If Homer Simpson were a potter…

19. November 2008 by admin.

…I do believe he’d have felt right at home at my studio today!

It must have been a hoot watching me trying to figure out how to program the new electric kiln today.  One of my studio mates was wanting to fire some largish sculpture up to cone 6, which meant a very slow heating ramp, and then needed a slow cool due to some pots in the very bottom of the kiln.  So, what’s the problem, 99 3/4% of you out there are saying…and it’s not really a problem if you’ve done it before, and if you’ve a mind that follows instructions and works one tiny step at a time.  But, from the time of my first programming class at Penn in 1972, I knew computers and I were not really compatible.  My mind works in leaps, and computers take little tiny baby steps, one right after the other, never missing a beat.  So, it took a good hour, but at least now I know how to do it.

And I probably shouldn’t mention my dinnerware project…I’m making square, rectangular dinnerware that needs to look a whole lot like something you’d find at Pottery Barn, but with my glazes.  (I also need a refresher course in how to say no!)  So, after the longest time, I’ve got the production molds made, but to make PB pottery, you really need a ram press.  I think the results are OK, but not what the customer wants, I’m afraid.  So, every other day, there I am at the slab roller, 8-11 am, rolling and then draping and the pounding and then niggling clay into the forms.  The things we do to get by…

So, Homer, if you’re in the neighborhood, I’ve got a project or two for you!

Meanwhile, I toil away trying to get things together for the studio show.  Making lots of small things, which I’m reminded every night, really take a toll on your back and other body parts.  Give me a 25 pound planter or bowl any day!  Oh, and getting the kilnloads glazed promises to be really tedious as well, me with my spraying three and four layers of glaze on each piece.  Homer, are you there???

Oh, and did I mention I’ve got jury duty next week?

Off to stretch, ride and cook…

Later,

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Studio sale 2008

16. November 2008 by admin.

It’s getting to be that time of year again!  Here is what this year’s sale postcard looks like.  Elizabeth Robinson, potter out in Colorado, and proprietor of www.postcardsforartists.com since the birth of her child, put this together for us.  She does excellent work, is reasonable in terms of cost, and is a joy to work with.  I recommend her highly.

Guests this year are jeweler Dee Topham, who lives and works above our studio, and potter Julie Crosby from Trumansburg, NY.  Julie wood fires her functional/sculptural pots, which have a spare yet strong aesthetic, and is one of those intrepid female woodkiln potters who just inspire all kinds of admiration in us.  Plus, she’s a lovely woman to boot!  This is the way to get to see your friends…invite them to be a part of your sale! No seriously,  she makes great pots and it is an honor to have her with us this year.

I’ve been taking the past little while to make some different pots than I normally make.  Little things that have been bumping around my mind but which seem unable to come out with the pressure of shows and orders.  Whether any of them will turn out after being processed in the kiln remains to be seen, but it has been fun to make them, even as the little businessguy potter perched on my shoulder has been yelling “make more pots, make more pots, make things you can crash out that you know will sell” in my ear all day long. I have a history of hanging with the tried and true that I am trying to break.  We’ll talk about that later…

Question:  How do you know the economy is in a tailspin?

Answer:  If you’re working in my studio, where the south-facing windows open onto the CSX freightyards, and which overlook two of the main rail lines in and out of Rochester, the answer lies in counting the number of trains that go by.  And the number of workers’ cars in the parking lot.  Freight volume, and traffic, is just a small fraction of what it used to be, based upon our anecdotal visual analysis of what passes in front of our eyes, and shakes our building. The parking lot has been almost totally empty most of the past week or two, which is really unusual.  Most of the time the yard is going 24 hours a day, and the trains come night and day (trust me, as I sleep on the sofa overnight when firing the kiln, I know!), but now it’s just quiet.

OK, time to email out show announcements.

Later!

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Should have been “How to BUILD a glaze spray booth”

14. November 2008 by admin.

Oh, well, best laid plans and all…

I see as I posted the blog that my attached text either did not add, or else I just don’t know how to access it. So, let me try to explain…

Image one…The booth, the front

Basic 2 x 4 construction, with drywall backing and cheapest glossy shower board inside glued to the drywall.  The turntable is an old Brent wheel.

Image two…The inside, after a spray session

This shows the inside, with the floor comprised of two boards which slide in from the front, atop the wheel body but under the wheel head.  The exit flue for the spray exhaust is in the back bottom right.

Image three…Inside, one floor board removed

This shows how the floor easily removes.  The floor is simple formica covered particle board, scavenged from a cabinet shop.

