Not enough hours in the day...

My girlfriend said to me today "I get exhausted just watching you...you're so motivated to create you never stop!" Compliment or point of pure fact...the ever growing inspiration to make new things and work hard has completely taken over my state of mind these days. Not only am I ramping up the hours at the pottery studio for my 4th of July show in Redwood City, but I've taken on a new but old passion...abstract oil painting! Thanks to a generous birthday gift from my girlfriend, I've got a really nice easel which has totally reignited my passion for oil on canvas. I was smart enough to keep all of my painting supplies locked away for 6 years in a very neat and organized bin full of wonderful goodies that create wonderful colors and smells like...well, turpentine.

It's such an intense emotion to feel like I never have enough creative outlets to fill my time with. Between my mornings with clay, my afternoons at work (teaching guitar) and my evenings out on our back patio in a world of paint...there's just not enough hours in the day to do it all!!! I've got two works in progress at the moment...and again, I only work in oil paints on large canvases so things tend to be messy! What would an artist's life be without a little splash of chaos? 

Painting #1...(work in progress)

Painting #2...(work in progress)

Along with all this excitement in 2D going on...I've finally been having some success (and some slight mishaps) in the raku kiln lately. While some of my stuff is coming out with surface cracks (I tend to throw on the thin side...) I am still making progress and new work is emerging. Check it out!!! Hope to see some of you at the Redwood City 4th of July celebration so if you're in the area, come down and see some great handmade works of art!

New raku vase...16 inches high, shiny copper dripped glaze

New raku vase #2....11 1/2 inches high, clear crackle glaze

New raku vase #3...copper sand glaze

New raku vase #4...18 inches high, copper luster drizzled glaze

California Artists and My Birthday!!!

I think you can feel my excitement...It's 5 minutes before the day of my 31st birthday and today I found out I got accepted to California Artists! For those of you who don't know (or aren't from the area) California Artists is the largest art and wine festival coordinating group in Northern California and once you're juried in and accepted into the organization, you are then able to participate in any of their scheduled events. Needless to say, my summer just got that much more exciting...and busy! Here's the list of dates of shows I will be participating in. If you are in the area or planning on attending any of these events, don't miss my tent...just look for the big "Chris Bryant Pottery" banner!

July 4
Redwood City Fourth of July Celebration, 23rd Annual
Downtown Redwood City, Middlefield Road
Presented by the Peninsula Celebration Association
75 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

August 1-2
Fremont Festival of the Arts, 26th Annual
Paseo Padre Parkway at Mowry and Capitol
Presented by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce
Over 600 Artists and 400,000 Attendees

August 15-16
Los Gatos Fiesta de Artes, 38th Annual
Los Gatos Civic Center on East Main Street
Presented by the Los Gatos Kiwanis Club
Over 150 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

September 12-13
Mountain View Art & Wine Festival, 38th Annual
Downtown Castro Street, between El Camino Real and Evelyn
Presented by the Mountain View Chamber of Commerce
Over 575 Artists and 250,000 Attendees

October 3-4
Los Altos Fall Festival, 17th Annual
Downtown, parking lots off of San Antonio Road
Presented by the Los Altos Chamber of Commerce
Over 150 Artists and 35,000 Attendees

In light on my newly dawning art and wine festival ventures...I bought a new tent for my exhibitions! It's the E-Z Up Express II...built for the arts and crafts side of things...complete with sidewalls and everything. Nice!!!


So that's the excitement for now. Be on the lookout for Chris Bryant pottery this summer in Northern California. If you attend any of the shows, stop by and say hi!

Raku redux and future projects

Yesterday I got my first taste of the raku kiln up at Blossom Hill Crafts. It's one of those nice side loading ones from Laguna which was interesting considering I've been using a homemade top loader made from a barrel and kiln fiber for the past 4 months. So I got my vase glazed up, learned the ropes on how to run the kiln without blowing myself to smitherines, and then it was on! I decided to go with a rainbow gloss for my first shot at it...just to see if I could get some different results than what I was getting previously with this really strange shiny copper raku glaze somebody concocted up at the college...it literally looked like liquid powered cocoa when it went on...bizarro indeed. Anyway, I digress! Fired up the burners...waited 15 minutes, turned em up a second time, waited 15 more and then maxed them out. From the only "peep hole" (a little hole on the kiln to glance at how your vase is doing in the heat) in the kiln it looked glossy and ready to be pulled. I was excited...'It's TIME!' I thought to myself. Got my gloves on, readied my surroundings, threw the gas off and opened up the lid. Ohhhhh's and Aaaahss could be heard from friendly observers as I started to take my tongs towards my 1800 degree piece of fired clay. What I DIDN'T see however was the bottom of my vase was looking like a lunar surface which means it didn't get hot enough in the kiln. I actually didn't see it until the moment I placed it in the barrel and flames were igniting which means it's time to close the lid. 'Oh dear...maybe that'll look cool!' I said. 2 hours later I pulled the piece out and saw my results...underfired masterpieces!!! 'This is unacceptable' I thought. 'There must be something I can do!' I inquired to a colleague of mine about what to do about it...his response... "Fire it again!!!!" And so the notion was born that if this piece could survive another firing...it might look cool!' So I darted down to the studio this morning, fired up the kiln a second time and really went all the way with it this time. The result? See for yourself!!! This is the piece after the SECOND firing. Shiny copper goodness!!! I'm happy and glad to have learned how to do things right the first time!

