Weekend Update

My weekend update isn't nearly as fun as Saturday Night Live's, but it was a milestone for us! 

The sign went up, Friday evening, under the cloak of darkness...

 We even have a "Pottery Highway" sign in our front yard. Check out the crazy pruning job the utility company did to our tree. I call it the big "Y".

Our temporary gallery was all set up and ready for customers, by early Saturday morning.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many people stopped in throughout the day. Sales weren't stellar, but they were sales, and we were happy. Sunday was slower, but that's typical around here.

We celebrated on Friday night with the first lighting of our "new to us" fire pit. We brought it back from NH this summer, and it was finally cool enough to fire it up. Nothing tastes better than hotdogs cooked on an open fire. The downside...
They are salty and I was up drinking water half the night. It reminded me of why I don't usually eat hotdogs.

Put on your hard hat

 No studio work yesterday. Our day off was spent doing construction work.
Remember the ugly louvers...

Half of them are gone now.

While Jeff and John did the hammering and nailing, I primed the bottom edges of the siding. To get this project finished and within our budget, we are using T 1-11 siding. Once we have some extra dough, we will cover it with cedar shingles.

The yard looks like a construction site. I guess it has to get messy in order to get better.

Today it's back to the pottery studio. I am working on some animal rattles. I'll share more about that tomorrow.

Scrub-a-dub-dub

Jeff spent two days this week power washing the interior of the carport to prepare it for studio/gallery space. It seemed the best solution to rid the ceiling from years of grime and layers of peeling paint. If you have to work in 90 degree weather, this is probably the best work to do. When Jeff was done, it looked like he had been out playing in the rain all day.

You can see from the photo below what a difference it made in the color of the ceiling!

The louvers are being removed and replace with solid walls and a couple of windows on one side. We will still have some scraping to do before Jeff applies a texture and paint to the ceiling and beams.

It's exciting to see things moving forward towards being able to work in our digs. The one mile commute down the road is killing us.

Flashback to the 60's!

 Lot's of my friends have been asking when they will see interior photos of our new home. First of all, it's been empty for 2+ years, and prior to that was a rental. It needs a thorough scrubbing from top to bottom, along with some new paint. I didn't want anyone to see photos until some of that work was completed.

 This is our main bath... don't you love that retro green?! The porcelain and tile cleaned up pretty well and we will live with it until we can get new vanities. I think I know someone who can make me a vessel sink. The master bath is a lovely pink, or perhaps we will call it salmon.

Can you believe the original cooktop is still there... and it works?! Today I scrubbed most of the grub off of it. A little polish, new drip pans, knobs, and we are good to go. The wall oven is not original. It's a newer model with a black front. While searching for cooktop parts online, I became engrossed with all the websites devoted to retro kitchens and baths. Around the time this house was built (1961) pink kitchens were very trendy. I like to think it explains why the interior of our cabinets are painted pink. Perhaps the Mrs. wanted a pink kitchen but the Mr. said no. I like to imagine that the pink interiors were a compromise!

The dining room needed the least amount of work. I cleaned the wood work, shampooed the carpet, and already moved some pottery into the china cabinet. Luckily, both Jeff and I think that the cherry blossom wallpaper mural is pretty cool. We are going to leave it for awhile. Jeff is going to make stoneware knobs and pulls for both the china cabinet and the kitchen. The kitchen cabinets need to be stripped and painted. When it's done I'll post a before and after photo. The before photo on it's own is too scary.

***Celebration of Spring Studio Tour Update***
Day two of the studio tour was very rainy, but the people still came and bought pottery. It was the best Spring studio tour yet. Even though we sold LOTS of pots, we still have some nice ones left. We plan to stay open throughout our move. Come to Seagrove, buy some pots, and we will have less to move. If you can't come to Seagrove, our Etsy shops are open 24-7. The goal is for our new gallery will be ready by mid-June.

hi - ho - hi - ho...

it's off to work i go!  it's my day at the "coop" - the "co-operative of seagrove potters" gallery that is.  our sign is going to get painted soon... jeff jokes that only cool people can read it now.  it might actually feel good to put on nice clothes and stay clean all day.

the co-op of seagrove potters is open for business!

downtown Seagrove's newest gallery is up and running today.  yesterday we were all busy pricing pots, arranging displays and putting the finishing touches on the gallery.

this building was at one time the bank of seagrove... here is jeff inside the vault!

if you are in the area be sure to come into town and check us out.  here is a list of the potters who are members of the co-op:

Michèle Hastings & Jeff Brown Pottery

Tom Gray Pottery

Bull Dog Pottery

Latham Pottery

Dover Pottery

Nelda French Pottery

Old Gap Pottery

Seagrove Stoneware

Lufkin Pottery

Ole Fish House Pottery

A new gallery in Seagrove!

jeff and i made the decision to become members of a new cooperative gallery here in seagrove.  last night we had a meeting and voted on the name... Co-op of Seagrove Potters.  It's a small gallery in a great location on main street.  it was the Seagrove bank years ago and the old vault is still there.  this weekend some of the members will finish up with the shelving installation and we will be ready to open on March 1st.  we will have a grand opening celebration at the end of the month.  we feel as "newbies" in town it will give us more exposure and as cool as the log cabin shop is, it isn't always the best venue to display some of our work.  it's going to be an eclectic group of potters, so be sure to take a trip to 

Seagrove to check us out.