Up side downers and siders

Here is one of the two mugs that I tried a side firing on some shells. I was extremely pleased with it and have lots more for the next load.

This is the opposite side of the mug shown above. I have probably drank around 25 cups of coffee out of it already and it was just fired a 2 weeks ago from this friday. It works very well, and I hope many more come out like it in the future.

Here is the inside of an upside down mug with a pretty nice shell mark on it, and some sweet glaze drips

Here is a picture of the outside. You can see where that glaze caught on the under side of the ridge in the middle instead of the top because it was fired up side down.

Here is one of the underside. I put a piece of blue glass inside of the foot and it got so reduced that it turned purple and red in some places.

An up side down bowl with a little bit of glaze drip on the rim.

Here is the wild underside..... hope you enjoy!

Big pots

So I have started firing and working hard on some big coil and throw pieces, and they are most definitely humbling. This planter has a few cracks in the top of the rim which was a huge bummer considering the awesome quality of the glaze. I guess my mom will love it. I am sure it will go nicely with all of the other pieces that she has received lately.

Here is a closeup of the sweet glaze drips from one of the handles. I was very pleased with the glaze.

Here is a jar that did not crack or screw up. I do think the lid warped during the firing and now it sits a little high which bugs me pretty bad. On the positive side the finger wipes on this pots turned out really nice. I looked at the pictures from my previous blog with the four pots in a row and realized that only one of those four made it to completion without cracking or busting. Apparently I need to do something different, and I think it is the clay body I am using.

Here is a sweet closeup of the finger wipe decoration on this large jar.

These are jars for the next firing which will hopefully be loaded on Wednesday. The taller one has cracked in the bottom and now I am trying to fix it, but I am pretty sure I am wasting my time. lol. These bigger pieces have really come with a whole noew set of problems to encounter, but I am learning.

Nomadic College Potter!

Over Christmas I moved my studio equipment back to the basement of my parents house so I have been a nomadic potter for the last while.  I moved back there because I was living over there over christmas break.  It was a much more predictable environment with the AC and all, but it required me to really jump on my horse because stuff was drying out so fast.  I honestly did not work that many days over break, but the days I did work I was able to do handling and all in the same day if I got in there early enough and it was nice to have that control.  

These are some of the pots I made over break.  Some big bowls and vases with fillers.  

I made and broke a number of big pots over break.  My favorite was the wide jar here, but the bottom busted on it so that was a bummer so I guess I will have to make another one.  The other jar has a lid too and looks much stronger with it on there.  To the right are a couple of planters or umbrella holders.  I am having a real blast making these large pots and have a pretty good clay body mixed for them so I am doing as many as I can.

Yesterday I called Ron Philbeck and he told me Michael Kline was in his studio hanging around so I made the way over there to talk pots and just general things as well.  It was a real load of fun and I wish I could have stayed longer if you want to know the truth.  As you can see these guys are avid bloggers and have their cameras ready to snap some shots.    

I figured I would put up a pic of me workin just because that is all have been itchin to do lately and every chance I get I run to the studio to make work.  Sadly we are having some serious issues with the kiln while I am sitting on a few loads of pots.  We should be able to get it resolved in the next week and I will be a firing machine for a while, but until then all I can do is sit around until the parts come in which is really driving me crazy since I have a show in Shelby next week.  AAAAAAAHHH!  I guess it is all good though considering my hands still work very well. haha.  

New Web Site

So today the kiln was unloaded and this was one of my favorite mugs so I had a cup of coffee from it within an hour from removing it from the kiln.  

I now have an official website!!!!  It was just put up a few weeks ago.  There are still some gallery pictures that need to be uploaded, but other than that it is good to go.  The domain is www.bradlailpottery.com.  Check it out and let me know what you think!! 

Drying Madness!!!

So all of these pots needed to be dried in a hurry and luckily the weather made it nice and easy.  It made for some good photos too.

Happy Meaninglessness

So the wheels have been turning about 100 miles an hour around here the last 3 weeks or so.  I went to the Burlon Craig festival about this time last month and sold more pots than I thought I would.  So in response to that I had to make a load of work for the Fairgrounds show this weekend.  I had about 3 weeks to turn work and believe me it got done.  School pretty much hit the back burner during this very short, yet strong period of concentration on my work.  

I finished up the throwing last Wednesday (Nov 4) of cups and little things.  There were about 100 pieces or so total.  I loaded and fired at the beginning of this week and got them out this afternoon.  They all look pretty crazy awesome except we had an accident with some of the ceiling falling down on a bunch of the big pieces.  The kiln got a little hot too, but it really just made things look crazier.  The clay and glaze took it fine so all was good.  

So needless to say the past few weeks I have been in another world concentrating very hard on making the best work possible.  I have also been reading in Ecclesiastes lately and it has really been speaking to me.  I am very thankful that I am doing work that if looked at from a certain angle is extremely meaningless.  I mean, people don't really need pots to stay alive or give life meaning.  They are simply a luxury or enhancement.  I am glad it is not something like selling tires or something that seems very needed by the world.  I prefer to live life in happy meaninglessness.  Seeing the work like a spiritual act of worship that is for the furthest thing from myself is the most gratifying choice I make on a daily basis.  When the work it is looked at after being fired into a physical object it almost humors me to thing that I put all my time into what comes out to be a simple physical object that can be held or touched.  Something on the same playing field as every other meaningless worldly thing.  