In similar news, I was approached by some friendly people today who wanted to fire 2 pots right as I got the kiln lit this morning to which I replied "Sure!" They were planning on doing a really neat thing called "Horsehair Raku" which consists of firing a bisque-ware unglazed piece in the kiln, getting it nice and hot, pulling it out and placing the piece on a brick and then draping the hair of a horse over it to create a very abstract yet beautiful line effect. I got to witness this process today, which was awesome. The best part about it, one of the people doing it actually owned a horse and offered me a whole grip of horse hair! You can bet I'll be dabbling with this stuff in the near future...and I'll be posting the results as soon as they arrive! Anyone know of a good floorwax? I need it for sealing my next pieces after the horsehair technique is done!!

Here's a sneak peak at some new work just created...and some more coming down the pipe. Like I said, I'll be keeping you updated so until then...clay is the way, happy throwing, and enjoy your blown out cylindrical bliss!

Sunnyvale Art and Wine and My New Veritone!

Just got home from a lovely Sunday stroll with my 2 favorite people (my girl and our little kiddo) through the Sunnyvale art and wine festival. The turnout was amazing and the streets were filled with all kinds of artists and crafy types from all over. It was nice for me to be on the other side of things...instead of being a vendor I got to just walk through, ask questions, talk to the artists themselves and ask about their processes and such. It was a good jumping off point for me being that I've got some art and wine shows of my own coming up this summer. Oh and I also scored some cool ceramic pieces!!! One was a really nice little vase from a humble crystalline glaze maker named Steve. The other was a cereal bowl from a happy-go-lucky potter named Primo. The Sunnyvale festival is supposedly one of the oldest and from all the vendors coming from miles around, it showed because everything was very organized. No vendor was left with a bad spot on the street which I liked to see.  I will definitely be participating next year! 

In other news, I finally got my veritone background in the mail this week!!! I think the pictures speak for themselves...what a difference! Yay for professionalism. Been thinking about making some smaller stuff for the shows coming up and for Etsy just so people have an option whether they'd like something big for their home or a smaller more subtle accent type piece.  Throwing small is more of a challenge for me but I enjoy it. On the new work front, I'll have some new pieces out of the bisque fire next week so it'll be time for another raku...so stay tuned for that! I'm really excited about the progress I've been making lately both professionally and artistically. I think alot of my success has been due to the outstanding support from my girlfriend. Don't miss her awesome blog or her Etsy store. Subscribe to both of our blogs if you haven't yet and we'll subscribe to yours! 

New work and the ETSY MUD TEAM!!!

Things have been busy in the studio lately!!! Lots of new work being created which I am very excited about. A little bit about me...I work up at this place called Blossom Hill Crafts. It's a membership based pottery studio here in Northern California and the people up there are quite friendly. Everyone is so supportive of each other's work and with easily 400 members coming and going...it's easy to say it's a great work environment for people like me who like to see stuff get done!!! That being said...the new stuff I'm making has me totally inspired.

Yesterday I managed to pump out a new sectional piece (see below...thrown in 2 pieces) which was easily over 18 inches. This new clay I'm working with is AMAZING! Ever heard of "Sculpture Raku" mix from Clay Planet? It's the sandiest and groggiest clay I've EVER felt! It's like working with moldy sandpaper. The good side of all that is it's FLEXIBLE!!! Very agreeable clay body if you know what I mean. It does whatever you want it to do. You say stretch it says "how far?" The way it should be!!! 

The second piece I did yesterday leads into my next topic...the Etsy Mud Team! I had about 5 pounds leftover from yesterdays throw-fest and I thought to myself 'hey, if I get accepted to the Mud Team...I should make my first donation piece out of this ball of clay!' And so the idea was born and I got to work on a little (little for me anyway!) 5 pound bottle in hope that I would someday be able to donate it to a new group of friends and contemporaries I haven't even met yet. And guess what? I got accepted!!! So to my new team members, THANK YOU and I can't wait to start participating with all of you! Etsy is such a neat way to sell one's stuff, meet people, get involved...it's endless. I am very grateful for the opportunity and thankful for all the warm greetings. So without further delay...here's the little bottle!

Cute huh? This one's for the team! Be on the lookout for a fancy dancy raku bottle coming to a donation spot near you! I'm done with my breakfast and done with my blog post. It's time to head for the pottery studio!!! Have a great day everyone!! I leave you with another picture of my latest creations...

Welcome to Chris Bryant Pottery!!!

New blog, new shop, new opportunities...things are happening so fast around here!!! First of all, hello and welcome to my new ceramic blog. Kinda new at the blog thing but I think I'll get used to it. Gotta get the promotion out of the way for the first post...so here we go!

My new shop on Etsy!!! (Where you can check out and buy all my latest ceramic creations)

http://chrisbryantpottery.etsy.com

My new website!!! (Kinda like an online magazine...updated regularly with new work as they arrive!)

http://www.chrisbryantpottery.com

My girlfriend's shop on Etsy!!! (Visit my uber-talented other half's shop for all your stylish and practical crafty wares!

http://threepaperpigs.etsy.com

I think that's about it for now. Don't forget to check out my shop on Etsy and add me as a favorite. Also, check back often as this blog is just getting off the ground and will be updated with all the latest rantings and creative notions from the mind of a inspired potter. I will leave you with a picture...25 inches, 25 pounds of clay, thrown in 3 sections and fresh out of the raku kiln!!!