Building a work table for a Ceramic Studio

Building a Work Table for a Ceramic Studio

This is not the workbench you want for a ceramic studio.  It is a piece of plywood balanced on top of a bar stool.  At least I got to the point where I could work and balance at the same time,,, however that is not the purpose of a work area (or a bar stool). 

There was no way around it, I needed a sturdier table top.  Step one: visit a lumber store and get some 2X4s and 4x4s.  I wanted a strong table that was easy to build.  Let's follow the progression: 

I cut the 4x4s 32 inches long.  I cut the top to accept my piece of plywood.  The corners are mitered and it is completely screwed together with long construction screws.  Here it is assembled in my garage.    Want a closer look: 

This side view shows how each leg is screwed into the table frame from three sides.  This makes the legs quite sturdy without additional bracing and allows me to work up close to the table on all sides.  I'm going to say you could park a VW bug on top of this, "If you can find a place to stand".  Here is another view:

Here you see the frame in my studio, ready for a top.  You can see the hollow spaces in the frame.  If you screwed a plywood "bottom" on one of these openings you could pour plaster of paris into it and make a good wedging batt for working-up clay.  As I work mostly with prepared clay and slabs I don't need a wedging batt (a canvas covered board works for my purposes).  Yes, that's my pack saddle in front.  I packed a bit with a wonderful white donkey named Boulregard but he has gone to his just reward, and I'm guessing he had to cross a creek to get there. 

You can see my slab roller and studio behind.  

Top screwed down, covered with beaverboard, smooth side up.  This was once the kitchen counter top of Krisitin and my cabin at Trout Lodge, then my writing table there, then a mouse house in a garden shed for 30 years, and now works great for this top.  Sure glad I kept it.  This shows it scootched up to the front of my clay slab roller, a great working arrangement for making slabs.  I put felt floor protectors on the bottom of the 4x4 legs and the table scootches great on concrete. 

It easily scootches up to my studio work table also, and that's the way I'll use it most of the time.  

Awesome!  Higher than the work table, lower than the slab roller.  If anyone is curious my kilns are under the eve on our garage porch.  Front bottom left you see three "ceramic paintings".  

Well, so much for studio work tables.  I suppose I could have carved legs out of logs but this works good for now. I cut all the lumber on Krisitin's "Cut off saw", but if the 4x4s had been an mm bigger it wouldn't have worked.  Lesson: only buy a cutoff saw that will cut 4x4s.  Being completely constructed with screws I can technically take this table apart (not sure why).  My plan was that one leg was going to come out a bit crooked so I planned to unscrew it, shim it straight, and retighten it.  However, my plan failed and all the legs came out parallel.  Imagine my disappointment.  

I promised a book review of C. E. Rusk's "Tales of a Western Mountaineer" but his words are so unique and poiniant that I simply put quotes end to end, then realized that is some sort of plagerism.  Until I get that figured out (get permission from the Mountaineers???) I'll have to find something else to blog.  And don't forget, "Friday the 13th" comes on a Thursday this month, compliments of Rik Smith pointing that out, compliments of "Pogo" saying it.   Thanks Rik!!!

Seven Steps to Oblivion

Seven Steps to Oblivion 

(reflections off a rock)

Photo by Jo Miles: Jumpoff lookout with distant smoke

 Seven steps to oblivion.   

You climb the seven steps up to the

old cabin, step on the catwalk,

enter the door.  All is as it was, now

You hear the wind through the guy wires,

The wind around the corners,

And over the top

Of this strong old relic.

     The breezes and the cooling

Against the sun through glass

     Balancing a cold planet

   Against what heat

 Can be captured

     From the afternoon.

This is the code of planets

      Circling the night sky

           Circling the crystalline Orbit./mh

Tieton Sky/ mh

And, looking down river, October 2012

                                                              Tieton River/ mh

Book Review: East Of The Divide

Book Review: "East of the Divide" by Chester Marler

 Photo by Matt Dahlgreen

“East of the Divide (Travels through the eastern slope of the North Cascades, 1870-1999”, by Chester Marler: North Fork Books, 2004- Leavenworth, WA 98826.

