A year in review

Every December I like to take stock of the year that just passed.  Normally I would read through my blog posts and remind myself of what I had done but this year there were not a lot of posts.  I am not entirely sure why though. Perhaps I was busy, I …

The French Canadian

Have you ever had a London fog? It’s a drink at Starbucks which is English Breakfast tea, steamed milk and vanilla syrup.  At Balzac’s they offer a Parisian mist, which is essentially the same thing but with French Breakfast tea. Well I came up with my own I call “the …

Peter Clapham Sheppard

I recently picked up two paintings at an online auction.   Peter Clapham Sheppard was born in Toronto on October 21, 1881. He apprenticed at engraving houses such as at Rolph, Clark, Stone Ltd. in Toronto, where he became a highly skilled lithographer. He received his art training at the …

More pottery samples

So I worked on another set of sample tiles.  This time it was bronze, called Lamp’s Bronze.  The recipe is pretty straightforward with nice results but I am having troubles with changing it. The base recipe is Lamp’s Bronze 7 – Ball Clay 86 – Cedar Heights Redart 7 – …

Lessons from pottery

I am learning some very important life lessons since I started throwing pots.  The most obvious to me is patience. Patience is everything in pottery. First in throwing.  If you try to rush a piece and pull to hard your piece will end up lop-sided and uneven.  Since “there is …

Thanks Matt!

  As I continue in my creation of my own glazes I look to other potters as a source of information.  Matt Fiske’s Blog was one of the first sites I hooked into and in short order I read every post.  I highly recommend you check it out.  You can …