Erik Haagensen

Why Decals?

2012-01-29T09:34:00.000-08:00

The test tiles came out of the kiln this morning, and the color from our new ceramic decal printer is amazing. Check out these photos of real fired-on ceramic overglaze. This lead-free color system is fired onto the pots to 1500 F. I'll be writing more about this journey in the coming days but wanted to start with a post adressing the question....Why switch to decals?

For years I have been drawing little critters and captions on my pots using a range of high-fire overglazes I developed. I initially used a calligraphy pen but switched more and more to a slip trailer. I've always enjoyed doodling on paper and this was the closest technique I could make work in ceramics. I had experimented previously with mishima, sgraffito, maijolica painting, and straight up glaze brushwork. Both the process and quality of line for the overglaze drawings were very liberating and exciting and special, and worked great for quick, black & white drawings.

Over time I began experimenting with color overglazes, drawing overglaze around glazed colour swatches, and achieving a different feel using varied line weight. I was happy with a lot of the results, but my overglaze drawing technique did feel like it was limiting. The color pallete felt constrained because I was firing high (cone 6), base glaze requirements and likely because of chemical interactions with the frits and ceramic stains in the overglaze.

While I love the pots and will continue working in this manner, I was eager to try new things.

I had several goals when I decided to evaluate and test the use of decals...

A) Speed. The drawing was the longest part of the process and I had a backlog of pots piling up to draw on. If I spent too much time drawing I would yearn for some wheel time, go throw some, and then realize I now had an even bigger backlog to decorate. Also, if I drew for more than a few hours, my slip trailer hand would cramp up. By drawing once on paper, scanning, and printing limited editions, I am hoping to speed up the decorating phase and keep up with my throwing.

B) Varied Line Weight. I wanted to experiment with varied line weight to achieve a slightly more sophisticated or accomplished drawing.

C) Wider color range. The combination of my base glaze, firing temperature, and frits really limited the colored overglaze "inks" to a handful of colors I liked. Perhaps more testing was in order, but I tested A LOT of options to arrive at that handful.

D) Multi-media. I am interested in lavishing attention on my original drawings on paper, using fine line, colored pencil, watercolor, pastels, etc. Then I can scan these and create decals for my pots. I can also sell the original drawings and/or editions of giclee prints.

E) Base glaze options. With the process I developed, I really only had one base glaze that worked well. Luckily it was the first one I tested because it was my most favorite glaze. However, feeling constrained chafed a bit. I'm sure I could have tested other glazes with other overglaze options using the same application method, but... I'm a dork. I like technology.

In the meantime, here are my first quick tests, using scanned drawings and Photoshop to add color...

I'll post more results as the experiment progresses. You can also read more about the printer evaluation and purchase on the MudFire blog, where I've got a parallel post with a different focus.

It Begins

2012-01-14T13:19:00.000-08:00

We have just launched a new MudFire blog and are really excited. We've got a ton of posts and articles in the works and will frequently have cool art, studio member profiles, best of kiln photos, how to and technique information, and all other sorts of art, clay, and community goodness.

The first post is a cool video made at Burning Man, without which, perhaps there would be no MudFire? Perhaps it was inevitable but it sure speeded us along.

Visit the New MudFire Blog

Best of 2011

2011-12-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

What an incredible year! I hope everyone had as much fun as we did here at MudFire.

My work was included in a bunch of cool shows at the end of the year including a virtual exhibit by NCECA at the SOFA Chicago show, holiday shows at the J. Michael Kohler Art Center and Crimson Laurel Gallery, and the Dining with FRANK show in Chapel Hill. And of course at the MudFire Holiday Show where I've still got a few pieces left for sale.

Here's one pot from my Best of 2011 album that I just posted on my artist website. They are a dozen of my favorite pot shots from a busy year in the studio.

Don't Be a Dick

2011-04-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a new one headed to Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC for their Containment 2 show . . . titled "Don't be a Dick".

File Me Frigid

2011-01-22T11:58:00.000-08:00

Ha! Today I had a very very cold learning experience. I'm helping a local school start up some raku firings, and we assembled and test fired their purchased raku kiln by Olympic today. Its a cool little getup that came welded onto a little rolling cart so it can roll in and out of the building. It was a really cool, make that cold, getup today as we were out in the near freezing windy courtyard for an inaugural firing.
So we get it all connected and in place out doors and try to fire it up, and there is just no gas at all coming of the pilot orifice. We try everything we can think of but this simple setup with a Baso safety valve is not giving us gas.
Troubleshooting 101: take everything apart then put it all back together. I get back to where the regulator plugs into the propane tank back it out, then screw it back in and it feels a little looser and screws in a little further and we hear a little whoosh of escaping gas but I can't screw the plug in any further to seal it. Bust out the wrenches and tighten it a couple turns and we are ready to roll. Kiln lights up perfectly just like you'd expect.
At this point we're a little too chilly to hang around outside and futz with it more, but I bet that if I screwed it in and backed it out a couple times with the wrenches, then I could tighten it by hand like I've done in the past with every other propane tank I've ever used. I think maybe since it was a brand new tank and brand new fitting on the regulator, they were just a little too sticky for the hand tightening to work until they'd been worn in a bit.
Go figure, and while you are at it....file me under Frigid! It was a fun learning experience but I wish it had happened in Cancun and not lying on cold concrete all morning!

