that conversation again

The frequent topic of frustration and sometimes bafflement- pricing.  I had an email conversation going on last week with a woman who makes and sells butter from an upstate New York dairy.  She was inquiring about getting hand crafted french butter crocks to sell with her butter rounds. Great idea, and I was flattered she tracked me down.  Course, I don't know, she might have sent the same email to a dozen other potters. So, I quoted her the price I sell these locally- $35.00, knowing it would be a little high for a bulk order, but I thought I'd give it a shot. Too high.  I came down to $30.00.  Silence.  Dead Air. In her response after my first quote, she suggested a simpler design for a lesser price.  My reply, along with the $30.00 offer, was the factor that dictated the price was the time spent fitting and measuring while throwing these.  If you are not familiar with a french butter crock, the part that holds the butter also functions as a lid.  So you have to fit a pot, which is also a lid, inside another pot.  A lot of stop and measure time.  Plus, basically, you are getting two pots in one.  Maybe it's just me.  If I made more of these maybe I'd be able to churn them out like a machine and instinctively know when I achieved the right height and width. Or, maybe I could be less fussy about the fit.  Not going to happen.
After a few days went by I emailed her again and suggested that a local potter might agree to make these at a cheaper price in exchange for the publicity plus there would be no added shipping cost.  I guess if someone lived within 30 or so miles of this dairy they could pick up a little business that way.  With me in southeast Ohio and her in upstate New York, I don't see that working out.

Freshly thrown french butter crock parts. Lid (left) holds butter.  Crock (right) holds water.

Once both parts dry to leather-hard they can be trimmed. 

Working on these honey jars too.  Same kind of lid as the french butter crocks, but a lot easier to fit.

Also threw a lot of knobs and some small nesting bowls.  The bowls are meant to be used as prep containers.  I'm looking forward to having fun with glazes on these.

Some mugs for a commission and more honey jars. Once pieces are well on their way to being dry and no longer need covering to make sure they dry evenly I take them out to the shelves by the kiln. 

getting ready for Harvest Moon

More glazing.  I've decided to really get after my accumulated bisque ware.  I have noticed a certain work pattern has caused this build-up of bisque ware: I want to make enough green ware to fill up the kiln every time I get a commission from a customer, but I'm not going to run the  kiln just for one set of mugs. Then I do the glaze firing, and, as many of you know, a lot more pots will fit in a bisque firing than a glaze firing so there's always some pots that get left out.  Then I get another commission and the cycle starts all over again.

Here's a few things from the last firing-

I'm very fond of the pumpkins.  There are more of these firing in the kiln right now. They seem particularly appropriate for the upcoming Harvest Moon Festival in Parkersburg, West Virginia  September 15 & 16.

I used a clear base glaze with some green-gray stain mixed in for this french butter crock.  This is a glaze I mixed years ago and it was not at all attractive on my iron bearing clay.  I like it a lot on this lighter, almost white stoneware.

 

I ran into a problem with pinholes in this goldust tenmoku this time. Don't know why.  It only happened on the inside- both lid and jar.  I touched up the glaze and it's getting refired in the current firing, so see what happens. 

 

An experiment.  I made this plate using a drop frame.  I think I need to look around for wider molding for the frame, as I would prefer a deeper lip around the plate.  I won't be doing this any time soon, though.  It's just too time consuming to search for the right materials and put them together.

 

Here's a pic of the drop frame. Don't look to close- mitering is not my specialty.

Well, I'm getting to the end of my current glaze firing- at the check on the kiln every 5 minutes phase, so gotta go.

 

getting ready to bisque.....and Red happens

It's been taking a very long time for things to dry out, but I finally have enough to bisque fire today.  I figured with the dry winter air I might have a problem with pots drying too fast, but I guess the basement always stays a little damp.

Some salt pigs and a utensil holder in the kiln today.  Pots were piling up in my basement workspace.  Usually when they are almost dry I transfer them to a shelf next to the kiln in the garage.  With some nights dipping down to the teens recently I was afraid to do that.  If there is still visible moisture and the temp goes to freezing seems like things could go wrong, as in expansion.  I've never taken a thermometer down there.  Since the garage is mostly underground maybe I'm safe.

