Cartoon mice cute- real mice.... not so cute

You know the feeling. The phone rings at 3:50 and you hope the person in bed with you gets up and answers it.
A million thoughts run through your head. His mother, my mother one of the kids.
Then you remember you are the call number for the North Carolina Pottery Center, An alarm has gone off and they are dispatching a police car.
"Call me if anything is broken, I mumble....."
Then you hope to go quickly back to sleep.
It never happens.
The first few times the alarm went off I would dress, drive up there and go through the building with the police man. Now I realize it is usually mice.
We have had mice on many nights, or a real windy storm will set the alarm off.

I have lived in the country long enough to have enough mice stories to fill a book.
At times I think about writing one.
Me and the mouse, or mice as it happens to be.
There was the one who hit the mother load when he discovered the 50 kilo bag of dried garbanzo beans on the porch.
We found garbanzo's everywhere in the house he could stash them, in increments of three.
Three, six, nine and so forth.
We knew he had to go when we found them in the pocket of our jeans and our shoes.
That is just too friendly in my book.
There was another who decided to chow on the soap in my bathroom. Soap! Well, it was nice handmade soap. Must have been tasty because he kept coming back until one night when he fell into the toilet.
I woke to the splash and made Mark do the dirty deed of flushing him down.

Then there was the one who chewed up the fur on my winter coat to make a nest for her babies.
Cute you say... not so cute when little baby mice start darting out of the coat closet and you are thinking , "what the ...." then you find she has gotten into the tightly closed up garment bag and done in a winter coat several wool sweaters........again, not so cute.
Don't call PETA on me we did get rid of them.
So, Cartoon mice cute.
County mice, in my house.
Not so cute.
But wait !I have not even started on the snakes.......

Details.... and thinking....

Details, details.......
Mark is shoring things up for the arch of the new kiln.
Detail work is going on inside the chimney area and skew blocks are in place for the arch, while some welding on the steel is going on.
Even though this is not a big kiln the details are important.
Mark builds things to last.
Our big kiln was built in 1982 still standing and still firing pots.
I expect this one will be a solid kiln as well.
The details are in the works,
Arch, steel, chimney, gas lines and burners.......

Maybe in the next month?
Meanwhile I am thinking about Christmas, It always happens this time of year.
It is time to make Christmas pots to be ready for the season.
An older potter here once told me you need to have the Christmas post made by August to get them all through the kiln.
So it has me thinking and I have my list in my head. I need to put it on paper and get some pots made.

On another note and yet the same, go over and read Cindy Shake today. She has a great post on selling and thinking about your work.
She made me think, which at 6:30 am is a feat in its self!

"Three Cups of Tea"; Seagrove Potters for Peace.

As promised here are pictures of the cups which will be for sale starting Saturday the 15th of August.
Items will be available exclusively at the shops until August 24, when any remaining vessels can be ordered by email or telephone.





These are juice, wine, tea cups by Mark
we plan to sell them in sets of 2.








These tumbler size cups are by me, Meredith, and will also be sold in sets of two.
All cups are signed on the bottom with Seagrove Potters for Peace.
Mark used SPFP since his cups were smaller.
A peace sign is drawn on each and is stamped with our logo stamp.
I added MH to mine.


The proceeds from the sales will be donated to
CAI.

Mortenson, through his Central Asia Institute (CAI), has built hundreds of schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where illiterate and impoverished children are prey to recruitment by terrorist organizations.
Mortenson, who many believe will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, will be the NC State Convocation speaker on August 17.

And very big bug

Here are some pictures of the kiln while we were unloading.
Mark did a slower longer fire.

The ash was better.


We used a new batch of iron Red without changing anything.

It looked pretty good. Some iron trapping, but not muddy like the last kiln firing.
And that mystery stuff the mouse brought in.... we still don't know what it is, but its burning did not seem to effected any thing in the kiln.














Asheboro has just voted in beer and wine sales along with serving liquor by the drink. We were suppose to meet a friend at one of the new restaurants in downtown on Friday night for dinner. The place was packed with an hour wait list.
We asked to be put on the list and the waitress told Mark, " Just remember there are three in front of you." He said what if I want to go away for 30-minutes or more and come back.
She said "fine, but..... just remember that there are three ahead of you."
At which point Mark took my arm and strolled me out saying we are going somewhere else.
You want to say, " Get with the program Asheboro." I know this is all new for you, but you have to learn how to handle a crowd.
Instead we found our friend and headed up to another new place.
Bistro 42 near the mall.
It was quiet, nice and the service was great and the food good.

