Potter at an Art Fair

Here's a humorous "YouTube" video that was recently posted by an artist friend on facebook.

PANTONE: Find out how we forecast new color trends

Let's face it, we all want to make sales and market research is a part of that. It helps to know what's trending but, of course, there is also still a lot to be said for classic time honored design. Here is an awesome video that focuses on color trends:                                                                     

Easy Lockerbie Power Switch Repair

I took a little more effort than usual cleaning up my Lockerbie potter's wheel a couple days ago. When I was ready to trim mugs on the wheel yesterday, I tried to turn the power on to the wheel and the power lever did nothing but flop around.

To fix the situation, I removed the cover to the power box-after disconnecting power to the wheel. To remove the cover, unscrew the two outermost screws. There is supposed to be an attachment to the power lever on the inside of the cover that looks somewhat like a pepsi can pop top. Mine was laying on the bottom of the box. The inside of the cover plate should look something like this when it is attached:

The two inner screw holes are used to attach a pretty typical looking switch, much like what is used on your walls to turn on light fixtures. The switch is meant to be inserted into the hole on the pop-top looking attachment. To reattach that piece, I put it back on the inside part of the outside lever-it somewhat resembles a four leaf clover-and used a small hammer to pound down the clover looking end over the hole in the pop top looking piece until I was sure that it would not come apart again. When reassembling, I made sure the switch found its way into the large hole on that piece, reattached the screws holding the electrical switch in place and replaced the cover back onto the electric box. I apologize for not knowing the technical terms associated with this assembly....but it now works perfectly : )

Protect Yourself

Here's a link with information on how to protect yourself from con artists when selling your work. A lot of the information is common sense but here it is:  http://www.artscams.com/

Also, don't forget to protect yourself in the studio. As most ceramic artists are aware, silica in clay dust can potentially be harmful to the lungs. Here's a link that briefly describes silicosis and prevention methods:

http://www.suite101.com/content/the-dangers-of-silica-dust-a200957

This link provides a little more in depth description of silicosis: http://www.merckmanuals.com/professional/sec05/ch057/ch057i.html

Another Admired Ceramist

This is a link to a Ceramist, Todd Leech, that I had the opportunity to meet while in college. I admire both the content of his work and his incredible textural surfaces.

http://www.toddleech.com/

And a very moving "You Tube" clip about Todd and his work "Drowning and Rejuvination." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTRsNR3VZUI

I can relate to Todd's work featured in the video because he and my husband both received organ transplants around the same time period, however, for different reasons. Todd has perfectly captured the full spectrum of emotions that one undergoes through the deterioration of health to the hope of imagining a future in this amazing installation. 

Much Admired Ceramists

Here's a couple "You Tube" links for a potter, Steven Hill, whose work I admire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_R5hafdS_U&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYQMJuP8r5c

I mentioned Susan and Jan Peterson's book "The Craft and Art of Clay" on an earlier post, titled "References," and recently found a 92 page + preview of that book on Google Books (click on the blue links on the table of contents page for additional pages). Here's the link: http://books.google.com/books?id=PAZR-A9Ra6EC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

One more link: This is a fantastic site that focuses on glazing at Cone 6: "Electric Cone 6, Mid-fire Potters"
http://cone6pots.ning.com/

New Links Directory Page

Please check out the new "Favorite Ceramics & Marketing Links" page that I added to this blog yesterday evening. 

The link is located at the top of the right hand column. I've tried to add all of the links listed in my blog posts but will take another look to make sure that I haven't missed anything. I also welcome suggestions for other links to add to the list.

Iron Oxide Wash

I ran across some of my college notes a few days ago and found this recipe for an Iron Oxide Wash:

1 teaspoon Iron Oxide
1 teaspoon Rutile (I've been mispronouncing this. It's pronounced roo-teel)
1 teaspoon Nepheline Syenite
2 pints water

*for black add 1 teaspoon cobalt carbonate

Guest Posting

If you would like to write a "Guest Post" and have it posted to this blog, please contact me via the email link on my profile page. I would love to have posts containing marketing tips, success stories, studio tips, instructional videos, glaze recipes, galleries that feature emerging artists, and anything else that would be helpful. I promise to post a link to your website, Etsy shop, or other sales site along with an accepted post.   Hope to hear from you soon! If you would like to comment on a post, click on the post's title and you will be able to do so. I would also love to hear about topics that you would like to see me write about. No guarantees but I will certainly do my best.

