Crazy Couple of Weeks

I have been to three ceramic conferences in the last couple of weeks, and the auction house I work for has a HUGE Americana sale this Saturday. It's been a wild ride. Let's just start with the crazy floral arrangement in the above photo. I had the chance to see this at the Wadsworth Atheneum this past weekend during the American Ceramic Circle Symposium. That floral arrangement? IT'S CERAMIC!

All of those petals are CERAMIC!

The basket that it sits in was made in Meissen, Germany in the 1740s, and the basket was then filled with CERAMIC flowers made in Vincennes, France around 1750, and mounted on the gilt base. Isn't that wild?!

The first conference I attended was the Transferware Collectors Club, which was held in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Montpelier and Monticello hosted the group, and it was great to take tours again of the buildings, but then have the chance to see the archaeological collections and watch very knowledgeable individuals help identify the patterns being excavated on the sherds at the two sites. Richard Halliday gave a great presentation on the entire process of copper plate engraving, which was absolutely fascinating.

Then it was off to the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts for their southern ceramics symposium and a good lineup of speakers and tours.

Perhaps the highlight of the weekend (other than the opportunity to speak) was the chance to do pottery demonstrations with Joseph Sand who talked about alkaline glazing and making large pots and Hal and Eleanor Pugh who talked about lead-glazed red earthenware.

Daniel Ackermann, Curator of Collections at MESDA

Angelika Kuettner, Associate Curator of Ceramics and Glass at Colonial Williamsburg

I had a good time getting two curators at my wheel and going through the throwing basics with them, too!

Salt-glazed stoneware urn made at the Lambeth Pottery in England

 This past weekend at the American Ceramic Circle symposium I enjoyed getting to see colleagues from all over, listen to good lectures, and see the great collections at the Wadsworth. There was also this incredible exchange between two contemporary potters, but I will have to save that for another post.

My little (big) man on the left!

Somewhere along the lines, Halloween happened, and I took my little man out to see other kids' costumes, and he picked up on the idea of ringing the doorbell and taking a piece of candy, and also saying "thank you". Shall I crash next week? No, we have another auction in a few weeks!

Dear Diana Gabaldon

I've been listening to the Outlander book series while driving back and forth between North Carolina and Virginia for work. The content has been a pleasant way to pass the time and the historical inaccuracies or material culture flaws have been able to be brushed off. Until now.

I'm into book six of the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes, and I started to have suspicions about what could come when Brianna was trying to figure out how to make pipes for a water system. Of course, when I first heard this I thought, "well, the Moravians in Pennsylvania had figured out how to do that in the 1750s" (the book series at this point being in the 1770s). And then, since the characters are living in North Carolina, they mentioned the Moravian potters in Salem, and I thought, "oh, no, I know where this is going."

When Brianna started digging a pit for her "groundhog kiln" I thought I was going to go crazy while driving down the highway! I understand the need to empower Brianna and give her the ability to use her engineering degree and her knowledge of things she knew and learned in the future, but building a kiln (and I assume making pottery) without any background or training is going a bit too far for me. She had a glassblower make the piece for her mother's surgery, why didn't she build a glass furnace and blow the piece herself? I'm not even to the point of whether or how she makes the pipes, but am worried she is just going to hop on a wheel and make them, which just flummoxes me.

Not to mention that she supposedly went to the Moravians and talked to them about their pottery and their "groundhog kiln". I have issue with this on several levels.

Let's start with the kiln. The Moravians didn't use a groundhog kiln as we think about one today. The kiln site excavated both in Bethabara and Salem showed a rectangular base, and was more than likely a tall, rectangular up or downdraft like one of the German kilns, only smaller. I personally think the one currently in use for demonstration at Salem is too short of a stack and should be much taller. They could have also been using what is sometimes called a "beehive" kiln, which a lot of early American earthenware potters employed. I don't have the reports or books on the kiln excavations from Salem and Bethabara at hand to double check the floor, but I am SURE it was NOT a "groundhog". The concept of the groundhog kiln as far as I understand stems mostly from the kilns used at Edgefield in the early 1800s. The term "groundhog kiln" wasn't even in use.The earliest reference I could find on Google books for the term "groundhog kiln" was 1944, and I suspect that it doesn't go much earlier than the late 19th-century.

Now let's go back to Brianna supposedly going to Salem and talking to the potters about their kiln. There isn't a chance one of those potters would have talked to her! The industrial quarters of the Moravian communities were off limits to many visitors, particularly women. Both the Pennsylvania and North Carolina Moravians used a system of having a "Fremden Diener" meet visitors to the town and guide them through the area based on their sex. In Bethlehem, as I understand, women went to see what the women's choirs were doing, and the men went to see the industrial things. I don't imagine this differed much in North Carolina. Much less that the Moravians were a closed community, meaning they did not allow visitors to freely wander through the town- some never made it past the tavern or inn, and may have only had the chance to attend a service at the church or listen to the music. The idea that Brianna went and learned trade secrets, much less enough to BUILD A KILN is flabbergasting. I didn't just go about building a kiln without years of research and the help and assistance of many potters and kiln builders.

We'll see if I make it through book six. I might lose my mind when Brianna magically fires up a successful kiln at first go. Sorry, Diana Gabaldon, you lost my ability to have any focus with these inaccuracies!

Among the Living

As silent as I have been here for so long, and as embarrassing as it is to see when my last post was, I thought I would let you all know that I am still among the living! There have been some big changes since February, and though I made a few posts about it on Facebook, I am sorry that I remiss in doing so here.

