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Last Updated on 12-31-11
*NEW* Common Ground Art Tile
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News 12-31-11 New Year's Eve...reflections on the past year. As I sit here on Orchid Island and reflect on the past year, I feel pretty good. It has been a year fraught with highs and lows, but the lows have not been that bad and the highs have made me happy. I had a lot of changes happen in my life this year. Ventured out on my own after my marriage ended, moved myself to a whole new state with a whole new climate, (I love living in Florida), got a new dog, set up a new studio, changed the focus of my work after almost 18 years. Change is good sometimes. It can stimulate a rejuvination which can spawn fresh ideas and directions. The tiles are coming along great. Even though I am a month late getting my catalogs to the tile stores and designers in the area, I am very positive about the future of my work. I have been making finished tile to show as examples in the catalog, and now I am also making vessel sinks. They are the perfect compliment to the tiles for a bathroom situation. I will have about 20 different designs to start the catalog, on everything from backsplashes, to floors, to wall installations and table tops. It is an exciting time in the Common Ground Pottery studio. Things are happening a lot like they did 18 years ago. The sense of wonder and the magic of the clay are coming back. It can only mean good things for my art. Speaking of sinks, I am very pleased with the way they are turning out. I have been working out the technical aspects of the sinks and plumbing fittings which has taken some experimentation. I have to factor the shrinkage of the clay into the the wet, thrown clay, so when it dries and shrinks it is the proper dimension for the standard fittings. My clay shrinks about 10% +/-- 2%. It is the plus/minus part that is tripping me up. Not every bag of clay has the same moisture content as every other bag, so they all shrink at different rates. They are all within certain tolerances, but translating those tolerances and finding measurements that will work for most bags has been a bit elusive. I am definitely using a different part of my brain to work these things out, because sometimes my head feels tired after a day in the studio solving problems. Take a look at the new sinks HERE. I have been invited to show my sinks at the European Kitchen Sink and Bath store here in Vero Beach. They sell really nice high-end sinks and fixtures, and my line of sinks will fit in perfectly with their inventory. There is also a new tile design on the Common Ground Art Tile page. Lily pads and lotus blooms. The design is made up of 6 x 6" tiles and 3" x 3" tiles. The pool fountain tile installation that I did for a client in Melbourne Beach, FL is finally complete. GO HERE to see photos of the process and the finished fountain. I have a new phone number, (772) 321-2898 I have the Grove Park Inn Arts and Crafts Conference coming up in late February. I will be debuting the new line of work there as well as pottery. Happy New Year everyone! 10-19-11 A New Direction...Or Call It Quits? My apologies for the long delay in posting news. I like to keep my postings on a positive, upbeat note, and I was having difficulty finding anything positive about CGP to write about. Until now... After Zanesville I was facing a dilemma. The pottery sales have been very slow this year. My income has dropped to levels I haven't seen in 15 years. Blame the economy, or that I have pottery in a price range that is just not selling right now. Either way, I needed to do something to generate more sales or close my doors and find a job. The pottery was just not paying its own way anymore. I knew when I took my year away that I might have some catching up to do when I returned. I didn't count on coming back to a bad economy where people are holding onto their money and not spending it on extras like pottery. I really love working with clay and it is all I have known for nearly 18 years. It has been the best job I have ever had and I wasn't ready to stop now--I had too much blood, sweat and tears (literally) invested in this business to just walk away. I tried introducing some new pottery designs and they were well received, but didn't pull me out of my financial slump. I was at a fork in the road. A new direction...or call it quits. In my studio I have a white board that I use to jot down ideas and inspirational messages to myself. On it I wrote: "Fork in the road, Time for a new direction, you say? Take the skills you already know, and work magic with the clay." I figured I already know how to work with clay, but I needed a new product line--I needed to work some magic back into my art. I decided to start making art tiles for installation. I have made tiles for years, selling them at shows one tile, in a frame, sold as a piece of art to hang on the wall. I have sold a lot of them this way. When I made tiles before, I would sometimes put a bunch of them next to each other and think, "Wow, that would look good as an entire floor." But it didn't