Lace Bowls 2: Lotus Bowl

Indigo Float Lotus Bowl

I spent a fair bit of time at the end of 2011 and the beginning of this year exploring some more ideas in connection with my Lace Bowl project. I'd begun to refer to the entire range of lace vessels as  my "Ocean's 11 Lace Bowls" because the initial had been quite successful in a number of galleries for the Christmas season, allowing me to work on my less salable, artier "vanity projects". Suggestions and requests for other forms and finishes had been made, from platters and trays to bridal/shower/girlie colors for Spring. I was also given the opportunity to work with some handmade lace donated to me by some of my friends, in addition to the pieces I had found at two national arts and crafts store chains.

Some prized pieces of handmade lace were  donated to me by my friend Deb Hall. Of Maltese descent, her maternal grandmother had won first prize at the World's Fair in the 1930s for her hand-made bedspread. You can imagine my gratitude when Deb gifted me with some of her grandmother's beautiful work, including a large oblong piece suitable for a rectangular try and various forms suitable for round bowls.

One piece in particular inspired a different take on the pieces I had been doing - a large, six-pointed star-shaped piece with a lot of texture and interesting negative space. I decided to try using the entire form instead of limiting myself to a typical bowl with a consistent edge.

Textured Turquoise Lotus Bowl

Following my already-established technique, I roll out a slab of clay about 3/8" thick. To release the clay completely from the canvas, thereby reducing the risk of the clay tearing, I peel back the canvas, flip the canvas back, flip the entire slab-and-canvas over and flip back the other side of the canvas. Now I'm ready to do pretty much anything with the clay slab, from making a sunflower to a mask or a lace bowl. I place the lace doily on the slab, making sure it is as smooth as possible and, in this case, that the points are as uniformly extended as possible.

Using Kemper's Fine Detail Cut-Out Tool (C-090-109), I cut out the lace form. I cut or pull away the excess clay between the points to minimize distortion as I remove the clay from the rest of the slab - as long as at least fifty percent of the perimeter is "free", you're pretty much good to go. I carefully remove the cut-out piece with the lace doily intact I'm ready to actually form the piece.

I've been using the Large Salad Bowl from Sasaki's Colorstone stoneware for these particular pieces - with great success. I gently "encourage" the slab down into the mold, shaping it to the sides as much as possible and minimizing the buckling of the clay. Once I've gotten the piece well into the mold, I use a very smooth river stone to further conform the slab to the mold paying particular attention to the upper edge of the bowl.

Frosted Melon Lotus Bowl

To make the form more interesting, I pinch each of the points - one finger on the top of the center of each point, two other fingers on either side underneath - to add a nice detail to the form as well as to help the unsupported points to stay somewhat "up". If the clay is too plastic, these points can slump badly. If this happens, the piece should be recycled, as this can cause failures in the piece that may not be visible until after glaze firing.

Unlike most of the other bowl forms - which should be dried slowly without a fan to minimize distortion, these pieces seem to dry well in front of a fan with minimal warping. Once they're dry, I use a fine synthetic steel wool to clean up the edges, and undesirable marks from the molding process on the underside, and to soften the lace impression on the inside. This last is very important, as a glaze will only enhance any sharp edges, making an otherwise inviting, tactile piece more than a bit uncomfortable.

For bisque firing, I've been able to stack at least two high - make sure to turn each piece in a stack one-twelfth of a rotation so the points are not on top of one another to reduce stresses during firing.

For glazing, first rinse the pieces to remove any dust generated during the clean-up process. I use a 2-ounce ladle to glaze the interior, grab the piece with a pair glaze tongs, turn it over, and ladle the glaze over the bottom. Because of the size and shape of these pieces, glazing can get a bit messy - always clean up your glazing area afterwards to reduce free silica in your workspace.

These pieces are glaze-fired on a large 10x15 stilt - smaller stilts can't take the weight of these pieces. I use a ceramic Dremel accessory to remove any irregularities caused by the stilts.

Because of the form of these pieces - especially the pinched tips, glaze effects are quite dramatic and pleasing. As a thank-you to Deb, I glazed a piece with Amaco's Potter's Choice Frosted Melon. I hope to give it to her at our next class.

