Looking Down on the Last Gasp of a Poison Lake - 122198I

122198I, Looking Down on the Last Gasp of a Poison Lake,
17" diameter, $900, available

This was one of those platters that came into being, despite all my best intentions. It was never supposed to look like this. I have never been more glad to be disappointed. This particular combination of glazes was very susceptible to the phenomenon brought on by very slow cooling cycles. Due to the heavy load that I typically fired with, the cooling cycles were measured in days, not hours. In this firing there was over 900 pounds of brick in the stack, and over 600 pounds of shelves. That is a lot of refractory to heat and then to HOLD that heat! This firing took over 3 days to cool below 400F.

One of the things that I was made aware of while living in Utah, was the sad state of environmental responsibility within the department of mining (and reclamation). Yep, that's part of their name. I think all it really means is that they are supposed to put the dirt back in the same (or similar) hole that they dug it out of. It just doesn't work out that way.

I took the long way home once, through Montana, and stopped alongside the huge tailings from the Anaconda Copper Mine. These black sandy hills go on for a long long while. At the time, I had no idea about what was happening in terms of toxic effluent coming from the mine, or the bird kills that happened every winter (thousands of migrating birds die here, year after year)... all I knew was that they mined copper there.

When I got home to Utah, I read my first article talking about the toxins released into the waters that have flooded this mining site. Contaminated with everything from arsenic to selenium, the water is so acidic that it burns the flesh and feathers of anything it touches, essentially dooming any bird or animal who happens upon it. Bear in mind, this is in Montana... and a part of the state that isn't inundated with lakes and rivers. To say that it is dry would be an understatement. This man-made lake must seem an oasis to wildlife... and instead it is poison.

In essence, that is what drove the creation of a few of these particular platters...

Fall Through The Cracks

82698B, Falling Through the Cracks (into who knows what), 1998, 20" diameter,
currently available, $1100

Purple-black Storm, 9298B

9298B - Purple-black Storm, cone 8, fired for four days, cooled for four days, $600, 20"

More Than A River

9298C - More Than A River, cone 7, fired for four days, cooled for three days.

9298C - More Than A River, detail

9298C - More Than A River, detail

9298C - More Than A River, detail

9298C - More Than A River, detail

I am always somewhat reluctant to post images from these platters... not because I don't love them, but because I feel like I have so little to say about them. I guess for folks wanting to know more about them, I am open to questions. Unless mentioned otherwise, they are for sale. Shipping isn't as bad as I thought it would be, considering that most of these platters weigh upwards of 50# and are in most cases 18-22" across. BIG is an understatement.

So, fire away with questions and comments.

Saying Good-Bye

62098H - ©1998 Alex Solla - Glaze Tectonics, untitled, 17" diameter

62098H - ©1998 Alex Solla - detail

This week, another beautiful platter sold and will be heading to Maine as soon as we get it boxed up. It is always a bittersweet separation when one of these massive platters sells. On one hand, I am thrilled that someone wants one in their home or office. The sudden cash influx certainly doesn't hurt either. But there is always some part of me that looks at the piece, one last time and realizes that I will likely never see this platter ever again.

In the case of this particular platter, it has some interesting differences that separate it from the rest of the series. For one thing, I was experimenting with a brown slip glaze around the rim. Later in the course of making these, I would only use the dark black slip for the rims. Another thing that makes this platter different from so many of the platters is that there is a rippled texture under the glaze, and due to the transparency of the fluid glaze, you can see what look almost like wave washed shoreline, under the glaze. Since I felt that this effect was so successful in this platter, I made similar efforts on quite a few platters which followed this one. None were anywhere near as successful.

And with that said, I say good-bye and good luck.

Wide Awake and Wondering

62098F - The Sixth platter in the Sixth Month of the Year (Blue Storm).

The clock just ticked past 4am. That means I have missed out on most of tonight's sleep. I have no idea what brought on tonight's insomnia, but rather than toss and turn in bed in frustration, I figured a better solution was to get up and try to work on something. To that end, I have prepared new images from the Glaze Tectonics platters hanging in our gallery currently.

Accumulating Ice

Days saturated with clear light
give way to the crushing chill, one drop at a time.
Looking through frozen fangs,
everything outside pales compared to the warmth inside the maw.
As the ice builds, one drop at a time,
I worry more.

How long can the gutters shoulder this growing burden?

Someone mentioned ice dams.
I am from Florida where ice is served in glasses.
Here, I know it grows; as fast as the grass in summer.
They dont have an ice-lawnmower though.
I asked at the hardware store.

So the ice continues to accumulate.

Textures that take me back

Something is so flesh-like about those tiny fragile pink blisters.
Up against the chalky whiteness...

When I first shot this platter in grad school at Utah State, the slides turned out with the gold crystals
looking very soft and pastel. It was only when I shot this here, under sunlight
with a Nikkor Micro/Macro lens that I was finally able to capture the image as I saw it.

