First annual Mountain Cousins in Clay

The first annual Mountain Cousins was a very gratifying weekend for Bruce and I.  It was wonderful to escape the heat for an extremely pleasant weekend on top of a Mountain ridge with the Michael, Stacey, George, Evelyn, Lillian, Jack, and General Patton. I (Samantha) grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia on a plateau between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains and Bruce spent a number of years living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Floyd, Va.   Our weekend was sunny and cool, and we were comfortably set up under the oak trees at the top of hill from Michael Kline's Pottery shop.  We felt at home with the beautiful views and great companionship.

Michael's father-in-law, George cooked red beans and rice for the visitors that came on Friday and Saturday.   They were yummy and I made sure to have several second helping. George cooks for Civil War reenactments. He came with his dutch ovens and grills, and his dog General Patton.  Patton and Jack had fun playing together in the morning before they had to go up for the day.

Here is Michael outside of his studio. This is where you can find him on a daily basis working on his pots. He has a display room of his pottery in the front of the building. 

Cynthia and Edwina Bringle visited us Friday morning.  Cynthia is a potter living in Penland right next to the famous Penland School of Crafts and Edwina her sister is a weaver.

The building below is Cynthia's studio which is located at the entrance into Penland (the driveway right across from the Penland Gallery).  Visit Cynthia at her studio, and see her beautiful gardens and wonderful pottery.  She has a great selection of her work to look at.  I bought a slender wiggle vase from her last year during the Toe River Studio Art Tour.
This was my first time actually visiting Penland grounds, Bruce taught a workshop and a concentration there back in the late 80's. We had a nice lunch at the Penland coffee shop Sunday afternoon, and the Penland Gallery is spectacular.

I love looking at pottery in outdoor light. Sunlight has a warmth that really brings out the rich and colorful tones of glazes.

Michael Kline pulled out a new kiln load of his work for the weekend of Mountain Cousins.

There was a great selection of pottery to look at and choose from.

Happy pottery collectors went home with a piece from each of us.

Next year around this time we will have two more potters under the tents on the mountain top with us.  Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor will be headed down from Massachusetts with their awesome pottery to join us for Michael's 2nd annual Mountain Cousins in Clay.

And here in Seagrove... Bulldog Pottery's annual "Cousins in Clay- 2012" will take place on Memorial Day weekend with our honored Clay "Cousins" Ron Meyers and Judith Duff.

Fresh Pots! North Carolina Mountains here we come!

We are just about all ready for our road trip to Michael Kline's Pottery in Bakersville.  A bit more packing and clothes collecting and then we are headed to the NC Mountains.  Bruce is on the phone right now with Michael, making sure that we have everything packed up. We need to grab our box of shims.
Overall the firing came out really splendid. We are excited about the glaze on the mug above. It has an incredible iridescence and it works beautifully on stoneware as well!  A lot of exciting possibilities for the next firing.

These are images of the pottery that is all packed up now and in the van. We have heard a hurricane is coming up the coast. We hope it doesn't mess up too many art and other events that are happening this weekend, and that the folks on the coast will be safe.

We hope to see you at Michael's this weekend for red beans and rice, hand made by Michael's father in-law! Rain or shine we will be there for the first annual Cousins in Clay weekend in the Mountains.  Here are the directions to Michael's.

 We sent out our e-card a couple of days ago. Here is the link to Bulldog e-card.  If you would like to be on our e-mailing list you sign up for it to the right of this post.  We also have a Bulldog Pottery facebook page where we share what we are doing and other information or interesting links. If you want to "like" it and follow along that would be splendid.

Cheers to all of you blog readers and thank you for checking in on us to find out what is going on here at Bulldog Pottery.

We lost one of the jars below (big one bottom right) when cleaning them up. A lid decided to fly out of Bruce's hands and right into a bowl taking it out too. These accidents happen.

This is one of Bruce's shino fish bowls

This is one of Samantha's plates decorated with a swirl pattern

This is the other side of the plate which is decorated as well

Bruce will have a few of his fish mugs too.

"Cousins in Clay" at Michael Kline Pottery in the Mountains

We are excited to join our "Clay Cousin" Michael Kline next week at his pottery studio in Bakersville, NC.  We will have a fresh group of Moka and other glazed pottery to pack up and bring to his place.  

All of us have had so much fun the past three years with the event "Cousins in Clay" here at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove, that we have decided to grow "Cousins in Clay" into a twice a year event. We are excited about doubling the potential of new experiences, the camaraderie of sharing, collaborating, and invite potters to join with us that love and have a passion for clay as we do.  It is inspiring to work with Michael in this endeavor, and we love talking with people that love pottery, and want pottery to be a part of their daily lives.  We enjoy meeting people, conversations, making friends with all of you that make all of this possible for us to keep making pottery as our profession.  

