No More Moving Target

In my next life, I think I will make paper. Or beaded jewelry. That way, I won't need months of chiropractic adjustments to ease the back pain from moving my studio equipment, not once, not twice, but three times in less than 12 months.

No one wants to hear the sordid details. The issue has been resolved and this artist is back in the saddle for real this time. My new space is at the same place where I moved the Bailey last year. It's divine to have everything all at one location.

David built a shelving system like the one I had before.

I am sharing the space with my fiance, luthier David A Wiseman. Building mountain dulcimers creates a lot of sawdust. I'm considering a raku kiln in the future.

David's side of the studio. The Bailey is straight out the door behind him.

Lots more is going on in my life, but having a place to call home for my art has given me some peace after a very tumultuous year.

Guess Who is Firing Again?

In case you have been wondering, I do still exist on the planet. My life is beyond crazy busy now and dial-up sucks. I usually run out of patience before blogs can load, and I'm too busy at work to take the time to read. If the Universe would create, just for me, an extra day or two, maybe a week, I could catch up on gallery paperwork and take the time to breathe. And read blogs.

In the meantime, I've moved my gas kiln and am 95% finished with the shed. I'm calling a friend for back-up before I cut a hole in the roof for the chimney, but after we do that, it's a "go". Propane is scheduled for hook-up on the 22nd, and I'm hoping to have her loaded and ready to fire on Thanksgiving Day. It's been a year since I've fired, and I'm sure I am forgetting how much work I have to do to get ready, especially since the pots are at the gallery, the glazes all need to be re-sieved and the pots, glazes and kiln are all in three different places.

And I have been making work like crazy. I have enough bisqueware for 2 maybe even 3 glaze loads, all cone 6R. I have 4 or 5 cone 6 R glazes I am happy with and 1 or 2 that need some tweaking. I am still stuck on 2 or 3 cone 10 glazes that I love, but eventually would love to do away with the cone 10 altogether in the name of saving time, money and the planet. Not that I have much time for testing, but I just can't seem to help myself, but does anyone have cone 6R glaze recipes that they would like to share?  I seem to recall someone (maybe Tracey) who has a cone 6 R black recipe?

So back to busy again. And if the Universe sees fit to comply with my modest request, I can post pictures of the new work in the coming weeks.

Blogging on Dial-Up

I had a sincere request this week from a dear friend to update my blog. So much has happened over the past few months, some good, some bad. I'm going to give this a go. Stick around. I'm getting my groove back.

After 3 months of living in my car, my business partner's basement and my gallery, I moved into a sweet rental house just down the road from my kids' school. The rent is unbelievable and perfect for the starving artist that I currently am. I have been here for nearly 2 months, finally have a landline and, hold on to your hats, dial-up internet service. I live in a "holler" which means I am rural enough that the phone company doesn't offer dsl here. Satellite internet is too costly, so the obvious alternative is to go back in time to the 1990's.

I moved my electric wheel, slab roller and electric kiln to my gallery where there is a small space for a studio. The Bailey now resides at the Mushroom Factory, a former shitake mushroom factory turned artist studios. I still need to put a roof over the kiln and hook up the gas, not to mention make enough work to fill her up. However, the coup de grace is my kick wheel on my front porch.

In other news, Kyle Carpenter included me in Mudfire's Asheville in Atlanta exhibit, opening later this month. I am so excited about this exhibit, especially since I haven't done much clay work since last fall.
Still trying to honor his requests for privacy, I won't talk too much about my estranged husband. He and I are on civil speaking terms. The kids live with me during the school week and stay with him on the weekends. They seem to be adjusting pretty well. Kids are more adaptable than we think. By the time I was my daughter's age, I had been through hell and back, so in all honesty, they have it pretty easy.