Photo by Tom Hulst

 The East Slope of the Washington Cascades, running north from the Columbia River to Canada is a large, rugged mountainous zone that, along with it’s foothills and river basins, has generated a lot of classic mountain literature.  Standing in my bookshelf is a number of books of exceptional quality that includes the historical meandering and mountain lore of Fred Becky, the classic 1880 -1931 mountain reminiscence by Claude Rusk “Tales of a Western Mountaineer” and the early memoirs of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, (“Of Men and Mountains”) who followed his boots and thoughts from 1917 up to 1951.  All of these books are worth rereading time and again and they are the pillars on which we measure our own mountain walks. 

Winter Waterfall, Cowiche Canyon, photo by Jo Miles

 In 2004 North Fork Books in Leavenworth released Chet Marler’s “East of the Divide”, a unique book in it’s own right that carries the conversation started by earlier mountain pioneers and writers to the next level.    Marler’s book is a lot like hiking with a friend, and the familiar sounding narriative articulates thoughts about place, setting, relevant history, and human use, all in an even and thoughtful voice. 

Shellrock Peak, photo by Jo Miles

 Disguised as a wandering trail guide and historical review, the book calls on just about every whistle stop that one would expect from a long hike with a friendly Wilderness Ranger.  Every page has hidden gems, all too numerous to mention; insight into  place, approaches to reading the setting, and thoughts about “the edge”.  Examples include : “Serrated skyline,,, where I naturally became immersed in the details of the landscape… in the mountain not everything of value is spectacular, imposing, or overwhelming….even a struggling white bark pine growing in a rocky outcrop, or a grouse making its mating  call can become starting points in perceiving the complexity and beauty of the natural world…..something that survives that long (a giant Larch)  gives us a different sense of time, changing our perspective of place and process……scramble trails”, and etc. 

Lookout Outhouse, photo by Jo Miles

 Likewise, the mention of Old Fire Lookout views, abandoned single strand phone line insulators,  hollowed-out mountain goat beds, a photo of the old cabin at Spanish Camp, Sheep herder trails and travelways, Trail blazes, and the host of similar details bring the hiking stories alive and gives us tie points to cross check our own pedestrian rambles. Who, for example, will know in 100 years that some pack horses are better than other pack horses or understand so well what that really means (p. 190) without Chet’s kind words. 

Ross Lake from Desolation, photo by Kristin Hiler

 Much like Walden, this is a book about seeing, expressed in the context of long walks.  What it imparts is the casual, understated poetry of the measured narrative responding to alpine setting.  Modern mountain poets would do well to dip from these pedestrian rhythms and patient observations/mh.

Man examines tree: photo by Matt Dahlgreen

A few more words:  Chetster Marler also has a book out by Wolverine Press, titled, "Snow and Spire".  The photos on the attached link to a "Snow and Spire" review look great!  The link to information about that book is:  http://www.justgetout.net/Wenatchee/23241

Just click on the link above and you can see photos.  

News from Jumpoff Lookout

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News from Jumpoff Lookout

Here are some pictures of our efforts to winterize Jumpoff Lookout.  We have now pretty much closed in the cabin from winter snow and made notes on what else needs to be done in the future to assure building protection.  I'll present photos here with notes. 

East Side: We put in a new plexiglass window in the opening and a new shutter on the end, this side all tight.   

South side: Looks Ok, ( see the cover shot above)  all tight, now lets look at the North side: 

Here you see the new plexiglass window, installed on the shutter and Jo Miles tightening down a shutter that was in place.  These windows gives more light inside and hopefully will discourage visitors from pulling off shutters.  We want to come back with the proper shutters in the spring, but this should keep out 90% of the snow this winter.  Winter snow piles up inside when the shutters are missing, resulting in floor rot.  We want to stop or eliminate this damage to the lookout floor. 

Below is the West side which has  some small holes, behind glass,  but it will also survive another winter.  We'll make this tighter next summer. 

We now plan to cut two narrow shutters for the last two "unshuttered" windows and replace the plexiglass on the west side.  Right now everything is covered and the building is snow tight.  

Inside the cabin are some derelict, but original build-in furniture.  Let's take a look.  This is the fire finder post.  It's solid and ready for a fire finder, but some sanding and a coat of varnish should help it some. 

