Pottery Paw Prints

Korey wants you to bring your pet to the studio November 14th for a really cute paw print in clay.

Paw Print Pottery Sunday November 14th 11 am - 3 pm

See you and your best friend, Teresa

Clay Creations

"Clay Creations" is what we are calling them....

You can create your own creation

We have tons of fun ideas and can help get you started.  "Clay Creations" include 2 lbs of clay and can be painted the same day.  The clay has to dry before we can fire it so plan on two weeks from the day you come in until your creation will be fired and ready for pick up.

Cats

Sometimes I miss the studio being at the house...

Some mornings it is so tough to leave...

Oscar, Raku and Delly









Beau (14 yr old, half blind, selectively deaf and can smell a food a mile away.





Once I get to the studio, I am always happy to be there without the distractions of home.

Teresa

Pumpkins

I had a really fun time throwing these pumpkins on the potters wheel.  I started with a cylinder, pushed the walls out giving them a rounded shape then squeezing or colloring in the top until the tip top of the walls meshed together creating a closed form.  The form is hallow, filled with air.  It is easy (and super fun) to manipulate it into shape.

Last I cut the lid and put a stem handle on.

Can't wait to see what they look like glazed- I'm thinking of using underglaze.... will post pics when they are done.

Enjoy this fantastic fall!  Teresa

Kids, Kids, Kids Kids Art Camp

Kids Art Camp starts up again next week and runs through August.  There are still a few spots left if you are interested in attending.  Camp runs Mon-Fri 9 am - noon.  Daily drop-ins are welcome if there is space available.  We limit class size so all the campers get intimate attention while working on the potters wheel.

Hope to see you- Teresa

New Class Schedule is out!

T Pots Pottery has added classes in fused glass and pottery painting workshops!

Check it out - great fun, exciting new classes and mediums. 

There are still a few spaces left in the Summer Kids Camps in August.  Camp has been so popular, the studio will be offering kids pottery classes starting in September.

Hot Weather, Hot Cat, Hot Kiln

It has been hot, even hotter in the studio the past week.  Many days both kilns have been clicking away which makes the studio really, really hot.

Even my fluffy, long hair cat, Raku is hot.


 




Two kilns???? You may be thinking... Yes,(I say with a big smile).  I got a second kiln a few weeks ago, it is an itty bitty little thing. 

The Paragon Home Artist kiln is only 12" x 12" and plugs into a regular wall plug!  It even has wheels and one of those pull up luggage handles so I can wheel it outside for Raku or move it out of the way when not being used.

My husband, Stu calls it the Easy Bake after the kids play oven.  Adorable, easy and fast!  The new kiln allows me to offer 24 hour turn around on Paint Your Own Pottery and Fused Glass projects.  Oh so fun!

Keep Cool, Teresa

ARTour 2010

ARTour- North Tahoe/Truckee's Annual Open Studio event starts this Friday, July 9th.

You have two weekends to visit the 32 artist studios from Tahoe City to Incline and Truckee.  Come by the studio for your free map or check out the North Tahoe Arts for an online version and more information.

Looking forward to seeing you this weekend!  (Or before to pick up your free ARTour map).

Teresa

Tahoe Kids Camp

Another fun week of Kids Pottery/Art Camp started today.  The campers did great!  We spend the majority of time on the potters wheel.  After snack, we handbuilt mushrooms and started our art journals.

I'll try to remember to take some pictures tomorrow.  Another fun morning planned with glass fusing and more time of the wheel.

Teresa

Peace, Love and Pottery Kids Camp

Summer Camp started this week, what a blast we are having so far.  The kids are between 6 and 12 yrs old - are all such characters!

I've been so impressed with how well then all have done on the potters wheel the past two days.  The youngest ones throw standing up since they just can't get close enough to their wad of clay while sitting.  Older kids sit with blocks of wood under their otherwise dangling feet.

Check out what the campers made on the wheel...

 Great stuff!

Today the kids trimmed and painted glaze on their ceramic pieces.  After snack we used glass to make sun catcher peace signs.  The glass is in the kiln now.... stay tuned to see the results!

Teresa

Summer

Summer arrived yesterday... and is leaving again tomorrow.  So sad.  It has been wonderful having the big roll up door open, it is South facing, so the sunshine beams in all day long.  The studio feels so much larger.

With summer comes all sorts of activities, "Truckee Thursday" begins this week.  New this year, Donner Pass Road will be closed off to cars.  Stop at our booth to say "hi". 

The first Raku firing will be this Saturday from 2 - 7 pm at the studio.  It is so exciting!  Probably not an issue this year.... if you are going to Raku fire your own piece of pottery be sure to wear long pants, long sleeve shirt and closed toe shoes.  Using tongs, we take the pottery out of the special Raku kiln when the pieces are around 1500 degrees!  That is hot!

