bfree pottery

"Plasticity", a show from Redlodge

2012-02-13T10:47:00.005-07:00

A week ago I took a field trip to Powell, Wyoming. It was for the opening of a ceramic show that the long-term residents and trio of directors had work in. I thought I should share it. The show is called, “Plasticity”.

The space was quaint, but very nice and professionally set up. Not in the least did the show seem crowded with work. Everything was spaced well and worked together nicely. There was quite the range of work too, from firing styles, concepts and scale.

David Hiltner

Jill Futte-Hutton

Markus Urbanik

Katie Coughlin (the piece on the wall, not Andrew)

Andy Moon

Undine Brod (Katie's piece is on the wall in the background)

Andrew Gilliat

The diversity of work being shown reflects the mentality of most Clay Centers, and artist residencies in general. This format follows closely to the Universities that offer degrees of higher learning, such as a Masters. Diversity of ideas and making practices will naturally generate an environment in which the artists can easily exchange new ideas and working processes. Sometimes seeing something from outside the box can spark something new and amazing to whomever is in it. I’ve already learned so much since I’ve been here.

So the show is a reflection of the ceramic artists in Redlodge; a gambit of ideas and ceramic objects. It’s pretty cool to be working so closely to these high-caliber folks. Not to mention, they’re pretty fun to hang with.

Redlodge. Update

2012-02-11T09:18:00.003-07:00

I'm workin on the 11th day of my residency.. only 49 days left and still lots to do. Since my last entry I've been bangin away in the studio. One of my main goals while here was to develop some new forms while continuing to refine some older ones. It's so fun making new forms! It really feels like i'm playing all day.

The kiln that I'm planning to fire.. a nice little cat. The stacking space of this wood/salt kiln is 36x24 and the vertical space is about 70 inches. So..I can sort of relate that to the little cat of ours back home, which is 30x30 (we have some custom cut shelves from kohler) at the floor and about the same vertical.. now that I think about it, the space is almost exactly the same!... huh..funny. Anyhoo, I figure on about 120 pieces and I'm 3/4s of the way there with the plan to fire up before Dan Murphy shows up on the 24th. Can I do it? I hope. I have a short week left before a bisque firing...

Everybody here is super cool and totally accommodating. They don't even expect me to shovel my own walk after it snows! I think for my first residency..I might be getting totally spoiled. Oh well. I love getting spoiled..spoiled-stinky, gooey-gross, slap-happy rotten..

a Helena break... Beyond the Brickyard, 2012.

2012-02-05T18:45:00.006-07:00

I've been at Redlodge for a week.. I've had the good time of getting to know the residents and the three power house people that run it: David Hiltner, Jill Foote-Hutton, and Markus Urbanik (who's a fellow USU alum) The wood I need for the firing is split and covered..and I've cranked out a good amount of work. Yesterday I came back to Helena to support my special lady friend and her piece that's in the ever coveted and very competitive show, "Beyond the Brick Yard" at the Bray.

the above image is a piece made by Crista Ames, titled, "Chain Fourteen".

Here are those artists who had work in the show that could make the opening. Plus my big sister, Emily Free Wilson, the gallery director, and Steve Lee... Director of the Bray.

It was a good show and a fun evening. It was nice to see familiar faces again..especially this guy, Danny Crump. Danny told me he wouldn't make it..but I immediately picked him out of the crowd..since the shirt he was wearing I remember him buying while we were both in China back in 07.

I brought Danny's piece from Missoula the last time the Anagama was fired with Perry... remember that? So here it is..all set up. When I took the piece, Danny told me this... "If it doesn't sell, I've added a clause to my contract that you get it. Cool right?" I figured it wouldn't sell because it's a big blob of wood-fired sticks... but actually one of the nicest pieces in the show and wouldn't you know? it sold to a collector in Idaho. Damn it! Haha.. I guess I wont get to grace my walls with Danny's sculpture..

It was a good show..lots of funky, whacky ceramics,(the show was currated by the recent, Volkous fellow, Richard Shaw). It turned into a great evening... shootin pool at the bar, me being too drunk and making an idiot out of myself... and then...long into the early hours of the morning at my house. Even ole, Tim Stepp closed us down into the early 4 am hours... Danny played the piano while I accompanied him with a harmonica, and then the trumpet. we had a great old time....drinking, smoking, music.. and conversation about art and the world as we see it... good times. i'll be headed back to Redlodge tomorrow to keep bangin away.

Redlodge

2012-01-31T22:20:00.003-07:00

Here I am, in Redlodge, Montana. Population: hardly any. What a tiny town! This is ranching country. Lots of cattle, horses and bars. I feel like I fit right in…. except I can ride a horse like a cowboy walks through San Francsisco- awkwardly if at all. The more time I spend in Montana, the more I feel at home and really fortunate to be here. It is by far the prettiest state I’ve been in. The people are good too. I appreciate the working mentality in a place like Redlodge. Hard work, honest work.

On to the other stuff. I’m here because of the “Redlodge Clay Center”. Please click the link and find out more. I get to live and work here for two months. I have basically no responsibilities beyond cleaning up after myself. It seems like a dream come true to just make make make. The entire studio is supremely well equipped with just about anything I could ever need.

Here’s a shot of my studio. Big enough? Yah I’d say so. Tomorrow my friend, Courtney Murphy will be showing up and we’ll be wrestling for tables and some of those rolling carts…and not to mention the parking spot in the garage.

My second day started off by humping some wood around for my upcoming firing and a good amount of pots. The weather was warm enough for a tshirt as long as I kept moving. I even got a bit of a sunburn. Is it winter or what? The weather will probably change for the worse when I’m loading up this nice little kiln. I hope I can fire soon. We’ll see how it progresses. I have some new ideas kicking around my head.. so there should be lots of new work.

Play time

2012-01-26T15:22:00.003-07:00

A very important part of working is the regular time of play that should follow. If you can't play, and only work.. you go crazy. Isn't that from the Shining? Anyhoo..happy to say that this morning I got to play.

I went out along the great Missouri River to Matt's "Two-Rainbow" spot. Two Rainbow is the name he gave it, because each time he seems to pull out two, but today it was more like 3, or 6. Well, we kept 3. Gorgeous day with light winds..and just mesmerizing to be out in the open air and natural world. I haven't seen so many ducks and geese and eagles in a long time. We're heading back tomorrow morning!

Here's Matt brandishing the big catch of the day...which was about 19.5 inches. It will definitely make a good dent in the space of the smoker we use for most of these trout. We were fishing off a few tiny beds the trout had been keeping clean... and this guy was the biggest. Quite fun to watch Matt pull in because it had a good amount of tricks trying to keep itself in the water.

And look at how orange the flesh is! It's hard to find so called, "salmon" at the grocery store that have color like this. The flesh is firm and tasty...we'll be enjoying a fillet tonight for sure.

(please notice the Free Ceramics mug at the right!)

My time is winding down here in Helena, at least for a few months, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Redlodge is like. Tomorrow night we're having a small dinner and Gin and Tonic party to really send me off..and by Sunday I should be packed up and setting up a new studio.

It's all done

2012-01-17T09:22:00.005-07:00

Last night was the night to shoot some slides, label and pack the pots away to be delivered (in about half an hour). I'm happy to get these pots out of here and move on with my life. Sometimes these things can really become all consuming and it's important to not let it take total control of you. When I finally got to lay down last night I was still a little wound up so I had some time to think. There's no way I could have done any of this without a hugely supportive group of people very close to me. If anything from a well needed break in the middle of the day, processing the wood at the kiln, an over-night shift at the kiln, or cooking dinner to truly understanding how much stupid effort this can take. I'm really lucky to have people like my friends and family on my side. Thanks.

Today begins the next thing. After the delivery I'm training my replacement at Free Ceramics and getting my life together for a big change that's happening at the end of this month.. I'm moving to Redlodge, Montana to be an artist in residence at the Red Lodge Clay Center from February through March!

the Unloading

2012-01-16T10:37:00.003-07:00

It was last Saturday that I went up to the kiln and unloaded the pots. It was a nice day.. pretty blue and not that cold. I arrived just around 1:30 pm. The snow melted enough that I could get my car up the hill... that was nice. My digital reader for the pyrometers told me the top of the kiln was just under 300 degrees. Perfect. I started to take the bricks down one by one from the top.. and as I went further and further down something struck me as unusual- where the f**k were my tall vases? Oh dear god... no!

Yes. The vases toppled. I guess as the kiln fired and things began to shrink around the wads.. the vase near the door couldn't keep it's balance and knocked the others over like dominos. If you look closely at the middle post it's obvious that it all nearly came tumbling down. I lost the three vases, a chalice, and a couple of cups... not as bad as it could have been!

Seeing this happen never makes me feel good..and the loss made me feel as if most of the kiln wasn't as good. But since Sunday morning I've been looking over the pots that did make it and I'm happy to say that the kiln load was still, mostly a success. Lots of nice pots that came out super sweet..and a few tests that will keep me interested in pushing these new ideas and refining this style. Tonight or tomorrow morning I'll take the "portfolio" style slides and then deliver the work to the Holter. I still have a few wad marks to grind down and sand.

Loaded and Fired

2012-01-13T10:58:00.004-07:00

Last Wednesday was my loading day. It all started early...9:30 am at the kiln. Too much snow to get my little honda up the hill so it took some time walking all the boxes of pots up to the kiln...which was ok, because the activity kept me warm in the cold air. I think it had to be in the high teens as far as the temperature. One of the highlights of the processes was the realization that everything was freezing.. from the glue, to the wadding and even my beer. I had a nice fire goin next to the kiln and Crista was there to help me as much as she could. It took a long time to finish up but we had the kiln burning wood by 7pm. Matt volunteered to take the over night shift, which I happily agreed to. I asked if he'd wake me up at 3 am which I felt would give me enough sleep to complete the rest of the 22 hour firing. Matt let me sleep until 8:30... so I was fresh as a daisy with a whole day of firing ahead of me. Scott came and went a few times, mostly the two of us yacking away between stokes. The pine I was firing with was nice and dry. It was, again, a pleasure to fire this little kiln. I think I've got it dialed pretty well. So it was a 22 hour firing and two pounds of salt when cone 9 was bending. I held it for a bit longer and when I saw 11 going down on the top I said that's enough. Unloading probably this Saturday- I hope.. or maybe Sunday.

so many steps

2012-01-09T13:39:00.003-07:00

the last few weeks has been a total roller coaster ride.. for starters this is the first time I've had to make so many pots, in this particular style, with what seems to not be enough time to finish. i'm positive i'll be later then the 13th. my original plan was to fire the cat yesterday, and only today did I load my bisque. I wont be firing until wednesday evening...i think. it's been an interesting experience though and i've learned so much about how i truly want to work. i hate being slammed with pots to finish. when it's like that..it feels more like work then play. and i really hate going to work. i fell in love with clay because it wasn't work. and when i say work, i mean.. a feeling of resentment towards something you're being forced to do. it's not healthy to work a 14 hour day. so now that the bisque is loaded and firing, i have some time to chill.. put on my sweat pants, listen to some kimbrough and write up this step.. in the long line of steps it takes to get myself a finished pot.

my plan was to apply these decals to all the pots, but realized... i couldn't. (i have over 100 pots to fire.) i had to stop and say some of them will be good enough without them. and that's another thing that's hard for me to deal with.. saying, "well, it's good enough." that pisses me off too. but with new situations i'm sure i'll get something good out of it..and maybe the variety will make the finished group of pots more visually appealing. could be a lesson in acceptance. like.. well, i can't control it all and i can't do it all. i've reached my limit.

now on the to technical stuff.. first i have to wax off the black areas so i don't get the decals over lapping.. or i'll wax out a shape that the decals will fill. the wax layer also protects the black from getting smudged..which allows me to handle the pots more aggressively. once the pot is waxed and has time to dry a little, then i'll take a bit of decal and float it face down in water. this gets it super wet and ready to stick. it's so much faster then taking a wet brush or sponge to each decal...

i purchased the decals a long long time ago, 2007, when i did a three month stay in Jingdezhen, China, while I was getting my bachelor's degree..and now, 5 years later, i'm putting them to use. i believe there's a booth at the annual NCECA that sells them.

I never knew how to use them in the past 5 years..because I thought they looked sort of retarded.. without any kind of character. so a few months back when i was making pots for the holter's christmas show I had the idea to rip up a sheet into bits and add it that way..and the decals took on a whole new look. it gave my pots a new layer... it's a decal collage.. so that's it. after the bisque i'll wax resist more areas then apply a white slip (tony's crack) for another layer.... which will happen very soon, like tomorrow. ha!

firing soon

2012-01-06T07:19:00.002-07:00

i've got a hallway gig at the Holter due on the 13th and I'm, of course, pushing the deadline to the very edge. Here's some of the new sgraffito pots coming along. How this works.. I block out the pattern first with all black, then carve away a design. My carving tools are pretty simple. I have three different widths so there is line and mark variation.. double sided steel thing..one end wide, the other end smaller..and the most thin line is a needle stuck into the end of a pencil. I'm planning to load and fire this coming Monday. keep your fingers crossed for good weather!

New Kiln. New Work.

2011-10-26T09:52:00.003-06:00

As some of you know, around a year ago we were building this cute little kiln that Peg Udall designed and was published in Jack Troy's Woodfire book. That's where we got the plans..and then tweaked the dimensions a bit- the arch is taller and the stack is more rectangular then square- not to mention more air and flue exits, and spy holes. We built this thing a year ago! Have you been following the story? The story continues. Lately the story has not been concerned with posting on this here blog..but I figured since we fired the kiln again, I think for the fifth time, that I should share with you the results I had from it.

Last weekend.... Andrew and I fired this kiln once more, specifically for a local show at the Holter Museum of Art. It's the annual Ho-Ho-Holter sale that opens next month on the 11th of November. Andrew has had an incredible year full of adventure and lately has landed him a full time job with the State. Congrats my friend. He seems to be enjoying it quite a lot.. but with a new office job comes the repression of dirty jokes and crude humor which seemed to over-flow at this last firing. To say the least, with the beer and bantering between friends and gracious host (Scott the bad-ass host) was a couple days that felt like a vacation that was extremely needed for us all.