Anniversary Sunflower

I did a post last year about a series of Deluxe Sunflowers I did for a show at the Grosse Pointe Art Association's "Word Play" show. I took a slab of clay and stamped it all over with the word "sunflower" and added some rosettes over where the ascenders ("f" and "l") rose into each line of text and used that to form the centers of three sunflowers - large, extra-large and ginormous - I was going to use to create the piece I called "What kind of flower *is* that?" It ended up being accepted for the show, a wonderful treat in a surprisingly successful year of submissions.

My friend Estela Boudreau sponsored a show of my work at her gallery in Grosse Pointe Woods, Galeria Mariposa, late last year, and we decided to feature those three sunflowers. Instead of hanging them as I had at the GPAA show, we thought it would be cool to display them on stakes, as I had at one of my garden tours. This necessitated the fabrication of a stable display stand to hold the stakes securely with no risk of tilting or any other movement.

I, of course, took this challenge to my very capable handyman, Keith Battjes, my go-to guy for everything from toilet back-ups to fashioning worktables for my studio. I hauled the three pieces and their respective stakes over to his shop and, over a couple of beers, we figured out what we needed to do. The stand was a complete success and Estela eventually purchased the three sunflowers with stakes for her "Wind Rise" retreat center near Metamora. I have the base in storage for the next similar project.

Fast forward to January 2012. My toilet has had a crisis. Keith comes to the rescue. He then asks about a sunflower as a gift for his wife for their upcoming 31st anniversary, recalling the sunflowers he had worked with previously. Luckily, he and his wife have relatively short names ("Diane" and "Keith") and, after ascertaining which name should "go on top" (his wife's of course!), I began the process of creating my first Anniversary Sunflower. Which Keith picked up today and put up in their kitchen this evening. What a wonderful project!

Please send out best wishes to Keith and Diane on their anniversary, this Sunday, February 19.

Just in general....

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone the very best for 2012. As 2011 comes to a close, I'm grateful for all the blessings this year has brought me, including new members of my spiritual family, continuing creativity and the strength to handle the year's challenges. I set myself the goal of averaging one blog post per week in 2011, a goal I met and exceeded, much to my surprise. (It got a bit tight there in November!) With the help of my spiritual family, especially the members of the Feline Management Team, we made it!

Best to all!

Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House - Meet the Artists: Charlie Palazzola

Charlie in his studio

That's right - only one day until the Second Annual Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House on December 10 (10a-4p), during which we open up the studio to fellow local artists and all of our fans for a day of holiday cheer! This year, we'll be featuring artisan baked goods and live music, in addition to five unique garden- and home-inspired artists. This is the last in a series of posts introducing the artists contributing to the event - a series of posts intended to introduce them to you so you could get to know each of these amazingly creative and generous folks a little bit better.


Charlie Palazzola is a Detroit-based singer, songwriter and fine artist.  He was heavily influenced during the 1960s by local AM Radio and performers such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, the Motown sound and the diverse and original talents of that era. In the 1970s, his interests expanded to include an interest in singer/songwriters and soul artists on FM Radio including James Taylor, Elton John and Al Green, as well as rock groups such as The Who and Pink Floyd. Sequeing into the 1980s, Charlie continued to develop his guitar "chops" with significant influence from musicians including Jeff Beck and Keith Richards as his individual style continued to evolve. Charlie honed his musical talents in numerous bands during his early career, including Funkster, Tin Soldier and Blue Room, each with its own distinct sound and personality, each a platform for Charlie's eclectic musical influences and talents.

Self Portrait. 2011.

In a break from his musical evolution, in the 1990s Charlie chose to fully embrace his long- time interests and talents in the visual arts, eventually graduating form Wayne State University with a BFA in painting. Numerous canvasses later, he is once again also revisiting his musical side, returning to song writing and live performance. Charlie is currently refining his songwriting skills, producing a number of new compositions including instrumental blues/roots music while experimenting with alternative guitar tunings.


Charlie is another person who joined my family this year. I met him through sheer happenstance. My best friend, Catherine Dumke, was getting a house ready to sell the summer of 2011 and needed someone to do some painting; her real estate agent recommended Charlie, who makes a living wielding a larger paintbrush to subsidize his more creative pursuits. Catherine mentioned him from time to time, what a nice person he was, his obvious talents, how much she enjoyed working with him on the house. I don't have a lot of time during summertime, as I'm gardening and doing pottery, so I hadn't had a chance to meet him, although we all thought it would be a good idea, if we could just find the time.

