Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Dinnerware, a platter, wall vases and a whole bunch of cups

As promised, here are some photos of some recent work. I got them out of the kiln right before our July road trip. And had the photographed this week by my photographer, Guy Nicol.
This is some new dinnerware that I've been designing:


And this is part of my newest platter series:


I'm really excited for these new wall vases.

These pieces are sort of a hybrid between my oval vases and the wall pieces.
And this is a new surface that you're going to start seeing on more of my pieces.

I'm really excited for a floral designer to go to town with them! Unfortunately, my favorite designer, Amy Lemaire, has moved away! Amy has done all the arrangements over the past 4 years. You can see some of her past work here.

I think I've mentioned before that I've been in a cup making groove.
I really love the curve & tension in these handles.


You might remember these masked mugs from an earlier post.

The curve of this mug makes me want to fill it with hot cocoa and cup it in my hands on a cold autumn night. That's not going to happen for a while.

And here are the peace cups that you might remember from a previous post too.

hope. peace. change.

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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Analyzing your Blog or Website

A brief follow up:

First of all, I want to thank everyone for the incredible response to this week's posts, especially the overwhelming response to the Search Engine Optimization post. There is some great energy happening around the clay blogs this week- conversations starting had by commenting back and forth, linking and sharing of one another's posts, and lots changes being made on the pottery blogs to improve search results. I'm so glad that it's been useful and may have sparked the interest of some of you out there!

I have gotten several questions on why I am planning on making the switch from Blogger to Wordpress. Luckily, Cynitha of Colorado Art Studio just happened to write this fantastic post today that just happens to answer this exact question in it. She made the switch a little while ago. It's also a must read article if you were at all interested in my post earlier this week about SEO. I know it's all a bit overwhelming, but you just need to jump in and start chipping away. (I'm reminding myself of this too.) One part of Cynthia's answer that isn't quite the same for me is that she was switching from a .blogspot account to her own domain so some of the growing pains won't be the same for me since I am already using my own domain name (that will only really make sense if you read her post).

Cynthia also shared this fantastic website for anyone who has a website or blog: websitegrader.com
It seems like a great tool for telling you what you're doing right with your site, what you need to do and how you're doing in comparison to similar sites.(It doesn't tell you this, but you're limited to 2 comparison sites at a time.) And you can go back and see how your improvements are working. It pointed out to me some meta tag and descriptions that I'm missing. Oops! When I make the switch over to Wordpress, I will put some serious time and energy into improving my 'grade'. I'm feeling really excited and anxious to make these changes now, but I'll be patient...

I will go into depth about this whole change over process when it actually happens. We're leaving in a couple of days for a big trip, so I've decided it would be best to wait until we get back to do it. I was having flashing of breaking something in the move, and then being out of the country for a couple of weeks and the blog being broken the whole time.

Good luck to all of you working on your blogs!
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Fall Classes with Emily Murphy

It's time again to sign up for next session's classes at Lillstreet Art Center in Chicago, IL. Classes begin the week of Sept. 8, 2008 and run for 10 weeks. If you sign up by August 15th, you'll get 10% off.

Below I've listed the classes that I will be teaching in the fall. If you're not interested in soda, or aren't at the advanced level yet, there are tons of other classes to take (clay and non-clay, although you know my preference:) .

Advanced Topics in Soda Firing: Surface Decoration
Level:Intermediate/Advanced
LAC members $340 / Non-members $350
Soda Lab Fee: $60.00

Class description:
This class will focus on color, pattern, texture, motif, and the development of a personal style for your soda fired pots and sculpture. You will use glazes, flashing and colored slips, stains and oxides to experiment with a wide variety of techniques which include resists (wax, latex, paper and tape), stencils, spraying and brushwork. In addition to concentrating on surface, hand building and wheel throwing demonstrations will be presented. All students are required to share loading and unloading of kilns on evenings outside of class
























Class






DatesInstructor
Wed 6:30-9:30pm






Starts Sept 10, 2008 Emily Murphy






_______________________


Advanced Wheel: Throwing and Altering
Level: Advanced
LAC Members $ 340/ Non-members $ 350

Class description:
This class is for the proficient thrower to take their wheel work to the next level. We will push, pull and cut the clay on and off the wheel to create new forms on and off the wheel. We will use the wheel to make the basic forms, and then incorporate hand-building techniques to build forms that are out of round.
























Class






DatesInstructor
Wed. 1:30-4:30






Starts Sept 10, 2008 Emily Murphy




_______________________

Student Information:

Class fee includes:

  • 25lbs of stoneware, terra cotta clay, porcelain or soda clay.

  • Glaze materials with over 200 glaze combinations

  • Gas, soda and electric kiln firings

  • Generous open studio time!! Come in 12 hours per day; 7 days per week (10am-10pm).



Please Note:


  • Tool kits and additional clay are available for purchase.

  • Don't forget to dress-for-mess and bring an old towel to class.

