Last Chance Holiday Shopping!

Slip Cast Porcelain Ornaments

Lots of lovely things are still available on the online Etsy store! If you are not clear across the country, I can likely get things shipped by Christmas Eve if orders are in by this Friday morning.
Here is a taste of what is online:

Compost Crocks

Gorgeous Teapot

Luscious Pitcher

Small Dishes

 This piece below I am particularly fond of, it is my little "beer pig" as I call it, or a small 3/4 gallon keg on legs. It's a lot of work to produce, but boy is it wonderful!

Small keg

We will also be at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market this Saturday, December 21st from 7:00-12:00, and again on December 24th from 7:00-12:00. Come visit! Buy veggies AND pottery!

Hollow Slip Cast Ornaments

Here are some more items currently on Etsy:

Wine Cups

Vase

Mug

Earrings

Mugs

Show and Kiln Firing!

One week from tomorrow I will be participating in The Whimsical Women show in Pfafftown, NC! This is not something to be missed, there will be extraordinary artists in one place for one day only! And there's FOOD!

Flat decorated ornaments

Hollow ornaments that will have blue slip decorations on them

I'm firing a kiln this weekend and have some special ornaments ready to be fired and fresh for the show!

And lots of wine cups! I'm hoping to reopen the Etsy store soon, my camer died recently and I have been working on finding a good replacement- bear with me! Come visit next weekend!

Gift Ideas!

Holiday gift package

 Have a foodie who is hard to shop for on your holiday list? We have the solution! Emmaus Farm and Liberty Stoneware have teamed up to bring you a very special holiday package! The package includes one handled mixing bowl, one bag (1.5 pounds) of NuEast Hard Red Winter Wheat flour from the farm, and a handmade cherry wood mixing spoon made by the farmer (who is conveniently a woodworker)! The bowl is the perfect size for mixing a batch of pancakes or muffins and the freshly ground flour is delicious!

We have wrapped the packages up in red and green cellophane, so you don't even have to mess with wrapping! Each package is $48 (cash), a great deal and unique gift for the holiday! Your purchase of a gift package will help us construct a barn this winter for our workshops!

 We also have hollow, round porcelain ornaments still available as well as some gorgeous flat ornaments from the recent kiln firing.

Flat decorated ornaments

Flat decorated ornaments

Contact me (libertystoneware@gmail.com) or come visit us at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market on Yanceyville from 6:00 am -12:00 pm this Saturday, December 22nd!

Ornaments on display

Happy holidays from Emmaus Farm and Liberty Stoneware!

Tired, but Grateful!

Grandma's cookies with beans, wheat, and beautiful flowers!

 The kiln opening and farm tour yesterday went well! We had a great turn out for the pottery sale as well as the farm tour and people generally going on small farm tours all day! I made my grandma's chocolate chip cookies and crackers from our fresh ground wheat, which I am sure is what lured people in! We were exceptionally surprised by relatives from Ohio who showed up in the morning to surprise us! Thank you to all of our friends, family, neighbors, and customers who made this possible and support us! We are incredibly grateful!

Ornament Tree

Ornaments on the tree

 The ornaments were nicely displayed on a little tree, I even dug out the tree skirt for the occasion!

New pots on display!

Brenda talking about her kiln - thanks April!

I was really happy for the opportunity to share about my kiln and even have the chance to talk about some historic kilns and how different drafts work (and I didn't even put anyone to sleep!).

Brenda suited up for the bees - looks like a total wuss compared to the pros!

Baby aprons!

Today was filled with checking out our hives with Jerry Routh from Bee Ready Bees and sewing baby aprons for a friend's baby shower! Hoping to excavate Mt. Laundry soon and get back to making pots this week!
Here are some photos from the farm tour:

New Pots

Cobalt blue decorated ornaments

 I am excited to be debuting some new pots for the kiln opening and farm tour this Saturday.  It's very comforting to be sharing my new pieces from my first kiln and to be sharing about our farm with our customers, neighbors, and friends. I'm feeling more confident with my pots now that I have a kiln to focus my energy on!

Cobalt blue decorated ornaments

Last year I played around with throwing stoneware round ornaments on the wheel, but had some difficulty getting them thin enough so they wouldn't weigh the branch down. This year? Slip casting. I'm slip casting porcelain for the time being, but having a grand time decorating them and they turned out so well in the wood firing and took to the salt really well.

Decorated teapot

I've never been terribly inclined to make teapots, but had a burst of inspiration recently which led me to make a small herd for the opening. I'm excited to try some scratch decoration with cobalt blue and a few different lid styles.

Teapot dipped in brown slip

Should teapots and ornaments and other pots lure you out on Saturday, I made a double batch of  Emmajean Creamer's famous chocolate chip cookies! My grandma's recipe is DELICIOUS!

Kiln Firing for Kiln Opening

Kiln loaded up!

In getting ready for our farm tour and kiln opening I worked really hard to get another kiln fired. I made some special pieces for this firing including some teapots inspired by a recent accession at Colonial Williamsburg:

Raw teapot paint decorated with blue slip

Raw clay teapot with a scratched design and cobalt blue decoration

As well as some ornaments:

Small herd of decorated ornaments

The ornaments I am really excited about because they are slip cast porcelain, making them hollow. Next year I hope to have time to modify my stoneware clay in order to slip cast with my own clay and have stoneware ornaments, but with the limited time I had this year I went with pre-mixed porcelain. I did make some pieces of kiln furniture to prop them on, and when they come out I'll explain more about this. Here is a photo of a few shortly after finishing the kiln firing:

Here are a few other shots of the inside of the kiln while I was crash cooling:

Ashy salty wine cups!

Decorated stoneware mugs through a haze of flames