Thanks!

Thanks everyone!  I'm glad so many new pots have new homes.  Enjoy them.  

It was a great day and so enjoyable to sit in a house with friends and family while selling pots.

Thanks again to all who came and thanks to those brave enough to see a chalkboard sign and walk up the path to the studio sale.  

Below are a few pics from the show....

Today we drive back to the Cape in the rain and snow.  Friday is our Holiday Studio Sale which will have refreshments and lots of pots...including a big seconds sale.  

Come on Over....

665 Milton Road

Rye, NY

Trunk Show Saturday!

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving.  If you are in the NY area I hope you'll find some time to stop by our Trunk Show here in Rye. 

Details and directions are available on our website.  

Hope to see you all tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving

We're down at my folk's house in Rye for Thanksgiving. My mother has
been cooking for about 3 weeks getting ready.

The house is starting to smell like Thanksgiving as one bird is in the
oven(pictured above) and another being smoked outside.

It's going to be a good meal surrounded by 7 crazy grandchildren
running around.

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating and best wishes to all
of those readers from abroad.

And best of all...my mother just found the turkey-baster so all is
okay. We had our first Thanksgiving related stress-fest about an hour
and a half ago.

New Pots Online!

I've spent the majority of the last week getting my website tweaked.  I hadn't really paid much attention to it recently and it was getting stale.  

Not anymore.  I wasn't going to upload pots until after Thanksgiving but I couldn't help myself.  I still have some more photos to take and more pots to put up but I'll work on that the rest of the week.  

So, check out the new pots...and the best part is...Free Shipping on everything thru December 15th.  I'll be sending out an email newsletter after I get the rest of the new work online later this week.  

It's a little early but we're heading out of town tomorrow afternoon. I'm hoping to beat the traffic down to NY by leaving when the kids get finished up with school tomorrow. Javi's school has a big Thanksgiving Luncheon over at the Chatham Bars Inn. So, he's off to school in his nice slacks, a dress shirt and a blazer. I can't wait to see it all covered with gravy in the afternoon.

Behind the Scenes Work

I've spent this week doing the unseen parts of being a potter.  Not the studio part of the job but the part where I photograph everything, start updating the website, sending out mailings and getting email newsletters out for our upcoming Holiday Trunk Show.

I was going to upload the new pots to the webstore after Thanksgiving but I found myself with some time this week so I'm almost done with pictures.  I'm doing a mix of pots on a backdrop and pots in a home setting.  I think it should help with the context of viewing functional pots on a website.  I want to have everything ready to go together instead of uploading things piecemeal.  If I can figure out the php code for a couple more changes to the site I should have it up by Monday.  

Javi had a friend over after school today who asked a question that I had trouble answering with a straight face.  I was in the dining room photographing some of the work and he walked over, looked at the setup and said, "Why are you taking pictures of a coffee cup?"  My only answer was, "Because I made it."  I'm not sure if the answer was good enough for Henry.

I wish I had this setup for photographing my work.  Perhaps with that setup and some actual photography skills, my pics would look better.

I'll let you all know when the site is ready.  

Coming Up

This is what's next on the agenda.

 

We'll be hosting a Trunk Show down in Rye, NY the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Along with my newest work, Randall Darwall & Brian Murphy will have their work and Michael McCarthy will have his most recent pots.  All of the details are on the Kreeger Pottery Website.

Randall Darwall makes truly amazing work.  His scarves, shawls and clothing are known all over the world.  The colors that he finds in those dye buckets of his are unbelievable.  

Michael McCarthy just fired the woodkiln out at Stonepool Pottery so he'll have some beautiful pots with him. 

Until then, I'll be spending my time catching up on office work and photographing my newest work.  I'll be uploading all of the new work onto our website right after Thanksgiving.  

We'll be announcing some awesome Web Specials in the Online Store for those of you who live too far to make it to the show.

Well....

...I don't really know what to say...Boston, the economy,  the new work, the new show, the new location?  It was rough.  

Craft Shows can be tough....I started doing them in 2002.  My first show was Crafts at the Castle, which this show is replacing.   On the very first day of our very first show Evangelina and I were wrapping pots and passing them off to customers as you would pass a hot dog down the row of seats at a baseball game.  

This show...not so much.  It was frustrating because this show was the first time I was showing my new work.  For me it was the culmination of 7 months of work switching from soda/salt/wood to reduction firing.

