Kreeger Pottery

Mixing Bowls

I’ve been wanting to make mixing bowls for a while and that’s what I did the past couple of days. Most of them are squared and will get my wax, slip, incised slip treatment. I really wanted to reference your standard mixing bowl with these. Then yesterday my delightful friend Abigail posted this on her blog which led me to make some small mixing bowls that are really as basic as it gets….except for some reason I fluted them. I think that it’s something that I’ve done less than 5 times in my life.

Anyways…I’m curious about it and I may do a few more larger ones. These are all about 3lbs each. The first one is round with a cut foot.

These 2 are squared…again…about 3lbs of clay.

And…these are squared and will get the wax/slip combo….I may need to come up with a shorthand for that decorating style.

I mistakenly posted this with just the images so this post may appear more than once in your inbox. Sorry.

Posted in bowls, influences, mixing bowls on 12/12/2008 12:21 am | 2 Comments

Handled

It only took a little while but I got handles on these 6 mugs. I still don’t know what the big deal was….there were only 6 mugs!

First 2 are a little smaller so I tried a nice little 2 finger handle.

These taller mugs got a full handle.

Slipped and waxed….later tonight I’ll incise and slip….or perhaps cover them with plastic and do it in the morning. Pics whenever that happens.

I still have another 1/2 dozen mugs to handle…of course to complicate things the new ones have to be trimmed. As always, if I can find another step…I will.

Posted in handles, mugs on 12/12/2008 12:17 am | Comments Off

Why….

….do I dread putting handles on mugs. I tend to leave mugs hiding under plastic for at least 2-3 days before I put handles on them. I’m not sure why. It doesn’t take me that long to do it and I actually enjoy putting them on.

I finally put handles on 8 mugs that were being shuffled under plastic from shelf to shelf as I needed room for my bowls. What a waste of time it is to procrastinate….Now they’re done and I can avoid this next set of mugs for at least an hour.

Posted in mugs on 12/11/2008 03:33 pm | 3 Comments

Things to do…

It’s been raining for a day and a half so even with the heat on a little bit nothing seems to be drying to quickly. My studio shelves are fast being filled up with bowls and mugs waiting for the next step. So, I’ll finish coffee #2 and see how things have dried since my 7am check. If they’re not ready to work on I guess I’ll have to find some space and throw a few more things….I’m thinking oval vases today but I need to make a few more mugs as well.

I also need to update some stuff on the blog and website. I need to update a bunch of sidebar stuff here to more accurately portray the blogs that I read coming through my google reader account. It’s a great way to stay on top of what’s going on with all of the pottery blogs that I have become addicted to. My website just needs some tweaking about my upcoming schedule and what-not. Well….off to work….pics later.

I’m still having the Holiday Sale over at my Webstore and it’s still Free Shipping on everything until Monday.

Posted in pottery blogging, website on 12/11/2008 01:57 pm | 1 Comment

Progress

I had a great day yesterday. Actually, it was a great few days. We had a great weekend with the kids, a nice little BBQ feast on Saturday to celebrate with a few friends and we even made it through about half of “Bolt” yesterday evening. For Javi, who is terrified of movies, half of the movie is some major progress. Of course, the movie started out much scarier than we thought it would so he didn’t exactly get to ease into it. Hopefully it wasn’t so bad that he’ll avoid going to the theater again. I doubt it since he hasn’t stopped talking about the half of the movie that he did see. It’s almost like he enjoyed it.

Back to pots….

I had a good day in the studio today. Finished up a few things that I didn’t get to do over the weekend and I threw a bunch of squared serving bowls. I’m going to try and head in shortly to make a few more things but I think I may need to catch up on some sleep so it may not happen.

Here are a few recent pics….

These are the squared vases that I made the other day. Waxed, slipped and ready to dry out for a bisque.

This is a little squared bowl. I think it was about 3lbs of clay. I like the little cut away foot. I like it better than the footed bowls below…

I made this before the one up above. As I said…I think that I like other cut foot better. I think it looks more stable and solid although, we’ll see once all is glazed and done….I”m still playing around with this “new to me” form. I do like how they’ll relate to the smaller bowls that I made at the end of the last cycle. Perhaps the small ones need feet as well.

I made 8 of these 5lb bowls today. A mix of taller like these and lower, wider ones. They’ll all have cut feet and the incised slip like the first bowl.

Tomorrow should be another good day in the studio….hopefully I’ll have some pics at some point tomorrow to prove it.

Posted in bowls, new pots on 12/10/2008 01:41 am | 4 Comments

Clay for My Birthday

Today is my birthday but I better sneak into the studio and get that last area organized. I have a clay delivery coming today and it’s supposed to go in that area full of junk.

Then…I better make some pots. We’re off to Houston soon so this is my last week of making pots this year.

If all goes well today we’re supposed to pick up the kids from school and then off to the movies. I want to see Madagascar 2 but Javi and Ale are set on Bolt. They’re not big fans of movies so just getting to the theater is a good start.

Posted in Uncategorized on 12/08/2008 01:34 pm | 1 Comment

Pics and Open Studio Sale

It just isn’t a pottery blog if there aren’t pics up. Words are so long and sentences are even longer. New pots are so much more exciting.

And, on that note….here are some new pots I’ve been working on.

These are some vases I’m playing around with. I want to have a couple sizes to play with. I really liked the larger rounder wobbly rim vases and I wanted to see how it works with a more slender form. They are slipped and waxed and ready for some incising.

