Yes

 Yes, we are open.
I might be working 3 days a week teaching, but that means Mark is here, working and open.

Are we always open on Mondays?
No, there are times that we close on a Monday, call or email ahead.

 Will you be open this past weekend?
Yes, we are open weekends.
This weekend we will open at 9 close at 5.
Sundays, call or email.


Are there times that you have to be closed?
Yes, we are like all people. We have families and that means that there are times that we need to go for many reasons.

Again, call or email if you want to be sure we are here.

Do we have any of Laurie Abela's soaps in stock?
Yes, we do.
We love her soaps and if you have used them you will love them as well.

We have plenty of stock in the gallery and more set aside.
Custom orders.
Talk to us, we can work with you on many items.

We hope to see you out and about.
Come on by.

 We would love to see you.

You did see my post about Spring break?

 If you did you know that rather than going to the beach, mountains or jetting away to Spain, I was here working on glazing for the gas kiln.

We loaded on Easter Sunday.
Because, when you work for your self, that is what you do. We had just seen our kids and family making the pain of working a little easier.

No ham, no deviled eggs, no pie.
Just work.
Mark fired while I went to work on Monday.
The drive over this time of year is really a treat with all the trees blooming. Every turn brings something new.

The last few weeks there has been a turkey  hanging out in one of the wooded areas I pass. last Monday I thought he must have become food for a fox since I did not see him anywhere. Then Tuesday and Wednesday there he was.

 We were pleased with the firing.
Mostly good.

A few okays.

A few hammer worthy.

I was very happy with this wall pillow that I made. I spent way too much time carving on it and then when it came time for glaze I went for a solid color.
 I really like it.
I know, I am in trouble when I really like something fresh out of the kiln. That can mean all kinds of excuses why

 I need to hold onto that piece.

Of course, the other issue is how to price. There are things that we make that you just have to blow it to the wind. You can never recover the amount of time you put in the piece.

 At some point you need to let it go.

I also have a weak spot for this tile that came out of the gas kiln. I usually make and fire them in the electric kiln. This time I had an order for some that needed to go in the gas kiln. I made this one to use up some of the clay and it came out very well.

I am happy with it as well.
There again is the issue of letting it go.

I know I like it and maybe someone else will like it as well.

Work is calling.
There are many things left to do before Monday calls me back to work.

Simmering Sunday

Today is one of those low boil Sundays in July.
The humidity is around 98% and makes it feel much like a thick soup out there.
Sitting in the basement with a fan blowing is much cooler then the realities of being outside.
Today we started the day by doing the yard work that we have had to put off for weeks.
It is a good thing we are the neighborhood association around here.
Otherwise the vote would be to bring us up on charges or someone might have thought we moved because of all the ground cover around the house.

Yard mowed I moved back to finishing up the pots that came out of the electric kiln.
I enjoyed this new flower and using some blue along with the red flowers I have been doing.
I take notes after each firing and then I find myself not reading them until I unload the kiln.
It seems to me notes should be read before you glaze not after.
Maybe I will make myself a note on that .....

I feel a bit like Jeckle and Hyde with my work as I bounce back and forth  from the wheel to the slab roller. After I glaze I think I am right back to the wheel and then when I unload the electric kiln I think I might want to glaze some more tiles first.
But the wheel calls and I will get back to these.

The close forms are easy to get ready to hand as I made either feet or key holes on their backsides and they will just hang on a nail or screw.

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But I have been playing with these wall pockets that I made on how and what I want to use to hang them with.
I am bouncing around on materials and have tries several things before it was time to give it a break.

So how is your simmering summer going or are you in full winter yet?
Hot here cold there?
Cheers!
M

Hush now and just do it

When I am glazing for the electric kiln I have to remind myself that there is nothing quick about what we do.
If we want to get the results we are after we have to put some time in.
I keep thinking about a different way to do these layers of glaze but then i keep coming back to the buts..
But- if I do that then I don't get the background color I want
But I don't want to do just slips and a clear glaze.
But I don't want to do multiple firings.
But if you would be quiet we could just get this done.
BUT, BUT, But......

I first started playing with glazes and wax when we were just starting.
I was using thrown vases back then rather than tiles and pillow vases and hand built vases.
And I was trying to wax with hot wax... oh, now talk about making yourself crazy.....
The designs were much tighter and some worked and some did not.
I would put tons of work in them to have people ask- will you take 20 bucks for it....
No, no,no.....
I finally set that part of my brain away and just made pots.

