Potter's Conference: Focus on Function

Last week Guthrie, Brian and I travelled to our home town of Cincinnati for a visit with family, my little sister's bachelorette party and, most importantly, the Potter's Council regional conference where I was a presenter. While I've taught classes for over 9 years, this was my first big-time demonstration of my own work in front of a live (captive, sorry folks) audience. I was really excited and honored to present at this conference, as it has been a long-term goal of mine to teach workshops. There were 6 presenters total: 3 demonstrated at a time, one group in the morning, one in the afternoon. The attendees were great- they asked good, thoughtful questions, seemed very engaged, and laughed appropriately at my dorky jokes. My lovely assistant Leslie was extremely helpful and encouraging and took some pictures during the demo. I didn't realize I looked so funny while teaching- there were several shots of me pointing with my knife which was a bit disconcerting! Here's a sample:

Stamping is fun!

Bending the frame of a wallpiece:
Stretching a slab:
Look mom! I made a bowl:
The conference was held at Funke Fired Arts, an amazing clay studio in Cincinnati. The facilities seemed to be endless. This studio was a mecca for all kinds of ceramic artists: fully equipped with a materials shop, an exhibit and retail gallery, and seemingly boundless areas to work. The staff and volunteers there were super helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. The Clay Alliance also provided a lot of help which was very appreciated.
The work of Laura Ross, another presenter:
Steve Howell's work:
Kelly King discussing her sculptural/functional wall shelves during her demonstration:
Kelly King demonstrating:
Laura Ross's throwing demonstration:

Ceramic Arts Daily

I'm excited to say that I have a project posted on the Ceramic Arts Daily site, which is run by the Potter's Council. It's an instructional article describing how to make a "quilted" wall piece (very similar to this posting). It was fun to think very specifically about how to construct these pieces, and then put it into words. There will be an article in Pottery Making Illustrated coming up in their next issue with an extended version of this project including glazing.

Happy new year (a bit late!)

Apologies for the late greetings, I hope this finds everyone refreshed and energetic for a new year. 2008 was a particularly momentous one for the Sanders' clan and there there pottery. I will reflect on this soon in a future posting.

For now, I wanted to share about a recent trip that Guthrie and I took to the Mint Museum here in Charlotte. What better way to start the new year than visiting an amazing collection of ceramics at museum right in the back yard (or, 12 minutes away, but who's counting?)? One of their recent exhibits features women in ceramics from 1875-1945. There were some sweet pieces, but I wish they had shown more. Here are a couple of my favorites from the exhibit: a sculpture of acrobats, a sweet little carved lidded piece, and a delicately painted porcelain vase (and a nice wedgewood platter from their permanent collection). Sorry the images are a bit fuzzy, I had to fight little hands grabbing at the camera the entire time.

Another exhibit displayed haute couture fashions from 1947-2007. There were some incredible (and ridiculous!) pieces. The wall of shoes caught my eye. I think I may invest in a pair of those high top sneaker stilettos. Kristin Kieffer's work came to mind while observing this exhibit. I love the scallops on the black dress and can clearly see this influence in her work.

The big draw exhibit currently on display was Andy Warhol. Guthrie responded to these pieces the most; I'm guessing the bright colors caught his eye. The piece on the left interested me the most: one of a series of prints of "details of the renaissance."

Finished Urn

I was able to complete the urn before heading to Ohio to visit with family for Christmas and am pleased with the results. Hopefully the family who commissioned it will like it. Attached to the surface of the piece was a coin that has special significance to the family. It seemed to integrate well into the piece.

Special orders

The past couple of weeks I've been working on a few special orders- some for gifts, one through a gallery and one bigger project.
Just before I gave birth to Guthrie I was approached about making an urn and I reluctantly turned down the opporutnity because it didn't seem possible to make it in a timely fashion. This family really wanted it so they decided to wait (I felt/feel really honored by this). I finally got around to working on it over the past couple weeks and am pleased with the result (I hope the family receiving it will be too!). The knob on the top is attached to a lid that sits flush on the top and can be waxed shut once the ashes are inserted.
I've also begun working on two sinks for my friend Jeanene. Her house has undergone a huge renovation so she commissioned me to make her a couple of sinks that will sit on a large countertop in the master bath. Here's one in process. Obviously the hole for the drain hasn't been cut and I still need to add support to the little side wall. The actual bowl is 5" deep, so hopefully that'll be enough for it not to splash (cross your fingers!).

Pots in use- thanksgiving style

Brian, Guthrie and I had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving at our home this year. Both of our families were able to come in from Ohio (and Charlotte), so we had a great time visiting, eating and sharing.

