Much Too Much

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

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

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

Nailing Jello to the Wall With Both Hands

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

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

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

Glaze Tectonics - 11298A- untitled

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

Glaze Tectonics - mossy green (9998C)

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

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.