A quick look at a few pieces from the May 4th glaze firing...

Hefty earthenware moonshine & cider jug.  Hand built using slab and coiling and underglazed with light gray and walnut brown.  This jug was bisque fired to cone 04, then clear glazed inside and out and fired one more time.  Measures 8 inches high, and will hold a generous quart of your favorite beverage!  "I'll hush up my mug, if you'll fill up my jug with that good ol' mountain dew."

White earthenware bowl and bottles.  These were also hand built using slabs and coiling, and finished with several washes of silky smooth, sky blue terra sigillata.  After bisque firing, the bottles were clear glazed on the inside and fired once again, to make them waterproof.  The taller of the two bottles measures about six and a half inches high.  These pieces have really grown on me in the past couple of weeks... the unglazed surfaces have such a wonderful look and feel to them.  They remind me of a lazy summer afternoon.

I'm working on how to describe my pottery, so these might sound a little stiff until I get the hang of it.  Hopefully here in the next few weeks I will have an Etsy site set up and ready to sell my wares!  I've been reading all of their tutorials and seller bios, and there is a lot involved, if you want to do it right, but it doesn't sound too difficult... it just looks like it will take some time.

Spouted decanters.  These unique little teapots, hand built of earthenware, were made without any real direction at first; they just sort of happened. But after they were done, I could see them being used for serving soy sauce, or coffee creamer, olive oil, or even warm maple syrup.  They are clear glazed inside and out and are food safe, microwave safe and dishwasher safe (although it would be best to hand wash these, so they will have a good, long life)

Lidded earthenware jar.  I thought this one turned out pretty good.  It measures about 5" in diameter, and was hand made using clay slabs.  It was finished in a walnut brown underglaze and decorated with trailing vines.  The design was produced by scratching through the underglaze with a pointed tool; a technique known as sgraffito, which exposes the white clay body underneath.  After the initial bisque firing, the exterior was clear glazed, and fired once more.

Finding my way...

ever so slowly.  And that's OK. 
I had a little set-back this evening.  I loaded the kiln for a glaze firing, got it going... and about an hour or so in I decided to take a peek in the bottom peephole, just to see if the coils were warming up properly.  Well... it appeared that they were not.  The top set of elements were glowing a beautiful reddish orange, and there was a nice glow rising in the kiln, but then I realized that the bottom elements were not cranking it out like the top ones.  Bummer.  Both sets of elements were on high  by that time, but they were clearly not performing at the same rate.  After some internal debate, I opted to shut it down for the night, and check it in the morning.  That didn't last long.  I went back out after the elements had darkened, and fired up the bottom pair of elements only, and son-of-a-gun if I didn't see a faint glow building in the kiln, through the peephole.  So I cranked it back up (it was still very hot, so I wasn't too concerned about thermal shock at that point).  We'll see how it goes.  Looks like I will be up for a while longer.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will work, and I'll have some nice, glazed pots by the end of the weekend.  I guess I'll know for sure tomorrow afternoon. 

Boy Howdy!

I got home from work today and went straight out to the garage to see if the kiln gods were smiling on me last night.  They were!  I didn't lose a single piece, and they all turned out great.  It felt like Christmas morning ;)  I was surprised that the kiln was still warm enough that I needed gloves to pull out the pots... even after cooling for almost 16 hours. 
As for the pictures I added below?... they are stunning, aren't they.  I especially like how the pasty white flash brings out the rich colors of the fired clay and underglazes. (ha)  I'll try to take some better pictures once everything has gone through the glaze firing.    
At around 11:15 last night I went out to check on the progress of the firing (for about the 20th time) and I noticed that the kiln sitter was edging very close to release, so I stuck around to see if I could watch the trigger fall.  It finally did at 11:28pm.  I turned all the knobs to the off position, flipped off the main power switch on the breaker panel and unplugged it from the wall... and said goodnight. 

The next step (for most of the pieces) will be clear glazing and another firing.   That will be the last hurdle.  Again... I can't wait.  I don't want to jinx it, but I think they are going to look really nice.  Once those are done and I feel like I have something to offer, I will probably look into opening an Etsy site.  But for now... let's just take it one step at a time.

Here we go...

cones...