really go any further than that. Sure, I made some tiles for installation, but they were just accent tiles that the customer added to commercial field tile within an installation. Now I am going all out and making tiles that will dazzle people's eye and last for 1000 years, and launching Common Ground Art Tile, (a division of Common Ground Pottery). I found a great tile clay that maintains its shape and does not warp easily (the biggest problem with making flat work), and on which, my new glazes look stunning. The way the new clay has worked out and the new tiles I have been producing have really changed my outlook. I now look forward to going to the studio every morning and I work seven days per week. My mind is racing with design ideas, and I have re-tooled my studio for making flat work. I have even been cutting my own dies to extrude trim pieces and counter edging. This way my glazes will match the trim and I can custom fit edging before it is glazed, leaving no cut edges showing in the final installation. Last week I approached a couple of higher-end tile stores in Melbourne, FL and showed them the few samples I had put together. They were blown away, telling me that they get people asking for this kind of work all the time and that they would have no problem selling them. I am sure they will get me work, and couple that with working directly with designers, I am hoping to be very busy by the end of the year. I will make Arts and Crafts style tile, for sure, but I have a lot of other ideas swimming around in my head. One idea that I have, is to do Persian carpet in tile. Except I want to make it unique. Instead of geometric patterns laid out with flowers and vines as on the usual Persian carpet, I want to have geometric patterns, but upon closer inspection you would see that they are all made up of insects, or sea life, or birds, or whatever. Not your usual carpet designs. I even have one for a kitchen application with fruits and vegetables making up the design. I am working on backsplashes, counter-tops, mirror surrounds, flooring, walls, shower surrounds, fireplaces, etc. A friend of mine bought a house in March, and we are using it as a showroom of sorts, re-doing her three bathrooms and other projects, putting the photos of the finished work in my portfolio. A win/win situation. I'll post photos of the projects as they finish up. One project for her pool is almost complete and I'll show photos of the process. I am making tiles in 1", 2", 4", 6", 8", 12" squares, as well as rectangles of all sizes that compliment the square dimensions. And within the next couple of months I'll be introducing odd shaped tiles that fit together making stunning geometric patterns. I am very excited to be heading off in this new direction. What is the future of the pottery side of my business? I honestly don't know. If the tiles take off I may take a break from pottery. One thing I will be making on the wheel, however, is bathroom sinks that match the tile designs. I can also make vases that accent the installed tile if a customer so desires, so pottery won't go away completely. In closing I would like to say that I appreciate all of your business throughout the years. If there is anyone out there who needs custom handmade tiles for installation projects, please consider my work. Remodeling, new construction, just re-doing your bathroom, etc. Let me know if we can design some art together. 07-07-11 Zanesville Pottery Lovers. A whole bunch of new designs. Well, I really did intend to do updates as my firings were coming out, but it didn't happen. I'll tell you why. First, when I am in glazing-mode, I am so focused that it is hard for me to shift gears and do something like taking photos and working on the website. Also, after I did the last posting, I checked on the dates for Zanesville, and found that I had a week less than I originally thought. A week less of production meant that I ran out of time before I could actually post photos. I am in Zanesville now, and I am going to post all the new pots for those of you who can't make it to the show. I came up with 7 new designs, and so far, the response has been great. Click here to see the new work. I should point out that when I shot the photos, one of my tungsten photo lights burned out right at the beginning of the shoot, so I had to make due with another light. That is the reason for the reddish tint to some of the pieces. The colors are much richer in person. Enjoy! 