Thank You!

I've been trying to compose this thank you note for the last couple of days...and I'm not sure that I've gotten it right yet.  

I am so very grateful to everyone who purchased my pottery this year.  I'm touched that you thought enough of my work to take a piece or two home with you.  I'm touched that you thought enough of my work to give it as a gift for someone that you care about.  I'm touched that you think enough of my work to ask me to make something special for you.  I'm touched that you wanted to display my work in your business.  

Because you bought my pottery, I can make more.  I can buy more clay, and I can take that pottery class at the college that I wanted to try.  You've given me the opportunity to continue to learn and to explore and to dream a little bit.  You have allowed me to continue to spend my Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings in the studio without feeling too much guilt.  My yard needs work and the closets need cleaning out and organizing, so there's going to be guilt until those chores are done.  But because you bought my pottery, it's OK if I don't get to them today or this week.

So thank you, friends.  Thank you so much!  

New Pots Going to Dragonfly

I just packed up another box of pots to go to Dragonfly Wine Market in the morning.  

If you are still looking for something unique this holiday season, stop in and check out the gift shop.  Jamie and Jane sell work from a number of local artists in addition to wine and craft beers.

Shop local!

Getting Ready

I got the pots all set up this afternoon.    

I hope to see many of you this weekend!  

Various Things

The weather for Saturday is supposed to be gross again.  By gross I mean mid to low 40's and raining.  Since the pottery sale is INSIDE where it is warm and dry, this will not change our plans for the pottery sale this weekend.  Come on out.  I'll have coffee and hot cider if you need warming up.  I might even build a fire in the wood stove up stairs.  Can't do that down stairs since I'll have pottery set up in front of the fireplace...or maybe I'll find a way to leave the fireplace unblocked.  Hmmm.  That is a decision that I will make Friday afternoon.

I am giving exams at school this week.  This means that I'm working more nights that I normally do.  Since tonight is an usually late night for me, I gave myself permission to leave work at lunch time today.  I did pottery stuff for about an hour in the middle of my day, and it was so much fun.

My first stop was the Copper Rock Cafe. I finally remembered to bring my Square card reader with me, so they could pay me for the mugs that I made for them to sell.  Getting paid is good.  It was also really gratifying to learn that they'd sold all but one of my mugs.  Guess I need to get cracking on some more.  I unexpectedly bumped into my "mathy" friend Bryan (known to most as Dr. Young) while I was there, so that was nice too.  He bought me a cup of coffee (thank you!) and we talked math for a little while.

The next stop was the studio.  Allen was there working, so I had company.  Our schedules haven't overlapped much all fall, so it is a real treat for me to get to talk to him.  I took a peek at pieces that came out of the last bisque fire (I should have taken a picture of all the glazing that I did over the weekend).  Mostly good results and one disappointment.  One big platter has a crack in it, but as far as I can tell, everything else came out OK.  I'll get back over there with a box in the next day or two so the new pieces will be for sale this weekend.  Butter dishes!  I have butter dishes again!

In other exciting (to me) pottery related news, I signed up for a pottery class at Cleveland Community College for Spring semester!  There is always room for learning new stuff, and I cannot wait.  I'll be sure to update you (both of you who regularly read this blog) on how that goes and what I learn.

CHRISTMAS SALE

Saturday, Dec 14, 12 pm to 4 pm 

Sunday, Dec 15,  1 to 4 pm

  

Please make plans to come see us. There will be a good selection of pottery from which to choose including a section of half priced items.  Even if you aren't interested in pottery, please stop by for a visit and some light refreshments.  

If you need directions, email me at jonessb91@gmail.com

Mom and Dad will be assisting me on Saturday afternoon since Jeff will be in Chapel Hill for the state championship game.  (Good luck Golden Lions!)  The radio/computer here will be tuned to WADA 1390 while the game is on, so you won't miss a play.  On Sunday, Jeff will be back in his regular position of pottery sales assistant.  We'd love to see you!  

CORRECTION!

Due to the nasty forecast for Saturday, Dec 7, I will NOT be at A Griffin Pottery selling my wares.  Those of use who were going to set up outside have chickened out.  There will be people there in the morning at least, so you are still welcome to come shop.  Only work by Allen Griffin will be available since there's not room in the gallery for all of us.

I will be having my annual Christmas Sale NEXT weekend on Dec 14.  More information will follow at a later date about that.

Need to do a little shopping?

This weekend there are several opportunities to purchase pottery.

