envelope forms

back to work on ovals... since these are narrow i have been referring to them as envelope forms.

decided to do the leaves and slip decoration on these, typically i stamp them like the one on the left. this morning i threw the parts so i can assemble a few more tomorrow. i have an idea in my head about adding some little feet to the next ones.

finished up a few large bowls today. it's been so humid that these took forever to get to trimming consistency. i wonder how long before they will be dry enough to bisque? no a/c in the studio :-(

big weekend in Seagrove

it's a busy weekend here in the 'grove. events around town brought lots of people into our shop. sales were good in the morning and the afternoon was mostly visitors. jeff and i took turns getting out to see the openings and show. he went to Donna Craven's  kiln opening in the late morning and we both were able to get to Cousin's in Clay at Bull Dog Pottery as well as the Osmosis Show at Tom Gray's.

we both came home with some sweet new pots to use...

jeff's Jack Troy cup from Cousin's in Clay at Bull Dog Pottery

my new Ron Philbeck bowl from Osmosis at Tom Gray's

today is my day to work the co-op gallery in town. this is the first time i do a sunday. i am hopeful for a busy day.

and could you tell me one more time WHY we love to do this???

we unloaded the gas kiln today and had very mixed results, it seems we didn't do enough glaze reduction...

i may be able to live with the shino on this cake stand, it's not as bad as some of my other pieces... it is a little warped which is a common problem with cake stands. i may do a re-fire to see if i can get a little more color.

this is just totally ICK! this is shino on Starwhite clay... in the last firing it was nice and buttery orange on this clay. you may also be able to see that the robins egg glaze bubbled. we had that issue in the last firing as well. we weren't sure if it got too hot or if it was caused by substituting g200 for cornwall stone in the new batch i mixed up. obviously its the substitution. jeff is going to research if we can fix it and if it doesn't work i will mix a new batch. we now have cornwall... it was still at the NH studio and we brought the bag back with us.

the hex plate above was the best out of all of them (which isn't sayin' much!).

and then i had to go and get sloppy and forgot to clean of the bottom! AAARGH!!!!! this makes me so mad because i usually double check bottoms.

we had some good stuff out of the kiln too... like this nice big Jeff bowl (10" in diameter). also lots of mugs in this glaze combo.
when we were done unloading i told jeff i was really glad we weren't firing a 60 c.f. gas kiln anymore... at least this was disappointing on a smaller scale :o)! sometimes smaller is better.

new signs, new website... hurry shoppers!

we have a great location for a pottery... we are right on the Pottery Highway (705) and the only down side is that the speed limit is 55 mph. we were psyched when the highway department put up this sign a couple of weeks ago...

i am hopeful that this will slow traffic down a bit and make it easier for customers to turn into our lot.  many times when i have slowed down to turn left into our driveway i have noticed that the car behind starts to pass me... even with my blinker on!
our other tactic to get people to stop was to purchase this HUGE open flag...

it's a little tacky but you can see it from quite a ways down the road... i will draw the line at dressing in a clown suit and waving to passersby!

i spent a good part of yesterday creating a web page for our Gypsy Potters domain. i used the iWEB app on my macbook. creating the site was reasonably straightforward. the tricky part was we decided to host it on jeff's existing site since he has tons of extra space and it would save money. after eating up most of today we finally got it up and running... check out the link below:

GYPSY POTTERS 

let me know if you find any missing links or misspellings. i already found and corrected a page with some gibberish left behind from the template, hopefully i didn't miss any others!

pizza, sea creatures and a rant for the day.

we had a great time in NH but it is always good to be home and sleeping in your own bed. the other thing we miss when we are away is cooking. last night i made a really yummy pizza...

grilled chicken, broccoli, artichoke hearts, onions, sundried tomatoes, black olives & feta cheese!

i listed this funky sea creature bank on Etsy today... i have been a little lazy with listings and need to get  back on track... speaking of Etsy...
at the beginning of April i had an Etsy sale for a mug. i was pleasantly surprised that it was a woman i worked with many years ago. she was paying by check and since it was someone that i knew i went ahead and shipped the mug before i received the check. BIG MISTAKE!!!! here it is the end of may and still no check. i sent her a reminder early on and i didn't get a response. i then said that if she was short on cash she could pay me 1/2 now and 1/2 later. days went by and no response. when i finally heard from her she was all apologies and said she loves the mug and put the check in the mail that morning. a week went by and no check. she no longer answers my convo's, e-mails or facebook mesages. i felt like i had no choice but leave a negative review on her Etsy profile. more so than being out $26 i am very hurt that someone that i KNOW would screw me out of the money. the icing on the cake was when two weeks ago she posted on facebook that she was going to disney world for the week. i wonder if she can truly enjoy using a mug that she never paid for?
i needed to rant about this, i learned a lesson and it's time to let it go.

