Slow Sunday

We woke up this morning to a steady rain falling and realized that this is just what we needed to make us take a slow Sunday.
On slow Sundays you can stay in your PJs until 11, or after.
You can watch a movie at 10 am if you like.
Check a lovely bisque firing but keep your hands and thoughts out of working in the studio.
Eat a late lunch of a sandwich with some mouth watering home grown tomatoes.
 (dust a little and rearrange the living room, I know that's work, shhhhh.)
And, why not (yes, whynot) think about taking in a show in the late afternoon. (Taking in a show, who says that any more...)

 What a day in August this is.
This is like late September even the bugs are still in their PJ's.

Mark has been working on some vases for the next firing.
This is only one that I was able to get a shot of.
There are some others that are as nice if not nicer.

These are going to be stamped with Whynot Pottery, Whynot NC, 2012, 30Th year on the bottom since October will be our 30th year.
I know, hard to believe....

We did run away Friday night for the show at the NCPC and was able to see a few pots.
You know how shows go, walk a little, talk a little, walk a little talk a little....
I am going to go back and drag Tracey and Susan with me, and we are going to look at this show.

Don't you love the bell!??

There are two of these and I think I could slip out with them putting one under each arm if no one is looking.

I am adding some small project tiles to the Etsy shop.
I have many of these that I make and set aside for all those projects I want to do but lately I have been thinking that someone else might want to do their own project with tiles and I need to move some of these along.
If you are interested let me know.

Well, it is time to see about taking in that show.
Wanna' come?
You can but don't be too slow...
M

for Leslie- yes, we do blues....

Where is my camera?

You know I have gotten in the habit of carrying my camera with me every day until recently.
 I would just pick it up in the morning and carrying it along but for some reason I keep forgetting to pick it up. Where is my camera I would think?
 Oh, yeah, in the house or in the basement or in the pantry or in the kitchen. Anywhere but where I want it to be.
 So- when we loaded the kiln I did not get any pictures at all. This is not like me where is my brain? I really do like to take pictures when we load to go back and look through when we fire again. I feel it is really useful to see what was where and how well the glaze did or did not do in that spot. BUT- I seem to be falling out of the responsibility and being a bit lazy about it all. This will be the 6th (?) firing in the small kiln and we have been hitting some and hitting the wall with others.
Good, bad, good, bad, good, good, bad. Maybe I think too many pictures are going to just jinx everything. Maybe better to just wing this stuff...

While we were up in Virginia in May I spotted this display cabinet/nook in the spare bedroom at my mother's house. She had used it for her miniatures, but was not using it any more. Can I have it? She had picked it up at a yard sale for 5.00. I offered her 5.50-sold! (I think I still owe her some money.....)

 We wanted to put this on the outside of the shop but it was not going to hold up to the rain. It went up, it went down, it went up and it went down. Finally Mark made a place in the store for it. It is well suited for the store and I fine that something sells from it almost anytime there are customers.

I am glazing tiles..... I like this radish pattern and try to get it on a tile in some form every time I do a round.
It is just fun.
It says eat your veggies to me..

I have decided that the gourds are going to take over the garden completely.
I noticed a vine is working it's way towards the backdoor of the kitchen. I am wondering if we will wake to find the gourds crawling on the house trying to get inside like some alien from outer space.
Give us your young, we are hungry, we have already eaten your tomato plants, but we want more. 
I look everyday and there are more with more varieties showing up.
 

Here is the seed packet I have spotted several of these and there are many, many up high.
I am holding out hope that they do not eat my moon flowers that I put in. I see one good vine of the moon flower out growing the gourds.
GO!GO!GO! Run- I want blooms in September.

Tomorrow is a cool down day for the kiln.
Fingers crossed.
Maybe this firing will be in the good.
M

you know it's right and yet.....

