Looking for Connections and Inspiration

Stella, Laura and me in Colonia

In early March I went back *home* to Uruguay to spend a week reestablishing family connections and looking for much-needed inspiration. Part 1 of this search: Colonia del Sacramento, which was founded by the Portuguese in 1680 and is on UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.

 

Small dish by Ariel Chape

I spent a spectacular day with my sister, Stella, my niece, Laura, and my nephew, Gonzalo walking the cobblestone streets of this old city that sits directly across from Buenos Aires. Inspiration was everywhere: the chattering of flocks of parakeets in the palm trees and the buzzing of hummingbirds; the patterns of the cobblestones and ancient stone buildings; the deep colors of the bougainvillea; the swift currents of the Uruguay and Paraná rivers as they come together to form the estuary of the Río de la Plata; and the warmth of the sun on a clear, warm day.  My inspirational purchase of the day was a sweet little dish made by Ariel Chape that I bought at a craft shop run by the Grupo Artesanal de Colonia.

Franco, Gonzalo, Leo, Laura and me

The next day we went east. Gonzalo drove again and this time we were joined by his wife Leonor and Laura's son Franco. It was another lovely day that took us off the main highway at the coastal town of Solis where we instead followed route 10 through all the small coastal beach towns: Bella Vista, Las Flores, Playa Verde, Playa Hermosa... I decided then that any of those beach towns would be the ideal place for the Southern Hemisphere branch of Glynt Pottery! 

Gonzalo, Laura and me

Small dish from Casapueblo

From there we continued on to Piriápolis and Punta del Este. I found inspiration in the calm sea and a walk on the beach after lunch; the magnificent art deco style of the Argentino Hotel built in 1930; and a visit to Casapueblo, which is at once a hotel, a restaurant and a museum housing the work of Carlos Páez Vilaró. My inspirational purchase was another small ceramic dish.

Stella, Laura, María, Franco and Victoria

Finally, we took a tour of Montevideo in a double-decker tourist bus. This time we were joined by niece María José and her beautiful 5-year old, María Victoria, who christened me *Tutú*. This was an emotional tour through the city of my birth that took us through places I remembered, including our old neighborhood. The inspiration was more personal this time: the fountain where Dad used to take us to float our wooden boats; the art deco building that housed Casa Soler (scroll down when this link opens for a series of photos of this magnificent building); Pocitos beach where we used to go on lazy summer weekends. The trip ended at Mercado del Puerto in the port of Montevideo where I bought one last pottery inspiration. This raku bowl really spoke to me with its very organic form and deep colors. The bowl is made by potter Victoria Vazquez Young and I purchased it at Acatrás del Mercado.

So I came back renewed, with a new sense of family connections and love, kissed by the southern sun, and feeling that everything had come full circle: finally home after going home!

 

What's going on?

Not much is going on. Just trying to stay warm. I'm really all done with this cold, gray weather. That's why I'm leaving tomorrow for a 10-day trip "home" to Uruguay. I feel better just googling the weather there... in the 80s and sunny: just what the doctor ordered!

I have been busy making lots of berry bowls and some yarn bowls, as usual. I'm also trying my hand at making essential oil diffusers. I tried 3 designs and will leave it up to the customer who asked me to make them to tell me which one works best. I really enjoy these collaborations with my customers!

I also tried my hand at making a house. Unfortunately it wasn't ready in time to enter it into the Etsy Mud Team Challenge, but I really had fun making it, although I don't know how it will look glazed. I think I'll be trying my hand at more of these in the future. BTW, voting in the challenge goes on until midnight on March 2, so go vote and get a 20% discount coupon for participating Etsy potters (including Glynt Pottery)!
  
The other I did was to, finally, test all my glazes against each other. I think I have 130-something test tiles. Now I have a sample of what every glaze look like underneath and on top of every other glaze. I don't know why I never did this before! 

 

Kiln Wash

Old shelves

Cleaning kiln shelves is one of my least favorite things to do. But lately that chore has become less of a hassle thanks to John Britt's Super-Awesome No-Crack Kiln Wash. I had some shelves that I was ready to throw out because they had over 10 years of kiln wash build up. The minute I put the wash on it would start cracking and flying all over the kiln, getting on fired pots... It was a disaster! 
 