These pieces of built-in furniture are original but damaged.  My thought would be to remove them, and have a Yakima Cabinet shop do the repairs, then return them to the lookout.  You can here see the floor covering is coming off and the floor littered with broken glass and litter 

and here are two interior pictures showing how much light the plexiglass panels give to the interior, hopefully they will discourage panel removal by visitors. 

We looked it over and think the next project is to clean out all the broken glass, crap and broken-up modern floor covering  from the floor (and remove from the site) to make it appear clean and  cared for.  This heavily damaged modern  "lanoleum" now only serves to hold moisture and damage the old floor.  Once the floor is clean and the litter removed we can start to think about repairing the cabinets (and windows)  and formulating future projects.

This project would not be possible without volunteers.  I first of all want to thank those who replaced the roof a year ago, and for now I want to thank Jo MIles: Driver, photo editor, and repair specialist.  A huge THANKS to you JO! 

6 hours and ready for winter.

And here is our view looking west up the Tieton Basin as we depart for home.  This  view shows why we care about this lonely old lookout station, the last remaining lookout building in Yakima County. 

For now, Please join the National Forest Fire Lookout Association and do what you can to restore the last remaining old lookouts in the Northwest.  More later/mh

Shanks's Pony

Shanks's Pony, by Morris Marples: An early history of Pedestrianism

Photo of Goat Rocks by Tom Hust

I've just finished the book "Shanks's Pony" and I want to pass along my thoughts about this book to friends.  Published in 1959 it's way more of a "used book" than anything current and because it deals primarily with the history of English Pedestrianism, with only a few American's referenced, it's sort of "Old World" in it's references, stories, and outlook.  

However, this book digs into the connection between the interest in walking and the interest in preserving the natural landscape more than later American writings because it goes back to a time when the two weren't related culturally, sort of like Americsn farm music before "Country AND Western".  It draws the connecting line from walking English Country roads to first the pack and then the tent, then Alpineism.  I'm not saying it has a lot about our concepts of Wilderness, but going back to the 1600's casts a revealing light on the post Marshall/Leopold/Muir writings and gives any outlook on Wilderness a standard of where the present "legislation and culture wars" were not a part of the whole "outside" thing?  We have come from a time when mountain scapes were known as "rude settings" to something quite different, along a line of evolving understandings and appreciation of "the natural.  

Anyway, this book is only available in used copies (ebay??) but if you run across it at a reasonable price I think you will enjoy reading about the times when "Walkers" along English roads would walk 72 miles a day for 5 consecutive days, pretty much for the Hell of it.  It talks about the walking feats of the romantic poets (they should be known more for their walking feats than their pathetic poetry), and it does bridge into Americans pedestrians (one reference to Thoreau, two references to Whitman?).  The world probably won't stop if you don't read this book but if you do, you'll have a much better handle to understand the tradition that evolved into our appreciation of the natural setting; how far we've come and how close we still are to the foundations of our relationship to Mountains/mh.

Shanks's Poney, by Morris Marples.  J. M. Dent and sons, London/ 1959

More New Poly Chrome "olla's"

Olla update, new pots # 7 = # 10

I want to link this post to the one I posted on May 16 at this site.  If you haven't read it you might skip back and see where I was  heading with those 6 jars as I plan to show this summer at various shows.  However, I now have four additional jars I want to add to that list so rather than editing that post, I'll just do a quick posting and include
a discussion of what they represent (whew, was that really one sentence??).

The first jar of this group (or #7) is below.  I like to utilize Casas Grandes forms (jars, ollas, bowls?), Pueblo geometric polychorme designs to highlight the panels (in the tradition of Mexican pottery), and then kick in some panel designs that are based on the landscapes of the Yakima Valley.  Flip back to my post on the photos of Jo Miles for an idea of what I try to capture with these simple line drawings.  nothing too mysterious.  These jars are around 10" (tall and wide).  I start with a red clay form, cover it with a white slip, sometimes burnish the surface, and bisque fire it before applying the painted panels.

Let's look at another jar (#8)

Pretty much the same format.  Sometimes I like a progressive landscape, either throughout the day, season, or ridge (the development of a storm for example).  These simple drawings have certainly made me more aware of distinctive  local ridges and their character.  I like the way the scenes progress when you turn (or spin) the bowl or view it form different sides.  As I approach the forms primarily from the panel images, they are more like watching TV or driving than a single, framed, canvas?  The paints are ceramic glazes, fired at bisque temperatures, sometimes with a clear overglaze to bring out the colors. 

