Saturday, February 19, 2011

Slip-Slidin' Away

The Bauman Stoneware studio is under the supervision of a temporary new manager. We are again dog-sitting Rawley the energetic Brittany Spaniel.
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WatcH, JoHn! IF I do my eyes aNd eArs jUst sO, I cAn mAke iT loOk liKE I'm fAcINg iNto a sTroNg hEADwiNd.

WHo iS hEre?


W
haT aRE we doiNg?
IS tHiS fuN?



W
Hat's cLAy? dOEs it TAStE likE mEat? WHy nOT? Is iT gooD For you? WiLL iT HOLD mEat pRoDuCtS eVENtuaLLy?






WHy?

ARf ?

BArK !


Meanwhile, I've taken on a different project. I'm making some porcelain guitar slides for my friend, John Bushouse. John and I met through our mutual interest in guitars. Here's a picture of John and me back when we first met.

We had no idea who the dog was. He seemed friendly, and he just crawled up in our laps that way. We didn't have the heart to shoo him off.


I've made guitar slides before. I made a whole mess of them about ten years ago. But I don't play that way (slide) so I didn't know what the heck I was doing at the time. The ones I made were so big that they could have sleeved right over a normal size slide. They fired beautifully -- I glazed them in a carbon trap shino and they came out with leopard spots and tiger stripes. They LOOKED beautiful, even if they were too big to function. I only ended up saving one of them for myself (pictured left). It wasn't the prettiest. It does have a little stripe to it -- mostly it's just carbon black.

I only have two friends with hands big enough to even consider using the slides, big as those slides were. I have big hands myself. When I'm explaining to people just how big my hands are, I tell them that I can palm a basketball. That means I can grip and hold a basketball in one hand. One of those huge porcelain slides went to my friend Paul Kucharski. Paul can palm a Volkswagen. Here is Paul (and I think he's using one of the slides I gave him)...



...my other friend who could use one of those old XXXL slides is Steve Morris. Steve lives out West and if you want to find him, look for the roadhouse with the big blue ox tied outside.

Noticing his huge hands, I once asked Steve what his ring size was.

"225/60 R15."

"Isn't that a truck tire size?" I asked.

He just got this "well, duh" look on his face.

Anyway, here are the slides as they came off the wheel last night in all there fingermarked and just cut-off, messy glory...



They're cleaning off nicely this morning...


I made some for slipping over the finger and playing the guitar upright (like Paul's doing in the video). Others I made like a bullet and they'll be used to play lap-style. I hope I didn't go overboard and make them too small this time. If so, maybe I can palm them off on the Vienna Boys Blues Guitar Choir.

Meanwhile, I have also been making some actual, honest-to-goodness pottery. Here are a few bowls I decorated yesterday...







Finally, Breeze says to let him know when the bossy, brassy, loudmouth Brittany is gone...

5 comments:

  1. great dogie speak it was like i was there.
    Love the picture quite striking you were back in the day.
    I am very interested in the slide as I married a guitar player who became a potter- might have to have one of these.
    Will they go up on Etsy?

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  2. Hey, I'll just save one for you if they come out. It'd be great if every potter/guitar player in the world had one of my slides. Of course, since every single American male potter over the age of 40 also plays the guitar, I will be busy.

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  3. What's clay...does it taste like meat?
    ROFL!
    Our dog Zoe must think so, she's always trying to eat clay bits off the floor.

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  4. creatniks,

    Breeze does that, though he's not a big eater. Ariel, who lives to eat, does not. It's a mixed up world.

    It seems to be a universal that shop cats would rather drink clay water than fresh. I don't know why, but I've never seen it fail.

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  5. this post cracked me up. love the dog, and his multi-fonted questions. and your pottery is beautiful.

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