Going to Durham - White Oak Pottery

We are packing up some of our pottery to take to Durham today. We will join Julie Olson of White Oak Pottery along with other artists, for her home Spring Sale in Durham tomorrow. Bulldog is packing a mixture of our crystalline vases and Moka glaze to display at her studio. There will be a raffle - 5 pieces:one from each studio - to benefit the Durham Independent Animal Rescue. To read more details about the event tomorrow visit Julie's website.

Bruce is polishing the bottom of these Yunomis and vases.

Some of the Moka Glaze we will be bringing

Our shop will be open! Gloria and Ed will be here to greet you. The garden they have been working diligently on for the past month, is shaping up nicely.

Making Some Pots

Last night I worked on throwing porcelain cups and Bruce worked on throwing red clay bottles. I really enjoyed playing around with the leaf texture molds I made last year. I found the basket of them under some piles in our old studio. I have been doing this crescent moon texture on my cups recently, and thought adding the leaf pattern will give more places for the glaze to pool.

Bruce throwing his bottle.

We are enjoying our new space. Bruce has set up a throwing station for red clay. This is somewhat temporary until we get a feel for our space and how we want to organize the room for us together. Organization takes time, patience, and lots of practice and is a skill we want to develop.

Here are some pieces that I have been throwing this week: vases and mushroom jars.

Two Virginia Tech Hokies

Strummin' our guitar...... Gloria and Ed have made a major push to move from Blacksburg, VA. Two Va Tech Hokies drove the moving van on Saturday from Blacksburg to Seagrove with just about all of Ed and Gloria's furniture. The move is not quite finished yet, but is close to being completed. Blacksburg, VA is a wonderful place and it is always a treat to run into another Hokie. We will still visit Blacksburg because Bruce's sister lives there.

One of the first objects out was a guitar that I made with two other classmates during my senior year of high school art class. I am glad we saved it. I think it will be fun to find a place for it in our new home. There is also a painting I labored over during class and study hall that sometime I may take a picture of to show all of you.

We (Gloria, Ed, Bruce, Max, and I) are looking forward to the move being finished.

On another note: Tom Starland wrote a post on his blog, "Carolina Arts Unleashed" yesterday about the next event we are participating in. We will be in Durham this coming weekend on May 1st. We will be hosted by Julie Olson at White Oak Pottery along with Bev Nagy, Terry Gess, and Raven Rock Artworks. Tom also did a post a few days ago about our "Cousin" Mike and his kiln opening over in the mountains on May 8.

Thank you Tom

White Oak Pottery Spring Show and Sale

We are preparing for next week's (Saturday, May 1) trip to Durham, NC. We have been invited by Julie Olson to join her and Terry Gess, Bev Nagy, and Raven Artworks for a day at her pottery place. Check out her website for more info and links to all of the artists.

Set Up for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Yesterday we brought out all of our pottery for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters' Spring kiln openings. Here are some pictures we took in the early morning before the sheets became yellow with pollen. The pollen here is so thick this year, that when the wind blew it was like a dust storm. There were many visitors here in Seagrove enjoying the wonderful weather (despite all of the pollen) and all of the new work that the potters had out on display. We had quite a few cars here at Bulldog throughout the day. Spending days like yesterday, with enthusiastic and wonderful people is such a treat. We finished the day off by attending the Grand Opening of ARTifex gallery and studio school in Troy. We had a great time there. Beverly and Chad Dickson did an incredible job of transforming the building into a vibrant gallery space and art studio classroom. She displayed a group of stunningly colorful, and richly textured variations of her Petroglyph series. This series is partially inspired by the Judaculla Rock glyphs in Jackson County, NC. I think we will be visiting Troy again soon.

Celebration of Spring in Seagrove Kiln Opening April 17 & 18

Lots going on here at Bulldog Pottery. This upcoming weekend is the Celebration of Seagrove Potters Spring kiln openings, April 17 & 18. Around 50 potters will be joining together to gear up for this special occasion. Kilns are firing and potters are cleaning up the winter's debris. Check out Discover Seagrove website for details of some of the events taking place.

We are also looking forward to joining other artists on May 1 at Julie Olson's White Oak Pottery in Durham.

On May 15th and 16th we will be in Washington DC for a home show. Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor will be setting up with their pottery as well, down the street (very close by) on the same weekend. Interested in learning the details about this home show in DC., send us an e-mail at bulldog@bulldogpottery.com . More details to come.

We are gearing up for our annual "Cousins in Clay" special event. And very excited about the three wonderful potters that will be joining Bruce & I and Fred & Carol that weekend (June 5&6) : Michael Kline, Allison McGowan, and Val Cushing.

Lots going on here and lots of pottery to make. All very exciting!

MudBucket Interview of Bulldog Pottery

We were interviewed by Jesse Lu Schreier. She writes a wonderful blog called MudBucket. We have been following her blog since last fall. Bruce bumped into it and was thrilled with the variety of ceramics that she finds and presents. Take a look at all of the information that she has collected together about ceramics artists. She has published her interview of us today. What fun.. thank you Jesse Lu.

Mud(Shot): Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke of Bulldog Pottery

by Jesse Lu Schreier

Jesse Lu writes on her blog, MudBucket, "Today, again, I have a first for you here on (Mud)Bucket. In conjunction with the series of studio tours, I hope to bring you a plethora of artist profiles this year. Please join me in welcoming our first artist profile from Bulldog Pottery in North Carolina. Bruce and Samantha were some of my first encouraging readers here on (Mud)Bucket and their crystalline glazes caught my attention immediately. It brings me great pleasure to be able to share with all of you their story and their fantastic work. Please peak in on their blog(which is also great) and their website to see more of this duo's work as I couldn't possibly share as many images as I wanted to. Make sure to click "Read more" at the bottom of the post to read the full interview and see more fantastic images."

Below is a picture of us, Moka and Babu. Moka and Babu are the original American Bulldogs of Bulldog Pottery.

Aunt Ruby's Green

Aunt Ruby's Green, Brandywine, Enchantment, Sungold, Juliet, Black Brandywine, Beefmaster, Polish Linguista, Pineapple, Kellogs Breakfast ...... It's a rainbow of tomatoes. We also planted our favorite peppers which are Fooled You and Anaheim, and eggplants which are Ichiban and Pingtung. Soon we will plant melons..... watermelons..... Ahhhh. To pick a watermelon out of the garden is divine. Have you smelled the roots of a cantaloupe plant?

The satisfaction of planting seeds and watching them perk up from the soil is one of the best feelings. I am always amazed to think that such a little seed makes a seedling and then a plant. Then that reasonable sized plant becomes a gargantuan plant and takes more room than we want to admit or plan for when planting in the garden. We always have more plants than room, and always want to squeeze one more plant in. This can sometimes cause real problems come July and August. Do you think we will learn this year? We will see......

So delicate and hypnotizing

Gloria and Ed have been out in the garden raking up old weeds and crabby grass, actually it is the invasive Burmuda runners that are the real bear. Getting this plot of land ready for the seedlings is a satisfying chore. This empty area will be a sea of green soon with lots of yummies for our dinner table.