New work...new booth...new expectations....uh oh.  

I know that I can't take it personally when things don't go as planned.  Thank you to all who did show up and have added some of my new work to your collections.  I'm grateful and I hope you enjoy your new pieces.  Even though this show didn't pan out as planned I have some positive things to bring back with me.  The feedback I got on my new work was tremendous...especially from fellow artists and long time customers.

Now...obviously I would have been ecstatic to sell all of the work that I brought with me...and that was my plan.  But, that is well beyond my control.  We are beginning an interesting time for our country with an economy that has over-leveraged and over-consumed.  I have joked with my customers over the years that I lucked into pottery by taking a class one summer at Skidmore.  I always said that because of that one class I actually graduated college with a skill.  No matter how disappointing a single show is, it pales in comparison to the fact that I have created something.  My pots are here...they exist...they are real.  

So...enough dwelling on a disappointing show.  I had an entire weekend to do that. Tomorrow it begins again.  I'll start small....probably by unloading the van.  Perhaps that will lead to cleaning the studio and with that clean space I'll be able to figure out where this last round of pots will lead me to next.  

Oh...and while I was gone, did anyone happen to clean my bisque kiln full of blown up pots?  See...I have things to do.  

And to put it all in perspective...when I got home I went upstairs to see my kids who I haven't seen since sending them off to school on Wednesday.  I still had my name tag hanging around my neck which led to Alejandra asking me..."Wow...did you win a medal?"  

I said yes and I gave her my medal.

I just went up to turn out her lights...this is how I found her.  I think she has created a pre-school for her dolls.

In Honor of Sam

It's been a long day.  We still have another 1/2 hour to go and in honor of Sam, I just poured a small cup of bourbon.  One of the things to look forward to in Baltimore is stopping by Sam's booth late in the day.

Show has been interesting.  A long post will probably happen later.

One of the nice things of this show has been that I finally got to meet Kari and thank her for putting up the recipe page that helped me start with the earthenware during the summer. 

CraftBoston, Setting Up.

Well...I'm wireless blogging up here at CraftBoston thanks to my father's 3g wireless connect card.

I'm just about done setting up the booth as the picture above shows.  I just need to tweak a few things and make sure that everything is priced.  I forgot a lot more booth stuff than I should have.  I wanted to hang that large platter but I have no wire to hang it with.  I could use a few extra shelves to deal with all of the extra orange space on the walls.  And, if I could find some tape that would keep my nice sign up on the wall that would help.  But...these are all little things.  The plan is that people are looking at the work instead of the booth....right?

I'll get some pics of the work up soon.  I'm hoping to see all of you living in the Boston area.

Boston....

Tomorrow, these will be in Boston...

Tomorrow is set-up day at CraftBoston.  I meant to snap some photos of the newest pots but I ran out of time.  Don't worry...I'll be able to take some during the show and I'll even try to find some time to upload them while I'm in Boston.

So..tomorrow, I'll try to figure out my new booth set-up and get a good amount of work done so that Thursday is a little easier of a work day before the show starts Thursday night.

It should all go really smoothly because Ben helped put together an awfully cool booth. It should set up really easily and I shouldn't need to ask any friends or neighbors for help....that doesn't mean I won't.  I'll get some pics tomorrow during the set-up.

Now it's off to find all of those power cords, power strips and all of the other little things to make a booth work.

Email Newsletter

I'm getting ready to send out a new email newsletter. I've pretty much made the switch to an email mailing list instead of postcards.

If you would like to join our email mailing list so you don't miss out on anything....sign up with the form below now:

Sign up for our Email Newsletter

For Email Marketing you can trust

Ready To Go

Almost.  

The firing finished of nicely on Saturday Morning.  I'm not sure if the all-nighter was worth it though.  But, I will be unloading in about an hour, as soon as I get Clarita down for her morning nap.  With my normal firing and cooling schedule I unload the kiln mid-afternoon....so at least I'll get the pots out earlier today.

I peeked in the kiln late last night and was able to snag a few pieces from the bottom this morning.  The celadon came out really nicely on both the stoneware and the porcelain.  It's very strange how much I'm liking the celadon glaze.  This summer was my first time firing reduction for my work in a long time.  

