Hip Joint Redo

Am in the fifth week of PT for hip replacement surgery.  Regis beat me out for the press coverage.  

Am looking forward to returning to the studio and classroom next week, hopefully.  Have been thinking of what changes will be needed in order to do my work.  Earlier in rehab I thought there would be quite a few things that would be different.  I now think the most difficult aspect will be the stairs.  I knew that taking a second floor studio would someday be a problem.  But one doesn't turn down the offer of a studio on campus.  Should be manageable.  Thank goodness for work-study students!  We (my assistant and Vincent C) are planning a wood firing for sometime right after the NCECA conference.  Just us.  Something to look forward to.  

Thanks to all for the good wishes and goodies...

Images of Work (Gernhardt/Jessiman)

These are some current examples of work by the artists I mentioned in the last post.  More can be found at their web sites and blogs.

Henry can be found at Cedar Key Pottery; John at Cub Creek Foundation.

Happy New Year to all!

A Piece from the Last Anagama Firing

The last anagama firing of the year was a sweet one. We were able to fire it for almost 40 hours with a good 6 hour soak. I had a few pieces in the middle of the chamber. I was pleased with the results. These works are quiet- as most of my work leans.  I'm becoming more interested in playing with the surrounding space through the use of shavings.  Creating an environment for the pieces to relate to, something I have always been interested in.  I am looking for a visual record of the various movements and the rests.  Spacial symmetry is more important than the formal symmetry of the piece itself. Sculpturally, objects do not exist in a vacuum.  Forms activate the space around them.  A form, its shape, the marks and the positioning all record parts of the process, parts of the whole, connecting the beginning to the end.  This is a fundamental interest in my non-functional work.

As mentioned in a previous post, these are thrown much like an amphora.  I like the connection to that seminal form.  I practiced nothing but amphorae one summer in the Cortland ceramics studio.  I knew if you could make an amphora you could make anything.  And the name- an amphora.  Beautiful.  The Greeks knew how to create a sense of respect for that beauty- they gave it a name.

I also remember being smitten that summer by the work of the Shigaraki potters in Japan.  Pots of sturdy, yet somehow beautiful forms (defined by lines anything but fair), with surfaces of a beautiful sheen, dark underneath, yet blushing with reds, oranges, and specks of milky blue feldspar breaking through, not to mention the wheat/green glaze appearing magically, sheeting the shoulders of large round works, a result of ash flying through kiln.  These pots were so laden with kiln effects (tactile and visual memories) that you had to consider the importance and meaning they had to the potters who expending so much energy to make them.   After all, isn't meaning of any sort wholly dependent on memories?  Reading (mostly looking at the pots) Louise Allison Cort's book, 'Shigaraki, Potters Valley' initiated a life long excitement in giving pots that extra layer of information and meaning for the viewer/holder to engage and question.  How much effort and care was taken to get this result?  How long was this piece in the fire bath to achieve this surface?  Why would someone want to do this?  What is it about color that does not hit you square, that changes with the light.  The Japanese had long ago answered these questions.  I had core agreements with them.  Why would I want to cover these subtle, yet eye engaging surfaces with a glaze?  Imagine a whisper, that is projected in the force of a shout- haaaaaahhh!!!!! That is what I found immediately appealing.

Back in school, the use of "wood bodies" such as you can find now was less an option, if for no other reason than wood was not yet a popular firing choice in this country.  We knew how to design, tweak really, a clay body for use in salt, but clay "for wood" firing was not given much thought, as I recall.  Maybe this was for the better.  The potters I knew and studied under had a different aesthetic approach to making pots.  It was less about "wood" or "salt" and more about the base response to material.  The concept of craftsmanship was at the core of ones work.  Henry Gernhardt was fond of dark bodies for most of his work with the exception of his raku pieces.  He would add iron oxide to his clay bodies.  The darker the clay the better.  His glazed work responded well to the iron drawn up from the body (no accident since his mastery of glaze formulation was legendary at Syracuse- that knowledge of glaze chemistry was the first of many things I came to admire about him).  His pieces were utterly dark, but uplifting at the same time.  This beautiful tension was a result of his full, sure forms and clear shaping (influenced from a sabbatical trip to Scandanavia, maybe, but also a manifestation of his German heritage, his uncompromising craftsmanship and mastery of form).  Another teacher, John Jessiman, was always talking about how his work would be altered by the body he was throwing.  His work in porcelain was different from the work he did in stoneware.   So John's work, like Henry's, was affected from the very start of the process by the material.  How their work was fired was a significant part of this equation, but not the sole focus.

