Tag Archives: Art

The Joys of Moving…

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We have been eating out of the same few plates and bowls for weeks now. As I unpack boxes we are reconnecting with pots that haven’t been used for some time, many haven’t graced the dining table in years. The bowl in the photo is from Cornish Hill Pottery in Wolfeboro, NH. It was my go-to cereal bowl for years. Unpacking it inspired me to buy some Cheerios for breakfast! The mug is a long standing favorite made by Jeff Dean, here in Seagrove.

While in the midst of this move, I have decided to head to New Hampshire at the end of the month and help out with my Dad. My sister made plans months ago to visit my brother and his wife in Alaska. I don’t want her to cancel this trip. Dad will still be in a rehab facility but we both will feel more comfortable if someone can visit with him everyday. Last year she had scheduled a trip to Ireland and had to cancel because of my mother’s illness and subsequent passing. My sister deserves a vacation! It’s not a great time for me to pack up and leave, but family is important. It will all work out in the end.

Next post should be photos of our completed kitchen… we are so excited!

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We Moved…

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Well, sort of. We are mostly in our new house. All the big stuff was moved on Friday. There are still some odds and ends that need to travel up the road, and still lots to do at the house. We realized it would be easier to move in and finish it while living there. Too many nights have been spent working until after 11pm, then going back to the log cabin, cooking dinner and falling into bed exhausted. Now we can tackle the house in the evening and have dinner cooking while we work.

The living room is the only room in the house that isn’t filled with boxes! Sophie cat is adjusting quite well to the move. I am sure she misses playing on the spiral staircase at the cabin, but this house has so many more rooms for her to explore and hide in. Centurylink really dropped the ball with our telephone and internet move. We kept internet only at the studio until our move is complete and for some reason that made the switch over very complicated. Are we the first people to ever move phone and internet to a new location and keep internet only at the old one for an additional 30 days? They acted like we were. I spent over four hours on the phone talking to different departments and waiting on hold. Today I finally spoke to a reasonable and polite woman at our local office. It took her only an hour to get a tech out to the house and hook us up. I finally feel like we are connected to the world again. How did we ever survive back in the day?
Today we are firing the kiln. Jeff got up early and lit the first burner. He came home and we switched places so he could do some plumbing work. It’s a beautiful evening to sit on the porch and wait on the kiln to climb to 1650 degrees. At that point I will put her into reduction and Jeff should arrive to finish off the firing. I am still not sure when we had time to make the pots that are in this firing.
Perhaps it was the elves.

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Getting Rid of the Yuck Factor

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Our kitchen had a formica back splash with aluminum trim. It was dreary looking and very stained behind the cook top. Jeff started to rip it off and as he suspected it was glued to the sheetrock wall. The formica removal took most of the paper from the sheetrock with it. 

In another life, long ago, Jeff hung sheetrock for a few years. He was able to make it all pretty and ready for paint. 
While he played in the mud, I stripped the wallpaper where the fridge goes. Behind it I found an icky, moldy mess. On the other side of this wall is the washer hook up. It must have leaked at one time, creating mold. Jeff cut the wall out on both sides to also find some rotten framing.

The framing is now replaced and last night Jeff hung the sheetrock.

I have started to tackle the pink bathroom. The wallpaper is gone. Now to scrub the glue off of the wall.

We hope to be in the house by this weekend. Everything won’t be done, but the icky stuff will be gone!

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Cousins in Clay

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 Jeff and I took a much needed break on Sunday and went over to Bulldog Pottery’s “Cousins in Clay”. This is an annual event that they host at the end of May. Along with Samantha and Bruce Henneke’s stunning work, there are guest potters from various parts of the country. A special treat this year was Henry Crissman’s mobile anagama kiln. Many potters from the Seagrove area had a few pots in the kiln. Each of us donated one pot to help raise money for the Dwight Holland Scholarship Fund. The scholarship gives assistance for ceramic students to be able to attend the North Carolina Pottery Conference.

 The firing is quite short. I think it was about 8 hours and reached cone 11.

The day was gorgeous and sunny, which also meant it was really hard to take photos with a phone. I was sort of shooting blindly! I was happy with all three of my pots, but this is the only one I got a photo of.
Tomorrow I should have some house makeover pics. Things are coming along nicely. I also have good news about my Dad! He was moved to the intensive rehab facility and is doing much better. His brain is pretty much cleared up… no more hallucinations. This place is keeping him busy. Therapy three times a day and they take him to the dining room to eat meals. He can now stand with a walker to move from the bed to a wheelchair. I hope that he will regain his mobility eventually.
That’s it for now, check back tomorrow for more house blogging. Happy Monday!

