A cup

For sipping, for wine, for libations, for water, for juice, for the bathroom, for the kitchen, for the table.

Small, but mighty.

Listing pots

The moon came out last night with a sky full of stars, if you get some time in the evening go out and spend a few minutes standing under the universe, we are not alone.
Stand with the many folks working hard to get us all through this.
Be safe.

Here comes winter and her wily ways

 It looks as if we will have some winter later today after the best fall filled with many warm days and good colors. The leaves are mostly gone with the exception of the oaks that are holding tight to their brown leaves. 
I get some calls this time of year for gifts to be shipped out.
In the days of internet shopping Mark and I talk more and more about having an on line store. It has been a stone around our neck for many years. I am not sure I want to spend the time on it and yet there may be no way out.
I always think if we picked just 10 items that we could post over and over maybe that would be the way to go.
I think that people are missing out on an adventure by not going out to explore the local artist. It is a different experience altogether. You use to get here on a wing and a pray, but now we can all be easily found on goggle maps. You just plug us in and go.

 So, while I was taking some pictures I just stood in our shop and took some pictures of the pottery we have in stock.
Need a mug?
 We have many.
Need a pitcher?
We can hook you up.
Bowls, now, who does not need a bowl?
 

 We also carry some local soap made by our friend Laurie.
At the end of this month we will slow our hours and start working on items for next year.
I wonder if there is anything new and different that will come up?
Except bacon cookers- no, I am not making those, ever.

Bundle up, put on the coffee it might be a good weekend to hibernate.
Or, if you are in the adventure mood, come on out.
M

This

 I am not sure how I should title this post.
A man and his kiln.
Changes.
New beginnings.

We are letting go of our large kiln that we built in 1986. We fired many good pots, and many questionable pots in this kiln. It was designed by Mark and built with my help. We used soft brick and dry stacked it, cutting the soft brick as needed to make it fit. We talked about the dry stacking as opposed to the method of mortar. We had seen how difficult it was to take apart a kiln with mortar, our decision was to dry stack in case we needed to take it down or rebuild it. Our thoughts when we built Ms. B was to rebuild this one as a smaller kiln.
Then life changed a bit for us, we found we like working in a smaller kiln, and, I am making more and more tile.
The last time we fired this kiln was January 2016.
Mark told me one day that he was ready to let it go and let it go while the brick could still be used.
We sold the brick and we sold it for a song.
I am sure people will think we were crazy, but behind crazy you can find reason.

 We had our reasons.
We wanted to find someone who would be dedicated to removing the brick from the kiln, and putting that brick back to use, building a new kiln, youth, we were looking for youth, and they found us.
A young couple are in the process of removing the brick and taking it home with them to now plan a new wood fired kiln. They were planning a small kiln, this is going to allow them to build a larger kiln.
There are times in your life that you are helped, we were, and we know it. We built this kiln with help from my parents. Back in the day getting a loan for an art based business was difficult to say the least. They co-signed for us. This was a big investment for us. 5,000.00 . But, if you take that and divide it over 30 years that is 166.67 per year or closer to 200.00 if we are thinking of interest. What we did was pay this off as quick as possible.
As we watched the bricks being stacked in the back of trailers and pickup trucks it is bittersweet.

the patenia of many years of shoes with the local red dirt.

 With bitter is the sweetness of knowing this will be a start for a young potter. It is not always about the dollars, yes, we could have asked more money for the brick, but why? I think we all got what we needed. We are pretty happy watching it go away. We are not leaving it to Rot away and maybe have no use later. Over the past few years I have watched people hang on to things that they think are important. My thoughts is it has no life unless you give it such.
This kiln will have a new life.
 We have new space.
What's next?
Not sure
Stay tune.
M

Look at the marks the burners made, arches.