Cottage Studio SALE

Last minutes of prep for the Cottage STUDIO SALE.
Tomorrow 12-5.  That's Sunday, Sept. 30.  Lots of calendars give it only a slashed half space.  But it's a full day!  And the moon is also full.

Hope there are lots of people coming.  Hope I sell something.  Lots of hopes at this point.  Whee!

These feelings are the result of not being a professional potter.

 Whenever I approach selling one of my pieces, I want to know where they will live...are they going to a good home?  Sounds like my pets, so perhaps the pottery and sculptures are like pets.  I just have to set my mind into the frame that says "time to let go..."

And I also want to start a mailing list so if I do this again, I can let my friends and customers know.  

So my first customer was here early, and I didn't get her address.  Oh well,at least I know who she is, and I think I can find her again!

Coming to the cottage studio sale

I have invited you to see my pottery at my house Sun. Sept. 30, 12-5 pm

Taking the first left after the Unitarian Universalist Church on Montreat Rd. you are on Beech St.

 The second house on the right is where my cottage studio is...102 Beech St.

Park in front or maybe in the UU parking lot across Montreat (the little Toyota will be parked in the drive of the empty house on the corner, so don't look for it!

 As you walk towards the cottage, stay on the right...

I'll have the door open (and the cats closed away somewhere so they can't get outside!)

Hope you can come by on Sunday between 12 and 5.  If not, contact me and we'll try to meet another time!

Making pitchers

I may not have the corner on the market with swooping handled pitchers much longer.  I've been showing people how I make them, so I dare say lots of others will be out there soon.  That's ok with me.

Here are a couple of medium size thrown pitcher bodies.  The 's' curves will become handles.  I roll out slabs pretty thin, and cut a 1" wide strip, then a 1/2" wide strip which is adhered with slip to the first one, then they are gently curved and left over night under plastic to "set up."

I don't trim the pitchers correctly, because I don't have much bottom in them, and the lips are no longer true.  So I kind of gouge out a bit of the excess clay at the bottom to thin down that area that I never can seem to throw thin.
Then the handles are gently connected to the pot with scoring and slip, and here a blob of clay holds it in the curve I want.  They will sit over night again, under plastic, to begin to dry.

 And now they will go to the bisque kiln when they are bone dry. 

Just thought I'd share this technique with everyone else so lots of pretty pitchers can be all over the place.  Why not?

Tumblers

Extra large tumblers, which are hard for me to hold in my hand actually!  That's because they are shiney glaze (again) which means it's slippery when full of beverages.  Men wouldn't have that problem, so I hope some men buy these.  For me, I'll have to go somewhat narrower, or less weighty (they are a bit thick of sides!) or change the glaze.  (there are 6, and the final 2 have a ring of unglazed area, but it's not the answer to the slipperiness).  Thinner is the answer!

White clay mugs

I love these mugs...the tri color glaze, the size and shape, and how they hold so much liquid, from the smallest of them to the largest.  There are 5 so far, but another 4 in the kiln being bisqued.  (I know, if you're a production potter, I sound like, I don't know, a "hobbiest")  But this is a batch for me to make at one time.

The final 2 of the first set don't have the spiral design, but are just the three colors.  I think I'll do the spirals on the final 4.  It's kind of a nice touch.

Tailgate 9.22.12

My tailgate market had some fun times yesterday!!  For a few more pics see my other blog at 
When I was Sixty Nine

Definitely a dogs-allowed, children friendly place!

Great music added to the charm of the morning

Yep, there's a necklace swap going on above!

Tri-color pitcher

I'm pretty happy with this medium sized pitcher.

The little thumb knob on the handle has a Celtic Cross pressed into it, which doesn't show well in any pictures.

Pencil is added to give you an idea of the scale.  Sorry these images have so much reflection on them.  Shiney glazes are so hard to photograph!!!  Clay is Speckled Brownstone.

The glazes are Floating Blue inside and halfway down the outside.  At that point I used wax resist to paint the spiral over the blue.  Then the outside was dipped up to 2/3 level in Raspberry, which gives that electric mottled color in the middle third.  Isn't it fun?  I've got more coming in this combo.

