Holiday Open House in Seagrove - Saturday, December 14, 2013

Less than one week until our annual Holiday Open House. We have been working like crazy to finish Christmas orders and have new pots ready for the event. There will be LOTS of bowls, in both the my ginkgo leaf pattern and Jeff's aqua and shino carved designs. We also have a nice selection of wood fired pots from the most recent firing with Fred Johnston. We are located at:

1423 NC Hwy 705, Seagrove (across from the Whynot Wesleyan Church)

Open from 10am to 5pm


Plan to spend the day in Seagrove... SIX other shops will also have kiln openings! Pick up a SAPA map and mark these locations to visit:

Michèle Hastings & Jeff Brown Pottery

Bulldog Pottery

Ben Owen Pottery

Donna Craven Pottery

Dean & Martin Pottery

Johnston & Genthithes Art Pottery

From the Ground Up Pottery

and the results are in...

Jeff's been making growlers. The shino glazed one on the right has some nice carbon trapping.

The piggy sugar jars all came out, phew... because one was a special Christmas order. These will also make great salt pigs. I'll get them listed in my Etsy shop this week.

The ash glaze decided to act up on some bowls. Icky bubbles.

Ash glaze over shino. One of the few without bubbles.

Carved vases were all fine... look at the little pig trying to get in on the photo, what a hog!

I am working at the Co-op of Seagrove Potters gallery today and Jeff is at our studio for the kiln opening. All the new pots are outside under the tent and there is a warm fire & hot coffee inside the log cabin gallery. We will start happy hour a little early today with wine and cheese from 3:00 to 6:00. If your in the neighborhood stop in and keep Jeff company... I will be home at 5:00 (and ready for a glass of wine).

Cheers!

the last firing of 2011

Last night Jeff and I bricked up the door of the baby gas kiln so that we would be ready to go this morning. I woke up at 6:00 am without even having to set the alarm! I crept down the spiral staircase in the dark and slipped out the back door in my jammies to light the burners. I fed Sophie then crawled back into bed and dozed for a short time. At 8:00 I nudged the burners a bit. All the while, Jeff is snuggled in bed, fast asleep. This routine is so much easier than when I was in NH and I would have to get in the car and drive 4 miles (in my jammies) to light the burners... never mind the fact that this time of year it was really, really cold out! The positive side of that situation was that after the second set of burners were lit on the big NH kiln (4 burners) I had to stay the day to tend to it. That meant there were no distractions (like laundry) and I could make more pots or do some cleaning up. I had no choice but be more active in firing the kiln. Jeff would check on me and give advice. He was usually there when the kiln went into reduction. Jeff was teaching at NHIA back then so I always wanted to be done before he was off to teach. I have been a slacker with this kiln, letting Jeff handle the work of firing. I do most of the loading, which for some reason I really enjoy. My New Year's resolution will be to master firing this little kiln!

I wasn't sure if I had ever shared a picture of our very high tech door bracing system... towards the end of the firing it it hard to keep this door tight, so Jeff came up with this solution. Sort of reminds me of my brother's erector set when we were growing up!

and now for a little advertising...

We are having a very laid back Holiday Opening on Saturday & Sunday. The kiln will be unloaded in the morning and there will be hot coffee in the gallery for morning customers. On Saturday, 3 -6 pm we will be serving wine and cheese. If we are feeling ambitious we may do a raku firing on Friday and that means some new tiles and pendants for the weekend. There are lots of other kiln openings in Seagrove and it will be a perfect way to finish your holiday shopping without the stress of the malls.
Here is a list of potteries that I know are having openings (and there may be more!):

Dean and Martin
Bulldog Pottery
Ben Owen III
Donna Craven
David Stuempfle
Johnston & Gentithes
Chris Luther
Seagrove Stoneware

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!

and now for the moment we have all been waiting for (ok...maybe just me)

salt chamber is unloaded... mixed results, many pots to be re-fired

lots of juicy goodness in the anagama...

some quick pics of my altered, oval bakers...

stayed tuned for tomorrow's update!

kiln opening today!

at last we will unload the wood kiln today...i have to confess...jeff unbricked the door two days ago and jz and i took a sneak peek with a flashlight on thursday nite :-)

i think we will have some nice pots. as soon as we can get some photography done i will have new pics to post here and on flickr.

it is a chilly november day in new hampshire...the sun is shining...we will have new pots...

it is going to be a great day.