Balance

Venturing into the art world full of brilliant visionaries and deep thinkers has been humbling for me.  I find myself surrounded by people who look at the world differently and who force me to go home and rethink the world I thought I lived in.  On this journey I have evolved so much.  I  find a lot more beauty in people, in the art they create and in my surroundings.  I am more patient and try to remember that everyone is on their own journey and don't necessarily care about mine (that "what, it isn't about me?" moment was painful at best).  Most of all I try to live in the moment.  I consciously file the images of my adventures and everyday pleasures into my mind so that I can savor them, relive them and smile.  I try to mentally capture the smell of campfires, the sounds of someone laughing, the cold air on my skin as I go downhill on my bike, the way food and drink feel in my mouth -- really anything to stay in the moment so my mind doesn't wander off  to worry about trivial things that may or may not be in my future.  Pottery and art have given me this gift of self awareness.  I no longer drive home without admiring the beautiful mountains that surround me and wonder how I can capture the colors and  the shapes in my pottery.

It hasn't all been wonderful.  I quit my job a year ago to do the pottery full-time.  And that is exactly what I did.  I was in the studio all day and a good part of the night.  I obsessed over how many pots I could make in a day, how many firings I could do in a week.  It became so mechanical that the joy of creating a beautiful pot was almost lost.  I never left the house and the more I was in the house the more I didn't want to leave.  So, much to my surprise and dismay I discovered that I wasn't ready to be a full-time potter because I didn't know how to let it be a part of my life and not be my entire life.

 That is when I learned my most important lesson -- balance.  You have to have balance in your life.  I had lost that because I didn't know when to let go.

I took a "real" job working on a project that has an end date (don't want to have too much commitment!).  I have started riding my bike, working on my gardens and making time for my kids and friends.  And making time to enjoy the creative process of making my pottery.  I will be a part-time potter for a couple more years while I figure out how to balance my life and hopefully will go back to it full-time.  I learned so much from this experience -- most importantly that I am in control of my life and when something starts to take that control from me, I know now how to to recognize what is happening and adjust.

Opinions

The backlash against the Susan G. Komen foundation for their decision to stop the grants to Planned Parenthood has been interesting and even more interesting is the differing views of my group of friends.  I try to keep my religious and political beliefs to myself but I get angry when women's rights continue to be a question and a political agenda, when they should just be a fact.  I believe that the Komen foundation, as a non-profit organization, has the right to decide to fund whoever they choose.  I, as a private citizen, have the right to choose who will receive my budgeted charity donations.

With that said, I think Komen is getting so big that they are missing the point and forgetting the mission.  Their website says that part of the mission is "working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures."   Planned Parenthood does this more than any other organization I know.  Many women I know can say that Planned Parenthood was their primary caregiver at some point in their lives.  It seems silly to discontinue funding to an organization who does so much for women with regard to prevention and screening.  Isn't that part of the "cure"?

Planned Parenthood provides counseling and access to ALL options for women and their reproductive health.  Isn't that how it should be?  As with anything in life, the same choice isn't the best choice for all of us.  The choice to reproduce should be between a woman and her partner -- not an agenda point for a political debate.  I have yet to see a man's right to be or not to be a father questioned or used as a political speaking point.

I will continue to support Planned Parenthood and all the good things they do for women who need reasonably priced health care.  I probably won't be lending my efforts or money to the Komen foundation anytime soon.  I may just start a rainbow colored ribbon race to fund free birth control and birth control education for all humans.

New Glaze Tests

Glazing is the one pottery task that I have struggled to embrace.  I am always worried that I have messed up a beautiful piece and there is not much you can do about it.  In addition, waiting 24 hours to see if you did screw up is excruciatingly painful for a person not blessed with patience.  I have found that documenting my tests is making the process more bearable, even fun.  The tests below are done on a medium dark stoneware clay.  Some of the colors we use regularly and others are new.  As always, if you have questions or want recipes, just ask!

This is one of our favorites.  It is Celestial Blue over Red Gold.  It is drippy and runny often drips on our shelves.  But, if we are careful it makes beautiful pots.

