Streamlining the Process

by Eleanor Hendriks

When I sit down to make a batch of similar pots, I often think about ways to speed things up. I like to think of myself as an artist and I strive for some level of artistic vision in everything I make, but let's face it -some things about being a potter are factory-like. And if I'm going to spend time being factory-like, I may as well be an efficient factory. Theoretically, this will leave more time for the pieces closer to my heart that just can't be churned out.

This past week, one of my goals was to restock my French Butter Dishes. My latest version of a French Butter Dish has a knob that is thrown onto the lid portion of the dish. Previously, I made this knob by trimming the lid, attaching a small ball of clay, centering it and then throwing the knob like a small, short walled bowl.

I got to thinking that there had to be a faster way. Centering small pieces of clay is tricky and slow. Opening right down to the lid seems like a waste of effort. So, I devised this way to make knobs without having to center or open. So far, now that I've had a bit of practice, it seems to be a bit quicker. I'll have to make another batch to evaluate further. But, in the meantime, I thought I'd share my efforts with you...

I started with a 2" thick log of softish clay...

...sliced it into 1"ish discs...
...poked a hole through each with my thumb...

...trimmed the Butter Dish lid...
...scored and slipped where the knob would be attached... (sorry so blurry!)...
...stuck the doughnut firmly and evenly all around...
...and started throwing it, making sure it was attached all around...

...threw to the final thickness ignoring the ragged top edge...
...trimmed to the required height with a needle tool... (I'll cut the discs a little thinner next time because I had to cut off quite a lot to get the right height)...
...smoothed off the rim...
...did a final shaping...
...completed batch of eight.
These will be hitting my Etsy shop in a couple of weeks. I'm planning on glazing them Powder Blue, Spring Green, Bright Cobalt Blue and maybe one other colour...
Now I just need to make enough ware to fill the rest of the kiln, including another batch of the Now Even Faster French Butter Dishes...

First post of 2010

by Eleanor Hendriks

I was so excited to get back to clay this week. Holidays and shipping have kept me away from gooey wet delicious clay for many weeks and I could almost taste the mud. But, things didn't go as planned...

I had a turkey carving cut on a finger that was surprisingly painful, my clay was too hard, my studio was too cold and I just couldn't find the rhythm. I just kept working and I did have reasonable results but I was surprised not to find The Zone right away. I should know better by now -even though I can sit down at a wheel and make pretty much anything I want whenever I want, The Zone -that space where time doesn't exist and the clay leaps into shape -is still elusive. It takes a combination of time in, repetition and mindfulness that isn't always instant. As always, I have high hopes for next week...

In the meantime, I have Sweetheart Mugs well under way...

Despite good intentions to the contrary, I usually only get one batch of these done per year, so if you'd like me to reserve on for you, just let me know. Don't worry, the finished product won't be so shaggy looking. There's still some smoothing and glazing time to be put in...
These will be available in my Etsy store before the end of January -I may even try some not so traditional Valentine's colours...

Progress and Swapping

by Eleanor Hendriks

I am thrilled to report that there is progress on my gallery entrance -the framing for my new doors and one window is in!
I'm hoping to have the doors delivered and put in before this next weekend is over. Then all will be ready for a welcoming entrance for my 3rd Annual Christmas Art Sale on November 6,7&8. No more traipsing through the kiln room (also known as the junk repository). Be sure to plan on stopping in if you are in the area...

And I've entered to play my favourite game -Mug Swap with the Etsy Mud Team. Here's my entry...
Check in to see the other entries by other Mud Team Members.


While you are there, you may want to check out the catalogue of great things that the Etsy Mud Team has made...


After all, Christmas is coming :)

Fusion Pottery and Glass Sale

by Eleanor Hendriks

So here's where I'll be this weekend...

Fusion Pottery and Glass Sale


Toronto's Largest Show and Sale of Fine, Handcrafted Clay and Glass.

Featuring 50 clay and glass artists ranging from internationally recognized leaders in the field, to emerging clay and glass craftspeople presenting some of the best decorative and functional clay and glass in Canada.

CNIB Building, Conference Centre,

1929 Bayview Avenue, Toronto
Thursday, Oct. 15th noon to 9 pm Free Admission
Friday, Oct. 16th 9 am to 9 pm
Saturday, Oct. 17th 9 am to 6 pm
Sunday, Oct 18th 11 am to 4 pm

Actually, it's my pottery that will be there -since it is a show with shared work hours, I won't be there the whole time myself. My shifts are on Sunday and I'll be working at the checkout -as always, if you introduce yourself and tell me that you are a blog reader, I'll slip you $5 in Élan dollars...

I have at least three kiln loads of work that I haven't photographed yet including some new pieces with tricky experiments with very runny glazes, so if you think you've seen everything Élan there is to see by cruising through my Etsy shop, you'd be wrong!

If you can get to downtown Toronto this weekend, you can check out some of my new work and the work of a great selection of top notch Canadian clay and glass artists.

