Sheilds Up

Had an open house today at my studio. The world feels new today. A move in the direction I want to go has done wonders for my mood about my world. I have been finishing a construction project and I am finally done, I can breathe now. I set up for my open house this morning in my Tower Grove studio, I had good conversations with people who came to look at my work, friends came by and hung out for a while and I sold a few pots. I am inspired to make plans and follow them, to shift my life. There are still obstacles, I have a lot to do but I feel like I can today. I have had some days recently where I am drowning in a feeling of hopelessness but I think that feeling is coming from outside of me. I must push out my opposition and surround myself with environments and people who harmonize with my vision of my life. I tiptoe through a field of sleeping demons, I hope they don't read my blog, at least not until I am at a place of safety.

Big round coil pots

This pot is a 20" diameter pot, don't know yet how I will fire it, my electric kilns are 17". I've had a craving for big round pots. This one is inspired by a trip I made to Las Vegas NM, lots different from the Las Vegas, Nevada, this is a historic town with mostly old adobe and clapboard houses. Me and friends visited this interesting old guy named Miguel who I think was a retired doctor. He had this spanish sytle house that was built around a courtyard, it was adobe and he and his wife were rehabbing it. There was a round pot sitting outside his door that has been on my mind since I was there and I've wanted to build some like it for a while. This pot is my first of many I hope that explore the characteristics of the pot I saw at Miguels. The other unforgettable thing about Miguels was his Mango habanero salsa, 12 jalepenos and 1 habenero, it was so good I was crying.

I rebuilt the firebox and made a few other adjustments on my raku dragon kiln. It has been firing beautifully but the grate burned out at the end of the last firing so I put in some 1/2 inch black pipe and the grate from my grill on top of that. I finished making the changes to it at around 10PM when my friend Peter showed up willing to help fire it. I didn't have the wood all ready yet and some of the pots weren't even glazed and neither of us had eaten anything yet so we had a lot to do before we could get the firing underway. Anyway I wanted to heat up the brick slow because the castable I had used wasn't dry yet and there was a good amount of moisture in the bricks, and... I put a freshly glazed wet platter on the top shelf...soppin wet. Peter made a little fire in the new firebox and we burned with the lid open for an hour or so. At about 850F we heard something break and I was afraid it was the soggy platter, later we found it was a thick planter in the bottom of the chamber. We reached about 1925F and everything matured beautifully except for a couple of refire cups, the platter was brilliant!...a nice coppery oil luster. We finished up between 3 and 4 AM, covered with black soot, tired and happy.

Unknown Values

I went to see a documentary film about an autistic boy who finds healing with horses for the symptoms that cause him suffering. His parents take him on a journey to Mongolia where humans first domesticated horses in search of something, anything that could help their son. Many times 'abnormalities' are an extreme or an accentuation of something that exists in each of us humans and maybe a move towards evolution complete with uncomfortable symptoms. Each of us is like the autistic person in a way, on a day to day basis searching for what it is that clicks with us, makes us feel normal and a part of the world.

Last night someone I met just recently invited me to a bar to listen to music and except for the appreciation of music I felt a little bit alien; this was not a natural habitat for me. My friend would introduce me and say 'this is Marvel, shes an artist' and she would say about herself 'I've never been artistic or creative in any way'. I think she is mistaken in saying that; many times people limit the idea of creative to paint on a canvas or pencil on a drawing board or the sculpting of clay in the studio. People are truly her medium; she interacts easily. Before she even approaches a crowd she creates an image of herself in the mirror. She is all soft curves, light skin and hair, brown eyes with beautiful long eyelashes, a Venus, the Empress in the Tarot deck. She puts on a top that looks like an impressionistic painting, low cut to accent her full, round breasts. She moves through a crowd with fluid movements, brush strokes on a canvas of self expression. Like any creator she has an idea of what she wants to experience, but who can know how things will unfold. She works the room, talking, laughing, brushing by people and taking photos of people she just that moment met, this is her natural habitat.


She loves art, she says. She also loves the artist. We artists are the high priestesses of the Tarot deck, the spiritual expression of our more earthy, feminine counterparts (the Empress). We hold the mysteries of the universe; its our jobs to see truth and beauty with depth and clarity. If the people in her bar scene are colorful, fluid brush strokes, the artist is a black circle, both empty and full, a mystery that can't easily be known, and my friend, she is the focal point of her own creation, a beauty and truth desiring to be seen.

I built a wood fired raku kiln 2 weeks ago, I have fired it 3 times. At the moment I am frustrated with it but I am just tired and impatient with it. I have new ideas for it, just little revisions. I have been quitting the firings at 3 hours when my glazes had just started to mature. this weekend I will fire it for 4 to 5 hours. If my glazes dont fully mature at 4 to 5 hours I will tear the kiln apart and build the ware chamber higher yet than the fire pit. I do like the way it fires, it breathes nice, it reminds me of an anagama I fired 3 years ago. It gets a cone of flame out the stack latter in the firing with little flame tips and it puffs after I stoke it too, like a little dragon.

I like the idea of firing with wood, its a plentiful resource, in this part of the world anyway. Most of the pots and ceramics in our long history were not made with gas or electric. I will suppliment the ends of my firings with a propane torch if need be but ultimately I would like to design a kiln that fires easily to 1950 degrees with wood alone. So far my little kiln doesn't use a lot of wood either. The design of the kiln must make the most efficient use of the fuel source.

In the meantime I am having fun with this whole process. Last week my neighbors came over to help out and I suspect that they enjoyed it too. My little dragon is magical and I want to share the experience with people.