Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

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Handle With Care Workshop: Eric Botbyl, Matt Schiemann, Todd Pletcher

This past summer I had the opportunity to attend the Handle with Care Workshop featuring three top notch potters. It took place just down the road in Goshen on June 24th and 25th. Though it happened 6 months ago, I still recall many of the tips, techniques and conversations from this workshop.

Handle With Care Workshop

Featured Potters

Todd Pletcher

Todd Pletcher

Todd was the host and did a fantastic job pulling off this great experience. Unfortunately for the Michiana pottery community, it was also like a big going away party because Todd and his family moved to the other side of the world soon after it was over. The most noticeable thing about Todd’s work is probably his wavy rims. He showed us how he created those rims and some of his different handle styles, among other things.

Eric Botbyl

Eric Botbyl

Eric runs the Companion Gallery and makes his own pottery in Humboldt, Tennessee. He is known for his ‘scragglers’ which are highly altered, textured wheel thrown pieces. It was great watching him use simple tools to make such complex surfaces.

Matt Schiemann

Matt Schiemann

Matt made the trip from St. Petersburg, Florida to help fire the train kiln and demonstrate his making techniques. Matt is a second generation potter making functional, mostly wood fired work. He also helps run the Morean Center for Clay.

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Clay Studio Notes: February 2014

It took me a while to get back into the studio after Christmas break. I took some time to work on other projects, shovel snow and then I finally got everything organized and put back after the Clay Camp at WNP.

winter 2014

winter 2014

I spent some of our winter-vortex-apocalypse snow days in January and February at the wheel throwing. If you’re on Instagram you may have been following along (@artbyfuzzy). The kiln is currently cooling after a bisque fire so I should be ready to glaze in the next day or two.

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Clay Class with Mr. Schwartz

West Noble Primary is slowly becoming a community of clay artists.

Okay, maybe not, but we have finished our first Clay Camp! I came up with the idea a few months ago to offer an introductory clay class for interested staff members. There was plenty of interest so I started to put together a schedule, type out a “curriculum” and gather materials.

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Goshen Pottery Workshop, The First

There are some great benefits to living in the Goshen area. On Saturday I experienced another shining example of this at the first installment of the Goshen Pottery Workshop Series. I’ll admit, it was my first pottery workshop so I have nothing to compare it to but the surface class I took last summer… but it was amazing. Not only did I get to spend half a day with some of Goshen’s finest potters, I got to experience 3 hours of the best demonstrations that money can buy. And it all happened practically in my backyard.

The Goods

The Goods

So the following is my account of this tremendous time. Disclaimer alert: this is mostly from memory so there may be a few things that I don’t remember quite right, or things that I don’t remember at all!

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Currently In The Clay Studio

New Work

drying pots

drying pots

I’ve been trying to get enough work scraped together for a bisque fire. Mostly weekend work. But soon that will change… It’s almost summer break! I’ve got  a nice platter thrown and trimmed that is drying slowly. I also have a handful of PBL mugs, a couple berry bowls, and a bunch of other random pieces.

PBL mugs

PBL mugs

drying shelf

drying shelf

I don’t think I have enough for a full bisque load but I plan to try some more decals. Hopefully I can fill in the empty spaces with those. I’m hoping to bisque fire by Tuesday or Wednesday. But there’s a chance that I might make a few more things if I have too much space to fill. We’ll see what happens.

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