Website!

Hello All
This blog has moved. My good friend Nate Laffan, of http://www.laffandesign.com/, has made me a website! http://carlamchattie.com includes a "Journal" section where my blog can now be found. Please take a moment to check it out.
Meanwhile check out this photo of me (just barely) lining up to race with Olympian Kara Goucher, and her bad ass teammates.

Hey a Show!

Hey. Since I doubt anyone is willing to make a the trip out to Gresham, Oregon to see this show, I am just gonna post the pots I have to see there. One of them you may have already seen in my "Garden Photo shoot" from my last post. It really looks better in the garden... I think it likes sunlight as much as I do.
I think the other ones have been posted at one point or another, but these four are some of my favorite things. Enjoy.
They are all for sale. If you would like ot go out and see the show it is at Mt. Hood Community College, in the Visual Arts Gallery. There is a lot of beautiful work there. The ceramics, print making departments work is very strong.

In LOVE!

With a bowl that is. This is my favorite thing that I have made to date! I really think so, and want to declare it before I open up the cooling wood kiln on this weekend. What a beauty. Notice the side where the soda hit the pot and made the glaze translucent. The creamy white on the outside, that is blushed from copper. Possibly from the inside, possibly from the atmosphere. The garnet inside with a slight purple accent. The lip that holds a wealth of crystals, and is at the perfect angle for a spoon or your lips. This bowl also has a pleasant weight to it, where durability and ease are balanced. Lately I have been trying to throw with a lot of intention and confidence, recorded in throwing marks that suggest movement in the object, and reference the process by which it was made. I think this bowl is a really successful example of that.
I hope you like this one as much as I do :-)

Too excited!

Since I can't wait to show off my new pots that are hot out of the Soda kiln, I decided to take some snapshots of them in my garden. Quick and dirty.

Bowls

Here are some of the bowls from the firing. See if you can find them in the stacks shown in my last post! These are some real beauties. I want to pick just one of them to keep for my Malt-O-Meal in the morning, But I can't chose between them. I think I have it narrowed to between the robins egg blue one, and the white on the outside, color burst on the inside, one. I really like the red one too... so hard to choose!
Look at all the soda on the side of the low round bowl with red inside (second from top of post). That bowl got a lot of kiln-love, and came out crazy and exciting!

Soda Fire

Here are two layers of the soda kiln i recently fired with two other potter friends. The colors came out beautifully, and the Pendleton Red clay I used for the bowls I had in there also came out a stunning toasty color. Most of the work I had in this kiln is going towards the Empty Bowls Project. Which is a potters way to earn money for Oregon Food Banks, that are really in need at the moment. We will be selling the bowls from the Mt. Hood Community College dining hall, filled with soup, for ten dollars. Seven goes to the food bank, and 3 actually pays for the soup. What a deal! You can eat lunch for charity, and keep the bowl! if you want more info about this project, please ask me about it.

Group Show at Lille

I am included in a group of artists displaying work at Lille this month. The show opens the first friday of april, the 3rd, Please stop by to check out new work of mine (Carla McHattie), and by Sarah LaBarre, Ryan Jacob Smith, Emily Katz, Seth Neefus, The Christopher Twins. Join us for a glass of wine and converse with some other great local artists while admiring the new styles from VPL, Araks, Malia Mills, and the very exciting new Danish line, Hoff by Hoff, for which Lille is proud to be the exclusive US retailer!
Lille is located at:1007 E. Burnside, Portland, OR 97214
Sorry, my work was to new too even get a photo!

Kiss a Mug

Have you ever really thought about your mug? You know, the one you favor for your daily beverage ritual of choice. Whether it is a groggy morning cup of joe, an afternoon tea, or a nightcap, that cup is perfect. You bring it to your mouth and you kiss it, you feel the relaxing warmth of its liquid, you cherish that moment. I love mugs because of this personal, sensual, perfect moment. This cozy exchange is what I strive to create with each mug I turn out. If you have never thought about this, now you will. I think about it all the time.
I received a mug as a gift a while back. A great friend gave it to me as a gag since it has a cheezy Minnesota theme she knew I would get a kick out of. But the design is bad. The handle is made of wood, and is square. By far the least comfortable handle I have ever held. The lip is also very awkward and your mouth touches the metal that holds the handle on while you drink. Cool theme, bad execution, a pain to use. I still use it when she is around. Your relationships with real people after all are more fragile than relationships with objects...
Here are a few of the mugs I have made recently. I am still working towards mastery, but the brownish green one has a real energy that I have been trying to channel into more of my work.

Little Woody

Here are snapshots from a recent wood kiln. For a potter the day you open up the kiln is like Christmas! This opening was no different. There is also a little flame sneaking out the door,(that was later plugged)so you can get some of the hot flame experience.

Plates and Platters

Here are a few works, large and small, to come out of a recent wood firing. The kiln was reduction cooled, and only fired to about cone 9 or so. Very dark, subtle coloring was a result of this firing style. Although I found it to be a worthy experiment, I do not think I will be firing this way again. The vary dark platter is about 14" across, while the others are smaller, saucer sized plates. New kiln opening photos coming soon.

Spring Bowls

Things are looking up! Since the days have been getting longer here in Portland, the sun has been shining more and more. Just when I was starting to wonder what happened to that warm golden ball up there. My little bowls are also looking springy, I thought I should post them to celebrate the changing of the seasons.

Stamp

Here is a close up of one of my stamps o the foot of a small tea/prep bowl.

Pots for Tea

In the later winter months I am constantly seeking ways to keep warm. Living in Portland, Oregon, and primarily biking for transportation, I am often a bit soggy and chilled from the cold rain. A good pot of green tea and a woolly pair of slippers usually will do the trick.
Here are a few teapots that I just recently pulled out of the kiln. These pots are glazed with a sprayed Shino on the outside, and a copper glaze that surprised me with violet on the inside. The contrast of the earthy orange, and the electric violet on the inside is charming and fun.

Sneak Peak

Here are a few photos of new pots. There will be more later. These pots have been reduction cooled. A process that involves restricting as much oxygen as possible to the kiln as it cools slowly. The very dark coloring and texture of these pots is a result of this process.

My apologies for the gap between this and my last post.