rudolph clay studios

I mean really! The haps at RCS

2009-11-02T01:27:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure if I remember if it was this warm last Halloween...but it was sure warm enough this one. What's the deal?
We are busy getting ready for our Christmas Sale (Dec. 4th - 5th) and would surely appreciate a little cooler weather to get us in the festive spirit. I'm mean really! The mosquito's tend to make studio time less than pleasant so it would be nice to have a cool breeze to blow all our troubles away.
But yes, like I said, we are hard at work, between coating our legs with Deet, we are hard at work in the studio making stuff for our upcoming home sale. We are trying to learn from last years sale what to make more of and less of and what to not bother to make at all. I think we are doing well. I, being currently without employment again, have had much more time to get clay covered than Cheyenne. Think she is feeling the time crunch even though we still have a solid month or more to get stuff finished. She'll get it all wrapped up and with stunning work as usual. FYI, Cheyenne apparently has an image in this months, well last months maybe, issue of Clay Times. We haven't seen it yet...but folks say it's the truth. It's an article and images from this years Strictly Functional Exhibition. She's good! She gets in that show every year. I on the other hand have given them my 30 clams every year for almost 10 years in a row and never gotten in. But I'm not bitter or anything.
Ah, a cool Florida day would be so nice. It gets me motivated to do stuff. As vague as that sounds, it's true. Stuff. So much stuff to do. If this lovely old 1925 Florida Cracker house we bought could learn to fix itself it would make my life so much easier. I mean really!
Don't get me wrong...it's my pleasure to do landscaping and "stuff" like that. I'm a lousy carpenter, but I do enjoy it...but it's the little things you know that drive me nuts. The little things like having to redo our main plumbing line. As fun as cutting decades old cast-iron sewer pipe and digging trenches and hoping that my being a cheap ass and doing the work myself doesn't backfire on me sounds...I think I would rather be making pots or working in the garden. Cheyenne has a great fall garden going. The girl is good folks...I tell you what.
But yes, a cool Florida breeze would be nice. I think the wind sounds different in the fall. A crisper, deeper sound to it. I swear it does. I'm hoping that it's cooled down some by the time I fire again at the end of November. Nothing beats firing the Soda kiln and not sweating to death every time I have to check the oven.
In January we are having a show at St. Pete Clay. looking forward to that of course. It should be cooler by then. We are hoping to mix up our work there some. Maybe figure out how to do some collaborative work. Which is sort of hard because we work so different. Less hard maybe...more challenging. Anyway, I'll post more info on that show when it gets a little closer.
Well it just turned 5am and I've officially been awake all night!!! What a great feeling insomnia is, I mean really!

books this saturday

2009-10-15T07:06:00.001-07:00

i don't have a new image, but it's the same deal. i am teaching a bookbinding class this weekend at the Palmetto Art Center. the class will explore coptic binding and everyone will go home with a handmade book. it's super-easy and fun, plus the setting is pretty casual- participants can bring food, wine, music, friends, etc. i've got a few students lined up, but if anyone else is interested, there's still time. it's a two hour ordeal, saturday night (oct. 17), 6-8, everything provided.

books are great gifts!

four hands, his and hers, and a bit of a dog poo situation

2009-09-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

Nigel and I are back from a couple of fun-filled weekends setting up exhibitions. Yesterday we drove from Sevierville, TN to Bradenton, FL, starting at 5 am. There was a bit of a dog poo situation to start out with, which Nigel discovered in the kitchen on his way to turn the coffee on. I thought it was funny, but he's been reminding me of my own dog poo story for some time, so it seems we're even (and those jeans were dirty to begin with anyway).

Here are some images of the exhibition, Fo[u]r Hands, at Gulf Coast Community College in Panama City. We set that show up September 10th.

We were pretty pleased with the results of both the workshop and the reception.

It was interesting to actually see the work go from the studio to the gallery and have to set it up in that environment. I had a harder time than Nigel, maybe because my work is more subtle in surface and pretty pale, or maybe I just have a touch of ocd. It felt like I was seeing the work with new eyes, which can be scary. I felt it lacked the draw that Nigel's work had from across the room, seeming to say, "Look at me! Come on, git on over here!" I felt like my work was saying something more akin to a sigh, a barely noticeable sound, but there to be discovered.

In the end, it all looked great, and we're both really proud, but on the drive home from setting up the second show in TN (titled His and Hers), I started thinking about making a change. I've been toying with testing some terra sigs at cone 6, but on the drive I was dreaming of RED earthenware, slick waxy bare red clay and bright funky colors, something that would scream from across the room. Well, maybe not scream, that's not really me, but something to draw the viewer over to inspect the wonderful subtleties that I adore. I could have been delirious, but I just might test a few pieces in terra cotta just to be sure.

If anyone is in the area of panama city, fl or morristown, tn, go check out our duo exhibitions! We worked hard, and hopefully it will pay off with a lot of exposure and some sales.

Our first dual workshop together....ahhhhh!!!

