A Visit to Bailey's

I have been buying supplies from Bailey's in Kingston, NY for years now online, but when I get a chance, I shop in person. I was driving up to the Adirondacks this week, so I stopped in on the way back to New Jersey.

Bailey's is in the industrial part of Kingston, right by the railroad tracks. In fact, a freight train hoo- hooted and rumbled by as I had my total tallied up in the office. The cars had an incredible "surface" and "patina," of age, paint and rust that was extremely inspiring to me since had just been contemplating glaze samples looking for interesting effects.




Even more inspiring though was the very fine collection of pottery inside the store. Famous potters, many that I recognized, though unlabeled, were mostly inside glass display cases. A few were out on the office window sills and on side tables, able to be touched and maybe lifted to feel their weight, which I confess I did. This is the case that you first see as you enter. There are more inside the building and they are three times as big as this one - MANY wonderful pieces.

I bought 100 pounds of Tucker's brown, speckled clay, and glazes to replenish, new glazes to try, some corks, and a blow sprayer.










I entered a raffle for clay supplies and from the Christmas tree in the show room got to choose a tool from those hanging there. A free gift!


The warehouse guys filled my order immediately, loaded it into my Subaru and I was off - driving like mad down the NY Thruway, like a freight train headed south.

Good Night Raisin Studio

My first ever Open Studio happened today. The day was thankfully less frigid than past days, but the fire outside was still welcome. My loyal spouse kept it burning briskly and supplied some accordion notes to mingle with the smoke. The sun was shining while we had cake outside for Kai's birthday, and was warm enough to melt the ice-cream. Yes, nice weather.

In between all that, friends came, some new, some old, a neighbor or two that I knew, and neighbors I had never met. No one said that they saw my flyers uptown, but there were people who saw the sign on the street and came in to check out Raisin Studio.

THANK YOU, everyone who came, and all of you who responded so kindly with positive comments.
Not everyone bought something, but everyone gave me something on a higher level: good, creative energy. It was fun, a little tiring, but I am still planning on, for all of you who were away or too busy on Thanksgiving weekend:

OPEN STUDIO II - DEC 8, 11:00-5:00

Come for fun, Dec 1.

Danglers and Pete Bowls in the foreground

I have been gathering all the clay work I have done over the past 12 years that is still in my possession and made a little shop. I am a shopkeeper at heart. Also included are two watercolors and a pastel that fit in nicely. All are priced either to sell easily or with more difficulty (the higher priced objects I wouldn't mind keeping). Wouldn't it be nice to sell out and have to make all new work for the next time I do this? Because I am already thinking on those lines - ever the optimist.

I am arranging, grouping and lighting, all with the aim of making the work shine in its best light. Not everything is wonderful in the shop, but each piece has been given all the best  companions and advantages, and is ready to go out on its own…

planters by the window

Dec 1, 2013, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00: First Annual Open Studio with work by El Hirvonen

Clay at the PU Art Museum

At the Princeton Art Museum today for the exhibit New Jersey/Non-Site or New Jersey Avant Garde(n) State today, and sure enough, NJ was a hotbed of crazy art making in the 20th century. In films shown in the gallery, one young artist, Charles Simmonds wallowed naked in the Sayreville Clay Pits, building with miniature bricks on his belly, slithering about and squeezing the clay into a swirling mass, and emerging from being buried as if from an earthy grave or the womb. My reaction: "I want to go there!" That is to the Sayreville Clay Pits. But here is a link to the museum's  exhibit and Simmonds' photo.

http://artmuseum.princeton.edu/njns/objects/85752/2185099

Tampa Clay Piece 3

Outside the gallery in the permanent exhibits I came across some clay wall pieces by Robert Rauschenberg. They are really perfectly accurate clay reproductions of crushed cardboard boxes.

There is even a natural "soil patina" to truly make it realistic. Actually they are quite beautiful. Rauschenberg was very good I think, at seeing and highlighting the urban landscape and making you see it differently.

