My Studio(s)

A touch of color and detail...Raspberry glaze on the lip, then a snowflake crystal glaze dipped up almost to the top...makes an interesting mix doesn't it?

Crazing througout the middle and bottom of this one.

Look at the crazy crazing on this one where the rim is dark chocolate (almost black)

Here's a peek at my studio, just for Where Bloggers Create Party, that's happening on the 14th here...  

http://www.mydesertcottage.com/2012/06/anybody-want-to-party.html

  Never tried it, and I'm about the 260th or so person to join...maybe.  The way blogger has been treating me lately, I don't know.

 Welcome to my humble place of production...

At the bottom on the right  you can see a slab of wet clay being reconstituted on a slab of plaster (my wedging surface).  The shelves on the wall were meant for wet work, but instead have become a catch-all.

There's a storage problem at my house.  Where can I store, or display, all the pottery art I've made?  For now this is one very crammed shelving unit (of three).  I've got pottery everywhere!  I will need to organize it (one of these days!)

One of my favorite things is to put greenware on the windowsills when I have the windows open.  Of course now I'm grateful to have a window airconditioner in the room.

I do most of my glazing at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts clay studio, where everything is fired in their kilns.

I also volunteer for several of the open studio times, helping out as well as being an Independent Student  using the space and glazes.  The cost is comparable to other studios in our area.

And I get to take part in some special firings, like this pit firing a few months ago.

So this is my "other studio" where I share some great equipment in the community space with other potters.

This gives me many more opportunities to try out different things, like glaze trials.

And for an artist who often prefers to work alone, the clay studio provides community.  Here the Clay Club of Western North Carolina met and shared some demos and a pot luck a few years ago.

The daily sharing of our creativity enables us to get to know each other pretty well at the BMCA clay studio.  I've made many of my closest friends here.  We're a great group.  It's relaxed and fun, and we chat about anything we're interested in, as well as sharing tidbits about pottery making.