One moment I took a step back to survey the scene: our kitchen full of loved ones, enjoying food and each other's company. The tables were covered with handmade items- mostly pottery. Somehow this added even more warmth to the scene- almost as if the people who created these pieces were there with us too. It made me very thankful to be one who creates and I couldn't help wondering with whom else I was "sharing" these moments with through my pottery.
Guthrie joined in the festivities as well by trying sweet potatoes for the first time. He couldn't quite figure out which tasted better: the sweet potatoes or Suze's pot?

Thoughts on teaching

While I haven't had an abundance of time in the studio lately (this is why), one constant in my life as a potter has been teaching. I really love to teach and have done so in many capacities from after-school kids art classes, to adult clay classes, to elementary school art teacher, to teaching residencies, to teaching people how to build a house (scary, but true). Teaching always provides me with many beneficial challenges as well as introduces me to people I wouldn't have met or known under any other circumstances.

Some of my best ideas for my own work have come about as a result of teaching. Case in point: I teach a handbuilding class at Clayworks in Charlotte and have several students who have taken the class with me many many times. In order to keep up the interest for them (and me), I spend a lot of time thinking, experimenting and planning new forms and methods. Here's one such example: we made these lobed boxes in this past session. Soon I'm going to work on reforming this process a bit and start to make something of the sort for my own body of work. I liked this little owl knob too.
I have some exciting teaching opportunities coming up in the next few months. The Arts and Science Council here in Charlotte is hosting an "Artist as an Entrepreneur Institute" that will be held over 3 Saturdays and is geared toward artists thinking of themselves as small business owners. Many different "modules" (classes) are held covering topics such as how to market your work, incorporation, creating a brand, etc. I'm honored to have a chance to teach the module on selecting your distribution outlets- ie: where can you sell your work? It's been really beneficial for me to sit down and think of all the different places where people can purchase my work and which of these have the greatest rate of return. I think it's pretty easy to just think, "oh, it's just galleries and craft fairs," but, in reality, there are so many additional opportunities. Just thinking about some other options that are less traditional that others have tried have piqued my own interest. When I'm on the ball enough I'll try to do a longer posting of my research and presentation. What are some places you market and sell your work that are a little more creative?

Coming up in February (20-22), I'll be a presenter at the Potter's Council Focus on Function workshop held at Funke Fired Arts in Cincinnati, OH. I'm so honored to present here and am looking forward to meeting all the other presenting artists and participants. I'll be doing two 3 hour demos of my own work and there will be a hands on portion for the participants to make some texturing tools and stamps. This event will also be fun for my because I grew up in Cinci and my family all still live there, so it'll serve as a visit too (although, they all just want to see my little Guthrie!).

In March (27/28) I'll be doing a demo workshop at Sawtooth School for Visual Art in Winston-Salem. I'm really looking forward to this because I'll have lots of time to demo many of my pieces and will have the opportunity to do a slide show of my work and influences. There have been so many artists that have generously shared knowledge and techniques and I'm so excited to be part of that cycle of sharing to possibly help enhance an old idea or spark a new direction of work for someone else.

It has been a long-time goal of mine to do more workshop style teaching at art centers. I feel that I have some original methods to share and have plenty of embarrassingly funny, self-deprecating stories to tell.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...(that's a pleasant sigh, not a scream)

It's been a while since I've had some uninterrupted time in the studio, and I was blessed just that yesterday. Brian has Mondays off now due to his new position at Habitat, so he agreed to hang out with Guthrie to give me some time to work. It felt so good to get my hands on some clay. I'm working on filling a gallery order of mostly handbuilt pieces and thus decided to tackle making some wall pieces. Here are a few in process. Below are nine tiles, halfway finished. I start with thinly-stretched slabs, cut and stamp them, and then pinch together the seams.Here's one receiving its border, which is pinched on as well.The clay is then rolled/folded to create a frame (this is the backside, by the way).A slab with 2 holes, in which to later thread wire, is attached.Here are the finished tiles. They are about 7"x 7" wet, and end up around 5 1/2" square once they're fired.

100th post/studio renovation

Hooray for post #100! I don't know what that means, but yea.

Aside from demo pots from my handbuilding classes at Clayworks, I haven't been making anything for the past couple of weeks. Brian and I (well, mostly Brian) have been renovating the studio: we tore out a closet and moved my wheel and wareboard shelves over into that area, and then Brian built a big section of permanent shelves in the corner where the wheel used to be. This will make the space way more efficient and give me more storage for works in progress. I'm really excited about getting back in there to create: the forced "vacation" has been wearing on me and I've felt a little down recently as a result. It goes to show that we who are made to create, must.

The man himself: Brian stands in his renovation glory:

The new shelves are so nice that I think I'll just sleep out here tonight....clay makes a great pillow.

Guthrie has something to say!

Guthrie is very concerned about the state of the US these days, so he recently joined the National Baby Union (not to be confused with the Union of Babies in America) which is endorsing the Obama/Biden ticket this fall. So, if you're for babies, you need to check out a great fundraiser that some potter friends and colleagues are promoting: Obamaware!