The Chair

If my mother were still with us, her and Dad would be celebrating their 63rd wedding anniversary today. My paternal grandmother gave them a boudoir chair as a wedding gift. I have always loved that chair. Over the years my parents reupholstered it themselves and repaired the spring system in the seat cushion. Last winter the springs gave out again my Dad decided he wanted a new chair. He was going to throw away the old one. I couldn't bear to see it thrown out and asked if I could have it. We made sure there was room in the trailer to bring it back to North Carolina after the show in August.

So now I have a 63 year old chair that I am going to attempt to reupholster! I clearly remember the three different fabrics that have adorned this chair. I also remember a photo my mother took of me sitting in it when I was a toddler. Now I have to decide if I want to update it with a modern print or find a fabric that is fitting to 1954. I think I better watch some youtube video about upholstery projects before I tackle the job!

Blank Canvas

Jeff and I just had our 2nd anniversary at 505 E. Main. Finishing our studio is still a work in progress. It's been a balancing act to keep making work and get construction projects finished (finding the money is a whole other story). This week we finally got the rest of the trim up and painted. The upper gable end, and the soffits still need to be scraped and painted. We really wish we could afford to hire a painter to do that portion. Just looking at it overwhelms me! Quite frankly, I would love to have all the soffits wrapped in vinyl because I really hate to paint. Thank goodness most of the house is brick.

Jeff has also been installing some landscape timbers along the front planting area, and shoveling in new top soil. I have flowers started from seeds, and they should be ready to plant as soon as he is done.

We now have a big blank canvas of a wall. Jeff and I have been kicking around the idea of painting a mural of pots on the left side of the windows. Something simple, like silhouettes of a couple of pots. It could be seen from the road and hopefully help people realize that this is our studio and we are open for business.  Since we live within the town limits of Seagrove, we can't put our studio name on the building. We already have a free-standing sign near the road and sign ordinances state that we can't have both. The ordinance book doesn't say anything about a mural!

UPDATE: Jeff reminded me that we can have a wall sign but the size restriction makes it too small to see from the road.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Day two of our  5 Year Anniversary Open House and Sale is TODAY!

We had a fabulous turn out yesterday and the sale continues today. The pottery in the gallery is 20% off. Everything under the tent (seconds and older work) is 50% off. We don't typically lower our prices, but reducing inventory will really help with our studio move next month. A young woman and her Mom came and purchased a variety of wares to outfit the the young woman's first apartment. They arrived early in the morning and had the best pick of some really great seconds. They came back in the afternoon and bought a few more pieces.

We will open at noon today and close at 5pm, or later, because we often work into the evening and forget to bring the "open flags" in!

Adding to our happiness is the fact that our clivia finally bloomed! It obviously loves it's new location and wasn't at all happy in a dark log cabin... even though I took it outside each summer. I am really enjoying a sunny and bright house, where plants and humans can flourish. Maybe I can now have a Boston fern that survives the winter.

September 11th

 September 11th is my parents  wedding anniversary. Since 2011, it's been pretty hard to forget their special day. This fall we were planning a family gathering to celebrate their 60th. This will be a difficult day for my Dad, since my Mum passed away in May. I wish I could be there for him.

I can't believe that when this picture was taken at Danielle's christening, that they were my age!

and that same year, they celebrated 25 years together...

Four Years

has flown by.

It's hard to believe we have been making pots in Seagrove for four years. It was a good excuse to celebrate. I shook the dust out of the rugs, cleaned shelves and pots, and de-cobwebbed the gallery. It was looking quite spiffy by Friday afternoon.

By noon time Saturday, there was a steady stream of traffic. Jeff threw pots for anyone who wanted to watch, while I was carving ginkgo leaves on plates. Sales were not great, but better then the average Saturday at the end of July. The day ended with Jeff grilling burgers and dogs for a small group of friends who came over to help us celebrate. The weather was perfect and we were able to eat outside without getting eaten alive by mosquitoes.

This morning I am enjoying some quiet time with coffee and the sound of rain on the roof (boy do we need that rain). We don't open until noon today and I am not planning on doing any real work until then. I hope you enjoy your Sunday too.

July Firing #2

We actually finished loading the kiln and I bricked up the door before it was dark last night! Jeff lit the first burner this morning at around 7:30, so we will be finished early today as well. This is firing #2 for July.  These two firings, along with the wood firing in June, means we will have a nice selection of pots for our anniversary celebration this coming weekend. Once again this will be a joint celebration with Eck McCanless Pottery. Eck is celebrating the second anniversary of his shop in Seagrove. Our shops are less than a mile from each other. Visitors at each shop will be able to see demonstrations, purchase new pots, and enjoy some tasty summertime foods. Eck is planning to get out his guitar and play some tunes in the late afternoon. The details about the weekend are on the right sidebar, here on the blog.
I can't believe that Jeff and I have been in Seagrove for three years already...time flies when you're having fun and working hard.

coasting along...

