Mug Throwing Demonstration

I don't demonstrate a lot. Basically only when friends come over and ask to see. I never volunteer to demonstrate. I went back to my high school a couple years ago and demonstrated to the pottery classes and last year I participated in the first medieval faire, now called the Renaissance Faire, and borrowed a small portable wheel to demonstrate there.

My wheel is the wooden box in the front corner of my tent.

I've never been really good at talking while my hands are occupied, so when I demonstrate, typically I can't both throw a pot and describe what I am doing at the same time. I thought I would try this instead. So here's a video on my Facebook page (it was too large of a file to post here) from my mug throwing today. I still didn't talk while I was throwing, but at least you can see how I throw. Every potter has their own style of throwing. Each time I watched a demonstration from a potter or took classes from a potter I learned something new and tried their techniques to see it my throwing would benefit from it. Plus having sprained my wrist when I was younger, I've adapted to make throwing less painful for myself.

Some of the pots I threw at the faire last year.

It's my first time trying this, and I filmed by wedging my phone onto a collapsible easel. So if the quality is a little off, bear with me, I may try again with a bowl or something some other time. Enjoy!

The Energy Fair 2016

Sunset at the Back 40. That's my tent in the foreground.

This weekend was an annual tradition for my dad and me. We went to the Midwest Renewable Energy Association's (MREA) Renewable Energy and Sustainable Living Fair. That's the full title. It is quite a mouthful so whenever we talk about it at home it is either the Energy Fair or just the Fair if we have already been in conversation about it and don't need to clarify which fair we mean.

A hayfield Friday morning of the way to the Fair.

The Fair is a great place to meet people who want to learn about how to be more sustainable in their lives and take the workshops that will help you get started. This year's fair is of course finished now, but if you want to attend next year, the Fair is always held the third weekend of June, the weekend closest to the summer solstice and Father's Day weekend.

We fill this whole field, a small field just over the hill in the
background and a second larger field which is behind me in this picture.

Every year my dad and I volunteer at the Fair in the parking lot. Each morning we get up around 4:45 or so, so that we can have breakfast and get ready and get to the fair grounds. We sleep at the Back 40 Campground, a parcel of about 35 acres that the MREA uses as a campground for people attending the Fair each year, it is about 2 miles from the fair grounds and this year we decided to walk over each morning instead of taking our bikes. Halfway there on Friday and Saturday we hitched a ride with a couple of the other long-time parking lot volunteers.Our shift starts at 6:00 and I usually work until 10:00 so I can attend workshops. Dad goes until 10:00 if he has a workshop or longer if not and if they still need the experienced help. One year he stayed out there from 6:00-12:00 and that was a crazy hot year. Luckily they have someone come around every 30-45 minutes with a water cooler and cups to replenish us.

Dad is the tiny person in the center of this picture.

The weather is always what Mother Nature decides to give us each year. This year was an excellent solar energy spill, AKA a nice day. (This is a t-shirt I saw at one of the vendors' booths and almost bought: Whenever there is a huge spill of solar energy, it's just called a nice day.) Some years though we've had cold, wind, rain, thunder and lightening. The fair got struck by lightening one year too, that was exciting. But whatever it is, we deal with it, even if it was torrential rains and the parking lot turns into a muddy swamp and cars need to be pushed out. That was an interesting year. There was mud halfway up the hubcaps in some spots.

Sunset over the fair after dinner Friday night.

This isn't the same as one of my solo adventures, (read about those here 1, here 2A, here 2B, here 2C) but it is still an adventure and a chance for me to step out of my comfort zone. For the most part the people at the Fair have quite a bit in common and there is always something to talk about. For me though, the problem is always coming up with a question at the time when questions are being asked and then voice that question. I did end up having a conversation with one presenter at the end of the Fair, the last workshop of the weekend, which meant there were a grand total of 5 people in this audience. So it was more like a one-on-one conversation, which I can totally handle, instead of being singled out in a crowd of 20 or more often twice that. He was presenting on "How to Grow Your Own Broom," which has been an interest of mine and I took a step toward adding to my creative repertoire earlier this year.

The fairgrounds before the people arrive.

I did continue my sketches of my adventures on this trip, however I had to go a little smaller and only take my pocket sized sketchbook and my technical pen, which I almost had to throw out because I lost the cap for a while in the parking lot. The pen is dead grass colored and I was standing in a field covered in dead mown grass. Go figure. I did one sketch each morning before the people really started filing in.

