Just the other

 day I walked in our small gallery and took some quick pictures of the inside.
This is our insides.
I posted this on FB along with a couple of more pictures of the inside and it just took off. We had over 60 shares on the pictures. It takes me by surprise what will take off and what will just sit there and not even get a second look.
It is all a puzzle to me this media/internet/marking/tools that we need to use these days to get our work out and noticed.

How's that working for us?
Good question.
I am not sure it is.

 I posted this one cut down to take out the family pictures.
It was a post called  shared space.
It did get some nice buzz, but not 60 shares.
This is where I look in the mornings as I am having my cup of coffee. It makes me think of those spaces in our houses that make us happy.
There is a vase out of the last kiln filled with flowers that were given to me a few years back out of my sister's garden. Hers are pink, mine come up white with a bit of pink. There is a small jug from Hannah from the visit she made to the sates. A few wee jugs from the Sandford Coles, a miniature scene of a kitchen and one of Tracey's houses.
Behind that is a floor cloth made by my sister Lee.
Happiness comes in many forms.

   To the right---I posted this on the same group that made the 60 shares  and before it went up I thought I hate all those price stickers. My next thought was let  it go. We forget how important it is to let people know our work is for sale.

What's up on the school front?
Let's just say all things come to an end.
I will be filling in some classes but do not have a class of my own.
It has been an interested time for me. I am still trying to digest it all.
I am giving the words, if not this, something else, a try.
Let's see what that does for me.

These guys come back every year. I always love to see them come up.
Spring is amazing.

Let's keep in touch. I hope that for some of us the written thought will still be important.
Cheers!
M

a little here

 and a little there.
There are no groceries in the house, but I am getting some work done.

It seems as if there are just not enough days in my weeks right now. I am going to work on some tiles and just not think about it.
After all the sun is out today, and that, is a good thing.

Get ready

 There are pots.
There are good ones and there are seconds.
We are "talking" about why.
Why, why, why.....

We know that there have been changes in the materials that we use for glazes. The buzz in the pottery community about loss has been out there for months. We are just now being hit with some of the difficulties that come from those changes.
New plan of action, testing, testing, testing, and not using some of the glazes that we have used for years until we figure this out.

 Menahwile, we will take the good.
Hammer the bad and move on.

 The pictures loaded backwards on me this time.
You can head to the bottom and work up, if you like.

Winter storm heading our way. Let us hope it is quick and short lived.
Stay warm!
Plan on coming to see us in the early spring.
M

Yes, it's wet

 Top to bottom, Front, Middle, Back.
Overall good firing, a little crawling on a few pieces.

Some gems, flattened bottles by Mark.

What Moon?

 And, away we go.
We have been working on the latest load of pots for the big gas kiln. It use to be that we could knock this out in 5 days.
Now that I am gone for a few of those days it takes longer.

We also had to make a trip up to Virginia to remove the last of the items from my mother's house. It has sold and the closing is coming up.
We walked all the rooms on each floor, taking in the memories that were so much a part of any house that has belonged in a family such as ours.
 The weather was nice enough to walk to lunch, something we don't get to do here, unless you count the walk across the yard. We stopped in for cups of coffee on the way back and did what we loved to do the most at my mother's house, we porch sat.
 We just sat on the top step of the porch while we watched the world pass us by.
This trip we were not in a hurry, we had nowhere to be, we could just sit and watch.

  I always find a new story to tell Mark as we sit there. You would think after all these years there would be nothing left to tell.

We moved to this house when I was 12. I built my teenage years there along with my 2 brothers and 2 sisters. If those walls could talk.

After coffee, as the afternoon started to head into late afternoon, I said my good-bye.

I talked to my sister that night and she asked was Mom there. No, she is gone. She loved that house, loved her life there, loved growing old there, but she is not hanging around. That was not her style. My mother always told me that life was for the living. So get out there and do some of that. Oh, and if you have a shot of good bourbon, raise a glass to my mother.

 You know the drill.
Top to bottom:
Back stack.
Middle stack.
Front stack.
Fire tomorrow, cool down on Wednesday and Thursday, unload is Friday.

Oh, yeah, about that moon.
I don't want to talk about it.