Thursday 5:30-7:30 at the Arts Council is the kick off for "Handmade for the Holidays."  This is also their "Renovation Celebration" where they will show off all the work that has been done at the Arts Council in recent months.  Admission is free, so make plans to drop in.
Check out this link for more information.  http://www.ccartscouncil.org/

Saturday, is the Mini Pottery Market at A Griffin Pottery.  Come see me, Ronnie Blackburn, and Allen Griffin and maybe even find something special for that special someone.  We will be there 10 am to 4pm on Dec. 7.  Seriously, I'm going to pack up all my stuff, haul it up there, and get it all set up.  PLEASE come visit us.  Shopping is also highly encouraged.  There will be lots of really nice stuff for sale.

Ron Philbeck is also having his holiday home sale this weekend.  I believe the hours are 10 am to 4 pm on Saturday and noon to 4 pm on Sunday.  Check out Ron's website for more information: http://ronphilbeckpottery.com/ 

A Little Bit of Everything

Last weekend I had a little bit of everything to do....

I threw a round baker.  I wanted to put some handles on it.  I didn't make it back in time, so a handle-less round baker it will be.   

I had some green ware that was ready for sanding.  These platters are now waiting for the next bisque fire.  

There were even some mugs to glaze.  These are going to the Copper Rock Cafe when they are done.  I hope they like them.  

This weekend, I need to throw.  My mug and small bowl inventory is running low and I really need to get motivated to make some.  But it is cold outside, there's a fire in the wood stove here, and this dog is happy with me on the couch.  Even though the dog still smells slightly of skunk (after last week's adventure), it's pretty cozy, and I've been unable to leave.  

What's Next?

As you are aware if you read this blog frequently, the Carolina Pottery Festival was last Saturday.  I think things went very well.  The potters seemed happy and the customers seemed happy (as much as I could tell) with the new location.  Thank you to everyone who came out to see us.  I hope you found just what you were looking for and that you left happy and planning to come back next year.  

Here's a shot of my booth after I got it all set up on Friday afternoon.     

Thank you for not pointing out how terribly wrinkled the table drape is in the back.  Ugh. I wish I could figure out how to store all that fabric in a plastic Rubbermaid tub without having wrinkles.  I briefly considered ironing, but ditched that idea pretty quickly since I was going to have to put the drape back in the tub to get it to the festival location. 

And for the sake of comparison, here's a picture that I found of last year's booth.  

The shelves on top of the table work better for me that the tall shelves I think, and the black pipe and drape in the LeGrand Center makes a much better backdrop than the wall in the space at the mall.  

I'm still working on figuring out how to arrange things so that the pottery is visible and safe (with the tall shelves, I was worried that the whole thing would fall) and  so there is plenty of room for shoppers.  I also need a place that I can be that's in the booth but out of the way.  I need to be accessible for answering questions and and I need space to handle payments and wrap up pots.  This year, I walked around and really paid attention to how other potters had things arranged.  I have some ideas on how to improve that I will try next time.  

And when is this "next time" you ask?  We are planning a mini pottery festival at the studio on Dec 7.  Hours will be 10 am to 4 pm and there will likely be three of us (Allen Griffin, Ronnie Blackburn, and me) there selling pots.  So if you weren't able to get to the Carolina Pottery Festival, come over and see us at A Griffin Pottery the first Saturday in December.  

I also plan to have my annual Christmas Sale on Dec 13.  This sale will be at Casa Jones on Maple Springs Church Rd.  More information about that as I plan.  At this point, my plans have consisted of thinking, "Hmmmm. If I am at the studio on Dec 7, that leaves Dec 13 as the best time to do the Sale at the house."  

Final Salt Fire Post

Here's what greeted us when the kiln was opened.  Actually, "us" is not correct.  I wasn't there when the door was opened.  I didn't get there until after all the pieces had been unloaded.  In fact, one of the potters was already packed up and gone before I could get free from work.  I would have really liked to see her pots.

Of all the things that I fired, I think this bowl may be my favorite.  The inside is so cool!  The bowl is now sitting on my kitchen counter holding the remnants of the Halloween candy.

It probably will not go to the Carolina Pottery Festival next week.

Mugs.....

More mugs....


I was pretty pleased with all the mugs this time around.  Decided to keep one of each for myself.

These turned out great too.  There were originally three of these (think canister set) but one broke before it even made it to the bisque fire.  I was disappointed at the time.  Seeing how they turned out makes me even more disappointed.

Here's the coolest of all the pitchers.  It's part of a cream and sugar set.












I also made several utensil holder/vase things.  This is one of the more interesting ones.


The glaze on this is the same glaze as on the pitcher, the canisters, the blue rimmed mugs, and the rim of the bowl above.  Isn't it interesting how different it looks on each piece?

Salt Fire!

