Cold Springs Studio Pottery .......... Day to Day

Cream and Sugar

2012-01-19T22:51:00.003-05:00

Four years ago, Nancy and I had huge ideas about how we wanted to make a cream and sugar set. Even got so far as to make a little prototype. Time passed, things happened, and it never got made.

Fast forward to this Christmas, and we found this cute cream and sugar set at Renata Wadsworth's studio during her holiday sale. I know that for some, the crawling glaze around the edge would be a deal killer, but for me, it is just part of the character of that glaze. I love the stripes! I love the Dr. Seuss-ian knob on the sugar jar. I like the same attention to the handles on the tray.

I just feel good using this set. I think that is what sets good pots apart... if you feel good using it.... that's the key.

Some of Our Pots from Renata's Holiday Sale

2012-01-10T22:39:00.000-05:00

We bought so many amazing pots during Renata's holiday sale. Some have been used so often it seems like they live in the dishwasher! Others, like this pitcher are waiting for the first lovely hot spring day when we can make iced tea or lemonade.

This mug has spent most of the past month bringing hot chai or hot chocolate to our lips at least once a day. I was surprised to find it on the shelf tonight... must have just gotten washed! I have more images of some of Renata's mugs coming tomorrow. Along with some of her new ideas for handles!

New Pots from Renata Wadsworth

2012-01-08T11:17:00.001-05:00

Renata brought me a box of pots to shoot last week. These were some of the latest pots to come out of her Fast Fire woodkiln. At the beginning of the fall, Renata was having some trees removed on her property when her tree guys dropped a tree onto her kiln's chimney. Didn't quite knock it down, but it put a major twist on it!

She took down the entire chimney during a chilly wet icy rain. After looking at it more critically, she decided to take her flattop/arch down as well. After a few more weeks she had a spiffy new arch and her chimney was back in place and lookin' good. Her firings times have shortened and the pots are looking great! There's even talk of adding some soda ash during the firings. Can't wait to see more!

Wicked Little Vase

2011-12-28T23:09:00.003-05:00

When I picked up this little vase back in November, I knew it was coming home with me. Renata Wadsworth's pots are like that. You love them instantaneously. They fit right into your hands... and the last thing you want to do is put them down.

We went to her holiday sale with the intention of picking up a few small pots for family members. By the time we left, we owned 4 more new Renata mugs and quite a few other pots. Enough to need a box and then some. Here's the funny part: the only gifts we gave were two small ornaments. We kept all the pots for ourselves. Is that bad?

Renata is getting ready to explore some new directions in her work this winter. Hopefully I can convince her to write about it on her blog and on Facebook. I think it is going to be amazing! Of course, after the firing, I'll be showing off the pots I come home with, right here.

How Many Potters Does It Take To Make A Mug?

2011-12-13T23:20:00.002-05:00

When Nancy and I began making pots together as Cold Springs Studio Pottery, the first order of business was to make mugs for our upcoming wedding. The plan was that we would make the mugs for the reception. We had washing stations so that as folks finished at the reception, they could wash their mugs, and take them with them as wedding gifts fro us.

We had a few glazes that we hoped would work at cone 6 and a kiln that wasn't happy getting that hot. While I could throw the mugs, it wasn't really a group effort... so we decided to handbuild the mugs for the wedding. Aurora was five years old and was trying to figure out her role in the studio. We decided on making soft-slab mugs with impressed/stamped decoration. Each of us designed stamps to decorate with, and chops to indicate who had made what pots. After a couple evenings of making mugs, Aurora went wild on this one, and used everyone's chops AS the decoration. From this angle you can see my AS chop, Nancy's bunny chop, and Aurora's killer whale chop.

In addition to these handbuilt mugs, we made soupmugs and a few short thrown diner mugs. I think, for our 65 guests, we made a few more than 100 mugs. There were maybe 6 pots left after our wedding.Ten years later, there are only a few of these pots left in our collection. I think two soupmugs have survived the "pre-dishwasher" stage in our house. One of the last diner mugs from this time has a good sized chip in the lip. But this mug soldiers on.

Joy Tanner's Wonderful Tumbler

2011-12-11T21:57:00.001-05:00

One of the greatest things about reading blogs is getting to know people from different regions doing different styles of work. I met Joy Tanner through her blog about 4 years ago. I was immediately taken with her deft touch with her carving and her ability to mesh her design sensibilities with her love for atmospheric firings (wood, soda, and salt).

I think one of the things I love so much about this tumbler is the way the flashing from the firing combines
with the layers of sodium vapor glazing, to create layers of texture and color. The subtle greys and rich reds and browns really capture something that a flat, even coat of glaze could never easily accomplish. In the hand, those textures reveal perfect places to put your hands and lips. In short, it makes the use of the tumbler a very engaging experience!

This tumbler made itself at home in our kitchen immediately, though I have to admit, it is almost never in our cupboard. It winds up being constantly in use, so I mostly get to see it as it heads in and out of the dishwasher. My only regret was not buying at least three of them!

Check out Joy Tanner's blog and catch some of her pottery via her online Etsy shop!

Living With Pots

2011-12-05T12:05:00.001-05:00

This soup mug was made by Ashley Kim. Not sure if you can make out the detail, but there is a line of red stitching around the waistline of this soup mug. Amazing feel in the hand. The recurved handle fits so incredibly well. Ashley is having her holiday studio sale right now, so grab some pots before they are gone!

This next mug was made by Lynne Hobaica. My friend Sabra bought it for Aurora when she and I visited the Genessee Pottery in Rochester back at the end of Summer. Fantastic show! Just wish we had been there opening night so we could get more pots!

This last pot is one of my earliest bowls. Probably hadn't made two dozen bowls at this time. I thought of this as a BIG bowl when I made it. I had my daily lunch of ramen noodles in this through my second year of college. It travelled with me across the country so many times. It made the trip to WA state, to Florida, back to MA. Eventually out to UT for a long time. Finally it made it's home back here. The strangest thing about this bowl is its boring color. Honey Clear was a glaze I picked up from Vince Pitelka when I was at UMASS/amherst. It is a very VERY matte magnesium based glaze, but by adding 15% manganese dioxide to the glaze, it becomes a wonderful satin matte, with a gorgeous honey color. It feels almost like silk. Unfortunately the anemic color really killed sales. Nancy says it is quite possibly her least favorite glaze she has ever seen me use.

The other novel thing about this bowl is that is has red slate powder wedged into the claybody. A friend dug some up from the running track at Smith College... in hopes of making an oil spot glaze based on recipes from Nigel Wood. His glazes never worked out, but I used some of his red slate powder in my claybody. Shredded my fingers while trying to throw the stuff. Imagine glass in your claybody... slate is sharper! ouch.

More Pots - returning from galleries

2011-11-02T09:21:00.000-04:00

Alright, ask questions... whatever you want to know. Here they are. We have one more batch of pots to pick up and then that's it. Done. I'm happy to tell anyone anything they want to know about these pots.

And then there were pots

2011-10-28T12:58:00.000-04:00

Tangerine carved vase. Approx 6" tall.

(sorry, this one has been scooped up... gone... ZOOM!)

Both of these small serving platters are 14-16" diam. And, when they aren't in use, they can hang on the wall. Wire hangers are built into them... so they can go from the dishwasher back into the living room.

One of my last teabowls. Lime with some slip-trailed and combed decoration. The lime glaze has a very fine crackle pattern too. Sweet little teabowl.

These are the first pots we have gotten back from our consignment galleries. More images coming tomorrow (or maybe tonight!).

Soon to Have Pots Again (seriously limited edition)

2011-09-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

I know it sounds like an odd paradox, considering I haven't touched clay in over a year now... but we will actually be getting some pots back in hand soon. Some of the work we have had out on consignment is on its way home. In one instance, the gallery is closing due to poor sales... which given the general state of the national economy is no surprise. It is discouraging though.

Why am I mentioning this?

Because we still get calls and emails from folks wanting to pick up pots from us. I can't begin to tell you the sheer number of people who assume that somewhere out in the studio (which doesn't exist either) are the elves secretly making our work while we sleep. Nope. Isn't happening.

So to suddenly have some of our pots in hand again means we can have some to give away as gifts and some for us... and maybe, just maybe... some for you.

Once the pots are home, I'll take some pictures of them and you can judge for yourself.
Till then, we'll have to guess what pots we'll be bringing home.

New Post over at Glaze Tectonics

2011-09-09T23:06:00.000-04:00

Tonight I posted some new images of a platter I have really missed seeing. This beastie has so much character. Even after all this time, I never tire of looking at it.

For more detail images, check out Glaze Tectonics...tons of images, stories and info about these big marvelous platters. I try to post a new platter here every few weeks. It's been a long while since I posted, and for that I apologize. Too many crises this summer, but I think we are back on track to post a few every month from now on.

Kari Smith - woodfired sculpture

2011-08-22T10:53:00.000-04:00

When two huge boxes arrived on my doorstep, one not much smaller than a dorm fridge, I knew I was in for a surprise. After taking off layer after layer of precisely cut foam, I uncovered this phenomenal sculpture from my friend, Kari Smith. It's days like this where I love photographing other artists' work.

As much as I would like to say about this sculpture and its maker, I will stop and hope instead that the image speaks for itself.

Glazing In Anticipation of the Next Firing - Renata Wadsworth's studio

2011-07-01T13:54:00.005-04:00

On Wednesday, Aurora and I went over to Renata Wadsworth's studio to do some portrait work while she was in the middle of her glazing. For most potters, glazing can be a very private time. I found it to be the most precarious... everything is either wet or drying, powdery glaze was always so easy to dust off on someone's hands... and the pots themselves still so fragile. For me, glazing was also fraught with the anxiety of the upcoming firing; of making sure each pot for an order was ready to fire, along with some spares... just in case; and there was always that fear of having to relinquish control to the firing.

Watching Renata glazing was almost the exact opposite. She moved like a dancer through her beautiful studio. Pots stacked on every available surface. Pots waxed and waiting for glaze. Other boards full of pots that were glazed and cleaned but waiting for the wadding that would lift them off the kiln shelf during the woodfiring. Her apprentice, Sarah, had already finished glazing for the day by the time we showed up. Aurora and I quickly developed a rhythm between us... Aurora shooting details and closeups of the finished glazed pots and some still waiting for wax, while I was off bouncing light off the ceiling as I photographed Renata hard at work.

Lined up like a family portrait, these pots are just begging for glazing and brushwork decoration!

Renata was looking inside this mug to make sure that none of the outside glaze had dripped into the inside... potentially marring the next glaze that would be poured inside, creating a liner glaze.

One of Aurora's best shots of the day... clearly illustrating the marvelous fluid line of Renata's decoration on her Shino glazed pots.

As Renata gets ready for her next woodfiring for this year, I am so anxious to see how these pots turn out. She is nearly half way to her goal for her new kiln building project. Called the Fast Fire Fundraiser, Renata and Sarah are making Radical Mugs; one of a kind mugs, with the goal of building a smaller faster woodfiring kiln to experiment with more frequently. Folks who contribute towards Renata's kiln get one of the Radical Mugs from the upcoming firings. These mugs are going to be absolutely wicked. I can't wait to see some of these new mugs post-firing.

