Mugs and Plates at Oak Hollow Gallery

some of these mugs are at the gallery, some have already been claimed

If you live in the Yakima area and are interested in having your 2020 mood mug, I now have some scream mugs at Oak Hollow Gallery. This past weekend I brought some mugs and plates to the gallery. There aren't a lot, but I'm hoping to make more. Oak Hollow is in the Chalet Place Shopping Center breezeway (between Wray's and Inklings) at 5631 Summitview Avenue. 

most of these plates are at the gallery

I believe there are about 6 or 7 mugs left (as of this writing) and a 8-10 plates. The plates are salad or desert sized and in fairly bright colors, though a few were done with a darker clay, so the colors are more muted. I took photos kind of at random, so I don't have pictures of everything and a few of these have sold, but I think the photos communicate the general style and size of the plates.

twelve inch ruler for scale

Next week is finals week, so I am hoping to get some wheel time after that so I can make more pieces (though I sometimes devote this time of the year to holiday gifts). I am planning to make some more sceam mugs and maybe some COVID mugs. If I have time, I might also make some of the smooth patterened mugs, too, though the glazing process is fairly time consuming. 

I've got only two of these, but I may make more

Though things have been quite busy over the past month, I wanted to get my pieces to the gallery before the holiday. A small part of me "worries" that the world might settle down in late January (after the inauguration and once the vaccines become available), in which case the scream mugs might be out-dated. 

Trump

But then the rest of me laughs at the idea; it seems pretty unlikely that anything could make the world settle down and people become calm and peaceful. With any luck the Trump and COVID mugs will eventually be out-dated and maybe the whole mood of 2021 won't be quite so dire and depressing, but people are probably going to continue to want to scream at one another, politics, work or life in general.

First COVID mug not for sale, but maybe the next ones will be

Glazing: Lemon Squeezers and Plates

lemon squeezers

I did some glazing and firing this week, mostly because I wanted to get my lemon squeezers done so we could use them. They work great and it doesn't seem to make a big difference what the fluting on the bulb is shaped like..

lemon squeezers in blue and yellow

I glazed them with mostly cone 5-6 Celadons from Amaco. I like these glazes for their bright colors and because the colors look different when they are thicker, such as when they are pooled in the low areas of a texture or of the fluting in the lemon squeezer.

this little lime squeezer stands up on its end, but I didn't realize it until after I took the pictures.

I made these squeezers with some porcelain clay I had laying around, and on just one I ended up wiping the colored celadon away from the raised part of the squeezer top and finishing that raised surface with clear celadon (which looks white on porcelain clay). I wish I had done this with all of them. I used a similar layering technique with some of the bottoms of the lemon squeezers.

both of these pieces have layered glaze to highlight the textures

I am also happy that all six, even the ones with a lean to them, stand up on their ends on the counter. They're small enough to fit in a drawer, but they look nice enough to stand on the counter. I've run one through the dishwasher, but they're also super easy to just rinse off after lemon squeezing. 

the two ends are done differently, but highlighted in layered glaze

Besides the lemon squeezers, I glazed some plates and mugs. The plates are all pretty small, but I'm fairly happy with the results. I layered the ochre glaze on one plate to create varied textures, and I think it instead looks a little messy, but the others are good. The blues, in particularly, look good in person.

small plates with mostly celadon glazes

Along with the lemon squeezers, I finally fired some mugs I had glazed last year some time. They sat, ready to fire, through the entire studio remodel, which started in about September of last year. 

mugs from last year with celadon glazes

My favorite of the mugs I fired are these two-colored mugs. They're more time consuming by far than the plates, but I like the pattern.

my favorite of the mugs, the red is a particularly lush color

What's On My Plate

What's On Your Plate?

possible position for sculpture relative to plate

I was invited to participate in an upcoming show at Boxx Gallery in Tieton, called "What's On Your Plate?". Initially, I thought the idea was to try to combine the idea of a plate with representations of what things one is juggling in life, such as job, family, aspirations, responsibilities, hobbies. I had come up with an idea to make a large plate and include a representation of my sculpture growing out of the plate. 

chain wrapping around the bottom of the sculpture 

I hadn't quite figured out how I would represent other interests and responsibilities (such as my family, teaching, and blog) on the plate when I got an email with the official details of the show. It turns out that the concept is more simple, it is about table settings, cooking, and rituals around food. 

