Uptown Art Walk on Oct 9

I'm excited to be participating in the next uptown art walk next week.  I will be at Allen Griffin Pottery throwing pots that night from 5:30 to 8:30.  Buffalo Creek Gallery is also planning a big shindig honoring the new artists during the art walk.  Make plans now to stop by.  The press release below has more information about the plans for the evening.  There will be artists at most of those locations demonstrating their talents.

Press Release: September 29, 2014

 

Contact: Tricia Woodland, Uptown Shelby Association, 704-484-3100

Corine Guseman, Cleveland County Arts Council, 704-484-2787 (for more information on the artists)

 

Showcasing the vibrancy of local artists, galleries and art friendly spaces throughout Uptown Shelby, we welcome visitors on Thursday, October 9 for an Uptown Art Walk. In conjunction with the Cleveland County Arts Council “Handcrafted Melodies: Instruments & Musical Notations” opening reception, ten Uptown businesses will host a variety of local artists for demonstrations, exhibits, refreshments and other special events. 

The Art Walk will include a spectrum of visual arts – including pottery, paintings, woodcarving, flint knapping, mosaics, jewelry, journals and live music. 

Maps for the event will be available at the participating venues starting October 3.

 

Participating venues include:

 

·         Allen Griffin Pottery (art)

·         Buffalo Creek Gallery (art)

·         Cleveland County Arts Council (music, musical instruments & art)

·         Dragonfly Wine Market (art)

·         Lily Bean Micro-Roasted Coffee (art)

·         Newt’s Pub Burgers (open mike & art)

·         Peace Avenue (art)

·         RollOver Pets (art)

·         The Fuzzy Peach (art)

·         Homespun (art)

 

The Art Walk is free and open to the public, with festivities taking place from 5:30 - 8:30pm.

 

The Uptown Art Walk is a partnership between Uptown Shelby Association and Cleveland County Arts Council to draw people to Uptown and encourage new audiences for the arts in our area.  This evening event will span venues on Warren, Washington, and Lafayette Streets.

Rubbing Elbows With Famousness

Last night I had an opportunity to hear Open The Door For Three perform at Dragonfly Wine Market in Shelby.  Not being particularly in tune (ha!) with the Irish music scene, I didn't know what I was seeing when I saw the ads for this concert at first.  Then my dad explained who they are, and what a big deal it is that little old Shelby managed to attract world class musicians. So we went.  And it was awesome.  If you have a chance, check them out.  http://www.openthedoorforthree.com/ 

It's a long story involving his annual trips to what we refer to "Band Camp" (actually Celtic Week at the Swannanoa Gathering at Warren Wilson College).  I'll spare you the long story.  I'm not sure that I'd get it right anyway.  The condensed version of the story is that my dad knows Kieran O'Hare and Liz Knowles, who are the piper and fiddler for this trio.  Seriously.  He is on a first name basis and is FaceBook friends with these people.

I'm getting to the point of why this story is in my pottery blog...

Dad wanted to buy a copy of their CD to give to Jeff and me, but Keiran insisted on giving him one.  I had just asked if they could take a credit card (I never have cash) and Dad hands me the CD.  All I could do was stand there with my mouth open looking like an idiot.  Trying to help me out, Dad said something about sending them some pottery or something sometime.  It just so happened that I had a box of new stuff in the car that I'd picked up earlier in the day.  So after the concert, I ran out and got each of them a mug.  Ooohing and aaahing ensued which I'm pretty sure was just them being polite.  Dad snapped this picture.

Liz Knowles , Pat Broaders, and me.  

(Kieran was talking to John Champney at the time.)

Then this morning as I was dragging myself around trying to wake up enough to get ready for work after being out way too late on a school night, I found the issue of Clay Times that came in yesterday's mail.  I started flipping through and found an article about procrastination which seemed pretty appropriate since I was having trouble moving myself in the direction of a shower.  I'm reading along and I see this:  

Ron's famous!  Maybe he was before and I just didn't realize it.  So I guess I've been rubbing elbows with famousness longer than I thought I had.  

Little things are important

I forgot to close the peeps.  (Smacks palm into forehead)

Peeps are little holes on the side of the kiln that (I suppose) one could peep in to look at things as the kiln fires.  For our purpose, they are holes that should be closed during the firing and then opened once it is done to help things cool off.  I forgot to close them.  I remembered the peeps sometime Saturday night, but by then it was too late to do anything about them.  