See you on Friday.
M

Hanging

 This birdhouse has gone to live in Texas.
I have a customer who keeps an eye out for this glaze and when it comes out well, and, we have something new and different, she sends me an email.

The birdhouse has gone to live with it's cousins in Texas.
I have other customers that do the same.
When we receive a request or an order we do everything possible to get the items packed and ready for shipment. We like to have the items out within a day or two at the most.

 It's our word to be sure and work in a timely manner.
I am in a dispute right now with a company who promised shipping in 24 hours and has not shipped yet.
After a week I sent an email.
We are so sorry we have back ordered your item, here is 20 % off your next order.
I gave them another week.
We are so sorry we have back ordered your item, we will ship it right away as soon as it comes in.
I gave it one more week.
I have just filed through my payment company for a refund.
Why?
Because they continue to sell this item online with  the promise of 24 hour shipping.

 Don't promise what you can not keep.
Your word is important.
So is your customer.

Tiles:
New works on a few giraffes.
Designed by Lee.
It has taken me awhile to carry on with the designs that she and I had planned to work on together.
I have added her name to these.
Her name runs up the right hand side of the giraffe,
My sister had such a talent.

The one on the right here reminds me of her for some reason.

Sorry for my rant.
I am off to work in my own place of business.
Cheers!

About those birdhouses

They look fabulous!
They are ready to hang.
Come on over.
M

I was talking to

someone the other day trying to explain the feelings that I was having this past year.
They asked me how I liked teaching.
I like it, it is not that I don't like it.
But, I miss my life as a potter.

I miss getting up and talking a morning walk, I miss the commute across the yard, I miss working with Mark on a daily bases, I miss the rhythm of the work place; the clay on the wheel, the fixing, the stamping, the creative edge, the zone. I miss it all.

This was my answer to them, " I was trying so hard to stay in my lane, not to look left or right, just move ahead, then one day I turned left in front of traffic." 

You never know what you have until you try to hang on to it. Bit by bit by bit life can change.
It's what you do with it.
For me, I am teaching.
Some days it feels as if the band broke up.
Other days it all flows and new exciting challenges come up.
But, isn't that life?
Isn't life what you are doing while it is all happening around you.

We are still making pottery, Whynot Pottery still has a life, it is just at a slower pace.

Check in with us for weekly hours.
M

What I am doing on my Spring Break

 This is my plan for the week.
How about you all?
Beach?
Mountains?
Or, Seagove?
 Whynot come on over.


I will try real words soon.

It's pretty busy around here.

Pots are getting glaze!

Time to get out there.

There will be mud

 Yes, there is mud.
But, not the good kind, not the kind that we like to toss on the wheel. There is the slippery mud. The good old Carolina red mud.
When we get the out of state visitors in the store they will ask us if the red mud that they see everywhere is the same mud we make our pottery from.
The short answer is no.
That red clay that you see is good for one thing and one thing only, it likes to cake to the bottom of your shoes or tires and let you just "carry" it with you to the house or to the road. When bringing that wonderful Carolina red "mud" into the house it will then make its way into the rest of your life.
If you don't leave those shoes at the door, you can have Carolina red floors, rugs, furniture, just about everything it comes in contact with.

Do we make pottery from mud.
No, we make pottery from clay.
And, clay is not mud.

  From Wikipedia:

Clay is a fine-grained natural rock or soil material that combines one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Clays are plastic due to their water content and become hard, brittle and non–plastic upon drying or firing. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure. Depending on the content of the soil, clay can appear in various colors, from white to dull gray or brown to a deep orange-red.

Yes, I know the real information is not interesting to all of the people that like to think we just dig up our back yards in order to make things. For the most part we do not dig up our yards, but if we could, would we?

There is a lot of work that goes into creating a good clay body. If you are one of those lucky folks that stumbles on a bed of clay that is perfect for throwing and firing you are a very lucky person indeed.
Most clays need something else added to make them work.

Mark and I use a high quality commercial blend, that works for us.
There are potters today who are experimenting with local or native clay in their areas.
We are of the mind that this is one of those steps that we don't want to do.
We also know  many of the children of  the older generation of potters. Many of those people had the job of digging and processing the clay for the family business. They use to tell me about how hard the work was and that they would rather eat off a paper plate. It made me laugh, still does.