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Tour of Clay Focused Blogs (semi-complete), part 5

I have once again updated my blogroll of clay focused blogs. It's getting loooong. But I seriously do read all of these blogs. As I have mentioned before, I use a blog reader, Google Reader, to keep track of my subscriptions. I could never actually keep track of all of these without it. I also use Google Reader to create my blogroll over there in the side bar automatically. If you're a blogger and you'd like to do this on your website, check out this tutorial. Or if you're want to do it a different way, you can try this.

There are lots of updates in this list. I've removed some that haven't been updated in 7-8 months+, plus added all sorts of goodies. Every week I'm finding new blogs. I'm often surprised when I come upon a 'new' blog that has actually been around for several month. Why didn't I know about it? If I'm missing something, let me know!

86. That's the number in the blog roll now:

I hope you dive into these clay blogs and find some that really speak to you. There are so many different perspectives and so much knowledge. I think you'll never be bored again.

Since I'm a big advocate of using a feed reader, I will give you a reminder of how to set up this list in Google Reader:

If you're interested in subscribing to my list, and you're using Google Reader, just follow these simple steps.

  1. Login to Google Reader

  2. Click on this link and "save file": http://www.google.com/reader/public/subscriptions/user/15666827403315601321/label/public

  3. Figure out where the downloaded file is located. (for PC users) Right click on the download and click on "open folder containing." That will tell you where the downloaded file is located

  4. Click on "Manage Subscriptions"

  5. Click on "Import/Export"

  6. Click on"Browse" and locate the downloaded file.

  7. Click Upload and then start reading! You'll be overwhelmed with posts to read at first, but once you get caught up, it's quite manageable :)You can always use this as a starting point and add and subtract subscriptions from this list to suit your interests.


----
I forgot to mention this in my previous post about my new website. If you have a link to my website, would you mind updating it from sodafired.com to emilymurphy.com. And of course my blog address is potteryblog.com. Links are always appreciated :)

I hope you don't mind my heavy posting this week. I've been traveling a lot this summer and I have been writing, but I haven't always had the time to complete a thought, edit or ability to upload. So I have a back log of partial post. I'm leaving for Berlin and Amsterdam in less than a week and I want to try to get as many finished and posted as I have time for.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

New Website: EmilyMurphy.com

I've been a very busy potter lately. Busy on the computer, that is.

I have totally redone my website. It's still a bit of a work in process, but it's complete enough that I wanted to share it with all of you. Take a look: emilymurphy.com

I've been patiently waiting for someone who owned the domain, emilymurphy.com to let it expire. There was never anything done with it, so I had hope. Finally, it was free for me to buy and I jumped on the chance. I had been wanting to do the site for a while, but I kept putting it off (with excuses like, I should be making pots). But then we had a major server crash and my site was down and not easily retrieved. I had a deadline for a wedding registry that I needed to have online, so I dove in and did it. I guess that's how you need to do it. Stop thinking that you should do it one day, for months and years on end. Just dive in and begin. (This is something that I often tell myself.)

There is still some content that I'm planning on adding, and I haven't done all of the SEO yet, but it'll happen in time. I'm also planning on moving my blog over from Blogger to Wordpress sometime soon. It'll coordinate nicely with my new site too. So much to do... so little time... But for now, I'm pretty happy with it and wanted to share it, albeit a work in progress.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Search Engine Optimization for Clay Bloggers

This is another big one, but if you (or someone you know) has a blog or website, or you are planning to one day, I think this information will be pretty valuable.
---------------------------
When you write a clay focused blog, your intention is that someone out there will read what you're writing. In the beginning you'll have friends and family that will read your blog regularly. Then maybe some regular customers and other ceramic artists that you've gotten to know.

But if you want to have other people, people outside of your circle, start reading your blog, you need to put some effort into it. There is some straight up time that you need to invest, and then there is a bit of retraining yourself on how you blog to help get others to find your blog.

If I Google "Pottery Blog" or "Ceramics Blog" or some sort of similar thing, I'm surprised at the top 30 results. There are things that haven't been updated in years or month, or ones that are sort of spammy. But some of my favorite (and I know highly read) pottery blogs aren't near the top listings as they should be. Why aren't they?

One of the reasons that I really love blogging is the community that has developed around it- of other bloggers, regular readers and commenters. I think if the ceramics blogs were a little easier to find it would just boost the community even more. So I thought I'd share with you some of the search engine optimization that I have researched and implemented over the years. There is a lot of information here, but it's all basically free. You just need to put in some time and energy and you'll get some great results. Here you go...

Have your own domain name.
This is something that I can't stress strongly enough. Google doesn't seem to index sites that are name.blogspot.com or name.wordpress.com very well so they can come up low in search results. And if your domain name has something in it like your name, or something describing your process, that will be an added bonus to help get better search results.