For the past few years it had been strictly soda, salt, and woodfiring.  Once my little soda-kiln here died I was so attached to vapor glazing my wares that I was driving across the state to "borrow" Mark's kiln.  It got to be a little too much traveling to finish my work...the fact that I have 3 kids added to the time constraints.  I look forward to getting some pots back in an atmospheric kiln at some point but right now the decorations under the celadon glaze are working really well.  I just feel like a celadon glaze is about as far away from a kaolin slip as you can get.  But...it's working....no need to question it. Of course, this show is my first big show featuring all of this new work so we'll see how it is all received.  

Today will be spent unloading the kiln, sanding, pricing and packing up pots for the show and the orders that need to go out.  The new booth walls have a couple coats of paint on them...good enough to go.

Pics to come after I unload and get some work done.  Oh...and Michael (McCarthy), finish building that kiln so I can sneak some pots into a woodfiring!

Firing Day/Night

I turned on the pilots about an hour ago after a marathon glazing session in the studio. 

My studio right now makes that electric kiln below look clean and organized.  I'll hopefully get it back to somewhat normal tomorrow but today I have no intentions of rectifying that situation.  Once again, that apprentice idea for Austin is looking like a smart move.

I plan on letting the kiln climb slowly this evening and then fire it off through the night.  If all goes according to my grand plan I'll be reducing the kiln by 6am and then just wait for some cones to drop before lunch tomorrow.  

The rest of this weekend is going to be spent getting my booth ready for CraftBoston. I have a corner booth but am bringing a new setup that my friend Ben is helping me put together.  The only thing I'm worried about is that I don't know how I'm going to do the lighting.  I usually bring a conduit pipe setup for pipe and drape.  This time I want to avoid having a corner post in the front, open corner.  That leads to the problem of hanging the tracks since I have no way of lighting the front corner now.  Words aren't working with this description.  I'll try to get some pics up this weekend to explain myself better.

Time to brainstorm....if only my brain was working.   

Deep Thought

Either learn to throw much thinner or make these forms much earlier in the cycle.

The large platter is okay...but these which I threw one day before the bisque didn't work out quite as well.  It's a shame...I kind of liked them.  Just proves not to like anything until well after it is out of the glaze kiln....and....kilns that have elements in the bottom of the kiln heat up the bottom shelf very quickly.

This bisque kiln will be closed and what is inside will be forgotten about until it's time to load another bisque.  At that time I will open the kiln, remember my stupidity and spend a few minutes trying to remember where I put my studio vacuum.  

Wow...I can see the future!

Uh Oh!

Hey Doug!  It's contagious!

I knew I was forcing the issue with this last bisque.  I was too lucky on the last one.  So far all of the small pieces seem to be alright but I have a large platter on the shelf below and I'm afraid to find out.  

Alright...

One more political post.

You must click here....now!  Please.

Latest Firing

Back to Pots...Really.

I have a table full of finished mugs.  I started out this cycle deciding to make mostly larger pieces.  Large vases, large bowls, large platters and then something happened and my scale shrunk back down.  I have a nice variety of small, medium and large pieces now.  So...I'm glad that I didn't stick to my game plan.

I'm looking for some energy to start glazing for this next kiln-load.  I have the final, very damp bisque soaking right now and will fire that off later tonight.  I haven't really started glazing yet...I've just been staring blankly at the bisqueware on tables and shelves all afternoon.

I really like how everything turned out so I basically see almost everything getting a thick coating of celadon again and hoping for the best.  So....tonight will be a prep session....waxing, clearing shelves and the like and getting ready to really glaze tomorrow....hopefully.  I do need this next round of pots for the show so I need to get that motivation back soon.  I'm going with the theory that this will be like painting...the prep work takes some time and isn't fun but the actual glazing will go quickly and then I can load up quickly.

Here are a couple pics of my table of mugs.

Back To Work

This is the last purely political post in a while.  For those who are just looking for pots, I apologize for straying from this blog's title.  Although, much of went on here at Kreeger Pottery the last few days was about what was happening around this country.  I made some pots but my focus was on this election.  

I don't really know what to say.  I used up just about all of my emotions yesterday. Especially since I was working really hard to keep them in check so I wouldn't be disappointed. Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo said that he emailed his wife at 9:12pm last night with concern about the race.  I'm glad he didn't share that on his blog or I would have started to really worry.