2009-09-09T19:08:00.000-07:00

So we are heading out in the morning for Panama City to do our first dual workshop together.... also an exhibition. This is going to be at Gulf Coast Community College. I've been pretty nervous about the whole speaking in front of folks issue. When I was at Arrowmont and we had to give our slide talk every week I got pretty good at it. But now that I haven't had the opportunity in so long, I'm getting a tad nervous. I'll be fine I know, but I'm happy that it is to a group of undergrads. We both just finished our Power Point presentations. Mine, of course, is all nerdy and historical. Cheyenne's is fun and playful, like her pots! My pots are a little nerdy and historical I guess. I'm not sure if I could pull off a 'Pickle Pal'!

So then this next weekend we are driving up East Tennessee to set up another exhibition at Walter State Community College. We are sooo looking forward to that. It's supposed to be cool in TN and it's not here. That will just be an exhibition with no workshop or anything. Which is good and bad I reckon. I could use the practice on my public speaking...but at the same time it's something that I'm happy to pass on!! So anyways...below are some shots of some new work I've been working on. They are shots from in the studio...nothing fancy.

So thats it...wish us luck. Hope everyone is well!!!

take care...
nigel.

Make yer own sketchbook!

2009-08-07T05:46:00.000-07:00

Howdy all...

Nigel and I are hard at work getting a couple of shows ready. I start school in a few weeks, so I want to get the majority of my work finished before then.

This weekend, however, I am teaching a fun and exciting bookmaking class at St. Pete Clay Company in St. Petersburg, Florida. It's a 2 1/2 hour mini-workshop where I will cover two (count them- two) different binding techniques, which means all participants can potentially go home with, yes, two different books! The class is Saturday, August 8, from 10 am-1230 pm. You can come a few minutes early and register at the door. It should be loads of fun, plus you can tour the clay company at no extra cost.

Hope to see some budding bookmakers there!

Oro Y Plata

2009-07-26T05:34:00.000-07:00

"Oro y Plata", "Gold and Silver" is the state motto for Montana. I just learned that....

So we have been back from Montana for about 2 weeks now so this blog is a little belated, but we hit the ground running the day after we got back and I've just now had time to sit and get some thoughts out. Well that's a lie...I actually wrote the majority of the blog that will follow on the return flight but I wasn't able to finish because I couldn't write with my head in Cheyenne's shoulder as I kept asking her over and over again if we were going to die. The flight from Salt Lake City to Tampa was really really rough and yes, I thought we were going to die. But we didn't and now we have a dog.

Originally written July 8th, 2009.
forgive me for the lengthy post...

Our working vacay is coming to an end. We are flying east from SLC right now over agricultural fields and pasture land. It all looks like a giant quilt to me. The round green circles from the center pivot irrigation systems are so cool. So I was looking at the same landscape about two and a half weeks ago on our way to help Tara Wilson begin building her kiln.

We got into Helena late on a Saturday night. It was cold and raining that night when Tara picked us up. We headed west, I think, out of town towards Holmes Gultch Rd. and a much needed beer or several if I recall.
Sunday morning we made our first of many trips to the Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts, for tons - literally - tons of brick and mortar and other such heavy things. What we had to contend with was multiple trucks all too small to handle an entire 3,000 pound plus pallet of hard brick. So we unloaded the bricks by hand, spreading the tonnage between trucks and trailers. We did, however, get to see some good friends we hadn't seen in some time; Gwendolyn Yoppolo and Kevin Snipes. Both are currently artist in residence at The Bray. And, to our surprise, 2 friends from Ole Miss, Sarah and Lee, where there for a workshop. They are great folks and it was good to see them if only briefly. I say briefly because we were on a mission schleppin' bricks. So with one pallet loaded between 3 trucks we headed back to Tara's to re-stack and reassemble the nice neat pallets of heavy-ass hard brick.
Return to The Bray and repeat..

Concrete blocks were laid out and squared up and the first layer of hard brick put down. Another task which seemed a little more challenging than anticipated. I had thought the bricks might all be the same dimensions but unfortunately we were not that lucky. This lack of continuity of the bricks would be our burden from there on out. I will spare the details of each brick course, but for the next several days we worked long days breaking for a late lunch and finished up for a late dinner. It didn't get dark in Helena till like 10pm. We drank beers and cooked up some good meals in the evening. We met a bunch of Tara's friends who came to help stack and polish off cases of PBR and Busch. It was great. Up early in the morning to start it all again...
I'll let the pictures tell the story for the most part....

It gets hot in Montana in the summer time! But yes it's a dry heat. As a Florida boy, it was refreshing to be able to leave the heat of the sun and move into the shade and actually have it be cooler. So after about a week of long days of working we took to heading out on field trips to some swimmin holes in and around Helena. Some Beautiful locations. The water was cold but very refreshing after schlepping bricks all day. We brought us out some picnic dinners, some brewskie's and had us fine old time chatting and being amazed by the mountains.

So the kiln progressed upwards and took to looking more like a recognizable form. we had us a kiln!! But we needed yet another 2 full pallets of straight hard brick along with arch brick about a dozen 50lb. bags of castable because we were fittin' to cast the throat arch.