You can sign up for a domain name for only $12/ yr. on Joker.com (Network Solutions charges $35 for EXACTLY the same service). Or if you're using Wordpress.com, it's $15 for your domain name and hosting for a year, or if you already have a domain name, then it's only $10 for hosting/ yr. If you're using Blogger, then it is no extra cost once you've purchased a domain name (hosting is free!), or you can buy your domain name directly through blogger. By purchasing your domain directly through Wordpress or Blogger you'll save a step in the whole process of setting up your own domain. It's a VERY small investment for your biggest impact (think about the price of postcards...). And it's a heck of alot easier to tell people your blog's address. While I use Blogger, if I was starting a new blog I'd start with WordPress.

Label your pictures.
The top 3 ways people get to PotteryBlog.com:


  1. Google

  2. Direct (bookmark, email, typing in address)

  3. Google images


I label all of my pictures very conciously. I might name something: stoneware-vase-soda-fired-Emily-Murphy.jpg* It's long, but Google likes all the descriptor words and my images come up very high in search results. There was a period of training that I had to go through, but it's second nature now and doesn't take much extra time. I mix it up too. Use "sodafired" and "soda-fired" or maybe I'll throw in "Chicago" or "pottery." It allows different pictures to show up in different search results.

*You might have noticed the dashes in my image name. You can't have any spaces in your image name (at least in Blogger you can't). Use a "-" or "_" to separate words.

Watch your language.

  • Diversify your words. This is another one of those things that you have to train yourself on. Words. Google loves words. Words are the main reason that your blog/site will show up in search engines. If you just have pictures with minimal text, Google won't pay that much attention. That isn't such an issue with blogs. But what you can do is diversify your words. For example, don't just use the word pottery: use clay, ceramics, tableware, stoneware, porcelain, dinnerware, pots, etc... mix it up. Do this conciously at first and eventually it'll flow when you write.Below I have some information on Google Analytics. One thing that you can see on Google Analytics is the key words and phrases that people are using to find your site. Maybe you think that everyone is searching the term "pottery" because that is your go-to search term. But you might find out that everyone else is looking up "honey pot" and "wax resist." You just don't know what people are searching for, but if you diversify, you'll have better results. You might be inspired to write about wax resist more often because that is what people are searching for.

  • Use straightforward titles for your post. The title becomes the url for your post. If it's full of useful information, it'll do better in search results. If you use Wordpress and your url has %P=5 or something like that in it, there is an easy setting that you can change so you have better urls.



  • Use actual text, not images. This one is a problem on a lot of websites. You want to have control over the fonts, so you turn your address (for example) into a nice little graphic. Unfortuately it makes it so Google can't "read" your address.


Get incoming links.
Incoming links give you status. Along with the words that you use, it's the top thing that gets you up high in search results. You can get them for "free, " you can pay (not something that I do), or you can link to someone and have them link to you (sometimes it's reciprocal, sometimes not).

  • Sign up for various blog search engines. It won't actually get you much traffic via the sites, but it is usually a free incoming link (just Google "free blog listings" or "blog search engines", etc...) Here is a list of search engines by type. It might give you some ideas.

  • Link to your blog from your social networking site, like Facebook. You can even add your RSS feed on different sites, like here.

  • StumbleUpon. This is huge. I'm always surprised and the number of visitors I have from StumbleUpon. I don't even know how to expain it. Just go there and see. There are days when it's my #1 referrer.

  • Link from your regular site to your blog (sounds obvious, but it must be said).

  • Link to other people's blog. Share a link to a specific post on their blog on your blog. Be GENEROUS with your links. And then be patient, they'll come. I'm not a fan of asking someone directly "I'll link to you, if you link to me." Put it out there and it'll come back to you (both good Karma and links). The top referrer sites for my blog (outside of Google and my own site) are Michael Kline's blog and Ron Philbeck's blog.

  • Comment on other people's blogs. Do it because you want to, but enjoy the side effects. People are more likely to read your blog if comment on yours. They want to see who is reading their blog, so they'll follow the links. There is often a place for your website to be listed. Or at least a link to your Blogger Profile where a link to your blog can be found. And it's also the best way to be part of the great and generous community of clay bloggers. Some great conversations happen all happen in the comments. The more comments you put out there, the more that you'll get on your site. And commenting is good for the soul.

  • Combine the previous two points- comment on a blog on your website (with links and everything). It could be the start of a great conversation.


Think local.
One of the main reasons that you have a clay blog is to get your work known in the world. People that live near you are the ones most likely to come to your booth at an art fair or stop by your studio when it's holiday shopping time. Make it clear where you're from, and get it out there that you're a potter/ tile maker/ sculptor who live in mid-size city, USA. And if one of your loyal blog readers happen to be visiting you mid-size city, they'll be excited to come visit you.

  • Are there blog sites just for your area? (For me there are several, including: ChicagoBloggers.com and ChicagoBlogMap.com.)