After repairing a few areas of the kiln, filling in the bagwall a bit more.. and Scott adding a type of fire-resistant gasket to our door..the kiln fired like a dream. 24 hours after bricking it up... (actually I was the one bricking it up and even before the door was finished Andrew started the fire and, I think, purposfully was trying to smoke me out..because when you get those last few bricks up there it's like a goddamn chimney and...well, I kept getting a mouth full of pre-heat smoke- thanks buddy) the fire was roaring and we were in business.

It's been a wild ride..and it's most satisfying to experience the construction of a kiln like this..and the results of labor well earned. Here are a few of the pots I took out a couple of days ago. They'll be fore sale at the Holter if you're around Helena the next few months.

Thanks..and let the story continue!!!

tenmoku

2011-09-05T17:08:00.003-06:00

TENMOKU:
Custer 62
Silica 325m 19
Spanish Red Iron 8
OM4 9
Whiting 10
Glaze Rite 3

The above pots were fired in a Train wood fired kiln for close to 36 hours.

here are a few close ups of some pots i fired last week. the firing was super weird, to say the least. i've never seen the front stack so dry.. and we'll probably be debating why it was like that for some time to come. but i think a lot of it had to do with a super tight stack in the front, and not enough secondary air to really super heat that coal bed, not to mention not firing long enough. oh the ins and outs of the wood-fire.

as far as the pictures go.... i've been having a fun time firing this glaze on porcelain in any kind of atmospheric firing. mostly though i've been getting it in wood kilns or wood/salt kilns. the slower the cooling..the more it does what these pictures show-a moving, drippy and crystalized glaze.. if the cooling is quick and in an oxidized atmosphere.. the more glossy and black it is. I'm still a big time novice to this type of glaze..and what it can do.

The yellowish areas are due to the soluble salts and ash flowing through the kiln during the firing.

after a firing

2011-08-30T22:26:00.003-06:00

August, 30th. 2011. Once again, after a long long push of pots, and after the new kids classes..I’m sitting here thinking about my pots and what the hell I’m doing. I suppose one of the questions I have is just where it should go.. I have ideas about surfaces but the answer to “why?” doesn’t ever really make sense. I want to do it because it seems fun. But fun doesn’t really ever cut it. I can’t go up to people and say..I do this because it’s fun. We all know that that’s why artists work..because they find some kind of enjoyment behind it. It makes us feel good.. needed… important.. seeing our ideas come to life is so self-fulfilling. But fun is superfluous like.. a roller coaster ride, or a video game. It has to mean something. I’m anxious to see the results of some work that I fired last weekend in Tara’s kiln. Mostly with my plates and platters, I tried to be aware of the full range of treatment I wanted to accomplish. I fired the flat work on crowns. I made designs where the shell/wad marks would be. It’s not a huge step..but something I’ve been thinking of for a long time – more specifically ..knowing where the wad marks will be..and as a result incorporating those markings into a pattern or design. Mostly..I want to see that the process has been dealt with far before the firing takes place. Knowing before hand seems to portray a sense of the future. An awareness. I’m also continuously struggling with a kind of graphical approach to the surfaces of my pots. So much of me just wants to draw weird shit all over them. But my training has been so entrenched in form, not drawing or anything like that…. but I want to figure a way to combine them. Richard Shaw’s workshop, along with my father’s screen printing equipment seems to be some sort of fortuitous happening that I can’t ignore. I shouldn’t ignore. I have everything I need to create my own under and over glaze decals that it would be a regret if I left here, knowing I never tried. Perhaps I can screen print types of slip to go over my porcelain that will flash differently then the rest of the body. It doesn’t have to be underglazes…. That’s just one way of using the screen printing technique. Ah interesting. If it were a porcelain body..and something like helmar or grolleg..whatever.. printed in the same way as an underglaze decal would be..would that work? I’m glad that I typed this tonight. The next firing I do I will have tests of slips (underglazes are basically slips) to be fired in the wood kiln.

and then there's Lynd Ward. I got some books of his for my birthday this year... if any kind of graphical something comes into play with my pots, I'd like the marks to resemble his.

the Hamer dictionary

2011-07-29T16:11:00.002-06:00

Know this book? The dictionary for potters.. Every now and then I flip it open to look up some word I can't remember and end up just..skimming through. I never really know what I'm looking for but I really just enjoy some of the words..because with my retarded, teenage sense of humor..I just find some of them so funny.

Here's a few of my favorites:

Clobbering

Brown mouth

Bung

Lime Blows

Humper

Rainbow effect

Pigskin

Winning

hehe...

Here we go

2011-07-25T11:49:00.004-06:00

So here I am.. a Monday afternoon after two weeks of kids classes. No pics. Sorry! but... that's ok. I"m sort of glad it's over.. I mean, I'm glad that I can get back to normal for at least a few weeks before the next round starts. To say the least, working with 9-12 year olds is challenging and rewarding.. if you have the opportunity to do it, you should give it a go.

So now that we're done (for now), I thought I deserved a day to make a few pots for myself. We're planning on firing with Tara Wilson in the middle of August.. so I"m starting to get a few things made. I've realized that I have.. a few strains of ideas that I can't stop doing. There's the black, sgraffito pots.. and there's these impressed pots (not to mention a few others) made for the wood kiln. Here's the new ones..

What else has been happening?

Crista was cleaning up a new paper cutter that our friend Scott lent to us. Crista is a really good book maker..and is planning to create some 40 new sketch books as soon as she can. She's recycled some old Readers Digest book covers (from the 1950s-1960s) from some local thrift stores.. They're so amazing.. (soon to be for sale!) Not to mention a book full of drawings from all the kids during the summer classes we're teaching.

Also I've finally been using the new plaster troughs that Matt and I made. They're doin great! Once I fill one of these puppies up.. I'm getting about 50 lbs. of reclaimed porcelain. But.. I have over a year and a half of trimmings and scraps to recycle..I don't know if I can keep up with only three troughs.

And of course..everybody knows that with wood firing, comes wood prep- Here are a few shots of the log pile Tara has near her kiln. Every few days, I or Crista and I both, got out for a few hours and either use the saw..or splitter.

Lots to do...

tadding Tony Clennell

2011-07-13T21:37:00.004-06:00

A good ole friend of mine got me watching a series of short videos on Youtube called TADS, which is short for.. "touch another dude softly". The videos are for sure hilarious..and a little disturbing. Or maybe you just have to enjoy uncomfortable humor? I don't know.. but anyways, Ernie Gentry, said good ole friend, and I decided it would be funny to play this on Tony. Well, Ernie... you were right. This indeed, must be the happiest day of Tony Clennell's life.. in Logan.

Tony, thanks for being there... so I could touch you softly.

I hope everybody enjoys a quick view into..just how retarded, or should I say awesome?.. we were during school.

it's a Business out there

2011-07-05T10:58:00.003-06:00

I think I've been at this stage of business thought for a long long time...

Another day another dollar.

Yet again I'm reminded of the business that I"m involved in. Free Ceramics had their first business meeting in like.. 2 and a half weeks this morning. Ever since the Ceramics Monthly article and the event at the Bray.. we've been swamped with emails and orders for more pots. The galleries we sell at can't keep enough work on the shelves. The next round of kids classes are starting in about a week. Busy is good, right? Yahh.. busy is good. If I can just keep myself focused.. be aware that I live in one of the most beautiful places I've ever been and to not be content to watch the summer months fly by without being outside.. if I can do that, I'll be ok.

Before I graduated from Logan, I knew I was going to be involved in this... and I had no idea how quickly it would grow. Nobody really talks about the business side of pots while you're an undergrad. At least the professors I've had didn't talk very much about it. But I suppose that's why I wasn't a business major... but at least a little would have helped. I don't know what I"m trying to say. I guess you just never really know about anything until you try it. Theory and practice. You can theorize all you want to until you're blue in the face..but never will you understand it until you give it a go.

There's a whole lot to it.. and it's pretty difficult with three people working together.

Horsing Around (the new space)

2011-07-02T20:47:00.007-06:00

(Crista and your's truly)

During the Archie Bray's 60th, Marco Rosichelli and his buddy, Josh Almond, curated the following show..which I think was totally awesome. How about that huh? A mixed media show right here in Helena, Montana! There was even a piece made of human hair! Not so small town, huh??? The piece wasn't cool just because it was made from human hair, but because, well, it was a damn fine piece. Not to mention a lot of the other ones were pretty awesome too. My favorite was the big print of the Unicorns and also the images with the pixilated horse mouths.

This is one of Marco's screen prints. He's really good. That print wasn't in the show, but was for sale in our space. I thought you should see at least one of them. Thanks for everything you did, Marco! The show really looked incredible. Josh and Jeremy, hats off to the both of you. Fine work.

Anyhoo..onto the Show!

Right next to the studio where I work.. there is this super long hallway. One month ago, it was a sh*thole with a whole lot of stuff piled everywhere..oh how I wish I had a before shot. Marco, our good new friend who's been working in the same building with us, and also partnered with Jana Evens (long term res at the Bray)..along with help from a few recruits he brought in from Arizona, (Jeremy and Josh..woot woot!) not to mention Matt, Mark, myself and lots of other people..totally flipped this space into a new and improved area..specifically for this show and others to follow. (I have some great ideas brewing for this space.. not only as a permanent gallery space for Free Ceramics but also for curated shows, such as "Horsing Around"...) I'm thinking...a ceramic and print show. I think that would be soooo great.

Here's a few shots of the show:

(the piece made of human hair)

The following is a video of the Digital Piece that seemed to fit perfectly in the back area of the hallway.

So this was one of the three things going on in our building at our "pre-opening" opening, last Tuesday. Wow..seems like forever ago now. Or was it two weeks ago already? Holy hell..I only started working in the studio again just two days ago..

Pottery Craft

2011-07-01T22:26:00.002-06:00

This is brilliant.

bobbyfree.com (update) and the Wall

2011-06-28T10:54:00.006-06:00

Last night, or the night before..I can't really remember.. I updated the website just a little bit. I added a few new pics of my most recent work that I had the time to photograph. Check it out if you haven't already.

bobbyfree.com

Today is Tuesday..yes, Tuesday. It feels like a new beginning.... we just need to get organized, recoup and pick up the pieces.

Most of the visitors are leaving, or have left..or will be gone soon and the place feels like it's getting back to normal. Normal is good. Busy is good too... I'm really excited to get back into a rhythm in the studio. I have some new ideas kicking around and all in all I got a really good response from the people who saw my own work in our studio. I had a lot of wood fired pots out, and I displayed "Man" on the wall, along with one of my first wall sculptures.

I'm happy to say that the sculpture was sold to Birdie Boone, a super sweet, sexy lady living in..where did she say? Arizona or something. She's a potter..and a really good one. When another artist buys my work I always feel a bit more proud of that, then just a stranger or a none-maker. Being a potter myself, I tend to be a bit snobby about the type of work I buy. I feel we probably all do that.

the Bray's 60th, LIVE

2011-06-26T16:45:00.011-06:00

Welcome to the Archie Bray's 60th Anniversary Live Auction!.

The above is an image taken shortly after Jacob and Chris graciously donated $10,000 directly to the Archie Bray. Jacob and Chris, and also the guy to the far right, Ryan LeBar are in charge of the LH project in Joseph Oregon.

A shot of the crowd during the event..from down below.

A shot from up high, as the bidding started with a piece from Josh DeWeese.

Rachel Hicks who works in the office at the Bray. Rachel is totally amazing...and is such a huge part of what happens behind the scenes.

Kelly Rathbone and Kensuke Yamada - both long term residents at the Bray. They're residencies are almost up..and they've been here for 2 years...making work, and growing dramatically. Kelly is sweet, Ken and Kelly...the both.. a lot of fun and very very talented.

Aaron Benson, Mathew McConnell, Sean Erwin (all Bray long-term residents) and Sean's lovely to-be-bride, Sarah.

Josh Rysted and the piece donated by Beth Cavener Stichter
. Josh has been working for the Clay business for some years now. A ceramics artist in his own right, and also a fantastic photographer.

Kensuke and the piece donated by Chuck Hindes.

Sarah getting ready to show the Linda Sikora piece.

Steve Roberts and Mellissa Mencini in front of the silent cup auction.

Drew Nicklas and Dean Adams, a professor in Bozeman, Montana State University.

Jeremy Hatch the newly hired Ceramics Pofresor at Montana State University (where Josh DeWeese teachers) and Aaron Nelson, the director of Medalta.

Robert Harrison and his lovely wife, Christel.

Two of my most favorite people in the world, Josh DeWeese and Rosie Wyncoop.

holy holy hell...

what a weekend..what a week..what a month..what a year. holy f*ck. that's all I have to say!

There was a Dave Shaner piece that went for $20,000 plus..and a Volkous Bronze for over $120,000. As a total with both the live and silent auction, the Archie Bray raised over $500,000 dollars....I heard it was $200,000 over what was expected. It's crazy to think of what is required for a place like the Bray to run, and to be able to support artists as they live here for two years. It's really amazing...so very amazing.

busy time

2011-06-24T18:12:00.003-06:00

I'm off to the Live Auction of the Archie Bray's 60th anniversary tonight and I'm taking the camera. But first I'm going to eat out...and have a nice evening before hand. I paroozed through most of the silent and live auctions.....and such big hitters as a giant stack by Voulkos (estimated near $140,000), Dave Shaner, Victor Babu, Chris Staley, locals like Sarah Jaeger..on and on. I'll have pics and post soon so...

Stay tuned!

either late tonight or tomorrow morning:)

plaster trough

2011-06-21T08:05:00.003-06:00

it worked!

i have a years amount of trimmings and scraps to start recycling..

who likes free clay??... this guy.

extra post cards?

2011-06-19T23:06:00.003-06:00

Ever have an event coming up..and have.. a hand full of post cards you have no idea what to do with?? Here's a solution...