Here are the witness cones from the middle of the kiln, second shelf... It looks like they performed exactly the way they were supposed to.  I was very happy to see these.  The kiln is oval in plan view, and some of the other cones I placed in it show that there are areas that didn't quite hit the target temperature.  But from everything I've heard, that isn't that unusual (not a big concern)... just something to keep in mind when I'm loading it.  I was firing to cone 04 (that's the middle cone in the picture) flanked by an 05 (the one tipped all the way down... the guide cone) and an 03 (the guard cone) on the other side.

kiln god

I was very pleased to see that a kiln god has shown up in my garage this morning. As you can see, it is bearing an appropriate degree of irreverence over the upcoming (inaugural) firing of my pottery kiln this afternoon. I am trusting that he/she will see to it that everything goes smoothly (please) ;)

This firing was actually just a trial run. There wasn't any pottery in the kiln today, just kiln furniture, witness cones, and the small kiln sitter cone. The main objective of this firing was to test the kiln sitter (an automatic shut-off device) and to see if there are any hot spots or cool spots inside the kiln. It was actually a pretty quick firing. From the time I turned the switches on, to the point when the temperature hit cone 04 (a little over 1900 degrees F, probably) only three hours had passed. I was impressed... and surprised. I went out to the garage and saw that it had shut down, and I though something had gone wrong. Then I noticed that the kiln sitter had been tripped, and I looked through the peep hole and the cones that I could see, looked just like they were supposed to look. I think I did a little happy dance at that point (ha). The temperature in the garage rose 8 degrees in those three hours, even as evening was settling in.  At 3:30, when I turned it on, it was 72 in the garage, and it was 80 in there by the time the kiln shut down.  There's some serious heat going on there.  Gabriel will love that during the winter months.  Tomorrow morning I will open up the kiln and check the results. That's when I'll know for sure how it went. THEN... I will be able to fire my first load of pottery! The beginning of a great, creative adventure. Pretty dang cool. 

That's one serious toaster... and it's glowing orange!

Finally, some big pottery news to share with you.  The electrician came out today and wired in the three-position switches on our kiln, and installed a new 50 amp power cord and plug in the garage.  I ran it through a quick heat-up this evening, just to see if everything was working properly, and it looks good!  Over the course of about 15 minutes I notched the switches up, beginning on low  then to medium and on to high, and the elements were glowing like a giant toaster (ha).  Beautiful.  If all goes as planned, this weekend I will do an empty test fire up to cone 04, and make sure the kiln sitter works, etc.  I'm very excited to get underway.  I've got greenware anxiously waiting in the basement.  I can't believe I've actually got a working kiln sitting in my garage!  Yikes... let the adventure begin.  I've been dreaming of this for a long time, and now it's happening.  I'm a happy guy tonight.   

White Oak

I planted a sapling white oak in our back yard (about 6 to 8 feet tall) in 1999, as a birthday gift to my wonderful wife Pam.  Today it is taller than our two story house, and a very fine looking tree.  A couple of years ago, it actually produced a modest crop of acorns!  This afternoon I came across some pictures of the fall colors that I took last year, and I thought it would be nice to capture the new leaves of another year, as well.  There's an old saying that when the oak leaves are as big as a mouses ear, you can plant your corn... Hmmmm... I think I'm behind schedule.  All I've gotten in the ground so far is our potatoes.  Normally we would still have the threat of a hard frost this time of year, so we rarely even bother to get our tomatoes and peppers and such until late April.  But this year...?  Any time now, really.  It's a little chilly today, but I think the chances of seeing any frost now are all but gone.  That's fine with me.  As I noted in a previous post, from last month, we really didn't have much of a winter this year.  Who knows what that means for summer temperatures, fire danger, insect populations... could be an interesting summer.     

Sock Monkey

The guys in the band, on a beautiful Spring evening.  L to R: Del, Rus, Ellis, Ray, The Professor and Sly.  We had a good two year run, but it looks like we are going to hang it up.  We've agreed to have one more Sock Monkey blowout, to end it.  Don't know where it will be yet, or when... but probably within the next month or two.  In the top picture, Ellis & Ray are holding our twenty dollar bill.  After expenses, we figure that's about what we all ended up with after two years of gigs (ha)... we'll split that between us, of course.         

I had no idea!...

After checking my e-mail this morning, I was cruising around on the web, and came across this blog that looked kinda cool. I spent a few minutes reading some of the posts and looking at the pictures, and then I realized... hey, this is MY blog!?   Apparently I have a blog.  News to me.  So anyway, I figured since I have one, I might as well write something.

