They have arrived! We are so excited!

Just a quick view of pots. We all are very excited. Hope you can make it out today! Donna Craven's kiln opening and Tom Gray's Osmosis is happening this weekend too!

Cousin Michael has arrived, critique of mud puddle piece ensues

There is nothing like a fired piece of mud puddle. Bruce collected these from the property when our land was graded and the dirt was exposed to rain and sun. These shapes would crack out and Bruce collected them. We had some space while loading the kiln so Bruce put in a couple of his mud puddles.

A studio potters' Found Art entertainment.

And yes we like to fire mud dauber's nests too. You will find these in many a potter's studios. Fred Johnston at J.&G. Art Pottery has some nice salt glazed ones.

The kiln will be unloaded tomorrow. Pottery will be polished, lawn mowed, canopy's will go up, and many other things that we will need to do to get ready that we have not thought of yet. Cheers.

The SavorNC - wine, food, travel, decor, magazine wrote about Cousins in Clay today on their blog. "If North America has a Pottery State it must be North Carolina"

It is a Peek

Early this morning we unbricked the top layer of the kiln's door. The kiln has been cooling down for a little over 24 hours now. Still too hot to unbrick the door. But cool enough for us to take a peek inside to see what we have waiting for us.

Now a few hours later, we are able to take off another two rows of brick. We think things are looking good, but it is so hard to make accurate assessments at this point until we really get inside.

There are always refinements and adjustments to be made, like wishing that maybe a glaze had gone on a bit thinner. It is hard to make these fine adjustments when firing infrequently. There is a certain way that we like this grey glaze to come out, and maybe we should record the specific gravity for the more sensitive glazes to get a consistent thickness . The application and heat have to be just right, then Bruce and I can sigh in relief and satisfaction, and say this is it, this is what we like. But with all of the variations that can happen between firing, glazing, materials, etc., flexibility must remain a positive attribute.

We bought this tent last week for Michael's brush work demonstration. We decided to go with the bigger size so that everyone that is watching Michael will have plenty of room to sit. He will be pulling out the brushes on 2:00 Sat. and 1:30 Sun. Bring your June/July Ceramics Monthly magazine for Michael's signature. He is featured with a two page article this issue.

Lets Fire it on up!

Well, yesterday was focused on putting the rest of the pots into the kiln. It has been awhile since we have fired our gas kiln. We have focused our attentions on our crystalline, decorative glazes, and throwing our vase forms.

Bruce first feels compelled to gather all of the bamboo sheaths. These are pieces that the timber bamboo sheds off as the new shoots grow up. This is the time of year that the shoots come up out the ground and I bite my nails, wondering just how far has it spread? Bruce really wanted bamboo. There is a beautiful golden timber bamboo at Wing Haven in Charlotte. Oh my, just gorgeous.

Bruce is explaining all of the uses this can have. How many can you come up with? Can you say compulsive collector?

Well it is back to loading the kiln and we have made lots of mugs and cups this time. Such a wonderful functional form. The cup. Drinking out of art. The ultimate.

Bruce pulled out our old bucket of a red shino that we used for a couple of years back in the early 2000's. Very exciting to unearth old glazes that we loved then (and now).
Max is hanging outside our hog parlor. The grass is a more comfortable place to be then where we are. Yes Max does care where he sits. Grass is much better than mud. He came up with Gloria to check out the garden and what needs to be done next.
Bruce is bricking up the kiln and right on time! We are very excited that we have a couple more hours before we go to bed. Just enough time to pop open our Ranger and watch a couple episodes of Modern Family. Very very funny stuff. We polished off the second pint of Ice Cream that Jeff brought to us from Maple View Farm over in Hillsborough, NC. The flavor was peach! Since the Peach ice cream we ate the Double Choclate. Oh my gosh. It is like a cold fudge brownie.
Oh yes one last thing to do. Take the can off of the chimney. Something that is nice to do before it gets too dark. Loading a kiln during day light savings time is so much nicer than in the winter. Having the last 4 hours of light really makes a big difference.
Today we fire and clean up for this coming weekend!

