Shop Small Saturday, More Books

Today is Shop Small Saturday. I have listed more pottery books in my Etsy store at rock bottom prices. Books are in excellent condition and most are less than half price. There even a couple of vintage pottery books, that although old, have excellent hand building, pinching, and sculpture techniques for the beginner or advance pottery person.

Check it out, books make a great, long lasting gift for yourself or other pottery lovers. I'll also be adding more pottery so stay tuned. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Pottery Books

Hello clay friends, when one reaches a certain age one must consider moving to a one level home not to mention covering medical and dental bills. So planning ahead I am reducing my pottery library. All books are in excellent condition. Prices are $5 and up, plus shipping. Please see my etsy store for the books for sale. I've learned so much from all of these books and hope other's can do the same.

I'm also going to start listing a few pottery pieces on my etsy store, like the leaf set above, so stay tuned for those.  Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Obvara Firing Technique

After reading Ang's design blog about Obvara firing I wondered what it was. Ang has a video on her blog about Obvara firing. After researching all about Obvara I wished I had my raku kiln here with me. You know I'd be trying it right away. Working with clay is fun. Even with all the mistakes and failures it's the fun and the experimentation that keeps me sticking with clay. The yarn bell above was made by Cathi Newlin and is available on Etsy.

I researched on the net and learned Obvara Pottery has it's roots in Eastern Europe from the 19th century Belarussian. It's a technique of firing pots and then scalding them to seal their surface. Through the process some interesting surfaces are achieved. Kelsey Schroeder has a wonderful pictorial on her facebook page showing how Obvara pottery is made. The pot above was made by Kelsey.

I'm loving the earthy surfaces this technique achieves and it reminds me of sepia tone photography. Above is a photograph I took of a blue heron in Florida and I have applied the sepia tone technique to the photo. Sepia tone brings a soft and nostalgic look to contrasting objects in photos.

Here is the original photograph without the sepia tone applied.

Pots fired using the Obvara technique should have the ability to take thermal shock so raku clay or a clay with a fair amount of grog should be used. The pots should be bisque fired. Meanwhile the Obvara mixture should be made. In a five gallon bucket mix 2.6 gallons of warm water with 2.2 pounds of flour, one tablespoon of sugar and 2 packets of yeast. Allow the mixture to ferment for about three days stirring frequently. The calla lily pots above were made by Gail Scuderi.

Then fire the pots again to about 1650 to 1750. Remove pot from kiln with raku tongues and plunge it into the Obvara mixture and swirl it around in there. Next plunge the pot into a five gallon bucket of water and swirl it around in there. Keep the tongues on the pot and don't let go in either the Obvara or water. Set the pot aside to cool. The goose above was made by Janice Chassier. She said the pots come out smelling like pizza or burnt toast. Ha. All I need is a new studio to try this technique out, hopefully sooner than later. Today I am missing clay; can you tell? this post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Leaves and Mermaids

We've had crisp cool nights and warm dry days which makes for some good fall color here in Florida. This is an ornamental pear in our front yard with darker vein color.

Here's a native Florida maple still hanging on to a few leaves which are a wondrous rosy pink color. I'm still seeing frogs, toads, and baby lizards hopping and running around in the yard. And the black snake has made a home in the side yard.

Looks like I have to make more leaf dishes since I sold two more leaves on Etsy. Miracles never cease as they say. Speaking of Etsy, Michele put together a wonderful treasury featuring pottery of pottery bloggers. While you're checking out Etsy see Michele's shop for her piggy banks and more wonderful pottery; she also has a mermaid orb which really caught my eye.

Do folks still use stockings? I remember as a kid we had stockings and it was so much fun looking inside to see what small gift might be hidden in there. I think a handmade piece of pottery would make a great stocking stuffer. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Gary's Sketches

Gary says he isn't an artist. I disagree. These are a few of his sketches.

One of these days I hope to make some decals and transfer some of these to clay.

I sold four leaves on Etsy in one week, what a surprise. Must be leaf season. Ha. The leaves are very versatile as a tea bag holder, spoon rest, ring dish, tea light holder, or they're just pretty to look at. Each one is made with a real leaf impression so no two are alike.

If you're looking for a leaf or small plate there will be more listed in my shop tomorrow. Prices in the shop include shipping in the USA. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Ceramic Baker Oven Poached Pompano

An Environmental Ceramics Inc. fish baker designed and manufactured by Taylor and Ng circa mid 1970s was used for this recipe. Win Ng was a Chinese American sculptor, industrial designer, and illustrator whose early career focused on abstract work influenced by Peter Voulkos. He is best known for opening Environmental Ceramics which manufactured pottery sold in the department store Taylor and Ng he co-founded with Spaulding Taylor.

