big bowls

Here are some fruit bowls...lovely deep colors.  I think I'll post them on my Etsy shop.

Large fruit bowl white with blue & raspberry glazed stoneware

Large fruit bowl white inside with blue & raspberry glazed stoneware, 12" diameter

Medium-large fruit bowl white with blue & raspberry glazed stoneware, 11" diameter

I love the deep blue/purples that happen with raspberry glaze over the floating blue glaze.  I can forgive the swooping lips that aren't perfect, because they look so lovely and really will be great for holding fruit.  I think I'll sell each of them for $35.  Of course shipping outside Asheville will add to the price.

Really really old works

Going to go search in "my pictures" for something to plop into my blog.
You need some pottery to look at, I'm a thinkin'...

This piece, the only bust I've ever done, was completed in my first year of return to college.  My son was about this age at the time.  Unfortunately, there's this big crack in the clay on the forehead, which was obvious.  But I kept it around for a while, since the emotional attachment was pretty high.  Now it's gracing some landfill somewhere.  I am sorry I didn't take a hammer to it, always wondering about the permanence of my work that is less than the intended almost-perfection.  Like how archeologists will think of our culture with so many bad pots out there!

Fast forward till when I was about to graduate in ceramics, and I had developed a cone 6 clay body, and was enjoying making stains in it.  So this is one of the few vases I kept, since I was still really enjoying doing sculptures.  Guess which is more likely to be kept and moved from house to house however, down through time?

OK, this sculpture has been around longer than any of my kids.  And I actually am still good friends with the girl (woman now) with her back to me.  This earthenware was made around 7th grade (I won't tell you the year I was in 7th grade!).  It has tempera paint and a clear varnish on it.  I left this piece with my parents when I left home, and they used it for....

a doorstop

 for the next 30 years or so.  I finally rescued it.  By that time I'd sent many pieces that I thought were much prettier to them.  When I visited however, I was unhappily surprised that there weren't any in evidence, except the doorstop.

Though this plate was made (and dated) in 1981, I eat off of it almsot daily.  It's porcelain, and the blue blobs were pieces of lace infused with cobalt,  and I have no idea what the glaze was.  It's one of a kind, and feels really good to handle.

Do you have favorite pieces that you live with also?

Artist of the Week Jerry Pope

Jerry Pope is a friend, and an extraordinary artist.

Copyrighted Jerry Pope

Pope was one of the writers and directors of the popular “Way Back When” series of plays that ran at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts for five years. During that time, he and his wife, Rebecca Williams, did extensive oral history interviews throughout the Valley.

 Building on those interviews, he later co-wrote and illustrated “A Step Back in Time: A Walking Tour of Black Mountain” with the talented graphic designer, Nancy Mason.

 Pope has also created “The Early Appalachian Coloring Book,” an historically accurate glimpse of our region from 20 million BC to just before the Civil War. This book will be published this Fall.

“People are drawn to the beauty of the mountains, but also have a need to know how this town got to be the way it is,” Pope said. “But more than history, people love stories. Stories are the meat on the bones of history.”

PRESS RELEASE:

JERRY POPE BACK WITH “STEP BACK IN TIME” HISTORY WALKING TOURS

Jerry Pope, local historian, writer and artist, will be leading walking tours through Black Mountain’s historical district every Saturday this summer from the Monte Vista Hotel. The tours will start at 7 PM and last about an hour. Advanced tickets will be sold at the Monte Vista and at Town Hardware.

The “Step Back in Time” History Walking Tour will be offered every Saturday between Memorial Day and Labor Day at 7 pm. The cost is twelve dollars per person, with group rates and private tours available. You can pick up tickets at the Monte Vista or Town Hardware. For more information call Jerry Pope at Hare Brand Ideas, 918 960-0290.

The walking tour will include both historical facts and some of the more interesting and funny stories Pope and Williams gathered for “Way Back When.” 

There is a lot more about Jerry that I'm not able to cover in this little posting.  Check out his new FaceBook page, or his older works...and just wait till his next creativitiy comes along!

Jerry Pope's Face Book Page

Who did I learn from anyway?

I don't have a picture of Charles, the man who first taught me how to throw clay, and I glazed most of his works for about a year as we were part of a crafts co-op in Tallahassee.  We certainly had fun, and I lived on my savings, because I certainly didn't live on my production!

Then I returned to college and studied at the University of Florida and got a BFA to prove I could throw clay.  I really enjoyed myself, though there were some personal challenges that happened about that time in my life.

