Seagrove Potters 14th Annual Celebration of Spring Pottery Tour

 Seagrove Potters 14th Annual Celebration of Spring Pottery Tour

Spring Kiln Openings: April 22-24, 2022.

 Visit studios, meet potters, and expand your pottery collection.

 Online shopping will be available with some studios, as well.

 The Celebration of Spring Pottery Tour takes place on the weekend of April 22, 23 and 24, 2022, from 10 am to 5 pm.

February 2022

 It's February!

January was filled with much snow and difficult situations that we will just chalk up to Mercury.  One step forward 3 steps back. Mak and I are now working on our own parts of filling kilns. He is on the wheel while I am glazing tiles.

There is a lot of time to think while one is glazing.

Maybe too much time. These pasts few years have us all in a place where we are evaluating what is important to us. Silly us we had plans to travel. Now, who knows? We still find ways to get away it just doesn't include planes and rental cars, at least not right now. Maybe later in this year. One can hope.

We are still open by appointment only for now, mask required. You can reach us through email or call. If you call, leave a message and we will call you back as long as you don't want to sell us anything. 

Stay safe and warm,

M

New Address for Whynot Pottery

We had an address change in case you use maps to find us.
Whynot Pottery & Acacia Art Tile
1015 Fork Creek Mill Road
Seagrove NC 27341
336-873-9276
Whynotpottery.com

Jars and things

 Here we are it's November and I can hardly believe all that has happened this year.
Instead of talking about all the things that have happened I will just tell you that we are open by appointment these days.
Call us, email or even call us from the end of the driveway and, if no one is here we are happy to have you come down.
Calling the day or night before is really great, but we understand that time does get away.
Meanwhile, mask, hand wash and be oh, so safe.

Ms. B at her best 

Really sweet

I'm a little fancy

This one was all kinds of toasty goodness 

sometimes there are things you want to keep

Full moon

 I did tried to get a picture of the moonset the other morning and as you can see I need to work more with my camera on settings.
The bottom picture is the moon sign for all digital transactions. We use Square these days and I have found most people sign just like the picture below. I might need to borrow that signature, I think it could work for me.
PS- we do like square it has been great for us.

Shoofly Pie from, The Doubleday Cookbook

I recipe of a good flaky Pie crust

Filling:
2/3 cup of boiling water
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup of molasses ( I use grandma's brand)

Crumb topping:
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/4th tsp. salt
3/4 cup of firmly packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup butter

Preheat oven to 350
Prepare or buy a ready made 9"pie crust.
Make sure this is deep dish, you will need it.
Do not bake crust.
Make crumb topping.
Sprinkle 1/3 in bottom of pie crust.
Make filling, I know looks weird as heck, but trust me it is fine, and pour directly on top of crumb mixture.
Cover with remaining crumb mixture and bake on center rack for 35-40 minutes.

I usually place this on a pizza or small cookie sheet in case of some overflow.
Cool and serve slightly warm unless you are Mark who prefers this cold the next day with coffee.
This is a pie you either love or hate.
Enjoy!
M

we are still here!

More when I get a minute!

Show & Bread

I am in a show in Greensboro NC, being held at Greenhill in the downtown area.

For information and times, here is a click

If you are in the area, stop in and see it.

Thanks!

A new bread recipe that we tried this week.

Dried Fruit Bread

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

 1 tsp. salt

2 tsp. Cinnamon

2 ¼ tsp yeast

1 1/4 cup warm water

1/4 cup butter, melted

1 egg

1/2 cup Bread flour & 1/2 cup Whole Wheat set aside

1 cup mixed dried fruit, raisins, cranberries, Apricots

Grease and flour, or use spray, one bread loaf pan.

Place the 2 cups of all-purpose flour in a bowl with sugar, salt, cinnamon and yeast.

Place the salt on one side of your bowl and your yeast on the other.

Mix well and add in warm water, beat well, add in egg, beat, drizzle in cooled butter, beat well.

Stir in the ½ cup Bread flour & ½ cup Whole Wheat, add and stir in fruit.

Pour this into bread pan, use flour on your hand to pat into pan, will be sticky.

Cover loosely with a plastic bag, let rise 1 hour

Before hour is up preheat oven to 375, you can preheat to 400 but be sure to turn down the heat to 375 when you place bread in the oven

Bake 40-45 minutes

I have been playing with bread, we like this one for breakfast.

Toast, butter, eat

Working in the cold

It's cold and there is no good way to get the studio completely warm.
We can get it warm enough, just enough.
When we rebuilt the studio we did not plan well enough on the heat for the rooms.
The large room we work mainly in has a wall space heater that has a hard time keeping the room as warm as we like. The best way to help is to layer up.

