July 2017

We have been lucky that this summer has been mild to date, mild enough that it gives you pause of days to come, but here I sit with a door open to my office listening to the morning birds calling.
I'll take these mornings.
Yesterday I posted thoughts about our fire on a July night in 2008 on our FB page.
 Why now I ask myself?
I think as a reminder of how folks can rebuild after a disaster in their lives.
Life moves on even when you feel as if you are stuck in mud.

The other thought that often comes to my mind is how many potters, artist do not carry business insurance. I know that you don't need it until you need it, but when you need it, you need it. We needed it then. I continue to carry it now even though business is not as lively as it once was. I almost did not pay that bill that came in the June before the fire. I thought long and hard about it, trying to justify not having it. Then Mark and I looked at how we had bought and built the business slowly one step at a time. We added it up and decided that if, if, something happened we needed to be covered.
I sent the check in 3 weeks before this happened.

I know how hard it is to look at these pictures. I know how hard it was to live through this. What made it better, or easier was the insurance check that allowed us to rebuild, and make it better.

We could hire someone to build it the second time rather than build it ourselves.
It has changed some of how we work and why.
I think things like this do change a person.
In the past 9 years there have been many changes, some good, some not so good.

Mark and I? We keep on moving along, ebb and flow, he makes pots and now I make tiles.
Changes come slow and some times changes are like a freight train rolling past.
Grab the caboose, you just never know where it will take you.

It's getting to be a lot like

 July out there.
The blueberries are coming in, tomatoes,squash, peaches and all the good things that come with summer.
I am behind by 3 years on a summer garden instead I help my local growers out by buying from them.

On the pottery front. We are working on taking pictures of the new work that is coming from Ms. B. We have tried twice to set up something in the studio and shoot after the sun goes down. The good thing about rebuilding our work space after July 8th 2008 when we had a fire was adding more light in with more windows. The bad thing about all those windows is the reflections they add.
We set up a spot and waited until the sun went down to shoot.
While Mark was using his camera I had my point and shoot.

 We did get some random shoots that were okay, but we are not getting what we really want. We think it comes down to the lens on his camera and are now doing some research on what we could switch to as well as a different back ground. I like the black, but the camera and color off the all black is not working with many of the glazes.
We have always know that we would rather make pots than shoot them. We also know that if you really want a good shoot you hire a professional.  We have done that in the past and it is probably time to take that step again. What we would like is to set up an online store and with that we need a set up that would work all the time for us to shoot and post.
The challenge of selling work in the digital age.

 This glaze on the honey pot is one that has been around and now back again for us. When we were firing in the big gas kiln we could no longer get this to come out for us. In Ms. B it is happy as happy can be. We are slowly putting it on mugs, juice cups and honey pots. Next up is some larger work such as lamps.

Below- yes, that is us with one of our first goats in our makeshift milking contraption that Mark built.
I had a small herd of milk goats that we were raising, but this city girl never learn how to milk a goat. I was up there keeping her from kicking while Mark worked the milking.
I recently found this picture in a box of pictures that Mark's mom had.
A real walk back in time for us, I always wonder where my life would have gone if I had continuing the life of a goat herder. I was making goat cheese in 70's and could not give it away. We loved it, but anytime I tried to share it was a different story. The goats, my girls, are for another day.
Today, it is back to the clay pit.

Sunday in July

 This morning was another amazingly cool start to the day. I pinch myself knowing that this is not usual weather we are having and I need to enjoy the wonderful coolness that we have been given.

I was up early and out the door to walk up the driveway and around the pond. It is mornings like this that are gifts, to be opened slowly, sweetly and savored as if eating fine food or  wine.

While walking I am thinking about this past summer and all the gifts I have been given as I roll to a close on teaching. Next week I will finish up my last 3 days with students who I have watched learn and grow in their abilities.
Sweetness.
I am also fully aware of how I have set aside my own work through the summer to go and teach. There are pots that flit through my brain and might possibly have to come out of my hands at some point.

