Pottery

Hey folks! A lot of you got to see a small exmple of my pottery this past event and some of you inquired as to custom orders and commissions. If you did, and you know who you are, or you would like to commission me for some sort of work, please pm me now.

The work you saw was Raku, a very pretty, seasonal type of work that will not be fired again until april. However, any work in raku will be created over the course of the winter and fired in the spring. Basic low and high fire work will be created and fired through the winter.

Anyone, wanting anything done in clay (I can pretty much make anything.) should pm me with their idea and a basic description of what they want. (Size, shape, color, style) Orders can be placed both IG and OOG as my character is a potter. The only reason I mention this is because I don't want you to think I only do this for IG reasons, I really am a potter.

If anything, even if you don't want to purchase pottery, but would like to see me try something that might interest you, PM me your idea and I'll let you know if its something I'm willing to try.

If you did not get a chance to see my work, please PM if your curious enough to see pictures, I can e-mail them.

You should take good pics, post them on-line somehow, and then link the pics for everyone to see

Pottery pictures have been taken. I will upload them tonight and provide a link.

HOLY CRAP!!!! THROWN AWAY POTTERY HAS A FLICKR?????

That's right folks! Check it out!

www.flickr.com/photos/colinmcpotter/

That stuff is awesome! What kind of prices d'you charge?

To be quite honest, I have a lot of trouble coming up with pricing. I KNOW how much most potters charge. But I've always felt that its too much. I seek to charge a bit less. I will put up some pricing on the flikr account today in the picture names. I'm charging very little right now $25-$35 for MOST pieces, but thats so I can drum up some business and grow my studio a bit. I need more clay, A LOT more clay, more tools, etc. Custom orders will cost more based on materials needed and time involved. Obviously, the more detail, the higher the cost.

To give you a comparitive idea, the master potter im apprenticed to charges $90 minimum for his cylindrical vases in Raku. He has sold some for as much as $3000. 

Please keep in mind one thing.

Raku- Seasonal firings. The firings are done outdoors and are not done during winter. Although they are FRACKIN BEAUTIFUL, and its my favorite style pottery. I will have to wait until April to fire again.

High Fire- I can pretty much do this all year round.

Glad to see the photos turned out well.

I'm going to give Frank some free advertising here and say that his pottery is AWESOME. I have seen all of his work first hand. He is an absolute perfectionist about his pottery, something that I tease him about to no end.

He's right about the cost, too. I go to a craft/folk fair every year on Rutgers campus, and I see stuff that is half his quality at three times the prices.

Wow Frank... that's some really nice stuff o_O

Damn Celts and their tree-hugging, Liberal, pot selling ways!

Amazing stuff. Ever done any kind of Onion Soup bowls?

Those are beautiful!

Wow!  Your pieces are great!  I will keep you in mind as I consider gift-giving.

A few people were asking me about goblets. Truth be told, I've never made one before so I decided to try it out. Take a look at the new projects page at

www.flickr.com/photos/colinmcpotter/

Those are my first two attempts ever. I think you'll like he results!

Very nice!

So, I see the tea cup and I see the goblet. Maybe sometime in the near future you can experiment on a mug that would hold a liter of ale???? :

A liter of ale? 33 Ounces? I'll shoot for 42 and hope that in the drying it won't shrink too far. Thanks for the next challenge.

Btw folks, If you see something you like, and want, make me an offer. I haven't set prices yet but when I do they'll probably be higher than what I will accept now.

Beautiful stuff!  There are craft guide books to help one figure out how to price your work.


Sujimichi, the knitter.
Pat Malone

Ya know, that's pretty nifty. I'm gonna have to look about some book stores. For now, I'm going to go check the web for things similar. Thanks!

Frank did you take those pictures with the camera I left in your car 6 months ago?
Also, on the plugging franks awesomeness, I gave one of his pots to my mom for her birthday and she loved it.

Some further ideas.

Glaze selection examples? Colors? Finishes?

Do you have the ability to attach smaller pieces to the pottery? for example, the renfaire suviniers, I think have a circular sigil type things attached to them.  Perhaps round sigils attached to goblets etc... that display the mark of the four lands, travance, holy symbols, stuff like that.

Perhaps a religious font?

Just trying to think of ideas to make them desirable in-game as well as out of game.

I will likely order a goblet as a centerpiece for my fireplace mantle... but trying to think of some other cool in-game uses.

My goodness, if theirs one thing I'm glad has come out of all of this it is the number of new ideas you fine folks are flooding to me both here and via pm. So to answer some of your questions James here goes.

Glaze selection- My studio is woefully low on glazes. I do the majority of my glaze work at the home of the potter I'm apprenticed to. His palette is fairly diverse but I could not hope to name them all. One thing a prospective collector could do is request a specific commercial glaze be used, or, something close to it. Amaco and Duncan commercial glazes are typically what I use when the piece calls for commercial glaze. Both companies have extensive lines of glazes available for all different types of pottery. The easiest way to figure out what glaze you think you want would be to google Duncan Glaze or Amaco Glaze and view some test tiles online. Once you find one you like I can see if I have access to it, something close to it, or need to purchase it for the piece. Odds are, If you want the color, then someone else will too so I have no problem purchasing it for future work.

Once I have a larger selection of glazes (Entirely dependent upon whether or not I can sell enough) I will begin firing test tiles with various types of clays to bring to events so that you fine folks can see exactly what it would look like.

Colors- Glaze can create color, but so can other things. Slips and engobes for example, which are colored liquid clay poured or trailed onto a piece, can add depth and color. They also lend themselves to the process of Sgraffito, a style of decoration popular in ancient Greece and Rome as well as early America.

Stains can produce colors directly on clay while not granting it a glossy sheen.

Both stains and engobes can be placed under glazes to produce color layering effect.

At this point in reading you should definitely find some google images for Sgraffito and whats called slip trailing or slip feathering. Really nice effects.

Small pieces attached to the pottery? Appliques? Truth be told I've never done them, but they happen to by my master potters specialty. With the proper tools I could definitely produce some interesting appliques. Metal and rubber stamps, especially metal stamps for tooling leather, work really well when trying to make a neat imprint on something.

I'm sketching a font to Andorra already. Thanks for the idea.

Just bought 100 pounds more clay today, Low fire earthenware red and high fire baldwin, a grey clay that fires to light pink to buff dependent on temp. I'm gonna have some fun these next few weeks.

So, I decided to put some prices up on my Flickr for my work. A number of them have sold already but their ares till a bunch available. Also, bear in mind that for any of you KR types, the offer of *price negotiable* still stands. Christmas is right around the corner for me and I've got 4 dollars to my name, so most offered prices will be accepted prices(within reason of course). Also, winter is the time for commissions folks! A number of you have pm'ed me with ideas and orders and I thank you, but I wish to impress on all others who might be thinking of having something made that the time is nigh. Winter will drive me deep into my studio where I will do little else than throw pots.

Oh, and if any of you stumble upon a cool idea but don't necessarily want to commission it, please feel free to tell me it so I can expand my bank of ideas.

I'm sketching a font to Andorra already. Thanks for the idea.

I'd buy it!
Yeah!

I was having kind of a rough day earlier, and then I saw this.

I'm sketching a font to Andorra already. Thanks for the idea.

I'd buy it!
Yeah!

It wasn't the idea that you'd buy it that made me happy, It was the little movie in my head of your forum picture with that smile getting all excited about a holy water font. How come more people don't get excited about Andorra?