Relic

2011-06-14T12:09:00.004-06:00

This is a show that Crista and I collaborated to make called "Relic". It's a show based on storytelling and one of our favorite murder ballads. Our Relic is the jug in the center. It's sort of straightforward..not a whole lot of mystery behind it, just a story..but a cool story, with some great surfaces with some cool relief sculpture and drawings through the black slip. We fired these last week, loading Tuesday, firing for 31 hours then unloading Friday morning while the pots were still hot and then to the studio to clean them up a bit and right to the Myrna Loy Center to be hung. What a wild ride..and we're so glad it's up and finished. Much thanks to our awesome caretaker, Scott for saving our butts during the wettest firing I've ever been involved in- it might have stopped raining twice for a few minutes. Scott ran off and filled his truck full of dry wood..which totally saved us at the end. If you get a chance to go see it..it looks so much better in person. Not to mention, the Myrna, being the first jailhouse in Helena is a great old building.

I make pots

2011-06-13T10:14:00.002-06:00

I make pots.

I make pots because I know I wont get a lot of money for them, at least not until I’m really old, or dead..(but for that to happen I have to be really good). I make pots because I’m not afraid of working extremely hard. I’ve accepted the fact that unless I marry into wealth, win the lottery or get a job teaching at a college (pyramid scheme), I will be living a meager life making it extremely difficult to purchase large items such as a house, a new car, or even the expertise of a doctor or dentist. I make pots because I’m in love with pots themselves, from all places of the world and from history. I make pots because of other potters. Potters are pretty unique characters in this world. We love to eat, we love to drink and we love to laugh. As potters we share the same language. Clay has no boundaries. Clay is a way of living. Clay can open many doors and take you to many places. I make pots because each pot is a question and an answer. I make pots because it is both scientific and expressive. Science as a base of fact allows for infinite possibilities of expression. I make pots because I have to. I make pots because of you. I make pots because they hold the truth. I make pots. I make pots…lots of pots.

(this is my new artist statement)

BAAC (it's a party)

2011-06-12T09:04:00.003-06:00

The dates are quickly approaching..and if you're in the area for the Bray's 60th it will be well worth a trip down to the big old Nabisco factory on Boulder..which is where we have set up shop. In our space I'll be showing my wood fired work, Crista will be showing her sculptures, Marco will be showing his drawings and screen prints and of course we'll have a batch of pots from Free Ceramics. All for sale of course (wink wink). Then our pre-opening reception will be awesome. We've got a live band lined up..along with a selection of the best brews from the local microjoint, the Blackfoot. Upstairs from our level, Carla Potter has set up a great show with the Redlodge Clay Center..which is going to be killer with some super sweet artists. In the hallway Marco has curated his own show..and is working his butt off to get it all set up and ready. We'll be open for the entire week- wow.

Saturday Still

2011-06-11T08:51:00.005-06:00

Saturday Still: a still life..with what, pottery?! something made of clay? no way!! yes dude. YES!

Phil Rogers. Modernpots.com

2011-06-09T12:31:00.000-06:00

Hey y'all... Do a lot of you do this in the morning? Make some coffee.. a couple pieces of toast and sit down in front of your computer? I really enjoy doing this... one of my favorite rituals. Anyways, being a part of this online blogger thing has sent me on some really fun branches of the pottery/ceramic/art online tree here..and I think I found the following through Fetish Ghost's site.. On my way I found myself browsing a gallery from England, called Modernpots.com. Within this almost perfect website I've come across the best online exhibition I've ever seen. It's of one of my favorite potters of all time, Phil Rogers. Within the show they not only have superb images of the pots, but a video of Phil talking about each individual piece. It's amazing..and if I could only afford one I'd love to purchase one..but oh well. It's nice to hear him talk of each piece though..it's very insightful into how and why he makes these pots..and it just gives the show an overall personal feel.

What a great way to market their gallery... Hhhmmmm...

100

2011-06-04T06:24:00.000-06:00

post 100.

neato.

Hey look what I submitted to Strictly Functional this year. Lets hope I finally get in.

Hey look what we (Free Ceramics) submitted to Strictly Functional this year. Lets hope we finally get in.

post 100.

neato.

Skills

2011-05-29T09:21:00.000-06:00

I'll never complain about my wheel again. Watch his transition at the minute... 2.20. He's really good.

Adam Field's Youtube Channel

2011-05-27T09:12:00.000-06:00

Having my cup of coffee this morning I found myself browsing Adam Field's video list on youtube. I got sucked into this super sweet, 2 part video of Kim Young-Ho making a traditional style Onggi pot. If you haven't seen it..it's totally worth checking out, not to mention the rest of Adam's videos which are totally cool.

Unloaded

2011-05-26T09:35:00.001-06:00

The first unloading. It was a pretty quiet evening with a few friends and family showing up to see the results. We lit up the fire pit and roasted some brats and had some beers. I think all in all the firing was a good go. There were quite a few pots that were lookin pretty good and a few that looked real bad and some in between.

Now it'll become a game of adjustments and tweaks..paying attention to how the kiln is being fired, how it's stacked and for how long to fire...bagwall height.. exit flue adjustments.. Good thing it doesn't take a lot of pots to fill this thing. It means we'll dial it quickly. I think the next firing will be much much better.

I'm going to shoot some images of these pots probably later this week and I'll get them online to see.

Thanks for coming along with us all on this grand adventure of Kiln building and firing. It was damn fun.

Loaded and Fired

2011-05-23T09:57:00.000-06:00

It's difficult to describe what happened in the last few days..as the culmination of months of work.. sweat and blood.. small adventures, individual excursions and experiences, group activities, meetings.. hours and hours of preparation.. people mulling over plans, emailing, talking..thinking.. phone calls... doing. Shit. building a woodkiln is a lot of damn work!

After so so so much energy... seeing something like this actually working and firing..and most important of all, bringing people together..it solidifies even more, that the choice we made to follow clay was the right one. All these smiles are the reason. Every laugh (which never seemed to let up), every thoughtful question..every comment or exclamation of amazement at what was happening kept us rolling through this, seemingly...seamless firing.

It was a couple of days of surreal magic.

It wrapped around Scott's big ole 50th birthday. Quite the milestone I'd say..and a perfect time to fire.

It all began Saturday evening.. getting up to Scotts by about 6:30 pm. A lot of friends and family were there to celebrate Scotts birthday and the first loading and firing of this sweet little kiln. I think throughout the night.. the Happy birthday song was sung to Scott for every cake that was brought..I think there was a total of 4 different cakes. The Earl Grey Chocolate (heaven) from Park Avenue was definitely my favorite.

By midnight we finally had the kiln loaded and a fire started. By 3 am most of our friends had left and it was only Scott and I. I was exhausted..and left Scott to the kiln so I could take a few hours of sleep... I came back, once I heard... I may have been sleep walking..unconsciously worried and checking on the situation..anyways.. Scott kept the kiln going and by the time I came back on for real it was hot enough for the wood to be put on the grate bars.

Throughout the rest of the day Scott was a machine on the wood.. finding the driest dry and giving it a few splits to maximize sufrace and burn ability to get some quick temperature gains while I stoked the firebox and made adjustments as the kiln got hotter. This was my first woodkiln without a pyrometer.. (kids these days are so spoiled!). Neighbor after neighbor.. came through to see the new kiln in action and to ask all kinds of questions. I was glad to oblige and show them what I knew and let them look into the kiln to see the pots and cones. One neighbor, Dave and his family came through..then went home to bring me back a cup of very much needed coffee..and Elk burgers, fresh strawberries and plate of cheese and crackers. Super amazing folks.

Scott never slept..and extended his birthday by another day. He was pretty loopy....and quite the hoot to be around. The both of us were pretty wired..brain dead and just weird. By the end of the firing..a good soak period and 10 lbs of salt..I'm glad to say that the kiln looked pretty even with cone 9s and 10s.

Soon after we clammed the kiln up Matt and Emily showed up with a camera and a bottle of Bulleit whiskey. It was a great way to finish it off. Kiln opening is this Wednesday evening.

Kiln Complete

2011-05-17T19:42:00.000-06:00

It only took... from the time I dismantled those two kilns last year until now... 10 months all together to get to this point today. What a super sweet day. We had a few things to wrap up..like getting the door situated and a few other bricks cut..so we took care of it. Matt was on point the whole day working the brick saw, while Scott and I humped the bricks up and down from the door until it was finally done.

I also spent part of the morning gathering the shelves I'd scrounged..and figured I should stop in at Sarah Jaeger's place to see about a few unwanted shelves my sister had told me about. Sarah was not only excited to give away a bunch of old, warped shelves.... she said I was actually doing her a favor. Ha. I told her I'd water her yard anytime this summer. Turns out that these old shelves were given to her when she first built her gas kiln behind her house..years ago. So the circle continues..and potters help potters alike. Nice to be around people like this.

The plan is to load Saturday afternoon and fire into Sunday... so... here we go! We have a few more things to make and a couple bisque kilns.... other things like wadding, cone packs, kiln wash..that sort of thing..and we're golden brown like crispy pan fried trout. yum. hey I need to get my fishing license already...

Ceramics Monthly.. Cover?!

2011-05-16T20:57:00.000-06:00

Well... we got the cover!

Woo hoo!!!

And there's a nice little article about our family business too. Not to mention we're sharing the magazine with some super sweet potters..such as the killer duo, you might know... Adam Field and his lovely wife, Heesoo Lee.. the blog master, Michael Kline (and all around good potter) plus a few other folks..but i don't know them..well, I don't know Michael Kline either.., but I've admired his pots for a long time...and have been reading his blog since I started mine about a year ago.

Head to your nearest newstand or see a sneak peek at the Ceramics Monthlty page!!

Check it out:)

Kiln Dayz

2011-05-15T17:11:00.000-06:00

As the weather has finally, really, really taken a turn for Spring in Helena.. It's given good ole Scott time and the excuse to work on a few last details concerning the kiln.... I was nearly speechless when I saw the way he rigged up this old door from a kiln we salvaged from Merrysville more then two years ago.

See those pistons?? Those are actual pistons from an old diesel engine used in this very spot when a few guys used to mine the area. I might have some facts wrong, but the diesel engine was used to haul up big drums of water or ore or whatever from deep within the earth. Scott had to scrap that old paper weight that had been rusting away in the area for the last 60 years (or more)..and thought he should leave part of it behind. What a way to incorporate the history of the area and still be functioning!

Look at these super sweet handles that Scott and his father custom made and attached, not only to the stoke door, but also to our dampers.

And of course, the other side of the shed is built and the iron is finally up. We're ready to rock!

We're planning to load this Saturday and fire on into Sunday. The firing will be quick, not more then 24 hours. It might actually take much less time to reach temperature since the kiln is pretty tiny. We're all excited to see it finally happen.. I'm very glad to say that there'll be more posts coming your way in the next week..of the loading, the firing and the unloading.

It seems right to be firing this weekend too, since Saturday is Scott's birthday. Happy soon to be birthday, Scott!! You've really been the backbone behind this project.

Updated

2011-05-09T18:52:00.000-06:00

My forms are heavily influenced by Japanese and Chinese ceramics.

The marks I make are inspired by the native designs of the American Southwest and by the German wood block prints of the early 1900s.

By combining my influences I am investigating the way marks and the piece merge, creating depth through implied horizon and atmosphere.

I want my pottery to slowly reveal to the user new insights within the abstract linear designs, the curves of the form, and nuances of the surface.

These pieces are for sale at the Holter Museum of Art here in Helena, Montana.

sleep?

2011-05-07T07:29:00.000-06:00

While this last kiln cooled.. and after the studio was cleaned up, after the mad rush before the mad studio sale (which went very well by the way), after the second to last kids class for a few months and after finally paying a few neglected bills... I slept like I haven't slept in months. It's been some time since I took a five hour nap in the middle of the day, or had the type of sleep..that felt like real sleep. you know..that good kind of sleep when all is black, and deep.. calm like a summers night, laying on your back gazing into the heavens...the smell of trees and the touch of a warm breeze...and when you wake, not feeling the need to get up right away (all the things, at least the immediate things, are finished). it was the sort.. that when you finally do wake up, it's easy to say.. i'm going to go back to sleep now, because it's ok.. and it happens in less than a moment.

these experiences happen seldom. already, after a few days I feel the urge to get more and more done because time, for me, is moving at an incredible pace. i have to keep up. ebb and flow..ebb and flow. balance. where is my center?

here's the last kiln. which i fired with Kenyon at the Bray. wood/salt..cone 9. just a couple of quick snapshots with my computer. these will be cleaned up and shot the right way by Sunday..and then off to the Holter Museum's sales gallery Monday morning. I'm a week late.. but i think it was worth it.

Spring Sale and Open House

2011-04-21T05:32:00.000-06:00

I heard there's going to be good pots, good food..and a keg from the Blackfoot? I hope it's the IPA. Have you seen their new space yet? It's amazing!...dude, lets go!

Put a Bird on It.

2011-04-19T07:41:00.000-06:00

Sometimes you get into those conversations about.... trends and waves of styles and ways of working. A buddy of mine from Canada asked me the other day about it..and I couldn't help but say, you know, I think there's a lot of potters out there that just want to put birds on their pots. I guess they think it makes it more interesting. If you're not thinking about it..how form and decoration can feed off one another..with critical thought concerning the two (and I know it's hard, I try, I've failed at this... it's something I think I'll always be struggling with)... the pot can end up feeling like the sarcasm and irony of this video... Enjoy!

Oribe

2011-04-13T12:06:00.000-06:00

One of my most favorite styles from history...

Kids Class

2011-04-06T10:11:00.000-06:00

The next round of classes starts in one week..and today these fliers hit the middle schools and all the kids. Yah..directly into the hands of each kid. Crazy huh? We just had to get the flier approved, print 3,000.. seperated into the different middle schools... and bam! Kids Class.

Wish us luck!

One year

2011-03-31T11:33:00.001-06:00

84 posts in bfreepottery.blogspot.com's first year. Happy Birthday.

It was only a year ago that I was living in Logan, Utah, worried about graduating. I was making a totally new body of work, getting together the application for the Archie Bray (never did get in) and trying to make a show that I thought was so important. During one of the most hectic times of my school history I thought I should take the time to start a blog. Looking back, it's been a way for me to sit down and collect my thoughts in words. When I was a kid, I used to keep a diary and it was such a great way for me to remember things that had happened to me. Since then, which seems like a lifetime, so many crazy things has happened. I'm glad that I wrote about my doings and happenings with my pots. It's nice to know that people out there are enjoying what I'm writing about. In some way, if it helps them with..whatever.. I think it makes it even more worth it.

