"Made in the Carolinas"

We had our 2 1/2 minutes of fame last week! Jeff and I were featured on "Made in the Carolinas", a segment on TWC News. I blogged about the filming last month, and weren't sure when it would be aired. I can't embed the video in blogger, here is a link if you want to check it out:

Gypsy Potters Drawn to Seagrove, NC

The segment brought people to us all weekend. It was pretty exciting and perfect timing for our "Mugs for Moving" campaign. A big GIANT thank you to all who purchased a mug or two this weekend! We are off to a great start, but still have a ways to go. If you would like to learn more, read my previous post or click here: Mugs For Moving

The first bunch of square bowls are out of the kiln. I am very happy with how they turned out. These are a nice size, they hold about 16 oz. Perfect for salsa, dip, and serving veggies.  This weekend I made a few more to put in the wood kiln at David Stuempfles. Imagine them all brown and toasty. Stayed tuned for more about the wood firing.

Mugs for Moving

Jeff and I have been in Seagrove, NC for nearly five years. Living and working in these two log cabins has been an adventure that we will always hold near and dear to our hearts. It was never our plan to be in this location permanently. We are renting, and our dream has always been to purchase our own place.

After many years of hard work, and frugal living, we have found that place! We have a contract on house just a mile up the road. It's a perfect in town location with some acreage and a wooded backyard. All of this is both exhilarating and scary at the same time.

For most people moving is hard work and a pain in a$$, but for potters it's that X 100. Once more our gas kiln will have to be dismantled and rebuilt, along with pouring a new pad and building a kiln shed. We almost have it covered but a little help from pottery lovers and collectors will make a huge difference. 

Mug for Moving is our campaign to raise funds to get our studio and kiln moved. We are offering three different mug styles for $25 each. This includes shipping in the US, and if you are in NC, sales tax as well. Mugs will be shipped or available for pickup by fall of this year.

The details are on our newly launched website along with a shopping cart to place your order via Paypal. www.gypsypotters.net

Thank you readers and fellow bloggers for all of your encouragement and support over the years. The blogging community feels like family, even though some of us have never met. Jeff and I realize that times are tight for everyone, if you can't afford a mug perhaps you could share our campaign on Facebook via the handy "share this page" button on the website.

found (fond) memories...

We have been preparing for Jeff's trip to S. Korea, figuring out what we have for suitcases, electrical converters, passport, cameras...
On the camera front, we decided that Jeff should take the newer camera so I dug out my old Sony that is 10 years old. It's only 2.1 megapixels but it should get me by for blog pictures while he is away. I charged the battery and turned it on this morning. Low and behold there were picture on there from 2010! Jeff must have taken them...

It's the gypsy potters school bus... towing Jeff's pickup truck! We were heading south and stopped at my parents house to say good bye.

I am sure that Mom and Dad were thrilled to have our hippy bus parked in front of their home with the perfectly trimmed hedge. My Mom would also not be thrilled to know I posted this pic on the web when she didn't have her hair "done"...she will never know because at 85 years old they are clueless about the internet.
My parents sold their house in Nashua last year and moved to an apartment in Dover, NH. Most of the relatives are there and they are closer to my sister. The manicured yard was getting too much for Dad to take care of and he was never happy with how anyone else did it. I was happy to find this photo of the house I grew up in as well as some more recent photos of my parents.

notes from the gypsy potter's journal...

What a great trip we are having! I should have some pics and maybe a short video from Jeff's workshop this weekend but we haven't had a chance to look at them yet. The days have been long and exhausting, but that means we have slept well. Today was the first day we were able to sleep in. No work for us today. It's a visiting day with friends and family and a night out in our favorite city, Portsmouth, NH, to celebrate Jeff's birthday. It's perfect timing that his b-day falls on jam night at the Dolphin Striker and Jeff will get to play some blues with old friends.

It was cold and overcast when we arrived in NH, but yesterday the weather was unusually warm for March. Almost 80 degrees! This morning I was surprised that there was still a little ice hanging on in the cove here at Bow Lake...

Yesterday I dropped Jeff off at the workshop and drove to Durham, NH for a NH Potters Guild meeting. It was the annual pot swap and I was psyched to come home with a space mug by my good friend Steve Cunliffe...

 The meetings was very well attended, in part because everyone loves to visit at Jane Kaufmann's. She is one of the sweetest women I know and visiting her home & studio is a treat. If it were up to me should would be named NH's living treasure! She just finished a book about her life's journey in the art world. I can't wait to get a signed copy. It should be out in June of this year. I wanted to take pictures at the meeting but spent so much time catching up with everyone that the camera never made it out of the bag. I love North Carolina, but days like yesterday make me feel a little (just a little!) homesick. The good news is, that I brought some Seagrove maps and I think we may get a few potter friends to take a road trip in the fall!

It's creeping up on 11:00 am and I should probably get dressed for the day! Briar (above) and I have been hanging out together this morning while Jeff continues to catch up on some ZZZZ's.
Happy Monday!

5th firing 2012

We spent the day organizing and packing for our trip north. We also unloaded the kiln... I think this is firing #5 for 2012. Our photo taking set up on the dining room table was dismantled so I just snapped a few quick pictures of some of my pots.

I am really happy with these shino glazed mugs... the one in the front I am going to keep for a bit and another I wrapped up and added it to Danielle's birthday package.

Remember those itty bitty pigs?

I glazed them in shino, splashed them with tenmoku, and dusted their little hides with ash. They are as cute as can be. I photographed them on my laptop, so that gives you an idea as to their itty bitty size. Jeff says they should have been salt and pepper shakers. Next time perhaps.