Personally, yesterday and today is much more than President-Elect Obama's victory.  I am hoping that this is a repudiation of the politics of tactics, of rumor, of fear and of division. Watching yesterday it was nice to know that this is still a participatory democracy.  This wasn't about populism...the amazing thing about Obama's campaign is that he allowed supporters to hope and to feel that working for him epitomized their own ideals.  

I am curious to see if Obama will govern as he campaigned, and I don't mean whether it will be a continual campaign.  I wonder if we who supported him continue to get emails and asked for help in fixing the serious problems affecting the nation.   If we are all included directly in the process I think that there is a chance of some greatness to come.  Instead of using a bully pulpit to talk through the television to the nation explaining what the government is doing we may see something very different.  Instead of seeing politics be purely about the parlor games of DC power circles it could be about what happens in DC and how people implement it directly. Think about it...if you were asked to help...would you?  

Pottery blogging resumes shortly.

Posts and Pics shortly.

Yes We Can!

Almost.....

This will be opened when it's official!

Fired Up!

Ready to Go!

Vote!

Blogging about pottery will resume tomorrow.

Today....Vote...and...Enjoy this moment in history.

Listen and read about others enjoying it as well.

Here is a story from Talking Points Memo.

¡Si Se Puede!

VOTE!

VOTE!

Vote!

We went before school so Javi and Ale could help us vote.  I'm actually surprised that my ballot went through because the line that Javi made connecting the arrow on the ballot wasn't exactly straight.  

They wouldn't leave for school until they could hold some signs.  I've never seen a line this long here in Harwich before.  

Vote!  

Vote!

Tomorrow morning we're waking up early, having a quick breakfast and then taking Javi, Ale and Clarita with us to vote.  The polls open at 7am here in Massachusetts.  

Javi and Ale are very excited to help us draw the line for Barack Obama on our optical scan ballots.  

Go Vote!  Make sure your friends do!

Lists

My list of things to get done seems to be getting longer.  

I've been more productive in the studio than I have been in a while...but the list keeps growing. I haven't tried to turn-around the reduction kiln this quickly in years so there's no post firing rest this time.  On the upside...I'm actually unloading the second kiln-load with time to spare before I load up the van for CraftBoston...and that's unusual for me.

I  got a little more throwing done today but probably not enough to fully fill another bisque kiln. Unless I somehow manage to find some more energy tonight and throw another ware-board full of pots I'll be loading a not quite dry and not quite full electric bisque tomorrow night.  Then, it's off to the races as I get ready for another firing, figure out a booth setup and try to find some time to update my website with the new work.

Pleased

I had a typical after-firing response today.  I didn't really react at all.  Now that I had the day to absorb it all I'm feeling pretty good about the firing and ready to start glazing again this week to fire again by the weekend.  

Almost the entire kiln was celadon glazes over a variety of slip decoration techniques.  Just before I was done loading I found an Axner Potter's Pen with black slip.  I had never used it...I think I ordered it about a year ago and it sat on a shelf somewhere in the studio.  I tried it on the middle vase in the pic below as a test...pretty big test, actually.  I liked the result.  It's a nice fine line and some of the black bleeds through a little bit into the glaze...none of these details show up in these quick pics so you'll just have to believe me.  I think I'll play around with it a little more.

The black slip on the mugs below is incised to the stoneware clay below.  The pic makes it look a little plastic-like but these came out really nicely.

The celadon on these mugs is just what I was looking for.  I like the white slip/black slip/stoneware going on with these.

Another good white slip/incised with black slip/celadon glazed piece.

Here's the large platter that I made.  It fired to a little over 21 inches across and came out really nicely.  

Somehow I'll shoot new and better pics for the website in the next week or so.

Tomorrow is another morning of throwing some more small porcelain pieces for this week's firing and then hopefully by afternoon I'm off to prep for glazing again.  The goal is to load Thursday....but....as long as I'm firing the kiln by Sunday things will be out in time for CraftBoston.

Still Cooling

While the kiln cools I'm trying to throw lots of small things to fill up the little spaces in the next kiln...more importantly...they need to dry quickly so I can cycle them through and fill up another bisque or 2 before Wednesday.

I planned on making some cups for bourbon but these are a little taller and might have lines that are a little too elegant for bourbon.  We'll have to find another function for them.  I thought of turning them into mugs but I want to play around with decorating the 4 sides of these guys.

Here are some little shot cups...they're all about 1/2 pound of clay or less.  I'll play around with glazes on these little guys....and it will be good to have something under $20 in my booth up in Boston.