Art of the Pot

I keep forgetting to tell everyone the good news. For those that don't know, there's a great group of potters here in Austin who work together and host a big tour Mother's Day Weekend called Art of the Pot. I've been invited into the group and will be a host potter beginning in 2011.

There is a great tour planned for this year. AOTP Founders Chris Campbell, Ryan McKerley, Lisa Orr & Claudia Reese will be hosting Ted Adler, Jennifer Allen, Ben Bates, Joe Bova, Charity Davis-Woodard, Sanam Emami, Nancy Gardner, Amy Halko, Brenda Lichman, Mark Shapiro, Jane Shellenbarger and Ryan Takaba.

I'm excited to be working with such a great group and I'm looking forward to being here for this year's tour in a few months. In the meantime, I'm working on re-working their website...and learning about WordPress in the process.

Art of the Pot has a new Facebook page and I hope you'll check it out and "become a fan"

What's Going On?

I just got my formal introduction to Texas weather. No, not the searing heat that we were welcomed with in August when we first moved. On Sunday it was 76º and absolutely beautiful. Tuesday, it snowed...or as my brother likes to say, it snew. It kind of makes sense as the past tense to me now. And today, it was 55º and gorgeous again by the afternoon.

We've had a great couple of weeks here. This past weekend we celebrated my son's 7th birthday. It was actually more like the entire week and he had a blast the entire time. I guess we're Texan now because this was one of his presents:

Although, if we were really Texans, I guess it would be a real one.

Modus Operandi

As with any assigment, I'm running a little behind schedule...perhaps I can get a note from my mother so Michael will still let me turn it in. (do you still get to do that as an adult?)

I made cups yesterday. I made lots of cups, not all of them before Noon but most of them. Most likely they will all get decals on them after they're fired. Some are squared, some are cylindrical and others will get fluted tomorrow.

Tomorrow I'll be making a few more cups and finish up everything for the weekend.

A Month Late...

Update, 12:50pm:

Sorry for the image quality on the NYC postcards. I guess I used the halftoned jpegs that I used for the actual decals rather than the original image. More on that later when I get a how to together about the decal.

Original Post:

I'm ready to attack 2010. I may be a month late but procrastinating has always been my downfall.

I had planned a 2009 review but it's a bit late so we'll go with the Cliff's Notes version for everybody...We moved to Texas.

The rest is a blur. It's been a good move and we're definitely beginning to feel a little more settled in. It was awfully strange returning back to Austin after the Holiday Road Trip. Well, a month has gone by and I'm ready to start working again in my new city.

I haven't actually made pots yet but the (extended) time off has given me some ideas of where I want to go next. The year in Austin began with CityScape line drawings and then I moved onto laser toner decals. I don't think I ever posted any pics of the decalcomania wares on the blog so I will put some up shortly. I did post them on the Kreeger Pottery Facebook page though.

I used photos I took of the current Austin skyline as well as used some postcards from my grandfather's extensive collection. The postcard ones turned out to be my favorites. Here's a couple of sample postcards I used:

And here's a couple of the Austin photos I used:

I'm really enjoying using the cards with the handwriting on the front. Most of the ones I used were postmarked in the 1920's and 1930's. There was something very cool about using these artifacts on my pots. I also really enjoyed the method of photoshopping the cards, cutting the decals and applying them to the pots. Yes...one more step to the process. And, we moved here at a really interesting point for Austin's downtown as the City is trying to figure out it's next move in development. The skyline has changed dramatically since we first came here a few years back and decided to move. I guess I'll develop my work as the city develops itself.

My plan for the next month is to make series of cups and tumblers, fire them in Ryan's soda kiln and then apply the different decals. I'm planning on 2 main series, Old York Postcards as well as finding some Old Austin ones around here too. I have 2 CDs with about 1500 scanned postcards so I have some work to do finding the ones to put on. It's awfully cool research though.

I'll take another look after this next firing about what to do next but I'm thinking I have to split my studio mind into 2 distinct groups...decal wares and line drawings. I'm hoping it makes sense to my customers and galleries. I also hope it makes sense to me as I'm working.

I'm glad to be in the studio writing this post. I was ready to put a big old on hiatus post up and wasn't sure when I'd be back. Brandon kind of forced the issue the other day. So..hopefully more soon.