Playing with Fire

Jeff was part of the wood firing crew at STARworks last week during FireFest. He brought of few my pots to be fired in the salt chamber.

These were made with Highwater Loafers Glory. I had some lackluster ones and a few with some good toasty-ness. Of course the ones with the best color had other issues, like a slight separation at the handle join and one with an s-crack. I plan to keep the s-crack mug for myself, which I rarely do. The others are still sale-able but at a reduced price. That's the crap shoot of wood firing.

The plan this weekend was that when Jeff was done his shift of stoking the wood kiln, he would come back to Seagrove and bring me to FireFest at STARworks, in Star NC. I really wanted to see this year's giant sculpture, that was firing throughout the event, being unveiled. At 7pm it was drizzling and 46 degrees outside. I opted to stay home in my pajamas, curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine. Jeff had a few great photos and there was some cool videos posted to Facebook. The sculpture this year was created by Sunkoo Yuh. Firefest is an annual thing. You can read details about the event here: STARworks FireFest

Patience is a virtue?

I am loving this new batch of spoons that came out of the wood kiln that was fired during FireFest at STARworks. I like them so much that I want to keep them... but I will be strong and put a price on them. Well, maybe I will keep one.

There is so much that needs to be done at our new house and it's making me crazy to not be there every minute! But alas, there is a studio tour this weekend and I have to prepare for that, as well as piggy bank orders to complete. It doesn't help that the house is just a mile from our current location, making it all the more tempting to sneak away. I need to be patient. We knew that the timing of our closing would be squeezed in between studio tour preparations, and Jeff's impending trip to Japan and S. Korea. Yep, he leaves in less than two weeks. It's a good thing we aren't under pressure to move out of here! Our goal is to be completely down the road by June 1st.

I am both exhausted and exhilarated, just thinking about it.

I am still here...

Life's been crazy! I will post more on that later. We did manage to get out of town last Saturday night, and head over to FireFest at STARworks Center for Creative Enterprise. This is where we buy our clay, but it is also a business incubator with lots of other cool stuff going on, one of which is FireFest. FireFest is a two day festival celebrating the role of fire in the creation of art. Along with lots of workshops, there was glass blowing demos, a wood firing, an iron pour, music, food, and beer. 

Each year at FireFest, a large ceramic sculpture is created and fired. This year, Seagrove artist, Carol Gentithes built a sculpture of a magical tree trunk. It was wood fired in this bottle kiln, during the festivities.

The sculpture's unveiling was the grand finale of the festival.

It was a sight to behold, under a fabulous, full moon.

Jeff went back to STARworks today to help unload the wood kiln. He was able to snap this photo of the finished sculpture, in daylight...