Long time no Blog...

Since the last post I have been keeping busy. Somehow I thought it would be a good idea to squeeze an Anagama firing into the whole NCECA Pre-conference and conference experience. The firing took place during the NCECA pre-conference at Northern Arizona University, in their larger Anagama (about 30'), the crew consisted of some long-time friends from the USU grad program, Trevor Dunn & Robin DuPont, as well as some new friends Cole Taylor (Durango) and Steve Schaffaer (Studio tech @ NAU), some of the NAU students also pitched in too. While it was great fun, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't try it again.
Between stoking and splitting wood we were able to sneak away to the studio to check out the Pre-conference demonstrations by; Don Reitz, Eva Kwong, Christa Assad, Brad Schwieger and Russell Wrankle. The Artstream Nomadic Gallery was also there and set up shop right next to the kiln whed where we were firing. This all made for a bit more entertainment/distraction then your usual woodfiring.

My studio full of greenware bound for the NAU Anagama

Nice rock formation between Durango and Flagstaff, this one's for you Tony Clennell

Loading the Anagama

The Crew (far to near) Steve Schaffaer, Cole Taylor, Robin DuPont and Trevor Dunn

My Website

As I type it is 10 minutes till 3 AM, my ride to Flagstaff for the NCECA pre-conference (6 hour drive from here) will be here in 2 hours. Up early, you may wornder?? Unfortunately not, up LATE. It's all for good reason. I just finished the latest version of my website, in time for NCECA where I will be spreading the word about the upcoming Korea pottery tour. And that is why I had to get the site up and running with all the new info.

I would love to hear any feedback on the site; does it navigate easily, does it read clearly. I'm not looking for a pat on the back, I just want to know from an outside source if the thing is user friendly or not.

You can use the link for my website on this page (just down and to the right of this text box under my slideshow, under links) or if you feel like typing or copy/pasting then here goes:

http://www.adamfieldpottery.com


Thanks!

Full Plate

Wow, things are getting a bit crazy around here. Between preparing for an Anagama firing at NAU during the NCECA pre-conference, the arrival of my mother-in-law from Korea, putting final touches on the details of the upcoming tour I will host to Korea, redesigning my website, and being a father of a 4 year old, I've been super busy lately and the blog has suffered a bit, but plenty to come from Flagstaff (this and next week), Phoenix for NCECA and all the details of the Korea tour coming soon.

Also, I'm happy to report that the new clay body I used on this round of Onggi pots seems to have made it through the bisque with only one cracked piece!!

Power Ranger diving platforms

It's been a bit since my last post, I've been busy making work (and drying a lot of clay) for the upcoming firing. Also made it up to Fort Lewis College here in town to demonstrate Onggi to the beginning pottery class, my first Onggi demo to an English speaking group. Thank you FLC!



It's always interesting when customers share a different, unintended, use for my work, thats why I was inclined to shoot a picture of my son's latest discovery. It turns out my pots make a perfect diving platform for mini Power Rangers, I'll have to add that one to the list.

Studio weather

"Studio weather" has returned, with spring-like weather for the last few weeks it was easy to start venturing out of the studio a bit more, that all changed today as the clouds moved in and the snow began to fly, perfect for firing up the studio heater turning on a fresh TAL or Radio Lab podcast and getting to work. I've been focusing on a few different surface treatments as a departure from the strict traditional Onggi jars and am getting excited about this round of pots. The jar in the images below has a twine impression on the top section and I scratched in the lines on the bottom to be inlayed with porcelain slip.

Some new pots

Here are a few pots from the latest firing, not the best photos, but you get the idea. I always enjoy getting a bunch of cups of varied size and design in the kiln especially in an anagama, they're like test tiles and it seems I always gain loads of knowledge about what is happening in different spots of the kiln.

I really like how the porcelain inlay mixes in with what's happening on the surface of the glaze, much more of this in the future!

Above, 2 views of the same cup. I added a very subtle twine texture to the bottom section of this cup, i think the surface may be one of my favorites from this firing, just a hint of pattern, not overboard.

It was nice to get a few Onggi pots in the main firebox, interesting to see those forms with so much ash.




As is usually the case I am not completely happy with the results of the firing, I learned a lot and am excited to put what I learned to use in the next firing just 3 SHORT WEEKS AWAY!! :/

Momentum

With the cracking trouble of my last round of Onggi style pots I've been a bit slow to get going on the next round. It took a bit of research before coming up with a clay body I could feel good about putting a bunch of energy into. It's a body that Voulkos was using till his last days and I've been assured that it is up for the challenge. Thanks to Mike Haney of East Bay Clay for making amazing clay and for being such a knowledge base when it comes to clay bodies.



It seems that every time I start to gear up for a new round of pots it takes a few days to really get excited about and locked into my making mode. I'm happy to report that it finally kicked in today! I've been making some traditional Onggi forms and adjusting them to suit my purposes:

The form below, from south western Korea, is traditionally used for storing and pickling shrimp and has a nifty built-in feature, the rim that overhangs into the pot is used as a ledge for placing a stick of just the right size that acts as a temporary handle for hauling the pot. Since I don't think there is much use for a shrimp pot in these parts I decided to scale it down and add a little inlay porcelain decoration, I'm thinking it should be nice with some flowers in it once it's fired.



The following image is of an Onggi lid, the nice thing about an Onggi lid is that it generally doubles as a large bowl for hauling the goods from the jar it has been covering. I decided to make some lids to be used as shallow bowls/platters, the decoration in the middle is something my teacher would do to distinguish one size lid from the others.




Also, I was having a bit of trouble with some of my larger Onggi forms so I invited a few of my friends over to give me a hand (images below).