Get ready to read a novel.

So, I said I would do a big update right? Well... I warned you. I have been putting this off for way too long, and I hate making really long blog posts because I know the likelihood of people reading them drops dramatically. But- I hope this works out and doesn't bore everyone to death.

Last semester ended with not much of a bang. I was in a depression that lasted me up until about 5 weeks ago. I hadn't been sleeping good and had been struggling with ideas for thesis and felt as if I was going no where. Wanting so badly to get out of my shell and explore life, yet being locked down and unable to do anything has its toll on you.

My back has been giving me problems for a long time but just over the past 10 months or so my back had been aggravated more so than before. Partially I think this aided in prolonging my depression; when my body doesn't feel good, it is hard for me to mentally be alright. I decided to go in to the doctor and find out what was wrong with my back.

Immediately I was put into an x-ray and the doc told me that I would be going into physical therapy and if the problem was still there, I'd go in for a CT scan. A week later I got a phone call telling me I was being scheduled for a CT scan immediately, which alarmed me. Evidently somethings wrong with my back because it was so urgent. So, I go in and have the CT scan and then get sent to a back specialist who basically tells me that, yes, my back has some damaged disks but there was basically nothing that warranted surgery. He scheduled me for a full body bone scan as my next step.

Well, I go in and have the scan and a few days later get a phone call telling me that my back was fine, nothing was broken, and that they wanted to schedule me for a cranial CT scan due to an abnormality in my skull. Freaky right? I go in and have the scan and then a few days later I get the phone call that no one should get. I was told, over the phone, that I have a tumor in my cranium. What? Yea, a tumor.

Here I am, with my back killing me 1/4 of the day and the rest of the time I am in pain but it is manageable, and they can't figure out whats wrong with my back (still haven't figured it out...) but now I have a damn tumor in my head? Great news... this fueled my depression even more.

To bring some good news, evidently the tumor was caused by a car accident I had in Oct of 2007. I hit my head pretty damn hard against my window... evidently it can cause tumors. The thing, I haven't named it yet, is about the size of a marble and it is not cancerous. It will more than likely never grow and I will more than likely never have complications.

No worries about me, my head will be fine. I just wish I knew what was wrong with my back... I relate it to an incident that occurred in middle school where I was pushed off a table and nearly folded my back in half, I haven't been 'right' since then. But I hope that I can help combat this with healthier eating and exercise/stretching. It will be very hard to be a life-long potter when I have back problems at 24.

So, about thesis. Right? I mentioned it... haven't talked more about it. Well, lets just say I finally have an idea. I will save details for another post, as in I already feel this one is too long. Mostly everyone knows these details, but I feel compelled to write them down.

I'll try and write another blog in a few days about my thesis project. So far, I am ahead of the game. I have an idea, it involves bowls not jugs, and my committee is behind me 100% and are looking forward to me finishing. I am looking forward to finishing, I can't wait. I'll be graduating (unless something terrible happens..) in December! Excited much!

Until next time ;) Thanks for reading!

Thesis.

I am not going into much detail just yet, I have the shower waiting and felt like documenting my first night of throwing what I hope to be part of my thesis body.

I threw 21 bowls in 4 hours and 15 minutes. I messed one up, right before cutting it off too... so I am averaging still about 10 minutes a bowl. I am going to record this data to interpret how my efficiency picks up.

I'll fill in you all about thesis shortly, now that I have this post, it will force me to update. I have a lot to talk about... that is why I haven't done it just yet.

:)

Already July....

I haven't really been up to writing out a long blog because I haven't been fully up to par. I have been having recursive troubles with my back, each night. I went to the doc for it, had x-rays and MRI done. There is a possibility I could have surgery and if I do... say good bye to me graduating in 2009. With that news looming over my shoulder, I've not really been in the mood to do anything. I know... I dig myself a hole...

