The long ride home

I had great time in NH, but it sure feels good to be home in Seagrove. We took two days to drive home and took a slight detour to pick up Jeff's wood fired tray that was in Strictly Functional. It was a nice change of scenery, I had never been to Lancaster, PA before. It was really cool to see the Amish driving their horse and buggies alongside all cars on the road.

This is the outside of the Lancaster Creative Factory, where Strictly Functional was on exhibit. Jeff and I were drooling over the great work spaces within this facility!

One of the plusses for this road trip was that gas prices were down from our last trip in August...

Less than $3.00 a gallon in Virginia!!!!

The other great deal was that lobster was only $4.99 a pound in NH, so we HAD to pack some in a cooler and bring them home.

Our potter friend and neighbor, Phil Pollet joined us for the feast. A great time was had by all!

Now it's time to get back to pottery. The Celebration of Seagrove Potters is one week away and we need to get one last firing in.

Strictly Functional 2012

The 2012 Strictly Functional Pottery National is now online, click here if you haven't seen it yet. Jeff is in good company, a couple of New England potter friends are also in the show... Maureen Mills and David Orser.

Jeff based his entries on knowing that Jack Troy was the juror and he definitely made the right call. A large number of the pots in the show are wood fired.

wood fired tray by Jeff Brown

Today is day two of glazing and then on to loading the gas kiln. Our goal is to fire tomorrow. Next weekend we will be in Charlotte for Festival in the Park. This is a first for me, Jeff did it 12 years ago. I hope it's a good show, it's long... Friday evening, Saturday till 9:30 pm, and all day Sunday. If you are in the Charlotte area come out to the park!

There's a whole lot of celebratin' going on...

Jeff un-bricked the door to the kiln this evening and we took a few things out...

Jeff's large textured bowls came out awesome...

The test tiles for nuka and peach blossom look good so pots with those glazes will go in the next firing, which will get loaded on Sunday.

And the BEST news we are celebrating is...

Jeff had a wood fired piece accepted into Strictly Functional! He has been in the show before but missed the deadline the last few years. He was feeling good about getting in, since Jack Troy is the juror this year.

Tomorrow we are celebrating two years in Seagrove and Eck McCanless Pottery is celebrating their one year anniversary. We decided to celebrate together... pottery demonstrations at both shops and food! Eck and his wife, Rhonda, are serving up heavy hors d'oeuvres and then you can wander around the corner to our place for dessert... m&m brownies and blueberry oatmeal bars. Or come see us for dessert FIRST and then head over to Eck McCanless Pottery for lunch (we won't tell your mother).

... and if you come late we'll be on the porch, drinking beer. Help yourself, they'll be in the cooler.

Strictly Functional 2008

john was accepted...YAHOO!!!! this is the one ceramics show that he REALLY wanted to get in to this year...he had made it his mission. it is very competitive - this years juror was Linda Arbuckle and there were over 1000 submissions...the icing on the cake was that not only did that acceptance come in yesterdays mail but also another for a teapot show at the Craft Alliance Gallery in St. Louis.
check out pics of John's work - http://www.flickr.com/photos/clayboy/

congratulations john...you worked hard and deserve the recognition.