The Japanese, who had centuries of wood firing to glean knowledge from, were very conscious of the look of the work coming out of the kilns, especially if they worked in one of the great pottery villages like Bizen or Shigaraki.  Tradition held an important hold on generation after generation of these potter's works.  But they too had a connection to the material from first touch.  The forms they made, the shapes they described, and the lines they made were a direct response to the clay they used.  Touch.  The kiln was a tool bringing out that tactile reaction.  Nothing to hide.

And that is where I fit-  I am more interested in the forms and surfaces and lines I need to make and explore as I relate to the material.  These elements are always altered by the different clays I use. (The "B-mix" discussion at some other time- maybe on the PrattMWP blog.)  At the same time, I am always thinking backwards- that is, I throw with the firing in my head (my problem is I can't seem throw toward anything other than salt and wood!).  The wood kiln is a tool, an important tool, that's true.  The bodies will respond to the kiln in different ways just as I respond to various clay bodies.  That is what matters.  The dialog within the process- the connections to the material and to the potters that have gone before us;  the beginning to the end.

Korean show closes

The show at the World Ceramic Center, Incheon, Korea has come down. I am told it was very well received. It was reviewed in "Monthly Ceramic Art," a beautiful publication, the Korean equivalent of "Ceramics Monthly" here in the states or "Ceramic Review" in England. I was fortunate to have images of my work included in the article. I don't read (Korean) Kanji, so the content will have to wait until I can get a friend to translate. A catalog of the show was also published.

Firing the PrattMWP salt kiln

This semester we will be posting firing methods for the salt kiln. As I emailed a student yesterday, you can break the firing process down in a number of ways.

For our purposes we will organize things this way-

-Loading

preparation

stacking

-Firing

starting and ramping

mid-firing, oxidation/reduction

salting and soaking

-Cooling/unloading

We will post images as we go along. There is much to consider in any atmospheric firing, which is why I find it exciting. The results are endless. No offense, electric is fine. We are seeing great results as more study is given to glaze formulation. But you just don't see the range of surprises (good and bad) found in an "atmospheric" kiln. Put simply- you can make your decisions about the outcome before you load or during the firing. I prefer the interaction with the kiln as it ages and changes. Nothing like it.

Some potters are painters at heart; or sculptors or designers. I make pots as an excuse to fire kilns; the more unpredictable the better. That unknowing is a strange comfort- no, a discomfort really, that keeps one's work fresh. Besides, what better way to spend an evening than sitting around the kiln, salting and discussing what to try next while drinking a Guinness with good company.

By the way, we may do things a bit differently from other potters or the "books." So accumulate as much information as possible (I will include some great sources) and choose what works based on your experience. Try different things (break some rules) and you'll find that accepted wisdom is a starting point, not gospel. We will talk about that, too.

We will talk about technical aspects of firing and management of the kiln; how the kiln design affects fired results. There is much to explain and other experienced potters can be found to fill in the void. Although words will never replace experience, maybe some of the poetry of firing will come through.

An important note- Subsequent discussions on this or other clay and kiln related topics will be found at prattmwpclay.blogspot.com.

End of Summer

Summer memories are of restful days and searching for the best launch site in the area. The sole sailing adventure went great. The "landing," however was not smooth to say the least. Picture a capsized boat and a flotilla of rescue "party" barges (complete with lovely young ladies!), one boater gracious enough to tow me in. It produced quite a few laughs for all of us. Luckily, no tabloid was there to cover the the event. And more importantly, I found a way to bring the boat in. How long will it take for the real boaters on Fourth Lake to catch on to my "landing" technique.

Lazy days of summer are here!   Have been preparing for the maiden sail but have mostly seen the flowers in my back yard.  A land sailor supreme!