Friday, December 31, 2010

Groovey - The Evolution Revolution


We want to send out our cheers to you in time for this evening's festivities, and wish you a Happy New Year!
Tomorrow we will be bringing in the New Year relaxing, reading, and figuring out our new Wii games that we got for Xmas.

Enjoy the song that we picked out to bring in the New Year by Evolution Revolution, a classic rock band that played in the early 70's. If you listen close you just may decode the message that was being sent out to the APE agents (Agency to Prevent Evil) of which Lancelot was the premiere agent. Lancelot Link and his colleague Mata Hairi are in a ongoing conflict with the evil organization CHUMP (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Walk About

This past Sunday we woke up to a snowy landscape. After seeing many of my friends on face book post their experiences with these days of snow, I decided to pop on my macro lens and go for a quick walk about. I love the way the snow will pile up on a branch or leaf. The natural curves and shapes are inspiring. When we lived in Alfred the skies were grey most of the time, and we found ourselves complaining and wishing the sun would come out. There were many days in a row when the sun would not appear, giving many students from California the sun withdrawal syndrome (SWS), also known as Swiss, or is it SAD for "seasonal affective disorder". It was serious enough that they had annual workshops to address it. While Bruce was in grad school we acquired our first American Bulldog - Moka. I would walk Moka with a friend of mine Priscella and her large dog Cheves. One of those gloomy days that we went walking together, when after I finished thinking about how grey and yucky the day was, Priscilla looked up and said, "I love this weather". " Winter colors are my favorite, look at how beautiful the sky is". "Really??" I asked (all that I saw was that the sun was no where to be seen). And she replies "Yes just look at the lavenders, mauves, and pinks in the sky". I peered up and started really looking, and then began to see what she was talking about. I love experiences like that. When something or somebody can just turn your world around to see things in a somewhat different way.



Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Holidays 2010 from Bulldog Pottery



Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! We had such a wonderful 2010 and we are so grateful for the lives that we live. Much of our happiness and success has to do with you, our faithful collectors. We are so incredibly lucky to be able to make our pottery, live our passion--- and express our creative selves. Thank you for allowing our works to be part of your lives on a daily basis.

The Bulldog country dance is a bit more focused on our you tube channel. You may want to watch it on there.
Happy Holidays from Bruce, Samantha, Gloria, Ed, and Maxwell!
Thank you!

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Home for the Holidays

We are home for the holidays with a shop full of pottery. Our hours are the usual... Tues-Sat from 10-5 with Mon. and Sun. 98.5% chance that we are open. On Sunday or Monday if you are making a special trip to Bulldog please call to make sure that we are not running errands or we maybe enjoying a museum exhibition in your neck of the woods.

Did I say that our shop is full of many forms and glazes? Walking into our gallery is like going into a confectioner's shop full of eye candy. We gaze at the results of our labors and find many different things that we want to study more intently. It is frequent that we must immediately pack up our newest pieces for shows, without having the luxury of time to ponder the successful results of our experimentations. It is very enjoyable for us to be able to have this down time to look and make adjustments in our plans for future pots and their surfaces.

We have been recuperating this past week from the big August- December push and we are ready to get rolling again today. Yunomis are in our immediate future as we have five each to be shipped by the first of the year to be in the annual Akar gallery's Yunomi show. And teapots, we have been invited to be in the Tea Time Teapot show at the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Plans are in the beginning stages for new projects, and we are gearing up to organize our new hand building space, glazing area and glaze lab. So much to do, so little time, its wonderful to have a full plate.

We have been working on the planning stages for Cousins in Clay May 28&29 2011. Invited clay artists this upcoming year will be Jack Troy, Peter Lenzo, and Michael Kline. We are thrilled about having such strong clay artists joining us here for that weekend.

Hope everyone is enjoying this holiday season. Now for some hot tea... today we will be trying out Madagascar Vanilla.