Tonight my melancholic state has me looking over my old platters for inspiration. To go from being on the top of my game to the bottom of the bucket in the span of hours really spilled the wind from my sails. When the last platter was hung on the wall, my excitement was at its peak. A day later, I could have taken a hammer to every platter in the show. Somehow I didn't.

It was a wonderful show, don't get me wrong. We had a wonderful audience in attendance. Lots of great questions, comments etc. A week later, when I had my oral exams with my professors, the big question was "what next?" If they had asked me that before the show, I would have had great ambitious answers full of excitement and vigor. That day though, I was cornered. The glass around me was shattered and everything I had thought was coming now seemed laughable.

I seldom talk about my divorce mostly because after the last decade, it seems talked-out. Everytime I crack out images of these platters though, it all comes rushing back. I had such dreams! I was sure these platters would lift me far and away. Ironic considering these puppies are heavy as can be!

Initially I wrote my thesis in verse. My professor felt that this was completely inappropriate. For an MFA? Really? Who the hell else is going to be writing their thesis in verse if not an MFA candidate?? I wish I had kept some of those early drafts. Trying to write about the feelings of materials meeting, melting, moving from one state to the next. I remember one comment of his was that glazes didn't have feelings. I think that hurt me more than the beginnings of my divorce.

I don't know if I have it in me to go another round with this body of work. I would love to think so. I dream sometimes of taking them out for a grand exhibition. I fantasize about us having a monstrous kiln where we could fire new works; HUGE and fabulous! And then I remember taking these platters on the road to shows in Colorado, Utah and Washington State. Suffice to say, I was in great shape that summer after having lifted tons of platters all day every day.

At the end of the day, none sold. That's failure. Pure and simple.

Breaking Through the Crust

101298A ©2008 "The Upper Crust vs. Down Below"

This is one of those platters where the upper surface is all craggy and muted and rough. Turns out, underneath all of that nastiness is rich color, fluid moving glazes... and yet you can only find that where the upper crust has broken through to revel this.

The first time this "breakthrough" happened, I was dismayed. A fellow grad student at Utah State thought it would be a good idea to pop some of the glaze bubbles on a platter... unbeknownst to me. Seeing the results after the fact, I wasn't thrilled. But as I lived with it, and came to see what was under those blistered glazes, I realized the tantalizing colors and fluid passages under the glaze.




About this same time (ca. 1998), I had an opportunity to visit the Craters of the Moon National Monument in Idaho. The feeling of being inside a lava tube is amazing. Nothing comes close. But to a potter, it is like being the glaze. You can shine your flashlight along the floor, walls, ceiling, and find beautiful fired rock that recalls tenmokku glazes, oil spot glazes, iridescent colors everywhere... but without light, it all seems one dark blob. Up on the surface of the lava tube, life is harsh, barren, cracked and scorched.

Fast forward a little more than a decade, and I can see my life's journey slowly unfolding in these new glazes on the platters. I had NO intention of ever re-creating a lava tube on a platter. Far be it from me to try to copy nature. It's been done enough, and done badly enough to scare me away from such pretense.

Looking deeper into these fissured and bubbling scorched platters though has encouraged me to look a little longer and deeper. Sometimes you find that geode, other times it's still just a rock.

Interest in Platters is Up

62098G - untitled detail

62098G - untitled

122198I - untitled detail

122198I - untitled

We have had quite a few visitors to the studio lately. Considering that what draws most people to our studio is our functional line of studio pottery, the interest in our big platters from the Glaze Tectonics series, is phenomenal. Yesterday we spent a good chunk of the evening with a young couple, discussing glaze phenomenon, artistic intention, installation devices, ... all sorts of fun stuff. All of this helped me feel validated for all of the work I am going through to document these monstrous platters.

Taking Carrie's Platter to Cornell's Johnson Museum

Carrie's Purple Platter

Detail of 122198J-Carrie's Purple Platter

Nancy and I have been invited to show some of the platters I made when I was in grad school at Utah State. It has been nearly 9 years since these were last shown publicly. My hope is that they will find a good reception in this community.

To that end, today I took Carrie Crane's Purple Twister Platter to be photographed by Cornell's Johnson Museum staff. I am excited to see how their image differs from the one I made here. This is actually a composite image. It was shot outdoors, on a telephone pole, at 11am, bright sun, and then superimposed onto the background of a platter which had been shot indoors last year. God Bless Photoshop.

Fun things!

Oval forms

After getting the first three oval platters out of the kiln this week, I am anxious to see the next 10 or so being made! They are a wonderful form. Lends itself to handles or lugs. Also would work nicely with a set of mugs on it, or a oil and vinegar cruet set.... tons of ideas to play with. I would love to have a larger oval too. Something closer to 12-15" long would be sweet. So, maybe if the weather clears tomorrow and I can get outside to make some sawdust it will happen. In the meantime here is what the final image will look like on our 2008 pricelist.