I wasn't planning on an update but I saw this video and felt I had to share it with others. Truly amazing. If you feel you have trouble on the wheel and that it just can't be done... watch this. Beyond the major thing missing that makes this extraordinary, the form is very nice and it introduced me to a new method of pulling handles. :)

"Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings." - John F. Kennedy

Update + Video

Hey Everyone,

I was just pointed to a thread on Reddit of a pottery students work and it reminded me to update my blog. They have a very good start on their work, very interesting and creative. Creativity is something that I lack a lot of. I am creative when it comes to making renaissance cloths, jewelry, etc. But ceramics... I am more focused on traditional form and more of a contemporary glaze treatment.

This is a problem for me when it comes to developing a body of work for my senior thesis. My idea was to do large regional jugs scaled around 3 feet tall. These jugs were to be modeled after different traditional forms that all helped contribute to the expansion and development of pottery in America. French, German, English, American. All of these countries, plus others, have unique preferences when it comes to pottery, specifically jugs. American pottery is a conglomeration of these different preferences and an evolution of the style as settlers moved west across the continent.

Now, producing 8, large scale (roughly 5 gallon), jugs would be a hard undertaking for me, but it is nothing I feel I cannot handle. I am more secure with my throwing and assemblage. But my committee chair has other thoughts. He feels that what I am doing is not artistic and that it does not reflect upon what I have learned in art school. He wants me to reinvent the jug. Now, when asked about ideas on how to do this, I mentioned Paul Soldner ( an example of his work is to the left) and how he would take boards with different textures and use them to compress his wheel thrown forms. This idea was struck down saying "why does it have to be texture?" and the ideas that Butch brought up involved drawing cartoushes of greek allegories.... how the hell is that reinventing something that has been done so much that it is now cliche? And his other idea... make an "NFL" jug. Yes... NFL. I told him that was rediculous and that I have a strong distaste for sports and I will not go against my judgement and do something so stupid. His responce... "Well jugs look like footballs." Whatever. I still want to do my idea because I feel it would be better than 3/4 of what has come out of my school in the past 5 years and that I can confidently accomplish this. Anything else... who knows. I got stuck doing something I didn't want to do last time... this time I am trying my damndest not to do that.

And for an update on my jug and drum.... well the jug is in our gas kiln cooling down right now, cone 10 firing. My drum on the other hand cracked and split in two. The bowl and the base are now separated but I will be glazing them back together and hoping that it works out for the best. Always learning... I feel that the weight of the bowl sitting on the stem put pressure on the joint and caused the break. I'll have to figure out another design that can work without leaving weak points.

I have a paper to write today and I really don't know who I want to write it about. Pretty bad eh? My paper is meant to be over anyone whom I have previously written about in a journal entry but my journal is with my professor... Meh.

I'll leave you with a video for a documentary about Paul Soldner. If anyone wants to buy this for me, I'll love you :)

"New knowledge is the most valuable commodity on earth. The more truth we have to work with, the richer we become."
-Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions

End of April

I feel horrible for rarely updating. Really, I do. I know I shouldn't worry about it, but I just have been having a hard time doing so lately. I haven't had much time to throw and have been working extra hard at my 8-5. We are down an artist and work just pulls a lot out of me lately.

But anywho- What has been going on? Well, I have taken the first step to making large pieces. In the past few weeks I have made two jugs, and a djembe drum. I am extremely excited about the drum; I have never headed one myself but plan on learning for the sake of this project. I have had several people already question me about making more, so I think it could be a valid practice I could learn.

First up in the pictures above is my first big jug. I did it in two pieces and learned from that go that I needed to spend more effort in throwing consistent walls on closed in forms. The top piece, when removed from the batt, had about 2.5 inches of clay at the base. Luckily most of it was just thin chunks at the batthead, but I did still have pretty thick walls. I spent a good bit of time trimming it. I also learned to spend more time on the outside detail, specifically since trimming left grog drag marks.

The second piece, middle picture, is a comparison between the bisqued and glazed jug sitting on a bucket, with my second attempt next to it. This jug I had thrown a base and top for, as I did the first, but I didn't have calipers and tried to guess the diameter... that went bad, as you could have guessed. I ended up throwing a second top, since the first one I destroyed, but this time I used twine and made sure it was damn near an exact fit. I spent a good bit of time on polishing this piece, and spent a good bit of effort making a decent handle. Bad thing is that the handle started to show cracking since I let it dry out very quick. Lesson learned.