Kids Camp starts next week with a 60's theme- "Peace, Love & Pottery".  I'm so excited, have some really fun projects planned.  This first week, we will be playing in clay, both handbuilding and on the wheel, doing some fused glass and so much more.

And, of course, ARTour, North Lake Tahoe's Open Studio event.  Two weeks of fun are planned July 9-11 & July 16-18.  I'm really looking forward to ARTour this year, with the new studio, I can leave the "working" area as is without to much interruption to production and class schedules.

Lets hope summer comes and stays for a while!

Teresa

Painting Pottery Field Trips

This past week, a second grade class at Incline Elementary and Middle Schoolers at Loyalton painted pottery. 

 A sampling of the 18 ice cream bowls painted by the 2nd Graders at Incline Elementary for their Moms.

 A few of the 8" square plates painted by the 11-13 year olds in Loyalton.  Mr. Fisher spearheaded the project to help the kids release some tension and stress after a long week of STAR testing.

All of the painted pottery turned out beautiful!

Teresa Wik

Moms Visit- Painting Pottery

I love my Moms company, she is silly, goofy and a lot of fun! 

Mom is my #1 Assistant!  If you have been to an open studio- you know have experienced Cory (aka Dogwood, Gigi).  Along with open studio, Mom helps with glazing, pricing, dusting and thankfully adding cute little touches to the pottery display.

If it were not for all of her help and support (both mentally and physically) I would not be where i am today.  

 Last week Mom, my friend Teresa and I spent the day painting pottery to be used as example display pieces at the studio.  what a wonderfully, fun day we had.  Painting, chatting and giggling.  The pieces came out great!  

A gal came in, just after I had put the display up, saw the dog dish mom painted and wanted to buy it!  Mom is very crafty and does some wonderfully creative stuff- check out her blog http://pinkdogwoodblossom.blogspot.com/

Later that same day, a group of young women loved a different display piece so much, they used it as a sample to paint their own pieces. 

Have you ever painted pottery?  Help me out, let me know what you liked about it and if there was anything special the studio did to make your visit a great one. 

Paint Pottery- it is cheaper than therapy!  Teresa

March Mudness

It's been pouring rain since around 4 pm today.  They (good ole "they") say we are going to get 1-2 feet of snow by Wednesday.  For now, it is raining.  I have mixed feeling about the downpour outside, the rain melts the snow really, really quickly...  Good for spring fever and the emerging dandelions, bad for spring skiing. 

I play in the mud almost every day at the studio and love it.  Cleaning the house from all the mud we have tracked in- not as much fun.

What really makes me smile and not care to much about the rain is..... (drum roll) the new studio does not flood.  Tomorrow I can spend the day how I want to instead of squeegeeing water around the studio!

Enjoy your days for what they are.  Teresa

Low fire Commercial glaze at Cone 5?!

I've been playing around with some commercial low fire glaze and underglaze as decoration and addition combining with my Cone 5 glazes.

Color Chart- (by Cory Moore)

Commercial glazes lines up and down

Cone 5 glazes were painted on from left to right on top of the commercial glazes

(Top to Bottom- Purple, light blue, raw clay at "underglaze", celadon green, white)

It is really a lot of fun to see the spectacular results, especially the vibrant screaming red under my grassy green celadon glaze.

The purple (my favorite color) seems to fade to either violet or a dark blue, depending upon which low fire glaze I try.

When fired at low temperatures (04-06 range) these glazes stay in place with very little to no movement, on vertical surfaces at cone 5, they they run or "smudge" some.  I like the effect.

Element Chunkies look completely different at the higher firing temperature!  I love the way they still make crystals yet, they really run and "smear" creating wonderful effects, especially on texture!

I'll be playing with glaze effects more.... what do you think of the colors?

Positive thoughts for you today, Teresa

Spinning into the New Year

Life is beginninng to get back to normal after the excitement, stress and hardwork of moving the studio in November '09, the holidays and work. 

We celebrate Thanksmas, which for us is a wonderful few days at Moms house (check out her blog at http://pinkdogwoodblossom.blogspot.com/) where we celebrate Thanksgiving with a hike in the foothills and an incredibly delicous meal prepared by Forrest one day and Christmas the following with presents under the fake fiscus tree iwth white lights.

The hecteck holiday season begins after that with the finale of working the ER at Tahoe Forest Hospital from Christmas day through New Years day, the busiest time in the ER.  I also taught at Martis Camp for two days and helped with their budding paint your own pottery program.

As I said, life is beginning to get back to normal in the studio and at home.  Still busy yet, manageable and fun.  Last week I added an additional drop-in time on Thursdays from 10 am to 1230 pm to compliment the Wednesday and Thursday evening drop-in sessions at 5:30 to 8 pm.

A Mini Beginner Wheel Throwing class started last Sunday with an awesome group of 5 people, three additional pottery classes are scheduled to begin in January.

