Time to take the dip in the deep end!

Monday just came and went and Tuesday seems to have follow close behind.
The plan was to get ourselves ready for our Spring Kiln opening and then jump right into the tile backsplash.
Well there is still some prep to be done.
First off we needed a sheet of plywood to work off of.
Mark picked that up on Monday and just to keep the surface nice to roll out the drawing on he sanded and put a coat of poly on it.
Today we brought it in the dinning room to set everything up.
We learned  this trick from Laura over the weekend - put the legs of the table in plastic pipes to raise th table up.
Mark bought some plastic pipes for the 8 foot plastic table and we were able to raise the table up to a good height for me to work from it by either standing or sitting on a tall stool. I can also walk around the whole area.
Don't plan on eating in here the next few weeks.....
.

I spent part of the day coloring parts of the background and removing some of the roots.
Lee and I looked over the drawing this weekend and found it still a bit too busy for the deep carving I plan to do for the tiles.
I also took down the size of the spots on the giraffe since they were a bit large.
It will give me more room for glaze between the spots.
Now that Lee has carved and glazed several of her own tiles she has a better understanding of the process.
Its like undercover boss!
I plan to start on one side and do the transfer over to clay in sections.
I worked on the right side today and have the first section ready for clay.
Fortunately the call that our clay is ready came today!
tomorrow we will pick up the clay and from then on- the real work begins.
Here I go!

Asheville and Penland with a few waterfalls thrown in.

Mark and I headed to Asheville for a much needed break.
Our first stop was to see Brain and Gail McCarthy of Highwater Clays in Asheville.
several years ago, about 6, Gail bought a house which was falling down and full of critters of all kinds.
Through a lot of pure will and determination Gail turned the house into a sweet B&B.
We stayed on the first floor in the Potters room.
The whole house is full of potters works and it was a pleasure to see the pots and a great place to base while we took in Asheville and took a day off to see waterfalls.
We had a great lunch with Brian and Gail at the Clingman's Cafe when we first got into town which is just down at the end of the block from Odyssey.
Great food, simple, but very good!

That evening we meet with Brian over at the Wedge for beers.
The Wedge is a brew pub across the street from Odyssey off Clingman Drive.
You can grab a beer and a bowl of peanuts and sit outside among the steel art.


Since the last time we were in Asheville the area called River Arts District has turned into a large art community with the area full of studios of all types. There is just about anything you would like to see there and the studio's seem to be open at all hours.
The Wedge is a great place to for the artist to take a break, grab a beer and just wind down at the end of the day.
While we were sitting talking and having a beer Michael Sherrill walked over to say hello.
He was in Asheville picking up some supplies with his youngest child and stopped in at the Wedge.
A dinner at Salsas Downtown and we were ready to call it a day and get up early for waterfalls.


Tomorrow- Waterfalls and backroads.