Plates Can Be Dull

But I've always been a little bored making regular plates or functional work. For a few years around 2003, I showed work at the Cambridge Pottery Festival. After the event, there was a Potter's Dinner and the artists/potters were invited to bring a plate to trade. We were supposed to put our plates on the table and take one of the other plates for ourselves. 

poster of exhibiting artists from the 2003 Cambridge Pottery Festival

The first year I participated must have been 2003. At the time, I was making raku-fired abstract sculpture and plenty of functional work in the form of hand-built lidded boxes. I wasn't making plates and by the time I knew about the plate trading event, I didn't have time to make a plate. 

my work in 2003

I figured, since I was juried into the Pottery Festival based on my non-plate work, the organizers must just be suggesting the rough size or value of a work; "Bring a plate to trade" probably meant "bring something roughly the size and/or value of a plate."

the plate base for this project

So, I brought a small lidded box. Admittedly I am partial, but these boxes I was making were fun. They had all these spikes and texture in contrasting colors and looked like sea anemones or alien plants. The lids fit snugly and it was clear how they were to be oriented. Often the lids had rattles in them, so you could take them off and shake them to make a sound. But, the boxes were clearly not plates. After I set my work down, I watched that box sit on that table, alone and unloved, while person after person walked in a picked up a boring ol' utilitarian plate for their trade. Eventually my box found a home, but the message was clear; it should have been a plate.

trimming the plate for this project

I hatched a plan. The next year, I would bring a plate, but I would defiantly make it the most annoying, least utilitarian plate I could manage. It would be in the form of a plate, but it would be less useful than my lidded boxes. I threw a plate, but instead of just glazing it like a normal person, I attached small round sprigs all over the surface, spaced out so as to maximize the bumpiness of the plate without leaving room for anything as large as a burger or even a hot dog to rest on the plate's surface. I glazed the bumps green so they would look like peas. I imagined the plate being used by someone who chose to eat a plate of peas or maybe a casserole that included peas so that the person would keep trying to scoop up the ceramic peas in place of the real peas. I also envisioned this plate being super annoying to clean.

pea plate from 2003/4

Of course the next year I had a conflict with the Potter's Dinner, so I didn't get a chance to go, trade my revenge plate, and laugh at all the functional potters who wanted only boring plates like those they made themselves. I still have the plate. it has a trimming hump in the middle, but I still think the spaced out peas decoration is hilarious. I crack me up.

The Sculptural Plate

Unless it were to be a reprise of my pea plate, I knew I didn't want to make just a straight "functional" place setting, so I decided to go with a slightly simplified version of the plate I envisioned earlier in the summer.

sculptural plate in progress

I threw several plates and the form of a small sculpture, a simplified version of sculptures I tend to make. Rather than just attaching the sculpture to the plate, I wanted to connect the plate and the sculpture visually in two ways: with chain and with sprigs.

Sprigs

sprig molds resting on the plate

The sprigs I used for this piece were all made from knots and textures found on a section of an old Christmas tree trunk. I used several different sprigs so that the textures seem to repeat, but are not all identical.

tree trunk section with beautiful knots I used as to form my sprig molds

I wanted the sprigs to be suggestive of barnacles in a tide pool and the way they encrust the surfaces. 

a tide pool near Port Angeles

I hoped the sprigs would to seem to cover over the separate surfaces of the sculpture and the plate indiscriminately like mussels or barnacles on the underside of a boat or dock.