Tampa Clay Piece 4

Art in Roosevelt

The Roosevelt Arts Project was a competitor in the past weekend's art and craft exhibitions. The tiny town rose to the challenge with artist's home studios open to the public showing a wide range of talents. I cannot review all the studio work. I visited late in the day and the only studios I was able to visit were those of potter Naomi Brahinsky, the painters Sheila Linz and Ellen Silverman and mixed media artist Barbara Atwood. I did not come home empty-handed. Again, price was right, loved the artist and her work.

Naomi is a former school therapist who has been working in clay forever as far as I know. She told me about all the places she works in clay (not only in her studio but in NYC as well) and the multiple types of firing that she undertakes, again at home and afar. She had some smoke, wood-fired and reduction fired pieces displayed in her studio. Though some of the larger pieces were even more appealing, I thought I'd stick with my theme of the cup form and selected one with a faceted foot in a greenish white glaze.

Barbara Atwood had a series of perhaps two dozen abstract ballpoint pen drawings lining the walls of her studio. They each were a fine spiderweb of lines that created a sheer fabric of blacks and grays on the smooth white paper. Some of them suggested internal body parts; pelvic bones and arm sockets, wombs and other vital organs. I interpret them as living forms in motion, perhaps because of the rapid, repetitive movements of the artist's hand in making the images.

Here is the untitled drawing I brought home. It was one of the more subtle and gentle drawings - some might be seen as somewhat disturbing, though I am okay with that. I found it very difficult to choose and this is what I rather hastily chose on impulse.

I am going to try rotating it. I think I might change the orientation when I hang it. What do you think?

More from the PMA Craft Show

I am being selective. I did not take pictures of every ceramic artist's work at the craft show. This post shows the rest of those I did photograph. I chose to photograph these because they interested me the most, even though there was much to be admired in other artists' work. These are personal choices.

bowl by Elisabeth Maurland

Yes, it is a hare, see the long ears?

Elisabeth confirmed that it was as these are the creatures to be found in her native Norway. Some of her work was filled with many individually painted animals repeated over the form.  But I liked her elongated teapots with the exaggerated handle echoing the long spout the best.
www.elisabethmaurland.com

saucer and teapot by Elisabeth Maurland

Odd Inq, Art Potter Tile Design, of Portland, ME is the name on Jonathan White's business card. I had to look up his name in the catalogue, suspecting it was not Odd Inq. Jonathan is interested in industrial relics as sculptural forms, but also some organic forms like seed pods and skulls. Some of these forms were made into some very unconventional lamps. His wall tiles were handsomely framed landscapes mostly, some very clearly of Maine locations. Though he was rather suspicious of my camera work, I think it is just the yankee in him protecting his privacy, and his name. www.oddinq.com

Paula Shalan has a studio in West Stockbridge, Mass. Paula's burnished, terra sig bowls express her love of pattern, line and texture. Very solid forms with deliberate and austere decoration. She was very kind, as were many of the artists I spoke with, and asked me about my own work. 

bowls by Paula Shalan

vase forms by Ruta Sipalyte

www.paulashalan.com
















Ruta was one of many Lithuanians invited, Lithuania being the guest nation at this year's craft show. She told me the museum paid for all the packing and shipping of the guest craftsmen's work. I guess they provided the old plastic parson's tables as well, but the work looked good all the same. This was some of her more colorful work with low fire glazes. www.sipalyte.blogspot.com


This was my first visit to the PMA Craft Show. It was stimulating as I remember the art teacher's conventions were for me when I was a public school art teacher. Although these crafts people were at a higher level of experience and skill than I, I felt a bond with them. I'll bet that they sometimes botch pieces, have blowups in the kiln and glazes that turn out shockingly ugly, or at some time they did. Yet they have achieved  acceptance in a very exclusive crafts show. I am sure it was after much hard work and is well deserved. Cheers to all of you!

Best in Show

The first thing I did was to walk the periphery of the convention hall with my spouse, a person who was bewilderingly to me, almost completely indifferent to the artistry around us. Then, after he departed to walk to Independence Hall and other locales, I returned to visit the ceramics booths.

The first booth I visited was Becky and Steve Lloyd's from Clyde, NC. Their work was displayed in individual cubicles that gave each piece its own focal space.

