Here are some over all views of the pots in our shop. Detail views to follow.



Monday, December 13, 2010

Seagrove - "Tar Heel Treasure" - Featured in the Ballantyne Magazine

Ballantyne Magazine -Winter 2010-2011
We were pleased when we discovered that The Community of Seagrove Potters was featured in the recent Ballantyne Magazine in an article called "Tar Heel Treasure". Two of our images were included in the article along with Jugtown Pottery/JLK Jewelry, From the Ground Up, Westmoore Pottery, and Whynot Pottery. Mary Farrell from Westmoore Pottery was interviewed for the article written by Regan Michelle White.

If you are interested in reading this article click on "Tar Heel Treasure" to view the article. The article is on two different pages. To find the second page click on the single arrow at the top part of the site. Also, on our computer if we click any where on the page it will enlarge big enough to read. Hope this works for you.

Red Dung Beetle by Samantha Henneke was featured in the article,

and Molybdenum Crystalline Vase by Bruce Gholson
This coming weekend there will be at least two kiln opennings here in Seagrove. Ben Owen Pottery will be featuring his Chinese Red Pottery and David Stuempfle has pottery from his recent Wood Kiln firing. Our next post will be some shots of all the pots here at Bulldog for all the last minute X-mas shoppers who come to Seagrove from now into next week. We will be here after X-mas as well. Come for a Visit, we look forward to talking with you.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Fabulous Time at Bulldog Pottery


We had a fabulous Saturday. We want to thank everyone that came out to our place here in Seagrove, North Carolina. The day was chilly and we had a taste of Carolina snow during the day. The flakes were large and dusted the ground. Saturday we pulled out an assortment of colored cups. Colors that remind us of mangoes and strawberries, celery, and summer skies.

The word was out that there were kiln openings happening here in Seagrove, Chris Luther Pottery, Westmoore Pottery, Thomas Pottery, Avery Pottery and Tileworks, and Jugtown Pottery all were having special days, as well as many other potteries that are working hard after the Celebration to keep their shops stocked for the season.

We have so much fun talking with people. Stories of movies, inspirations, hobbies, and adventures filled our space.


A plate by Samantha -- a crystalline glaze flowing into a colored shiny glaze. We like the way the snowy peach glaze changes the color of the turquoise around the plate's perimeter.

This glazed wall hanging has a lot of activity and movement.

We received the new Carolina Arts just in time to hand it out at the Holiday kiln opening..
Carolina Arts is filled with info on art events, shops, and galleries across North and South Carolina

Ed is fixing up all of the yummy foods that Gloria made for the day- lentil and sausage soup, stollen pastry, hot cider, gingerbread cake, cookies, pimento cheese (yummy!), and coffee.

Just about everything was eaten during the day. We had a wonderful turn out despite the chill and snow.

I popped out of the studio during the snow and captured some close ups.


Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Samantha's birthday present arrived

Art Sculpture by Mike Durham


Yesterday Samantha's birthday present arrived at Bulldog Pottery.

This giant kinetic metal flower is the artwork of Mike Durham from Asheboro, North Carolina.

We are so excited and wanted to share this with all of you! It looks great in our garden outside of Bulldog Pottery. Yeah!!!

Each of the two layers of petals turns in a different direction and it really flies when it's a windy day like today

We have decided to move Audrey III to the other side to mark the entrance to the pottery.





Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Pottery fresh out of the kiln at Bulldog Pottery

We are busy bees in the studio focused on glazing as many pieces as possible. We really enjoy these cups that came out with the olive green and amber on red clay. A definite contrast with the berry glazed cups a couple of images below. During the days (and nights) we have been listening to The Leviathan Chronicles. We have thoroughly enjoyed this action packed adventure and of course Christof and Nobi's soapbox's. We are just about caught up, with the last part of Episode 25 to listen too. Now we will wait and follow along with everyone else as they release more episodes of the Levianthan Chronicles. We love our itouch and listening to stories while we are in the studio. We have an ongoing list of them in our sidebar to the right.
Do you have any favorites?


