Bowls for wood firing at Mike Carrol's...

Well...here are 15 more bowls I threw today for the Avon wood firing on the 29th...fingers, toes, crossed...lucky rabbits foot? I took everyone's ideas to heart...we will see how many survive...

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Shannon's Skull

My new patron Shannon recently commissioned me to create a "Dios de los muertos" themed skull. Today she came by the studio and approved the piece. Next steps: hollowing out, finishing, drying, bisque firing, glazing and glaze firing...I got work to do! Stay tuned...

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Don't count your chickens...also known as, "Chea's 100 bowl challenge".

Since my last lesson with Chea I've been struggling with my throwing. What came as instinct in the beginning became a frustrating exercise in over-thinking. On top of this Chea assigned me the challenge of throwing 100 bowls before I can take another lesson. And...they don't count towards the 100 bowls unless the survive bisque firing. I went through 55 lbs of clay before I made a single passable bowl. Then out of the first bakers dozen of usable bowls I only had one bowl survive. My problems with "S" cracks had returned! So...here we are...these are 21 new bowls I just trimmed and stamped with my new chop! ("chop" post to follow) Hopefully by compressing the foot with the chop and a few other tricks I'll be able to solve the "S" crack problems. I keep thinking about a conversation I had recently with Richard Aerni. He said, "...when it comes to ceramics, you can never count your chickens...". How right he was...is...99 bowls yet to throw on the wheel...99 bowls yet to throw!

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Recently fired-ware

Here are a few pics of my most recently glazed work. I'm super pleased with the direction my nuka & temmoku combinations are going but the shinos will take much longer to get where I want them...at least I have plenty to do...

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Japanese Pottery Centers affected by the Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear disasters.

» Global Ceramics Community Comes Together for Japan
There are links on this site for organizations that are geared to help Japanese artisans/crafts people affected by the triple disasters that befell that country. This really put a face on the tragedy for me. God speed...

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Chawan & Shino experimentation

This is a hand-built Chawan I started tonight. It's been a rough few days of throwing on the wheel...just haven't been able to assimilate my recent lesson with Chea into my process...so I decided I needed a pick me up and a break. Hence the hand-building...I've also been hard on the case of tracking down, mixing and experimenting with various "traditional" shino recipes...so far I have a 100% failure rate for getting what I'm shooting for but it is fun having to be a detective.

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37 second bowl by ceramic artist: Chea Peng

This is my teacher Chea Peng giving me a lesson...wow! This is my goal! Gotta keep practicing!

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