Gone to new homes

I actually started my selling season (March, first Tailgate Market) keeping inventory of what I sent in my tub to the market, crossing off what sold, and adding new items.
That lasted about a month.

I'm not a good inventory keeper any more.  Nor bookkeeper ever.

So I just decided to share pics of some of the things I know went to new homes, though lots may just be lost on shelves in the studio.  Ha ha.

 I gave the butter dish to my middle son...it was what he asked for for his birthday this year.

I was so pleased to be at the market the day a woman wanted to buy this pit-fired pot.






The bright blue goblets/tumblers with stamped designs are still around.  Some have sold, some are still available.

 I thought nobody would like the fish plater.  Wrong.  I guess the price was right!

I just made another set of these bowls...one with white clay, one with stoneware.  I'm doing this color scheme on some, and trying something new on others.

I gave these beer steins to my eldest son for birthday/Father's Day.

THis post is included in MudColony postings here...http://mudcolony.blogspot.com/
Come see other potters studios and work!

Just 3 more weekends

that the Tailgate Market will be out there behind the church in Black MOuntain, NC.

That you will have the chance to buy Mudbuddies Pottery.

I know there are lots of other potters out there.  But these wonderful 6 women, myself included, have lugged out tables and tent,and 6 bins of pots...then put them back in their cars, all spring and summer...

I hope you get a chance to come by and buy.  9-12 Sat. mornings.  Just go north on Rte 9 from I-40 or US 70 in Black Mountain...it's where everyone goes.  But there's always just one more parking place, so you'll be welcome!

And it's going to be fall this weekend.  I can feel it in my bones.

Yes, I'm unabashedly promoting my friend's pottery.  And of course the other vendors are friends as well...with fish, meat, eggs, honey, vegies, pies, cheesecake, nuts and chocolate, as well as baked goods.

Fred Feldman's work

I sometimes feature a friend here on my blog.  Fred asked me over to take photos of his work yesterday.

  He does ceramic and wood sculptural figures...and many of his friends hadn't seen them yet, he said. 

So he's planning to post them on Face Book.

Whenever he gets back to the computer from (golf course? cleaning up his studio for the tour?)

In the meantime, I posted some of them on my facebook page. 

  And I'll let you see some too.

 His sculptures sometimes grew larger than his photo-cube.  But he said go ahead and take it this way, so we did.

The walls of Fred's home are covered with his art.  As well as tables.
He also makes custom stereo speaker systems and is quite comfortable working with wood as well as clay.

Don't miss his studio in the East of Asheville Studio Tour, Oct 13 & 14, 2012!!

pitchers

The ongoing quest for a pitcher which pours properly.

Keep on trying.

I like the Matt Bronze Green glaze, and especially with this new accent test of a black matt glaze.

Both of them run to brown where they are thin.  But the matt quality is pretty.  The liner is a Satin White.

Here the white satin comes outside and down the body and handle also.

The black where it was brushed on as thick as I could make it, came out looking pretty hoakey.  Unless you're trying for patchy streaks.

But the thing I do like is how the white and black interact where the white was dipped over the brushed on black.  Whow.  That's the kind of blend and separation of colors I like.

Yes, it's focused...you can even see the highlight is in focus.  Kind of impressionistic coloration happening there.  I want to do more with this!

Incidentally, the second pitcher pours with constant dribble down the side.  The top one can pour the last half of a pitcher-full but the first half will dribble.

Guess what I did after these two abject "learning experiences?"  Made a bunch of test pitchers.  They are in the bisque kiln today.

Clay Flowers

OK, I know they are trite.  After all there are gorgeous real flowers around.
And there are wonderful artificial silk, paper or even plastic copies of flowers.

But every once in a while a woman wants to try her hand at making one out of clay.  And they are just the suggestion of one, not a duplicate.  Sculpture. Art?

test bowl

 What's so "test" about this bowl?
 I never get the glaze exactly horizontal where one glaze meets the next.  A new(ish) potter asked me how to do that, and I said I am unsuccessful at it.  And I actually usually like that so it proves a human hand and eye made this.

No, the test being carried out on the bowl here is that it has a rolled lip.  It may well have some air inside the roll, and I expected it wouldn't stay together.  But it did.  And it feels really nice, being light to handle though it looks very sturdy.

Get your cereal ready to eat in this!

mugs

 I love the white satin liner, and along the lip of these big and bigger mugs.

 The blue is a variation with one glaze over another, clear over floating blue from our studio glazes.

Though some folks shy from using matt bronze green on functional food wares, here it is well balanced with the satin white liner, so your lips never touch the green at all.

Plates

Loved John Britt's post about "you know you're a potter if."
He says he's copyrighted it, so here is the link to his post.

http://ncclayclub.blogspot.com/2012/09/you-know-youre-potter-if.html

I love the feel of these new plates, a satin white which just will grace any food.  The details are little circles of glaze overlapping, with variations that just happened in the kiln, as always.

success feels good

My living room, even my kitchen counters, and the studio shelves were all full of different kinds of pottery. 

 Everything from tiny vases to nude sculptures, from tree sculptures to mugs and bowls and casseroles.  Whew.  All laid out.

And then the day flowed so smoothly.

In spite of excellent hiking weather, many of my Black Mountain friends came by to check out the pots.

  Most hadn't been to my house in ages, if ever.  So it was just friends dropping buy. 

They left with bags of pottery too.  And my personal finances will be fuller and happier today.

  I think my main thankfulness is for friends who knew when they came over they would buy something.  Some of them didn't, but most did.

It was fun especially to sit and talk and sip cider.

  Not the usual shopping experience!  At least not in my life!  Do you go to a gallery and have that kind of ease?  Certainly not a design store.




And having a best friend stay the whole time really made it easy for me too. ( in case we had a busy experience  where people wanted to talk glazes at the same time someone wanted to hurry away with a purchase, which never happened.)  Many thanks to Teresa!