We don't usually have weather that is this cold for long periods of a time so there are other tricks that we need to use to make sure that pots don't dry too fast. It is not beneficial to have pots that are too dry to trim or handle.
There are always plenty of tasks that need taking care of to set aside January as a month to clean, prep, work on the house, go take a lunch. There are many times that getting away can be hard for us to do. Making January a good time to take some much needed mental health days.
Usually we like a walk in the woods, a road less traveled, but this weather is making those walks not the top on my list.
I had hope that I could walk daily this month, I am off my mark.
I have never been a mall walker but I just might become one if the weather stays around.

These crocks are a customer favorite for the kitchen, they get filled with all those cooking spoons, whisks, and such that you need close at hand for cooking.
I have two in my kitchen, one this size and one smaller one.
They are simple, straight sided, not too fancy, just full of use.
I can't imagine not having one close at hand.

Do you have some favorite items in your kitchen.
( I am trying to distract myself from the cold)
m

The Spring kiln Opening

 It was a beautiful day for a kiln opening last Saturday. We had a steady flow of customers all day and finally closed just after 5 pm. It felt like the weekends we use to have and we had a great time visiting with, talking with and sharing what we do with old and new customers.
Sunday was a wash out, it rained and that seem to put a bit of dampness on the day.
Yesterday we took the day off, it was much needed.

The spring flowers showed off for us and, as usual, I shared a few sedum with fellow gardeners. I am not a great gardener and less so these days due to the fact that the grass takes over and lately I just let it.

 I have become more fond of the flowers that come back on their own, finding cracks here or there, taking advantage of an empty space to toss me some unexpected flowers or lemon balm.
I would love to have some tomatoes show up somewhere.

Below is a picture from the shop back wall. I really enjoy using this piece to show pottery on. I wanted to use it in the house and just could not find a good place for it.

 My tools that I pack for the day I teach, pretty slack but it works.This is my my lazy potter's tip. I tried for awhile not taking any tools at all. I would grab a few from our tools at school, just enough to demo a pot here or there but I found I missed some of my ribs. And, my sponges on a stick.
We have put some wheels up off the floor which I like better for demo since I throw pots standing up.
Mark has headed out to the studio, I had better show up soon.
Stay safe the water out there could be dangerous.
It's wet.
M

We are working

 We are working on a wholesale order this month and it is all in the iron red glaze. We feel lucky that it is in a glaze that Ms. B seems to like.

The iron red has stayed, but we are changing up the wood ash for one that works in Ms. B. We both would prefer to work with the old wood ash glaze but it is not as happy in this kiln- things need to be worked out and we may do that as time allows.

I hope you are all having a great start to our new year. We had the most wonderful weather this past weekend and I made sure to go walk over at the NC Zoo.
It has paid  to have a membership for us, and, if I want to walk alone, it is a safe place to be. Also, what a great place to people watch while I shake off the winter blues.
I am a fan of the two legged critters as well as the four. I am that person who tries to nod and say hello to everyone.

Be safe, be happy.
M

Just the other

 day I walked in our small gallery and took some quick pictures of the inside.
This is our insides.
I posted this on FB along with a couple of more pictures of the inside and it just took off. We had over 60 shares on the pictures. It takes me by surprise what will take off and what will just sit there and not even get a second look.
It is all a puzzle to me this media/internet/marking/tools that we need to use these days to get our work out and noticed.

How's that working for us?
Good question.
I am not sure it is.

 I posted this one cut down to take out the family pictures.
It was a post called  shared space.
It did get some nice buzz, but not 60 shares.
This is where I look in the mornings as I am having my cup of coffee. It makes me think of those spaces in our houses that make us happy.
There is a vase out of the last kiln filled with flowers that were given to me a few years back out of my sister's garden. Hers are pink, mine come up white with a bit of pink. There is a small jug from Hannah from the visit she made to the sates. A few wee jugs from the Sandford Coles, a miniature scene of a kitchen and one of Tracey's houses.
Behind that is a floor cloth made by my sister Lee.
Happiness comes in many forms.

   To the right---I posted this on the same group that made the 60 shares  and before it went up I thought I hate all those price stickers. My next thought was let  it go. We forget how important it is to let people know our work is for sale.

What's up on the school front?
Let's just say all things come to an end.
I will be filling in some classes but do not have a class of my own.
It has been an interested time for me. I am still trying to digest it all.
I am giving the words, if not this, something else, a try.
Let's see what that does for me.

These guys come back every year. I always love to see them come up.
Spring is amazing.