The next bowl (#9) is an open mouth bowl with an abstract panel design.  I like this format as it allows me a format for what I've been doing with water colors.  As mentioned above, these are low fire glaze colors, typical of Maljorca or festive, low fire ceramic ware.  I am trying here to complement the Casas Grandes forms, the polychrome styles, Mexican tradition and abstract painting that interests me.

One more similar jar is #10 below (the same jar at the top of this blog, different panel).  An interesting thing I have found is how expressive simple bands of color are with these pots. Add to those tri-color (polychrome) lines the geometric "puebla designs" in the round and you have the basic elements of "Casas Grandes" jars.  

I have never seen painted ceramic "panels" discussed as specifically traditional Mexican motifs. No doubt other cultures have utilized panels in their ceramic ware but it seems that Mexican native ware have utilized panels most effectively.  I like both the formal rectangular panels found on native cups and bowls and the sketchy panels defined by brush strokes, in conjunction with other brush stroke patters which define a lot of Mexican native cups and bowls.  Finally, not to repeat myself, the panels seem ideal for what would otherwise be abstract water color images, fire on the pot surface.  

To recap:  I feel a slip covered jar, based on native shapes, is a good starting canvas.  The polychrome convention gives the viewer a familiar art form, easy to relate to, and the panels, borrowed from functional Mexican native ware,  give the pot a timeless, traditional background.  Canvas is unable to present the "in the round" possible with these jars. 

Oh yea, at the Dova show reception we witnessed  a very funny thing happen as a result of one specific "Olla characteristic".  As can be imagined, these pots, though stable, are somewhat prone to wobbling a bit.  They don't fall over, but they do "come alive" if jiggled.  When Herb Blissard received his Larson Gallery award for living to be 150 years old, he casually leaned against the stands on which my jar was propped, with the predictable wobbling resulting.  Unaware that a (precious??) work of art appeared to be ready to crash to the floor while the viewers looked on amazed, the instant was uniquely charged, as if a panther was suddenly noticed, perched from an overhanging limb, ready to pounce on the unsuspecting Herb.   As an artist" I couldn't have planned a more fitting emotional moment of tension, or a more fitting memorial to our friend, Herb.  

And so, the final attribute of these pots is the slight wobble they all have when setting on a table.   Those who know the drill know the pot won't just tip over or roll off the table (Well, perhaps occasionally, but that just adds to the tension).  Usually, they are setting on a fulcrum point (?) and will spin very easily, displaying the timeless infinity of the panel's passing. Perhaps the Casas Grandes artists were hinting at this timelessness suggestion of the pecularities of time,,, or perhaps those artists just enjoyed the unsettling promise of catastrophe against the metaphor of the shards within all of us.  

Stay tuned for a 'smoke fired" update, a new post on washing unspun wool (for the buffalo farmers among us, and a long promised blurb on Raku.       

Poly Chrome jars in progress

Polychrome Jars: Ramblings

      AND a review of a few upcoming shows

Let's start with the most recent show.  This Tuesday (May 22) Larson Gallery in Yakima will host the annual "Department of Visual Arts" show for YVCC.  This show has the best work by students over the past 12 months.  The reception is that afternoon 5:30-7:00pm. 

Above is my submission to the 2012 Dova show.  It is a traditional pueblo jar shape with some traditional form to lend familiarity.  The panels however are anything but traditional.  It is about 11" in diameter and 9" tall.  The contrast of the abstract painting over a traditional Puebla (Cases Grandes) form was a lot of fun.  I'm not sure if I should apologize to the ancient Mata Ortez potters or Jackson Pollock, probably BOTH.  

The next traditional jar is a large smoke fired jar that I plan to submit to the Larson Membership show in June.  I show it to give my Puebla jars some context.  I started making these large jars some time ago and  was inspired by a jar Kristin and I found in Santa Fe some years ago.  By "found" I mean, in a shop.  Flip back a few posts for my "Jar" posting  It will give you some background on these large, open mouth, earthenware water jars. 

