When I stop in at the diner on the way home after night shift Missy the waitress gets me my own mug off the rack and fills it with coffee. She lets me fall asleep in it a bit before she asks if I would like the usual. Two eggs over easy, two pieces of rye toast, one pancake, and bacon.
Missy says winter is on the way..it might be a bad one…the coyote’s tails are real bushy this year..she saw one cross the road on the way in.. She don’t like the snow, as it’s hard for her to walk with her hip the way it is. She was in a car accident a few years back and now walks with a limp.
Charlie, the owner of the bar Eva’s stops by at 8:00 am for a ham and cheese omelette. Charlie had a rough time the other night after closing. A patron while walking home fell over a bank. He was found sleeping in the rose bushes by a lady walking her dog so she called it in to 911. When Jimmy woke to flashing lights, he refused treatment and thought he would be ok to finish the walk. The police decided to take him in because he had the same issue a few months back and was let off with a warning. Jimmy got a large fine, we all were told.
Missy is getting her hair done today and maybe her nails. She chipped one on the screen door when she went out for a smoke real quick while on break. If I needed anything, I could just ring the bell..she told me all of that while refilling my coffee.
Good Morning America on the TV said more rain, they started cutting corn over on the Miller farm, and I have pots to fire out.
https://i1.wp.com/creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/245101203_10165291795160136_5213220573155748762_n.jpg?fit=1316%2C640&ssl=16401316creekroadhttp://creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/preview-2-300x176-1-e1585854251916.jpgcreekroad2021-10-10 11:05:322021-10-10 11:07:41Small Town Handmade
“Thereafter beginning from the left he poured drinks for the other gods, dipping up from the mixing bowl the sweet nectar. But among the blessed immortals uncontrollable laughter went up as they saw Hephaistos bustling about the palace. Thus thereafter the whole day long until the sun went under they feasted, nor was anyone’s hunger denied a fair portion, nor denied the beautifully wrought lyre in the hands of Apollo, nor the antiphonal sweet sound of the Muses singing. ”
– The Iliad, By Homer, Book 1
The Mixing Bowl
One of the most useful pottery forms (besides common mugs or soup bowls) are mixing bowls. Mixing bowls are diverse and can be used in many ways. A large bowl makes a great centerpiece, like on a kitchen counter or dining table with fruit inside. Large mixing bowls are also useful for baking and mixing recipes, raising bread dough, or soaking beans.
To make a mixing bowl, I start with 8 to 10 lbs. of clay. I knead the clay to get the air pockets out and mold into a cone shape. This makes it easier to center on the wheel. In the past, I have also added smaller lumps of kneaded clay on top of each other to make the cone while it’s on the wheel head.
I then place the large cone on the wheel head and turn the wheel by hand, slapping the cone while rotating the wheel to center it. I stand to throw and have my wheel up on blocks. This helps me prevent back injuries from being hunched over.
Throwing the Bowl
When the lump of clay is centered on the wheel, I cone it up and down a few times to center the clay throughout the whole lump. I then flatten the cone on the top, pushing down to compress the clay. Now it is time to open the clay.
I roll my thumbs in and push down until I have about a 1/2-inch base. I pull the clay out, creating the floor. I still leave the clay narrow (like making a vase) and pull up for height before pulling out. At this point, it is important to compress the sides and rim after each pull up.
Once the height is achieved, I pull out the sides and create the bowl shape the way I like. Sometimes I use a small mirror on the other side to see the shape from the back. Once the shape is how I want it, I then compress the sides and top some. I take a rib and compress and shape the inside, removing any ridges or grooves that could catch a spoon. For this, I use a large throwing rib or a plastic pizza cutter.
Now the inside is compressed and shaped, I cut the top rim with the pin tool to even it out. I then compress the rim and thin it to prepare it to be rolled. I carefully roll the rim over and compress the underside. A rolled rim seems to strengthen the bowl, which helps it keep shape during drying and kiln firings. I cut the bowl off the throwing bat with the wire tool and let it stiffen up.
