For now it’s back to work in the studio where Joy and I are planning to fire the wood kiln again in about a month.  The gears are slowing getting up to cruising speed, but we have the success of the first firing pushing us on.  And some fall shows too.

Speaking of shows, just before I left town a few weeks a ago, I sent a box of plates to the Schaller Gallery in Montana for “Plate-tastic” an online show of plates.  As of today most of my plates have been scooped up, but there are still two lunch plates available.  Rush on over to the website and scroll through plate after plate after plate.  Mine are the ones with the seashell marks that look wood fired.

Although I moved my studio to the EnergyXchange for a lot of reasons, one of the main ones was the fact that there would be a wood fired soda kiln to use. Approaching a brand new kiln that has never been fired before, one is simultaneously drawing on all the knowledge of previous firings in previous kilns, observing and calculating and pontificating, and also flying by the seat of one’s pants.

That would be for a typical kiln.

This kiln being quite unique, there were many worries to listen to and ponder over while waiting for some answers from the first go ‘round. The most commonly recorded questions from the peanut gallery were:

· Won’t the pallets fall into the bagwall and knock it right over?

· Will the pallets get stuck in the ‘mail slot’ on the way in, bursting into flames?

· What about the nails?

I will admit that I too was a doubter at times: although I was confident the kiln would ultimately fire just fine, I was worried about what the iron from the nails would do on the pots. I am happy to report that there are answers to all of these questions, and so far indications look good for future firings.

1. Although I did observe at least one stoke where a pallet sent the bagwall rocking back and forth, it was not as common as some might have predicted to send a pallet straight in to the wall nose first. Once you got the feel of it, not too hard but not too easy either, the pallets went in just right. It was actually much easier to lose the groove while stoking by not launching the pallet with enough ummph, causing the nose of the pallet to drop down short and the tail of the pallet to flip around ass backwards into the bagwall. All said, we lost a few pots off of the bagwall, but not too many.

2. A few pallets did get stuck on the way in, causing a bit of excitement and requiring some rapid response. As with any firing, keeping your wits about you and the right tools handy solved the problem. A quick thump on the stuck pallet with a big piece of metal was enough to take care of it.

3. I was most worried about the nails and I figured it could be the ruin of the whole thing, so I was quite relieved that I saw practically no effect from the nails at all on the pottery.

We fired to cone 10 in about 16 hours, burning up at least 115 or so pallets, and we introduced 6 pounds of soda ash on wood near the end of the firing.  We saw successful pots coming from about half of the kiln, with good rich colors and soda flashing.  The top section was a bit colder and drier, something we can certainly work on for next time.

All said, the Mark Peters’ Pallet Eater performed well for the maiden voyage, and I think it will prove to be a fine kiln for wood firing.

There is definitely some good news to report once I can find the time.

The first firing of the Pallet Kiln has come and gone bringing success and a few deep sighs of relief.  I’m working on a full report of that, and trying to get everything battened down and ready for the next adventure.

But in the meantime, coming soon to another venue in Montana, I was included in an annual show titled “Salt/Soda National” Which will open in the first week of August.  And this little bit of good news came in the mail recently for some shows coming up down the road.  We all love good news, but even better when it’s stamped right there so you know what you’re getting into.

I was very pleased to be invited to participate in an exhibition at the Schaller Gallery, which is an online gallery based out of Montana.  I packed up and shipped out some of my favorites a few weeks ago for the show titled “Burnt”, and subtitled “from crusty and toasty to smooth and silky”.  I am not sure exactly where my pots belong on that spectrum, but it is some fine company indeed.  Participating artists include: Phil Rogers, Dan Anderson, Mark Goertzen, Tom & Jeff Unzicker, Bede Clarke, Ben Bates, Linda Christianson, Chris Campbell, Donn Hedman, Joe Singewald, Gary Hootman, and myself.

Looking forward to a first firing in a new kiln brings excitement and rattles the nerves a bit.  And as the pile of pots from the last few firings grows smaller and smaller, the tendency is to hold on tight to the remaining ones.  But I sent some nice ones out to Montana for this show, so head on over and have a look at the show.  The show will open at 12:01 am Thursday July 1 and remain online through Sunday July 31, 2010.

Did I mention that I’ve moved my studio, and there will be a new wood fired kiln in my life?  In the last two weeks I’ve settled in enough to make a few pots for the upcoming first firing.  And of course, one of the first things on the list was to get the wood prepped.

That my friends, is a mountain of pallets.  And since the studio is built at a former landfill, it is also the wood pile for the kiln.

There are a number of questions that one gets asked repeatedly when one is educating the public about one’s woodfired pottery.

“What kind of wood do you use to fire your kiln?”, is a common one.

So the pallets are stacked and we’re getting ready to take her for a test drive in a few weeks.  We’ll see how it goes.

The hours are 10-6 today and tomorrow, June 12th and 13th, and you can find a map and listing of all of the amazing studios opening their doors right here.

For those of you who can’t make it, here are some photos of some of the pots from “The Last Firing”.

Most of the ones pictured here have all ready come and gone through the Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville.

But I also set aside a few of the others from the kiln load to hold onto, and put some in a box and shipped them off to Montana.  The pots headed west will be part of an online exhibition at the Schaller Gallery titled “Burnt”, opening on July 1st 2010.

Last post I had a few pictures from the firing we finshed just before I headed off to the Artisphere Festival.  Currently the kiln is cooling again as Joy and I finally were able to get the planned second firing finished.

The Artisphere Festival, by the way, was a good one.  I made enough sales to call it a moderate financial success, but it was all around a positive experience.  The folks who put on that show really know how to treat the artists well, they raise the bar for all other craft shows.  They even provided entertainers for those of us standing around in our booths all weekend.  From now on, when applying to craft shows I will check to make sure they have a roving dixieland Jazz Band and perhaps even a small troupe of acrobats.