This bug is on a wall in downtown asheboro. He is about the size of the one which joined me in the basement last week. See they do get big here.

I just look at the pictures

My monitor has gone out on me, leaving me to beg use of Mark's computer while I have my fixed.
We traced the problem to the video card.
With a little luck I will be back on line soon.
The kiln load was a nice firing.
Lot's of production pots in this load.
Mugs, bowls, tumblers, vases, bottles and the pots for the "Three Cups of tea" fund raiser.
I hope to shoot some pots soon and be back on line.
Later!
M

Firing the kiln

We loaded the kiln on Tuesday and had some big storms around us after we had the door bricked up.
Yesterday we kept our fingers and toes crossed that what ever storms came through would go around us.
Please, please go around us I thought.
And they did.
You never know when you are firing how the wind and or rain can effect the firing.
Too much wind at the wrong time can really play heck with reduction.
We got lucky.
I could see a storm brewing out the kitchen window. Black clouds building up and a slight breeze.
But- it went around us.
I had to drive in to Seagrove and it had rain there, but not at our place. Just 2 miles up the road- north.
Mark did have a weird experience.
A new one on us.
He was looking out a window which faces the side of the kiln and noticed lots of smoke coming from the peeps.
More than should be there.
He checked the burners and then pulled the top peep brick from the door.
Out came a burnt mass about the size of a fist being forced out by the heat and pulled out by the peep brick.
" What the........?"
All we could figure was a mouse had gotten in the kiln the night before. Probably looking for a safe place from the storm.
He or she had decided this was a good place to stay. And, being a mouse, had quickly gone and brought back nesting material.
It looked like burnt insulation.
We just hope he/she did not bring in a party of friends and other stuff to put around the pots.
Mark did say he had left the damper open.
Otherwise, everything else was bricked up tight and there was no way for anything else to get in.
The mice can be busy while we sleep!
Living out here is like living in a science project.
We have had mice build and store nest and food in the burners and the kiln.
We can not leave anything out when the mud dabbers are nesting. They will fill up anything we leave out and open with mud.

I have become, somewhat, immune to bugs, spiders, snakes, rats and mice.
Well- I say that right now in the safety of the moment.
They can all still startle me at times.
But you learn to roll with it. I mean we moved here and most of them were already here. We just have to define space. I live in and you live out.
But the kiln seems like such a good space to the creatures.

Walk softly and carry a big stick......

Back to the wheel for me.
Time to make some pots!

A trip to Blowing Rock- no time for pottery now!

Remember I had said we were going to be taking some non pottery related days.
Well we tried to.
We left here Saturday morning leaving Beverly in charge of the store.
We took our time driving up to Blowing Rock NC.
It takes us about 3- 31/2 hours to get there.
We stopped in Boone for supplies at a store, beer and food stuff and then off to stay at a friends condo for some R&R.
As we can into the town we noticed it was "Art in the Park" day in Blowing rock.
We thought we should go check it out.
I said as we walked in to the park," this will be fun we won't know anybody. "
Yea- go ahead and chuckle.
The first potter we saw was from Seagrove!
And then we came up on Potters John Garland and Mary Paul from Freechild studio outside of Raleigh.
We all had a good laugh and as we stopped to talk with them.
We invited them back to the condo for take out pizza and beers after the show was over.

Then on we went and we stop in to see Jen Mecca.
I walk right in and said, "Hi, I am Meredith Heywood, from Whynot Pottery and I read your blog."
She laughed and we had a good chat about blogs and pottery.
I love her work and found her to be so thoughtful and charming.
I will continue to keep up with her through her Blog and I hope I see her again.
As you can tell I did not have my camera with me- no pictures of the potters or pots!

The next morning we went for a hike just off downtown Blowing Rock.
The trail is called Glen Burney Trail and there are three water falls along the trail.
It was a cool, crisp morning and the hike down was wonderful.

But- we took so long taking pictures we did not make it to the last water fall.
We decided we needed a reason to come back.
And next time we would bring the water and some food with us!
We found there is a great spot at the second water fall with a nice place to picnic. If only we had known, we would have planned to do so.
We love the downtown area of Blowing Rock with all the shops but we are really there for the mountains, the woods and the water.

We drove up to Banner Elk and hit the Parway back to Blowing Rock for some wonderful views.