Drying and Trimming
Once the bowl is stiff enough to handle being flipped, I turn it upside down and expose the bottom to air. It is important to let the bottoms dry first. Once it’s leather hard, I trim the bowl and make sure it has even thickness in both the sides and bottom. Even thickness prevents cracking from uneven drying.
It is possible to speed dry if bottoms are put to heat to dry first. Some set their large bowls upside down in the sun, upright on a kiln lid, or set on metal shelving over a wood stove to heat the bottoms and dry all the way through.
When the bowls are bone dry, they can be loaded into the bisque kiln. Center and top shelves are good for bowls, as they need more even heating. If using a gas kiln, they need to be protected from the direct flame and the kiln needs to be heated slowly until just after red heat. Once the kiln reaches bisque temperature, the bowls should cool slowly to prevent cracking from thermal shock. Now the large bowl is ready to glaze.
Glazing the Bowl
I blow into the large bowl to remove any dust, then fill the bowl to the rim with glaze from a 5-gallon pail after stirring it well with a paint mixer attachment on a drill. Then I dump it out. Depending on the glaze’s gravity, it may need to be done twice if thin. I let the bowl dry completely.
To glaze the outside of the bowl, I dump glaze into a large tub, then hold the bowl upside down and at a slight angle. I dunk the bowl and then turn it straight to create an even glaze line about a 3/4 inch up from the bottom. I pull the bowl out and let it dry. Wait for the drips to stop before carefully turning it upright.
Firing The Bowls
Once dry, the bowl is ready to fire. I make sure no glaze is on the bottom and even up the lines if I need to. I load the bowls in the kiln. For my kiln, a gas firing takes about 6 hours to reach cone 6 or 2223F. The kiln then cools for 24 hours before it is opened and unloaded.
After being unloaded, I check the bowls for cracks. I then wash them out and send them off to their new homes, post them online, or take them to area shops for sale.
I do hope you enjoyed this little post on how bowls are made! Have you tried to make large bowls? How would you use a large mixing bowl? Let us know in the comments!
Written By,
Alford Wayman
Artist/Owner
Creek Road Pottery LLC
https://i2.wp.com/creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/greenbowl.jpg?fit=960%2C531&ssl=1531960creekroadhttp://creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/preview-2-300x176-1-e1585854251916.jpgcreekroad2021-07-18 01:12:492021-07-23 23:59:21How Mixing Bowls Are Made
Eating your own dog food was thought of as positive in the past. It gave owners, creators, and makers of a product a semi customer based view of a product before release. However, many times the testing and feedback was heavily influenced by corporate culture where many issues went unnoticed. Now days, it is thought that taking it straight to the customer in a small sampling without influence yields the best results to see how customers actually use the product and what problems they solve. In “eating your own dog food” creators may be blind to usability and may have the knowledge to make their creations work that a normal user will lack. “If I am only for myself, what am I? ” – Hillel the Elder, Mishnah Avot 1:14
“I don’t want to talk about my idea because someone else might steal it.”
In short, this is simply a list of things that will not get done. If you eat your own dog food in this area, you will not be able to network and collaborate those key elements you need to produce an end product to the customer. If you keep all these earth-shattering ideas to yourself, you will not be able to hire people who are far better than you to formulate and run the many parts of development you might be terrible at. We also learn by messing up and having patience. Keeping everything under lock and key means creating or launching when everything is perfect, which translates to not launching at all. At times 70% is fine and done is better than perfect. The user and customer will tell you what changes and improvements need to be made. But keeping everything in a vault locked down is a sure way to not be action driven.
“I don’t like to copy work, so I try not to expose myself to remain original.”
Not exposing your self to other ideas or work to remain original can sink you like a rock as it closes you off to finding solutions to fix problems in a better way based off of existing products or ideas. While you remain original in your cave, things on the outside are always changing while you only see the shadows. This in turn can run your business into the ground, eating your own dog food as you refuse to pivot or take advantage of a flaw your competitor might have. Once your style has run its course over time, you will wonder why sales are tanking as your customer base dwindles or dies off. Some creators are songwriters and others are Disk Jockeys. There is a need for both. Jay-Z doesn’t have the time to work wedding parties. It’s ok to expose yourself and soak up the world and what it has to offer like a sponge, and let that run out in your creativity and imagination. Stuck on what to do next for your work or product? Ask the customer.
