Another successful wood firing

One of my favorite things about Geno being a potter is firing the wood kiln. About a year ago they finished building a wood kiln at the community pottery where Geno works. Since its completion we have fired this kiln three times and I love it just as much every time.

The wood kiln is a little bit bigger than the gas kiln and takes a full day to load. Geno spent the whole day on Friday loading the kiln while I was at work, so I didn't get to help much with that part.

Friday night they started a small fire outside of the kiln to slowly start to warm the kiln. After a couple of hours we slowly push the campfire into the kiln and begin feeding the kiln through the stoke hole. If it heats up too fast you can shock the pieces and they can crack.

For the first twelve ours through the night we won't gain much temperature, just warm the kiln throughout the inside. Saturday morning when Geno got back to the pottery the temperature was about 600 degrees. I had gone antiquing with a friend so I didn't get to the pottery until about noon and the temperature was around 1000 degrees. There was an opening in the gallery at the pottery, so the pottery manager and Geno were busy setting up so I was put to work monitoring the stokes.

This photo was taken later in the night, I did this job for about ten hours. What does it mean to call the stokes you ask? Well, I have to watch the time and record the minutes between stokes and watch the pyrometer to make sure that the temperature doesn't drop significantly. For the most part the stokes are about eight minutes apart through the middle of the firing. As the kiln gets hotter and starts to burn the wood faster the stokes get closer together. My assignment was to increase the temperature 200 degrees an hour. This isn't always the easiest thing to do. If you stoke to early you can overload the kiln with wood, it will go into reduction and the temperature can drop. If you stoke too late the temperature will start to drop pretty quickly and it can take some time to get it back up to where you had it.

I was hoping to show you all a better photo of stoking the kiln, but I can't seem to find my photos from the last firing, so this one will have to do. This is a photo of the stoke hole. About every ten minutes or so for 24 hours we have to throw a few handfuls of wood into the kiln. I was able to keep it up as stoke caller until about 10 p.m. and I had to pass the torch. I was exhausted. When I left to head home and let the doggies out the kiln was at 2100 degrees. Geno said the final temperature was about 2200 degrees. Ideally the temperature would get up to about 2300-2400, but 2100-2200 is good s long as we hold the temperature there for a few hours to even out the temperature throughout the kiln.

glowing pots

That's the exciting process of firing a wood kiln. Best to be fired in fall and winter because the kiln is 2200 degrees of radiating heat. LOVE IT!

We will unload on Wednesday, so more to come on the results. Happy Monday.

Finally Friday!

I am not a happy sick person, as I am sure most people are not, so this week has been exceptionally rough. We are right in the thick of shows and weddings and busy at work, so being sick just plain sucks.

Anyway, I have about kicked this crappy cold just in time for the wood firing this weekend. For those of you who are not familiar with the process of wood firing, it is awesome. Especially when it is chilly out. So, I am sure you are thinking, ok, so it's awesome, what is it? Well, you are going to have to wait until Monday for a nice long blog, with lots of photos, describing the awesomeness of a wood fired kiln.

So have a great weekend and check back on Monday to see how the firing went! :)

West Chester Trade!

The best part about shows, I think I have mentioned this before, the trades! No way could we afford to buy the great artwork that is at these shows we are going to, but good thing people like Geno's work because they are happy to trade. The picture doesn't do it justice, but here is the trade from West Chester

This is a piece by Elissa Ehlin and James Leritz of Kiln Design Studio. It's not pottery, so I can't comment on the process, but I am told that it is enamel on copper. All I know is that it is pretty beautiful and looks great on my coffee table.

I love trades! :)

One wedding down...

And a great one it was.

Geno's youngest brother, neil, got married this past weekend and Geno was in the wedding. With all the show craziness, the wedding snuck up on us. So, the day before the rehearsal we booked the hotel, found a place for the dogs to stay, I asked to leave work a little early, and we made sure we were set with Geno's tux. Nothing like waiting until the last minute, but everything came together and we had a great weekend with the fam. Geno partied like we were in college, a side of Geno I haven't seen in a while, it was a great time!

The next show is just a week away and the next wedding just a few weeks, so I am making sure we have everything together well in advance. Most important, Geno has a place to stay for the show, no sleeping in the van this time. Geno came back from West Chester sick, from sleeping in the van of course (surprise), so now I am sick and somehow one of our dogs has a cold. How does that even happen? It's been a rough start to the week in this Luketic house.

