Oh pretty rice bowls

I like the glazing for color variation on these "chopstick" bowls.

Unfortunately the eggshell lining is full of tiny pin holes, so they aren't food safe.  So they will work very well with a bulb or two planted in them, to be enjoyed as bowls as growing medium.

Gingko mugs

They're back!

Garlic keepers

Simplicity. 

by Barbara Rogers

A friend wanted a red garlic keeper.  I'd never made one before...so these are the 2 for her to choose the size she likes.  Color choice was already hers and I like it too.

Quote for today:

The future is not some place we are going, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made. And the activity of making them changes both the maker and their destination.   John Schaar

Remains of the day

After the Holly Jolly 2 hour extravaganza sale, the room had to be readied for dance classes the next day.  So only one table of sales pottery remains, in the hallway outside the gallery.

The gallery exhibit of student and faculty work is still up for your viewing pleasure.

And in case I forgot to mention it, this sale is to support the Center for the Arts, so half of all proceeds will go to our parent organization (also a non-profit).

Alchemy - just another name for chemistry

Think back a century or two, and chemistry as a science didn't exist, except as alchemy!

The sales room

Molly Keeney

Barb Rogers & Bonnie (the tall vase on right)

You missed it, if you didn't come over and climb the stairs (or take the elevator) to the Holly Jolly student pottery sales at Black Mountain Center for the Arts last night.  A few pieces are now in the hallway on one table (rather than 12).

I'll share some of the gallery displays later...it will be up for another month or so.

The round table on the left had refreshments, which were the best in town.  Hot mulled wine, cold cider, lots of home backed goodies, peppermint bark etc.

Lynda Keith

Pat Levi

Pat Levi

Fred Feldman

Barbara Goulson

Gail Rivera

Marsha Cozart

I missed taking pictures of my friends this year.  Here Bob and Bette enjoy the last minutes before pack-up.  I'm pretty tired myself.

Holly Jolly time again in Black Mountain

Tomorrow night, Dec 6, 6-9, the gallery will have an opening at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts.
And there will be student's pottery for sale as well.

Here are pics of last year's gallery displays.  (click here)

I hope you can come enjoy a visit (the gallery will be continuing the exhibit for the next month or so).
And maybe purchase a pottery piece (50% of sales supports the Center for the Arts).

There's also a parade, and all the shops stay open late, and have sales, and many have free refreshments.  Basically, if the weather is alright, most of the town and half again as many tourists come out.

See ya there?
(Also posted on my other blog)

Why turn clay into money?

I've decided something.
Yes, my thinking has proceeded to the point that I can again make a decision.

I like making things in clay.  There's the slippery luxury of pulling it up into a cylinder on the wheel...feeling that gravity and the centering and the force of centripetal pull will yield with my energy.

We must be true inside, true to ourselves, before we can know a truth that is outside us. But we make ourselves true inside by manifesting the truth as we see it.

Thomas Merton

My focus of energy takes me different places at different times in my clay forming existance.

I read blogs of potters.  I don't know where the blogs of clay sculptors are...are they out there and I haven't connected to them?  I see those of artists sometimes.  They are great.  

I am not pushed to make better, more beautiful functional wares.  I admire them.  But I am now going a different direction.  It's the season of change for me, where I start thinking of forms not as how they are held and used, but how they explore a design that exists just for itself...a concept brought into being to share visually only.

So today I'm not interested in turning my clay into money.  That is a valid pursuit, and I wish success to all the great potters (and bloggers) who are doing so.

 

Angels

That time of year, and a new design.  Very limited output this year due to health.

Before glazing, small little white creatures with wings...

A few were a bit more finished with facial features.  The pink you see is wax that is painted on the thin parts so they won't dry and crack off before the bodies dry as well.  It is an extra insurance that often pays off.

And this year my choir of angels are indeed in choir robes of red.

Panther plays archangel to the little choir.  She is so bored with pieces of pottery all about.  Soon they will be put away or sold.

 Today's Quote:

We cannot hold a torch to light another person's path without brightening our own.

Ben Sweetland

marketday

Pat is happy to tell folks about her creations.  They are so well made!

 

Marsha is happy with the first sale of the day, that large blue casserole (on which we urged her to put a price that was competitive, and she got it!)

Cathy has returned to potting and carving her gorgeous scrafitto tiles.  I dare say they won't all be going home with her.

The trouble with being sick is not having a half a brain.  I forgot a hat.  It's in the 50's, but damp.  So first Pat loaned me her neck scarf to cover my ears.  Then Linda, who sells knit and crocheted beauties came over and gave me the green/purple combination.  I didn't know Linda at all, and she said it would help better than the little scarf.

Cathy took my picture of my wares (the casserole is again Marsha's.)  Sorry you can't see the spirals on the white plates.

Like good friends anywhere, the mudbuddies sent me home to keep out of the chill weather.  So here I am, and will go back to pack up the last of my pots to be sold outside this year...well, whatever hasn't sold.

TODAY's QUOTE:

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world -- that is the myth of the "atomic age" -- as in being able to remake ourselves.

Mahatma Gandhi

 

Not your pro photos

 

 Alas (she said dramatically) the smart phone does it's own light settings, and this is the over exposed version of the vase above.  But it also shows the small bowl shape, with almost correct coloration!

Another ginger jar...turquoise and Celtic Cross stamped medalions.