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I was messing around with a Animoto, a website that helps you put together videos. Simply upload your pictures, choose some music, and voila.. a video.
Animoto is still quite new to me and have to work out how to embed the video window properly here in WordPress..
When we originally built our kiln in 2000, we used all recycled brick and built it around the size of shelves we already had. It was a flat top, built mainly of stacked arch brick for the walls and a fiber (ceramic blanket) and heavy sheet metal roof. Not fancy, but we had a kiln and didn’t have to spend much money to put it all together.
It took at least 7 years of painstaking tweaking and firing before I really got to know its ways. About 5 years ago a dog we had knocked over the entire stack of old brick we were using for the kiln door, breaking most of them!! (..sigh) Long story short, it has been a struggle from the get-go to achieve reduction with any reliability, if at all.
As I think I mentioned in my last post, the old kiln as it was is no more. The flat roof - gone. The danger of fiber bits falling down into pots if you accidentally brushed the roof of the kiln with your head when stacking/loading - gone. The flat top was replaced with a retrofitted sprung arch and we finally were able to get new brick for the door. Extra fiber and roofing tin wraps the outer walls now as well.
The other exciting change made was replacing the old severely warped cordite shelves in favor of 6 new nitride bonded silicon carbide shelves. As you can see in the pictures, some of the old shelves were warped an inch and a half to two inches in places (I put one of the new nitride bonded shelves beside the stack of old shelves to show the difference in thickness and flatness). As with a wood or soda fire, loading typically involved painstakingly “wadding” each and every pot for the firing with a mix of 60/40 china clay to alumina hydrate. It was the only solution I could see to prevent warping. I have several potter friends who have those zoomy Advancer shelves that run about $100 a shelf in the size I was looking at. The nitride bonded are a step down from the Advancers, but are a lot less cost prohibitive, costing maybe $20 or so dollars more than a comparably sized cordite shelf.
These new nitride bonded shelves weigh all of 11 pounds (the old cordite shelves in comparison weighed 44 pounds!), so loading the kiln takes a lot less of a physical toll on me and I can load it independently. I still do wad some - little teeny wads - (vs using kiln wash or sprinkling alumina hydrate on the shelves), especially on those clay bodies I might be firing that might be a bit tighter than our native clay to prevent sticking, Loading takes a fraction of the time as does the preparation of the wadding itself. Now that I have flat shelves, the wads can be glued on in advance as well.
The new arch in combination with the new flat shelves gives me at least, I am guessing an extra foot of stacking space. Not only that but the kiln now reduces and fires more efficiently using about a third less propane per firing. With the rising price of propane ($264 for 75 gallons this last delivery), the upgrades to the kiln and shelves couldn’t have come at any better time. (Better for the environment as well.)
As an aside, we got our new shelves and brick from Larkin Refractory Solutions in Atlanta. Wonderful customer service and knowledgeable staff.
March 29th, 2008 - 8 pm for one hour…
The World Wildlife Fund has organized a global initiative called “Earth Hour” to help raise awareness of global warming and inspire people to do something about it. Its amazing how much a difference we each can make by even small actions.
Sydney this time last year:
“2.2 million people and 2100 Sydney businesses turned off their lights for one hour - Earth Hour. If the greenhouse reduction achieved in the Sydney CBD during Earth Hour was sustained for a year, it would be equivalent to taking 48,616 cars off the road for a year.” from earthhour.org
To learn more about Earth Hour, please visit:
http://www.earthhour.org
I’ve had my blog on Blogspot for a few years now but last week my friend Cynthia from Colorado was singing WordPress praises since moving her blog over from Blogspot. Figured it was worth checking out.
After a couple of days and as many conversations, I ended up transferring all my posts over and am starting to take root. Frankly, I didn’t think it would that easy a sell.
My blogspot URL: http://webbpottery.blogspot.com
My WordPress URL: http://annewebb.wordpress.com
These mums are one of the first things I see as I come out my door. Such a cheery sight with the sunlight falling upon them like this, I felt I had to share them.
Yes we are still around, but the web site has been down for the last 3 days. Unsure what the problem is this time but am hoping that some light is shed by sometime later today.
Later today: Found out the Webb Pottery site will be down at least until Thursday or Friday. Problems with web host server. Please bear with us. Thanks!
Because of surgery recovery and other irons in the fire, we decided this year to not do our usual Labor Day show. Even though recovery went better than I expected, I think it was probably a wise decision. It has allowed me to ease back into throwing, enough time to try out some new forms and designs, and to reorganize my work space.
My eldest daughter started at school four full 4 days a week this year and I am amazed at how much of a difference it makes to my routine and productivity. Believe me, having 2 small (and busy) children and trying to make pots certainly presents its challenges, to say the least! One has to learn 1) how to work smarter, 2) not to leave critical things to the last minute (because inevitably that will be when your child decides to have a meltdown or get sick), and 3) not to beat yourself up if you don’t get everything done. No small task for a skilled procrastinator.
Then doing craft/art shows with small children …that’s another experience. At an outdoor show its a little more doable than an indoor one, but, believe me, having to keep a steady eye on a child while trying to deal with a customer is tough, if not impossible. So last year when a friend of mine offered to watch the girls while we went to a show in Ocean Springs, MS, I jumped at the chance.
