Swan Song

Sometimes symbols hit us on the head. 

Forms often turn out much differently than they were conceived.

It's what I enjoy most about the artistic journey.

I'd finished up what I thought was a goodly amount of sculpture for a two-person show and the wire I'd purchased for doing the wire and paper work in conjunction with the clay forms was all gone. But this form wanted to be made. 

In my head this piece was being created to have a beautiful spiral of wire and paper inside like an inverted paperwasp nest, but alas, when I opened up the twist top it came out looking like a swan.  Going with that form I went with a yin-yang decoration and the "spiral" inside turned out to resemble  feathers with a hidden message. I had some nicer wire on hand that may not tarnish, so it's a clean, fluffy look inside.

It feels like my swan song should be long over by now, but I find myself still humming a few bars now and then. Ha!

Taking Stock

Me -- a few  years ago...

Twenty years ago in the early 90s I started building a pottery business. I'd been doing pottery for quite a few years with sales here and there. I had participated in Ceramic Showcase with VERY funky displays that at least improved year to year. My best pots seemed to sell, but I didn't have what one would call a "body of work" yet.

A friend was just beginning to do art fairs around the Northwest and encouraged me to do so with her. At the time I taught a hand building pottery class at the local community college, as well as being the lab rat/firing assistant for the studio. I was just beginning to build a downdraft kiln and shed, thanks to a friend with construction knowledge. And, I'd volunteered for a job with the Board of the Oregon Potters Assn as membership chair because I had a computer and knew how to use it.

Taking the good advice of others who were doing the fairs and wholesale markets, I invested in good professionally shot images. Voila, even tho I didn't know what I was doing, started getting acceptances into some good shows and art festival fairs. Within a couple of years I'd passed my modest sales goals and had been published in Ceramics Monthly -- something that was much easier to do back then -- one of my personal goals. So I set my sights a little higher, upped my production and began working my tail off to keep up.

So many factors, taken together, helped me grow my business:  support from partner, good friends, students in my class, and fellow OPA members who were happy to share advice. I read almost every small biz self-help book out there. Began with simple budgets, sales goals and record keeping. I got much better at being a production potter, and developed work schedules based on how much I could make in a day.

The early 90s economy was in a roller coaster ride back up from a recessionary dip from the end of the fast times 80s. As my business grew and I added wholesale accounts across the country, I got to ride the coaster up through some great sales years. Best years came in 1998 and 1999 when I got into every show I applied for, got flown back east to jury ACC Ceramics back in Fishkill, NY, turned 40, and served as OPA President.

Then the 2000s hit. In 2002 I only took two orders at San Francisco ACC and one cancelled before I got home. Galleries told me they still loved my work, but with another recession afoot, people were only purchasing brighter colored wares. (My earth tone glazes did not meet Pantone's "Colors of the Year" of pink, purple and orange together.) Some in the pottery world take that as a challenge to reinvent their work and change. I was not eager to do so myself and thought a hiatus until the economy picked up again would be better. Luckily the Fall Festival job landed at my feet.

Nine years later...As the FF job wound down I created sculpture for a show at the Guardino Gallery in Portland that comes down this weekend. Peapods, Wishes, little pieces of paper I likened to fortune cookie messages, sculptures with twists and turns -- these all popped up and even with all that symbology, it only hit me recently that I'm starting out all over again. Damn, starting out all over... I'm still processing, obviously...

Lucky Me, I've got two new classes on tap for Winter Term:  experiments in finishes so there will be a class of potters testing out all sorts of things for me, and an Art Marketing Support Group masquerading as a class that I'll be facilitating. I'm hopeful all of this kick-starts some new work and new ideas for selling pottery to the masses. Have been checking out galleries I worked with 10 years ago, and many of them are still going strong, Yay! I want to be ready to ride the next wave, should it come, UP!

Unusual Commissions

Beehive in the Greek Style

Sometimes a request for a piece comes in that is too good to pass up. My neighbor happens to be honeybee man and Professor Emeritus Michael Burgett in OSUs Entomology Dept. His "Far Side Entomology" was deemed the Best College Class in the Nation by Playboy in 2010....but I digress.