The parking field, the little figure is my dad, his job is near the beginning,
making sure people keep moving, mine is making sure they park in straight lines.

I love going to the Fair, there is usually something new to see or learn each year. And I get to see the people I usually only see at the fair or by chance at other times of the year. I may have even gotten an offer for a place to stay when I am hiking the southern part of the Ice Age Trail next spring.

The exhibitors tents from my hill top view.

I always come home with new ideas and plans for things I want to try. But the problem is always that I don't know how to implement the new ideas in my current situation and with my current funds. There are so many other things I am already trying to keep going with, to keep up with and many of the ideas don't fit with where I am right now. I almost bought a currant bush to plant at home, had they still had some when I went by on Sunday, I would have.

The wind turbine, really flying on Sunday as the wind had picked up.

I'll have to see where I am next year. I hope I will have finished my Ice Age Trail hike by the time the Energy Fair comes around again, but if not there is always the year after that!

Reviving My Pottery

I've been playing with a new series or set of designs for my pottery. I'm bringing back the things I really enjoyed making fifteen or sixteen years ago when I was just starting to learn pottery.

The first thing I started making again were little gargoyle heads. I also made some bowls with heads and feet around the same time as the gargoyles. I made several of these when I was younger and gave some as birthday or Christmas presents to my friends. We still have one of my original ones sitting on our kitchen counter. I started making these again when I felt the gargoyle heads should become something and I remembered how much fun the bowls were when I was younger.

A bird-esque creature bowl.

The gargoyle heads also eventually got applied to the sides of some mugs last year for the Medieval Faire I was a vendor at. I originally started making the heads when my friend and mentor, Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery (check out her Facebook page here.) was trying to get me to work quickly without overthinking what I was doing. I had a problem with that then, and still do overthink things now on occasion. Because you work with such a small amount of clay, it can quickly dry out and become crumbly, hence the need to work and act without thinking too much.

A turret mug with gargoyles.

One other thing I loved doing was using Mason stains on my work to add some extra color and paint pictures or patterns. I've been wanting to bring that back to my work as well, but it has taken a little longer because it required a whole new set of chemicals that weren't in my glaze making supplies. I started working on this idea in March and then made some progress in May. Since I started actually making tests in March that means I had already been thinking about trying this since January 24, actually when Amy posted a picture of one of the mugs she got from me in this style way back when. I had been wishing I had a different style than the style I've been doing for the last 6 years and she happened to post a photo of that mug and I said, "OH! Maybe I should do some like that! That was fun." And I started gathering supplies.

A bottle in a "halfway" style with stains but old glazes.

Well I finally got a big batch of this new old style fired and I'm pretty excited about it! You can see all the pieces from this firing on my Facebook page. I did some work in my old glazes with Mason stain decoration and then I paired some of my old glazes with the new white base glaze (also from Amy, thanks Amy!) to make some new things like how I had been imagining them. I love how bright the stains get when they are over the top of the white glaze. I almost feel like I've been given a new set of paints or colored pencils, except I was always very particular about how I treated those, they had to stay tidy and clean, whereas I just jumped in with the stains and had fun.

The new white glaze paired with the Mason stains and my yellow glaze.

And I did have fun. Especially when I opened the kiln today and realized that everything I had glazed in the new style had turned out the way I had hoped! It's Christmas morning in my studio today!

Planning is Getting Real!

A new booth space and setup at the Walk in the Woods Art Show this year.

This week I was getting ready for my first summer art show. A week ago I ordered the Ice Age Trail Atlas, Friday I received it in the mail. I guess that means I can really start planning my trip. I'm living in two times right now: what I need to do this week, and what I need in order to be ready for my practice hike and my Ice Age Trail hike. I'm getting a little frustrated that my current life is interfering with my future life. I don't know how to get things done without focusing solely on that thing so to have my attention divided this way, I'm not sure I'm accomplishing anything in either time.

The Atlas, they send you the covers and the three hole punched pages,
I put it in the binder to keep everything together. For now.

I doubt myself. Of course I do, who's going to look at 1200 miles and think "easy peasy?" Unless of course they've done it before. I doubt my feet, my knees, and my back. I don't have decent shoes yet, so when I walked 8 miles one day last week with my pack on, something in my foot got tweaked. I've been babying it this week, but who knows how long it will take to heal? My knees ache each time I walk with my pack on, which could also be a result of poor shoes, but I am looking into trekking poles as well. I strained my back last year and every now and then it acts up when I move wrong.

