Another Amazing Round of Pots from Cary Joseph

Cary Joseph brought over more pots from another woodfiring he participated in during August. Each wood kiln has such a different signature in terms of the effects it leaves on the pots. Cary's work allows the fingerprint from each firing to tell a unique story. One of the best parts of being a photographer of fine crafts is getting to hear all the cool stories surrounding the making of the wares. I love hearing about the various kilns, loading and unloading rituals, all the forming processes... all of it!

Photographing Cary Joseph's Woodfired Pots Today

I spent my morning today, photographing Cary Joseph's latest woodfired pots. These came out of the anagama down in Corning. Such incredible surfaces!

It is always such a treat to see Cary's newest pots. I feel like a kid in a candy shop. I get to hold these pots before they head out into the great-big-world. I get to figure out which face looks the best. Best of all, I get to visit with Cary and hear all about what he's been working on, which shows are coming up and all the fun pottery related stuff that I miss so much.

Here is a link to all the photos in this session:  http://www.alexsolla.com/CJ2013/

New Work from Cary Joseph

It is kind of like Christmas when my friend Cary Joseph, brings a new batch of pots over to the studio to be photographed. The textures and colors are always a surprise! This is the first time I have seen Cary making lidded jars that weren't teapots. They are very reminiscent of some of the iron jars I have seen from Japan. These particular jars were made for use in Tea Ceremony.

New Woodfired Pots from Cary Joseph and Julie Crosby

Woodfired vase, by Cary Joseph.  

Woodfired nesting mixing bowls, by Julie Crosby

I can't remember when I met Cary Joseph or Julie Crosby. Ithaca has always had more than its fair share of potters... but when these two turned Ithaca into a hub of woodfiring fun, it changed everything. When I went to grad school at Utah State, my intention was to fire primarily with wood. After firing only a few kiln loads of pots, I realized that I was too impatient for 2-3 firings a year. Most wood kilns are huge. I needed a faster turn around. The solution is to have multiple people firing in eachother's kilns. Saves on time, labor, cleaning, woodsplitting, etc. Certainly creates a solid community. Cary typically fires with quite a few other potters, both in Corning NY as well as Ithaca and occasionally farther afield. Julie's kiln outside of Ithaca gets fired quite a few times a year, and sees participation from quite a few potters from the Ithaca area, as well as folks from Corning. 

One of the challenges of photographing woodfired work in general is that colors tend to the more subtle end of the spectrum. What I love about Cary and Julie's work is that it constantly challenges that generalization. Cary's work continues to explore the richness of surface texture... both from the texture of the coarse clay and from the distribution of fly ash and flashing from the firing. Julie's glaze palette allows her to have food safe surfaces on the interior of her forms, while allowing the wood ash and flashing to wash over her scraped textured exteriors of her pots. 

This weekend both potters are participating in the Philadelphia Museum's Craft Show. Stop on down and see their latest work and many more fine craftsmen. I wish Nancy, Aurora and I could be heading down to join them. It's been too many years since we were last there. 

New Woodfired Pots by Cary Joseph

It was very exciting getting to shoot Cary Joseph's new work. The range of color coming out of the anagama in Corning, NY is astonishing. There are times where I really wish I still made pots just so I could get a few into these woodfirings. I miss the lovely path of flame over the clay's surface. Cary manages to really push his clay to the limit, giving it more of a stony leathery texture. The ash and flashing LOVE this surface.  

Dirty Work, with Pots Ablaze

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!

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!