  • Do you belong to a guild, art group or some other group that has a website that will link to you?

  • Are there free papers and sites that you can list in for "things to do" or "galleries"?

  • Is there a local tourism site?

  • Put your studio address on every page (usually a footer) so that search engines can associate your pages with your location.


Encourage your readers.
Once you have people hooked on your blog, you want to make it EASY for them to keep up with your bountiful postings. There are 2 main ways to do it.

  • Use an email list. Clay people aren't necessarily blog readers, but you want them to be. The easiest way to do this is to set up an mailing list where people can sign up to automatically get an email from you whenever you write a new post. I think there is also a way to do a mailing list through FeedBurner. I have mine set up through Google Groups (go here if you want to see it or sign up for it).

  • Have an RSS or Atom feed and encourage people to use it! If you don't have a feed, people are going to have to remember to come back to your blog and read it. There is so much to remember to do, don't make people remember to manually go back to you blog to see if you wrote or not. I read 90% of my blogs through my blog reader. For more information on using a blog reader, go here.

  • Remember that clay blogs are still pretty new and there is still a lot of educating to be done. Do some educating on how to keep track of blogs. If you don't want to write about it, you can alway share the link to my post about the subject.


Is anybody out there?
A common feeling that is had by anyone who blogs is that no one is reading it. Well, it just isn't true. There are ways to find out who is reading your blog. When you start getting back the results and realize that people from all over the world are reading your blog, you'll be energized and you'll write even more than usual.

Just remember, it'll take time- usually up to a month, to start getting true results from these sites.

  • Google Analytics. I LOVE Google Analytics! I can find out where people are coming from from countries to actual cities and towns. I can see all incoming links to me, find out how long they were on the site, etc... I love seeing the key words and phrases too. Some can be quite surprising.

  • Google Webmaster. I haven't figured this out, but you should sign up for it and see what it does for you. It has some tools to help Google see content on your site. Some of what it does is handled automatically by the blog software.

  • Feed Burner A good way to manage your RSS/Atom feeds, and potentially a mailing list. You can also find out how many people are subscribed to your feed. If people are reading your blog via a blog reader, they will not show up on your Analytics results. You need something like this to find that out.

  • Technorati I can easily keep track of all my incoming links (from other blogs) on here.

  • Quantcast I just discovered this, so I don't have enough info to know if it's good or not.


I hope this was helpful to you. I suspect this will be one to bookmark and take a while to go through (if you're a blogger). If there are some tips and tricks that you use, share them and I'll update this post. Although I am talking about search engine optimization for clay bloggers, it's applicable for websites and non-ceramic focused sites too. If you think that other people might find this post useful, put a link to it up on your site. Thanks for reading!
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Pigeon Road Pottery

I'm so excited to share with you a new clay blogger (and old friend): Amy Higgason of Pigeon Road Pottery. Amy was a long time studio member at Lillstreet until several years ago where she left her job as a graphic designer and her home in Chicago for the woods of Wisconsin to become a full time potter. Amy has written many email updates over the years to friends and family about her endeavors in clay and life. They are always beautifully written and full of wonderful photos. It's only natural that she's now blogging. Head on over to her blog and have a read.
One of the challenges that Amy faced with her work when she moved away from Lillstreet was to transition her work from c.10 soda and reduction to c.6 electric. It amazes me how she has kept the feel and aesthetics of the higher fire work in c.6.

And if you ever find yourself in northern Wisconsin, stop by her studio in Lake Tomahawk, Wisconsin.
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Resources for Soda Firing

I thought that it would be fun to try to round up as many online resources for folks who are interested in soda firing and put it together into one handy post. Since there isn't that much publish (relatively speaking), I think it has the possibility of being relatively comprehensive. I hope you enjoy reading the results of my research as much as I did!

Online Soda Groups:

Salt/Soda Firing Discussion Group

You might remember this site that is all about Salt and Soda firing that I wrote about a while back. It's a social networking site for all people interested in these firing processes. There are some fantastic potters and sculptors that are a part of this site as well as students who are just beginning to dabbling in soda. I highly encourage you to dive in- sign up and make a page. The more the merrier (don't be shy if you're just beginning in soda!) There are recipes for slips and glazes as well as a forum for putting questions out there. Are you thinking about converting an old electric kiln into a soda kiln? There's a discussion going on here for you. And this site is always evolving- it'll be whatever the members make it.

Salt & Soda tags on the ClayArt archives on Potters.org. It's worth digging into. It's quite possible that someone else had the same exact question as you 8 months ago.

Blogs that focus on soda firing:
(I had to draw a line somewhere... so I drew it at soda firing bloggers. If I'm missing any, please let me know!)
Of course there is this blog, PotteryBlog.com. About 95% of my pots are soda fired, and I try to share with you interesting soda information. Soon I'll be posting a whole bunch of information about the use of whiting in my soda mix (the soda geeks will be psyched for this one!)
Here are some posts that you might find extra interesting if you're a soda firing fool:
What is Soda Firing
A Happy Soda Firing
Hot Pots


Julie Rozman, a fellow Lillstreeter, also writes a blog, Design Realized. She shares a lot of her glaze testing and firing info on her site. You should be sure to check it out!