Let's see...the tri-fold paper towel dispenser in the office bathroom was empty, so I dutifully refilled it a few minutes ago.  It actually has a key you have to use to unlock it.  I think maybe there must have been a time when paper towel thievery was rampant.  It's nice to know that things have settled down.  I feel safer just knowing that people aren't as inclined to steal paper towels as they once were.  It's a positive sign, I think.  But as they say... locks are there to keep honest people honest.
It's been a busy couple of weeks here (see above note regarding the paper towel dispenser... perfect example).  We capped off the end of March with a Sock Monkey gig at Cartoons on the 30th, which actually went pretty well.  It was a fun night.  An old band mate of mine from back in the 80s, Rick Toombs, had been visiting family in Arkansas, and was passing through Springfield on the way back to Colorado.  He and is wife Rhonda, and their daughter Hannah stopped by the house, and later came out to the bar to hear our band play.  It was good to see them.  The 31st was my sister's birthday (Happy Birthday Diane!).  As is my normal routine for that occasion, I spent a good part of that afternoon flagging down cars on the highway to let them know.  Most of the people I stopped acted like they really didn't care, and frankly were kinda rude about it.  Hmm.
Sunday (April 1st) I played drums at church, in our production of Jesus Christ Superstar.  We've got a good, talented bunch of people in that group, and I'm happy to play with them.  The production went off without a hitch (more or less) and was well received.  Several weeks ago I was handed the task of finding an electronic drumset for the church.  I've been playing drums for close to 40 years, but I really don't know much of anything about electronic drums.  I finally found a nice set of Yamaha's at Guitar Center for well under $1000, which was the hinted budget.   I played those this past Sunday.  They are OK, but I still greatly prefer acoustic drums.  One nice bonus, however, was that when I was done playing I picked up a couple of things from behind the set, and I was out the door.  No more lugging around two hundred pounds of drums and hardware and cymbals in and out of the church for each performance!  That was nice.
So... this is blogging.  Ok, that wasn't so difficult.  Hopefully I will do that again some time soon.  Maybe with pictures next time.  I like pictures.  have a great Easter weekend!  Peace.

Summer clouds...

Amazing.  Mid March, and we had a high of 80 degrees today here in southwest Missouri!  Not a record, but dang close... it felt like summer.  When I got home from work I put on some shorts and a t-shirt, and officially started my weekend!  We cooked out on our new grill this evening... burgers, brats, chicken and a few steaks, grilled taters and onions (Mmmmmm).  Most of it will go in the freezer for later.  It was a great evening. This beautiful summer cloud formation popped up at around 5:30, out to our east.  I'm almost tempted to get the garden ready (ha).  It's hard to believe that we could still see below freezing temperatures... and snow.  It's not that unusual in March, but I'm hoping that the possibility has just slipped away.  We really haven't had much of a winter here.  That's OK with me.

Blue

White earthenware bottles with Delphinium blue terra sigillata.

I chanced upon a clearing in the forest...

What is that dog barking at now?....

A UPS delivery... that's what!  My new kiln elements and switches arrived this evening from Ohio! So tomorrow after work, I will probably get started with the installation.  From what I've read, I should be able to get the new elements in without much trouble (I hope)... as long as I take my time and pay attention to what I'm doing.  Wiring the switches may be a bit more than I am up for, however.  I'll look it over and see how quickly I get confused (ha).  I may just leave that to the professionals.  We'll see.  Whooohoooo... it's getting closer.  I've got a lot of greenware sitting in the basement, growing more impatient by the day.

Abby Someone

I think that's what I'm going to name this kiln after all the work is done.  Abby Normal.  Young Frankenstein... priceless.   

The process of converting our huge Vulcan 417G kiln over to a 50 amp unit is coming along nicely... albeit slow but sure.  There are times when I can be a fairly impatient guy, but for this, I don't mind slow.  This is all new territory for me.  Last week I called the Vulcan factory and ordered four new 12 amp elements to replace the old ones in the bottom half of the kiln.  In the course of my conversation with Jeff Williams, the president of the company, I expressed my concern that once it has been changed over, with the top half removed, the kiln will only have two manual on/off switches to control the elements.  I felt like that would leave me with far too little control over the temperature and subtle adjustments that can be necessary during the course of the firing process... especially the first few hours when a slow rise in temperature is crucial to avoid thermal shock to the pottery.  I had discussed the potential conversion of the 417G with him on several occasions over the past few months, but I think this was the first time that he had considered that aspect of it, and the fact that it would only have the two simple switches.  He suggested a few options, including replacing the current setup with 3-way switches.  Mr. Williams said he would do a search for the appropriate switches and figure out the wiring for me.  I thought that was very nice of him.

