwing it. I also like the freedom of making many pots quickly and I also like the process and the marks left from cutting the pot off the hump.

Trimming off the hump (soft clay chuck) allows you to keep the pot steady without using wads and without flattening the rim by sticking it to the wheel head. The pot also moves around a little which allows you to have a little more movement in your pots.

I believe that working in this way, using the processes described above, allows me to move closer to making the pots that I like. I have a lot more ideas I am currently working on and I will share them with you soon.

Arizona Pots

(stoneware with flashing slip- small train)

(porcelain with flashing slip- wood-soda/double cat)
(stoneware- side stoke of double wide train)

Here are some finished pots form my Arizona trip. I have plenty more pots from my trip but I thought these were the best. Feel free to ask if you have any questions about the pots/firings etc.

Teapots

After reading Don Piltcher's guest post on Sawdust & Dirt I have been somewhat cautious about what I choose to post here. This has resulted in less frequent posts but I hope better posts. I am not trying to write magazine articles here but I respect a well written post and try my best to contribute something of worth.

I have been making teapots lately. I made a new press mold for the spouts and I like this one a lot better than the previous one. The shape and scale of the spout are much more fitting to the teapots I want to make. The mold itself is also much better, I guess the more you do something the better you get at it.

I also changed the handle a little. I made it wider than past handles as I find that a wider chunkier handle is more comfortable and also more sturdy feeling. I made the handle attachment on the front overlap the seem of the top of the spout. I have had problems with the spout cracking in this area so I figure this will solve that problem. I also like the look of the handle kind of wrapping around the spout. I also made the negative space created by the handle more of an elliptical shape as opposed to round. This reflects the shape of the pot better and also leaves less room for error as with a round handle it is very easy to detect any bumps in the form.

The body of the pot is new as well as the lid and the feet. I have not made teapots for a while so, naturally, I have found lots of new ideas I want to try. I am continuing on a process that I have described several times of working in a sort of evolving series that will eventually 'hopefully' end with my ideal teapot form.

I have been looking at a lot of medieval English/ancient Japanese inspired pottery, such as the pots of Hamada, and Bernard leach. And more recently, Phil Rodgers and Jim Malone. I am finding it hard to incorporate these ideas into my work while still keeping the pots 'simple' enough for an Anagama firing. I find that the best pots, for me, out of any wood firing but especially an Anagama are strong and confident but simple. This minimalist style sort of leaves a blank canvas for the kiln to paint on. With teapots especially, I find it very challenging to have all of the elements of the pot working in harmony in an uncluttered way.

There are countless small details that aid this minimalist style. Several that I have chosen to incorporate into my design are as follows. A press molded spout- Simple, smooth, and flowing design helps to not distract from the pot as a hole. A lid that completes the spherical shape of the pot- Simple, completes the profile, continues the texture to the last 1/16in of the pot.

The pictures are arranged in the order in which they were made. The first teapot is at the bottom and the latest teapot is at the top of the page. On the latest teapot I switched to a handle on the back of the teapot as opposed to the over the top handle. I found that this handle helps to balance out the spout. The line is continued from the tip of the spout down to the bottom of the spout through the teapot to the bottom of the handle and ending in the top of the handle.

I am reasonably happy with the latest teapot, but I have some new ideas which will drastically change the design. I think they are moving in a good direction and I am excited to see how my new ideas translate in to a three dimensional object.

Lidded Jar Series

I recently made a series of larger lidded jars. This is a form that I have made a lot of in the past but I haven't for a while. I like making big round pots because they are very satisfying when everything works out. On the other hand, I don't like making these big pots because it is very frustrating when things don't work out. I tried and continued several ideas with this series. I continued with a style of knob which I have been working with. I like this idea because it gives a nice finish to the top of the piece and it gives your eye an upward motion. For whatever reason, to me, upward motion is a positive feeling in a pot. On some of the jars the proportions were a little off, or as with the center jar in the picture below, the form makes the lid appear to sit higher, which I do not like. I think the the jar pictured above, as well as on the left of the picture below, has appropriate proportions as well as a nice form. My criticism of these jars in general is that the form is to round, aka- it does not match the undulating rhythm of the rest of the pot(lid, foot, texture, and trimming marks). The walls of the pot are a little more lively on the rope textured jar on the right of the picture below; however, I would like to find a way the create this liveliness in the wall without relying on the texture to do so.

