I was invited by my old pal Drew Nicklas to be part of an exhibit at Pottery Northwest in Seattle entitled “Four By Four”.  The theme of the show was some of the current resident artists there at the arts center inviting some of their friends and mentors to send pieces and create a diverse group of work.   I tried to get him to tell me if I qualified as a friend or a mentor, but I never really got a definitive answer on that.

Drew and I go way back to the very beginning of my little adventure in clay, to our undergraduate days when we spent many hours in the ceramics building and the kiln yard even though neither of us was an art major.  Who would have known that both of us would end up taking a potter’s path?  We soon went in different directions, I from the West Coast to the East in search of better clay, and he on to another non-art degree and then to a MFA in ceramics. It has been nice to stay in touch over the years, and funny enough, after all that we both found our way to wood firing.

So here’s to another well-spoken wood firer out there.  And here’s to good friends and good mentors.  I’ve learned a lot from a lot of folks over the years.  Some people pass by quickly and utter a brief little phrase that you can never forget.  Some people let you fire their kiln, their soda kiln no less, when you really need one.  Whether it’s an honest appraisal of your latest work or bit of encouragement or a little help getting the kiln to finish off in the wee hours, I appreciate all the help I’m gotten along the way.

The exhibit will be up for the rest of the month, and there is an opening reception tonight. [March 6, 2010] I can’t make it as it is in Seattle and I am not…but if you stop by tell ‘em I send my best.

A new year is off to a good start with a few exciting plans on the horizon, and hopefully a few more yet to come. Of course, we can only print those that have been confirmed as of this date…but stay tuned for more details of upcoming shows and workshops…

First up for the new year is the show I mentioned before…

If you’re in the Durham, NC area be sure to check out the exhibit at Claymakers, “Asheville In the Bull City”. Curator and potter Ronan Peterson invited five potters from the Asheville area and we all sent 30 or more pieces.

There is an opening reception this Friday, January 15 from 6:00pm-9:00pm. The show will run from January 15 to March 12, 2010.

I’m heading down the mountain for the opening and looking forward to seeing a room full of these folks’ work.  Even when you think you know the work of a potter well, it is always a pleasure to see a multitude of pieces filling a room.

Here’s a little bit from their website:

“Claymakers invites five Asheville, North Carolina area ceramic artists to exhibit their distinctive functional vessels in the Bull City. This exhibit includes the work of Will Baker, Patty Bilbro, Kyle Carpenter, Karen Newgard, and Lindsay Rogers. Each of these functional potters has developed a singular interpretation of everyday pottery, from the graphic, black-on-white porcelain of Karen Newgard to the warm, earthy, atmospheric stoneware of Will Baker. Each artist employs their own approach to surface and decoration, with Lindsay Rogers’ minimal, detailed lines and textures nicely contrasted by the intimate brushwork of Patty Bilbro and Kyle Carpenter’s bold salt fired slip and glaze brushwork. Don’t miss this special showing near downtown Durham of some of the best ceramics the mountains of western North Carolina have to offer.”

The Online Holiday Sale is up and running!

Stop by the ETSY SHOP to view about 30 pieces I’ve held onto for your online purchasing pleasure.

The Etsy Shop is a convenient way to purchase these items safely online, you can even make a little wish list and pass it on to those who need to know what you really want for the holidays.

If you’re in the Western North Carolina area  in the coming weeks, check here for a list of  other events where you can find me and my work.

The October firings went well, although each one lasted a few hours longer than usual. Here are some pictures from the unloading of the 14^th firing, showing a larger serving bowl, a mug, and a new vase form. Many of the dinner plates and most of the square jars have all ready found a good home, but I’ll have a good supply of fresh pottery for the next few events.

Come on out to the Western North Carolina Pottery Festival in Dillsboro, NC on November 7^th.

Click here for more info and a map.

December 4^th – 6^th is the Annual Toe River Studio Tour.

I’ll be heading down the mountain to set-up shop at John Britt’s studio near the Penland School along with fellow potters Joy Tanner and Susan Feagin, and woodcarver Rodney Hopkins. Click here for more info and a map.

A cold, mean wind came down the mountain today. The leaves were still turning and the first snow flakes fell.

October had a busy start, right after my firing I split another one with Joy so we could head into the fall with a good pile of pottery. The Spruce Pine Potters Market was a good weekend with a nice crowd of folks coming to see all 30 or so of us spread out in one room.