I'd love to meet you there...

In the Zone

by Eleanor Hendriks

*quickly sweeping dust off my blog before beginning to type...*

I had a rare treat yesterday -8 hours straight in the studio without interruption and with most of my list of things that needed desperately to be done checked off.

So I spent the time putting handles on 14 jars that had been waiting quietly under plastic for almost a week. Rather than whip out a batch of ordinary knobs on the wheel, I decided to go all out and turn the top of each jar into a little wonderland

I started off with the chunkier jars and went for a basic woodland look...
Then the knobby bits started to have a more refined shape...
By the time I got the to jars with more dainty shapes the tops had become more elegant as well...

Until, completely in the zone where time doesn't exist, all chairs are comfortable and blaring radios are whispers in the distance, I finished the last two jars with the best finials and most delicate textures yet...
These two are my favourites by far...
I wonder if could have made them without the 12 that went before? Of course, now that I've done them once, I can explore the themes I've created here on other forms.

The first thing that I'll do is make some larger jars to take these themes further on -it will be almost impossible to ask the price that the amount of time spent on these small jars requires -and I haven't even glazed them yet -which I'm sure will be just as time consuming given the directions my fiddly little brain is going as I imagine how these might look finished.

Of course I'm ignoring the downer in the back of my head that is warning me not to get too attached in case one of my attacks of clumsiness takes out the whole collection...

In the meanwhile, all the regular stuff has been going on in the studio as well. Two good kiln loads lately means that there should be a flurry of new listings in my Etsy shop in the near future.

And for local people, the Victoria County StudioTour is coming up next weekend and the weekend after. Visit the many artist's studios in the area and if you drop by my studio and tell me that you read about the tour on my blog I will give you Elan Dollars good for pottery in my studio...



Oh and I will have homemade Lemon Pound Cake -it is to die for and I really shouldn't eat it all by myself...

Bobcaygeon Wine and Food Festival

by Eleanor Hendriks

Calling all Kawarthians -are you looking for something to do this Saturday? Stop by the Bobcaygeon Wine and Food Festival . Celebrity cooks, food and wine pairing demos, music and more at the Settlers Village, a quaint collection of pioneer buildings in Bobcaygeon. And, lucky you, I'll be there too with my pottery wares for food lovers...

Garlic graters

French Butter Dishes

Brie Bakers

And my signature fruit shaped stopperless salt shakers.
I hope to see you there. If you introduce yourself as a blog reader I will slip you $5 in Élan Dollars good on pottery at my studio...


One of the organizers of the Festival is a student of mine. She is a sculptor in cement with a show called "Coming Together" on now at the Lindsay Art Gallery . One of her first forays into the complex world of ceramics resulted in this stunning piece that I just had to show off...
Way to go Pam, You are translating your skills with cement into success with clay at an astonishing rate!

Sizing Things UP

by Eleanor Hendriks

I know, I was just here saying I didn't have time to blog but let's put it this way instead -things will be even more sporadic than usual in Elan-land during the summer...

I had a bit of time in the studio today, so I got going on restocking my Berry Bowl supply in an attempt to keep ahead of demand -a very satisfying project because now when customers request the colours I have sold out of I can say that they are already in the works...

And then to spice things up, I set myself a bit of a challenge.

The Etsy Mud Team is having a bottle challenge in August and today was really the last day I could start them and still have any hope of finishing in time for the entry date, since I will be away on vacation between now and then.

I usually work in multiples, but this time rather than making a bunch of things the same size I decided to make the same shape in 4 different sizes. I have done this many time with bowls and don't find it all that hard, but repeating this bottle was a real trick!

I started with the largest (13") bottle, because I figured it would be the most difficult and that making smaller things go where I wanted them to would be easier. I have to say, the smallest (6") bottle took me the longest. I found it tricky to duplicate the curves when I couldn't really fit my hand in the bottle or my fingers down inside the neck. I have gained a new appreciation for potters that make miniatures -and this piece isn't even that small -it is still 6" tall!

I think I did pretty well in my attempt at doing the clay version of hitting the reduce button on the photocopier...


It is always amazing to me to see how just the slightest change in angle or curve can change the character of a piece. In fact, I think that is one of the things that compels me back to the studio time and again -the chance that this time I will get the perfect combination of curves and angles (and then maybe the perfect combination of colours and glazes...) And it is why handmade objects often have a life that we don't see in manufactured goods.

When each manufactured good comes out the same, the original design must have the elusive je ne sais quoi but often the original is average at best or compromised by efficiencies required by the manufacturing process along the way.

While making handmade pottery, the potter is making hands on decisions at every second of the forming thus having a profound effect on the end result.


So can I pass the challenge on to my clay addicted readers? I'd love to see someone else give the clay version of a reducing photocopier a try and I'd love to see the results...

Summer Breeze...

by Eleanor Hendriks

I'm just blowing through like a summer breeze...

Even if I had lots to post, which I might, if I stopped to think about it...

