Art by Fuzzy

Pottery, Photography, Design - Brandon "Fuzzy" Schwartz

Pottery Photo Backdrop

I just shot a few ceramics pieces on my new and improved backdrop which is part of the Collapsible Photo Booth for Shooting Ceramics.  I had been using some gray fabric from the $1 bin at Walmart but I wanted something a little darker and a little more sturdy.  I searched the internet but couldn’t find anything within my budget (as in “free” or “almost free”) so I decided to make my own.  I had a big roll of pre-primed canvas at my disposal so I cut a piece to fit into the Collapsible Photo Booth for Shooting Ceramics and added a couple extra layers of gesso and then painted it gray.  I had a feeling that the gray had a slightly blue cast and my suspicion was confirmed in the test photos.  So I re-mixed the paint and added a little red and a lot of yellow to even out the blue cast.  It’s not quite completely neutral gray now but it is a lot closer than the first attempt.  Below you can see some photos of the whole setup.  And soon there will be some photos of some actual pottery taken while using the whole setup!

Mixing Ceramics Glaze – Pam’s Blue

About a week ago I mixed up some glaze from a pre-mixed powder.  The powder was Pam’s Blue by Coyote and it was my first attempt at mixing any kind of glaze outside of the Huntington Clay House.  I got to purchase some new tools and I did some research and even talked to a few people on Clayart.  In the end it wasn’t too hard.

respirator

nice respirator

I talked my wife into helping and she had a lot of fun….  She took a couple pictures so I could share my experience.  The first thing you want to remember is: Safety First!  I got to wear a new respirator so I didn’t breathe too much of the dust when I was dumping the powder into the water. It’s a good look!

mixing glaze

mixing glaze

My wife mixed the water while I slowly dumped the powder .  It got pretty thick, even when I used all the water that the directions called for.  I was supposed to use 1 gallon and 1 pint but added a lot more by the end of the process.  I used my cordless drill and a 1 gallon paint mixer to mix the powder into the water. Even after mixing it with the drill mixer for a while it was still pretty lumpy.

glaze sieve

glaze sieve

I put it through an 80 mesh sieve three times.  After letting it sit overnight I mixed it up again with the drill mixer and it was ready to be applied to some bisque ware. I even checked the specific gravity or “density” with a hydrometer.

I’ll have  a full post on the items that I pulled out of the kiln.  The Pam’s Blue that I mixed from powder actually looks different than the pre-mixed pints I’ve used.  Check later to see how!

Drying Boards for the Pottery Studio

I love summer break!  One small project that I finished recently was to make some drying boards for my clay studio.  I only have about 6 bats so I often need to remove a thrown pot from the bat so I can use the bat to throw something else.  Usually I just set the freshly thrown vessels on my wedging table but then I always need to move them somewhere else before they have begun drying.  Sometimes this is a pain in the rear because I’ll smash or drop the very soft pots.  So now I can take my new pots directly from the wheel and onto the drying boards and they will be much easier to move around if needed.

I bought a sheet of 2’x4′ plywood from Lowes for about $6.  Then I cut off a 18″ x 24″ piece to use for things like platters or slab work.  Then I divided the rest into 12″ or 6″ squares.  I decided to go with the deluxe model so I got out my router and gave at least one side of each board an angle so it will be easier to pick up when it’s piled with clay items.

Ceramics drying boards

Ceramics drying boards

easy lift drying board

easy lift drying board

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.

Small Clay Studio Upgrades

Last weekend I was hard at work in the studio.  I not only made a few small clay pieces, I also improved the studio a little bit.  I got tired of walking all over to get a bat when I was ready to throw so I upgraded my wheel table to include a bat holder.  It can hold a total of eight bats at a time and is conveniently located under my wheel table to the left as I am sitting at the wheel.  I also decided that I needed  little more shelf space.  I put a larger shelf above the original glaze shelf which hangs over the glaze table.  Now I have room for glazes, tools and bisque pieces that are ready to be glazed, all within reaching distance of the clay table.  So now I’ll probably have to start some sort of exercise program since I won’t be walking back and forth across my studio every few minutes.

This past weekend I threw a couple small lidded vessels.  Perhaps there will be pictures available on this very site at some time.