Colors of Fall

I'm happy with these wall pieces. These bark plates have come a long way, I used to make them round for little lunch plates. Now I'm making them square and they look nice arranged in a group on the wall. This way they can be enjoyed either way! I had fun incorporating the texture onto the top with a little splash of color. The flashing slips really 'flashed' bright orange and red this time, I almost thought the picture contrast was off, but no, they really look that way in person!


I love a soda firing in the fall. Just when the lighting starts to change in the afternoons and the edges of the forest and trees are starting to turn those warm bright colors of fall, and now I have all of these autumn colored pots to gaze upon. After the unloading there are so many pots to look at it's really hard to see them all. Only later do they start to absorb, all the little details shouting out loud in their own quiet way. I just love this time of year and sooner or later I'll get the crackle of my wood stove going. Hot tea, hot soup and handmade pottery...sounds cozy, doesn't it?

New Pots

Alas, the long awaited unloading of the soda kiln. This round seemed to take forever to make, finish, and then fire and then unload especially after firing it two times in a row! So these pots should cost double what they normally do, since my gas bill is now two times as big for the same pots! (So come help me out and buy some pots at my shows!!) Well at least the refiring proved to show better color and soda mostly all around. I did lose a good amount to glazes dripping that were fine through the first firing, but the second firing made the glazes run. I'll have to do some grinding to salvage those pieces and hopefully they'll be still ok. I also lost a few pots to unmelted soda drips that collect on the bottom and sides of shelves as you can see in the pictures. They collect and build up while I'm spraying soda into the kiln and if I wait too long to turn off the kiln, like if I'm waiting on a cone to drop or something, then those soda drips fall into pots.

But overall it feels good to have it done, as many potters around here are firing up now or this weekend, right before the next big show....the Spruce Pine Potters Market, October 10-11.
I did learn my lesson and am fortunate that I fired the kiln early enough to have time to refire it. Often we potters tend to wait til the last minute, pushing one more board of pots out right before a show. It's the way we work, but it is risky if you have a bad firing and a lot of shows coming up.

Even though I fired early, I'm not sitting around with my feet up just yet. There are pots to be sanded, reed handles to make on the jars and teapots, as well as a startup of a HUGE studio cleaning that desperately needs to be done.

My new version of wall pieces (aka bark plates). I have a new panel of texture and glaze on the top....they turned out pretty sweet, I'll show more soon!

Got some good soda and range of color on the tumblers above :)

Bakersville Creek Walk Arts Festival

I'm getting ready for the Bakersville Creek walk show this weekend, September 26 and 27, 10 to 5 on Saturday, and 12-5 on Sunday. I'm gathering up pots and the show booth and all the details in between, as well as some virtual advertising and announcements here and on my facebook page.

So don't miss the show this weekend if you're around, come on down to the creekwalk, it's starting to get pretty around here. The edges of fall are showing up all around and if you come I can direct you on some interesting scenic drives up to Roan Mountain and beyond.

I did manage to fire the whole kilnload over again and think it went ok. I won't know for sure though for a couple of days and in the midst of that I'm doing this show. I'm feeling more fidgety than normal in the 'wait' time to unload...

The things we put up with

Well, I fired the soda kiln last week and it was such a terrible firing that I'm putting the door right back up and refiring the whole load over again tomorrow! During the last firing, my soda sprayer broke and I had no way of spraying the soda into the kiln. I did dump soda into the firebox, but I knew with this crossdraft kiln that it still wouldn't be enough, because I always have to spray soda all over this kiln to get success and I would end up with dry pots. Since I don't use much glaze and use mostly flashing slips, dry pots can be pretty bad. And bad they were....all gray and dry white pots. So, I'm just replacing the cone packs, didn't even take out one pot, 99% of them looked horrible, and I'm trying again tomorrow. Crazy potters, why do we do these things? Why?

Ok, so now that's where I am, giving it yet another shot. I have a craft show this weekend, here in Bakersville, check out this link for info and I won't get these pots out in time for the show but I'll just have to rely on the pots I do have in stock in the showroom. Hopefully that will be enough. With all of the other shows I have coming up in October and November, I was desperately relying on this kiln load to be great, so I have to give it another shot....

We'll see..first thing to do on the list is head to the store and buy two, not one, but two brand new shiny sparkling garden sprayers. I'm never having that happen to me again and I'll always have a backup from now on! That's just too much work to lose to risk that happening again! crazy potters crazy potters....what we do for pottery.

See ya on the other side

I got all of the 200+ pots transferred over to the kiln site and have them all ready and glazed for loading up the soda kiln tomorrow. I'll start up the firing tomorrow evening and keep turning it up overnight, with a couple of hours sleeping in between. Then I'll fire it off all day Friday. This kiln usually takes about 24 hours to fire, so hopefully I can get it loaded before 6 pm tomorrow, which means it'll be done around the same time Friday, if all goes well. Loading can take all day long; it's the deciding is what takes me a while in the loading, deciding what pot goes where, what pots do get in, what pots don't get in. As usual I have more pots than will fit into the kiln, but it's better to have lots of options than not enough pots. Then it's always nice having leftovers to help along the momentum for the next firing.

