Feb 10, 2010
Ok, there were also more lovely medium and large bowls, plenty of playera leaf plates and a bunch of test bowls, but the mugs out of my latest glaze firing (unloaded yesterday morning) really got me giddy. So pretty and so much easier to photograph than bowls… 
More photos on my facebook page, but here’s what I’m talking about!
Feb 9, 2010
Over the last 2 years we’ve been slowly reclaiming our land from the weeds, one small patch at a time. It’s not really the clearing that is the problem but, because everything grows so fast here in the rainy season, it is the ongoing maintenance that becomes a hassle.
We could hire someone to keep it neat but its a good work-out for me and being a control freak I much prefer to do things myself if possible! 
Miri also normally does her fair share, although recently she’s not been able to help with the weed whacking as we didn’t want her to aggravate her thumb problem.
Anyway, recently I finished clearing the last patch of weeds/vines/shrubs from the area behind the house that we’ve decided will be the extent of our back yard…
Before and after the final clearing
My guess is we’ve got just over half our land now under “active maintenance” and the rest is our contribution to conserving the natural habitat!
Despite leaving the bottom part of the land wild we did want to be able to make use of it, so I cut a circular path through the jungle; going from the house, down the right hand side, across the bottom (through our own little wood) and then up the left hand side…
During the path clearing I came across some interesting plants including a large citrus tree that was fruiting..
Miri plans to walk this path for exercise on days she doesn’t go to the gym. We’ve tried it out and boy those slopes are killers. A lap takes about 5 mins at a steady pace, so a few of those will be a good workout.
The bottom is full of mature trees, so it is beautiful and shady under the canopy. We plan to plant gingers, haleconias and other cool plants down there in spots along the path to add some colour and interest.
Feb 8, 2010
The other day I was at the wheel throwing some tumblers when I noticed something drop to the floor to my right just past my newly thrown wares. A frigging lizard (lizards outside = cute, lizards in my studio = arghh!!). Clearly the word is out in the lizard community that Rincón Pottery is THE place to be. I, on the other hand, have grown tired of cleaning lizard droppings off of my bats and worrying about lizards playing “leap frog” (or “leap lizard” I guess) on my newly thrown pots. Just the other day, I chased a fairly large gecko out of the studio, and he seemed to take great pleasure at jumping from one leather hard pot to the next on his way out… But maybe I’m just taking it a tad too personal…
Anyhow, so little lizard and I had a little stare down. Given his location on the floor I was convinced that our suspicions have been confirmed, and he has indeed entered the studio through gaps in the air-conditioning unit seating. First, the lizard was escorted outdoors and I finished my throwing session. The next day, armed with gorilla tape and silicon sealant, Nick promptly created a “No Lizard access” zone. Or so we hope…damn tenacious those lizards. Somehow I don’t think I’ve seen that last of them….
Yesterday brought no new lizard sighting, but plenty of activity on the pottery front. I loaded another glaze kiln (currently in its slow cool down phase of the firing), trimmed 8 tumblers and made some MASSIVE playera leaf plates. Today, I think I’m taking the afternoon off!
Large Playera Leaf plates in process
Plates shaped, with fired smaller plate for scale!
Feb 6, 2010
It seems like I’ve been up to my elbows (sometimes literally, mostly figuratively) in glazes for the past week. I fired the first glaze kiln of 2010 (glaze firing number 8 here in PR, for those of you keeping track) on Tuesday evening (unloaded Thursday morning) and am now finishing up glazing another kiln load, to be fired tomorrow night.
The is the first time I’ve EVER fired full loads of glazed wares back to back and I’m actually enjoying it. It is very nice to be able to quickly apply lessons learned from one firing, try to replicate a cool result once again or check out an idea hatched from a kiln’s result. Some of my glaze buckets are getting a tad low, so a glaze mixing session is in the cards for the new future. I’m now at a point where I feel I have enough “data” to figure out which glazes are key players and which will eventually be “weeded” out. We are also looking to augment those “key players” with a few more glazes that compliment their strengths and provide cool glaze interactions. So, in addition to my dwindling favorites (Raw Sienna and Licorice Black), I’m planning to mix up some glaze test based on variations on the Raw Sienna and possibly Licorice Black. Stay tuned! In the meanwhile, here are some cool glaze effects from the latest firing. Photos of pots from the firing are on my facebook page.