There were other nice pots but they got wrapped and boxed upon unloading. Many are heading to League of NH Craftsmen galleries in NH.
My next post will most likely be from the road. Catch up with y'all later!

the gypsy potters are hittin' the road

My last post stated that it was a busy week for us. Jeff is teaching a workshop at Purple Sage Pottery in Merrimac, MA this weekend and we have lot's to do before hitting the road. This workshop is Thrown and Altered Forms and is a two day event. The workshop is full and it should be a fun and informative two days for everyone who registered. We will be staying in NH with a friend and will have the opportunity to visit with my parents.

Sunday afternoon is a NH Potters Guild Meeting, of which I am (STILL) the treasurer. This is the meeting where I present the annual report for 2011 so I had to get all of my paperwork in order and the report completed. I am excited to see my NH guild friends! Jeff is on his own at the workshop that day.
Heading north also means stocking the galleries for the League of NH Craftsmen. Jeff's work has been selling well and they have been crying for more. This meant squeezing in one more firing before we leave. We really rushed things through this time. We were finishing work on Friday night to bisque on Saturday. Jeff put some wet pots in the kiln and dried them overnight... we didn't lose a single one! Sunday we unloaded and glazed until after 10:00 pm then loaded the back stack. Yesterday morning, Jeff finished loading the front stack and lit the kiln. I think it was done around 1:30 am.
Thank goodness for a small kiln!!

Today was a studio clean up day... we are very messy glazers! It's not super clean now but at least you can walk through without tripping over glaze buckets. Tomorrow we pack. Thursday we hit the road.

...and the BEST part of this trip is that on the return home we stop in Connecticut to celebrate Danielle's birthday!!

gotta go take a little peek in the kiln (temp is 855)... I will leave you with a pic I have posted before. Iris Minc, who owns and operates Purple Sage Pottery, made the platter holding the asian dumplings. It's one of my favorites.

*If you are interested in hosting a workshop send Jeff an e-mail: jeff@jeffbrownpottery.com for more info.
He offers Throwing and Altering workshops as well as Raku Firing. We have a portable raku kiln and bring reduction cans and glazes with us. Experienced with high school students & adults.

the gypsy potters hit the road

i haven't had much time for blogging. we had a crazy week getting ready to travel to NH. i am writing this quick post in a hotel in PA while i wait for Jeff to get out of the shower! we will arrive in NH this evening and will stay with by brother Paul and his girlfriend Harris at their home in New Ipswich. tomorrow we will be teaching a raku workshop to high school students in Hillsboro, NH.

we fired the gas kiln twice in the last week. we had a re-fire explosion in the first firing that took out too many good pots, at least our collaborative piece for the Celebration gala night auction survived...

we unloaded a portion of the 2nd kiln firing yesterday before we hit the road,  everything looked good. as we were driving last night we remembered that last year at this time we went to NH and our kiln back in Seagrove wasn't quite finished yet. the day after we got back home the gas company came and delivered our tank and connected the gas... we will be so much more ready for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters this year!

below is an example of one of the kiln explosion victims...

Jeff's covered jar with ash glaze survived unscathed!

that's all for now, time to hit the road again!

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!

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!!!

opening day at the pottery

by the end of last week we had unpacked just enough of the house to be able to cook, eat and sleep comfortably.  it was time to tackle the gallery so we could start selling pots! on saturday jeff worked on the outside trimming back over grown trees and ornamental grass while i cleaned the cobwebs, floors and washed shelves.  by sunday we were ready to unpack pots and get them out on display!.

... at one point this weekend jeff and i looked at each other and said, "we must have an attraction to rustic studios!".  both of our past studios have been in antique barns and now we are together in a log cabin.  this little place is sweet and quaint... we are feeling right at home here.

my next post will be about all the things i am discovering about life in north carolina...

on with the show...

the kiln is pretty much down and packed into boxes...

it sort of looks like ancient mayan ruins doesn't it?

this is an interior shot of the bus as jeff was loading the bricks.  all of the soft brick is packed in banana boxes... i visited the local hannaford's grocery store everyday (sometimes twice a day!) to pick up banana boxes.  the hard brick was laid out on the floor of the bus and we packed other things on top of them.  jeff kept a close eye on the leaf springs under the bus to make sure we weren't overloaded.  we didn't take all of the hard bricks this trip so that we could keep the weight down.  we plan to finish the job in august.  at this point we will have enough bricks in seagrove to build a smaller kiln.  a smaller kiln means we can fire more often!

tomorrow we hit the road again... our kitties are coming this time.  we are all anxious to get settled in our new home

struggles in the life of the gypsy potter...

we are very fortunate to be staying with our friend roni this week while we dismantle the gas kiln... she has a lovely home on bow lake. staying in other peoples homes has it's challenges.
 roni has one of those keurig (sp?) one cup at a time coffee makers.  jeff and i drink WAAAY to much coffee to use that.  we have bought 2 boxes at $7.95 ea. in the last week. YIKES!
yesterday we saw a french press in roni's cabinet...  so last night we bought some coffee.  i woke up this morning realizing i had never used one before... the internet is a wonderful thing...

i found some directions...

then couldn't open the can of coffee because i had no clue how to operate this can opener and didn't want to have to find directions for THAT online!  luckily i rummaged through the drawers and found the old fashioned kind. being a lefty i am somewhat can opener challenged anyway... so i have a good excuse.

here we go!

ahhhh.... two steaming cups of coffee

meesh mug on the left... roni brown mug on the right (yep... she's a potter too!)

so the first round of coffee was a little week... the next one will be better.  BRING ON THE DAY!!!