The views, although a bit overcast, were food for our eyes and souls.

We read, we hiked and we ate.

Then packed it off for home this morning.
Tomorrow we will be loading the kiln and life resumes.






PS Kids- Your dad said put this on his Christmas list.........

North Carolina Peaches

Peaches- We live 20 minutes away from the sandhills and this time of year the peaches are coming in.
If you are coming to see us from Pinehurst or Southern Pines a trip to Ben's for the ice cream alone ........ it calls my name.
Daily. But I don't answer but weekly........

Raku the bunny

Yesterday I was wondering what to post and all I could think of was the letter P.
P for pottery
p is for peaches
P for purple eggplant ( cheating a little here)
P for purpose
P for well you get the picture.
Today I have moved past the p's and wonder if I should go straight to the R's.
( you noticed the rabbit didn't you- we'll get back to him.)

The pots, note the p, have all been glazed.
All we have to do is load them up to fire.
But- we need to take a break.
So we are leaving Beverly in charge for today and tomorrow while we get some non pottery things done. Then we will load the kiln next week and fire.

Beverly came to me a year or more back to ask if I would teach her to make pots.
I said," no- go to school. "
We have two program close by at the community colleges one south of us and one north of us. There is another west of us, not as close by.
They will, for the price of tuition, teach you the basics.
They all have a wheel for you, clay, glaze materials and an instructor.
That is what Mark and I both did.
You get what you can from the classes, learning from other students and then move on to a better program, an apprenticeship, or strike out on your own.

I ran into Beverly while I was at a show this past spring.
What are you doing?
I am taking classes.
How is that going?
Good-
Come see me now and let's work on some hand building together.
She did and we are still working on some hand building when she can take time away from her job.
Why wait you ask?
Well, now Beverly knows how to handle clay.
It is the first step in making pots in my book.
The clay is it's own beast.
Some clays need to be handled with gloves, others just need a little push.
And still others just need to be avoided at all cost.
I don't have to start at the beginning . She knows the language and we can move on.
She is still taking classes and I am encouraging her to move to the Community College with a bit more structure to the classes.
Last week she sent me a picture of her bunny, Raku.
In the email she said she let's him out to exercise and he runs all over the house and then settles down around the base of a vase made by Mark.


How can I not love this rabbit? He is a fan.
So keep your facebook fans- We at, Whynot Pottery, are ready to adopt Raku as our number one fan!.

“SEAGROVE POTTERS FOR PEACE – 200 CUPS OF TEA”

13 Seagrove Potters have created special drinking vessels as a fundraiser for American Greg Mortenson, whose #1 NY Times Bestseller “Three Cups of Tea – One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace…One School at a Time” explains his own efforts for peace.

Mortenson, through his Central Asia Institute (CAI), has built hundreds of schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where illiterate and impoverished children are prey to recruitment by terrorist organizations.

On Saturday, August 15, 200 teacups, mugs and tumblers will be offered for sale, with the full purchase price being donated to CAI. Many items are specially inscribed for this event. Copies of Mortenson’s book in adult, young adult and children’s versions will be for sale at several potteries.

Vessels by Whynot, Thomas, Old Gap, Jugtown, From the Ground Up, Caldwell-Hohl and Ben Owen Potteries will be for sale at the individual shops.

Vessels by Westmoore, Tom Gray, Old Gap, From the Ground Up, Dover, Dean & Martin, Bulldog and Cady Clay Works Potteries will be for sale at Cady Clay Works.

Items will be available exclusively at the shops until August 24, when any remaining vessels can be ordered by email or telephone.

More information about the individual potteries, as well as a request form for a free Seagrove Area map, can be found at www.discoverseagrove.com, or email seagrovepottersforpeace@yahoo.com.

Mortenson, who many believe will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, will be the NC State Convocation speaker on August 17.

After a failed attempt to climb K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain, Mortenson got lost and wandered into a remote mountain village in Pakistan. The impoverished local people shared what little they had and nursed him back to health. He returned to the US, sold most of his belongings, lived in his car and tried to raise money to build the village a school. The skeptical villagers, who had heard promises from foreign climbers before, were astonished when he returned a year later with building materials.

In CAI’s publication, “Journey of Hope”, Karin Ronnow explains:
“Ultimately, most Pakistanis and Afghans want peace. They want working democracy. They want more and better-paying jobs, good roads, clean drinking water and food to eat. They are fed up with violence and they want to get on with living their lives.
And they know a better future for their children starts with education.”