Feb 1, 2010
Our Heliconias are going completely berserk. We have red ones, orange ones, orange and yellow ones, yellow one. Whew! I keep cutting and they keep growing. Its a wonderful luxury to have constant access to such beautiful flowers. The Heliconias above are some ‘Guyanas‘ I cut yesterday. Look kinda sweet in my PVC inspired vase, no?
And the pink? Well that brings us back to the pottery and my recent experiments with adding food color to wax resist….
Jan 30, 2010
I love bisque ware. I know many potters who hate clay at this stage, finding it anemic and lackluster. I love how the fired clay takes on a new character and a new strength. Yes, you can almost hear it exclaiming ”What Now????” but to me that is a challenge, not an affront.
I fired my eighth bisque firing (the first for 2010) Wednesday night and unloaded it yesterday. For those non-potter readers, bisque firings take the clay (air dry but still containing some moisture) up to around 1900 °F. By the end of this firing, there is no chemically bonded water left in the clay. Bisque is a true ceramic material, although the clay body has not yet reached maturity. This happens in the next firing, which is a glaze firing (the bisque is coated with a glaze and fired again to a higher temperature).
You can fit more pots into a bisque firing than a glaze firing, as pieces can be places very close together (even touching). As result, with each bisque firing I’ve been accumulating more pieces than I can glaze fire. Finally, I have enough bisque for two back to back glaze firings. As it is still high season here in Rincón, this is a very good thing. I’ll miss having bisque ware kicking around in the kiln room. No worries, more production going on in the studio…Bisque number 9 is just around the corner!
First Bisque Ware for 2010
Drying wheel and handbuilding work in the studio
Jan 28, 2010
My day started early monitoring my first bisque kiln of 2010 (nothing like watching cones at the crack of dawn). T’was a rainy morning but once the cones went down and the sun came out, we were treated to a beautiful set of double rainbows. My apologies for only capturing part of the rainbows:
And the pragmatic? I discovered a series of tendon exercises I’ve been performing religiously (especially after handbuilding, which actually seems harder on my thumb than throwing…). I feel less silly doing them to music but you can do with them as you wish. The hitch-hiking one is especially nifty:
Tendon Gliding Exercises
Nine tendons pass through the carpal tunnel. Four of the nine tendons bend the tips of the fingers; another four of the nine tendons bend the middle joints of the finger, and the ninth tendon bends the thumb tip. The purpose of these exercises is to glide the tendons gently through the carpal tunnel to minimize microscopic adhesions, reduce congestion, and improve lubrication in the tendons. These are not strength exercises. Perform the exercises gently or they may cause a pain flare-up.
(from: Hand Health Resources)
Jan 26, 2010
Last night I took part in ‘Travelling Treasures’ for the first time. Christine G. Epstein and Maureen S. Schmidt, two local artists, recently started ‘Travelling Treasures’, a collection of fine arts and artisan handcrafts by over 15 local artists. True to their name, they travel with their collection to different hotels and guest houses in the area, bringing the art to their audiences.
Yesterday’s event was at Villa Cofresi, a local beach-front hotel with a happening bar (especially known for their Pirata drink). It was great fun and I sold a bunch of pieces (including those pictured below)! Check out more photos from the event on my facebook page.
Jan 23, 2010
Now that we finally have patio furniture, we decided we really should get a grill. Nick assembled our new purchase ( a Weber Spirit E201, which I’m told had the worst instructions known to man) and we waited for last week’s cold front to clear. Yesterday, we finally tried our new setup out for size. Verdict? We like it!
