To Teach, To Learn, To Share
Our Christmas sale is closing in (especially if you are a potter) and you can see that Lillian has her little mice all in a row and her plates bisqued and ready to glaze. We hope you are looking forward to our sale as much as we are!
We had a busy day with “Try clay” being a HUGE success! All spots were filled and everybody had a great day. The Hill Potters dropped by for a visit and tour of our studios too! They were in the area to tour some local potters’ studios and we were happy to oblige and chat!
The Peterborough Medical Brigade also came for a visit to talk about the donation that they had participated in. Wonderful things for the children to learn about – where the money from the leaf plates will be going! Great cause to purchase school uniforms for Ugandan children, the stories from two front line workers were inspiring to hear!
Click on any image to enlarge and view the entire group of pictures.
Some of our members have allowed us to list them on a map, this shows the areas that these members come from to be part of our guild. We hope in future that more potters will want their information on this map too. If the member has a website address, the link is listed in their name.
View Kawartha Potters Guild member location in a full screen map
We were featured on Tuesday the 12th August on CHEX. The lovely presenter Caley Bedore spoke to Carolyn Cicsco our Program Director for the Kids’ Camp.
What a wonderful day we all had, learning a new decoration technique with Terrie on Sunday July 6th. Here are some photos of our workshop and some of the work we all completed! We can hardly wait until next week!
Our long time mentor, judge and presenter, Angelo di Petta, has launched a new website. It has a great look back at his designs from the past forty years. He says that in future, he will be adding more in the way of video, and instruction.
Once again, the Kawartha Potters Guild donated bowls (along with the Kawartha Wood Turners, the Canadian Gourd Society and the Kawartha Glass Artists Society) to the recent Empty Bowls, an event put on by the local YWCA Peterborough Haliburton.
Check out the recent article.
Most potters today attend numerous workshops throughout the year, and demonstrations at guild meeting functions. There is so much wonderful info to keep track of!! Lots of people take notes, but I have a fun and easy way to keep a record of that valuable information that you can refer to regularly, which is both informative and visually appealing – notes with photos.
Any good quality sketchbook will do. I found ones which have lines on the bottom of the pages and blank space on the top. I take photos during the workshops, along with notes and space the notes evenly in my sketchbook to accommodate my interests and photos. I print my desired pics and use a glue stick insert along with the appropriate notes. It is a fantastic way to keep a good record of what you have learned.
Here are a few samples out of one of my sketchbooks. Click on any image to see the full sized picture.
You’ll have fun going back through the pages to find a useful tip and even just to reminisce!
Cathy Allen
After the mold is cleaned and left to dry for a few days to a week, it is time to make your first cast.
You should put on a timer for about 15 minutes at first, keeping a look out for the level of the slip. As the water is absorbed into the plaster, the level of slip will go down.
You will want to experiment on the timing, but for this casting, 30 minutes is about right to cast a piece. However, this could change depending on how many pieces you cast and how damp the mold gets.
When you feel that the casting is thick enough, pour half of the slip back into the container and then swirl the remainder of the slip around the casting for a few minutes before pouring it out.
Place the mold onto an elevated prop to allow the remainder of the slip to drip out.
The mold will now take an additional time to dry enough to remove the piece from the mold. In this case it is 30 minutes of drying time.
When dry and ready to remove the piece, clean the spout hole.
Take the bindings off from the cast and carefully pull the two pieces apart.
In this sculpture, the third piece can now be removed as well.
As the pour spout is located at the bottom of the sculpture, we now have to close that opening.
Pour a bit of liquid slip onto a flat plaster bat and place the sculpture on top. This will quickly adhere to the sculpture and create a smooth bottom.
Your sculpture will have seams that can now be cleaned up and you can cut out the opening to the vase, again being careful not to allow the piece to fall into the sculpture.
And there you have it, the end result, bisque fired and ready to glaze.
We converted the workshop in our home’s basement into my pottery workshop. The only thing it is missing is a window, and a waterfront view (haha). I am very lucky to have this space.
The image below is of an open door made of lattice. Ahead is my wheel, sink and far right a handy workbench. Front right is a desk that doubles up as a wedging table.
This is the entrance to my pottery room. Yes, it is filled with all things you would expect a potter to have, but it also has some pretty special touches that make it me and mine. Like the lattice door, mentioned above. My husband made the door to keep the cat and dog out so things wouldn’t get all furred up. He could have just made a solid door, but he didn’t because he wanted me to be able to see out into the rest of the basement. It also comes complete with an antique door handle we picked up in Belleville.
We combined a whack of old white/off-white paint we had kicking around, and did the walls in white to keep it bright, and did the trim in some old purple we had just for a splash of colour. The door handles were from the Re-Store and just happened to be purple too. Yikes.
The room itself is filled with special things like a glass ornament over my wheel which is shaped as a flip flop. My girlfriend proudly presented it to me as she knows I detest flipflops. But it was from her, it was made of glass, which I love, and it was it was art, and so of course I appreciated that.
A picture of my old pup Mia sits on a shelf, propped up against some underglazes. Gone now for over three years, I still like to see her picture. She used to come downstairs and stare at me through the pottery door.
For inspiration, I have pots I purchased from potters who have come to KPG meetings or workshops – like Bruce Cochrane and Simon Leech and Monica Johnson to name a few.
Usually CBC is playing on a small boom box I have. I especially love The art of Persuasion; Vinyl Cafe, Q, and The Debaters. But every once in a while, I go to my collection of musicals and fire in The Lion King; the Sound of Music; Showboat or Phantom of the Opera.
It is my special place to reatreat to, and it is bright, functional, fun and mostly all mine. (Except for a few tools, the canoe and camping gear, and the stained glass tools and materials).
As you look through the doorway you see may awesome stainless sink. My husband installed it just about two years ago now, and every time I go down there to work I tell him how much I love my sink. Prior to that I lugged rinse water up 13 basement stairs, walked through the garage, and to the outdoors.
He has also built me all kinds of shelving space. (Of course it is shared with some tools, canoe and camping gear and stained glass materials, but more or less, the rest is all mine.
I have the wheel near the sink and shelves beside it for bats. I also have a huge workbench that doubles up as a place I can put pots to dry a bit, and then later I cover it up with plastic and use the bench as a glaze area.
I have a kiln and some shelves in another spot. A place for books, and a spot for coffee, tea. A perfect spot for me to work.