Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there! My sweet girl Danielle sent me this box filled with lot's of comforting goodies...

Today we won't be having our usual family gathering for a chicken barbecue. Instead, Jeff and I will cook and deliver meals to his 92 year old mother and his sister's mother-in-law, who is in her 80's. Yesterday I even baked a cake, which is rare for me. I much prefer baking breads and pizza, but I came across this recipe a couple of years ago and thought it might be a good time to try it.

It's an Italian Lemon Pound Cake. I hope it's good... I will let you know! The lemon cream cheese frosting made way too much. It's pooling around the cake and I didn't even use it all. If I make it again I will cut the frosting recipe in half. It also could have come out of the oven a few minutes early. I checked it 10 minutes before the low end of the baking time and it was already done.

It may not look like it, but I am still making work. It's been all about the pigs here. I have been swamped with orders. We are very thankful for online sales.

North Carolina has entered phase I for re-opening the state. I think it's too early. The county we live in has had an ever-increasing rate of covid-19 cases. We have made the decision to remain closed until we feel it's safer for us and our customers. At this point in time, we can barely attain enough hand sanitizer or disinfecting wipes for our own trips to the grocery store, never mind providing them to customers. We are happy to provide curb-side pick up if you need a special gift, and we are open 24/7 on Etsy.

PS - I have temporarily deactivated my Facebook account. I need a break. If I saw the "Plandemic" conspiracy post one more time I was going to go nuts. You can still find me on Instagram. So far it's still a happy place. :-)

TGIF

I don't usually use that term, since my work week doesn't revolve around the Monday through Friday grind, but this sure has been a tough week. As if the big pot theft and crappy show weren't enough, I woke up on Tuesday morning with a very sore left shoulder. This in of itself is not unusual. It has bothered me off and on for many years. I had some testing done some years back, to eliminate a pinched nerve as the cause. The doc determined it was just a overuse. Tuesday it felt like someone had punched me in the arm, Wednesday I could hardly lift it without yelping. Thursday I spent the day trying to get comfortable in between icing it and taking Aleve. I can't even lift my arm to brush my hair or put on a shirt. This morning doesn't seem much better. I really need to be making pots right now, but they are going to have to wait. I am hoping it's tendonitis of my rotator cuff and not a tear. I will give it the weekend and if it isn't better go to the doctors. I am pretty sure hanging and taking down the sidewalls on the tent last weekend are what did me in.

My good arm has been able to help my bad arm take some new photos for etsy...

Salt Pigs or Sugar Jars, you decide.

Here is one of the carved rim bowls that came out of the kiln last Thursday. I decided to go all green.

I almost forgot to mention that yesterday we woke up to a gurgling hot water heater with a puddle under it, geesh, what more could go wrong! Thankfully the plumber was here in the afternoon and by 3:00pm we had hot water.
Have a great weekend, I know I am going to try to!

Happy Pots and Happy Potters

 I quickly photographed a selection of Jeff's finished medieval ware. It will go to it's new home this week. I am partial to the two handled bottle. Jeff was surprised that it's my favorite, it's the one piece of  the medieval collection that he finds peculiar. These have a very thin layer of ash glaze, which is sort of tricky to apply. I am thinking of glazing a few piggy banks this way.

There are new pots in the Etsy shop. My mug selection was pretty thin. I have quite a few of the swirl mugs with tenmoku and shino glaze. I think they look like they are begging for coffee!

Lots piggy banks in this firing...

One of the new combos...

 Nuka and Blue

Valentine's Day is less than a month away... wouldn't your sweetheart love some new pottery? Clicking on the photos will take you to my Etsy shop.

Keeping warm

It's finally feeling a little bit like winter here in Seagrove. We heat our gallery and studio with combination of wood and propane. The propane heater takes care of the studio and this beast heats the gallery...

Since I am the first one up in the morning, it's my job to light the wood stove. Luckily this one takes off pretty quickly, especially if you use a torch to light it! It's not very efficient and goes through wood quickly, but it puts out a lot of heat. The pot on top of the stove provides us with warm throwing water and saves a trip into the house to fill our buckets. We have a sink and running water in the studio but no water heater. Jeff and I feel like running water in the studio is a luxury... something we didn't have in NH. We don't mind that the water isn't hot since the cool water during the hot summer months feels good.

