Japanese Tea Ceremony & Test Trout

Last Saturday, I spent a fun day at Portland Pottery along with my fellow mud buddy, Lynn, enjoying a very informative seminar, the "Japanese Tea Ceremony" with Steve Murphy of Boston Pottery.  It was interesting, I was unaware of the intricacies of the tea ceremony, proper handling of the pots, design of the pots and so forth. It's quite formal and meaningful.  Unlike my Mainiac tea ceremony of throwing a tea bag in any old cup, mug, bowl, bucket... and run out the door to the studio method.

Tea bowls of a variety size and shape depending upon their use. Some tea bowls are used in the Summer, while others are used in the Winter.  A lot of thought and consideration goes into the design of each bowl.

Here Steve shows us how to trim a foot for the bowls. The lower photo is a double bamboo foot. I really like the looks of this one, very classy and elegant. 

 Above Steve is patting the brush into wet slip demonstrating how to get a feathered effect.  Below you can see the results. Using a transparent glaze this effect should stand out and be quite beautiful.

 Steve made this tool to create "chatter" marks over the bowl for decorative purposes. Below he is using the tool to create a sunflower pattern.

 As you can see, the tool has left the effect of the sunflower pattern quite nicely.

The trip to Portland was suppose to last the weekend, but as luck would have it, another storm was headed our way.  Portland is roughly three hours from home, so it was a round-trip adventure making it a long day ...but, highly worth the effort, having been able to spend time with my dear friend and take in a wonderful seminar on the tea ceremony.  I will never look at a cup of tea so casually again, but there will be no elaborate ceremonies over my cup of vanilla infused Earl Gray tea either.  Yet, I will drink my brew with fond memories of this day.

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Back at the studio, I began the very detailed work of under glazing and glazing pots.  In this batch, there are the wedding pieces for the upcoming show, as well as a custom carved piece of two trout.  Some of the under glazes I have yet to test fire, so instead of blindly applying them to the carved trout, I created a test trout on a bisque fired stoneware serving dish.  I am happy with the over all application, but as all potter's have experienced, what you see isn't always what you get.  The firing can change up the colors dramatically.  I am hoping that is not the case and the trout comes out looking like a trout, rather than a gold fish!

With time and good fortune, the glazing should be completed by the weekend and firing can commence!  I will post the complete pieces next week. 

Nemo, Beylah, Annikens & Peasley Pottery

Some are calling it the storm of the century..."Nemo."  I doubt that will hold true, but the dumping of three feet of snow in one shot did break records for Maine.  I find it funny that we are now naming our storms, what's up with that? And Nemo for a Nor'Easter is rather far fetched considering Nemo was a clown fish and not much for arctic waters.  Anyhow, here are a few photo's of the storm...with horses.  Before the horses could get out, Richard did some snow removal and relocation to create a runway into the pasture.

Beylah (front) & her daughter, Annikens (rear) 

The Norwegian Fjord Horse is truly built for this weather.  They LOVE the snow and cold!

The snow was quite deep in areas, but it just made it more fun for these two.  They figured out how to pack the snow by flopping over and using their body weight to flatten it out.  

Anni rested like a dog for quite some time. 

Meanwhile back at the pottery studio.....

I am still working on pieces for the wedding show in March.  I enjoy the detail work and had lots of it today!!

Calla Lily ~ large serving bowl

Lupine vase 

I'm hoping to build a photography booth for shooting more professional photos of my pottery, the only thing is...it is on my list of 5 minute jobs to do, that I haven't found 5 minutes to do...let alone found 5 minutes to write the list!  Maybe tomorrow....

Also, here are a few yarn bowls from the glaze firing the other evening.....hmmm, these sure could use that photo booth!  

Grab your yarn bowl and start knitting!  Have a safe, warm and happy weekend!

Wedding Pottery on the Drying Rack

Weddings, weddings, weddings....my mind is focused on wedding pottery.   I'm trying to get a good selection in the inventory for an upcoming wedding show in March.  It's such an exciting time and a special moment in time for each couple.  It will be interesting to hear about all the different types and styles of weddings people are planning! I have never been to a wedding show, so this will be a unique experience for me.

Here are some of the wedding pieces on the drying rack.   All pieces will be custom made for each wedding party based on their theme, flower arrangement or interest. Each piece is created to bring back fond memories of their special day!  

These pieces also make great anytime gifts.  I'm hoping my mother wants a luminary for Mother's Day....because that is what she is receiving! I know she will cherish it forever and enjoy it throughout the year. It's a perfect gift for her!  I can't wait for a quite summer evening, to be sitting outside with my coffee or wine, by the soft glow of the luminaries...yes, I plan on a couple!  They are so peaceful, yet magical, like lightening bugs in the field. 