 The interior is glazed, exterior is unglazed, there is a small hole in tail for steam to escape.

I started with one whole cleaned pompano 1 1/2 pound fish and cooked shrimp to stuff interior. Shelly of Shelly's Seafood in Homosassa suggested I try pompano this week. What a good recommendation, thanks so much.

 Place shrimp in fish cavity and drizzle with Vietnamese garlic and red chili sauce.

 Chop one shallot, half cup or more of cilantro, one inch square of ginger, and juice two limes.

 Place stuffed pompano in ceramic fish baker.

Add one cup dry white wine, lime juice, and cilantro, ginger, and shallots sprinkled over the top. Put cover on fish baker and place in cold oven and set temp to 400 F, cook for 25 minutes. Immediately remove from oven.

Here is cooked pompano fish.

 Remove pompano from baking dish and reserve liquid in fish baker.

Remove shrimp stuffing and set aside, and peel skin from fish if desired. Skin is paper thin on pompano fish and little to no scales are present.

The BEST FISH I ever ate. Pompano is a mild buttery flavored white fleshed fish. I placed fish on plate with some of the shrimp stuffing, some rice and drizzled with juices from fish cooker, and a few black olives. The juices were superb drizzled over the top. There is one of these vintage cookers on Etsy (not my listing), if you love fish, get it and use it. You won't be disappointed using it. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Plates in Colors

For this firing I had ten rectangular plates and made two of each glaze color; the plates are 9 x 5 inches. Previously I made only one of each glaze and folks wanted multiples. Although I did have someone order a set of these and the smaller plates all in different colors. I have more of these drying with a different clay, we shall see how the glazes turn out with that clay. This first one is blue green and gold.

This one is a sort of a plum rose red color. Even though these plates seem simple to make I always have to sand the edges of each one before the bisque, because sometimes there are burrs left since the pattern goes all the way to the edge. Oh, I got a little driplet of glaze on the bottom of one plate, what do you use to sand the bottoms of your pots?

This one is a shino and green. Interesting the other plate is all green and just a hint of the brown.

This one is kind of a smokey blue and bronze, which normally doesn't get that wine color, but this time it did and I think it's nice.

This one is a spring or lime green and has a more even color.

Even though each one of these plates is made individually, they stack nicely in the cabinet and work well for luncheon plates, appetizers, serving plates, or even a catch all on a dresser or counter top. I'm taking these to the farmer's market today, hope there's lots of people and it doesn't rain till the afternoon. One of my leaf dishes was in this Olive Green Treasury on Etsy and another one in this Pale In Green Treasury on Etsy. This post is part of Artists in Blogland show and tell Saturday. Thanks for reading and for all  your comments.

The Right Gallery Fit

In this area of Florida it's tough to find a gallery which is a good fit for pottery. Most of my work has been in gallery settings which primarily feature paintings or in locations without a lot of traffic. My goal for this Fall is to find other avenues to sell my work. One place my work is selling like hot cakes is The Garden Shed on Rock Crusher Road nearby in Homosassa. Louise carries artisan made products of local artists and she does a wonderful job of displaying and selling my work. Even though her shop is in an out of the way location she advertises and has events and classes to draw customers to her store. Thanks Louise.

I pulled my work out of the Florida Artists Gallery in Floral City and I'm listing a few pieces I had there in my Etsy shop until I can find other locations to show and sell my work So look for new pieces on Etsy. The gold filled vase above did sell recently but neither the multi leaf serving bowl in the first photo sold nor did the sea urchin adorned vase below.

Recently Michele Hastings mentioned Big Cartel. I looked at this e-commerce site a few years ago when Kristen Kieffer mentioned it on her blog but didn't feel I could produce work to keep the shop filled adequately at the time. I had just relocated across the country, switched to a new kiln, and was trying new clays and firing temperatures. However, now I think Big Cartel might be a good venue to sell some of my more sculptural work. Stay tuned for more on the topic of sales venues. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Hanging Out

Outside my window this anole lizard has been hanging out. I was finally able to get a shot of him in his threatening stance with his throat or dewlap puffed out. He bobs his head up and down and then he puffs out his dewlap pouch to warn other males from his territory. The pouch is also puffed out to attract females.

This is one of my hand pinched meditation bowls just listed in my Etsy Shop. I sold another one of these to the same customer, she said they make great gifts.

My salt and pepper server was featured in a Etsy treasury called 'Out of the Salt Mines'. I never knew there were so many different types of salt containers.