Now as blog year number two begins, I can foresee a storm of pottery coming my way. Things at the family business are picking up and we're progressing in a positive direction. At the same time, so is my own work. I'm looking forward..not to battling this storm, which will keep me busy and stressed out for some time, but to accepting it and flowing with it.

Within the next week I'm going to focus on the next step in my sgraffito, salt fired pots. I have a few deadlines coming up that I need to have finished pots for by the end of April and I want these pots to look their best... so I figure what I need to do is take a closer look at the images I have and figure out where it is they need to go.

Thank you for your support in the last year. I've really enjoyed writing about my pots and I look forward to the next year.

Nice Cooling

2011-03-27T19:26:00.000-06:00

I've had many conversations about what happens in a kiln going up and coming down..and sometimes I just can't articulate it well enough or get the point across..that important things not only happen going up when we fire kilns, but also when it's cooling.

I emailed John Neely yesterday, asking him for an article he wrote for Ceramics Monthly way back when. I couldn't remember the title of it or for what magazine it was in.. I just knew that there was a section of it that explains how Iron Oxide changes, depending on temperature and atmosphere. Really cool stuff.

Here's the article.

I guess the copyright probably belongs to CM, but that's ok.. I'm not selling it or anything. If you do take this article and pass it on, make sure you mention where it came from. Thanks and enjoy.

Akar's Yunomi 2011

2011-03-25T10:25:00.000-06:00

As most of you probably know, the Akar gallery opened their annual Yunomi show this morning. I'm happy to say that the pots Emily, Matt and I made are pretty much sold out..and lookin good.

good ole Tony Clennell

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Adam Field

and my old teacher, Dan Murphy.

Many many more excellent ceramic artists are showing...

Go get 'em before they're all sold out!!!

I like Trains (kilns)

2011-03-21T09:13:00.000-06:00

The firing went very well, and if you know the way a train fires, there's kind of a text-book way it wants to go. The hardest part about a train is not letting it get too hot up front while the back end stays cool. Luckily we had a very even firing. Cone 10s all around and cone 11 in the front. All in all the firing lasted, with a down firing.. 42 or 43 hours and something like 5 chords of pine went through the kiln. Lots of wood.

Here's a shot of Kenyon, Dave, Tim and a previous resident at the Bray, Steve Roberts. Steve wasn't involved in the firing, but is always interested in the atmospheric firings coming out at the Bray. Steve makes some kick ass pots....and seems to have really nailed his own style of soda firing.

After a few more firings and some tweaking of the clays, glazes and slips.. I think Kenyon's firings will really start to be super sweet. Some of the pots look a little dry..and that has everything to do with the clay bodies. Some of these pots should be in a much longer firing to really record the information that's possible.. Dark clays can be nice in a train, but if they're highly refractory.. pots can just resist that ash and vapor. I really prefer porcelain in most atmospheric firings.. the high silica content is so responsive.

If you're in Tampa for the next NCECA conference, you gotta hit the Art Stream and buy some of Kenyon's pots. How could you not, knowing the whole back story and drama behind the work?? Not to mention they're pretty sweet pots too...

Here's Matt and his first official wood-fired pieces. He's a slip caster and mixed up a slip with mostly grolleg... they went in bare and were near the back of the kiln. My slipped bowl was in the square shaped one. He's excited about the results, and he should be. We'll whip him into shape in no time.

I'm going to push this layered slip and sgraffito thing more I think. It could turn into something really amazing...

Now I can officially say this is the end of my insane wood-firing binge for the last couple of months. One Anagama, and three Train firings. I learned so much. I'm tired and sore and ready for a break. There's a good point after a few firings like I've had where I get to sit down, look at the work and decide what needs to happen next.

So until then, faithful reader...keep on keepin on.

Train at the Bray

2011-03-18T01:21:00.000-06:00

8 or 9 days ago I posted about seeing the darkside of wood firing. I think I said something about having to be able to bounce back otherwise you just wont survive.. Not a half a day after writing that did I get an email from Kenyon telling me we had one week to crank work and fire so he could make some deadlines for NCECA in Florida. There really isn't anything better then seeing a serious artist put their head down, focus, and do what they have to do. Personal motivation is essential when it comes to making pots. If you can't make yourself sit down and work when you have to.. you're dead in the water before you start. Nobody, not even your mom is going to make you do anything. A week of cranking pots has left little time for him to sleep and it's been interesting watching him move through this process.

Speaking of watching... it sort of dawned on me awhile ago..but has really started to sink in lately, that I'm learning at an incredible speed out here. I feel extremly fortunate to be involved with a community like this... there's a handful of some super talented wood fire people within a stones throw that want me to fire with them.

Here are a couple of Dave's crucibles with two of my glazed bowls inside.

And of course we had the muscle in our corner again. Here's Matt, Caleb and good ole Scott bringing in a huge amount of wood for us while Dave, Kenyon and I loaded the kiln. Thanks guys.

Dave Peters, who's just had his first article posted in Ceramics Monthly about local clay, is here again from Bozeman. I caught Dave his last semester at Utah State University when I first started school back in 2007. He and I have been through a lot since then and we've become good friends. Not only is he a serious and talented ceramic artist..but he's funny as all hell.

What in the world would we do without friends? So i'm off soon, my shift starts at 2 am.. we'll be firing into the evening tonight..and probably by Tuesday we'll be unloaded.

Wish us luck!

kids..holy hell this is fun!

2011-03-15T18:49:00.000-06:00

i'd have to say today was the most fun I've had playing with kids. Emily and I came in without a game plan.. and on the fly Emily suggested we all make a horse together.. so we broke it down into horse parts and kids were assigned certain parts..like Izzy and Gillian got to make the head, Emily and I did a couple of the legs, Xander did the tail and saddle.. and Saul did the body, a leg and a saddle too (there's two saddles there).

We explained that if we all made parts I could attach them later on once they set up..which is what I thought I'd do, but after class I just couldn't wait..and did it anyways. I guess the tail will go on after it's fired..glue it in or something.

And then of course.. we are what we're around and maybe I'll have to explore something like this:

this is a very serious wall piece i made a few weeks back and wood fired..but it just looks so much better with a couple of funny lookin guys sitting on top. I mean, really, if the world can't take potters serious..why should we take ourselves serious? This is just too much fun...

are you serious?

2011-03-14T20:55:00.001-06:00

Back on December 9th, 2010, I had a post about how I work.. I talked about how I develop a new idea. Part of developing an idea is being ok with letting ideas sit for some time before jumping in. New things take time.. and I let this particular idea sit for a number of months. But finally..I've moved onto a few news steps that I imagined.. and I'm glad I did it. Incubation is key.

These are some pictures at maybe the 2nd step of decoration. When it was green, I sgraffitoed through black underglaze..then I bisque fired it. Now I add some wax (that's the blue part) and dip into a super secret white slip called, Tony's Crack. Now I have another layer..and with the backround being the clay body, the black underglaze and now the slip. Cool I think.. so now it's getting bisque fired one more time so I can add some glaze in specific places.. and if you're curious I'm bisquing again because the porcelain and slip..tend to pull at one another during a glaze firing. I don't think this is a common problem.. but for my clay/glaze and firing methods.. rebisquing, when layering is really important. I saw a batch of my pots get torn apart... now that I think of it I wish I had a picture of it.. but then who likes to remember the bad times? It was probably the coolest thing ever that happened with ceramics..so.. too bad there's no pic.

They look like some weird cloud form type things... odd. i love the way it contrasts now..and I hope most of that stays with the pot during it's finishing fire. This is the plan.. a clear glaze over the black..and 10-mo-ku over the clay body..leaving the slip bare for the fire...and leaving the foot area clean. that's four different surfaces...woah.. that's crazy talk. then I'm going to wood fire it!.. are you serious?

I suppose a person could go on and on..layering like this. Maybe that could be an interesting way to work.. To have a group of pots always rolling through a bisque kiln with everything else..and build those layers up like crazy. wow. that's a good idea. maybe you, noble reader,...should try it...

a guy would always tell me something when i tried to suggest he change something about his pots.... he'd look at me and say in a gruff voice..."well that's a really good idea, bobby.. why don't you do it, instead?"

First Teapots in a long time.

2011-03-13T18:47:00.000-06:00

I think that last time I made teapots for myself..was before I graduated last May. Almost a year ago! Feels good to be goin for it again.... I'm sure if I were back in Logan they'd get eaten alive!

It was always a nerve racking move to bring teapots to a critique with John Neely.. but like all pots that we're making, they can never be the ultimate, perfect pot..

New Wood

2011-03-12T20:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a taste of some good'ns from the last three wood kilns I fired in. Check the New Work section of my webpage to see some of the rest.

D. Crumple-Rumpskin

2011-03-12T09:19:00.000-07:00

Danny got his show together after the Missoula firing. What a crazy fun couple of weeks that was.

The show is at a swanky nice gallery in Missoula called, The Brink. You can see the rest of the show if you click that link. I heard this is their first ceramic show.

Don't let the image fool you, this door is 7 feet tall. I wish I could see it up close.

Plaster over ceramic.

Danny and I in China, 2007. Only four years ago.. seems like a lifetime.

see it move

2011-03-10T15:16:00.000-07:00

when there's a lot of weight involved in a thin walled piece of wet porcelain... a kind of movement happens. it's so delicate. the way this clay holds itself up during the entire time i handle it, before the bisque, is so enticing. I want subtle movements along with a flowing line.

Since the last round of pots.. I've been thinking of how i can push the clay almost to the limit of collapse. that point i think is soooo beautiful.

Can you imagine a fluid thing, like water, or even a person, like a dancer?...going up, seeing the moments leading to the point of coming back down...when you see it grow and then move past those points of stability and solidity, then change..literally change in a split second and become something (beaverslide) so completely different. capturing a specific point of progression in the life of a piece of clay.

it's so different from what i do with Free Ceramics..which is really good for me to have something of my own, something separate, something mine.

with this work I want to see the clay move.... as if wind flowed around it during it's most responsive and fragile state of being.

The way it is.

2011-03-09T04:58:00.000-07:00

Clay is a material that is so fundamentally basic that a kid can understand it. Yet so incredibly complex that we can spend our entire lives studying it and still never come to any conclusions. It is mystery and wonder. It is technical and magical. We are exploring the boundaries of imagination, will power.. and at the same time it is the glue between us and everything else. It is our center.

If you fire with wood.. there is always the possibility of extreme failure due to Clay, Fire or the error of our own hands. It can pick you up and slam you down... and if that happens, you better be ready to pick yourself up, other wise you're lost to it. I saw the dark side of what clay can do in a firing. Months of work lost can take a persons mind to a place that should hardly be visited. Yet extreme failure can give the chance of going further then you were before. It becomes a challenge and a person can either let themselves stay down.... or they can grab it and say, "No.. I know you. I know this."

We accept the challenge every day we work... and continue. That's the way it is.

Next firing in one week.

Missoula Unloaded

2011-02-28T16:52:00.001-07:00

Here's some pics of the unloading that happened yesterday.

Lots of browns, as were expected.. but there's a type of firing that Danny really likes, which I saw started while we were back in Utah. At the end of the firing, after holding our top temp for about 3 or 4 days..there's a big final stoke. I wasn't there for it, so this is what I heard what happened. The final stoke was a continuous stoking of wood for close to a half an hour, to completely stuff up the fire box and side stokes.

Then from that, after the kiln is billowing smoke, it cools naturally until 2000. From 2000 it was a cooling period until dull reddish heat by stoking small pieces of wood into the fire box along with the addition of water. The "reduction" cooling is interesting, and I quote it because a lot of people have different definitions.

This rope impressed pot of mine is possibly my favorite so far. This bowl is the bowl. I might have to send it off to the permanent collection.

Here's a soldier that took the brunt of the firebox most of the firing..yet he was far enough away to easily come out of the kiln.

And here's good one too, which was towards the middle of the kiln half way into the side stoke. See my plaster pop-out? Silly right? I'm super satisfied with how this work came out... Now I just need to work on my forms.

I think that the result Danny is looking for is a unique surface, matted ash and deeper colors of reds and a type of surface that is reminiscent of the moon. Some people call it a sugary surface, especially if a shino is used. All in all it was a total success and I came out with some gems for sure. Once the pots are cleaned I'm going to photograph them..and finally update my portfolio.

the Wilson Train and Crew

2011-02-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another part of Montana wood firing. I have the pleasure of working along side one of the best wood fire gals in the business today, Tara Wilson. she's pretty cool.. enjoys a shot of whiskey at 2 pm, a strong cup of coffee any time, a love for delicious food, better company and some serious skills when it comes to pottery.

We're here, in Montana City, which is just south of Helena. Tara built her studio a few years back and the kiln a couple of summers ago. At some point, I helped..and have been involved in several firings since then. It's a great studio with enough room for 3 people to work comfortably. There's a bedroom, kitchen and bathroom to boot. You can see it here, which is looking south. Tara's made her home and studio available for any friend..and she never seems to have a lack of new people to meet and learn from. Here are the people involved for this firing:

This is Morgan. He's super funny and makes some killer birds. During most of the year he's involved with a company called Winding Waters, based out of Joseph, Oregon. During the summer months he guides river trips and during the winter he guides back country skiing. He's sort of new to the wood firing game, but he's learning quickly. There's a quality that I love about Morgan's work...it's honest and it makes me smile. A river trip with this guy would be super fun.

Here's a shot of us during the loading. It was pretty damn cold most of the day.... but it could have been a lot worse. See the guy with a huge beard? That's Caleb. Caleb works as a potter during the winter months and for the summer months he works for the Forest Service. All around good guy, I'd say. I've fired with him before and look forward to another one.

The big guy in the red flannel is from Missoula, one of the current residents at the Clay Studio of Missoula, Larry Phan. I've never fired with him before but definitely appreciate his hard work collecting more side-stoke while the rest of us took care of the loading. Many hands make light work. Also something that I just realized..we both used the same program to build our websites and the same setting within that program. Check his then check mine, it's sort of funny.... His girlfriend is here with him and was a huge help during the loading, even though she didn't have any work in it.

