Caution: detour ahead

 I went to see the doctor and I have massive, deep bruising on my lower back.
I will be going to have an x-ray done in the next day or so- depends on when they say come.
It is like I was body slammed by the deck and, now, I am loopy.
I have never been a person who could take massive amounts of drugs.
Even ibuprofen makes me loopy.
I am a two beer, two glass of wine girl.
I am the cheap date- unless there is lobster----
So when the doctor said I am prescribing pain pills I thought I might not take them.
Wrong- they do help the pain.
But after just two I am wondering which is worse.
Pain or not being able to think straight or nodding off while sitting or standing still.
I know these are why you take the pain pills so you will rest and do nothing, but I can tell you now
I would be a terrible drug addict.

So my life the next week will be to tackle some of the mounting paper work and
Keep on top of the Clay and Blogs show.
If you are coming- let me know I am looking for rooms for those who are in the show and if there is enough interest I think we could get some discounted rooms in Asheboro.


Fetishghost left a comment on the nibbles I have been posting about the show. He liked the quiet format I was using. I picked this because there I think the blogs and work speak for themselves. They have a better voice then I do about who they are and their work. I do hope you have been reading them and will check back on Friday for more.
One of the reasons I chose this way was after 15 years of working on The North Carolina Potters Conference I was most impressed by a slide presentation done by Clara Couch, know to her friends as Kitty.
Kitty put in her slides, turned off the lights, turned on a tape of some sweet music and carefully went through all her slide, without saying a word. The room was completely quiet of talk and I was mesmerized. When it was over the lights came on, she stopped the music and stood up and said thank you.
Lord, it was so sweet and well done it still pulls at my emotions.
Kitty is no longer with us and I still miss her energy and those beautiful forms.
I think of her often she was so unpretentious.
I have tried to keep that in the back of my head and remember to let the pots and the makers have their own voice.



I just have to share this because even in my loopy state I find this funny- well even if I was not loopy, I should say.
Written on the back of a post card announcing the opening of a play:
"......already sold out, and once word gets around about this delightful romp,seats will be in short supply."

Come again?
what do you mean by that.
Does this mean they will start doubling up and we can sit in each others lap?
If so I will wait I would much rather have a top seat.

With that said I am off, yes I am, to make myself useful.
Mark, meanwhile, bless his pea picking heart, is picking up my "slack".

He cleaned and froze blueberries, made tomato sauce and is doing all the dish washing and picking up that I can't do. You know the drill- you drop every thing when it is not in your power to bend over. And when you do you just stare at it as if you could levitate it off the floor.
Plus, making sure I am okay.
Good man that one is.
Cheers and Peace-
M

there are good things about july-

and there are still more...........

North Carolina Pottery

Living and spending all my youth in Seagrove has had some effect on how I view pottery. How could it not.
My early years were shaped by the potters who made pots back in the late 50's and early 60's.
These were my grandparents friends and relatives.
Me, the city kid, and a bit prissy, did not know how much I would absorb from these folks.
I mean, to me, they were first off old.
Not so old now that I am heading down that path.
And second off pottery was, you know, messy.
I told you I was prissy, but give me a break I was a city kid and about seven when I really started this adventure.
When I would visit with the grandparents we spent time with Dot and Walter Auman and Phil and Nell Cole graves.
We also spent time at their pottery shops, which ran like well oiled machines.
There was a job for every step and a person for every job.
If you were the "turner" there was a ball person for you.
You stood at the wheel making pots, while someone else, using a list, made up all the balls of clay you would need for the day.
( how would you like that time saver?)
There was someone else to take off what you have made and fix the pots and put on handles.
(another time saver!)
Someone else did the glazing, no thought process for you.
Someone else loaded and fired the kilns.
And, pots were then unloaded by a crew for the show room.
There was a division of labor.
This was as close to factory as you could get for a handmade item.
Not like most of of today.
Dot would call us "studio potters."
Her explanation to me was, " you do it all, you do every step of the process, not letting go of the object until it is up for sale."
I sometimes think of those well oiled machines of the past and think they had some real in site into how much work it took to get it from the very first step, mixing the clay, to the last step, for someone to buy and enjoy.
And yet even with all this knowledge I took the step to be a studio potter.
I still like to make my own, glaze it and look at the final work and know it is mine or Mark's.
Yes we do have some help now and again, but I can still pick out my work or his.
For the good and the bad.
I have an older brother who also traveled this path with me.
( well there are 5 of us and we are all pottery lovers.)
He has been collected pottery over the years while I went on to be the potter.
He has written some ace articles on NC pottery on his blog Backcounty Notes.
He just posted up a new post on one of my favorite shapes, North Carolina Jugs.
Give it a read and poke through his other articles on pottery I think you will enjoy them.
Cheers!
M