More information can be found at CAI’s website, www.ikat.org, or www.penniesforpeace.org, an educational fundraising program for schoolchildren of all ages.

Potter Beth Gore of Cady Clay Works urges everyone, of all beliefs, to read “Three Cups of Tea”. “It’s obvious that we, as Americans, are woefully uninformed about the people, beliefs and way of life in these areas of military conflict.”

“Three Cups of Tea is one of the most remarkable adventure stories of our time … (and) proof that one ordinary person, with the right combination of character and determination, really can change the world.”
- Tom Brokaw, who made the first $100 donation to Mortenson’s effort in 1993.


- Beth Gore, Cady Clay Works, 910-464-5661, seagrovepottersforpeace@yahoo.com.

those pillow pots

I posted these up on facebook the other day.
So apologies if you have already seen them!

I was pleased with how they came out of the kiln.

I had one favorite, the red flowers with yellow background, which ran and stuck to the kiln shelf.
I like it well enough that I just might keep it for awhile.


I have it sitting with some pots and it will hang okay.

I used cone 6 glazes on these and fired to just below a true 6.

This is a highwater clay body, red stone. It does not like to fire all the way to 6 so I keep it around 2185degrees- this hit about 2195 degrees at the top and 2181 at the bottom.
I have some cone 6 glazes which prefer to get a little hotter or soak a bit more.

I might separate those glazes from the tiles and pillow pots. I ended up with several flat bowls and trays which I would like to refire.
This was also the first firing in the new fancy computer kiln.
We both thought it did pretty well for the first glaze fire.
And I know the pictures are not great- so more apologies!
I hope you don't go blind from looking!

A walk in the woods.

Today we went for a walk in the “woods.”
Well truth be told we drove up to the back part of the farm and then took the walk through the woods.
I use the term loosely because for the past several weeks the woods next to us have been under siege.

We have noticed a lot of the woods around us being cut.
Times are hard and folks need money. When this happens they turn to the trees and even though the price is way down they go ahead and cut.
The people who own this land, by the time it was all over, maybe cleared 5,000.00





There is a creek, which feeds our pond, right in the middle of this clear cut. Mark went over and talked with the guy in charge of the crew. He was kind enough to do as little cutting as possible at the creek.
We walked it today and all things considered it seems in good shape.

It always breaks my heart to see large tracks of land cut. It looks like the end of the world.
The only good part here is the person who owns the land plans to replant.
I am keeping my fingers crossed he does.
Of course the plant will be pines, so gone will be the big oaks and other hard woods.



On another note we found a nice cool spot where ferns are growing.
















But I worry a bit about this large grove of running cedar.
It might be too exposed to the amount of sun it is now taking in.




I’ll have to walk back there this fall to see if it makes it through the summer.

Have we been here before?

Back in 1981-1982 we built our first kiln. It was all hard brick and ate gas like a pig. We decided we needed a soft brick kiln for two reasons. One it needed to fire more efficiently and two we wanted to get more pots out at a time- production was the name of the game for us then.
So we built the big kiln- 1986.
Now it is 2009 and I don't know here the years went.
But we have dug out pictures of the first kiln we built and Mark has been reproducing it in soft brick.


Mark, being the great pack rat that he is, had stored the steel away in one of the out buildings.

He is now reproducing an arch,that is long gone, and cleaning burners.

Our thoughts on this kiln are, we will be able to fire more glaze test along with smaller turn around of the old glazes.
The large kiln does not allow quick turn around.
And- the work and we have changed. When I look at filling the old kiln I have to take a breath.
In fact I take that breath today- 80 cubic feet is a lot of pottery.
The small kiln is about 20 cubic feet. A baby compared to the big bad boy!


We hope to have this baby out for a test drive in the next month.

July 9th- Happy New Year!

If you have been following our Blog you know that last year on July the 8Th we lost our work studio to fire.
Yesterday I had planned to post just to mark the passing of the year.
There were several ways I thought about how to post and then the day and night got completely away from me.
As I was going to bed around midnight I thought, " life has returned to normal." There was no time to sit and reflect on the fire of last year.
The time of the fire came and went and we were busy.
Busy glazing.
Busy with customers.
Busy loading a kiln.
Busy building the new kiln.
Busy with the garden.
Busy with family and friends...
It was a hard walk last year, but guess what, we did it and life has resumed.
I like it.

