sculpture and Goddesses

A serpentine dish for candles or silk flowers.

Glazes are Mexico around base, and Mayco Stroke n' Coat colors.

Moon Dancer Number Two, from the back, with Mayco Stroke n' Coat glazes and clear glaze over Desert Buff stoneware

Front view of Moon Dancer Number Two.
The Black Mountain Center for the Arts Clay Studio has been my home almost daily. Thanks to all the studio assistants and A.J. Reisman for mixing glazes and firing my works. You're the greatest!

Moon Dancer Number One. Mayco Stroke n' Coat and clear glaze over stoneware.

Next weekend the BMCA Studio will have a display of students and community members (like me) to help raise funds to provide for our equipment.

Mama Wilendorf plant bowl, with Matt Bronze Green and clear glaze on stoneware.

I'm also part of a new little co-op, Black Mountain Mud Buddies, which Marcia has organized. I like that I only have to work the booth one Saturday a month. The sales will be at the Tailgate Market every Sat, 9-12, and will mainly be small items. We can all have some of our wares each week, and the person who's actually there will have the most.

Red Clay Tree Goddess Number One, with red iron oxide and Eggshell glaze. I have made some new friends with the UU women who have taken part in the Rise Up and Call Her Name class over the last 13 weeks. It was focused upon a "woman honoring journey" with goddesses of non-Western European areas of the world. But we discovered that there are more goddesses that we still want to learn about. So we're going to continue meeting monthly to share leadership of a woman's group.

Red Clay Goddess Number One from the back.

Red Clay Goddess Number One from the side. We have also started meeting in each other's homes for shared meals, which we enjoy while laughing and getting to know each other better.

Side view of Titmouse tree goddess, white earthenware clay. This is a birthday present for a friend of mine who's going through chemo treatment these days for breast cancer. Love to you, dear one! I'll be packing the Tufted Titmouse to send you in a few days.

Front of Titmouse Tree Goddess

Detail of Tufted Titmouse and her nest with face of Tree Goddess

Most of my tree goddesses have breasts of some kind or another. But the Titmouse is sitting with her nest where a goddess might have had breasts removed. I thought a Titmouse was an appropriate Tit replacement!

Back View of Dervish Tree Goddess, white earthenware clay Linda saw that this goddess has a crown and robe like the whirling dervishes. I enjoy that she's pink.

Front view Dervish Tree Goddess

Detail of roots of Dervish Tree Goddess

Banded bottle, Little Loafers clay, Matt Bronze Green, Amber, and Mexico glazes

Ryanne, Pregnant Tree Goddess, Red clay with Eggshell glaze, rubbed.

Detail, Pregnant Tree Goddess

Detail, Pregnant Tree Goddess

Tree Amigas...Raku clay with pastel Mayco Stroke n' Coat glazes Or maybe this should be The Three Tree Goddesses. My two other internet buddies will recognize that this is a model of our sisterhood. We three were in high school together waaaay back when in St. Louis, MO.

Tree Amigas

Tree Goddess Queen detail

Tree Goddess Queen, Red clay with Eggshell and Mayco Stroke n' Coat glazes, rubbed

Tree Goddess Queen

Mugs and

Ah, I finally finished my first set of mugs that I've sold...wholesale that is. It's a lot of work to just do a dozen alike. How can all those other potters do hundreds? I sure do admire them.

My work to boredom ratio was reached and by-passed quickly. Had to really push myself. I'm not very disciplined, apparently. Nothing new to me. Starting things is always what I like to do, finishing, not so much.

These are the tumblers I made with 7 different glazes...and that's how the people chosing a glaze for the coffee mugs decided which glaze to use. I sold all but one of these tumblers last week, guess the price was really a bit low, as several folks said (including the one who bought them of course...and I was happy to have her get them). I can make more. They are nice to drink out of, and I found I like them somewhat narrow so they fit in my hand easily...if they get too big, they are harder to drink out of. They are heavier than a glass of course.

These small platters are simple, good for serving various treats...just pretty and set off food easily...and I sold them all last weekend.

I've still got a few of these serving bowls...nice for nuts, or cereal. I've enjoyed making the torn-slab things.

Sourwood and TailGate same day!

Oh my. Having enough inventory to cover contributing to two sales in one day is awesome...or gruesome depending upon your viewpoint. Just lugging around a couple of table's worth of pottery and sculpture told me I was over-doing it ...again.

But I had a good day at both venues...considering I set my sights pretty low. And I didn't even haul everything out. I desperately need to sell some things so I have room for the new ones.

I shared sales with the other Mud Buddies at the TailGate market, but I was the only one there to set up and take down the display, as well as to load and unload boxes and crates. Am I complaining? Not really. But my back is. I'm a whimp.

The set up and take down at the Center for the Arts is being done by others. I knew I couldn't extend myself that much. And I did go and share some time being a sales rep for the student and community members to make some money for the Center. We donate a portion of our sales to the Center for supplies and upkeep of the clay studio, which is as it should be.