I’m intrigued by these “cappuccino” cups. I made some of my more typical “taller” mug forms but then sketched these out and I made these two. I am working on the scale and form but I like where they are heading. I’m not sure if they need a saucer…I’ve never been big on cups and saucers but these might be asking for one.

Here are a few more tall slender wobbly rim vases. These are with the B-Mix which just throws so beautifully. The piles in the background are part of the studio that I haven’t gotten organized quite yet.

It will probably be a slow weekend here in the studio. I’ll finish up these pots and hopefully even make a few more. My clay order is getting delivered Monday so next week should be pretty productive.

Stop in for the Holiday Sale….The shop is open today, 10-4

Posted in new pots, Open House on 12/06/2008 02:37 pm | Comments Off

Buy Something Handmade this Holiday Season…

We’re all set up and ready for the Holiday Stroll.

I’ll also be opening the gallery tomorrow and next Saturday as well. As always, I’ll be open by appointment and since I’m making pots this week in the studio there’s a good chance that the front door will be open if you stop by. If you don’t want to risk it, give me a call or email me and make sure I’m around or…..you can always shop online…

Or go Shop Here…

or here…

….or find somewhere near you. Google your favorite artist and see if they’re having a show soon. Call them…stop by their studio. I promise…you’ll enjoy it much more that the shop at the mall and whomever you give the gift to will enjoy it much more as well.

Posted in buy handmade, holiday, Open House on 12/05/2008 10:14 pm | Comments Off

Work…but no pics

The studio is back to 90% clean. Well…90% of what I consider to be a workable space. I made a few pots today. I am very low on clay but I spent today throwing the last of the stoneware. Some mugs, some vases and some bowls. I’m focused on Baltimore ACC now as I return to the studio. I used the time to try out a few new forms and refine a few others. As I said earlier I’m doing wholesale & retail while I’m there. I haven’t done wholesale in a few years and I want to go in with a small but very focused line of wholesale work. Tomorrow, I’ll finish up what I made and make some more using some white stoneware. I’ll get some pics up tomorrow.

Evangelina organized the gallery because tomorrow is the Holiday Stroll and Open House. The stroll is from 5pm-9pm but I’ll have the gallery open most of the day while I’m working in the studio. Again…pics tomorrow.

Please stop by if you’re on Cape because the shop looks great once again. It felt like we were getting ready to open for summer. We’ll also have a bunch of work on sale and some seconds out for purchase. Hope to see some of you tomorrow.

Posted in baltimore, Open House, wholesale on 12/05/2008 03:00 am | Comments Off

No work…just thoughts.

I spent the day cleaning up the studio and gallery getting ready for the Holiday Stroll throughout town this Friday. I’m eager to get back to work in the studio but I have another day of cleaning and organizing before I can. After working like crazy, 2 firings and 2 shows my studio is a little bit of a disaster. All should be close to okay tomorrow and if all goes well I may be throwing again by tomorrow afternoon….Thursday at the latest….I hope.

I only have a little clay left and I need to put in an order tomorrow. We’re off to Houston for the holidays on the 18th and my goal is to get everything together so that when we return right before New Year’s I’ll be able to start cruising again. I’m doing wholesale/retail in Baltimore and when we get back I’ll only have 6 weeks to get ready for the show….plenty of time but I want to be clear about what I’m doing leading up to it. If I start planning now, perhaps I’ll have a little less self-imposed stress before the show. So, with a clean studio by tomorrow I’ll still have a couple of weeks to get a head-start in getting ready for the next firing.

I’ve been thinking a lot about my new work and how it seems to be more “design” based recently….as if there is a difference between that and studio pottery. There isn’t, but I think that as my pots get more decoration, the design/throwing of them becomes more in the front of my mind before I approach the wheel. It is definitely a change in the way I work and I think it has been a change that has led to being more productive. I found myself re-reading this interview in American Craft with Ayumi Horie. It got me thinking about where this new work came from.

American Craft:

What is your relationship to design, craft and the fine arts? How do you see your relationship to each? Or one in particular?

Ayumi Horie:

….I’m much more comfortable with the moniker of craftsman and designer than I am with artist. I’m a craftsman in the sense that I’ve largely committed myself to one material and am concerned with function, use, and accessibility. I’m a designer in the sense that I understand how my aesthetic translates into various materials and am happiest when I have various side projects in media other than ceramics. Spending three years renovating my house full time helped hone my aesthetic more than anything else. Making daily decisions about trim, shingles, gutters, mullions, and tread thickness made certain aesthetic patterns evident to me and even brought more clarity to my ceramic work……

Switching back to my reduction kiln after firing soda/salt and wood for so long definitely made me re-think the design, surfaces and so many other ideas regarding my pots. But, those were process-based decisions within my work. The layers of slip, incising, waxing and the Celadon glaze were about how I could continue motifs in my work that I had been using in my salt-fired wares.

I find myself looking at amazing homes and wonderful green renovations in Austin on a variety of real estate websites. I am drawn to contemporary homes as I think about our move(something Evangelina has always been drawn to)…It is so different from our gray-shingled neighborhood up here on the Cape. So, I guess I’m making pots for my new home. Or….what I want my new home to look like.

I guess this is yet another in a long line of rambling posts here but I figured I would try to put into words what was going on in my head.

More design/making/pottery coming this week. Now….if I can only design my studio to self-clean….I guess that’s where my non-existent apprentice comes in.

Posted in austin, design, influences on 12/02/2008 11:12 pm | 4 Comments

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