heading home today

...and it FINALLY stopped raining and we saw the sun!

mission accomplished

today we completely emptied jeff's storage unit and loaded it onto the gypsy potter school bus. it was a relief to be done with paying for storage. we also packed more glaze materials and odds and ends from the studio i had shared with john in northwood. it still feels good to be in that space even though things look very different there. gloria who owns the building and gallery is no longer renting out the space and is using it to store merchandise. she is always so welcoming when we are there and we feel at home. the studio had it's issues (no running water) but it has a long history of potters... and i feel honored to be the last to occupy the space.

our studio space was on the left... john and i had a nice long work table under those two windows... but most of all, as i have said before, i will miss the door...

the door was signed by all of the potters who either worked there or spent some amount of time visiting over the last 25 + years... i wish i could take that door with me.

the new kitty

our friend Roni, with whom we are staying here in NH, adopted a cat yesterday... he is not quite a year old and is adjusting well to his new home. he seems to really like jeff and me. probably because we are cat lovers and all of our belongings smell like our cats. he has been hanging out in our room since we got in last night. Roni is still deciding on a name for him... jeff came up with temnoku, i think that's a good name for a potter's black cat!

we need sunshine!

despite the fact that it has been raining since the day after we arrived in NH, we have enjoyed spending time with family and friends. on saturday we did get to Lacoste Gallery in Concord, MA for the opening reception of the Don Reitz exhibition. it was very inspiring and Don did give a short talk. my favorite part of his talk was at the end when he used my favorite Joseph Campbell quote... "follow your bliss", it really works. Reitz has been using a lot of color in his work and there were some wonderful platter forms with awesome feet that were hung on the wall. i was very drawn to those and probably because i have experimented with a similar form in raku some years back. perhaps i will revisit that shape in the next few months.
monday was spent with my daughter... we enjoyed a fun day that included a martini lunch. i took Meredith's advice and had lobster! the yummy part is that it was mac & cheese with lobster... perfect for a rainy day.
a trip to NH always includes a stop at the liquor store. liquor is cheap here compared to NC... almost HALF the cost. so of course you have to stock up. while i was at the register they had these little guys on the counter... they made me think of Gary so i couldn't resist buying one...

skull head vodka!!! how cool is that? 

today it's back to work. we will start to pack the bus with the contents of the storage unit... oh and to top things off... the starter in the bus was giving us trouble so my brother in law Steve is going to replace it today. of course nothing is cheap to fix on something that big! he started to work on it yesterday but it was getting late and the rain was pouring down. 

it's still raining today - jeff said that it's raining and cold so that we will be reminded why we love living in North Carolina!

... lastly i want to congratulate my potter friend Paul Haigh.  as of yesterday he is a state juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen!

the gypsy potters road trip

i am in New Hampshire... and it's cold here! it was sunny when we arrived late yesterday and it was about 68 degrees. this morning is overcast and and about 48 degrees. 

we travelled in the gypsy potter bus so we can empty the storage unit...

we picked up a rental car when we arrived since parking this thing can be tricky and then there is always the price of fuel. most of the trip we are staying with our friend Roni who lives on Bow Lake. her home is a short drive down the road from the little home we had been renting on the lake prior to the big move south. it did feel like coming home as we drove the windy road around along the lake to Roni's. it is beautiful here on Bow Lake...

to avoid homesickness all i have to do is look at this picture of my last winter in NH...

there is a Don Reitz exhibition opening today at Lacoste Gallery in Concord, MA. if we are lucky will have time to drive down this afternoon to see it and maybe hear his gallery talk. 

on monday i get to spend the day with my daughter Danielle... can't wait to see her!!!

glazed over...

since so many glazes were running low i spent a day and a half mixing new batches. i don't mind measuring, sieving and stirring... it's the damn mask that i hate. i feel claustrophobic and feel like i can't breathe with it on.

i mixed a large batch of shino along with 5 gallon pails of wheat and robins egg. we were firing the gas kiln the next day and we were able to test them to make sure i got it right

shino top left, robins egg on the right and wheat below.  the robins egg has a very small amount of chrome in it.  we were out of chrome so this test is without it. jeff borrowed some chrome from our neighbor Phil and we added it later (where else but seagrove can your borrow glaze materials from a neighbor?). we liked the tile without the chrome and we might just leave it out next time.