The last guy, Ryan Mitchel, is from Bozeman. I've met him before..but never fired with him. The beard is much shorter this time... He's involved in the community over in Bozeman working at the Emerson Center for Arts and Culture. I'm looking forward to picking his brain a little bit more about what his life is like over there.

Another gal, Lindsey is here helping and is sharing Tara's studio. I'm sorry to say I don't have a photo or very much information on her. She had to leave early tonight because she's a waitress at the local tap, Millers. She's from the Chicago area and as far as I can see is pretty dedicated to ceramics.

Nice crew, huh?

Tomorrow I'm headed back to Missoula to unload the Anagama!!!

Cold start

2011-02-26T09:41:00.001-07:00

Headed up to Tara Wilson's kiln this morning to load. Getting into the car to warm it up... I noticed that I left a couple of un-opened Pepsi's in there last night.. I guess they can't handle sub-zero weather for very long... Woops. I'll have a post later tonight with some pics of the place and the people.. until then, wish me warm, huh? I feel you, Tc, I don't ski either...

Working the Porcelain Surface (Workshop)

2011-02-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

Emily and I are heading back to the Art Association of Jackson Hole this summer to teach a three day workshop.

It should be pretty sweet. We'll go over everything we absolutely know about working with porcelain and how/what can be done to the surface, and basically..just have a good ole time. We'll also have a throwing/handbuilding demo..and probably a slide talk. Hopefully we can find a venue there and have a mini-show or something. Interested? Come on over!

The Art Association there has an awesome set up/co-op thing of a multi-medium facility (painting, drawing, print, sculpture..you name it).... Sam Dowd and his lovely wife, Jenny are running the Ceramic Department. From what I could see last year, they're doin an awesome job.

You know Jackson has a lot of money and they've put a decent chunk in to have a great community based art program. I'm really looking forward to this.

Click here to find out more and to even sign up! (spaces are limited and will most likely sell out!!)

Clay Club. Day 1

2011-02-22T20:47:00.000-07:00

My first students:

Clay Club rules.

Studio update

2011-02-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow our first kids class starts. We got a few actually, so it's all coming together.. this last week, since I've been back from Missoula has been a non-stop, 12 hour days getting this place ready to go. We've finished the half-walls, tomorrow morning will, hopefully, see the trim and crown molding .. i added a few stripes of paint to give some color to the room. Look at these! What a great bunch of really awesome stools that our good buddy, Scott got together for us. He showed up a few mornings back with all the wood ready to assemble. What a great guy and some super awesome stools! From the people floating around the building we keep getting a lot of compliments on them.

Emily and I sat down and brainstormed some ideas and a kind of lesson plan for the next month..and it's going to be so cool- I'm going to sit down and make bugs and castles and horses, yes horses, and pinch pots and coil pots with a bunch of kids... sounds more like fun then a job to me.

Stay tuned for the unloading of the Missoula kiln, probably a post around next Tuesday. But before that I'll introduce you to the new wood-fire resident at the Bray, Kenyon Hansen and the Train kiln he's loading this weekend. Also, I'll show you the loading from Tara Wilson's kiln. I'm glad I held back a group of pots so I can get involved.. Both of these two are loading and firing this weekend.

Wish us luck tomorrow for our first kid's class!

Missoula, Montana.

2011-02-17T12:52:00.000-07:00

For the last 6 days I've been in Missoula, Montana, loading and firing an Anagama with my good friend from school, Danny Crump. Danny has been at the Clay Studio of Missoula for the last two years as the wood-fire resident..and this is his last firing before he takes off for the next part of his never-ending adventure in clay- which is actually taking him back to China. Since Danny has been at the Clay Studio, he's helped rebuild this Anagama and get it firing like a dream, built another kiln that's tied to the same chimney that he calls the "hatchback", a type of Train/Cat/Anagama hybrid..which actually fires pretty nicely. Not to mention he's had a big impact on the local community by teaching classes and getting involved in other areas.

The loading took two days, mostly due to the short amount of light..and also to give our backs a break and wet our whistles at a local bar.

It was a good load and we had more work then we thought.. most of it got in..which left the firebox a little cramped. But as of this morning only a few things had been knocked or cracked..and it mostly seemed to be rolling along nicely as cones dropped and side-stoking commenced. I would have stayed..but I have so much work to get done around here in preparation for the kids classes starting, Feb 22nd- next week!!!

I made mostly smaller sized pots for this firing. But check this thing out.. This is Danny's "door". It's roughly 7 feet long, 4 inches thick and weighs something like 350 pounds. It was a ball buster to load (bone dry) into the kiln without it cracking.

The thing I love about Danny, when it comes to his clay, is that he's willing to take big risks to push himself. He thinks big, goes big and just goes for it like a true cowboy. Lucky for him though he's got fellas like me and the rest of his super awesome crew out there with strong backs to get this into the kiln. I hope this piece turns out..and hopefully, by the 28th I'll have a post of the unloading and finished pots.

Breakfast anyone? Nothing like a hot meal when you have to start that 6 am shift in 20 degree weather.

Before I left early this morning, I snapped a shot of the sunrise beyond the kiln. What a gorgeous morning..and what great weather for the load and 2 day pre-heat.

Work

2011-02-11T23:15:00.001-07:00

Here's Matt. Look at Matt go. It's so helpful to have a guy on your team who's a big hitter. If Free Ceramics were a baseball team I'd put Matt at numero 4 in the lineup. There's no way we could afford to hire somebody to do this, or to afford the materials- which Matt has been squirreling away for years of doing construction jobs. Not to mention he's an alright guy to hang with, even though he is my brother-in-law. Oh and by the way, he's going to take the slip cast world by storm soon. All you slip people better be ready.

The new space is coming along nicely..and we've already booked some soon to be students. It's going to be a fun time..and I have no doubt that after the word spreads a bit more..we'll have a crazy big crew of kids running around. I was thinking of putting together some sort of kids "ceramics camp" during the summer. Maybe maybe... although that's hard to say because the summer is pretty much booked up.

I spent a good chunk of the day mixing some glazes. Tried and true guys, for the most part. I have four that I'm bringing wth me to Missoula..to glaze my pots with before we load. Lets see.. I have..

White Salt.
This is exactly like the classic, Yellow Salt, but without the iron oxide. My variation uses pure rock salt from a specific area of salt flats in Nevada. (totally necesarry) The glaze gives a nice buttery white when used over porcelain. I think it's pretty luscious..although I've never tired it in a wood kiln. I'm going to give it a go. Due to the heavy sodium content of this white salt glaze, extreme caution should be used if using as an ice melt. eye protection is advised.

Karl's Pork Shino.
Another classic, and old-school styley glaze. It's a standard American Shino..with lots of Soda Ash. The one exception, when compared to the rest of the American Shinos... is that this glaze has to have, for every 10,000 grams, two standard cups of bacon grease. It's best if you can use a hickory smoked bacon, but any bacon grease will do. Different types of wood used to smoke the bacon will have different results.

Black Evil.
This is a high silica glaze with a butt load of black copper oxide. In a gas reduction kiln, at cone 10, this glaze is a gun metal black but not shiny. In a salt kiln it will go from black to yellow. In certain cooling situations, a large amount of crystals can grow. It's very reactive to the soluble oxides blowing through a wood kiln. Since copper oxide is one of the coolest oxides out there.. it's possible to get the entire spectrum of colors with this guy..and even more so when you're dealing with fly ash and solubles. It's also evil as hell, too (mostly due to the fact that it isn't food safe). It's so dangerous and so seductive.. once you get a tiny taste, it will totally consume you.

10-Mo-Ku.
This is a pretty classic Japanese glaze. It's the one used at Utah State in Logan, Utah. My buddy, Perry, told me that it looks pretty sweet in the train kiln..and can have some nice variation in the glaze. I'm taking his word and goin for it. I'm going to keep the glaze line a little higher on the pots with this glaze though..because Perry, said buddy, also mentioned that the glaze runs quite a bit.

Tomorrow I'm off to Missoula to load a kiln for two days. Stay tuned for the best woodfiring adventure in History.

the last Four days

2011-02-08T21:19:00.000-07:00

what could i possibly say about the last four days i've had... it feels like i jumped onto a horse and took off. although i seem to be making pots all the time..it's been quite a spell since having the luxury of a 4 day, personal art making... binge. Since last Saturday I've been practically living in this space..only coming home to eat dinner or sleep. it's as if i were back in school.. so today i'd love to share with you..the incredible thing that is so precious: studio time. i think a lot of people out there take studio time for granted. at least I have in the past. what an amazing thing to have an area, that's all yours to do whatever it is you want? i felt like a freakin kid.. to see a pile of clay, two tables, two wheels, a big ole rolling rack and all the tools I could need. maybe this is what lots of people go through when the "you finally started working in that insanely better studio then the one you had before" phase. is this normal?

i'd also like to share a fun experience i had late last night...

this story is about how that cylinder came to be. i prepped some clay for a board of pitchers late last night..the clay was awesome... some was a little too stiff, but for the most part, i dried that clay out pretty close... on the last cone of clay, for the last pitcher, i finished my pulls and just said to myself..nah..no pitcher.. how bout a vase type cylinder. i decided to pull it once more..get it really thin.. it was a tall, maybe 14", with a wide mouth, small shoulder and the neck sprung straight off the shoulder at a 90 degree to finish straight up with a thinish lip. Once it was cut, i picked it up and gave it a little shimmy shake/flip-i-di do-da to get a little extra movement in the clay..and to my surprise floppy clay totally..collapsed on me. i tried in vain to pull the rim back up and out..but couldn't do it..so in a flash of desperation i grabbed the form at it's base and flipped it upside down. the cylinder extended back out, looking really awesome....but it was so soft (and upside down) i couldn't do anything but..stand there. if i tried to flip it right side up..it would just flop again. so i'm holding this freshly thrown cylinder, upside down..looking for the answer to fix this problem..because i was not going to let this thing go, dammit!.. and at the same time i think of Takeshi Yasuda( that's his website..and this is a youtube video of him) and some work he did..which was basically, the same thing i was going through... thin porcelain ..that's collapsed and upside down. What I ended up doing was shoving it between my two tables, still hanging..so i could get a torch on it. It worked.. hah... and here is the piece earlier today.. getting ready for it's bisque firing on thursday. i really pushed this clay around. what gets me about this.. is that there's no other way that this thing could be. i couldn't make this pot again if i tried for years... it really just..happened. one happening after another. this is the first time in a long time..when i've really felt.. a deep down connection with something i had just made. i could say that i was yearning for this cylinder to succeed and to be something.

a board of pitchers, one with some rope impressed design. i love pitchers. these and teapots i make the least of.. but i just know if i spent some time making many more..they could get soooo good.

Here's some Clennell inspired handles- bobby style. they feel really nice to hold.

Most of the pieces here are going into a Anagama next weekend. It should be totally awesome. And all this month i'll be showing you guys what kind of bad-ass woodfiring is going on in the great state of Montana, USA!

(chanting of "U-S-A" can be heard in the backround)

Do it for the kids! (and a new studio)

2011-02-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ok..so I'm involved with some serious schemers over here in Helena, Montana. We're all extremely motivated to get this business rolling and are willing to take some risks to get there. So here it is! Our plan.. we've moved into a sweet space on the second floor of where our plaster studio is. How will we pay for it? Why that's easy...Get involved with the community and teach the kids how to play with clay! although..kids don't need to be taught how to play with it..but we'll coordinate activities for them. Turns out that a lot of after school art activities in town have stopped and the arts in the schools are getting seriously hacked..so there seems to be a demand for something like this. Luckily Emily and Matt have been inovled here for so long..and know many parents, otherwise this venture might be more difficult.

This is a shot from the back corner, where my studio will be. We had to move out a lot of stuff like these glass cases.

In exchange for my teaching ability.. I'll be getting a studio space that's 13 feet by 13 feet. I'll be working on the Free Ceramics line here, and my own work. I'll be close to the plaster room so Matt and I can push further into slip casting the line..and also there will be a permanent area..wait, like our own gallery space with finished work for sale.

Look at how that space just swallowed my equipment to make pots.

This is so cool, right??

We're stoked.

There's a lot to get ready for before the classes start..like building some half walls and basic furniture for the kids to use. It's going to be a wild ride too, since this month I've also committed to firing three different wood kilns. We just love to be busy...

Guess who's coming to Dinner?

2011-02-02T21:35:00.000-07:00

Ah yes.. Free Ceramics, under the code-name, Emily Free Wilson, will be showing off one of the best plates, the plate above, that we made this last year at this kickass line up of plates and platters, called Guess who's Coming to Dinner. Check out the participating artists.... it's always super cool to show with such a caliber of ceramics people. If you want to find out more about this show (opening on the Feb 5th) this link will take you to the site of the Clay Art Center.

The participating artists range from emerging to established in their careers and include: Tomoko Abe, Jennifer Allen, Wesley Anderegg, Peter Arnow, Keiko Ashida, Lorna Awalt, Posey Bacopolous, Kirsten Bassion, Ingrid Bathe, Parviz Batliwala, Dalia Berman, Mary Kay Botkins, Lynn Smiser Bowers, Douglas Breitbart, Jeanne Carreau, Jennifer Cherpock, Linda Christianson, Sam Chung, Bede Clarke, Andrew Coombs, Bernadette Curran, Charity Davis-Woodard, Bruce Dehnert, Sanam Emami, Marty Fielding, Kathryn Finnerty, Shanna Fliegel, Karen Ford, Julia Galloway, Steven Godfrey, Ryan Greenheck, Martha Grover, Tyler Gulden, Molly Hatch, Gail Heidel, Robin Henschel, Debra Holiber, Bryan Hopkins, Ayumi Horie, Meredith Host, Heather Houston, Matthew Hyleck, Nick Joerling, Natalie Kase, Reena Kashyap, Michael Kline, Maren Kloppmann, Sarah Koster, Eva Kwong, Deborah Lecce, Kazuko Lee, Steve Lee, Denis Licul, Suze Lindsay, Janet Lipow, Matt Long, David MacDonald, Loren Maron, Ginny Marsh, Deborah Mawhinney, Jon McMillan, Jenny Mendes, Matthew Metz, Leigh Taylor Mickelson, Bob Miranti, Rimmie Mosley, Rene Murray, Kiyomi Noda, Jeff Oestreich, Mari Ogihara, Neil Patterson, Aysha Peltz, Sandi Pierantozzi, Ariel Plantz, Brenda Quinn, Kari Radasch, Barbara Rittenberg, Elizabeth Robinson, Stephen Rodriguez, Harriet Ross, Deborah Schwartzkopf, Virginia Scotchie, Ellen Shankin, Mark Shapiro, Roberta Shapiro, Andy Shaw, Linda Sikora, Collette Smith, Gertrude Graham Smith, Kevin Snipes, Chris Staley, Florence Suerig, Hatsumi Suyama, Priya Tambe, Georgia Tenore, Kevin Thomas, Kyla Toomey, Todd Wahlstrom, Jackie Welsh, Emily Free Wilson, Tara Wilson, Gwendolyn Yoppolo and Sheryl Zacharia.

