Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz
I hope this post is the first in a series of new posts about some of my recent work.
A few months ago I was asked to donate some pottery to the Local in Goshen for a fundraiser. They sold tickets to a catered meal served on pottery made by local potters. After the meal, the guests got to take home their handmade place settings. For each set they asked for a dinner plate, salad plate, bowl and cup. Here are some photos of my donations.
dinnerware set 1
dinnerware set 1 stacked
Here are a few pots from the last glaze fire. ^6 oxidation. Stoneware: Warm Brown or Buff Stoneware by Amaco.
Still trying a lot of different glaze combinations and trying decals on different glazes.
I’ll be glazing another load in the next few days. I hope to start concentrating on a few glazes and combinations that I like in hopes of a more defined body of work.
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.
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
I recently shot some photos of the most recent glaze fire. These were mostly completed during the polar vortex winter that kept us cooped up inside for months. Which is always okay with me, as long as I have enough clay! Everything was fired to ^6 in oxidation. Clay is either Warm Brown Stoneware or Buff Stoneware or a combination of both. For more details, click on the images.
This was my favorite surface from this kiln load. I like the Jen’s Juicy Fruit and Waterfall Brown combo better on the Warm Brown Stoneware but it looks pretty good here too on the Buff Stoneware running over my light brown glaze. It might even run a little more on the Buff Stoneware?
side fired bowl
I was commissioned to make 6 small coffee mugs so I made a bunch. It was nice to do a series and work with some subtle variations. I hope to do some more multiples soon.
series of small mugs
Inspired by a post by the Createniks, I’ve embarked on my own stamp making adventure.
Like Scott and Angi, I was using rubberstamps.net to order custom, unmounted rubber stamps. They do a really nice job and I was pleased with the quality of the stamps. But I always thought it would be more efficient, and possibly cheaper, to make my own stamps.
The answer, I discovered, is the Teresa Collins Stampmaker Kit. This seems to be a re-branded Imagepac Stampmaker aimed at crafters and scrapbookers (pink and girly).
Imagepac Stampmaker Kit
I ordered mine from Home Shopping Network because they offered a discount and had the best price that I could find. Unfortunately, it looks like they are out of stock right now.