The salt fire that I've mentioned several times over the past few months is happening this weekend.  Ron got it started last night and began adding the salt sometime today.  Here is a video that he took that shows how he adds the salt.



Pretty cool!  Or maybe cool isn't the right word...

When I unpacked all the pieces on Thursday night to begin getting them ready for glazing and firing, I was surprised to find that I had more than I needed for my part of the kiln.

This is what 42 pots looks like.  Better to have too many and be able to choose the "best" ones than too few and have to let the other potters see all the wompy and otherwise ugly pots.  "Wompy" may be a word that I made up (or maybe I've heard it somewhere).  It means slightly off center and out of round.

On Saturday morning I went over to Ron Philbeck's and started glazing pots.  I was too busy to get many pictures of the process.  Below is the canister set with the glaze applied waiting for wadding.  

In a salt fire, the salt reacts with the clay to make the finish on each piece.  All exposed surfaces will react, so alumina hydrate wadding is used to keep pieces from sticking to the shelves and to keep lids from sticking to pots. In the picture below, Allen is gluing wadding on the bottoms of these bowls with Elmer's glue.  The glue holds the wadding in place while it is handled and loaded and then burns away.  I don't understand all the chemistry involved, but the alumina does not react with the salt so there is no finish on the pot every place it is in contact with a piece of wadding.  The bottom line is that since the pot is not in contact with the shelves and the lids are not in contact with the pots, nothing sticks that shouldn't stick.  

(Thanks to Allen Griffin for this picture from the June firing.)  

Once everything was outside, Ron started loading.  He'd figure out what size pieces he needed and we'd take turns handing him things.  

 
And here's a shot of the full kiln.  We are going back over on Wednesday to unload.  I can't wait.  

Cue Dramatic Music

I'm excited to announce that my pottery will be for sale in Shelby at Dragonfly Wine Market!

Those of you who are relatively local may be aware that Dragonfly is moving to a larger location in uptown Shelby.  On Monday they will open on Warren St. next to RollOver.  In addition to selling the wine and craft beers they normally carry, they are going to have a wine bar, and a much larger space for a gallery for local artists.  I dropped off a box of pottery this afternoon.  After a few days, I'll go take a some pictures once they've had a chance to get set up and settled in the new space.

Big thanks to Jamie and Jane for this opportunity!  I'm very excited.

Five Steps Back

Every feel like you take one step forward and then five steps back?  I do.  Thursday evening was like that for me.  After being really tired all week, I kind of hit a wall on Thursday afternoon and realized that I really needed to get some rest.

Even after hitting that wall, I tried to go make pottery.  After all, I am still several pieces short of the 30 piece goal that I have for the Oct 27 salt fire.  I knew that there were going to be some things going on over the weekend that would require my attendance and reduce the amount of studio time I'd get.

After much struggle, I finally managed to make the parts of two cream and sugar sets.  Lids were the issue for me.  I bet it took 6 or 7 tries before I got two things that might work out for lids to the sugar bowls.  Below is a picture of the lids that didn't make it.  I was so frustrated!  

Feeling the Pressure

After taking about a month off, I made it back to the studio last week.  It's so much easier if I can work at pottery with some consistency.  Alas, that is not my life at the moment, so I take what time I can squeeze out of everything  else.  I was able to be there Thursday night, a few hours Friday afternoon, and then my "normal" hours on Saturday morning.  My low back was tired and a little bit sore, but I was pleased overall with what I managed to do.

If these all make it, I'll only need 4 or 5 more pieces to get the 30 I need for the next trip to Ron's for a salt fire.  Definitely do-able!

Just Take a Picture of Your Pottery Shelves

My friend Heather who lives in California is visiting her parents in Flat Rock, NC this weekend.  We've been texting back and forth trying to figure out how we were going to squeeze in some time for a visit between all her family obligations and my family and community obligations.  We've settled on the Joneses making the run up to Flat Rock this afternoon, but Heather also wanted to look at some of the pottery that I've been making.  She asked me to take a picture of the "pottery shelves" in the basement so she could tell me what to bring.  I did...

...but I just don't know how helpful that will be.  What a mess!  

Trying Again

One more time on the canister set.  This time a little larger...6, 4.5, and a little over 3 pounds for the jars.

Parts thrown on Friday afternoon.  

 

Trimmed and assembled on Saturday morning.  

We shall see if I can get them done without breaking one (or more).  

Working Hard...

Here are the results of this weekend's efforts in the studio - 3 bowls, 4 mugs, and 3 utensil holders.

