Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Pottery Weekend

Apparently I took a couple months off from the blog. But now I should have enough content ideas to keep me posting regularly for a while. You can also see my latest activities on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Google+. Anyway, on with the post!

What would your dream weekend look like? A while (months!) ago I experienced something that was pretty darn close for a serious hobbyist potter (like myself at this point). To any full time potter it was probably just another day at the office but for me it was something that I look forward to in the future if I ever go “full time” clay.

Rothshank Woodfire with Troy and Moey

On Friday (May 2nd) after school I stopped at the Rothshank wood kiln and found Troy Bungart and Moey Hart on duty. They were trying to get the back chamber temperature up. I sat and chatted with them for a few hours.

Troy and Moe stoking the kiln

Troy and Moe stoking the kiln

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First Annual Michiana Pottery Tour

Michiana Pottery Postcard

Michiana Pottery Postcard

Last Saturday was the first annual Michiana Pottery Tour so my day was filled with as many pots, potters, refreshments, and socializing as I could handle. I left my house around 10:15am and didn’t return home until about 4:30. It was a beautiful fall day and there seemed to be a nice turnout for all the stops that I made it to.

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Surface Class Update – 3 Weeks In

I just finished the third week of class at the Goshen Clay Guild. It has been great so far. I’ve met a lot of cool people and learned a few things. We have had one class with each of the three teachers so far.

texture notes

texture notes

First, Eric Kaufmann (I confess, I spelled his name wrong twice before looking it up) gave us an introduction to the class and talked about crystalline glazes. Then Cindy Cooper subbed for Bob Smoker and gave us a lot of demonstrations and ideas for texture. Last night Justin Rothshank talked about decals. In between demos and instruction, and during lab nights on Thursdays, we get a lot of time to throw on the wheel or work on whatever we like.

pottery shelf so far

pottery shelf so far

I’ve been working with the B-Mix that Eric uses and trying to get used to it. I’ve made little test pieces and catch basins for the crystalline glazes. I can’t wait to learn more about the glazing and firing. I’ve already looked up some ^6 crystalline recipes. The B-Mix has taken some getting used to. It is a lot smoother than the stoneware I’m used to but I get nervous to push it too far.

decal notes

decal notes

The decals we are going to be using are printed with black and white toner from an HP laser printer. The iron in the print turns a sepia/brown when it is fired. There are also color decals that you can order but they are a lot more expensive to get custom images made. Apparently a little site called ebay is a pretty good resource for finding them though. Maybe I’ll have to take a look and see what’s available. My notes are to the left. Good luck reading them… I’m not even sure I can read them! I was scribbling like mad. So furiously that I broke out into a sweat. For a moment I thought I might have to sit down, but then a girl passed out (!) and we took a break and got some fans. Don’t worry, she was okay after waking up and drinking some water. And I was okay too…

cups with decals

cups with decals

Here are a few cups with decals. The third one from the left was a crystalline piece by Eric. Justin applied some plant decals and refired it to see if it would work without ruining the crystals. Looks good to me! Second from the left is a color decal. The other two are black and white decals. Justin printed out a page of decals for us if we had images ready. I just used some of the images that I used to order my rubber stamps for some of my other projects.

Check back in a few weeks and I should have another update. Happy 4th of July!

School’s Out… Let’s Take a Class

I’m officially on summer break, looking forward to a summer full of mixing glazes, making pots and spending time with my girls.

And since I finally have a summer where I’m not taking reading classes or painting murals, I can take a class that I’m actually excited about:

Goshen Clay Guild - Summer Class

Goshen Clay Guild – Summer Class

That’s right, I’m signed up for this fantastic class at the Goshen Clay Artists Guild. Instructors include Bob Smoker, Eric Kaufmann and Justin RothShank. It should be good!