I also tried a new way of signing these pots. I decided to place a small ball of clay inside the opening of the knob and stamp that instead of the bottom of the pot. The theory behind this is that, when examining the finished pot, it may be awkward to pick up this larger pot and search for a makers signature around the foot. However, a viewer will most likely remove the lid and therefor see my stamp on it, making awkwardly handling the large pot unnecessary. Although the scale of these pots may be a bit modest for this feature, I felt that it would still be effective. I have also been working more on my cup sets project. I have been making lots of smallish cups similar in style and pattern. I have been using porcelain, an iron rich stoneware, and a porcelainious white stoneware. I also made the first larger 'trays'. I think that four cups is the right amount for these pieces. I am learning a lot about little details that I like in my cups and enhancing them, which results in better cups, simply by making a lot of them. This also helps to make them more 'my own' and to stray further from their original influence.

Progress in the Studio

I have been working on some new ideas as well as refining some forms I have been making for a while. I have been making this mug form for a while but they are still evolving. I have recently changed the feet on them as well as the texture.

I have been working on a new bottle form recently. These bottles are made in two sections, the body, and the neck. I trim the foot on the body when it is leather hard and then attach the leather hard neck. I like the simplicity of this process but it is hard to get the proportions right this way. I am going to try throwing the neck on top of the body, I have done this before and it makes it much easier to get the shape and proportions right. I like the marks made on the body of the pot by attaching the neck.(surform, trimming, and slip) I attach the neck, then surform it to get the profile I want, then trim off some of the surform marks, then add slip over the join and smooth it with a rib. The slip creates a better join and also comes up over the shoulder which makes it look as though the neck comes from inside the body and not on top of it. I learned this technique from Jason Hess, this is how he makes his bottles.

I have been trying to find a way to group several cups or yunomis as a set. I have been making slab trays, such as the one pictured above, to hold these "sets". My idea is to make lots of cups out of several different clays and then group them after they are fired. I'm not sure why but I really like the idea of grouping "sets" after they are fired. I think that this gives the opportunity to make a lot of pots that are for a specific project, as well as to pick the ones that are best after the firing as a set as opposed to making matching forms and grouping them regardless of how they turn out. I think that, with the design I have chosen to go with, they will also have somewhat of a sculptural presence. This is not to say that I don't want people to use my pots but I think these sets may be a special circumstance. I like the idea of taking a cup and putting it in a nonfunctional setting. There is nothing different about these cups that makes then nonfunctional but they will be part of a bigger piece as opposed to standing alone. My intent is to make people think of cups as art. I want to show that cups serve a purpose other than there intended function of holding your drink.Here is a sneak preview of the pots from NAU. This platter was tumble stacked in the side stoke of the double wide train. The blue color is from the pearl ash that we introduced into the kiln. I am going to take some "real" pictures of the new pots soon and I will post them when I do.

NAU

(small train)

(wood soda side of double cat)

I just got home from a two week wood firing workshop at Northern Arizona University with Jason Hess. We fired the small train (pictured at the top of the page) as well as the double wide train, the wood soda side of the double cat (three times) and the other side of the double cat which is fired with just wood.

I learned a lot about different slips and glazes for wood firing and about firing in general. I met a lot of cool people, had a lot of fun, and fired a lot of kilns. I also got some pretty sweet pots which I will post pictures of in a week or so.

Thanks to everyone who made the workshop possible.