Pinch, Pulled and stretched

Pinch, Pulled and stretched 3 days, 200 plus students and 600 pounds of clay

At the end of yesterday I looked at the Pottery teacher for Greensboro Day, Mr. Burroughs, and said, “Uncle.”
He chuckled and raised an eyebrow, “you have had enough?”
Yes, I thought, I have.
Teachers are special people.
Mark and I both come from teachers, my son married a teacher some of my best friends are teachers.
You have to have the right attitude to go in day and after day and teach.
I always come back with great admiration for and a whole bunch of respect for teachers after spending a few days at a school.
I always like the fact that I can go taste this profession, if only for a little while.
I know I am not cut out for teaching.
I enjoy my fast hit and then I am ready to head back home to the farm and our studio.

At the end of yesterday Mr. Burroughs figured we had been through 600 pounds of clay.
That is a whole lot of clay for mug making.
But with some “do overs” and handles, adding designs the clay was, should we say, rolling in the studio.
We finished up at the end of the day after much excitement since
A TV crew came in to film the students while they were finishing up their mugs.
They did a nice segment on how the kids were working to donate the proceeds of their cups to “Three cups of Tea.”
Mark and I managed to stay well out of the way of the camera so the would get great pictures of the kids.
All-in all- it was three days well spent.

The weather here is warming up.
The ice on the pond has started to thaw out and maybe some of the wildlife will come back.
We have not seen much this winter.
With our pond frozen it makes it a bit hard for them to hunt.

I am wrapping up the Clay and Blogs: Telling a Story show with what I think is the last name in the data base.
Check the side bar for a good list of who will be there.
We have 48 potters who will participate.
We are also working on having at least one work per potter online for sale through the gallery.
The online sale will open on October 3rd.
I’ll post up a link when we have that all pulled together.
I must say we are all excited and now the real work begins.
It is time to get back to my wheel.
I am getting there- but I have to go have a wee little surgery on a molar which has gone south on me.
Bleck!
Nothing like January for a Root Canal.
Sigh,
M

Potters For Peace and giving

Today, with the money collected from the vessels Mark and I both made and sold, we will be able to give the CAI a check for $550.00.

I plan to get that right to Beth Gore at Cady ClayWorks.
My hats off to Beth for pulling this all together.
We meet some great folks who came out for the vessels on Saturday.
By noon- we had to tell folks we were sold out.

A lot of the folks who came out wanted to stay and chat a bit, about the book, how it had touched them and how important it was to do things such as this.
They wanted us to know how touched they were by the giving from the potters.

Potters are giving folks.
I know that this was the weekend a fund raiser was going on for Liz Zlot Summerfield up at Penland.
Liz, a potter has cancer, the potters up in the mountains rallied behind Liz and her family by putting together an auction to raise money for medical bills.
You can still donate money to the family through Michael Kline's Bolg.

I know we can not always give to everything that comes along, but I do feel for the most part, we all do what we can to help.

So hats off to the potters up in the mountains and best wishes to Liz and her family during this time.

A good week

This has been one of those weeks.
It started out with a visit with a
friend who has been gone from Seagrove for about 12 years.
She has gone on to go to school, go to China and is now teaching art.
Good to see you Anna and catch up on your great life!






We are busy getting ready for the fall trade, we hope!
I had to post these Candle sticks. They are for my mother-in law's church. We started this order the night of the fire. Mark had made the vases and some candlesticks last thing of the day and they were lost in the fire.
Mark then threw two candle sticks months ago which were lost in the bisque.
These are his recent attempts to finish the order.
I think they might work and they go well with the vases, which are finished and sent on to the church.
These are a combination of thrown and extruded.

Fingers crossed, it would be good to have these finished and I know the church will be happy to have them.

Tonight there is an opening for the current show at the NCPC.

I have made some Pesto Cheesecake for the reception.
And tomorrow we have our Potters for Peace sale- all in all a busy week.


Then there was the butterfly, who came out on Wednesday.
I think it was just out. It's wings were folded up tight.
It took a few hours before she started to move around and I was there showing her to Anna, her kids and sister from Starworks when she took off and flew.

It was magical.