My sales at the TailGate were pretty good, and I usually don't do as well when other members of our co-op are doing the work at the little booth. They didn't do as good today with me doing the work. So it all shakes out in the end. I like that each week the person in charge shows mostly her own pottery, and this leads to the unbalanced sales. But the good news is that person is the one paying for the booth, so she is reimbursed by her sales.

The Studio Pottery Market is located in the parking lot right outside the studio...and that's up the hill from the entertainment tent at the Sourwood Festival. I am sure that many tired and hot festival-goers don't make it up that hill, unless it's already the direction their car is parked. We had a fair turnout, and many people realized we had quality goods, a great diversity of styles with maybe 20 student potters, and great prices. So of the folks walking by, we had a larger percentage who became customers, compared to those strolling down the lane for the main streets of Sourwood. There may be many more people down on the main drag, but they are mainly "window shoppers," I think.

And the other aspect of our Pottery Market, is that it's a great venue to attract students to sign up for classes at the BMCA. We have brochures telling what classes are available, either for tourists who want short classes while they visit, or local folks who want to be able to start doing something they've longed to do...there's that opportunity available.

I'm also praising the weather gods and goddesses...cause it only rained once, very briefly, but enough to cool things off pretty well. It was easy enough afterward to go around and dump rainwater out of pots and dry them off. They were mostly under the canopy anyway. And due to having cloudy skies all day, Black Mountain hasn't been as hot as it has been lately. That was a major comment at the Tail Gate market this morning, how cool it felt.

So I feel mainly good about the day. The only thing I have any negative feeling about is the batch of mugs that I made for the Sourwood festival, which didn't come out well after the glaze firing. The glaze I put on wasn't adequate for my minimal criteria. It didn't cover the clay enough. So eventually they will be reglazed. Since there are lots of pots waiting to be glazed the first time through, re-glazing is a long wait. But they really aren't salable the way they came out. That happens. Glazing is the last step, and the one that is more often disappointing to a potter. We learn to have low expectations or go home and feel inadequate. Since I can do that to my psyche any day of the week, it's better to just not expect much, and some days I get so excited about something that comes out well. There were 3 little trays that did that today. I didn't even take pictures of them before I set them out to sell. If that happens, I'll be delighted twice over.

So here is the end of a long day for me. Whew.

Sugar/Creamer set

These hand-built sugar and creamers were fun, but very time consuming.
I'm going back to throwing the sugar and creamers. The trays can still be hand built. And I may make a few more scoops...but again, it was a time sink.

I made a yellow and a red tray, one somewhat larger than the other.

The red one was so large I made a special reinforcement for its bottom, which ended up being a pretty neat design.

The scoop had to have an inscription, "sweet" for whichever kind of sweetner is used.

I like leaving the scoop in the sugar bowl, though I stopped doing it when there were critters with 6 legs around to get in it. Now I'm critter free and like the idea of having the top of the sugar bowl notched for the little scoop.

The two trays, which brings up a choice. Do I sell these separate or with the set? I'm thinking separate.

plates

This is a platter with Little Loafers clay, fired in electric kiln to cone 6. This is the most accurate coloring of the glazes, Mexico with Eggshell sponged over it.

Smaller plates had some stamping and a ring of celedon over them.

To give you an idea of how big the platter and plates were. Most of them have sold already, but I've got another set of small plates and 2 platters coming out soon. A bit different in the glazing. Can't wait till Christmas, er, when the kiln is opened and unloaded. Potters love the feeling of surprise, and sometime elation, and sometimes disappointment. I concentrate on the surprise so I can deal with the other 2 emotions!

Three little vases

These fun little vases are all 3-4" tall. I had such fun pushing around Little Loafers clay after throwing them. (color in the group shot isn't quite accurate)

And then the second level of fun was using 3 glazes to get 5 colors.

Inside and on the top outside went Matt Bronze Green.

Then over that on the outside and down to the lowest break showing in the bands went Amber.
After they were both dry, I dipped the bottom up to the second to the lowest break in the bands in Mexico. That way outside you see from top to bottom:

Amber over Matt Bronze Green

Amber

Mexico over Amber

Mexico

And inside you can see the plain MBG where the Amber hasn't dripped.

I keep using the Amber over MBG with such fun results. And Mexico is fun too. These are all glazes at the studio of Black Mountain Center for the Arts.

replacement Bart the cat

My dear friend had a birthday way back on the 18th of July.
I had finished making but not firing her 2 cats in clay.
Then I mailed them in a rickety box, and Bart got broken.
I felt so bad...er badly...and made another cat for her.
But it again took several weeks.

So here is Bart number 2. Or maybe kitten #2-1/2.

I had just 2 pictures of his coloring...and putting it onto a clay figure obviously left a lot to be desired.

The cats did end up different sizes, since the second Bart is a bit larger, I'm pretty sure.

And I made a little tray for them to sit on...if Jinni wants to use it. That's mainly because Fisher, the remaining cat of the first litter, didn't have a bottom.

The tray may just be a Birthday Card. The new Bart does have a bottom. So Jinni will be sure to be able to tell which is which. The real cats have absolutely no problem knowing which one is which.

Love to my friend with whom I attended high school in St. Louis.