Also, I just received this little guy in a box of tea yesterday while firing a load of work. He now resides on the top of my kiln...hope he helps : )

Artist Website Tips to Increase Gallery Attention

Just found an article online that I'd like to share. It's about making your website more attractive to gallery owners. The site is called "Art Marketing Secrets"
 http://artmarketingsecrets.com/2010/06/12-tips-to-grab-galleries-with-your-artist-website.html
It appears that they have a lot of other useful information but it's getting late and I have an early morning tomorrow.

Marketing Stuff

I just found this terrific site called  "America Creates"  http://www.americacreates.com/

The site offers american artists an opportunity to sell their work. What I truly like about the site is that the artists listed are required to be juried in. It appears to be a newer site. However, there is a lot of inspiring ceramic work listed by very talented ceramists.
Best ceramics blog
Here's another site that I recently ran across called "Empty Easel." It can be found at http://emptyeasel.com/

Lots of helpful marketing information!

Also, please visit my new website at http://beverlymarusa.com I will continue to add more work through out the month.

** Just opened : http://www.americacreates.com/beverlymarusa/galleries

My Very Talented Nephew

Please take the time to visit my talented nephew's website at:
http://ARShondrick.com
Andrew Shondrick
B.F.A. University of Akron

Welcome Friends!

After only beginning this blog about a month and a half ago, it has been visited by the United States, Canada, Japan, India, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan, Hungary, Israel, Germany, France, Australia, and South Africa. I am overwhelmed by the fact that it has been viewed over 140 times. Welcome to everyone! Please feel free to add comments, helpful hints, questions, or just say hello. Also, thank you so much for visiting!

And, a few more: welcome to United Kingdom, Serbia, Belgium, Italy, Bahamas, Slovenia, Brazil, Greece, Netherlands, Indonesia, Romania, Latvia, and Poland!

Photographing My Work

As we all know, an artist wears many hats. Artist, marketer, business manager, public relations manager, and some (including me) photographer. It would be wonderful to be able to pay someone to take over some of these jobs. However, as an emerging artist, I do not yet have that luxury. I plan on spending most of my day photographing artwork so I can finish up the website that I've been working on. I have included photos of my photography set up. Of course, I have made it as inexpensive as possible. I'll start from the back of the set up and work forward. I have a home-made photo paper roll holder attached to the wall that was made from 2" x 8" scrap wood left over from a previous household project. Holes were drilled into the side supports to accommodate a left over piece of conduit, again from a previous household project,  that now supports the paper roll.

   

The lights used are Smith-Vector. The bulbs are blue tinted daylight adjusted tungsten made by Eiko. 500 watt, 4800 kelvin, 110v-120v. They cost about $7.00 each. The lights are set at the same height and aimed at about 45 degree angles on each side. The use of a third light attached to a boom would be better. It would be located directly above the object being photographed and would help to reduce shadows. Here's the overall set up:

Make sure to set the white balance on the camera by putting a piece of white paper under the lights and finding the white balance manual setting on your camera. Fill the frame with just the white paper before doing so:

And here's the photographed piece. However, I believe that I will be pulling the table out a little to adjust the background shadow and adjust the lights a little lower to reduce the side shadows. Also, make sure that the room is dark when photographing by blocking out any windows and turning off lights other than those used to light your piece. It's a good idea to download that first photo before proceeding to do more pieces. It's much easier to see what adjustments need to be made on a large screen rather than the small screen on the back of the camera.

After adjusting the photo paper and lighting. Notice the reduction of side shadows from dropping the lights a little and also notice the more gradual appearance of the background shadowed area from pulling the table further from the wall and rounding out the transition from the flattened area of the paper on the table to where it attaches to the wall. 