Image four…The inside, both floorboards removed

This shows the works under the floorboards.  The Brent wheel is mounted on top of cinder blocks to bring the working surface to a comfortable level.  Why use a potter’s wheel for the turntable?  It’s rotation and speed is controlled by a foot pedal, leaving both hands free to spray.  Also, this keeps you from having to reach into the spray booth to twirl the turntable, a major inconvenience, not to mention the hazard of breathing the spray.

Image five…Outside the booth, the mechanicals

The exhaust fan motor, which is simply a scavenged (free) household squirrel cage blower from an old forced air furnace.  I block off the intake from the outside surface of the blower, so that all exhaust comes from the inside of the spray booth.  To increase suction, I hang a baffle down from the top front of the booth when not spraying a very large piece.

Image six…Another view of the complicated works

Another view, showing how the fan is mounted on a table, and is screwed to several 4 x 4 members.  I have simply sealed the joint between the booth and the fan using the expandable spray insulation.

Image seven…Outside venting

A picture of the ducting exhausting to the outside.  To bring the air through the concrete block wall, I used a rectangular-to- round adapter piece found at Home Depot, and attached a length of 6 inch diameter ducting through the hole in the wall (hammer and chisel, again sealed with expandable foam insulation).  I had a piece of galvanized made up to cover over the exit and deflect the spray downward ($50).  I do not screen the exhaust, as I’m sending it out into the freightyard of the CSX railroad depot, and they send lots of other stuff back my way.  For those of you in “green” areas, my old spraybooth in the country exhausted similarly over a grassy patch, which never showed any ill effects from the glaze spray after 16 years of glazing.

Image eight…View from above

This is taken from roof level.  I roofed the booth with drywall, but also installed a standard 4 foot long flourescent light ($10).  This gives me all the light I need for glazing, night or day.

Image nine…The rooftop

This image shows the top of the booth, including the incredibly complex carpentry required for it’s construction, as well as the storage place for some random scraps of M Board

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How to glaze a spray booth, reel cheep…

14. November 2008 by admin.

There should be text explained the pictures when you click on the pictures.  If not, I’ll fill it in in my next blog post.  I built this spray booth in about a full day, once the materials were assembled.  I’d built a couple more in earlier decades, so I had the basic concept down.  If you exclude the cost of the old wheel, I think it cost me a total of about $125.  The prior booth was even cheaper and lasted 16 years.

I chose to use a squirrel cage blower because it was free.  I take a piece of steel and clean the fins of glaze about every other kilnload, as it can build up and decrease the suction.  It takes about 5 minutes to do this.  I don’t put a filter in front of the fan as it decreases suction significantly.  If you chose to, you could run a waterfall baffle system through which the spray would pass, before it exhausted, but that would require more complicated construction and more expensive venting equipment.  I did not choose to use an in-line inducer fan because of the noise factor.

This booth really works well.  I generally spray across the pot, towards the exit fan, so that the booth exhausts quickly and efficiently.  When I did the math, I found that the air is theoretically exhanged completely every two seconds.  There is little if any blowback from the spray, so the operation does not seem overly hazardous to one’s respiratory health.

Any further questions or comments, feel free to leave on the blog, and I will answer them here as well.

Best,

Richard

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Soup, lovely soup

13. November 2008 by admin.

OK, I’ll go easy on you guys today!  No more heavy stuff, at least for the next 24 hours…<g>  This one will be quick and easy, with lots of payback.  It’s a soup recipe.  You know, it’s that time of year, when soup, bread and salad just seems to make perfect sense.

This is one of my favorites, which has amazed and delighted family and guests over the years.  I originally got the recipe from Mikhail Zakin, founder and ceramics director of the Old Church Cultural Center in Demarest, NJ.  They sponsor one of the country’s absolute best ceramics sales every year, the first weekend in December (http://tasoc.org) and Mikhail always made up a batch of butternut squash soup for the Friday night setup dinner for the artists and volunteers.  Now Mikhail is a wonderful woman, potter, sculptor and inspiration, but I won’t wax enthusiastic about her for too long.  Google her and see what she has done over the years.  Anyway, some years ago I gave a workshop there and asked if she would mind sending me the recipe for that wonderful soup.  She did, and I’ve made it many times.  It’s morphed over the years into something a bit different, so I don’t know if she would approve of the changes and still put her name on it, but here it is:

CURRIED BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP

(an adaptation of Mikhail Zakin’s Demarest recipe)

 

I’m writing this down as I’m cooking the soup, so the quantities are what I’m using for this batch…as you’ll find out, the proportions are variable, and using things on hand works just fine, too

 

Ingredients

2 small butternut squash(what I’m using), or one big one, enough to fill a 9 x 13 pan

