Easy answer for a stupid question….
Who the hell would be so stupid as to start mixing a copper red without first checking that there was any copper in their studio?
Almost there
I got 2 out of 3 glazes mixed up yesterday and I just got a delivery with the ingredients that I didn’t have for the last one. Time to finish mixing and then get everything sieved. I’ve spent the morning prepping all of the bisqueware. Getting the feet waxed and I made sure I cleaned everything off really well. My last firing at Mark’s had a bit of crawling because of some dust on the ware. I don’t want to make the same lazy mistake again.
I’m also trying a bunch of new ideas in this firing. I just put some of the latex wax resist on a few big pieces so I can glaze and then remove the wax and layer things together. I’ve never used this method before…and I’m trying it out with some new glazes so I’ve got lots of variables going into this firing.
And, since a post isn’t a real post without proving that some work was accomplished, here are some pots that I finished up late last night. Some squared bowls that weren’t quite ready to trim during the day and were just past how I like the clay to be for trimming. I guess I mis-timed it today. Anyways, they still got trimmed and have some brown slip on them.
Here are a few new to me oval forms that are actually similar form to some ovals of mine from years ago. I put the brown slip on the entire piece and then scratched through to the white clay below….I’m pretty excited to get these into the firing.
Lastly, here is my slab roller that has turned back into a coffee table. The 3 mugs to the right are usually the first one’s I grab in the morning. The middle is a soda-fired mug by Michael McCarthy and it’s bordered by two Mark Shapiro woodfired mugs. Since they were in the studio when I went for round 1 of coffee this morning I gave a quick rinse to the Ayumi Horie on the left and filled it up.
Off to finish those glazes. I’m hoping to be done glazing by Sunday and then get this kiln fired on Monday.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/29/2008 04:41 pm | Comments Off on Almost there
good morning
It’s glaze mixing day. I have a few more pots to trim but while they’re drying I’m going to mix up a few new glazes and top off some batches of what I already have. I haven’t mixed up new glazes in a while so I hope I have all the ingredients. I have a delivery coming tomorrow from my supplier so I can hopefully get whatever I’m missing on the truck.
I ordered a mug from Ayumi Horie after I saw Michael’s post that there was some new work available. As I kept checking throughout the day I saw the little buttons change from “buy now” to “sold” so I thought I would join the fun. I’m glad I did. It came today in time for my second cup of the day…
I also thought I would include a few goofy pics of my girls that we took yesterday.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/28/2008 02:13 pm | 2 Comments
Back to work
It was a long weekend in the gallery but a decent one nonetheless. It was absolutely beautiful outside over the weekend on Cape which meant town was pretty busy. Evangelina and I got to see some of our clients who we haven’t seen since last year so it’s always nice to catch up.
Today it’s back to work in the studio. I cycled through another bisque yesterday and I would like to re-load another right back up again. I’ve got some clay wedged up for one last round of squared soup bowls that have been ready to throw since the beginning of the weekend and never got done. They haven’t been sitting under plastic as long as these mugs….they are definitely getting some handles today. After that it truly is time to start glazing. I’ve been going through my pile/file of glaze recipes looking for a good celadon to mix up this round.
I’ve been in either the studio or gallery every day for a while now so I might head out this afternoon….haven’t figured out where or what yet. That’s one of the downsides of the studio, gallery and house all together….I’m here quite a bit. There are too many upsides to make that complaint too often.
It’s raining today after being beautiful since sometime last week…that’s my luck for what could be my day out. Over the weekend our giant tree peony went into full bloom. The flowers are about 6 to 7 inches across. Here’s a pic…
Well, off for coffee number 1 of the day.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/27/2008 11:09 am | 1 Comment
Where’d everyone go?
Are the internets shut down for the weekend? What’s a pottery blog addict to do?
Nobody has posted over the weekend…..Surely somebody in the pottery world did something, right?
Update…
Thanks Brandon
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/26/2008 03:39 pm | 1 Comment
Gallery Time
I’ve been in the gallery the majority of the last couple of days. We’ve gotten some really great work in the past few days. My good friend Michael McCarthy sent some nice pots over, Daniel Garretson, who is Mark Shapiro’s current apprentice sent some work over and we received some jewelry from Zingarelle, a pair of artists in NYC. I’ll try to get some pics posted shortly but I’m kind of sick of the computer right now.
I’m hoping to make it into the studio tomorrow to at least load another bisque. If I’m lucky I’ll get some pots made also. I’d like to make a few more bowls for the firing and I have another bunch of mugs that have been under plastic so long waiting for handles it might be time to start charging rent.
Town is definitely busier this weekend but I was honestly hoping for a little more of a swarm of people around. We’ve had some nice visits from many of our regular customers and it’s been nice catching up on the past year. Some of our summer friends have new dogs, others are eyeing retirement next year. I’ll be staying open late tonight to hopefully catch some of the after dinner crowd. Wish me luck and send a note to keep me awake.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/24/2008 08:10 pm | Comments Off on Gallery Time
Memorial Day Weekend #11
Memorial Day 1998 was my very first opening here on the Cape. During the fall of 1997 I was living in NY and renting space at the Clay Art Center in Port Chester, NY. I was also traveling quite a bit to Quakertown, NJ to help out my friend Tim Clark who was then apprentice to my mentor, Toshiko Takeazu. One afternoon, when discussing the future, Toshiko asked me if there was anywhere I could start my own studio. I replied that my family had a retail property up on Cape Cod that was sitting vacant at the moment. I told her that I thought that in five years if it was still there that maybe that was the right spot to open up shop. She replied in classic Toshiko fashion, “Do it now…you’ll have it in 5 years.”