I find myself at a loss of how best to tell you about my long weeks as they are a jumble of travel, teaching, working in our studio, baking, picking blueberries and spending time with friends and family.

 It's life, it's happening.

It occurred to me the other day that the anniversary of our July fire had come and gone without thought. Is this what moving on is really about? When you don't think about those things front and center of your brain?
Instead you just keep moving on one day after another.
Savoring slowly the moments of your life.

facing the realities of wetness

This is what Mark pulled out of the studio on Friday morning.
There is just nowhere for all this water to go when it comes down in bucket loads.
It reminds me of the summer of 2008 when we had no roof on the studio from our fire.
We were doing this then, every time it rained.
Add in burnt wood and the large amounts of flies and wasp that were draw to the smell.

I'll take this.
On another note, it is wet, but we have a roof!

Pots are drying slowly in the wetness that has taken over the south.

 We are throwing but finding that the pots are taking forever to dry out for handles and such.
Even with leaving things uncovered they are still wet the next morning.

 I decided that I would reclaim some of the tile clay that I use.
 I am getting tired of walking around all the odd bags of scrap.
They were bugging me.

I stated out by opening them up and seeing what stage of wet or not wet they were in.
I took some of the better pieces that had some moisture in them and cut them up and placed them in a bucket.
I then poured water on them and let this sit over night.
The next day I pulled all the standing water off and placed the clay on plaster bats to start pulling off the water.
As they clay started to set up I would turn it over. Cut it and place the wet side up, turn and do this again until it began to come together.

 
 By yesterday I had 3 large balls of what seems to be clay I can use.
I need to ask my human pugmill if he will do some heavy wedging for me on these bad boys.
I am spoiled since he has more upper body strength than I do.
I would love to have another small pug mill for red clay but I don't see that happening.
What do you do with your leftovers?
I find that with throwing clay, stoneware, we can recycle the wet scraps within a few days.
The hand building or tile clay gives me all these bits and pieces that I bag up but fail to get back to soon enough to do something with.
My bad.

We are calling for more rain today with showers possible for days.....
I could use some sun.

Your flower picture of the day.

 This little yellow flower is a doll.
Then covered in rain drops, goodness.

How about another one?

 sigh...
At least there are flowers.
M

step back in time

with me for just a minute.
I am going  through some pictures and you know how it is.
You look at a picture from 20 to 25 years ago and you think, "who are those kids?"

Us, those kids were us.
A couple of kids wandering the path to adults.

Mark and I had been in business for about 3 years when we decided we needed to put a sales shop out of the house and in the yard where the public was a bit more comfortable to go. As it is you have to be up for adventure to come and find us. Our driveway alone has caused some folks some stress of worry as they drive the quarter of a mile drive around the pond. If it is a first trip for them they worry about where they are going. The ability to see a real shop out in view at the end of the drive helps.
 All ready to go utility buildings were just starting to show up around the area and this one fit our needs, so we ordered it,12X24 to be delivered as a basic shell.
We would then spend the evenings putting in insulation, electricity, lights counters and such.
The sales shop has fit our needs most of the time we have been in business. It holds many pots, is set between the house and the workshop and it put us close by with an easy walk back and forth from one building to another..  
I threw pots inside, behind the counter, for 11 years before we build the workshop that was big enough for both of us.
Then when we had the fire and the workshop burned down (and was rebuilt) we still had the shop for sales since it is located across the yard from where we work.

It was nice not to lose the finished work during the whole mess.

Anyway pictures....

Here we are not long after the building arrived.
A couple of kids.

Finding a path.

Mark is "cooking" beer today and I have things to do.
Enjoy your Sunday.
cheers,
M

Sandy and CERF+

Let's talk.
On Saturday evening we had been invited to a small meeting of people, who make their living from their craft, one of which is on the board for CERF. He had set up this meeting before Sandy hit and then how appropriate that we would meet to talk about how CERF can help craft folks in need and how best to get the word out that they are there to help.

