Getting Ready for the Elmwood Festival-of-the-Arts!

While I have been making it a policy to publish here, only finished pieces, I will make an exception with this post.

I have been getting ready for a couple of upcoming events that I will be participating in; "The Elmwood Festival of-the-Arts" held August 28th & 29th, where I will be located at site 33, between West Ferry St. and Breckenridge St. on the west side of Elmwood Avenue. Also, on September 18th & 19th I will be at the "Niagara Celtic Heritage Festival" (in full Scottish kilt dress!!) this festival is located in Olcott, NY

I will be unveiling a completely new line of mugs & tankards at the Elmwood festival, partially inspired by my tree friend show here to the left, but also inspired by a number of other "Celtic" flavored works in popular culture. Perhaps my next post will provide a "Sneak-Peek" at these exciting creations!!

“Tree-Weird Mugs and Tankards”

Hewn from the hearts of the rare Clayple trees found only deep in the Enchanted Forests of the British Isles, these “Tree-Weird” creations have been known to live centuries long when undisturbed. These bizarre, amazing & magical creatures prefer to spend most of their natural lives in deep slumber, and if disturbed, tend toward being angry and bellicose to u short-lived folk. When awake, they are “wild-of-heart” and should be approached with great caution! The young saplings, when harvested, often have not matured enough to have opened their eyes, and many are too shy to yet show their faces.

Keeping these mystical creatures satisfied & happy is easy though, just keep them filled with cool earthy beverages, home brewed beers and ales seem to work best, but coffee and teas are also beverages that they will savor. Be careful not to let loose their ire by leaving them unfilled for too long, as heartwoods, unfulfilled can be very temperamental! Follow these instructions and these one-of-a-kind magical creatures will give you a lifetime of trouble-free service.

To order these and other unique creations!

Email Bizarre Amazing & Magical Pottery at bam-pottery@yahoo.com

On the internet at: http://buffalopotteryfaces.blogspot.com/

Over 40 New Pieces!! WOW!!!

Finally, the "Motherload" of about 40 pieces is out and ready for the public! I think its an exciting collection! They will be at the "Rediscover Amherst Street Festival XIII" being held June 19th

Finally! ...enough pieces for a kiln load!

The other day I bisque-fired about 35 pieces that were "waiting in the wings" to be fired since February, now they need only be glazed before they are ready for presentation.

Saving up for a kiln load!

Slowly the pieces to this new pottery business puzzle are falling into place, I now have a small used electric 220v kiln hooked-up in my basement so I can work there in addition to the studio, but I still have to set-up a down-draft exhaust system before I can use that kiln. The gas kiln (which is still a "virgin" meaning unused) will probably be moved to my cabin or the garage, it's set-up for natural gas, but I do have the orifices for use with propane so, I will have that option.

I have at the Pottery Studio moved into a bay area (basically, a 3' by 3' by 7' space with shelves) enough shelving to make it more affordable to fire and glaze, so I have the space to save-up for renting a large kiln instead of paying for individual pieces (which has been expensive.

So, since I only post photos of "finished" pieces here, you will have to go to my Facebook pages to see "works in progress" in my facebook group and photo albums.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=111184652234765

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=139394&id=776216949

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=149367&id=776216949

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=101136&id=776216949&op=6

Okay! It's now "Officially" named!!

This week we went down to Erie County Hall and registered the name: "Bizarre Amazing & Magical Pottery" or unofficially, ...BAM Pottery!

Something weird, wild and catchy, but still represents me with my initials.

I hope to get all my duck-in-order soon too, but that will take some time, especially since I am new to this small business model. How long before I start selling and earning an income? ...That is anyone's guess!

Tis the Season! ...or is it Clay? ...The Shape of Things to Come.

Here we are, nearly a week before Christmas, and I'm working away at creating some more of my "children in clay" or my "other" family as I sometimes say to myself. While I am still building an inventory, at least some of these "kiddies" are finding homes through donations to various worthy causes. My problem is that I put so much work into each one, it is very much like letting a child go, hoping it finds a good home. Today I put faces on another three future mugs and a bowl, not shown in this post, since they are just clay at this stage, but interesting personalities nonetheless.

One of my recent favorites is "Cigar Guy", shown here. He was a bit of an experiment both in under-glazing, glazing, and heavy jowls and to get that heavy jowled look, since I had never attempted to create so much hanging skin over the eyes and cheeks. I wanted also, to make it look like a lit, half-burnt cigar was hanging from his lips. Part of the challenge was getting the cigar ash and ember just right. The interesting thing about glazing, is that you just don't know what it might look like when it comes out of the kiln!

The "Wheel" Deal! ...or, "What's this all about?"

As I prepare to launch a new career as an "artistic" potter, I thought I better try my hand at advertising my wares.

Although I have never been one for self-promotion I thought that in all fairness to myself, I should try and promote what I am doing in the hopes that I will eventually be able to make a living, and have some fun along the way doing this.

I first tried pottery when I was in the Navy as a hobby and soon realized that I had a real talent for doing this style, which I developed on my own back in the early 1980's. Many of those early pieces still exist in homes around the country and here in Western New York where I am based. However, life, career and family commitments took me away from this art form for over twenty-five years, but after making an unplanned, although not unexpected career change in August 2009, I decided to follow my heart and take a "leap-of-faith" and pursue dream.

This is still the "pre-launch" phase of the business as I am trying to build inventory and plan the business before I "launch" my business and start selling. If you notice a bit of mildly "salty" language and nautical phrases, it is probably due to my early career in the Navy as an Electronics Technician aboard the USS BOSTON (SSN-703) as a Reactor Operator. However, I decided not to continue in that career and became an IT professional 25 years or so, despite the fact that I found it unsatisfactory and unrewarding, it paid the bills as they say. Sorry for digressing, but I thought you might like some background about me in the hopes that you will be inspired to purchase these items, when I finally open my doors (figuratively) for business! Please feel free to comment!