Kreeger Pottery

Sorry Michael…

Apologies to Michael Kline for ripping off the “Coffee Break” feature…but….since this was my first cup of coffee for the day it’s not truly a break.

I got this cup in the mail last week…filled it immediately and I’m just now getting around to getting the pic up on the blog.

For those that haven’t seen it yet, Ron has a new Etsy store where you can get your own freshly made earthenware shipped directly to your door. Sorry, you must provide the coffee upon arrival. You can find the store directly from Ron’s blog.

Buy Pots! Buy Pots Online! Buy from potters you know…buy from those you don’t but like what you see of their work online. I had never seen Ron’s pots until I started blogging. I’m glad that his mug has joined my morning rotation in the kitchen. The more pots everyone buys online….from me, from Ron from everyone, the more pots we’ll see online and the more pots will get around the country as well.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/08/2008 12:24 pm | 5 Comments

Decorated Platters

So the post below from Monday was supposed to be titled “Gone Fishing” but I forgot to put that in the email subject when I emailed the post in from the boat. Blogger is pretty cool in that I can email a post in as long as my phone has service.

We went fishing over near Monomoy Island off of Chatham. My friend Pete has a boat that he finally got in the water. We didn’t catch anything but we were right in a pile of bait fish…unfortunately, the seals that live on Monomoy took care of that so that kept the bigger striped bass away. Still, a bad day of fishing is a full day on a boat out on the water and I can’t complain about that. Next week I’m hoping to catch a ride on my friend Tony’s boat and we’ll head on out about 25 miles and try to catch some Tuna. That is going to be fun…I’ve never gone out for tuna before.

Back to pots….

Here are some platters and bowls that I decorated for either a reduction or a salt/soda wood kiln. Depending on my timing they’ll either go in my reduction kiln here or wait until fall when my friend Michael McCarthy is planning on building his new woodkiln. Perhaps they’ll make it in his inaugural firing.

This one is about a 6 pound platter:

a deeper bowl…again….about 6-7 pounds of clay

a larger platter using the quarter trick….about 12-14 pounds of clay total.

a large bowl…about 12 pounds of clay.

I’m hoping that this decoration works well under my reduction glazes. If it does I may have finally figured out how to make my work and not have to figure out ahead of time which kiln it’s for…except of course, the earthenware.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/06/2008 03:10 pm | 6 Comments

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/04/2008 04:25 pm | 3 Comments

Video Time

Here’s my first video.

I thought I would do a quick(time) movie of me putting the two sections of a pitcher together. It turned out to be a little longer than I had planned. I also probably went a little overboard on the transitions and titles using iMovie.

I hope it’s not too big a file and it doesn’t clog up anyone’s intertubes.

I’ll make the next video a little shorter.

Posted in Uncategorized on 08/03/2008 05:26 pm | 4 Comments

Post-Colombian Pots

Evangelina is originally from El Salvador which means that usually once a year we get to travel down there and enjoy the beaches and the hospitality of her extended family…and just about the entire nation as well. It’s definitely a place I probably never would have visited if it wasn’t for meeting….and marrying Evangelina.

On one of our trips, about 5 years ago, we took a trip over to the Mayan ruins at Copan in Honduras. It was a great trip of which a good deal of it was on the back of my father-in-law’s motorcycle. It was actually on that trip on some switchback somewhere in Guatemala that I decided it was time to take a MSF course and get my motorcycle license. When I took the course and mentioned the trip on a motorcycle throughout Central America the teacher looked at me and said, “Aren’t you a little big to be riding on the back of the bike?” Needless to say….next time down to El Salvador I had my license and we did most of the traveling was on motorcycles….my own motorcyle, borrowed from Evangelina’s Tio Benjamin. It felt a little more natural…and slightly less humiliating than holding onto my father-in-law during the ascent up mountains in Guatemala.

Wow…lots of tangental thinking going on tonight…I guess I’m tired.

On that trip to Copan in the little museum shop at the ruins they had a collection of pottery from a variety of villages. Some were replicas of Mayan pottery but this one caught the eye of both Evangelina and myself. We brought this and one other pot home with us. I’m not sure where in Honduras it was made. If anyone has any clues do let me know. I love the mix of traditional methods and the sort of contemporary yet incredibly ageless designs on it.

I have never actually mimicked the design of one of my pieces. I’ve definitely referenced it in my work…it ranks right up there with Mimbres pots as far as geometric design motifs that stick in my head. I finally decided to try it out on one of my wobbly vases using the wax/slip/sponge technique that I used with my earthenware. It will probably find it’s way onto one of my large platters once they’re trimmed.