 

textures on my sculpture and plate

In the end, the process of attaching the sprigs and adding the background texture of tiny holes (reminiscent of coral, rock, or corrosion) overwhelmed my view of the overall effect. I chose to put the sculpture dead center in the plate and not to build up the corner where the plate and the sculpture were once separate. The sculpture has the excessive texture I wanted, but I'm not sure if the placement is entirely what I wanted.

base of plate/sculpture read for drying and firing

Chains

I also wanted to incorporate bike chain into this sculpture. I knew that I wanted the bike chain to connect the sculpture with the plate, so a mini sculpture I had created earlier in the summer would not work for this project.

sculpture I started earlier this year for this project

I have another project in mind for bike chain, so I spent several hours cleaning several chains. I used some simple green and a scrub brush first and then took the chains to a wire brush on a stationary grinder. The process is fairly straight forward, but it was hot last week when I was cleaning the parts and I had on long sleeves, gloves, goggles and a mask, so I had to break up the cleaning into 15 minute bursts or end up really cranky and hot (I ended up cranky and hot anyway).

dirty and clean bike chains

The completed plate/sculpture will have a chain winding down the sculpture, around the plate, and out one side of the plate as a kind of tail. I also added a bike gear to visually and physically divide the smooth bulb of the sculpture from the textured complexity of the base and plate.

rough plan for gear and chain position in sculptural plate

I am considering adding a cup/mug and fork/knife to the place setting. The work is still a bit wet. I threw the form and added texture over the course of at least 5 days, so I wanted to make sure the piece dried slowly. After firing, I've got a few weeks before school begins in which to add color and put the pieces together.

Weekend Trimming and Planting

This weekend I didn't have to go to Seattle for the first time in three weeks, so I got some garden planning and planting started and I did a little bit of studio work done. 

plates just off the wheel

I threw some plates last weekend after I got home from Seattle. I trimmed them during the week and loaded them in a kiln this weekend. It isn't quite full so I'll probably fire it next weekend.

lidded piece and plate (on a terrible homemade bat)

This afternoon my husband was painting the back wall of the studio with a spray gun. He needed my help to periodically fill the spray gun container, so I brought some clay out and make a quick planter shape. We planted part of our garden this weekend, but I wanted another large planter. I figured it would be cheaper and easier for me to make one than to buy one.

my studio

I used some Arleo Sculpture clay from Clay Art Center. This was the first time I'd used the clay and I love this one. It feels just like my raku/sculpture body from school. It is fast and workable, but the surface stays pretty rough, which means it might not be the best choice for my sculpture. My daughter came out to work with me but she didn't like the clay. She said it was too hard, but I'm guessing she meant rough.

my daughter pointing out a flaw in my interior surface

We ended up spending a nice afternoon in the yard together, though our activities were a little unconventional. 

paint, clay and a clump of dandelions my daughter wanted me to put in the clay

I didn't want to spend much time on the pot, so I coil-built it fast and pressed some acorns around the rim for decoration. I want to keep the pot outside in the garden area, so I probably won't do a lot as far as glaze decoration.

The pot mostly done. It probably took an hour to build if you count the interruption to go get more paint from the store.

Tape Resist Plate

Over the holiday break I glazed some plates I had thrown the week before. I used my tape resist method. I sprayed on mostly one glaze, camel, I think with the tape resist lines in place. 

glaze sprayed on tape resist

 Then I peeled off the tape and sprayed on clear glaze to coat the white spaces.

clear glaze sprayed after tape was removed

On one plate I dripped another color of glaze while the tape was in place. I use a dripping method a lot in the studio at YVCC to mix colors.

drips of a second color of glaze

I gave a couple of the plates as gifts and, like with the small pots, didn't take good pictures because I was sick. I also have one left to fire, since I ran out of room in my small kiln. 

glazed work after firing (gifts)

The rest turned out fairly well. The one with the drip has a tiny bit of kiln wash or something on the top. I'll have to try to load next time when I'm feeling better so I can be more careful.

the dripped plate with the kiln wash mistake

Plates

I've been thinking a lot about plates lately. Several students last quarter were throwing plates for their projects, which got me started contemplating foot rings, rim shapes and the ideal curve for a lip. Yesterday my daughter caught me pondering the breakfast plate after I finished eating. "What are you doing, Mommy?"