2010-10-17T14:37:00.000-07:00

A bunch of MudFire folks have some pots in a new show at Gallery Walk at Terminus here in Atlanta, one of the biggest, swankiest new buildings in town. My set of pots is above. Here are the curator's notes and artist list from the brochure...

Georgia Clay

Georgia has a long history of clay being used to produce vessels of all shapes and sizes. Our agrarian roots spawned the tradition of using earth to make functional objects like pots, jugs, mugs, platters and vases for everyday use. That tradition still runs deep in Georgia, but there are also artists who are using the medium in new and innovative ways. The art form that these artists explore is not necessarily “functional,” but a more sculptural, artistic expression using clay, porcelain and ceramics as the medium. Some artists use their clay form almost as a three-dimensional canvas on which to paint and draw their thoughts and ideas while others seemingly push the physical limits of what clay can withstand in order to make gravity defying sculptural objects.

All of the artists in this exhibition are schooled in the tradition of their craft but have chosen to explore a more unconventional direction in their artwork. Represented by galleries such as The Signature Shop in Buckhead and MudFire in Decatur, these artists are nurtured in our community and are flourishing in their artistic explorations.

– Anne Lambert Tracht, Curator

ARTISTS
AJ Argentina | Eileen Braun | Glenn Dair
Martin Dawe | Debra Fritts | Jennifer Graff
Krista Grecco | Erik Haagensen | Ron Meyers
Andy Nasisse | Mario Petrirena | Barry Rhodes
Adrina Richard | Stefan Ritter | Luba Sharapan
Kirsten Stingle | Gregor Turk | Pandra Williams

Georgia Clay
October 13, 2010 – January 14, 2011
case study at TERMINUS 200

Busy Summer, AKAR

2010-07-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Holy infrequentness of posting batman!

Guess its been a busy summer, not the least of which is the big Hooper plates project. I took his family crest, and made six prototype platters all using different decorative techniques. Sent 'em out, got 'em back, and got to work duplicating the winner 13 times. Its not done yet but almost done and done enough to breathe easy finally. Here's a peak at the in process...

Just got back from southern Minnesota for a wedding, survived my first mid-West summer extreme storm with 90 mile an hour winds and hail, enjoyed a free first class upgrade from Delta on the way home (bloody marys!) and got home to find a non-descript envelope...

...INVITING ME TO SHOW AT AKAR GALLERY!

Very exciting, in fact let's say just as exciting as having San Francisco artist Diana Fayt come to MudFire to teach for back-to-back weekend workshops starting Thursday.

Plate a Day

2010-05-13T06:21:00.000-07:00

Yipppeeeee!

One of my big platters was featured recently on the A Plate A Day blog. Check it -- and a lot of other really cool plates -- out on the blog. Scroll down a few entries to #362 from Thursday May 8. A Plate A Day

Let us add a parting thank you to Kyle Carpenter for catching this while I was on vacation and mentioning it.

Vent it!

2010-03-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a great reminder of why its important to vent your kiln & kiln room. Take a look at what a few years of kiln fumes did to our heavy gauge stainless steel Envirovent blower. Here are "before and after" pics with the replacement...

Painting, Fish Test

2010-03-18T19:09:00.000-07:00

Super excited today! Yippppeeeeeee!

I've been working on some new things and had some awesome test results out of the kiln today. The goal is to come up with some design motifs and ways of extending and complementing the line drawings with more depth...particularly for larger pieces. The thing that has interested me most is the look of water color overlayed with pen and ink. I think this started with a painting in a high school art exhibit that I juried last year.

Let me see if I can dig up the photo right now. Yes here it is. Sadly I've lost the artist name. This was a small detail of a huge painting. But I love the crisp lean lines on top of the color.

Here's my first test result. I'm not sure if it'll be color little monsters and cartoons, maybe some, but I'm really eager to try some abstract and some more expressive fire pots and some calming nature is likely too.

From a technical perspective I couldn't be happier! All the colors stayed true, no weird interactions, the color layering worked well, everything stayed smooth and shiny, fine detail stayed fine. Happy happ-E. Time to start testing my 80 jars of mason stains and spend some time in the notebook composing.