(maybe i'll finish linking all these names to their websites later..half of that took forever)

wow..it's almost too many people huh? yes yes..
We're gettin the Free word out there everybody, every show and every little bit helps. And check this out..we've just started.. but there's a great big new studio we're moving into in the next few days. But that whole story deserves it's own post.

The stack before the storm

2011-01-29T17:54:00.000-07:00

For the last week I've had the pleasure of scraping about 200 old crusty bricks... doing so in anticipation for the, what I said last week, the soon to be stacked stack. Usually the kiln day happens on every Sunday. But today, being Saturday, we were ahead of the game. Last night I had some friends and part of the kiln crew over for a much needed veggie themed potluck. I don't have any pictures of it..but to say the least the food was excellent and the company even better. I have to say this again, but if you can ever pull off a vegetarian themed potluck, the food will almost always be excellent..because people just can't bring chicken or whatever is super easy..they have to stop and think..and maybe open a cook book.

Towards the end of the evening, Scott and I pulled out the computer and looked at some pictures of the kiln and started to talk about all the ideas and possibilities of things that could happen. It's been awhile since we really sat down and talked.. I've been here and there for so long it seems. But it got us riled up enough to make something happen. It was nice to get back on the same page.

Around lunch time I came home after doing some errands and found an email from Scott, not 5 minutes before, saying that he had set the scaffolding up. Come on Bobby, lets play!!!

I whipped together a couple PB and J's, an apple, some juice and some chips (wow sounds like a classic grade school brown bag lunch huh?) and raced over to Unionville to meet up with Scott. Indeed he did have the scaffolding up and almost right away we began moving brick. I took the first round of laying brick and then later, Scott did. Once we had the stack up to the shed level, Scott brought out his drill and removed some planks so we could continue through the roof.

It was a super nice afternoon..which started out at about 45 degrees and ended with a frozen windshield at about 4:45 pm. The high tomorrow is going to be somewheres around 15 degrees..and I'm so happy that we pulled this off today. The next week is going to be wicked cold.. so I'm so happy that we stacked this super sweet stack before the weather really gets frigid again. Since the arch and interior volume is a bit bigger than the plans we had, we're going to add a few more feet to the stack, which we didn't quiet get today..but.. I think this is a great big ole step in the right direction.

I'm really proud of the fact that these bricks are all used... I hope that it lets people out there know that even if a brick is super crusty on one side..it just takes a few carefully aimed whacks and the brick facing the other way..and you can use that brick yet one more time.

Kilns and Bowls

2011-01-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

I made it up to the kiln for a little bit today. Not a whole lot going on..but the weather was mild enough to tolerate scraping a few bricks in preparation for the soon to be stacked stack. As you can see we're getting close to the end. Have I said that before? Probably. During the holiday break while most of us were away, Scott took the effort and time to finish up the back wall. Looks good, right? One of the nicest touches that I'm really into are the spy-holes. Notice how they're notched on the inside and out? That's going to give us such a large range of vision when looking inside. Also, for whatever firing is going on, if the people choose to spray a water/soda solution into the kiln from these ports, they will get more soda on a lot more pieces.

Having brick from a great old soda and salt kiln means we picked up a lot of bricks with some super great surfaces. Not only are the surfaces juicy...but some or just downright gorgeous. I wish I could use them all..but I'm excited about peppering in a few of these golden oldie bricks for another round of use. All I had to do was just chip away the edges so they'll still stack straight. It should turn into a nice looking stack.

And can you believe it? I've been making my own work again. Here's my latest kick that I'm preparing for a few woodfirings coming at me in February. I've done plenty of rope impressed pots before, but it's something that I always like to come back to..and I'm really liking the way these are coming out. Since I'm rolling the rope while the pot is still so wet, the impression is showing through onto the inside of the bowl. Also, instead of rolling the rope and trimming the foot, the clay is still soft enough once trimmed that I can roll the rope all the way down to the foot ring. A friend back in Utah saw me trim once and said he new people who made their pots at an even drier state, let alone trimming them. I'm a big softy when it comes to making and especially trimming.. unless I need to throw something tall?...then the stiffer the better.

Improvise

2011-01-19T13:18:00.001-07:00

Improvise: Verb. to make, provide, or arrange from whatever materials are readily available.

I think most potters, if they're serious... can build just about anything they need. it comes with the position and the fact that we cant afford everything new, or the thing we need just isn't in existence.. so what do we do? can we build it? yes we can! (bob)

Because I don't have a camera close to show you the pots I've been making I thought I'd flip through the archives again and pull something that looked cool. Well, here it is...

Can anybody guess what it is and what it does?

the Job

2011-01-14T21:04:00.000-07:00

I was told that when a potter becomes a potter, when they sit in their studio and make everyday, all day.... their skills explode. The last week or so I've been trying to spend as much time in the studio getting the work done I need to do for Free Ceramics and at the same time begin to make some pots for myself. For the last half a year my own pots have taken their time to cool off and sit patiently in the background of my daily life. Which is ok. I understand that things happen and I have to adjust to those things. I've had a lot of time to think about my pots. I've tried a few things.. made a few kiln loads, gathered a crap load of brick and almost have a finished woodkiln and I've been lucky to sell some of those pots. While I was in the studio tonight I unconsciously did something that I hadn't done for so long and what an amazing pleasure it was once I realized what was happening. I had made a board of bowls, which I really liked.. I trimmed them at their perfect, or my perfect, time and state of wetness.. I enjoyed every moment of it. Once the bowls and a few cups were trimmed I was looking at a couple of them and imagined a handle or two. So I did it. Now. that might seem like a normal motion for most makers out there.. but at my job I have a certain line that has to be made and these types of spontaneous acts of creativity are to a minimum and must follow a kind of style.. so it doesn't happen often. So... handles pulled and attached to the rim of a bowl and two handles attached to a couple of my yunomis. Magical. I just made two new forms and I'm excited to see where they can go... And now I remember once again why it's so damn fun to sit and push clay around. It's satisfying to see what you're capable of doing and then to see it keep growing...

No pictures today my friends. My camera broke last week while I was in Utah seeing Robin DuPont's graduation show.

From the archive

2011-01-04T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hello internet people, whomever you are... if it were at all possible to extend a true hello to you through your whatever electrical device it might be... i would. so Hi there. I read blogs too. It's totally cool...

I'm feeling up for a post about something I saw a long time ago. well, not really that long ago.. it will be 2 years ago next summer. Does that still count as fresh? Maybe...maybe not. Anyways, a little back story on these four pictures. I was in Korea. Or was I in China? Uh..Korea. Yah. ....So I'm with some fellow students walking through an "ancient" korean palace. It was amazing. Very historically correct. It was actually one of the most boring places we went to. and get this- the ancient onggi section was closed off!!! NooOOO!!!! so... and I spent a considerable amount of time trying to get into trouble instead. and I didn't even manage that.

To summarize the story and without going into descriptive details.. these were some shots of a wall and doorway/entry way that I thought needed to be looked at a little bit more closely. it's fun to see compositions within the world huh? And especially if it's so random... and within this case, time orientated too. i love that shit.

it was so out of the ordinary that it really stuck out to me...

and it turns out that the chatter marks are a preparatory step for the door to be re-plastered and painted a solid color ( I asked an officlal guy with a lot of door chipping experience, so you can trust me.... despite popular belief, lots of things are true on the internet). Seems that this step is the same principal behind scoring clay and attaching another clay piece to said scored... thing.

Wow.

back to a source

2010-12-31T12:44:00.000-07:00

do you remember a place you used to spend so much time and poured so much energy into.. at some point in your past? a place that meant something to you, somewhere special, a place that will always be, in a way..like home. and now you're in a different place, doing the same thing again...giving it your all, making another home. it's about the people and the experiences. it's how you grew and changed. And then one day.. you go back and see it all again. It's like getting a refresher and you can see the things that changed and inspired you. i know that there are going to be many many places like this in my life.. and i'm glad to have them and i'm glad to see them. And..as those places continue, or disappear.. you, and hopefully I.... am still aware of the flow that is and has been what we call life.

Happy Hairy new Year, y'all.

New piece

2010-12-23T05:59:00.000-07:00

Finally finished it..

Have you ever worked on a piece, knowing it was already sold...and thought to yourself....

wow, this is a show piece.. too bad I already sold it... Ha...ha...

(it's going to a great home though)

p.s. remember my "birth of" post and that video? this is one of those forms during that process..i just hadn't attached the neck yet.

Merry....

2010-12-22T09:11:00.000-07:00

....Christmas!

it's all apart of the job

2010-12-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Being sefl-employed definitely has it's perks... one of the great things about working for yourself is that when opportunities come a'knocking, you don't have to say to it, "ah dang..I can't. I have to work". Instead I get to say..well, my schedule is pretty flexible and I can move it around. This week I got a wonderful email telling yet another kiln at the Archie Bray was coming down and if I helped I could use the brick on the little wood kiln my friends and I are building. All I had to do was help carefully rip it down then cut this wall a little bit bigger so a big new kiln can get moved in. It wasn't so bad, in fact using a sledge hammer made me feel really good. It was warm enough that I could wear only a t-shirt while I bashed away. It was worth the extreme amount of dust and dirt in my eyes..because we'll now have enough nice brick to finish the walls and get the stack workin this weekend.

Other cool parts about my job are things like having the opportunity to volunteer at the local Holter Museum (which is my very first venue showcasing my own personal pots). Last night we volunteered for an event.. and my sister and I were in charge of the bar- ha! We made some good martinis, whisky-cider and wine for the public that showed up to watch a group of people walk the red carpet. It was a fashion show. I didn't see much, because I stayed at the bar, serving what seemed to be a never satisfied crowd the whole time. Working so hard with all that free booze didn't stop me from workin what I got on the red carpet with a new friend, Rachel. Nice moves, huh? Jeez.....

Kiln Day- Arch Pull

2010-12-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

Holy Moly it seems like forever ago since I've posted on the progress of our kiln. Actually... I don't even want to look and see. Anyways, to make a long blog short, we finally made it back today for another needed and fantastic kiln day. It was slow going but the weather sure was nice. I think it's still in the upper 40s as I type...I guess the midwest sucked all the cold weather that way. ha! thanks! So today was the much anticipated day to pull the arch form. And pull we did. Everything went super smoothly and the catenary arch pulled it's own weight and did what it's designed to do- be self supporting. Nothing shifted and the arch felt very solid...Everything looks awesome..and we even got started on the back side wall and set in the stoke door. Nice huh? It really dawned on me the size of the stacking space once I could stand in it... it's going to be small but real nice for some pots. Scott was very very happy with the arch..and you could say "tickled" how well the form worked. It looks like we're getting a good batch of weather so hopefully we'll be on for another kiln day next Sunday. This week I'll be collecting a few more bricks that have fallen into my lap..and a good thing too because we're out of the nice brick already..and are getting into some very crusty bricks indeed.. so until then. Happy Kiln Day.

Etsy-fied

2010-12-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

If you're a potter who hasn't been in the same studio, with the same gallery that you own, along with the local community of the same customers, and you just might not be wanted enough to teach a workshop or two... you may not be getting the traffic needed to keep your head above water. And maybe you just can't get enough money from galleries, especially the ones that take close to half of your sale. So how do potters branch out? There's a number of opportunities out there and one, which isn't that new to most of us, but me, is Etsy. Personally I didn't even look at this site because of the name- I just don't like saying it. But it turns out that it actually does look pretty nice and it could add that extra 50 or 100 bucks a month, which is always welcome.

My sister set the account up last night and posted some of our nicest pots we have. Still have some Christmas shopping to do? Go get 'em, here they are!

Etsy Free Ceramics

How it, I, work(s)

2010-12-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

It's a curious thing..the "creative process". I'm still trying to figure out my own..and most of all try to be sensitive to the steps that I need to take before I have the finished piece in my hands. I guess what I like to do, at the very beginning is give myself a problem to try and solve. My new one, which isn't really new..actually I've been working on this problem for a long time now, but the problem is this: How the hell can I freaking make these pots better?? haha..no, not exactly. The problem has a certain set of parameters. I want to work a certain way. One: Porcelain. Two: Pots. Three: Salt fired. Ok there are some parameters... now I can start to narrow in on my problem. My problem is how can I apply line, decoration, or pattern to really make a pottery form almost burst out of itself. Ok... now a really good thing, for me to do, is go back through some older pots I've made and try and see what went wrong, or what could be better... so I look. (this is me looking..dooo di dooo ohhh I like what's happening there..and there..that's not so hot... that's really bad..holy hell did I make that? HHmmmmm interesting...) And from looking..and even talking to people about some of these pots..which is so awesome when you get a good conversation about it.. then new ideas start to pop up. Oh... hmm... yes these are all so nice. What if I combined them??? WHat? Ohhh..wow, I never thought of that. Yah that sounds like a really great place to go! Alright.. now that I've got myself another parameter. Four: Combine qualities of these pots. Ok.... Now it's time to wrap my head around that idea for a little bit... so then I start to draw. Hmmmm Sweet. So the skinny lines will be sgraffito and the blue will be wax resist later to have some slip action..and that's where some sort of pooling glaze will be..AHhh yesss... (isn't this rediculous? if you've read this far you should give yourself a cookie or something nice because this is almost exactly how I talk to myself..and if it drives me mad sometimes..well, i commend you)

Now with a certain set of parameters it's going to be much easier on me to try and make something, dare I do it, NEW? Yes..making new things is both exciting and a little stressful...but it's not that hard once you begin to understand how it is that your own creative process works. Right? Right? (wow..that was a great cup of coffee I had this morning)

The Sale(s)

2010-12-06T10:23:00.001-07:00

The big pottery weekend is over here in Helena, Montana. Last Friday night was the opening nights for twelve different Helena Potters all having their sales during the same time. It makes it a pretty busy night if you're a clay enthusiast out here.. Actually it just seems like there's too much happening to go see them all. And if you're out and about...chances are you're only going to hit up your favorites. I'm curious though..to see how everybody here in town continues to evolve together. It's becoming so that it could be for the benefit of us all if we started some sort of co-op and throw a huge pottery sale for three days every December. But I don't know..maybe we all don't need to work together and we should just keep goin the way we've been goin. It's been working for Sarah Jaeger for 20 plus years... Just a thought. When does it become necessary for potters to gather their forces? Is Helena too small of a town where that's not necessary? I don't know.. If you saw the paper last week, advertising the pottery sales.. it was a jumbled mess of the same shtick, "So-and-So is having his pottery sale...." (next paragraph) "Blah blah is having her pottery sale..." . I heard it best... "All the potters are on the same page (in the newspaper)....but not on the same page". Interesting...