John Britt's kiln wash is amazing. Not only are my new shelves protected and looking good, but the nasty old shelves with all their old cracked wash are back in working order. This wash covers the old wash so it isn't a problem any more.

Here's the recipe: 

Super-Awesome No-Crack Kiln Wash

Materials
Alumina Hydrate			50%
Calcined EPK Kaolin			25%
EPK Kaolin			25%
Total			100%
Add:
G-200 Feldspar			1 – 2%

Shelves w/ wash drying in the sun

And you can read all about it in John's article, The Many Layers of Kiln Wash.  

Season of the Witch

This box became a honey jar.

I make pots and imagine the kind of life they will live when they find their home. But, more often than not, they go on to live completely different lives than the ones I envision. I make and sell a lot of brie bakers and imagine them serving delicious brie cheese with all kinds of scrumptious toppings, but a friend thinks that her brie baker makes a perfect sandwich plate! I make small boxes that I imagine will serve as jewelry keeps, but this box went on to a life as a honey jar.

 Last year, on the drive back from the Utilitarian Clay Conference (at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts), Donovan came on the car radio singing Season of the Witch. That is a great song and I've always liked Donovan! As I was driving north on I-81, I decided to make a Season of the Witch yarn bowl. The bowl I made had the words "you've got to pick up every stitch" on the outside and cutouts of two rabbits running. I finished the bowl just in time for the City of Fairfax Holiday Show. I never took proper photos of the yarn bowl because I thought it would be an item that people might chuckle over but not buy... I figured I had plenty of time to take photos.

Here's the Season of the Witch bowl

Well, the bowl sold the first day of the show to a lady who didn't get the Donovan reference at all. But she thought it would make the perfect gift for a friend who just started to learn to knit. "This will remind her to pick up every stitch," she said. I thought about telling her about Donovan... but didn't.

I wonder if that yarn bowl will ever encounter someone who'll say: "Wait a minute! ... pick up every stitch... two rabbits (running in a ditch)... must be the Season of the Witch!" I hope so!     

The Artist's Way

My 1994 copy of The Artist's Way, a gift from Jane Cullum

A group of Etsy potters who are members of the Etsy Mud Team have decided to form a "sacred circle" and start working Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way together. This is a wonderful opportunity for me because I started doing it by myself many years ago (1994!) but never got all the way through to the end. Now, I look forward to working through the resistance with the support of this great group of friends!

For those interested, Julia Cameron also has a website and I believe that she runs some groups and forums through it.

Looking forward to a year of unblocking creativity and letting it flow! Morning pages: here I come!

Ceramic Prep Bowls

A set of 3 small ceramic prep bowls will add the perfect touch to any kitchen. Use them for your ingredients while cooking or as individual dip bowls with your favorite olive oil or dip.



The bowls are about 2 inches tall, 1 1/2 inches deep and about 4 inches in diameter. They hold 1/2 cup (4 oz).



Use them also as trinket or catch-all bowls for your rings or pocket change.

Happy New Year!

I need inspiration. I can go into the studio and make work to fill orders and list on Etsy, but there's something else stirring... I can see it out of the corner of my eye and then it's gone. It occurred to me to pull out my old copy of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way to wipe away some of the cobwebs. Paging through it I realized that one of the things I haven't done in a long time is the artist date. The concept is simple. The artist date is a block of time that is especially set aside once a week and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness. It's a play date with your inner artist! It can be going for a walk or to an art gallery, sitting in a favorite spot by the shore or taking a long soak in the tub... anything that gives you time to be with yourself.


So, after deciding that this year I will start to do this and maybe go through The Artist's Way again, I googled "ceramic pottery inspiration" and got a slew of images of great pots (mostly Pinterest pins, apparently)... pottery porn!
 

And then I remembered that I have some great pottery inspiration at home. This amazing pot and pottery shards have been in my husband's family for a long time. The story is that his grandfather brought them back from Colorado. It is just an incredible little pot and the shards speak of what they used to be... Inspiration! ... right in my living room!