The gallery keeps me very busy. And, no, we do not have our website up and running yet. Being the detail-oriented Capricorn that I am, I am by default, the bookkeeper. I like getting the numbers to balance, but it's challenging and very time consuming. And now, I am being trained to use Quickbooks, which is not going so quickly at all. Business was booming this summer, has slowed this month, but we expect it to pick up as soon as the leaves start turning. We get a lot of tourist traffic. This month we are catching our breath and catching up.

I'm relearning the simple life and am quite content and happy. I live a little close to the edge sometimes, but I have never felt this free and relaxed.

Where Do I Start?

I would start at the beginning, but you'd just get bored and quit reading. I haven't posted in such a long time because just about everything in my life is changing. Shall I give you the good news or the bad first?

About 8 weeks ago, while trying to decide about starting a cooperative, two other artists and I stumbled onto a business opportunity too good to pass up. We are now the proud owners of One Of A Kind Art Gallery in Micaville, NC. We opened our doors for business on April 1st, had a smashing grand opening reception last Friday and are so excited about this new venture.

I have to be careful about how I talk about the other major change in my life. But being careful and cautious has led to some misunderstandings, so I'm just going to lay it out. I have made the difficult decision to leave my marriage of nearly 18 years. I have moved out, but still see my children almost daily. I have moved my wheel, slab roller and bisque kiln to the gallery, where there is studio space. I'm moving the gas kiln to a space about a mile down the road. Some folks will consider my divorce bad news. Ever the optimist, I consider it a chance for a richer life.

Most likely, I will get some grief for posting about this. My estranged husband is intensely private and once he hears that I have written this for public consumption, there will be some fallout. However, not blogging for the past few months has left me feeling disconnected from all of my potter-blogger friends. Here is my attempt to reconnect.

New Ideas

2011 has been a little unsettling for me so far. I'm unsure about what direction my life is taking. Up until I had my children, and we decided that I would stay home with them, I had always been fiercely, obnoxiously independent. I'm not sure why it's taken me almost 13 years to recognize that I am about as far from independent as I can get, at least financially independence. My pottery does not support itself and barely adds anything to the household income.

I decided to look for a job, part-time and related to my art. Penland had a part-time sales job in the supply store. I applied, interviewed (well, I think), but they hired someone else. I was sad for a moment or two, before I realized that it meant something better was just around the corner. Boy was I right!

A couple of clay artist friends and I have been discussing ways to promote ourselves and our art community. We toyed around with the idea of organizing a show, but then we stumbled on the idea of starting a co-op. It's too soon to tell whether this will pan out, but I'm taking the bull by the horns. I've registered for a couple of free business seminars over the next couple of weeks, and we're planning regular meetings to see how we can make this a reality. Anyone have any thoughts on starting a co-op or gallery? We're very excited, but I'm not sure we even know the right questions to ask.

Even if the co-op falls through, those business seminars will be helpful in launching my other brilliant idea. Burnsville approved alcohol sales nearly a year ago. We have an ABC store, a wine shop and a couple of restaurants that serve alcohol. How is it that no one has opened a pub?

Happy Birthday to my Mom

The graphics on this are blurry, but we've all seen it. My Mom turns 64 today!

Back to Doing What I do Best

I know I said I was going to throw some cups. And I know that I should stick to my word. But, let's face it, when there are potters out there who are making gorgeous cups, is it really necessary for me to do make cups too? After seeing these cups on Meredith's blog, I decided to leave the cup making to the pros. At least for now.

Besides, the cups I threw were taking forever to dry, and I nearly forgot about them. I had left way to much clay at the base so they requited an inordinate amount of trimming. And then the kitties decided to take a tap dance on the ware board, gouging several cups and moving the plastic so that they dried too fast. Plus, it's really cold in the studio. Wah.

After tossing the cups into the reclaim bucket, I sat down and threw some small cylinders. No pictures since you all know what they look like. I'm going to try making some small baskets. One of the ideas someone floated at our last Clay Club was the Orton cone box thing. I wonder if I can go that small. I think it's harder than it looks.