I really enjoy teaching classes and helping out during drop-in sessions.  I feel so blessed to have such a creating, engaging and fun group of people who frequent the studio.  So much of what I blog about is technique and/or studio issues, both are a huge part of what i do at the studio yet, it is the people and interaction which really make it such a comfortable and relaxing place that I am excited to go to everyday.

Enjoy Today! Teresa

Metal Flakes in Pugged Clay

Those little black specks in the clay are the culprit!  For months we have been fighting "contaminated" clay coming out of the pugmill... the first few times, I thought we must have had a stray tool find its way into the clay recycle garbage can but, after a few more times and just as many complete and through cleaning of the entire inside of the pugmill, I knew that could not be it.  The entire clay recycling program was put on hold for a few months while the studio moved to the new location.  After some time had passed at the new location and we had settled in, I decided to take the pugger apart for further investigation...

To the left is the picture of what the inside of the pugmill looked like, it is a close up so you can see all of the pitting to the metal.

The nice guys at Peter Pugger diagnosed this awful case of metal acne as "oxidation".  Well, humm, I thought, who would have guessed that after all of these months and safe guards put into place so foreign objects would not get into the pugger, it was all coming from the metal nozzle inside the pugmill.

 

Peter Pugger sandblasted then brushed on two coatings of Devcon Brushable ceramic epoxy coating making a lovely Tahoe blue color.  I did not get a picture of the fresh pugged clay, we used it all up already!

Navajo Wheel Clay (Red Clay) by IMCO

Yep, the rumor is true.  T Pots Pottery now stocks a red clay called Navajo Wheel by IMCO.

We tested the clay for a few weeks, everyone who threw with it, really enjoyed the smooth, creamy feel and loved the deep, rich color.  Testers felt the clay was easy to center and throw with, so easy, may found themselves with the top portion of their pot suddenly unattached to the wheel and in their hands at the end of a "pull".  Using less water than with the white clay (B-Mix) really helped with the "flimsiness" feeling of the clay.

I found the clay to be easy to throw, softer than B-mix.  Navajo Wheel is much less tempermental in respect to attaching handles and "S" cracks.  A few pieces were intentially left with a thick, uncompressed bottom and left to dry right side up.  - no "s" cracks.  Handles stay put, even with slightly dry clay.

Navajo Wheel on the left, B-Mix on the right= same glaze on both

The best part is the clay will wash out of clothing!  The shrink rate is 15%, a little more than b-mix at 12%.  so far the studio glazes all have a nice fit with no crazing and they look gorgous on the darker clay.

I'll add updates about the clay as they come out of the kiln.

Happy Holidays

Teresa 

Harbor Freight Wheel

A month or so ago someone purchased a potters wheel from Harbor Freight, she gave a nice review of it on PotteryBasics 101. 

Sure there were a few things about it which were of concern but, with the 20% coupon code I had, the wheel was less than $275 out the door!  Can't beat that price.

After using the wheel for a few weeks, I sadly returned it.  Harbor Freight has a great return policy.

Below are the pro's and con's I found with the wheel. 

Pro- price, fairly quiet, comfortable to sit at

Con's- single splash pan does not come off or have a drain hold, wheel head does not come off which makes it tough to clean the splash pan, the foot pedal does not have "cruise control" it also felt awkward and was touchy to decrease speed.  The biggest single issue for me was that the top speed was not very fast for centering.  The wheel was able to handle centering 15 lbs no problem, it was just very slow.

With all that said, I do think it could be a great starter wheel for someone.  Mind you, my use for the wheel is mainly for students; beginner to advanced.  I currently have two Creative Industries Class Boss, an older Brent C, Pacifica GT800, an artista and Baily wheels.  I think the difference in footpedal alone would have been enough to drive everyone crazy.

Right now for the money and my useage needs, I feel the Creative Industry Clay Boss a better choice.

Stay tuned for a future review of the Clay Boss.

Kauai Potter Dean McRaine

Tucked behind a wood working shop just a block off the main hwy in Kapaa is a wonderful treasure... LightWave Pottery, the working studio of Dean McRaine. 

A potter for more than 20 years on Kauai, Dean designed and built the studio a few years ago.  Dean and his wife Malone welcomed us in the bright, airy, spacious and well designed studio and gallery as if we were old friends.

Once Dean found out I too am a potter, he immediately began showing me things he thought a fellow potter would be interested in.... Dean single fires Cone 10 Oxidation in a gas kiln.  He formulates and mixes all of his rich and beautiful glazes.  I was especially impressed  and interested in the chemistry involved with his copper red.  Dean incorporates texture and glaze layering to enhance the color and effect of his glazes. I could tell that glaze and colors are a passion for Dean with years and years of testing.

Currently Dean is excited with the wonderful results he is getting using colored clays.  My picture did not do it justice so, check out his website at http://lightwavepottery.com

"Puff" The Magic Dragon hanging at the studio. 

On your next visit to Kauai, don't miss LightWave Pottery & Ceramic Art