Bowls

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The Colorado Potters Guild was formed in 1964 by a group of 18 people who had taken pottery classes and found themselves with no studio space to continue their clay exploration after exhausting every class available to them at the time.  Thanks to their efforts, the guild now owns the building where it’s housed on historic South Pearl St. in Denver and has been outfitted with equipment and materials which ensures that current and future members will always have a place to work and to be a part of a clay community.  The guild’s members have varied backgrounds – some with a formal education in ceramics  (like myself) and most who found clay through continuing education classes and fell in love the medium.

Last fall, I applied for membership to the Colorado Potters Guild and in late January, after a arduous application and interview process, was admitted along with 2 other potters.  I understand why the application process is difficult.  Membership is for life and standing members want to make sure that they like and can work with potential members before handing over a set of keys for 24-7 access.  Openings occur rarely, and generally happen when members leave the state, or can no longer work with clay because of advanced age.

This year was apparently unprecedented because three of us were accepted into the guild at the same time and I consider myself fortunate to have been chosen out of all the applicants that applied for membership.  The cool thing about having members of all ages – our oldest members are in their 80’s and 90’s -  is that there is such a range of work and experience.   Isn’t it wonderful that there is no defined age limit for working with clay?  I truly believe that that this keeps our older members young and hope that I will be in the same boat when I reach a riper age.  I don’t often get the chance to  see everyone at the same time, because our schedules are so varied.  At least 3 times a year, however, we do come together for our biannual sales/potlucks and our annual top to bottom cleaning day in June.

Last week, I popped over to the guild to return some books to the guild’s library and realized that I haven’t really used the space that much because I do a lot of my work in my home studio, which is primitive to say the least.  There are a number of improvements I’d like to make to my studio, but have delayed them because we might be moving next year to a different part of Denver and don’t want to spend the money until a decision is made.  What is on my wish list?

1. Solar panels to power my kilns and home.  I already have an estimate from REC Solar, but decided to hold off until we know whether or not we’re moving.  While there are a number of rebates and tax credits being offered, it’s still a substantial investment.  The cool thing about installing solar panels in Denver is that I would still be tied to the grid and in the event of insufficient battery charge due to a string of cloudy days, there would be no loss of power.  This was a big concern for me because it would be a bummer to have the kiln turn off before reaching temp.  And, if I accumulated extra power, the electric company would pay me a rebate!
2. A “Cink” like contraption for water and cleanup.  My friend, Jim Bridgeman, is making a homemade version of the Cink and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with.
3. Heat – oh it was so cold in there last winter, despite my portable heaters.  I can’t leave the portable ones on over night either (unattended they would be a fire hazard) which led to frozen clay and glazes in January.  I could temporarily move my glazes and favorite tools to the guild since I do have 5 shelves which I’m not making good use of right now.
4. Drywall the whole space – it’s insulated, but not completely drywalled which sort of makes the space feel temporary.
5. Additional windows/skylights – I only have one small window and the tiny window bank above the garage door.  During warmer months, I leave all the doors open for natural light.  In the winter, it’s dark and I depend on shop style lights.

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Since I don’t work a 9-5 job, I often find myself alone at the guild during the day and decided that this winter, I’m going to make use of the facilities since it’s fully equipped and HEATED.  It’s also within walking distance of my home which makes it very convenient.  The guild has a lot of equipment including an electric slab roller, spray booth, kick wheels, some motorized, and an electric wheel.   I’m such a creature of habit though, and don’t really like throwing on foreign wheels, preferring my own.  But, the truth is that I have been doing so much hand building lately, that I don’t really need to use the wheels at the guild.  The only piece of equipment I wish the guild had was a small gas kiln so that I could fire it myself without having to organize a group firing.  Overall, I can’t complain.

Hope you enjoyed the tour,

~Cynthia

Yesterday, I finally nailed down a schedule for my after school clay class that I have decided to teach again this year.  If you’ve read any of the past month’s posts, you’ll know I have been on the fence about it – so it’s a relief for me to finally make a decision.  Instead of teaching twice a week like I did last school year, I have decided to teach one day a week this fall partly to help with burn out and also because my daughter has a super busy schedule this year including soccer practice twice a week, my clay class and a music class.  It means less of an income, but it frees up more time for me to make my own work during school hours – which is a good compromise if you ask me.

I have also been working on my website the past few days and uploaded the current enrollment form for my after school clay class to my Teaching Schedule page, along with a gallery of children’s art work which is a sub page of the teaching page. I’d be glad to hear any feedback if you have any.  Next up on  my agenda is to flesh out the gallery page for my own work which still shows under construction. Also, I am not sold on the current header image and am continuing to work on the theme template I’ve settled on.  I would like to have the colors of the little graphic icons and the text (titles, links, etc.) be in the same color family. I will be working on my website a little bit at a time when I have a spare moment or two and definitely don’t feel the same urgency as I did a few weeks ago after breaking my site.

The bear is really called “I see what you mean” by Lawrence Argent

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, I pulled my daughter out of school (with her teacher’s blessing) and headed downtown to see some of the sights and sounds of the Democratic National Convention that has taken over Denver this week.  I figured it is educational and  who knows when we’ll ever be in a city again where either party will be holding their convention.  First we traveled by light rail and went to the non partisan “American Presidential Experience” at Invesco Field.  There is so much security in town right now that it was like planes, trains and automobiles just to get there.  We were on foot from the light rail and ran into swat teams, secret service and all kinds of blocked streets which added quite a bit of travel time to our journey.  The Presidential Experience was interesting, but it is a commercial enterprise which devalues it just a bit for me.  I’m not sure I’d do it again, but my daughter enjoyed the event (especially touring through Air Force One, seeing an exact replica of the Oval Office, and seeing some of Jackie O’s Clothing) so I guess that’s what counts.