Photo fun

When is a sky blue pitcher not a sky blue pitcher?

When you use some kind of a filter to get it to have the right color, and nice white highlights turn blue too.

So how's that?  Now the highlights may still be tinged with green, which comes off the tree leaves outside the windows.  I'm still working on taking pictures at night, so that doesn't happen.

I'm also noting the many different hues that my grey background take on.  Just look how pink it is here compared to the shots above.

What's the answer to that problem?

My sale blurb

My Cottage Studio pottery sale is coming soon.





Sunday, September 30 between 12 and 5.

 The latest plates, mugs, and pitchers are now available!
Pottery is always best observed by picking it up and feeling it. 

SALE!  There are some items on which I'm cutting the price!  I returned to pottery about twenty-four years after earning my BFA in ceramics.  I moved here a week after retiring five years ago, and started back in clay within a few months of that.
 
I make pottery so other people will use it.   I sometimes make sculptural pieces as well, perhaps to inspire.  I'm not a production potter, with many duplicate pieces.  I'm a cottage potter.  Come on over and enjoy my neighborhood.

Barbara Rogers
Alchemy of Clay 
102 Beech St.
Black Mountain, NC

Splitting my personalities.

My other self (the one that writes, does photography, travels, loves the cats, gets out in nature, volunteers and joins community groups...)  lives here now...

When I was Sixty Nine

and that's how I looked.

  Now I look a bit different...another year will do that to you!

I'm on the far right in this picture of friends who help each other in our Mud Buddies Pottery co-op which sells at the Tailgate Market here in Black Mountain.

"no such thing as mistake" pots

Beautiful drum form that Travis Fox made.  Unfortunately it cracked all over the place in bisque firing, so I used glue then sprayed it with some gold and sepia, and put a plate inside to keep the dirt at the high level...and planted the pretty purple mums which my friend Rosie gave me for my birthday.

Isn't that a pretty thing to see when I come home?

Geraniums are so bright and cheerful, and these plants have been wintered over inside for the last 3 years.  They even continue blooming in the winter.

Another potter friend's mistake of a casserole became a petunia planter...flowers again by Rosie, planter by Sarah.

Here my very own mistake of a pedestal fruit bowl became the base for the avocado and marigold pot.

Here's a very late season day lilly.  All the rest have been cut back after a very lush growing season, but landlady Susan decided to leave this pretty to be enjoyed.

I wasn't a diligent farmer this year, so my tomato plants didn't give me very much.  They needed TLC and instead were just observed as they survived, which was actually a surprise.

Pendants

 Slow start to staining and glazing.  Can only sit still long enough to do 4 at a time.  Ugh.

Eventually they all are stained or glazed, and to the ones with glaze, I added a coat (thin) of clear glaze.  Mayco Stroke and Coat glazes have served me well.

 The leaves by themselves are last year's pendants.  They just have holes to hang on leather with a ring.

 This year I encorporated leaves bent over the top to hang pendants from, so the cord can just pass through that self contained hanger.  Aren't I smart?

Mainly I'm lazy, or jewelry impaired...I've got lots of cord, loops, rings, findings etc.  Just not inclined to make the necklaces and ask three times the price.  For now, all pendants are $5.

Goddesses are either Venus of Willendorf or Virgin of Guadalupe... just the goddesses that came to  my mind when I was carving them out.  I like that these are just flat pendants with incised details...and the color is either glaze or stain of glaze which is wiped off.

I'm saving some of them back for special friends who like the feminine divine.

Matching tea set

I forgot to mention, the tea jar matches the tea pot which I've had at the Tailgate Market for the last month.

Decided to bring it home to sit with its mate for now.  The tea pot

or the coffee server...

Some new pieces

Another variation of the slab platter standing above the surface of the table.  The swoop is fun to see when lots of plates are so staid and formal.  Here comes some food that's got to be enjoyable to eat.

So what else is new?

 A candle holder, or perhaps some silk flowers (not at the same time of course)

And the latest of my swoopy handled pitchers.  A smallish one this time, but such a pretty blue!

This lovely pitcher would easily hold a few servings of a beverage...actually ...pours without a drip all 30 ounces.