What do I do with it?

While Geno was gone I took advantage of the opportunity to cook without him around. You see, Geno LOVES to cook, and man is he good at it, but whenever I try to make a new recipe or cook anything, really, he can't help but to step in and take over. It starts by him asking how he can help, and I don't enjoy chopping or peeling so I usually give him that job, but before I know it he has taken over.

I found this new recipe on Pinterest and have been wanting to try it, and because it involves using lots of mixing bowls it seemed fitting to show you how I use our mixing bowls.

I gathered all the ingredients
- 2 cups graham crackers
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 7 tablespoons butter, melted
- 16 oz. dark chocolate (65% cacao), melted
- 1 cup whole milk
- 2 cups Cocoa Pebbles
- 4 cups mini marshmallows, divided

Instructions:
- Place Graham crackers, sugar and melted butter in a bowl and mix to blend. Firmly press the mixture into the bottom of an 11x13 pan and bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Set aside to cool.
- Melt chocolate with milk in a pan over medium low heat and whisk to combine. Transfer mixture to a new bowl and set aside for 10 minutes to cool (transferring the mixture to a new bowl will help it to cool faster).
- Add Cocoa Pebbles and 2 cups of marshmallows to cooled chocolate mixture and mix to combine. 

- Pour mixture over crust. Pour remaining 2 cups mini marshmallows on top and place under the broiler for 2-3 minutes to toast the top of the marshmallow layer. 

- Transfer completed dessert to fridge and chill for at least 2-3 hours or overnight.

tada

(not as beautiful as the original, but it was my first try)

These are some of my favorite mixing bowls! I love cooking so much more when I am using such beautiful hand-made bowls. When I am done, I just stick them in the dishwasher.

The weekend at West Chester

So, Geno did end up sleeping in the van in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart about 20 minutes away. Each morning I received a call with a recap of the nights activities. The first night it poured down rain, so he didn't get much sleep, he described it as sleeping under a tin roof times ten.

Sleep or no sleep Geno had a full day of selling pots ahead of him, so we chatted for a few minutes and in to the show he went. I didn't speak to him again until about 6:30ish, after the show had closed up for the day. He was a little discouraged, sales weren't great and he was beyond exhausted, but he did meet one of the jurors from an upcoming show in Manhattan, she loved his work and encouraged him to apply. A year ago this would have been super exciting and he would have applied immediately, but we are quickly learning that the costs out way the income. The booth fee for that show is $1800. I am always shocked by these fees.

Night two, waaay too cold to sleep outside. The morning recap, Geno again let me know that he didn't get much sleep, this time it was so cold that he had to get up several times throughout the night to start the van and run the heat for a while. Apparently there was frost on the windows. The second day at the show was a little better, sales were steady, but still not enough to cover the cost of expenses.

Night three, he didn't even bother heading back out to the Wal-Mart. He decided to just stay in the parking lot at the show, the worst that could happen was they would ask him to leave. He made it through the night just fine, but again with little sleep. The final day at the show was the best of the three, but we are still going to take a loss on this one.

Oh, the life of an artist. Two shows down, two weddings and one show to go.

Getting to West Chester

This past weekend Geno had a show just outside of New York City in West Chester, NY. He left the night before set-up so he could drive for a few hours, stop at a rest area and get a few hours of sleep, then complete the drive in the morning, going straight to set-up. I talked to him a few times throughout the drive, just to check-in see how close he was, make sure he wasn't too tired. The drive was going good, he found a Wal-Mart parking lot where he was able to sleep for a few hours and get back on the road.

Geno did not make a hotel reservation for this trip. He decided that he was going to save a few bucks and sleep in the van for the weekend. I get a call from him while I am on my lunch break and he says that his plan to sleep in the van is not going to work out, the Wal-Mart is a hi-rise and there is no overnight parking in their parking garage. (Insert redneck joke here). Apparently not ALL Wal-Marts allow you to park in their lot overnight to catch some z's. Who knew? If he had only googled it before hitting the road he would have found the media coverage for this hi-rise Wal-Mart!