So into our story comes what might be the coolest old truck I've ever been around. It was huge with a bad clutch and tired breaks, which was perfect for toting 8,000 lbs of brick up a mountain. Tara drove the truck like a pro with Cheyenne riding shotgun. They clunked and banged along and despite Tara stomping the breaks to the floor, Chris Pickett and I watched, while following in Tara's truck, as they rolled through not 1, not 2, but 5 red lights, the last of which we couldn't even follow it was so red. Once we got to the studio and without the fork-lift that was so handy, we unloaded and re-stacked brick by brick by brick. Oh how them beers were nice that night!

so we kept up our labors of laying and relaying and cutting bricks. Pouring the throat arch and building arch forms, and cutting laying more bricks. And the next thing you know we had the majority of the kiln built, minus the stack and welded frame. The arches were up and looking great.

Perhaps it was time for a break...
So to spare you all what could be a very lengthy post...I shall paraphrase our trip from this point on out...
So on the 3rd of July the 4 of us headed towards Yellowstone via my family in Idaho. We spent that night at my cousin Jona's place in Blackfoot, Idaho. It was great to see family. That next morning, after hooking up with my Aunt Grace and other cousins, we headed to the family cabin in West Yellowstone. We spent the 4th canoeing and having beers and spending quality time with friends and family.

The following day we headed into Yellowstone National Park. I could go on and on and on about Yellowstone. It was truly beautiful and I'm so happy I was able to see the Park with my lovely wife and good friends. I'm sure the pictures will tell the story better than ever could.

We returned to Helena briefly before setting out on our next adventure. Just outside of Helena is this remarkable place called the "The Gates of the Mountain." It's got a little marina with a tourist boat ride, which of course we partook. So apparently this "Gates of the Mountain" place is what Lewis and Clark encountered on the Missouri River and considered it the gateway to the Rocky Mountains. I'm not going to lie, it might have been one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Again, my photos will not do it justice...but what can one do. We took the tourist boat and listened to a truly fascinating account of the history of the canyon; the Native American past and more recent history. Anyway, I'll cut to the chase...we had a friend who worked for the Forest Service and we got to stay in his little cabin way up in the Mountains where the tourist boat does its little stop for photos at this dock on the Missouri River. It was an amazing and hopefully not a once-in-a-life-time event. We stayed up late drinking boxed wine and playing banjo. We were the only people on the mountain...It was great. Oh and I tried to swim across the River. Didn't make it. It was to cold...it was way to cold. I gave it my best try.

So this is the part of the trip where I shall conclude my oh so lengthy blog post. I'm not kidding when I say this, this "Gates of the Mountain" place, blew my mind. I'm just a Florida boy, you know. I've never really been out of the South. Which is where I hope to live for the rest of my life, but this place changed me. It was amazing. Whatever the geological events that formed this canyon, whatever the circumstances of my life or whatever force that led Cheyenne and I to this spot on these days with these folks I'll never truly understand...
and that's okay with me.

So this is where I'll leave y'all. Again, please forgive me for being so lengthy. I could have written on and on. We left for home the day after our return from "The Gates of the Mountain." I wrote the mass of this post on the plane.
I have to take the dog out now.
night.

audience participation permitted

2009-06-01T19:09:00.000-07:00

Dear folks....

Has it really been a month since our last post? Man, we are really bad at this blogging thing. Cheyenne would be so good at it if she would remember...and I'm not very good at it and I remember even less. Oh Well....

Well I did get a couple of kind words from folks in response to my last post about my family. Thanks y'all.

So we are busy busy here at Rudolph Clay Studios. I'm making pots like a mad man for this upcoming firing at St. Pete Clay. Again, I got to hand it to them St. Pete Clay guys! 10-4!

So I've been so perplexed about this blogging thing lately. I wish I had the ambition to write as much as some folks. Michael Kline, how do you do it? I can't be convinced that folks really want to hear about our day to day operations and our struggles at being full time potters/full time regular jobbers. But maybe folks is....maybe they is. Well I'll post some pics of the new work I have going on in the studio tomorrow hopefully. We do have a decent excuse for our lack of blog postings. Our Internet has been down for a couple of weeks, and as much as I would like to type a blog post using my phone...it didn't happen.
Maybe folks can help us get motivated with this blog thing...
to any and all people that read this blog...
what I want to do is get some audience participation here....
folks, go to your kitchen cabinet and grab the pot (ceramic or otherwise) you find yourself using all the time for whatever. Why do you feel compelled to us this vessel or dish or pot or what have you? What is it about this piece you like the most? describe it to me! If you can, post a picture of said pot! seriously, I would really love to hear what people have to say! If it's only like a sentence or a paragraph...hit me!!!!
So now it's off to bed. have had a killer headache sweating me all day. The Florida sun is brutal this time of year. It's not easy to work in some days. But I have to get up early and head to the site in Tampa. We are excavating a large prehistoric site actually east of Tampa in the Wesley Chapel area. Mostly a lithic site so we aren't finding much that is diagnostic...but it's very interesting stuff. Lots of people were living (probably) but definitely hunting there a couple thousand years ago. Just a rough guess about the timeline. It's so hard to tell when we have found very few intact projectile points and even less pottery. the pottery we are finding is very crude and tempered heavily with limestone. anyway...that's that.
seriously folks! please send me some stuff about your favorite pot!
later.
nigel

A dedication to the loved ones we have lost

2009-04-30T19:59:00.000-07:00

It's been a real tough couple of weeks for us down here. Trying times to say the least. On top of the usual drama and excitement of busting our butts getting ready for exhibitions and sales and all, we have been dealing with some difficult times personally. let me elaborate...