i had two buckets of glaze that john mixed some years back and i had never used them.  i decided to test them as well.  they were spodumene and a dark blue.  clockwise: spod and the blue, temnoku and spod and lastly, robins egg and spod.

the spodumene reminds of taking classes at NHIA.  i used LOTS of spodumene. there was a time when a lot of the glazes were either too thick or too thin. students weren't allowed to thin anything down. most times the buckets had already been stirred by the time i got to glazing at night so i couldn't pour off some of the water into an empty bucket if it was too thin. it seemed the spod was always safe. i can't tell you how many spodumene pots i made! oh the joys of making pots in a school setting. i do miss the exchange of idea and the social aspect but not all the "rules".

time crunch...

it's been a busy week with not much time to blog... we fired the gas kiln on friday, unloaded it last night and immediately started to load it again.  jeff will fire it today, while i work at the Co-op gallery in town.

i thought i would share a little glaze trick...  jeff created a box lined with a plastic bag for me to glaze my slump molded pieces in...

the plates are too large to fit into the 5 gallon pail of glaze and i wanted to glaze them 1/2 robins egg and 1/2 wheat with an overlap in the center which should turn slightly purple. the two buckets on either side held the narrow box upright and steady.

my glaze was also running low which was another reason that my container needed to be narrow

i have to admit that i can be a little lazy. i don't like to go through the trouble of pouring glaze into creative containers that pots will fit into and then having to wash them out after!  we have a large, plastic trash can size container for shino which is great for large pots.  there just isn't room in the studio for more containers that size.

this will be another crazy, busy week. jeff and i head to NH in the big yellow school bus at the end of the week... we will empty the last storage unit in NH.  i hate to see what our fuel costs will be.  the price of diesel is around $4 gallon here in NC and it is probably more up north. on the bright side - with the storage unit gone it will be less money going out the door each month!

Elaine Fuller, Red Door Pottery... #3 in my NHPG Series

Elaine Fuller is a fellow NH Potters Guild member as well as a juried member of the League of NH Craftsmen.  Her studio is called Red Door Pottery and is located in beautiful Kittery, ME.  Elaine hosts Salon Nights at her studio each month.  It is always an enjoyable evening of poetry reading and music.  She also serves coffee and tea in handmade cups and mugs and offers them for sale during these events. A portion of the proceeds going to worthy causes, such as the local food pantry or hospice group.  As in the last two posts in the series I asked Elaine the same questions and here are her responses...

How long have you been making pots and what got you started in pottery?

In 1978 when my high school sister-in-law was living with us in our apartment in Worcester , Mass. I needed some time for myself. From the days of watching the potter's at Sturbridge Village I was intrigued with pottery.  I was able to enroll in a pottery class at the wonderful Worcester Center for Crafts, Charlene Weisberg was my teacher. From the first day on the wheel I was hooked. Every chance that I could I took workshops, the first one with Gerry Williams, classes at Wesleyan Potters in Middletown CT, studied at Wesleyan University under Mary Risley and eventually after a 10 year hiatus for child rearing began teaching and selling my work. Pottery has been my more than full time occupation since 1996.I feel so lucky to be able to spend my days pursuing my life's passion.

Who or what inspires you the most and how is it incorporated into your work?

I love the pots of Brother Thomas for the sheer spirituality of the work. I am inspired by the faculty at the New Hampshire Institute of Art, Karen Orsillo, Maureen Mills, Chris Archer and John Baymore for their breadth of knowledge, skill and generosity. 

Clay body?

 Laguna 66, 45, 75 

 Firing method? 

Cone 6 oxidation AND pit firing at the beach!

 What is your favorite pizza? 

The only pizza I like is homemade pizza, whole wheat crust with lots of veggies... white pizza with clams and garlic is another treat.

The best place to see my work is in my gallery space where I also feature the work of the League members from Kittery: The Red Door Pottery Studio, Kittery ME www.reddoorpottery.com

And also my work can be found:

League of NH Craftsman shops in Concord, Meredith, Hanover and Nashua: nhcrafts.org

Exeter Fine Crafts, Exeter, NH: exeterfinecrafts.com

Tulips, Market Street, Portsmouth, NH

The Shop at Wesleyan Potters, Middletown, CT:  wesleyanpotters.com

Guilford Art Center, Guilford, CT: guilfordartcener.org

after a dozen porkers, boredom sets in...

one of these things is not like the others,


one of these things just doesn't belong,


can you tell me which thing is  not like the others


by the time i finish this song?

silly hats