Form & Function pottery by Jane Wojick - Blog

Pit Firing is my latest Passion

Sun, 03 Oct 2021 21:01:40 GMT

Years ago we dug a hole in our Vermont yard to use as a fire pit.
When I decided to pit fire some pottery, I bought some pavers to attempt to make it seem a little more official.
I dug out most of the meadow grass before I made my fire.

For my first fire, I started with a nicely burnished lamp base covered in terra sigillata.

I lined the pit with dried grass, coffee grounds, a Brillo pad, and some salt. I laid a banana peel on top of the lamp base. Then I carefully built a fire.

When the fire died down, I removed the base from the pit and this is what I found. I was instantly hooked on this process! I have since wired up this lamp and it proudly sits in my home.

Saving the Earth one Pot at a Time?

Thu, 04 Dec 2014 20:36:26 GMT

Pottery is heavy.
Pottery is fragile.
I have an aversion to packing peanuts and bubble wrap because I feel they are hugely wasted and made out of non-renewable materials.
Guess what I discovered? If I post to my local Freecycle groups, people are thrilled to give me their saved peanuts and bubble wrap.
This last time, I made a woman exceedingly happy to take her clean newsprint.

Freecycle is not just for getting, it is also for giving.
If not for Freecycle, our tot-sized life jackets that were occupying the shelf in our closet for years would still be there.
It was hard to part with them until someone else needed them.
Check it out, your junk can fill someone else's need.

Don't send those packing supplies to a landfill! Send them to me!

To find a group near you, click on the button below. Happy Freecycling!

Freecycle

How I learned to play with fire

Mon, 14 Jul 2014 03:44:53 GMT

In May of 2013, I naively volunteered to help bring raku back to our studio. This began by pulling our raku kiln out of the storage shed and figuring out what we would need to make a firing happen. Little did I know that mice had made their home in the kiln and it became a project necessitating the wearing of respirators. I wish I had taken a picture of the kiln before we removed all of the "crap" but, I suspect, you might be pleased that I didn't. A picture of people wearing respirators will have to suffice.

This is what the kiln looked like after we removed the icky stuff. It was definitely not suitable to keep in the heat we would need to fire our pots. So we ordered more fiber blanket and got back to work another day.

Look how great it looked when we finished replacing the blanket!

The most exciting part was testing the propane. We had a lot of help from Glen. It's a good thing. He likes to keep us safe.

After getting everything situated, we picked a firing date and got to work throwing pots and mixing new glazes! I had fun thinking about the forms I would like to try.

Here they are all glazed and waiting for the big day. I was brave when I decided to try a carved piece for one of my firsts. Because the pots go through tremendous thermal shock, the chance for breakage is always worrisome.

My vase got in the first firing!!

Carefully lowering the top!

The ever important kiln god sat on top to bring us good karma.

Ignition!

Time to wait for the pots to get red hot.

When the kiln top gets lifted the pieces are RED HOT! (these pieces are from a firing at a later date. I can't believe I did not get a red hot picture the first time I did raku)

I was told to have no expectations. Raku is very unpredictable because there are so many factors that can result in failures, breakage, or just plain blah pots.

My vase came out of the kiln and was taken to the pit where it was laid in a bed of sawdust and paper and burst into flames. Then it was covered with an inverted garbage can and I had to wait.

Imagine my glee when it was removed from the pit and it looked like this! It was covered with soot and ashes but I could see a hint of the beauty that lay underneath.

I got lots of great pots! I was thrilled, especially since I expected to like none of my pots! Here's a little gallery of the goodies:

Then we did it all again in April 2014. Here is a gallery of some of my pieces from that firing. I got even more brave with my carving. We had some new glazes that one of our members brought back from a workshop at Snow Farm but they did not turn out as expected:

Though we were getting some good results on our own, one of our members suggested we bring in an expert. She arranged for Bob Green to come for a weekend workshop and share his wisdom, process, and glazes. It was a terrifically exciting and exhausting weekend that left the studio, and most likely the entire neighborhood, reeking of campfire. Bob not only taught us how to get better results with our raku, he helped us to resurrect our pit for a sagger fire!
Bob can be found at www.bobgreenpottery.com

I should do another blog post just about our weekend with Bob but, I have run out of steam so I will end with another gallery of pictures from that tremendous weekend.
I will be participating in another raku firing next weekend where we will test out our ability to retain the info Bob shared with us! May the weather and the kiln god shine down on us.

How I came to make some mugs for a Belizian Imaginary Friend

Sat, 24 May 2014 20:49:52 GMT

It all started when I got a dog. My dog got sick and I did a quick google search for some information and I found a dog forum where I went to ask a question. Little did I know I would come to know a group of incredibly helpful, kind, and extremely funny people that day. Eventually, a group of us created a chat room where we shared news of births, marriages, new puppies, and the loss of beloved dogs. That was when my daughter started laughing at me for chatting with my "imaginary friends".

It was during this time that I was developing my pottery skills. Eventually, Facebook replaced the chat room and I started sharing my pottery pictures. Imagine my daughter's surprise when my "imaginary friends" started buying pieces of my pottery.
One of these friends happens to live in the country of Belize. She has been a tremendous fan of my pottery but, with the huge shipping cost, she wasn't willing to buy.
Then George Takei posted this on Facebook:

She shared it on my wall and asked if I could make her 2 of them. Of course I could but, the only problem was, I really don't do straight, plain white pottery. I asked her if I could use what I know of her as inspiration and she gave me the green light.

