Jefferson County Potters Holiday Sale!

The Where: Elkhorn Mountain Inn 

                  and the Montana City Store

                   1 Jackson Creek Rd

                   Montana City, MT

The When: Friday, November 30, 2012 - 5pm-9pm  Opening Nite/Sale

                  Saturday, December 1, 2012 - 10am-5pm Sale

                  Sunday, December 2, 2012 - 10am-2pm Sale

The Who: Gary Anderson, Chad Carignan, Lisa Ernst, Tom Jaszczak, Page Kelly Piccolo, Wiebe Pottery and Tara Wilson

The How: There's plenty of parking in the back, just come in through the motel entries. There are two doors on the front and one through the courtyard in the back. Come on in to the conference room, and spend some time picking the perfect HANDMADE gift for those lucky people on your list! There will be a lot of handmade items to choose from, and you'll be helping to support your local economy.

Please enjoy the images below, they give you a taste of the array of fine pottery you'll see at the show.

A group of cups and a lovely bottle.

I liked this one, it sparked the idea for the final

Playing with composition

The final postcard image

One of the postcard contenders

A collection of cups

The back of the postcard

Level Up!

As the name of my blog suggests, I have a tendency to wander. And so I do. And now I wander back here to share with you my experience of "Leveling Up!"

Level means a lot of things. One of which is that something is as flat and parallel to the Earth as possible. Very few things are, by the way, level. Anyway, another meaning - that people who play video games are familiar with - is gaining enough experience that you have achieved the next "Level" in a game. Gamers generally achieve this by running around and whacking things or collecting things. Potters, it turns out, achieve this by wrecking a lot of pots.

In my drying rack, this is 2 pots in four distinct sections for each: Foot, bottom body, top body, neck.

This is 2 pots in one not so distinct section after "Leveling UP!"

Here is the goal: I would like to hold a fundraiser for Care.org at the local arts center, The Myrna Loy Center. The theme of the work is the feminine vessel. The work that women do in their villages to raise their families, keep their homes, and improve their communities all involve large storage vessels. It is these vessels on a large scale that I want to focus on.

Now here is where the "Level Up" part begins. These pieces have to be thrown individually and then assembled because I simply do not have the strength nor skill to throw pots that are 20+ pounds. Thus pieces have to be made, and in some cases thought about and thrown in reverse, and then assembled.

The first of two I got the foot and bottom body assembled, then went to attach the top body and when I turned it over it went PLOP off the bat into a big mush on the lower pieces. Hmmmm. Maybe shoulda done that the other way and put the assembled piece on top of the new piece and then flipped it over. Okay, well I have another pot, that's alright!

So I get the foot assembled to the lower body, then I get the upper body and the lower body attached to each other and I even get them flipped over and back on my wheel, centered and everything. I stand up to reach in to secure the seam when, TRIP! I step on the pedal and the pot goes flying in one direction and I fell right on top of it. Which is why the above picture just shows flattened clay. Bummer.

But now, here I am, all experienced. I know which bad guys to whack, which coins to gather, and I'm ready to conquer this level and move UP to the next!!

Thinking about Colors and Patterns, Part 4

I was thinking about texture, color and patterns, and the artists who are inspiring to me that use these markers for their own work. I kept coming back to what I originally fell in love with in ceramics, particularly wheel-thrown functional work -- Form.

When I came back to ceramics as an adult, I was fortunate enough to enroll in a summer class at the Archie Bray Foundation. I am grateful everyday for the Bray and its community outreach programs. In any case, this particular summer was one of the hotter summers in recent memory. We experienced 100+ degree Fahrenheit temperatures many too many days in a row. The classroom managed to stay relatively cool, though the irrigation canals nearby had hatched a fine bunch of mosquitoes, so it smelled of citronella and a multitude of bug repellents.

That summer I met Jeremy Kane, known as "Jr.", though I couldn't bring myself to call him that. Jeremy is an artist par excellence, but also one of the truly committed and talented ceramics teachers I've had the joy to study with. Form is Jeremy's specialty, though I suspect some will make an argument for his finishes of layered glaze, decals and lusters. He uses his form as an elegant canvas upon which to express his observations of kitsch, his commentary of absurdity. His finished work from a distance will spark thoughts of French aristocracy, and as you begin to study the detail you may be reminded of a '57 Chevy, early Playboy, or even KFC.

It is the form of the piece that is the foundation upon which the rest of the work will stand. That is what inspires me.

Jeremy is currently the head of the ceramics department at the University of Alaska-Southeast. Here are a couple online sites to see his work: The Red Lodge Clay Center, The Alaska State Museum.

Thinking about Colors and Patterns, Part 1

Work that inspires me:

Recently featured on the cover of the March/April 2009 "Pottery Making Illustrated" Amy Sanders' work is beautiful, functional and full of pattern and color.

From the 14th Annual Strictly Functional National. Click here to see more work from that show.



From the Ceramic Arts Daily website.



From the American Craft Council: Baltimore Show 2007.

I am attracted to Amy's color palette, very earthy tones and muted colors. Her patterns are lively and elegant and the way she assembles the pieces is inspirational and innovative.

Don't forget to check out her Blog!

The struggle for inspiration

It occurred to me about a month ago that my pottery continues to be attractive to other potters, but not necessarily to the general public. I reached out to a few respected people for critiques.

Now I was looking for actual critiques. Not the kind of "oh you are wonderful, don't change a thing..." critiques. People who love you give you those kind of critiques, because they don't know any better. I was looking for the kind of critique that would tell me what I was doing wrong. Because something is definitely wrong. My work sells, but barely. People who love my work are people who can and do make their own. They don't need to buy it, they can make it. It's a great ego boost to have a fellow potter say something to the effect of "Wow, look at that form!" or "I love the way you applied that glaze!" or "This pot is so light!" but it doesn't put bank in the wallet.

So what did I hear? Color. My color palette does not translate well in the online market. I need to add discernible patterns and color to my pots. Less browns, coppers, bronzes and golds. More white, green, and (gasp!) blue. I need to find a pattern and apply it to my pots.

This has led me to be acutely aware of repeating patterns in our society. Patterns show up frequently in home decoration, tile, wallpaper, fabrics. I have been looking at the work of my friends and colleagues and have been analyzing what they are doing in their own work. What colors do they use and how do they use them? What patterns do they employ? Do they draw them or do they stamp them, or is there some other technique? Why do they choose to use sprig molds to add clay or shellac and wax resist?

I want their work to influence me, what they are doing right to show me the way. It's a fine line between influence and imitation. I am working to maintain my vision of my work and allow these ideas to become mine. I have found patterns that touch me, attract me, and I am allowing those patterns to begin to work their way into my consciousness. The next step is allowing them to be a part of my work.