We took off for part of a day to a great place we found last year about this time, a nice little hike over the river and through the woods to a water fall. Joy and the dog had their own fun crossing the creeks, but I took the easy way.

Here’s a little peek at the unloading…I held back a few of my favorites this time and I’ll photograph them soon.

The summer is flying by while I run here and there on all the various projects.  Most of them are moving along slowly, but at least they’re moving.   One of  the websites is nearly complete,  the plans for the reduction kiln are almost Final Plans,  we finished up the building of the little  “test” soda kiln and got the first firing out of the way,  found time to make a few pots and try to get the rust out, and now I’m off to help my pal build a wood kiln up in Virginia.  Another trip with Captain Conepack himself, his tools haven’t even dried off yet from his last project so I know he’ll be in good form for building.  You can see some photos of the latest Mickey Kiln here.

I put together a few pictures of converting the electric kiln into a gas fired soda kiln, you can read that here.

We’ll make a few adjustments for the next firing, try to move the heat around a little more with target bricks and increase the amount of reduction too.  The kiln made it to temperature so now we just need to fine tune the details that make all the difference.

Back from the two-week stay at Penland, a little tired but mostly unharmed. Another Shane Mickey kiln now resides in Mitchell County, built with the help of several students. I was there to assist Shane and in the two weeks we built a modest sized soda kiln and fired it twice with the work made by students in the class.

The first firing of any kiln is an adventure, and a cross draft soda kiln can be especially tricky. With so many variables to balance, many a first firing turns out more ‘learning experience’ than nice pots. Different clay bodies and slips and glazes, how much reduction and how to read it, unmapped soda zones….

Our first firing was surprisingly successful, with the proper cones down in the proper places, ‘good’ reduction and soda coverage throughout the kiln. We unloaded in the morning and loaded up round two the same evening. We had another good firing the second time, lightened up the reduction just a bit and increased the soda amount which resulted in more flashing of the slips and clays and more hints of the icy gray soda. Both firings lasted only 12-13 hours, credit due to Shane’s design and the experienced firing crew.

We all wish ‘Lucille’ the very best, she’ll have an exciting few weeks. With the bricks still warm, a visiting artist was getting ready to start the third firing right after we unloaded with more firings to follow in the coming weeks.

It’s been a busy few weeks here on Roan Mountain, what with the firing and the Studio Tour and all. The last firing was very successful with nice pots coming out all around. My plates turned out well and are almost all gone already. More on the firing to come…

I’ve gotten lost in the world of changing my website around, hopefully I’ll be able to reemerge before too long with a snappy new website and blog all in one. You can check in on the progress here.

I’ve added a few pots to my online Etsy Shop, and I’ll be adding a bunch more in just a few days.

Stay tuned for more details!

Top Shelf

You may have noticed an obscure reference to the recent firing here on Roan Mountain. It was firing number 8 and sadly not as successful as the last two. After making some adjustments to the bagwall and firing approach I had two very good firings in a row. Almost all of the really cold areas had disappeared and it felt like I was pulling nice pots out of the kiln left and right.

This time I had some casualties, a few cracks resulting from raw-glazing first attempts and a few cracks from just plain ol’ too thick. Aside from these, the bottom shelf or two on the two outside stacks showed signs of that ol’ terrible cold spot returning. To make matters worse, the whole firing ended up about one cone cooler than I have come to hope for. I’ve learned that the main conepacks tend to sit a very weird little pocket in this kiln, and that cone 9 flat is fine there as long as cone 11 is flat in the very front fireface. Although this firing seemed headed for greatness and high temperatures for a while there, in the end only cone 10 was flat on the fireface with cone 11 hanging tough. In the main packs I had only one cone 9 down and a lot of 8’s just falling. Oh well I thought, at four in the morning it was decided to call it off and see if that would be hot enough.

Before

After

Not quite hot enough. By no means was it a total disaster. Joy shared the kiln load and although she did not fare too well overall, she had a few nice ones come out. I did have a lot of nice ones come out too, some of the flashed surfaces from the last firings were still there but some of the surfaces were just shy of my expectations built up from the hotter pots of the last time round.

For the next firing I think I’ll reverse the small changes I had made in some of the settings and try to get headed back in the right direction.

For now, off to help Shane Mickey with another of his kiln building projects. He’s already got a start on it and it’s not to far away, so in a few days we’ll have it finished and fired and be headin’ home. Then I can get back in the studio and try it all again.