MudBuddies last week

Beautiful setting, plenty of parking, great market

Lesson of the day, wind will tear flowers to shreds!

Marsha setting up her pots

Cathy considering her set up

Bette is our raku and jewelry artist

Barb's mugs and tumblers (and one of Marsha's casseroles too)

Pat's diverse creations

Our little co-op of five potters who started out at Black Mountain's Clay Studio at the Center for the Arts...we've got just about everything made in clay available here at the Tailgate Markets...each Sat. 9-12 all summer long.

Glossy green with cherry trees

Tumblers in glossy green glaze have a hand painted cherry tree on the side.

Wine red mugs with orchids

I've been working on an order of tumblers in this color, with hand painted phalaenopsis orchids on the side.  So I had to make a few mugs as well.

 Did I mention they will be at the Tailgate Market from 9-12 today, Sat. May 17! 

PS, I thought I could just carry them out to the car without wrapping them in any padding.  But I couldn't get the door open and bang, two of them fell against each other and broke off the handles.  I called myself a lot of not very pleasant names.  All that work for crumbled clay!  (But it's pretty!)

Juice or milk?

Suggestion of cherry blossoms on tree shapes...plum blossoms?  Then just on the rim some sky color.  And roots that go down into earthy green.

This set is done with speckled brownstone clay, a celadon glaze which is translucent to show the spotting in the clay, and Mayco Stroke and Coat for the plum blossoms.  I couldn't find a good pink that wouldn't wash out in cone 6, so mixed a white with some of the red, and it's a bit more red than I was hoping for...but that's alright.  The Black Mountain Clay Studio (part of the Center for the Arts) has lots of studio glazes, including the celadon, the glossy green, and the rim called plum...confusing I know.

Beauty in the eye of the beholder?

Part of me sees this as an ugly little chunky vase.

Then part of me sees the crystaline shapes, the deep pits, the depth of glaze that varies as it breaks on the rim, showing the stoneware through it's transparency...and maybe there's beauty there as well.

 

Here the same glaze was applied, somewhat thinner, on white clay.  The wine red was put on the rim first, I think.  The interior clear had already been applied.  And then the bottom was dipped into the celadon crystaline glaze.  I love that lip where the combined glazes still look fluid. Seeing the red through the crazing is also a fun thing to do.

 

So I'm glad to have tried this glaze out.  And I'll keep experimenting with some new things.  Looking always for beauty...it sneaks up on me and surprises me sometimes.

Dear rain goddess

No one knows your name.  But I know you exist, and are responsive (sometimes, when you feel just like doing so) to my requests to wait a bit, or move over a half mile...there was that wedding where the choir all held their hands above their heads and asked you to stay away during our festivities, and you did.  Today you were good enough to wait while the Tailgate market was having such a good turnout.  I am so grateful that you are now giving us periodic downpours, as you may wish, where you may wish.

Thank you whoever you are.  (And if someone reading this is offended, you can thank your own source of weather.)

I am very grateful that our Tailgate Market sales went well...much better than last week for myself anyway.

Some of these tiny vase pots sold May 10, Thanks!

There were our usual families and children and people of all kinds with dogs of all kinds.  And great musicians singing in the middle of the main area. 

Sold May 10 to a good cook.

We don't have all of the vendors we had last year.  And I do know it's early for vegetables and produce of any kind.  So there are plants, honey, chocolate, pies, eggs, necklaces, meat, pots, rugs, baked goods (2 vendors of rolls and breads) and fresh fish.  There're a couple of new booths, one is of beautiful yarns, one is of flours that are non-GMO.

Sold May 10...thank you so much!

I am so  proud to be part of this group of dedicated people, serving our community, becoming friends with so many!

enticing casseroles

Once you purchase your fresh vegies at the Tailgate, you might consider how they'll look in a new dish...

This wine red casserole dish won't be sitting on the table for long.  It is joining others by our other Mud Buddies, as there are 5 of us selling our own styles at our booth.

Cathy Babula

Bette Potter Jones

Pat Levi

Marsha Cozart

and myself, Barbara Rogers

We'll be at the Tailgate Market all Satuday mornings this summer - under the bright red tent.

To market, to market, to buy a...pot!

Three glaze combo on a casserole...same glaze on some bowls also. The Mud Buddies will be at our lovely Tailgate Market in Black Mountain Sat 9-12...behind the Baptist Church in the middle of town on Montreat Rd (Hwy 9). Many mugs, and this week I'll bring some new tiny little vases, just right for spring blossoms! Come on by our booth and say hi. We are a friendly bunch!

Memories of Cherry Blossoms

Back on April 25 (HERE) I posted the beginning of the buds as they became blossoms.

And as I was afraid, the quick plunge into summer meant a short blossom season.

By April 29, blossoms were losing petals and leaves were becoming abundant.

My studio never got to the totally pink light that it had last year.

And last week I had my energies focused outwardly to help my church, so I didn't get to work in my studio anyway.

What if imagination and art are not frosting at all, but the fountainhead of human experience?  Rollo May, The Courage to Create

 

Mud buddies

First market of the 2014 summer season...Black Mountain Tailgate Market that is...
Pat (in pink) and Marsha, (in dark blue) discuss something that we'll never know.

After a winter of making pottery in different places, it was so fun to see each of our 5 creations.  Here Bette (in red) and Cathy (in tan) discuss glazes.

The 8:30 set up shows gorgeous green grass.

I dropped my mugs and cups (on the right end of the table shown above) and ran back to the Trillium Church Festival and sale up the road.  I am sorry to have missed seeing all my friends last Sat. at the Tailgate market...so I'll be there with bells on this Sat (9-12). (Don't ask me where my bells are, however.)

Casserole

My most exciting combo of 3 glazes works in small casseroles also.  I have to be able to dip the dish into the glaze, so a much larger casserole will have to be done differently.