Holiday Web Sale @ the MFP Webstore

As of this morning there are 40 pots on my etsy.com page. Most of them are fresh out of the eco-friendly kiln (see Cow Power below)

Shipping is FREE through December 31, 2009.

Click here to visit the Webstore

Holiday Studio Sale Preview

Here are some of the pots that will be available at the holiday sale on December 4 & 5. Scroll down to 2 posts below to see the invitation.

Friday December 4, 6 – 8:30
Saturday December 5, 10 – 2

224 Chipman Park
Middlebury, VT
mail@martyfielding.com

 

 

Award for CVPS Cow Power

CVPS Cow Power named Utility Green Power Program of the Year

The sustainable electricity that  lights my house and studio, fires my kiln, charges my iPod, and cooks my breakfast come from Central Vermont Power Service and is generated by collecting and burning methane from Vermont dairy farms.

Click on the image for a link to CVPS.

The award was presented at the Department of Energy’s “Renewable Energy Markets 2009 ” conference in September:

“The Department of Energy appluads CVPS Cow Power for taking a leading role in advancing markets for renewable energy. Green Power is an effective way for households and businesses to reduce their carbon footprint, while creating jobs and cutting pollution. Through this innovative program, CVPS is responding to growing demand for clean, reliable electricity from our nation’s abundant renewable energy resources.”
- Dr. Steven Chu, Secretary of Energy

Holiday Studio Sale Dec. 4 & 5

Welcome one and all who can make it up or over for hot cider, cookies, and pottery.

For those of you who can’t attend, stay posted for upcoming additions to my webstore @ etsy.com.

The pot in the flier is a vase that I made before going down to the Washington Craft Show a couple weeks ago. It started as a big thrown cylinder that I cut apart, flattened into slabs, reassembled into a rectangle and added slabs for the top and bottom. I always appreciate a lack of balance and symmetry, so the mouth of the vase is off to the side which provides the possibility for unique arrangements.

I’ll post a preview of some of the other work for the holiday sale as well as directions and details shortly.

Solo Show at The Artisan Gallery

This is the work I delivered to lovely Northampton, Mass on Tuesday. It was a pretty drive through the Green Mountains as Fall is arriving and patches of orange and red are visible on the hillside. The show opened on Friday and runs through Nov. 8.

Tiffany, Isa and I will be going back on October 10th for the Opening Reception where I will likely be upstaged once again by my adorable 11 month old daughter – and rightly so.

This cycle brought out some new vases, serving dishes, and box forms as well as a transparent satin matt glaze, a white terra sigillata and a heavier dose of a dijon colored glaze than usual.

I’m honored to have the opportunity to show in this great gallery in this hip little New England town. Check out the website for The Artisan Gallery. If this is your neck of the woods, please stop by and take a look.

American Pottery Festival Sept. 11-13

On Friday, the American Pottery Festival opens at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis. I’m posting a few images of the 50+ pieces I sent for the show. If you can make it by this weekend, it will be well worth the trip. Two exhibition galleries house the festival and the sales gallery is also full of beautiful work. There are demonstrations and slide shows all weekend as well.

American Pottery Festival Poster

I just received a stack of these in the mail, and lifted the image from the Northern Clay Center website. If you would like to hang one on your wall, email me with your mailing address and I’ll supply the postage.A very tasteful poster full of beautiful pots. The red bowl near the bottom left corner is a piece I sent for the APF Preview in May. I’m honored to be included in this show and will be in the studio this month making the work.

The American Pottery Festival takes place at the Northern Clay Center in Minneapolis from September 10 – 13, 2009. If you are from or in the Twin Cities, stop by for 2 large galleries full of some of the best pottery in the country. Saturday and Sunday are scheduled with slideshows and workshops by some of the participating potters.

What I Did at Summer Camp

To finish the series of posts from Austria, I’ll log the last one from home in Vermont. These images are of the finished pieces from Hotel Pupik. They were taken at the Hotel Pupik Presentation on July 18 & 19. The room where they are shown is the upstairs of what was once a barn and the floor is supported by cross vault arches built in the 17th century.

I have to send thanks to Angelika Fritz of Murau, Austria for firing these for me on very short notice. She started the kiln on Thursday evening and hand delivered them onf Friday just before the presentation began. As fire is the 4th and arguably the most important element in the process, it wouldn’t have been possible without you, Angelika.  Thank you so much.

For more images of the presentation  and a list of the other artists, check out David Murobi’s photography site.

Also, read the musings of Tiffany Rhynard, my wife, on  her Austrian choreograghy experience at www.bigapensemble.com.

Now that I’m home, I look forward to seeing what happens with these ideas that were planted six time zones from home.  I picked up a supply of clay today and tomorrow starts a new cycle of work in my own studio.

Auf Wiedersehen.

Austrian Update

Our stay here at Schrattenberg is coming to a close and its time to clean up my work space and wait on the pots to be fired. If all goes well I will show 4 or 5 pieces in the Hotel Pupik presentation this weekend.

The process has evolved since my last post. I started by trying to be very representational of the cross vault and morphed into a reinterpretation of the architectural form. In the end I returned to replicating and finally felt like I understood the intersecting arch. I’ll show the last piece first as it dried in the sun this morning before going into the kiln.

As I worked through a series of these forms, I began adding coils to the carved foundations and eventually making them entirely with coils. This gave more options to make them deeper, wider, and more open.

My host, Heimo Wallner, was able to procure some natronwasserglas (sodium silicate) and I made a terra sigillata from the dried scraps of the clay I’ve been using. The sodium silicate deflocculates the slip and causes the clay particles to repel each other.  The coarse particles settle to the bottom leaving the finest particles to be decanted and applied to the surface of the pots. This gives a satiny sheen even without glaze.

The pieces I’ve made here will be fired unglazed, but covered in terra sigillata. Here are images of a few more pieces, freshly coated with terra sig last night.

Working Vacation in Austria

Hotel Pupik

I’m spending the month between the 22nd of June and the 22nd of July in an artist colony in Schrattenburg, Austria.  Hotel Pupik is a summer residency program for all types of art.  At the moment an animation, dance choreography, and an installation are in the works.  By the end of our stay, performance art, jazz and experimental music will be joining the group for a presentation on the 18th of July. My wife, Tiffany Rhynard, has a residency in dance (see www.bigapensemble.com).  Isa and I came along for a month in Europe. Since arriving, I’ve been given 60 kilos of beautiful butterscotch colored clay and a space to work.

Hotel Pupik is housed in the farm buildings of a baroque castle built in 1680. The cross vault is used both in the castle and in the farm building.  This is a type of ceiling support where 2 barrel arches intersect each other at a right angle. The prevalence and beauty of this simple voluminous form intrigues me and has become the subject for a formal exploration.

At the moment, I’m trying a techniue that I haven’t used much.  I’m starting with a solid block of clay and carving the interior to make a slightly compartmentalized space. I’ll post some images of some of these shapes in the coming days.

cross vault in the castle