clay: heath

It’s been a clay-filled 2 days. On Monday, I finished these taper holders.                                

I embellished them as much as I could with flowers, and I'm hoping to glaze over defects. And the next day was a field trip to Heath Ceramics. I've loved their wares for years even after Edith Heath's passing and the changing of owners. And why have I never made my own house numbers?  I especially loved this tiled bench next to my favorite Eames chairs in the employee lounge next to my favorite blue Eames chairs.         

 

Our group's tour started with a glaze lecture from Winnie, who's been working at Heath for 18 years. She brought out a bunch of bud vases on which she tested new glaze formulas. I love the orange mug below which is reminiscent of the Heath matte pumpkin and French grey bowl that I had left at Jim's, never to return to production because it was a glaze on white stoneware now defunct at Heath. I especially admired below on the right a green and yellow glaze juxtaposed to raw clay.

 

And of course I spied this tableau hiding the Heath sign, which is giving me ideas of creating my own signature tile: Handmade Hobbyist, San Mateo, California or perhaps Annalee Lapid Ceramics, San Mateo, California. I can play with my favorite fonts of Sacramento or Bauhaus or Art Deco.

And so below is the long shot of their newer glazes on tableware. The linework of glaze and raw clay juxtaposed looks new though the clay forms designed by Edith Heath remain the same.  

This year I didn't take pictures of the blunger and the room where the Lincoln clay from near Sacramento is mixed into slip. I started photographing the jigger and jolly room where mugs were being refined and handles attached.

  

Here are all the plaster molds of the midcentury forms of coffee and teapots and creamers I love.

And Chelsea, our tour guide released the plaster top of their iconic bud vase. I was paying attention to that grey color clay body.

 

And here's Min making the 20 to 25 plaster molds from rubber forms each day. Each plaster mold only gets 60 to 100 uses before it's discarded.

It takes a glazer 3 years to learn the technique of Heath glazing and measures exactly the weight of the glaze for each pot. Below on the lower right is Winnie's glazing space.

 

Below a glazed plate is placed on sponges going in opposite direction to remove glaze in order to not stick to the kiln shelf. I liked the poster of the Heath mantra, which reflects my own tableware aesthetic though my pottery looks a lot more handmade and thence a lot more imperfect.

 

I recall the firing at Heath happening only once, but this time Chelsea referred to two firings: bisque and glazing. Huh? Zan and I wondered afterwards because we remembered that Edith Heath originally fired just once the green ware clay with glaze. I speculated that maybe supply chain issues necessitated a pivot. Chelsea mentioned that the final firing is a low temperature of 2000 degrees or cone 3, which Zan pointed out is a temperature high enough for some clays to be completely vitrified. Maybe the shortages of petalite or lithium ore needed for glaze necessitates two firings for the clay with its glaze to vitrify. I don't know. Below are 425 pieces of pottery placed into one of six kilns for firing at 3:30 a.m.

And the factory tour always concludes with browsing the shop. I admired the linework of glaze on the raw clay in the vase below. I ought to make a coil vase as a possible plaster mold form like Edith. Whereas she used the wheel, I'll use the more ancient methods of coiling and slabbing of clay pots.

I went in the back area of the showroom to admire the tiles.

I suppose if I had money at my disposal, I would commission an architect and an engineer to build a house of steel, glass and ceramic tile cladding in lieu of stick built construction.

While waiting to get on the bus, a couple students and I ran to the artist studio to peek through the windows.

I also admired the Alice Waters-designed egg spoon. The spoon is lovely construction, but so impractical for me without a wood-fired oven, nor the habit of open fire cooking.

And this year instead of stopping at the vista point on the northward bound direction of the Golden Gate Bridge, nature sketching happened in the Marin Headlands.  The views from the bridge and freeway were so lovely.                             

   

I so adore this panoramic view of the bridge.

More spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge once we departed the bus.

 

My favorite view was behind the parking lot on Hawk's Hill and of Land's End, where you just feel like you're looking further out into the Pacific Ocean.

The skyline of San Francisco was spectacular.

Below I can a little bit of Baker's Beach and Fort Funston opposite Marin.

...and of course, Alcatraz Island.

After I returned from the field trip to school, I worked on my kurinuki mug even though it was not leather hard enough to carve.                        

  

I was rather pleased with the relative smoothness of the interior.

But then I thought I could subtract more as I was refining it today and tore a hole in the wall. I patched it, but I probably should examine it on Friday if it hasn't gone into the kiln already to see if the hole was repaired enough. This afternoon, I hollowed this rectangular block to later carve into a vase.

I also compressed another shorter cylinder of clay to make yet another kurinuki cup Friday afternoon. And after clay club today, I ate leftover lamb and resurrected last night's leftover sockeye salmon. I ruined it by not seasoning it enough and overcooking it.

And so I chopped white onion, green onion, celery, radish, and dill and then folded the vegetables with the flaked salmon into Kewpie and Duke's mayonnaise, yellow mustard, and a very liberal spoonful or two of Monterey seasoning (coarse salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, dried garlic and onion, and I swear I can taste caraway seed too) and hot smoked paprika. I am relieved that the salmon salad is delicious and will make a fine midmorning breakfast when scooped into a brioche hot dog bun with lots of green leaf lettuce.