My Granny passed away the day after Easter. She was 95. It was expected, she hadn't been well for some time, but it was far more difficult for me to deal with than I had anticipated. My Granny was an amazing woman. She was born in Alaska in 1914. Her folks, my great grandparents, had followed the gold rush up in search of their riches I suppose. I'm unsure of the exact timeline of Granny's life, but it involved moving from Alaska to upstate New York, to Bradenton, back to Alaska to work as a nurse on the Indian reservations, then back to Bradenton to work for decades at Manatee Memorial Hospital. Somewhere along the line she managed to raise 4 kids on her own, my Granddad died when my father was like 5. She adored her family and her grand kids (that's me) and her great grand kids too. She loved to collect my pots. I remember she traveled with us to Peru the first time I went over back in the late 80's I guess. She was just an amazing woman and will be missed.

My Uncle Bill passed away just the other day. He was 70. Again, I think it was expected as he had also been of poor health for some time. He was the oldest of that gang of 4 kids Granny brought down on her own from New York. It's so hard when someone passes to try to narrow down everything you miss about them...you know there are specific events in time or particular attributes that your mind shoots forward when you hear there name. Uncle Bills attribute that shoots forward for me is his smile. Man that guy had a smile, I swear between his non-stop jokes and puns and that smile, he could light up the room like a million candles. Uncle Bill loved to fish. he lived for it. I think that is one thing that was so upsetting to him when his health started to fade, that he couldn't fish anymore. Me and my dad and my Uncle Bill would go out mullet fishing when I was kid. We would go out to Perico Bay, before all those damned condos and throw the cast net and laugh and tell jokes. Uncle Bill was a decorated and wounded soldier from Vietnam. He carried around shrapnel from a grenade blast till the day he died. They say some of his health issues are related to his exposure to Agent Orange from back in the war. Uncle Bill will be missed for sure, but I'm so relieved his pain has stopped and he can sleep and wake and fish and fish and fish forever.

My sadness comes in waves. Which I guess is to be expected. My heart goes out to my dad, my aunt Grace and uncle Lyman because they lost their mother and brother in the same month. I can't even imagine. I don't want to. I know it's something I will have to deal with sometime in the far far future, but my mind is elsewhere now. I hope my dad finds comfort in his memories. I hope they come to bring him joy and not sorrow. I've never experienced death so intimately. It seems so easily understood, yet is so confusing to me.

Hernando de Soto, not a man to be honored by the City of Bradenton or anyone.

2009-04-24T17:50:00.000-07:00

I’m writing this brief essay in response to my annual frustration and disgust with my hometown of Bradenton, Florida’s obsession with the brutal murderer and wanna-be conquistador, Hernando de Soto. My ultimate hope is that anyone who reads this might think twice about supporting and or attending any de Soto Celebration event. He was a very bad man, people! He should not be honored.
Prior to his bloody attempts to “conquer, pacify, and populate,” La Florida, Hernando de Soto learned the art of subjugation by joining his comrade and fellow conquistador, Fransico Pizzaro, in the brutal looting of the Incan Empire in Peru between 1532 – 1535. Hernando de Soto graced the lovely shores of southwest Florida on May 25th 1539 with a plethora of troops, slaves, servants, war dogs, horses, and Long-legged Spanish range pigs (Gannon). De Soto’s actual landing along Florida’s west coast is still very controversial. According to Michael Gannon, author of "The New History of Florida," the best archaeological evidence places his landing around Piney Point, on the north side of the Little Manatee River. Evidence of de Soto ever having been in the vicinity of what is now Bradenton is extremely sketchy. Not to mention that de Soto promptly turned north away from Tampa Bay in his hunt for gold.
Throughout his expedition, de Soto, “left a trail of shattered lives, broken bodies, ravaged fields, empty storehouses, and charred fields” (Churchill). According to Ward Churchill, author of "A Little Matter of Genocide,” de Soto killed and mutilated Indians that refused Catholic baptism by throwing them to the war dogs, burning them at the stake, or the more common practice of severing hands and noses. Rodrigio Ranjel, in his "Narrative of de Soto’s Expedition," writes; “…the Spaniards desired [Indians] both as servants and for foul uses…they had them baptized more on account of carnal intercourse with them than to teach them the faith.” Gannon illustrates that de Soto’s brutal pattern of capturing and executing native people “for offences real or perceived,” was a direct violation of the King’s ordinance to observe “good treatment and conversion.”
In addition to de Soto’s bloody quest for riches like those he plundered in Peru under Pizzaro, he also was on a quest for slaves. De Soto was not only a mass murderer, thief, and torturer, he was also a slave trader. Ward Chruchill paraphrases Lauber who wrote in "Indian Slavery in Colonial Times," that the de Soto expedition maintained a supply of up to 800 slaves, captured en route. Lauber writes, “…all told it is possible that the number of slaves taken was several times the number of Indians killed outright…” This treatment of native peoples was standard practice for not only de Soto, but his predecessors, Juan Ponce de Leon and Panfilo de Narvaez. Like is fellow “adelantados,” or self-financed conquerors and direct representatives of the king, de Soto’s strategy for his hopeful conquering of La Florida, FAILED! “None of the chartered goals established by the king had been met….no settlement or hospital, no mine or farm, no presidio or mission, no flag, no cross.” De Soto like those before him failed in his endeavors and died like the thousands of native people. In his wake “thousands of native people lay dead and dying, not from the sword but from the introduction of Old World pathogens against which the aborigines had no acquired immunities – smallpox, measles, and typhoid fever” (Gannon).
The Brutality exhibited by de Soto was the “modis operandi” of all the failed conquistadors that came before him. This brutality is what the City of Bradenton and Manatee County must be ignoring or worse yet, accepting when they put on the annual de Soto Celebration. De Soto’s harsh treatment of the native people of Florida is very well documented. Those folks that dress up like conquistadors and toss coins and beads out to kids and adults every year during the parade are perpetuating a myth and whitewashing history. We have somehow made a hero out of a true villain. We have romanticized his story and like so much of the real history of this country, we have taken an eraser to the truth.