A quick trip over the fourth-

Chirp, chirp, twitter, twitter..........insert birds calls here--- it's 4 am and birds don't sleep in the city like they do at my house.
Beep, beep, beep...bam, bam, bam...insert the sounds of a big construction crew building a big parking garage here.......it's 5 am and they are fast at work.
I took the sleep mask, I took the ear plugs........
Oh- the fire engine just went out and an ambulance is coming in.
Insert those here it's 5:45 am.....

Sigh- yes we are spoiled and if we did live her I think we would adjust to the noise.
But sleeping in the city has become a challenge for me.

It never gets dark in cities and cities never sleep.
We made a quick trip over to see the son's new house over the 4Th.

Then up to see my mother and Penny the cat.
Who, as you can see, is still living the high life and taking her daily rides with Mom back and forth throughout the house.




The weekend, despite some rain, was very pleasant.
Being July you can not always say that about Norfolk. It can be hot and muggy.
We left today and it was still a wonderful cool morning.
The view down the block.


Don't you want to live here?

I love the area of Norfolk- near downtown. The houses are old turn of the century mixed with some new and old apartment buildings. The apartment's, gone condo now, are as big as some houses I have been in. High ceilings, big rooms,beautiful woodwork, large windows, and tree lined streets.
One of those "walking neighborhoods."



But we hit the road home















Stopped for lunch.

And now we are thinking about going to work tomorrow!
But first- I am going to sleep in my own bed while I listen to the crickets and frogs.... my birds get up about 6am and that is okay by me!

Happy 4th of July

I think of July as a time of passing.

Celebration and Family.

My father left on the 4th of July, happy to have made it to the party.

So sweet sorrows and life does go on.

The best to all and may your 4th be a good one- take some time for family.

Some of our crew........

No, you go first....

"After you", they both seemed to be saying.
Yesterday was the day.
The babies were out of he nest.
The mother bird was back and forth back and forth.
Fussing every time we were around.
I came in about 5 and Mark came in 20 minutes later and they were gone. I thought I might be able to catch the flight but I missed it.
Now the question is, "who's going to clean up the mess?"
The other question is what type of bird was this one.
This was not our usual nesting birds for around the house.
I still have not looked them up.
You would think I would be a better birder with so many birds around us.
The trees here are just full of them.
We have Yellow Finch, Bluebirds, Cardinals, Wrens, Indigo Bunting, Carolina Chickadee, Humming Birds, Red-winged Blackbird, Hawks, Wood peckers, Ospreys and the list goes on....... but this was I am still looking for any ideas?
Now, I just found this bird Eastern Kingbird, which is what a customer thought it might be.
Now that I have look it up, I think maybe he is right.

Happy 4th of July to all!

Baby Birds and Pottery

For weeks we have been watching a nest which is sitting up in the eves of the carport.
The parent birds keep a close watch on us as we come in and out. They will fly away to distract us from the babies.
We "pretend" not to see the nest, but keep a close eye on the progression of the babies.
Yesterday Mark comes to the house for lunch and there on the carport is one of the babies. It is just sitting there slightly stunned. It looks as if it would be happier in the nest....
We eat lunch and go back to find it being coaxed by the parents. They fly down hop and chirp and then quickly fly away. The baby hops and tries its wings.....hop, hop, hop, flutter, flutter-
But it is not getting off the ground yet.
It hops out into the driveway when we, of course, worry it will be run over before it gets off the ground.
Mark goes and moves the truck to block customers from the area.
We take a look at the nest and there is another baby up out of the nest and just looking over the edge. Then back he hops in the nest- out again and back in the nest.
Last I saw the baby out of the nest was taking a nap in the carport and its two siblings were tucked in and not ready to make the jump.
We don't have cats now and all we can do is hope the baby gets its self up and moving skyward.
I am heading out to check on them soon.

In the pottery: I am glazing tiles for the electric kiln.
I made these pillow pots. Which I have put feet with holes on the back.
I put the feet on so the pot can be hung on the wall if you want.
I have made these before, but would add three tubes to each one to be used for flowers.
I think of these as more of a closed tile which I would like to hang.
The patterns are inspired from an old garment I have hanging in my bathroom- I kept looking at it and thinking these flowers need to go somewhere.....
I am painting on the glaze.
So do I know exactly how they will come out? No- but I can't wait to see.
On some days you just need something to play with.