Seagrove Potters for Peace build schools half a world away

Seagrove Potters for Peace build schools half a world away
Thursday, August 13, 2009
By Jeri Rowe Staff Writer
Accompanying Photos

Jerry Wolford (News & Record)
Photo Caption: A cup with a peace logo by Michael Mahan of From the Ground Up pottery and a cup with Potters for Peace text by Whynot Pottery.
Related Links
Audio: Interview with Greg Mortenson

SEAGROVE — On Saturday, in this stretch of Randolph County where the corn grows tall, 13 potters will start selling 200 mugs, tumblers and tea cups and donate everything they make to a man some call America’s Mother Teresa.
And it’s not just any mug, or any tumbler. Turn it over or look inside. You’ll see the familiar three-fingered symbol, or the phrase that says everything, “Seagrove Potters For Peace.’’
Potters need it.

Talk to them about last year’s so-called “war,’’ and they still sound wounded over the public spat about two festivals that ultimately boiled down to the pottery community’s artistic vision. Now, they say it’s over. It was just a small town disagreement blown out of proportion, big city big.
Still, it seems regrettable. Things got so emotional, rife with rumor and accusations, that it felt odd it even took place in this beautiful rolling landscape made famous by clay.

Yet, by coincidence, potter Beth Gore finished Greg Mortenson’s book “Three Cups of Tea’’ in March and said to herself, “Here is someone doing something I have always been talking about.’’

Mortenson’s 2006 book explains why he started building schools 16 years ago in Pakistan and Afghanistan after nearly dying climbing one of the world’s tallest peaks.
Since then, with the help of the nonprofit he created, Central Asia Institute, he has completed nearly 180 schools on the other side of the world where danger and violence reign.
His idea: Education can trump religious extremism in our war-on-terror world.
But Gore didn’t want to send a check. She wanted to enlist her talent. Create a mug — the most iconic piece of a potter’s art — involve other potters and raise money so Mortenson can build schools and promote peace.

That simple idea has taken off.
And now, thanks to the blog-friendly world of Seagrove, potters as far away as California and Utah have read about the idea and are thinking about doing the very same thing.

“It’s a nice contrast to the ridiculous 'Pottery Wars,’ ’’ says Gore, 54, a Seagrove potter for 22 years.
“I thought, 'Let’s do something positive. Let’s work for peace. Let’s make a little change in our corner of the world.’ ’’

In two weeks, Greensboro’s Canterbury School will begin its third year of raising money for the Central Asia Institute. So far, the school has raised nearly $32,000 — enough to build and support one school for five years.

It started with Elaine Hoover’s fourth-graders collecting pennies and selling lemonade.
In April, when Mortenson came to Canterbury for two days, all you had to do was talk to a few students and they’d tell you quickly what they’ve come to believe: Little people coming together can make a big change.
And maybe, talent — and a little collaboration — can, too.

Take 19-year-old Bayley Owen, the seventh generation of her potter family. She made cups for Saturday’s big sale because she sees the idea as “really cool.’’

Then, there’s Mark and Meredith Heywood, husband and wife potters who run Whynot Pottery. They’ve made mugs and tumblers, too. But for a different reason.
In July 2008, they lost their pottery studio. A lightning strike started a fire and caused $60,000 in damage.
The morning after the fire, people started to come. They wrote checks, brought food and donated studio space so the couple could continue their work. But mostly, they came over to listen. So, when Gore approached the Heywoods, Meredith told her husband: “We have to do this.’’
“Every act of kindness brings out another act of kindness,’’ Meredith, 56, says today. “It’s like a snowball.’’

A snowball the original Mother Teresa would understand.

“What we are trying to do may be just a drop in the ocean,’’ she once said. “But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.’’

Mortenson loves that quote. It seems Seagrove potters do, too.
Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com

"Three Cups of Tea"; Seagrove Potters for Peace.

As promised here are pictures of the cups which will be for sale starting Saturday the 15th of August.
Items will be available exclusively at the shops until August 24, when any remaining vessels can be ordered by email or telephone.





These are juice, wine, tea cups by Mark
we plan to sell them in sets of 2.








These tumbler size cups are by me, Meredith, and will also be sold in sets of two.
All cups are signed on the bottom with Seagrove Potters for Peace.
Mark used SPFP since his cups were smaller.
A peace sign is drawn on each and is stamped with our logo stamp.
I added MH to mine.


The proceeds from the sales will be donated to
CAI.

Mortenson, through his Central Asia Institute (CAI), has built hundreds of schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, where illiterate and impoverished children are prey to recruitment by terrorist organizations.
Mortenson, who many believe will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, will be the NC State Convocation speaker on August 17.