Tag Archives: Travel

Holiday Open House Weekend in Seagrove

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Put on your flip-flops and head to Seagrove, NC this weekend. Temps are predicted to be in the 70’s and lots of pottery shops are celebrating the season with a Holiday Open House. Listings for all the events can be found on the Seagrove Potters facebook page. Be sure to “Like” it while you are there.

Jeff and I will be serving blueberry bars and homemade brownies, along with hot coffee… perhaps I should rethink that and make it ice coffee! Jeff has some really nice wood fired tea pots and tea ware in the shop, along with the Gong Fu Tea Set in the photo above.

The piggy banks have been flying out of here this month, even the ones that didn’t have wings. Out of the kiln this week came these two sweet piggies that weren’t spoken for. I am sure they will find new homes by the end of the weekend.
Here are the details:

Michèle Hastings & Jeff Brown Pottery
505 East Main Street
Seagrove, NC
You will find our new home in between Pottery Junction and the Big Red Barn
Saturday, Dec 12th 10am to 5pm
Sunday, Dec 13th 12pm to 5pm

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Jeff saves the day!

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What a week it has been. Remember our firing over the weekend, the one with all of the Christmas orders? When we un-bricked the door on Monday, half the kiln was filled with hideous glazes. It seems that the bottom reached temperature and the rest was spotty. We also weren’t sure if our new batch of green glaze had some bad gerstley borate in it. I just wanted to puke. My mind raced ahead to letting everyone know that they wouldn’t have their pigs for Christmas and having to refund boatloads of money. Jeff told me to calm down.

He was going to re-fire everything in the raku kiln. We couldn’t re-fire in the bigger gas kiln, because we are getting ready to have the tank moved and we pretty much drained it with this firing.

Here are examples of the re-fire results in the raku kiln…

I love the way this glaze combination re-fired! The orange is beautiful.
Jeff also got great copper reds from this little kiln. He had some tests that were a rich, deep red.
The green pigs were packed and shipped before I took photos, but they all looked awesome.
Nuka white always looks good. This double bowl was fired in the raku kiln. Luckily all the whites in the bigger gas kiln also looked fine. What a relief. I told Jeff he is the kiln wizard.
I have spent the last couple of days packing pots. Late yesterday I took a car load to the post office, just before they were about to close. When I got out of my car, there was a despondent looking woman, sitting in her car with the door open. She asked if could help her. Of course my first thought was, she is going to ask me for money.
I was wrong.
She said that she needed to pay bills, her English wasn’t good, and she didn’t know how to write the dollar amounts in english. No one in the post office would help her. I told her I would bring my boxes inside, and then I would see what I could do to help.
She had three bills. Her checks were all signed, she just needed me to hand write the dollar amounts and find on the bill, who to make the check payable to. It took maybe five minutes.
She was so very thankful and appreciative.
We all hear so much negativity towards non-english speaking people in our country. Most commonly heard is if you are living in the United States, learn to speak english. 
My grandparents spoke both English and French. My great grandparents lived in this country for a long time and never learned to speak English. I wonder if they experienced prejudices back then.
The Kiln Gods (and Jeff) saved me from a major stress this week. It was a small token of repayment for me to help someone else who was distressed and needing a helping hand.
…and that’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

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Making a list, checking it twice…

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Friday was a glaze marathon. I had to glaze 9 salt pigs, 12 regular piggy banks, 1 personalized piggy, and 2 cow banks… along with other miscellaneous pots. Each was a special order, in a specific glaze combination. I made a paper list and crossed them off as I completed them. THEN I double checked them all with my orders list on Etsy. Let me tell you, that’s when having a smart phone comes in handy. No running to my computer to check.
Each pig got a little note underneath him, to remind me of the glaze combos. This was our first round of glazing in our new space. We finally set the walkout basement up to accommodate glaze mixing and glazing. There is still a lot of tweaking to be done, but it feels like it’s going to work out great. The new windows and doors let in lots of bright sun light from morning until early afternoon. 
This is our last firing in the kiln at the log cabin. This meant we had to carefully pack the pots and drive them a mile down the road. We managed to do it with only one mug getting a spot of glaze knocked off! Determined to fire on Saturday, we worked until 1:30 in the morning, had a quick dinner (or was that really breakfast?) at 2:00 am, and fell into bed, exhausted, around 3:00 am.
At 7:30 Jeff got up and lit the first burner. It was a big hurrah when cone 10 went down at 6:30 pm!
Toes and fingers crossed for a great firing. Lots people’s Christmas presents are in this kiln.
The Japanese maple at the log cabin is looking lovely. Jeff brought home some cuttings to display in the gallery. Seems so strange, to a New Hampshire gal, to still have leaves on trees in December.