I had given this some thought over the weeks leading up to the meeting and when we meet many of the thoughts spilled out. Mark and I went through a fire. The host of the meeting lost their entire business to Katerina. They had a thriving glass business with 35 glass artist working in their building. Not only did they lose what they had so did everyone else who worked or used space there.

The subject on my mind today is are you prepared if something should happen?
I know this sounds preachy and I don't want it to be that way.
So I want you to think about the following.

Are you a business or do you consider yourself a hobbyist?
Do you sell your work?
Do you have a business license?
Do you collect and pay sales tax for the state you live in?
Do you report the income off your sales as taxable?
Do you have a studio?
Do you work in your house or a building attached to your house?
Do you own a wheel, kiln, pottery equipment and tools.
Could you replace everything you own out of your pocket tomorrow if something happen?
Here is my big one.
Do you have business insurance?
Because, if you think your homeowners insurance covers your business, you could be wrong.
Check your policy and talk to your agent.

No one needs insurance unless they need it.
Without it we could not have rebuilt our studio and replaced and repaired our equipment.
Our lives would have been so different without the coverage.
We realized one day that there was no way we could replace everything we had built up bit by bit.
Or the equipment we owned that we had bought bit by bit. One day you own a business and you own stuff. That does not happen overnight.
Where would you be if something happened?

More questions for you.
Do you have product liability in your policy?
Are you covered for if you go to a show and something happens to your work?
Are you covered if your booth or items falls into the booth next to you?
Are you covered?

I know we are artist and we don't like to think about these things.
But sometimes life bites you no matter what you do for a living.

I am sure this is enough for today.


 CERF+ is there to help- if you know someone in need tell them about CERF.

Meredith

November firing

There was a delay in the schedule this past week with Sandy coming in to cause a shift in the weather.
We found the open door on Wednesday to load the kiln, brick the door and fire.
Mark, to take advantage of the lower winds slept a few hours, and then was up to light the kiln by 2 am.
By the time I rolled out of bed at 4:30.
( not really I laid there like a slug until 6...) he had things well on the way.

My feeling on this fire is it is truly out of my hands.

Then again there are points where it is all out of our hands. There are always new variables to any firing being it Raku, low fire electric, wood, gas or just tossing something in a pit. It all has moments of wonder, wonder what this will do, and surprise, gosh I thought that was going to be......

In working through these mugs I have put some thoughts together.
First I thought this would just be a breeze. I mean what could possible go wrong?  We have done large orders before and this one we could easily work in with what we were doing. What I did not factor in was the use of a new to us stamp, how best it would work and how this would factor into the deadline.

Our usually policy is that I like 6 months to a year to say yes to a large order. That way if there are bugs you can slowly work them out. This time we took this as a rush order. Instead of being able to fire a few at a time we would place all of them in the large kiln to fire all together. We have done this before but not with a new element tossed in the mix.

When we made the last round of stamped mugs we lost more. We had planned to lose some but we now stepped outside our numbers and we went below our target.
We loaded 78 mugs in the kiln to fire. Of those 78 there are possibly, more than likely going to be some loss.
Why?
We think that some of the added stamps have the potential to crack.
Trust me if they do I will try to explain later why I think they did.
So with that there might be more loss.

I had to mentally let this go and not worry myself into a corner where we did nothing. In all industries there are success and failure. We must all fail at times in order to learn. We have to look at the outcome of this as part learning experience.
I thought to myself the other day that potters or artist of any type need to accept failure as part of what we do. There are time, many times, that we have to mourn the loss, take the bite, and then press on. Success comes to us all in many ways. There are times in your life that you just chug along tossing your work out like apple seeds sprouting goodness throughout. Then there are times that no matter what you do it just does not happen. Maybe success can be counted in the ways you don't give up, that you go back again and again looking for an answer to the issue.
Mark and I are already working this one through the thought processes of how to do it different and better.