Prof Burgett has created a Bee Hive "Museum" at OSU's Bee Lab and wants a replica of a greek beehive like they have used in Greece for the past few centuries. Beekeepers arrange sticks across the top and the bees do the rest. There will be a small opening cut into the bottom for the bees once the clay sets up enough.

Key to my taking on this project was Michael's  promise the beehive didn't have to be perfectly uniform. Hives in the images he showed me were probably all coil built as was this one, but by skilled craftspeople who had made quite a few of them. They looked thrown. This one leans a bit and has a slightly wonky top. After taking this photo I noticed one handle was larger than the other...fixed. The lettering will be carved out to say honeybee in Greek.

Hoping this will be 15 x 15 inches after firing.

Looking forward to adding "In the Collection of OSU Entomology Dept's Honeybee Museum" to my Vita.

To Clean or Not to Clean

After a nine year hiatus from full-time pottery making, one should begin again with a clean studio, or?

In nine years doing pottery part-time, cleaning always took a back seat to making. Plus, clean is a relative term. I tend to be one of those people with a few "rat's nests," so even when I DO clean, it may not look like it to anyone else. Alas, clean I must, because the rat's nests were beginning to encroach too much to work.

Out, out, out. Paperwork and other stuff collecting dust. Don't stop to look. Just dump into recycle bin. Damp wipe, mop, mop again.

What to do with all the saved pottery seconds that have good surfaces, things to learn, ideas to remember, but take up so much space?

Many of these pots are clustered on a small ladder shelf that also has some sentimental value. Our home had been the home of Gilda Koblentz, a potter I unfortunately never got to meet. She had her studio in the garage and basement about ten years before we moved in. We took the 220 wiring for a kiln in the basement as a good sign when we purchased. The previous owners had dismantled all of the homemade ladder-style shelf units she's made but many were still stacked up in the basement. I made do with them for a long time before I invested in sturdier gorilla racks. The last of her shelves should probably be replaced, but think I'll wait until the next big clean-up day.

Small Orders are Nice

The summer has sailed by. Only managed to get a couple small orders completed in between working on sculpture for a show at Guardino Gallery, Portland, in Oct/Nov.

This little set of bowls and mugs is enroute to some friends in New Mexico, who were patient enough to wait the entire summer for them. They have a lovely art/pottery collection, so it will be swell having these pieces being used next the Who's Who they already have.

Next weekend is my last as Director of Corvallis Fall Festival, so soon I'll have a little more time in the studio again after 9 years.

What Inspires Us

The last time I was at Goodwill looking for inspiration I found  this tall multiple metal legged candle stand, complete with leftover white wired lace woven all around that can be used again. Since I'm in a phase of making sculptures to which I can add a weave of wire and paper, these looked promising as a different take on the whole business:  in this case sculpture added to the "wire."

Drilled through the center so that the sculpture could be attached to the stand via bolt and wing-nut. In the photo below the small bowl on the left will be the attachment point and the middle twist a "cap" that will fit over the top of it. The ball and piece on the right will be counterbalance weights at the base of the stand to keep it all from being too top heavy.

Haven't decided whether or not to add some more wire and paper to the wire itself. Guess I'll wait to see how the clay looks glazed, fired and attached.

Some New Slightly Different Forms

Another productive day in the studio. So nice having the sun's warmth for speeding things up a little. These pieces were cut out this morning, their two halves shaped and set in the sun for about 30 minutes, flipped and 30 minutes later they were being put together. Then a couple more hours outside, not in direct sunlight, to stiffen them up enough to carve into shape.

Below is the concept of this stacking sculpture with a couple different shaped toppers.
Of course what I start out trying to make never quite comes out as I intend, but that's ok.

Quickie sketch to try and map my way.

Here you can see that it took a couple good whacks with my paddle to get it out of it's morbidly lumpy shape into something a little nicer...

Tube on the left was closed up and
 inserted inside to finish piece for top of the stack.

Form refined a little more and now will be covered up and left to dry so that the wetter inside can even out with the dryer outside. It's getting there.