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Always Open to New Ideas

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Last year I had a couple of requests for sugar pig dispensers. Last week I took a couple more orders, except this time people wanted them for candy jars! They are perfect for that, and I hadn’t evern thought of it. If you keep candy on your desk at work, people can pour out their portion without getting their hands all over the candy… much more sanitary! Ok, so yeah… I am sort of germ freak.
These sweet little pigs will also be a perfect Valentine gift, filled with conversation hearts, or M&M’s. How about Skittles? If you are into that super sugar buzz. Do Skittles do that to you? Or is it just me?

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Making Work For Raku

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I am still making things for a raku firing. Switching to hand building is an adjustment for me. It seems like it takes for ever to finish things. I am sure if I had a slab roller, and hand built more often, I would become more efficient.

For now I continue to slog along. I will roll more slabs out tomorrow and there are always piggy banks to assemble while waiting.

On the home front, Jeff and I decided to take advantage of the warm weather and grill pizza. The crust came out amazing! I decided to finally take other baker’s advice and buy King Arthur bread flour. Why didn’t I listen to them years ago? It’s more expensive, but not outrageuos, and definitely worth it. Now I can’t wait to bake some more bread.

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Don’t let your head swell…

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This was blogger awards week. No one told me, and I didn’t even buy a dress to wear to either party. Heck, I didn’t even have time to wash my apron.
The first award bestowed to me was from Feedspot’s Top 50 Pottery Blogs, where I ranked #16. A few days later, Pottery Making Info announced their list of Top Pottery Blogs of 2016, this year I moved up in the ranks from #11 to #9.
Award Acceptance Speech:
I would like to thank all my readers for hanging in with me through the exciting times, as well as the mundane and often boring times. Thank you to Feedspot and Pottery Making Info, for spreading the good word of pottery bloggers everywhere. Most of all I would like to thank Jeff Brown for all of his support and creative encouragement. You push me to the next level in creativity, and encourage me to continue with all this blogging stuff. 
and now it’s back to work…

Jeff and I are planning to do a raku firing in the spring. In between making work for orders, we will be making things for raku. This week I worked on a tile with ginkgo leaves. I finished carving yesterday. It will get cleaned up once it’s dry. Carving on this groggy clay is a little challenging. The carving tool doesn’t flow easily through the clay. Next on the “making” list is orbs. We should have our new raku work available for the Celebration of Spring Studio Tour – April 22nd & 23rd.

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Work Cycles

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I am feeling good that we have completed the first work cycle of 2017. The first glaze firing of the year is cooling. Today we are back to making pots. The last few days were a whirlwind of activity. On day one the bisque kiln was unloaded (while it was still quite warm!), pots were rinsed, waxed, and under-glazed as needed. The next day we glazed and loaded. We worked into the the night, with me leaving for a couple of hours for a town zoning board meeting. I am not sure how that happened, by I have been on the board since last summer. After a quick dinner break, Jeff finished up with the kiln and bricked up the door. He decided to light it and fire overnight.

I went to bed at 12:30.
He’s a night shift sort of guy… I am not.

During the less intense cycles of pottery making, I try to cook things that will feed us for a couple of meals, ideally something I can freeze for later. Last night it was great to heat a baking dish of stuffed shells for dinner. We were both too pooped to cook! On the weekend we enjoyed chicken tikka masala, that was leftover from earlier in the week.

Sophie cat takes it all in stride. As long as she gets her three meals a day and has Jeff’s lap for a few minutes in the morning, she’s a happy girl.

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Ginkgo Leaf Bowls

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I have been spending the evenings taking photographs. I need to build up my inventory on Etsy. Winter is slow in Seagrove and we will depend on internet sales to get through the season. Thankfully, winter is much shorter in North Carolina than in New Hampshire. 

The bowl in the first two photos is just under 12″ in diameter
This bowl is about 8 1/2″ in diameter
Today we are waiting for the bisque kiln to cool, so that we can start glazing. The temperature is under 300 degrees now. The wait is almost over.

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Wood Fired Mugs

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 The week before Christmas, Jeff helped David Stuempfle fire his anagama wood kiln. We were both able to get a few pots into the kiln. It was a five day firing with the unloading on New Year’s Eve day. It seemed it was days before I had the opportunity to spend some time with them.

 These are a throwback to my “button” cups that I was making 6+ plus years ago. They lend themselves much better to this wood kiln than the ginkgo leave carving.

 They are made with Laguna B-mix. If it was B–mix for wood, they wood be a little darker in color.

Overall, I am quite happy with the results. Clicking on the photo above will take you to my Etsy shop, where I will be listing a couple of these over the next few days.

