missing you...

John Zentner

February 17, 1951 - December 12, 2008

and this little piggy cried wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

this little pig came out of the kiln on monday and yesterday i posted him on my etsy shop... low and behold he has already found a new home in Cincinnati!
john taught me how to make pigs a few years back.  he always said he could sell as many pigs as he could make.  i have to admit that i too have sold them quickly... so why am i not making more???  i enjoy putting them together but can't seem to knock off more than 4 or 5 at a time.  i remember john would make 20 or more in a day, along with whatever else he had in production.  i think i should focus more and set a goal.
one of jeff's first production jobs was making piggy banks.  he used to make them all sizes, sitting and standing.  he keeps saying we should have a pig making competition... something tells me he would be the winner.

i sold a pig at the Celebration to a young man who bought it for his mom for Christmas... their last name is BACON... how cute is that?!

new pots!

we unloaded the kiln today and we had mostly good results... a few of the copper reds were a little pink, but all in all it was a good firing.  i will have some new pots to post on etsy in the coming days.

remember when my photographer friend ken came to the northwood, nh studio and tried his hand at throwing pots? well i finally got them fired and i think they came out really nice.  i will send them off to him so he can have them in time for christmas...

i think these are great little cups for a first attempt at the wheel!

and here is a little peek at what i have been working on in the studio today...

i applied white slip to the vase and then carved the oak leaf design... seems i am getting into more tedious work these days!  not sure yet how i will glaze this.

good wood and wavy ovals

wavy baker - listed on Etsy... and the buyer will get my artichoke dip recipe to bake in it!

YUMMY

yesterday we had a cord of wood delivered by a reputable company... not rednecks who arrive in an 

S-10 blazer towing a trailer made out of an old pick-up truck bed (yes, that is how our $40 dollar mostly wet wood & sticks arrived).  these people had a real truck, the wood was dry and split and here is the BEST part... they came into the gallery and bought lots of pottery!  in the end we pretty much just exchanged checks.

P.S. we fired the gas kiln yesterday, can't wait to peek in later!

winterizing...

we ran out of firewood this week... we were so busy this summer and fall we never got around to buying more.  luckily we do have a propane heater in both the house and the studio but i hate sending all my money to the propane company (they get enough just through firing the kiln!).
i found a decent price on seasoned hardwood and they will deliver a little more than a cord on saturday... in the mean time we called someone on craigslist and they delivered a pick up truck load today.  it was only $45 dollars and quite frankly we wanted to see what we could get for 45 bucks... it was hardwood, and did appear to have been cut some time ago but it was wet from being out in the rain we had last night.  it also was lots of small logs. we won't buy wood from them again.  it will get us by these next few days and then we will mix it with the wood that is coming on saturday.  so today i spent stacking wood, which i really don't mind doing at all...

we also fired a bisque kiln today and while i was stacking wood, jeff put up a wall next to the electric kiln to protect it from the weather.  this was something we had put off all summer.

no more trying to remember to cover the kiln with a tarp during bad weather!

so that's about all thats new here at the pottery... pretty dull stuff.