So, the proactive wife that I am, I call the shows recommended hotel and attempt to make a reservation, they were full, but they were happy to suggests another hotel just down the street for the low cost of $179 a night. Shocked, but thinking "what else is he going to do" I make the reservation. I call him back and let him know that I made a reservation and I gave him the address. Of course he asks the price, and Geno is a cheap skate, so he says cancel it "I will figure it out." At this point I am so frustrated that he didn't work this out in advance, I cancel the reservation.

About an hour later he texts me "I figured it out." Ok, what does that mean, I tell him to call me when he can. Right away he calls, there is a Wal-Mart 20 minutes outside of the city, he talked to the manager to confirm that they allow overnight parking, and he is going to go there for the night so he can "save us $500."

We'll see how this turns out...

Throwback

While I was looking for a photo of our first booth set-up I came across a folder of some of Geno's first pots and couldn't help but share. This one is especially significant because it was one of his first lidded pieces. It's amazing how far his work has come. The first series of lidded pieces were inspired by forms in nature, you may notice that this one resembles a rock. This piece was wood fired in a four day firing in the kiln at ETSU.

Here is a lidded form from his most recent series of work. Much more refined. The lid has a much cleaner cut. The surface is rubbed with a local river clay and fired in a gas kiln. Then the piece is finished with a black waxed linen tied into a slip knot, allowing access to the inside of the piece. Each series is more complex and always changing forms and materials.

My Kitchen

Recently I had someone ask me if my house was full of Geno's pots, and the answer is... full is an understatement. I am not allowed to buy dishes, vases, etc. from a store if Geno can make it or we can trade another artist for it. So I will start with my kitchen cabinets.

What I love most about these bowls is that every one of them has a story. On the left, the top bowl has a really small foot on it and it will not sit on a table with out tipping over. I hate that bowl. It was a reject of Geno's and ended up in our cabinet. The next two in the stack are made by Carol Ohl, one of the first wood fire potters that Geno met. We took a trip to her studio together while we lived in Northern Ohio, not far from her, and we picked out a couple of bowls together. These are two of my very favorite bowls. The last bowl in that stack was given to us by one of the graduate students at ETSU when we moved back to Ohio, I also love this bowl. It's the perfect size for soup, salad, cereal, just about anything really.
On the right, the top two bowls are a couple of Geno's bowls that we both liked, so they ended up in our kitchen. The last bowl was purchased in a small town in North Carolina while we were there on vacation. It was part of the Empty Bowls Project, so it does not have a signature on it, but it was made by Emily Reason, who is now a very well known potter. I love this bowl because Geno did not like it, but I bought it anyway. He was pleasantly surprised when he looked into the artist. Needless to say, he is now more confident in my purchases.

There are no stories to go with the plates, they are all rejects. Geno does not make a lot of plates, so I only get the rejects. I have no problem with this, they are only rejects because they are a little warped, they are still beautiful.

Geno makes a lot of mugs, so after each firing we typically sort through them and pick out our favorites. The mugs in our cabinets are constantly changing with every firing.

That is just one of my kitchen cabinets, so you can look forward to more posts about the pots around our house.

What do I do with it?

A bowl... Now this one seems obvious to me, but I am always amazed when someone asks me if they can use the bowls we sell. Well the answer is a big ol' YES. It may be hand made, but it is glazed and fired just like the bowl you bought at Target. Also like a bowl you purchase at the store, when you are finished eating you just stick it in the dishwasher, no need to hand wash.

This is one of my favorite bowls. It is rare that the pots I love end up in my kitchen unless there is a flaw, but Geno loved these too, so they were keepers. They are sort of a bowl/plate, great for stews and pastas. This particular bowl was wood fired, which is my favorite way to fire pots. I will explain the process of wood firing in a few weeks, we have firing coming up Halloween weekend so I will have lots of photos.

Next time you are out shopping at a festival or art show it is usually safe to assume that the pots you see can all be used. If for some reason you can not use it the artist typically post a sign letting you know that.

Yellow Springs Street Fair

The Yellow Springs Street Fair is our hometown festival, and the first show Geno ever did. I think it was back in 2008, when we moved to Yellow Springs, Geno had a whole bunch of pots that he had made in graduate school and he needed to get rid of sell them, so he applied for the Street Fair. I wish I had photos of his booth back then. It was great. We made shelves out of wood from an old barn floor that his dad had laying around. I sanded them down, Geno cut a few notches in them, made holes for pegs, and tada - shelves. Everyone has to start somewhere.