Inspiration Close to Home - Actually at Home

Earlier this week I posted inspiration photos that I had taken at a nearby park and decided to mention that it is not always necessary to travel away from home to gain inspiration. Challenge yourself, walk around your yard or through your house and find at least one thing to inspire a new piece. It could be something natural or even a commercially purchased item. Ask yourself how you can improve upon the design, how it can be incorporated into or onto a piece currently being worked on, or what it may look like if altered to become something totally different. Use a sketchbook, it doesn't have to be for every piece but it can help when designing more elaborate pieces. Often times I'll just doodle shapes in my sketch book and play with the ones that intrigue me and see what types of vessels I can turn those shapes into. These are some of the inspiration photos that I took walking around my own yard. I included a photo of my little buddy Smokey who had a lot of fun following me. Also, I do not have a large yard. It is about 1/2 an acre in a suburban town.

Inspiration

I spent the day with my camera at a local park yesterday. The autumn colors here in northern Ohio are just past their peak but still quite beautiful and I thought that I would share some of my inspiration photos. I also collected a handful of leaves which I will be incorporating into some of my new work. Some of the photos taken will be photoshopped and used to do new paintings. Although my primary focus has turned to ceramic work, I still enjoy doing paintings now and then.

Some of the Original Pieces

After posting some of my newer work on the blog a few days ago, I realized that I hadn't posted any of my older work. These pieces were done towards the end of 2005 and beginning of 2006 while still auditing classes at the college after graduating. They are composed of high fire stoneware with sprayed glazes and fired at cone 10 in a gas reduction atmosphere. My newest work is composed of mid fire stoneware, sprayed crystalline matte glazes, and fired to cone 6 electric. However, the challenge has been to replicate the glaze interest of the high fire reduction ware in cone 6 oxidation. I'm getting closer but still have work to do.

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Powerpoint Presentation

Well, as I said previously, I am an emerging artist and would like to find gallery representation. To do so, I am currently working on a PowerPoint presentation of my work that includes a title page, artist statement, and photos of my work. I will be adding more work to it but what I have started so far may be viewed  at https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=0AQnbeodaW8TeZGNxc2gzdzlfMGY4M2htZGdi&hl=en (corrected link-sorry for any inconvenience).

I have identified several galleries where I would like to have my work shown. I will copy the PowerPoint presentation to CD and include it with a short introductory letter and send it those galleries. I will let you know how it goes.

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Some of my newest work from the Ecosystems Series

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References

 My favorite reference materials include the Robin Hopper series of books: "Making Marks" which focuses on surface decoration, "Functional Pottery" which focuses on design, and "The Ceramic Spectrum" which focuses on glaze composition. I also like Susan and Jan Peterson's book "The Craft and Art of Clay" which provides a wealth of technical information. "Hands in Clay" is another good one for technical info by Charlotte Speight and John Toki.

My favorite websites include: http://ceramicartsdaily.org which provides technical information, short video clips, gallery listings, calls for entry, and much more. Another good site which I found through the Potter's Council (listed on ceramic arts daily website) is http://www.manhattanarts.com/ 

which has support information for artists and art marketing tips from Renee Phillips. She also has a blog at http://reneephillips.blogspot.com/

A good source for technical demonstration clips is "YouTube" at  You Tube

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Dry Pieces with Additions Slowly

Many of the pieces that I make have delicate additions in the forms of handles and decoration. When I first began this body of work many of those additions would crack at the curved areas or separate where they attached to the body. To overcome this problem, I have learned to slightly dampen my work table as I roll the coils and keep the coils moist by covering them with a moist towel until I am ready to use them. Once I have all of the pieces attached to the leather hard body of the piece, I cover it fairly tightly with a large plastic bag for several days to even out the moisture of the body and additions and then leave it lightly covered to dry slowly until completely dry.

Keeping It Round

I was working on cups yesterday and thought I would fill you in on a little tip to help keep the rims of small objects round. When I first began making cups, mugs, and small objects, those pieces would often warp when removed from the wheel and upon drying. To keep the pieces round, I threw an upside down conical shaped piece with a hefty rim which aided in keeping its shape very round. It looks like a funnel but with a flat bottom.  I bisque fired the piece and now insert it into the tops of my mugs and cups when they have had a little time to dry but are not quite leather hard. As a result, my cups and mugs dry with a perfectly round mouth.

