George Lewter's Blog (12)

Alaska Claycation 2017 Wrapped Up

I had intended to post frequently during the retreat, but we stayed so busy with our activities that I kept putting it off. Then suddenly, it was over. The Gallery Lodge in Kasilof, Alaska was a magnificent location for our event, and the accommodations were first class.

Dot was in the throes of building a studio on the grounds, and had much…

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Added by George Lewter on August 23, 2017 at 6:00pm — 1 Comment

Claycation is a Happening Thing

Arrived in Anchorage yesterday and the drive down to Kasilof was spectacular. Dot's Gallery Lodge is far better than I was expecting. We'll use the garage as our studio, but she has a new studio under construction that will be a strong community gathering point for many years. I'm so glad I met her in Fort Lauderdale two years ago. Watch this space for more as we have our Alaska clay experience. The retreat starts tomorrow.…

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Added by George Lewter on August 14, 2017 at 9:36am — No Comments

Impressions of the ASU Art Museum Ceramics Research Center and Its Sponsored Studio Tour Feb. 2017

In February I heard about a major ceramic studio tour in Phoenix AZ, and decided to make an overnight trip to visit the studios and to take in the ASU Ceramic Research Center Museum, with what is widely recognized as the best collection of ceramic art, from the 1950s through the present, in the United States. I was amazed by the variety and quality…

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Added by George Lewter on March 20, 2017 at 12:55am — 2 Comments

Adjustable Slump molds

I got a chance to try one last winter at MIY Ceramics and Glass in Hollywood, Florida, and knew I wanted one of my own. 

This is set up to make a platter or shallow bowl with a mouth 12" long by 8" wide. The depth is 1 3/8". The mold sections slide in pairs allowing you to set any size from 4" x 4" up to 14" x 14".…

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Added by George Lewter on May 31, 2016 at 3:47pm — 2 Comments

Personal Melodrama

I have always tried to keep non-ceramic commentary off of the cone6pots network, but since many of you are friends, I am breaking my rule for this one bit of news.

Elaine Lewter, my wife of thirty-one years, passed away peacefully early this morning. She was the mother of our two fine sons, Jesse…

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Added by George Lewter on June 13, 2015 at 7:05am — 5 Comments

Note to Self -- Do Not Devalue Basic Techniques

I have found myself from time to time scoffing at some nice pots that were dipped in two overlapping glazes. The technique is seemingly taught to every beginning pottery student on their first day of glazing instruction. The fact is that some very interesting results can spring from the technique, given glazes that are attractive on their own, and that are suited to layering one over the other.

Yesterday I was very pleased how Glazing 101 technique worked for me with 3…

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Added by George Lewter on October 26, 2014 at 9:48pm — 2 Comments

Blown Away by the Pottery of Timothy Sullivan

Yesterday, my wife and I attended the Art in the Grove festival in Coconut Grove, FL. With 350 artists, there weren't many potters, and with one exception, I was not that impressed with what I saw. I was fortunate enough, though, to meet Timothy Sullivan, and I was simply boggled by the beauty of his pieces. He gas fires to cone 10 and makes use of multiple patterned glazes to give incredibly rich surfaces. He makes extensive use of Tenmoku glazes for blacks, browns, and red browns. He then…

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Added by George Lewter on February 18, 2014 at 8:00pm — 6 Comments

Big Changes at the cone6pots Network

The following message was broadcast to all members on May 12, 2012. It is reprinted here for members to easily access and refer to, and for those whose email address may have changed, or whose spam filters may have blocked the message. . .

There are a number of things that…

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Added by George Lewter on May 15, 2012 at 8:00pm — No Comments

East Lansing Art Festival - East Lansing MI - May 21, 2011

For me the highlight of the festival was seeing the magnificent salt glazed work of Tony Winchester.  He had unique functional and more decorative pieces with themes of horses, dragonflies, and fish.  I looked at his etsy shop just now, but have to say that his latest works are up a notch or more in quality over what I saw online.  He had great sensitivity to combining the characteristic orange peel salt texture and flashes with smooth conventional glazes and trailed slip or semi-vitreous…

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Added by George Lewter on May 21, 2011 at 5:09pm — 2 Comments

Pottery Journal 080109

This blogging business is new to me,

and I just realized that by trying to maintain a single ongoing blog here on ning, that any comments would get separated from the current topic. It seems that the answer is to do a new post whenever you add to your writings, rather than updating an old or ongoing piece. By separating the posts, comments will be attached to one day's observations rather than, say, a whole year's journal.

The big news with me is that I have signed up to take…

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Added by George Lewter on August 1, 2009 at 1:00pm — No Comments

My Pottery Journal

Since my last post I've written a lot about single firing and have purchased a PID controller to convert my manual kiln to programmable control.

7/17/09 Single firing means skipping the bisque fire and going ahead with glazing of leatherhard to bone dry greenware and then doing a full glaze firing. Read more on the "Single Fire" page under the "Technical" tab at the top of all our pages.… Continue

Added by George Lewter on May 12, 2009 at 8:30pm — 1 Comment

Robert Arneson - My Favorite Ceramic Artist

I lived in San Francisco in the seventies, and was able to see the work of Robert Arneson on several occasions. I believe his talent was immense, as was his sense of humor and his understanding that we humans are but a tiny bit more evolved than the rest of the animal kingdom. His work has been dismissed as "caricature" and that may be true, but he used it in many ways (to bring absolute horrors down to a level where they can be confronted, and less… Continue

Added by George Lewter on January 13, 2009 at 9:00pm — 5 Comments

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Use These Links to Support Us

Low cost flat lapping disc can be used on you potters wheel if you, drill bat pin holes in it, and provide a trickle of water to cool it. At amazon.com, 120 grit for aggressive material removal. Click the image to purchase 

Members have had great things to say about John Britt's new book, Mid-Range Glazes. Click the image to buy from Amazon.com

Purchase Glazes Cone 6 by Michael Bailey, The Potters Book of Glaze Recipes by Emmanuel Cooper, or Making Marks by Robin Hopper, all available at amazon.comMastering Cone 6 Glazes by John Hesselberth & Ron Roy is now out of print.

Harbor Freight is a great place to find unbeatable prices for better HVLP spray guns with stainless steel parts and serviceable economy models, as well as detail guns, all tested by our members for spraying glazes, as well as compressors to power the guns. As yet no one has tested and commented on the remarkably inexpensive air brushes at harbor freight.

The critter siphon gun is a spray alternative that is well liked by some of our members, and is available at amazon.

Amazon is also a competitive source for photo light tents for shooting professional quality pictures of your work. They also have the EZ Cube brand favored by several of our members. You might also want to purchase the book Photographing Arts, Crafts and Collectibles . . .

If you are up to creating videos of your work or techniques you might want to invest in a flip video camera

Following are a few scales useful for potters. Ohaus Triple Pro Mechanical Triple Beam Balance, 2610g x 0.1g, with Tare $169.00

And finally a low cost clone of the OHaus. The Adam Equipment TBB2610T Triple Beam Mechanical Balance With Tare Beam $99.62

ebay is a great alternative for many tools and the equipment used in the ceramics studio - kilns, wheels, extruders, slab rollers are often listed there both new and used.

Tips for Members

If you just want to spout off, it is best accomplished as a blog posting. If you want to get more guidance and ideas from other members, ask a question as a new discussion topic. In the upper right corner of the lists for both types of posting, you will find an "+Add " button. Clicking it will open an editor where you create your posting. 4/16/2014

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