This is her hair, at least that was her hair that day! It has been many different colors before and since. Her clothing, her home, and her personality are all as vibrant as her hair.

So, I did it. I made them curvy and colorful and, a gazillion shipping dollars later, I got the extreme pleasure of seeing my mugs hanging in her kitchen.

And here one is being put to use out in the yard with the turkeys!

Apparently one expensive shipment wasn't enough. A short time later she just had to have my little elephant ring holder for her mother. It looks like my friend may have gotten a bit of her colorful personality from her momma.

If you are ever in Belize look them up. The pictures she shares of their food always make me hungry! http://www.cheersrestaurant.bz/

Things that happen when you're working with a deadline!

Sun, 27 Oct 2013 14:57:18 GMT

When I was away last weekend I got a request for a set of 3 vases. I had one completed vase and I needed to make 2 to round out the set. Well, with special orders, I always make extras to have insurance for kiln catastrophes and other variables that can muck up the works. When I got up on Monday morning I got to work.

Then it got COLD in New England and my basement stayed DAMP.

My studio is gearing up for our big Show & Sale and the deadline for (completely dry) greenware is today. My vases are still damp so I am trying something a wee bit strange and possibly slightly risky. I am drying the vases in my kitchen stove. I have my fingers crossed that 200 degrees (I can't set my electric oven lower) is enough, but not too much, heat to make these moisture free by the time the Patriot's game is over..........

If they all come out in the end, 3 will go to Arkansas (HOORAY for adding another state to my list) and the rest will be up for sale the weekend before Thanksgiving. Show & Sale info is at www.pottersplace.info

Special Orders can be stressful but, oh so rewarding!

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 22:36:49 GMT

One spring day I got a private Facebook message from a stranger. She was very concerned that her bird, Frosty, was getting too big for his bird bathtub. She asked me if I could possibly make a new bathtub for poor Frosty and sent me this picture to show me the tub he loves so much.

I was fairly certain I could pull off what Frosty needed but, the parameters were very specific: straight walls of a specific width and a specific height, a specific diameter, and the color should be blue, so as not to make Frosty feel uncomfortable in his new tub. I had no idea that birds were so sensitive. The entire process would test my ability to make something larger than I normally do and also test my math skills while calculating the shrinkage rate of my clay.
I gave it a go.

I was more than pleased when the tub survived the drying process, 2 firings without warping or cracking, and it was EXACTLY the specified size and shape. I put my favorite drippy blue glaze on it. Here is Frosty's tub on my deck railing.

Mailing Frosty's tub to the state of NY provided a chanllenge so I had to enlist the help of my neighborhood packing and shipping store. I was very nervous. I had never trusted anyone to wrap and send one of my pieces. I was more than relieved that it arrived safely at its new home. But, then I had to wait.

and wait

and wait

Apparently I had to wait until Frosty asked for a bath before I could see a picture of him using it. His owner said that if she offered him the tub full of water, without his first asking for a bath, he might deem it a play toy and do everything other than bathe in it.
I waited so long that I feared that Frosty rejected his new tub and, I was not satisfied with my work until I knew it was serving its proper function.

Then one day this showed up in my inbox.........

Frosty looks so great in his new tub!
I am very happy!

I call this Form & Function at its finest.

I Gave Myself A Challenge

Sun, 14 Jul 2013 23:01:06 GMT

On mother's day, after a wonderful breakfast of strawberry waffles in bed, I asked my husband if he minded if I spent the rest of the day, in the basement, challenging myself on my potter's wheel. I spent a little more time in bed exploring some videos of some ideas I had been thinking of trying. The video that caught my interest was this one:

I am glad I paid extra attention to the point where he said, when the 2 pieces start to touch, DON'T PANIC! I know I would have panicked!
Several hours later I had made these:

After some days of drying, I trimmed them up and went to work carving the outer wall. I carved and carved and carved........until they looked like this:

I had to transport them to the studio and one of them ended up like this:

After bisque firing and glaze firing, I finally got the finished pots in July! No one ever said that pottery is a quick art!! But, I think they were worth waiting for.

They are especially beautiful when filled with peanut butter M&Ms!

Pottery is Taking over my House!

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:26:28 GMT

The kitchen counter

My studio Show & Sale is next weekend. For the past few weeks, more and more pottery has invaded all of the surfaces of my house. I am sanding bottoms, pricing and, in the next few days, lugging pounds and pounds of pottery to the studio to make its debut on Friday night. Sometimes I wish I was inspired to make jewelry. It would be less of an imposition on my house and, I may not need my chiropractor so often. I thank goodness for a supportive spouse!

Show & Sale info can be found at www.pottersplace.info

The dining room table

The porch table

Sometimes stuff is piled in very random places

The piano bench

Creating a New Website

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 18:15:45 GMT

Me and my dog enjoying a beautiful Vermont day

I have been a Mac fan for my whole life as a computer owner. But, they have let me down by ending their support of IWeb, which was the super-straightforward website making software for dummies like me. It's time to update the operating system on my limping-along desktop computer and I will lose my tried and trusty website application :(.
My server, Fat Cow, includes a user-friendly website builder (as friendly as you can get for being non-apple anyway). So, I have jumped off the cliff and this is my first attempt to build a new site.
This blog feature is new to me too so, I hope I remember to use it and that I post interesting and/or amusing bits from time to time.