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

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!

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!

Doing More Each Day

For the past few days, my time in the studio has been growing steadily. Not always necessarily in mud up to my elbows... but there's always something needing doing. The last of the orders from 2009 have finally shipped. We are halfway to loading up the first big bisque firing of the year.

I think what is most exciting so far this year is the realization that we are participating in more exhibitions than we usually find ourselves in. I am sure part of the reason is my desire to move away from craft shows which has freed up time (in my mind, if not in reality) to make better pots (and hopefully save more of them this year!). The show that I am very excited about is Clay and Blogs: Telling a Story. This comes at an interesting time in my life. Between nearly dying in surgery, living through a coma and rehabilitation and now finally trying to get back into the studio, there has been a lot of grist for the blog mill. For more info on this upcoming show, please check out Meredith Heywood's site. And Meredith, THANK YOU... for pulling together all these potter/bloggers and being willing to organize this show. Kudos!

Clay and Blogs: Telling a Story.
Opening reception will be held at the Campbell House in Moore county from 6-8 pm
October 1st, 2010
Exhibition comes down on November 1st, 2010


On top of all of that, a wonderful local potter, Renata Wadsworth asked me to shoot images for her. Mind you, she asked back in December. At that point, I could only stand up for about 40 minutes at a time. January has always been my set-aside time for shooting new work. This time of year, everyone wants to get new images ready to send out for show applications and website revisions. Renata's aesthetic draws on the Japanese tradition of Shino glazing and brushwork decoration. The accent colors of copper red and Oribe green bring out the richness in her pots. You can find more images on her webpage and on the Ithaca Art Trail website. What follows are a few examples of her best work for the new year.