Home in time for Halloween

Over the weekend I realized that we would be home in time for Halloween. I have always loved Halloween, and I love to carve a jack-o-lantern. I also realized that I hadn't bought a pumpkin yet and considered getting one in New Hampshire and bringing it home with me. When you drive through the countryside in New England, there are pumpkin patches everywhere. I decided I would wait and get one when we returned to North Carolina... after all, the grocery stores all had huge bins of them before we left. Needles to say, I couldn't find a pumpkin of any size. They were all GONE. I had to make do with my cheesy store bought jack-o-lanterns. But let's face it, isn't Halloween all about cheesy?

Yesterday was spent packing orders to be shipped. I have a few more to do this morning and then it's back to clay. I am still not sure how my shoulder will handle it, but I am going to attempt small bowls to start. Before we left I did some slab dishes. Slab work is nice and easy on your body but it goes too slow for me. I like the speed of the wheel!

I hope your Halloween was happy and a little (or a lot) cheesy!

renewed love...

I did something this morning that I had not done in years...

I went to work in my pajamas. 

When I first fell in love with clay, I threw pots in my jammies most everyday. Then I would shower, get dressed, and head out to my "real" job. I had to squeeze in every second of clay that I could. The great feeling about this morning is, I didn't head out to the studio because I am under pressure to get work done for the next show, although I should feel that way. I went because the clay was calling me. I was excited to get a board of mugs trimmed and slipped so that I could pull handles later this morning. I believe that taking a three week break from making pots renewed my excitement and love. 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

working...

We are going to be participating in a wood/salt firing in Carthage this summer, so I have been making pots for that in between the usual repertoire...

 The two bottles in the middle were made with STARworks new Seagrove clay. It's formulated specifically for firing in wood and salt. It was so different to throw with after using the Highwater Aurora clay. It's groggy and sandy, and throws quite well.

I finished a bunch of these bowl yesterday... finally. It seems like it was forever ago that I threw them. The humidity meant they took forever to dry enough to trim. These will be shino on the inside and gloss green on the exterior.

Lately it seems the weeks are flying by. It scares me a little because we have a 10  9 day show to do in NH the first week of August.

10  9 days = lots of pots to be made!

working in porcelain

Last week we finally bit the bullet and bought another ton of clay from StarWorks. The last few weeks we were mostly using our recycled clay, which is fine, but we need to make pots for raku and there may be too much zella clay in the mix for that purpose. I have been itching for Laguna B-mix these last few months but the B-mix from a supplier near here is more than I want to pay. It was time to try something new so I told Jeff to get 50lbs of a Highwater porcelain for me to try out. . He came home with P-10. 

I started out throwing some mugs, tumblers and small vases. Then gave a couple of other forms a go.  I like the way it throws, it stands up well.

This is a small cupcake stand... it's a trial run for a cake stand. I have made many in the past and have had big issues with warping. I decided to try this method. I should have choked in the middle of the stand more so that it would have a more elegant shape. Next time!

I was surprised how easily I was able to assemble a lidded oval box using porcelain. It was easier to get rid of the "assembly seam" on the top and bottom. I mixed up some porcelain slip and tomorrow I will do a slip trail deco on both the cupcake stand and the box. There is no color in the slip so it will create a raised decoration only. I am thinking about glazing these in Temple white and maybe some sprayed on accent glaze.

The ideal situation for me would be to set up a wheel and tools and use it only for porcelain. I had to clean my wheel and tools before making the switch yesterday. It's either that or make the switch to porcelain only... I don't think I am ready to give up stoneware just yet!!

the giant fun factory machine

While the bisque kiln was firing and before we started to glaze, I felt it would be a good time to pug many months of two potter's clay scraps. When I turned the pugmill on it made a horrible sound... I quickly turned it off. Jeff heard the noise and said he hoped it just needed grease.