Where have I been? Well, I accepted a job as the Head of the Ceramics Department at Jeffrey S. Evans & Associates. It was an opportunity that I didn't feel I should pass up and an experience I thought would be worthwhile pursuing. You might notice that if you follow the link that it is in Virginia, which has given rise to a lot of traveling between two states, but fear not, we are keeping the farm for now, and I am not taking down my kiln!

A case loaded up with ceramics I cataloged.

What am I doing? I work at an auction house cataloging a majority of the ceramics that come in for consignment. We do about 15 auctions each year, and around half of those will have ceramics in them. The auction house specializes in glass, so the other part of those sales are for glass. In some respects, is very different from working in a museum, particularly the pace, which is one thing that still throws me off occasionally. In other respects, it is similar to museum work and researching objects.

A beautiful white salt-glazed stoneware plate I got to handle and catalog for a sale earlier this year. 

Handling so many things is probably one of the highlights of the job, and getting to learn about such a variety of material is kind of exciting.

Creamware coffeepot with floral hand-painted design.

New Hall English teapot with paneled, molded sides. 

Though my passion for stoneware still remains, I have found an interest in creamware and learning more about pearlware and delft or tin-glazed earthenware.

I've had some time to do a few workshops at Historic Eastfield for their "Dish Camp", the Historic Deerfield Summer Fellowship, and with the Winterthur Program incoming class. I was particularly honored to do the Winterthur program since that is where I graduated from with my Master's.

Trying some different shapes for baskets.

And I am still making pottery. It soothes my soul and gives me the opportunity to focus on some new forms, hone some older ones, and try some new avenues. So, stay tuned for the new adventures!

There are never enough mugs!

There has also been a lot of this:

Engineer in training.

And a lot of this, as my son has become enamored with tractors (go figure!):

A love of tractors!

It's really hard to believe that it has been over 1.5 years since he was born. Motherhood is the best project I have done yet in my life, and I am thoroughly enjoying it. Mary Farrell with Westmoore Pottery has told me on numerous occasions that raising her children was the best thing she ever did, and I am fully in agreement. We haven't done the "baby in the clay" photo shoot yet, but I am sure it is coming!

Dreaming About Dishes

I used to dream in German when I was studying the language in college. Now I dream about pots on occasion, and sometimes the dreams are so vivid they stay with me and then I have to make them come true.

 I have been thinking about Helios clay from Highwater Clays and the fact that it salts well. So, I had a dream about a few tests with low, somewhat wide dishes with no glaze on it when it goes in the kiln to test how well the salt may sit on a flat surface of Helios.

I also wanted to see what the cobalt slip would look like in an abstract pattern, and to top it off, made a ruffly rim. If all goes well, I will fire the kiln up in a few weeks and see what happens!

Glazed too late and the wall separated

Glazed the interior and exterior too soon and the wall collapsed

It's nice to be dreaming about pots since my pots have been putting in my place in my studio. The battle of the heat vent has been going on for some time, and trying to keep things just right under the plastic has been somewhat disastrous. I posted the above photos on Facebook recently of what happens when you a.) let a pot sit too long and then glaze it and b.) rush things and glaze the interior and exterior too soon.

Nice, thin wall!

The plus side of that was getting to see the nice, thin walls! In closing, I dreamed about a pitcher/vase form the other night so stay tuned!

Mother Potter

 Ya'll, I had a baby. It's perhaps the biggest and by far the best project I have ever done, and it seems to change constantly. Having a child has put me in my place and taught me that I am not really in charge of my life, but also to step back and realize that I don't HAVE to fire a kiln every month, or get torn up that I am not in the studio every day. These revelations, as much as they make sense, have taken me a long time to really accept.

My one year old!

Mattias, my son, turned one last weekend and I have been reflecting a lot on the last year. To be honest, this past year has been mentally challenging to me on several fronts. As a female potter, I had several, if not numerous, people ask me before my baby came whether I was going to give up pottery entirely. I've had people assume that when the baby came, I wouldn't be doing any shows, firing any kilns, or selling pots. Perhaps it's a bit of feminism embedded in me, but all of those things were things that I did NOT want to happen, and I would bristle a bit every time someone would assume a mother has to give everything up once baby comes.

Sleeping baby with arcs of wadding.

Making dishes! 

I was blessed at the beginning of my motherhood roller coaster that my son gave me the opportunity to make lots of pots. I got to fire with other potters in three kilns over the spring and summer.

Anne Partna of Blue Hen Pottery with Mattias at a firing of her kiln. 

Mattias in front of the freshly fired kiln at Joseph Sand Pottery. 

It was a good opportunity to introduce my son to new kiln designs, for him to meet new people, and for me to feel like I was kind of in the groove of things. When I couldn't get lids for jars finished for almost two weeks (having to keep said jars damp the entire time), it was nerve wracking. That case, especially, showed me patience. I did one show at the Old Salem Pottery Fair on the Square.

Mattias an I next to my kiln.

However, when I got to load up my own kiln, though, that was a totally different experience and feeling. It was exhilarating and cathartic, kind of like giving birth to a child.

New vases in 2016.

Baskets.

I've been back in the studio this year, but I may be stepping back from my schedule that I kept several years ago of firing every 4-6 weeks. Perhaps I will only fire 2-3 times each year, but I have decided that it will be better to concentrate on my new family member and use the time I have in the studio to make pots that I enjoy or want to try out. Stay tuned, there's more news to come. Here's to life's adventures!