...I don't have the time, but I thought you might enjoy this picture of pottery in action during a summer feast...

and a link to a fabulous fruit salad (not the one pictured but yummy all the same...)

Happy summer...

A Piece of Art is Only the Tip of the Artist's Iceberg

by Eleanor Hendriks

This gaspingly honest post by potter extraordinaire, Whitney Smith, got me thinking about the life of an artist behind the end results.

The road to the painting, sculpture or pot is not all flashes of inspiration alternated with cool coffee shop conversation -at least not for me. I have never sat and discussed my ideas of art with anyone in a coffee shop -though I (romantically) imagine that I might like to some day.

Neither do I sit in an inspiring setting filling notebooks with sketches of great ideas. If I actually sit down intending to "have an idea" I usually get bogged down in to-do lists: the toilet paper stockpile is getting perilously low, a soccer uniform is AWOL and how long has it been since the last oil change anyways?

I get my ideas by working with the clay in the studio. As I make, I get ideas for more and more things to make. In a perfect world, I would sketch these ideas when they are flowing faster than I can execute them. Then I would have something in reserve for the days when they don't flow so freely. Usually though, I am too wound up in what I am doing to get clean enough to wield a pencil. But all I need to get the juices flowing again is to make something... anything...

...like these stacks of bowls...
They are not earth shaking works of art, but they are very nice bowls and making them got me going on a really great roll. After making the bowls and a few other things that my regular customers will be clamouring for when I run out, I started on some sculptural pieces. As I worked I got more and more obsessed, because I know that making good art often depends on making lots of art, and these pieces were leaping from my hands. I felt closer to something new (for me) with each moment of shaping the clay.


Now here's where a reality of work in an artist's studio comes in. Not everything works out. So often with clay, the technical side of something new lags behind my idea. It takes a few tries to make the materials do what I want them to do. Because of this lag, my first piece of my exciting (to me) new series blew up in the kiln...
If I were a better blogger, I would have taken a picture of the devastation that greeted me when I opened the kiln, but I was too heartbroken. My first instinct was to CLEAN IT UP -QUICK! And then to assess the collateral damage, because with a blow up like this one there is always collateral damage...
So a few bowls bit the dust, that didn't feel like a biggie, I can always make more (see above)...
But this crack did hurt...
Because it is in the biggest honkin' casserole I have ever made. Seriously, this thing could fit three chickens and still have room for veggies...
Now, I'm not going to claim that casserole as an inspired piece of art, but it was nice enough and technically challenging to make. Besides, I was going to enter it into the Etsy Mud Team Casserole Challenge later this year. For once I was going to have a piece ready well before the deadline. Not so much any more...

After recovering a bit from the shock of the damage, I was relieved to see that the prize piece of one of my newest and most adventurous students survived unscathed in the middle of everything. She may need to learn this cruel lesson of loss eventually, but it just wouldn't be fair to have it happen to her first favourite piece of claywork!

While all this was going on in my kiln, I was working away at more pieces in the series. Since I always develop new ideas by making multiples, the loss of the first piece isn't a total loss, but I know that the first piece of a series feels different to me, so it's loss is particularly poignant. In the end, the first piece of a series is often the least successful because I haven't sharpened the vision enough yet. I don't edit enough or go far enough until a few pieces along. But it sure would have been nice to have that piece for the glazing stage. I could have practiced glaze techniques on it and ruined it closer to completion!

Que sera, sera... all part of the artist's life...

And my excitement for the new pieces carries me forward...

I'm just going to show a few little bits of them here. They are still tender and new and not ready for a full showing...

...but after the first one's demise without anyone but me as witness to it's existence...
...I feel an urge to share...

...even though completion is a long way off...



... and may never come...

Clay's Many Variations

by Eleanor Hendriks

I am always amazed by the many possibilities of clay. It can be so many things to so many people. Functional/ non-functional, colourful/stark, wildly textured/perfectly smooth, organic/geometric and on and on.

I had three students willing to brave winter and come out to my studio for my Feb/March pottery class session. Even among only three beginning clayists, their visions and results had lots of variety...

An elegant leaf bowl is a study in contrasts...

A geometric letter box with a surprising bright orange interior...

A homey casserole dish with delicate carved designs...

A jewellery tray waiting to be filled with baubles...

Pinch pots that look as if they were grown rather than made...

...and fabulously textured wall pocket that will grace a sculpture studio wall...
Thank you Marina, Darlene and Pam for a great class full of enthusiasm and fun!

These three women have just dipped into the possible variations of clay. If you'd like to see how many other clay workers have interpreted their artistic visions using clay, you really need to read these two articles by Jeff Campana of the University of Louisville published on Etsy's blog, The Storque:

Ceramics and Pottery: Facts and Fancies (Part 1)

Ceramics and Pottery:Facts and Fancies (Part 2)

The second article is excellent, particularly because Jeff included some of my work in his review of decorating techniques (she said humbly). So check them out -you're in for some good reading and lots of clay eye candy...