Journal

News from Dowd House Studios: places to find our pottery, exhibitions, classes & workshops, new forms and exciting projects.

Filtering by Category: Custom Design

Studio Update

December 13, 2022Jenny Dowd

A lot has happened in the past few months! Here are the highlights…

We got a new electric kiln! It’s big, heavy, and awkward, so getting it off of Sam’s truck was an undertaking. We moved it into the studio using Ancient Egyptian engineering - rolling the kiln and pallet on scrap metal rollers. This was actually pretty fun and of course we took a few minutes to Walk Like an Egyptian and to sing that song too…

Still need to hook it up, but the kiln is now in its new home with the other kilns (they all need names.) The space is a bit unsettled for the moment, but everything will find a place soon.

Speaking of finding a place, we’ve been in need of shelving to keep our drying or ready to be fired pottery. Sam welded us a cart…

Up next, this is probably the most important (or at this point, luxurious) item… a studio sink! Complete with clay trap and on-demand water heater. I promise it will never be this clean again. Ever.

Or maybe this is the most important? A tiny bathroom, complete with a sliding barn door (with a handle Sam made once in a blacksmithing class) and a vintage porcelain towel rack (scavenged by my dad)

We had our first ever open studio and pottery sale this weekend, it was a good start for events to come! Plus we got help with the final lift of the new kiln and a few suggestions on future bathroom colors…

Not to be left out, Studio Cat Merlin is hard at work overseeing the Shipping Department (located in the house.) We will be introducing Merlin back to his job in the studio very soon, we just need to finish building things and make sure he has some comfy perches he can observe from. He’s resting up in preparation.

categories Custom Design, Milestone, Studio, Studio Cat
tags studio build, potters life, arkansas potters, arkansas pottery, studio life, studio cat

Storytelling

January 22, 2022Jenny Dowd

Sometimes custom orders and funny stories turn into illustrated pottery. These are a few projects from recent months:

These mugs were custom ordered from an Aunt who wanted to celebrate and surprise her twin nieces, they grew up in Idaho and had just moved to New York to attend college on a hockey scholarship. Something to remind them of home but also where they were headed!

For these porcelain mugs I used an inlay technique to create the drawing in the damp clay. Each of the tiny black lines were drawn with an x-acto blade, filled in with black underglaze, and then wiped clean. The crisp black lines look like an ink drawing on the white porcelain clay. Two mugs, similar but different, just like the sisters.

Chainsaw mugs! A friend recently became certified to assist in disaster related tree removal as well as fire mitigation. WOW! To celebrate she commissioned mugs for her instructors.

This time I drew the chainsaws on bisque-fired clay with an underglaze pencil, this makes these awkward chainsaws just a little more comical. I filled in the drawing with red glaze and grey underglaze.

This one was unsolicited… I had an idea to turn a scary story into a sweet comforting gift. And it’s a long story, so let’s just hit the main points: house sitting + bomb cyclones & closed highways, mix in some tick infested dogs during a peak in lyme disease season and suddenly a tent pitched in the middle of the living room to sleep in at night doesn’t seem so weird.

This design was also drawn on the clay with underglaze pencils and filled in with layers of watered down underglaze. This time I used a clear glaze that I had not applied to this type of surface before and didn’t realize that some of the underglaze pencil lines would run. After waves of initial disappointment, I realized that the soft lines fit in more with my vision of a dark sky around the edge of the bowl, and perhaps the bunting on the outside is just wet from all that rain.

These are a few projects currently in progress, or in the case of the little 5-legged octopus (quintopus?) just starting to percolate. The octopus was my example made during the surface design class I am teaching at the Community Creative Center. While demonstrating sgraffito I started to draw a ghost and then mid-draw thought that might be boring and started adding legs. Of course there was not enough room! But this cute little mollusc came to life and now I’m considering adding it to my cast of characters.