how to load a kiln

2009-04-18T10:09:00.000-07:00

this morning i set out to load a bisque kiln, full of the past few week's work, including the ice cream cone holder server (that made an appearance several posts ago). it's a rather large almost caterpillar-shaped hollow tray, measuring exactly 27 inches wide, or so i thought. see, our kiln measures 28 inches across, but i did my measuring pre-handle, so i went to load the beast this morning, and it was exactly 1/2 an inch too wide!

i called around to find a kiln for today with no luck, so nigel and i rigged up a slanted half shelf and managed to fit everybody into the kiln. let's hope everyone makes it out ok...

it's hard to tell from the photo, but on the lower end we are at about 3 inches and at the tall end we are at nearly 12 inches! i don't know the math to calculate the grade, but i hope she doesn't slide around!

Firing at St. Pete Clay Co.

2009-04-01T19:32:00.000-07:00

So this past week I fired the recently rebuilt soda kiln at the St. Petersburg Clay Company. It was a very successful firing as far as I was concerned. Not perfect, but when are they...but it was great firing. I wasn't exactly at my personal best however. The day I set out to load I lifted a heavy tub of bisque ware the wrong way and seriously messed up my back. It's still in pretty bad shape. So if it wasn't for my lovely, patient and endlessly helpful wife, this firing may not have been such a success. Well, being that I could barely walk let alone lift kiln shelves. Yesterday I had my first acupuncture session, which was an interesting experience I have to say. I think it helped, but I'm not doing jumping jacks or anything yet.

Anyway, back to the kiln firing. Matt Long, Prof. of Ceramics at University of Mississippi and one of my former clay professors, and his students came down a couple of months ago for some hit the ground running, mad wood-firing sessions at St. Pete Clay. While kilns were cooling they rebuilt the soda kiln. A couple dozen cases of Busch Beer and some bluegrass music can entice some folks into some serious clay related nuttiness. Anyways, the kiln works like a charm and I thank Charlie Parker, co-owner of St. Pete Clay, for giving me the chance to fire.

Below a couple of the nice pots I got out of the firing....

baby birds and ice cream server

2009-03-27T05:51:00.001-07:00

Nigel and I went on a mini vacation to Ft. Lauderdale last weekend to visit some friends and just get away. We had a great time driving around old towns and sightseeing alligators and lots of rain. We were welcomed home on Monday to a little spring treat...

This nest is in a low tree just outside the bedroom window, and the eggs (or some of them) have since hatched and are now cute fat-headed little birds on a constant feeding schedule. The mother is quite protective now and can sense any movement at the window.

In other news, Nigel and I are working along in the studio getting ready for a couple of upcoming shows . After losing an entire kiln load (again) to highwater clay's famous bloating P5 clay, I've decided to abandon it altogether and am currently using little loafers and helios until I can find a better cone 6 porcelain. Makes me jealous for school where I could test clay bodies and mix my own.... The nice thing about the little loafers is that it is a bit less finicky, so I am working on some bigger hollow pieces. I find myself going back and forth from more pedestrian functional work and the more conceptual/sculptural pieces, which are fun and inspiring. So my new great invention is ice cream cone servers.

For all those times you wanted ice cream for you and your beau...

Birthday parties are ruined no more by sticky dripping cones! Treat your friends to their favorite flavor all at the same time!

