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!

Video Feature!

I was recently asked by Berean Baptist Church to be filmed making pots for their new fall sermon series. It is for an introduction video which plays after worship as a transition to the sermon. I grew up going to Berean and was thrilled to be able to help them out! We worked together to get all the aspects of making pots, not just the throwing part that everyone already knows about.

I attended the service this past Sunday with Angela and Paxton, along with my parents. After seeing the short video I was very impressed that they managed to show in a short time much of the journey clay makes as it is being transformed into a vessel.

The video is in the beginning of the sermon, so check it out! Also, the sermon is really great too so listen up!

Minnesota Hot Fair

My wife, Pax, and I along with Melissa and Mark Oira all headed out this morning to the Minnesota State Fair! We drove for the first time in a very long time since Park & Ride's are very convenient (so long as you don't have a baby and all the things babies need with you).  Our excitement grew as we pulled into our grassy lot spot near the northern end of the grounds.

However, the moment we opened our doors, we realized we were in for a sweaty trip. Heat infiltrated our A/Ced auto quicker than you can say "_____".  Quickly, we slopped on the 50 S.P.F. 'screen and were on our way into the entrance of the fair.

With hopes higher than the giant slide we got our gait on and, oops, I realized I had left the group in the dust because I have such lengthy legs I seem to walk at the speed of light. Thinking about fair food along with anticipation from planning that went beforehand seemed to have boosted my pace and to keep myself in check I had to frequently look over my shoulder. So here we are at the fair, walking past the familiar John Deere lane with hundreds of green and yellow tractors and lawn mowers and looking down the vehicle-vacant roads at the hundreds of heads bobbing up and down in the distance. Families, friends, fanny packs, Hover Rounds and strollers intermixed into one giant weave of Minnesota fabric. Ahhh, same old, same old.

Actually, one of the things I don't like about the fair is that everything is always the same. Some tradition is nice, but I think after going for so many years in a row all the tradition becomes blah and boring. I see the same vendors, the same foods, the same everything. The only big new items at the fair seem to be one or two new food vendors selling something on a stick. I think it would be most refreshing if the fair had a major overhaul of all the vendors, minus maybe some staples like the giant slide and the cheese curds in the food building.

Now we're waiting in line at the first stand for the day--Mark is getting walleye fries at Giggles campfire grill--and we're discussing our itinerary which goes from 9-12ish because the heat index is 110 degrees today. We need the food-building cheese curds, a poncho dog (not the pronto pup, as the poncho dog has corn bread as the breading) and a soda immediately and set off as soon as Mark receives his golden walleye nuggs. The morning temperature was a decent 87 degrees.

The temperature continued to rise until we were a sweaty mess. Full of liquid sugar and half-digested meat, my pace had slowed to a zombie crawl. We slashed our itinerary to the final necessities and bee lined to our 400 degree ride home. Somehow Pax made it through the day okay, probably from the misting fan we had on him the whole time. The rest of us were in need of a serious cool down and a nap, followed by Culvers amazing concrete mixers.

The day's damage from Ang and I: 3 Poncho Dogs, 1.25 Footlong Hot Dogs (the .25 thanks to Mark), 40 oz. of soda, and of course cheese curds. Also added to the list are two very cute wooden car toys we got for Paxton made by the special craftsmen of Greg's Toys--find them in the larger building of Heritage Square.