A Successful Farmer's Market!

It's about time I finally posted about the farmer's market that I was able to be a part of two weeks ago! Located at the Forest Hill Park, in Richmond, VA, the South of the James Farmer's Market is every Saturday from 8am to 12pm, May through December. This was the first time that I was able to set up a booth in the main vendor area, and it was a nice location for getting my name out and showing off some pottery.

The booth had a nice location, nestled between a wine tasting and a produce vendor.

My trusty hand made mannequin displayed my new logo.

I am very happy with how the new glazes and designs turned out!

Photographs © Joe Charles

During the three hour period I was able to make some good sales, and the following are some of the pieces that were sold:

9 inch Textured Bowl

Espresso Mug

 

 Seashell Platters

Vending was exciting and was certainly a success. I will be back at the Forest Hill South of the James Farmer's Market the Saturday (9/3) of Labor Day weekend! Come by and take a look for yourself :)

Photography Session

I had a large portion of my pottery photographed by Joe Charles, and I wanted to share some of my favorite images:

 

Little Dancer Sculpture

 

Textured Porcelain Cups

Porcelain Hug Necklace

Carved Vase

Pair of Textured Cups

 Pair of Geometric Cups

For the full gallery of images go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/23365123@N08/sets/72157627338144449/

New Kiln Firing #2

My second glaze firing was two days before I would head back to Richmond, so I had to fit all my pieces into one firing.

I liked the aesthetic of looking down into the kiln at the first shelf of glazed pots. How exciting!

The second firing was just as successful as the first, and I had a nice set of work to bring back to Richmond. More photos to come!

Finished Low-Fire Pieces

Over the summer I was also able to finish a few pieces that I have had hanging around in bisque form. I added some changes to this edition of textured cups:

More bright colors! Leaving the black off was another change, but we'll see how long that sticks...

Test Tiles and Glazes

I found Amaco Potter's Choice glazes that fire to cone 6 in the Nasco catalog. I wanted to test how the glazes look and react to the three Highwater clay bodies I am using: Desert Buff, Brownstone, and P-5 Porcelain.

To make test tiles I threw bowls without bottoms and sliced them into individual tiles. I set them out to dry in the driveway:

 

I chose 8 glazes, so in order to have all the glaze combinations I needed 64 tiles of each clay body. In total, 192 test tiles!

Glazing the test tiles was a long process, and I thank my lovely "studio assistant" Mrs. Merrell for spending time to help with the glaze work. The test tiles would be the first firing of the new kiln, and after a few struggled attempts at wiring the kiln, it was up and running!

The result was a lovely range of glaze colors:

 

 

Brownstone Clay

P-5 Porcelain Clay

Desert Buff Clay

Firing #1 was a success!

New Kiln, New Back, New Business!

This summer has been exciting in many aspects! My initial plan for the summer was to make pottery and work at a farmer's market in Richmond, Virginia... Possibly lifeguard on the side. I signed up for the Forest Hill Farmer's Market and was able to sell my pottery one Saturday in May, with the new business name: Jaimie Ware. Then, in an unexpected turn of events I relocated to my parents house in Stamford, Connecticut to have and recover from an L4-S1 spinal fusion (lower back surgery). Dr. Rosenstein was a highly recommended surgeon, everything went smoothly, and I've been recovering very nicely.

As I needed to stay in Stamford for a while, my family helped me establish a pottery studio in the basement. The first step was to buy a high-fire kiln! My mother already had a small cone 05 electric kiln, but expansion was necessary. We found an L&L cone 10 electric kiln on craigslist for only $500! The hour and a half drive was definitely worth it.

The first thing I began working on were some cone 6 porcelain pendants, cups and bowls. The cups and bowls were all thrown and then carved or altered. I found it was more cost effective to bisque fire in the smaller kiln, and stack everything.

The first bisque work of the summer:

 

"Hug" Necklace Pendants

Textured Cups

 Sets of Cups and Bowls

The next step would be to find glazes that I could easily use with my electric kiln!