These, of course, will be much more effective once finished, but the idea is there and quite funny when I think about it. When I make these kinds of pieces, I am also thinking of how to construct a scene in which they are being used to their full advantage. If you've not seen my Pickle Pal "infomercial," check it out if you like... http://www.rudolphclaystudios.com/cheyenne/cheyennehome.htm

Thanks for reading. Nigel is getting ready to fire in St. Pete this weekend, and I am off to finish our taxes today. Have a great weekend!

Our new gallery pages are up...finally.

2009-02-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to pass along that our new gallery pages are up on our websites. It was a challenge learning how to use Dreamweaver and Simple Viewer on the fly, but I think it looks pretty good. So have a look see and let us know whatcha think...

http://www.rudolphclaystudios.com/index.htm

Wuz up in the studio

2009-02-25T08:54:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to post some images of what we are up to in the studio. Being that my employment status seems to jiving along like a roller coaster, I've had more time to focus in the studio. We lost an entire kiln load to those pesky "bloats" from that Highwater P5 clay. Pretty frustrating actually. We still can't seem to figure out what the issue is. Maybe it's a venting issue, maybe it's a clay issue. We are leaning towards issues with the clay so we have decided to not use the P5 clay body any longer.
Cheyenne is testing some other Highwater Clays, but if anyone has any suggestions to make about a mid-range Porcelain-ish clay body, it would certainly be appreciated.

So below is are some shots of our studio. I'm not sure if we have ever posted any. Do forgive the mess of course....We are messy potters. Unlike those Ocala based clay artists you hear so much about...wink wink.

Come on in folks the water is freezing

2009-02-16T18:05:00.000-08:00

So I'm writing from the lobby of a hotel in Mobile, Alabama. It's my first day back to work with a new company and they send me off to Alabama. I'm certainly not complaining, I'm very pleased to be gainfully employed again despite being reluctant to go back to "a real job". I say "real job" sarcastically of course because despite what I think folks often assume, making pottery for a living is a "real job."
I was chatting with some folks this past weekend and having a standard conversation about what Cheyenne and I do and that we make pots and we are hoping to earn a living by making art and how it often can be rather trying for a myriad of different reasons. I think so many artists from all media have heard someone say, "...but at least you are doing what you love..." I do love making pots, but I think as other potters would admit, it's often difficult and I think we naturally wonder why we do it sometimes. Well I'm not assuming, I'm just speaking for myself....making pots is often hard and I wonder sometimes why I do it.
Well I do love making pottery and I would say that is the prime reason I do it. It certainly ain't for the dough at this point.
This brings me to my...ummm...point. I know it seems like I'm rambling on here, but I'm the only one in the Comfort Suites lobby right now so I'm going to go ahead and write and write and write all I want...dang!
My point is...
During that month of being unemployed from a "real job" I was busting my butt at my other job, we were busting our butts at our other jobs I mean and we were really really enjoying it. One has to "pay the monkey," as they say, so I had to get another "real job" but that month of only making work and counting on selling work made me so appreciate the folks that are actually taking that plunge. We can't right now. I think that has a lot to do with where we are geographically more than anything, but I say God bless to the artists working there asses off trying to make a living with cups n saucers and plates and platters, paintings and sculptures and it all. It's a freakin hard way to make a living and it's so honorable that folks have decided to take that plunge and do it.
It's not a hobby. Its frustration and failure and bad pots and crawling glazes and hours and hours trying to get that form right. But damnit, when it all works out, it makes it worth it I think.
So I wish I was in my studio right now and not sitting in some stinky hotel listening to Fox News blaring on the lobby TV. I suppose I should be sketching or doing something productive related to clay...but i'm not. I'm writing some silly blog. I have to share these thoughts with other people besides Cheyenne folks! I can't just torture her!
So yeah, stop reading this...don't you have cups to finish!

At The Moment....

2009-01-29T08:24:00.001-08:00

So it's been awhile since I have updated our blog, life has been hectic as of late. We were effected directly by the so-called, "economic downturn" when I was laid-off from my job last week and we have been forced into dealing with the new and slightly difficult position we have found ourselves in. Luckily we have a savings so at least for the time being we will not have to be concerned with losing our home or anything to that extreme. So no worries in regards to such drama...for now.

Keeping myself busy has not been an issue of course with the clay studio. The ample time I've had on my hands between searching for jobs on the net, petitioning for unemployment benefits, and feeling sorry for myself, I've been busting my hump in the studio finishing up some commissions we have to get out and turning upside down how I have made pots forever. Well not how I have made pots...but what I'm making pots out of. I've taken the plunge into the world of red clay! It's so...well...red. It's not the clean, white porcelain I've always used. It's not clean... it's red. But I like it very much. Using a new material I think has given me a much needed boost of enthusiasm in the studio. I really am enjoying sgriffito with a white slip. I think just the contrast from my familiar habits of carving through a dark slip to a white body and now carving a white slip to a dark body, is what I'm most excited about. I'm so easily impressed.
So hopefully y'all will be seeing some Nigel Rudolph Redware coming out here before to long.

