Megan's New Stuff

Ewer Set 1
Lidded Box
Ewer Set 2


OK, here's the new stuff!
Technical notes: Everything is cone 10 reduction; pressmolded with some thrown parts. Imagery is mostly silkscreened with some stamping thrown in.

This work is the result of trying a few new techniques (new to me) and running with it. I'm not going to say a lot about what I think because I want to hear what YOU think. But if you have questions, please ask and I will try to answer.

I would really like to hear what's working for you in this work and what isn't. Thank you!!!!!!

Juliane's Work

Hello Everyone,

I can't believe it is November already! I am still working with installations - porcelain at cone 10. The first images (1-3) are of an installation that I am still working on. Each piece roughly 2.5" x 2.5" x 1.5"; I want to make enough to cover a wall or center them a wall in the shape of a circle or oval. My original idea was to create shell-like shapes and put something in the middle of just one (like pearls) - but now I am thinking of putting in different objects scattered in the inside of some shapes. What the objects should be, I'm not sure.

The next series of images (4-9) are from "Pedestals" (not a very creatively titled work). Each one is roughly 6" x 6" x 3.5". I still want to play around a bit more with cutting into the pedestal forms and changing the environment in which my clay pieces sit. This idea still needs more exploring... I'd be curious to know what it reminds people of when they look at it.

The last shot is of a previous piece from my last post. I took Megan's suggestion on showing the piece with fewer bowls.

Do people still think of food when they see my work? After moving again, the ideas in my work feel a little fuzzy.

Martina's latest...

Hello Everyone
so above, you see an excerpt from my summer and the start of the new semester. Here you can see how the slab plates have progressed - furthering the layering of surface and working on them as whole image - then cut to individual plates. I am eager for feedback on the new work- for expediency i opted for studio shots this time. i hope they read okay.
Below is my latest technical difficulty. Crazing can be a perennial problem in earthenware - however i've never had it to this degree - where you can actually watch the water be absorbed into the clay. I haven't changed anything that i'm aware of, and it's not happening with every firing. Ideas?

Satoko's Pottery

Hello everyone! I’m Satoko Barash and this is my first posting on this blog.
I worked for Hoyman-Browe studio in 2005 for a few months and got to know Megan Mitchel there.
I received a BA in Studio Art from Sonoma State University in 2005 and continue working with clay at home while taking classes at Mendocino Junior College in Ukiah. I started Wood-firing with Doug Browe, Jan Hoyman and Megan in 2004 and participated in building a two-chambered wood firing kiln with them in 2006. Currently, I work in my small home studio with three outside kilns. The third kiln is a soda-kiln and I have not quite finished with its construction. I’ve been renting a soda or a salt kiln at Mendocino Art Center and firing my pieces there since 2006. Megan taught me how to fire these kilns. I took a workshop with Chris Staley this summer at the art center, also. Recently, I was accepted as an exhibiting member for ACGA: Association of Ceramic and Glass Artists in California and plan on taking part in the ACGA Palo Alto Show in July 2009. I alternate between sculpture and functional craft, feeling pulled back and forth between the two poles. I still take classes at Mendocino JC, but since I graduated Sonoma State, I don’t get much critique opportunities. I’d appreciate any feedback.

Here is a little story behind the two leg teapots: I grew up in Japan and when I was older, studied for two years in England. In both counties, tea drinking is very much a part of one’s life. When happy, tired, sad or upset, tea provides us with warmth and comfort. A teapot holds something hot, warm or cold. It is, for me, a symbol of human relationship such as family, friends and lovers, thus, “Tea party Inside a Teapot.”

stacking bowls
(soda fired)

leaf serving boat
(wood fired)

round serving dish
(salt fired)

mugs
(soda fired)

bowl
(wood fired)

tamari dispenser set
(soda fired)

Candice's Woodfired pottery Sept 08

Well Here I am again in my most favorite time of the year!I just got back from two wonderful weeks at Anderson Ranch. Charity Davis-Woodard and Lorna Meaden were the instructors and the focus of the workshop was the burry box alterative. It was a fantastic experience and I have to admit I felt a bit manic the first week I was there because I was making pottery again, and learning.... Here I am with my new friend Amber at 4 in the morning getting the burry box going. I also did a woodfire in Aztec, N.M. earlier in the summer so these pots that you are about to see are a mix of the two firings.

These are some woodfired bowls from A.R. I was really excited to work with some colors and a little less ash/debris from a typical woodfire. These are porcelain fired to 1o or 11.

I found this stencil of a bird and am using it on everything, immediate gratification if you will but I like using it in the woodfire with Barnard Slip because it bleeds out and gets softer. Porcelain mugs woodfired to cone 10/11

These cups are some of my favorite things to make right now. I learned this dry-thrown technique from Ayumi Horie last summer and it really goes against the super rigidness that I am capable of. I also really like using this technique for it lends itself to a feminine quality that i strive for in the woodfire. This is a closeup of one porcelain cup

We made a lot of sets in the Anderson Ranch workshop and I was pretty jazzed about that. Woodfired sake set. I really look forward to the day when I learn to take better, clearer photos, sorry ladies..... the tenmokou glaze on this is really pretty, lots of variations.

Heres a little Ewer set that I made, not really my style but a very good jumping off point. Again working to get a little color into the woodfire.

Birdee jar fired from the wood kiln in Aztec.

Birdee Bowls are Porcelain and fired in a soda kiln at Anderson Ranch. The two views are the same bowl, I just wanted to show you the inside and out. I like applying the stencil so it looks like the swallows are going to run into each other because thats how they appear in the sky sometimes.

Woodfired porcelain tumbler.

Porcelain woodfired jar.



Id love to hear from you all and hear all about your current adventures. I am back in school and frankly having the most uninspirational time at it. I got denied to N.A.U for this year so i am at the community college wading my way through general education with not a ceramics class in sight. If you ladies have any kind words of support as far as pushing through school goes let me know, again Id love to hear them. I hope you are all wonderful and happy love candice

Alicia Mack

Hello everyone=) I am new to the blog, and this is my first posting of images. I think this is a wonderful forum for feedback! Thank you in advance for any input!

My work is inspired by volume, breath, and I work to achieve a fabric-like quality. This first piece was inspired by succulent plants, and is a salt and pepper set.
In each piece, I make an effort to hide edges, so that i can maintain the illusion of softness in a hardened substance.



This one is an egg cup set where each stand for under each cup is an individual salt shaker. the center piece is a flower brick.



























































The last shot is from my Mfa show this May. This is a jump in pics, but i havent studio shot these yet. I hope to get some shot and up sometime soon. It is a setting for 16. The color pallette changed. I dropped temp due to the losses from the high temp and the folded forms. I made a glaze that was a little more fluid as well. I liked how it settled into the textures. Heres a closeup...
Hopefully everything posted ok.... Thank you everyone for your time=) best wishes!