Away

It was so refreshing to take a day and go away. Decided to head to Asheville since it's full of color these days. So, I made my rounds to my favorite places, taking in the colors all along the way.

First, I went to my favorite grocery store, Greenlife. Got my usual rice milk mocha and saw this above the hot bar as I was waiting for it.

How I love Asheville! ... Gosh, how different it would be if the whole world recycled. Here's another shot of Greenlife, from where I ate breakfast.Stopped by Malaprop's Bookstore. I always have a journal in hand while in there, writing down titles and authors of books. Checking out the banned book shelf is worth a good laugh, too. James and the Giant Peach? C'mon. I did not know that a translation of Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier was available in Cherokee. Asheville is known for its bumper stickers. Malaprop's joins in on the fun. It's easy to find a car with these on it.... I think Malaprop's wants Obama/Biden to win. :) They're not the only ones.

Saw this in the parking garage and laughed!
Back to Malaprop's... When I lived in Asheville, I spent many an hour here in this coffee shop.
Also stopped by the bead store where I re-stringed my favorite bracelet that broke for the 3rd time a few weeks ago. It's a liturgical prayer bracelet; it keeps breaking because I wear it all the time.... The pic is a bit blurry, but I'm happy that this is back on my wrist once again. It was fun to talk with Nancy, who works there and always seems to be the one there when I come to visit.
Stopped by Highwater Clays and bought some tools... I could've stayed there much longer than I did. Saw these pieces on the wall... great colors.The artists are Will Ruggles and Douglass Rankin.

Then it was onto Laughing Seed Cafe... one of my favorite restaurants. Got take-out there-- they have the best tempeh reuben's I've ever eaten! :) As you can see, I was hungry.
Then it was off to Black Mountain. Stopped by the best bookstore out there- Montreat Bookstore... and managed to buy only three books. The owner, Mary even recognized me. Gosh.... How I love to read. This is the most dangerous part of the bookstore for me (where all 3 books came from). The Walter Brueggemann section, with the new arrivals to the right.


Saw these gorgeous stoles there too. The green one in the middle is my favorite.
Then stopped by Seven Sisters Gallery in Black Mountain and laughed as I read Michael Andreas cards and got some great ideas from the pottery there. I like the glaze on these.
Look at the shape and colors on this tumbler.

And these...

Don't know the artist on either....
Finally, the best for last.
This is the kind of view I saw all day... this is at Montreat. I could easily live in this part of the world.
Here, the sun is getting ready to set. Maybe the Presbyterian church needs a Lutheran pastor.
There was even traces of snow in Black Mountain. Decided to finish my trip by taking a long run. I'm continuing to build up my endurance, which is encouraging. I love running in colder weather.

The day flew by! A full, peace-filled day. Being in Asheville made me want to return to the wheel, instead of come home. That's a very good thing.

I Made It!

One place I really wanted to go while in Bethesda, MD last week was the Washington National Cathedral. And, I finally got there! But before that visit, it was so fun for a group of us to go out to eat each night at the conference. In Bethesda, it didn't take long to find all kinds of ethnic foods... and the last night we went to this amazing Indian restaurant. Next time, I'll take a food shot, but here's a shot of our fun group: Ralph, me, Sharon, Linda, and Jack...we're looking a bit tired. It was an exhausting, fun week.

Also ate the best Indian food I've ever eaten. (2nd time to eat Indian). :)

Then, on Friday, I went with Linda and Jack to the Cathedral. Here are a few shots of stained glass windows... of course they don't even do the place justice. This is the kind of place that I want to stay for a couple of hours.

Here's the stained glass on the window above when you enter....

Pentecost... Come Holy Spirit.

The sun really brought out the best in these...

Here's a great quote, just outside the sanctuary.

Here's how it looks just as you step inside.

How beautiful! I wish D.C. was closer. It's good to be home, though.

Barn Sale Last Weekend

Last weekend, I went to the barn sale in Charlotte. Glad it didn't rain.... (see above!) So much to see; it was great to finally purchase one of Ron's pieces. Hard to choose which one though. Here's a shot of him hard at work, and his pieces from afar...

The other artist whose work I was really intrigued was the one who made this..... What a gorgeous piece for one's wall... It's been saggar fired, made from putting ferric chloride and sugar on pieces before wrapping them in aluminum foil for the saggar firing. I love the outcome. Incredible colors... And, I'd like to make something that is kinda like this someday. So, it was refreshing time away in the midst of a very busy weekend.