“I had this great idea, but it was already done by someone else.”
Another list of things that did not get done. Those other people may not have produced it the way you had in mind. You could still run with the idea and make a great competing product with better features or simply better advertising. Some great products failed because they launch to no one, and others who made junk did well as they showed it to people in a far better way. Coke and Pepsi both are huge players in the soft drink industry. Imagine if John Stith Pemberton did not move forward with his idea of a soda. Simply because a thing was already done does not disqualify others from engaging and staking out some market share for yourself.
“I only use products I create.”
Many times I have heard creators and product based businesses say they only use products they themselves create. This has always been strange to me as “eating your own dog food” limits your exposure to the competition and features others may use in problem-solving. Fencing yourself off with only your ideas can be a sure way to sinking a great idea or product, no matter what you make. It also closes you off from being able to change in real time to solve problems customers are having, as the only thing that breaks you from the echo chamber of group think is bankruptcy. There are chefs and there are cooks. Chefs create the recipes the cooks follow. You need to work out which you are and own it. There is a market for both cooks and chefs to the right people. Not to many high-end chefs run catering businesses. They hire it out to cooks. Today, community building and giving value is far more important than dog food, and profit a by-product. I need to go work on some berry bowls a customer helped me design. Did you know the holes had to be small so the blueberries do not fall out the bottom? I had no idea! It’s a good thing I asked!
https://i1.wp.com/creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/20171127_125823.jpg?fit=4730%2C2660&ssl=126604730creekroadhttp://creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/preview-2-300x176-1-e1585854251916.jpgcreekroad2021-06-30 13:31:212021-06-30 17:55:19How Eating Your Own Dog Food Can Ruin Your Business
I always have a real bad time knowing when to do what and many times I feel as if I specialize in procrastination rather than doing what I do best. But what can be seen by others or ourselves as procrastination or being lazy might simply be due to a poor work-life balance. I remember last year in 2020 during the pandemic, I shut the pottery down for a week to read the book “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Victor Frankl. I loved the book and what he stated still has stuck with me. Frankl in his book said:
“Don’t aim at success. The more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long-run—in the long-run, I say!—success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think about it” -Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
Take Time For Yourself
Taking time off to do nothing or to be with family is just as important to creating as creating its self. Even though I had a lot of orders to complete and kiln loads to fire I still took time to go to the family reunion and visit with all the family I have not seen for years. I sat and ate potato salad with Uncle Wayne and Aunt Ruth and chatted with cousin Sean at the grill. Gave hugs to Aunt Gladys bent with age but still smiling and got to meet all the children of those who were children themselves last time I have seen them. You have no idea how fast time passes until you attend a reunion and see loved ones you have not seen in years. Then my friend Richard stopped by.
It was Richard’s birthday. I had planned to make pots all day, but Richard was on his way to Texas to take a class. My friend is huge into all types of research and I always enjoy spending time. So we took the day having lunch at the Diner and watching interesting films he has been collecting for his newest project. Richard is the one who got me into many topics of study and in his home shelves line all the walls but the kitchen three books deep. Over the last 25 years he has loaned me book and even helped me with clay projects. All of this was a nice break to have. But I need to get back to work as customers are looking for work. So I need to do the work and I need to learn to enjoy the hard parts and learning how to suffer the right way.
“But there was no need to be ashamed of tears, for tears bore witness that a man had the greatest of courage, the courage to suffer.”
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?”
Having a good “why” is helpful to stay on track and having patience to persevere over the long run can make the work more about the journey rather than the destination. If you have a mission after resting, the hard work still needs to be done. I always work to get back into the mud, sometimes kicking and screaming. If do not participate in telling my story to the world, others will write it for me, or I will end up following or living the story of someone else.