French butter crocks, also in the kiln.  Actually one crock and 3 lids.  I have some extra crocks due to the tendency the lids have to develop hairline cracks.  Hence the extra lids. 

Not ready to fire- some nesting bowls and a set of soup bowls.  I'll be heading down to trim some of these this afternoon. 

Red happens.  Found this mess this morning.  I leave my slip bucket to set overnight on my wheel so the water will separate enough to pour out,  then I'll recycle the slip into clay. Red, the cat, loves to watch anything liquid move across the floor.  He, in fact, finds it hugely entertaining.  Used to tip his water bowl over every day until I got a tip proof bowl.  I've learned not to leave small glaze containers on my table and I had been hiding my slip bucket from him.  Lately, I thought I could get away with just covering it with a towel.  It worked...for a couple of weeks.  

The guilty party.

Here's what happens to the slip, trimmings, etc.  I'm using a rack that used to dry out bath toys.  The very wet clay is slopped onto a piece of canvass and left to dry to the consistency of usable clay.  Then, because I don't have a pug mill, I double bag it with plastic grocery bags and slam the heck out of it. The idea being to de-air it as much as possible. That doesn't get me out of wedging, but it helps make it easier. 

limiting choices

I unloaded the kiln today and thought I'd show a few pictures from that firing, also a couple of things I'm working on currently.  I tried to control myself with the glazes in this firing.  And the only testing I did was a little experimenting with layering my existing glazes.  I liked it.  Usually I experience a certain amount of anxiety deciding on individual treatments for pots.  Limiting my choices made things so much easier.         

I'm really pleased with these pumpkins.  If  I had started on these earlier I would have made more.  I'm glad I stopped when I did, though, since they took forever to dry.  I suppose being a closed form with just a little hole in the bottom had a lot to do with that.  The really dark pumpkin is the plum glaze I tested recently.  All the others are in the same family- Grace's Base with varying degrees of iron oxide, rutile and/or yellow ochre added. 
  

A couple of acorn finials glazed in temmoku.  I brushed on some white glaze first- too much, I think, on the right one.  I like the gold color formed from overlapping these glazes but this might be bordering on garish. 

More temmoku.  I had a request to make a french butter crock in this glaze with a bird drawn into the lid.  Maybe you can see it on the third crock from the left if you click this picture.  I also made a few without the bird, playing around with brushing the white glaze under the temmoku or using a little oribe over it. 

Normally I would not have settled for plain white, but the picture of these candle holders with red Christmas candles popped into my head as I was contemplating glazes.  Wouldn't that make a nice grouping?  If someone bought all three, that is.

Rolled these out yesterday.  This is not my usual clay.  It has a rich dark color which cannot be appreciated because of the fluorescent lighting in this picture.  The finished plaque on the left is how these should end up looking.  If I'm going to make more of these I'll have to hurry.  The dogwood leaves are turning and soon they will be too brittle to press into the clay.

I'm about to put the knobs on these cookie stamps.  The bottom shapes are the bisque fired forms I use to make these.  Thought I'd get stocked up for Christmas.  Making these doesn't exactly push my creative button anymore, but people tell me they enjoy using them.  Plus, the cookies are really good.    

pumpkins, acorns, and french butter crocks

I've been taking a lot of pictures lately, getting ready to get my etsy shop going again.  Because of my lack of skill with photography it takes many, many pictures to get five acceptable shots. But in between these photo sessions I have been working on a few things, so I thought I'd take pictures of some of the recent stuff to show you.

I'm using the "closed form" idea for these pumpkins.  If I don't quite have enough clay left for a good stem I roll out a small coil which I insert in the neck of the pot and keep on throwing. Sometimes, if there's enough clay to work with I pull the stem like I would pull a handle for a mug. 

A couple glazes I like for these are a satin burnt orange and a speckled off-white.  Colors you might consider natural, although I'm not trying for realistic.

Acorn finials-  I throw these upside down, trim the rounded top, then attach a small ball of clay and throw the little pointy part.  Glaze?  Can't decide yet.

French butter crocks.  A customer requested the bird design.  Naturally, that means making several since the lids on these sometimes develop a hair-line crack.  Frustrating.