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The End of an Era

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Sassafras Tree Artisan’s in Northwood, was where our New Hampshire pottery studio was located. The studio was in the back of the barn that housed the country home decor and gift shop. Prior to Sassafras, it was home to Northwood Pottery. There had been a pottery in the barn for over 25 years.
The current shop owner made the decision to retire this year. During our trip to New Hampshire, in October, Jeff went to help sort through the last of the pottery stuff, and pick up any inventory that hadn’t sold.

Jeff Lalish was the founder of Northwood Pottery, and in the studio was a Japanese kick wheel that belonged to him. He stopped by during the clean out, and gifted the wheel to Jeff. He is so pleased to be it’s new owner. I am sure he will use it occasionally, but I also think it will make a nice display piece in our gallery.

I have slowly started to go through the boxes of inventory and it has been quite fun to revisit work that we made over five years ago. In one of the boxes was a lovely little pot by JZ. It’s one of my favorite glaze combinations that he used. I am not sure if it qualifies as a teapot, or just a pouring vessel… either way it’s quiet little pot that speaks to me.

Sassafras is located on busy rte 4, making it a desirable commercial location. We all fear that when the owner decides to sell, the buildings will be torn down and in it’s place will be McDonald’s. The landscape of Northwood will be forever changed.

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Resourcefulness

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 Living the life of a potter often means that you are resourceful by both nature and necessity.

Our electric kiln for bisque firing hasn’t been wired yet. Jeff decided that we would bisque in our raku kiln. 
He created a temporary bag wall to divert the flame. It’s more time consuming to fire in the raku kiln, but it will get us by for our last glaze firing at the log cabin. Jeff has used this kiln to bisque fire large pots in the past, since it is bigger than our manual electric kiln. He is also considering a glaze firing in this kiln. There are a couple of potters in Seagrove that reduction fire to ^10 in modified electric kilns, with very good results. 
Seeing it an action again, has stirred up my desire to do more raku firings this year. After all, raku was my first love affair with pottery.

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The Second Thanksgviving

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Call me crazy, but I love to roast a turkey and cook all the sides that go with it. Thanksgiving day was spent with Jeff’s family, so on Saturday we had our second Thanksgiving feast at home. We invited a friend to join us. My grandmother’s platter, which must be over 100 years old, fits in nicely with our handmade dishes. I think the best part of the meal was enjoying it in our dining room, this is the first house that I have owned with a formal dining room!
In between the cooking I was waiting on customers in the gallery, and responding to questions from Etsy buyers. I am almost out of “in stock” piggy banks and it’s getting close to the time that I won’t be able to fill new orders for Christmas. I listed this little peach blossom piggy bank in the Etsy shop this morning. I have a feeling he won’t last too long…

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The ongoing pain of the studio move

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Morning coffee on the patio is done for the year.

Colder weather has finally arrived in Seagrove. Jeff and I were able to move our gallery indoors in the nick of time. There is still a lot of work to do, but at least our sales space is out of the elements. Our necks, backs, and hands are so very sore from scraping ceiling paint. The icing on the cake came yesterday when I stumbled off of the driveway and fell on my hands and knees. This is what happens when I walk, wearing clogs, trying to zip my fleece vest, all at the same time! Today I can add knee pain to my list of complaints. Getting older sucks.