We are not new to the game of pottery making down here in Whynot and, yet, we feel some days as if we are babes in the woods.
We have been at this just long enough to feel that we are starting over.
Why?
Glad you asked.
In the time we have been making pottery things have changed.
Oh, I don't mean our age, the gray hair, with those things should come a little knowledge.
I say a little no one ever knows it all in this business and if they do, well, don't say it out loud unless you can take the knocks when things go wrong.
My thoughts are we have been here long enough to watch as clay bodies, chemicals for glazes, materials have changed.
And, what happens to us, the little people, is that we don't know about the change until we are knee deep in a glaze that is reacting differently, a clay body that is spitting out bits after it is bisque fired or some other surprise that the powers that be have in store for us.
This past week we ran out of wax resist and thought we would just pick some up at one of the two suppliers we have near us rather than order what we always use, and have used, for years.
We could not get the tried and true so we just grabbed some and we were using it all over the place.
It worked on many of the glazes, but, here is the but, but not on the iron red.
I had glazed a bowl in the red and did three swirls on the inside, went off for lunch and came back to find one of the swirls not only peeled away but sticking up in the air as if to say, "hey there!" look at what I can do." I was able to just lift the whole thing off.
That is when you begin to look at everything.
What was it used on and what else is waving hello?
Let us just say that after choice words, thoughts of getting a job and thoughts of smacking trees with many glazed pots we moved into plan B.
Instead of loading the kiln after lunch as we had planned we pulled  out more pots and went back to glazing and washing.
As we ran across pots with peeling glaze they went in the wash pile.
We replaced those pots and glazed many more.

Then we contact our friend and glaze Guru John Britt for a bit of advice.
Mark and John, who is the nicest most sharing person you ever want to meet, had a great chat while I looked up and read about  the difference in wax  resist.
There is great information out there on the web.
This was a good reminder, a kick in the pants, as to the old saying we have here at Whynot.
Do not make changes in the middle of anything.
When you know something works do not bring in an unknown into the mix.
It is the same with glazes, we try to have glazes mixed before we start and when we are being really smart we mix ahead to test the new batch.

Last night a glass, or two, of wine smooth some feathers.
Today is a new day, pots are glazed, we are heading out to load the kiln.
Now where is that application for Wally World?

 ( no pots were harmed in the making of this blog)

The town of Seagrove or do not blink

A new adventure for Mark and me.

As of the middle of the month we have become members of The Co-Op of Seagrove Potters
 which is located in the "down town" area of Seagorve.
The Co-op is housed in what was the original bank of Seagrove.
I love the old safe and found it a pretty good place to sit the other day.

 

Here is a quick photo of the inside of the building.

A view out the window facing the Seagrove Hardware.

This does not change our hours at Whynot you will still find us hard at work and open to your visits with us here.
Plan to stop in this summer!

Meanwhile- the big vases are out of the bisque tomorrow.
More glazing with loading on Saturday and firing Sunday- give or take a day.
Let's us hope this firing comes off as a good one.
Cheers!
M

Sweet smells of summer

I'm here recovering from a busy weekend with a lot going on.
The Open House was really nice with a steady stream of folks coming down.
Even Sunday had some real highlights.
Monday we saw a few folks but mainly we were sleep walking through the studio trying to gear our brains back to glazing.
We did load up Mark's big bottles and managed a long,slow bisque. It is always a worry when you are bisque firing big boys. We did a preheat of 5 hours the day before and then programed the kiln for the long fire, about 12 hours. I did not breath until they were unloaded this morning.
Oh, yea that step is done.
Mark has the rest plus 3 big vases preheating today.
It will be another long bisque with fingers crossed.

While getting ready for the open house I was in and out of our local Slowe's store to buy some plants.
It has been awhile since I grew or bought flowers and discovering their "mark down" area was too much to pass up.I found many plants that just wanted some love, good dirt and water. They are working away in planters now.
Then I spotted a small gardenia and it was all over.I had to have this one even at the full price of 6.00, a splurge on my part but this should grow and give me many years of sweet flowers.
We dug a good hole on Sunday and put her in the ground only to find her undug the next morning....
Darn critters.
I replanted and then circled the plant with bricks to keep her safe from said critters.

I guess the sweet smell and soft dirt were too much for whoever was wandering through the yard.

I also bought this plant that was about half dead and put it in a planter. It has a sweet yellow flower but in my haste to be tidy I tossed out the tag. It has been blooming everynight and then the flower last about a day before it gives up. Now, is this a night blooming plant? Does anyone know what it is?

If not I guess it will give me an excuse to go back and buy more plants.
Really I had better get on some tomatoes plants soon.
Maybe some eggplant as well.

Those pots for glaze are calling more pictures of pots soon.
Cheers!
M