On another note, this past weekend we went up to an exhibition opening at the University of Florida. Cheyenne was a featured artist, an award winning featured artist I might add...and below are a couple of pics I took of the my lovely wife and her fab work. Thanks to all the folks at UF for the great opening and to our good friend Meagan (of Meagan Chaney Studios) for joining us. Anyways...that's it for now, I have to eat some lunch.

Sources of Inspiration

2009-01-20T08:01:00.000-08:00

Cheyenne and I were busy last night scanning our old 35mm slides to add to our website when I came across some slides I took several years ago of some historic pots and whatnot...some sources of inspiration. Thought I might share...

Livin' in the city!!!

2008-12-27T11:52:00.000-08:00

So I hope everyone had swell holidays. Ours was just dandy, I reckon. But as the new year approaches a certain lingering thought keeps swirling through my mind like the fumes from a soda kiln. And that thought is...that i need a to build a soda kiln. Crisscrossing the South to fire kilns has ended up being a little less efficient than one might have imagined.

So Herein lies the problem...We live in the city. We live in a neighborhood. We ain't got a lot of room, I just got pinched by code enforcement for replacing an existing fence in my backyard! So me building a soda kiln in the backyard might be a challenge. But actually I think I might be able to get away with building the kiln, it's fueling the kiln that most concerns me. I don't think the City of Bradenton is even aware of what a soda kiln even is. I would say it's pretty typical for the local "paint-a-pot" shop to be the only experience folks around here have had with ceramics. So how can I pull a permit for a kiln? Should I lie and say I need one for an outdoor pizza oven? An outdoor grill that goes to cone 10? Do I build a wood kiln? I might be have a natural gas line on our street, but how do I ask about getting a line run to my backyard? Propane has its own issues too. So this is an issue for clay folks living up in the city. How does one rectify the situation? No kilns are really available for me to use around here at my discretion. We have an electric kiln of course that Cheyenne uses for her cone 6 work. Do I move to the electric kiln too?

These are typical questions folks ask I’m sure…but I’ve never asked them before. Firings have seemed often to just work out for me when I’ve needed them I guess. Folks invite me or I’ve traveled far and wide to use an oven. But if I’m ever going to get serious (I’m serious already, just being facetious) about this clay stuff then I need to take the plunge and build a kiln.
Just another question to answer, just another problem to overcome I reckon.

1st annual holiday sale was a success

2008-12-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

So our first annual holiday sale was a success. We did very well and are very thankful to everyone that made it over to our place this past weekend. We had a good turnout on both days. Not to get all sentimental and everything, but it sure did make make me happy to have so many folks coming out in support of us and our work. I don't know, I think what I appreciated most was that folks were out spending their hard-earned dough on locally produced, handmade items and not on battery operated, stamped out plastic whoozie whatsits imported in from countries far and wide. Of course we are very happy that those handmade items folks purchased were ours, but thats not my point. I'm of the opinion that if we can stimulate local economies we will inturn stimulate the national economy. "Think globally, act locally," as the saying goes.
So anyway...below are a couple of pictures from our sale...well from before folks started showing up. I was busy wrapping mugs and tumblers and teapots (yeah people bought teapots!!) after folks got here. Cheyenne handled the dough, I was on wrapping duty. She has the brains, I have the brawn, well not brawn really just an ability to fold paper and use tape.

Rudolph Clay Studios Holiday Pottery Sale

2008-11-30T14:07:00.000-08:00

This week we are gearing up to host our very first Annual Holiday Pottery sale at our home in Bradenton, Florida. We are very excited to invite the community to browse our wares and hopefully, come away with a few gifts for the holidays!

We will be offering a wide variety of pots, including mugs, cups, bowls, as well as bigger items, such as teapots, serving dishes and flower vases, and lots of things in between.

Come out Friday, December 5th, 5-9 pm or Saturday, December 6th, 10-5 pm and enjoy refreshments, local art, and being a part of this community. We are located at 2321 14th Ave. W. Bradenton, FL 34205.

Support the Arts.

Buy Local. Buy Handmade.

cheyenne tattoo lace

2008-11-25T05:40:00.000-08:00

this past weekend our good friend, theresa honeywell came to visit and stay with us while she was exhibiting in the craft show in st. pete. it was great to see her and catch up. nigel and i met her at arrowmont while he was a resident, and she and i were studio assistants together one summer. she took a class with carol shinn, who does machine embroidery "paintings."

she has since taken this technique and made it rock n roll. this is a piece she made for nigel's birthday.

believe it or not, it's all thread on thread. amazing in person...

well, we are headed to tennessee today after nigel gets off work. we alternate holidays with my family and his. it will be a short trip. but we will get to see all of my family at once. should prove to be an interesting week for us. hopefully we'll have some pictures to post.

now, i need to pack, finish some butter dishes, run some errands, clean the kitchen (i don't like to come home to a dirty house), and do whatever else is on the list...

happy thanksgiving!

herbs

2008-11-06T05:53:00.000-08:00

cheyenne here again...