Thankfully we have a reprieve from moving our kiln until we fire again in the next week or so. I don’t think our bodies could have done it this week, which was the original plan. We are quite stressed out being kiln-less during this holiday season. Typically we would be making work and firing up until the last minute. The timing of things just didn’t work out for us. The wonderful thing about this community is that we have had many offers to fire gas kilns at other potteries. We just might have to take them up on it.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters show was down for us this year… we had lots of small sales, the big stuff didn’t sell. Fingers are crossed that we can make up for it in our own gallery. We need some good sales to get through the winter. Luckily, winter isn’t as long here as it is in New Hampshire.
I have to keep looking on the bright side!

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Progress…

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The weather has finally been cooperating and things are moving along here at the pottery. The siding is all up and the last two windows are installed. Jeff got the rest of the insulation stapled in and has begun hanging the remaining two walls of the sheetrock. We are closed in and ready for winter.

 The guy that has taken care of our lawn and land clearing came with his tractor and started preparing our kiln site. Next, we build forms and pour the pad. Right now I feel like we are being pulled in ten different directions at once. We have too many deadlines to meet by the Thanksgiving holiday and some of them aren’t going to happen. Sometimes you have to take a deep breath, keep moving forward, and do the best you can. Everything always falls into place in the end.

Did I mention that this week is the Celebration of Seagrove Potters? I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours to print our holiday ginkgo bags. The show kicks off Friday, November 20th with the gala evening (advance ticket purchase required) and then the potters market on Saturday and Sunday. I will be at the show while Jeff keeps our gallery at 505 E Main open. The show is less than a mile down the road from us at the historic Luck’s Bean plant on NC Hwy 705, here in Seagrove NC.

If you can’t get to the show, my Etsy shop is open 24-7. That’s where you’ll find these sweet little salt and pepper pigs.

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Something New

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I feel like I have spent the last two years doing the same things over and over. I have had very little time to work on any new forms. One of the forms that has been bouncing around in my head is the conjoined condiment/dip bowl. Lori Buff, Future Relics Pottery, has made some sweet ones, and I have seen a few others around the interwebs. This week I spent a little time playing with the idea.

 I threw the bowls and flattened one side while still on the wheel. I used the insert to the bat system to do the squishing. It’s a good surface against the clay, it releases without sticking.

 After many, many days of sitting out (the rain and humidity has been horrendous) they were finally ready for assembly. I scored and slipped both pots and mashed them together really well. I have a fear of them cracking and separating. Time will tell. I only committed to three to start with.

I let them set up under loose plastic for another day, then played with handle ideas. In the end I prefer the middle handle. I wish I had decided that before the others sat too long to remove. But these are prototypes and if the design works, I can make better handle decisions.
Definitely a work in progress.

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A Day Out

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I hardly ever get out of Seagrove. Once a week or so I head to nearby Asheboro for groceries or Lowe’s, but that doesn’t really count as “getting out”. Yesterday I drove a friend to a doctors appointment in Greensboro. Greensboro is the big city, when you live in Seagrove! When his appointment was over, he was feeling well enough for lunch. We went to an Egyptian restaurant on W. Wendover Ave., “Chef Samir”. It’s a tiny place in a strip mall, and when you walk in it’s like stepping into another world. I knew from the scent of spices in the air, that the food was going to be wonderful. I had the chicken shawarma on pita bread, and it was excellent. I plan to go back soon so that Jeff can experience the flavors.

While I was out and about in the big city, Jeff was at home framing the last wall that needs to be replaced in the new gallery. The sun was finally shining and it was a good day for working outside. Another milestone we reached was setting up our photo shoot area in the office. I hadn’t taken any new photos in months and my Etsy shop was hurting for it. It’s great to have a room to take photos that isn’t in the middle of our living space. Let’s face it, it isn’t a pretty set up. The room still has a lot of boxes piled up, once everything is settled I’ll get some photos of the set up.

After an evening of photographing, I have been adding new items to the Etsy shop. Today’s offering is the “BACON” piggy bank. Just in time for the World Health Organization’s announcement that processed meats are carcinogens. This little guy seems pretty harmless to me. 
Everything in moderation.

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