It's a Celebration Weekend!

We unloaded the kiln yesterday, in the midst of 90+ degree heat. I had an order that needed to ship before the post office closed, which meant we couldn't delay the job until evening. Overall we had some nice pots. A couple of spots in the kiln didn't get enough reduction. The frustrating thing was the shino glaze on two pots, on the same shelf looked completely different. One reduced just fine, the other, meh. The joys of making pottery!

I was pretty happy with these two...

They will both be available to purchase at our 6th Anniversary Open Studio Celebration tomorrow. I can't believe we opened shop in Seagrove 6 years ago! It's been a wild ride and the time has flown by. There will be pottery demonstrations throughout the day, and refreshments to enjoy. We will be open from 10-5, so stop in for a visit. Our annual sale tent will be out in the yard. Under the tent you will find some nice seconds and other good finds at fabulous prices.

505 E Main Street, downtown Seagrove - next to the big red barn.

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.

post Celebration post

Our last show of the year is DONE. The next events will happen at home in our own studio. No packing, no traveling, just tidying up the home gallery. The Celebration of Seagrove Potters is the big event of the year here. We are still the new kids on the block, and the show is not our best for sales. This year we made about the same amount of money as last year... in a smaller booth that was much easier to set up and tear down. Booths are assigned by the luck of the draw, and we were very lucky to get a corner right at the entrance. Everyone had to pass by us at least twice!
We helped our neighbor Phil pack up his van and we were home mixing  cosmopolitans at 7:00 pm!

 We have found that being at this show also brings many collectors to our shop throughout the year. Jeff and I are looking forward to the holiday shopping season!

wood fired pots!

It doesn't get any better than this! We had plans for one last firing of our little gas kiln before the Celebration of Seagrove Potters show AND then had the opportunity to put some pots in Fred Johnston's wood kiln. Jeff went to Fred's to fire the wood kiln and I stayed home and tended the gas kiln. Two kilns in one day... a potters dream!

Here are some quick photos of pots from the wood kiln...

 Yay! Really happy with these.

A sampling of pots... Jeff's maple leaf pots look great.

I unloaded most of the gas kiln tonight and that firing was good as well. A few orders to be shipped on Monday and some nice looking pots for the Celebration show. We are ready for the weekend, so bring it on!

back to work

Next week is the Celebration of Seagrove Potters, which means there was no time to decompress from the trip north. Jeff and I had work made before we left town, so it was more a matter of finishing things up. Along with firing our gas kiln this week we also have the opportunity to put some pots in Fred Johnston's wood kiln.

The sunny dry weather helped us get things dried out for the bisque kiln.

These are Jeff's pitchers for the wood kiln

Another round of piggy banks, along with vases and bottles... YAY for my gingko vases, I got my wood firing wish!!!!

We are not stressing too much about the Celebration show. It's not our biggest event of the year, and we have plenty of inventory to bring. This year Jeff will be at the show on Saturday and I will keep our shop open at home. This is year three for us at this show and thought it was time to try something new, we like to keep life interesting...

gotta run, it's time to open the shop!

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.