Assembling the grill:
Quick beer before the grill reaches temperature:
Working the Grill:
Jan 17, 2010
Last week I spent very little time in the studio. The week started with a return visit to my doctor for another cortisone shot. You may recall that I developed “trigger thumb” back in September. A blessed first cortisone shot gave me complete relief from pain and “locking” for about two months, but then the thumb clicking returned, accompanied by a good amount of pain. So, Monday and Tuesday I was on complete “hand rest” (oh so difficult) and I took it pretty easy the rest of the week. I did manage to make a bunch of my “Playera” leaf plates:
Yesterday I decided to push the envelope further by throwing mugs. My mugs have been flying of the shelves but I’ve been avoiding throwing more because this form seems to put the most strain on my poor thumb. Happily, the throwing went well, and today’s trimming was pain free. I decided not to push it, and will finish off pulling and attaching the handles tomorrow
Sorely missed during the trimming session was my trusty Dolan 572, which just happens to be my favorite trimming tool. As you can see, it has seen better days…
As the tool is fairly new (only about 7 months), and Dolan Tools have such a good name, I contacted the company. They offered to fix the tool, but this meant I had to send it back to them. I’m really surprised the tool fell apart the way it did (I’ve NEVER had a tool fall apart on me) but am happy it will be getting a new lease on life. Now if only my thumb was as easy to fix… Though I am trying to stay optimistic, I’d be very surprised if my symptoms go away AND stay away. The abuse my thumb is now taking on a regular basis is clearly a bit much. Hopefully a routine of soaking, immobilizing and resting my thumb (and popping various supplements, vitamins and anti-inflammatory herbs) will keep problems at bay. Any other potters out there with similar issues? I’d love to hear about how you keep your hands healthy! On that note, I’m off to soak my hand in Epsom salts…
Jan 15, 2010
A while back I introduced you to the funniest fruit I know. As the only thing funnier than one Rambutan is a whole tree full of ‘em, I decided to once again try to plant some seeds. I say once again because I tried a while back to germinate some Rambutan, with no success.
This time around, I soaked and then planted 6 seeds. I watered them daily and kept them in a nice sunny spot. Sound alright no? Well, the other day I noticed a slight depression in the middle of one of the pots. Further investigation revealed (you guessed it!) no seed! Hmmm…. The next day brought another empty pot. Ok. Now I was getting concerned. I moved the little pots under a bunch of other plants in pots, to hamper easy ingress. The seed thief most have chuckled at my lame attempts at securing the funny seeds…another day brought another seed gone.
Four empty pots…
Now I was down to only 2 precious funny seeds. Desperate measures were clearly called for. I pulled out some weed block material and created protection domes. So far, so good. The defenses have not been breached and hopefully the seeds are getting enough sun to do their thing. Once thing is for sure, their chance of germinating under weed block is definitely higher than had they been eaten by the nasty seed thief…
Jan 13, 2010
Few people in the world share my love for PVC. However, when I find yet ANOTHER great use for the random pipes we have lying around, well I get excited! In response to my previous blog post, Emily Murphy provided a link to her excellent post about making a texture roller for clay. Using…PVC!
I love sharing creative uses of cheap materials and easily made pottery tools. To that end, I’ve linked Emily’s blog post as well as my previous PVC projects (and an excellent PVC glazing stand by Jim Gottuso) on my Facebook page. I figure there MUST be other creative things folks have done with PVC? Have one? Please share and help us build the most extensive library of PVC Pottery Tools!!! Ok. I’m off my (PVC) soapbox and heading back to work.
Jan 12, 2010
The other day, while I was doing my best to stay busy whilst waiting for my bowls to dry, I was pondering the question of pottery tools. Us potters have a lot of quite specialized and varied tools (from a tool that centers pots on the wheel for the purpose of trimming to ribs in a variety of shapes for throwing, shaping and smoothing clay). We all have our favorites, you know those tools you would be helpless without. Well, I was NOT thinking about those tools but of items I’ve appropriated for use in the studio that are NOT really pottery tools (but if you ARE interested in which pottery tools folks can’t live without, check out the cool recent threads on Emily Murphy’s Fan Page). So here are my top 5 “non pottery” pottery tools:
5. PVC
You knew this was gonna be on the list, no? We love PVC and have plenty of it lying around from our construction. Though not strictly pottery “tools”, we’ve used PVC for kiln shelf storage, various iterations of a light box for photographing pottery and all my glaze buckets have a 1/2″ PVC “stick” inside for stirring. In the studio, I have a bunch of various sized PVC which I use for rolling clay and for shaping vases (using the PVC as a form).