I don't know why I picked a fish for my first test, it just worked out that way. I'd like to capture fire, water, air, earth somehow, have a series of each. How varied can I get with the decoration and still have it be Erik Pottery with the same materials and forms? This is what I'll be drifting off thinking about in a few minutes.

Peace, good night.

Riding A Wild Pony...

2010-03-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

...is how I think of this life of the artist and arts administrator. The hat rack seems to grow ever bigger. Here's a bunch of posts I've been meaning to make and I'll just lump them all together. Maybe not ideal from a writing perspective but a good glimpse into the wild of the ride.

Man down! One of the vents on our kilns quit the other day. Not a big deal if you're firing for yourself outdoors, but in a building full of kilns that people are working in every day moving work for 160 ceramists in and out, its really not safe to fire because of fumes, and if you don't fix it the ware shelves back up pretty quick. Luckily it was an easy and routine repair and we keep the spare parts on hand. I learned that working on a sail boat....keep 2 or 3 of everything on hand, because when you're 50 miles offshore is when things decide to break. Take a look at what several years of firing fumes will do to a heavy gauge stainless steel blower fan when you fire continuously...

Did I mention I love my socket set?

My fine friends at Maralyn Wilson Gallery in Birmingham, AL had a big cup show including work by yours truly. While the show is not online, it did get coverage in a nice segment on the local news on the ABC affiliate. Maralyn does a great job in the interview, although she does make the newscaster kind of snort and make senseless comments when she reads the caption from one of my mugs "Bunny Loves Riding Smiley 3-Eyes". I helped with some artist suggestions and was excited to see my friends Joey Sheehan, Ronan Peterson, and MudFire Ranger Megan Ramsey join me in the show.

We've been busy with events and big spring marketing push here at MudFire the past several weeks. I realized the other day I had nothing drying and ready for bisque firing. I've got a few days to throw throw throw and I can't wait it's been a while. My last run of making was mostly handbuilding, which was unusual and fun. I made some cool boxes getting ready for the Containment show at Crimson Laurel Gallery that opens in April. This is going to be an awesome show and you'll be able to view it online. I'm doing my final decorating work this weekend and shipping the work out this week. I'll try to grab a few pics and post a sneak preview of my contributions to the show here. I'm truly honored to be included in this group of artists.

And of course, no blog multi-post would really be complete without a picture of one's darlin' with her new green mini-goattee...

Ready for Action

2010-02-22T17:43:00.000-08:00

It's been a crazy month of nonstop MudFire madness with our big neighborhood arts cruise RAD, and exhibit of new work by Luba and myself and Austin pottery Ryan McKerley, another weekend with Ryan doing a workshop, and now setting up for the Kyle Carpenter show this weekend.

The good news is I got a ton of pots done in time for the RAD exhibit, the bad news is it all went so fast I didn't get to post a show video. I've got a ton of pictures though...here's a few...including my first pottery on fire, a bunch of whiskey cups to get us through this cold weather, a monster mosh pit serving bowl, and at the end my favorite of the last kiln load. I love the crazy stuff but I'm also working toward elegance, and this one is the best step in that direction yet.

If you're in Atlanta, stop by this weekend, I've still got a big bunch of pots on display, and you can catch Kyle Carpenter's opening celebration too. We'll be drinking wine and talking pots, see you there.

Thanks for reading and looking!

My Long Lost Twin

2010-01-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

My parents never told me I had a twin brother, but now I have uncovered their plot. Apparently they shipped off Alterna-E to Brazil at an early age, but the adoptive parents must have tried to preserve his heritage somehow. There is no other possible explanation. Well, wait, I suppose as performance art I could have created and populated this myspace profile. I don't know, I'm uncomfortable talking about it. You make the call....long lost twin...or performance art? Comments? Mom?

My Brazilian Musician Alter-Ego

Anyone Seen Kathy King?

2009-12-14T20:41:00.000-08:00

I am concerned at the rapid disappearance of important studio potters. Its important to note that nobody else has noticed this, and that in fact, I haven't noticed this.

Until now.

Kathy King has gone missing and gone fireman at the same time. Meanwhile, my friends with experience in Amazonian head shrinking seem to have it in for Miss King. Something about heading north. Something about leaving Atlanta. Something about becoming a MassHole. And yes, I grew up where 495 hits the Mass Pike, so I can throw that down. Massachutes + @$$hole = ..... OK, I spelled it out and you got it.

Anyhow, Miss King, can you please confirm or deny the rumors of your head shrinkage. Which I'm sure, to quote Twain, are greatly exaggerated.

Mug Musings

2009-12-14T19:49:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about mugs. And wondering how many I can hold in one hand. Eight is probably a good start.