“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? If not now, when?” – Hillel the Elder, Mishnah Avot 1:14
Work-life balance helps us focus on what is truly meaningful and it then comes out our hands as we make the work and do the tasks that becomes a product that others enjoy. So I might take a long time getting custom orders out, or maybe a bit slow at finishing a few projects, but over all I try and ask like Frankl asked “If I was living today a second time what would I do”
“Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.”
– Canto 1, Inferno by Dante Alighieri
I hit the doldrums, that eerie calm of not feeling like doing anything while you wait for the next foot to drop. Why throw a ware board of mugs or bowls if you feel stressed out? I thought I might better wait a day or two and read a book . At my other job I was still working though the pandemic. I was not a front line worker but simply an essential worker helping to make paper towels for a large company. It was nice to keep working and have a paycheck coming is and I even had a feeling of survivors guilt.
While many were having a bad time finding a place to be creative I had the space and time to be able to but just didn’t feel like it. While others in clay lost access to their community work spaces, equipment, and shows my studio sat vacant while I moped around feeling guilty about not going down to the studio even for them. I was also feeling terrible about not being productive. Motivational posts from Facebook or Instagram were no help in pulling me back up over the bank and only made me feel worse. And the only thing that did make me feel better was the reading and the caring customers and friends who came to check up on me and told me to take as much time as I needed to work things out a bit. I thought it would only be a week or so but it was almost two months. Cobwebs grew across the moths of unfired mugs as made my way through the dark forest I found myself in.
The Guide
“When I beheld him in the desert vast,
“Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,
“Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”
– Canto 1, Inferno by Dante Alighieri
While moping around I was researching business and marketing techniques for selling my work. I signed up to get daily videos from Story Brand by David Miller. In one of those video he mentioned a book called “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl. I ordered the book and read it almost in one sitting on my day off from the factory. I Frankl’s ideas on suffering and his philosophy on logotherapy quite interesting and refreshing. If Frankl could survive the Nazi concentration camps of WWII with such a healthy attitude while seeing everything around him taken and destroyed there may be hope for me to get out the rut I was in.
Like Frankl mentions, I just needed to find my “Why” and focus more on that to keep going rather then the “what”. If I found the why the “How” would not matter as I would be able to make it happen. I could not wait for some answer or for something to happen. I had to form that meaning by creating it myself. And through creation find the “why”. Maybe I should just go back down the the studio and look around a bit. Maybe I should just knead up a few lumps of clay just in-case I felt like throwing again. And maybe… just maybe.. I should try a simple bowl real quick to see how things would go and if I still had it in me…maybe if I just took a few steps however big or small I would start walking towards the “why” at my own pace and slowly work out the “how”.
The Journey
“When I beheld him in the desert vast,
“Have pity on me,” unto him I cried,
“Whiche’er thou art, or shade or real man!”
– Canto 1, Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Well the first wear board of mugs were terrible as I got back to it a bit. With the lonesome whine of Hank Senior strumming “I saw the Light.” playing low in the background from Alexa I started though the inferno. There are others for sure who had far more of a challenging time and I am not at all looking for any kind of sympathy as we all travel our own infernos level by level when we start.
Many have a hard time finding the “why” or have no guide simply show up in same way and they may abandon that path when they see the great and terrible challenges of the “how” that stand in their way as some rocky mountain or beast. And for certain others have had a far more terrible of a journey where they had to awake the courage in some way to move forward if they were able. I thought maybe I should throw a wear board of bowls rather then mugs..and use some distraction..and let my mind flow some to relax and try to change my attitude to the mental suffering and blocks my head was going though. The bowls looked real bad also. It was not until I put the last bowl on the wear board I could see some kind of progression of style and form coming back ever so slightly. Local shops were calling for work on the reopening of the local economy as we moved from red to yellow.
My “why” appeared to be that I enjoyed helping people use authentic handmade in their everyday lives. And those things they used everyday could be also be art. I did not need to be 100% but only 70% if I needed. And the pots did not need to be perfect but maybe it was ok if they wobbled a bit. Like Dante I found my Beatrice somewhat and trudged on slowly.