For more information about Renata's kiln building project, please check out her Facebook page and her FB community page. If you'd like to get involved, please join in now !! Renata also takes part in the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, where over 50 artists in and around the Ithaca community open their studios to the public, during the middle two weekends in October. Some potters have kiln openings or demonstrations too! Definitely worth traveling for. See you there!

Dirty Work, with Pots Ablaze

2011-06-20T16:29:00.002-04:00

The hard work of cleaning up from a woodfiring has to be one of the worst, most thankless jobs in ceramics. Nothing like handling sharp hot shelves, heavy brick, all covered in ash and fused bits of glaze. With dust masks on, gloved hands and eye protection, the work is slow going and SWEATY! Doing this in the Spring or Fall makes sense. And yet, so many potters fire their woodkilns in the heat of summer.

And the reason why: because when those pots come out, you quickly forget about having stood next to a kiln at two thousand plus degrees in 90F heat... all you think about is how cool the pots look.

As the kiln is slowly unloaded, shelves and bricks stacked, and pots sorted... it is time to clean off glaze drips and fused pots. Time to smooth out rough spots on the kiln shelves. Time to true up the ends of the kiln posts. Time to sweep up all the wads from off the bottoms of all the pots.

And lastly: To drink in the great pots. To bask in the glow of pots made miraculous by the wicked tongue of fire that coursed through the kiln for a day and a half. To see exactly where some pots got too close to the fire and distorted out of round. To see the smooth drips where the ash pooled and ran down the side. But most of all, to share with the other potters the awesomeness of firing with wood.

Woodfired Pots: Flashing, Ash, and WOW!

2011-06-04T20:35:00.004-04:00

There is something very special about being asked to photograph the best pots from a potter's woodfired kiln. You know, right off the bat, that these pots have been through hell. And these, of all of them, are the ones special enough to make the cut.

These woodfired pots are more of Cary Joseph's work that I photographed at the end of May. These were fired in Julie Crosby's wood kiln. Much of the kiln had great flashing with not a ton of drippy ash to muddle the clean throwing style that Cary favors.

In many instances, I am only the second person (after the potter who unloaded the kiln,) to have ever held these pots. That is a sensational experience. To be able to run my hands over the rough surface, the ash slickened drips down the side of the pot, to feel the silkiness of the glaze inside... all transform this ball of fired clay into something magical. I always feel privileged to be asked to photograph pottery, especially when my friends are such great potters!

New Blog for Glaze Tectonics Platters

2011-04-14T14:48:00.003-04:00

If you haven't noticed, this blog is getting left by the wayside. I haven't really done much here since the coma a year and a half ago. Most of my effort is now spent on my photography career and my consulting/webdesign business. To that end, I decided to put all the Glaze Tectonics Platter images into one place, one format, easy to use.... wordpress blog. So here it is: http://coldspringsstudio.com/GlazeTectonics/

I hope folks enjoy seeing the platters as they go up. Always enjoy hearing what everyone has to say about them.

Dreaming of the Deep Blue Sea

2011-04-04T18:03:00.003-04:00

B73098, Dreaming of the Deep Blue Sea, 1998, 18" diam., $800, available.

Another Platter Without A Name

2011-04-03T13:37:00.000-04:00

The platter with no name, 1998, 20" diam., $600, available

Failures Fit Well Around the Shoulder, But Tend to be Short in the Back

2011-04-01T22:53:00.004-04:00

Failures Fit Well Around the Shoulder, But Tend to be Short in the Back,
18"diam., $600, available, 1998

No one ever had anything nice to say about this platter. While all the other massive platters outshone it, outmassed it or just plain out-did it... it was never relegated to the shard pile. I considered it the day I pulled it out of the kiln. This fleshy peach was not the planned color or texture I was expecting. It was supposed to be a crunchy reddish color floating on an icy crystalline fluid glaze. Well, that didn't happen. The pale blue soft bumpy glaze beside it is almost a saving grace, but not quite. All in all, this was a real example of failing to live up to my expectations, but I could never administer the coup de grace. I know that somewhere, someone needs this platter as part of their life.

Across the Citrine Ice - more experiments in glaze

2011-03-30T10:45:00.001-04:00

Across the Citrine Ice, (82098I), 1998, 15" diam, $600, available.

Making Gems from Scratch - more crystal glazed platters

2011-03-27T21:52:00.000-04:00

Making Gems From Scratch (414982), 1998, 16" diam., $800, available.

No Great Name for this one (598)

2011-03-25T21:37:00.002-04:00

Untitled (598), 1998, 19"diam., $1400, available.

Much Too Much

2011-03-20T22:10:00.004-04:00

23098A, Too Much is Too Much, 1998, 20" diameter
$1800, available

No, these are not craters on the moon.

No, this is not some primordial fungus.

This is not some refrigerator leftovers run amok.

This is what happens, when night after night, month after month, you try... desperately hard... to keep track of all the crazy ideas for glazes. And then suddenly you realize that you simply cannot add twelve different glazes over and under one another, without suffering the consequences.
And here they are. In all their sunburned glory. Much too much.

Looking Down on the Last Gasp of a Poison Lake - 122198I

2011-03-08T21:00:00.004-05:00

122198I, Looking Down on the Last Gasp of a Poison Lake,
17" diameter, $900, available

This was one of those platters that came into being, despite all my best intentions. It was never supposed to look like this. I have never been more glad to be disappointed. This particular combination of glazes was very susceptible to the phenomenon brought on by very slow cooling cycles. Due to the heavy load that I typically fired with, the cooling cycles were measured in days, not hours. In this firing there was over 900 pounds of brick in the stack, and over 600 pounds of shelves. That is a lot of refractory to heat and then to HOLD that heat! This firing took over 3 days to cool below 400F.

One of the things that I was made aware of while living in Utah, was the sad state of environmental responsibility within the department of mining (and reclamation). Yep, that's part of their name. I think all it really means is that they are supposed to put the dirt back in the same (or similar) hole that they dug it out of. It just doesn't work out that way.

I took the long way home once, through Montana, and stopped alongside the huge tailings from the Anaconda Copper Mine. These black sandy hills go on for a long long while. At the time, I had no idea about what was happening in terms of toxic effluent coming from the mine, or the bird kills that happened every winter (thousands of migrating birds die here, year after year)... all I knew was that they mined copper there.

When I got home to Utah, I read my first article talking about the toxins released into the waters that have flooded this mining site. Contaminated with everything from arsenic to selenium, the water is so acidic that it burns the flesh and feathers of anything it touches, essentially dooming any bird or animal who happens upon it. Bear in mind, this is in Montana... and a part of the state that isn't inundated with lakes and rivers. To say that it is dry would be an understatement. This man-made lake must seem an oasis to wildlife... and instead it is poison.

In essence, that is what drove the creation of a few of these particular platters...

Fall Through The Cracks

2011-02-27T21:48:00.000-05:00

82698B, Falling Through the Cracks (into who knows what), 1998, 20" diameter,
currently available, $1100

Nailing Jello to the Wall With Both Hands

2011-02-25T21:28:00.000-05:00

11799B, untitled, 1999, $800

I am still amazed that this soft lime/mint green can pull away from the claybody and still adhere after it cooled. How cool is this?! I love the rich turquoise color, blending into all that texture and yet remaining a saturated Egyptian blue. Seeing that brown clay peeking out from under everything just makes me laugh. Almost seems like some strange potter's joke... the clay is still there under everything.

Wracking My Mind, and Still - Nothing Comes Out

2011-02-22T21:21:00.000-05:00

9298H - untitled, 1998, $700

This platter has some of the most amazing crystal growth I have ever seen. Almost like layers of ice built up, or salt accumulating in a salt-pan. You can see individual crystals starting in one spot and then growing into a mat of smooth pale crystals. The rich saturated yellow-orange glaze, crackled and ripped open is so striking.

Glaze Tectonics - 22698C - Many Worlds in One

2011-02-20T20:26:00.000-05:00

22698C - Many World in One, ©1998
still available for purchase, $900

Glaze Tectonics - 11298A- untitled

2011-02-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

11298A, untitled, made at Utah State University while I was in grad school, 1997-98©
still available for purchase

Glaze Tectonics - mossy green (9998C)

2011-02-14T19:57:00.005-05:00

9998C - from the Glaze Tectonics series, made in UT 1998 ©
still available for purchase

This glaze finish reminds me of moss turned into stone. It flows in soft waves, and crackles as it cools. The sage color looks like it should smell like springtime. Running my fingers over it, it feels almost like a beachwashed stone, polished from years of tumbling against the shore.

Posting About Other People's Pots

2010-12-20T22:20:00.004-05:00

small handbuilt espresso mug with fake ash glaze, c/10 reduction, 1998

loosely thrown mug with magnesia matte glaze, c/10 reduction, 1997

woodfired tumbler, c/10, tenmoku liner, 1995

Alex Solla 1996©, salt fired with crackle kaolin slip marbled inside and unglazed clay surface for the outside.

Alex Solla 1996©, salt fired with crackle kaolin slip and wollastonite slip on the outside surface.

Even though I am no longer making pots, they are still a big part of my life. For the past few weeks I have been primarily shooting product photographs, which means the studio is set up for table-top shooting. I figured while I have the whole lighting rig arranged, and the gobos set up... why not take advantage of the arrangement. To that end, I am photographing as much of my collection as possible this week.

These pots are from my time at Utah State. In the first two years I was there, most of my pots were either salt fired or wood fired. When I couldn't squeeze pots into those firings, I fired gas reduction. All in all, there was an awful lot of experimentation from those years.

Boil Bubble

2010-11-20T20:19:00.003-05:00

There are so many things one never expects a glaze to do. These platters threw that idea in the garbage. (which makes sense considering how many hundreds of these platters ended up in the dumpster!)

I never imaged I would keep a platter with pink glassy pustules covering the surface. I never expected I would be excited to see frozen examples of cracked glacial toothpaste. Go figure.

Looking Back

2010-11-18T23:00:00.005-05:00

Back when Nancy and I were first getting Cold Springs Studio Pottery off the ground, our focus was on making kick-ass retro stylin' pots which could work just as well in a modern asain-aesthetic lifestyle. To that end, Nancy and I looked at piles of magazines and books trying to understand how to convey that message with our images.

At that point, I had gone through my first back surgery to fix a herniated disk which had ejected disk material which had become lodged in the spinal canal. Not fun. Left me with my right leg partially paralyzed. Post surgery though, I had a six week recovery at home. Keeping me from going out of my mind, I decided to pick up digital photography. I had shot primarily with slide film in the 5 years prior to that point, but digital seemed easier.

We borrowed cameras from folks we knew, from different departments that would loan them out at Cornell... even tried a few in stores here and there around town. After doing a fair bit of internet searching, I settled on the Olympus C-5050Z which at the time (2003) was a pretty high end camera. I couldn't afford a dslr yet, and this could do almost everything that my older 35mm camera could do.