After the studio fire of 2008, 3 years this week, but that's another story.
My mind wandered back to things I wanted to do but never took the time to do.
So I keep telling myself this is something you want to do.
So get with it and when it is done you will be happy for the time being until that part of your brain says, Yea, but what if we do....

I am picking berries like a crazed women.
So I am out early to get some more.

Then I am freezing to make jams and jellieswhen I have time.
Time- just rolls off the tongue...time....what's that!?
Cheers!
M

The bigger the hole the more money you can pour into it.

If you are going to call a sewage guy he might as well have a sense of humor.
After all with what he deals with all day if you can't find something funny to say then life would really be down the toilet.
We have been having "water" issues for a while.
Longer then we would like to admit and weeks where we just hoped it would flow away.
But finally we faced up to the real thing after replacing the toilet and finding out that was just a band aid to the real problem.
On Thursday these guys showed up and found the real problem.
There were broken tiles to a job done over 50 years ago.
Seems we drive right over the septic flow out area and sometimes, many times, I park there.
Also placing or I should say building a carport right in front of this area was maybe not the wisest thing to do.
But it was done and now repaired and believe me when I tell you I was so happy not to be a "helper" on this job.
And now- the toilet she flushes and you can take a shower.
These are all good things in my book and I plan to use them daily just to get my moneys worth!

This week I went straight to hand building instead of the wheel.
I am working on tiles, trays and pillow vases.
I have enjoyed a new design or two.
A Cone Flower

And these sunflowers.
I have done several of both of them.
I am trying to think in a straight line and not jump so much.
I am terrible to jump from one design to another and then wish I had just stuck close to one things and worked it out.

On another front we are trying to work out some pictures of things like lamps.
Mark makes a wide variety of accent, table, bedside and living room lamps.
It would be nice to show those on the blog or website.
I love handmade lamps and use them throughout the house.
There is nothing better for those spots that need a little light or for those spots that need a lot of light.
I just cringe when I see poorly made or mass produced lamps in a house that deserves better.
We were once asked to help spruce up an office area in Asheboro and I decided to go up and see what they needed.
I walked in and saw a 24.00 lamp from "the dime store" ( I know I am dated) I went home and picked a lamp and took it up to the office.
It made all the difference to the space.
So stay tune and maybe we can get some lamp pictures up.

Best get back to the end of the day and then maybe a beer would hit the spot.
Join me?
M

and in a flash!

I don't know how it was at your house yesterday but it hit 101 here.
And even with that heat the flashing was finished up on the kiln.
Looks pretty dog gone hot, does it not!??

We are not the only ones who have plans for this kiln.

We have some friends who are already filling it up!

I worked on some jars using the patterns I  "lifted"  from my night gown.

 I have done them on tiles and pillow pots in the past.
Now I find them coming out on small dishes and jars.
I wonder where they will show up next.
AND! the first set of  tiles for the back splash are through the bisque kiln.
What a load off to have some at this stage- more to go and more to come.
keep cool!

Glaze

January is zooming down the road for me. It was weeks back when I was glazing to make sure we had Allison's tiles out of the kiln. Her presentation for her Senior project was due on the 4th of January and that meant we had to fill up the rest of the electric kiln. We wanted to try the white cone 6 clay from Takuro over at Star. Mark and I both made tiles with the clay, and I wanted to use the same glazes I have been using on Red Stone to see how they reacted with the white clay body. Some of them I really liked. And others I like better on the Red Stone. I thought the red stone adds a warmth, which I am sure comes from the iron in the clay body. The small flat tiles are out of the clay from Star and the edge of one of the pillow pots is out of the red stone. I also put some thin black over the red glaze to warm it up. I like the greens in the background on the white clay but thought the red a little washed out looking. A few years back I was teaching over at the Community College in Troy NC. I was working with 11 students. I use the term lightly because the youngest was 19, but the majority were closer to my age. They were all taking a special studies semester. Some were concentrating on throwing, some on Raku ( Tracey would have been a great help! ) And I had one who wanted to learn about glaze. I spent time with each person and talked about what and how we would proceed through the semester. I had them write up what they wanted to accomplish. The women who wanted to learn about glazes came to ask if she could just tell me. I really wanted her to write it down and the she pulled me aside and told me that she spoke good English, but her writing would be in Korean. A bit of a snag since I did not read Korean. She then pulled out a few photos of her work and I found out she had a degree in Ceramics. Her work was wonderful, and I was ready to become her student. But she needed to know how to mix a glaze, this was the one thing she had not learned. She had brought along her books for us to use on glazes which I took one look at and closed. Here again was the problem the books were in Korean as well. Do you read English I asked? Yes, she said. Here is the way to the library go and check out as many books as you like on glazes and let's start there. She and I were able to find a good footing on glazes and throwing skills. And the benefit was there was another teacher teaching the afternoon class who was teaching just glazing. The one thing I kept telling the students was to find a clay body first and glazes second. Testing on one body will and can give you entirely different results. How are you going to fire I would ask them; will you be using the school body? If not bring in the body you will be using. Are you going to fire gas, electric, wood? Low fire- high fire. These are all things I wished were presented to me when I was a student. I know I came out of school with recipes and little knowledge on glazes. They are still a bit of a mystery to me at times. For the electric work and the tile project I decided I would use ready mix bought glazes. I just did not feel I had the time for all the testing along with everything else I had going on. I have found that I like some of these premixed glazes. They are formulated to brush on well and are for the most part very stable. I don't think I would ever do this with my gas kiln, but I like the ease of this for the tiles. There are whole palettes of colors out there and I have begun to realize it is what you do with them and sometimes it is okay to "cheat" a little.