The pots are cooling with no looking at all today.
Tomorrow we can start looking even though a look will not tell what all is in there.

On another note- if this is less than we hope for I keep saying to myself. You have your home, you are warm, you are alive, you can walk and talk. There are many folks that lost their homes and treasures, can't contact their love ones are beside themselves with worry.
This, the mugs, a pebble in the steam.

Don't forget to reach out how you can.
M



 

CERF

First on my mind today is to give some thoughts to the folks who might need help after Sandy.
There are many places that help people in need, but, for artist, we have a place that has helped many of us after some disaster of our own.
Most of you will know that Mark and I lost our work building to a hit of lightning after a summer storm in July 2008. It was a devastating event in our lives to be put out of work overnight.
One of the things that really helped us was CERF . We applied and were granted money to help us. We also applied for a no interest loan that helped us add a room to the work building when we rebuilt.

At the time I found it almost impossible to fill out paper work. It was the kindness of our daughter who would come here and take over the paper work for me. She filled  out the forms and put the inventory of loss in a spreadsheet. Ask someone to help you.
The folks at CERF were so kind and helpful with us.
Without them things would have turned out different.
I hope that anyone who is in need will find a way to get help.

There were a few of the local potters here who started a local group called "The Seagrove Potters Relief Fund". We as potters donate pots to sell and the money is placed in an account to help a local potter in need. The ladies that run this were out the day after our fire with a check. At first I thought I don't need this, but you soon find that you do.

I think of the many organizations that come to the artist all the time to help them raise money for them. We have all given and given over the years to many, many auctions where our work brings in money for the organization. We get so many request these days that we have to say no. I had two this past week. Mark and I do give to some places but with some real thought to who and where the money goes.

Sandy is just the beginning for the artist that might be in need. Building back what you once had takes time and energy. It also means loss of income. If you are not working on your art you will feel the effect later when you have no work to sell. It took us a 18 months to completely rebuild and ever longer to mentally rebuild.

I am asking you today to just pass on this information, cook a meal, share a drink, check on someone, send a check. Whatever you need to do to help someone.
As of right now we don't know any one person in great need, but if you do let me know.
If I can I will help in some small way.

 With many, small ways can become big ways.

I started this post thinking about the mugs that are in the kiln firing today but I think they can wait another day.
Cheers,
M

the day after the fire

the added room

This was taken the winter after all the rooms were finished and it had snowed. I never miss a day to smile when I open the door to the work building.

life is good...

July 8th 2010

There has been plenty of rumbling around us this past week.
Thunderstorms a plenty seem to surround us and bring to mind the storm of 2008.
Maybe that is why I am awake in the wee hours of the night.
Can't sleep what is going on?
What's on your trouble mind.
Then as I sit here I see it is July 8th.
It has been 3 years since the night lightening struck our pottery studio and burned  us out.
3 years and I really don't think about it as much as I use to.
It has become more distance in my mind.
But this year it has made me think again.
In 2009 we had to be home on the 8th. Just had to be.
Last year we went to Maine and did not stay home for the 8th.
Can you see how the mind heals.
This year we are home for the 8th and I am treating it like any other day.
Life moves on doesn't it?
Things change like the tide that rolls in and out.
Life takes shifts and turns and you just have to ride it like a wave in that tide.
2008 and we were homeless.
2010 and we are still making pots.
2011- it will be interesting to see where we are.
Remind yourself that life has ups and downs but it is all in how you weather those downs.
Happy 8th I say- Happy 8th of July 2010.
From there: The fire
to here: Home is where you want to be.
Is it any wonder I fell for this song?

Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Home 

Now go make pots!

I am thinking jars.......

M

A helping hand

I have given many thoughts on how best to help out with the Japan disaster.
I found myself thinking more and more about helping someone directly.
I wanted to know that my money would go straight to the person and not through so many channels.