The porcelain cups are in preparation for that quickly approaching February day. These lamps might be some of my favorite characters, especially when one finally leans in to admit a secret to the other. (Psst. I really like you.)

categories Custom Design, Illustration, New Ideas, Process
tags illustrated pottery, drawing on clay, drawing on pottery, arkansas potter, made in arkansas, jenny dowd pottery, dowd house studios, sgraffito, underglaze inlay, chainsaw mugs

Made for MADE

June 30, 2019Jenny Dowd

Mugs, Mugs, Mugs! And one tuckered out studio cat…. because it’s tough work overseeing this kind of action.

So, what’s going on?

For the past few months I’ve been testing mugs for MADE in Jackson. This shop features handmade, unique goods from all over the country. The difficult part of the task: create a design to be produced exclusively for this shop, make it unique from the mugs I make for other shops in the area. Oh, and something I would not get sick of making.

To keep things simple, each mug has an outline of the Tetons - a striking landmark from this area. Each are filled with a variety of patterns, each a little similar yet different. This mug shape is also one that I have not made in awhile. My hope is that it will appeal to both men and women, making for a useful and perhaps, favorite gift.

Carving into the wet clay means that I’m left with a deep texture of the mountains and patterns. There are 2 versions of this mug, creamy ivory and black. For the black design the glaze is applied to the carved lines and wiped off - image on the above left. Then the mountains are coated with wax so that the color is protected when the whole mug gets dipped in the white glaze. (It looks totally different before firing!)

The wax burns off leaving the black glaze inlaid into the surface… here is a photo from a peek into the still hot kiln. And the black glaze is inlaid in the same way (minus the wax) on the bottom - to show off the “Made in Jackson Hole” stamp.

Finished mugs! The glazes, once wiped away around the mountains, leave a little halo of color. Something else that makes each one unique.

Find these mugs in Jackson at MADE or in their online shop!

categories Custom Design, Shops with Pottery, Studio
tags jackson hole mugs, MADE Jackson Hole, handmade pottery, studio life, studio cat

So many mugs

May 19, 2019Jenny Dowd

I’m really in a mug phase right now.

Lately I’ve been working on mugs for shops, mugs for upcoming sales, and mugs for special projects. The biggest challenge is coming up with a unique design for each location, at the same time this is the best part - an excuse to stretch and come up with something different while maintaining my voice and style. I love that within each of these projects the mugs are unique yet similar…

This Jackson Hole mug was created as a custom design for Workshop; I’ve been making them for a few years and on this last round gave them a minor tweak. Lowercase metal letter stamps - the result is so much more playful! Each letter is hand-stamped and the mountains and lines are incised. Each different yet similar.

Penny Lane is opening at a brand new location tomorrow! I’ve made a collection just for this space, ivory glazed mugs of all shapes & sizes. Each incised with little details.

This year I have been working on another custom mug, this time exclusively for MADE. Each features the Tetons while varying slightly in pattern. I’m still tweaking this design, trying a batch made from porcelain… coming soon!

In the soda kiln right now… lots of mugs! I’m never totally sure how these pots will turn out (check out these past Journal entries for details on this firing process: Part 1 & Part 2) Here I’m applying stains to the surface of the clay, this will react in the firing and make something interesting.

And finally! I’ve been invited to participate in the first year of Wyoming Art Drop. This project features artwork by 6 Wyoming artists. Order an Art Drop and you’ll get a box of curated artwork delivered to your door in December. This Wyoming Night Mug is my prototype for this project, I’m excited to represent my state!

categories Custom Design, Process, Shops with Pottery
tags jackson hole mugs, mugs, handmade pottery, Shopping in Jackson WY

Market Update

March 10, 2019Jenny Dowd

Last week I showed a bit of the process behind the pottery I’m making exclusively for Market. I opened the kiln on Monday to find that for once, everything in the kiln looked great! (See last week’s post here)

Garden themed pots: Swiss chard cups, cherry tomato salad bowls, plus a salt cellar and garlic keeper.

Before this load could be fired, I had to solve another problem. The shelves were in serious need of care, the bottoms of the pots had been sticking - leaving behind tiny shards of fired clay. Not only is it annoying to constantly clean the kiln shelves, but it meant that a lot of my pots had bits of clay missing from the feet and it just looked bad.

