Last week

 Mark was working with a white stoneware last week. It looks so clean and ready.
These are heading to the kiln for bisque, and then later glaze.
Many things to think about.
The pots for Ms. B are ready but we are waiting out the storms that are coming through this week.Now we are thinking that next week will be better to fire. That just puts us back on the wheel throwing some red clay for cone 6. It will be a contrast of the different clay bodies, this white against the warm red.
Don't you just love that handle on the teapot...

 I love those jars back there especially that wee, sassy handle.
And, these mugs!
Such possibilities to come.
Stay tune.
I'll be back.
M

October brings color

 I was looking out the back window that faces the hill behind us and noticed the bits of color in the trees. I can see the season of fall is here.
This is the time of year that I tell myself to look at the trees everyday.
It doesn't take long for those bits of color to blow into burst of color.

The kiln is out and has been sorted. Here, there and everywhere.
We have filled the shop,set some aside and sent some off to Southern Pines.
We are tossing them out there like fallen leaves to land in new homes.

 One of these birdhouses has left the coop already to fly to Texas to join the iron red birdhouse from the firing before this one. The birdhouses have been a fun addition to the other pots.
I think that Mark has settled on this loop as a good way to hang them. We  found that some of the ways we finished the tops made for some interesting and clever way to fix them for hanging. 

 There are always mugs.

We did get some rain last weekend and more this weekend.
From the rain came all sorts of fungus coming up in the yard or planters.
This one  was covered with rain drops making the drops look like they were beads.

We are back at work making tiles, soap dishes, and maybe more birdhouses.
More to come.

 

Cheers!
M

Don't

 take my picture.
Okay.

I know, I am such a liar.
Mark is working up some big bowls.

While I am working on Sugar jars and creamers.

What is it about jars?
That was the item I did not want to make as a student. It is the item I make the most now.
I guess that back then I was not ready to make them.

 And, what is a jar without a creamer. I know, I know, it's a jar, wise cracker that you are.

We are working up the next kiln load of pots. Most of it is ready and waiting for these last items to be finished.
 I really wanted to get some cream and sugar sets made. We have a few in the shop, but most have made their way off to new homes.

 That handle looks large! Things appear closer than they are, and bigger.

I have some tiles that I am playing with yet again.

These are left from a past project and I wanted to see if I could add to them and possibly enhance what was going on with the waves. Now all I need is that last glaze to go on.

Fall is in the air.
The last few days have given way to cooler mornings.
I don't want to rush things, but here it comes ready or not.

Cheers!
M

J B Cole Pottery

 These three bottles have been in the family since my grandparents built the house that we live in. I remember them being the only pottery displayed on the mantel when I would visit in the summers.
 When Mark and I first moved here and were raising two young kids Mark thought it would be best if these pots went to live with my parents in Virginia just to keep them safe.

Then one day, after we had become potters, my parents came to see us and brought them back to the farm. My mother thought that we should have them back. They have been displayed on the mantel ever since.


No matter what new and different pots we add and subtract from the mantel these are always there. They feel like home to me.
They make me think of my grandmother and grandfather and spending the summers with my sisters and brothers on the farm.  My Grandmother was not from here but she fully embraced the local pottery that was made here.
She enjoyed her time in and out of the pottery shops and was a close friend with both Nell Cole and her husband Phil. My grandmother would be my introduction to Walter and Dorothy Auman at Seagrove Pottery.

A few years back my mother also handed over this footed bowl that might have been made for a cake stand even if it is not that flat.  I am not sure how a cake would fit on it since it is more bowl shaped.

 I have always thought that this footed bowl would look great in a dinning room that had some clean modern lines with white walls and bright light streaming through the windows. Does this happen to you? Do you see pots and think that you know where they should live?

 I just cleaned these up and thought that taking a layer of dust off them would give you a better look at how pretty this glaze is.

The rumor that surrounded this glaze was that there was gold dust in the glaze.
Really?, Gold dust.... Well it did sound good.

 I have added a link to an article that my brother Jay wrote before he died. If you have a minute you might enjoy reading it.











 Cheers,
M

Seagrove Pottery Dot and Walter Auman

 A Saturday Video for you all to watch.

Seagrove Pottery

the down and dirty

Let's call this one for the most part good.
There are about 6 pots that just did not get hot enough and we will fire those again. (your fired!)
What did we learn from this firing:
 We want to move the floor shelf up a few inches so it will be closer to 4- 4 1/2 inches from the floor to the first shelf instead of the 3 inches we have there now. When we were loading we talked about the kiln we had like this one before,back in the early days, and the light blub moment was- didn't we have the first shelf start higher?
I think we did and that is the plan- bring it up and hope for more heat on those bottom pots.

For the most part right up to the last 2 hours the top and bottom stayed 20 degrees apart.
Then the top jumped, the bottom fell behind and there was no coaxing the two to come back together.
The thought was to let the chips fall where they may and when the top hit 10 shut her down.