06-17-11 Getting ready for Zanesville. New pots on the way. First off, thank you to everyone who participated in my sale during the month of May. With the economy as it is, I appreciate every purchase. I am getting ready for the Pottery Lovers Reunion in Zanesville, OH in 2-1/2 weeks. I have been busy like a bee making pots to dazzle the collectors and pottery enthusiasts who attend the show. I was trying to figure out how to breathe life into my lagging sales, since I have not been selling between shows as I normally do. I decided my inventory needed some reviving with some new, never before seen designs. I have come up with over half dozen totally new designs, and revived a couple that I made one of a long time ago, and I'm pleased with the results so far. I will know more on Monday when the first firing of the new stuff comes out, and I will post photos when they are finished, but right now they look great. I am also testing some new glazes in this firing, and will be implementing them in the other firings leading up to the show. So far I am very pleased with the new designs. Just to name a few, there is a new Daffodil, a new Fish and Seaweed design, a new Grapevine design (that's killer), a new flower pattern in a geometric layout, more crayfish, and more I can't remember at the moment. I have even more that I will be making before the show. One that I know of will be Hummingbirds and Trumpet Creeper Vine. That one will be popular and will sell fast, I'm sure. I will be changing how I do the sales, and I will post photos of new, available work before I leave for the show, rather than after. That way if someone is not coming to the event, at least they can still have an equal shot at something new. I decided to do this because some of my longtime collectors mentioned that they weren't able to get a certain piece they wanted because it sold at the show. Since my new kiln is smaller, my glaze firings are smaller, and I do a bunch of them for a show to round out the new selection. As the firings come out, I will post photos and do updates. Hope everyone's summers are sweet. See you out there... 05-03-11 AAPA Philadelphia show report and NEW PIECES AVAILABLE--20% OFF SALE!! The annual AAPA show and convention were held at the Buck's County Sheraton in Langhorne, PA this past weekend. The show was another success even though the economy is still a bit sluggish. The dealers came to sell, and the public was buying. In spite of what seemed a low attendance, I had good sales. Not great, but still good. I got to see some folks I hadn't seen for over a year, and we quickly got reacquainted. It was a grueling 18 hour drive for me, and when I was leaving Florida, it was 90 degrees, so I wasn't really thinking cooler temps. The temps were indeed cool, in the high 40's at night. Colder than I am used to, so I was a bit chilly at night. I offered a sale while at the show of 20% off the sticker price. It seemed to make a difference between buying and not buying for some folks. Well, I thought I would extend the sale for the month of May to see if there are some people who didn't make it to the show and might want to get a piece or two. Go to Pieces From My Most Recent Firing page for a viewing of the new pieces. I am back at the boat and studio now, and I have some good ideas of pieces I will be making. I will be making a limited number of lamps this year. I used to make lamps, and probably made about 25 of them. I like the lamp form because it is a functional piece as well as being decorative. I will post pictures when they are finished. I only have one right now, in the Morning Glory design. Next up is Zanesville, OH in July. I am taking a few weeks off to do some much needed work on my home, and then it will be back into the studio for more creativity. 02-27-11 GPI Asheville show report, NEW PIECES AVAILABLE!! Well, it has been an interesting month. Once my kiln arrived and got wired-up, I got right to work testing glazes and then firing pots. I had a bit of a problem. I needed pots for my upcoming show, but I had no glazes to work with. The glazes I did have needed to be tested before I could use them on a piece I spent hours decorating or they could run and wipe out hours of work. Time was ticking, but with plenty of caffeine I was able to come up with a working palette and decorated over 50 pieces to take to the show. Unfortunately, the jewel boxes had some issues with the glass inside, so they need to be refired before I can sell them. I would decorate ten pieces and fire them with the new glazes, along with more tests. Then I would implement the test glazes on pieces in the next firing of ten, and so on. With each firing, the glazes got better and better, and the work was looking great. In the end, I wasn't able to experiment with many new designs, but all of the glazes are new. I still have some tweaking to do, but at least I have a foundation to build on. Some of the glazes are a bit glossy, but I will matte them down when I get back to testing and tweaking. Asheville was great, once again. Bruce Johnson and his staff do a great job of putting on a show. It seemed like it was well attended, people were upbeat and my best day of the three was Friday. I saw many familiar faces and people were glad to have me back doing shows and making art pottery. I did miss the creativity while I was gone for my year away. I have done an update to the Pieces From My Most Recent Firing page and added the work I made for the show. Check them out and send me an email with your feedback. I'm curious to know what you think of the new glazes. Next up is AAPA in Philadelphia at the end of April. I have plenty of time to do more testing and create some great new designs. I already have a dozen or so new ones swimming around in my skull and can't wait to put them on pottery.