With the Oly in hand, Nancy and I set up all sorts of shots in our make-shift studio. We had virtually nothing that anyone would recognize as lighting gear. A cobbled together lightbox hung suspended from the ceiling in our throwing studio. Made from foam core, lightweight wood and spare electrical parts, this lightbox formed the basis for our photography work for the next 7 years. Here are a few images taken back then... and then revisited in Lightroom this week. Pretty interesting to see how these images can be re-imagined.

Still sorting more stuff

2010-11-16T17:08:00.007-05:00

Okay... I have collected a mountain of stuff for the pottery studio over the past 20 years.
I mean, we're talking TONS of stuff. The time has come to start saying goodbye to much of it. That said, most of it is now up for grabs. Seriously. My library is now up for sale. I have a great pdf explaining each and every title.... and prices too! Anything that I can't sell (cheap!) to a potter, I will put on ebay at the going rate (which is a lot more than I would ever consider asking of a fellow potter.) [Okay, we have had numerous folks emailing, asking me to send them the pdf for the books.... HERE it is!] (I will do my best to update this daily as books sell)...another caveat: this pdf is 7 pages in color, it isnt a small file, so please be patient while it loads.

I am also getting rid of a lot of display stuff from the studio. Props, plate stands, plate hangars, and miscellaneous stuff one acquires so as to best display one's work. Pictures are available. Suffice to say, if you saw the display stands in any of my earlier studio images... those props are now up for grabs. Make me an offer and I will pack up a box for you.

I am also selling off massive quantities of Mason stains. Obviously, having worked in bright colors, we have a LOT of Mason stains. In many cases, well over 10# of many of some stains. Make me an offer on the whole lot and I will be a happy guy. Otherwise, I start breaking this all down piecemeal. I will probably be grumpy about this in the end.

I have a wonderful digital balance from Ohaus (Scout) model available. $50. CHEAP. Paid over $100 for it and it has been a fantastic addition to my glaze bench.

For folks who weigh out their clay before throwing, I have two medium scales (weigh up to 25#) available. $15 each.

I am happy to ship in whatever manner folks want to pay for. If you happen to live locally, so much the better! Come and get it. I will be making this list more comprehensive in the weeks to come.

Full PDF of the booklist and yes, this is a BIG file. Drink some coffee while it loads.

Clearing out the magazines

2010-09-18T22:18:00.002-04:00

Now that the studio is closed, I am selling/ giving away most of my ceramic magazines including Ceramics Monthly back to the 60s, Ceramic Review (UK), Ceramics Art and Perception, Ceramics Technical, Ceramic Industry, American Craft, Craft Horizons, American Ceramics and more. Make me an offer and they are yours!

This is a MOUNTAIN of journals. I would guess this stash to be at least 200# of magazines. I sure hope someone out there sees this as an opportunity, otherwise these puppies are heading for the recycle center next month.

Meant To Write About

2010-09-12T19:00:00.004-04:00

When I shot this, back in April 2009, I was on a tear. I had pulled together some of my favorite pots in my collection, shot them from multiple angles, all to show the incredible range of craftsmanship and all the attention to detail. Pottery needs to be handled, but allowing for that impossibility in many cases, I figured images would have to suffice.

Somewhere between then and now, these images got lost in the mountain of photos I keep shooting. So why bring them out now?

Well, Bruce and Samantha at Bulldog Pottery are sending Nancy and I two amazingly beautiful mugs. I seldom find myself going gaga over other potter's mugs. To say these mugs are something special is an understatement.

Bruce and Samantha produce an array of amazing forms with luscious glazes, full of character, detail, crystals and more. Always a surprise. Every time I have shown this pot to another potter, the first words out of their mouths has always been "wow!" I think that says it all.

So how did I come by this yunomi? Back when I was living in Utah, my friend Carrie brought me this Yunomi of Bruce's. She told me that he made this while he was preparing for his graduate exhibition at Alfred (NYSCC). Suffice it to say, I have nothing comparable in my collection! Thank you Bruce for adding a wicked cool yunomi to my collection! I am so excited to know that you and Sam are sending me two new mugs.

Pale River

2010-09-04T21:58:00.003-04:00

9298H - Pale River, cone 8, fired for three days, cooled for 48 hours

This platter has always held a special place in my heart. It is quieter than many of the rest that were made at the same time. The level of crystallization is phenominal. Almost like ice!

As a studio closing special, Nancy and I decided that we would post a special rate on all the platters we're showing on the blog. This one, Pale River, normally was listed at $800 in the studio... but for this week we'll not only drop the price massively, but we'll cover the costs of shipping anywhere in the US as well. So, $500 will enable this Pale River to grace your wall.

Purple-black Storm, 9298B

2010-08-31T20:31:00.002-04:00

9298B - Purple-black Storm, cone 8, fired for four days, cooled for four days, $600, 20"

More Than A River

2010-08-27T20:41:00.005-04:00

9298C - More Than A River, cone 7, fired for four days, cooled for three days.

9298C - More Than A River, detail

I am always somewhat reluctant to post images from these platters... not because I don't love them, but because I feel like I have so little to say about them. I guess for folks wanting to know more about them, I am open to questions. Unless mentioned otherwise, they are for sale. Shipping isn't as bad as I thought it would be, considering that most of these platters weigh upwards of 50# and are in most cases 18-22" across. BIG is an understatement.

So, fire away with questions and comments.

Cold Springs Studio is now Closed

2010-08-21T13:02:00.003-04:00

The sign on the road has come down.
The signs in the yard have been taken down.
The pots are (mostly) sold.
The last orders have been boxed.
The lights in the gallery are off.
The music has been turned off.
What else can I say?

Saying Good-Bye

2010-08-20T21:36:00.006-04:00

This week, another beautiful platter sold and will be heading to Maine as soon as we get it boxed up. It is always a bittersweet separation when one of these massive platters sells. On one hand, I am thrilled that someone wants one in their home or office. The sudden cash influx certainly doesn't hurt either. But there is always some part of me that looks at the piece, one last time and realizes that I will likely never see this platter ever again.

In the case of this particular platter, it has some interesting differences that separate it from the rest of the series. For one thing, I was experimenting with a brown slip glaze around the rim. Later in the course of making these, I would only use the dark black slip for the rims. Another thing that makes this platter different from so many of the platters is that there is a rippled texture under the glaze, and due to the transparency of the fluid glaze, you can see what look almost like wave washed shoreline, under the glaze. Since I felt that this effect was so successful in this platter, I made similar efforts on quite a few platters which followed this one. None were anywhere near as successful.

And with that said, I say good-bye and good luck.

Second to Last Firing is OUT and on the Shelves

2010-08-20T10:43:00.005-04:00

We have one more firing cooling down today, which will be on the shelves first thing tomorrow morning. Then we're out. What you're seeing is what we have left. Great colors, and fantastic pots. Our aim was to go out with a bang and I think we nailed it with this last firing!

There's a lot of lime, matte purple and other great colors!

Down to the Wire

2010-08-20T00:13:00.002-04:00

This morning we unloaded an armful of gorgeous oval trays, more salad and dessert plates (and a few special things for those waiting for orders!)
Alas, the driveway was quiet today. Not nearly the onslaught that Tuesday and Wednesday gave us. Tomorrow and Saturday are it.

Saturday at Noon we take down our sign. Anyone who shows up in the driveway after high-noon had better be bringing pizza, ice cream or something chocolate-ish.... 'cause we'll be celebrating and grieving and lamenting and reveling. It's the end of an era.

We're BACK

2010-08-17T07:39:00.003-04:00

Only five days left to go.....

Wednesday's Pots - Straight from the kiln

2010-08-11T11:15:00.006-04:00

Apprentice's teapot in Pear $120, 1 matte purple sorbet bowls (Sold)

Blue teabowl $36, small pear mixing bowl $60

Small mixing bowls in Matte Purple and Pear (SOLD), $60 each.

Matte purple salad plates ( 2 SOLD), $30

Small serving bowl in Matte purple $48

Small serving bowl in Matte purple $48, Blue canister $50, pear salad plate $30

Tiny teabowl in Turquoise $36 (SOLD)

Ordering Depression with a side of Self Pity (or Sabra comes the rescue!)

2010-08-07T23:17:00.005-04:00

Sabra's AWESOME silverware (and kick-ass container!)

Yawp. That would be me tonight. Between my slowly fading headache, my gnawing back pain and my overtired eyes.... you'd think that would be enough. But no. I had to go and try to build a wardrobe tonight. You heard right. After thinking about the fact that my photography clients are going to be less than inclined to have me show up at their special events or place of work, looking like I just stumbled out of a pottery studio, clay stains and all... I figured that it was time to change into something new. Something stylish. (Stop laughing!) Something comfortable. Black.

The hard part was coming to grips with the fact that my body is no longer the shape it was a year ago, or even a month ago. I've been heavy most of my life and by and large, I fall under the larger than large size. Post-surgery though, I have zilch in the way of abdominal muscles. With the onset of the latest incisional hernia, there is even less holding my innards in... so the resultant bulge in my front really looks weird. Not cool. So, I am trying to find ways to pull it all together somehow. Doing so though, forces me to stare at this girth and it depresses the living shit out of me.

I still imagine that I look like I did when Nancy and I got married. Ha. I wish. That was seventy pounds ago. Trying to work my mind around this new shape is more than difficult. But somehow, in the midst of this self-deprecating morass, I realized that no matter what I looked like, I needed to feel better about my appearance

On Friday we were visiting with our wicked cool friend Sabra up in Rochester. There's something so awesome about friends who'll be thrilled when you just drop in out of the blue. That would be us. Dropping in while we were in the neighborhood picking up enormous bags of styrofoam packing peanuts.

A year ago, I was helping Sabra with some glaze calculation stuff. We'd never met in person, but were introduced by a fellow potter, and we worked together online. Fast forward to my coma and Art Trail in October... Nancy needed to be in the hospital with me, but she was determined to keep the gallery open as best she could. Sabra came to the rescue! She showed up with bells on! To this day, we continue to hear great stories about how awesome she handled sales. Apparently some folks were simply cut out to sell other people's pots! God bless em.

So, while visiting with Sabra on Friday, Nancy asked if she knew of a shoe store she would recommend... to find shoes for me. I needed something more snazzy than Crocs. Go figure. I don't argue about shoes with Nancy. If you dont know why, read her blog: http://coldspringsstudio.blogspot.com/. Sabra recommended (and we do too!) a place in Fairport Ny called 123 Shoes. Great little store. We walked in and twenty minutes later, left with a pair of shoes that were perfect for what I needed. Stylish, semi-formal, decent support... and the fit is outta this world! Nice touch: they come with a 30-day, walk-around guarantee. Wear them outdoors for a month. If you dont love them, they'll take them back. Gotta love that!

Thank you Sabra!! You definitely sent us in the right direction. Now if only we had found Dog Town ... a hot dog joint she was trying to help us find. Next time!

Ferro showing off his mug for the camera. He really liked Sabra when she came to visit last month!