1 large sweet onion, Spanish or Vidalia, or Texas or Walla Walla sweet

3 cloves garlic

1 peeled section of very fresh ginger (important to use fresh ginger!), about 1 ¾ inches long and pretty thick

approx 40 ounces of chicken stock (for the studio sale I am using vegetable stock) (you can adjust if the soup is too thick when blended) (I’m using one can of stock and two bouillion cubes)

1 can of beans, drained (I’m using Great Northern) for texture

several scoops of chunky peanut butter

lemon juice, 2-3 tablespoons, as a flavor enhancer

curry powder to taste

Tabasco sauce or Oriental Sweet Chili sauce (what I’m using) to taste, for a bit of zip

Salt and pepper to taste

 

 

Put about ½ inch of water in the 9 x 13 roasting pan, and halve the squash lengthwise, deseeding before putting in the oven, at 350 degrees, for about 45 minutes, or until soft in the thickest part, which would be the neck, near the body.  (I also bake them ahead of time, peel them, and then freeze them, which amkes it easy to put together later.)

While the squash is baking, peel the ginger, garlic and onion, and dice, then sauté in the soup pan with a light flavored oil, such as canola.  Olive oil or sesame oil are too strongly flavored to use in this soup.

Saute til soft and transparent, then add the soup stock.  When the squash have cooled enough to peel, do so, and then add the chunks of squash to the onions and stock mix, and simmer for about 20 minutes, til they’ve further softened and blended.  At this point, either puree with a food processor, or using an immersion blender stick (I’ve just started using this, and it’s great for this job!)  When the soup is pureed, add the dollops of peanut butter, the lemon juice, the beans, the chili sauce, and the curry powder to taste, and allow to cook on low to medium temperature to blend the ingredients and the flavors.  Adjust thickness, and serve.  (When thicker, I’m told by others that this amkes a nice pasta sauce.)

I’m going to make croutons for this batch of soup, since I’ve got some old crusty bread. 

Enjoy!

Richard Aerni

Rochester, NY

 So, try it, and if you like it, pass it on.  But remember, like a glaze recipe, to give credit to the originator…Mikhail.   Now, my son is heading over for dinner tonight so I’ve got to get back to the stove.

Bon appetit!

 

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How committed are you?

12. November 2008 by admin.

When I worked in partnership back in Cincinnati, Mike Frasca used to say at times “Don’t commit me, I’m already committed.”  He had a way of coming up with these little phrases that played on words and could be taken in a number of ways, but that tended to reflect some deeper truth of the situation.

I’ve been thinking of that phrase lately, and of our years together at the Spring Street Pottery.  We lived in a tough little neighborhood, in rough circumstances, and were often on the edge financially.  But we never let that get in the way of our progress in the studio.  We were committed to our craft, come hell or high water.  Well, it seems to me, based on all that I read and hear (incessantly, day after day), and have experienced in my shows of late, that we are heading for some tough times economically.  The next year or two are likely to test the mettle of those of us whose stock in trade are things not really necessary to get by in life.  How much do I, we, you, believe in what we’re doing?  Enough to say that we’re in it for the long haul?  Enough to stick to it no matter how tough it gets?

I came to the conclusion a few years ago (once and for all, I sincerely hope) that this is what I do, what I choose to do, no matter how slim the pickings get.  Let’s forget the fact that it’s all I’ve done for money for the past 30 years…forget that I’m not really trained in anything likely to pay me a living wage other than pots.  I choose this way of life, this path.  The reasons why I chose it 30 years ago are just as valid now as they were then.  The opportunity to craft my own lifestyle, to make things which I love, which reflect my values, and which go out in the world to have a meaningful conversation with their owners, is, to quote that ubiquitous TV commercial…priceless.

Making pots is a very grounding activity.  It isn’t done at warp speed.  It’s a human activity.  You must pay close attention to every phase of the process or all can go for naught.  You must, if you are serious and in this for all the marbles, bend your life around the exigencies of the studio. That makes it hard to get too separated from the things closest to you.  It’s a life based on a conception of time and place that no longer seems prevalent, or relevant in today’s world.   And that’s OK with me, because I think that today’s world is pretty unreal mostly, pretty inhumane.  I choose, I chose to be a potter because of many of the values inherent in it’s practice, not because I see myself as an artist with a voice that must be heard, or that’s what I was trained to do.  It’s a way of putting your money where your mouth is.

So, I guess I’ll be sticking with it, even if sales get slow and galleries no longer come calling.  I’ve learned how to live on very little over the years, and learned that a rich life is not about all the toys you possess or the things you control.  A rich life can be had for the price of an active mind and meaningful work.  So why try to fix it if it ain’t broke?