we have not been very up-to-date with this blog here. nigel has been getting ready to fire up in gainesville next weekend, we are also preparing for a sale in early december (our first in our new studio!), and i have been playing around with chinese medicine!

this here is the concoction i must brew every other day (the wine, of course, is NOT included in the prescription...) and drink morning, noon, and night. it's quite aromatic, so nigel insists i open all the windows, fans, doors, and has even suggested i might like to boil it all outside on the grill in case we would like to have guests over in a few weeks!
anyhow, this is all due to an "injury" to my left hand, which has been feeling weak, tingly and numb for about a month now. i went to an acupuncturist, who gave me moxabustion (applied herbs and heat to affected area) and this here herbage. i'm trying it for a week and wearing a brace on my hand.

i'm also doing my very best to finish off that bottle of wine, too!

blisters, warts, pimples, zits....quick, someone get me pete pinnell!

2008-10-10T15:02:00.000-07:00

so, this is the first time i'm posting, and i'm here to log a complaint...i didn't want to start off this way, but here goes...

as nigel said, i've been glazing my butt off this past week or so. i just unloaded the kiln today. some nice stuff. it always looks like i have so much work, until i set aside everything already spoken for and, of course, the less successful pieces. in montessori we would not call these bad, but maybe strong-willed or different. in the studio i call them embarassing and frustrating.

well, i had a pretty large batch of cups in this firing, and i'm posting what happened to the vast majority of these cups.

i call them warts, but after having sacrificed a piece to break open one of these "warts," i found that it was nothing more than an inflated air bubble. now, to explain myself, i am a hand-builder, specifically, a slab-builder. i am very careful about smoothing my slabs, making sure they are compressed and never have a problem, except for now with these warts. the weird thing is that this only happened with the cups, yet they popped out any old place, that is, under any glaze and on bare clay. and they didn't show up until the glaze firing.

i'm wondering if anyone has any ideas about why this is happening. i am using highwater clay's cone 6 porcelain. i fire in an electric kiln, hold at temp, quick cool to 1900, then slow cool to 1400. maybe i should be slowing the kiln at quartz inversion on the way up to temp...?

i would be grateful for any feedback.

Gots To Keep Motivated!!

2008-10-06T15:42:00.000-07:00

So I've been feeling like doo doo lately…not really feeling up to par. I think my body is falling apart...which in turn is keeping me less motivated to be in the studio. I think Cheyenne and I are both feeling less motivated as of late. Not sure why. I think it is due to a wide range of issues. Both of us getting a couple of rejection letters from exhibitions we applied to, and at least for me I think the condition of the economy has something to do with it. I often wonder why I make pots at all. Why do we surrender to an obsession that often makes it difficult to keep our heads above water? I love making pottery, don’t get me wrong, but having the notion that we will be struggling for the good Lord only knows how long, tends to kill my motivation to get into the studio. However, on the other end of the spectrum, perhaps making more art is what this country needs to help bring it out of the doldrums of the past eight years. These years of woe and want; these years of war, violence, and racism. Maybe making pottery, keeping a vitally important tradition alive is helping to keep us from fully falling into the shallow big-boxed, polystyrene, insta-world of the Jetsons. I hope we are at least doing our part to make the world a bit more pleasant. If not the whole world, at least your morning coffee.

But we have been staying busy in the studio. I've been working on a new teapot form amongst other things and Cheyenne has been glazing her butt off for like a week now.
We had a wonderful time visiting with our friends/my old roommate, Meagan Chaney (Meagan Chaney Studios) and her husband Ben this past weekend. It was great. They have a lovely home and Meagan has a killer studio up in Ocala.

Are modern potters "Asia-centric" ? I don't know...maybe

2008-09-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

So I recently wrote Pete Pinnell an email thanking him for his lectures on the Silk Road and the craft traditions that developed throughout Asia and Middle East related to the Silk Road and the many conquering hordes and religions. It was all very interesting. So in the email I sent to Pete I mentioned to him that I found it fascinating that contemporaneous cultures in the New World, throughout the Andes and into the North America , were utilizing very similar design qualities in the craft they were creating. How is it that different cultures with no trade associations and no knowledge of each others existence, could make such strikingly similar designs and patterns on the craft they were making? It's all very interesting to me.

Islamic Bowl, Mimbres Bowl

The similarities are clear, I think. But then again how different could they be? Both round forms with black line work.
My point is, when I studied ceramic history in school lots of attention was given to Asian ceramics; Yixing Teapots, Ming Dynasty porcelain, Japanese tea bowls, Shoji Hamada. I'm by no means denying the beauty of historical Asian pots or their significance to ceramic history and influence on contemporary traditions but, in my opinion, pots made in the New World are just as significant. Below are 2 beautiful examples from Peru

I just believe more attention needs to be given to New World pots when studying ceramic history. And not only clay, but metal work and textiles too. The work that was made in the Andes mountains and in the deserts of North America was highly refined and exquisitely crafted. Clearly they didn’t have access to porcelain and celadons in the central highlands of Peru, but the quality of work being made knocks me off my feet.