Third piece is my drum. It is the largest item I have made, standing at a wet height of 18 inches. I used two pieces again, the base, and the bowl. I trimmed a good bit out of the base, but purposefully left it rather heavy. The bowl I did real well on throwing and kept a consistently even wall. The rim is tapered outwards with an elevated point to allow no drag for the drum head on the interior, and good supporting surface area on the exterior.

I generated a good contour for bowls on my computer. I am interested in making a good stacking bowl, where the rims, foot, and walls touch so there is maximum stability and security. I think a big seller could be these bowls and the ability for me to mass produce these is pressing.

I have started looking for property. I am looking for 1-3 acres of land that I can pour a slab and construct a simple metal frame structure to live and work in. My rationale behind this is that the quicker I get self sufficient, the quicker I can become a full time potter. Instead of wasting money renting spaces for long periods of time, why not go ahead and invest that in a future.

Thesis for me is coming up also... At least this time I am more prepared. My only concern is that I will not get much enthusiasm from my committee when I tell them I still want to do tableware that relates to production pottery and the expansion of ceramics in America. I hope to use alternative salt firings to produce some nice work, but I really don't want to venture into something I don't feel comfortable with. I am comfortable with my preconceived idea of producing large jugs, crocks, churns, and jars. Although no one around these parts does this... I still feel like I will be talked out of doing it. It just doesn't have that "wow" factor they will be looking for, I'm sure of. I really just want to do, what I want to. Is that so hard to do?

I hope to update more coming soon, I have new books and videos to review. So keep checking back. Hopefully it won't be another month before updates.

Isaac Button

March 15, 2009

IT has been way too long since I have updated. As of late, everything for me has been going good but I just can't seem to find the drive to update this blogger. I really want to at times, and wake up saying "this is it." Then I go to work, have a crap day, come home, eat and pass out. So, today is different. Today I am actually following through. I hope to do several blogs today or within the next week; There's a few things I've been waiting on posting.

First and foremost I just want to say that an actual update on my work as of this semester is overdue and it is one of the topics I wish to cover in an upcoming blog. This blog on the other hand, I want to relate to something I've told my peers about and haven't had time to post.

Isaac Button.

Probably never heard of the guy, have you? Well, don't be surprised- there isn't much information out there on this man. Who was he? One of England's most/least known country potters. What do I mean by Country Potter? Isaac and his pottery produced ceramic ware for the home, kitchen, and for production ware. Back in those times, there was no readily available glass containers, plastics, or metal containers. The cheapest to purchase, was ceramics. Because of this- many people considered them disposables and were not used past the first few times.

Isaac's Pottery was located near Halifax, near Soil Hill. The pottery, also named Soil Hill. Having been in operation since the 1700's, Isaac acquired the pottery a bit before the turn of the 20th century. It was open up until 1965 when bad health made him retire, and he ultimately passed away in 1969. He ran that pottery alone, for 18 years following WWII, which I consider amazing. He had a full staff of 13 workers and potters before the war, afterwards he was pressed to find anyone who could put in a decent days work.

And each day he would show up to work, bright and early, proceed to go dig up the topsoil, behind the shop, to reveal local clay bodies. He would then harvest the clay in wheelbarrows that would be transported to a large industrial blender. Here, the clay was blended with water to produce a thick slurry that would be sifted through a mesh screen and flow into a trench that would fill a basin adjacent to the kiln. The residual heat produced from the large kiln inside the pottery would quickly dry the clay so within a few hours he was able to harvest hundreds of pounds of fresh clay. After this step, he would pug the clay once to remove all air. The clay then would sit and "sour" for a month or two before pugging again right before being used. After a long day he would wind down by visiting the local pub, which he was rumored to have never left the day he entered.

This man was an unknown legend and thought nothing of his skill beyond being a simple craftsman. Potters like this, I want to try and feel a connection with. It burdens me that these people, quite possibly, never knew their true importance or respect they deserved. Isaac did phenominal work and has skill I've rarely seen matched.

When Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada came to England and helped start the modern ceramic studio practices, they seeked out Button to ask him how much grog he used in his clay for large forms. His simple response, "I have enough trouble gettin' t' bloody stuff out wi'out puttin' it in."