The day started out well but Saturday morning, shortly after setting up (in the pouring rain), I started to feel quite ill, with the flu, as it turned out. Lowell kept asking me if he needed to take me home but since we had driven all that way, were already set up, and I was convinced I was going to will myself better, we stayed. By the time I finally got to calling to check on the girls, I learned that they had already been sick since early that afternoon. The choice had been made for me, we had to head home and get the girls. Luckily Lowell was healthy enough the next day to head back finish the show so that saved us.
This fall, with children as a consideration but also the ballooning cost of gas and travel, we had to think hard about our show schedule. Staying closer to home seemed a little more prudent. In hopes to create a niche, we, along with a group of other select local artists, are putting together a special one day show at Mobile’s Botanical Gardens this late this fall. Our group is called the Coastal Artisans. The group has intentionally been kept small, limited this year to 12 to 14 invited artists, to ensure quality and an eclectic variety of mediums. Its an experiment, but if it works out well, we plan to make it an annual event. Look for more about our event in future posts.
In my surfings in the wee morning hours (my period of solitude with noone to bother me), I found 2 valuable websites: 1) Artbizblog - a blog by Allyson Stanfield that covers a plethora of valuable art marketing info and tips for artists; and 2) the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) - an organization that helps out artists providing “direct financial and educational assistance to craft artists, including emergency relief assistance, business development support, and resources and referrals on topics such as health, safety, and insurance.” ..including artists who have been victims of natural disasters, such as Katrina.
Other news… It was down for longer than I had hoped, but our web site and regular email is back up. (yay!) If you tried to contact us and haven’t had a response, please send your post through again.
Well just off the phone. The Webb Pottery web site and email will be down until sometime tomorrow, Saturday Aug 26th.
In the meantime, here is one of the pots I recently posted to it:
Raku Dragonfly Vessel
8.5″ H x 4.5″ W
2006
Anne Webb, Webb Pottery
Magnolia Springs, AL
My apologies to everyone who has gone to look at our web site or try to email us from the email link in the sidebar here. The webhosting server I have been using has been experiencing some technical difficulties. I can assure you both are still in service and hopefully the problem will be resolved shortly. Thanks for your patience.
Anne
http://www.webbpottery.com
I’ve been layed up for the last week because of some surgery I had last Friday. Not much fun when you have 2 little kids and a million things to do on a normal day, including find the time to make pots. Not overdoing it is a challenge, but thankfully every day gets a little bit easier to maneuver.
When I am incapacitated, Lowell has a tendency to bring home all kinds of things. Sick toys he calls them. When I was a month away from delivering my first little girl, Halley, he brought home a puppy. Then when I was pretty far along with my second, he brought me a turkey…yes the kind that walks around, not one that just sits quietly in the freezer. Einstein the turkey grew to a pretty good size and liked to sit on your lap and try and peck the freckles off your leg…. but that’s another story for another day….
Lowell came home last week with 2 “pre-sugery sick toys” ….kittens which, luckily are incredibly laid back and pathetic, and take the presence of a 2 yr old in stride. so that is relatively stress free.
But even more exciting is yesterday he came home with a little wooden boat in the back of the truck. Its a sturdy 12 foot cypress dore that, with a few small little additions, will be perfect for exploring those little tributaries off the Magnolia River not 2 minutes from the studio. If you can move quietly over the glassy water, there is lots of local plant, bird, and other animal life to catch in a perfect position to photograph. ..something you just can’t quite do from shore. Not only a medatative way to spend a few hours on my own, but great inspiration for new pottery designs.
Hopefully be back to throwing next week.
Have a few events scheduled for the fall and should have more juicy details for you sometime soon.
Tropical Storm Chris looks like its petering out, thankfully. Only three and a half more months of hurricane season to go. yippee skippy.
We buried Riley, my dear and devoted friend, Sunday evening beside Rebel, Winston, and Elvis, out behind the studio. Suffering from advancing congestive heart failure and nerve damage, he was unable to raise his head to eat let alone stand to go to the bathroom. As I lay beside him quietly listening to him breathe and stroking his side, his heart beat abnormally fast, and seemed to jump out of his chest with every single beat. He couldn’t even wag. I said goodbye to my dear, dear friend and let him go in the most peaceful, comfortable, and dignified way I knew. He is sorely missed.
This past year has been an eventful one, what with Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis, and Katrina slamming the Gulf Coast. Give me a blizzard any day. At least you know your home is still going to be there after the storm has passed!
We were fortunate. The studio sustained some wind damage to the roof and walls in both Ivan and Katrina, but we didn’t lose any equipment or irreplaceables. We’re still working on repairs but have shuffled wheels, moved tables and ware carts, and now that the holiday season is past, its back to slinging clay.
Looking ahead this year… along with the usual outdoor shows and orders, we will be selling some work via the George Ohr Museum’s web site while they get back on their feet, and I am working on putting together a special Christmas event with other notable artists at Mobile’s Botanical Gardens the second weekend of December. I will be posting more on our website and probably here as well.
I am fairly new to the whole concept of blogging but I think this could be a great way to share our news, our work, our experiments, and experiences. Please feel free to leave comments and visit our web site. Thanks!