 Red painted over Red Gold.  This combination is pretty stable and doesn't run.  It does vary in the redness.

 I was pretty excited to try this combination and a little disappointed in the results.  This is Moss painted over Red Gold.  It started as a stripe of paint, and as you can see, ended up a blob of color because it ran so bad.

 This tile is Celestial Blue.  We use this as an accent color a lot.  It is nice alone or on top of other colors.

 This is Tom Grey Red.  We love it alone or with other colors layered on top.

 Scapes.  This is a glaze combo that starts with Tom Grey Red as a base and has orange, red and blue layered on top.  It is slightly unpredictable as it can turn out with very vibrant colors or muted with lots of gold like the tile on the left.

 This is the most interesting test I did.  I think we may have mixed the glaze wrong.  This is called Field Mouse Brown.  It looks very black except for where the glaze broke over the number.  We will be mixing and testing this again.

 Spearmint with some alterations.  I love this color but it didn't photograph very well.  It has some hints of blue green in it.  I think we will be mixing another batch and see if we can lighten it up just a little bit.





This is Everglade.  It looks a lot like the Gun Metal Green that we already use.





I am already working on the tiles for my next glaze.   I am hoping in the next month or so we will have some new colors to put in our Etsy shop.

First Glaze of 2012

Our first glaze went well. The kiln fired perfectly after being repaired and the studio is getting back to normal. I have decided that as we expand we need to document our glazes better. Arne and I are always trying new glazes and we don't always remember which recipes we have tried and if we like them because we usually sell the little pots we test on.

I can spend hours looking for new glaze colors and it is hard to find pictures of glaze tests done

on the dark stoneware we use. I hope the tests I post will help other potters in search of glaze recipes with pictures. We use a combination of our own mixed and purchased glazes and fire to a true cone six. If you have questions about the glazes or recipes, just ask. We are happy to share.

This is Muted Gold. It is a stable glaze and doesn't run much. It is rich and we don't use it as

much as we should so I will be doing tests with this layered with other glazes.

Ron Roy's Sapphire Blue. Beautiful glaze

that is runny if applied too thick. I have

been experimenting with this glaze

as I have had requests for pieces

in this color. I have struggled

with it, but for some reason

it behaved perfectly in this firing and

I think I have figured out the trick

to using it!

Eggshell. This has a blue tint to it

and looks thin on our dark clay. It is not one of my favorites and now I remember why!

Antique Iron. I love this glaze because it breaks to a rusty brown and there are hints of green and blue. It is nice layered with other glazes (sometimes runny) and this picture does not do it justice.

Autumn Frost. You can't tell in this picture but this is a little iridescent. I wanted a base tile for this as I am going to experiment layering this with other colors.

Tile was dipped in Autumn Frost, dried and then dipped in Due's White. I wasn't impressed with the results.

This one is interesting and I am going to experiment with it more. It was dipped in Tom Grey's Red, dried and then dipped in Antique Iron. It isn't the honey color I was hoping for but I like it.

I tried a variation of this on a cup in an attempt to get a rustic looking red. It turned out almost gold. I haven't decided if I like it or not. The tile was dipped in Licorice, dried and then dipped in Tom Grey's Red.

The base on this tile is Shino. We use it a lot. I dipped this one in Shino and put a strip of Moss Green across the middle. Again, I was not impressed with the result.

Moss Green. I love this glaze and I will be doing more tests with it.

Eggplant. It has some interesting blue, purple and green in it. I am going to try layering it over some other glazes.

January Fire

The weather is still unseasonably warm here. There is no snow and the warm days have me thinking of yard and outdoor projects that can't be worked on until spring. We did take advantage of the warmer nights and built a fire on the deck -- one of my favorite things in the world. I could live by the fire on the deck. It is so awesome to me to look at the mountains, listen to music, watch the fire and drink a little wine with my sweetie. He isn't always up for my fire obsession -- but I usually end up convincing him.