But anyways, our sale went great! It was just as good as last year...which is better then worse! It was nice to see so many happy faces enjoying the pots I'm so involved in now. Tara Wilson sold a good amount of work too..and some of the nicest pieces I've seen her make were there. And of course..my favorites didn't sell. What's up with that? That always happens! Scott Walter came too and sold a ton of his beautifully carved wooden spoon and cutting boards. The sale looked great...and it's encouraging to know the community here is willing to support people like us. Thanks a lot!

It's Xmas time!

2010-12-01T09:44:00.000-07:00

Hey y'all. The second to last glaze kiln was loaded last night and things are starting to heat up. Today is Wednesday, two days before our Christmas Sale opens...and if you've ever heard the phrase, "the calm before the storm"...then you know what I'm talking about. There are still so many things to get ready before the big night this Friday. Tara Wilson's kiln is getting unloaded tonight, tomorrow we're setting the house up.. and we're spreading the Free word these last few days. So if you happen to be around Helena this weekend..come see the craziness I've been involved in. I'll have some new posts about it as it all unfolds before my eyes. In the meantime... if you can re-post the picture, or tweet or facebook or whatever to get the word out..I'd so totally appreciate it!

Gotta Dot

2010-11-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

It's 5 degrees outside and snowing. It's Monday morning which means I should have a new post about the wood Kiln...but I don't. It was just as cold yesterday and everybody called off the game. Instead of freezing my ass off, scraping bricks or building the back wall of our kiln, I spent most of the day doing one of the most important steps dealing with Free Ceramics: Dotting with underglaze. It could have been 5 years ago that I first helped with this step and it all took place inside my sister's living room with only 7 different colors, a stack of South Park dvds and a bunch of weed. Now the color pallet has grown to this long board that hangs on the wall with test tiles that can be taken off..so we can see the color combos and what they'll look like together. As life goes on.. we're up to 42 colors, the South Park has changed to Hulu and the weed has smoked itself away. It's a long process... because each dot, requires three separate coats of each color. A large bowl, or platter may have up to 15 different colors. And for some reason, the mugs can take as long as a large bowl. For the next two weeks I'll be at this table, almost every day doing this until the weekend after Thanksgiving. It's just how it is. Ya gotta do it... The good news is that I was officially done with wet work two days ago. There is one more bisque to fire, once the teapots are dry, and four more glaze kilns to have finished before our sale which is happening December 3, 4, and 5th.

Fifty Gravy Boats

2010-11-17T09:49:00.000-07:00

You may not be fully aware of the doings and happenings of some ceramic folks out there... but you probably know that there are some interesting and silly guys that are pushing the boundaries of this field.

Right now there is a project in works, Fifty Gravy Boats, in a place called Pleasant Hill, California. The brain behind this.. should I call it a "takeover"? Quite possibly... The Brains behind this takeover is none other then a man, the man, Karl McDade. Mcdade, Mcdude, or MacDaddy, which are only a few of his aliases, had a vision. His vision was of the eternal, epic, and almost biblical struggle between the Teapot and the Gravy Boat. For centuries these two forms, seemingly from opposite sides of the world have battled to be the top dog. For many years the Teapot has been winning...yet, as with all things, the pendulum has begun to swing back into the underdog-Boat's favor. The tides seem to be turning...and as you can tell from this show, the first ripple effects are showing themselves. Soon, like the first movements of an avalanche, this ripple of 50 Gravy Boats will soon turn into a force that no other form that we know of can withstand. The time of the Gravy Boat is nigh!

There is no denying the Gravy Boat has returned...and you will have no choice but to finally see it for what it is- the most complex... the most challenging...and the most delicious form we potters know of.

Brace yourself.

it's all Good

2010-11-16T09:58:00.001-07:00

Made it up to the kiln the last couple of days and did some serious brick cleaning while Andrew and Scott managed to keep the construction going. We were feeling pressured to get more done because of the impending word of snow..and snow it did. We gotta be up to 5 inches down here in the Valley by now..and I can only imagine how much has dumped at the kiln site. Once again I feel proud to be involved with this thing..and what I really get into is the fact that almost all of the materials are recycled from two old kilns from the Archie Bray. In fact..these bricks are from the last kilns that ole David Shanner, rest his soul, made himself back in the late 70s while he was the resident director at the Bray. That's some good mojo for sure!! Another side note too is that Scott's awesome father offered his services to fix my wood splitter.. the thing just wouldn't run without being fully choked. My brain isn't quite all about metal.. but I heard that Scott's dad used to be a highschool shop teacher, old school style..and boy what a great old guy. This is a vase I made back in school with some flowers we got at the local store here. We're going to take up to him today as a thank you. I'm guessing he's not into searching the internet so I wont ruin the surprise by sharing it here. It's insane just how alive this vase became when it had some flowers in it. I thought I'd move past this sort of thing..but shit, doesn't it look awesome?? haha.. I have to make some more now.

birth of

2010-11-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

I had this grand scheme that I'd make a cool video about a new form I was making...and once again, it turned into something different. While editing the videos down I noticed some cool shots, or places to crop the video, during my trimming process. From there it turned into an exploration into the textures, colors, forms and compositions within my little studio that were happening around me and this pot I was making. I think the finished pot is the larger vase with a face in my previous, Ho Ho Holter post. When I really started to think about what was going on with this video..I realized that there has to be so much going on that just passes me by, especially when I'm so concerned with what's in front of my face. I could look up at the sky and say, "hey what a perfect blue sky!", but right under my foot..I could be stepping on a a flower, or walking over some awesome little rocks. It's so easy to get caught up with what you think is important or worth your time. How can people learn to be more sensitive to their surroundings? How can we really begin to see things? I first posted this video on my friend, Tony Clennell's blog as a guest post... my little plan to try and hook some new readers- I only got two. ha! You two are the best!!!

Ho-Ho Holter

2010-11-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

A couple of nights ago I went to my first opening, as a participating artist, at the Holter Museum of Art here in Helena. It's the annual Ho Ho Holter Christmas pottery show where they invite something like 100 different ceramic potters from the region to show. I felt grateful to be asked earlier this summer. The woman who runs the gallery and set up there had seen my website and emailed me. That website actually worked! All I needed was about 11-20 pieces. Easy I thought... sure that'd be awesome. As the summer went by, pots for Free Ceramics were flying out of the door and our wood kiln was going up...quickly I realized I was running out of time. For about a week I spent hours and hours trying to make some decent work while still doing my day job. It was super crunch time and with a bit of finagling with some residents I secured the salt kiln at the Bray to fire and be unloaded the day the pots were due. Everything went smoothly...and with a serious lack of sleep I cranked out some pots, fired, and unloaded the pots. The pots went from the kiln to a shelf, where I had some sand paper...then to a box and directly to the Holter just 5 minutes before the deadline. At the opening I actually got to look at what I made. I'm ok with the outcome..but, I don't know.. I never feel as if my work is good enough...it can always get better. And plus some of my favorites were selling work too, like my all time fav, Josh DeWeese and the super skilled super-potter-woman, Sarah Jaeger. Knowing that I was showing with them made me more nervous. But to say the least I noticed a few hands with my cups or plates walking around and was glad to hear the positive feed back from fellow ceramic artists or people whom I knew, that didn't know I made pots. It was a fun evening and the martini's had way too much vodka... but I'm not complaining...

Kiln Dayz

2010-11-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

“Get ‘er done” That seems to be the attitude about the kiln as the end of November gets nearer and nearer. There is so much on my plate these days, even more so then it was while I was at school. I remember thinking my last semester (May, 2010) about what I had really learned and I realized that in school, they teach you many many things and if you pay attention you can learn quite a lot, but what it all comes down to is how well they taught you how to multi-task. Can you juggle a ton of deadlines? Can you keep those who are counting on you happy? Can you do all these things and still make good work??? I think I learned how to do all that… and like a friend told me the other day, “well, you made those decisions, didn’t you?” Yes, yes… No room to complain when it’s you who are in the drivers seat.

Many days from Scott, Andrew and a day given from Crista has the kiln to this point. It’s still getting close… A couple of minor adjustments and tweeks has the kiln to a place where ‘ole Peg Udall’s plans are now just guidelines. But that’s normal, right? It wouldn’t be right if this kiln didn’t reflect those building her. It looks awesome, doesn’t it? I was so happy where it’s at I gave Scott a big hug after he showed me everything he’s done.

and now? I have a lot of bricks to clean. I have a lot of pots to make.

Thanks guys.

SOFA Chitown

2010-11-04T10:54:00.000-06:00

A week ago I climbed into a 14 foot Uhaul truck in Helena, Montana. The sun was just starting to go down and the trip just about to start. The truck was packed full of pedestals, boxes, and crates... full of artwork. The mission I accepted was to drive this truck 1600 miles to the heart of the midwest, Chicago, for the annual sculpture event known as SOFA. Amongst the many boxes were some of the most recent works by big hitter ceramic artists such as Richard Notkin, Chris Antemann, Don Rietz, and Josh DeWeese along with all the long term residents of 2010. I never did tally the monetary value of what was in the truck, because really, I didn't want to know... It had to be a lot and for the drive, I was responsible for it. Over the next couple of days I made my way through Billings, Montana and then to Minneapolis for a couple of days during Halloween. I met up with old friends and had a blast of a time for Halloween, seeing the best puppet show ever- some of these puppets were over 20 feet tall.

Now in Chicago, I've been involved with setting up the Bray show and witnessing the preliminary steps that go into this huge event. So many galleries shipping work here, unpacking and setting up. The morning of set up was insane to say the least. So far it's been quite the experience and the event is scheduled to open today, at 5 pm for the VIP collector viewing. I'm far from the VIP status but since I'm part of the setup I get free access to everything that's going on. Tonight I'll be interested in seeing just how it all works... How Galleries are pushing work to buyers and collectors and how artists are presenting themselves. Whose going to drink too much and break something? Will somebody buy the latest Akio Takamori or Tip Toland piece?? Not me of course! But you know there's gotta be plenty of people in there all coked up and crazy... somebody is going to crack.. because the pressure is thick enough to swim in.

bobbyfree.com gets it's first makeover

2010-10-29T09:10:00.000-06:00

I revamped part of bobbyfree.com with a whole lot of new pictures of past work. I had a number of suggestions.. like making it so that people can click on an image and see it in a larger format. Thanks for the advice! New sections include soda fired ceramics, highlighting the cone 6 soda research I did back in Utah, a wood fired pottery section with some of my best wood fired pots, and the bfriz production section which features a brand new video I just finished a few nights ago. Check it out!!

Kiln Day 7, "Andrew's Day"

2010-10-25T09:50:00.000-06:00

The days are getting shorter and the temperature is getting lower. If you're a potter out there, which I'm sure most of you are, you might have a few deadlines looming over your heads.. you might be busy as hell trying to get the last groups of pots made before your own Christmas Sale... especially now that all those galleries you show at have been stuffed with some nice new work. With that said, where can you find the time to work on things like a wood kiln?? In my case, I can't. I had to say "tough doo-doo" to myself and sit at the wheel instead of laying brick. I'm glad I roll with such an awesome crew that really wants to see this kiln done regardless if I'm not there. It's not really a big deal.. these folks are pretty smart. So who took the reigns and got things organized and moving forward?? Andrew Chanania. That's his website..give it a click to see his pots. I've mentioned Andrew before in some previous posts, and he's made quite a few appearances on some of the video, but I never did talk about him. Andrew is a bad ass soccer player. He also makes some damn fine pots too. Not only that... but he's an avid IPA drinker at the local brew house down the street. If there's a number of ways to tell if a guy is alright... just notice what kind of beer he drinks. Other then that Andrew was educated at one of, if not the top school teaching clay (i'm glad he makes pots and not clouds.. yah you know what I'm talkin about!) and then spent a couple of years working with Chris Gustin, who is himself an awesome soccer player- nah just kidding. I don't know if Chris plays soccer..but Chris is a damn good artist and a great mentor. To say the least we're lucky to have Andrew around for sure. Here's what the team accomplished... They layed a few more courses of brick, put down the cement board over the cinder blocks and got the firebox up to the level of the stoking door. yes! Thanks for keeping the ball moving up the field guys.

Kiln Day 6, "The Grates, Blocks and Hole"

2010-10-18T08:52:00.000-06:00

We finally made it back up to the kiln site yesterday for the much anticipated Kiln Day 6. What a gorgeous day. Can you believe that the temperature was warm enough to take off the sweatshirt? We’re not going to get many Sunday’s like this anymore…the weather is quickly becoming colder and the possibility of snow looms on us as the days get shorter.

With the added bonus of the sunshine we arrived at the kiln close to 10 am. It had been so long since we all had been up there that it took a bit of time to figure out what the next steps had to be.

We stopped in to see Scott since none of us told him we were planning to work that day. Inside the log house we had a little chat with Scott’s dad who was cozy by the wood stove with his feet up and a cup of coffee in his hands. It was tempting to stay.. but we needed to work on our own wood stove. We gotta get this thing done… Can somebody give me a full week? That’s all I need. There’s just too much stuff happening to really commit the time the kiln needs to get finished by the end of this moth. I think we’re still on schedule to finish up by our prediction of the end of November.