Another Week, Fewer Pots, Newer Pots

2010-08-04T21:24:00.007-04:00

the tangerine and both turq bowls are sold

the blue plate has sold

the tangerine oval tray has sold

the turq teabowl has sold

I wont go through the trouble of posting prices. Suffice to say, they're the same on our website. This will be our last weekend home before we're gone for a brief vacation the following weekend. For folks out there keeping score... that means we have less than two weeks left of the studio being open. Pots are still coming, but some things we are totally out of... like: soup mugs, footed mugs, ruffled vases, oval vases, pitchers, lg/med mixing bowls.... too many things really. BUT we have a mountain of plates, and more coming!

Getting Ready To Take It All Down

2010-08-03T21:31:00.004-04:00

414981 - Blue Blue Day, 15"diameter

After having our gallery walls hung with our huge Glaze Tectonics platters for the past eight years, the time has finally come to start taking them down and crating them up. They simply have never sold as well as one would hope. As much as I love looking at them and reflecting on them, they have never reached out to the public at large. Most people simply cant imagine paying 2D prices (ie painting, print, photography prices) for a clay disk filled with glaze that happens to hang on the wall. Maybe the lineage is too close to being a mug. Maybe it is the old dirt cheap metaphor. Who knows? Doesn't really matter. The real estate is too precious to leave these beasties hanging around. Time to bring them in from the cold, to wrap them up and call it a night.

Which leaves the next question: What is going up in their place? Ahhh. Prints.

Today FedEx pulled into the driveway and unloaded six BIG boxes full of framed, matted, photographic prints. Nancy and I sat down, went through all of my favorite images, and picked out a dozen. They are now framed in a few different sizes... basically big, bigger and DAMN that's big!

My hope is that Nancy and I will have time to repack all the platters this weekend and start hanging the new prints soon. I already unpacked one box and I haven't recovered yet. Mpix makes amazing prints! The framing job is better than I could have done on my own here. Very high end job! Definitely worth the cost. Next week: Pics of the new photographs on the wall!!

Open

2010-08-01T17:45:00.002-04:00

Getting Down to the Wire

2010-08-01T15:11:00.003-04:00

As we head into our last three weeks with our studio open, the pots on the shelves are starting to look pretty lonely. We had a bang-up weekend where at times we had people leaving the studio with a bag under each arm, and in some cases they had to make a few trips. This is wonderful for us, but for folks waiting to buy pots on the last day we'll be open... perhaps not so good.

Let me say again for anyone who didn't read the postcard or the Facebook page or my earlier blog posting: August 21st is the LAST day to buy pots. Prices GO UP all day long. We have pots now, and that selection is dwindling fast. If you want to be able to have choices, NOW is the time to be shopping. Okay... 'nuf said.

Wide Awake and Wondering

2010-08-01T04:05:00.004-04:00

62098F - The Sixth platter in the Sixth Month of the Year (Blue Storm).

The clock just ticked past 4am. That means I have missed out on most of tonight's sleep. I have no idea what brought on tonight's insomnia, but rather than toss and turn in bed in frustration, I figured a better solution was to get up and try to work on something. To that end, I have prepared new images from the Glaze Tectonics platters hanging in our gallery currently.

Now That We're Closing...

2010-07-30T11:59:00.000-04:00

Now that we're starting to wrap things up here in the studio, it's time to begin a new blog. To that end, you are welcome to join me at our new Photography Blog: http://alexsollaphotographyblog.blogspot.com/

My goal is to have something visual to add at least every other day. Writing something more meaty might happen at fewer intervals.

But we are going to let go of the Cold Springs Studio Blog... so get ready for the change-over.
The new blog will deal more with our new venture into the photography world. (just so you know, it is very odd to not be working in clay... not just now, but knowing that I wont really be able to go back to it)

While we're working on that, we've also been seeing a LOT of interest in our Glaze Tectonics platters. Ironic eh? Now that we're about to take them off the walls, folks are wanting to see more of them. If anyone has ideas for marketing them, or knows of a great gallery that would love to host them, please let me know.

How Many Ways Can You Say WOW!?

2010-07-30T07:06:00.004-04:00

This morning I was up early due to some major back pain. Yeah, I know, if it isn't one thing, it's another. Being up early has its advantages though. It made me realize that the light was going to be sweet this morning. So I mustered up my courage and pried myself out of my chair, grabbed the camera bag and went down to the marina. Ithaca's marina at Cass Park/Treman Marina is pretty small and the boats we get are pretty low-key for the most part. My favorite part is that it is so incredibly quiet first thing in the morning. Sometimes I can even get out there before the rowers or joggers have begun. Such was the case today.

Okay, so I love my new camera. Is that a bad thing? I think the differences between my older Nikon D80 and this D300s are huge. And I LOVE IT! Have I said that enough yet?

And for those of you who've asked, yes, we are making many of these prints available for purchase via Zenfolio. Great quality prints, excellent packing, very fast turn around and decent prices. As always, comments are welcomed.

The New Camera is HERE

2010-07-29T14:24:00.003-04:00

And I dont want to do all the rest of the things that I need to be doing. I just want to go play with my camera! I know it will still be here tomorrow.... but I WANNA PLAY NOW!!!

Seconds vs. Seconds

2010-07-28T10:18:00.007-04:00

One sixtieth of a minute.
Not first, not third.
Not perfect, defective.
(and 26 other different meanings too)

We are counting down the minutes (and seconds) that our studio will be open and selling pottery. There's not a lot left...

In order to replace the mountain of pots that sold earlier this month, Nancy and I cracked out the pile of seconds that had accumulated since last June (our 1st Seconds sale). There were enough pots to fill two good sized display tables.

So what makes one of our pots a second? Minor blemishes, pinholes in the glaze, plate bottoms may wobble, odd glaze colors... all make our pots less-than-gallery quality. If they were good enough that someone could put them to good use, safe to eat from, etc... but not good enough to sell at full price as a gallery worthy pot, then they became a second.

What does this mean? Well, for those of you hoping for half-priced seconds.... they are on the shelves NOW! They are all half our normal retail price. There won't be anymore after this lot. They won't be there in two weeks that's for sure.

Tools, Toys and Training

2010-07-27T17:38:00.003-04:00

I don't care how you phrase it. Getting new tools for me is like getting a new toy. I love the learning curve of having something that tests my old skills and teaches me new ones. The excitement isn't just the newness though. Somehow for me, the growth part is the exciting aspect. The try and the fail. Both.

Since we are diving into this new photography business with both feet, I figure we need to be ready to make a serious splash. When I started making pots over twenty years ago, my confidence level was nearing its apex. Ten years later, a grad program and a divorce later, my confidence was riddled with bullet holes.

After talking things over with many friends, we're trying to approach this new venture with our eyes looking towards the horizon and not at our feet (and definitely not behind us!).

To that end...
I bought a new camera today. Here's my new baby. I think we need to give it a name.

On top of that, I picked up this tome of an instruction manual for it at the bookstore the other day. Started reading it, and so far haven't been able to put it down for longer than half an hour.
Every now and then I look up, hoping that the UPS truck is backing up our driveway ... with my new camera!

Glaze Tectonics - Another Platter Finds a New Home

2010-07-25T17:48:00.003-04:00

Today a wonderful woman came into the studio, not long before we were scheduled to close. She and her mom took an immediate liking to our Glaze Tectonics series platters. We get a few folks a week who gravitate towards these beasties. They are huge. Even a small one is over 20#. Today they went home with this one. Now there's a new platter heading to Chicago!

9998D detail - Sold

Happy Birthday Brother o'Mine

2010-07-21T23:28:00.002-04:00

Today is my younger brother's birthday. We just talked on the phone for the past hour. Every month or two, one of us will call the other. Sometimes it doesn't amount to much. Other times, the conversation bears wonderful fruit. I never expected we would have this.

Two years ago he nearly died. So close that when my mother called to ask me about pulling him off life support I screamed and cried. I flew to Orlando a few hours later. He was in the trauma unit, with tubes of every sort running in and out of his body. They had just had him in surgery for five hours to rebuild his face. At the time, we had no idea what had happened. Turned out he had been hit by a car as a pedestrian, and left for dead on the side of the road. His face was crushed on both sides, his right leg was nearly severed. For the next three weeks my brother would live in a chemical coma while his body healed. None of us knew what damage had been done to his brain.

When he started to come around, we found out that his motor cortex had suffered damage. His right side was paralyzed. It would be over two months before he would move his arm. His leg took even longer.

Fast forward two years: He walks, runs, and takes his awesome dog with him almost everywhere he goes. Hazey is the coolest dog I have ever met. Smart beyond words. When my mother brought Hazey into the brain rehab ward to visit with my brother... that's when things started to improve. That dog made the biggest difference in his life!

So here we are. Two brothers whose lights were very nearly snuffed out. Two comas, two years, twice as much stress as any family should bear. No mother should see her child (grown or otherwise) laid out with precious little hope for survival.

But we're here.

Tonight's conversation was amazing because I heard in my brother's voice many things I have never heard before. They gave me hope and pride. I am glad to know that he's growing up and that some day he'll live the life he wants to have. I have hope that he will keep looking to his dog to teach him all the things he needs to learn. Having been raised by wolves myself, I can think of no better teacher.

Happy birthday little brother. Glad to see another year for the two of us.

Redemption Song

2010-07-19T21:31:00.005-04:00

This week has been tough. Since last Sunday's post, things went downhill wicked fast. I spent the better part (worst part) of twenty four hours in the local hospital with what we were afraid was a heart attack. After every bizarre test known to man, it was declared that my heart was fine, but lots of other things weren't.

By the time I left the following afternoon I had been diagnosed with diabetes (which I didn't have pre-surgery) and an anxiety disorder. Nifty eh?

Not like I have anything to be anxious about right?

Closing the studio down has been far more difficult than I thought it would be. Every time I try to explain it to someone I am met with doubt or questions about other ways of working... folks just really dont seem to get it. I guess I have to be okay with that.

Some part of me wonders, if people are actually bothered by us closing, where the hell have they been for the past half-decade? We've done mass mailings on so many occasions: Holiday studio sales, seconds sales, Art Trail... and each year we've seen fewer return customers. Weird to say the least.

Moving on to something new seems the most logical progression. I haven't been shooting as much this month. It has just been too damned hot to think, much less shoot. As I sit here, nearly 10pm, the house is well over 80 degrees and I cant stop sweating. A cold shower sounds inviting. I can't wait for this heat to break, for the wind to blow and for it to pour down a cold soaking rain.

So what does all of this have to do with Joe Strummer and Redemption Song? Hell if I know. Joe just makes me feel better. Something about his timing/rhythm and the depth of his lyrics... it just sits well with me. Helps soothe my frustrations and allows some semblance of peace to wash over me. I've heard dozens of folks cover this tune. From Bob Marley all the way to some folks I won't name for fear of embarrassing myself by admitting that I have seen some very odd bands. I wish I had seen Joe Strummer perform. Watching his life stream by on dvd just isnt the same.

Here are the details about the closing of the studio:
August 21st, 9am-noon... three hours.... that's it. Pots are available NOW!
YES, the prices GO UP every hour of the sale.
Think scarcity, think collector's item, think about the fact that I won't be making more pots. Zilch.

