Revisiting Wood

It's been three years since I last participated in a wood firing and I've only been a part of two. This past weekend I had the chance to put work in a kiln built last year by Jim Dugan. It's a beauty of a kiln and in a spectacular location in Aurora, West Virginia. I'm still recovering from the strange sleeping patterns I had last week and getting anxious to see the results of all that hard work!

We had some exciting moments during the firing -- some a little TOO exciting... the roof of Megan's beautiful kiln shed caught on fire while we were firing. Everyone handled it beautifully, but we did seem to lose some of our momentum after that. Still seemed to be a great firing though -- most parts of the kiln got to temperature. We will unload this Sunday, I'll post some images as soon as I get them back.

Long Overdue

Hard to believe that my last post was nearly three weeks ago... Since my last post, I got that first prototype low fire piece done. I'm pretty excited about it, but nervous about glazing. Martina gave me a number of glazes this weekend, so we'll see what I can pull off. Here's a view prior to glazing....

Time for a Change: Part 2

In addition to my previous thoughts about slip casting, I'm now thinking about ways for me to draw some of the nagging ideas from "The Omnivore's Dilemma" into my work. I've been sketching a lot of corn lately (and painting it, too) and I have some drawings down of cows, corn and oil. I think it's the oil that really makes theses ideas political -- cows and corn could just be good ol' Midwest culture... but add oil into that mix and you've got a whole different ballgame.

All of this has me thinking I'd better start drawing and painting on my pots. I have spent some time looking into china paint, but from what I've found it's not food safe. So, I'm now thinking some sort of majolica decoration could do the trick. Some drawing through the slip, some bright colors on top, maybe some sprigs and stamps too....

I've got some low fire red clay and I think the next step is to start testing. I've got a slip recipe to apply leatherhard -- hopefully then I could put colored and clear glazes over the top of the slip. I think I'll go mix up some slip right now and start making those tests!

Missed Opportunity

I can't believe it... I was just looking around at some of my favorite potter's work and discovered that Bernadette Curran just gave a workshop this PAST weekend here in Pittsburgh. And to make matters worse, I was even free that day. Oh well, so it goes. Perhaps I'll catch her at her workshop in NJ in August -- I'm on the waiting list...

Time for a Change

So, I've just been browsing one of my favorite blogs (one black bird) and I think I'm finally ready to jump into a new technique: slipcasting. I don't remember when I first heard about this process, but I first saw it this past March at NCECA. It was like a magican pulling a rabbit out of his hat. I've been meaning to delve into this technique since I saw it in Louisville, but now the book is on the way. I often feel so frustrated by how long my pieces take to develop and as a result I am timid about decoration. With slipcasting, I think I'll be able to be more free with the surface knowing I can make more. And, I really think it would be good for me to work in a series... I'm impatient, what can I say -- I get frustrated when I think about how long it takes to sit down and make one of my pots. Discouraged, even. But, I love putting things together these days, that's what really gets me going. So I need to get to that point faster, and I think slipcasting could be my knight in shinging armor!

I made a few changes to my website today -- got some stuff up from my two weeks at Anderson Ranch. It was a fabulous trip, I only wish I could have stayed out there longer. I got a lightbox up and running, a background and a tripod, so I'm taking my own images. It's great to have the ability to shoot right at home, now I just need to get the camera dialed in...

So my website is finally up and available online. Pretty exiting. Check it out at www.kipokrongly.com. It was a lot of work to get it going, but I think it will be pretty easy to update now that the framework is in place. The next step is to get a place I can easily take my own digital images, then I'd be all set to update regularly...