On the Farm, New Pots, and Motherhood

The farm is in full gear as the weather has heated up and our CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is into its fourth week.

 Mike is working on developing beds for permaculture which will enrich the soil with perennial vegetables, fruits, trees, and bushes, and help retain water on the farm.

 We split two of our beehives recently and now have 5 hives if all goes well. We are really hoping that for the farm open house in June we will be able to harvest some honey to sell again this year!

Joseph, Matthew Kelly, and Curry at the front of the kiln.

 Joseph's kiln firing went well and he had a great pottery sale with some beautiful pots. I was pleased with the work I put into the earlier part of this year getting things made and into Joseph's kiln. Here are some new pots for the spring:

Mugs

Vases

Compost Crocks

Wine cups

 I was reflecting this past weekend as I celebrated my first Mother's Day (Hallmark holiday, I know, but it was still sweet), and realized I have a lot of pots in stock and my little person is growing VERY quickly. There's a saying that the first three months of child's life is sometimes called "the fourth trimester" and I believe it. There's still a lot of soothing, cuddling, bouncing, some fussing, and a lot of development for your arms and back with lifting (he's sleeping well though, I promise!). We've just passed the three month mark, but much of my days seems to be spent like this:

Don't get me wrong, I love it! However, it does make you step back and assess things. So, I am going to not push myself to work like a crazy person and fire my kiln in June, but rather get a few things done and in a few other kiln firings with other potters, help to get projects on the farm going/done, and watch my son change daily in front of my eyes! He and I both will be at the Pottery Fair on the Square this weekend at Old Salem, we will have our June open house and pottery sale, and he is at the Greensboro Farmer's Curb Market most Saturdays, so come visit!

Kiln Results, Farm Open House, and Pottery Sale!

Be sure to make it out on Sunday, November 23rd for our annual fall farm open house and pottery sale! We'll be doing a walking tour of the farm at 2:00 p.m., but general tours will likely take place all day!

Small mugs

Small pitcher

Lidded Jar

Decorated square bottle

I recently fired my wood-firing salt glaze kiln with wonderful results. I am really quite pleased when the blue slips turn really blue!

I made a few mugs with a glaze I developed from clay excavated at our farm. It's a really beautiful green glaze and I decorated it with a lovely little slip trailed wheat design on two sides.

We will also have some of our fundraising bottles and bags of wheat if you would like to support our efforts to finish my studio and the barn workshop!

Of course there will be lots of beautiful porcelain ornaments to peruse! The colors turned out particularly well on those in this recent firing.

You can also come out and see the wild development of my small person that is due in January! I hope you can come visit!

On the Farm- Stoneware Sherd!

What could be more exciting than receiving a text from the farmer telling me that he found the neck and handle section of a jug while planting sweet potatoes?! Above is the marred remains of said jug section, but boy, was I excited! Do you see what I see?

Unglazed interior of the jug

First, we'll get out of the way that it is stoneware. It is also salt-glazed. The interior is not glazed which generally tells me that it pre-dates 1850, since that is when it starts to become more common to see pots glazed on the interior.

Marbling in the broken section showing the possibility of rolled clay

The handle is particularly awesome for many reasons. One, is that the end of the handle where it broke has this beautiful marbled texture that almost looks like the wedge of clay was rolled before being attached to the bottle and pulled for a handle. Does that make sense? The potter took a hunk of clay, rolled it into a fat snake-shape, then attached it to the neck of the jug, and pulled the shape of the handle. I don't know that this is for sure how it happened, but it makes sense to me and visually seems to match my theory.

The handle is also quite thick, roughly 1 1/4- 1 1/2 inches across at the top, which makes me wonder how large the jug was that needed such a thick handle!

Can you spot the cobalt blob at the upper part of the handle?

Cobalt blob circled

Another reason is that it has a blob of cobalt on the upper part of the handle where it joins the vessel. This tells me that it is probably not English, as I don't know that I have seen an English jug with a blob of cobalt at the handle juncture.

