So Many bowls (to ease my soul)

I have finished building and glazing half of my 100 bowls and have fired half of those (pictures ahead!). I’m really happy with how they turned out and feel a lot more confident in my ability to make a decent bowl. This particular part of the project I decided that I didn’t want to try to make identical and specific bowls but rather let creativity flow and see what I came up with. The result is a mix of offering and containing bowls with a few small bowls thrown in.

I am currently taking a brief break from the bowl project in order to make some mugs for a fundraiser that the Coru is assisting Indian Canyon in running. The fundraiser is incredibly important and is providing funds to buy a log splitter and perform much needed upgrades for the living situations of local indigenous elders. If you have some time, please follow the link and check it out. If you are unable to give anything, just sharing the link and getting the word out would be incredibly helpful and impactful. As of today (2/8/23) the fundraiser has been active for 5 days and we are over 50% of the way to our goal!!! The first 20 donations of over $100 will receive a custom made mug from me (I will be paying for all material and shipping as part of my donation so 100% of your donation goes directly to Indian Canyon) Honestly, if more than 20 people want to donate $100, I’ll make more mugs.

Information for Indian canyon fundraiser (please share)

https://www.gofundme.com/f/keep-the-fire-at-indian-canyon

https://indiancanyonlife.org/

100 bowls (to be continued)

Trials and Tribulations (kiln firing between atmospheric rivers)

First off I would like to thank everyone for all of their support and encouragement in this endeavor. All of your feedback and support has really been inspiring for me and has continued to encourage me to push my boundaries and increase my skills. I feel like I am moving toward my goal of being a full time ceramicist on the wings of everybody’s excitement and good wishes.

Since I’ve written last I have had a number of adventures and I wanted to share them with you.

Santa Cruz getting battered

“How many atmospheric rivers are we getting?”

For those of you that don’t live in California, while the rest of the country was getting snowstorms, here in the Bay Area we had unusually mild weather…. for a while…. and then we got hit by the wettest and stormiest weather that we’ve had in 20 years with not one, not two, but three atmospheric rivers, bring with them dangerous winds, flooding, and power outages. For me it was a challenge to find time to fire my kiln and complete the project that I’ve been working on for the last month. My project was called “Trials and Tribulations” and consisted of making and testing new glaze combinations on over 30 mugs. The challenge was that Trogdor the Kiln is located outside (under shelter, but not completely weather proof).

My initial goal was to fire on Christmas Eve, but that was hampered by the first storm. I waited a week with no let up on the rain before I got frustrated enough to set up a tarp and attempt the firing anyway. Since then I have managed to fire a glaze firing on New Years Eve and a bisque firing a week after that. Both were successful! Thank the Kiln and Weather Gods.

The floods after the storms

Trials and Tribulations

My most recent project has been to test out a number of new glaze combinations on about 35 mugs that I have recently thrown. My goals were to not only test the looks and viability of the various combinations, but to see how the colors felt for particular devotional uses, which combinations felt right for which Gods/spirits. All in all I tried out about 25 different combinations and out of those found about five combinations that really stood out. I’m very interested in hearing what y’all think about them and which Gods/spirits you think they might be geared towards.

The colors:

Nebula

veil of night

sargasso

Lodestone

Ancient moss

Next project

The Trials and Tribulations project was a lot of fun and I feel like I got some extraordinary color combos to work with. My skills at throwing and adding handles to mugs is getting better and I once again have stock to sell. From here, my next project will be …………

100 bowls

In order to improve my throwing skills and get more comfortable throwing and decorating bowls, I am currently in the process of throwing and glazing 100 bowls. Unlike the Wedding Mead Cup project, where I was attempting to throw cups that were as alike as I was able to, the 100 Bowls project will be me really feeling out the process of bowl making, becoming comfortable throwing a variety of different types of bowls, and working on expanding my decorative abilities as well.

Along with making the 100 bowls, I will also be taking requests from individuals are learning to build different types of pieces. The first one that I attempted was a replica of a Greek Kylix vase/offering bowl. I have built the first version of it and am currently waiting to fire it. Pictures will be coming.

In the meantime, I’m selling all of the mugs and have put a selection of them up on my website here (https://www.strixian.com/shop)

Thank you all for all your input and support. I feel blessed that I am able to share this adventure with you all.

“I think i’m quite ready for another adventure”

-Bilbo Baggins

Hello Everyone and thank you for taking this journey with me!

Being able to spend my days making art has been a dream of mine for a very long time.
So far, this has been one of the most inspiring and richly rewarding endeavors of my life.

I have been fascinated with the art of ceramics for most for my life but for some reason I was never able to take the steps necessary to start the process. It was either the expense of the equipment, the lack of space, or just not believing that I possessed the skill to be successful.
That changed last September. Between the Covid lockdowns and having to take a month off of work due to health issues, I decided to buy an inexpensive wheel and some supplies, take a few in person ceramics classes, and start learning.

At first, not having a kiln and not feeling like anything I made was good enough, I spent weeks making wonky bowls and destroying them, re-wedging the clay, and starting again. I found that I needed more structure, some inspiration to finish my projects..... Enter my wedding
With our wedding on the horizon and a strong desire to have a wedding where we gave gifts to the community that has loved and supported us rather than received gifts from them, I decided that I was going to make a small mead cup for everyone that was attending, around 75 people.
I ended up making about 120 mead cups. They were of various skill levels, but they were all made to look as close to each other as I could get to keep them the same shape and size. Then I made coffee mugs for every person in our wedding party in order to try something different as well as learn to put handles on my work.

The wedding cups

For me, this was a great success. Learning to repeat a simple shape over and over gave me confidence on the wheel and allowed me to master the basics and start learning more advanced techniques. The next thing I needed to do is firing, then glazing. I luckily had a friend with a kiln so I was able to do my first bisque firing, another success! I then took a fairly reliable glaze, and did a couple of glaze firings and had more success!
So then the wedding, and the honeymoon where I got to visit studios in Cornwall and Northern Scotland and home and back to the studio with more confidence and a better skillset.

Northshore Pottery, Mill of Forse, Caithness, Scotland. Artist: Jenny Mackenzie Ross

My next time in the studio I worked on some new shapes and products, tried out some new glazes, and in the middle of it, found a good used kiln (Skutt 1027) for a very good price, bought it, and named it Trogdor the Burninator.
Trogdor had been a blessing, a solid, reliable beast that fired my next batch of work perfectly.

Trogdor!!!

Next came vending.... My first event that I vended at was Hexenfest, a small Pagan arts and music festival in Northern California. Hexenfest was a wonderful event, very small but great people. I ended up having a great time there, got lots of helpful feedback on my work, and sold about half of what I brought. I can't really describe how much of a confidence boost that was for me and I want to thank everyone that came by to admire and talk about my work.

Vending at Hexenfest

So now here we are with a website, which I am pretty proud of and has already had some sales (once again I can't express how much I appreciate your support at this early stage in my career. I have big plans for extraordinary projects and having the support and encouragement now really gives me heart to keep going) For me this is not only a place to sell my work, but a place to share my adventures on this endeavor, so stay tuned on this blog for more updates as they happen.

Currently I'm back in the studio working on a combination of coffee mugs and larges vases and bowls to use in some raku and pit firings. My goals are to make as make mugs as I can and start to add some of Morpheus's artwork on it for some collaborative pieces, as well as build up a number of art pieces in order to do a number of raku firings over the winter as well as doing at least one primitive, all night, pit firing.

All of my work and firing is going to be done in a ritual manner, making offerings and prayers as the work progresses. As I get better I will start to incorporate blessed soil and water from sacred sites into the process as well as adding written prayers, sacred plants, and magical items into certain pieces during the firing process. My goal is to make works of art that are usable, beautiful, and hum with the power of the Otherworld.
Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

-Brennos

Juni the Studio “Helper”