Fixing this means another step, but one that is worth it. I’m now coating the foot of each pot with a mixture of brushable wax and alumina. This ensures that nothing will stick to the kiln shelf and the foot of each pot will look how it should! I also scraped each shelf, and coated it with fresh kiln wash - which dried out in front of the space heater with a little help from Merlin’s studio water dish.

I’m also making ornaments specifically for Market, with the Vertical Harvest logo on one side, and a ripe juicy tomato on the other. The logo is hand drawn onto the porcelain disk using an underglaze pencil. I found that I can go over the lines with a little water on a brush to make it look more painterly.

It’s a few months away, but now I can’t wait until I can grow Swiss Chard and cherry tomatoes in my own garden, right outside of my studio!

categories Shops with Pottery, Problem Solving, Studio, New Ideas, Custom Design
tags Drawing on Pottery, Market Jackson Hole, Custom Design, tomatoes, swiss chard, ceramic ornaments

New Work for Market

March 02, 2019Jenny Dowd

Lately these quiet snowy days have been helpful in the studio, where I’ve been working to design a new line of pottery to be sold exclusively at Market. This shop is inside Vertical Harvest, the amazing greenhouse that grows beautiful greens and tomatoes all year in Jackson, Wyoming.

This project has taken since last spring, working through sketches, testing glazes, and mostly just thinking about how to make colorful garden themed designs - while working on all the projects that kept me busy last year. My goal was to make garden themed pots for dining: cups & pitchers, serving & salad bowls, as well as helpful items for the kitchen: garlic keepers & salt cellars. It’s been nice thinking about garden parties during this ultra-snowy winter!

In January I finally made some actual pieces. New ideas don’t usually take this long, but this time the process is such a departure from my usual, and I was a little stumped. Usually I decorate the surfaces while the pots are still wet, using inlay and sgraffito techniques. But what was bugging me was that I wanted these images to have a gestural line feel, more like drawing. So I bisque fired the test pieces and ordered a few underglaze pencils.

A neat trick when working on bisque fired pottery is that a design can be worked out with a graphite pencil - any unwanted graphite can be washed off with a sponge but it will also burn away in the kiln. So I worked out some of my drawings with a pencil first. Then went over them with the underglaze pencil. (Which is a very cool decorating tool - it looks sketchy like a pencil and yet will fire to a permanent line!)

I drew Swiss Chard on the cups & pitchers, tomatoes on the bowls, micro-greens on the salt cellars, and garlic on the garlic keepers. Then started in with glaze - only using copper green and red right now; colorful, but not too colorful. Similar to the first colors of spring. The glazing is a bit tedious - starting with the greens, once the leaves are brushed on I went over them with wax resist. This way I can glaze with the second color right up next to the first color. Red goes on next, then wax over that, finally clear over everything.

This is how the prototypes turned out and I’ve got a whole kiln load right now that I can’t wait to see. So stay tuned for an update!

categories Custom Design, Shops with Pottery
tags Market Jackson Hole, garden pots, drawing on pottery, garlic keeper, swiss chard, tomatoes, custom design, vertical harvest

Special, Special Orders

December 09, 2018Jenny Dowd

Just about every time I think that I’ve got too much to do and shouldn’t take on any more special orders - I get the most amazing requests. These are the things that, although they take me off my path, they make me realize that my path can (and should be) be wider than originally thought.

Just this past week I finished and delivered two of the most special orders. Each were commissioned by someone as a gift for another person or family, each very personal.

The pitcher and cups are for someone who has just moved into a new home that she has named “The Sunny Spot.” This inspired me to made a few little wall tiles with whimsical little hills, and a path to the sun and stars. Luckily, Sam and I had planned a soda firing and I was able to make these pieces and get them into the kiln in time. (This is a laborious process that we love but only do a few times each year. For the whole story on how these pieces happen check out my past journal entry here.)

