Visit to Steve Rolf's Studio

The NICE group visited Steve Rolf in River Falls, WI this week. Steve has met with many in the group individually this year, so it was great to see another aspect of his life as an artist and hear him talk about his work.

Studio Update from Adam Gruetzmacher

I spent the late summer and early fall getting caught up on studio work and continuing to work on setting up the basement studio. Updates include two tables, another set of shelving, and finally moving my wheel (and all the other things that I have managed to accumulate over the years) into the space. As of November 29th, I officially moved out of my previously occupied studio and began working in my fully-functioning (albeit disorganized) home studio full-time.  My time was also occupied with some glaze research. I did a series of tests on seven clear glazes and six bisque slips. The clay body that I landed on is a 50/50 mix of Red Art earthenware and coarse fireclay, with a little ball clay and grog to round it out.

Two views in the studio showing the completed shelving, two work tables, and my wheel. The rest of the space is occupied by the kiln and a large area used for storing totes of finished work, shipping materials, and tools.

My results from the first round of glaze tests.  I had a lot of successful tiles come out of this firing, but I've narrowed the field to a couple of glazes and a slip for further testing with oxides. The bottom of a large vase is shown to display the red stoneware that I am using.