The Tile Project that Wouldn't Die - LIVES!

After 5 months, many trips to the tile supplier, the enevitable expansion of the project from: "I'll finish the tile in the shower; you lay a new floor and bath surround", A new (unforseen) tub,new (unforseen) faucet set, new tub/wall/floor modification to WE ARE FINISHED!!!

I had the shower stall (And STALL is the operative word here) to this point when my trials at making tiles had come to a stopping point. In the meantime, the tile manufacturer changed glaze lots for the field (blue) tile which really put me in a quandry. The color was close......but not a perfect match. I had enough tile to fill in around the original design, but not enough for a different design.

I had made and fired 4 different trials at inserting a flowing design across three walls. Each time, I would be unhappy with the results. I finally decided to put in a band of fish and was stuck with buying the similar color tile for the rest of it. I figured I could break the two color areas apart and no one would see the difference. I worked. The upper tile near the windows is lighter; the lower a tad darker. You never see it.


In Progress:

By the time the windows are surrounded, the shower door installed on the outside, the eye just assumes that the difference is the light.










































This is the tub before:












And after:











The tub surround and floor tiles are the same. The faucets are from Kohler--sort of a hybrid tub filler and handle arrangement, but I just fell in love with the handles. The big tub filler brings the water level up from 0 to drowning in about 20 seconds.









We even added a little barrier/seat between the tub and shower with a niche for flowers.

Antique Arab Teapot

The Story:

We lived in Bahrain for nearly 2 years. That was 30 years ago.
Living in Bahrain was very different. It was not easy. It was incredibly interesting.

I couldn't just write a check and pay my electric bill; I had to go to the money changer's shop to change dollars into dinars, drive to the electric power office in downtown Manama, the capital city, present my bill and pay in cash.

I shopped in three different stores to accumulate our groceries. They were small shops with limited inventories, so to fill out our entire list of food and sundries, it took many small trips here and there.

There were streets of nothing but golden jewelry, whole streets of nothing but fabric, a street of nothing but shops that did custom sewing, a covered suq (pronounced sook) or shopping street filled with Western goods like watches, hardware and junk shops.


Many times I passed a closet-sized shop stacked from floor to ceiling with ancient "Arab chests" or "Bombay Chests" heavy, solid wood brass trimmed trunks of indeterminable age used to store clothing in homes, goods on dhows (old sailing ships the are still used to carry cargo, or for fishing).









Some chests had secret compartments and hidden drawers. No one seemed to know where they came from. Originally they were painted a vermilion red, but because there was a rumor that Westerners didn't like the color, they were usually wire-brushed until the paint was taken off. I had one friend that managed to buy one before this happened.

A crusty old man sat in the middle of this shop smoking a water-pipe and gossiping with his friends. I would wave at him and pause to see what new booty he had stacked into this little space. Somehow, he was able to find intriguing and unusual things. Although a great many people in Bahrain speak English, he spoke only Arabic.

I always admired this teapot. It was perched high up on a shelf and you could only see it if you stepped into the stall. I always admired it because of the unique shape and was pretty sure it was quite old. The first time I asked what the price was, he asked a fortune for it. "Ha," I thought, "I'll not fall for that. I'm not going to cough up that kind of money like the oil company wives who just fork over the cash." (That was a real handicap to bargaining like the Navy wives had to do. Sets a bad precedent.)

Every time I was in town on some errand, I would cruise by this junk shop and check it out. Occasionally, I would ask about the pot and, using a notepad, write down a figure which the old codger would line out and write a higher price on the page. I would shake my head and wave goodbye.

Finally, finally as we ended our tour there, I stopped by his stall and pantomimed to my old competitor that I would be leaving soon. I wrote down a figure. He answered with another, higher one. I raised my bid. He lowered his price, but still we were pretty far apart.

I scowled (what a faker I was!) He began to show just a hint of a smile. I inched up my offer; he inched down his price. I slashed the air diagonally; stuck my index finger in the air and wrote down My Absolute Final Offer, underline, underline!! He studied it thoughtfully. He stood up and climbed to the top shelf. I expected to be tantalized into offering more. He turned one palm up and slapped his other hand down on top of it, smiled and, saying something I didn't understand, held his hand out to receive the cash.