The kiln is now fixed so pot production is slowly getting back to the regular schedule. Our test fire went well, so I re-fired the pots that didn't get finished when the kiln died. That didn't turn out so well. The colors were dull and some of the

glaze was grainy. Mcki was disappointed because she had been waiting so long for her cups and now it will be at least a week or so before I get new ones done. A couple of them turned out okay so at least I won't have to make as many.

Today we will get another glaze going and trim the pots that are drying. We are hoping to have enough pots to do our annual Valentine's show which is coming upon us very quickly. We are also doing some prototype cups for a local business that we hope will carry our pottery in their store.

My daughter, Amy, who gave us the best Christmas gift this year, baby Noah, needs to have surgery this week to have her gall bladder out. I am planning yet another trip to Idaho Falls to help her and also put together her baby shower with my daughter-in-law, Taunya. Because Taunya has already printed and sealed the invitations, we are hoping that we don't end up having a shower without the guest of honor!

January started a little slow but is being quickly filled with the chaos we are used to with our pottery business and growing family. We are so blessed that we have beautiful, happy (most of the time) children, a growing business and our little sanctuary in the beautiful mountains of Montana.

Weird weather and other random stuff

It is January 3, 2012. Arne and Mcki are both back at work and school and things feel like they are getting back to normal after a whirlwind holiday season. Except for the weather. It is a little unsettling that the temperatures are in the mid 40s and are expected to stay that way for the week.

It was a beautiful sunny, warm (for Montana winter) day yesterday and it put me into spring cleaning and purging mode, which is unsettling in itself to Arne who is always worried about what treasures I have thrown away. I now know to bury them deep in the garbage so he won't see them until he goes to the dump and empties the trash. When he finally does see them it is too late to dig them out of the landfill in front of the workers. :-) When I got tired of cleaning, I thought about skiing or snowshoeing but there is NO snow. How weird. I almost got my bike out. I went down to the studio instead.

The studio is still torn apart because our kiln needs a relay switch. Now the kiln is a person to me. Her name is Ursula and I talk to her all the time when I am in the studio about pots and the glazes they will be covered in. It is a little sad to see her laying there in need of attention (along with the pots that need to be re-fired) and our hands are tied because the Bray won't be open until Thursday. In addition, I have been thinking about changing the clay I use and it is driving me crazy. I want to use a lighter color to get some truer glaze colors, but because I primarily throw baking ware I am hesitant to change to a potentially weaker clay body. Nobody can tell me if the clay I want to use is a true stoneware.

In the end, I went upstairs to find new glaze recipes to see if I can find that perfect green that I am always searching for that will work on the dark stoneware I am using. Maybe today will be the day I find it.

Blessed Year

2011 has been a blessed year for Wiebe Pottery. We have made so many new friends and have put our pottery in lots of new hands. We have also learned some painful lessons, me especially.

Since quitting my job in June to do this full time, I have had to learn to manage my own time much more carefully. I had visions of making wonderful pottery, cleaning the house, baking cookies and having dinner ready for Mcki and Arne at night. It was all very June Cleaverish in my head. The reality was that many days I was covered in mud, tired from throwing and sleep deprived because I would think about new glazes, pot shapes, textures and marketing ideas instead of sleeping. So instead of a sparkling clean house, organized meals and fabulous pots, I was often just a hot mess wondering how this new business adventure had gotten away from me. I had to stop and figure out how to make everything work.

I am happy to say that while I still have my days, I am figuring things out. Wiebe Pottery was able to buy a small slab roller this year and we will end the year purchasing a clay extruder that will allow me to hand build and feed my creative side. We learned a lot about making and testing our own glazes (a place we never imagined we would be), and we learned that we will always be learning and it will never be perfect.

I am excited to start the new year as a business owner and for the new projects that Wiebe Pottery has planned. A small gallery off of the studio, a raku kiln, and some new venues to sell our beautiful pots to name a few.

And finally, I am very grateful to my husband who believed in us and our business enough to take this giant leap into the unknown. I honestly wouldn't be the person I am today without his patience, love and gentle guidance.

Happy New Year!