Me and Lucy and the new Skutt kiln
My booth set-up at GPI. Notice the new pedestals and the lack of tiles. I wasn't able to make any new tiles for this show.
The Blue Ridge Mountains--see why they call them that?
I also got a couple of new orchids since the last update.
01-21-11 New kiln arrives. Photos of the new studio. My new kiln arrived today and it is a beauty. I went all out for the best electric kiln I could find, and I believe I found that in the Skutt 1231. This kiln is state of the art with a computer controlled firing schedule, taking the guesswork out of the process. This will give me consistent results and less firing accidents. Here are some photos of the new studio with John Tiller in them. John recently visited the CGP studio and sold me some pots. We had a good time as this was John's first visit to Florida, and I showed him around the area. We even got a free day to head across the state to St. Petersburg where we visited the Salvador Dali Museum. I had been to the museum before, so we headed there to find out they had moved. And the grand re-opening of the new museum had just happened 3 days prior to our visit. Wow, what luck. Well, the museum was cool before, but now it is grand. Two stories tall with a huge bubble of geodesic dome windows facing the water. The collection has expanded, too. If you are ever in the area, and are a Dali fan, I highly recommend a visit. John Tiller in the new Florida studio.
John and my dog Lucy
I wanted to show you some of my collection of air plants or epiphytes, and orchids. There is a guy here at the farmer's market who sells them, and I think they are really interesting. I have gathered a dozen or so. Some of them are orchids. The roots hang in space, and the plant grows out the top. There is no soil, rather I just mist the roots every couple of days. I think they are very sculptural looking.
01-20-11 My new clay studio in Florida is up and running! After months of moving myself and my boat to Florida, then weeks of looking for the right space in which to work, I finally found the perfect studio and started producing pottery again. It is approximately the same size as my old studio, but I have set it up state-of-the-art. I decided this was a good opportunity to have the studio I always wanted but could not afford. After 22 years together, my wife and I decided to go our separate ways. She stayed in Wisconsin, and I moved to sunny Florida. I am very happy with these changes and I am loving the weather in Vero Beach. Before anyone expresses their sympathy I want to say that we are both happy with the decision and we parted as friends. 'Nuf said. Back to pottery... I am attending the Grove Park Inn Arts and Crafts Conference in Asheville, NC next month, so I am nose-to-the-grindstone getting ready. I will have new pots with new glazes and designs. It is pretty exciting when I think of all the design ideas running through my head and ready to put on pottery. I will have vibrant colors to use, which opens up so many possible motifs. It is almost like starting all over again making pots. Of course, I have the accumulated knowledge of the past 17 years working in my favor, but I am like a kid in a candy store over these new glazes. I am anxious to get some pots decorated and get the pictures posted so you can all see the new work. I will be posting new pots as they emerge from the kiln. I recently flew John Tiller down to throw pots for me. I can throw my own work, but I don't have the speed and endurance I used to before my accident in 2004. John got a nice vacation, and I have a studio full (literally) of beautiful pots awaiting my decorations. We did some major testing of different clay bodies to find the one that will work for my new firing technique, and I think we found a good one. I won't know for sure until the first glaze firing is done, but that should be in the next couple of weeks. It was good to take a year off and travel, but it is also great to be back in the studio venting my creative spirit. I can say with certainty, I missed making art and I missed the fine people who I have met over the years while selling my work. I look forward to seeing you all again and creating irresistible art pottery for your consideration. See you soon... 10-16-10 The return of Common Ground Pottery! Wow! It has been a heck of a year away from making art, but I am missing the creative process and I'm looking forward to getting my hands in clay again. There will be some major changes made. For one, I'll be moving to Florida and setting up my new studio in Vero Beach. I'll be using an electric kiln for the glaze firings too, which will expand the number of glazes available to me. I will have brighter, more vivid colors and more of them. I am excited to get started. I'll be attending the Grove Park Inn Arts and Crafts show in February, and will need to get busy making pots for that show. All in all, a lot of exciting things are happening and I'll share them with you as time goes on. I am looking forward to posting pictures of new pots as they come out of the firings. Onward.... |
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