Untitled

Well, when the power went out at my house for the umpteenth time this summer, I found the time. I needed someplace to store my perishable foods and Catherine offered the use of the refrigerator at the house at which Charlie was painting. So we met. And had this great conversation. And had another one when I picked up the food. And another when I came to help Catherine with some stuff around the house. I mentioned my August garden tour and he asked if he could come and, if so, how much admission was; I said all he needed to do was bring his guitars and play us a song or two.


There are these perfect, rounded moments in life, moments that are so refined and whole the memory of them is indelible.  Such was the moment Charlie launched into his first composition at my garden tour in August 2011. The music rose up through the garden and drifted out over the neighborhood, a perfect union with a late summer day, redolent with warm colors and glowing scents.


Need I say more?

Deluxe Sunflower - Teddy Bear

Gary Kohs and Laura Scaccia are two of the people who joined my family in 2010. Laura's sister had purchased one of my sunflowers at Pewabic Pottery and told Laura about me.  She got in touch and we made arrangements for the two of them to stop by the day before Mother's Day.  Gary and Laura arrived a bit early - early enough that, while I was out of the shower, I was not really dressed. I let them in and asked that they hang in the dining room while I dressed. And that is about as formal as our relationship has been since.

Gary and Laura (and their family and friends) have been some of the most supportive folks I've come to know since the inception of Black Cat Pottery: A sunflower tile has been installed above the stove in Gary's kitchen; one of my Ginormous Original Sunflowers hangs in the peak of Gary's pizza oven on his terrace; a plaque reading "Villa Girasole"("House of the Sunflower") is a housewarming gift from Laura; and 40 Mini Original Sunflowers were gifts to the guests at the official housewarming party. And that's just for starters.

The Inspiration. Gary can be kind of a challenging guy. In a good way. The day we first met, he challenged me to fabricate a ginormous sunflower completely covered by petals. I asked him if he was trying to kill me. (I'm still wondering about that....) But I'm not one to let a challenge pass, so I finally started to work, and the product is my Deluxe Teddy Bear Sunflower design.

The Process. I start the process as I would any Deluxe Sunflower, with a slab of clay draped over the hump mold, which has been placed on a kiln shelf. For the Ginormous Deluxe Teddy Bear design (inspired by the Teddy Bear Annual Sunflower, the center of which is entirely covered with petaloids), I use all seven sizes of sunflower petal cookie cutters. I score the entire surface of the slab, then apply the petals in rows around the piece sequentially, largest to smallest. Although I only use one row of each of the six largest-sized petals, I do use multiple rows of the smallest petal for the central rosette. The key here is to make sure to push the petals down as much as possible so they don't stick up and are vulnerable to breakage through the rest of the process. It is pretty heavy, what with the shelf, the plaster mold, and all that clay.

I set the piece to dry until I can lift it off the mold safely - pretty close to leather hard. I carefully lift the piece off the mold, flip it over and cradle it in my left hand (here's where having those petals well down really makes a difference) to cut holes for hanging wire and attach a fitting to the back for a stake. I then carefully flip the sunflower back onto a clean kiln shelf and allow to dry completely before firing.  Because the piece is quite massive, it's best to let it dry for several days before trying to fire; otherwise, it could easily explode - an expensive lesson.

Glazing is simple yet tricky. There is no "center" to glaze another color, so I'm only applying one glaze to the entire surface; in this case, I'm using Amaco's Potter's Choice Salt Buff - for some reason, this was just the "right" glaze for this design. The piece, however, is probably the heaviest piece I have to glaze. I cradle the piece in my left hand, top side up, and ladle the well-mixed glaze into and over all of the petals for three coats, allowing the piece to dry between. Then, using a slip-trail bottle, I drizzle more glaze haphazardly over the entire surface - thereby achieving the "irregular" application necessary to achieve the correct effect. Once the top surface is dry, I flip over the flower and brush glaze on any unglazed portions of all the petals. I then allow to dry and fire on stilts. I have found that using seven or eight bar stilts place under the slabbed flange is the more efficient arrangement.