He called yesterday and had good new for me.  He located some used switches at a very reasonable price (the new ones are fairly expensive, apparently) and he is in the process of figuring out the wiring for them, to swap out with the old ones.  So far I've been very impressed with the president of the Vulcan Kiln Company.  The process is moving forward!  Part of me is excited and anxious to get this whole thing going... but the other part is a little freaked, because when I put that first load of pots in the kiln and flip the switch, as far as I'm concerned, there is no turning back.  My fledgling career as a potter (or clay artist) has begun.  And from everything I've seen and read, it's going to bring with it a whole new world of learning and challenges, setbacks, victories and the joy that is found within the creative process... and probably a lot of stuff I don't even see on the radar.  I think I'm ready for that, but there's only one way to find out.

Another weekend over... already?

Our band Sock Monkey played at the 31st annual Sertoma Chili Cookoff Saturday afternoon, here in Springfield. There was an insane number of people there.  It was a blast.  Of course, we didn't get to play the main stage, down on the bottom floor where most of the chili booths were... and all of the people (hmmmm... there's always next year) but we were in the beer garden on the second floor, which was a pretty popular place to be.  We got there a little early, so before we played I waded through the crowd and took some pictures.  What you see in these two are just the people that were milling around on the main floor area.  The chili booths were on either side, and just about equally packed with people, as well.  Some folks can't stand crowds (let alone anything like this) but I actually enjoyed it, in an odd sort of way.  The second picture is looking toward the main stage, with local favorites Big Smith just about to finish up their set.  In the top picture, all the way back on the back wall, where those windows are; well... that's where we played.  Up in that room, overlooking the main floor.  It was still cool to get to play there.  Well, it's getting late, I'm tired, and my alarm clock is going to be going off before I know it, so I best hit the hay.  Peace.  Have a good week ahead.       

I did manage to make some pottery this weekend, also.  This piece is a lidded, white earthenware cannister.  The tile it's sitting on is about 8 inches square.  I'll probably finish it in a dark underglaze and a sgraffito design.  I'm leaning toward another floral pattern... leaves and vines, or maybe a gourd plant (?) this time.  That might look OK.  We'll see.

My home town... West Plains, Missouri

 Looking east toward the court house and the square from the corner of Langston Street and West Main.  All of these pictures were taken on February 6th, 2011.  We were in West Plains for Pam's mother's funeral.

 Looking west from the corner of Langston Street and West Main.  The big building on the left side of the picture is the First Christian Church.  Our family was a member of that church from before I was born, I'm pretty sure... long time.

 Looking toward the southwest corner of the square.

 Looking toward the southeast corner of the square from the west side.  The gray building is the courthouse, and the red building in the center is the old Aid's Hardware store.

 West Plains Opera House... I worked in this building when it was the Sterlings Store and Magic Mart, starting after I graduated HS in the Spring of 1976 through the Fall of 1977.

Looking south down Aid Avenue... what used to be called South Main Street.  We took this street to get to our house, all the way out to where South Main ends at the bypass.  The odd looking building in the center is the Zorn Building; and the small brick building just past the Zorn Building was my father's pharmacy for many years.  I was born in West Plains in 1958 and lived there till my late teens.  West Plains is my home town, and even though it looks kind of bleak in these pictures (it really isn't) it was a great place to grow up.

Long bowl

White earthenware with a black terra sig and sgraffito floral decoration.  I wasn't sure if I should call this a deep platter or a bowl, but I think it would work well as a serving bowl.  It's an unusual shape, which made the sgraffito work a bit difficult in places, but I like it.

Where were you...?

Where were you the first week of February, 1987, and what were you doing?  If you can't remember, it's not surprising... as far as I know, nothing earth-shattering occurred that week.  Twenty five years ago, this past week, I was on the road with our band playing in Billings, Montana.  I was 28 years old and had been playing music for a living for several years.  It was just another gig in another city, and I probably wouldn't have remembered much of anything about it either, except that I wrote letters to Pam & Patricia when they couldn't go out with us.  I was going through some of my old band stuff today, and I came across a couple of letters dated February 3rd and 5th, 1987.  With all of the letters I've saved over the years, what are the odds that I would come across one that was written 25 years ago... to the day.  I thought that was kinda cool.  
A brief glimpse into the wild life of a band on the road (ha!)

At that time, the band consisted of Rick Toombs (guitar, sax & vocals), Vinny Luciani (lead guitar & vocals), Dane Ward (keys and lead vocals), Ronald Wesley (bass guitar, keys and vocals), Becky Davich (lead vocals) and me on drums.  We also had a lighting tech named Kerry Williams (who had been with us since the early 80s) and our sound guy, Darrel Sanders.  We were living in Colorado Springs at the time, and had just finished a week in Durango, Colorado.  Then we headed north to Montana.  Our story begins on the afternoon of Tuesday, February 3rd, 1987.