The iron red had some major iron trapping in some places and not in others.
When it grabs and holds the iron we like to call it Leopard spot.
You can just see a bottle in the back there on the right.
But, I may fire that one again.
The Beer mugs came out great. These are 4 ounces larger than the last ones we (Mark) made and will do 20 ounces with some room to spare. No loss on your beers with these!

Hey, you- yes, you- sexy girl- Oh, not you the pitcher.
This is my kind of iron red and with those tasty drips...... oh, yea!

We are just going to have to do this again.
Are you in?
Off to glaze on some tiles and think about what we are doing for the next load.
Cheers!
M

Feed me....feed me......

How to grow a teapot

I have a request through Etsy for a teapot, do we have any?
 In fact we do and here they are for the picking.

Ripe and tasty right off the vine, or rock as this case may be.
 From large to small.
Just take your pick.

Mark

Mark

Mark

Meredith

Meredith

They do get a little tipsy on the rock. I would love just the right rock to place them on. Then again it is fun to find the right spot to put them and balance... besides I love rocks too and these are pretty fine rocks.

Back to the grind.
Cheers!
M

The town of Seagrove or do not blink

A new adventure for Mark and me.

As of the middle of the month we have become members of The Co-Op of Seagrove Potters
 which is located in the "down town" area of Seagorve.
The Co-op is housed in what was the original bank of Seagrove.
I love the old safe and found it a pretty good place to sit the other day.

 

Here is a quick photo of the inside of the building.

A view out the window facing the Seagrove Hardware.

This does not change our hours at Whynot you will still find us hard at work and open to your visits with us here.
Plan to stop in this summer!

Meanwhile- the big vases are out of the bisque tomorrow.
More glazing with loading on Saturday and firing Sunday- give or take a day.
Let's us hope this firing comes off as a good one.
Cheers!
M

A Story- part one

While I am still rummaging through my past and trying desperately to stay in the present I am full of thoughts about some of the older potters from my past.
Dorothy and Walter Auman keep playing in my brain.
I am trying to figure out where to start with them.
The Auman's were such a big part of my life.
They were friends of my grandparents so my memories of them and their son Walt Jr. go way back.
I remember thinking they were not like the friends of my parents who were city people.
My first memory of Dorothy Auman was out at the pond.
We had fished and then cooked out.
There was a bonfire and I was hanging around listening to the adults laugh and talk. I don't remember the conversation, but I remember being struck by Dorothy and Walter's laughter.
I remember thinking they were so different from the farm families who lived around the farm. They were a bit more wordily and lively.
I was taken back by Dorothy's out going personality, quick smile, good wit and her laughter.

Years later when I was 17 I would take my first solo trip to see my grandparents.
My mother walked up to me and said, " Go see your grandparents, you have some vacation time and they would like to see you."
She handed me the car keys and said , "we will map out the route."
It was my first trip alone, just me and the open road I was excited.
My mother's car was a Red VW camper. The one that popped up and had a refrigerator in it.
We all thought it was super cool and here I was taking it for a ride to the depths of central NC.
My mother was a High school math teacher, all the family and kids at school called the VW Big Red.
A double meaning since my mother was a redhead and not a small women.
Anyway, I took the keys and set off for the farm.
I made one stop over in Chapel Hill to visit with my Godfather and family then on the the farm.

This was the first time I would spend time alone on the farm with my grandparents.
Now, talk about being treated like royalty it was great fun.
My grandparents were great people who had traveled all over the world before settling back in Seagrove, or, I should say Whynot, to farm.
Even though there were cows to be taken care of and grass to be mowed we spent a lot of time out and about the nieghborhood and small towns.

One afternoon while I was there my grandmother and I stopped to see Dorothy in the pottery shop.
I have memories of Cole's pottery as a child and Seagrove Pottery, the Auman's shop, but this time it was different.
We walked in to find Dorothy in her usual place behind the wheel making pots and yes standing and talking.
I was looking around, really taking in the work for what I think was the first time.
There were several small rooms off to the left and I wandered through looking at bowls, mugs, teapots, plates, pitchers, jugs and pots, pots and more pots.
I walked back out to stand next to my Grandmother to watch Dorothy turn.
I looked at Dorothy at the pots she was making and a feeling, that even today I have a hard time describing, came over me so strong and powerful that I started to pass out.
My grandmother grabbed an arm, Dorothy shot out from behind her wheel grabbed the other arm and they both sat me in a chair, placed a coke in my hands and started fanning me.
I was embarrassed beyond belief.
Like two mother hens they felt I should go rest, but really the feeling was gone.

I have thought about this over the years.
I think that if I was in tune with a place deep within me I could have somehow seen how many times I would walk through that door, look at pots made by Dorothy and glazed by Walter.
It was as if my 17 year old self felt something there, on that day, that would be such a big part of my life.
In fact, if not for Dorothy and Walter and the many days and ways they influenced my life I don't know what direction I would have taken.
If I never moved to Seagrove what would I have done?
Who would I have been?
Would I have ever touched clay, become a potter?

This is just a beginning.
I have so much Dorothy and Walter in me.
I know there will be more.
Let's just call this part one.


I found this interview done with Dot and Walter In 1983
go over for a good read.