mmm, crumbs from my breakfast waffle

For years we have used two main sets of plates at home. At the end of college I traded a sculpture for a set of dishes with what I called a mint chocolate chip glaze. Stephanie Engelbart made functional pottery for her senior show and my senior show was all ceramic sculpture. Interestingly, when I looked for Stephanie online, I discovered her featured as a successful alumnus on our college art website. I have an artwork from my senior show featured (under my maiden name).

mmm, mint chocolate chip

Most of our other plates at home are ones I threw as a graduate student for our wedding reception. I didn't want the kids to be bored and I didn't want people to feel like they needed to buy us stuff (especially since we didn't have a big wedding). So for the reception I threw a bunch of plates and bowls and things. I fired the the dishes (and a few little sculptures) and put them at a table in the garage with some colored slips. We encouraged our guests to paint a dish for us. Even now its fun to think about the origin of these dishes when we eat.

friendly decoration on a wobbly plate

One disadvantage of the wedding reception work is that I didn't throw as well eight years ago as I do now. All of my MFA exhibition work was hand-built sculpture. I started practicing on the wheel around this time, in part because I thought I might need to know how to throw in order to get a teaching job after graduation. And, since the job I did get requires regular throwing, I have practiced (and learned) a lot more in the last seven years.

pottery students, look away from the amateur foot (uh, it's Linda's fault!)

Throwing practice for class has influenced me so much that my ceramic sculpture now frequently incorporates thrown sections. And, of course I can now make functional work that is more than a canvas for painting, a joke or obfuscation of throwing deficits.

yep, wheel thrown parts

Gradually my worn home pottery collection is becoming balanced with functional work designed with purely functional intentions, and created in the last decade. As I make more of my work, and as my pottery choices become more about what I want than what I can make, trade for, or afford on a college budget, I am starting to realized that I am excessively biased about my plates in particular. In class I talk to my students about ideal characteristics in plates, and I even made the students a video discussing these characteristics.

This was one of several plates created for a joke. I showed a couple times in the Cambridge Pottery Festival around 2005. After the show there was a dinner. Artists were asked to bring a plate to trade. Bring a plate you made, leave it on the table and take another plate from the table. Ha ha, funny joke for a sculptor. My little sculpture was just about the only non-functional work on the table the first year. The next year I planned to be read with a (non-functional) plate.

Most plates are too big for regular use at the table, in my opinion. I want my plate to just hold a sandwich and maybe a few chips. This may be in part for portion control, but mostly for durability. A big plate is either a heavy big slab or a a thin big slab, in which case I am going to bang it against something and break it. Of course, as Clary Illian suggests, if people love it, they'll use it and break it and have to buy another one--thus keeping the potter employed.

nice glaze, too bad about that thin rim

I also think plates should have a high, round rim. The rim should be high so that spaghetti sauce can't slide off the side of the plate. (In my house its a bit of a running joke with my daughter that Daddy can only use a rounded plate to eat his pot pie because he slides stuff off the side of a flat plate). The rim should be round so that it doesn't chip in the dishwasher.

not the kind of chips I want to eat with my sandwich

Of course the glaze should be designed for function (something that wasn't really a major concern for the wedding reception work, which has since experienced glaze chips and wear) and even a small plate shouldn't be too thin or it will eventually crack from wear. I haven't experienced much breakage with my plates (besides the rim chips), but I have at least two bowls that we are all pretending don't have serious cracks developing down the middle (I love those bowls).

drying plates waiting to be fired

I've gotten quite comfortable throwing plates (though the video I link to is a bit old) that have all the positive characteristics I have described. I can crank them out pretty quickly most of the time, though not as quick as the student who informed me yesterday that she doesn't need to center her plates before throwing. However, I have to admit that once the quarter ends, I will be in my studio making sculptural, not functional work.

one of my recent plates

I guess this is all to say that if you want a well-made plate, you should come to the YVCC Clay Sale on May 9 from 11:30-12:30 in the HUB on Yakima Valley Community College's campus in Yakima. The flight to Washington might be expensive, but I'm sure a good plate is worth that.