Scott Cooper makes beautiful wood & soda fired pots. He also writes about his work and process in his journal, This Week @ St. Earth. You should also be sure to check out his "process" page where he has tons of information that is interesting and helpful.




Keith Kreeger makes salt/soda fired pots at his studio/gallery on Cape Code (although he has been venturing into earthenware lately). You can learn more about his soda work on his blog, Kreeger Pottery Blog.

I just discovered Joy Tanner's Blog. I've gotten to know Joy's work through the Salt/Soda group and I've excited that there is another soda firer writing a blog!


Websites that have a wealth of soda info on them:
(These are sites that have information on them about soda firing- kiln info, recipes, etc...)


  • Julia Galloway's Alchemy page. Julia generously shares with her information on cone 6 soda firing, including slip and glaze recipes.



  • Scott Cooper (as mentioned above) has a great process page with tons of information on kiln building, glaze recipes and even clay recipes. Not to mention some beautiful pots!




  • Robbie Lobell makes beautiful, elegant soda fired ovenware and tableware. He has a page on his site about his kiln and soda firing process. He lives in Coupeville, WA mentions on his site that he will rent out 1/4, 1/2 or the whole kiln to experienced firers.


Books on Soda Firing:

Soda, Clay and Fire by Gail Nichols is a must have for anyone interested in firing with soda. This book is the culmination of Gail's PhD work in soda firing in Material Science at Monash University in Gippland, Victoria, Austrailia. The research is incredible and it's an easy read. Two things that don't always go together so easily. I think if you picked up this book knowing clay, but not knowing soda, you might decide that you need to start soda firing by the end. But I'm a bit biased on these things. You can also learn a bit more about this book here.

Ruthanne Tudball's book, Soda Glazing is the original text on soda firing. There has been so little actually published on soda (especially in comparison to other firing techniques) because of the youthfulness of the process. This is a book that I kept close to me for many years. There are overviews of different potters and their soda approaches as well as a great index of glaze, slip and clay recipes. Again, this is a book that you need to have on your bookshelf if you're making soda fired work.

Online articles about soda firing:


Videos about soda firing:
(if you're reading this through your email or a blog reader, you'll won't see the videos below. Just head over to Pottery Blog to see the videos)

From Pottery Northwest:


And a series of 3 informative videos from Jeffrey Huebner:



I really have enjoyed this. Please send me links to things that you think might be missing from here and I'll keep updating this post. This was a big project and I had to put some sort of limits on it. I decided not to include links to soda firing potters & sculptors in this post. I know that there a ton out there with great websites, but I thought I'd limit it to sites that had technical information on it. Another post will be soda firing ceramicists. That will be fun ; ) If you want to give me a hand with that, just leave a comment with suggestions for me to include. Just remember: folks who fire with*soda* or *soda/salt,* but not just salt.
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PotteryBlog.com on Facebook

There is a new blog networks application on Facebook where you can add your blog and create a network around your blog. So I've decided to give it a try with PotteryBlog.com. If you're a Facebooker, check it out and join the Pottery Blog network:
You have to be on Facebook to join the network or see this page.




I'm not sure exactly what will come of this, but it seems like it could be interesting. It could add an interesting layer of community to the clay blogging world, connecting all of us on another level. Also, Michael Kline's fantastic blog, Sawdust and Dirt also has a network page. See you on Facebook!

Updates(!):
More pottery blogs on Facebook: Mary Anne Davis: Modern Table Art, Anne Webb: Webb Pottery Studio, Cheryl Alena Bartram: Dragonfly Clay

If you know of other pottery blogs on Facebook, let me know!
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Good taste.

I've been catching up on reading many weeks worth of clay blogs, and I came across this video that Jeanette posted a couple weeks back of Ira Glass talking about the creative process. I just had to pass it on (you'll see why).


I'm a huge fan of This American Life. (There's some Chicago pride thrown in there too!)

I've always been intrigued with why people start making pots, tiles or sculpture as adults and what keeps them going. What makes them walk through the door of an art center that first time to try sometime new? This clip gives some nice insight into these questions.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

German ceramics anyone?

I've been traveling for the last several weeks and that pattern is going to continue. In a couple of weeks, Ian and I are hopping on a plane and heading to Germany for two weeks. Most of our time will be spent in Berlin and the end of the trip will be in Amsterdam. We're in the process of actually making plans and we're looking for and recommendations- specifically clay related. If you have any thoughts or specifics of clay related things in Berlin, just leave me a comment. Potters, galleries, museums, etc... And if you have any recommendations that are not clay related, we'd love those too.

