Christmas Come Early

Have been gathering at Clayworks these past days celebrating Christmas. Here are some amazing friends! I am thankful.

From L-R, clockwise:

me, John, Minke, Becky, and Elaine. Time with them was Christmas come early in a sense. We laughed and laughed... and ate and laughed. Everything from sushi to christmas cookies. Actually, had quite a spread of food! (see the table). Gosh, it's been quite a year. They've helped me see it through...

Some of them have blogs. Check them out on the right of this blog page. I'm too tired to create the links for them on this post. :(

Fun times! Tonight was round 2 with some of them... with the incredible pie... I'll post that pic tomorrow. Off to rest. I'm exhausted from running.

Christmas Trees and Christmas Cups

Today I purchased my first live Christmas tree. I don't like the cut live trees as I once visited a Christmas Tree farm in the western NC mountains and met several workers there... that were being treated as slaves, living in substandard housing, isolated, etc... it was horrible. That experience made me promise to not have a live cut tree--- so I purchased this one and will give it to friends when Christmas is over.
It was a bargain! I think it's absolutely gorgeous. It has lights which are hard to see in the pic. Oh well...

Most of the ornaments are gifts from my parents over the years. Some are labeled with my name and the year on them; a few are made by me when I was a child. It's a beautiful tradition.

This is my smaller tree. It looks great surrounded by pottery. With that said, the pottery is for sale. Don't have time to put it on my etsy store, but if you are interested in a piece, let me know in the comment section. I'll ship the piece(s) with red and green tissue paper if you'd like.

A closeup of the pottery from the most recent firing. All are not for sale; some I'm not ready to say goodbye to.

Four on the left... and-

Four on the right. I also have a bunch more teacups in the kiln as I write; they will emerge from the kiln on Sunday afternoon. :)

Christmas is coming! I'm grateful.

Some Pics...

Some recent pics. It was cold last Saturday but that didn't stop Becky, Elaine, John, and Susan from having a sale outside at John's house. This pic is evidence that it really was cold.... :)

Not sure how sales went.... good pots were available, for sure!

Some of John's pottery.

Sunday I glazed several cups and a jar in the afternoon. All have spotted shino glaze and a bit of catherine's oribe with soda ash.

Put some glass on the top of this lid for a jar.

Put some wax resist on the outside of some cups. That changes the color of the shino a bit.

The cups, the jar, and the supplies used to glaze...

A few different surface designs. I really like the form of the one in the middle. The darker big dot is the wax resist.

Some more yunomi cups. The next gas kiln will be loaded on Thursday. Maybe some or all of these will make it into the kiln this round.

Today I trimmed a tall vase (forgot to take a pic) and made there bowls. I was tired and it's hard to throw when one's tired. Still good time in the studio. More soon...

The Pottery World

Life in the pottery world is simply wonderful. Here are some not so good pictures of some incredible pots! Amazing colors.... Three chalices.

Four cups. All have spotted shino for a base glaze and then catherine's oribe on top, along with some soda ash sprinkled...

The variation in the color is in part, due to the amount of reduction in different areas of the kiln.
When the amount of oxygen is reduced in the kiln, the flame pulls oxygen molecules out of the clay bodies and glazes, changing their character.

Sometimes the catherine's oribe turns out blue; at other times purple. The silver crystallized area is from the soda ash sprinkled on top of catherine's oribe glaze.

These pics were taken at the studio.... on a somewhat wet table. I think I'll stick with these same glazes for awhile at least.

Two of my favorites; actually, these all are keepers for now.

That purple and green on the right cup is the same glaze. :) If only there were more hours for time in the studio. My next goal is to save $ for a new digital camera. The cups are still ping-pinging (is that a word?) which is simply a beautiful sound.

Glazing and Loading

Glazed some chalices and small plates earlier this week, along with a bowl. They joined others in waiting to see if they'd get into the kiln which was loaded and fired beginning on Monday.

Part of the back stack of the kiln. Two yunomis.

There are two yunomis behind these big pieces.

One yunomi is on a brick on the right side of the kiln. Usually, this is a place that gives great colors--- and good reduction (lack of air) during the firing, which means great colors!

The back stack of the kiln. I wasn't there when the front stack was loaded. Kiln will be unloaded tomorrow. I'm really interested to see how these pieces turned out. I went and checked to see which pieces made it into the firing and unfortunately, the three plates didn't make it in and the three goblets did. :( Who knows what this means for the colors and whether they'll match. Oh well.... and I even asked that they be fired in pairs. There's always something going on in the pottery world.

Meanwhile, I'm running again after a short break. It's good to be back at that. I'm looking forward to being back in the studio again.

Back in the Studio

Back in the studio this afternoon after it was closed for 3 days. Made these six teacups. I'm back at it and am loving it. :) Will trim these tomorrow and make some bowls. Most are pretty much identical; I continue to like that form... and the one with the thumb indentation; I was trying a new form. Hmmm.....

Glazing........

One of two posts. Trying to catch up... Here are some cups and a bowl that I glazed last weekend... lined up on the table.

They ended up here scattered about- to compete with the others to see if they could make it into the gas kiln firing earlier this week.

Only there pieces made the cut..... pics of them in another recent blog post. All of these were glazed with spotted shino and accents of catherine's oribe and soda ash. All were made on phoenix highwater clay. I've found this combo of glazes that I really like and will stick with it for awhile, at least.

These are some of my favorites. :) The middle of the dots is really wax resist on top of the shino, which usually (if there's enough reduction in the kiln) creates a darker shade of shino where the wax resist is. With the gas kiln firings there is that element of mystery though.

And the longer I live, the more I'm convinced that there is mystery in life, so I really like this...

Way Behind on Posts

Am way behind on posts, so this is one of several tonight. As you can see..... well, I still need a new camera. Yet the exciting news remains. This is the front of the gallery in downtown Asheville where some of my pottery now is. Took several pieces there recently. It's on 24 North Lexington Ave. and is called the Atelier Gallery. You can find out more about it here.

Here are some of the pieces that I set out and in time, they'll be in a better display.

Shadows in this pic... Yunomi teacups continue to be my favorite form.

Gabrielle Egan also makes incredible jewelry that she sells there. Check out her website! She also sells her jewelry outside at the Grove Arcade in downtown Asheville.

A bit of a closer look....

The front part of the gallery.

Next to Moni Hill's art--- painting on canvas. This all encourages me to spend more and more time in the studio. If only there were more time....

On the way home I stopped at one of my favorite restaurants and ordered take-out. A stromboli at My Father's Pizza in Black Mountain. All in all, a wonderful day.