Almost There

Waiting for two more kilns to finish firing for the Holiday Sale this weekend.  Here are few goodies so far!

Read Full Post »

Carving Pots

When I make my urns I tend to do a lot of carving into them, it may be as simple as carved leaves or as complex as a four-footed form.

I have been very busy the past couple of months just trying to keep up with the many orders for urns.  Every now and then I’ll get a commission for a personalized urn.   Here are a couple of photos of a footed urn being carved for a dog name Winslow, and a carved leaf urn for cat named Ruphus!

Read Full Post »

Taste of the Celadon Show

Here is a little taste from my show at the Celadon Gallery, starting with a beautiful ferry ride from New London Ct. to Orient Point, Long Island NY.

The Gallery is a wonderful sun filled cottage on the grounds of the Watermill Historical Society.  The show was shared with ceramic Sculptor Rene Murray, and Studio Potter Lucinda Piccus.  A very busy, delightful opening!

 

Read Full Post »

Salt Cellar, for the Foodie Contingent

There are a number of items I make as a functional potter aside from the typical mug and bowl.  Among them are butter keepers, egg cups, garlic grate dishes and salt cellars.  I like to call them gifts for the “Foodie Contingent”.

My favorite item which I started making this past January are Salt Cellars.  They are so tiny and elegant.  Here is a photo of them drying on my sun filled work table. (It’s starting to feel like Summer!)  For the finished version check my shop page at http://www.luciapottery.com/shop.php

 

Read Full Post »

Pottery Trail is Coming

The 6th Annual Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail is just two short weeks away.  Short weeks, because there are still too many firings to fit in in that time. 

See our website here for details!

Read Full Post »

The Easter Bread Influence

 Easter was a big holiday, growing up Italian and Catholic.  One of my favorite memories of Easter was making Easter bread.  As a little kid I always felt strong helping my mother knead 10lbs of dough… then I always felt like an artist braiding the dough.  These were my earliest influences in becoming a potter… strength and artistry!

 

Read Full Post »

My article in “THE STUDIO POTTER”

Check out the current issue of The Studio Potter .  I wrote an article entitled,

“Container for the Spirit”.

When I heard the issue was on “The Body”.  I felt compelled to write about the

containers I make, which hold the remains of the body. 

 

If you are not a subscriber to The Studio Potter, your missing out on quite a fine 

ceramics magazine. To subcribe go to www.studiopotter.org

 

CURRENT ISSUE VOLUME 37 NUMBER 1 It is where we start – the most intimate and inalienable unit of our personhood and the vehicle of our lived experience. By our bodies we measure, know, and make sense of the world Our bodies are the referent by which we understand many of languages’s abstractions: the upness of above, the hardness of difficult, the opposition of inside and outside. The hand, we say, has mastery, but for makers the whole body…

THE BODY Volume 37 Number 1 Winter 2008/Spring 2009

Read Full Post »

DINNERWARE SET FOR TWELVE… How long does it take to make?

Well if your a potter making it for your family…. about three or four years.  It’s like the carpenters house never getting done…  I finally started to make the dinnerware set the week before Christmas.  The week after New Years I made the lunch plates. 

After many conversations with my apprentice Pam about how long pottery takes to make, I have decided blog about a dinnerware set from start to finish.  This subject will be a series of explainations on the processes involved, and the time each process takes. Pam will hopefully add her two cents here and there… or anyone else who wants to comment is welcome.

PART ONE:

The setting… Dec. 22, kids home on holiday break… fit in whatever hours you can.  I send them outside to sled and snowboard, that will give me a couple of hours.  The snow is gorgeous… the studio is warm.  The music I’m listening to today is Jack Johnson, Annie Lenox, The Indigo Girls.  I’m going to make my dinner plates… fifteen to start, hopefully getting  twelve when all is said and done.

9:50 – 10:20 …wedge 15 pieces of clay weighing 4 lbs each.  Total – 1/2 hour, 60lbs… a good workout.

10:30 – 11:35… throw 15, 10 1/2 ” plates (which are actually 11 1/4 and will shrink during the firing).  Clean the wheel.

This is actually the quickest part of the whole process for me… I don’t find throwing the plates that difficult… it is the rest that wears on me… the  trimming, drying, and all the things that go wrong with plates…warping, cracking, glazing, etc.

11:40 just done on time… kids are in… cold… snow pants, gloves, hats and jackets, wet as can be.  Put the mac and cheese on…. be a MOM.

1:00 – 1:10 turn all the plates around 180 degrees so they don’t dry un-evenly from the pellet stove.

Be a Mom again… its vacation.

4:00 – 4:10 turn all plates again.

8:00 – 8:15 rotate plates from front of table to back, back to front.  Cover all plates lightly with plastic.

 

Next :  Trimming plates!

Read Full Post »

Setting Up My Studio as a Gallery for the Holiday Sale

My Apprentice Pam and friends Mary Ellen, and Terri are a godsend.  I don’t know what I would do with out them.  Terri made signs for the roads, glazed buttons, is baking cookies, etc. etc.  Mary Ellen is helping me clean and set up for the umpteenth time throughout the years… and is my #1 cookie baker.  And I can’t say enough about Pam…. she has worked her butt off with me the past two weeks… and is busy setting up my studio in her own special artistic way!  Pam has an eye for grouping my pottery together.

Read Full Post »

Glazing for the Open Studio/Holiday Sale

The bisqueware in process.  The plates have there first of five layers applied.  This first layer is with a glaze pencil, the next layer will be copper carbonate, then a clear glaze, wax resist over that, then finally dipped in an blush white glaze.

The past few years I have wanted to add more drawing to my pottery… the past few months I have.  When it comes to crunch time before a studio sale the drawing, painting, (stains) and layering of glazes becomes all consuming.  I am one tired potter… I am looking forward to my last firing tonight, and the preparations which will transform my studio into a gallery for this weekend’s sale.

Read Full Post »