And then we come to perhaps the most tantalizing part of this piece- the evidence of kiln furniture! Can you make out the subtle chance in surface color and texture to the right of the handle remain in the photo above?

That subtle change in surface color and texture tells me that it is a touch mark, most likely where a piece of kiln furniture touched the top of the handle. Not just any piece of kiln furniture, mind you, but a bar!

Combined with the very dry surface of the rim, the touch mark and dry rim tell me that a bar was used to stack this jug in the kiln when it was fired. Check out a blog post I did a few years ago on this topic to get an idea of what the kiln furniture looked like. I'm not coming to the conclusion that this piece was made in Fayetteville (per the linked blog post), but I don't recall seeing stacked jugs like this much in Virginia (off the top of my head, maybe in Alexandria), and am not sure about Tennessee. The neck doesn't match the pieces from Fayetteville, either, so we'll toss that thought until we (hopefully) find more pieces!

We had a great turn out for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association's Triad Farm Tour last Saturday and Sunday. This coming Sunday is our own farm open house and pottery sale. Lots of new pots, seconds, and older pieces at deep discounts!

On the Farm- Events and Barn Update

Barn at sunset with wheat in the foreground

Yesterday, with the help of some generous friends who donated their time and strength, we put the walls up on the second floor of the barn. Barn building and farm projects have absorbed most of my time and energy lately and have kept me out of the studio. Bear with me while I pause on the 52 Form Project and work toward getting back in the swing of things!

Raising a wall requires a lot of hands to put the walls together, stand them up, and then hold them in place while they are stabilized and nailed in. It's a bit risky and tricky, especially on the second floor being so high up!

We're trying to get things ready for the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association Triad Farm Tour that takes place this coming weekend. There will be about 17 farms on the tour, giving people the chance to caravan with others and go from farm to farm, learn about a lot of different farming practices, see different kinds of plants and animals, and maybe taste some fresh veggies and other food!

Our own farm open house and pottery sale is coming up the weekend after, on Sunday the 15th.

My brother decided that our barn currently looks more like a Super Mario Brothers castle than a barn, so in his honor, I leave you with the ever-unforgettable tune of the Super Mario Brothers (if you get through 34 seconds, you'll see a castle):

On the Farm- SUCKERS!

P.Allen Smith and I at the Pottery Fair. Photo by Martha Hartley.

Before I get to tomatoes, I thought I would share the above photo taken at the Pottery Fair on the Square last Saturday. P. Allen Smith, gardener extraordinaire, came by the show and I had a chance to talk to him about flowerpots and pesto. I also had the pleasure of taking him through the MESDA (Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts) collection on Friday.

At the farm this week there has been a lot of weeding and bed management. I also took charge of the tomato plants in the greenhouse by suckering and trimming their branches. Suckering is when you remove the growth that pops up between the "arms" of the tomato plants. Keeping one "arm" rather than two or three helps the plant not get so bushy and to give more energy to the fruit production.

Tying up the tomato plants with pantyhose

One of my grandmothers had a knack for growing tomatoes and I think my fondness for the smell of the plant and pleasure in tending to them came from watching her. We use cattle panels for our trellises, it makes for easy moving, and you can gain better access to the plants as opposed to tomato cages. I use old pantyhose and tie sections of the plants to the cattle panel.

Carnage of the tomato plants

I also remove the lower branches of the tomato plant so that there are no leaves or branches touching the soil. I think this applies much more outside, but either way it protects the plant from any bacteria in the soil that can spread to the plant. Outside, when it rains, this can be a big deal because of the leaves are low enough, the rain will bounce bacteria from the soil onto the plant. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but when I have not done this, we have had issues with blight, spot, etc., and when I have done it the plants seem healthier. There's a lot of carnage when I am done, though!

We're working really hard to get ready for the First Annual Triad Farm Tour and our own farm open house and pottery sale on the 15th of June. This means I am giving up doing an early June kiln firing, so there may be fewer hanging planters than I wanted to offer, but no shortage of pots!

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: