Shufflin' Off to Buffalo!

It has been many years since I've returned to the city of my birth and I'll be approaching it slowly from the west this week, visiting a couple of old friends as I wind my way through the Finger Lakes in central NY. I'll be gone for a week or so and hope to visit the Salt Museum in Syracuse, the Erie Canal Museum, and the Corning Glass Works before I return.

We're having a family reunion of sorts...it has often been said that we put the 'fun' in disfunctional...6 very different siblings, a few cousins and uncle Mike. I hope that we survive!

(Not sure why the first part of this is underlined...I couldn't make it go away)

My Favorite Food!

There is nothing I like better than a homemade fruit pie! You can keep your pecan pies and your chocolate pies, I want raspberry or blackberry or rhubarb or peach or strawberry or apple or cherry (the exception to this rule is blueberry which I'm not real excited about, unless they are made with wild blueberries from Maine). 

On Tuesday I was visiting the new art center at the old Lorton Prison and stopped in the sleepy town of Occoquan on my way home. The town had little to offer except for the best pie shop I've been to in a very long time, Mom's Apple Pie Bakery! I could have bought one of each, but restricted myself to four. Their blackberry pie is rated #1 in the South by Southern Living magazine. What a treasure...I'm heading to D.C. tonight for an opening and I just might have to stop in again...

9 different kinds of pie with the option of crumb topping or pastry. I prefer the later, but really, I'd suffer through any of 'em. I once discovered a fried pie shop in southwest Virginia. That was mighty fine as well.

Pick Berries

It seems to me that I'm not the only blog writer who finds that as the days have grown longer (and hotter) there is less time for sitting in front of the computer to record the events of the day. I continue to be in a construction/organizing mode and I'll eventually post some photos. I also seem to be in a 'meetings' period, with lots of time spent talking about fund raising and business selling and studio rentals and computer issues et al.

And then there is the World Cup!!! 3 games a day is just too much goodness and I decided that I had to upgrade my TV capability so that I can now record games all day and watch all I can stand at night! I'm actually a bit weary today from getting up early to watch the 7AM games live. I think sports is an incredibly creative and expressive outlet for we humans and soccer/football is definitely "the beautiful game...". It's great to see how interest has grown over here and it's great to see so much of South Africa being beamed to our living rooms.

A couple of days ago when I got to the studio I found the title of today's post spelled out using old wads from the last firing. Words to live by. I turn mine into purple smoothies....yum.

Bread Plates, Bowls and Folk Art

More work from  firing #8 and my photo studio. Last night was our First Friday Reception in the gallery at Libertytown and I put together a good looking display of work for sale. Lynette and her husband bought the extra large and extra juicy combed vase and a few other new pots found homes as well.

The plates and bowls are about 7 1/2" across.

The bird sculptures are only 5-6" tall. 

The little man is a first for me. Beth thinks he is a donut salesman!

The last one is a 'Perfume Bottle', the top being a stopper.

Everyone Needs a 'Different Dave'

Hollis was reading my mind as I wrote last...Doug Fitch often writes about his friend, Dave, who always seems to be coming over to build a shed. I haven't built anything in years without the help of Michael Littlefield, MY great friend and builder extraordinaire. We finished the portico (sounds much more expensive than shed!) Saturday afternoon and I finished up the roof on one of the wood piles. One more building project and then it's back to making pots. I can feel my mind slowly shifting gears from thoughts of building with wood to building things with clay. 

Photo Session-Bedrock Pots

There has been a lot of good blogger info on photographing pots lately... I am still working out the kinks myself, and I hope by the time I take pictures of all the pots I like from firing # 8 that I will have figured it out. Still more glare than I'd like sometimes and I need to learn about depth of field. Still, I used to pay professionals a lot of money for poorer results than this!

I had quite a few small sculptures in this firing. I've been making these small stacked forms for 35 years but I've always resisted the obvious...of course they are figures, but why make it too easy? Now that I've carved all these cool stamps for the Bartmann bottles I couldn't resist. They are maybe 8" tall and now I want to make a whole herd of them...

I have no real explanation for these next few and the best I can do is describe them as folk art, but perhaps that sounds a little too self-conscious? I see them as models for big garden birdbaths, even though I might not get around to making the big'un.
I've never deciphered the marketing game for my  non-functional work. I don't even have the clever titles I need to promote them. Any suggestions?

Kline-spired

You may recall that back in the winter when the snow lay knee deep or more I picked up a brush and made a little Michael Kline inspired pot. Here it is in all it's toasty glory. The slip I used doesn't hold it's line like Michael's wax resist does, but it has it's own charm, n'est pas?
Now it's the corn and the winter wheat that is knee deep...time do fly..... 

Projects

 

Whenever I take a big trip I feel the need to rearrange a part of my house when I return. Whenever I fire the kiln, I feel the need to rearrange my workplace. Who knows what that says about me...?

This is my "Doug Fitch Memorial Wood Shed" (Doug is alive and well, thank-you). If you read Doug's blog you soon realize that he is in actual fact a shed builder disguised as a potter.

As I've spent more time in the 'little studio' I decided that I could give up some racking space to gain floor space. At 13' x 20' it is a cozy place to work, but had little room to move about. So I took down one of the two 'stillages' and replaced it with pipe racking. Now I'm ready for ballroom dancing! 

Shall we...? 

Shelves washed. 

Props dipped. 

Bricks stacked for the doors ('wickets' for my British friends). 

 These sponges are covered in little industrial diamonds and work well for cleaning up pots. I forget where they came from....check out Diapad on the intra-net. 

 So, any guesses on which critter chewed these two bricks down to a nubbin. Yesterday I watched a red headed woodpecker pecking on the side of my studio...later I discovered this. I think it could be salt that it is seeking. What a way to get it!

Riverpots and A Fundraiser

Just yesterday Ron Philbeck posted a photo on his blog of his pots in action in a customers home. This photo also arrived at my computer yesterday, taken down by the Rappahannock River by a customer that visited LibertyTown. She said she couldn't decide on one pot, so bought four. I like that kind of indecision!Like Ron, I've always enjoyed getting these random photos of my pots out in the world, doing their job.

We also held our second annual Patron Show Fundraiser at LibertyTown Friday night. Our second big success! We borrowed this idea from the Torpedo Factory and it has quickly become a very popular event. 56 different artists donated a piece of work and then we sold 56 tickets...in 3 days! The idea then is that each patron must rank the work in order of preference because, at the Big Event, we draw names from a pot and as each number is drawn, that person gets to pick any piece in the show! I can't tell you how much fun this night was...the energy in the gallery was palpable, full of expectation and hope and a little tension! I love this photo below, even though it's out of focus. As each piece is selected, everyone is checking their lists to see where that was on their own list and checking it off. Can you see the couple who already have their choice in hand?

We got half a dozen emails yesterday thanking us for a good time and requesting that we have a party after...they don't want the fun to stop! We will mull that one over...we are usually pretty worn out by the end of any of our events at the center, but it's hard to deny the public more fun! We are very grateful to all of you who support us at Libertytown. Thank-you.

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