Kiln Fillers and Happy Birthdays

Our kiln is 99.9% completed, which means we have to get busy making pots to fill it. While Jeff made large pots, I made some kiln fillers. It’s always good to have little things that can tuck under vessel sinks or fit on the bag wall, utilizing space that might otherwise be wasted.

The kiln fillers always sell quickly, which is the BEST reason to make them!
and of greater significance today…
Happy Birthday to my movie star daughter Danielle! 
She’s still rockin’ the sunglasses 30+ years later.
P.S. This guy also had a birthday over weekend…

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Time Adjustment

I am not a fan of daylight savings time. It seems the older I get, the harder it is to adjust to the time switch. My typical waking time is 7:00 am. Which means that I am now waking at 8:00 am. Eventually I will shift back to 7:00, probably as it becomes lighter in the morning.

One reason that I mention this is, remember that propane tank delivery? We were scheduled for today, but the gas company mentioned that if they could squeeze us in they would come sooner. Jeff and I had to head to Charlotte on Monday so I figured I would call the company and check on the schedule. It would be my luck for them to come the one day out of the month when we weren’t home. I woke at 8:00 am, had a cup of coffee, called the gas company at 9:00 am. Of course they bumped the delivery up to that day! But they would come before noon, so we were still good to go. Jeff went outside to set the burners for the kiln in place… THE TANK WAS ALREADY THERE.

They must have come early.
While we were sleeping an hour later than usual.

So now they have to come back and connect the gas line and do the pressure test. Which may take another week.

Boo to daylight savings time, and Boo to the gas company for not calling ahead to let us know you were coming.

On a happy note… pigs are happening in the studio again. Salt and Pepper pigs.
And a new white and blue spotted pig. Have a great day… the weather has been awesome here.

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The Oval, revisited.

I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling good about the clay again. I figured I better post some photos to back up the words. These ovals are a little smaller than the ones I usually make. The stamped pieces in the foreground will get some slip applied for mishima technique. Once the slip has dried I will scrape it off to reveal the pattern below.

A few of the ovals got the ginkgo pattern. I am doing it a little different this time, placing a few leaves within panels. There is white slip in the panel, but it’s hard to see in this light. My glaze plan is sprayed ash, foregoing the usual green and shino. I have been really digging the brown lately. The interiors might be lined with shino. I will make that decision later.

My work this week is a good jumping off point to get more creative in between making pigs. Today it’s back to the pigs. I am feeling ready for them!

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The Inspirational House Guest

Last week was the North Carolina Potters Conference. If money was plentiful, I would have definitely attended this year. Tony Clennell, Sunshine Cobb, and Steven Godfrey, were presenters. Even though I didn’t get to attend, Jeff and I had the pleasure of hosting Tony after the conference. We lured him to 505 E Main with the promise of Jeff’s famous barbecue. He took the bait and stayed with us for two days.

Monday night we invited a few potter neighbors over and we all feasted on a smoked shoulder, slaw, roasted veggies, and plenty of beer and wine to wash it all down. Lots of stories were shared.

I mentioned last week that I have been feeling “scattered” and sort of in a slump. A change of a pace, and a few days of inspiring conversation, has kicked my ass to get back to work. I have spent a couple of days making pots that were not piggy banks or sponge holders.

This evening I photographed these pots of Tony’s that are now part of our collection. Pots in person are the best, but I really enjoyed photographing them, and seeing them in a different light. 

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Southern Comfort

And I am not talking about whiskey!

I had never tried grits until I moved to North Carolina. Let’s face it, the name doesn’t sound appealing, and on their own they aren’t very pretty to look at. My first experience was with shrimp and grits and that’s when I fell in love. Every so often I cook some grits for breakfast. So yummy with an egg. What would have made this breakfast over the top? I little crumbled bacon, but that’s not something I keep on hand on a regular basis. A sprinkling of chopped green onion added a nice fresh flavor. Served in my favorite Ron Philbeck bowl, those grits are looking quite attractive.

Jeff and I ended our day with a drive into nearby Asheboro for early voting. It’s great to get it done with no long lines. Early voting times coincided with the exhibition at the North Carolina Potters Conference. The gallery was jammed packed with people. In no time at all, nearly all of presenter Tony Clennell’s pots were sold. Lot’s of red dots on the other presenters work as well. I would have liked to attend the conference this year, but money is tight. Maybe next year.

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Untitled…

Nothing too exciting has been going on around here. We have had some great weather, so over the weekend I cleaned up the yard. Last week’s storm brought down lots of tree limbs. They are now out back in the burn pile. We will have a big bonfire very soon.

The kiln building is moving along. More work would have been completed this weekend, but we needed ceramic mortar and none of the local suppliers had it. Jeff ordered some last week and we are expecting delivery today. Still no word on the propane tank. As long as it’s here by the time the chimney is up, we will be happy.
I have been feeling like I am in a clay rut. I have been completing orders, but not doing any creative exploring. Without our larger kiln, it feels like we are in limbo. Making and carving these two small bottle vases has been the extent of my creativity these days.