I had a very restless night in Quakertown going through all of the reasons why I should and shouldn’t open up my own shop. The biggest was that I had no clue what I was doing. I was a recent graduate of Skidmore College where I had spent all of my free time in the studio, when I wasn’t skateboarding that is. Did I really know how to make pots? Yet, I couldn’t come up with a solid reason other than fear and thinking that I wasn’t ready for my own place.
I was scared…and I wasn’t ready….but that didn’t stop me. I naively, maybe even stupidly, started work on my studio.
Toshiko was right, five years…now eleven later….I have it. And, I sort of even know what I’m doing. My pottery skills have grown through working here, firing with Mark Shapiro out at Stonepool, teaching, and now even surfing the web to look at other’s techniques on their blogs.
Now, at Memorial Day Weekend number 11, this will be my last summer with this gallery. We are heading off to Austin, Texas in the late summer of 2009. A move we’re very excited about but leaves me feeling very strange as I continue to get ready for what is the official “opening” of the season here. That’s also why I’ve been working so hard on our website and on this webstore. I’ll still be making pots here until we move and with the webstore everyone will still be able to find my work.
The gallery has grown quite a lot in my years here as the pictures below can prove. My work has as well and you can tell that too if you look at the pots in the first couple of pictures…please don’t look too closely. The biggest difference is probably Pre-Evangelina and Post-Evangelina. Before Evangelina was here I thought the best way to display my work would be to put every single thing I had out on a table and together. Dozens of pitchers in one spot, some teapots over in that corner and look, there’s every single vase I made during the off-season. It was almost as though my kiln had vomited my pots out into the gallery. Yes, the pots were decent but you couldn’t see them.
With Evangelina’s help we have turned this place into something pretty nice and I think, very special on the Cape. It is a working studio with a gallery that features work by some amazing artists working in different mediums.
It is really hard knowing that this is our last summer with something that we worked so hard building. We’ve told our friends and family about our move but we haven’t yet seen the people who are so important to Kreeger Pottery….our summer customers. Over the years we have seen a very loyal bunch who make it here every time they visit the Cape. We have become part of their vacation and my pots have become part of their lives. Some of our best customers are here for one week a year and during that short time they come to see us and my work. That’s pretty humbling to me.
So, now our last summer with Kreeger Pottery on the Cape begins.
Look out Austin….I guess somewhere down there is a space for me to have 5 years from now.
Thanks Toshiko.
And thanks to all of our family, friends and customers who have helped build Kreeger Pottery over the years.
The gallery, First Summer on Cape
Gallery, Third Year?
Taken this morning.
The view out to the rest of the gallery.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/22/2008 02:14 pm | 1 Comment
Rob’s Pots
Arriving today to the gallery, just in time for Memorial Day Weekend, are some of my Rob Sutherland’s pots. Here is a quick pic of his work just after unpacking. I’ll be shooting some real photos tonight for the website.
I spoke with my good friend Michael McCarthy who is hoping to get a box of pots out in time for this weekend. I had planned on a trip to Western Mass this week but it just never happened. I feel like I’m getting too much done in the studio to head out for an overnight trip. There’s a little lull here after Memorial Day Weekend so hopefully I’ll find a time to grab some stuff then. Maybe…and only if I’m organized enough, I’ll fire a kiln and head out there while it cools.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/21/2008 04:36 pm | Comments Off on Rob’s Pots
Back to Pottery
I’ve spent a little while blogging about things other than pots. Maybe I lost a few readers with the boring website stuff. That kind of took over all of my computer time when I wasn’t in the studio. Anyways, here are a few pictures of some of last week’s work. I’ve been altering just about everything. I was trying some squared vases and after I had made a few I cam across the comments in one of Ron Philbeck’s blog about him making some squared vases with a technique learned from Bob Briscoe. After I made them with my self-discovered method I tried the other method of pulling a board across the bat to shape the piece. I’ll have to play around with it a little bit more but I definitely like the idea as well as trimming and cutting the feet away. I’ve always thrown my altered forms without a bottom and have then spent the next few days finishing them up. I like the quickness of altering the form when wet but I definitely notice that I don’t have the same control over the form….and this might be an okay thing.
Anyways here are some oval jars that were thrown without a bottom and then assembled:
here are a few tall oval vases that were thrown with out a bottom
Here is a squared vase with my method of running my fingers up the wall when wet and then using my finger to create the foot and finish squaring the bottom after it sets up for a bit.
and here is a squared vase thrown and altered with the Bob Briscoe techinique via Ron’s blog.
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/20/2008 01:17 pm | Comments Off on Back to Pottery
Sunday Morning
It’s Clarita’s first birthday today. We took a great hike through the Fort Hill Park out in Eastham. It always amazes me at how many different landscapes there are out here on the Cape. I’ve lived here since 1997 and I’ve never been to this park before. Javi led the way since he’s been here with his pre-school before. I’ll update this post with some pictures shortly….
In other Kreeger Pottery news, Bruce and I attacked that webstore thing yesterday…for a little over 8 hours! I think we may have finally kicked it’s butt. I still have a few little things to clean up but this never ending website update might actually be close to done. It’s good timing. Next week is Memorial Day Weekend and the official start of the Cape’s tourist season. I’ve got some great pots coming in next week from my friend Rob Sutherland. His work is such a departure from the salt/wood fired work we’ve always had in the gallery. Also, I might actually make that trip to Western Mass. for that crews’ pots.
All blogging about my website is done until I actually get the final site live. I know it’s been boring. I’m off to make some pots in the studio….
UPDATE:
Here are the images:
the view from fort hill
javi on the rock
ale in the meadow
clarita, the birthday girl, with my mother-in-law
Posted in Uncategorized on 05/18/2008 03:06 pm | Comments Off on Sunday Morning
916 Springdale Rd. Building 2, Suite 104, Austin, TX 78702