This jar is glazed inside and is probably suitable for making beer or pickles.  The surface was covered with a white slip and burnished.  It is about 15" in diameter and was constructed from a 16" form batt and it shrunk a bit in drying and firing.  Oh yea, this was fired at cone 06, then smoke fired in an old rusty barrel.  Here is another photo of the same pot, below. 

And now to the meat of this post; the jars I will be showing at Oak Hollow Gallery the 8th of June.  You are welcome to come to the reception,  I'll share the show with Stan Reynolds, the Yakima painter.  

The first pot is about as traditional as is possible without directly copying the ancient Casas Grandes potters.  I developed the graphics on this pot, minus the lines, which are ephimeral, ubiquitous, and polymorphous, not to mention expressive.  This pot was constructed from Dakota Red clay, covered with a white slip, and was fired about 6 times before I was (somewhat) satisfied with it.  These jars are relatively thin, light, and are around 8" to 11" in diameter.   

The next jar is also based on traditional designs but is a relatively modern Mexican panel landsdcape painting.  I like the combination of the two forms.  I used some girsley borate (a calcium borate???) glazes on this piece, but girstley darkens the red iron oxide and hardens the glaze surface so I gave up my old friend (Colemanite) and went back to commercial applications.  Thanks Amaco!

After toying with landscapes (above)  I dug out some old sketch pads and borrowed some "ancient" sketches I had made in years past, combined with some of the images I hold in my head of mountains and clouds without end.  This landscape wraps around the jar so it is essentially infinite, with a repeated, but sequentially connected graphic on the four side panels.  This jar is larger than its fellow "painted jars" in this post.  These jars all have round bottoms but they all stand up without difficulty.  I'm not sure of the physics involved in this phenomonia, but they don't fall over and they sit upright naturally, with a bit of lively wobble! 

Combining the graphics of the previous jars, I then tried a four panel landscape (below)  with different views, held in context with ancient graphics.  This "little guy" is getting down around 9" in diameter.  The red is Amaco "Terra Cotta" and the black is  Amaco "Black Velvet".  I think the surface of this pot is a white, porcelain slip with some burnishing.  

Going back in the evolution, I made this pot (below) for DOVA, thinking the traditional (but simple) Pueblo designs might ring a chime for the viewers.  However, at the last minute, in consultation with Rachel, I decided to try out a new form on the students so this jar migrated to Oak Hollow, not an uncommon displacement for flakey artists.  

This pot (below) has an interesting history.  Over the past few years I have come to see "Nueva Pueblo" potters as being just to dang perfect.  I'm often suspicious that some of the jars are slip cast, or at least hand thrown.  That takes out some of the original lopsided and organic feel of the old pottery, or even typical Acama pots from only 20 or 30 years ago.  In this jar I tried to reintroduce some of the antique feel of the old pots, not to "fake" it up, but just to give it more of a sense of the excitement (derived from use and age) of the ancient Casas Grandes pots.   If anything I went just a bit over the edge on this jar and will probably be accused by some of trying to replicate the antique feel artifically (see my previous post on "antiqueing" a guitar).  However, when you consider this pot was fired 6 or 8 times, you can see it really has aged in a trial by fire.  I like this pot a lot and if it doesn't sell at Oak Hollow I will probably keep it.    

Why would a potter fire a pot multiple times.  Well, first of all multiple firings give pottery a patina and a "used" or organic feel.  In using slips, stains, and colors on a jar I want to be sure they don't blend or smudge, so I first bisque fire the pot, then bisque the original colors and keep layering the colors with further bisque firings.  

The last of the Oak hollow jars is below.  This has 4 different landscape panels, illustrating the progressing of a mountain storm.  You can see the red clay body inside this pot. I'm going to say the slip covering is "OM4 ball clay".  

I will show several additional jars at Oak Hollow in June, but this post is stretching out.  Perhaps another post is in order.  But before closing I want to show a jar that I made to submit to "The Mighty Tieton 10X10" show in July.  I really like to revert to traditional graphics and this jar shows the understated polychrome style.  

Hope you liked this post, see you at the DOVA reception May 22 and at Oak Hollow June 8.  And, be on watch for a post on Raku, in preparation for the YVCC spring Raku firing. I plan to smoke fire some painted pueblo jars that day and see how the graphics look on contrast to the effects of smoke firing.