Changes, changes, and more changes

Well, I am no longer a classroom teacher - I am once again a high school principal. The push is on to make the final move into our farmhouse. I drove to Chicago and back. I have been to Seagrove. My laptop crashed. My digital camera locked up and fell apart. And, this has all happened within the last month!  (The picture to the left is my feet as I stood on the Plexiglas floor over 100 stories above Chicago.  The picture below is of "The Bean" in Millennium Park in Chicago.  I am the little figure right in the middle taking this picture.) 

I think the principal promotion is a good move. I am ready to move into the house (to be closer to my shop). I have recovered from my trips. My laptop is running again, thanks to Dan Hux, our tech person at school. (If you are in the market for an adirondack chair, check out his page at danhuxwoodworking.wordpress.com.) And, the price of digital cameras has come down so much since I last bought a camera, I will be able to get a better camera for less money! Isn't life exciting? 

Lately, I have been working on re-stocking my inventory for fall shows. I participated in the July "2nd Saturday" program in North Carolina - this time in Edenton - and did very well. So, now I need to work harder to have enough for the last "2nd Saturday" program in August. I will be at Somersett Plantation in Creswell, North Carolina for that one. I also made a contact for a show in September, which will require more pieces to be ready. I'm thinking smaller functional pieces like apple bakers, bowls, and mugs.

Despite my weak attempts to be more consistent in my posts, AND the fact that I am now going to be busier than ever with everything happening in my life right now, I still am bound and determined to add to this blog more regularly. A camera will help!

Enjoying Summer

Busy week - I went up to Northern Virginia and brought my mom back for the week. So, I have been taking her to see the sights and we took an excursion over to see her sisters in Stanly County, near Seagrove. That meant an afternoon of visiting some potteries and picking up ideas and inspirations! Mom and my aunt Gertrude went with me which made the trip even more enjoyable. The picture above is Mom (on the left) with two of her sisters, Sarah (center) and Gertrude (right). I can hear them now, saying, "Oh! I can't believe he put that picture on the Internet!"

My son, Justin, has been working on a line-drawing logo for Straydog Pottery and we are almost ready to turn it into new business cards, signs, brochures, and a T-shirt. Maybe I will be able to unveil the new design in the very near future!

I put off the delivery of my kiln until tomorrow since Mom was visiting. I had cleared a spot in the garage last week, but it is already starting to fill with "treasures" that seem to accumulate from nowhere. This evening, I will move things again to be ready for the arrival of the kiln in the morning. I have been reading up on electric firing and am sort of excited about learning about the glazes and methods that work best with that method.

In the bits of spare time I could find, I worked on some pieces to take in to the studio. I had bought some red high fire clay just to try throwing some with both colors of clay to get a marbled effect. I think my first attempt turned out pretty well - we will see after it is fired. The red clay has a different feel - not as smooth, but maybe because it is a little drier than I am used to having.

The other pieces have been a variety of things I have wanted to try. I read an article on Ceramics Daily about a technique of scribing squares and then pushing out "bumps" on a pot, so I tried that and was pleased with the results. Also worked on some larger pieces and, of course, a couple of face jugs.

One final note - I signed a contract for a teaching job, so that worry is gone. I am always thankful when things work out and feel that there has always been divine intervention in my life that help things to continue. Life is good!

Busy - "cubed"

I can't believe that it has been about three weeks since I have added to the blog! I couldn't figure out how to use a superscript for a three in the title of this edition, so I just had to write out cubed. right now, my whole world is about getting kids ready for their end of the year math tests next week, and the work seems to pile up exponentially as the test date nears.


These are the three pieces I submitted for the exhibition at the North Carolina Pottery Center.
(click on a picture to see it enlarged)

I did take a day off to attend the opening reception of the the Finch Potters exhibition at the Pottery Center in Seagrove on May 7th. It was exciting for me to see my three pieces on display among the other 150 to 200 pieces from the studio. If you are able, I would recommend going to see the exhibit (and maybe even buying some pottery). The exhibit will be there until August 1st, so it would be a great vacation day to visit and visit the area potteries. I enjoyed taking some time to visit a few potters on my way home the day after the reception and especially enjoyed some of the conversations I had with potters while looking at their work. My thanks to Mr. Moore at Moore Pots on Jugtown Road who let me peek inside his groundhog kiln to see how it was constructed.
These plates were made by my friend and teaching
team member, Danny Hinnant.

In the midst of all this busy schedule, I have been able to find a little bit of time to throw some pots and have gotten back some of my work that was fired. I am really trying to get used to the sprayer by trying to use it at least once each week. However, I am still tied to dipping pieces and do not want to lose the skills I have picked up in that more traditional method of glazing. The pieces pictured here are a some of the latest work. I really like the earred jar, but the Blackbird Blue glaze ran so much I ended up having to grind quite a bit off the bottom. Although this testing week is going to be very busy, I am hoping to turn out some work to take in Thursday to bisque. I have been offered the opportunity to place some work in a shop in Louisburg, so I need to build up the inventory again.

Hopefully, I will update this post in at least a week. So, I need to get to work and do something worth spending the time to write and share. Maybe some sgraffito . . . . . .

Never Say Never

After telling my students that I never get sick, guess what happened - I got sick! Needless to say, this has had an effect on my productivity at the wheel. However, I was asked by two different people this week to participate in a show/sale, one in March and one in April, and this has given me an extra burst of energy to stock my inventory so I will have enough to sell. I had to turn the March date down, but am planning on being ready in April. So, I started out this week working on some smaller items that have usually sold well - bud vases, votive candle holders, rice bowls. I might even try a few soap dishes and egg separators. One of my fellow studio potters has been making egg separators she says they sell quickly. Once I get a big enough stockpile, I can go back to concentrating on creating larger pieces.

I did complete a tall pitcher, a pretty good sized bowl, and a casserole this weekend. I have been trying to come up with at least three "impressive" pieces that I can include in the Finch Potters Exhibition in Seagrove this summer. This past Thursday, I glazed two larger pieces - a lidded urn and the larger urn that I had constructed from two parts. Now I am holding my breath to see how they turn out. The larger urn started out with some "ear" handles, but, while I was dipping the piece, one of the ears popped off and the urn dropped into the glaze bucket, slopping spodumene glaze everywhere, especially on me. It gave me the idea of a line of pottery clothing with drips and spills already on it (I could call it "Glazewear"!). I was able to pop off the other handle and sand both sides smooth before re-glazing the urn. Next week I should be able to glaze the "flying saucer" casserole.

I did pick up a few pieces from last week's glazing efforts. Four of the better pieces are pictured here. I had experimented with mixing copper red and oxblood glazes together to get a more stable red, but the colors did not turn out any better than either one by itself. With the high fire of the gas kiln, the red colors seem to burn out to almost clear on the outside of a piece. Maybe it is time that I try my hand at mixing a glaze from a new red recipe.