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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Kitchen Facelift

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Jeff had one day to recover from jet lag and then it was back to house renovations. The kitchen is our top priority before we move in completely. First order was to remove all the cabinet doors. No easy task, since all of the hinges had been painted over. It was a chore to get them off and when we paint and replace them, they will get all new hinges… never to be painted again.

 The interiors of the cabinets are three different colors, pink, green, and off-white. They are absolutely disgusting, inside and out. We made the decision to replace the countertop, sink, and cooktop. Last month we bought a dishwasher on sale, and that has already been delivered, just not installed. The countertop will be something inexpensive that will coordinate with the island. It’s not financially possible for us to do it all right now. At this point we are just looking for clean and neat.

This house has a large living room and a good size den. We only had a chair for the den which was going to make it a rather sparsely furnished room. A neighbor potter is moving and she had a sofa for sale at a great price, so we snatched it up!

It’s a sofa-bed and was a b!tch to move! It had to come down a short flight of stairs at her house. Thankfully at our house it only had to be moved through the carport and into the first room. A few new pillows from IKEA and the sofa looks great. This is the room with the lovely wagon wheel light…

That light really has to go. I am just not into the wild west decor.

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Heat and Healing

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After a little hiccup in Japan, Jeff arrived home last night, 24 hours later than scheduled. The airline totally destroyed his largest suitcase. Amazingly, nothing was broken or lost. Packed within his clothes were small pots, a bottle of Omija berry wine, a bottle of sake, a variety of Korean gardening tools, and some herbal medicines.

While Jeff was in Korea he experienced an herbal therapy that uses the same pressure points as acupuncture. Instead of needles, it is a cylindrical stick packed with herbs and applied with a stick on base to a pressure point. It is then lit like incense. He brought a box home and we gave it a try on my left wrist, which has been bothering me.

The herb used is ssuk tteum, aka mugwart.

 It felt very warm, at first and then got quite hot feeling. Not hot enough to be uncomfortable.

You can have these treatments in what I would call a spa, but not sure if that’s what it would be called in Asian countries. In those situations the mugwart is place in little clay pots and burned on pressure points. It can also involve acupuncture.

There is a card inside the box that maps out pressure points… of course it’s all in Korean and we will have translate it!

photo credit: Sukyoung Kim

Here are Jeff, Ron Philbeck, and Jeon Changhyun experiencing some “heating and healing” time in Korea.
Time will tell how effective these treatments can be. It sure feels good and relaxing… and afterwards the house smells like we’ve been smoking pot. Surely, that’s not a bad thing!

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The last leg of the trip

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 Jeff is on his way home! Last night he messaged me with these photo from Shibuya Station. He was in Tokyo, waiting for his train to the airport. He says Shibuya is Times Square x 10.

The Hachiko monument is located in Shibuya Station. If you don’t know the story of Hachiko, I recommend the American made movie, Hachi: A Dogs Tale. It’s a very sweet film, based on the true story about a dog and his master.

Jeff requested spaghetti with italian sausage and tomato sauce for his first meal at home. I guess he has grown weary of kimchi, rice, and fish!

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…Better Living Through Handmade Pottery.