(Regular postings will resume in the next 24 hrs. I have a whole bunch of posts that I started on our road trip, but now I just have to finish them up and post them.)
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

What's going on with the pyrometer?

This is a lesson for anyone out there using a pyrometer.

I've been using a pyrometer for the last 5 years and I have come to I love them! There can be problems with the cones in a soda firing and the pyrometer can be a great backup to the cones. Around c.6, the residual soda in the kiln can start to vaporize. Sometimes this soda can hit the cones and "freeze" them temporarily. Then all of the sudden, it "unfreezes" and the cones fall quickly. Then sometimes the soda can flux out the cones prematurely. Sometimes the cones on the top melt prematurely and the cones on the bottom freeze. And sometimes they are fine and go down when they are supposed to go down. By using both the cones and pyrometer, I feel like I am not firing totally blindly. Neither is perfect, but when used together, I have enough information to comfortably fire with.

There are 2 types of thermocouples that potters use, type J and type K. Type J is rated to about 2000' F, and type K is rated to almost 2500' F. The pyrometer is the same for both thermocouples, you just have to push a little button to switch from one type to the other. For the beginning of the firing, if you have it accidently pushed to type J when using type K, it will read normally. Then all of the sudden, your perfect firing seemingly goes crazy. For a couple of minutes, you think something is wrong, even though everything was going along just fine. Don't make any adjustments, don't play with the damper, don't turn up the gas or air. Just check the pyrometer and make sure that the setting for what type of thermocouple you're using is correct. Nothing has actually happened to your firing, it's just that the gadget wasn't working properly (user error). I teach people pretty regularly how to fire kilns and so I get to see that certain "mistakes" are common. This is one of those common mistakes.

I had been told by a couple people last month that they were having a problem at the end of their firings. After all the soda was in and the kiln was continuing to climb, something weird kept happening. The kiln dropped 15 degrees for basically no reason. Adjustments were made and the kiln started to climb back up. It was odd; I had never seen this happen before. Then it happened 2 or 3 times in a month. I chalked it up to firer error (just being honest here). Then I fired. I was having a great firing. I was within 2 degrees top to bottom from c.010 on. The soda went in at c.9 and the kiln continued to climb. Nearing the end, I thought I had about 20 minutes left before the kiln was to be shut off. I checked the kiln for what I thought was the final check, and it had dropped 15 degrees! What happened? This couldn't possibly be a firing error if it happened to me (hee hee). I managed to finish off the firing and the next day I talked with master kiln builder, Donovan Palmquist. His thoughts on this weird problem was that basically the thermocouples were fried. What was happening is that the pyrometer was acting totally fine up to about 2300'F. Then it was starting to freak out at about 2300'F. If the thermocouple is exposed to soda, then that can really cause trouble. I use a ceramic protection tube to encase the thermocouple so it isn't exposed to the soda, so I wasn't quite sure why there was suddenly any trouble. When I unbricked the kiln I discovered the problem. There was a crack in the protection tube, but it was in the first 9" so it was hidden by the brick. Once I pulled it out I found where the soda was getting in. New thermocouples were wired up. Problem solved! When I fired on Wednesday, it went up without trouble. Luckily I always keep a couple of extra thermocouples and protection tubes on hand for when these problems come up. (That was a lesson that I had learned early on in my pyrometer experience.)

One other way a misreading can happen is that the little prong end of the thermocouple that is plugged into the pyrometer might not be in quite all the way (it doesn't snap in, so it's not as easy to tell if it's in all the way). If it's not in all the way, it can give you a reading that is close to normal, but not quite right. Always check the wires and attachments when the kiln seems a little bit off. Wiggle them around until they "calm down" and settles on a number.

The moral of this story is to enjoy your thermocouples and pyrometer, but always be skeptical. It's a sensitive piece of electronics that you're using in and next to a very hot kiln. Before you freak out and make all sorts of adjustments, calm down and listen to your gut instincts with some logic thrown in.

For another very important studio lesson, check out Keith's tip from earlier this week.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Tool Review: Bison Trimming Tools

You might have gathered from previous posts that I like tools. For years I limited myself to a the basics. Just a handful of adequate tools that did their job, but they weren't anything special. I wanted to be able to make pots no matter where I was and no matter what tools were available. After I felt like I was I had pretty much achieved that point, I started collecting tools. I have a thing for well designed tools. A tool that doesn't wear out in less than a year. One that is so comfortable to hold that it's basically an extension your hand. One that does something that no other tool can do quite as well. I still only really use a handful of tools on a weekly basis- but instead of being just adequate, they are a pleasure to use.