Would you like to receive our e-newsletter? Here is an example of the most recent one that we sent out on November 11. There is a place on the right hand side of the blog where you can fill out your information.
Thanks !

There are many kiln openings this weekend in Seagrove. I have been listing them on Three Corners Clay blog. Jugtown Pottery, Chris Luther Pottery, Westmoore Pottery, Avery Pottery and Tileworks, and Thomas Pottery are all having kiln openings at their studios this weekend, December 4, 2010. If I have missed someone sorry, please let me know and I will add your pottery on!

Below are a few crystalline glazes vases, fossil fish ginger jar and fossil fish bowl

Berry Cups and a glazed wall hanging with fly

Red Ant glazed porcelain wall hanging
Spider yunomis, and other cups cooking in the kiln with more insects in fanciful environments coming out on Weds. We must glaze glaze glaze......

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Bulldog Pottery Kiln Opening update

Here is a "wet" Yunomi that Bruce has made with a spider on it.
Spiders!!!
Well we have been busy spiders weaving out web of glazes and yunomis (a casual handle-less drinking vessel, taller than wide). Scheduling is always a conundrum for us and we seem to think that we are bionic humans. A crash is inevitable, but we are having a fabulous time in the studio. We have pulled out a small kiln load of of glazed cups to further proof our recent color tests. If you are interested in seeing two of the pieces that have recently come out of the kiln, go check out our facebook page. I have posted two of them there. When we are in a time crunch we find it a bit quicker to update our Bulldog Pottery facebook page than here at the blog.

These cups are bisqued and ready to glaze, Ed will be washing these pots today.

These are Bruce's red clay cups that he has drying upside down. These cups are now in a kiln ready for the first round of firing (that is as soon as our glaze kiln turns off).

I love the fluidity of Bruce's designs on his cups.

Thanks goodness for Ed and Gloria. They really have been instrumental in helping push our kiln opening through. I think they have sieved at least 20 glazes for us so far this cycle. The amount of prep time is always a mystery to us. Something that we have trouble planning into the cycle of potting life.

Bruce is brushing a glaze onto one of his ginger jars. When we work with our crystalline glazes they all get brushed on. This allows us more control and a sensitivity to the thick and thin application of the glaze. All of our glazes are touchy about application. We both handle the glaze brushwork a bit differently, which also gives us variation of effect that we like a lot.

We mix and use over 50 different glazes at anyone time. They are mixed in small amounts which helps us conserve space. Though at this moment space is needed. Will we be able to keep our new space more organized????

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Celebration of Seagrove Potters 2010 s'more images

This is a view from our booth Saturday afternoon

We wanted to show you some more images of the fabulous weekend.
A view down one of the rows. Bruce took this image on his tippee toes with the camera held high

The North Carolina Pottery Center set up a booth. They sold books and raffle tickets for a covered jar that Mark Hewitt donated.

Blaine Avery of Avery Pottery and Tileworks

The wonderful magazine Our State set up and handed out sample copies of their magazine and sold subscriptions.

A birds-eye view of Dixieland Pottery

Jugtown Pottery settin up Friday morning

Lucksware

Cross Creek Pottery

Lisa Luther and Dan from Dirtworks. Lisa was trying to dodge my camera, but I was able to snap this one! She was exclaiming "the best wine glasses ever" made by Chad. I wish I had gotten an image of them. They were large enough to hold 1/2 bottle of wine.

STARworks Ceramics. They were selling pottery tools and clay.

David Stuemplfe Pottery

Whynot Pottery

Rhonda McCanless. She has started a monthly newsletter "In the Grove"

Touya Studios

Johnston and Gentithes Art Pottery

Turn and Burn Pottery

Old Gap Pottery

Blue Hen Pottery and Beverly Dickson from Artifex Gallery in Troy