Saturday, September 8, 2012

It's the windup

Pottery can be like that home run you work for all your life.
Some times you connect with the ball and it just slides over the fence and you walk with leisure around the bases waving to all the cheering fans and tap your foot on home base.
Safe- home run.

Then other times it is like the most wild ride in an amusement park.
The build up.
The fear.
The plunge.
And the bottom.

With 30 years in on this gig I sometimes wonder what a day will bring. The quiet hum of the wheels or the roar of the brain as it creates new avenues you want to explore.

If nothing, it is, and can be, a daily challenge.
This week after unloading the kiln, sanding the pots, pricing, sorting, carrying them to the sales shop
 ( Gallery?) by the next day we were on to the next thing.

List are made, goals are set, clay is readied and we are at it again.
Off to the races.

The first year we were in business I realized that for us nothing was ever really finished in the sense of wrapping up a project, putting the paper to bed... there would  always be another pot to be made, another glaze to explore, another shape filling out in the mind.
I rolled over this morning and instead of thinking dreams, my brain went right to pots. What if I made this and then did this and then I would make one of these and do this.
Oh, bother time to get up, I am looping on pots.
When I was learning to center and just not getting it I started dreaming about clay.
I think it still owns the greater part of my brain.


I have been thinking about bottles again and the opening of those bottles and why people feel you can not get enough things in them.

This bottle is one from the house that came from some wood firing I had done with somebody somewhere and  it had a big blob on the bottom. I ground off the blob recently and have found this bottle to be a perfect size for cut flowers.
The opening looks small but as you can see it holds a fair amount of flowers.
I make a lot of bottles and have people questions if they will hold anything or hold enough.
What is enough?
 We have been cutting flowers the past few weeks to sit on the bar in the kitchen using a wee bottle that Mark made, it is the perfect size for those flowers as well.

Here they are hanging out with some apples.
This bottle was a glaze test in the Ms. B and has some odd color to the glaze, but holds these flowers  just right, just enough.

I am thinking about pots, bottles and such but I am distracted by these.
I had 6 last night the smell was so fragrant I wish I could bottle it. 
These moon flowers are so delicate like a fine, fine  tissue paper. I once tried to preserve one.
It was not possible.
So now I need to look at them all and admire them as they open.
Next year I am planning not to plant them so high.
These are way up there as you can see.
I want more of these for next year as well.

Now, about those pots, how about those Giants?
Mark is working on teapots, we are working on some cone 6 glazes, fillers are being made,and plans made on the calender for the next firing.
We are setting aside pots marked for our 30th.
Remember- October the 13th and 14th - here.
More coming on that soon!
No wonder I am awake.
Tea?
M

16 comments:

Tracey Broome said...

I like bottles and yours are always so great. When I was little I loved going out in the yard before my mom got up, cutting a bunch of flowers and putting them all over the house to surprise her. I can't get any cut flowers from my yard, the deer like them too much. We had a family of six grazing in the front yard yesterday. Oh well, I'll just enjoy the virtual reality of your flowers :)

Kellie Jensen said...

your moon flowers are a bit like love, you can't really save it for later, you just have to enjoy it at the moment and hold onto the feeling it gives you.

Your pot ideas are like my 'whatever craft is dominating my brain today' ideas. Sometimes it's knitting, or graphic design, or tatting (this one's new), or sewing, or even for things I have no idea how to do.

ugh, now I have to go see what my hateful children are doing to each other.

DirtKicker Pottery said...

I really enjoyed reading this post while sipping coffee from this amazing mug with the big swirl.
These days my pottery thoughts are all about building inventory for the Christmas rush.
Very sweet vase. I love the shape.

cookingwithgas said...

tb- I love that you would pick flowers for your mom.
Once my sister and I thought it would be great to go door to door selling flowers. It went badly since we were cutting them from the nieghbors yard.....

cookingwithgas said...

ah Kellie- sweet thoughts on the love and moon flowers...

cookingwithgas said...

Cindy it's that time of year isn't it?! Enjoy that mug!

Shortstuff said...

Hey TB, I found the cure for deer eating my hostas. I'm happy to share the recipe with you. Last year we had little nubs. This year we have grand hostas with huge white flowers that give off a scent reminiscent of honeysuckle. I'm still shocked that it worked.
Kellie, I agree with Mere...nice sentiment on the moon flowers.

Judi Tavill said...

OMG, love the moonflowers... and everything else!

Judi Tavill said...

OMG, love the moonflowers... and everything else!

hootowlkarma said...

Funny how the bottle discussion has evolved over the years... Back in the earliest days of Seagrove area pottery, a discussion about the size of the bottle opening would have sounded ridiculous. It was all about the volume of liquid it would hold. Nowadays it's about how many stems the opening will accommodate. Different issues, both utilitarian nonetheless. Whynot bottles are far more beautiful than their forebears, though, regardless of what we're using them for!

cookingwithgas said...

les- you need to post up your deer solution on your blog so I can share it. They have so much to eat here we don;t have a problem,yet...

cookingwithgas said...

Judi- they are amazing..

cookingwithgas said...

JR- how true Seagrove has changed a lot and I think many of those changes have been in the past 25 years. We could have a long talk about this one day.

Lori Buff said...

You're not alone in waking up thinking about pots. That's what I did today. I still love Mondays when I can get back into the studio and throw something.

cynthia said...

I love your bottles and I have always enjoyed making them too - something about coaxing the neck closed....

Shortstuff said...

http://inshort-stuff.blogspot.com/
O.K. here's the deer deterrent recipe.