Toothpaste Hurricane - 85984

Toothpaste Hurricane, 85984, 1998, 17"diameter, 14 hr firing, 22 hr cooling

 Something so strangely appealing about seeing so much clay exposed through all the foaming mint green glaze. My expectation was that this platter would feel like a summer breeze. After firing it seemed so much more tumultuous... just wild!

Downstream and Going Steady - 89981

89981 - Downstream and Going Steady, 1998, 16" diameter, Three days of firing, three days of cooling.

 One of the things I love most about this platter is that as you look closer and closer, you realize that as the cooling cycle began, and the glazes began to freeze up... they were already in such a thick flowing state, that the underside of the glaze, kept on moving; remaining molten for an incredibly long time. This resulted in an almost pyroclastic flow sort of behavior. There is a skin over the surface of the glaze, that shows wrinkles from the glaze underneath continuing to move as the surface began to chill. Not something you see on pottery glazes.

The puckering from the chilling is pretty obvious in this image.

Green Jello, Food Fight - 85981

Green Jello, Food Fight, 85981, 1998, 22" diameter. 22hr firing, 45 hr cooling cycle.

After about two years in Logan UT, our neighbors finally invited us to a ward party. For the non-LDS (non-mormon) among us, that is a party held at your local church in UT... basically a neighborhood party, that falls under the aegis of the LDS church. In short, we were asked (after 2 yrs) to come to a neighborhood party. Nice, eh?

When we asked what we could bring, our neighbor suggested "a green salad". So Leah brought a nice big leafy green salad, with lots of cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, peppers.... all from our small garden.

People stared at us.

Apparently, that was not what they meant.
Green salad is code for GREEN JELLO. Yes.

Our social faux pas was not understanding that Jello was a vegetable appropriate for dish-to-pass type events. Oh hell no! Then I found out that Jello encompasses all levels of evil. You can put STUFF in Jello... to really make it salad. Carrot slivers are common (nasty!). If you add marshmallows, it becomes a gourmet dessert. If you add fruit, that fruit MUST come from a can or the Jello won't gel. Who'da thunk it?

Needless to say, they found my lack of Jello-ducation sorely lacking. After a few remedial courses in Jello making, I feel safe to say that unless I have the flu and am DYING, I don't really ever want to think about Jello again. Ever. Certainly not green Jello.

More Than a River - 9298c

More than a River, 9298c, 1998, 28" diameter. Three days of firing, five days of cooling.

With this platter, the images speak for themselves. There is no great mystical story behind this platter. It worked. It turned out better than I hoped.

Help a brother out: This Platter Needs a Name (untitled) - 82298B

This Platter needs a name, 82298B, 1998, 26"diameter. 

By the time I was glazing pieces of this size, I was getting some of my technique down. Instead of using the large platters as giant test tiles, they became canvases. I would save my experiments for smaller platters. Anything under 20" in diameter was "small". Easy enough to replace if it should crack in half... which happened all too often.

Once they got this big, and started closing in on the 36" limit... things got tough. It took more bodies to help with all of the various aspects of the making. I needed help flipping them over. I needed help loading them into and out of the kilns. I needed help moving them. They were just HUGE.

Now I need help again. I need suggestions for a name for this platter. Can't guarantee I will use it, but nothing is grabbing now, and back when it was made, I didn't have a name either. For those of you REALLY into helping: I also need to find a venue where I can exhibit these platters. Something, somewhere, where people are excited about seeing and purchasing fine crafts. I am open to all suggestions. If you know of a gallery where these platters NEED to be shown, tell me all about it. If it comes to pass that we are able to show there, we'll work out a way for you to go home with a platter in tow.