Get here early and save yourself the frustration of wondering why all the pots are gone. We are already out of some things: ice cream bowls, soup mugs, pitchers, oval vases. We have LOTS of plates to choose from. Tons of bowls. But at noon on Saturday the 21st, we close this chapter. If you want pots, don't wait till the very end. The best selection of pots is NOW.

Postcards are at the printer. Should be in the mail to everyone sometime the first week in August. An email blast will go out in about two weeks. Between now and then the pots are flying off the shelves as tourists are flocking in every day.

Fingerlakes Dragonboat Races - July 2010

2010-07-11T13:48:00.002-04:00

It took a while, but I finally was able to pull together some of yesterday's images into a slideshow. Enjoy!

Enter the Dragon (with apologies to Bruce Lee)

2010-07-10T15:52:00.005-04:00

Today Ithaca hosts the Fingerlakes International Dragon Boat Races. Teams from all over are here. Mayhem rolled together with enough sweat, testosterone, water and fun made for a very fun race. I only stayed for the briefest time this morning. I took a few pictures while I was near the waterside. My goal is to have these posted to Zenfolio before tomorrow evening, but between now and then, I want to edit a few and really beef up a few others.

So, check out www.alexsollaphotography.zenfolio.com.... prints will be available.

Made it to Monday

2010-07-05T06:30:00.004-04:00

Here are Monday's images of what remains in the gallery. Today is our last installment of functional pottery from the gallery. I will do a few posts this week of the BIG platters from the Glaze Tectonics series which are also available.

Top Row left to right- Blue small serving bowl $48, Forest teabowl $40, Turq dessert plate $24, Matte purple salad plate $30, Blue oval footed vase $70, Large glaze experiment platter $100
BOTTOM row-- pear teabowl $40, Forest teabowl $40, robins egg diner mug $30 ea., dessert plates $24 ea., matte purple sorbet bowl $24

TOP ROW --- Teabowls in matte purple, blue, pear, forest $40 ea., Canisters in blue and matte purple $50 ea., turq footed mug $36

BOTTOM ROW--- Pear small serving bowl $48, HG Butter dish blue (ish) $30, blue tumblers $24 ea., matte purple canister $50, footed mugs in turq and forest $36 ea., small blue teabowl $36

Top row--- small blue serving bowl $48, Pear small serving bowl $48, matte purple small serving bowl $48, forest canister $50, blue dessert plate $24, blue small mixing bowl $60, robins egg dessert plate $24.

Bottom Row--- Turq footed mug $36, blackberry oval footed vase $65, forest sorbet bowls $24 ea., blue canister$50, forest canister $50, forest footed mug $36, turq footed mug $36

Large blue serving bowl $100, med blue serving bowl $70, matte purple sorbet bowl $24, blue sorbet bowl $24, Blackberry tall teabowl $40, matte purple sorbet bowl $24, blue teabowl $40, turquoise sorbet bowl $24, Blue dessert plate $24, med blue serving bowl $70, small serving bowl Pear $48, med turquoise serving bowl $70, small lime serving bowl $48, various plates $24-36 ea., lime soup mug $36, butter sorbet bowl $24, Tangerine small serving bowl $48

Sunday's Pottery Images - Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-04T14:14:00.003-04:00

More pots from the studio. We are starting to see waves of tourists which means that these pots diminish on a daily basis. Speak now or forever hold your peace. Once they're gone... they're gone.

607-387-4042 voice/fax
email: info@coldspringsstudio.com

left to right--- Medium mixer in Pear $80, Large Serving bowl in Turquoise $100, sorbet bowls in pear, Blue, forest $24 ea., blackberry dessert plates $24, small mixer in Robins Egg $60, Med serving bowl in pear $70

TOP ROW---Lime sm serving bowl $48, sorbet bowls in sunset $24 ea., salad plates in lime $30 ea., diner mug in Tangerine $30, oval trays $60 ea.

BOTTOM ROW-- Dinner plates in assorted colors (lots more avail) $36 ea., sm mixer $60, diner mugs in cranberry $30 ea, salad plate $30, Lime sm serving bowl $48, sorbet bowls in sunset $24 ea.

left to right top image -- Lime small serving bowl $48, tangerine dessert plates $24 ea., lime soup mug (the only one!) $36, butter sorbet bowl $24, sm serving bowl tangerine $48, footed mug in Sunset $36, Diner mug in lime $30, sorbet bowl in Butter $24, med serving bowl in Tangerine $70

left to right, second row--- sm serving bowl tangerine $48, sm teabowl in sunset $36, cranberry diner mug $30, tangerine teabowl $40, sunset red footed mug $36, butter sm serving bowl $48, lime sorbet bowls $24 ea., sm serving bowl lime $48, diner mug tangerine $30.

Saturday's pots

2010-07-03T15:26:00.003-04:00

That's right, if it's Saturday it must mean MORE pots.

Prices are posted under each image.
Call or email if you have questions:

607-387-4042 voice/fax
email: info@coldspringsstudio.com

Oval footed vase, $65
Med serving bowl, $70
Diner mug in lime, $30

In Butter Yellow: Med serving bowl, $70
Small serving bowl, $48

Med serving bowl, $70 Sunset red, Dinner plate, sunset red, $36ea.

Ruffled vases in Tangerine and Sunset $48 ea.
Sunset basket, $100

Butter or sunset teabowl (yunomi) $38
Lime oval pitcher, $70
Sunset and lime sorbet bowls, $24 each.

Butter yellow sorbet bowls, $24 each
Med serving bowl in Sunset, $70
Spoonrest $12

Dessert plate in Tangerine $24 (lots of other colors too)
Dinner plates in Butter, and lots of other colors $36
Oval footed vase, $65 tangerine

Tumblers in Tangerine and sunset $24 ea.
Spoonrests in lime $12
Diner mugs in Butter yellow, $30 ea.
Sorbet bowls in Tangerine (and cranberry in the back) $24 ea.

Small serving bowls in Sunset and Tangerine $48 each
Butter teabowl, $40

Lime oval pitcher, $70
Lime diner mugs, $30
Lime dessert plate, $24
Tangerine spoonrest $12

Friday's Posting of the Ever-Dwindling Pile 'o Pottery

2010-07-02T21:28:00.004-04:00

More pots. Prices are posted under each image.
Call or email if you have questions:

607-387-4042 voice/fax
email: info@coldspringsstudio.com

Dessert plates (in lots of colors!), $24 ea.
Large mixing bowls $100 ea.
Medium mixing bowls $80 ea.
Small mixing bowls $60 ea.

Dessert plates (in lots of colors!), $24 ea.

Canisters, $50 ea.

Salad plates, $30 ea.

Dessert plates (in lots of colors!), $24 ea.
Large mixing bowls $100 ea.
Medium mixing bowls $80 ea.
Small mixing bowls $60 ea.

Thursday's pots from the studio

2010-07-01T11:45:00.004-04:00

More pots. Prices are posted under each image.
Call or email if you have questions:

607-387-4042 voice/fax
email: info@coldspringsstudio.com

Dinner plates, (lots of color options - call and see what we have!) $36/each.

Canisters, $50/ea.

Canisters, $50/ea.

Canisters, $50/ea. Spoonrests, $12/ea.

Canisters, $50/ea.

Matte Stony Blue small mixing bowl, $60

Salad plates (we have LOTS of other colors too... call and ask what's in stock) $30/each.

Lime Green teabowl with slip trailing and stamped texture, $40

Matte Purple Teabowl, $40.

Images from the Gallery

2010-06-30T07:08:00.007-04:00

We've had enough folks asking what we have left in the gallery. RIGHT NOW we have quite a few pots filling the gallery. This weekend begins the summer rush. In other words, the pots start flying off the shelf in mass quantities.

So without further ado....

Once again, we have footed mugs. We might have one more batch before we close,... but I wont promise anything. These just came back from a gallery, so for us they are new. We haven't seen them in almost 2 years. We gave them our best pots, they didnt sell, and now they're back!

Footed mugs

Big lime teabowl.

Facetted small serving bowl in lime.

Tall blackberry basket

carved vase in Lime

And yes, I will be posting more pictures later today and tomorrow. (I actually shot every single pot in the gallery this morning)

So Where Are The Pots?

2010-06-28T22:25:00.004-04:00

Yeah. Where are the pots? After this past weekend, I needed a day where I didn't spend the entirety of the hot sweaty day staring at the same mountain of pots. As much fun as looking at pots can be, there is a threshold. And I crossed it yesterday. At this point, I would be happy to start our sale a month early. (just watch out!)

Instead, I wanted to try some new ideas with my camera. I try not to dwell on some of my problems or snafus... but I have been grappling with an issue for about two weeks now. The strobes that I am using are not infinitely adjustable (as most new flash units are)... instead they use 1/3 power, 2/3, and full power. Even at 1/3 power I find myself shooting typically around 1/100 at f/5.6 or more. If you take just a few steps back at that aperture, the focal length preserves too much distracting background. So my goal has been to figure out how to retain that buttery background (narrow DOF) while shooting flash. I asked one of my photographer buddies (J.Souza!!) out in California for ideas and he suggested using a BIG bed sheet to increase the size of the light source (which then could be pulled back from the subject (to lower the intensity)... which is a great idea. Didn't get a chance to get to the fabric store this weekend so I was hoping there was another option.

J. Souza also suggested I try putting a neutral density filter on the lens. Most of my experience with ND filters has been using them to turn waterfalls into those silken streams everyone seems to think is so great. So... after having made my share of waterfall silken pics, I tossed the ND filters back in the bag and promptly forgot about them. This is the best thing about the concept of coopetition (cooperation + competition via LIDLIPS [syl arena]... the idea that even though Justin and I could potentially see one another as competition, the reality is that we are both learning from each other. What could be better? I only wish he lived closer so we could shoot together more! Perhaps as our professions grow we'll find reasons to both be on the same side of the continent and we'll have more opportunities.

Justin Bieber is in the house! Just kidding.

Back to the ND filters. I tossed them onto my favorite little 50mm f/1.8 lens, and kicked on my flash transmitter. First shot out of the gate was pretty close. Dialed up a bit more light... because the ND filter I was using was a .6ND which cuts a substantial chunk of light out of the picture. I anticipated it making the camera struggle more during focusing. It may have impaired it some, but not as much as I would have guessed. I shot pretty close to wide open and I LOVE the buttery quality of the background. Luckily I had an amicable (and patient) model today. We also had a chance to test out our reflector and stand today.

My chores,... ummm,... no, not yet.

Suffice to say, I LOVE the way the light is moving. I wish (and will probably keep right on wishing) that we had a grip who could lug lights and hold reflectors during our shoots. Seems like most of the time, it just isnt going to happen, so I need to learn how to do it without the extra hands. Stands are coming in VERY handy.

I guess this is her way of saying we don't feed her enough.

Fork you Dad. Talk to the Fork Dad.

As things would have it, today was as sticky and hot as summer days get around here. Mid-eighties by 9am, and the humidity has climbed all day. As I type this tonight, we're hovering around 94% humidity. You could wring gallons of water from this "air".

