About two years ago, I stumbled upon a new process. I bought a cup from my friend Sebastian Moh, and was delighted with the attention paid to the foot. It was very smooth, and I found myself idly rubbing it during use. I asked what he used, and it turned out that he would sand […]
If you make things out of clay, chances are you’ve seen and used some pretty atrocious kiln shelves. Almost every kiln shelf I’ve seen has the same cracked, chipped, falling off, 5 layers deep kilnwash moonscape on it that threatens to ruin whatever is fired on top of or even underneath it. Especially with the […]
“As much as things change, they stay the same” couldn’t have been said better by my former teacher and now friend Randy Becker. A tour of my first studio last weekend brought back a rush of memories as the room itself remains uncannily familiar, essentially unchanged in the 12 years since I left. I am […]
I have been trying to really refine my teapot form lately. It is a very nice challenge to work around. For me, even though it is unlikely anyone would have the courage to actually use it, it must perform exceptionally well. I use the requirements of physics to direct my choices. The venturi effect spout […]
I have been tracking the building of our new Manabigama Kiln here at the University of Louisville. In Part One I discussed the basics design and some of the process of building. In Part Two I explained the building of an arch. Those were the first two weeks, with Todd Burns, Reese Salmon and myself […]
I am currently on a hiatus from making work. That does not by any stretch of the imagination mean that I am not very busy. The current project is the construction of a new wood kiln at the University of Louisville, where I teach. After more than month of planning and some very in depth […]
So, as you may have gathered from all of my Cone Six Throwdown posts, I’m finally letting go of my down-to-the-molecular-level control of my work. The reasons for this are many. If you recall from Tweaking a Clay Body Part One, The main concern is that my clay body was just fine back when I […]
Just wanted to show off my new form, the cocktail glass. I based the form on the crisp simple design of a standard bar cocktail glass. The sort of cup you might get a drink in at the Brass Rail, my old beloved undergrad bar. I’m taking one for a test-drive right now, it’s doing […]
This is a bag I grabbed from my colleague (or boss?) Todd Burns‘ stash in the U of L studio. Though not really marketed as a cone 6 clay, here it is, free, so I’ll give it a shot! Some distributor sites say it is inended for cones 6-11 while the actual site claims it […]
For installment two of my cone six throwdown, I tried another very popular Cone 6 white clay, Standard Ceramics’s#213 Porcelain Clay. On their website, they describe it as “A white body formulated for cone 6 firing. Plastic, throwable clay.” Well, to me that’s just not enough information. On the wonderful Kentucky Mudworks Catalog, they describe […]
Perhaps the most distinctive feature to my work is the seperately thrown and trimmed disc that forms the bottom to my pots. Certainly not the easy way to do something, my grad school professor, Malcolm Mobutu Smith, warned me early on about this. ” you know where this is going in terms of the technical […]
Hi. Here’s how I make a lidded jar. First, it is thrown on the wheel, dried, flipped, dried some more, trimmed. This is the result. To me it sort of looks like a tulip glass, but it wasn’t chosen for any reason other than I just happen to find that shape to be beautiful.
Some people might not know this, but I do all of my own glaze formulation. Every color I have, and every glaze I use is the result of countless hours mixing, testing, altering, and retesting any of a number of components.
In this age, the ability to make strong digital images of your work is second only to the ability to make strong work. You could make the best pots on earth, but if you don’t know how to photograph them, few people will ever know it. At the very least, a photograph should accurately represent […]
A lot of people have been asking how I make my pots. Today, I finally got the camera into the studio, and did my best to document the making of one of my Flower Head Vases, like the one pictured to the right.
Ok, I love my vegetarian friends. They are great. They do, however, tend to cramp my style at potlucks and parties. Gone are the days where I can bring my Bacon and Leek Stuffed Mushrooms, or Bacon Wrapped Fried Dates. No bacon anywhere! How am I supposed to make something delicious with absolutely no bacon […]
So my work is quite dependent on scoring and slipping, the method of joining two parts of leather hard clay together. In a workshop I did recently at U of L for the Louisville Clay group, I mentioned how I make the slip that I use to attach the parts. I was surprised how many […]
We are going to just jump right in here. No back story, no preface. This will be part one of x number of clay tweaks I will ultimately document here. I was mixing clay today, and when I do that, I think about how I can improve my clay in some aspect. That, to me, […]
As I’m trying to get myself acquainted with the new site, I’m eating some leftover Posole (a soup of green chilies, pork and hominy) and thought, why not share? Here’s the recipe: Campana Pork Posole Verde Serves 8-10 3 small cans green enchilada sauce 1 small can red enchilada sauce. 2 cans white hominy 2 […]