Christmas Sale is this weekend!

Dear readers,

I cordially invite each and every one of you to come to my annual Christmas pottery sale!

Here is a sneak peek to what you may find hiding amongst the many fine pots for sale this year.

Be there or be square!

A recent firing

Yo!
Some recent work coming at ya.

These handles turned out very sexy. Temmoku is a wonderful glaze.

Puttin' out more eye candy in hopes you are motivated to attend my Christmas Pottery Sale! It's coming up soon, December 7th and 8th!

Christmas Pottery Sale!

The annual Christmas sale is coming upon us! Just like last year, I will be showing with three other great Minnesota potters. The location is different this year--we are in Shoreview, just 10 minutes north from the heart of the Twin Cities. 

We are gearing up and getting our ducks in a row preparing for the big sale. There is a BONUS this year! The first 10 people to make a purchase get a free pot! WOOO! So prewarm your vehicles, make yourself some hot cocoa and head on over Saturday, December 7th to get in on the action! Even if you can't make the chaos in the beginning on Saturday, we will be hosting the sale through Sunday, December 8th until 4pm with plenty of snacks and your favorite people.

A cup from a recent firing. Photo taken at the family farm.

This past weekend we were at the farm celebrating my ma-in-law's birthday and I brought one of my favorite cups from a recent firing. I wanted to photograph it for the postcard above (I know, it doesn't look anything like it anymore). The glaze came out beautifully and the cup is a nice quiet form, which is fitting in this scenic picture. Just thought I'd share it with you. 

Don't forget to put the sale dates on your calendars! December 7th from 10am-6pm and December 8th from 10am-4pm. See you there!

Recent Studio Work

My wife gave me the day off from watching Paxton so I could work on pottery! Not happy with some other mugs I had made earlier, I threw some more mugs and added in some bowls for kicks.

Bowls upside down to dry. There are a lot of fun things happening with this batch!

Mugs freshly handled. Want to see how? Watch here.

This bowl has some interesting marks. Can't wait to see it finished!

How to make a Hakeme brush

So I visually mowed the city's lawn looking for the perfect grass to use in these brushes. It takes a lot more grass than I thought it would. And picking off all those grains at the tips was a little annoying. However, it produced a good working brush for hakeme and the effort and sliver were well worth it. If you don't know what Hakeme is, check out this post!

You need to prep the grass by picking off the grains on the ends and cutting the pieces about the same length.

Here it is, step by step:

Gather the grasses and make sure the tips are on the same side. 

I separated mine into three sizes to help with shaping.

Stack the three piles on top of one another and make the bottom even.

I recommend using a rubber band to keep the pieces in place for wrapping a handle.

Wrap the grass tightly with string or small rope. I used leftover hemp I had on hand.

Trim the ends so the brush looks pleasing to you!

I made two! The extra string length enables me to hang them to dry.

There! Now you too can make a hakeme brush for your pots! Huzzah!

Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour

I almost forgot to mention that I will [hopefully] be attending the Western Wisconsin Pottery Tour coming up on October 12-13th! Both my college professor (Kirk Freeman) and my pottery mentor (Steve Rolf) will be featured this year! Needless to say I am very excited. Pax will be joining me for this adventurous outing. Unfortunately Ang will be working. Sad face.

Hakeme Pottery!

Good'ay friends!

I have been busy in the studio making more work for the Christmas sale again. I decided to bring along my video camera to document some of the ways I work. I am both a maker and a teacher at heart, so the teaching part of me naturally wants to be a part of my pottery. I want to share my knowledge with the world--indoctrinating potters and lovers of clay everywhere! I show only my way of doing things because hey, I only do things my way when making, I can't help it.

I did some more Hakeme decoration on a select few pots. If you are not familiar with Hakeme, let me give you a little slice. Hakeme is a technique which coats a dark clay body with a white slip. While the slip is still wet you swipe a stiff, clean brush over the pot in order to make the white clay stick to the dark clay underneath. Many times this results in the dark clay coming through the white clay where there are deeper brush marks. The white clays in the east didn't stick to the dark clays as the white would shrink more and crack off the pot, so they learned that if they scratched the pot with a stiff brush it was kind of like scoring the pot beneath while gluing the white clay to it.

I think the brush was typically made from rice straw, however I made my own hakeme brush from grasses found along a roadside.

Here I am attempting to teach the Hakeme technique:

And here is a shorter video with awesome music and Hakeme application:

All for now! 

Phill

Pots for Christmas Sale

Hello!

I keep forgetting to get pictures of the pots when I am at the studio. Alas, I have finally done it. My lovely wife let me have a "me day" this past Monday. She took Pax up north and sewed with her mom. What did I do all day long? I made pots big guy.

Cup, upside down, unfinished, "hakeme" (Japanese technique of dipping into white slip and brushing it off)

Cup, hakame style decoration, unfinished

Cup, bottom side up, unfinished

Cup, unfinished (meaning not fired...)

Very large mixing bowl, maybe 8 quarts, unfinished

Cups and bowls awaiting glaze application

My son, Paxton, at the beginning of this photoshoot.

Cups and bowls, unfinished, some upside down

Bowl with marks, unfinished

Raw mugs, bowls, and cups waiting to be bisque fired

Bowl detail, upside down

Bowl detail

Large platter with high walls, faceted decoration

Large platter, high faceted walls. 17" diameter

More cups and bowls and mugs, waiting for glaze

Detailed shot of the back shelf

More platters, approximately 16 inches diameter

My son, very upset, at the end of the 10 minute photoshoot.

All these pots are unfinished. I wanted to give you a glance at what I have been up to for the last month or so. I am making pots I really enjoy using in the kitchen. This includes bowls, cups, and mugs. Perhaps some vases will come later, along with some larger works.

These pots are being made in preparation for a Christmas sale! I am planning on having one in early december, perhaps the first or second weekend. I will keep you updated!