The whole state map. The pages are three hole punched so while you are walking,
you don't have to take the whole book with you, only the pages you need right then.

So how do I figure I can walk 1200 miles? I haven't the foggiest, but when it comes to it I'm going to give it my best shot. The thing is I don't usually tell the whole world what my plans are, especially when it scares me just a little. I have this thing about failure: if I fail and no one knows I was trying, everything is still ok; if I fail and everyone knew I was trying, then I will have to explain again and again why I couldn't do it and be forced to relive that failure again and again. I had a nightmare last week after it felt like everyone I knew suddenly had heard from me or my parents that I was going to try the Ice Age Trail and it exposed my fears to me. I still can see the imagery in my mind's eye and I may have to paint it just to get it out of my head.

I did try ordering some hiking boots this week. I have big feet and they say you should order boots one size larger which means I should order size 12's. I got the boots in the mail Thursday, I sent them back Friday, I couldn't even imagine waking a half mile in those boots, pretty sure I would have had blisters before I made it a full mile!

The first map showing the western terminus. There is a ford, (meaning I will have to wade
through a stream of some sort) right at the beginning. Barefoot in the water in April? Ok...

Oh well. I guess I'll need to try some more boots on and if I find some I like I'm going to get two pairs so I can break them both in just in case I walk one pair to pieces when I'm on the trail. I don't want to get a brand new pair when I'm walking 10-20 miles a day, recipe for instant blisters.

The first map covers the little box labeled 1, there are 105 maps to cover the whole trail.

There is still so much that I need to do in order to be prepared for a hike of this type. And since I'm planning on a practice hike this fall I really need to be prepared by then. I'm researching, reading, studying, and wondering what I need, how I'm going to figure the logistics of resupplying and camping, the distance I can go each day, what do I plan to do in case of a hundred different scenarios, and can I manage everything with a lightweight (20 lb or so) pack? I don't know. I'm going to try. And until then I still have pottery that needs to be made!

New things, New goals

Bowl, front view with new stains and old glazes.

Over the last week I have made pottery in a half new, half old style. I still haven't gotten my new glazes mixed so I used some of my old glazes to play a little and see what I could do with my new stains.

Back view

I'm pretty excited about the new work, even though it still isn't what I was planning on doing. That is still coming and I will be doing that as well.

Another bowl, I'm playing with patterns.

I have also been training for a long distance hike. I don't know when I will actually get to do this hike since my summer and fall are currently all booked up for shows and some personal events. Over the last 10 days I have hiked carrying a 15 pound backpack, or walked, 46 miles. And that is just my morning routine or an afternoon walk with my mom. I still have things I need to be doing during the day that prevent me from walking all day.

Trying some different color combinations on cups.

And supplies to gather before I have everything I would need for a multi-day hike.

My life, interests and this blog are changing. I never know what will catch my attention or what I will be most interested in over the next few months. It may come to pass that I don't go on a multi-day hike simply because I couldn't get organized while the idea was still fresh in my mind. That is how my interests go. If it is something that requires my daily attention, my chickens for example, I won't just walk away from it. They are my pets and I will take care of them until the end. But projects and ideas and trips don't require constant care in the same way that an animal does and therefore I don't feel bad for setting aside some things.

In my bag I have stand-ins for supplies I need to get; an overweight tent is
taking up most of the space and weight, and the green bag is a one-person tent I borrowed.

They do require care, I'm not saying they don't, but a living being won't perish if I walk away from an idea because I lost interest in it. I'm always looking for something new to try: musical instruments, a type of art or craft I haven't tried yet, a new experience or place to see, a new big dream or goal. Does this make me a seeker of novelty or just someone with a short attention span? Or maybe I have to try all these new things in order to figure out who I am without anyone telling me otherwise.

I got a couple of books from the library today to keep me interested.

(And since I wrote this two days ago, I have ordered the Ice Age Trail Atlas, which is the book I will use to plan my trip and navigate the trail, so I'm excited about doing the hike again. I lost a little interest this week over a small hiccup.)

By the way, do you know how small a one-person tent is?! I may have to get an ultra lightweight two-person tent simply for my own mental health on the trail.