Shooting in the studio is always a fun respite from dealing with hot stuff in the house... chores, cleaning, bills. Somehow the studio stays cooler till much later in the day. Probably the concrete slab acting as a thermal sink. Tomorrow the day is filled with physical therapy and delivering images to my most recent portrait clients.

Coma Dreams - Too Hot and Never Cold Enough

2010-06-27T21:21:00.006-04:00

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros, Yalla Yalla.

Tonight, as I wait for things to cool down, for my crappy day to slowly wind down, I found myself thinking about how hot I was in the hospital. Imagine if you will, laying in bed, with a fever, being covered in multiple layers of blankets. Now add to this, not being able to move. You cant kick off the blankets. Each day I would sweat through many changes of sheets, over and over. You think they would have gotten the clue.

And where was my mind? In the snow. Walking uphill. Feeling the cinders and ice and small stones under my bare feet. Some slipping now and again. That tingle one gets from being wet, cold but still moving. What makes some of this even stranger for me is that every now and then, I would hear strains of this song by Joe Strummer. Yalla Yalla.

The song's lyrics have no real bearing on anything I hear in the music. Somehow this sound transports me. Even now, when I listen, I am not here. I am not sweating in my humid house. I can feel the cold winds. My feet are chilled and wet. I have no idea why, but this is a good thing, I think.

I've Asked You All Here Today To Discuss...

2010-06-25T21:42:00.004-04:00

The Future of Cold Springs Studio:

This was shot five and half years ago. Seems like such a long time ago.

This an excerpt from a letter I wrote to a dear friend, mentor, teacher and potter.

I have put this letter off long enough. I apologize for not writing back sooner.

I am grieving.

This is a long story. If you want the short version, skip to the end. It's all there in the last
paragraph. Otherwise....

Not long after NCECA (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts) I took a long (and far too dangerous) drive to the Cleveland Clinic to have a long talk with the best colo-rectal surgeons in the US. I really should have either flown or had someone else drive. We didn't know it at the time, but have since learned that one of the side effects from this coma has been that I have developed extreme obstructive sleep apnea. Apparently I haven't slept real sleep since before surgery. The exhaustion caught up to me about a month ago... but I am getting ahead of myself. Before the drive to Cleveland, we knew that I was exhibiting extreme sleep exhaustion. I had a hard time staying awake on the drive into town(Ithaca) each day for PT. I had fallen asleep at the wheel at least 1-2 times a week. Bad stuff. But I knew I needed to get to Cleveland,
and Nancy doesn't drive. Friends offered but I figured it would be no problem. Luckily I took Aurora with me and she acted as my conscience. When I started to doze she was adamant that we get off the road and made me sleep.

Even with all of our precautions it was still a rough drive.

And that was the easy part.

Walking into a hospital, of my own accord, under my own power... to submit to more
tests, probings, and worse....

It was rough.

Finally I was able to see the surgeon with my clothes on for his assessment of my candidacy
for a "reversal or takedown" procedure. I will spare you the lesson in anatomy and say only
that my chances of a simple surgery fall into the category of slim to none. He wasn't optimistic.
He gave me a few options and a final ulimatum - lose 50# or he wouldn't even consider me for surgery.

I asked him how he would repair my abdomen so that I would no longer have this monstrous herniation at the colostomy site. I also asked him how soon after surgery I could actually RESUME my life as a potter.

He looked me in the eye and said it was time for a career change. I am glad Aurora was there. I might not have been able to walk out otherwise. From the looks of things, I will not ever be able to do what I could do so easily before.

No lifting of things greater than 20-25#. Definitely no heavy lifting. No moving of kiln shelves. Or boxes of clay. Or buckets of glaze. Or boxes of pots.

I thought about this on the six hour drive home. There were hour long stretches where Aurora and I said nothing. The Clash, The Pogues and U2 screamed through the stereo. And now and again, she would find me crying. Sobbing. Trying hard to keep focus.

The following week I met with my cardiologist who let me know that my heart had a scary story to tell about my sleep issues. Short version: I was a prime candidate for a stroke. My heart was being tortured every night... first from lack of oxygen and then from racing constantly to wake me up and start that adrenaline racing. Bad combination.

I just finished my second sleep study a week ago. I am finally sleeping for more than two hours straight. It has been over eight months. As I talk to the doctors they are all remarkably surprised I am even here at this moment.

Since sleeping I have had more cognitive function again... (I have had virtually no short term memory for months. Would realize I was somewhere and have no idea why or how I got there)
Being able to think has been a radical relief. Nancy jokes that my brain running on half-power puts me in the position most folks are in every day. That is simply not acceptable.

So... now that I am sleeping again, I have had more time to think and greater focus during the day. I have been trying to figure out how to dig myself out of this hole I have pulled my family into. We are broke. Well, worse than broke. We started looking at bankruptcy back in March.
Since then things haven't gotten better... until this past week.

So where am I going with all of this? What is the point to this lengthy blathering?
To say that I am letting go of my dreams in clay. I had high hopes years ago, that I would be teaching young college students by now. I had visions of classrooms with students ready for a challenge. Kiln pads crowded with ware carts loading and unloading firing after firing. Smoky air filling the quad as wood kilns and raku firings finished up. Ironically I have never had any real course of study planned. I sure love teaching. Strangely enough, I think the only thing I have ever really wanted to impart is my love for learning.

Which leads me to where this is all going. In letting go of clay, I am taking up my camera again. Fortunately this seems doable. I am finding myself capable and competent. Building a new career is daunting but exciting. It hasn't come easily though. I have been ruminating on this since waking from the coma.

Letting go of my dreams though, has been hard. Walking into my studio and finding nothing to trim, no pots to load into the kiln... and dust and cobwebs where there should be plastic sheeting... it has been difficult. I can still throw pots. And I may. I think if I can find a way to make enough of a living to have spare time again, I would love to make pots as time allows. I don't think that my expectations for this business were ever going to be realized, so this is something of a wake-up call. I love the idea of making the pots I WANT to make, firing them any way I feel like firing them and then, once a year, having a nice studio sale where folks can come and pick out what they want. No orders. No galleries. No showroom. Just pots.

For now, this means we are planning to close the studio and gallery in September... maybe sooner. I am ready to turn the showroom into our new photography space. A clean room with places to sit, to shoot, to review work, to see big prints... who knows? Having said all of this (which I am sure has been far too long a letter for anyone to read) I must apologize. Knowing that you have followed my progress, success and failure alike, means a great deal to me. I know there is a bright future ahead, but letting go of clay has been .... well, you can imagine.

All the best,
Alex

Why I Left the Pottery Business

2010-06-21T22:09:00.004-04:00

Three people walked into our gallery this morning. Two sisters with an accompanying husband. After I said an encouraging hello, the first comment out of their mouths was that they were glad I was open. I explained that I try to be open every day 10-5pm. They explained that NO, I was only open weekends. Hmm. News to me. Sure enough it says 10-5pm on the website, on our brochure, and on the Art Trail website. Hmmm. But the customer is always right...

Once inside one woman asks what temperature our glazes are fired to. I reply "cone 6". At which her husband replies, "Oh, earthenware." No... cone six, white stoneware. She then explains that he taught high school ceramics in California. "Oh Really? Do you in fact have an associates degree from VermTech?" (from Over the Hedge)

As we made our way back into the kiln room, I was showing off the big platters that grace the walls. The husband once again authoritatively states that these MUST be Raku. I explain that No... in fact they are fired in oxidation at temps ranging from cone 3 up through cone 12. I start to delve into the firing process (which is interesting, unique and hardly commonplace) when he cuts me off and says, "Are you sure? They look just like raku." Yeah, I'm pretty damned sure seeing as how I FREAKIN' MADE THEM!

From there the conversation improved dramatically when the gentleman asked: "Do you have any brick? Hmmm? You know bricks that have been stamped? " When I explained that I no longer kept my secret stash of hard brick on hand for examination by the public, he let on as how he collected brick.

That's what I expect to buy when I go to a potter's studio. A brick. A stamped brick.

And folks wonder why we're closing down the shop. Oh my. Bricks. We're closing the studio because we don't have any earthenware, raku, bricks.

An Amazing Day

2010-06-20T00:27:00.004-04:00

I am still reeling from today's visit with our friends Adam and Sarah (and their kids!). We had the best time in the world. We made pots, walked in the garden, ate LOTS of strawberries, talked about everything imaginable under the sun... and that was just me with the four year old and the six year old. WE HAD A BLAST! Luckily, my camera was by my side and I was able to capture a few glimpses into the intense time we had today.

Willing Subjects

2010-06-17T21:55:00.004-04:00

I have been ultra fortunate this week to have had four willing subjects to sit for their portraits. I have a lot of things I have been ruminating on since beginning this new venture, but tonight is too far gone to begin expressing those musings.

For now, I must suffice to share some of today's images. More tomorrow.

And now, for something (not so) completely different

2010-06-15T14:30:00.004-04:00

I finally finished the (first draft version) new website for our photography venture.

Here it is: www.alexsollaphotography.com

Alex Solla Photography is finally open!! My goal is to begin booking sittings for portraits immediately, with the potential to shoot at least one wedding per month through the rest of summer and fall. We have missed the end of the school year, so we don't have any of next year's seniors lined up for portrait sittings this summer. I think we may still land some as we get the word out and also market ourselves locally (albeit outside of the schools during the summer).

So, if you know of a high school senior in the Finger Lakes region who needs their senior pictures taken, please feel free to pass along our name.

Birthday Presents Come in Waves

2010-06-13T09:44:00.004-04:00

And when the waves are good, you ride the waves.

Aurora and I took a trip up to Rochester last night to pick up two new strobes I had seen on Craigslist. I have wanted real studio strobes for at least twenty years. Always just out of reach, both in terms of skill, but also expense. Yesterday's find was more of a steal. These strobes have seen virtually no use. Since I already had light stands for my speedlights, setting up the strobes was no sweat. I wasn't sure how I would trigger them initially, but I think for now, I am pretty happy having a wireless trigger on one, and then have the other one slaved so it pops when it sees the first one fire. Pretty simple.

Of course, I had to get Aurora and Nancy to submit for some posing. I need plenty of time behind the lens to really figure out how I want to move the light and shadow. I think, sometimes, one light might be all I really need. Today though, has been non-stop flash. Probably shot over 500 images to get 20 or so that are pretty decent. Lots more to learn.

This was a fun hair-light experiment. I gelled it with a purple gel, and aimed it from straight behind Aurora. Just enough light to give her a "purple haze". Pretty fun. I tried some similar ideas using pink and red filters with Nancy's portraits tonight. After looking them over, Nancy was forthright that they would NEVER be seen by another human being. So I guess they were pretty hideous. Like I said... tons more to learn.

June Roses at Der Rosenmeister

2010-06-12T12:39:00.006-04:00

Today we had a chance to visit Der Rosenmeister Roses in Ithaca. Having had my first tour of Leon Ginenthal's gardens only once before (when precious little was in bloom), I was not prepared for seeing his gardens today. Roses of every color, shape and size. Blooming in such a profusion! And the smell was intoxicating.