Bison trimming tools fit my definition of a really great tool. At first, I was quite apprehensive. They are definitely on the expensive side. ($58 for the one below.) But I had been feeling frustrated my trimming tool situation and decided that I would try to solve my dilemma problem several years back during NCECA in the exhibition hall. I had been using Dolan tools for a couple of years. They were quite nice, (the nicest trimming tool that I had ever used up to that point) but I was wearing through them on a regular basis. My main clay body is pretty gritty which was causing a lot of wear. I stopped by the Dolan booth to ask their advice. They said if I was actually wearing through them, there wasn't much to do. So I headed over to the Bison booth where they had a wheel set up with leather hard pots to trim. I sat down at the wheel, picked up a trimming tool and starting trimming off ribbons of clay. It definitely wasn't like any other trimming tool that I had ever used. It sliced into the piece with almost no effort. After less than I minute I was hooked. I knew that I could never go back to using any other trimming tool. This sounds dramatic, but I'm serious! This is the tool I ended up bringing home with me from the conference:
I've had the large loop tool for about 4 and a half years and have never regretted shelling out the big bucks. It's sharp, comfortable and the loop is the perfect shape for me. I just love how the sharp edge cuts into the leather hard clay. Eventually, I decided that I needed to add a second tool, a small loop tool for smaller pots and detail work. I ended up picking up a small loop tool at NCECA 2 years later. Again, I fell in love with my new Bison tool. I now have two trimming tools that cover most my trimming needs.
Bison trimming tools are quite different than other trimming tools. They are made of tungsten carbide and are quite brittle but will later forever if cared for properly. Here's some info about the material they are made from from the Bison website:
All tools are made having tungsten carbide cutters. Tungsten carbide is not related to steel in any way. Nor is it 'springy' or bendable in the fingers. Do not twist the end to see how strong it is.

All tools are entirely non-ferrous, and there should be no contamination of porcelain from any oxidation from the tool.

Tungsten carbide is a very hard, dense material. As a consequence, it is somewhat brittle in applications where these unsupported slender sections are extending out from the end of a little stem. One must take care to keep them from spills, falls, or being jumbled in a tool box when traveling. Keep them safe.

One should not tap the tool against things to dislodge a gob of clay, nor should one allow others to do so. Just as with our pots... do not drop them.




I have actually dropped my large loop tool once onto my concrete floor. My heart stopped for a second, but somehow it didn't break. I am very careful with these tools, making sure they always has a safe resting place when I put them down.



I think that I will need to get my large loop sharpened sometime this year. You can send your tools to Philip Poburka, the maker of these fine tools to get them sharpened. It's $10.00 for medium or large tools, or $7.00 for smaller and miniature tools plus return shipping. I will plan it so the repair will coincide with a vacation. I don't want to be without them!

The Bison tools and the Mudcutter are definitely three of the most expensive hand tools that I own. Part of the reason why I wanted to review them was to share my experiences with you to help you judge if it's worth the money for you. Most of my tastes in tools aren't so expensive. At some point soon I will be writing a review of a tool that I absolutely can't live without... and it only costs $1.85 (usually marked down to $1 at NCECA).
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Protect your remotes.

(This is one of those things that might be obvious...)

Remotes are pretty important in a clay studio. They keep you from actually pushing any buttons on the stereo and causing a premature death of the stereo (I speak from experience on this, several times over). But the remotes can get crusty too, so you have to protect them.
You need plastic wrap (although I don't actually suggest the kind pictured below, it's just what I had in my studio), scissors, tape and of course, your remote.



You can use plastic wrap, dry cleaner plastic, a clear plastic bag. It will tear eventually, so 2 layers of plastic is suggested.


Generously tape up the folded ends on the back of the remote (I hope that's obvious!).


And voila! You've got a fully protected remote! The sensor part works perfectly through 2-3 layers of plastic. If you use a thinner plastic wrap than I did it will be a pretty tight fit.


Enjoy the tunes!
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

A new compost jar.

One of the great things about being a potter is to be able to make a pot to fulfill a need that I have at home. I can make something that is 'just right' instead of 'good enough' for the job.

We were in need of a compost jar. I had many parameters in mind when designing it. You might think that it just looks like a regular old jar, but it is oh so much more...

We have these great compost bags that needed to fit the jar but have a bit of an overhang so they can get tied off. There is a groove cut into the jar about a half inch from the lip of the pot so a rubber band can be used to hold the bag in place. The hefty lid is super snug and also acts as a compactor.

You might remember that we live in the middle of Chicago and you probably don't think about Chicago and composting going very well together. (Actually, you probably don't think about Chicago and compost at all...) Well, here's how we do it... We're friends with our next door neighbors (neighbor Eric is a potter and we work at Lillstreet together.) and they have a great yard and a compost bin on the other side of our scrappy fence. So we just reach over the fence and dump our compost in their bin (the bags make this especially easy). It's all very quaint and neighborly. We chat over the fence, share homegrown veggies and compare grilling tips.
Here's Ian dumping the compost tonight:

It might sound a bit silly, but this is another one of those things that makes me happy to live where I live. When we moved to Chicago 9 years ago, I didn't think that my city life would have much in common with my life growing up in New Hampshire. But it does. We grow vegetables and herbs (on a porch instead of in a garden), go to the farmer's market, we compost our food scraps and have truly great neighbors.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Lucky me.