Because the piece is so large, I tend to allow the kiln to get pretty cool before opening, to minimize the risk of fracturing if it's cooled too quickly.

Gary's next challenge? A sunflower larger than 24 inches across. I'm still working out the details on that one; once I'm about eighty percent there, I'll take that on as well! 

Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House - Meet the Artists: Jennifer Flynn and Urban Attic

That's right - only one day until the Second Annual Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House on December 10 (10a-4p), during which we open up the studio to fellow local artists and all of our fans for a day of holiday cheer! This year, we'll be featuring artisan baked goods and live music, in addition to five unique garden- and home-inspired artists. I thought it would be nice to introduce them to you so you could get to know each of these amazingly creative and generous folks a little bit better.

Jennifer Flynn, owner of Urban Attic, a unique gift shop located in Ardmore Park Place in St. Clair Shores, Michigan, graduated in 1985 from Michigan State University with a BA in Advertising. She worked in communications in Chicago at MTV Networks and Katz Communications and in Texas at the Arbitron Rating Company and Harrington, Richter and Parsons, another communications firm. Despite embarking on a promising career in the communications industry, Jennifer took herself out of the workforce in 1991 in order to focus her energy and time on her family, especially loving and raising her two sons, Patrick, 20, and Andrew, 17. Multi-talented and uber-creative, in 2010, she decided to strike out in a new business venture, a unique gift shop to showcase her work and the talent of other Michigan handcrafters and artists. Thus was born Urban Attic.

Tea Bag Caddies crafted from vintage handkerchiefs

I first heard of Jennifer early in 2011 through my friend, Don Schulte, who had happened on her shop in when he and his wife stopped for a bite at the Ardmore Cafe, in the same building. He suggested I look into the gift shop as a venue for some of my work. I then happened to meet Jennifer's mother-in-law when giving a presentation for the Grosse Pointe Garden Center at the Grosse Pointe War Memorial. Recognizing the workings of fate, I contacted Jennifer and set up a  meeting, having determined that her shop - an intimate space chock full of unique Michigan-made goods - would be most suited to my smaller pieces: Mini sunflowers and daisies, fairy houses and lace bowls. After an initial meeting, I felt I had met yet another kindred spirit and, indeed, I count Jennifer as the first of four people to join my family of choice in 2011.

Paper cones fashioned from old wallpaper samplebooks -
what a great alternative to the traditional stocking!

Although we're featuring Jennifer's baked goods at the Second Annual Black Cat Pottery Holiday Open House - including her famous Mom's Bananas Nut Muffins (ask me for the story behind this recipe title), aside from her family, Urban Attic is now her primary focus. And although she carries products produced by local artists and artisans (including various work by Black Cat Pottery and notecards and prints by Notable Greetings), her own creations are some of the most interesting and inventive objects I've ever seen. Jennifer is a past master of "up-cycling", taking goods other folks would simply discard (hopefully, recycle) and giving them new life. Whether it's taking an old book of wallpaper samples and converting them into beautiful decorative cones that would make a Christmas stocking envious or creating a beautiful paper rose from the page of an old musical score, Jennifer exemplifies the magical evolution of the silk purse from the proverbial sow's ear.

Every time I walk into Jennifer's shop, unless she's catering to the needs of a new or long-loyal customer, she has new ideas to share. Folks ask me when I sleep; I know Jennifer doesn't! She has an unerring eye for the "finishing touch" - the little detail that brings out the heart of a piece, whether it's a bottle of olive oil next to one of my tiny lace bowls or the "gratitude" cards available at her "counter", an up-cycled sideboard. As the year has progressed, Jennifer's love for baking has finally taken a back seat to her dedication to her new-found home, Urban Attic.

"As long as I can remember I've found joy in making little things for people who come into my life. Today, the place I sit down to write or to create what is in my head, just feels like the right place to be." - Jennifer Flynn

Find more information about Jennifer Flynn and Urban Attic at www.urban-attic.com.