Inukshuk's & Yarn Bowls...& subzero temperatures!

It's been so cold here in the Northeast that even the Inukshuk bundled up!

Poor little fella looks like he is dripping icicles!  The lowest temperature reading I got this week was -15 degrees fahrenheit.....not too bad really, but it came with a wind chill factor of excruciating!  Upon stepping outside it is instant ice cream headache time!  The pottery shed has radiant heat in the floor and it couldn't keep up with the demand, so everything from the clay to the chairs were cold.  Fortunately, the heat was enough to keep things from freezing, but unfortunately I had work in it and freeze my inukshuk.  Speaking of which,  I make these guys out of my scrap clay.  On a trip or two to Canada, I fell in love with these little stone figures and started taking my scrap clay to make them.  Now, there's a whole gang of them on the drying rack and more joining them every day....the gang may turn into a crowd.

Yarn bowls have been a big item this winter, everyone wants a yarn bowl and I can see why, they are a great invention (I have no idea who invented it, but it was an excellent idea and I thank them for it!).  I am making more yarn bowls than anything else, but that is good because I really enjoy making them.  It's great to hear the stories of what people are knitting or who they are gifting them to.  It's been a lot of fun, but I'm getting bored with the same yarn bowl design and am starting to change things up to keep it interesting for me, you and the buyer.

The yarn bowl in the foreground was designed during a bout of daydreaming about brook fishing this summer!  I was thinking (dreaming) of warm weather, the 4th of July celebrations, fireworks, water and fishing naturally followed and landed on the yarn bowl!  I hope someone else finds it desirable or else I better go find my knitting (from only 20 years ago ) and give it a new home.

If you haven't been to my Etsy Shop, stop on over and check out what's new.  Below are a couple items recently added to the shop.  This firebrick red bowl is hand-pierced with hearts and would make a lovely Valentine's Day gift...it can even be used as a yarn bowl! Of course, this is the year of the yarn bowl! Click here to go to Peasley Pottery Etsy Shop   and  head over to Facebook and "LIKE"   Peasley Pottery  I sure would appreciate it!  Thank you!

and these are the Katahdin Moose Track Mugs.....

Another great gift for your Valentine or to stock your cupboard with a good-strong 12oz mug worthy of any hot or cold beverage.  I like the feel of these mugs in my hand, they are comfortable and not too heavy.  The thumb stop helps balance it out as well.  

I hope you all are keeping warm.  I don't know how people can afford to pay the price of heating fuel, the price is outrageous! And I don't know how anyone can keep enough in the tank to keep warm.  With these subzero temps, it must be running out of the tank like water in a sieve.   I'm very fortunate to have a wood boiler and the only thing that will prevent me from staying warm is laziness...and that's not an option!   So, go check on your neighbors, especially the elderly and make sure they are not letting their pride get in the way of staying warm........and keep your animals warm, watered and fed, they don't like it much better than we do!!  Have a great weekend and see you here next week when the temperatures are to be in the 30's!!  I can't wait, it will feel like an early Spring!  Take care and God Bless!

Wedding Show and Test Tiles

Peasley Pottery is going to be in it's first wedding show this March!!  Exciting....frightening...maybe both.    I picked up some new glazes and before trying them on finished pots, I will test them on small tiles.   Normally, I have a stock of test tiles in a box, but when I go to the box I find it to be empty!  Hmmmm....how is that so???   I have only tested 1,000,000,001 combinations of glaze in the last year, I'm out already???  

Making test tiles takes a few days, and that doesn't include the bisque firing.  It is best to keep test tiles in stock.  Something I was doing until I ran out....

Usually when I get a new clay, I  immediately make test tiles.  Unfortunately, two of the six clays are new to the studio in the last two weeks.  I will need more of these tiles in order to test all the glaze combinations I have in stock. Whereas, three of the clay bodies have been around for a while and most of the glazes have been tested on them already.  We don't need to repeat history, so that will save time.

I start the test tiles by extruding hollow squares in long sections and letting them set up.  Then I cut these sections with a long razor blade in 3" lengths and set aside.  Once I have all the tubes cut down into 3" sections, I again cut these sections in half on the diagonal which creates a clay fold, like a greeting card, that can stand free in the kiln during firing. 

Extruded Hollow Square Tubes

3" Sections prior to final cut

Once in half, I stamp it with a reference number, a design on one side and a hole for hanging (optional).  If at this point I have any slip decorating, under glaze or other techniques to test out, I apply that now.

