3rd Annual Cousins in Clay Weekend

The tents, tables, and chairs are just about all put away. After an event like "Cousins in Clay" it takes some time to get back into our regular routine. We are now on our 5th day after "Cousins" (we call A.C.) and we get to begin a new project.

The "Cousins" weekend was fabulous. The weather cleared up, and the sun came out after the pouring rain on Friday night. Jack Troy arrived first, with his car packed full of pottery and was followed shortly later by the arrival of Peter Lenzo and his friend Val. We had a blast watching them unpack pots and face pots. Then Michael unloaded his goodies, and we showed what we just had pulled out of the kiln. It is a surreal feeling to have something like this happen right in our yard. All this wonderful pottery here, all different, representing the makers' personal visions and expressions, through the utilization of the amazingly versatile material that is clay. As a pottery lover this was a great place to be, walking up and down the aisle looking right to left and left to right. The visual stimulation of all these varied pots side by side was an exhilarating experience.

During Saturday and Sunday we had a steady flow of visitors. We all are thrilled with the many conversations that we had with art and pottery loving people. It is the support of all of you reading this blog that enables us to make pottery our profession full time. We put just about all of our soul and energy into our work, and to have so many wonderful, kind, and enthusiastic people support our art, provides the joy and income for us to keep the pottery cycle going.

Below is some of our new shino work with a little crystalline mixed in

A steady stream of people came through during Saturday, buying pottery from everyone.

Michael Kline giving a brush work demo on Satuday at 2:00.

Here are Michael's reflection cups.

On Sunday he gave another brushwork demo at 1:30. We had a nice turn out for the noon potluck. It was fun to eat while looking at and talking about pottery and gardening.

Kristy came out from Winfield Farms. It was great to see her.

Michael's bird cup that is now in our collection, and is Bruce's current favorite drinking vessel.

A close-up of Peter's Head Pot reveals a face jug on a face jug.

Jack Troy's organic cups

Samantha's Moka glaze cup

Michael Kline, Peter Lenzo, Jack Troy, Samantha Henneke, and Bruce Gholson

Cousins in Clay 2011

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!