I don't know how much affect this had on the results of this firing, but I was very disappointed in some of my glazes.  Glazes that normally do not disappoint me.  So I'm blaming the darn open peeps.  On a positive note, nothing that I saw that belonged to others looked bad to me.  Hopefully I am the only disappointed potter this go around.  I have a fear that I will destroy someone else's work by doing something wrong when I'm the one loading the kiln.  

So I promised pictures....

Starting with some of the duds.  These are supposed to be a redish brown called ketchup red on the top.  I used this glaze on several things and they all came put a very yucky brown.  I could not stand to even take a picture of the big platter that I glazed in ketchup red.  All that work for ugly brown.  Sigh...

Some things turned out ok even it they weren't quite "right". 

I like the variation in color that I got here.  Clearly some areas got more glaze than others and I am OK with that.  Alright.  I'm trying to be OK with this.  

Good old floating blue.  A relatively consistent glaze.  Lighter areas are where the glaze overlapped.  I LOVE the leaves on this one.  

Mugs in tan and red that turned out nicely.  

Pretty darn happy with this casserole.  This one is tan, red, and blue.  The blue is on the side away from the camera.  I like the red and tan the best.  I think it is more interesting.  

I couldn't get a good shot of these mugs.  Red, blue, and green, and the overlap of red, blue, and green.  Not bad...

And the same glaze combination on a bowl.  

Glaze Fire

Here is a shot of the kiln ready to fire on Saturday afternoon.  

I hope to follow up later this week with some pictures of some of the pieces of mine that are in this load.  Stay tuned...

I'm still in panic-production mode in my pottery related thinking, so in addition to glazing everything that I hope to share with you later, I also made some new stuff.  More mugs and the platters pictured below.  

A compliment

I went to Ron Philbeck's kiln opening and fall sale yesterday.  Ron's got a new soda kiln that he built this summer.  Some VERY nice pieces came out of this firing.  I wanted several of them.  He's getting back to what I think of as "Ron Philbeck pots."  My dad has a lidded bowl with a blue bird as the handle on the lid that I have always loved.  I was happy to see some birds making a comeback in Ron's latest work.  

I don't think he realizes it but he paid me a very big compliment.  As he introduced me to another of his potter friends, he said, "Susan makes nice pots," and then went on to say that I am a math teacher at the community college.  Stop right there and let me take that in.  I was just described as a maker of nice pots and then as a teacher.  In my mind it's always been teacher first and then pottery was what I did to entertain myself in my spare time.  Interesting.  And cool.  There just might be a life for me after the teaching is done.  And also very cool that Ron thinks that I make nice pots.  

Inspired, I went back to the studio and made some baking dishes and mugs.  I made the canisters and  4 other mugs on Thursday and Friday.  So 3 canisters, 3 bakers, 1 random other lidded jar, and 9 mugs is the total for this week.  No wonder I need a nap.  

More Bowls

I managed to get 4 good sized bowls this week.  I threw them Thursday afternoon and trimmed them today (Friday).  The trimming went as expected but I really struggled with throwing them.  More than one had to be smashed, re-wedged, and re-thrown.  The clay tried to whip me, but I won.  That really is an indicator of how far I've come.  Even though it didn't go well at first and I had to start over, I still managed to get four pieces made.  It hasn't been all that long ago that I had to work up 6 or 7 balls of clay if I wanted to make 4 mugs.

August Glaze Fire

Here are some of my pieces from the last glaze fire.  

One of the big bowls...you remember, "I like big bowls and I cannot lie..."  The second one didn't make it in this fire.  

Check out the glaze on this one!  Yes, I did that on purpose.  There's a clear glaze that goes on first.  When it is fired, it crackles.  Then I put the red glaze on and fired it again.  It really shows off the crackle.  Fun.  

This bowl was an experiment.  I put a band of white slip on the outside and textured it.  Then I didn't know what to do about glazing it.  I finally gave up trying to be too creative and just did something.  It's alright but I'm not sure it was worth the extra effort.  

Here are 2 of the 3 goblets that I made a few weeks back. The third one was killed before it was ever bisque fired.  They are very fragile before they are fired and the cup came apart from the stem and fell on the floor when I was sanding them.  I think I'd do this again since it was fun and I now know just how scary it is to sand the pieces when they are green.  I need to know if anyone would actually purchase cups like this.

And a few mugs.  Making mugs for the Copper Rock (coffee shop in Shelby) has been fun.  One reason is that I don't feel like I need to make matching sets.  Now when I start to make mugs that are not for Copper Rock, I'm having trouble making them match.  I think I just need to focus on what I am doing a little bit more.

My favorites...the canisters.  I'm very pleased with these.