New August Pots

I'm including this pot, because it's a comparison from this stoneware (cone 6) to...

Some of the new P-5 (porcelain at cone 6) clay with some very troublesome glazing. It took 3 tries to get what I wanted, and I'm pretty happy with these results.

This glaze is my favorite, clear then with nutmeg over it. I had to sponge on the nutmeg because it was so thick it cracked off if I tried pouring or dipping the glazes on the pot.

The details on all my pots (colors) are done with Mayco Stroke and Coat, which go to cone 6 pretty well. The bottom white/green on the butterfly pot is from dunking it into HR Satin.

Here the clear with nutmeg left some interesting streaking, and I put wax over the detail work before dunking this small pot in nutmeg.

This tiny little jade gem just barely didn't stick to the shelf with the runny Matt Bronze Green over clear glaze. Too thick! But so pretty with those details.

The Mayco yellow didn't survive very well in this delicate detail.

This is another large pot, combining torn slab work with a thrown base.

A medium size chalice shape, with some fun variations.

This small pot and the previous one are both low fire earthenware (cone 04) with Mayco glazes.

This is one of my display shelves...

which give slightly paler colors, as well as a good comparison of the sizes!

All in all, I'm pleased with these pots. Still working!

A couple more pots...

White earthenware chalice with leaf design glazes. These are all more pots for the sale tomorrow at the Pottery Market.

A white earthenware clay chalice...with hand painted glazes with a mid-eastern hint.

This is the tallest piece I made, and it was still in the kiln when I took pictures of the others...combos of thrown bottoms with torn slab upper parts. The glaze is what I have been using on all the pots this month...clear with nutmeg.

Pottery Market this weekend

One of my small vases with tree limbs. Each vase is around 4" tall.

Jane and Elise are busy getting ready for the sale...or maybe just enjoying making something beautiful. The Sourwood Arts Festival will take over downtown Black Mountain, NC this weekend, and since our Clay Studio is right next door, we'll have a pottery market. The sales of our works will contribute to equipment needed by the community members and classes here in the Black Mountain Center for the Arts, (a non-profit organization.)

Elise is busy glazing one of her pots.

This is one of my combined pieces...about 14" tall with a thrown bottom and torn-slab pieces worked around the upper half.

Detail of combined thrown and slab pieces vase.

Another vase of the same style, slightly taller and thinner. Base is a thrown shape, with addition of pieces of slab to form the upper part.

Detail of same combination pot.

I enjoy making vignettes on these vases...with scenery reminiscent of our Blue Ridge views.

Another small vase with a vignette painted upon its side.

Detail of goddess/female form with lid.

Finally moved

I didn't completely clean up the old apartment...but I sprayed the oven cleaner before I left the keys on the counter. The floor was wet from mopping right up to the front door, so I had to put pieces of cardboard down to go back and turn off the light. Then I locked the knob and pulled it closed.

I didn't get Martha's iris, or the pot that's sitting right next to them. It doesn't have a bottom, but works fine in a garden on a slope, so I can let go of it. Also left a dolphin wind chime hanging from the light outside.

But I did dig up the hosta and the spearmint...whoopee. They are so healthy I'm sure I'll be glad to have saved them.

I've got a lot going on in my life, but these are the family that I just visited last week. So they are also on my mind still.

This pot isn't mine, of course, but is in a museum. I did glaze some bowls tonight on my first time back in the studio. Can't wait to get back in the morning at 10 and finish them. One will go in the cone 6 kiln to see if the clay is really stoneware. Hope it doesn't melt into a puddle.

I'm feeling good finally about painting my mountains and trees designs...and people seem to like them. The bowls will be a different version of the scene. It's got a bit of Japanese influence.

Yawn, I was going to stay up and watch a show at 10, but I don't think I will. Just realized I may have to mow grass also in the morning. But it won't be dry for at least a couple of hours.

My darn new phone doesn't seem to work in my house. Must be all the nails in the roof...there doesn't seem to be much else holding the cottage together. It's an adventure!

Rainbows and family

Will gives me a smile by Maria Martinez "black on black" pottery, fro New Mexico. I went out west many years ago and looked at some of her work before I learned how to make pottery myself.

Cayenne enjoyed the Art Museum in St. Petersburg...

Cayenne created a print using marker ink on rubber stamps...saying I love you, Mom and Dad.

Michael Thurston, my oldest grandson, smiles over Cinnamon's head as we work on fixing dinner.

Marty finally took a break as we hiked Ikea in Tampa...a huge Sweedish home store...what a lot of goodies!

Will still loves creating things...with legos that have been in the family about 40 years.

Marty & Cinn danced to the Werlitzer organ at Roaring 20's Pizza in Ellington on the next afternoon. (we are doing things backward because the blogspot people organized this site this way.)

After the rainbow, (see below) we went for a walk with the dogs...Will has dear old Tootsie and Marty managed bouncy Bailey.

The second rainbow barely shows to the right of the brighter one...

When we live most of our lives inside, how often do we get to see rainbows?

Here I'm basking in the gang's energy...Marty, Will and Cayenne all snuggling up to get in the picture.

Old home

New goddesses!

As Goddess of the forge, hearth, inspiration, smithcraft, cattle and dairies, and healing, Bridget is a Celtic wonder. My form is a lantern herself, in stoneware. You can lift her off the base, where all kinds of attributes are inscribed, and insert a votive candle.

She holds another lantern, much as a smithy might make.

Her cloak is closed with an ancient style clasp, a circle of metal with a pin piercing the cloth through it.

On her shoulder is her emblem, the Bridget cross, or an equal armed cross formed of folded reeds.

Saint Bridget is the Catholic version of much the same woman. (her name is spelled many different ways also) As a goddess she once asked the ruler of Ireland for more land on which to graze her cattle. He said you may have as much land as your cloak might cover (being a benevolent person). Her cloak then showed her powers, for as she flung it out, it magically extended to the shores on every side of the island. If you visit Ireland, I'm told, you might well believe she is more the patron of it than Patrick.

Bridget's day is Feb. 1st. She is also known as the one who taught us how to keen, and how to whistle.

This is the lyre player. She doesn't have a name yet, as I haven't researched much as to goddesses of music. I remember some wonderful medieval nuns...but I'm pretty sure some goddess must have been attributed this great gift to humankind.

The lyre player is also stoneware, and lifts her head above the crescent moon in inspiration.

Sacajawea graces this torso, altered of course. Stoneware with a lid, and on top of the lid is actually a coin with Sacajawea face.

There are four faces depicted in the four directions, with eyes open, closed, or winking at you.
This is partly because I enjoyed making more anatomically correct breasts on this pot, and laughing at how I could exaggerate them, and how different visitors to our studio would have reactions to them. It's all art, and it's all in fun!

And of course a womanly figure does have more than breasts, as the reverse side always shows.

This is an uncovered goddess torso pot. She wears a bit of necklace to remind us of her royal status, though she is proud of her breasts, the source of nurturance and her own erotic pleasures. It's such a shame that our western culture has allowed women's breasts to become objectified (i.e. sex-objects for men's interest). So these pots are my attempt to help women reclaim our own anatomy, in a way.

The end.