And I went triumphantly home with teapot.

I have never polished it, only wiped the dust off . The thing is very top heavy. The hollow lid is filled with rattly gravel. The spout has an attached lid too. I guess if you're going to set something down in the sand, and it's filled with liquid, made of metal that will cool if the wind is blowing, you want it to sit there with it's lid down and not go anywhere. I still don't know where it came from originally--I've never seen another.

I also love the "earrings".

Sauce bottles

The Inspiration:

A water or wine bottle, designed to be either carried or strapped to a saddle, a waist or shoulder strap.

These vessels can be found in museums. Variations can be found in displays from the Orient to the New World.

This beauty came up on eBay a few years ago.


I saw this one at the Corcoran Museum in Washington D.C. some years ago.

It is engraved rock crystal with gold or vermiel fittings and was part of a special show from the collections of the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul.

(Photo taken from a post card.)




A modification of the form can be used to serve sauce, syrup or sake.

















It's intriguing how different the same form looks when the surface treatment is changed.












































All the above were made by handbuilding.

I cut out a rather free-form bottom first, roll out a long slab of clay, then mold it around the base until I get a free-form shape. I attach the bottom to the walls--this is easy since the top of the form is very open at this point.

If I were to texture the outer walls, I would impress them first and then handle very carefully to keep the design crisp. So far, I haven't added a surface treatment after the form is 'set' except for glaze variations.

I coax out the spout walls and either let the whole thing stand on it's own or put a cylindrical form inside to keep the shape. While that is stiffening up a bit, I hand shape the spouts. Then, I rest them into U-shaped cuts at the sides and attach them, adusting the angles as I go and trimming off excess clay. I smooth all the inside areas for a good flow of liquid, then begin to shape the closure at the top.

The form lends itself well to variations and manipulation of the shape.

I'm sure I'll continue to explore this idea more--the addition of a removable lid could be added as well as modifying it to make a divided vessel for oil and vinegar; creating handle designs; etc.--lots of possibilities.






"Black Nose"

"Cathedral", a story of Mexico

When I was a sophomore in college, I was awarded a scholarship to study for a summer session in Guanajuato, Mexico. (The big, white building in the lower photo is the university ) I
was majoring in art and Spanish and my Spanish professor had established a scholarship in honor of his identical twin brother, an artist, who had died at a young age.




The university ran an arts program during the summer, but normally during the rest of the time, it was an engineering school; mainly mining engineering. Most of the silver mines in Mexico are located in the mountains that surround the town of Guanajuato. **

**The Valenciana mine is famous for it's enormous lode of silver ore and was at one time one of the deepest mines in the world. In the 1700s this mine and others in the adjoining mountains produced 70% of all the silver in the world. There is still untold tons of silver remaining, but it accidentally became flooded and was closed for many years. It has since reopened and is mined today. But, when I visited the whole area was in ruins. A rock thrown from the top opening took a very long time to hit water. And in the process, the friction of air upon the velocity of the rock created an increasingly gathering "whoosh" that became a roar as speed and echo worked together.

Anyway, with two whole year's worth of Spanish language study, I was enrolled in art classes and was living with the family of the ex-mayor of Guanajuato, so I was also "living " in Spanish day-to-day.

I took a weaving class in a weaving factory. The loom I was given was a huge timber structure I had to climb into to work. They had to adjust the treadles for my feet to reach them. My project was a poncho of white, black and blue wool.

I took pottery in another factory that made utility pots and tourist pieces. They had kick wheels and fired using a wood-fired kiln. I made small pots of earthenware that were "mas delicado" (very delicate). I learned to make miniature dishes just for fun.

I studied voice in a class of Mexican folk songs and learned traditional Mexican dance. All my classes were conducted in Spanish except painting. That class was presided over by a bristly old German expat painter whose every other word turned the air blue. He stormed into the classroom like a man going to war. He swore at the students; he had temper tantrums; he criticized mercilessly. He left me alone--he told me I could paint. I was flattered out of my mind. I spent the whole session working on the painting above. It was the view we saw from the top floor of the university.