In addition to his roses, Leon also has beautiful raised perennial beds. His selection of cultivars is simply astonishing.

So... we took out our cameras and went to town! Aurora and I both were clicking away, while Nancy was greeted by Emma, their dog. Eventually the chickens made their way to the forefront. Talk about beautiful!

(Okay, I have used that word, "beautiful", waaaay too many times in this post. My apologies. You'll just need to see you for yourself!)

Early Summer Sunset on Seneca Lake

2010-06-11T23:42:00.006-04:00

unretouched, straight from the camera 28mm, f/11, 1/160

Say that three times fast.

Aurora and I were returning from Rochester tonight after picking up a fantastic find on Craigslist. As we made our way past Geneva, the falling light paired up with amazing clouds. We quickly found a road which led down to the waterside and quickly caught a few images before the light was gone.

The Birthday That Almost Wasn't

2010-06-09T21:56:00.004-04:00

Nancy shot under strobe, 1/200, f/6.3
Details about this image will be the subject of a blog posting later in the week.

As anyone who follows this blog knows, I have the most awesome partner in the world. Nancy has done the impossible this year. She stood by my bed in the ICU, knowing the pain my body was in, not knowing whether I would ever regain consciousness, not knowing if I was really even in there. And she sang to me.

So I came back from that strange place. Bringing with me all the problems of one whose body's warranty has expired. Heck, at this point, I am shocked I haven't been issued a recall on most of my organs. Still Nancy has remained steadfast and determined to keep me on this side of the universe. As she wrote about it in her blog yesterday: I wasn't supposed to see this birthday. No hoopla, no party, but boy oh boy were there a TON of facebook birthday wishes.

She asked me a few days before my birthday what I wanted for my birthday. What could I say? What I wanted at the time she asked would strike most as funny, pedantic, pedestrian even. I wanted sleep. I hadn't slept since before surgery back in September. Not more than two hours of continuous uninterrupted sleep... at all... for over six months.

That's what I wanted.

What I got was my lovely cpap machine and its concomitant hoses and headgear. For my birthday, I slept nearly six hours at a stretch. I didn't toss and turn. I didn't change position in bed at all. When I woke up I felt like no time had passed. Apparently, the exhaustion is so severe that once I zonk, I ZONK very hard.

Tonight Nancy joined me out in the studio to try out some new flash project ideas I had. Now that I can see where the light is heading I am so excited to play!

Shots from our collection

2010-06-07T20:49:00.004-04:00

A wonderful teabowl from Hiroshi Ogawa (who really should have a website!)

I met Hiroshi back when I was doing a show called Art in the Pearl in downtown Portland, OR.
I traded a short pitcher with a wide handle for this teabowl. He wanted a bigger tankard for his afternoon beer. To this day, I have never seen a more amazing Shino. This glaze is both iridescent and translucent. It just glows! Hiroshi woodfired all of his work in a noborigama that he wouldn't shut up about all weekend long. Turns out that his kiln cranks out some of the best pots (for some amazing potters!) in all of the Northwest. He invited me to come and fire some of my big massive platters in his kiln before I left Utah. Never happened, but I sure do wish it had!

These two I made while I was studying with John Jessamin at SUNY Cortland during the year between college and my short stay at Alfred. The shino bowl has been refired in probably eight or nine bisque firings to try to redden it up a bit. Didn't catch much carbon trapping with that shino. The tenmoku bowl is one of the very few examples of my pitiful attempts at brushwork.

I made this at Alfred ca. 1994. Thanks to the suggestion of Todd Wahlstrom, I was playing with layering slips under my high calcium - fake ash glazes. This was also the beginning of me starting to distort my bowl forms.

So where did these pots come from?

I started collecting pottery when I was at Hampshire College. At each successive school I attended (Alfred, Cornell, Utah State, etc)... I picked up pots where ever I possibly could. Some were pots from students, occasionally some came from professors, and some came from potters in the community. Some are mine, hopefully indicating the changes one goes through over time, but also the changes that come from a different studio environment. When I would do shows, I always tried to either trade or buy the best pot I could find (within price/reason).

Now I seldom do shows so there is less opportunity to pick up new pots. Last year when we had apprentices here, I picked up a few pots which I have yet to shoot new images of. I hope that when I finally get finished shooting this collection, I will have written more stories about how these pots came into my life.

Got to See the Yardvarks at the Rongo Last Night

2010-06-05T09:05:00.005-04:00

Thanks to our friends Dorothy and Chris (who plays drums with the Yardvarks... even though he isnt in any of these pictures... [and yes, we shall have to remedy that]) we were fortunate to have the Yardvarks play at our Busted Belly Benefit. I thought it only fair (and FUN) to catch them playing last night at the Rongo (The Rongovian Embassy to the United States). The big plus for me was that we got there early during the first set, so there was plenty of room for me to move around and photography everyone to my heart's content! Very fun. I hope to try using some off-camera flash next time (provided the boys in the band don't mind terribly).

Fighting Back With What Little I Have Left

2010-05-30T22:45:00.004-04:00

As anyone who has read this blog even once since September knows, my life has had its share of ups and downs. In the past week I have been poked, prodded, sampled, tested, wired,... all in the name of figuring out why I suffer from extreme fatigue during the day, and why I can't stay asleep at night.

After seeing my cardiologist 5 times in May, he (and my GP) suggested emphatically, that I get a sleep study done. They both were concerned about sleep apnea. Guess what? Sleep apnea kills. It can kill you quick by allowing you to fall asleep at the wheel (which I do almost everytime I drive into Ithaca) or it can do it slowly by trashing your blood pressure, adrenal system and your immune system.

I did the sleep study on Wednesday night. I won't share with you all that I have learned since then only because I am still processing it. None of it was good news. Yesterday my GP called me at home on a Saturday to let me know that my last round of blood-sugar tests came back. Looks like diabetes wants to play too.

I have tried to stay upbeat through this recovery. I have tried to keep my head up, focus on the healing and I have kept myself optimistic by reassuring myself that soon everything would be fine. I guess "soon" means different things now than it used to. So, we fix the sleep apnea (I hope to be fitted for a CPAP as early as next Thursday), then we deal with the huge weight gain since January. See if that kicks the shit out of the diabetes. If so, sometime in September, we re-run some of these heart tests and see if we can keep this body of mine from stroking out. Wish me luck till then! Here's hoping there is a night of solid sleep on my horizon. It's been seven months without a single solid night of sleep. I think they call this torture.

I guess the final question must be: What's with all the freakin' flowers if life sucks so bad? Well... if I can't jump in my kayak (abs are too destroyed and the hernia is too fragile), and I can't make pots in any serious manner... well... the options get fewer. I can sit around the house and dose myself with food, pain killers and boredom.... or I can find beauty around my yard. If I can catch even a glimpse of that gorgeous light once or twice a day, then it feels like something positive has come from the doing.

This weekend I had a chance to take pictures of Aurora with alternating grandparents. First her maternal grandmother on Friday and then Nancy's folks came over on Saturday. (That will likely be tomorrow's post.) I love working with portraiture. I find it extraordinarily difficult, but if I can make just one great image, I feel like it was worth the work. Anyone feel like they want to sit for a portrait anytime soon? Seriously. I need subjects who are willing to sit for 45min to an hour. If you're willing, I would love to give it a whirl. Location of your choosing. We can do it in the coffee shop, the gardens, the woods, the lakeside... just about anywhere you desire.

With that said... perhaps that explains a little more about why I shoot flowers. They are available when everyone else is either at school or at work. They will hold still for an hour so I can bend the light to catch just the right sparkle. And maybe, once in a while, they capture something human.

So what's cookin' ?

2010-05-29T17:12:00.003-04:00

We had an awesome firing this week. Took a lot longer to clean things up than it used to, but it added lots more pots to already full shelves. So, rather than bore you with more words, let's SEE SOME POTS!

In Times of Green

2010-05-28T22:45:00.004-04:00

In the past week, we have watched our garden race from the early Spring yellows and pinks, headlong into the heat of Summer with rich purples and thick greens. It got hot and humid all at once last week. We went from being able to work in the garden all day, straight into that time where even early in the morning it was just too sticky. So, when you can't be out weeding, the camera calls instead!

My birthday came early this year as my camera gear bag increased by way of a Hoodman Loupe. If you have ever despaired from having assumed you had the perfect exposure while looking down into your LCD on the back of your camera in full daylight only to get home and realize you blew it. Your highlights are big splotchy white blobs and your shadows are clumpy. Yeah, and nothing's in focus. Shit happens right? Well.... this loupe allows you to block out almost all the light hitting your LCD so you can focus on the image at hand. You can see the detail of focus. You can zoom in and really look at pixels if need be. Most importantly though is that you can really examine the image without trying to block incoming light from driving you nuts with glare. I had a blast playing with it today. TOO much fun. Built to last a long while.

Having been clued into their website by numerous photographers, I took a gander at their right-angle viewfinder. Yeah, I would be able to simply look down and not have to crane my neck when shooting below my waist or off a tripod when shooting plants and such. I guess this will have to wait till we see sales pick up in a few more weeks. Here's hoping Memorial Day weekend is wonderful, busy and fun.

Some Friends Help

2010-05-21T12:26:00.000-04:00

And some friends help hide the body parts.

Marc is one of those guys.

He may be the most squeamish chickenshit in the room, but when I was tied to every fuckin' hose in the ICU, he was there. When my body was blown up to twice its normal size and wires and IVs were coming out of every orifice... he was there.

Every bone in his body said flee! but he came anyway.

When I started coming out of the coma, I was hooked to a trach-tube. That meant my mouth was open and suffering from chronic cotton-mouth. Due to the tracheostomy and the other abdominal surgeries, the nurses wouldn't let me drink until I had passed the swallow test. The "bedside" version of this test requires the patient to swallow applesauce doped with mega-blue dye. Then they ask you to cough. If the blue dye ends up anywhere other than DOWN your throat, then no solid foods, ice, water, etc.

I began my swallow testing while Marc and Carol came to visit. I wasn't uncomfortable, but I really wanted something to drink. I was stoned out of my mind on Fentanyl and other narcotics of the day. Meanwhile Marc kept making jokes about ArtTrail and offering to go "help" with customers.

I wanted to laugh so hard, but the drugs kept me nearly paralyzed. Even now, remembering that moment, I can hear the laughing in my mind, knowing full well I couldn't tell Marc how funny he was. Thank God for good friends. Each and every time Marc and Carol showed up, everything in my world improved.

Yesterday Marc surprised me by just showing up to check up on me. After talking indoors for a while about all my current maladies and general feelings of malaise, we went outside into some seriously shocking sunshine. I had to catch a few images of Marc kickin' back with the alliums.

Coma Dream #3 - Landing the Planes

2010-05-11T22:15:00.005-04:00

Though these dreams probably flew through my mind in some order of disarray, I can no longer say which ones came first. If I had to guess, I would say they all happened simultaneously. Especially in light of how so many of them overlap in odd ways. Seriously, when asked to recollect which order these dreams happened, I am always at a loss. Some of them repeated multiple times. (We'll get to those sometime soon... kinda scary.) With that said, here is installment #3- Landing the Planes.