Lace Bowls 1: Red vs. White Stoneware

Lace Bowls, Peach Stoneware

One of the more popular designs I've developed in the last year or so has been my lace bowls. Using the same Sasaki Colorstone stoneware dishes as molds that I use for many of my leaf pieces, I've come up with two "designs" in four sizes that have been very popular this holiday season. The idea evolved from the lace I had used for the centers on some of my sunflowers. I had found a heart-shaped piece of lace at either Joann's or Michael's; it was a bit challenging to work with, as the concave section at the top of the heart made for a "blank" in the design of the sunflower's center that I would have to "fix" by rolling the bottom of the heart in to that section; cumbersome but effective. This lace texture sunflower has been very popular, although it may partly be due to the color I stain the petals - bright orange.

I have always been a very tactile person (hence the interests in gardening, pottery, needlecrafts, etc.) I had been working with some bowls for an Empty-Bowls Fundraiser sponsored by Firebrick Gallery in Rochester, Michigan, and decided to use the lace texture and see what happened with that, using the same Sasaki Colorstone stoneware bowls as my molds for these pieces as I had been using for my leaf pieces and other, earlier designs. I had found various sizes of lace at Joann's and Michael's that would accommodate the various sizes I wanted to make.

The technique here is to roll out the clay in the slab roller, place the piece of lace on the slab and roll it into the clay with a heavy maple pottery rolling pin.  If I'm doing a straight edge on the piece, I cut out enough around the lace to work with and place it in the mold.  I usually try to center it but have learned that the pieces can be pretty interesting if they're a bit off-center. (There's a story there I'll share some time.) I use the flattish side of my smooth river stone to work the clay into the mold consistently, peel off the lace and cut the edge of the piece to the edge of the bowl using a sharp tool. If I'm doing a scalloped edge, reflecting the scalloped edge of some of the lace pieces I've found, I use a sharp tool to cut out the form of the lace and place that in the mold as above, although in this case it's more important that it be centered.

Lace Bowls, Lite Stoneware

I let the pieces dry enough to come out of the molds, sign them, then let them dry completely.  Once dry, I use synthetic steel wool to remove the burrs from the cutting tool at the edge of the piece, correct any irregularities on the back of the piece, and to smooth the edges of the pattern made by the lace inside the bowl. This last step is very important, as I have discovered that a glaze applied over a sharp, unrefined edge can make for a piece that is very uncomfortable to handle; for some reason, the glaze enhances that sharp edge, to the extent that I have even cut myself on it. Just a couple sweeps across the surface with the synthetic steel wool is sufficient to correct this issue. These pieces can easily be nested for bisque firing, so you can fire a pretty dense load, getting maximum space and energy utilization.

Glazing is pretty straightforward but glaze selection is important.  The raised lace pattern is particularly effective when a glaze that "breaks" is used - a glaze that changes color as it thins over the edges of s surface. (This is part of the reason I used lace-imprinted clay for my studio's glaze test tiles, to see which glazes would behave in this manner.) These glazes will really enhance the already-extant texture in the bowl. Many of Amaco's Potter's Choice glazes fit the bill, especially Indigo Float, Lustrous Jade, Textured Turquoise, Vert Lustre, Blue Rutile, Chun Plum, Albany Slip Brown, Ironstone and Ancient Jasper. I have noted a preference for the brighter colors in the blue to green range in my client base.

Glazing consists of dipping the piece, using dipping tongs, into the well-mixed glaze two to three times, depending on the glaze's consistency. I do not wax the bases of the pieces because it looks odd, considering there is no real "bottom", just a curved underside. I fire them on stilts and use my Dremel with a grinder accessory to remove any stilt marks.

I did experiment with different clay bodies as well, both my usual Peach Stoneware from Rovin and their Lite Stoneware, a very white body suitable for handbuilding and throwing. I found in most instances that the redder clay was more effective in bringing up the contrasts in the breaking glazes, a phenomenon reflected in the choices I make for my sunflowers, bird bowls and wall pockets.

I am now experimenting with other lace forms.  My good friend Deb Hall has been very generous, gifting me with some of her Maltese grandmother's handmade lace for use in my studio.  Her grandmother actually won first prize at the World's Fair during the 1930s for her lace bedspread, so you can imagine how grateful I am that Deb chose to bequeath some of her work to Black Cat Pottery Studios.

I like nothing more than when a prospective customer really "experiences" one of my pieces - handles and caresses it. These lace bowls really lend themselves to that dynamic.