MAG Fine Craft Show

We did get that final firing in before leaving last Thursday.

glazed and ready to load

Complete!

We set up in a beautiful spot in the Atrium of the Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester (fondly called MAG)on Friday for the preview that night.
The show itself was both Saturday and Sunday. While sales were poor, it would be difficult to understand the reason. Steve and I and all other craftspeople could write a couple of books on possible reasons one show is successful and the next is not. It seemed to be location, location, location but it is hard to tell for sure. Our display looked great!

 We did enjoy ourselves. After working so hard in the studio, it was delightful to stay with volunteer hosts in Rochester. The Salesins were absolutely great. They had enough room to accommodate both Steve and I and another couple for the duration of the show. What hospitality!

Rudy & Gene Salesin

 The Gallery also offered all the artists a free dinner on Saturday at another host's house as well as a Chili dinner in the Gallery before the opening preview on Friday and a wrap up Brunch on Sunday before the last day of the show.
All in all we were disappointed that the sales didn't equal the hospitality. We were, however, able to convince the Gallery's store to try some of our work in their shop. Our presence there should help acquaint gallery supporters with our work. We are hoping that we will be able to return to their Clothesline Festival in September of 2011. That show was fabulous!

Turning the corner on the MET order

minis glazed above; dried below

minis dried waiting to be bisqued

1st firing

ready to fire

glazed and ready to load again

2nd firing

loaded ready to fire

Drying on top of cooling kiln

lid opened

large pieces of the third firing

3rd firing

4th firing

4th firing

 October was a busy month filled with firings of all the pots we've been making madly. Looks like we  now have over 300 of the 400 minis for the MET order plus a few nice things to take to the show in Rochester this coming weekend.

It's all in the Game

We so often find that just when we are at peak production we'll get hit with a big slowdown.

That's what happen this last week with both kilns demanding repair. New elements, new relays, new thermocouples... the works, everything but the switches had to be replaced. Our kilns work hard though so it is understandable; it's also understandable that we don't like to take unnecessary chances and fix them asap.
After the fix, we fired during the day so we could be sure it was working well. It is difficult to make important decisions about the firing when you are half asleep which is the case when we fire overnight.
Of course, we couldn't use the studio while it was firing so we lost a half day but it was worth it to be sure the kilns were working properly. Though these kilns have a digital programmer, Steve checks the kilns 3-4 times during the firing. Problems that can arise like uneven temperatures top to bottom are then controlled manually as well as possible.

loading the glaze kiln

Continuing to glaze

Success!

Again with a little bit of feeling!

Virtual Studio Tour

loading the bisque

301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310....

Steve's ready for Halloween....

Throwing off the Hump

This term is used to describe the technique of centering a large amount of clay on the wheel before partitioning it into smaller sections one at a time to make numerous small pieces. Steve learned this technique at Haystack Mountain School of Crafts under Mutsuo Yanaginara in 1973. It saves some time and space in being able to continue throwing piece after piece without stopping, placing another ball of wedged clay on the wheel and centering that piece. Still each section has to be individually centered, thrown and removed from the larger mass. The trickiest part is compressing the bottom of the pot when it is not against the wheel head and cutting the piece off of the main 'hump' of clay. Steve uses this technique for throwing all the minis.