The shelves set-up in our old apt.

Geno no longer sets up his own booth at the Street Fair, but he does sell his pots at the John Bryan Community Pottery booth with other local potters. This is always a fun show, and it is especially great that we don't have to work the booth the entire day. Potters that show their work sign up for a shift and split the responsibilities. Street Fair was this past weekend, and it was insane! They estimate that 30,000 people come to this event, but I would guess that it's more. The streets are always packed with people and this weekend was no different, the weather was perfect, 80 degrees and sunny, it may have been the busiest Street Fair I have seen yet.

One show down two more to go. Counting the shows, and the days, until I get my husband back.

It's show time...

Our last art show was Denver, way back in July, so we have had two great months of free weekends spent with family and each other. It's been amazing, we got to go to the Beach Waterpark with my siblings, bonfires at my parents, festivals with the fam. All the things I love. But, what I love most about down time is actually seeing my husband.

This weekend is the start of another stretch of shows with two weddings in between. I always get extra grumpy around show time. It's been a few weeks since we have spent some quality time together, and it will probably be a few more before we actually get a whole day together. Throwing two weddings in to the mix has been especially tough, mostly because we are in them, adding more commitments to our already overbooked calendars. I love weddings, and I am so happy for the couples, but Geno and I are busy bodies so we both tend to over-commit.

It is times like these that I have to remember that this is what I HAPPILY signed up for. While we were in college, even then, I would have to go to the studio late at night to see him. I would help with glazing, firing, whatever I could do to move the process along so we could spend time together. The difference with this stretch of shows is that I don't get to go. So I am super grumpy (I admit it). It is so exciting to me that we are both pursing the careers that we dreamed we would have. I truly love seeing him at shows, in his element, with all of these amazing artists that have worked so hard spending long hours away from their families to pursue this dream. I look forward to spending time with the other wives, catching up on events since the last show, being around a group of people who truly understand the world of a traveling artist. Not to mention getting away for the weekend, shows are like a mini-vacation, which I could really use right now, but I am out of vacation time.

Maybe I'm being a little selfish in wanting to go to all of the shows, but I don't want to miss out on a minute of this journey. The older I get the faster time goes by. I'm afraid we will blink and we're five years down the road. These shows are just another part of life and like so many things in life we'll forget how lucky we are to be there, forget how we got there, and forget the excitement of the first acceptance letter. I want to capture it all in pictures and memory. More than that, I want us to be on this journey together.

Our garage...

I like to think that all artists are collectors of junk things, but maybe I am just married to a hoarder. When we moved in to our new house we agreed that we would each get a side of the garage to do with it whatever we would like. So of course I park my car in the garage, that's what you do with a garage, right? Well Geno has chose to store his collection of art supplies on his side, kilns, clay, old pots, etc.

Geno's side of the garage

This drives me crazy! See the three kilns stacked on top of each in the front of the picture, they do not work. He is saving them in case he needs a part or something. Well, I guess I should look on the bright side at least he is collecting small things. I could be married to a mechanic who collects cars and stores them in the garage, yard, barn, you get the picture. I am just thankful that this mess doesn't make it's way into the house.

Are you or your significant other a hoarder collector of things? What do you/they collect?

Where's Geno?

He's in the studio. You see, artists aren't exactly known for their time management skills. If any of you know an artist you are well aware of this. So, when it gets close to show time Geno is in the studio day and night finishing up pieces for a show that is probably two or three weeks away. Some of you may not know the process of a pot start to finish, 2-3 weeks for pottery is like writing a paper the night before it's due (more on the process of a pot later). I usually see him for about five minutes in the morning when we are both rushing off to work. He heads to school to teach for a few hours and then it is straight to the studio until about midnight, and at that point I have already been in bed for three hours of more. Sometimes I will go to the studio and hang out with him for a few hours while he works, but that can be pretty boring if there aren't other people around. Or, sometimes I will get really lucky (sense the sarcasm) and he will bring the pots home and work in our living room. Yeah, it's a mess, but at least I get to see him for a few hours.

It's that time, Geno has two big shows coming up in October and November, so I probably won't see him much over the next couple of months.

So, if you are wondering where Geno is... He is in the studio.