Media Whore

Giving GIMP A Try

I have really missed blogging. Our computer sits in our dining room, and with the kids home snow day after snow day, there is simply too much competition for computer time. I gave up. Alas, we have had two good weather days, so I have been catching up with old blogging friends over a nice cup of tea. I decided to figure out how to put some photos with this post.

We had our January Clay Club meeting last night at Elizabeth Westveer's studio. We discussed ideas for this year's meetings and John Britt videoed a few demos (including mine). He'll post them to the Clay Club blog and You Tube later in the week.

One demonstrator was Patty Bilbro. She demonstrated centering two large lumps of clay one on top of the other, rather than trying to center one huge lump. I took a few photos.





Hooray! We have a photo!


The other demonstrator was Doc Welty, who showed us how to create raised surfaces with shellac resist.

I needed Brian's blog post as well as GIMP's online tutorial to walk me through how to resize the images for the web. I ran into a snag after finishing and saving the picture of Patty. The second photo I tried to resize was instead "layered' onto the first, as well as cropped to show only Doc's face. The only way I could figure out how to get rid of the first image and bring up the second one without the cropping was to close GIMP and restart it.

It seems that GIMP offers a lot more then I need in a photo program. I don't manipulate images or even really crop them much. I don't change anything in the photos of my pottery except sizing. And since the forecast is calling for snow tonight, I'm going to congratulate myself on this baby GIMP step, and turn the computer over to the kids again.

I can always tackle GIMP in the spring.

MIA For Too Long

Happy New Year! Our computer survived its ordeal last month. I'm not sure I did though. Or my family for that matter. Blogging is an outlet for me. Without it...well, let's just say, I've had a lot to say.

One thing that didn't survive was my photo software, you know the one: an archaic version of HP Photo Something-Or-Other, origins unknown. Not sure if it was a good or not, but I knew how to use it. Quite some time ago, I posted about trying to use Piknik or something for Call for Entry. Brian Fields was kind enough to email me about Gimp, so I am finally going to try it.

For now my photos are safe on CDs, and I've been taking more and more. We've had some beautiful snow up here and are expecting more in the next day or so.

Since having the kids in school is tenuous this time of year, I am racing to catch up on household chores, so I can get back into the studio by next week. I was unhappy with two of my cone 6 R glazes this last firing, so I need to make some work and loads of test tiles.

$4.95 Etsy Shipping Sale

We still don't have our new modem, so I'm typing at light speed since my connection could drop at any moment. UPS hasn't been able to deliver because of "Emergency Conditions" which I think means the trucks couldn't get around at the beginning of the week, so they are so overloaded and behind schedule that they can't get to us residential customers.

Due to those same weather conditions, which by the way have not been all that bad, local sales have been dreadfully slow. So, I'm having a shipping sale until Tuesday December 21st. It's a win-win-win. I sell some pottery, you save on shipping, and my local Postmaster gets more business which he desperately wants!

Happy Holidays!

All Systems Down

Ugh...last week we started noticing a lot of static on our phone line. Jay diagnosed the trouble back to our modem. We're still waiting for the new one to arrive.

In the meantime, Jay thought it would be an ideal time to clean up our computer. The speed has been ever-so-slowly decreasing over the past few months. After attempting to reboot upon finding two viruses and various other computer meanies, the old girl refused to boot up.

Jay was able to find another operating system, and so I have temporary and fleeting internet access until the weekend, when we'll have time to recover all of our necessary files and wipe the hard drive. What a pain in the ass.

On the positive side, I received my Generosity Chain box from Tracey (thanks Tracey! I'll thank you properly with photos next week!), and at last night's Clay Club meeting, I got a Michael Kline mug in the holiday swap.

Hopefully, I'll be back online next week. So until then, I'm really not ignoring you.

Latest Cone 6 Firing and TRAC Studio Tour

Occasionally I can find myself feeling a bit smug when my carefully laid plans fall into place. I scheduled a cone 6 firing the week of Thanksgiving so that if anything went wrong (or I had too much work), I would have time to refire before the TRAC Studio Tour.