Because of the wedding theme coming up,  I wanted to try out my cake decorating kit (yes, I stole it from my kitchen and put it in the studio where it will probably get more use).   I mixed up slip to the consistency of frosting, or close to it.  The first batch of slip was too loose, so I had to remix it.  The second batch was a little firmer, but still not as firm as I'd like it to be.  Over all it worked for the tests and did pipe out fine.  Below are the tiles with the piping tests....and moose/deer tracks!

White stoneware test tiles with slip piping

It should be an interesting few weeks preparing for the wedding show, filling other orders and my favorite EXPERIMENTING!!!!  

Bunny Teapot, Floral Vase, two Urns on drying rack

The Poppy Vases....I hope to finish under glazing them soon...I can't wait to see the final product!

Goodbye 2012....and take the cold with you!

What a brutally cold day it is.  I knew this day would come, but I was enjoying the denial and mild winter temperatures.  I sure could use some global warming right now.

So what are you doing to honor yourself this year?  Isn't that what a new year's resolution really is?  How you will honor yourself, your body or family?  I like new year's resolutions, I just hate being unable to keep them due to chocolate.

Speaking of an honor, have any of you other potters ever had the request to create an urn for someone?  In the past two weeks, I've had three requests.  I feel this is one of life's ultimate honors as a potter.  It is the final thing you can do for a families loved one.  Now you'd think these families knew each other and one referred the other, but no, they don't know each other, nor do they live geographically close to one another.  I certainly don't advertise urns.  In fact, I had never considered creating urns.  After about two minutes of thought, I accepted the initial request as well as the subsequent requests.  I just feel it is a honor and God's blessing that I be asked and able to do it.

Today, I worked in the studio carving on some custom orders.  It is my favorite thing to do. I also spent some time catching up with other bloggers, websites and Facebook time.  On one of the group sites that I try to get to daily, but frequently am unable to get to on a daily basis is about pottery.  Today, I was able to get to the Facebook page and saw a post stating that the Wellington Potters Supplies is creating a Wall of Fame out of tiles with potter's hands from across the globe!  They were requesting potter's submit an impression of their hand in clay to be included on the wall.  What an awesome idea and project!  A huge undertaking, but one that will be absolutely spectacular when complete.  Yes, I offered up my hand!!  I can't wait to complete the tile and get it in the mail to NZ.   The best part of the day was creating a new friend, Kate, via Facebook.  As Kate and I discussed, if it weren't for Facebook technology how could one potter from rural Maine meet another potter from New Zealand?  It is times like today that I love computer technology.  It opens doors you'd never have.  I really think it is amazing that you can wake up one morning to a typical routine and by afternoon have your business being promoted on the other side of the world!!!  And all because you just happened to read a post on another Facebook page purely by chance. You just never know how life will change from second to second when you are literally connected to the world at your finger tips!  This project is going to be so much fun, I can't wait to see the final product.  What a great way to end the last day of the year!

Tomorrow I'll be back in the studio and I hope to bring you some photo's of what is happening there.  I plan to do some experimenting with glazes over the next couple months. I feel like a fish out of water and a mad scientist, I have never created my own glazes, but I'm just not happy with the commercial glazes  I just feel the need to develop my own color formulas specific to my studio.  This should be interesting and make for some spectacular test tiles!!

Have a wonderful and warm New Year's Eve and a blessed New Year!  ~~~~~~~~~ 2013

Blisters, Moose Tracks and Norwegian Fjord Horses

It has been busy in the pottery shed, filling orders, throwing, firing, glazing and taking breaks with the girls (horses), a must...just ask them, a girl needs her carrots!

This morning I unloaded the kiln which held several new style pots.  I glazed them in some new glazes to the studio and some old staple glazes.  May I add, all glazes are tested prior to meeting a thrown pot.  Much to my dismay, the pots I glazed with Spectrum Satin Turquoise blistered.  Totally covered in little blisters!  They all had to be thrown away....I watched many hours of work go in the can!  The other pots, as the mug above, came out fine.  I actually really like the mug above, the tracks came through the Spectrum Textured Autumn glaze beautifully.  It is rimmed in Laguna Colonial White which is a staple around here.  It is a great glaze, on Laguna White Stoneware #65 it comes through a silky, gloss white.  On Laguna Brown Stoneware #60 it allows the speckles to break through, very rustic and a nice look.  I use it a lot because it works so well with so many different glaze combinations.  The Spectrum products I just began testing and I must say the Textured Autumn will be one of my top glazes in the future.  I really like how it breaks a foggy blue with the brown under tones and captures any imprinting of the pot.

Here is a photo of the girls in the pasture that give me wonderful breaks, a relief from any stress in the studio.   Anniken's in the foreground and her mother, Beylah, bringing up the rear.  Anni is not quite 2 years old and full of mischief and Beylah is 10 years old, very gentle and loving animals.