Potters, it seems to me, have a love-hate relationship with mugs. On the one hand, they are the most popular item with collectors. On the other hand, Tradition!!!!, they seem to be more effort than what one can sell them for. They seem to be a loss-leader, a have-to-make, a get-them-in-the-door. Shall we say, grudgingly made.

The interesting thing about this is that when MudFire started in the gallery biz, it was rare to see a mug over $20. This was just five years ago. Now it seems that $32 is the new $18. I remember people creeping up with their mug prices over the years, and I remember resistance early on from collectors. At this point its rare to see mugs under $30, and it is not really uncommon to see them over $40. My sense is that the average collector really steps back and thinks twice at over $50, although if you are a BIG NAME STUDIO POTTER, whatever that means, you're mugs are probably over $50 at this point.

Strangely, price points seem to have moved on to be more reflective of the time investment in creating a mug vs. say a small cup or bowl. Yet the attitude of feeling like mugs are an under-rewarded form that is strangely must-have lingers on. The result is a customer base that is willing to pay a fair amount given the time and expense in creating, but a producer base that is unwilling to make the desired item. Potters are in this sense an entire industry that avoids or minimizes making the item the customer wants most.

Obviously, its hard to make sweeping statements like this and be universally correct. But surely there is a grain of truth at the very least in these comments.

Where many of my fellow potters are focused lately on making large work, or on making decorative wall work, or other such higher investment, higher price point items, I'm lately very fixated on the mug. Partly this is because my attempts this fall to make less silly, more elegant and decorative, larger pieces, does not seem to be the path to placing more work. On the other hand, I've made dozens and dozens and dozens of very silly and unique mugs, and they are impossible to keep in stock. Is this just me? Possibly, but it seems like the pattern holds across other (less silly) artists in our gallery. Mugs move.

So here's a fun question...could a potter make just mugs? Would the numbers work? Would it be fun? How would collectors react? Is there a just-mugs potter out there. I don't know anyone approaching their clientele with this strategy, but I'm curious. In the era of the $32 mug, is their a livelihood to be had with just mugs? Is it a sustainable approach?

I have this funny intuition that maybe it could work. But I don't know anyone doing it.

Your thoughts?

What makes a good booth?

2009-10-17T16:02:00.000-07:00

I'm loving Kyle Carpenter's new art show booth. Check it out.

Here's a question...what makes a good booth? Comments please!

2009-10-12T19:13:00.001-07:00

Don't cut corners in hot springs. The pencil graffiti crew will call you out.

Green Fluff Issue

2009-09-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Help, I can't get this mossy bit of fluff off my nose!

New Work Now Posted

2009-09-12T15:48:00.000-07:00

Its been a busy summer of making pots and a lot of loose ends came together on Labor Day Weekend. I got tons of new work out of the kiln, and posted images on my website.

Razor wire

2009-09-11T22:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the razor wire looks so pretty at night...shiny, sparkly,rhythmic, it dances along the top of the fence bathed in a lush sodium glow.

Densely drawn

2009-08-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

Just got a couple of big platters out of the kiln that I am super-excited about. I can't wait to draw more later in the week!

The past 10 days

2009-07-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

We just went from a quick visit to paradise to packing and shipping madness. After seven relaxing days on Cape Cod we got back to MudFire late on a Tuesday. We had three days to pack up an old show, ship out the unsold work, unpack a new show, install it, clean the gallery, document with video, and get ready for the crowd/party. Normally all that takes a week!

We went from this...(note the sweet Mark Issenberg coffee mugs)
To this.....

The opening night for the Draw + Decal show was a blast, it was great to see so many friends and make so many new friends too! Thanks for coming out everyone!

2009-06-24T18:58:00.001-07:00

Buddy Guy just said... I want to play something so funky you can smell it.

More Color

2009-06-24T10:25:00.000-07:00

Got some new mugs out of the kiln earlier this week. They've got more color glaze on the outside, and some are two tone. I liked the way the top & bottom color constrained the drawing area and made it feel more like a comic strip. The old style (you can see some on the website) had more drawing room but sometimes it felt like the drawings were a bit adrift.

I've never spent much time thinking about color before, and it is so powerful. We had a fun talk in the studio the other night about the effect various color combinations had on each other and how they made us feel. Both Luba and I are using more color in our work, and we just got a big shipment of mason stains in, so now its time to head back into the studio and get busy testing.

Have a great day!

Testing test kiln.

2009-06-23T17:14:00.001-07:00

Fired up this little test kiln 2day. Will use for decals & lowfire inks.

2009-06-23T16:57:00.001-07:00

Testing post from phone.

Here we go!

2009-06-23T15:53:00.000-07:00

I recently decided to move my artist's blog off my website and onto the blogger platform. I'll still be maintaining the site including current artist information and galleries there. Thanks for stopping by here!