a couple of pictures

Tonight at twilight I had to take a couple of pictures of some pots that I've had sitting around for a while. I just have put off getting it all together to do it. This is a cute little shallow bowl.

I got a kick out of having the little pointed corners I added to it.

This white bowl is deeper, and quite thin. It is also not quite perfectly round.

I enjoy using the streaks of black copper oxide, which turns into nice green shades under the white glaze.

There is also a platter with a raised rim in the same color scheme. These were gifts to my friend for the holidays.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. I am sad that I won't be with most of my family, except my youngest son. I'm terrifically grateful that he's part of my life. He's doing pottery at the Clay Studio also now, having completed his work at Penland.

We're all at the studio getting ready to have a big show on Dec. 5, and a short (2 hour) sale. I'm thinking of not having as many pots as I originally was going to bring.

Hoping you have a wonderful holiday.

Barb

My demo

A relaxing warm Saturday afternoon at the Silver Armadillo in Asheville...demonstrating making pendants in clay and painting them to once-fire.

WARM! I can't emphasize that enough, as the weather has been really cold lately here. Of course Black Mountain is a bit colder than Asheville, but I was so glad the store was warm, especially since I sat right near the front door. The empty chair was filled with my son, Tai most of the afternoon. He brought lunch from next door (EarthFare groceries) and was helpful with imprinting words on the back of the 6 pendants I made that afternoon. They are all words that go with the carved and painted animals or flowers.

I got into making cat pendants when Christine, the manager, showed me a picture of Chico, her tuxedo cat.

Here poor Muffin has glazed eyes,

her pal Keptain, and this is the closest I've seen them in an age. We're all piled up on our new futon, which is providing Tai with a bed while he's visiting.

Did I have a good time yesterday? Sure did!! Abby came by an was one of my customers. I made enough in sales to satisfy my having packed everything up both ways...and I enjoyed sitting there making art. That's what makes my life fun and interesting these days.

Compassionate action starts with seeing yourself when you start to

make yourself right and when you start to make yourself wrong.

At that point you could just

contemplate the fact that there is a larger alternative to either of those, a more tender,

shaky kind of place where you could live. ~Pema Chodron

My ceramic work

1. My second "four-elements" pot representing air with a butterfly. This is stoneware, glazed and mid-range fired to cone 6.

The fire side.

Water side.



A cave represents the earth element.

.


Stoneware, cone 6 fired with HR Satin glaze with Black Copper Oxide stain.

3. A pod-rose sculpted and glazed.

4. This pocket vase is low fired but glazed so it will hold water.

5. This is another stoneware pocket vase, glazed and high fired to cone 10.

I did the hand building, and my son, Tai did the glazing. Those are his fingers outlined in the glaze.

6. A small blue pod-box. SOLD

7. Black Mountain Blue shiney glaze interiors, and HR Satin matt finish with some cobalt slip on the exteriors, mid-range fired stoneware.

8. Green and white mugs.

9. Some pendants for the holidays. I'm hanging white snowflakes on my tree, and using the "holly leaves" around the centerpiece on the table. Most of the birds and animals have sold.

A scarf, sunset and jolly potters

A couple of days ago, I chanced to see the crescent moon at sunset...

which was colorful both in sky and in leaves.

Today we had a big meeting at the studio to plan for the Holly Jolly show which will include students and "residents" (who I keep calling the teachers).


Here are some of the students. I am on the left, next to Karen, then Abby.

Jane, (who's another student), Karen, Abby and Maureen in front of the studio.

I do wonder what Maureen whispered to Abby, don't you?

This is the scarf which my sister, Mary, made for me, under her name "just for pretty". It's definitely pretty wonderful.

It's beaded lace over a nice soft wool.

Here's a close up of some of her beadwork.

And then Muffin decided to help me take pictures, or perhaps to try to lie on the scarf...no way!

She may approve of the scarf, but I was laughing so hard I didn't get any of this shot in focus.

Dillsboro's Pottery Festival 2008

This lovely red maple stands beside a huge warehouse...Highwater Clay Co...where we started out our Saturday jaunt.

This is the French Broad River right behind Highwater Clay in Asheville.

And here's my friend Abby (green coat) looking away from us at the beautiful pottery. We couldn't have asked for a nicer day!

Here's a friendly stranger smiling at me as I took a picture of the quaint town of Dillsboro. We have to go back and look at it when it's not in the midst of a festival some day.

This tray was an example of some of the things that inspired us. Abby was entranced by it.

We did go inside one pottery shop, where several potter's works were represented. We were both taken by a few cats done by a potter from GA, named Boyd. There were a lot of pots with leaf impressions on them also.

Here Joe Frank (can't remember his last name, but he had 2 first names) demonstrates alcohol reduction by the fumes from the alcohol he's spraying upon a pot right out of the kiln. He would spray until the copper color appeared, then put it under a pyrex bowl on a sand table for a certain amount of time...and

later it came out looking like this. Pretty magical, no?

These raku pots demonstrate the technique of using horse hair in the final smoking of them...it leaves a great imprint.