Jeff has been making stoneware coasters for years. We have been out of them for some time and decided that since they are good sellers we should take lots of them to the League of NH Craftsmen's show at the end of the month. I have never made them and this week Jeff showed me his technique. He doesn't use bats and I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get them off the wheel without distorting them but after watching him do a couple, I got the hang of it. Not using bats saves a lot of room when you have to make a hundred of something!

The league show is just Jeff's work, but I can do a certain percentage of the work. He is adding his  texture to most of these coasters. That is the time consuming part of the process.

We will also keep some simple, with a swirl design in the center and many will be ready for our anniversary celebration on Saturday, July 20th.
...of course now I am thinking, wouldn't it be cool if I slipped some of these and carved some leaves and flowers into the surface?

building momentum

Saturday was our best summer sales day in the two years we have been in Seagrove. We contribute that to a few factors.

1. Eck McCanless Pottery and us spent quite a bit of time marketing our joint Anniversary Celebration weekend.

2. A group in town was having their Christmas in July event, which brought out more people than the two previous years.

3. People are starting to spend money -  a sign (in my opinion) that the economy is beginning to turn around.

We had a steady stream of customers from 10 am until we closed at 5:00 pm. In between wrapping pots, Jeff demonstrated making big bowls and I did some sgraffito on vases. We were getting new pots made, and selling pots at the same time! Does it get any better than that?

This morning we finished loading the gas kiln and now it's firing away. We will unload it on Thursday, load it back up and fire again on Friday. We also have the electric kiln firing a bisque right now. On Saturday our NH friend Wendy arrives. She has been at Arrowmont School in Tennessee for a two week Simon Levin, wood firing workshop, and decided to visit Seagrove before heading north. 

Did I mention that we are exhausted?

There's a whole lot of celebratin' going on...

Jeff un-bricked the door to the kiln this evening and we took a few things out...

Jeff's large textured bowls came out awesome...

The test tiles for nuka and peach blossom look good so pots with those glazes will go in the next firing, which will get loaded on Sunday.

And the BEST news we are celebrating is...

Jeff had a wood fired piece accepted into Strictly Functional! He has been in the show before but missed the deadline the last few years. He was feeling good about getting in, since Jack Troy is the juror this year.

Tomorrow we are celebrating two years in Seagrove and Eck McCanless Pottery is celebrating their one year anniversary. We decided to celebrate together... pottery demonstrations at both shops and food! Eck and his wife, Rhonda, are serving up heavy hors d'oeuvres and then you can wander around the corner to our place for dessert... m&m brownies and blueberry oatmeal bars. Or come see us for dessert FIRST and then head over to Eck McCanless Pottery for lunch (we won't tell your mother).

... and if you come late we'll be on the porch, drinking beer. Help yourself, they'll be in the cooler.

whirlwind weekend

we consider our anniversary celebration a success... we made some sales, had a great party Saturday night with lots of friends & food and didn't get to bed until 3:00 am. our friend Rob from Virginia came up for the weekend and stayed through until today. we hadn't seen him in a year so we had some catching up to do.
yesterday and today have been spent recovering.

our new salt glazed pots looked great set out under the tent in the front of the gallery...

a big thank you to all who came and helped us to celebrate... everyone has made us feel welcome in this wonderful community of Seagrove. we feel very fortunate to be here.

Friday we loaded the groundhog kiln at the NC Pottery Center. David Garner from Turn & Burn Pottery offered to help us load and fire the kiln. Extra hands made the job easier and also allowed me to keep the gallery open for most of the day.

Can't wait to see how this big pot of Jeff's turns out!

 I was glad that my job consisted of wadding pots and handing them to Jeff to load. The kiln is tight quarters and I am a little claustrophobic.

Time to light the fire! We pre-heated overnight. David lives next door to the kiln so he did the late night.

David poured salt through the peeps on top of the kiln. He had lots of jugs in the back that he wanted to get hit with the salt directly. We kept our pots towards the front and salted through the stoke hole. We wanted our pots to get more of a fume than a direct hit.

The kiln fired in about 9 hours, which we found amazing since our little gas kiln sometimes takes longer! The plan is to unload Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning. 

New pots in time for our 1 year in Seagrove, anniversary event! Along with the new pots we will have refreshments and door prizes.  The gallery is open from 10:00 am to 5:00 pm both Saturday and Sunday (July 9th & 10th). Saturday night at 6:00 we are hosting a party for potters and friends to celebrate with us... if you are in the area please come and stay for the party!