Tiles and such

Tiles are in all stages of dry right now.
Allison's tiles are glazed and just waiting for Mark and me to finish up ours so we can fire.
I have done some of the pillow pots, from the nightgown series.
I was inspired by a nightgown which was hanging in my bathroom.
It is electric blue with these wild flowers all over it.
The flower got stuck in my head and needed to go somewhere.
They decided to come out on tiles and these pots to hang on the wall.
People keep asking what they are for.
I tell them just to look at- they have no use.
I think you need some pots that have no real purpose.
Just to add that splash to a room.
Mark had someone ask that other day and his response was, "to make you happy."
Nice- something to brighten the day.

While I am carving on my tiles Mark has picked up the brushes.
He had planned to carve the tiles below, but after laying down some red slip on the white clay body this is what came out.
How could you not like this?
It made me smile and think of how different we approach the tiles.
Me, I am all over them covering and carving.
I have plans for bright glaze.
Mark he takes his brush and with some well placed strokes......
Well- these tiles should make someone happy.


Allison's.......just waiting

I'll post some of the tiles finished but it is December.

Things move a lot slower here then other months.

A note on the white clay.

Linda Starr, the soon to be traveling potter, living in an RV and getting ready to hit the blue highways and visit potters all over the USA, asked about colors on the two clay bodies.

The glaze colors are completely different.

The iron in the red body adds color to the glazes, where the white body does not interfere with the true color of the glaze.

For different reasons I like both.

I will do some side by sides of the colors after I fire again.

I told you it's December- things slow to a crawl in December.

Visions of sugarplums and all that stuff.

Cheers!

Help- is there a photographer in the house- if so look away.

There I go with that fast finger-publishing before I speak.
Hey- that could be a good thing.

I am a point the camera and hope for the best person.
I don't take professional pictures.
I fumble around until I get something I can work with.

So bear with me.
The pictures are just a few of the pots out of the kiln.
I took more but they were not worth the time it would take to mess with them.
I truly am a candidate for a class.
But- below you will find a pillow pot for the wall glazed in my copper green with a blue wood ash accents on the flowers.
Below that two teapots.
If I can set up a few good shots I will post more.
And if not you will just have to come here to see the rest.
We had a good firing with lots of mugs, tumblers, cream and sugar sets, salt jars, cruets, bowls, vases, teapots and oil lamps.

We started tiles as soon as the kiln was out, sanded, price and up on the shelves for sale.
Mark has plans to tackle a few of these tiles as well.
I can't wait to see what he does with his.
I know what I am going to do with mine.

I also ran over for the open house at StarWorks and picked up samples of the cone 6 clays.
I plan to test those along with the tiles.
I hope I get some good results it would be great to use some local clay.

those pillow pots

I posted these up on facebook the other day.
So apologies if you have already seen them!

I was pleased with how they came out of the kiln.

I had one favorite, the red flowers with yellow background, which ran and stuck to the kiln shelf.
I like it well enough that I just might keep it for awhile.


I have it sitting with some pots and it will hang okay.

I used cone 6 glazes on these and fired to just below a true 6.

This is a highwater clay body, red stone. It does not like to fire all the way to 6 so I keep it around 2185degrees- this hit about 2195 degrees at the top and 2181 at the bottom.
I have some cone 6 glazes which prefer to get a little hotter or soak a bit more.

I might separate those glazes from the tiles and pillow pots. I ended up with several flat bowls and trays which I would like to refire.
This was also the first firing in the new fancy computer kiln.
We both thought it did pretty well for the first glaze fire.
And I know the pictures are not great- so more apologies!
I hope you don't go blind from looking!