4. Dental tools
I scored these tools (after they were well sterilized!) from my dentist in Boston. They are awesome for carving clay and cleaning recessed areas. I can’t finish a project involving carving or clay removal without them.
3. Plastic “cutting boards”
My mom picked these up at a dollar store (I think!) and I quickly appropriated them. In addition to being a nice smooth (and easy to clean) surface for placing work, these sheets are really easy to cut. I’ve used a few of them to create templates of shapes I use a lot in hand-building. I place them on rolled out slabs and slice around them with a fettling knife. Easy peasey!
2. “Adjustable” Rolling Pin
Someday (maybe…) I’ll have a slab-roller. For now, I make use with a cutting harp (a metal frame with an adjustable wire for cutting consistent slabs of clay) and this wonderful rolling pin (which I found on ebay). It comes with 3 sets of removable rings, which determine the thickness of the slabs of clay you roll. Kind of like using strips of wood, but easier and all is one piece!
And my number one all time favorite “non pottery” pottery tool?
1. My chamois!
These little bits of chamois (a type of porous, non-abrasive leather) may not look like much but I’d be lost in the studio without them. I use them when I throw, I use them when I handbuilt. I use them when I trim and finally when I smooth off a greenware piece for the last time. I just bought myself a 5.5 sqr ft piece of chamois (yes, on ebay) so I’m set for a good time to come.
So those are MY top 5 “non pottery” pottery tools. What are some of yours?
Jan 11, 2010
We have a log of soft goat’s cheese I need to use up before the end of the month. So, I was looking for something to cook with goat’s cheese. I ended up deciding just to make up my own recipe. Damn was it good. As Nick said, the flavor has a lot more depth than a regular mac ‘n cheese. Easy too!
Miri’s ‘easy peasey’ Fancy Mac ‘n Cheesy:
4 tbs healthy margarine product or butter
4 tbs flour
2 cups milk or stock or mixture
Salt, pepper
4 oz goat’s cheese
a few chunks of frozen spinach
8 oz pasta
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water Meanwhile, make a white sauce by browning the flour in the melted butter over low heat Gradually add milk, mixing well Cook until thickened Dump in spinach and goat’s cheese (cut into chunks) Mix until cheese is melted Drain cooked pasta and mix into sauce Place in oiled pan and cook at 350F until golden and bubbly (about 20 minutes)
Eat! :-)
Jan 10, 2010
I’ve got 4 large bowls which I was hoping to trim today. I’ve flipped them over and am now waiting for the bottom of the bowls to be at the optimum moisture level for trimming. While waiting, I’ve been pottering around the studio, making some magnets, necklaces and chops. Trying to keep busy while waiting. For the pots to dry. I’ve also been tidying the studio up a bit. This included dealing with the mess in my sink…
My studio sink doesn’t drain into our septic tank (this would be BAD news) but rather connects to the other “gray water” pipes that get sent down our hill. Regardless, I try to stop too much clay from going down the drain by keeping a plastic basin in the sink. I wash my hands and my tools over this basin (often using the standing water for the preliminary rinse). Most of the clay sinks to the bottom of the basin, forming a nice layer of sludge! Today, for the first time, I decided to actually try to recycle this sludge. While I wouldn’t use it for functional work, it might be usable for things like magnets. Waste not want not and all that! Here’s the sludge drying in a bisque tray:
And here are the drying bowls. Maybe by now they’re ready to trim? Here’s hoping!
¿Qué es el tiempo? Las palabras del día