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Luminaries

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I have been thinking about making luminaries for quite some time. About two years ago I made a small one, but didn’t do a good job sanding the edges of the cut outs. They were much to sharp so it got the hammer. How about that crawly shino on the left? Rather scary! We aren’t sure why, but we had a few pots in this firing with the creepy crawly shino.

 The luminaries are about 6″ tall. 

There is a little cutout in the back of the jug to insert the tea light.
Dad update: He is still in the hospital. They aren’t sure when they will move him to the rehab center. The day before yesterday he began hallucinating and has been delirious ever since. The vascular doctor ordered an ultrasound to see if his carotid artery was blocked. All they could see was a little calcium, which he doesn’t think would cause this. So we are all still waiting. 

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Dad

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Dad is still in the hospital. The doctors would like to move him to Northeast Rehabilitation Hospital in Portsmouth, NH but he has been having small strokes everyday. Until he is stable for 24 hours he isn’t going anywhere. Yesterday he was doing much better. My brother Paul sent a photo of Dad eating dinner. He was even feeding himself for the first time since the big stroke last Friday. Then an hour later he sent a text that he had another small stroke. When the strokes happen, he doesn’t know his name, or where he is. His speech becomes “word salad”, a term that the nursing staff uses. The little strokes aren’t showing up on a CAT scan. His hip replacement is too new to do an MRI, which would give the doctors a lot more information.
It’s hard for me to believe that this photo of Dad, taken five years ago when Jeff and I were moving to North Carolina, is the same man in the photo that my brother texted me last night. I bet those pants would fall off of him now! Five years ago he was still mowing that green grass and trimming bushes and hedges. My Mom’s been gone a year now. Dad has been a trooper. He has managed living alone much better then any of us kids ever imagined. I am not sure he will be going back home.

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Getting Primed

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It felt more like Labor Day than Memorial Day. Yesterday we got almost all the cabinets primed. Today we will rip off the countertop on the outside wall to make priming the interior of those cabinets easier. We are leaving the interior of the cabinet over the wall oven green! It was the only one that was green, and it looks like the cabinet was never used. We will put the doors back on that cabinet. It will be a good one for storing baking pans. All of the lower cabinets are getting their doors back on. Some of the uppers we will leave off so that we can show off our handmade dishes.

Today we will unload the kiln and ship pots. Then it’s back to the house to put a coat of real paint on the cabinets. No funky colors. We are playing it safe with “Churchill Hotel Vanilla”. I can’t wait for this project to be done so we can move in! Sunday night we slept in the guest bedroom. It’s the only room with some furniture right now. It felt so good to wake up in our own home and enjoy coffee on the patio.

I just need to be a little more patient!!!! We are almost there.

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It’s always something

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What a week it has been. We are trying to keep up with studio work and complete our kitchen rehab so that we can move by the end of next week. Wednesday, I got a call from my sister. Dad fell and broke a hip. He had partial hip replacement surgery late in the day Thursday. Friday morning he had a stroke. His right side is week and his speech is slurred. It’s a wait and see thing now. This is when I really hate being so far away. I just want to pack my suitcase and buy a plane ticket to New Hampshire. 
Enough of the depressing side of things, how about some cheery celadon?

 Two different Highwater porcelains with the same glaze. Notice how much darker the cup is? I think that must be the P-10. The plate is Helios.

Enjoy your holiday weekend, I hope the weather where you are, is as nice as it is here Seagrove, NC.

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Do you know what this is?

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Have you seen those posts on facebook with photos of high beam buttons on the car floor, or metal ice cube trays with arms for removing ice? They always start sort of like this: 
“If you grew up in the 60’s, and know what this is, like and share.
This contraption is inside one of our kitchen cabinets:

Have you ever seen one before? It is located to the right of the sink. If you pull it up, it swings out and raises the shelf to about a foot lower than the counter. The only thing that Jeff and I can surmise is that it was used to hold a small garbage can. When raised to it’s upper position you could peel potatoes over it, or dump other waste into it. It raises easily, but is a pain to lower. Perhaps it worked more easily in the 60’s!
Should we remove it, or leave as it’s a quirky 60’s house thing? One thing is for sure… it will be a pain in the a$$ to paint.

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We Still Make Pots

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It seems like lately this is a home improvement blog, but in reality we are still making pots. Over the weekend I decorated some mugs for a fundraiser that will benefit the North Carolina Pottery Center, and Seagrove Area Potters Association. Seagrove potters worked together to throw, handle, decorate, glaze, and fire, 250 mugs. The exhibition and sale, titled “250 Mugs on the Wall”, opens Saturday May 30, 2015. Opening reception on that day from 4:30 – 7:30.

 It was fun to work on mugs that others have made. If you think about it, three or four potters had a hand in making each of these mugs.

 Then of course there are always piggy bank orders to fill.

When the shop closes, it’s time to head to the other house and strip paint. Needless to say, we are pretty tired these days.

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