All were black and white sgraffito decorated porcelain vessels. Steve was sitting there minding the booth and he responded to my questions and compliments. I learned that Steve made the pots and Becky did the sgraffito. He said she used an exacto and a ribbon tool to scratch the intricate designs on the surface of the forms. Both the forms and the decoration were exquisite. Leaf designs were the main theme.

It wasn't until I had had a good look at the work and made my own judgement that I noticed the big, blue ribbon hanging in the middle of the display. So the first ceramic booth I saw at the show had taken the prize for not just best in ceramics but best in the entire show! Their work was amazing, and I was so pleased that ceramics was the winning category.
www.lloydpottery.com

Ceramics in Philadelphia 2013

The Philadelphia Art Museum Craft Show at the Convention Center in center city is in an architecturally interesting area, with contrasts of era and style. Big city, big buildings, always a thrill for me.



I went with the intention to look and not buy, focusing on ceramics. There were 25 or so artists working in clay exhibiting and I checked out them ALL. With the artist's permission I photographed some of their work. For now, I'll just share the photos of my purchases, which I made despite my intention, but only because the prices of these were within my range AND I liked the artist's work.

All three pieces are white - I only realized it afterwards. On the left is a candle by Lisa Naples from Doylestown, PA. These were made with, and to financially support, her studio assistant. It's a wonderful lavender scent.

The tall mug is by Laurel and Paul Eshelman from Elizabeth, IL. I stopped at the booth a couple of times before choosing this mug. Paul was there each time and I thought he was the sole maker. The third stop at the booth was when I decided on the mug with the oval bottom and round lip and bought it from a woman I had not seen before. "Tell Paul I came back," I told her. Now, as I read their promo material I see that that must have been Laurel, one half of the artistic team of "Eshelman Pottery."

I loved all the forms in their booth, serenely simple yet original. Just a little different from other forms and colors  I see around.eshelmanpottery.com

More pieces by Laurel and Paul Eshelman

The cup on the right (I will say cup, not mug as it is more diminutive) is by David Eichelberger. This friendly fellow is an artist-in-residence at Penland Craft School in North Carolina. He uses his own drawings of some mundane and some poetic objects (a dead bird, kites, keys and here, a log and a hatchet) and uses a decal process to transfer to the clay. Some drawings were scratched into the clay and some pieces were plain, and all were white.

I realized that the camera has one eye, and I have two. I couldn't photograph the cup so as to see both images (the hatchet and the log) although I could see them both at the same time with my eyes. So here are photos of the cup that show the images close up. eichelbergerclay.com

How happy I am  that I brought a few things home from the event! How bereft I would have been had I not!

a large platter by David Eichelberger

Following and Comments

To COMMENT, it's not too hard. If you click your mouse on either "No Comments" or "Add a Comment" you can write something. I used my google account to do so. OR you can click on anonymous and let me guess who commented.

To FOLLOW and therefore be notified by email when I have a new exciting (!!!!) post to read, there is a white box at the very bottom to enter your email address.

I know some of you are reading because you tell me. I would love some feedback, please do comment!

Twisted

Gearing up for Open Studio!

Raisin Studio with fall colors

I have been working at a rapid pace gearing up for an "Open Studio" day or two at the end of the month or early December. My studio is just two blocks from the stores and activities of downtown Princeton. Why not invite people who are already walking around the town for the holidays to stop in at one of the few studios that are right here in Princeton? And why not invite all the people I know to stop by to see what I've made?

My studio is small, but it will be enough. A little hot cider, a little live music maybe from my dear old spouse, and a space full of one of a kind, hand built, up and coming artist's clay objects.

Up and coming? It's rather a strange term to use for anyone, but I have to toot my own horn once in awhile.

Accumulating Greenware

Core Project

Universe/Earth/Man/Soul; four nesting bowls

                                                                                  The theme "Core" was chosen by an art group I was invited to join. These bowls were made in response to this theme. The baby was also made for the project.

One day, after the theme was introduced I spied a bench on the trash by a house on my street. It had obviously been outside for a long time - the wood was weathered and the bolts rusty. After it sat there awhile and I thought about whether I wanted to salvage it or not, I came to the idea that this bench was originally from a gym, maybe a locker room. I imagined someone lying on it doing crunches to strengthen their abs or "CORE."

