Show and Sale

pottery_show
Originally uploaded by cgul.

Hello, just wanted to shamelessly plug my show and sale that is coming up this saturday between 10am and 2pm. I hope people enjoy some of the stuff. I have more goods than last year which was good. I tried to get another load of mugs in but couldn't quite get them fired in time.

Firing

Sorry, No pictures. But finished a glaze firing last night after a weekend of trying to get over a cold, waxing, glazing, cleaning, and firing! I have another load to go in when this one is done. I hope the stuff turned out well! Keeping my fingers crossed!

OOPSLA

As I mentioned before, I am a potter, who, as a hobby, does computer programming. I am currently in San Diego learning more about my "hobby" craft. This is my first oopsla and things are going well, learning lots and having fun! I do wish I had my Brent throwing computer down here, but what can you do. Any ideas for a "laptop" pottery experience?

Here we are learning about aspects, patterns, refactoring, etc.. How can we work this into pottery. Maybe I will explore this thought later.

Time Doesn't Scale

So, here I am needing to mix a new blue glaze. My current blue glaze is lacking a little strength of character. To do this well, I need to get a scale that has .1 gram accuracy so that I can accurately measure the oxides that go into the glazes.

These scales don't come cheap. ...And apparently they take a very long time to come in. I have been waiting for over 10 days now to buy one! Just today, I have been promised that it will be in tomorrow. Here is hoping that this is the case!

Anyway, once I get that mixed I will post some more pictures about what has been happening in the pot production department.

Throw safely...

B4andAft

B4andAft
Originally uploaded by cgul.

Shot of bowl. Behind it you can see a smaller bowl with what would be the exact same glaze on it, but unfired.

I haven't been too active in the studio, but I am happy with the products I have made so far. I am going to push some more in the next few weeks to get some more firings in.

2 in a row

I think I can officially call it a trend now. I am back in business in the studio. Sorry I don't have any pictures to post at this moment but they are coming.

I was experimenting a little with creating a "bottle" shaped object with threads on top to accept a pump device, like a soap pump dispenser. It seemed to go relatively smoothly. See how it works after firing. I will attempt to throw a couple more as warm up exercises, before digging into my back log of items to make.

Goblets and Bowls seem high on the priority list, although I need some kiln filler items.

Any ideas?

Re-Start

Good news. Organized the basement. Threw some mud. Having fun! Back in tonight.

Drops

Drops
Originally uploaded by cgul.

So one of the things that is tough, is regularily getting to the basement to throw. My life is messed up right now with a new job and well, it is keeping me tired and run down. Okay, well it isn't solely the new job. An intense workout with no rest is having its fun with me at the same time. Anyhoo, really, I will be down there in the next while making stuff I promise.

Anyway, waxing is my biggest pain in the butt. No, not waxing to remove hair from my butt, but rather to keep glaze from ending up where it shouldn't be. There must be an easier way I say! Please tell me if you can think of one or have some better suggestions for brushes.

Tricolour

Tricolour
Originally uploaded by cgul.

One that that I haven't mentioned is the fact that the pottery I now make is thrown with a wheel running on 100% windpower, and fired on 100% windpower. No, I don't have a big wind generator hooked up to the house or anything, but we subscribe to the Enmax "Greenpower" program, where we pay extra to offset our energy use with generated windpower. This province blows, so there is no shortage of windpower :D

The bowl in this picture is of the same gang of bowls as the "Valentine Bowl" but has a fun colour scheme resembling that of the University Karen and I went to. Both of those bowls haven't been sold, and can be viewed if you come and visit us.

Happy Wednesday!

Music in the Studio

Music in the studio has always been a problem for a computer geek. Today I hooked up a device which will have some pleasant side effects. Apple Airport Express is a small little device that can act as a wireless access point, print server, and streaming music server. The need to get a reliable print server for the printer that hangs out near the studio can now also unlock the huge music inventory and allow it to be played on the stereo in the studio. I will let you know how it goes.

Valentine Bowl

DSCN1381
Originally uploaded by cgul.

Happy Valentines everyone. This is my contribution today for all those valentines day people. This glaze is an excess iron glaze with some weird effects from a blue glaze which turns a lovely gold colour when overlapped. This is one of my standard shapes when it comes to bowls. Well Karen loves it, and okay, I like it as well.

Have a good one.

Goblet Farm

Goblet Farm
Originally uploaded by cgul.

So, there they are. Some goblets I made a while back, that were given as gifts. It is good to note that goblets, if made with the "bowl" part too wide, really suck as drinking vessels. I found this out through some feed back. These ones in this picture have that lovely "sucky" shape. I am going to have to re-engineer the shape to make them a bit more drink friendly.

Introduction

mybluebowl
Originally uploaded by cgul.

Hello everyone. I am about to embark on a journey of documenting the activities in my studio as frequently as I can. Initially I expect this to be a little rough (okay a lot rough) around the edges. I hope with your feedback and support we can make this into a usefully archive of knowledge and fun.

Feedback will always be welcome!

This picture is a 3d rendering of a bowl using an opensource tool called blender. Figuring out if this is something interesting to play with when I can't be near the mud.