The daffodils are blooming everywhere, many of them off into the woods. I had been cutting some to enjoy in the house, without stripping the yard of blooms. Last night I snapped this photo of the dining room. I glanced in from the kitchen and the shadows of the flowers and large pot caught my eye.
I thought about deleting this post, it seems rather scattered, but in the end I decided to publish it, because this is where I am at right now. Scattered and trying to get my sh&t together.

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Buying Power

The great thing about living in a community of potters is that we often all have the same needs. One of them is shipping and packing supplies. We are fortunate to have a packaging and shipping supply company in nearby Greensboro, NC. They will deliver for free with a minimum order. Since we often can’t meet that minimum on our own, we get together with other Seagrove potters to place a large order.

This was delivery week at our studio! 
We were inundated with peanuts, bubble wrap, and paper!!!
It all had to be brought inside due to our wacky weather. Thankfully, everyone came quite quickly to pick up their share. Jeff and I still have to store our portion. Some goes into our office, some resides in our trailer until we have more room in the house. How is that we have doubled our living space and still don’t have enough room?!!

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The Week is Blowing By…. Literally!

We had quite a day of weather yesterday. Extremely high winds, heavy rain, thunder, and throw in a tornado watch, to add to the excitement. Of course we had important plans for the day. Earlier in the week, Jeff had dug a trench and laid our gas line for the kiln. The propane company was scheduled to come and set our tank yesterday. We also had a very tall, and very dead pine tree situated close to where the tank was going. It was also a little too close for comfort to the kiln shed. Jeff made the decision to cut it down yesterday morning, before the propane tank arrived and before the wind took it down. He was able to drop the tree just as the wind picked up. He limbed the trunk and we started hauling the limbs to our burn pile behind the house. The sky opened up just before we finished. Drenched to the skin, with thunder overhead, we decided to call it a day.

We woke to sunshine, but continued high winds. I made quick work of moving the remaining limbs, while Jeff took the chain saw to the trunk. Local potter Chad Brown will come in a few days for the big chunks. He will split them and used them to fire his wood kiln.
Jeff has been making progress on the kiln. My job has consisted mostly of sorting through brick and stacking them in the shed.
Jeff determined that we won’t need to order any new arch brick, he has been cutting some of the brick we have on hand into the correct dimensions.
and I almost forgot to mention… the propane company had to cancel on us because they had too many weather related emergency calls. Our new date is March 15th, which is way too late for our schedule. They promised they would try hard to get here sooner. They know we are a business and a delay affects us tremendously. We will sit tight and be patient.
Everything works out in the end.

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A Belated Korean New Year Celebration

Jeff and I like to celebrate the Korean New Year each February. It’s always a fun evening where we can cook together and enjoy choosing which pots we will serve with. New Year fell on February 8th, we had other commitments and no time for a trip to the Korean market. So we celebrated a little late!

This year we invited our friend and potter neighbor, Phil Pollet to join us.

We started the evening with an appetizer of pajeon (green onion pancake). This year we added a little seafood – shrimp and mussels. Traditionally, the seafood version has squid, but not everyone cares for it so the mussels were the substitute.

The main course was the traditional New Year soup, Tteokguk. A rich beef soup with mushrooms, onions, bean sprouts, and a little kimchi and rice cake. The rice cake isn’t the puffed rice cakes that we are familiar with here in the US. They are a thick, dense, rice noodle. Often slice on the diagonal. They are my favorite!

Along with the soup we had bowls of kimchi, rice, shredded jicama and carrot, and a nod to the south with pickled okra. It was all very delicious and fun………. Happy New Year!

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A Generous Gift

The first thing that I do in the morning (after making coffee) is check e-mail. My inbox contained a message from a potter that lives outside of Winston Salem. She is in the process of moving and has made the difficult decision to stop making pots. Her truck was already loaded with glaze materials and a few sieves, if she could deliver them that day, would we be interested? The list of materials included most of what we use. I replied immediately with a big YES.

When she arrived in the afternoon I was so excited to see that one of the sieves was this Talisman….

Jeff and I had been wanting one for so long! It will be super handy for mixing large batches of shino glaze. Every time I sieve shino, I get impatient and start to use my hand to help the glaze through the sieve. When I am done it feels like I have hundreds of tiny splinters in my fingers, definitely not a good thing. This will solve that issue totally!
Along with the glaze materials and oxides, were some nice pottery books. Some that we didn’t own, a couple that we already have.  We will pass the duplicates on to students. This was such a generous gift, including delivery, so of course we told her to pick out some pots in the gallery.
What a great way to end the week!

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…Better Living Through Handmade Pottery.