This imagined use for the bench got me excited as I thought about using it as part of an art installation. Immediately I envisioned a baby lying on the bench, why I cannot say for sure, but I think as a contrast to hulking adult body builders. Early on I also envisioned adding some objects that were dug up during the building of Raisin Studio: a mysterious liquid capped inside a small bottle, a badly twisted fork, a crusty hook and a gold edged pottery shard.

However, now that I have made the bowls I think they might be incorporated with good effect in the baby's installation. Here are some possible arrangements. And why not use all the elements at once? I am thinking about it.

It's A Miracle!

Baby's back!

The parts were too good to throw away - I knew I should do something with them and after mulling over several possibilities I chose to do my old favorite sculpture medium, papier mache.

Rolled up newspaper inserted into the hollows of the limbs connected them to the head and torso. After several sessions of layering on wet gluey newspaper strips, it was strong enough to support the whole.

Cradling "him" in my arms I brought him into the house for the next phase: attire to mask the awkward transitions from clay to papier mache.








I used a rag rug technique to make the fluffy bib the baby wears, and remembering the African fetishes that I have seen, I added safety pins and odds and ends from my sewing supplies.

Throughout the process the baby smiled placidly. Perhaps this little one is, for me, a spiritual being or represents one. It symbolizes the possibility of rebirth, transformation, the continuity of life.

A Woofy Kiln Firing

Spanky and Pete Treat Jar

The last was so disastrous, but these last two, the bisque and the glaze firings were OK. I don't know when the day will come that I will open the kiln and see perfection. There is always something for me to criticize,  and so it is with this batch. Fortunately there is something to be delighted with as well.

Famous Dogs Bowls and Plate

Each firing is a new volume or maybe just one entry in the encyclopedia of ceramic knowledge. I look, I read, I decide what I will have to change or be careful of the next time I make something out of clay.




These bowls were made in sets of three sizes so they will nest if one should wish. I used an inlay technique on the yellow rutile plate, and engraving for the drawings in the bowl.  I think the smallest bowl of Pete balancing a baseball on his nose is my favorite.

Before: Wedging - Blah!

I have been doing slab work lately: bowls from slabs, a jar with slabs. If I wedge it myself then roll out the clay, I usually get oodles of air bubbles popping up that I have to puncture and smooth over. This is mainly because I am impatient and do a shoddy job of wedging. Also it is hard work, especially with some of the stiff, dry, hand-me-down clay I end up using sometimes.

So when I saw this bit about easy wedging on Ceramics Monthly I had to check it out. Reading instructions on the "Stack and Slam Wire Wedging," just was too confusing though so I went to the YouTube video for clarity. Then - I had to share.

Crisp, clean, efficient, Michael Went goes swiftly about the task leaving me agog. I can't ever dream of  achieving this machine-like precision. I love your technique, Michael, and I'll give it a whirl - and 30 slams.

Now: wedging - whee!

Caution: Extreme Violence

I spent at least a week making this life-size, if not fully proportional, baby in clay, and it was a week well-spent. The baby is constructed of separate parts that were assembled at the last stage into one body. Yes, despite the catastrophe in the kiln, it was time well-spent. But I am NOT making a new one soon.

There are three simple mandalas on the front of the baby: on the forehead, over the heart and above the pubic area. I was googling images of tattoos and pondering their massive popularity in the current era. Only some geometric ones appealed to me. So I created three simple radial designs like those one might see in a yoga advertisement - and placed them on what I think are the body's centers.* I imagined them aligning like the chakras along the central meridian.

I burnished the black engobe that covered the red clay with a steel spoon.

So perhaps it wasn't dry enough. Perhaps there was an air bubble trapped in the coils that joined the head to the shoulders. Its tragic, but what shall I say, "Par for the course?" "C'est la vie?" "Oops?"


*According to G. Gurdjieff, the human body has three centers: the emotional, the moving and the intellectual centers.

The Baby at the leather hard stage (one- week- old)