The kiln was packed tight and towards the end of the firing I found cone 7 flat on the bottom, but 6 barely budging on top. I was playing around with the damper when I noticed that my right burner was OUT! I couldn't get the pilot to stay lit, and after realizing that the remaining burner couldn't do the job, I just shut the whole thing down, grateful that I had left myself enough time to refire.

To my delight and surprise, when I opened the kiln the next day (and remember with cone 6 you can open sooner), the pots which I had feared underfired looked quite nice. In fact, my yellow glaze looked marvelous. I believe the kiln gods were sending me a message: you're overfiring!

Jump to this week, home from our annual Thanksgiving trek to the Outer Banks, and it was time to spruce up the gallery for the Studio Tour. I had all these new pots to visit with, shelves to move and, ahem, a bit more glaze clean up to do. Two sick children wiped my smug grin off of my face in a hurry, one kid at the start of the week, the other coming down with the same bug yesterday. Then my phone line is full of static and the internet keeps going out. I had several phone conversations yesterday outside at the phone box. Fortunately, the dryer vent empties right there and kept my feet warm.

All's well that ends well though. I managed most of my "to do" list. I had the good sense to recognize my own limitations though, put away the butter and flour, and called Jay to buy cookies on his way home. They're pretty tasty, too. I did make some Amber Ale Cheese spread.

If you find yourself in the WNC mountains this weekend, plan on visiting with some of the world-class artists who live and work up here. Or come to the artist reception Friday night 5-8 at the Spruce Pine TRAC Gallery.

What the Heck Are These For?

A couple of days ago, I decided I needed to revisit an idea from a customer which required some slab work. I could have used the slab roller, but I need the slabs large and round, so I just used the giant rolling pin. I'm not sure why I was surprised to wake up with a sore shoulder. I've had tendonitis in both of my shoulders at various times in the past. Just another dumbass move.

I know it doesn't look like much yet.

So while I nurse my shoulder for another day, I'm mixing some test glazes. Before I can do that, I have to organize and label the test tiles from last fall so as not to retest something. I would have labelled them sooner, but I've been engrossed in a book about procrastination. If anyone has any cone 6 reduction recipes, please share. I'm also going to try Val Cushing's method of converting a cone 10 glaze to cone 6. Has anyone had any luck with this?

As you know, my studio came equipped with lots of extras, including glaze ingredients. I have Ilmenite, Granular Rutile and Iron Chromate. Does anyone have a recipe that uses any of these? Would you just sprinkle the granular rutile on the shoulder of a pot?

I also have a small blue trash can with little baggies of a white material. I know what you're thinking. I suppose the studio would be a grand hiding place, but who would leave something so valuable behind? Anyway, John Britt did a cone 10 melt test for me, but couldn't determine what it was. It looked like it melted, but then balled back up into little bits. I'm going to do a cone 6 melt test.

Meanwhile, the bisque is firing, and I'm set to load a cone 6 load Sunday.

Probably Not the Brightest Thing I've Done

Deadlines suck! Just when you think you've got it all under control, you remember the piece someone wanted you to try making, or a cat jumps on a bowl and forces you to alter it, or you find yourself reaching for just one more ball of clay. The result is a fair amount of work that is not bone dry yet. Why can't I exercise the necessary self-control to keep to my schedule?

The TRAC Studio Tour is in two weeks. I actually have plenty of time to fire everything. However, we are going to the Outer Banks for Thanksgiving, so I'm going to lose some precious work days. And besides, I wanted to take some of the work from this yet-to-happen firing with me. You know the drill: work backwards from a reasonable unloading date and you have your last bisque date. In my case, unload Tuesday means last bisque Saturday.

