Celebration of Seagrove Potters 2011

We are already back in the studio today making pots. Getting ready for our holiday kiln opening on Saturday, December 17.  This past weekend was fantastic and we felt elated during the whole weekend.  It is great to see all of our Seagrove Pottery friends, both potters and pottery lovers.  We are so busy in the studio during the year that time can fly by before we connect again. This is a special time for us to visit with one another and find our what is new in our pottery community.

On Friday evening, the Gala is fun and well attended evening.  Attending the Celebration Gala is the price of a ticket, which provides you food, music, the famous one-of-a-kind Seagrove Potter collaboration auction, and ability to have first pottery choice from the potters' booths. This year the potters that belong to the Co-op of Seagrove Potters (a shop located in downtown Seagrove) got together to decorate a large vase that was turned by David Fernandez. We all decorated and signed the piece with our individual style.   It is quite a feat to bring 10 different potteries together to all work on one piece during the different stages of drying, firing, and glazing. The woman that won the bid on this piece took home an art work full of energy, commitment, and cooperation.

    

The Co-op of Seagrove Potters at the auction Friday evening at the Celebration's Gala

Ahhh yes and this year we were so happy to see that the t-shirt committee added on sweatshirts to their line of Celebration of Seagrove Potters attire. We are a big fan of sweatshirts around here on the Bulldog Pottery homestead.

Ed purchases Celebration of Seagrove Potters sweatshirts from a friendly Celebration volunteer

Bruce, Ed, and Samantha at the "Celebration" sportin their new hoodies

I could not resist taking some pictures of these shoes. These are awesome. If you like looking at shoes like I do you can find some great shoe images on tumblr. 

We had many conversations this past weekend, sold lots of pottery, and still have plenty of work left for our shop for the holidays.  We will be open from now until the end of the year and adding more pieces by December 17th for our Moka glaze kiln opening.

Bruce in our booth at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters

This was Urmas's last night here in Seagrove.  He was visiting Seagrove for two weeks with a group of Estonian ceramic instructors and students, as well as clay students from East Carolina University. They were all involved in building a wood kiln at Anne Partna's and Adam Landman's, Blue Hen Pottery.  It is always a treat to meet artists from another part of the world. 

Samantha and Urmas 

  Earlier that Friday, Urmas and the Estonian and the ECU potters were putting together an exhibit called the Transparent Kiln at the North Carolina Pottery Center.  After they fired the wood kiln that they built this month at Adam and Anne's Blue Hen Pottery, they re-stacked the fired clay pieces exactly as they were stacked in the kiln using glass shelves. In this installation you can see the evidence of the flame patterns that went through the kiln revealed by the surface effects the fire left upon the work.  Hot spots and cold spots are also evident because of the cone packs that were distributed throughout the kiln.

Potters from Estonia constructing the Transparent Kiln Exhibit

Celebration Collaboration with Blue Hen Pottery

Samantha Henneke and Anne Partna

In two days, on the evening of Friday the 18th this set of 10 drinking cups will join many other Seagrove Potter's collaborations at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters.  Seagrove Potters have been working on these projects since this summer.  Anne Partna from Blue Hen Pottery and myself decided to work together to create something for the collaboration gala auction. We both made drinking cups and exchanged them for the other to decorate. I took Anne's cups home to decorate with butterflies and beetles and Anne took my drinking cups home and decorated them with her chickens.  I used her decorating materials and Anne used my decorating materials.  We exchanged these cups back and I fired the chicken cups in my kiln and Anne fired the butterfly/beetle cups in her kiln. Pretty fun I think!

The Celebration's evening Gala kicks off this awesome weekend pottery event on Friday, Nov. 18th from 6:00pm-9:00pm. Tickets need to be purchased in advanced and you can do this on the Celebration of Seagrove Potters' website. If you have any questions you can e-mail me.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters continues on Saturday morning at 9:00am-6:00pm with demonstrations, kids booth, and a silent auction in the afternoon. There are concession stands when you get hungry on the premise. On Sunday the Celebration opens up at 10:00am-4:00pm. You can find out all the detailed information at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters website.

Also the Seagrove Potters have been posting on the Celebration of Seagrove Potters facebook page. If you are on facebook you can join us there too.

Cheers and we look forward to seeing you this weekend!

