Clay Blog Review: August 2012

Highlighting the best clay blogging of the past month. In case you missed something!

clay blog review

Process and Technique

Behind the scenes views or explanations of how the pots are made.

• Gary Jackson makes unique bowls, shares a demo, adds handles, platter demo x2, and gets even more obsessive.
• Doug Fitch shares videos of cleaning up, handles, decorating and slip trailing:

• Kyle Houser shows off some new forms: pour-overs (for coffee).
• D. Michael Coffee cranks out 100 teacups.

• Aaron Sober revises some pots.
• Linda Starr has been making towers, plus a strip coiled vase and shares some glazing techniques.
• Marian Williams is in the middle of a pod invasion.
• Ben Carter decorates with stripes and zig zags and makes a platter.
• Rob at Simple Circle works on platters and butter keepers and other items.
• John Britt shares a video of Kyle Carpenter cutting a raised foot:

• Raven Hill Pottery has some moon-themed wares.
• Michael Kline answers a question every potter probably gets asked: How many?
• Rose Maguire has been “playing” and churning out bird feeders.
• Brandon Phillips is back in the studio, experimenting.
• Joy Tanner explains “chasing plastic“.
• Lori Watts shares what’s happening in the studio.
• Phil Rogers shares a 40 minute(!) video: throwing demonstration.

• Tracey Broome is back in the studio getting warmed up.
• Liberty Stoneware is testing decoration techniques.
• Varda Sharon Kramer continues work on the fossil series.
• Ron Philbeck works on a slightly different decorating technique.
• Ariel Bowman sculpts Chronos, a giant ground sloth.
• Rachel Dorn works on some bike part sculptures and more bike part sculptures.

Tips and Technical

Bits of advice or recipes for the studio.

• Glaze Recipe Sharing has a ^6 clay body and variation, ^6 Candy Apple Red, Kathryn Narrow’s Chun for ^6, Shaner Gold & Green ^ 9 – 10, ^4/5/6 White China Translucent, ^10 Malcolm Davis Shino and ^5/6 Emerald.
• Carole Epp shares a slip casting resource and raku kiln building instructions.
• Meagan Chaney gives a brief intro to glazes and re-posts a low fire crawl glaze with results.
• Lori Watts shares a tip to help avoid cracks.
• Amy Huacani shares a ^6 Floating Blue recipe.
• Gertrude Graham Smith asks about pinholes and re-firing.
• Linda Starr tells how she makes slip.
• Liz Crain shares everything she knows about cold finishes.
• Ron Philbeck tries wax resist with his slip decorating.
• DirtKicker Pottery finds out how important glaze viscosity is and shares some glaze testing results.

Recent Work

Images and descriptions of finished pieces.

• Rob of Simple Circle shows some new work including air whales.
• Mariko Brown is Mixing Things Up with some wood and soda firing.
• Dennis Allen shows off some new pottery.
• Ron Philbeck shares a video of new pots and More New Pots:

• The Createniks have some bright New Pots and Custom Order Dinnerware.
• Round Rabbit has more jewelry pieces.
• Whynot Pottery unloads the kiln.
• Barbara Rogers shares some vases and other work and Wishing Plates.
• Kristen Kieffer shows off New Work for 2012.
• Hannah McAndrew has a nice collection of jugs.
• Clay and Ginger shares a kiln opening video.

• Trista Hudzik Reynolds has a nice series of Pots.
• Kim Murton shares the latest haul.
• Patricia Griffin has new work available.
• Marian Williams shows a Glaze Firing Results Video:

• Phil Rogers has a series of posts with new work.
• Jeanette Manchester Harris shares some details of a racer.
• Daria Claiborne has firing results.
• Nicholas Bivins shares some images from the Farewell Show.
• Jim Gottuso gives a preview of the Etched in Clay show.
• Aaron Sober shows some of the best of the last firing.
• Linda Starr places some Towers in the Garden.
• Scott Cooper lingers over some fresh pots.
• Kyle Houser is done waiting, check out the wood kiln treasures.
• Kelly Lynn Daniels is now obsessed with soda fired work.

Thoughts

Heavy thinking related to pottery, the arts, or creativity.

•  Liz Crain avoids the Merely Clever.
• Carter Gillies shares Olympic thoughts, the value of pottery and sets sail on Creative Seas.
• Ben Carter explores Csikszentmihalyi’s Great Idea and asks Can you teach creativity?
• Scott Cooper comes up with questions that every potter could/should ask themselves.
• John Baumann makes a connection to That Silver Stuff:

Nobody would ever buy a losing card if that silver stuff didn’t cover it. And I might not have pursued my passions with such abandon had I known how little was my likelihood of succeeding at them.

The Rest

Everything else that a ceramist or potter might be interested in.

• Melissa at the Ceramic Shop gives a preview of the KilnLink.
• Potter Jo talks about the clay collection.
• Karen Mahoney tells How to make tent and canopy weights.
• Linda Starr shares notes on a Gallery Panel Discussion.
• Lori Buff describes some of her favorite apps.
• Scott Cooper trades superstition for science:

Quite recently — just in the last few years — I’ve made a more deliberate commitment to developing science-based techniques (e.g. analytical thinking, experimental method, deductive reasoning, math, probability, etc.) This has vastly improved my technical foundation and, in turn, enabled me to make better pots.

Interviews

• Brian Jones shares Jonescast with Heidi Preuss Grew.
• Paul Kowalchuck of Studio Potter Archive sits down with Debora Meltz.
• Ben Carter shares a podcast with Carola Zee.

And that concludes the Clay Blog Review for August. Thanks for reading! And, as always, if you feel something was missed, leave a comment below so others can find more good reading from the pottery blogs.