So, all of this ranting and raving might get you in the mind to urge me to seek counsel.  Don’t bother.  Remember, “don’t commit me, I’m already committed.”

Later…

Richard

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I’m a bad blogger

11. November 2008 by admin.

Yes, I know it. Far too few entries, far too dry, a bit too formal…at least that is my perception. Plus, I can’t get past the thought that absolutely no one is reading any of it. But I was brought up short this weekend at the Memorial Art Gallery’s Fine Craft Show when at least five people commented on the blog, and wished I were more current with it. So, some of you out there are reading…I had no idea!

But, lest this become a Sally Field moment, I will move on…

When I thought of the idea of a blog, I figured it would be a way to chronicle the parts of my days and weeks, to give entree to the process of being a full-time potter.  I imagined that people would read it, ask questions, and there could be some sort of dialogue on what essentially is a static web site.  But, I found upon returning home from a day in the studio, that I had no desire to rehash the day’s activities on the computer, that I was more interested in getting on with other things, and generally bored with what I had been doing.  I’m pretty much socked into the studio during the day, and sometimes into the evening, and when I get home, most often get in an exercise and stretching session before settling in to do some cooking.  Not the stuff that the producers of Entertainment Tonight are looking for…  So, what to do?

Those of you that know me personally know that I am never short of opinions or ideas on virtually any subject.  My passions run high,  (just check in with any of my studio mates!) and I’m often found mid-rant at the studio, responding to someone on the radio or to something in the news.  So, perhaps some of those rants will get transcribed to these pages.  Perhaps I’ll offend or stimulate some of you enough that you’ll reply, and we’ll see where that goes.

Maybe I’ll just gently recycle some of the ideas that I’ve been ruminating on during the day.  Maybe I’ll share a recipe.  Maybe I’ll think to pick up the camera when something interesting happens and I’ll get a shot of it and post it here.  We’ll see…

Meanwhile, today is Veteran’s Day.  I mostly think that holidays in America have lost their meaning…to most folks they are just an excuse to take a day off, to fit in a trip, or an inconvenience with the banks and  post office closed.  I like to think about why the holiday became that.  In this case, we commemorate the signing of the peace that ended WWI, on the 11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.  We take that day to honor the service of all of the men and women who have worn our country’s uniform.  I never served our country in the armed forces, though I do believe in the idea of service to an idea or entity that is larger than each of us individually.  So I sat down with my friend Rich this morning, a Marine veteran of Vietnam who saw a good bit of combat.  I asked him for his ideas of the day, what it meant to him.  He responded that to him it means recognizing that freedom is never free.  That he, and all the others, fought, or fight so that, among other things, we could be having the conversation we were having in a private place, without fear of having the door broken down by force by a government not of our own making.  He says he wants it not to be about old vets like him, but rather about those who are in harms way right at that very moment, in the hills of Afghanistan perhaps, not knowing if this would be their last moment on earth.  And without any false bravado or sentimental posturing, he talked about his love of America, of the idea of America, and how if needed, he would go and serve her again.  It was a moving conversation, and I found myself reflecting on it throughout the day.

So, I guess that is my thought for the day.  Now it’s time to go stir the soup and then get on the exercise bike.

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Craft Fairs during a time of economic crisis

29. September 2008 by admin.

I’m just a day back from doing the Peters Valley Craft Fair in New Jersey. It’s sponsored by the PV Craft Center, and is held in the Sussex County Fairgrounds, up in the hills of NW New Jersey, just a hop and skip from the Delaware Water Gap. It’s mighty scenic country, and pretty rural, not what you’d think of when you picture New Jersey. The folks who run it are quite nice, and the proceeds go to a good cause, namely keeping the doors open at Peters Valley, which is getting harder and harder every year as funding is cut back. Last year they had record crowds, but this year was a different story. While people did come out, the threat of rain and tropical storms, along with the uncertainty created by the financial crisis, seemed to take a toll. The area is distant from NYC, but the target audience for the show is NYC and environs, and I heard a lot of talk about people and places in trouble during the show. My sales were down significantly, and most of the other exhibitors I talked to fared about the same. I didn’t have high expectations going in, so I wasn’t surprised, but still, it is a blow when one’s work languishes on the shelves. People did come, and look, but I guess one group’s interaction with me kind of summed up the weekend. These were people who have been good customers of mine in the past, and I know the really wanted to buy, as they spent quite a while in the booth caressing pieces and talking, but in the end, one of them said, “we’re not going to buy anything today…none of us know whether we’ll have jobs by the end of next week.” I guess some serious belt tightening will be in order, but as a potter who’s been at it for some time, I do know that I can go a couple more notches without really hurting that much. Hard times are sadly not a stranger to most craft artists. It is going to be an interesting ride for the near future.
I’ve attached several photos of my booth setup during the show, for anyone interested.
Now I’m going to take some time to rest and clean up before fixing up a nice dinner at home. All of the show food gets old.