Next up on the list:

• well this weekend is the TRAC Studio Tour of course.
• I’ll soon be sending off some work to a great new online gallery
• tomorrow I’ll start moving my studio down the road a piece where I’ll be starting a new phase and also unload the firing which just may prove to be the last firing in the little wood kiln on Roan Mountain.Perhaps I’ll try to explain a little more about that last one.

Photo by Joy Tanner

It’s been a busy Spring here in the mountains, but we finally managed to get the kiln fired and unloaded.  So many times with a firing looming it seems that everything gets put off until after the firing.  I was reminded by my pottery pal Michael Kline that this phenomenon is not limited to me, but actually common to most wood firing potters.  As the firing date gets closer and closer, important things get separated into those that must be done before the firing and those that can be put off until after the firing.  The firing take on the momentum of a freight train, barreling along until it reaches the crest of the hill and then roars down the mountain stopping for no one and no thing.

Joy Tanner shared the kiln load with me, and we both fared pretty well this time around.  You can see some photos she took during the unloading here. We’ve both made enough to fire again soon, so we’ll share another kiln load in the next few weeks before the TRAC Studio Tour.

Here’s a shot of some of my favorites from the kiln, some of these are heading out with me to Artisphere this weekend so come and get ‘em if you’re in the neighborhood of Greenville, SC.

]]> http://williambakerpottery.com/blog/2010/05/06/after-the-firing-atf/feed/ 1 http://williambakerpottery.com/blog/2010/03/06/a-little-help/ http://williambakerpottery.com/blog/2010/03/06/a-little-help/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:01:53 +0000 williambaker http://williambakerpottery.com/?p=526

I was invited by my old pal Drew Nicklas to be part of an exhibit at Pottery Northwest in Seattle entitled “Four By Four”.  The theme of the show was some of the current resident artists there at the arts center inviting some of their friends and mentors to send pieces and create a diverse group of work.   I tried to get him to tell me if I qualified as a friend or a mentor, but I never really got a definitive answer on that.

Drew and I go way back to the very beginning of my little adventure in clay, to our undergraduate days when we spent many hours in the ceramics building and the kiln yard even though neither of us was an art major.  Who would have known that both of us would end up taking a potter’s path?  We soon went in different directions, I from the West Coast to the East in search of better clay, and he on to another non-art degree and then to a MFA in ceramics. It has been nice to stay in touch over the years, and funny enough, after all that we both found our way to wood firing.

So here’s to another well-spoken wood firer out there.  And here’s to good friends and good mentors.  I’ve learned a lot from a lot of folks over the years.  Some people pass by quickly and utter a brief little phrase that you can never forget.  Some people let you fire their kiln, their soda kiln no less, when you really need one.  Whether it’s an honest appraisal of your latest work or bit of encouragement or a little help getting the kiln to finish off in the wee hours, I appreciate all the help I’m gotten along the way.

The exhibit will be up for the rest of the month, and there is an opening reception tonight. [March 6, 2010] I can’t make it as it is in Seattle and I am not…but if you stop by tell ‘em I send my best.

Here is the quick version:

like a lot of clay people, I got started by accident and I was hooked before I even knew it.

Having realized that I wanted to refine and expand my skills as a craftsman and a potter, and that this might very well require so much time that it could not be relegated to a hobby, I decided the best way to improve my skills and therefore my work was to simply work as much as possible.  The theory was that the act of creating pots in the studio would lead to better and better work.  Although I do not stop and critically assess my work as often as I should, I have always had my own little inner critic which pushes my work forward even if it seems to be in tiny little steps.

I always wondered if other potters and creative types had this same little voice, the “perfectionist” voice?  I’ve long since accepted that the little voice will not go away, and so I’ve had to adopt various strategies to deal with it and still maintain my own sanity. Especially as a creator of things who returns to the same forms in a repetitive cycle, who then subjects those things to an uncontrolled firing process, one must not wait for perfection.  But I do believe that the “perfectionist” voice has value as it has caused me to always seek to improve my forms…sometimes in tiny little ways that no one else may even see…but to continue improving and refining as I go.

I’ve found several examples of this recently.

I heard a story on the radio about an Olympic athlete describing her training process.  She described the physical and mental rigors of training day in and day out, of the hundreds of thoughts racing through her head and she raced around the track.  And how after crossing the finish line and looking up to see the time, she felt ‘it is always bad’.

I sighed when I heard that…I know what you mean I said.

I found another expression of this idea in a video clip of Ira Glass discussing what some creative people go through as they are honing their skills.   He was talking mainly about writers and producers, but the point is the same.  I would summarize it as:

As you are working, you know that your work lacks something and even without knowing what exactly it is that is lacking it does not measure up to what you consider ‘great’.  So you keep working.  On your skills and your product and refining and editing.  And this may take years.

I just ran across this letter, which was in response to this article. These point to this issue plus a whole lot more for another day.

I can really relate to both sides of this discussion.  There are some days when I want to smash half of the pots I just made simply because they are not right, just not good enough.  Then again how can I go around smashing half of what I just made?  On “those” days I have come to remember a passing line I never forgot, uttered by a potter more experienced than I:  “it’s an emotional roller coaster,  being a potter.”

I have determined that the little voice really is helpful.  On “those” days I usually walk away from the ware board before smashing many pots.  And although I generally still do not like looking back at older pots, I tend to look now at where things have gone rather than where they were then.

Here are a few examples of one of my favorite forms, one from each of the last four years.  I certainly like the most recent one the best, but maybe it’s just me.