bisque, glaze, throw and ride! oh my!

what's up masses? you miss me? nice monday morning up here in the northwest territories, minus 12 Celsius and a little light snow dusting everything, there is a still a shit-ton of hoarfrost out there making the world seem pretty surreal. my mom and sister got back home today after a month long visit to china, i'm pretty excited to hear all the stories and everything but it gotta deal with a day of work first. after helping them with their luggage i grabbed my bike out of the back of the van and took off to the print shop. it was a nice ride into town and i was really looking forward to it, i got some new gear i've been itching to test and they seem to work a treat, and not a frozen one. i also took 'em for a test run on saturday night to the pub... i had been in the studio all day and was so hungry i could have eaten crispy beaver urethra.

the Jacket is an MEC Juggernaut which, despite it's light weight is freakishly warm sometimes even too warm when i'm busting ass through deep snow. i like my new Solomon elf boots as well. they are warm, dry and light... but at the moment they are pretty stiff so they obviously need a little love, care, ware and abuse. the socks are pretty bad ass, they are padded up the shin and provide extra insulation, also the wicking actually works, usually i just dismiss that "feature" as an outrageous claim like "no drip teapot" all you potters know what i mean... if you claim your teapot doesn't drip you are a dirty liar! and honestly who cares anyway? but anyway back to socks... the wicking works! it was nice to come to work with dry socks and not have to change into a fresh pair. anyway the only downside to being back on the bike is that i can't go home at lunch to work in the studio... oh well it is a fair trade 'cause the riding is like Milla Jovovich... absolutely beautiful.

so i hope everyone had fun on the weekend, i was mostly working in the studio throwing the last of my mugs and tankards, unloading bisque, mixing glaze and turning around the kiln for a glaze fire... all a lot of fun and i have a better feeling about this upcoming sale... it is good to get work done. i haven't taken photos from the glaze fire yet, but i expect i will do so tonight... i have at least 2 more firings that i have to fit in this week (one bisque and one glaze and a possible third glaze, yikes!) i hope to get the bisque going tomorrow evening... just waiting for some things to dry and i still have to clean a few handles... it is half loaded though and things are looking good. i'll be sure to snap some pictures of the last glaze fire this evening and get them up... some cool results from a previously underused glaze: ox-blood red! with real oxen plasma harvested from an ancient race of blood oxen found deep in the cave of bovine time, ancient, still and tasty... mmmm sacrificial!

havin a glass of hemoglobin laden liquid, this is brandon sayin' "don't just recycle, recycle to the extreme!"

Do potters dream of ceramic sleep?

man what a night... i came home last night and checked on the mugs i had thrown in the morning... the tops on two were close to being bone dry, hoping to save them i quickly wrapped them in plastic with a sponge inside... a trick that sometimes works. i slept kinda nervously, deadlines and potential loss of product do this to me, hopefully the kiln firing i have scheduled for tonight will put that at ease. dreams were strange though thought i saw ceramic sheep, or was it a moose? an omen? perhaps i am remembering the dreams of some other potter... anyway... this morning i checked on them and they seemed as though they were moist enough to lute handles, was i saved? did the gods of clay and kilns forgive me?

perhaps they did but my hands betrayed me... i fucked up my trimming and threw one into the splash pan, deforming and taking a big nick outta the lip rim. the other i went too deep while trimming and punched a hole in the bottom... i smashed them together in a display of my hulk like rage and power, shards of leather hard clay falling into the kitty litter bucket below, raining like the ceramic sheep of dreams or nativity scenes,(what you don't like throwing your nativity in the air?) needless to say i wasn't too happy with myself and after finishing the other four mugs i slunk off to the coffee shop for an americano to think about my failure, wallow in my shame and prepare a new battle plan... perhaps i can out flank with dragoons and then rush with light infantry...

see you later, space cowboy.

dang cold, deadlines coming up...