Nan Smith, U of FL

Maria Martinez, New Mexico

Adelaid Alsop Robineau with Scarab Vase

Nan Smith 2011 with students U of FL

MC (Mary Caroline) Richards, Black Mountain College

If I hadn't read "Centering, In Pottery, Poetry and the Person" by MC RIchards, I wouldn't have been so drawn to expressing myself in clay since the 70's.

Goddess (replica) Ankara Museum, Turkey

The Dinner Party by Judy Chicago, Susan B. Anthony plate

Judy Chicago

Chestnut, by Fidelma Massey

Garden by Nan Smith, 2010

So there were lots of women (as well as men) who worked in clay that I  learned from...or at least looked up to as mentors.  Who taught you?

Canisters with ginger jar lids

Canisters that are at least 30 years old, and still going strong in my kitchen.  Fat one is coffee, and tall one is often whole wheat flour.

 

Of this set,only the canister is still intact.  Babysitter playing hide and seek with my 3 year old took care of the tea pot, which I repaired and kept for a while.  The plate has finally been cracked, though I only used it as a serving piece.  I  keep brown rice in this 30 year old canister.

I no longer have this raku "vase within vase."   I think I'll make another one, at least the idea is still pretty cool, and next time I will just fire it with regular glaze, rather than wait for a raku firing.

new plants in old pots

Some new vegies and flowers are now growing delightfully in old pots. With all the rain lately, I haven't had to water any of them for the week they've been planted, so they are all happy. 

3 little zuccini plants and a marigold at the foot of the birdbath.  I've got one plant in the ground, and 2 in the pot with the flower.

Kalancho going crazy in the sun.  The begonia will have had enough soon, as the temp on the pavement increases, so it will find a shadier home then.

When a plate lip wanted to go screwy, I just helped it a little.

Standard heavy duty stoneware mugs, hopefully will hold more than 12 oz when they're finished.

The ginger pot with lid, drying in the window upside down after finally being dry enough to trim (I helped it a bit with a hair dryer.)
 
This week I didn't get anything out of the kilns...and all these greenwares are waiting to be bisqued.  So this time next week will be glazing frenzy for me.  This is one of the things I'm practicing patience on...not having control of when my pieces can fit in a community kiln.


Tomorrow, the drum-maker, Travis Fox.

Ginger jar type lids for different pots

A bumper crop of day lilies will bloom pretty soon.

The wild animal stalks her dinner through the grass, or maybe hides to take a nap.

 This is the first ginger type top on a little round jar.

And here's what Sarah did with this technique (after Charles taught her more about how to form the lid).

My ginger jar waiting to be dry enough to trim, with it's lid.

From my eye to yours.  It's really damp here these days, so whenever the sun comes out I am so happy to put wet pots out to dry a bit.  

Today I also finished some mugs with new handle designs, and a vase with slip brushed into its carved areas.  tomorrow if it's finally dry enough, I'll scrape or sand off the slip on the raised areas which are stoneware, and leave Fishsause White Slip in the grooves.

I've got lots more pictures, but will wait till tomorrow to post them.

Ginger jar rims

A rainy couple of days.

Making some new things in the studio...not sure I want to keep them.  One platter slumped, so I cut the rim and curled it up into 2 curls.  I keep thinking I'll just recycle the clay.  Not sure yet.

Some mother's day yesterday.  A few phone calls from my sons late in the day yesterday. But my feelings were the whole day wasn't exactly fun fun fun.  The homemade batch of brownies as well as a pretty card which arrived Sat. was a special treat from one of my sons.  It was just having a long day of not having heard at all from the other 2 which meant I needed to focus on something else.

Threw some mugs a few days ago, and today some very big, beer stein size ones.  I've got a couple of big bowls waiting to bisque.

Then Sarah wanted to see how I make ginger jar lids, so a casserole doesn't need to have that bulge that makes it hard to clean where the lid sits on a galley.  I made a sugar bowl with 2 possible lids as a demo.  I think she's got it.  The following jar has the lid which sits on the top edge of the jar, and for my design, I have a flange on the lid which goes down inside the jar.

commercial ginger jar

Of course she's ahead of me in lots of designs, and definitely in production. I learn much from her as well as sharing some tricks I've learned over the years.

Here you can see the flange down inside the jar.

There is another design where a ginger jar has a lid which completely covers the top of the jar, and rests upon the shoulder rather than the rim, and thus doesn't have the flange inside at all. 

Lid on shoulder of ginger jar

Heroines and mentoresses

When this was the topic for our Women's Spirituality Group at our church this month, I started making a list of all the great women I've learned from and been influenced by.  It kept getting longer and longer.