Time in DC

Haven't found pottery here, but how fun it is to be in DC.... meeting colleagues from all over at this conference, eating Afghan and Thai food (yes, I'm being adventurous with food, which is quite an accomplishment for me).First... above is the name of the Afghan place we ate at in Bethesda and below, the pumpkin dish with yogurt and spinach as we many of us shared our food (can't remember what the pumpkin was called). Anyway, I walked away with a bumper sticker (which will stay at home :( when I go to work) and a pin as I stopped by the Obama/Biden headquarter place (or whatever it's called).

Yes, how true are the words below.

Anyway, now, I'm just wanting to step into the Washington National Cathedral before I leave on Friday. And stay awhile...

The Best So Far

Today, I helped to unload the kiln. I was eager to see how the pieces turned out. I was so surprised and encouraged at how mine looked. Here's the kiln right after the door was opened, as Julie was giving us tips on what to do. Here are my nine pieces, straight from the kiln. I took Ron's advice on glazing and just single dipped most of the pieces in a shino glaze and then took Greg's advice and sprinkled some soda ash on some of them. The one on the bottom right is now one of my favorites; it's dipped in a spotted shino glaze and sprinkled with soda ash. It's already a great wine tumbler. :) Here are the same ones from another angle.

Here are two in particular that I really like; the one on the left is the design I saw on a blog and made it my own. The one on the right has a benediction etched into it as it's for a friend who's a pastor out in CA. It's got the rutile iron oxide wash (I think that's what it's called) on it first, and then is dipped in tom's clear glaze. Good variation of color.
The pictures aren't the best... Here's a close-up one.
I also glazed these ones below today with spotted shino and rick's shino glazes and sprinkled them with soda ash. They're the first to sit on the kiln shelf waiting for the next firing in 2 weeks.
Here's a better shot a great piece. Thanks Ron and Greg for the glazing wisdom!
This is all encouraging.

Nine, I think

Last night during class, we learned about how to load a kiln. Here's Ron showing us where to put the 'posts' (I think they're called that) in the empty kiln and then the shelves began to hold and we took turns stacking the pieces together. We found that it's necessary to not stack the shelves like the Jenga game, but instead, have the posts at the same place.

Here are the first pieces in..... Gosh, I don't think that 'posts' is the wrong name.How I love puzzles! These is the first round of pieces. It's very much like doing a puzzle as the goal is to fit as many pieces the same height together in the kiln (without touching) in the same firing.

Spanky, Becky's beloved dog has been waiting for this day. He's been sitting on the shelf and finally this is his time to get into the kiln. See him on the left? Can't wait to see what he'll look like on Friday afternoon, when the kiln is unloaded. He's being obedient and facing the other direction.

In this pic, some of my pieces made it in. One of my favorites is the tumbler on the shelf in the center, the first one on the left. It has a bit of red iron oxide in the + part on each side and then was dipped in a shino glaze.The rest of my eight pieces are tucked away somewhere. Now, the kiln's about half full.

Ron's putting finishing touches on the stacks... They're stacked so neatly! All in all, I think I have nine pieces in this firing. Used alot more shino glazes and sprinkled a bit of soda ash on two of them. Friday at 2 pm is when it'll be opened. I'll be there!

Editor's Note: the second to the last pic shows the incorrect way to stack the pieces in a kiln. The posts need to be parallel to each other the entire way up. Thanks, Ron for reminding me of that and for catching that as we were loading it. So, that is what happens when Ron leaves the kiln area during a loading! :)

New

Here are some new tumblers I made last Saturday. I'm working on using a rib more in creating texture, as Ron has taught me. I like what's happening! How I wish there was more time to BE in the studio.

Barrel Firing #4 Results

Here are my four pieces from the last barrel firing clean after they've been washed with Murphy's Oil Soap. They are gorgeous! I'm so pleased. It's hard to catch the color on the photos.

Here's another angle.Such vivid and varied colors! How I wish these were functional. My friend Minke is also a sculpture artist. These are some of her barrel fired ladies.

Can hardly wait until Halloween.... when barrel firing #5 begins!

Learning

Wow.. I'm way behind on posting. A couple of classes ago, Ron gave us lots of insight about bowls. Had to take this pic to remember how to use the rib on the rim of bowls.Ron also gave a demo on tumblers where he made this.

This is really my style, so I tried to copy something like it. Here's what I made. It still needs to be trimmed. I hope to make many of these. I'm learning so much!