Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

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…

Photo Booth for Shooting Ceramics

Here is my biggest project from Christmas Break.  I wanted a place to photograph some of my more appealing ceramic items.  I started thinking and designing a few months ago.  When Christmas Break finally rolled around I put my plan into action.  Since I don’t have large quantities of empty space I decided to make it collapsible.  You can see the whole thing in action and a few test shots below.  Not bad for my first attempt…

[Read more…]

Last Glaze Fire of 2008

In my previous post I mentioned that I glaze fired another load just before Christmas.  It had a lot of small items that I used mostly for testing glaze combinations.  I’m starting to get some combos that I like.  So far I like combining Pam’s Blue (Coyote), Red Gold (Coyote), Textured Turquoise (Amaco), Temmoku (Amaco), and Blue Rutile (Amaco) in various ways.  If I can talk my wife into it I want to order some larger quantities of a couple glazes so I can do some dipping.  That way I don’t have to spend half my life painting 3 coats of glaze onto each piece with a brush.  Here is a picture of all the goods:


I took a little break from the clay studio but now I’m back and working on something a little larger.  If it actually turns out I’ll put up some pictures.

Glaze Fire Complete

Merry Christmas to your eyes.  Check out the photos of the new ceramic items that I just pulled out of the kiln.  If you’ve been keeping score at home you probably realized that I had a lot of glazing to do approximately one week ago.  Well, by “a lot” I meant “so much that I might never want to glaze anything again”.  You see, I spent most of the day and all night Saturday and into the early morning Sunday doing nothing except glazing bisqueware.  The good news is that I ordered five new glaze colors recently so I got to try them out. 

I fired the kiln starting Sunday at around 1:15 and it finished 8 hours later.  It cooled down Sunday night and Monday while I was at jury duty.  Of the new glazes that I ordered I really like the Temmoku and Textured Turquoise from Amaco and the Red Gold from Coyote.  Here are a few pictures:

If I can pull it off again, I hope to glaze another load and have it fired by Christmas.  Or Groundhog day….

A Lot of Glazing To Do…

Well, here is my post for the month.  I’ve been pretty busy since the last update.  I finished the class that I was taking at IUSB and started coaching the 4th grade girls basketball team.  I’ve also been busy down in the clay studio.  This past weekend I bisque fired a whole load of random stuff that I’ve accumulated over the past few months.


As you can see I have a lot of glazing to do.  I hope to get some glazed and fired before Christmas.  Some of these things could make some good Christmas gifts.  I also bought a few new glazes not too long ago.  I’ll post a few pictures when I actually get them glazed and fired.