wood fired pots!

It doesn't get any better than this! We had plans for one last firing of our little gas kiln before the Celebration of Seagrove Potters show AND then had the opportunity to put some pots in Fred Johnston's wood kiln. Jeff went to Fred's to fire the wood kiln and I stayed home and tended the gas kiln. Two kilns in one day... a potters dream!

Here are some quick photos of pots from the wood kiln...

 Yay! Really happy with these.

A sampling of pots... Jeff's maple leaf pots look great.

I unloaded most of the gas kiln tonight and that firing was good as well. A few orders to be shipped on Monday and some nice looking pots for the Celebration show. We are ready for the weekend, so bring it on!

vases

This is what I have been up to the last few days...

I am liking the form on the left....  sure wish I had a wood kiln to fire them in.

some day, sigh.

it's going to be a three R's weekend...

Randolph Ramble and ROB!

This weekend we are participating in the first annual Randolph Ramble Studio Tour. We are one of five potteries, along with Co-op of Seagrove Potters, located in Seagrove who are on the tour. The tour rambles through Randolph County, with stops at 23 artist's studio, who will be exhibiting, demonstrating and selling a wide range of work. Click here for a map of the tour! You'll also see more info under events, on the left side of the blog.
Jeff and I will being doing pottery demos throughout each day and our special guest Rob might get in on the action...

Vase by Rob Buller

Rob has a few days off from his teaching job at Chawan University in Murfreesboro, NC and he is going to hang out with us here in Seagrove. We always have a great time when Rob visits. The three of us will work in the studio together, I may even ask Rob to throw some vases for us to collaborate on. Friday night we are dragging him along to the "Meet and Greet the Artists" reception at the Moring Arts Center. The reception will kick off the Ramble and will be from 6 pm - 8 pm. Moring Arts Center is located at 123 Sunset Ave., Asheboro, NC. If you are in the area stop in!

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.

vase finder

Jeff and I both have pots in the Vase Finder show again this year. It is a totally on line show run by Charles Blim in Nevada. There are no entry fees and it's an invitational show. Either Charlie invites you or he asks you to invite someone. John was in the show the last year he was working. After John died, Charles invited me and asked me to invite someone... of course I invited Jeff.
Charles Blim is passionate about ceramics and maintains a wonderful site dedicated to it. We have never met but when John died he immediately called from Nevada to offer his condolences.

This year John Glick was the juror. Samantha Henneke of Bulldog Pottery, here in Seagrove, won an honorable mention in the show. Her vase is stunning. A link to the show is here.

To the left of Jeff's pot, in the show, is our League of NH Craftsmen colleague, David Orser. Quite a few Orser pots live comfortably in our home.

My vase in this year's show came from our first Seagrove wood firing. It was sold a few months ago to a collector.

The studio is calling... I have some bowls that need decorating. Happy Tuesday to all!

I finally unloaded the rest of kiln late yesterday afternoon. I decided to get some photographs taken and start listing the pots on Etsy.

A small hand built dish. Shino glaze and dusted with wood ash. It fits in the palm of your hand. The interior texture was created with seashell.

The "Danielle" vase in blue. See yesterdays post if you care for an explanation.

Sugar jar

Two carved vases... so hard to reduce the glare in these shiny glazes.

I will be sure to get photographs of Jeff's large vessel sinks before they get picked up this week. They really turned out beautiful. We are thankful to have a few good orders this winter, since it's very slow for walk-in traffic during the winter months. Jeff and I have both been consistently working on Etsy sales and it is starting to gain momentum. Last night Jeff had a really sweet order from someone who is obviously a collector. A return buyer who bought a tea bowl awhile back... this time they purchased a number of things including a sake bottle and a couple of cups. 

Jeff and I are true believers that positive thinking and a good plan helps propel us forward. In the words of Brother Thomas - "Just Work".

and never forget to "Follow your bliss" - Joseph Campbell.

sketches in clay

I have had this form dancing around in my head for a few weeks now. Since we have been in a glazing cycle, I hadn't touched moist clay in over two weeks. This weekend I decided to throw some slabs and get started on this idea.

I have used sea fans in a number wall pieces as well as some dish forms. Often times they are raku fired and occasionally wood fired. My idea was to take two slabs and join them together to form a vase.

I like how it looks at this angle, when I see it from the front I think it is too wide. Another concern is it's stability.

I am going to work on a few more next month and see where I can go with this form... for now Jeff and I need to make 50+ mugs & cappuccino cups for a coffee shop in Greensboro. The sure money stuff has to come first.

We also have a kiln to unload this afternoon... check back later for an update.

the last few pots of 2011

Last year we were in NH for the week between Christmas and New Years so we didn't know what to expect for gallery traffic or sales this week. We have been pleasantly surprised and have enjoyed meeting new people and making a few good sales. We have enjoyed the week with a healthy balance of slacking off and working. Jeff has been making mugs by the dozens and getting his tools organized around his wheel. In between cooking (and eating!) good food, I have finished some carved vases...

I have about a dozen finished and played around a little with the designs. I have sold quite a few of these in the last few weeks.

When the last vase was carved, I got busy throwing some shallow pasta bowls. These will also be slipped and carved. You may recall that the last round of these ended up full of shards from a re-fire explosion in the kiln. Only one survived and it has already found a new home. Today I will throw a few more. I am trying really hard to stick to working in a larger series rather than jumping around to every new idea that comes into my head. Perhaps this is my New Years resolution!

On a final note... I am paying closer attention to my Etsy shop. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I was listing items everyday, my sales increased as did my traffic. I use Google analytics to track my page views. When I list items my traffic is anywhere from 24 to 60 hits a day. I didn't list anything this week until yesterday and my traffic had dropped steadily to only 8 visitors. After yesterday's listing I was back up to 24. If I want to increase my sales this year I know I have to stay on top of it.

I think that may be resolution #2.

seeing beads in my sleep...

this round of beads is finally finished!  yesterday i raku fired and spent half of today cleaning and polishing beads.  i am sure the average buyer has no idea how much work goes into raku beads... they have to be handled so many times.  this go around i made lots of very small accent beads, it's seems that is what i am always short on... because they are a pain in the neck to make and fire!

we had an issue with alligator glaze yesterday... it seems that the gerstley borate just isn't right.  it came from Laguna... has anyone else out there had problems with it? it had little or no color and peeled off the pots.   jeff tested a ball of it in the kiln and it didn't melt.  i was glad that i had only glazed a few things with it.
no problems with the turquoise glaze...

check out my etsy shop... i have this vase listed as well as some new heart pendants (just in time for VD!).

Raku Vase

this is a form i have been working on for months...this particular vase is one of the first ones i fired (early spring '07)...it seems like i have made hundreds and have done lots of editing..ie:many were recycled. over the months they have evolved considerably from their humble beginnings...i will post the more recent ones as they are fired and photographed...
photo credit: john zentner