The two bowls that are obviously made from different clay are not for the salt fire.  Salt fire running total is at ten now.  I managed to break one of the canisters that I made last week, so now it is a set of two.  That's OK though.  I'd decided that they were going to end up being too small anyway.  Maybe next weekend, I will try again on the canister set idea.  

There was also a glaze fire this week.  Here are some of my things from that: 

Probably my favorite casserole so far. 

Here's what it looked like before firing...      

And from the top...

A bowl with a lid. 

Some mugs.

One of two round bakers.  I didn't get a good picture of the second one.  

Canisters

I went back to work this week.  And I am still working on having a good attitude about it.  I LIKE my job, but as a teacher, it will always feel weird to go back to work in the middle of July.  I'm not complaining, mind you, but it takes me a while to adjust to being back on a schedule. 

In addition to working full time, I'm also trying to train for a triathlon on August 24 and a half marathon on Oct 20.  In other words, I have a very full schedule and I'm tired and hungry a lot these days.  How does all this affect pottery, you ask?  Well, it means that I'm not able to be there very much. This week, I didn't make it back until Saturday morning.  However, I did swim once, ride my bike twice, and run 4 times this week in addition to working full time and taking care of other family obligations.  No wonder I was pooped by Friday!

Sept 28 is the next salt fire and I'm trying to have 30 pieces ready.  I have a mental list of what I'd like to do...which I should really write down.  Mental lists have a tendency to disappear.  Anyway, that list includes at least one canister set.  I threw the pots and lids on Saturday morning and went back on Sunday to finish them.  

Before...

...and after.

So this is 3 of the 30 pieces...I just counted available weekends and I'm not going to make it if I don't work a little faster!  

Glaze Results

Here are some pictures of the pieces that were in the last couple of glaze fires.  Some of these had been glazed for a while and some are things that I glazed while suffering (and I do mean suffering) from jet lag and post-vacation exhaustion.  All in all, not too shabby...

Trays and Bowls

Trays and Bowls and Butter Dishes

Small Casserole with Lid

Butter Dishes, Spoon Rests, Soap Dishes

Cake Pans

Cream and Sugar

Now to find a place on the shelves downstairs for all of this...

Jet Lag and Glazing

For some reason every time I am gone from the studio for any length of time, I have a pile of pieces to glaze when I get back.  Poor planning on my part?  Bad luck?  

Jeff and I spent 12 days (June 19-30) in Southern California and Oregon visiting friends.  It was a wonderful trip, but the jet lag when we got home was killer.  We came home on the red eye on Monday morning and I tried to resume my normal routine on Tuesday.  This is as much of the glazing that I could stand to do Tuesday morning.  Considering how tired I was, getting this far was pretty good.  Ugh...looking at this is making me need a nap again. 

Surprising Salt Fire

As is often true the first time I try something new, there were some good and some not so good surprises in the salt fire that I participated in a few weeks ago.   I have not included many pictures of the disappointing pieces.  (I actually thought that I should start sharing the things that don't go well, but when I sat down to do this post, I found that I didn't have any pictures of the pieces that I didn't like.  Interesting.)  

The biggest surprise was that several of my things ended up being just white (and boring).   I should learn to ask questions I guess.  I assumed that all clay bodies would end up with the cool brown, kind of speckled surface that I associate with a salt or soda fire.  Not so. Clays with a lot of porcelain in them are just white.  The mugs below are examples.  The blue glaze at the top of these saved them I think.  I would like to point out that all 4 mugs have the same glaze on them, but they were located in different places in the kiln.  

Here are the pieces that did what I expected them to do.  My favorite is the cookie jar in the back.  

Close ups of the cookie jar: the glaze on the outside and inside are the same.  Inside the jar didn't have as much exposure to the salt.  The white spots around the rim are where the wadding was placed to keep the lid and jar separated so they didn't fuse together.  (I might have to keep this piece...)

Napkin Holders: a couple of these twisted in the heat (although it is not obvious in this picture). I don't mind that so much.  I think it makes them more interesting and doesn't affect their usefulness.  

 Close up of a small lidded bowl.

And another small lidded bowl.  This one is made out of the white clay, so the outside is white except for where it is glazed.  And the inside is kind of tan.  Weird.  

We are discussing the possibility of doing another salt fire in August or September and I hope that we do.  I have learned a lot about what to do and not do and I would like another shot.  I'd also like to be there to glaze and help load the kiln.  I was on vacation when all this wonderfulness happened.  I owe Allen Griffin big time for being willing to take care of transporting and glazing my work while I was gone.  To fully understand what a HUGE favor that was you must understand that Allen HATES glazing.  I've offered to glaze his pieces next time.  I wonder if he will take me up on it...