Reclaiming Clay Without a Pug mill

I have dreams of one day having my own pug mill to make reclaiming clay much easier. Currently, it's something that I've learned to do by hand. It's much easier if wet clay is reclaimed with wet clay and dry with dry. I use 2 separate buckets that I purchased at home depot. I believe the capacity of each is about 5 gallons. I keep the wet bucket close to my wheels which makes it easy to transfer wet scrap into the bucket along with the slurry from my working water bucket. I've made 2 plaster slabs by pouring plaster into about 2" deep picture frames that I purchased on clearance at a discount store. When I'm ready to reclaim the clay, I scoop it out of the bucket and onto the plaster slab. I keep the thickness of the clay to less than 2". When the clay lifts easily off the plaster, I flip it over. Once the second side removes easily from the plaster, I wedge it and it's ready to use. 

For dry clay, I break it up into small pieces before putting it into a bucket. I'll cover the broken pieces with water and let it soak for at least a week. Once everything is thoroughly saturated, I will use my electric mixer to help break up any clumps. I will then let it sit for days as the clay will sink to the bottom of the bucket and excess water may be scooped off the top. From there I process it on the plaster slabs as I would the wet clay.

If both the wet and dry are reclaimed together, there is a tendency to have hard lumps left in the clay.

Ceramists Who I Admire

I was thinking about George Ohr a few days ago and decided to write about some of the ceramic artists whose work inspires me. George Ohr, "The Mad Potter from Biloxi," was the first. Having lived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he was well ahead of the times. He broke away from the conventional ceramics of the times and experimented with shapes and the natural elasticity of the medium. Some of his work may be viewed at http://www.georgeohr.org. The next artist who inspired me was Beatrice Wood known as the "Mama of Dada." What was truly inspirational to me was the fact that she hadn't begun working with clay until her early forties. She too broke away from the conventional ceramics of the day. Some of her work may be viewed at http://beatricewood.com. Of the contemporary ceramists: I truly admire Steven Hill for his graceful pieces with the wonderful sprayed glaze transitions , Robin Hopper for his wealth of technical knowledge that he has shared in several books, Don Reitz for his exploration of form, Jennifer McCurdy for her beautiful and graceful porcelain work, and Dave Williamson, one of my professors from Baldwin-Wallace, who is better known for his jewelry but is also an incredible ceramics professor. All of these artists are easily found with a quick google search.

A Couple of Tools That I Can't Live Without

I went to Marcs, a discount store, yesterday and was lucky enough to find generic "Sham-wows" for 99 cents each. If you're unfamiliar with these, they are approximately 20 x 20 inch felt like towels. I use them for a variety of purposes including covering the tray on my potters wheel while throwing; it makes cleanup so easy. Once I'm finished working, I'll just squeeze the towels into my water bucket and do a quick wipe down of the wheel. I also use them damp to line my spray booth while glazing. Again, it makes clean up so much easier. My work often involves laying pieces on their sides to do finish work. To protect the work, a piece of foam, purchased at a fabric store, is used and I put a felt towel on top of that to keep it cleaner.

A hand held blender is another of my favorite tools. It can be purchased in the kitchen supplies area of most department stores. It is lighter and takes up less room than an electric drill with the glaze mixer attached and is perfect for mixing studio size glaze batches and slips.

Clay and Glaze fit

Clay and glaze fit did not come easily for me. While in college, I worked primarily with a cone 10 stoneware clay and fired in a gas reduction kiln to cone 10. I truly enjoyed that kiln and it was always an adrenaline rush watching the little flames shooting out of the vents. The color changes of the flames were absolutely amazing. If only I could find glaze combinations that would replicate those colors. But anyway, when I set up my home studio and began developing a body of work inspired by the effects of human activity on our ecosystems, it was imperative to fire in the most eco-friendly means.

I bought a programmable electric kiln that fires to cone 10. It's a beautiful L&L with the best element holders on the market.  To stay true to my conviction to work green, I fire my work to a maximum cone 6. I never dreamed that when I began to work from home that it would be so challenging to find a clay that I was happy with and then develop interesting glazes (that come close to replicating those wonderful cone 10 reduction glazes) that fit the clay. I do plan on posting those glazes in the near future. But I will say that Rutile is indispensable for making beautiful, interesting cone 6 glazes. The clay that I've been using is a cone 6 buff stoneware from Laguna Clay in Byesville, Ohio. Shipping clay can be very costly and it is worthwhile to find a nearby clay manufacturer. So, I periodically make the 2 hour trip to Byesville and load up the van. Not only do I enjoy the clay but the staff there are wonderful to work with.

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