Alright…have a look below. I’m off to cover some pots and then to bed so I’ll stop rambling.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/31/2008 02:39 am | 3 Comments

more pots in progress

I got some good work done today even though it reached 85º inside my studio without any sort of breeze. Maybe I’ll figure some sort of A/C thing out next year. It’s almost August now so too late to think of any solution. I’ll just try to get more work done in the morning and not bake in the studio in the afternoon. I did sneak a nap inside the house with the A/C around 3pm and that was perfect.

Here are a few pitchers that I just finished up. I made them with a technique that I haven’t used in a while. It came to my studio via Michael McCarthy…I’m not sure if he still makes his pitchers this way…maybe just his larger ones. Regardless, I like the control you get with it. It works especially well for larger forms. These are a decent sized pitchers. It’s been so long since I made these pitcher forms that I found myself humming the Wilco song, “Someone Else’s Song” during most of the day. But…I made them…so they’re mine. As a side note, Wilco was I think the last true and great show that I have gone to see. It’s so long ago that it’s embarassing. It’s time to see a good show again…I guess that will happen when we move to Austin. If it doesn’t there then it’s time to shrivel up and accept the fact that I’m getting old.

Back to pottery….I made them in two sections. In the heat of mid-day I made the bases, which were about 3 pounds of clay. They stiffened up until about an hour ago at which point I threw the top section and made the spout. I’ll tweak the spouts in the morning and perhaps they’ll get their handles tomorrow as well. It’s more than likely that the pitchers will enjoy some time under the plastic while I avoid the handles and make more pots and run out of shelving space and table space. That’s when I’ll realize that it’s time to get some handles on and get them out to the kiln shed. Bad habits are hard to break.

I have a couple of larger pitcher bases under plastic now. I’ll take some pics tomorrow a clearer how to post if anyone is interested…nevermind…you don’t have a choice. I’ll post a how-to tomorrow.

Here are 3 of the urns that I made that I talked about earlier. I trimmed through the bottom of one of them…it’s been a long time since I’ve trimmed vertical forms. I did want these pots to have a more refined foot and a more classical feel. I think they worked out well.

Well….more pots later. Off to cool down and give the pitchers a little time to set up before they get their plastic.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/31/2008 02:17 am | Comments Off

Platters

I haven’t made decent sized platters in quite some time. The biggest of these is about 18 inches in diameter. But, I just made them and I know I’ll be disappointed when they come out of the kiln and look like dinner plates in comparison to their size now.

I am excited about these though. I finally tried the “quarter trick” and I definitely liked how it worked. It’s very similar to how I used to make my 25# platters but visualizing the foot beforehand played a role in how I threw the piece.

I had to take the torch to them during throwing to make sure that they didn’t collapse. I am not too proud to do what needs to be done to get a piece made. I’m well past the desire to impress people with how much I can throw at one time. Even my largest pieces now are made slowly with however many sections or thrown coils it’s going to take. I’m not that old…yet….but my body is showing the signs of age. One semi-bummed shoulder that still bothers me from the separated a/c joint and one hernia surgery is enough to let me know to work slowly on the big pieces.

I’m finding that it’s really difficult to get a rhythm to studio time in the summer. Between all of the distractions and running the gallery the days just don’t seem to be lining up correctly to get a good flow of work going. Today has been good. I’ve gotten a couple other wobbly vases made along with those platters. But, tomorrow is family day with the store closed so if I get in the studio at all it won’t be until late to do a little trimming. I’ll probably catch up a little bit on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but it won’t be steady between the gallery and other duties.

I have a fairly good schedule for the fall with CraftBoston Holiday in November and a “Home” show in NY during Thanksgiving weekend so at this point I’m looking at getting some pots ready for those now. I also may apply to a couple of other shows for early winter so I probably have to work on that tomorrow because deadlines are approaching.

The platters I made today are with the B-Mix but I think the next round might be a little bigger made out of my stoneware body. We’ll see how my body reacts to the larger platter. I think I have one box left of the B-Mix so I’ll probably finish throwing some pots with that shortly and then Wednesday move on to the larger platters.

There could be a reduction firing within a couple of weeks depending on how quickly I can get some work made and a few more glazes mixed up. I found an old glaze recipe book of mine from college and my time at the Clay Art Center so I may mix up the light-blue celadon to try on a few of the pieces. I think the line work I did on the earthenware could look nice below a nice celadon glaze. We’ll see.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/28/2008 06:31 pm | 2 Comments

A Semi-Productive Day

It was pouring this morning but it’s beautiful outside right now. I had planned on playing a little tennis this morning….yet another studio delay tactic of mine. However, with the rain I really had no excuse. Brian didn’t ask to shoot more images and I had broken down the photo equipment yesterday. So, as soon as Evangelina got the kids out the door and off to camp I went right into the studio and started work. Well, I started cleaning and scraping off my bats that were still caked in earthenware. Then I started working.