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Making Vessel Sinks

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The great thing about making vessel sinks is that it isn’t tied to the holiday season. People order them year round. This week I took a few photos of Jeff’s work in progress. Last month he had to order a new torch. He finally wore out the last one. The nice thing about this torch is that it doesn’t need a striker to light. I can’t even tell you how many times the striker was misplaces and we had to search for it.
Torching the pot stiffens the clay and allows Jeff to finish throwing the sink in one session. When he is using the torch it’s gets very warm and steamy in the studio. Which was very welcome while we experienced a cold snap.
This sink is getting a textured exterior and glazed in our nuka white glaze. I think this is one of my favorite patterns. I really like how the glaze breaks to gray over the texture.
Today was sunny and 70 degrees. We have enough work completed for the first firing of 2017. It was a perfect day to load the bisque kiln. Tomorrow we will fire it off.

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Hunker down… snow is coming!!

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Our friends Bonnie and David always bring us some poinsettias on New Years Eve. They are beautiful and from a nursery in Greensboro. Typically I would bring them in the house and place them on our fireplace hearth. After the poison plant debacle with Sophie this fall, I am not taking any chances! They aren’t as poisonous as the dieffenbachia and she has never bothered with them in the past, but she seems to have become a plant eater in her old age.

Things are moving along in the studio. I had a friend ask me to replace a spoon rest, so I figured I may as well make a bunch. We don’t make them on a regular basis. I probably should. They are quick to make and usually quick to sell. I make them so that they can also be used as either trinket or soap dishes too.

The holiday’s must be a time for breakage! A customer contacted me to say she broke her favorite mug. It’s a simple, loosely thrown design, with flower stamps. I hadn’t made this style in quite awhile. The ginkgo leaf carving sort of took over most everything I make. I was happy to make her one and then some. It’s nice to work in a looser style every now and then.

It’s raining now, but we are expecting a change over to snow this evening. We could get a significant amount, for North Carolina. At least we won’t have to do much shoveling. The temps will be back in the 50’s by Wednesday. 
This is the last time I experienced lots of snow. A visit to New Hampshire in October of 2011. I think we had close to two feet. We aren’t expecting that much tonight……………THANKFULLY!

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Re-Grouping

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The week between Christmas and New Years Day is a strange one. It seems we don’t know what day it is and we fall out of our usual routine. The other day Jeff said he felt like a retired person. Work a little bit on this or that, take a break, get started on something else. We have used this time to catch up on things that were let go over the busy season. I cleaned the carpet in the den and then did a thorough dusting. I did such a such a good job that when I switched on our lovely wagon wheel light, it flipped the circuit breaker. Evidently some of the wire covers were very brittle and my super-duper cleaning exposed some wires. It was time for the fixture to go! We were gifted a ceiling fan with a light some months ago so it was time to install it. I was shocked that Jeff actually knew where we had stored it… under the bed! If I am missing anything, I should always look there first.
It took way longer than planned but it’s done. 
This is the wagon wheel. It has little copper pan “hats” that fit over the globes. I snapped this photo before we moved in and later found the “hats” in a drawer. I almost tossed them, not knowing that they went to the light fixture!
Here is the updated look. Sophie is afraid of it. She has never liked ceiling fans. Jeff thinks it has a science fiction look. I have dubbed it the “eye” from War of the Worlds.
In between the cleaning I accomplished a few things in the studio. I finally finished this vase that I started weeks ago. Mugs are waiting for handles, a new batch of sponge holders are drying. Jeff has multiple vessel sinks in progress.
Friends will arrive tomorrow evening to ring in 2017. We will have plenty of food and drink, if your in the neighborhood stop in. I will fix you a fancy cocktail. 
HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Celebrate!

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What a week it’s been! We unloaded the kiln on Monday, sanded all the pots, packaged and shipped them off to their destinations, just in the knick of time. We had an excellent firing. All of the orders looked great. Jeff’s giant cooker came out perfect. The buyer didn’t want anything fancy, just something utilitarian. He should be able to cook a good size bird in it. 
The weather has been warm and I took the opportunity to do some heavy cleaning. I took anything that could be hosed off outside and did just that. The floor got a good mopping. It will be nice to resume work in a cleaner studio.
Last night we kicked off our holiday celebration with my annual tortierre (pork pie). Traditionally it’s a Christmas eve meal for French Canadians, but I just like to enjoy it any time around the holiday season.
Wishing all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Festivus. Enjoy some time off and celebrate life with family and friends.
~ Michèle, Jeff, and Sophie

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