At school we mix our clay.
I spend at least twice a week with the help of my work study student processing clay for the classes.
It is an interesting job. It has made me think about the clay I use at home and the clay I make at school.
I think it is good to have to at least learn how to mix a clay body,  knowing what it needs to do, and learning about all the things that you want it to do.
Does it make me want to mix our own here?
No.

I'm too busy keeping that mud out of my house.

Spring is coming, it has to.

Making bowls

 There are pots spinning on the wheel over here. Mark is much busier in our studio than I am. I have headed back to school, trying to keep those students sharp.

I find the time spent at the school can be very enlightening for me and the students. It allows me to explore something I might not have time to do when I am here making pots.

 When I am in my studio I have a list to follow, things that need to be accomplished in a day, week month.

At the school we also have a list, but there are times I, we, like to go off the page and have a little fun.

I have always found that in any work place you need some play. The same goes with the students. Every once in awhile they need a play day or a play activity to get those brain waves snapping.

Yes, I am teaching them production, sets, handles, but some days you have to break out in a show-tune and dance a little.

From those breaks I see improvements in throwing skills. I want to make them think outside the box, challenge, push without being pushy.
I find it makes me think as well.
This semester looks like a winner.

Stay warm, winter is just here to stay for awhile.
M 

it's time

 Mark and I headed back out to the studio this week to ring in the new year by getting back to work in the studio.
He has been cranking out the mugs with his count hitting 100 for the week. Along with that 100 mugs are bowls, juice cups and some odds and ends.
Me?
I have just finished my first round of tiles and today, yes, I know it's Sunday, I hit the wheel with some clay; small bowls, cereal bowls, and a good start on an order of honey pots. I wonder what it is about having an order that makes a person drag their (her) feet? All day I thought I would hit those honey pots first and get them out of the way, but instead I did my pottery warm up on bowls first. They are quick and easy, just right to see if I can still toss clay at the wheel and make a pot.
The honey pots, 4 down and 16 to go.
I guess we  all know what is on my list for tomorrow.

 I had not given much thought about going back to teach in the next 8 days ( I just looked at the calendar, darn....) but the last two mornings as I have just hit the edge of  being awake, my mind has jumped over to things left at the school as I walked out for break.
Hush, I tell them, not yet, let me think about those things next week.


Meanwhile back at the land of Whynot we are working on our list for the first firing of the year. We have a wholesale order that will need to be out of the kiln for the first of March, that means we need to fire in February. There are always some pots left from the last year to start off the firing, we just need to be smart about adding the right pots to the list.
No messing around, get serious here.

I really hope that we get some days of sun in the next week.
We have had so much rain that everything is nice and soggy around here.
I even had a disoriented black snake at the front door the other morning. I looked at him and he looked at me. He did not look any more happy to see me than I did to see him. My thoughts were- it's not spring yet buddy, go back to bed. I did not hang around to see where he was bedding down. I was just happy to see him gone when I went back out later.

Cheers!

I am shopping

 I am doing my shopping for others in the store today.
We get the emails that say, pick out 4 pieces, or my sister needs, do you have, could you ship?
Yes, yes, yes, we can do that for you and we are happy to get it picked out and packed off.
Santa is working overtime.

There are lot's of choices left to chose from. I have in mind 4 of the oil lamps...they make great gifts.

I made granola today and as I was waiting for my cook/stir time I thought up a way to pass the time.
I'm calling it; what can you do in 5 minutes.
I found that I could water the plants, wash the crud off the refrigerator, oven and dishwasher. Wipe out a sink, pick up the socks.
 5 minutes works well and when I have 10 the dust is all mine.
 

The semester is counting down at the school. There are only so many things you can make, dry and fire at this point. There is a great amount of glazing going on.
We are loading the Salt kiln next week and firing. It has been many years since I have fired any salt with gas. It should be interesting. Thank goodness I have one of my co-teachers to help me out on this one. I am loading with the students on Monday, firing will start in the wee hours on Tuesday, from then we shall see if we get to see the moon rise or the moon set.

I hope that the next few weeks are good to you all. I know how busy life gets this time of year.
Be happy, be safe, be merry.
M