A normal 20 minute walk from Invesco Field to downtown Denver took us an hour because of road closures and other obstacles.  We arrived at our chosen lunch destination, The Market, bedraggled, hot and hungry.  Luckily the food there is delish and after refueling and cooling off, we set off for Robischon Gallery to see a political exhibit as a part of “Dialog: City” during the DNC.  In between, we saw some celebrities and almost literally ran into Senator Tom Daschle, and got caught up in all kinds of protest and demonstrators,  which was interesting but just a little disconcerting for my daughter who sort of lives in a protective bubble (like most kids should).

After spending some time at the gallery, we headed towards the convention center where many of the caucuses are taking place.  Surprisingly, we were allowed to go in and watch the caucuses after going through a security check point.  We wandered around from meeting room to meeting room and eventually went to a “watch” party which sounds way more exciting than it actually is.  We had intended to head on over to Civic Center Park where many of the demonstrators where camped out, but when I finally looked at my watch, it was 5:00 pm, so we decided to skip the park and catch a train back home.

Things are returning to “normal”,

~Cynthia

Guild members, Ginny, Jackie and Kate injecting salt burritos in the vapor kiln last April

On September 6 – less than 2 weeks from now, the guild is holding a group vapor firing for any members who want to learn about the process and participate.  Currently, only about 5-6 people use the vapor kiln at the guild.  I love the look of salt glazed pottery, and in fact, it’s mostly what I buy when I buy pottery for myself because it’s not something I make myself.  I need to get a few small pots ready between now and then so that I can get in on the action and  even think I still have a bit of cone 10 porcelain left in the studio to do so.  I don’t really know a whole lot about atmospheric firing because I fire in an electric kiln at home for convenience.  I borrowed the book below from the guild to read up on the process and philosophy before firing day.  I used to interchange soda and salt for this type of firing, but now know there’s a difference.  I’ll have to see what method the kiln director plans to use.

LeRoy - mixed media movable sculpture

Remember the post I wrote about the “Mixed Media Movable Sculpture” class that I taught at Anderson Ranch Arts Center about a month ago?  I finally got around to photographing my sculpture that I made in advance of the class to show my students.  He’s been sitting on my piano ever since I returned home, just hangin’ with some ceramic bugs that my daughter and I made last year.  I sort of forgot about him, until yesterday when one of my daughter’s buds was over and made a bee-line for him.  You can see the sculptures my student’s made by clicking here.

LeRoy's fancy wingtip shoes,

I had a lot of fun making this sculpture which is really a caricature of my dog, Danzig, who we adopted in April from Front Range German Shepherd Rescue.  Incidentally, we didn’t change his name because we decided that he had lived with this name for the past 6 years and it might add stress upon relocation stress to change it when he came to live with us.  We think he was named after the the ’80’s heavy metal band of the same name, though Danzig is also the German version of the Polish town, Gdansk.  We think it’s the former, however, since his previous owners kept him locked in a garage for most of his life.  We’ve discovered a few issues over the past few months, but love him anyway.  Despite his intense dislike of anything on wheels, he’s a goofy, gentle, lovable and good looking dog – this is what I think he would look like if he had a few human qualities thrown in.  My daughter has christened Danzig’s effigy, “LeRoy Guajardo”, after I asked for help naming him.

My movable mixed media sculpture is constructed with low fire earthenware clay, wire, wood, fabric, stuffing, thread, beads, acrylic paint, glue, nichrome wire and a few misc. items that I can’t recall at the moment.

Meanwhile, I wanted to revise my last post on inspiration.  I am not lacking inspiration and have a ton of it floating around in my head right now.  I’m merely finding it difficult to switch gears from teaching and writing lesson plans to creating my own work.  It’s taking me longer to do so than normal.  Mary commented that it’s okay to take a break once in awhile and to just breathe.  Beth emailed me and mentioned that teaching and creating use different parts of our brains and it gave me more food for thought.

Then yesterday, I listened to a podcast of Craftcast’s Alison Lee interviewing photographer Kathleen Carr and I felt validated just a bit afterwards.  One of the things the two discussed was the notion that if an artist isn’t creating every single day then are they really just a pseudo artist?.  The answer is no, that’s not true.  We are constantly gathering information, inspiration, and formulating a creative response even when not making any work directly.

At the end of the podcast, Alison mentioned a gift one of her friends had given her.  It’s an “inspiration tray” to store and display items that one finds interesting sort of like a creative incubator.

After listening to the podcast, I was reminded of the slide show that Dan Essig presented at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in July and his inspiration files.  He showed a couple of slides of all the things he has collected over the years since childhood that he keeps in tiny little boxes in his studio.  It was fascinating and it looked like he had 100’s, if not 1,000’s of little boxes filled with collected bits and pieces that he finds interesting – some of his collected artifacts even ends up in his sculptural mixed media books when the time is right.

I think I’m going to give the inspiration tray a try and I can start by adding the seed pods (see last post) to the tray so that my thoughts and ideas can develop and grow.

~Cynthia