On my return to regular collage, I exhibited the Cathedral painting at the school gallery and at the local art museum. I've moved it with me to whatever place we have moved. Sometimes, it stayed in a closet because it didn't fit or there was no room on the wall. I have a particular place in the house in Tucson where I know it will look good. Yes, the painting has flaws. There are places I would have treated differently if I were to paint it today. But I still love it anyway.

































This second painting is a variation in watercolor. (Which my sister promptly named "Pope with a Lollipop".)

It is an interpretation of the cathedral in San Miguel de Allende, shown with light illumination. It is a technique I experimented with and may try the same idea on a pot.

A lot of times with watercolor, a white or light area is blocked out and reserved by painting frisket over the area and then the darker washes or background painting is done first. The frisket is removed to bring the white into the picture or to go back and paint details into the white. It protects the white/light areas in pristine condition and is removed by rolling it off the surface.

With this treatment, I painted this laying in the white areas with rubber cement, then painted the entire building area with light yellow. Then, I blocked off the light yellow with rubber cement and painted an orange-yellow over the area. I worked out from light to dark by blocking off each color and painting in darker areas. At the end of the process, the whole picture appeared to be a total mess, but peeling off all those areas of rubber cement revealed the beautiful, bright picture underneath. I overpainted the grass, fence and trees after the rubber cement was all peeled off. The trick is, you have to have the whole picture in your mind before you start.

So, why wouldn't this work using wax on a pot and block out the light areas, then glaze, block and then glaze? Firing would take all the resist off. I would suppose care must be taken to avoid thick build-up of glaze, but the whole theory may be worth a try. A carefully planned design executed on a flat surface might have it's possibilities.........

A Plettttthhhh-a -rah of Tea Pottttthhhs

(Think Daffy Duck.........)

How I got from this--------

















To this.
("China Tea")


















The top picture is of a first-time try at working with this form. The lid is thrown as is the spout--old familiar shapes I had used in round teapots. The glaze is layers of three different greens applied thickly and at random. I still have this pot and still love it.

The second try has a three-part constructed spout.

This handle is similar to one I made for a basket form but on the teapot, I didn't feel like I had complete control of the balance between the bulk of the pot and the handle.





Although the negative space is nice. It wasn't weighty enough to balance the strong volume of the pot.

The supports for the handle are long strips of clay manipulated into 3-D and veeeeeery carefully dried. Once dried, fired and glazed they are extremely strong, though they look rather fragile.

The next one was this:

I invented a new spout based on a tropical plant leaf, threw the lid a bit rounder and still struggled with the handle. By modifying and editing the supports, it looked stronger, but still just wasn't it.

Not bad negative space between the handle and lid. And I like the supports. I may try this again, but with a different top part.


With a couple of successive pots, (not pictured) I modified the flat handle to a large rounded one and flattened out the curve slightly. Unfortunately, I don't take photos of those before they sold.

The rounded handles looked better, but still were not it.

Then, I dumped the handle idea all together and tried cane.

This teapot was a success. I named it "Malachite Tea" because of the wonderful glaze result. It was in a show about 4 years ago and a slide had also been submitted to 500 Teapots, along with a couple of other teapot examples.




The teapot sold. After the book came out, I asked the gallery if I could have the name of the buyer so I could tell them their pot was included in the book. They either couldn't or didn't want to give me that information. It's really too bad. I would have liked the buyer to know.

Finally, I came up with "China Tea". By making the handle hollow (with lots of hidden holes to release steam and air) and could suspend it with the strip supports to create the look of heaviness and lightness.

The negative space between the lid and handle worked. The handle now had enough 'weight' to balance and relate to the body of the pot.

I've made several variations of the basic idea of "China Tea". Every one except this example which I've kept, were sold.

Along the way, changed glaze color and added a bit of surface decoration. I dropped the thrown lid and started making hand-formed lids. In this example and for this form, the lid works no matter how it is placed on the pot, the vine form links up with the side design on both sides of the pot.





It's also amazing the difference between one of these pots sitting flat on the surface and one lifted on legs.

Between these examples, I made a few other experimental pots, but didn't photograph them.

All of the above teapots were constructed in stoneware, electric fired at cone 5-6. Since these were made, I have switched to porcelain and, although the clay is slightly more temperamental, the results are basically the same.

Shoulders Vase

Another experimental piece.