I also forgot to mention this man religiously smoked his pipe from sun up to sun down and threw with a collared buttoned up shirt and tie. How many people can do that and still feel comfortable? I'd imagine not many. :)

I hope you are all as impressed as I am. Here are the videos I've been talking about. Running time is about 41 minutes.







Sources: http://www.youtube.com/user/Flush2wice, Grits in the Gears.
Big thank you to these two for sharing this information on the internet.

February Is Here

It is officially February, not sure what significance that is to me, but it's here!

I have been fairly productive as of late and things are starting to cheer up. If you've been here before, you've noticed there is a new layout. I decided to change things up, including the music player, banner at the top, and the last.fm playlist.

Oakwind Pottery. What do you think about that? Oakwind is what people would always confuse my last name with, it has been kind of a nuisance but in the same respect it speaks of pottery and the past to me. I dig it, better than the other names I had come up with.

As for the cups I had thrown, mention in previous posts, almost all of them have been glazed so far and amazingly none of them were messed up beyond repair. I am extremely pleased with a majority of them, but the best part is that none of them disappointed me. I have become fairly hard on myself when it comes to critiquing my own work. I feel I have a certain level I should be at and when I can't do something that I know I can, it makes me frustrated. So, in this case, no frustration. I set out to make some great mugs, and I did. I took a few home so I can grind off a little running, but it was all very small so not damaging to the piece.

The brick red and white piece to the left formed small bubbles on the surface where the colors separate. I am having to polish that all smooth and make sure its comfortable to the touch, again nothing too bad. This is the tan stoneware we use at Lamar, it was a paperclay mix using insulation shredded paper. It is a bit of a pain trimming because the paper sticks to the trim tool... same if you use too much fiberglass. The last batch of clay I mixed is just using a small pinch of fiberglass, no paper. It was a bit tough pushing through the pugger, either the pugger is a bit clogged or my clay is a bit hard, which I'm pretty sure it was right where I needed it. The glaze combination is Cindy's Crawler and Brick Red. I'm hopefully going to document all the glaze formulas soon.


One glaze that I have always loved that has started working even better, copper blue green. It use to only do a coppery green but now its starting to bring out the purples and blues again. This particular piece was just the balcone cone 10 white stoneware, sprayed on copper blue green. I focused spraying the top of the hump in the center and allowing the drips to form, it worked out. I'm going to try and replicate this, I am strongly drawn to it, also I love the contrast of the orange and green drips. If I can get those drips to stop at the center and have the bottom get that burnt orange, I think the combination would be great.



This little beauty is a new glaze that we have stared using at Lamar. It is named Amanda's Green, after the student that found the recipe. It makes a beautiful jade like green. It really has started doing great things but it is so pure and solid. It doesn't really creep or run which is great. A bit thick, but it helps with a shorter dip. This also is the white stoneware.


I made a bowl using the same white clay and decided to glaze it in this jade green and it came out beautiful. It is a flower shaped bowl, based on a square inside of a circle. I have a larger bowl that has yet to be glazed that I did the same design on, I'm thinking of firing it the same green to bundle them as a set.


These jade pieces I brought home because of how nice they were, thankfully no running. Oddly enough, most of the bowls I glazed were a larger and smaller set, so I can package them as a his and her bowl set. Who knows, might work. I don't have any pictures of the other bowls that were glazed, there were none that needed fixing.



One last thing to show off before I call this blog to an end. It is a jug I made for a recycled art show that I am part of. I used some found objects as inspiration for the glazing combination and essence of this piece. I believe it hit exactly what I wanted. I was so pleased with this piece, a small minor run but nothing that is distracting. I used a combination of a freckled brown and the same copper blue green from above. This is again on the white stoneware. Originally I was just going to use this as my piece in the recycled show, but I instead decided to be creative and use the recycled items in terms of a rustic presentation for my ceramics. I'm going to use select pieces, mainly the jug and a few mugs. Hopefully it works out.

For more pictures of my recent work and some work from last semester, check out my photos on my myspace. Let me know what you think ! :)

Oakwind Pottery on MySpace.com