Here are a few of them.  I just mainly wanted to archive the list for today, and will be happy to look at it again in a year and see if I've got some new mentoresses, (too bad that spell check doesn't think that's a word.  Of course it is!)

Deep dish casserole

These are not in any particular order, and their relationships to me, and reality, jump all over the place!

Mary Carolyn Richards (teacher, author, potter from Black Mountain College & "Centering in Pottery Poetry and the Person")
Akelanda (Never not-broken, rolling on the floor crying saint)
Mary Cassatt
Georgia O'Keeffe
Gertrude Stein
Amma, Spiritual leader (the Hugging Saint)
Mary Oliver, poet
Hecatedemeter blog
Mary Beth Rogers Miller, sister
Willow LaMonte, friend
Anita Spring (Dean, UF boss)
Antiga, friend
Dawn Wilson, friend
Miss Kessler (freshman English)
Martha Curie, friend
Mary Magdalene
H. Byron Ballard, friend
Adelaide Robineau, early ceramic artist
Judy Garland
Emily Dickenson
Shirley Temple
Susan B. Anthony
Ginger Rogers
Nancy Drew
Elizabeth Cunningham, author
Pollyanna
Audrey Hepburn
May Sarton
Frieda Kalo
Merlin Stone
Elizabeth Caddy Stanton
Michelle Naglieri Heym, daughter in law
Linda Metzner, friend
Starhawk
Cinnamon Heym, daughter in law
Ramya Ruth Gleeson, friend
Deb Vingle, Yoga teacher, friend
Rosemary Beddingfield, friend
Jinni Beck Stahl, friend
Rosemary Stout, friend
Teresa Ballinger, friend
Elizabeth Jessie, friend
Mary Heym, mother in law
Margaret Mitchell
Carol Christ
Mary Baker Eddy, Religious leader
Laura Ingles Wilder
Susan Sarandon
The Bronte sisters
Vicki Lane
Pearl Buck
Linda Arkwright, in-law mother in law of son
Agatha Christi
Edith Wharton
Judy Lynch (7th grade best friend who died)
Katherine Hepburn
Bette Davis
Mrs. Edwards, 7th grade teacher
Goldie Hawn
Sojorner Truth
Snow White
Julie Andrews
Jackie Kennedy
Heidi (the book)
Julia Roberts
Mary Daly
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Cinderella
Judy Chicago
Martha Stewart
Louise Nevelson
Grace Kelley
Meryl Strep
Princess Diana
Jo in Little Women
Sacajawea
Dr. Christianne Northrup
Brigit
Quan Yin
Gretel (in Hansel and Gretel)
Patricia Monaghan
Marija Gimbutus
Fanny Farmer
Bette Crocker
Hecate
Innana
Aphrodite
Persephone
Demeter
Athena
Indira Ghandi
Beatrix Potter
Grace O'Malley (real Irish pirate who saw Queen Elizabeth I)
Julia Ward Howe
Dorthea Dix
Margaret Mead
Rachel Carlson


many other women who influenced me by their words and deeds.  (I've not included the mothers and grandmothers which I've already honored this week)

Children make you a mother

A casserole dish for Dutch Apple Pie or deep dish apple pie.  I sometimes will just microwave one apple, pared, with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top.  That's the quickie version.

I know, it should be full of pie.  But wait, I'll tell you how to make it, and you can do it yourself.  Right?

Or not.

Either make a pie crust with your fav. recipe, or buy one of those refrigerated ones...line the casserole dish, and maybe stretch the crust to go up the sides most of the way.

Pare and core 6-7 medium apples, preferably something tart.
Sprinkle about 1/4 c flour over them
Sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sugar
Sprinkle enough cinnamon that they all are slightly tan,
Mix them all together and
Put in casserole

In the original bowl...
Mix another 1/4 - 1/2 c of flour with
3 tablespoons of sugar
and 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
and 1/4  c of butter.
Cut the flour,sugar,cinnamon mixture in with the butter with two knives or a pastry blender to make mealy texture
pour over top of apples and kind of press it down, so it covers all the apples
bake about 45 min,  in 350 degree oven, until apples are soft and crust top is brown

A squirt of whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream makes this heavenly.

And here's why I'm proud to be a mother...

Tai and me

Caroline, Kate and Audrey

Marty and me, Thanksgiving 2011

Cayenne and Will

Will, Cayenne and Mike

Tai and Kendra (his S.O.)

Cayenne and Cinnamon

Russ, Audrey and Michelle