This teapot and cup set is also extremely whimsical, full of special meaning, and commissioned as a gift. While working on these pieces I fell in love with the clouds - I’ve put these on succulent planters in the past, but this time it was if I saw them differently…. and they will be showing up in the future.

Every order, every piece of pottery that finds a new home, each one is a gift. When I stop to think about my work out there in the wild making people happy, it floors me and energizes me at the same time.

categories Custom Design, New Ideas
tags special order, custom design, soda firing, drawing on pottery

Pottery in Action: The White Buffalo Club

May 11, 2018Jenny Dowd

I have been working on custom pottery for The Restaurant at The White Buffalo Club in Jackson for over a year. This is the first in a series of big orders and even though it still seems like it takes me a long time to finish anything- I can tell that I've gotten faster and more consistent thanks to this project!

At the start I met with Chef Joel Hammond to discuss plate forms and glaze colors. We started out with 1 bowl and 3 plate forms with 3 different glazes. Since completing these, we've started adding specialized plates and ramekins.

For the pieces shown here, I used stoneware with satin glazes that highlight speckles from the iron rich clay. All of these pieces were made in the clay studio at the Art Association, so in snatches of time between classes I often took over a few tables with stacks and stacks of pottery. (Check out my past blog post The Studios for more on how I balance work spaces.)

The speckles and satin earth tone glazes really fit the theme that Chef Joel has created at the White Buffalo Club. He sources local and regional products that highlight small ranches and farms. This extends to local handmade products- not just pottery, also the tables in the restaurant!

One plate form was totally new for me, a shallow flat plate with straight sides. While making the form was simple, I wanted to also ensure that the plates stacked well- imagining a busy kitchen. I came up with a simple solution to bevel the bottom edge- so each plate fits slightly inside of the plate it is on top of.

Working with chefs to create custom dishes to support their vision has quickly become one of my favorite parts of being a potter. Joel came by the studio one day to try out an idea- I made a deep wide bowl and he pressed in and shaped the side... now I'm replicating this form and I can't wait to see what will go in it! I am also currently working on a specialized steak plate. So stay tuned, there is much more to come.

Visit the White Buffalo Club's Facebook page to see more images of my pottery in action, with yummy things on them. (All food photos on this post are from this page.)

Better yet, make time for dinner- The Restaurant at The White Buffalo Club re-opened May 11 for the season, so stop by to see what's new!

categories Pottery In Use, Custom Design, Problem Solving
tags jackson hole dining, pottery in use, the restaurant at the white buffalo club, chef joel hammond

Custom Mugs: JH Book Trader

December 16, 2017Jenny Dowd

Earlier this year I was commissioned to create mugs to compliment the upcoming redesign of the Jackson Hole Book Trader. A few prototypes resulted in my most custom created mug yet, and it's a good fit- a mug for tea or coffee plus great books- the recipe for a perfect morning (or afternoon or evening)!

The mugs are first wheel-thrown, then I used multiple techniques to create the surface design, each happening at just the right moment in the span of clay dryness...

The letters were individually stamped into the damp porcelain. Much as I tried for even rows, the letters are a little wobbly and some impressions are deeper than others- similar to my old typewriter.

After brushing black underglaze onto the letters and letting it dry a little, I wiped a sponge over the letters to leave each inlaid with black. For the logo I made a simple stencil out of contact paper. This helped quickly transfer most of the open book logo onto the cup. I went back with a small brush to fill in the details and clean up the edges.

The logo and text is the same on each mug, yet the black and white surrounding is opposite, resulting in two complimentary designs.

It's complicated, but I simplified and streamlined the process as much as possible so I can easily recreate the mugs for future orders.

Be sure to stop by the Book Trader to see the whole remodel, it is bright and open and beautiful. My favorite is the fireplace and comfy chairs, and now you can take home a handmade mug as a reminder of this beautiful bookstore!

categories Shops with Pottery, Custom Design
tags JH Book Trader, Mugs, Custom Design, Black and white pottery, Bookstore pottery, Jackson Hole

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