New photos, some new work

So I've been working on my portfolio pictures while it's been raining for so many days. These are the results...





Gaia, just back from the gallery at Black Mountain Center for the Arts..





...mid-range stoneware, clear glaze with some color touches.
16" tall, now priced at $85.

The Queen of Heaven figure, 18" tall, white earthenware, not glazed. $135.

Ceramic handled teapot, mid-range stoneware with nutmeg and green glazes, 8" tall, 7" diameter. $50

Moon Dancer 2, mid-range stoneware, clear glaze with color touches. 13" tall. $100

Moon Dancer Two

Moon Dancer One, mid-range stoneware, clear glaze with color touches. 12" tall. $75.

Chalice One - white earthenware, hand painted glazed, (once-fired cone 04-06) 5-1/2" tall, 6" diameter. $40

Chalice Two, 6" diameter x 5" tall, white earthenware, hand painted glazed. $50

Chalice Three, white earthenware, hand painted glazes, 5" tall x 5" diameter. $25

Leaf handled canister, mid-range stoneware, glazed. 2 quart capacity. $50

Blue & green canister, holds 6 dozen ginger snaps. Mid-range stoneware, glazed. $60

Tai Chi canister, 1-1/2 quarts, mid-range stoneware glazed. $40

Abundance pot (a bun dance) with lid. Three glazes intersecting over stoneware jar. 7" high. $45

Abundance pot

Tiny lidded teardrop box one. Stoneware with glaze colors. 3" $15

Tiny lidded teardrop box two. Stoneware with glaze colors. 3" $15

Crone Earth Mother vase. Stoneware, glazed. 11" tall. $45

Penland's wood firing 3/27/09

The best part of a long firing is having lots of advisers, as well as lots of shifts of people loading the wood!

Greg, Mike, Rachael and Tai discuss how the temperatures vary in the different chambers.

Tai is about to close these openings with some kiln-shelves as well as the bricks.

Rachael, Yena, Ethan and Tai...looking up the hill from the bottom chamber.

The main port for feeding wood into the fire chamber...lots of wood!

After each stoking, there would be black smoke coming out the kiln through some holes (left open on purpose)...but most of the smoke went up the chimney! The fire chamber is on the left, with 2 humps of main chambers full of pots going up the hill toward the chimney.

Behind the observers is "The Pines" dining hall.

Bill checks the cones in one of the side "peeps".

Lots of sitting around while the kiln slowly rises in temperature. This shows the top chamber, and the "secret chamber" that leads into the chimney.

Susan seems excited about something while nothing phases Mike.

Tai is pulling out some shorter wood, with the meadow in the background showing the day-long rain. (I don't think they call it a meadow...but maybe)

Yena, Greg and Tai have a moment's discussion.

Checking on the dampers at the foot of the chimney...Rachael, Bill and Tai.

McKinsey was outside checking on the chimney smoke after each stoking with wood. This became a pretty wet part of the day with rain almost constant.

Pitcher-maker Greg has a couple of finished pieces...and

he's still throwing a few more.

Thanks everyone for letting me watch an eventful day at a great craft school!

Energy Xchange and Spring cometh

Here are some crafts-people at work, some cows doing what they do best, and some flowers and buds saying it's spring at different elevations here in Western NC.

Ian Kessler-Gowell gave us senior visitors a great demo of glass blowing...

Including the full process from beginning to breaking...unfortunately. It was a nice piece until he clipped it from the "stick that you blow through" which must have a name...and it tilted and he was actually juggling it but made sure not to use his hands, just his tools...and then it didn't bounce when it hit the concrete...and some of the shards hit one of the women's suede boots which started to smoke...but she shook them off!

In the pottery studio... are some of the pottery pieces by Ross Edwards, who wasn't there last Fri. when we toured. He uses plaster molds to make similar shaped pieces. The glass furnaces and the glaze kiln are run totally on the methane recovered from the 9 acre landfill near Burnsville...a great model of using the unrecovered gas that exists abundantly in all our landfills!

This is the early spring look that I have around my home...just the beginning of red maples giving a little color last week.

And our local forsythia was just beginning to blossom at the elevation where I live.

On Hwy 80 north leaving Burnsville, we found some lovely white cows, which apparently are special to someone! They seemed pretty placid!

Here Lindsay Rogers (no relation that I know of) is making handles for some mugs in her studio area. There are other potters and another glass blower in the 2 studios.

I ran out of juice in my camera batteries, so didn't get pics of the fish and aquaculture gardens, nor the little gallery.

In Burnsville there was a dogwood (I think) just about to burst.

This daffodil lives by Lake Tomahawk in Black Mountain, where the warm water and the sun have pushed spring to already be there.

While in my yard, I think these little guys may be some mini-daffodils. They may never open, since we've had some freezing nights lately.

We were glad to eat inside rather than on the patio at the Garden Deli in Burnsville. The bright sun didn't quite warm up the cold mountain air.

These lovely quilt squares hang in various areas throughout Burnsville.

And this lovely trump l'oeil mural is right on the square in the middle of town. We all admired it... "We" being the 15 folks who visited Burnsville and the Energy Xchange with the Black Mountain recreaction deptartment "van clan". Thanks for doing the driving, Renee!

We drove around the square, seeing the court house, some offices and shops, and the lovely historic hotel "New Wray" for which I still have trouble remembering the name.

Today (Sat) I went with some other women from my church to join the women of the UU Church of Asheville for a lovely breakfast/brunch. I met a nice woman who works with International Link and I volunteered to help teach some people English as a second language. So I'll be going to a mini-training for their programs in a week or so. It was great to finally get to see the Asheville church, and meet some of the women from it. I have been somewhat shy of walking into such a big church, after becoming so comfortable with the little one here in Black Mountain. But now I won't feel so lost.

The other big event this week was receiving a picture from my sister of herself and her new kitten. I was so glad that she felt like sending it, but I must say I thought she was clinging to what she looked like in her 30's...rather than growing into her age gracefully. But it was just one picture. Maybe she doesn't wear all that makeup every day. For me, comfort takes the first choice in my looks.

comments are welcome! If you can't post them here, write me at goddessinclay@gmail.com.