Another month comes to a close

Jeff took a road trip to Raleigh on Thursday to deliver mugs to Capitol Broadcasting Company. Each employee receives a handmade mug, from a North Carolina potter, as birthday gift. They choose a different potter each year. This year they chose us to make the mugs. They picked one of my designs.

This is a good project for me because I am not a production potter. If I were paid piece work by a pottery I would never make more than minimum wage. I changed up my handles a little, in order to make things go faster. I am still pulling them off the mug, but now I am extruding the lugs. 

I am definitely getting a little faster at throwing them as well.

We don't have to deliver 600 at once but I do plan to get the order done as quickly as possible. So now my nights are filled with dreams of mug making, along with piggy bank production...

And the occasional dreams of painting.

We are still here...

I haven't checked in for awhile. We are still here and working hard for the final push to get to our biggest show of the year next month. Jeff threw fifty mugs the other night. He decided that I would pull the handles on all of the straight sided mugs and he would do the altered mugs. I was very hesitant about putting my handles on his mugs. He wasn't concerned a bit. I tried my best to make them look more like his. In the end they were a combination of the two!

Aside from pottery work, we are really enjoying our land this year. We have quite a few tomato plants that are just starting to give us fruit, and along with the herbs and flowers, we feel like we are super fortunate. Most of our gardening is still happening in the front yard, but Jeff has spent many evenings reclaiming the over grown back acre. Last evening Jeff took me out back to show me the maypops that are blooming out there.

This is a southern climbing vine that I was not familiar with until we moved to this house. It's also known as purple passion flower. It produces a small egg sized fruit... Jeff says it tastes like bubblegum!

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.

beads, buttons and more mugs

It's a dreary rainy day and I am not feeling motivated to do much of anything. I have sort of felt that way all week. My excuse for not getting anything started in clay today is that on Friday morning I am flying to NYC and then spending a long weekend with my daughter in Connecticut. Why start something new when you may not have time to finish it?
When I mentioned to Jeff that I felt we have been rather lazy this week he said, "What about the 50 mugs and 25 goblets we have been working on?". Oh yeah, that's right. We did do that... along with beads & buttons.


These are the last of the mugs that I handled and decorated...

uh-oh... look at that handle on the mug on the right... popped right off! It was too thin and I probably didn't dampen the slip enough.

small buttons and beads...

and these are the mugs that Jeff handled and decorated...

I think he did twice as many as me. This deco takes a little less time and he definitely is faster at pulling handles. If you remember from an earlier post he also threw all the bodies for these mugs... so the truth is out. I have been lazy, not Jeff ;-).

We usually work into the evening, me until 7 or 8 pm, Jeff often until 9 or 10 pm. Tonight we are taking a break and having a date night. After a our monthly Co-op meeting we are going out to dinner and then to see a movie. We haven't been to the movies since we moved here, I think we are overdue!