I've been meaning post this picture for a while. There is a Buddhist Temple a block away from my apartment. They always put on the most amazing visual displays for their celebrations. This was up in their front yard during the month of May to celebrate Buddha's birthday. Complete with neon lights. I passed by this every day for a month on the way to my studio (which is only a 6 block commute). How lucky am I?
Everyday inspiration for an urban potter can be a little different from that of a country potter. I think this is a nice illustration of one of ways it can differ. Not as many trees, but more neon lit Buddha statues.
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Hot Pots

I fired a kiln full of pots last week in the soda kiln. It was chock full of cups, but that's the subject of another blog post. It was a pretty fun load. There were a couple of new clay bodies, new glazes and slips. Lots of testing and playing around led to many late late nights at the studio in preparation for this kiln. I ended up with was about a kiln and a half full of work, so there will be another one soon!
The image below is of the wall of the soda kiln. Isn't it beautiful? The walls are actually glazed. I'll write more about this soon, but basically the idea is to glaze the walls of the kiln to help protect the bricks from the soda and to pre-season the kiln so less soda can be used from the first firing.

This is what the back of the kiln looked like before the firing:

And this is what it looked like after:

The back third of the kiln is usually has less soda than the front. I load porcelain or white stoneware clay bodies in the back of the kiln that do nice things with less soda to take advantage of this area. If I try to put my soda body in the back of the kiln it will be rough and dry. Not a nice look. I also load the kiln more loosely to encourage the flame to head back there.

And this is the front of the kiln before:


And this is it after:


The kiln had mixed results for me. The pieces that I'm excited about I am really excited about. The ones that did not turn out so well are disappointments. But that is why I do soda. I'd much rather have the highs be really high and the lows be really low than to fire a kiln and say "oh, that's just how I thought they'd turn out." And when you have a kiln that you're doing lots of experimenting with, those extremes are even more extreme. There will be lots of pictures to come, but I thought I'd give you a peak and some of the cups.

Please excuse my less than excellent pictures. I snapped them quickly in my studio last night as the sun was going down. Snazzy pictures will come in the not too distant future. I want to get better images of the test pieces so you can really see what's going on.
I love how the pattern accentuates the form on these:


You might remember these masked mugs:


And perhaps you remember these too:

peace - hope - change

And this is a little preview of some new pieces to come:

(I love this new clay body!)
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Tool Review: Mudcutter

The Mudtool Mudcutter. This is one of the tools that I cannot live without. Ok, that is a slight exaggeration... it's a tool that I can't work in my studio without.

It's basically a giant cheese slicer with a super thin wire. It's on the expensive side (retails for about $30). When so many of our clay hand tools cost $2 - $5, this is a bit of a jump up. But it really a tool that I use every day, throughout the day in my studio, so for me, it's definitely been worth it.
I use this for the Mudtool Mudcutter for 5 basic studio tasks.
Here they are (in order frequency):

  • I use it for cutting clay when I'm weighing out uniform pieces. I can cut the clay using the Mudcutter with one hand (my right) and then I can pick up the chunk of clay with my left hand, put it on the scale to weigh it. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it shaves a couple seconds off each time I weigh a piece of clay. It adds up!

  • Cutting feet on plates and platters:

  • Cutting off the exess clay from the bottom of a handle on a mug.

  • Faceting!

  • Cutting a teapot spout at an angle to fit the body of the pot. The super thin wire doesn't have much drag, so you don't distort the spout.


There are more uses for this tool, but those are my top 5. The 2 parts that make this so tool unique: The very thin wire that cuts through clay without drag, and the depth of the area between the wire and the frame.

One time, a couple of years ago, the wire snapped. I ordered replacements... and it turns out that they were out of stock. I had to wait about 6 weeks for the replacement wire. It was hard being without it. I now have a couple stashed in my studio so I'll never be caught without a replacement again.

I don't know if this is a tool that would be helpful to you, but it's one of my "must haves." I had no idea when I bought it that it was going to become a tool of daily use for me.

What are some of your favorite tools?
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Emily Murphy Emily Murphy

Masked Mugs

I'm getting ready for a soda firing next week.... and that means that the big pieces are drying and I'm focusing on the smaller pieces, like mugs that will dry more quickly. So many mugs...
I use masking tape on a lot of my work to mask out slip areas. Each side of the mug is different from the opposite side, and all the mugs are different from one another. You can see the mess of masking tape that is sticking to my table after I've finished up with a baker's dozen of mugs. (A mess... but a satisfying mess.) I was excited to find masking tape in about 6 different widths last week. Oh the possibilities!

I'll post pictures of the finished mugs after next week's firing! Hopefully there will be a bunch of goodies to show you (and maybe finally some pots will be up on my Etsy page!).
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