A New Kiln

Thanks to a hot tip from Tim Ayers, I found this car kiln near our place in Orange County. It took Chris and I about 3 days to dismantle and then put on pallets in one of our sheds. It will take a bit to pour a concrete pad and re-assemble, but I will try to keep updates on here.

Inspirations at a Thrift Store in Homosassa Fl

Thanks to Hannah for taking these pictures.

I love the forms, I think my next long term project is going to be a still life photo series taken in thrift stores across the country.

New Years Day, Swimming with Manatees

Yes, this happened.

On Dec. 31st, Hannah, Nick, Matt and Sita went swimming with the manatee residents of 3 Sisters Springs in Crystal River, FL. We all piled into Matt's mini van, drove to Homosassa, slept in an RV park, woke up at 5am, put on wet suits, met the coolest captain ever (he looked EXACTLY like the Dude in Big Lebowski), and then swam with Florida's most benevolent megafauna, the manatee. Thank you to Captain Glenn (aka the Dude) for taking these amazing pictures!

Pictures from Rock and Shop

December 17th, pictures by Richard Ginn

All I want for Christmas...

New Refuge Gervasutti, from Leapfactory, an Italian company. This is designed as a luxury retreat for mountain climbers in the Alps. I would get my ass helicoptered up to it, that looks like a hard climb. Check out the full article at Dezeen.

Pe Lang's Moving Objects Series

moving objects series | nº 68 - 427 from pe lang on Vimeo.

I found these on Arthur Hash's awesome blog- The Art Escpape Plan. Check out his website as well, his work is really, really, really, really cool.

More Pictures, Mississippi 2011

Pictures of the Sky, Mississippi 2011

My Roommate, James Ward

This is the work of my roommate, James Ward. I helped him take photos of his work for the ELF Fair at the Carrborro Arts Center. Check out the work there, and buy some! It's beautiful stuff.

Hello There, Internet

The new shop

The Manor

New Yard Art

Local clay turned into a casting body (really exciting!)

New work!

Well... It's been a while since I have updated my blog, for which I am sorry. I have moved myself, my stuff, and my kilns from Penland, NC to Orange County NC (between Hillsborough and Chapel Hill). It has been an adventure, but I think things are finally coming together. I fired my first bisque/ cone 10 cycle in a new gas kiln with mixed results. The house is an old cabin which has been added on to over the years. The water comes out of a spring fed pond, and in addition to drying up all the time, it is totally unsuitable for using in glazes or clay body mixtures. I have been buying distilled water from the grocery store and we set up a rainwater catchment system. I have plans for making a still to get pure water, but there are only so many hours in the day... Any ways, I hope to update this more often and show some of the interesting problems and solutions that occur when trying to set up a production studio in this sort of environment. Stay tuned, and as always, thanks for reading!

If you have any ideas about water purification, d.i.y. power generation, or generally being off the grid, email me: mark@markwarrenstudio.com

New Cups, eHow.com, etc

New cups. Slipcast, Cone 10

I love this faux marble trippy background.

In case you wondered, I use the following recipe for this translucent body:

Grolleg: 41%

G200 feldspar: 41%

SiO2 (200 mesh): 18%

and for a batch of 50 pounds, 75grams Sodium Silicate

Thats it, super easy and really pretty.

credit where credit is due- Tom Spleth came up with recipe, and I'm never kidding when I say that he has taught me everything I know about ceramics.

Also, check out eHow.com's article on identifying slip cast work, in which I am the "expert" consulted. Its good information, and I'm not (too) nitpicky, so I would say it is mostly correct. The author of the article was supercool, and it was really fun to get interviewed.

New Work, July 2011

Slipcast, Cone 10

Fired in my sweet new electric kiln. This is the first batch.