When Mark and I experienced the overnight loss by fire to our work studio I remember how difficult that was.
After years of making our living by making pottery we were in a sense homeless.
We had a lot of great support and help from  the neighborhood and our pottery community.
What helped the most at that time were the money donations that were given and sent to us.
They bridged a gap for us at a time when it was most needed.


With this said I plan to give some money to Euan Craig euan.craig@gmail.com by using paypal.
I was going to send a check but felt it might take too long and not be as quick or as easy for him with all he has going on.
If anyone else is interested in helping him please do.
I know how much his writing and voice have touched me.
I also know how hard it is to find yourself without your sense of place.
I look forward to watching and reading while he works his way forward.
We are all blessed in many ways.
The connections we are building daily through our blogs touch me deeply and make me want to give back.
I am off to make a donation in hope that it will help him and his family.
Peace -and may your day be filled with good things, but be dull and free of chaos.
M

Rosemary

The only plant around the building which survived the fire.

Rosemary still going strong.

In fact I think it has taken over!

How to make it rain

Take one building add paint.

The painters will be back next week when the sun comes back.

Meanwhile pots are being made and are drying .
Bisque kilns are firing.
Rain is good, Right?

Seeing RED!

As most of you know, we had a studio fire July of last year.
We spent a year getting our studio back in shape and getting ourselves back in shape to work.
One of the last things on our list was to paint the building.
Today the painters came and here are the results for the first day.

This is just a primer coat- but the building will be a barn red with a nice blue trim.

We are pretty jazzed about having this done.
And, unless we come up with something else, this is the last thing to check off the list.

That is not just fall you feel blowing your way, it is us taking a deep breath of relief.

Step out of the way - nothing to see here

I feel as if I have spent the last few weeks coming out of my cocoon. I feel a bit like the butterfly from a few weeks ago.
After the past year of losing our work area and the rebuild, I rarely had the energy it takes to be social.
In fact I was content to stay home, knowing the piles of stuff I had to deal with.
Both mental and physical.
Well the past few weeks and months we have found our selves enjoying getting out.
It has been nice to enjoy a night or lunch with friends
But it means less time on the computer, which is a good thing.

And I have a lot of stuff coming out of my head.
That sure sounds strange.....

Anyway, after just making pots like a zombie last year I feel more connected to the clay this year.
And with that is coming new work.
I don't have pictures yet and maybe some it will be worth a post.
All I can say is, "we are having some fun."

We are still doing production work, the kiln is firing today.

But I hope to see some new work coming out of both of us in the next few months.
Let's see where this goes.

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.

Glazing

What is the mystery to good glazing. It is all just good guess work?
We are glazing this week and when I say week- it takes of most of a week to wax, glaze and load our big gas kiln.
While doing this I always find we are guessing about the glazes. How did this work last time, do we need to mix and add more, did it run too much was it just right, where did it sit in the kiln?
All of these questions are valuable in how the pot will turn out.
We have enough pottery going in the kiln that we know some will be good and some will be "not so good."
We try very hard not to make seconds, but as we all know......... there has to be a few dogs.
Mark has worked on the formulas to weight each glaze as it worked for the last firing. He has written down the weights on all the buckets. Maybe this will give us a better place to start.
I always have this moment early in the glaze cycle about each pot, how it will be glazed and where it will sit in the kiln. Is this a low shelf or a top shelf, middle stack, front or back stack. If I throw in this 10 inch shelf will the stack run hotter in the back or in the front. The middle is always hot- so choke it down a bit with some short shelves..........
You would think after 26 years we would have this down.
With our firing times off so much from catch up this past year I have lost the rhythm of glazing.
I can see that I need to get it back or take up sewing.
And if you know me you know I can sew but I don't really like it.
So back to glazing today, taking notes and keeping our fingers crossed that we do not melt the glaze off the pots onto the shelves!

We all need to start somewhere-

July will soon be here and it makes me reflect on the past year.

In fact, I will never see July the same for many reasons.

My father, who was a newspaper man, and wore many hats while in the business and was a hell of a writer and wordsmith past away on the 4Th of July the year my son graduated from High School-1994- a year of change.