After the electricity went out the other day I unplugged the kiln. Later I replugged it in and started the firing again. Everything in the kiln looks fine. I didn't unload yet, I'll do that today. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Happy Holidays to All

Happy holidays to everyone. Life is good. Gary got a whole box of organic satsumas from California for Christmas and he and I are preparing to overdose on their goodness. We ordered them from our local organic grocery supplier for $30, money well spent. Satsuma are seedless, easy to peel, and very sweet.


Thanks to all my readers and pottery supporters, hope you have a happy and safe holiday season. I am slowly adding pottery to my Etsy shop. The kiln is cooling; I have a few experiments with volcanic ash and glass in there. I'll have a Christmas eve kiln opening, so stay tuned. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Stirling Gallery & Etsy

The Stirling Art Gallery Exhibit is set for January 2011. Ceramic artist's in the Florida's Gulf Coast Potter's Guild, including myself, will have work on display and for sale from January 3 through the 31st. That's my vase on the bottom row second from the left. We had to have a photo a couple of weeks ago, so I chose a piece I previously made for the poster.

There will be an artist's reception on January 14, 2011 from 5:30 to 8:30 held in conjunction with the Dunedin 2nd Friday Wine/Art Walk. If you are in the area, hope you can make it to see the show. The gallery is located at 730 Broadway, Dunedin, Florida and is open from 11 am to 5 pm Monday through Friday and 12 to 5 pm Saturday.


I worked most of the day setting up paypal, taking photos, setting up Etsy, then loading some pieces onto Etsy. The first item took me forever, then I got the hang of it. Tall vases are difficult to show the whole piece, I may have to retake those photos. Only had time to load a few items since the bisque was cool and I just had to take a look.


Unloaded the bisque and everything came out, even the mug I slipped the stem to the cup section and propped with a biscuit during the bisque load. Yippee! I'm really enamored with my prototype forms for the goblet and mug, wish I had more of them dry and ready to bisque. These pinch forms take longer to dry than other items since the parts have varying thicknesses.

I decided to glaze two goblets with one glaze and two with another. One of the boxes of clay had one type of clay stamped then another written on it and the bisque color looks different than I expected; so I'm not sure how the glaze will come out. I'm about half through glazing; I want to glaze fire today, hopefully I'll have good results in the glaze load too. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Butter Dishes & Etsy ?s

Here are a couple of stick butter dishes from the other day. I was inspired to make stick butter dishes from a visit to Whynot Pottery shop earlier this year. Meredith has some really wonderful ones in her shop. If you're in Seagrove stop in and ask her about them.

When I got home I saw my stick of butter on a round plate in the refrigerator. Thought about it all fall and finally got around to making a couple of stick butter dishes. I've heard the ones without covers for households without cats.
Could be for households where the butter has to be kept in the frig due to hot weather too, like ours. I have a glass dish, but in the summer the butter can melt so quickly. Ceramic holds the cold of the frig much longer than glass. I think the handle for the bottom one is a bit long, but it's already attached, so I'll see how it is. I thought a longer handle would be nice when passing it across a table.

Farmer's Market was a rainout today, but we need the rain. I now have my Etsy banner up. Spent more than a day trying to photoshop a banner, then learned in an Etsy tutorial I could make one in Powerpoint much easier. Working on my descriptions and multiple photos now. Wondering if you have paypal for Etsy, did you sign up for a business paypal account? Do you have it linked to your checking account, savings, or a separate account? The wheels of my progress seem to move slowly. Have a safe and relaxing weekend.

Tampa Tour de Clay

Saturday I went to the Tour de Clay kiln openings in Tampa. I was so surprised to meet a fellow blogger, John Bauman, at the first stop. I had no idea John was one of the guest potters at Glenn Woods and Keith Herbrand's. I recognized John's pottery from reading his blog. We had so much to talk about: writing, blogging, etsy, marketing, and pottery as a profession.


Here are some random photos taken at some of the other stops on the tour. I learned if I spend time taking photos I don't have time to enjoy the pottery or talk to the potters so I limited my photos this time. That's Ira Berhans demonstrating throwing and the next is a shopper at the Rising Sun Pottery kiln at Peter and Joshua Streit's studio.


I decided to open an Etsy store some time ago, but kept putting it off. I seem to have turned into a bit of a procrastinator this past year. After reading recent blog posts about Etsy and talking with Tracey and then John, I vowed to forge ahead. I've set up a few basics to the store, but now need to figure out how to accept payment and put some pieces in the shop for sale. I also need to work on a better banner; I just quickly put up one to fill in the spot. Tips are always appreciated.