A couple of weeks ago a woman came into the shop asking if I would make her an urn for her mother’s ashes. It is not something that I have done very often but it is always humbling when someone asks. I’m not sure that humbling is the right word. I think every functional potter wants their pots to be admired and used when they leave our studios. Knowing that my “jar” is going to be doing more than sitting on a kitchen counter holding flour or sugar is an honor. I guess it is too easy to sound trite when writing about this but it is nice that someone thinks of your work for something this important. So, that’s what I started working on this morning. We had discussed a general idea of shape and glaze so I made a few so we have some options after the firing.

I also made a few of the wobbly vases in white stoneware that I had done in my last earthenware firing. It will be nice to see if the -cliche warning- “freshness” that these forms had in the earthenware will work in high-fire.

I also made one good sized bowl. It’s probably about 12-14 pounds of clay. I’ve never been good at utilizing the clay well when making this forms. I always feel like I waste a ton of clay. I may try Emily’s “quarter trick” next time and see how that works.

I’ll work with the white stoneware again tomorrow but then I’ll probably switch to some of my regular stoneware. The regular stuff was a little stiff last throwing session so yesterday I poked a ton of broomstick holes in the clay, poured some water down and closed each bag up. I’m hoping that tomorrow I’ll be able to wedge some of that up into some softer, more workable clay. I’d like to make some big platters with the stoneware if I can get it soft enough. Even throwing mugs and small bowls with the clay last time was a chore it was so stiff.

When I get to Austin I’m going to dedicate some studio space and outdoor space to clay prep so that I can start mixing my own clay again. I haven’t since college and I’ve always missed the ability to control that aspect of the process. I may use the blunger and drying racks method down there. We’ll see what kind of space I end up with.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/25/2008 06:02 pm | Comments Off

Music Night

I did something!!!

Sort of.

I hosted music night at the shop. Paul Nossiter and his Original Dissonance Jazz Band played out front. And…I took some pics. I guess I did two things.

Maybe tomorrow will be a productive day.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/24/2008 12:41 am | Comments Off

Why even make a schedule at this point….

I thought today was going to be the day.

Actually, I had planned to get some work done on Sunday. Our out-of-town guests were still here but Evangelina had planned a kid-friendly adventure out to Fort Hill so I figured that I would get a little organizing and clay prep done in the studio so that I could work on Monday.

Instead, my stomach and the rest of my body kept me in bed on Sunday….all of Sunday. I think I got out of bed for about an hour around 7pm. Then right back to bed. Monday turned out to be better but still a very slow recovery day. I’m not sure if it was food-poisoning or a stomach bug. I’m going to go with a stomach bug since I had done the cooking during the weekend.

Tuesday is the one day a week that the shop is closed and the kids are home from camp. Since we’re usually too busy to have a true weekend with them this is the one chance we have to have a family day. We did and it was good….basically spent shuffling everyone around to tennis clinics and hanging out for a mellow day around the house.

And now it’s Wednesday. Today was going to be my day in the studio. But, my friend Brian called last night asking if he could photograph a scarf that Randy made that they needed for the Evanston show and since I still had the lights setup we shot some pictures this morning. I was able to get the wheels cleaned up and made some space around the throwing areas so that I could get some work done this week. Tonight I am really, truly, definitely, probably going to finally take down the photo setup so that I can make some pots tomorrow.

I’ll blame Brian for not being able to get anything done today. I don’t think he knows how to leave a comment so he can’t let anyone know that he was only here for 45 minutes and we finished up photographing around 10:30. And, if he does leave a comment….I can almost guarantee that it is not language typically used on this blog so I’ll have to edit it out anyways. So, I guess I really don’t have an excuse.

I know it’s been a while since I have written anything here. It’s been longer since I’ve been in the studio. I’m eager to get back in there. I think I’m going to start with some stoneware…..I think I said that about a week and a half ago. I want to make some good size platters for the reduction kiln. I’ve got a little more work to cycle through so I guess if I write it here it will happen, right? I think I have had about 3 posts saying that I’ll make some pots tomorrow. Maybe my theory isn’t working…..

It’s Music Night tonight again….if the weather holds. If I think of it I’ll take some pictures of the flurry of activity in town at night. It’s a long day but worth it to see everyone enjoying all of the music and strolling through a town that typically shuts down by 7pm.

Posted in Uncategorized on 07/23/2008 07:38 pm | 1 Comment

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