But impatient me can't wait. There is so much work to glaze that I'll be dead on my feet if I wait until Sunday. So, I had to make the choice to fire 2 half-full loads, or one full. And although I am a half-full type of gal, I decided to load it all, turn on the lowest element and hopefully the wetter work will dry out. I'm usually very conservative about drying times, but the wet work isn't cut or altered, so I'm hoping I'll be okay.

I pretty proud of how full the kiln is, considering I still don't have shelves that really fit. In fact, the top two half-shelves are both broken. They come in handy in a pinch though.

Now I just have to decide when to actually start firing.

A Collection of Small Miseries

Several weeks ago musing about mud blogger Carole Epp posted about how she was self-publishing a book of her figurines to accompany an exhibit of the same work. She wanted blog readers to comment with their favorites, and from those comments she would choose two readers to receive a free copy of the book.

Jim Gottuso and I were chosen, and I just received my copy of the book today. The book is gorgeous and the work is exquisite and haunting. My favorite is "She wanted to see no more evil".

Quick Thoughts on Local Politics

I do my best and worst thinking while I'm wedging clay. I had loads to wedge and weigh today, and I was nearly in a state of despair when "Chalkhills and Children" by XTC came on the iPod and saved me.

I voted yesterday because I always vote. After the fucked-up stolen election of 2000, I came to realize that one person can make a difference. Our country and perhaps our world would be a vastly different and arguably better place had President Gore been in office when the 9/11 attacks happened. I'll agree with many of you who have had it with attack ads, phone calls, and the sheer stupidity of our government. I still feel it's my right and duty to vote, so I do it.

We've lived up here in this mountain community for 2 1/2 years now. I've met plenty of locals and lots of folks who have relocated here. It's a gorgeous and inspiring place to live and work. That said, the local politics are strange indeed. Although I REALLY want to, I won't name names, but I've just got to share some stories from this year's election season.

As part of the debate team, my daughter had the priviledge of assiting a candidates' forum a few weeks ago. Some of her observations include:

One candidate who played solitaire on her phone during the forum.

One candidate who quoted the Bible.

One candidate who said he wanted to bring real jobs to our county, not pottery making or beading.

One candidate who refused to follow the forum rules with regards to how much time he could talk.

In addition, Monday night I met a woman who had not voted ever since she had been offered money by a candidate at the polls 40 years ago. For real. In fact, this seems to be a time-honored tradition up here. The alleged perpetrator handed out $20 bills "for your time, not for your vote" and won re-election yesterday.

Where is an election official when you need one?

New Ideas in the Studio

I'm sure you've been missing me and wondering how my PTO gig went and when I would be making more pottery, to which I answer: just fine and finally this week.

I stopped at the Burnsville TRAC gift shop this week to see if I needed to restock any work, and one of the shopkeepers asked me if I had anything specifically holiday related. I don't so I thought I'd go home and try to come up with something. I played around with some ornament ideas.

And then had the idea to stack some of these shapes to make some sort of a Christmas Tree.

Not really doing much for me.

They were much more fun to play around with this way.
So I attached slab bottoms to a couple, and I think I've got a new form to work with.

Teardrop: A Tribute to Massive Attack

I've been included in an Etsy Treasury!

Must...Keep...Blogging...

I am definitely suffering from studio withdrawal. I have been unable to carve out any studio time for the last two weeks. Only one more week of preparations for the PTO Fall Festival, and I'm headed down to finish up some work in progress and clean up the mess I left.

I'm in the middle of a batch of smaller baskets.



I have a ware board of them tightly covered waiting for handles.



The reclaim that I spread onto plaster is cracked and getting bone-dry around the edges.


And even wth so many boxes of Ellen Buff, I really wanted to work with a white body again for a bit. That box of Buncombe White isn't going to carry itself downstairs.

Ooh! You can see a glimpse of my new-to-me Subaru Outback in the background. I have my own car for the first time in nearly 10 months. I can't promise not to bitch about the Ford anymore (that's way too much fun), but not today.

In fact today is a celebration! My "baby" turns 10 today.