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!

Gearing Up

I am gearing up for the last kiln firing of the year and trying to motivate myself to prepare for the Whimsical Women show and the holidays!

Before slipping and decorating

After slipping and decorating

I've had snippets of time to get into the photography studio and take some photographs:

And when all else fails, the weekly harvest of carrots always keeps us entertained with things like this:

Lighthouse Outhouse

A few weeks ago I attending Preservation North Carolina's annual conference which was held in Edenton, NC. I had the chance to check out one a rescued lighthouse in the process of being restored. The building was fabulous, but I thought I would share the outhouse which I thought was most amusing.

The outhouse, like many outhouses was outside of the building, off to one side. I immediately noticed that there was not a shaft or any other materials to hide was may, well, fall from the interior of the outhouse. I asked a man who helps tend to the lighthouse and when I asked him why there wasn't any additional structure he said that wouldn't have been necessary because it was off of the coast- who would see?

View from the seat

So, straight down into the water for all the passing boats to see...I am easily amused. I hope you can also enjoy my humor.

Fall Pottery Photos

Decorated vases

I've been bad about taking photographs of my pottery in the last couple of months, so I put aside some photo-studio time!

Tankards

The firings this late summer/fall have turned out some really lovely pots.

Decorated mugs

Large handled bowl

After one year of firing with this kiln I am starting to better understand where I get the best results with certain decorations and surfaces in my kiln. I'm not getting too comfortable, mind you, that would likely not be a good idea and result in disasters!

Small dishes

Wine cups

 One more kiln firing to go! If you have any holiday requests, get them to me ASAP as I will likely not be doing a December firing!

Vases

Kiln Opened

The results are in and after a suspiciously smooth firing on Sunday, the pottery looks pretty good!

A few cracked pieces near the firebox openings from some early spikes in temperature, but the shelves are not warped, and everything looks great! I'll try to get some individual photographs of pieces later in the week.

Low Pressure Kiln Firing

Interior view of the kiln

Yesterday was a great low pressure day to fire a kiln. It was a suspiciously smooth kiln firing and I will find out the results tomorrow.

I finished loading the kiln on Saturday and failed to take a photo before bricking up the door. I was trying to hastily get the door up before dark, so I snapped a couple of shots before the final bricks went up (above). 

Loading the salt in the kiln

Clouds from the salting

Low pressure days are always entertaining because the clouds created when we salt the kiln tend to be heavy like a thick fog rolling toward the neighbor's houses. I had a great day today venturing to spend the day with Michel Bayne and Kim Ellington and collecting pottery and conversations for an exhibition I am putting together for the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Catching Up

 Oh, dear readers, I have neglected you. My deepest apologies. It seems to be faster for me to upload images to Facebook and keep a running commentary there than it is to blog. I will try to right this. Where have I been you might ask? I will tell you of my ventures in photographs.

Anniversary Firing loaded up

The anniversary firing was not a fantastic firing. I'm not entirely sure what happened, but essentially five of my shelves melted, slumped, and broke. The result looked like this:

After the firing

Wonky shelves

I started a blog after this happened, but could not bring myself to put words to my thoughts on what happened. Here are a few detail shots on the breakage:

Breakage

Foaming and breakage

For the most part, many of the pots were salvageable other than the wine cups which held up the entire stack and some dishes which got mushed.

Dinner at the Reynolda House- Old Salem Landscape Conference

Liberty Stoneware vases as centerpieces!

My biggest worry in the firing was a group of vases I made specifically for Old Salem to put on the tables at the Landscape Conference at the end of September. The vases were for sale, with a small card on the table, and it was funny to be sitting at a table and have someone realize I was the person who made the vase!

Pickling crocks with weights

I presented at the Landscape Conference on historical methods of pickling and preserving and the ceramics used. There were such great presentations and a great crowd of people.

Wild horses on Corolla Beach

View from the top of the lighthouse

 The Farmer and I escaped for a few days to Corolla Beach. It was our first vacation in about three years!

Stuffing the deboned chicken

Cooked chickens!

 I learned how to de-bone a whole chicken, which was quite a fascinating experience. What made the experience even more exciting was watching this video with the speaker's fantastic French accent.

View from conference lunch in Edenton

Many of you may know I work part-time with an historic preservation organization which leaves me with a somewhat erratic schedule for pottery (and this blog, consequently!). I had the opportunity to attend Preservation North Carolina's conference in Edenton, NC.

Inside NC's oldest house

It thrilled me to no end to get to go in North Carolina's "newest oldest house"- a 1718/1719 house recently discovered in Edenton.

  I also had the chance to see archaeological material from several houses. The image above is German stoneware excavated from the original courthouse in Edenton.

The oldest section of Blandwood Mansion in Greensboro

 I thoroughly enjoy working with the interns I have recruited for this semester. I am constantly reminded how much I enjoy teaching, counseling, and working with students or just those who love to learn. I recently had the chance to take the interns on a field trip to Greensboro in order to see the Greensboro Historical Museum,

Among all of the chaos and travel there have been brief pauses, like watching the orb spiders at the farm.