Let's keep in touch. I hope that for some of us the written thought will still be important.
Cheers!
M

I think those cows

 are giving me the stink eye.
As most of you know the pottery is at the end of a long driveway on what was my grandparents farm. My grandfather raised cows. We grandchildren helped every summer with the chores on the farm. One of those chores was to help keep the cows in the fence while he was working on the fences. I can clearly remember a tap on the bottom of my foot, my grandfather standing there, a quick nod as he pushed back his hat and said, " The cows are out".
I was up and ready to go.
Our job was to just stand there with our arms out and if the cows had any notion to go through the fence we just walked toward them.
His expatiation  was they were more afraid of us than we were of them.
I believed him.

I trusted that he was right. I never thought that he was wrong, nor did I worry about those pounds of cows coming after or trampling me. Trust, total  trust.

We don't raise these cows, but I see them everyday as we drive or walk around the farm. The young farmer who does raise them spends the same amount of time with them as my grandfather use to with his.
I walked up one day as he was talking to the cows, his voice rich and low. Animals can be so tuned into a person that cares and feeds them. The relationship between them and their care giver is much like kids.  He laughed when he saw me, slightly embarrassed at being caught talking to the cows. I laughed and told him I expected  no less. Trust.

 This past month we have been given the gift of some beautiful fall weather.  I'll take every minute of it.

Next Tuesday is the last day of the semester.
I am planning to get some of my own work done in the off days.
Christmas is coming.
Are you ready?
We are not.
I figure I have a few days next week to get ready.
 Cheers!
M

Hops and Pots

 The last two weeks for me have been the rush of getting things done before I have to pack myself off to the school. I could feel the breath of the dragons breathing down my neck as I worked on tiles last week. I finally loaded my kiln on Sunday and fired Monday. Whew, one thing done.
 Monday I figured out that I still know how to toss clay at a wheel and get it to turn into something.
There is the familiarity of working in my own space. My wheel, my tools, mine, mine, mine. It's like being two. This is all mine and I am not sharing with anyone.

It felt so good to just be here and work.
 I have been thinking about out how to be here and be back at the school. Maybe I can take long breaks.....    be right back......

 Mark took a break to go and strip off the hops from his vines.
Hop on Pop.

They look great. He is mulling over how best to use them in his beer making. I'll be interested to see what unfolds. He has been making some really good beer over the last few years.
Thanks Joel for leading him back to something he really enjoys doing.

I am throwing some of those production pots. I was very aware of how much more it takes to fill the kiln when I am not throwing here as much as I use to. Mark is doing the largest share of filling the kiln. I need to figure out how I can use my days off from the school best to get my share done.
Fall is in the air.
Better get cracking on the pots for gift season.

 I counted that it took me 33 tiles to fill my kiln.
That too is something to work out.
nothing is easy or quick here.

This time I am making some details notes. I forget some of the things I have done between loads. It occurs to me that not only do I need to write down what works, but I need to read what I write as well.

They are all waiting for the last step before heading over for sale.

Hope you are happy and well.
I have to get back over to the studio.
Cheers!

No, it's not you.

It's me.

Mark and I loaded the kiln and fired this past week and then we made a decision that we would take a mental vacation.
There are so many things that pull us right back to the studio that there are times that I feel we have to put breathing on our list of things to do.

Instead we decided that we would do some much needed things that we all find mundane.
First on the list was a house cleaning.
I know- yawn, but it was clean the house on just give in and let the spiders take over.

Second was bookwork.
Yawn.... double yawn.
But- if these are in order it will make my life easier at tax time.

Third- lunch with Tracey!
No yawns, we had a blast seeing each other and gabbing away and eating at the new eatery in Asheboro that could become my second home.

Now if you have stayed with me here are the pictures of the kiln.

back

middle

front

Jars, Meredith

a favorite jar....

Picture with a fancy a** handle

I want to thank the many folks that tell me they still come here to read and look at our work.
We will be back to the wheels next week, but not before Mark and our son have taken many of the fish out of the pond today.

Teach a boy to fish and he will come home and take you with him.

M

Seeing Red

Last night Mark and I went up to the North Carolina Pottery Center to the opening of the latest exhibition.

  Big Red
 Chrome Red and other Red Glazes of the North Carolina Piedmont.
May 10-July27 2013

Worth the trip.
You, who are close enough to come, should go see this show, it is spectacular.

Here are some reasons for you to go:

There is more.
Get in the car and go.
Admission is a small 2.00 per person, less than it will cost you for a coffee on your way out of the city.
That 2.00 will buy you some time with some great pots, and after you see the pots, please go out and support some of the local potters.

We also went to see the Show at the NC Museum of History in Raleigh.
Art In Clay
Masterworks of North Carolina Earthenware
I would show you pictures but, picture taking was not allowed.
Admission on this one was 5.00 each, we took our son with us, down from 10.00 each.
I liked this show but I am really sad that I could not share any pictures with you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMjg7qUgfXg

There are a variety of videos on youtube you can find.
If you are interested go take a free look.
Cheers,
Meredith