I am writing this post while waiting for the gallery and studio to get to a good working temperature. I have at least another 30 piggy banks to put together. Yesterday I finished 20 of them.

Aren't you getting tired of seeing these pigs? Sometimes I am... until I remember how many bills they paid last month! 

I have quite a bit work completed and ready for a bisque firing. Our first gas firing of 2013 should happen by the second week of January. My New Year's resolution is to stay on top of things in 2013 and do less rushing around to meet deadlines. Notice I said "less" rushing. I want to be sure my goal is attainable!!

while waiting for the kiln to cool...

Finished some mugs...

Even the pigs have become victims of a Dolan carving tool...

oops!

a wood fired vase that was left behind at the kiln and found it's way home today...

Find it on Etsy later this evening.

What did we do before the internet?

I for one, probably read more books and wasted less time, but this weekend Jeff and I were very thankful for the internet.

Saturday we sanded pots and loaded the bisque kiln in preparation to fire it on Sunday. As usual, we had some pots that weren't completely dry so Jeff wanted to turn it on low for a couple of hours. He turned the switch to on and nothing happened. He checked the breaker and it was in the on position, yet it didn't appear there was any electricity running into the kiln. The timer on the kiln sitter wasn't even working. Before the last firing Jeff had replaced the plug and prior to leaving for NH he unplugged the kiln. We don't own a tester for electrical outlets and it's not like we had anything else that runs on 240 that we could plug into to see if it was working. After fiddling around a bit Jeff finally saw a spark on the kiln sitter, so it appeared we did have electricity.

This kiln is a very old manual L&L...

Once it was determined that there was electricity going into the kiln, Jeff knew that the problem was in the kiln sitter box. He went on line and read that sometimes crud gets on the contacts and needs to be cleaned off. He took the box apart, cleaned them, and when it was re-assembled we had power!

If it wasn't for the good ol' internet we would have had to wait for the next work day to call L&L. Since this was a holiday weekend, that would have meant waiting until Tuesday to fix and fire this thing.
While the kiln was firing yesterday, Jeff went to load pots in David's anagama, and I threw some bowls and assembled these...

only 30 more to go... guess you know what I will be doing today.

Happy Labor Day!

pig invasion

This morning, I woke up to this...

PIGS in the living room!

When Jeff came to bed last night he said he brought the pigs that didn't make it in the bisque kiln inside... I thought he meant inside the STUDIO. We had some heavy rain and thunderstorms and these piggies were on ware boards next to the bisque kiln that we fired yesterday. The kiln is under a shed roof attached the log cabin we live in. Jeff was afraid if the winds picked up, the rain could reach these little guys. It made sense to bring them in the house, he would have had to walk through the rain to get them into the studio. It wasn't the first, and it certainly won't be the last time, that various stages of pottery invades our living space!

Aside from finishing some beer mugs this week and getting a load of pots ready to be bisque fired, I haven't done much pottery work. Danielle and Jay are coming for the long weekend so I have been getting some overdue spring cleaning done. I am so excited for their visit! They are arriving on Friday and we are planning to visit potteries on Saturday and a trip to the zoo on Sunday. 

They are also bringing their new dog Lewi...

When we visited them in Connecticut, in March, they had just lost their beloved boxer Bizzy. They hadn't planned to get another dog so soon but Lewi just sort of came to them. Lewi is a year old and he has already had three homes. He is much calmer than Bizzy and loves to ride in the car. Since it's a holiday weekend they couldn't find anyone to care for him so he is taking a road trip too.

Hopefully Sophie won't be too freaked out...

Ham for Easter Dinner?

It's been a whirlwind of activity for us here in Seagrove. The spring celebration/studio tour is two weeks away, and Jeff needs to get his ducks in a row for his trip to Korea at the end of the month. The pig supply is running low so we decided to work together to move them along more quickly. Jeff threw all the bodies one evening before dinner...

The next day they were ready for assembly, which is where I took over. I first use my clay gun to extrude the tubes that will be become legs, ears, and tails...

I then cut the extruded parts into the correct leg lengths, score and attach them to the bodies. After attaching the legs I smooth and pull them slightly with wet hands so they look a little less like extruded parts.

After the legs I use a whole cutter for the eyes and score where the ears will be placed. As I am scoring and spongeing on water I can't help but think I am the esthetician, manicuring this little pigs eyebrows... don't they look like eyebrows?