Dear Pam and Patricia,
Hi - I love you!  I'm sitting here all by myself in our room #9 at the world famous Stardust Motel, at 3621 Montana Avenue, in beautiful Billings, Montana.  I'm just plain thrilled to be here! (Hmmmmm...)  I sure do miss you two.  It's going to be a long two weeks.  After I called you last night, Wes called Joan, and then we went in search of the motel.  It didn't take long.  This is a pretty bad motel... you know, the kind where you don't know if the sheets are "clean" or not.  It's down by the railroad tracks in the seedy part of town (who would have guessed that Billings had a "seedy" part of town?  funny).  It's not real bad, like Portales, New Mexico, but I am a little concerned about getting broken into... anyway... I hope not!  It sounds like the equipment truck just pulled in, so Darrel and Vinny should be coming in any minute now.  There are three beds in our room - two regular double beds and a bed that pops out of the couch.  I'm sleeping on that one.  It's not exactly what you would call comfortable.  There are two support bars that run across it, and one of them lands just across the small of my back, if I lay out flat on it... so I ended up kinda curled up in a ball in my sleeping bag last night.  It wasn't so bad.  We went for set-up today at around 1:00 or 1:30.  So far so good.  The people aren't real friendly yet, and I just get a strange vibe around here.  I don't know what it is... ya know?  It's kinda redneck.  Maybe that's it.  The club has a few rules.  It looks like it's going to be a low volume job, but the people like rock.  Sounds like an interesting combination.  I think we will find out what works soon enough.  One guy sitting at the bar said that they don't start throwing beer bottles at the band until after 11:00 (ha!)  (ha, ha, ha.... oh boy).
It will be a little strange doing opening night without Rick.  He's supposed to fly in at 7:00pm Wednesday, I think.  The last time we played in Billings was in early 1980 at a place called Grandma's, and we stayed out at the Econo Lodge.  That was where Linda blew up her toaster oven with a can of soup.  Remember? 
Anyway... we are playing at The Casino Club in case you need to know.  I hope you can read this, it's looking kinda sloppy.  Sorry.  I'll talk to you Wednesday.  Well, I guess I better go for now.  Everybody is coming in & out and they've got the TV on, talking, etc. so... I'll see you later.  Love you both.  Take care and be careful out there.
I'll be home in no time... right?

Thursday afternoon
February 5, 1987

Dear Pam & Patricia,
Wow, only 2:00pm and we've already done so much.  We got up at around 9:45 so we could practice on the new Peter Gabriel song "Big Time".  It was hard to pull myself out of bed!  Last night after work the manager told us about this place down the street called The Golden Nugget.  They have full meals for only $1.25!!  So... Wes & Vinny and I went over there last night for breakfast.  I got a huge 3 egg omlet with ham & cheese, hash browns and toast.  It was really good.  They have some gambling here in Montana, so a lot of these places serve cheap food to get you in the door, so you will play their slot machines.  We didn't play the machines.  Got back to the motel at around 3:00 or 3:30am....

the letter continues on about a nice library I found within walking distance from the motel... some "issues" we were having with one of the members of the band... and Ron & I working on some sequenced synthesizer parts.  So... that was what I  was doing 25 years ago today.  Exciting, huh.  But beyond the mundane day-to-day stuff, we also had a lot of fun in that band.  There were aspects of that profession that could be very difficult, to say the least, but I loved it. I mean, hey... I played drums for a living! I can easily say that it was the best job I ever had.  And I do miss that life sometimes, but I really don't think I could ever go back.  Not like that. There are way too many things that I like about my life today.

Our band, Some Peoples' Kids, in the summer of 1986.  L to R: Del Thompson (me), Rick Toombs, Becky Davich, Dane Ward, Ron Wesley and Vinny Luciani.

A smallish vessel for my spirits...

 

Slab built jug made of white earthenware... leather hard.  I made some dark blue terra sig a few days ago, and I think I will use it on this bottle.  I may add some floral patterned sgraffito to it also.  I'll give it a good look once the terra sig is dry, and see if it will let me (ha).  I am discovering that you can't force a design or decoration idea onto a piece when everything is telling you it shouldn't be there.  Sometimes you just have to know when to sit it aside and leave it alone.  It may just be a blue bottle, which would be fine.  I've got more of these in the works.