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Getting ready for a show

24. September 2008 by admin.

Well, I just finished unloading the latest kiln firing and it was a nice one! Have gotten all packed up and ready to hit the Peters Valley Craft Fair in NJ this weekend. Given the financial problems on Wall Street, and the hurricane that is supposed to hit the area on the weekend, my expectations are not high, but I feel good about the work. What is also nice is that I made this work while being hobbled by a hurting hand and non-functional dominant thumb. So, at least I learned that I can handle up to about 10 lbs. of clay in this condition.
Here are some photos of the kiln and work coming out…

Hopefully the photos will be here…now it is time to start cooking, as we’re entertaining Julia Galloway for dinner. The poor woman doesn’t get enough home cooking, so from time to time we try to give her a good meal. The weather here is incredible, so it’s time for a BBQ with lots of salads and veggies and home made apple pie.

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This and that

12. September 2008 by admin.

There’s been a lot going on recently, and I’ve just not really had the time or energy to get back here.

This past weekend saw the Clothesline Art Festival come and go at the Memorial Art Gallery grounds in Rochester.  The weather was iffy on Saturday, but people still came and bought.  Sunday’s weather was glorious and the grounds were packed.  This was especially encouraging for a couple of reasons–first, and most obvious, it meant more sales for everyone showing there…secondly, it meant that the public had given a vote of support for all of the changes that have been made to the show in the past year, with the aim of revitalizing it and bringing it back to where it once was, in terms of attendance and stature.  As one of the members of the committee planning and running the event (the committee is a new idea, as is the presence of an actual working artist there), I had a vested interest in seeing things happen there.  I’d been pushing for changes, and being that the committee chair, Karen Stolt, is a wonderfully open person about it all, and that the committee members are really working for a better production, a lot of good things were in the works.  In order to justify them to the powers-that-be, it was necessary for us to show that the public approved, in terms of attendance and sales.  After all, the event is the museum’s principal fund-raising event for the year, and their bottom line is amount of $$ coming in and positive buzz for the museum.  I hope that all was accomplished on both fronts…we’ll see next Tuesday when we have our first meeting to debrief and run numbers.  Among the changes…a lessening in the admission fees for the public from $7 to $5, with a dollar further off for pre-sale tickets or museum members.  We added another entertainment stage and boosted the number of performances there, with the Mambo Kings presenting the grand finale from the main stage on Sunday afternoon, which really had the place rocking.  We pretty much totally reconfigured the shape of the show, moving many artists around from their accustomed places, in order to facilitate patron traffic and get rid of some of the cul-de-sacs and small confusing areas that had existed previously.  We boosted our advertising and publicity efforts, juried the exhibitors more stringently and expanded the area from which artists could apply.  As you can imagine, all of these changes served to make a lot of people uncomfortable, on all fronts.  Essentially, people seem to shy away from change, and we really had to work hard to sell it all.  So, we’ll see on Tuesday whether we’ll be allowed to continue to proceed in our direction, or whether things will go back to the old status quo.  Stay tuned…

I’ve also ordered a new, computer controlled electric kiln for my studio mates use.  If all works out today, I’ll go and pick it up, and try to get it installed soon.  That should increase the number of options available to them in terms of firing their work.  It means more expensive firings for them, but hopefully the results will justify it. My aim with my “associates” (as I call my studio mates…I’m the leaseholder on the space and they pay me rent) is to give them an environment and the tools to make the best pots they can make.

Lastly, I guess, would be the unhappy news that I’ve been diagnosed with arthritis in my left thumb.  I know, sounds trivial, right?  But try working on pots the way I do with that kind of pain…it’s just not a pleasant experience.  It’s been bothering me the past couple of weeks, and I’ve been worrying about it, so I went and got it examined and x-rayed yesterday.  I’ll see a specialist soon, I hope, and find out what the long term prognosis is, and what measures are likely to prove effective in treating it.  My own computer research doesn’t seem too hopeful, but we’ll see.  I make a lot of larger pieces, and as a left-hander, rely on my left thumb to provide a lot of muscle and support.  It will be interesting to see if I am able to adjust my techniques to eliminate that need when things flare up.  Meanwhile, it’s take the Advil and full speed ahead!

OK, have to get to the studio and get things going.

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