HEY!

Yarn bowls are now available at Yarn Cravin' (146 East 2nd Street) in Perrysburg.

Speaking of, I have a bunch of them waiting to be trimmed:

Some trays and a small platter. The bowl-like thing on the left is an experiment I'll tell you about in the future.

A set of nesting bowls waiting to be trimmed

And a mixing bowl

We have a couple events next month, a small art fair on 11/14 and the annual Holiday Sale with the Swan Creek Potters Friday 11/19 (6-9pm), Saturday 11/20 9am-4pm and Sunday 11/21 1-4pm. See the SCP web site for details and directions.

More yarn bowls

The Stitch Sisterz are at it again in Michigan. They will have yarn bowls at the North Michigan Lamb & Wool Festival at the Ogemaw County Fairgrounds this weekend.

Vendor booths are open:

9am - 5pm, Saturday, September 25

10am - 5pm Sunday, September 26

Yarn Bowls! Yarn Bowls! Yarn Bowls!

The Stitch Sisterz are at A Wool Gathering in Yellowspring, Ohio this weekend, and will be featuring yarn bowls!

I've been testing a couple new glazes. First, the good. A new purple which I am really digging. It ranges from lavender to a dark inky-blue-y purple. Really, really pretty.

And the not so great, a new green. While I really like the pea green & it actually fired perfectly, it's just a flat color. There isn't any variation or floating or anything. I'm going to try layering it differently and with other glazes to see if anything interesting will happen.

Meet & Greet continued, and Satisfaction

I drove out to my sister-in-law Angie's cottage Friday afternoon, and after a short stop at her brother's cottage to say hi, we went to the gallery. And were the first ones there. Which was actually good, because it gave us a chance to walk around and look at everything with an unobstructed view. The gallery is really a neat building. It used to be a Post Office, and has a lot of nice architectural details.

The gallery:

One of the artists makes metal fish like this one. He also made the fish on the side of the building in the pic above, and smaller ones for wall hangings. You can see part of one of the smaller ones in the background of this pic:

Angie makes decorative bird baths from recycled glass & ceramic objects. Each one is different, and each has something quirky/fun going on. Here are some samples...

Somehow I didn't take any pics of the display of my work. Oops. It was a fun night though, and we met some lovely people.

On to the Satisfaction bit... I fired a bisq kiln Sunday/Monday, and just unloaded it. I have a major cold spot in the bottom of my kiln, and was trying to figure out a way I could use the space. Answer? Lower fire glazes. I tried firing some buttons and beads on the lowest shelf, and it worked! YEEHAW. Needs a bit of tweaking - of course - but I am mostly pleased. Except for the tan ones, I'm not so into the texture of these. They were the only buttons I had ready to fire though, so that isn't a big deal. I think they need 1 more coat of glaze, and no texture. And I need to be more careful about getting more crystals on each piece so there is more variation in the color:

textured front. I like the tan one on the upper left, but the others... meh.

Smooth backs, which I prefer.

See how the top bead has that bright glob of color? I want more of those, which just means paying more attention when I brush the glaze on.

All in all, it was a good experiment. :o)

Meet & Greet

Friday night the Old Mill Shoppes & Art Gallery are having a Meet & Greet with the artists from 5-8pm. Margaret will be serving wine and cheese and there will be musicians playing too. My sister-in-law also has work in the gallery, so we will be heading over together around 5. Hope to see you there!

And, I've made some progress. Got the yarn bowls and wedding bowl trimmed, and another 10 yarn bowls thrown...

I'm hoping to get the last 10 trimmed and dried so I can fire a bisq kiln Monday. Maybe I'll make some mice too.

A number of things

One of my projects over the last couple weeks has been to make some 10'' square bats. I bought a half sheet of 1/2'' plywood and had the Home Depot guy cut it in to manageable strips for me. When I got home Brian set up the big saw while I sanded the strips, and then donning goggles I cut the strips into squares. After making a template from the pins on my wheel head, I marked & drilled 2 holes on the underside of each square. Then came a couple coats of sealer, and since that raised the grain, another sanding and a bunch of coats of polycrylic. These will work, but I think next time I would sand them more or put even more coats of polycrylic so the surface is smoother. That will be easier on my hands.

A stack of finished bats. The one standing up show the holes on the underside.

The holes in the underside fit over pins on the wheel head.

Since they're square I can cram a lot more stuff on a shelf more easily. I won't be able to use then for anything big, but they're great for yarn bowls.

Speaking of, my friend Bonnie, who is half of the Stitch Sisterz is interested in taking yarn bowls to fiber shows to sell. So in preparation for that and for winter holidays, I'm going into production mode:

10 yarn bowls. The large bowl in the back is part of a wedding gift.

And last, I have an idea about how to take advantage of the cold spots in my kiln. Next time I fire I'm going to experiment a bit.

Swan Creek Potters Annual Summer Sale

Our annual sale is this Saturday!

Please come see us at 5737 Weckerly Rd, Whitehouse from 9am-4pm. Go to swancreekpotters.com for information on the potters and location details.

Now Available!

I am pleased to announce I'm the featured potter at the Old Mill Shoppes & Art Gallery for the month of August. Please stop out any Friday, Saturday or Sunday this month!

Busy

Fell behind in posting again. I've been making a lot of pots but having glaze issues; I think because of uneven temps during firing. My kiln either needs a major overhaul, or I just need a new one.

Anyway, some of the successful stuff:

Mouse tooth pick holder

Small footed oval platter

Dessert size bowls

I've been playing with slabs a lot... Couple more are in the kiln right now, but I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out.

Large vase. Really pretty mixing/mottling/dripping of the glazes in this one.

Snowflake trays

Brie/small baking dish (2-person size). I also made 3 others that are oval, 2 of those are green/oatmeal

Rectangle platter

Another oval tray

Small container

WIPs

First, the opening at Angelwood Gallery was fun. We had a wedding to go to first, so missed the first hour, but still got to see lots of people and really cool artwork.

Been working on a variety of things this week.... giant vases, small baking dishes, a couple big covered bake/serve dishes, and a bunch of small pots to experiment with horse hair.

Have a few things coming up:

- a weekend sale at the Old Mill Shoppes & Art Gallery in Fremont, Indiana.

- featured potter at the Old Mill Art Gallery for the month of August

- Annual Summer Sale with the Swan Creek Potters the first weekend in August

I better get cracking!