The highlights for this Kiln Day was cutting the bricks for the Grate Bars, which Matt was extremely skilled at, Crista nailed out the cinder blocks perfectly and Scott and Matt started to lay out the site for our soon to be installed outhouse. We’ll be firing in style for sure with a covered place to do our business. No more digging holes for us. We’re livin it up fancy style!

Special thanks and appreciation go out to little Clayton for doing some of the initial wood prep for our first firing!

If I can I’ll post a new video later this week. My sister and I are firing a salt kiln Tuesday and I have some new forms I’m feelin good about.

Kiln Day, "Palouse, WA"

2010-10-09T10:01:00.000-06:00

For the last couple of days I've been in a tiny little town in eastern Washington State called, Palouse. I'm here with my special lady-friend, Crista, setting up a small solo show she's having at the local gallery, which she's been represented at since she was in college. We wont be getting back to Helena until late Sunday night, which means...no Kiln Day, 6 this week - Bummer. Yet even though we're almost 400 miles away, the Kiln Day has emerged regardless of location. Let me explain...

Two days ago we spent the first half of the day setting up Crista's show, which was full of unexpected twists and turns. To say the least, once it was done we were happy to get out of the gallery and walk around the main street, seeing some antique shops and making the easy decision to hit the tavern for a beer. As we walked in, Cirsta recognized a man sitting amongst a group of guys at a table near the bar. She introduces me to Tim, an older gentleman of maybe...55-58 years with short white hair. He was drinking a 16 oz. can of Keystone light. Tim is the sculpture/ceramic studio tech at WSU where Crista earned her undergraduate degree. Just a semester ago Tim dismantled some old gas kilns, a 50 and 25 cubic foot, that had to be replaced. Tim squirreled the remains away.... not having the heart to throw them away- a true sign of an excellent tech. Once we told Tim about the small wood kiln we've been building he said, "Well hey, you know about those kilns we replaced? I have a bunch of steel and some bricks you can have.. just come by later and we'll load you up."

Yesterday we met Tim at the school and we loaded the truck down with a whole lot of steel and angle iron, about 100 more soft brick.... and the big scores were the 8 Venturi burners and 2 thermocouples with a good length of wire.

This is excellent news my people!!! Now we have enough metal to secure the kiln, make the stoking doors and a way to read the temperature during the firing. I'm going to buy a digital readout for this guy and be able to track the firing up and cooling down of this kiln... I'll have a solid way to continue some of my cone 6 soda, reduction cooling research..now plus wood.. I was into back in Logan a few years back. Bang on!

The odd picture of Crista and I is our silly tribute to "American Gothic". Thank you Mr. Wood!

Kiln Day 5, "The Firebox Floor and Primary Air"

2010-10-04T09:08:00.000-06:00

Waking up early after a long week of work for our Kiln Day felt as if I’d slept in all weekend. The night before I was up until the late hours reviewing the plans and doing some drawings of what I thought we’d get to. I’ve noticed that this kiln has kept me up late into the night with my head running around in circles. I’ve been dreaming of it, other kilns and firings more often then normal… if I don’t work out what’s on my mind with some drawings or notes... I can count on only a few hours of sleep.

Scott told me, after the excitement of building half of the beautiful new shed, “Bobby… I’ve done my part and most of what I can do for now. The ball’s in your court, dude. Make it pretty and lay those bricks!!”

Now comes the slow, tedious, methodical and troublesome act of laying reused brick for our soon to be finished kiln. It was just the boys yesterday: Matt, Andrew, Scott, Clayton and I. Emily and Crista took the day to work on their own ceramic art, undisturbed, which doesn’t seem to happen very often. Andrew and I were on brick duty, laying down the first courses of soft brick, while the others worked on moving some wood, cleaning the place up, and pouring two more supports for the other side of the kiln shed.

Once the two layers of soft were down, we attached a heavy duty grit, 32 or 36, to a piece of 2x4 to really get that top layer zeroed and leveled for the first layers of hard brick. Boy that worked out well. By 1 pm we had the firebox floor in and the primary airs worked out.

Back in August when we dismantled those two kilns, we ended up with a lot of different sized bricks. A good chunk of those bricks are 3” x 4½” x 13”. The 13s are nice long guys which I want to use when I can but with the normal bricks (2½ ”x 4 ½” x 9”) we’re ½” too tall to throw them into any normal course. So the plan, as of now, is to use them when we have any kind of opening, like here for our ash removal. All we have to do is make a little shelf in the other bricks, ½” down and the 13 will line right up with the 2½"s.

Andrew and I took off around 3 pm to make our soccer practice and didn’t get back until about 6:30 pm, a bit later then we had planned. But we had enough time to level out our last course before it got too dark to see. Well, it got too dark to see real quick… so when we make it back out there we’ll really get to see how straight it ended up…and if Andrew can really see in the dark.

I’m headed to Washington State next week and won’t be back for the next Sunday’s Kiln Day. We’re all taking that Sunday off…it wont be until the 16th that we get back up there. It's going to kill me!! I’ll make an entry about what I’m up to, which is still about clay. My special lady-friend is having a show back there in her home town. Until then…

Video: Kiln Day 4, "The Shed and first Bricks"

2010-09-30T09:25:00.000-06:00

This video was pretty fun to make. It took several hours and lots of little tweaking...and I'm getting to know the iMovie app more and more. It's so much fun doing this.. I might have to add a digital camera to this year's Christmas Wish List. I've been a Beastie Boys fan since I was about 12 and felt that this track, "Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun" was totally appropriate. I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

p.s. we were all very sober during this project.

Kiln Day 4, "The Shed and first Bricks"

2010-09-26T20:06:00.000-06:00

Yet another Sunday has come to pass and I'm here with my little nephew catching Mooses in the house while his parents are at a dinner party. I don't know how many small mooses I had to catch but that kid really has a lot packed away in an imaginary freezer and oven. But an average Sunday these days hasn't only been about imaginary animals or make-believe.. it's been about the new Kiln we've been dreaming of for a couple of months. A dream that's quickly becoming a reality...

We met up at Scotts place again around 10 am and to my surprise there was already about 3 guys there working. Scott had been busy the entire week cutting the wood for the kiln shed..and he didn't cut any corners at all. This timber is from his property that have been killed by Pine Beetles. He's cleared a lot of trees and we're all super grateful to be able to use the trees in this way (and later on to fire with!!). And by the way what you're seeing here is only half of the shed. The rest is going to be finished after we build the stack. There's talk of a blacksmithing area and possibly a pizza oven that will be near the back area of the kiln.... we shall see!!!

Throughout the day there was a number of times that I stopped what I was doing to look up and see what everybody was up to... All together we had 10 people there and many times everybody was working on something... 20 hands working! It really makes me happy to be involved with all these super cool people.. Things just keep on rolling along and by the end of the day while a few of the guys were installing the rafters of the shed, Andrew, Crista and I started laying down the first layers of brick. It's going to be hard not getting up there this next week..but I think I will anyways and just get it ready for the Arch form and stacking the Arch... which will be next Sunday's Kiln Episode.

Check in later this week for the next video, of Kiln Day 4, "The Shed and first Bricks".

Video: Kiln Day 3, "Pouring the Pad"

2010-09-23T09:19:00.000-06:00

Last night, my special lady-friend, had to work late.... so I did what any normal man would do in that situation.... I bought a small bottle of whiskey, recorded some music and mixed it with some videos on the computer. Please enjoy the latest installment, brought to you by the Bfriz production company.

Kiln Day 3, "Pouring the Pad"

2010-09-20T09:29:00.000-06:00

Waking up yesterday morning here in Helena, Montana, I was greeted with beautiful, clear-blue skies. I was happy, not only for the weather, but because it was the day to pour the kiln pad. We all made it to Emily and Matt’s place around 9:00 am, talked, drank some coffee… and made it up to Scott’s at about 9:45. We were ready to go! We had just the right amount of hands. Everybody was busy from the get-go. We were shoveling sand, gravel and road mix, measuring cement and water…running the cement mixer, and pouring the mix into the form.We measured with 5 gallon buckets..so each load had 3 buckets of gravel, 2 buckets of sand, 1 bucket of Portland cement and ¾ bucket of water. Remember the ratio? 3, 2, 1 (gravel, sand, cement) Everything went real smooth like and we had the pad finished, clean and with a beveled edge by 1:30. By 2 pm we had things cleaned up and were out of there. I even had enough to time to make soccer practice (I recently joined a rec team..and it's so fun). It was really the perfect day to pour; sunny skies, warm breeze… the kind of weather that reminded us of summer.

The kiln day continued into the evening when my good ole friend from school, Robin DuPont, stopped in to hit the couch on his way back to Utah. It’s always good seeing him but even better this time because in the back of his car he had 4, brand new kiln shelves for me. 30” x 25.5”…and light for their size… possibly only 45 lbs. I’m going to have to cut one or two of them so we can fit them all in the kiln..but…wow.. it’s all coming together!!!

Now that the pad is poured, in three or four days it will be set… and next week we’re planning to get that fist layer of brick down and get it all squared away and level. We originally planned to have the whole kiln finished and firing by the end of November, but we could easily be firing by the middle of October… or sooner. Here’s to good hands, willing backs and a crew that knows what the hell needs to get done. Stay tuned for the next episode of, “Kiln Day”. It’s only going to get better…

Kiln Day 2, "The mix"

2010-09-18T09:09:00.000-06:00

To be ready to pour the pad tomorrow morning we knew we had to have our mix ready to go before hand. We had agreed on the amount needed and found a place just outside of town that would fill up your truck bed for 10 bucks with sand or gravel. Not bad I thought. So for the first part of the morning, Matt drove with Clayton out to get the goods and picked me up to go help shovel it out. Little did we know that our good friend, Scott was so excited about us coming out with the gravel and sand that he went and bought 9 bags of portland cement. Just so you know it's a total rip off to buy premixed concrete..so doing it yourself is always the money savin way to be. The ratio goes like this... 1 portland cement to 2 sand to 3 gravel. 1, 2, 3. This little pad is going to need about 9 bags of portland, just under a cubic yard of sand and just under two cubic yards of gravel. (but don't take my word for it though. i'm workin with professionals here..and maybe i mixed a number up. i'm learning a lot of this stuff as we're doing it- so check it out for yourself!!) It's so great working with people who are so excited about this project. Another great reason to be building at Scott's place is that he has just about every toy and useful piece of equipment we could need to make this experience smoothe. I said he was making this really easy on me and he replied.... "nah Bobby.. I'm just facilitating you... " Check out this sweet tracked hydraulic lift (Scott uses it to haul full logs to his one-man lumber mill) which sure comes in handy when you need to move a cement mixer a couple blocks down a dirt road to where a kiln is being built...

So far...the cost of the kiln is:

sand: $10

gravel: $10

portland cement: $108

total: $128

Kiln Day 1 "The Form"

2010-09-13T09:20:00.000-06:00

God's Day has been officially designated "Kiln Day" for my crew and I. We all work our butts off during the week and can only seem to find the time to play on the weekends....which is so normal for us crazy Americans. Digging holes, pushing dirt, hauling bricks, building a wooden form for our kiln pad...some would consider working, but not when you love what it is. I'm stoked for this little kiln!! Now that we have the form built and ready to go, later this week we'll get a load of gravel, sand, and portland cement up there so we can mix and pour during "Kiln Day 2" this weekend. The pad is so little- look how cute it is! haha...and if you look close, we've tied in four boxes at each corner for the shed that's going to be built after the pad sets up. The kiln is being built near an old mining operation from the early 40s, which is all that junk and sagging walls behind it. It's a really cool area, which deserves it's own post for sure. I took another shot of the brick pile... that's a lot of brick!!!

My Crew:

Matt Wilson - Carpenter, Ceramic Artist, Civil Engineer specializing in Concrete

Scott Walter - Carpenter, Sculptor, Lumber Mill operator, quietly/moderately gregarious

Crista Ames - Sculptor, Cook, Strong, Norwegian

Emily Free Wilson - Ceramic Artist, Official watcher of Clayton, Top snack maker

Clayton Wilson - Best helper ever.

Next step

2010-09-11T12:46:00.001-06:00

It's been a good week for making my work. I've been spending most of my free time carving away at these cups, bowls and plates I made the week before. I've made good and bad ones...I've taken the decoration way too far and havn't done enough. I guess it's called, "testing the boundaries".

They have this very nice arabic feel, or a modern style of graffiti... what I'm interested in is how I can use the blacks, greys and whites and manipulate those marks to enhance the form of the pots...

What I enjoy so much about starting a new project is seeing it progress and change. But is it really new? I don't think so... there are parts to this series that can easily be traced back a couple of years, or longer.... Isn't that what's so great about the making processes? The things that you think, see, or do today...can have such an impact on what's happening later on in the future.

I have no idea how long it will be before I have enough work to fire an entire kiln..but hopefully it will be by the middle of october...due to some deadlines coming up/shows I want to try and enter.

New Work

2010-09-07T09:53:00.000-06:00

This summer has been interesting and totally busy... It's been difficult to get back into the swing of making my own work again. It's been a good long break since May and it's time to turn on my own creative juices again. But you know?.... when you work all day making somebody else's pots, when you get home...it's hard to not crack open a beer and watch a movie- even making dinner seems to be a challenge.

But to say the least I've pushed through those vegetative impulses and have been making some new work. These are being made for the salt kiln. The process not being any different then my last round but this time I've taken out the "faces". I just can't seem to keep making the faces for no reason (other then they look cool - lame) and figured I should concentrate more on form and how the sgraffito works with the over-all pot.

So where this line of work came from... I had a few episodes of ink paintings about a month back and some thoughts about infinity, space, and depth... and remembered how Escher was fascinated with the plane and sometimes just to see how deep marks could go... anyhoo, this is what I came up with: a process of marks, first being large and broad then from those marks continue to add others..and to just go as small as I could, while sections morphed into their own "things" or shapes... close to free association I thought.

These are the new pots... when I saw it, after i had already started it..i thought..holy hell... i can do like what i did with the ink...