hey, hey, les enfants! pretty cold this morning -24 celsius... made me kinda happy i was behind in work and thus didn't have time to bike to work today... actually i was kinda excited for my first really cold morning but pots need to be made and it took me about an hour and a half to get some work thrown and the studio kinda cleaned up. i've been working on mugs right now and i forgot how time consuming they can be. both luting the handles takes time and so does the drying afterwards, dry too quick and cracks will cause the handle and mug to look like shite, and to break off easily. so i gotta do a lot right now to accommodate for the extended time. Bowls just chil after they're done. they're all like "dude, thanks for trimming my foot, now i'm just gonna sit here and chill out and dry before i have my sauna"... so much easier, if only drinking from bowls was more popular.


anyway i finished off all my regular size mugs just 6 waiting to be trimmed and have their handles luted. i guess all i got left to throw are some mantastic tankards for mustache wearing manly men (preferably the type that lift comical pyramid shaped weights) to consume the malted liquor (that gets you drunker quicker) who don't like it out of bottles and/or cans. got two done this morning... s'more to come yet. you know, i happen to like the ancient hop juice myself and these bad boys have got me excited... plus some of me ole mates have requested some epic tankards for their brew so i must oblige. here is a pic of a previously made tankard, the new ones will be even better i got some new ideas and i'm really looking forward to stretching a bit with these pieces.



a regular mug.



a TANKard for drunkards. both these pieces were made last year, new pictures of 2009 tankards soon. have a grand day, gangstas.

snowy, lots of pots to finish.

howdy y'all, what's kickin' shit today? i had a nice ride this morning, luckily the plows were out early enough that i didn't meet any going the same direction as me, and there wasn't much of an ice coating on the chip-seal, one advantage to that crap i guess. also the town was able to clear the snow from the core, and they didn't even leave large piles in the middle, eliminating this kinda jackassery:



and people think i'm crazy for riding a bike, i'll bet you loonies to beer that i will never get hung up like that. anyway, not much doing for biking, mostly getting back and forth and trying not to get hit. on the pottery ends of things though i have been throwing clay like, ummm, a golem? i donno what throws clay more than a potter, okay so my similes suck today, suck like uh... the great shop vac of space and creation. better? no? damn. i'm busy making stock for the christmas season... nothing says profit like the combination of a diabetic man with a beard who likes kids to sit in his lap and a messiah that was celebrated as our saviour even before he did anything (like obama getting the peace prize) makes me feel all warm and fuzzy... like the handcuffs at the dominatrix... anyway here is a look at some 2009 mugs.



i'm looking out the window while some soft white snowflakes drift lazily down, settling on the bare trees and pine needles, like some cheesy souvenir snow globe or stock imagery from a robert frost poem. speaking of drama, i hope the "Ice Pilots" show went well, all my best to the Buffalo Crew.

smell you later for now. -b

"dude, come check out my blog" 'nah, i can bore myself.'

so here it is my official first blog post... i thought i'd start this blog because i have recently taken on the challenge of biking year round... i know, "big deal" some of you say... yeah, well unless you are doing it above the sixty parallel on icy roads in complete darkness... just you shut your mouth... (my little china girl).

some background leading up to this...

my car broke down in January, i started walking. when the snow melted enough (end of april) i was back on my Dew busting the commute. winter started coming and i was torn between buying a burly bike to ride through the winter and purchasing an internal combustion engine (a sweet little jeep)... ultimately i opted not to buy the jeep but still had to make a decision: ride the narrow roads or find another vehicle.

i weighed the advantages and disadvantages and then i was like all fuck it! i love bikes and hate cars! i could not think of a better reason than the challenge for someone who considers himself a "core" biker. additionally i think i can save up for that irradiated super chimp i saw on the internet.

anyway, i dropped some dough bought spiked tires, a burly rig and a shit ton of LEDs. threw it all together and christened it "the suicycle"... been riding in the snow and ice for a month now, been loving every minute of it but things will change when the busy season starts... and coincidently my biggest concern: fuel laden b-trains heading north... but more on that later.