Oh, Yes I Did

I added lights for Saturday

Why did I think this one would be different? The venue, the person's compliments cajoling me to join in the show, or the hope that this time it will be a great one?!!


I found myself saying 'yes' to doing a show again. This one was at a Women's Club. I imagined the membership coming out in force to support the fund raiser and fall in love with my pottery.


After loading my car the night prior and spending a full day at work I drove fast to the venue on Friday afternoon, an old, historic building in the city. I was tired and battling a migraine but made the commitment and needed to follow through.



I dragged my set up and crates of pots (just three) up the steps and into the.....darkness?! I was shown my spot- just inside the "dining room," about a six foot long space along a wall. Already I started feeling the dread...what had I gotten myself into?

Thank goodness I brought my shelving unit and not a table. There were three other vendors in this "dining room."  I was the last to arrive, so I got the worst spot. And- did I bring lights? No, silly me expected the place to be well lit. I had no where to set up a space for taking money or for wrapping pots. Thankfully they offered a three foot length along the opposite wall for me to set up a small wrapping station. I backed up to a table in the "cafe" section, but was still optimistic that I was going to make big, Big, BIG sales.

And then...... no one came!

Empty Venue, bad lighting 

                                                                               

the flash helped illuminate 

                                                                         

What do you do when it's slow at a show? I played solitaire and sudoku on my i-phone. Friday night was a tad better than Saturday and I made three sales then. At 2pm on Saturday when five people had walked through (show opened at 10 and went until 4) I hit my wall.  I did the unthinkable....I packed up and left. 

YES I DID!!!!!!!!!!

I am sick of wasting time at poorly run venues where I get a crappy spot and am supposed to act like I am okay with it....after I had to pay an entry fee to even get in.  I do not want to chat with everyone, I'd rather be home in my studio, I get precious little time in there as it is. 

So, I will NOT be doing any more shows! Please remind me if I start romancing the idea of doing a show again. I want people to come to my shop and to the two events that I plan, which are very well attended. 

As I was loading my car I watched two other people begin to pack up too... I did fight some guilt, but getting home and enjoying some of the beautiful day shook off my guilt! With that found time I took photos of pots from the recent Lucille firing.

 Here are a few photos from that load.  

13" diameter. Glaze: KCP Original

Malcolm's Shino

VC Copper Blue-Green

The Pressure Is Off (after it was on!)

I called Bailey Pottery about the pressure gauge issue I was having and spoke to Maureen (SO nice!!). She was amazing and let me talk to Mike (the kiln parts expert). Mike verified that he had pressure gauges on hand and, yes, I could purchase two. (HUGE sigh of relief!!). He then got me back on the phone with Maureen to work out payment, etc. So, Maureen and I talk- sending the gauges overnight would be mucho expensive and probably  not get to me in time for a morning kiln fire....boo.


This is where Dan works!


Bailey does not open until 8:30...this would put my firing off longer than I preferred. However, I live a mere 90 minutes away. A little begging and Maureen checked with Dan ( I think his name was Dan) in manufacturing. They open at 7:30. Dan agreed to let me pick up the gauges at 7:30!!! So, I jumped in my car at 6 a.m. and made it to Bailey Pottery at 7:30. Dan was as pleasant as can be. And look at how beautiful the new pressure gauge is!!!






Old pressure gauge and NEW pressure gauge!


This is why I love working with the Bailey Pottery people~ they are so nice and helpful. Look at how much nicer that pressure gauge is. I can see increments and in practice, it was much more precise.

Isn't it pretty?!

The firing went well. I am a bit calmer each time I do this! It was a full load and took me 9 hours. Slowly I am getting the heat/time concept and how air and using the damper make a difference with heat.

The kiln stayed balanced this time (whew!)



Asticou and me

Asticou had his own chair and hung out with me for a good portion of the firing.

Looks pretty good, huh?! I can only hope the pots look good when I open the door tomorrow (fingers crossed!).

The pyrometer seems to read a bit low compared to the cones. Ignore the old pyrometer with the needle, now I use the Bartlett digital and this newbie reduction firing potter did make the plunge to get an oxygen meter and I LOVE it! I am grateful for such tools to help me figure out what is happening in the kiln.

I had a heck of a time looking at my cones toward the end of the firing...my special glasses are not special enough, apparently, and I could not see into the yellow heat. Any advice on how to get a better look?

Once again I had emerald flame for a good portion of the firing. I still have not found an explanation for what causes that phenomenon, but I do enjoy seeing it (very Dorthyesque!!)

By the way, Bailey Pottery is having a Shino workshop over Memorial Day weekend. Looks like an impressive line up of presenters...I think I'll have to change my plans to go :)

Plan B

I busted my butt to prepare for a glaze firing today (Saturday). Working week nights to finish glazing and loaded the kiln Friday night after work. The glaze room was a mess!