We make the choice as the artist not to get too attached to the work we do, nor to ourselves as the maker.  When you loose touch with what the work needs in order to start focusing on what will make you look better as an individual, the work suffers and doesn't speak for itself properly.  If you look at making pots like a natural living response such as breathing or walking then what you make should speak like a natural living responsive act.  Hopefully, subtle yet bringing life and energy to the surrounding environment. 

I suppose the first thing anyone must do in order to obtain a subtleness to their stride is learn to stand up and walk.    

    

Poem and Thought from a Thesis

I have taken a break from making work for a while just to read and write for my thesis.  I have to say that it has been so great to do some writing and thinking on a deep subject I build tremendous amount of my life around.  I have read a number of books so far, but none have hit the nail on the head more that "The Unknown Craftsman, A Japanese Insight into Beauty."  If one understands what makes an object, or work of art of any kind beautiful and balanced before you read it then your world will most likely be rocked.  

  Lately I have had so much churning through my head that I keep note paper with me to write down ideas all the time.  I had a great thought last Tuesday night while I was at a worship service at school.  The song was about dancing.  It brought to mind an incident that happened to me about 3 weeks ago when I went contra dancing.  

I was swinging with a girl in the corner of a dance floor.  It must have been a 16 count swing because it seemed like it lasted a lifetime.  There was a connection we had that was out of this world.  Our eyes were locked so tight that it was like we were reading each others minds, knowing the next move the other was going to make like it was magic.  

The only thing was that I did not realize how beautiful this moment was until someone tripped the girl.   Here is the Poem:

Swing

I go to a dance hall to dance none the less,

To have fun and not impress, 

But I have achieved a state of mind that has put me on a quest,

For mysterious beauty,

Engagement in a intimacy only attained through a state of mind rarely achieved where two minds become one.

Swing,

We become like our own world spinning in the corner of a dance floor,

Everything else slowly diminishes as our eyes lock tighter,

as our swing grows smoother, faster, stronger.

We become closer, 

not physically,

 not mentally,

 But because we have shared in a moment we both interpret as a mystery.

We have found it, but neither of us can pinpoint exactly how,

But because IT IS BEAUTIFUL,

We hang on to this moment as long as the two of us can.

WAIT! your eyes have left mine,

Can this moment be ending?

The look in your eye is of defeat,

Someone has tripped this world off its axis,

Broken this trance like meditative state,

Has interrupted my life like an earthquake,

The downfall so dramatic I can feel the earth shake.

It is the mystery of what creates that moment that makes me want to live in the state of a dance,

The state of a trance like swing,

Where there is nothing living on that floor but you and me,

To live is to dance,

Maintain that trance.

Swing.

-Brad Lail

I have been reading some Thoreau looking for some ideas about how seclusion can make work have presence.  I do believe seclusion can enhance a mindset that is great for making art of any kind from poetry to pottery.  The night before I wrote this I slept outside to enhance a mindset.  I believe it worked out very well.  When you wake up to the sun instead of an alarm clock your desire to arise is much stronger.  To be able to pray and concentrate is no challenge at that point.  It was excellent for writing.  I am planning on doing it again.

Anyway... this poem is about goals.  The reason I set the goals I do is because I have seen or experienced something I love.  I love beauty.  I love the mystery that creates the beauty in a swing, a pot or any work of art that has presence.  

The works with the most presence are created intuitively.  They are made without crowded thought, so in essence the work is not crowded or overworked.  Attaining a mindset that is proper for creating intuitive work is not easy.  It is much like the type of trance I am referring to in the dance poem.  When something is made by an artist that has presence it sets a higher standard, and the artist should then be on a quest to make more art with that type of presence.  The work you can see emotion in.  The ones you can feel when you walk into a room are the ones that have presence.  It is something hard to pinpoint, but one knows when something is beautiful.  Even when you cant explain it.  

"Neither one of us can pinpoint exactly how, 

but because IT IS BEAUTIFUL, 

we hang on to this moment as long as the two of us can."  

This is also very applicable with a Christians walk of faith.  There are people that will try all day to define God.  They overcrowd religion with intellect.  They try to define something undefinable with some kind of scientific reasoning.  

What makes nature beautiful?  It is because these seemingly miraculous things happen? Beautiful colors bloom, trees grow, live thrives onward and there is a presence living in nature at all times and in every place without an overwhelming amount of human interaction.  The fact that we cannot define everything that happens in nature is what makes it beautiful.  

Therefore if we try and define something as immense and beautiful as God we do nothing but rob it of the beauty.  We take so much beauty from life by trying to define it.  Why do we need to know?  If we know it is beautiful then why cant we just live in the beauty?  Why do we try and fix something when it is not broken?