On Memorial Day weekend, Cousins in Clay will take place here in Seagrove at Bulldog Pottery, and this year "Mountain Cousins" will take place on August 26 and 27 (Friday and Saturday) at Michael Kline's Pottery in Bakersville.  (In the future it will be on Labor Day weekend, so easy to remember!) This year (2011) Michael will be teaching a clay workshop at Arrowmount on Labor Day weekend.

Below I am all set up in our old space to glaze. We have yet to move this part of our process. It just takes us time to set up, clean up, and especially to organize.  Organizing is so important, it really takes just as much patience to do it, as making our pots. We want to learn how to give organizing our mind energy too.

Bruce has moved down to the new studio to glaze his pots with shino.  We are looking forward to organizing (there is that word again) everything that you see behind him! We will one day glaze there too.

Bruce has begun to glaze test again! Yip Yip! I am also looking forward to seeing him work with his shino again. Beautiful work. He made incredible pieces back in the 80's and early 90's.  Someday I will have to show some images of the beautiful snake platters we have hanging on our wall.

Hilltown6 Pottery Tour - Massachusetts

Tomorrow and Sunday, July 30 and 31, 2011 the Hilltown6 Pottery Tour takes place in Massachusetts. Two of the potters that are part of this tour are our D.C. Pot Hop and Jam buddies, Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor. 

This year we will meet up again with Mark and Sam at a home sale in Washington D.C., October 22&23, 2011 on Cathedral Ave.

The Hilltown6 Pottery Tour includes the following ceramic artists : Mark Shapiro, Sam Taylor, Robbie Heidinger, Erix Smith, Constance Talbot, Hiroshi Nakayama, Michael McCarthy, and Christy Knox.  You can find out more about these artists at the Hilltown6 Pottery website and also check out their Hilltown6 facebook page.

There is another very exciting upcoming 2012 event that includes Mark and Sam.  They will be the guest cousins next year for 2012 Mountain Cousins in Clay, NC at Michael Kline's pottery in Bakersville. We are looking forward to hanging out in the Mountains together in 2012!  Michael Kline shared a studio space with Mark Shapiro some years ago. Maybe there will be a future story about this by Michael on the Cousins in Clay blog.

I want to let you know that we are having a blast this summer in the studio at Bulldog Pottery. We busy making lots of pots and getting ready for this year's 2011 Mountain Cousins in Clay on August 26&27. 

 With the Potters Market in Charlotte following closely on Sept. 10th, and then our show at the Museum of Natural Sciences, then we hop onto the Pot Hop and Jam in DC.  Wow we have quite an exciting line up!  And of course there is the Celebration of Seagrove Potters in November.  Check out the new Celebration of Seagrove Potters Face Book page to see all the cool collaborative pieces being made for the Friday night Gala.

Below is Mark working on setting up his pots at last years Pot Hop and Jam

Sam Taylor with a selection of his pots at the Pot Hop and Jam

A close-up of Mark Shapiro's pottery

This is a close-up of Sam Taylor's pottery

Mountain Cousins - Michael Kline Pottery in Bakersville

On August 26 and 27, 2011 we will over and up in the mountains at Michael Kline's Pottery studio. We will be bringing lots of our Moka glazed pottery that we are presently working on in the studio!

Summer Image Journaling

A zuchetta from our garden

Happy Summer Solstice!

This summer we want to do something a bit different with our blog. We will post an image, link, or whatever we want. No Rules, just whatever happens. We are not planning on talking or writing much, but maybe a thought here or there, or a description for the photo or link that we choose to post. The images will be random pic(k)s from our yard, studio, travels, or internet surfing. We think it will be fun and a new way to approach our blog for a couple of months.

We will be working towards some exciting events this fall beginning with Mountain Cousins August 26&27, 2011 at Michael Kline's Pottery in Bakersville, NC. On September 10th we will be back at the Mint Museum of Art, in Charlotte, NC. for the annual Potters Market. Our solo exhibition opens on October 7th Raleigh, NC at the Museum of Natural Sciences and we will be back up in Washington D.C. for the Pot Hop and Jam on October 22 and 23 with Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor. Of course we will be at the Celebration Of Seagrove Potters the weekend before Thanksgiving. All in all, a very exciting line up of activity for us.

Bruce is preparing a teepee for our melons. We are going to try growing the melons on this trellis and use a sling to hold them up.