Makin' it look easy

Most potters who throw pots every day develop a certain ease with clay. But this...
this is Alberto Forconi, making it look more like dance and less like throwin' pots! Wild! Not too blown away by his forms, but his style just cant be beat. Reminds me of Issac Button. Grace and calm.

Makin' plates and revisin' the layout of the gallery

Gallery revision #3. This time we got rid of the shelving supports which really brightened the wall up and also freed up a great deal more vertical space. This layout has also made each shelf independent and much more sturdy. No more wiggly shelves when customers put things down or pick them up.






Everyone was working on plates in the studio this week. What started out as the most frustrating day yet, ended with everyone making no less than four plates... in some cases LOTS more than four. Mind you, this is day one of plates. I would say these potters are on their way to some massive fun!

Making Plates

When I first started out making plates, it was the biggest struggle for me. I was always wrestling with the larger mass of clay (in the case of platters or chargers)... and keeping the lips from either curling UP too much in the drying process or flopping down because of being too wet. It was one thing after another until I started making plates 18-24 at a time. Then the kinks got worked out, a process was born and things just sailed right along.

This week we worked on plate making with our apprentices. Here are a few quick images during the throwing demo.

How We've Changed

That would be me, throwing plate demos, Justin looking on.

Dana cleaning glaze off her pots.

Nancy putting the finishing touches on a new summer dress. We do a lot more in our studio than just make pots!

In the past few months our studio has gone through some pretty wild major changes. We used to be a studio of one, sometime two, now and again three if Aurora was with us that week. Since January we have had Hannah in the studio making plates and mugs two to three days a week. Talk about increasing our energy level and helping us figure out what our capacity is! We have stacks of bisqueware that we had never seen previously.

In the past few months we have added Dana and Justin to our studio family. They're typically three days a week, 2-4 hours at a shot. In that short span of time they have gone from being complete novices on the wheel to being able to throw decent cylinders, bowls, and this week we began work on throwing plates.

I took a look around the studio yesterday and it was amazing. We had three wheels going full tilt, with Dana and Justin and Aurora all throwing plates. Fantastic. It also made me realize we need more room and more kiln space. More storage for pots wouldnt be a bad thing either!

We finally finished adding more shelves to the gallery. It took longer than expected because the shelving system that we're using (Fast-mount by John Sterling Co.) seems to no longer be carried by Lowes... so we had to do some hunting around to find a dealer who could order more for us. Ironically, we found our supplier just around the corner. For folks reading this who have no idea where we live... Trumansburg is a tiny town with a pop. of about 1500 souls. We have two hardware stores. Sort of. One is open banker's hours. The other is more of a lumber yard. Not at all a big box sort of shopping. Prices are considerably higher than say Ithaca, where we have Lowes, Home Depot etc. But Ithaca is a half hour drive away. In good weather.

So after calling every dealer within a 100 mile radius, I checked with our local lumber yard. Sure enough, they could get the shelf supports in a couple days. Wow. And just down the street to boot. Nice.

We rebuilt the gallery last night with help from Dana and Justin. They had missed out on the deconstruction of the gallery space last week when Hannah pulled her whirlwind routine and moved hundreds of pots out of the gallery in no-time flat!







As I was describing earlier, we had a full house yesterday. Hannah here in the morning till the early afternooon. Then Dana and Justin in the afternoon-evening. Aurora joined us between her chores and her french horn lessons. This image was shot of her working on a new dragon head she was making for Dana.

One of the things I love about working with our barn full of apprentices is that they all LOVE being here. We all have a great time and tons of work make their way through the kiln each week. We used to fire a lot. Now we basically never let the kiln cool down. Fire, unload, reload, fire. Rinse. Repeat.

Justin glazing up a storm.

Learning by Teaching

For the last twenty years I have spent most days at the wheel, confident in my ability to take a lump of mud and turn it into the pots I see in my head. Granted, I have had the occasional day off for injury, vacation, etc, but by and large, most days have seen me throwing pots.

When we took on our apprentice Hannah, one of the things we looked forward to was getting to know where she comes from and what she brings to her way of working. She had previously studied under another potter in Ithaca, Margie Martin. One of the most interesting things about watching Hannah work on the wheel was that she centered almost completely opposite the way I did. She spent half the time centering that I did. WHAT? How was this possible? Turns out she was using a similar method to what Robin Hopper suggests.

So I had to try it. Damn if it doesn't spin circles around my previous methods. Here I am, two decades of making pots and still learning the basics! Go figure. I know some potters will say, of course you do it this way. Well, I didn't. Guess it just proves that there are always other ways of working. I love the idea that even at this stage in my learning, there is still LEARNING.

I encourage anyone wanting to throw better, just beginning, or even pros, ... to check this video out. There's a lot to be learned from any potter, but Robin Hopper is a potter's potter. He makes it all look so easy.

Click here for the video from Ceramic Arts Daily

How do you capture those special moments in clay?

Hopefully you know (remember) what I mean. How do you show someone how completely off-center their clay is? How do you demonstrate that perfect moment when everything lines up and all is well with your throwing? How do you show that even the worst day at the wheel is better than the best day in the office?

Perhaps these images lend a hand.


Dana and I working on what would become one of her best bowls to date. My only wish for our studio is to have a wheel whose height was easily adjustable. Dana needs a wheelhead about 4 inches higher to allower her a more comfortable throwing height.

That feeling of finally NAILING the centering process!! The joy of seeing the clay stop bobbing and weaving!!




What was I just saying about bobbing and weaving? Oh, yeah. Sometimes it's a bugger getting things to go into center.

And then it happens. A light goes on and all is aglow with that awesome feel-good moment of knowing the clay is right where it needs to be.


Justin makes his um-teenth bowl of the afternoon. Once he got the hang of things ZOOOOM ! Out came the bowls and whoosh went the mud!

Having Friends Over

Dana and Justin are some of the most awesome friends we know. They are wicked fun, patient, kind, literate, and know how to have a good time. They cook up a storm.

We met Dana and Justin about 2 years ago as they began planning for their wedding and asked if we could put together a wedding registry for them. Turned out to be our most enjoyable registry ever! Tons of great pots and all the people who called to purchase pottery from their wish list were fantastic folks.

So little by little, we have come to know and love Justin and Dana. They're really fun to cook with, talk about books and movies, take pictures... you name it.

Sad thing is: they're moving to California.

NO FAIR.

Before they leave though, they decided they really wanted a chance to try to make pots on the wheel.