The Ascent
‘We mounted up, he first and I the second,
Till I beheld through a round aperture
Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;
Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars”
– Canto 34, Inferno by Dante Alighieri
I have not made the ascent yet but making progress slowly at least. I am at least taking a few more steps forward then before in the studio. I had to switch to a new clay body as supplies ran short due to COVID-19. Learning the new clay body after working so long with the last has been a challenge. Drying cracks and firing issues are still being worked out but the struggle with the clay has been a great way to deal with the struggle is society. And as I pull the first mug from the kiln I knew things would slowly get better. I packed up that first mug and Frankel’s book and gave it as a summer reading gift to one of my customers and supporters.
So maybe sharing with community was some symbol of beholding the stars even though the the night was still a bit overcast. I am behind on custom orders and need more pots to fire out so I guess I’ll keep throwing. I find the long throwing sessions therapeutic and feel more relaxed when I finish unlike the stress from before. It was also brought to my attention that I need to still have a nice time, as if the pots ever become to much like work I might not enjoy the process as much.
Below are a few tips that might be able to help those of you who are far worse off than myself. To some all my small sufferings may simply sound like first world problems of the privileged but the slow down was real enough. If you the reader are having a bad time be sure not to be to hard on yourself and maybe start by forgiving yourself. Here is a great video on the struggle that I found helpful on climbing back up over the bank “How to Get Motivated During a Crisis in 5 Steps”.
https://i1.wp.com/creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/20200621_083911.jpg?fit=1627%2C915&ssl=19151627creekroadhttp://creekroadpottery.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/preview-2-300x176-1-e1585854251916.jpgcreekroad2020-07-29 15:00:042020-08-03 12:34:34Being Creative When Society Is An Inferno
My love for clay and history was combined with this multi layered themed project of references to ancient warriors from some of the oldest Hebrew texts of the biblical literature. Each brush was hand thrown on my pottery wheel using 1/4 lbs lumps of clay. Each form was then sculpted, carved, imprinted with texture patterns and text was applied. After the bisque fire all the handles were then washed with red iron oxide to bring out the texture lines. Each handle was then fired to 2223F in my gas kiln.
The texts selected were out of what scholars say are the oldest texts preserved among the sections of Hebrew literature and in the rough and tumble environment of the Ancient Near East the hero in the biblical literature are not always written about in the most romanticized fashion. While the romanticized version of any history can be useful we must not depend totally on them. The Hebrew writer told also of the failures which helps us see the heroes as human. Below are the texts that were used on the handles.
The Text:
Brush 1 – Jdg 3:16 ויעשׂ לו אהוד חרב ולה שׁני פיות גמד ארכה
And Ěhuḏ made himself a sword, it was double-edged and a cubit in length,
Brush 2 – Num 25:7 וירא פינחס בן־אלעזר בן־אהרן הכהן ויקם מתוך העדה ויקח רמח בידו׃
When Phinehas, son of Eleazar son of Aaron the priest, saw this, he left the assembly and, taking a spear in his hand,
Brush 3 – Gen 34:26 ואת־חמור ואת־שׁכם בנו הרגו לפי־חרב ויקחו את־דינה מבית שׁכם ויצאו׃
They put Hamor and his son Shechem to the sword, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away.
“And he had greaves of bronze upon his legs, and a javelin of bronze between his shoulders.”
I always felt bad for this hero, as like in the Iliad of Homer, he may have been forced to fight one on one because they drew his name out of the helmet from among the many others that volunteered.
APPROXIMATE MEASUREMENTS – Handle: 5.25 inches in diameter 2.25 inches in length
Brush: 26mm synthetic knot 2.25 inch loft.
Total brush length with knot:
4.5 inches
You can find the rest of these brushes on my Etsy shop at CreekrdPottery here
A Greek, and Babylonian series are also planned using texts of heroes out the Greek epics and Babylonian cuneiform texts concerning Gilgamesh.
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