I roughly shape two extruded parts into a half moon and adhere them to those "eyebrows". I then pull and smooth them into ear shapes. I like to use a synthetic sponge to wipe away finger marks and excess water. The thing I like about this type of sponge is that it is less apt to bring up the grog in the clay.

With wet fingers his ears get a little whimsical bend...

Tails are attached with a finger squish on the top and of course a little curl!

The best use for a credit card is as a guide for cutting the slot!

Ta-Da! He is done... this little guy got the word BACON branded on his sides.

You may have noticed that I was working on this with paper between the pig and the banding wheel. It helps prevent the legs from sticking and getting screwed up. I usually work on a plaster bat the size of the the banding wheel. I hadn't been able to find it until yesterday afternoon.
It took me about a day and a half to assemble nineteen pigs, I could never work in a production setting! When I am working on these guys I find myself talking to them and telling them what's going to happen next, or apologizing for having to reset a leg! I guess my motherly instincts find there way into the clay.

wee little pigs

Literally, these are wee little pigs

about 3 1/2" long! too small for coins but wouldn't they be perfect for dropping in little wishes written on paper? Or a place to keep those fortune cookie fortunes that are just too good to toss.

I have been working in the studio by myself for the past three days. Jeff was volunteering and attending the North Carolina Potters Conference in Asheboro. Since he was up and out of the house early, I made it a point to get into the studio earlier than usual and be productive.

I was inspired by Michael Mahan's post on making pear jars in one piece, and decided to give that method of making covered boxes another go. John tried to teach me some years back but I was never successful. The first go around this time ended up in the scrap bucket. On the second attempt I dug out my Bill Van Gilder book and reread his tutorial on the method. This time I was more successful!

I am going to make some more this week, this time working on throwing them a little thicker so that my gallery isn't so thin. I also need to pay more attention to what the underside of the cover will look like while I am closing it in. Behind the boxes, bowl and cup, are some soap dispensers that I finished. Tomorrow I have 7 or 8 more of those that should be ready to carve. Everything has been drying very slowly.
Let me know what you think of the round boxes and if you have any tips on throwing one piece covered boxes & jars, please comment!

back from a short bloggy break

We unloaded the kiln on Friday and everything was looking good. Jeff wants to back off on the glaze reduction next time, a few of the greens were a little muddy but acceptable.

Our mug order came out great and we delivered it on Friday night. If you are ever in Greensboro stop in Sessions at 1820 Spring Garden Street. Enjoy a cup of coffee or a cappuccino in one of our mugs. They also have a fabulous beer selection and a really cool atmosphere.

Here a couple of pictures from last week's firing.

 

I love this pig with the shino/ash glaze combo...

and the infamous sponge holders...

Both are available in my etsy shop. The sponge holders are a limited edition so get them while you can, I don't plan to make anymore (unless they fly off the shelves at the speed of lightning).

As for my blogger frustration... I have decided that for now I will resize all of the photos I want to use on the blog and keep them in a separate folder... when I get the time I will figure out how to get a larger header again... I want my pretty blue mailbox back for spring!

settling in

When we unloaded the kiln on Saturday morning I had to leave to work at the Co-Op of Seagrove Potters as soon as we were done. I didn't really get a good look at the pots until the next day. 

When I first saw these shino and ash glazed mugs coming out of the kiln I wasn't crazy about them. After handling them, and taking pictures, I have decided that I REALLY  like them! Sometimes you need to spend some time with your pots to appreciate their beauty.

The sugar jar pigs are fun and can also double as "salt pigs"... the woman who placed the custom order was very happy.

I like this shot from behind!

These are listed on Etsy, it may be too late for Christmas shipping but isn't it always nice to shop for yourself?!

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!

a new twist on pigs

Sugar jar piggies! I had a request on Etsy for my pig banks turned into sugar jars. Jeff used to make sitting pig banks so I had him throw & alter the bodies, then I added the piggy parts. Next time (if there is a next time!) I will do the bodies as well. They look sort of silly with their big snouts but I think in the end they will be cute. I will probably list them all on Etsy when they are done.
I also had a custom Etsy order for a black and white pig so I finished some banks yesterday as well...

by the end of the day I was tired of looking at pigs.