All went well with the overnight pre-heat. I went to light the left burner psyched for a full day only to discover that the pressure gauge won't work. Crap, CRAP, CRAP!!! Maybe the spider who left all those webs crawled in and tied it in knots?!

Why is it that no one has 0-15" WC Pressure Gauges on hand?? Is it that unusual an item to keep in stock? And, why is it no one is open on Saturdays??!! Even my beloved Bailey Ceramics does not have business hours on Saturdays.

:(  

Finally my internet research led me to the Grainger company for this. I will go pick it up after work on Monday. This changes my week plans ~ I need this load of pots for a show next weekend. Have any of you potters out there dealt with this before?

So, plan B- clean up the mess in the glaze room, price pots in the shop and the rest of the day work on a custom order; 60 mugs made. Tomorrow decorate and put handles on...hopefully I'll have time to make more pots too. I am already anxious to get another kiln load ready. The last time I fired up Lucille it was October. I'd like to have more than two firings in a year!

That's the news at Kings Creek Pottery for now. Next time I hope to show you the results of the firing!
Have a good week~

In Pursuit of Flow (Or SHUT UP!!!)

My husband, Chris, is now retired and has loads of time to read (the precious gift of time). He routinely sends me articles. At first overwhelming me,  he has pared down to articles he finds really interesting or funny.

Last week he sent me an article titled: "Zap Your Brain into the Zone: Fast Track to Pure Focus"  Little did I  know that many researchers study the concept of Flow and what happens in the brain when flow occurs. A researcher named Csikszentmihalyi found that while playing, skilled chess players show less activity in their prefrontal cortex, which is where higher cognitive processes occur.

Hmmm, so quiet head = more flow?!

As a social worker I often talk to kids about the negative mind chatter in our heads and that it IS possible to quiet it, not focus so much on it, and enjoy life more as a result. They look at me like I have three heads!!

Of course, as I am talking to them about it I remind myself of the need to monitor my own negative thought patterns  :)

Another researcher, Wulf, found that better learning comes when you turn off conscious thought. Not thinking about what you are doing as much as focusing on the outcome. Ohhhh, so when I struggle (key word) to raise my cylinder walls to higher than 8" it does not go as well as when I imagine the shape of the finished piece? You mean, when I stop telling myself that I am a great, big loser, amateur, pathetic excuse for a human being, I actually make better pots??!!  (Big Duh Moment).

My mom is visiting from California and she joined me in the studio for the past two days. She has negative mind chatter too. Watching her struggle to listen to me through her internal dialog was quite something. However, she was out there trying something completely  new at age 72 and that's pretty cool.



Way to go Mom!

 The author of the article allowed herself to be hooked up for an experiment- something about a nine volt battery hooked up to her head. Apparently the zapping (?) depolarizes the neuronal membranes in a region of the brain, which makes the brain cells more excitable and responsive to input. In essence, creating a state of 'flow'.  Her comments are fascinating...though the point of the research (to train snipers) is more than disturbing. It got me thinking: what would my life be like if the negative chatter was turned OFF- silenced, done, nada.

Oh, the peace.

I hold myself back~ no one does it to me. I've been working to calm the critical voice inside myself even more after reading this and just allow myself to be who I am . I suppose it helps to be in my early 50's with some experience behind me. Only wish I'd known about this when I was younger.

However, if you'd told me this when I was a lot younger I'd probably look at YOU like you had three heads!!

Jeff's Red

I went to this great workshop last June at Bailey Ceramics featuring John Britt and Jim Bailey. When we arrived we were created with buckets of pre-mixed glazes (this potter's dream!) and were allowed to glaze about 6 pieces each. They were all fired to cone 10 in reduction. This was my introduction to Jeff's Red (see John Britt's book).  You can also read this nice article on Jeff's Red, written by John Britt.

  

drama and pizazz!

The glaze was very cool and I promptly came home to make a batch of my own! However, although also firing to cone 10 in reduction, my batch turned out to look like this:

ho hum....boring :(

I was so disappointed. The pink bowls hung around laughing at me on the shelf until one day while loading my electric kiln for a glaze firing I thought I'd throw in one of the pink bowls to see what would happen....and look at what happened!! 

Oh la la!!

On the left, Oh La La- on the right, ho hum...!

So, my question is- should I fire pots with this glaze as a routine- once in reduction and then in oxidation!? Should I make this color an exclusive line to glam up the price?! It seems indulgent to twice fire them, but I really love the effect.

Isn't it amazing how colorants struggle back and forth depending on the atmosphere?  A perfect solution would be to figure out a way to get this effect in my reduction firing without all the extra expense, but I fear that requires a level of understanding and glaze fiddling beyond my ability right now.

Your thoughts? Any experience with this type of thing? 

Thanks in advance for any comments you might have~

John Britt and Jim Bailey