Prudence's Pottery

A few more hours to go and 2012 will be behind us.  2012 is another good year for me in term of pottery making (and other things too).  I learned some new pottery tips from my friends at the Ottawa Guild of Potters and some from online resources.  I did my annual show at the beautiful Shenkman Art Centre.  With the advice from Paul Portelli (http://www.paulportelli.com/), I changed the look of my display.  It looked quite nice IMO.  All in all I think it was a great year! My display at the Ottawa Guild of Potters' Holiday Sale 2012 The other side of my display The first big pottery thing I will do in 2013 is to attend Cynthia Bringle's workshop in January.  I am looking forward to it. Happy New Year everyone!  

It seems like I only spend time in the studio during a long weekend....well I do spend in the studio sometime during and weekend. However, I also like to golf, so at least one day of the weekend during the summer I am at the golf course. Now that the show is coming up just a little bit over a month, I really should spend some more time in the studio. Today is the day! The temperature was only high of 9 degrees...a perfect time to stay indoor! I am a slow potter, someone can use up a bag of clay in a 3-hour studio time. I really can't do that, instead I did in 4-5 hours with a few breaks in between. :p the bowls that I made today = a bag of clay (exclude the brown ones)

It's getting much closer to show day which means it's time to "work" harder.  It didn't help that I was away for 3 weeks in August, but I had a great time during my vacation. I have enough bisque pieces for another glaze load, so here is the result: 13 pieces all together...which includes my teapot set as well. This is my first sort of working teapot.  However, there are still more improvements needed. Another attempt of yarn bowls

I was right.  My parents took the blue chopstick pillows and started to use them right the way.  It's a great feeling when you know someone appreciate your work!  Thanks mom and dad! Mom and dad have been great supporters of my work.  When I visited them, I noticed that they only use the mugs I made.  This is quite a motivation for me.  And now that the Fall show (which has been just renamed to Holiday show) is only a couple of months away.  I should start working again.

I don't normally do more than one glaze load in a month unless when it is close to the show time.  However, there's always exception.  I have to get my chopstick pillows ready for my parents, so there you go.... I haven't been all that lucky these days.  I had a cracked plate during drying early this month, then now another cracked plate, this time during glaze fire.  :(  My guess is that the plate was made too thin and it was trapped between 2 plate sitters (probably not enough air flow)...I am really making this up, don't really know why.  However, I know for sure I don't want this happen again! On the bright side, the chopstick pillows turned out great!  I hope my parents like them.  I wonder which one they will choose.  I have a feeling they like the bluish one more than the red one.  I will post the result when I find out. :p

I always have mixed feelings between the time when the kiln has started up and the time to open up the kiln once it's cool down.  One side of me was really looking forward to see the finished products and on the other hand, I was really worried about all the different things it could happen when firing a glaze load.  Especially this time around I'd tested some new combinations.  It's good that all pieces survived the heat...YAY! BTW, I sent in my Fall Guild Show application last Friday, which means that I have to work harder.  The good news is that I already have quite a number of glazed pieces...much better than the same time last year.  :) The top shelf (only a half shelf) 3rd shelf (Love how the mysterious blue turned out) Half of the 2nd shelf Bottom shelf (I love how burgundy turned out this time - after I dipped it for 6 seconds) Result for the whole load :)

Alright alright, the first of Summer was last week.  But still, the Summer has been great so far (except for the Monday just passed, it was only high of 14 degrees :( ) Just checked my last post, it was posted in April?!  Where did May and June go?  I guess that's just the power of Summer.   The bisque load in June, mostly mugs and plates (not shown in the picture) A relatively big bowl Another casserole attempt I made some chopsticks pillows for my mom last year and she requested more this year What have I been doing?  Well, some golfing on the weekend, vacation, work and POTTERY.  Yes, I made some pieces.   My friends Colin and Nancy had tried out their new butter dish.  It was a great idea from Colin.  I didn't make it big enough to hold one whole butter, but I guess it's usable.  Here are pictures of the butter dish "in action" (OK Colin, you can make fun of me saying that again :p) Great...