Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Even Artists Have to Mow the Grass…

Not too long ago, as northern Indiana thawed out and the weather got warmer, the grass (along with my dismay) started to grow.  I began to dread another summer of push-mowing our entire yard every week or two.  I wasn’t worried so much about the physical strain on my out of shape body (it actually would have been quite a benefit) I just hated giving up a few hours per week to push around a mower held together with a hose clamp and duct tape and also has no discharge cover causing the grass to go straight up into my face.  I usually ended up with about 6 pounds of grass in my hair or stuck to my sweaty body every time I cut the grass.

The new riding lawn mower

The new riding lawn mower

My wife must have been feeling sorry for me (after I had to hose clamp and duct tape the handle back together) so we decided to get a riding lawn mower.  She even cashed in the credit card points to help pay for it.  We looked around for a while and finally settled on a Craftsman for a few reasons.  We could get the most $ for our credit card points at Sears and their warranty included house calls which will save us from borrowing someone’s truck/trailer to haul it in and get it serviced.  I’ve mowed the lawn a couple times now and it is fantastic.  It takes me half the time to mow the grass that it used to.  Unfortunately I haven’t spent any of that time updating the website (until now).  But even if I only save an hour every time I mow the grass I ‘ll probably save at least 8-10 hours total before school starts next year.  That’s a full day of throwing or painting (or climbing trees…)

Back From a 2 Month Hiatus

Well, it’s been almost 2 months since I’ve even looked at my website.  I’ve had some news items to share but apparently not enough time to share them.  Not a lot has happened in the studio since my last update but plenty has been happening in the “real world”.  Track season came and went.  My team finished 7-2 on the season and we ended up 4th at the conference meet.  I finished my class at IUSB.  I finished my duties as a Reading Recovery teacher for the year and completed all my paperwork.  I began another season of grass mowing and other yard work.  I spent some time on the Internet studying fantasy baseball stats and getting used to Firefox.  I finished the yearbook at school and worked on the Black Lab website and finished a few minor graphic design jobs.  Now I have to finish my required technology days before summer break officially begins.  Then I’ll have to take another class at IUSB.  In the near future I hope to get back into the clay studio on a regular basis.  Today I worked on my trimming chuck.  Tomorrow I hope to finish it and get some clay ready to throw.

Now I’m sitting here at the old computer that I’ve pieced together.  It started as my original college computer (2000 AD) so it’s far from top-of-the-line.  I added some RAM, bought an LCD monitor and laser mouse while browsing garage sales and bought another Linksys USB adapter from ebay.  I decided Windows ME wasn’t what I wanted so I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and even got it onto the wireless network here at home (mostly by pure luck?).  Now I can surf the net while my wife is “doing research” which looks suspiciously similar to finding coupons on the Internet.  Ubuntu has run smoothly so far considering the ancientness of my machine but I haven’t exactly been editing video or playing the latest video game.  I plan to get a little more experience with Ubuntu and the world of Linux and the universe of Open Source software this summer.  First step: figuring out how to use my printer without unplugging it from the main computer and plugging it in here.  Second step: downloading and installing some of the 304 updates that the little red arrow says are available.  I better get busy…

Studio Improvements

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on improving my clay studio here and there.  I put in a few more shelves and cleaned the whole thing not too long ago.  Below you should be able to see a few pictures of the new set up.  I rearranged the glazing area and added a shelf near the wheel.  I’m also trying to get some things together to hang on the walls for information and inspiration purposes.

I built the shelf by the wheel out of some spare wood that I had.  Some shelves were on sale at Menards so I bought some and set them up in the corner of the glazing area.  I also switched around the long skinny table and the tall metal shelf along the wall under the window.

If I can squeeze it in sometime I’ll try to post some pictures from the egg hunt at Crossroads or tell about a painting I finished, what I’ve been doing on the internet, or  some of the other things that have been happening.

Happy Easter, Goodbye Spring Break

Well, it’s one of those good news/bad news posts.  The bad news is that I must return to my day job tomorrow (which really cuts in to my studio time and sleeping in time…)  The good news is that I am writing this post from the comfort of my own home.  Yes, that’s right, we have stepped into the 21st century here at the Schwartz household and got ourselves a high-speed internet connection.  We were going to ditch Comcast but they offered us a DVR and internet package at a reasonable rate so we’re going to stick with them until they jack up the price again…

We got ourselves a Linksys router and adapter from Best Buy (thanks to everyone who gave giftcards as a gift) and I got our wireless network set up so we didn’t have to move my computer or run a network cable up the stairs.  We returned the usb adapter to Best Buy after I got the same item on eBay for exactly half the price.  So the good news is that I have quick and easy access to my website but the bad news is that I have quick and easy access to the Internet which could distract me from getting any real work done.  The middle school track season is under way as well so I will probably have minimal free time for the next few weeks.  At least I got a few things done over spring break including an order of senior pictures, taking pictures for our church easter egg hunt, some yard work and finishing the shirt design for our track team.  So now I have to get to bed since I have to wake up before 10:00 tomorrow morning…

Custom Ceramic Sink: Finished

This is actually old news…  but the large ceramic pieces that I’ve been working on are complete.  I was asked to create a bathroom sink by a family that is building a new house.  I had never thrown anything so large on the wheel before but I was excited to try.  The first few attempts turned into large bowls because they weren’t big enough (mostly because I didn’t start with enough clay).  I finally got the diameter that I wanted but then the shape wasn’t quite right and the bottom was too thin.  On my fourth or fifth attempt I finally got a shape and size that I liked.  Then I made an extra just to be safe.  I did some measuring on a store-bought sink and then calculated for shrinkage and cut a hole for the drain.  After bisque firing, glazing, and glaze firing the hole was almost the perfect size.  I don’t know much about drains or plumbing but I hope the installation goes smoothly.  Below you can see a few photos of the finished products.  The sink is about 15 in. in diameter.  The bowl is probably closer to 12 in.

As you can see I’m a little closer to where I want to be as far as photographing my ceramic pieces.  I also got to try out my new tripod that I got for Christmas.  I think I pulled the finished pieces out of the kiln in mid February but I’ve been busy working on the Ligonier Elementary yearbook for the past few weeks.  Last weekend I rearranged my clay studio and put up some more shelves.  Be on the lookout for some pictures…