The bridge above is the Roses Branch swinging bridge that my friend Katey wrote about in her book, that was just on exhibit at Crimson Laurel. I managed to sneak away and visit three of the bridges the other evening on a glazing break! I live really close to 4 of them. This bridge felt so sketchy to walk across....but exhilarating all the same.

See you on the other side of the firing! It cools for two days, so there's some time for relaxation built in during those days....yay!

glazing, glazing, glazing

That's what I've been doing for the past three days and I'm going cross eyed! There are lots of pots, lots and lots of glazing! My glazing seems to take forever, but that's usually because I wait until the last minute to do it right before the firing and then I have about 4 bisque kiln loads of bisqueware to glaze all at once! Talk about overwhelming!

Tomorrow I'll finish up and wad all the pots and then load the kiln up on Thursday and fire Friday! Whew!

Finishing Up

I finished up the last pots and here are some carving details that are on the pitchers and tumblers. Just love repetition of line and pattern....


HUGE mushroom I found and it has since opened into a huge flat white disc. Amazing things, really!

The love-hate relationship

Shortly after yesterday's blog post, I went back into the studio and this ewer, my favorite one of the batch, of course, was completely falling apart!! It went down hard, but with dignity and flair, I'd say. Like the ewer was growing up out of the textured ground. So sad! Why?!?! I had just dipped the whole pot in flashing slip, like I always do, it was the same wet consistency, and used the same slip I've been using all week, it just smushed (technical clay term) because it couldn't handle the over saturation. I never have this happen. It was just one of those weird things...that's just the nature of this pottery thing, like they say, you can't love it until it comes out of the last firing! Well I know that, but who wants to listen to that? I still loved it anyway!

Today's studio happenings went better, no mishaps, just yet. I finished up the texture and handles on a round of pitchers and vases and am waiting to carve some tumblers I'll get to tomorrow.

Little Details

freshly slipped pot, ahhh

This family of teapots and ewers all reached the finish line at the same time. I like to make batches and collectively work on them all together. I'll wait to trim the foot on all of them together, add the spouts all together, and then the handles. Of course, they're all covered up in plastic in between all this, plus doing some throwing of new pots in the morning. It's like hovering planes in the sky waiting for clearance on the runway for landing. Only my pots all land at the same time!

Little details such as these connections of the spout, top opening and handle are relationships that I go crazy about in pottery and in nature! Below, this favorite wildflower, jewelweed, also known as spotted touch-me-not, is THE poison ivy saver! I know, because I often get afflicted by poison ivy with all of the hiking and gardening I like to do. It grows everywhere around here and what fascinates me even more is why it's called the touch-me-not, as well as its' unusual flower form...

Just a mere light brush against the seed capsule sends the seeds flying all over. Inside each seed pod is a little spring-like thread that explodes when you touch the pod sending the seeds out! Isn't that cool?

Ahhh...the little details are what matters. Look around and absorb with an observant eye!

Strictly Functional Pottery National

I just shipped out this soda fired carved ewer today to the Strictly Functional Pottery National exhibit in Lancaster, PA. The opening is September 25, 6-8 pm, if you're in the area it's a show not to miss!

Warmed Up

This week I'm working on some vases and pitchers and will be finishing up some teapots and ewers tomorrow. They have so many parts to contend with, so the spouts and handles are going on tomorrow and that should finish them up! I always end the making cycle with the more altered, complicated pots since by then I'm warmed up in the studio. The only problem is I begin to start feeling rushed as the firing day is approaching soon...I need to stop and glaze very very soon!!

Fall is in the air once again today...I already have a tree turning early!

Connecting and Sharing

Just in time, I fired my new tumbler trays in my little soda kiln and I dropped off this Carved Pitcher and Tumbler set with its very new carved tumbler tray at Crimson Laurel Gallery today for the upcoming "Connecting and Sharing" exhibit this weekend. This unique exhibits' roots begin with our local author and my good friend, Katey Schultz and her explorations of the swinging bridges here in Mitchell and Yancey counties in western North Carolina. The exhibit highlights Katey's new book, Lost Crossings, with photography by Shane Darwent. Alongside the writing and photography? Pottery goes quite well. Potters in the area have selected serving pieces that represent the ideas behind connecting and sharing; vessels that contain and share nourishment.

I happen to live right near one of the oldest of the 13 swinging bridges, the Honeycutt Bridge, right where Bad Creek spills into Rock Creek. It was the widest of the bridges built in order to accommodate a coffin that would be carried across the bridge to reach the cemetery across Rock Creek. It's really fun to walk across these old swaying bridges, check here for more pictures of the bridges on Katey's book website.

Don't miss the lecture about the 'behind the scenes' of these neat swinging bridges at 6 pm this Saturday, September 5, along with a chance for a book signing and to see the great photography and pottery!

Cool Day

It was a cool September day here in the studio, I had to keep all of the windows closed! I'm not really ready for the weather to change, but then again, I'm never ready....I'm still getting ready for spring! The time seems to be flying by!

Today I finished up these small altered porcelain pitchers. I did more altering to the rim than I usually do, and added slabs for a more dramatic pitcher spout instead of the other way I usually make them. Tomorrow I'll fire off another bisque kiln load and continue on the journey to make the last remaining pots before the big firing!