It is sometime post-war, probably late 1948 or so. I am stationed on a Marine air base somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, fairly near Japan. I know this because my job is to help land airplanes all day (and sometimes into the evening). The planes are predominantly Vought F4U Corsairs. Long and blue, with those beautiful bent wings. And the sound of their engines howling as they screamed at take off!

courtesy of Aviation History.com

In this dream, my job is to establish radio contact with incoming airplanes and guide them back home. Most of the time this is proves to be fairly mundane. There are usually four to six of us manning the radio in shifts with two to three of us glassing the horizon, looking long for that broken wing silhouette.

Most aircraft at this time were not adequately equipped for nighttime landings. Without radar, it was even more difficult to land six to ten aircraft in short order at night. On this night, it was made nearly impossible with a fog that came in before dinner. The flight was late returning. Six planes coming back from Okinawa. Due in over half an hour earlier, we knew that the fog was delaying their arrival.

We asked the ground crew to prepare searchlights, but their beams couldn't penetrate the fog. For all their effort, only a dull glow reached through the fog. The woman who I was sharing the shift with suggested aiming the search beams low, almost parallel to the runways. Our hope was that then the runways would be lit up and more visible from the air.

When the rain began it was more of a wet mist first. It didn't take long though before none of us could see more than 100 yards or so along the runway... and that was with the help of the search lights. The tension on the ground was palpable. Each of us had somewhere they would much rather have been, only because worry had surpassed reason. Something was amiss and there was nothing we could do.

After what seemed like hours, the radio let loose the first crackle that didn't end in static. Numbers were squawked out, repeated and new coordinates relayed. Six times we traded this information until we knew each pilot could see our blur of light winking in the soggy wet. With sighs and relief we each surrendered our headphones and unplugged from our panels.

Walking down the stairs, I asked the woman beside me what she was hurrying off to. Looking like a teenager off to prom she laughed and let on as how she was going to a concert. Around me the room changed from air station to a space more akin to a waiting room in a large airport. She fell in line behind a crowd waiting to leave the terminal. Waiting there, I had to ask: what sort of music would they be playing at this concert. Punk music of course! Curious, I asked how she knew anything about punk music. She explained that the lead singer of the band was a friend of a friend, and he had invented a bionic knee device. I asked her if they were any good and she laughed. She said she was their biggest fan. Then the line opened up and with nothing more said, she was off into the night.

_____________________________________________________

At first glance this dream seems to make sense (until the punk-rock concert goer rears her head)...

Reality:
I told my mom about this dream, since my memory of this coma dream puts her into the dream as it transitions from the air station to the waiting room/airport scene. As I related this story to her, she started to stutter. I decided to jump straight in and ask: Did you leave me at the hospital to go to a punk rock concert? Yep. And yes, the lead singer in the band happens to have invented a knee-replacement device which borders on science fiction. Very cutting edge. They have just released their newest album and guess what's on the back of the closing liner notes? "Dedicated to our biggest fan: Candace" (That's my mom for ya.)

Apparently though, that wasn't what had left my mother so speechless. Her concern was that I had never met my great-aunt Sally. My maternal grandfather was the youngest of ten siblings and the only male. From my grandfather I knew little bits and pieces about his sisters. I spent parts of my summers in Wyoming getting to know my great aunts Louise, Winnie and Ollie. But I never got to meet Aunt Sally.

The little I knew about her was that she had lived overseas. I think most of her adult life had been spent in and around Japan. Once she sent us a lamp in the shape of an owl, made from a tank shell casing from World War II... left behind in Okinawa. Some part of me always thought that it could have been fired from my grandfather's amphibious tank he crewed during the invasion of Okinawa.

What I didn't know about Aunt Sally was that she used to land airplanes. In the Pacific... around Japan, for years following the conclusion of the war. She landed Vought Corsairs. And according to my mother, women were often used because their voices came through the radio more clearly and their eyes more easily spotted the broken wing pattern against the sea and sky.

______________________________________________________

Other thoughts:
I have no idea how any of this could have entered into my dreams. Ideas? Has anyone read about this sort of thing? There is more to come. Maybe later in the week.

Wrestling With Cleveland

2010-05-09T01:36:00.004-04:00

My, what big teeth you have Cleveland!

I have been wrestling with the repercussions of having driven to the Cleveland Clinic last week. To say that my thoughts have been a little preoccupied the past few days would be an understatement. Before I delve into the morass, let me share the fun stuff.

After Aurora got home from school Tuesday afternoon, we loaded up the van and headed out. Driving headlong into the sun for the better part of four hours left us pretty beat so when it came time to take a break for dinner we were both more than ready. Watching the sun set over Great Lake Erie was something neither of us had seen before.

With a few more hours behind the wheel, we rolled into Cleveland wicked tired and ready to flop. Rummaging through our pile of maps and printouts and directions, we figured out how we were supposed to find the Cleveland Clinic Guesthouse. I had expected parking to be a four letter word with such an enormous medical complex. Someone else must have had the same concern, because there was parking by the bucket!

Before Aurora and I could do more than flip through a couple stations, we were out like a light. Click. Next morning found us sitting in the waiting room of the Digestive/Intestinal Diseases Department. I figured based on the alliteration alone, we were doomed. Hardly. Turns out, they rock!

An hour and a half later, we walked out. My head was more confused than ever. Might have been a product of having the nurses actually listen to what I was saying. Or it could have been all the different surgical scenarios the surgeon laid out. (HINT: For those of you who are even the least bit squeamish, this is a great stopping point)

Let's skip to the good stuff. Turns out, I am a candidate for a reversal. What does this mean? Well, for all intents and purposes, it means that I could rid myself of this colostomy bag and have my plumbing reconnected the way it was intended. In talking with this amazing surgeon though, I came to learn that this surgery is going to be far more complicated than I was led to believe.

Here are the surgical options:
Scenario One: We reconnect what is left of the large intestine to the rectum. Sounds easy right? Not quite. Due to the peritonitis and sepsis, there is a ton of scar tissue throughout the abdominal cavity. The intestines are essentially adhering not only to themselves but also to other organs. This means that they wont stretch nicely or unroll like they would have prior to the first surgery. As a result, he may have to move a huge array of blood vessels that are in the way of bringing the large intestine over the front of the abdomen. Probably a six hour surgery with the potential for some hairy scary complications.

Scenario Two: Take a loop of small intestine and make an illeostomy out of it. Since the waste stream would end there, he could then put the large intestine wherever he wants, and could then hook up the rectum and the large intestine without pulling on everything. This would require two surgeries separated by about six months to a year. More bags dangling off the belly and more chances of herniation.

Scenario Three: This was sort of a last resort solution and one that fills me with the greatest dread. Skip the large intestine completely and go straight from the small intestine to the rectum. For anyone who has ever had Anatomy 101, the function of the large intestine is primarily to de-water stool. What this means in terms of the surgery is that I would have liquid bowel movements six to 14 times each day. With very little control over them. In other words I would be a prime candidate for starring in a Depends commercial.

And then came the caveat: He wouldn't do any surgery until I had lost 50 pounds. Tentatively, he thinks we can do the surgery in September... that's four months. Fifty pounds. Sure. Cake, right? Oy veh.

After leaving the surgeon's office, Aurora and I went to the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I guess I have never thought much about Cleveland's academic, cultural and cerebral offerings. Lo and behold, it's a pretty snazzy place! The area that surrounds the Natural History Museum, also encompasses the Cleveland Art Institute, the Museum of Fine Art, the Botanical Gardens and a LOT more. Aurora was in seventh heaven.

She got to see fossils of all sorts of dinosaurs including tyrannosaurus rex, a nano-tyrannosaur, triceratops, smilodon (saber toothed tiger), Lucy, dunkeleostus (armored fish), and way more than I can remember. It would have been the perfect way to spend most of an afternoon, but we needed to get hurrying home. We'll save the rest of that museum for another visit.

After returning home I met with my physican to talk about my blood workup he had done before I left. In turn, I shared with him the consult with the surgeon at Cleveland Clinic. As anyone who has been keeping up with this bizarre saga on either the blog or FaceBook is aware, I have been having a devil of a time sleeping. Add to that I am now verging on narcolepsy during my "waking" hours. During a short drive to Ithaca, I find myself falling asleep at the wheel regardless of time of day. I have to have someone beside me talking to keep me engaged and awake.

So I shared these new developments with my GP, and he shared the results of the blood workup. Looks like sleep apnea (as opposed to a drug side effect which was my first assumption)... so in the next few weeks they'll be putting a CPAP machine in my bedroom. We'll see how that affects things.

The most productive concept to come from my meeting with my GP though, was the idea that maybe after having lost fifty pounds I will be more inclined NOT to have the reversal surgery. My gut will be mostly gone, and hopefully the hernia will have subsided substantially. If that ends up being the case, I can't see a good reason to continue with this reversal. We shall see. For now, we diet like madmen and exercise like crazy! We'll see where things are a month from now. Wish me luck!

Reflections on Sunday at the Rongo --- Benefit ROCKED!!!

2010-05-06T21:35:00.007-04:00

Last Sunday was the most amazing gathering of friends, acquaintances, raconteurs, musicians, and family I have ever experienced. More than two HUNDRED people descended on the Rongovian Embassy to the United States (The Rongo!) for an amazing afternoon fundraiser. All of this insanity was organized by the coolest potter I have ever had the pleasure to know, Mary Ellen Salmon. Not only did she find accomplices (Wendy, Carol, Dorothy, Vanessa) to join her in this effort... she made it look like she had done it a hundred times. We had fabulous music from Kate and Nate, The Yardvarks and some wicked jazz by Rick Urda and his band.

I have been to shows at the Rongo and found the place hot, crowded, cramped, but always hopping. This Sunday was no exception. It was just jumping! We had folks standing outside, waiting to get in before everything got underway... and we had folks sticking around to cleanup long after the Yardvarks had put away all their equipment.

So many artists donated artwork that I don't even know where to begin. Everything from pottery looking like birch bark to enormous gorgeous prints; from hand-dyed yarns to superlative watercolors. In addition to artwork, we also had B&Bs offering weekend stays, and wineries auctioning off wines via raffle. Everyone who came went home with something phenomenal!

I am still blown away. I can't find a way to express just how overwhelmed I was. I tried my hardest to say hi to everyone who came in the door, and I know I failed many times. We had so many friends and family come from out of town (and in some cases pretty darned far away!)... and we spent nowhere near enough time with anyone.

At the end of the day, when all was said and done and the last powercord was coiled up and the last table cloth folded back up, Mary Ellen and her awesome crew raised over $6000 to help offset our upcoming surgical expenses at the Cleveland Clinic. Talk about an amazing bunch!

We are here

2010-05-05T07:52:00.002-04:00

We drove all afternoon and most of the night. Now we are waiting to meet with the surgeon. This place is huge. Imagine 35k people working at Cornell. Then imagine an additional factor of 3 or 4 to acct for patient load. This place is massive.