Seagrove Hardware had lithium grease and in no time I was back to work. Luckily, grease was all it needed. She's an old Bluebird pugmill and I was a little worried!

when all was said and done i pugged about 200 pounds of clay... thankfully my arm didn't fall off.
... I love seeing all this freshly plugged clay, makes me want to get back to throwing pots!

dirty laundry...

there is no way around it. when you are a potter, everything gets covered in clay, including your clothes. we all know that clay in your plumbing is not a good thing. this is one thing i do to prevent that...

this is my pre-wash station behind the studio! i spray the clay off with the hose, let them almost drip dry, then throw the clothes in the washer. i do this with our aprons and shop towels as well. i used to soak towels etc. in a large bucket of water and ring them out, prior to washing. i found that the wringing out and handling the heavy wet stuff was hard on my shoulder, so some time ago i decided on this method.
if our clothes aren't too clay encrusted i will just scrape off any globs before washing and skip this rinsing off step. my washer also has an extra rinse cycle that really helps.
i am curious to hear what other methods readers use to keep their washing machines and plumbing clay free.
illness update: still coughing and blowing my nose, but feeling and sleeping much better... thank you for all your get well soon wishes... despite being under the weather, all my pots are glazed and we are ready to load the ground hog kiln tomorrow. i think the sunshine helped my recovery. i did a lot of the glazing outside and absorbed some good vitamin C & D via the sunshine!

getting back in the "groove" of making...

i haven't blogged much about clay lately... the whole gypsy potter adventure sort of took over!  slowly getting back in the groove of a "making" cycle.  here is the latest.

12" serving plate with handles

14" serving platter with handles

carved planter

carving on pots is something that i have done very little of... not sure how i feel about this.  i wrapped it back up in plastic tonight so that i can still work on it if i feel it needs some tweaking.

a visit to STARworks!

located just outsided of seagrove, nc is the town of star.  star is the home of a really cool place called STARworks.  STARworks is a textile mill transformed into an entrepeneurial center for ceramic materials and research, a glass studio, biofuels center, as well as a micro-eco farm.  nancy gattovi, executive director gave us a tour of the whole facility.  this organization is really going places.  jeff said if he had access to a glass studio like STARworks, when he was in high school, he would be a glass blower today and not a potter!

STARworks ceramics is run by Takuro and Hitomi Shibata.  Takuro was gracious enough to give us an extensive tour of the clay facility.  not only do they sell Highwater clays and many materials and tools, they also manufacture clay bodies made from local north carolina clay.  we couldn't leave without filling whatever space we had in my equinox with bags of clay!!!

above is a pic of jeff standing in front of the huge filter press

this is in front of the BIG pugmill

one of the things i noticed while we were touring STARworks was there were bicycles scattered throughout the interior and exterior of the building... nancy told us that the bicycles are there for the people of STARworks to use to get around town! also in the front of the building was a jogging/walking path made of recycle rubber (i think it was tires).  jeff and i were so impressed by this organization and the people we met there... if you are ever in the area be sure to stop in.

mmm... creamy, smooth & rich

monday afternoon i picked up 500 pounds of clay from a small supplier in york maine. i usually order from sheffield pottery supply in massachusetts but i really only wanted some porcelain and didn't want to pay for shipping. this supplier carries miller so i came home with their b-mix. i have used miller stoneware before and liked it... but i have to say i LOVE how the b-mix throws! i threw some pitchers and a small bottle - can't wait to get back to the studio today and get some more work done. i think i am FINALLY out of my rut!!!

... no pottery pictures today but i will leave you with a silly one from dinner last month at mark and tom's house...

jeff, bryce & me...bryce is mark and tom's very famous & popular house guest

...you never know where he will turn up!

Littleton Sidewalk Art Show

we are experiencing indian summer in NH and it couldn't have been better timing. last saturday we traveled to littleton,NH for a day pottery demonstrations for the league of nh craftsmen gallery there...we also had lots of fun creating a clay totem pole with fair-goers...below are some pics of the work in progress...

...and here is john, the master potter hard at work... ;-)