steve Abee demo

Well today at school we started the day by cutting the door and building on the chimney at the same time. I actually thought we would get the door finished and the chimney up high enough to at least fire the thing(power burners!). The roof has yet to be started, guess the company that the school hired is just to busy to make money? Hell i should have put in a bid!!!! at least it would be finished. anyway, we only got half the door finished and up past the damper on the chimney, not bad. The door took longer becuase i decided since it was soft brick to let the students try their hands at some of those fancy "L" cuts i use. They enjoyed it, as they and I always do. After wards, and the real meat to this meatloaf of a blog post, was the Steve Abee demo (see pics). I have only just meet steve but find him to be a humble potter. The afternoon had discussions of old catawba valley potters, Steve's connections with Charlie Lisk and Burlon Craig, Historical potters and where we all fit in in this big ol stew pot of contemporary potters. I must say that there is nothing better than watching your students watch a fresh set of hands on the clay. Speaking of students i also had the great pleasure of watching one of our students, adam, really take off in the bigger pot department. He was working on stacking cylinders or "capping" as it is also called. He made two really big 7lb vases today, and the satisfaction on his face was unmistakeable! That is the true pleasure of teaching right there, watching it all go down, reliving those early experiences that i remember myself having. The visual affirmation of what I/ we try to impart to these students is the best reward. Well it was a good day and one i will remember for a long time. I feel like i did little physical labor today yet at the same time i am totally exhausted, mostly mentally. but thats a good thing i think. papa out

the body is fine, so is the soul

well, by body i mean the new salt kiln i have been documenting, my body is not so fine lately, although my soul seems quite well. My back has started to act up which i do not like, but that just means its time to start my exercises again and maybe even try to squezze in some walking time. Studio wise i am pretty happy, i have settled into the fact that not as many pots will be finished at the end of the week, but that is ok. Work towards a november firing in linda macs soda kiln is moving along nicely. the new salt kiln at WPCC is coming along fine, we finished the body of the kiln on monday when we capped the fiber with a nice cement coating, yep, cement. Budget is tight so i had a bag of sand topping quickrete mix that had been in my studio for over 5 years. We addes some clay to it and also a little extra sand. It seems like it will take a few days to harden but it is hardening up. We will cut the door brick and work on the chimney tomorrow. then its just waiting onthe burners to arrive and mount them and plumb em up. Can't wait to fire. In other news, the students went out with local folk potter steve abee to dig some wild clay, then went back and processed it also. We are all switching over to this wild cone six clay today and plan on doing some experimental firings, as well as standard cone six firings. I will keep you posted on that. OK, i gotta go get my hands in some of this stuff! see ya round the kiln. Captian Cone pack well, by body i mean the new salt kiln i have been documenting, my body is not so fine lately although my soul f

another day in paradise?

so, where do i begin??? hmmmmm. Well almost a whole month has went by and what have i accomplished! nothing in the studio, barely got any pots made and that i do not like at all.i am severely starting to miss the rhythms of daily studio life, esp when i have no pots to sell. I am still trying to work up a batch of pots,just to share a kiln with Linda mcfarling. Other than my own studio, the studio at school is busy. And as with any school setting i have some students who try very hard and work hard and those who don't really give a shit. To be totally honest i find some of the students to be down right belligerent, and whiney. I have about had it with those students! so the pictures you see are of our recent progress on the salt kiln. Evan and his mom are away for the week at the beach so i am hoping to move my office from upstairs(to make room for a walk in closet!) to downstairs and spend alot of time drinking heavily and making lots of pots. if you need me look under my pottery wheel under the pile of empty pabst blue ribbon cans. that is all, captain is out!