Let's Celebrate

We wanted to share with you the e-newsletter that we sent out yesterday. Here is the link to Let's Celebrate. Would you like to receive an occasional newsletter? On the right hand side of this e-mail there is a form that you can fill out.  Mad Mimi will send you an e-mail to you so you can confirm that you would like to receive our newsletter.

We will have a kiln opening on December 17th, 2011 from 9:00-5:00.

Celebration Collaborative - Carol Gentithes and Bruce Gholson

Carol Gentithes and Bruce Gholson holding their collaboration pieces

Bruce and Carol put thier talents together for this years Celebration of Seagrove Potters evening Gala at the Historic Luck's Cannery.  These two porcelain vessels were turned, glazed and fired by Bruce Gholson and then decorated by Carol Gentithes with her whimsical and creatively collaged over-glaze decal work.

This is the fourth year of the Celebration of Seagrove Potters, truly magnificent, truly a good event.  Michael Mahan "From the Ground Up Pottery" at one of the very first Celebration meetings suggested that maybe we could do collaborative pieces with one another for the auction on Friday evening. Since then this has become a tradition.  We all know one another and we see each other here or there, but getting together to make work with one another is a whole other world to itself. We are working everyday as studio potters in our own studios with our own clays and glazes in our own personal ways.  So when getting together to think creatively about our clay bodies, kiln firings, and glazes it takes ingenuity to put something together as a collaboration.

Carol Gentithes owns Johnston and Gentithes Art Pottery along with her husband Fred Johnston. Their pottery is located in downtown Seagrove. Look for the ceramic lizards crawling up the chimney. They moved here around 1-2 years before we moved here.  We are Alfred Alumni together, which holds a special bond for us.  Carol sculpts ceramics animals that are covered with narrative stories all placed on the piece in an intricately woven fashion. 

Bruce Gholson looking over the fantastical imagery by Carol Gentithes

close-up view of one side of the vase decorated by Carol Gentithes and thrown by Bruce Gholson

the other side of the vase decorated by Carol Gentithes and thrown by Bruce Gholson

a close-up view of the bottom of the ginger jar decorated by Carol Gentithes and thrown by Bruce Gholson

detail view of the ginger jar decorated by Carol Gentithes and thrown by Bruce Gholson

Carol Gentithes and Bruce Gholson looking at the vase and ginger jar

This is Carol's signiture on the bottom of on of the pieces

detail view of the ginger jar decorated by Carol Gentithes and thrown by Bruce Gholson

Fred Johnston, Carol Gentithes, and Bruce Gholson gazing over the collaborative creations  for the Gala Night Auction.

Celebration of Seagrove Potters at the Lucks Cannery

This ad appeared in the Carolina Arts on page 15 of their online newspaper

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters staring the Seagrove Potters

The weekend before Thanksgiving

Luck's Cannery on Pottery Highway around a mile from the town of Seagrove

See you there

On Friday evening November 18 the Gala begins at 6:00pm and lasts until 9:00pm (pre-purchased tickets $40 needed- check at the website for details)

On Saturday morning November 19 9:00am - 6:00pm (tickets sold at the door $5)

On Sunday morning November 20 10:00am 4:00pm (tickets sold at the door $5)

For more information and details check out Celebration of Seagrove Potters website or follow us on our Celebration of Seagrove Potters facebook page.

Red Ball Tested - Pottery Flask Passes

We are gearing up for the upcoming Seagrove Potters' event that takes place this November 18-20, 2011. We have selected one of Bruce's flask forms for the silent auction that will take place on Saturday afternoon at the "Celebration of Seagrove Potters".  The Celebration takes place at the Luck's Historic Cannery with around 60 Seagrove Potteries partcipating.  This is a special weekend for us when we all convene under one roof to sell our pottery together.  Usually we are at home working on our pots and greeting customers at our individual studios.  Hope you can make it that weekend, but hey you can come out to see us anytime of the year!

We have started a Celebration of Seagrove Potters facebook page where we are currently posting images of the collaborations that we are working on together.

Also there is a new Seagrove Potters facebook page. You can follow along with us as we post images of our process and the work that we are making.

Maxwell wanted to give the pottery flask a once over!  Make sure the piece is red ball approved!

Maxwell approves this Bulldog Pottery flask