He use to tell my kids he worked at the word factory.He loved words, the English language, the twist and turns of words, a good joke and an even better pun.I always thought God gave him me just to remind him that some people can not spell, thank you spellcheck, can't string a good thought together and must work with their hands.

Don't get me wrong, he was one of my biggest supporters when I decided to become a potter.

Last July we were hit by lighting and our work studio burned. Not one of our better years- 2008- "a walk in hell," I call it in my mind. But one we walked and now see the other side of.

It was tense, sad and hard. Most of all it was, Just plain hard.

But- this walk was in many ways easier then the one you walk when you lose a love one.

We loved our life and our building- but they were and have been replaced.We have begun to feel the pace of the potter's life returning.

I don't feel as if I am walking on broken glass. I feel as if we are returning to what we have done since 1982.

The pots have not made big changes they are pretty much the pots we have been making- but then again I am making the tiles and testing out glazes at cone 6 for the tiles and the big tile project to come. As Mark keeps saying as he is working, "It's like coming home."

Comfort- comfort in the shapes and comfort in the clay.

The biggest thing I added to my day is all the people whom I have met and read their blogs- I try to read you all and I follow your blogs some days until my computer yells, "no more---- go. to. work.!"

You were such a lifeline and still are.

My plan in my head is to someday go in person to see some of these potters- why not? What fun that would be to have tea with Linda Star, sit in Barbara's garden and talk about spiders.

Then I would be off to see Patricia Griffin.

Meet Cynthia Guajardo and see her remodeled house and life- coffee up at Micheal Kline's place.

A beer with Gary Rith at his favorite place. I would love to sit and watch Sofia and her Dad, Jim , create together. Then I would have to go see Cindy Shake who drips talent with everything she does.

Out to see Julia and meet her bees and Stan,who would rather keep the name Ruby.

I read the Seagrove blogs as well- don't think I am not checking in with you- just too many to mention here today.

Then there is the Women's Colony. I would go there to soak up some of the energy from the women who write and give me bites of their lives.

So- start here because this is your life.

Putting the mudbox to work

Mark finished up the mudbox on Tuesday and we, I should say, he put it right to work. He is very happy to have his wheel back and set up for production items. His mudbox was in need of a few repairs before the fire, but after the fire it really needed to be repaired. We are now in the place of having almost all the damaged equipment repaired or replaced.

We knew it would take at least or about a year to feel as if we were truly back to work and I say it has.

Yesterday as I was throwing I had one of those Zen moments where the wheels were turning, the music on and pots were jumping off our wheels. It felt good.

It's like watching glue dry

Rebuilding the mudbox is slow work. All the details have to come together.
We build to last! Unless there is a fire- then we rebuild to last!
The metal is now covered with plywood and then a sheet of plastic is cut to fit. This in now glued to the plywood....and we wait.







Meanwhile- I am working on the wedding tiles that came out of today's kiln. One more kiln to fire and I will have the rest glued by the end of next week.
Why the end of next week?
I have to order the right size magnets.
I ordered one size too small and they need to be "just right."

I am watching this beauty open new flowers each day. I counted 10 as I walked across the yard.

So pretty!

About that warranty

After the fire Mark rebuilt my mud box , but had to put off rebuilding his own. This week seemed like a good time to take the Brent apart and give it a go.
First he has striped off the plastic top which covers the metal top.




Then he cut down the aluminum wheel head collar, which holds the splash pan in place.
Ouch- there goes the warranty!






Then again these wheels are past the warranty time since they are both well over 20 years old- one close to 30- ouch! where did the time go?





Next step will be to fit the wheel head to the floor pan.
So stay tune- I will post more pictures as he goes along.
Meanwhile he is trimming and carving up some nice lamps along with getting the new kiln in place.
It is great to have A.D.D.-that way you are always on to the next task.

Me- I have wedding tiles cooking along in my little test kiln and I am throwing filler pots.