Cousins in Clay just around the Corner

We are on a roll down at Bulldog Pottery and having a lot of fun with glazing. We have 1/2 of the kiln loaded, and tomorrow we will finish up glazing and loading the rest of the pots into the kiln. The days have been beautiful and the sun is out for the rest of the week. Hopefully through next weekend as well.
We sold this beautiful green vase yesterday. We will ship it out to California after Cousins.

Bruce is glazing a large porcelain bowl that we found stashed away in our back room.

Today we began to load the kiln.

Bruce is figuring out what the next level should be and if we should go low or high.
Yes we are having fun. What is that song I sang back in 8th grade? These are the Times of Our Lives. It was a song that our chorus teacher loved, and she made us sing it over and over again. We all did not like it so much, but now looking back on it maybe she was trying to implant a positive message into our future.
Cousins in Clay is this coming Saturday and Sunday! We hope to see you here.

Cedar Creek Gallery National Teapot VIII Show Opens Tonight

Samantha's Spotted Horse Teapot

Tonight is the Cedar Creek Gallery's opening of their National Teapot Show VIII.

Beginning at 5:00pm with refreshments and music by Kenny Shore. The gallery will be open until 10:00pm

May 21 - August 21, 2011

Bright, bold, daunting, delicate and sublime. Teapots made to brew tea, the imagination or both!

Created from clay, glass, metal, wood, and more by local, regional, and national artists. Over 200 teapots for show and sale.

Back by popular demand the National Teapot Show VIII is a triennial show curated by Cedar Creek Gallery dating back to 1989.

Cedar Creek Gallery is a must see gallery over in Creedmoor near Durham. Fabulous art in a beautiful garden setting.

Check out our posts that we did a couple of years ago.

May 5 2009 - Cedar Creek - Creedmoor, North Carolina

May 6 2009 - Part II Cedar Creek Gallery - Creedmoor, North Carolina

Samantha's Spotted Horse Teapot

Bruce Ghoslon's spotted matte crystalline teapot

Bruce Ghoslon's molybdenum crystalline teapot

Glazing, Glazing for Cousins in Clay

Cousins In Clay is just around the corner. This time next week, Michael Kline will be here and we will begin to set up the tents for Jack Troy and Peter Lenzo. This is a very exciting time for us. Of course we want to get more made and glazed than we have time for. We will focus on our Moka glaze for this week. We will have assorted mugs, bowls, covered jars, and plates. Bruce is working with his shino this week as well. I really wanted to have some of my glazed insect paintings, but there is not enough time to work on them, and get the functional pots glazed too. If only we could warp into another dimension and have our other selves helping out too.

We have been moving around too much to listen to our new podcast story by A.G. Holyfield called Murder on Avedon Hill. It is a mystery filled with vampires, moonbeasts, and a mysterious group of people living in a walled town called Avedon Hill.

Bruce has been glazing out back and the resident bird family has been a bit upset with him for hanging out in their shed.

I am blowing out a bit of sponge crumbly from the cup before I line it with Tenmoku. We would like to do some tests this summer of various Tenmoku's. I remember back at Peter's Valley Victor Babu brought out a rutile gold wash to brush over his tenmoku. Maybe this can be one of our many reduction glaze tests that we are planning to do this summer.

Can you believe I have had this shirt since I was ten years old?

Bruce is drawing in his details on his fish. I am so glad that we are giving ourselves enough time for him to focus on his shino glazing.
Ed is helping us wash pots. He has also been putting in the new pantry shelves and laying down the floor in the office. Gloria has painted the main room and planted many tomatoes! A lot to be done before the Cousins Come next week!!!!
Bruce is still out back and the birds are flying around waiting for him to schmooze. But they just will have to get used to him being back there this week. Their nest is somewhere behind the clay mixer in the corner past Bruce. One of the birds is frequently sitting on the outer corner of the door telling B to beat it.