I think flower vases that are heads etc. are very amusing. One day, I'm going to try one. But in the meantime, I thought I'd try shoulders first.

Rather tricky, constructing something that is so constricted and narrow, but I like the result. I have yet to put anything in it.














Years ago when I lived in Japan, I earned 3 certificates from the Sogetsu School of Ikebana in Tokyo.

My class were able to go to the headquarters of Sogetsu to see a fabulous show that included a giant rain-forest log arrangement.

It was about 15 feet long. Absolutely stunning. Sogetsu style is an avant guard approach to ikebana. Well, tackling a log would give you a clue.

Segway

One of my favorite things to do is find pictures of people who look like "twins separated by birth".

Yesterday, I listened to an interview with Mark Wahlburg on NPR and later watched the disastrous Seahawks game with Jim Mora Jr.. defensive coach, sweating it out on the sidelines.

It occurred to me that those two look a lot alike.

Funny Old Glaze

Would you believe these two pieces were fired using the same glaze?

Here's the whole story.

This is a glaze I purchased from Seattle Pottery called "Moss Brown."

When I first used it on the oval-bottomed baker, I first ran it through a Talisman sieve that removed rather large granulated sandy sludge. I was concerned when that happened that if I left it in the glaze, it wouldn't melt and I'd get a rough textured result. I was experimenting with varying the layers of glaze and was rather liberal with pouring and sloshing. (I like to glaze listening to Queen.)

Anyway, since practically everything I do is an experiment, I thought, "What the heck. Let's see what happens."

I liked the result.

Much later, I ran across the saved sludge in a container labeled "Sludge" and the next time I used this glaze, I added the stuff back into the mix.

The result was the round, very large dish shown at the top. It has a lovely matt, slightly textured surface. I wouldn't use it for baking, the glaze is too open, but it looks great on the table.

Two Lamps

While I was making the teapots, I also experimented with making lamps.

I have this large rolled oats cylinder in the 'forms box' that has been covered with a pair of old pantie hose. The hose make a barrier that protects the paper of the container and is flexible enough to allow the clay cylinder to slip off the form.



The pantie hose also provide something to grab onto to pull the form out after the clay has shrunk a bit and stiffened up.

After I got the clay slab rolled onto the form and sealed the seam, I began to cut long slices of clay and roll them up into swirls. I scraffitoed the form clay, dampened it and attached the swirlies big and small, all around the form. Then I rolled them out to blur the shapes, sealing them onto the clay cylinder.

After the clay became a bit softer than leather hard, I used a hole cutter to create the opening for the electrical cord. Then I placed the form onto a slab of clay that was also a bit stiffened and cut out the bottom of the lamp form. That was sealed on.

I haven't decided whether I want to throw a second base for the bottom, find a wooden base or just leave the lamp as it is.

That problem will solve itself after I've gotten a bit further.

I've thrown two top lids: One fits inside the lamp form; the other will rest a bit over the form. After they set up, I drilled an access hole in the center top for running the cord into the lamp body, bolting on the harp and snugging up the connections.

I want the lamp to come apart at the top so that it can be assembled easily. I'll probably just tack the lid on with museum gel or some kind of reversible adhesive.

In the Studio

I have a couple of projects in the works right now. I'm finally listening to myself about doing two of each thing I make, BUT I have this problem about doing the same thing twice--I just can't seem to be able to do it.

It's always the question, "Can I do this better?" or "Let's tweek this and try that."

That's not such a bad thing.....but I start out to make two of the same thing and it always goes sideways. Must be in my genes. Like Alice of the Looking Glass, "I give myself very good advice, but I very seldom follow it."

Case in Point: I'm working on two tall square teapots. They're hand-built using the same pattern pieces, but the first one was to be a variation on a previous teapot that sold through the gallery. I only have one prototype in my collection, so I decided to make another.








So, here it is in the unfired clay. Bigger spout, larger 'vines', no feet, bigger pot all the way around, but the same idea. It will have the same kind of cane handle when it's finished. I'll fire it in white and add some India ink to the crackles. Technically, it is a functional pot.






Okay, that's teapot number 1. Teapot number 2 was supposed to be the same, but.......then.......I put it all together into the 3-D form and started listening to the clay.

I just finished the lid this morning.

The whole thing just screams shino glaze.