Its Teamwork - Pot Hop and Jam - D.C. Road Trip

Pot Hop and Jam, "it's teamwork"

Friday morning before we left for our opening at the Natural Science Museum in Raleigh, we sat around the table busy as bees putting stamps and labels onto our Pot Hop and Jam postcards.  We hustled them down to the post office, which was a good thing, because we later found out that on Monday the post office was going to be closed.  We are going to be in D.C. with out pots and friends for a home show on October 22 and 23 with Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor, two great potters from Massachusetts.  On Saturday night all four of us will give a demo from 6:30-10:30 at Hinckley Pottery. The demo is $40 in advance and $45 at the door. If you are in the area come by to see us!  That would be so much fun.  We did this last year and had a blast. Here are a couple of blog posts from last years Pot Hop and Jam

Pot Hop in Washington D.C.

Pot Jam in D.C. at Hinckley Pottery

We are still working on those images that I took of the work we have on display in the Nature Art Gallery. I will make a post here when they are all up on flickr. It is amazing how time consuming sorting, editing, organizing all of those images can be.  

Gloria had family here this past weekend, and we toured around on Saturday to see some of the potteries. We had a blast.  We don't get the opportunity to get around to see the Seagrove potteries all that often.  Just too busy working in our own studio and taking care of our pottery shop.  But wow let me tell you it is fun and worth doing.  After taking everyone around on Saturday, while we were driving back we counted up how many different potteries we visited. We saw 9 potteries, and I commented "Just think there are around 50 more to see, when are you coming back?"

Below is our postcard for the Pot Hop and Jam in Washington, D.C., Oct. 22nd & 23rd

Send us your address if you wish to receive our future postcards

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

Pot Jam in D.C. at Hinckley Pottery

We started the evening off on top of Nancy Oneill's apartment building Saturday evening before going over to Hinckley Pottery. Nancy has been taking classes there and is now making the glazes for Hinckley. Hinckley Pottery is located downtown Washington D.C. and is a place where you can sign up for 10 week 2.5 hour classes during the year. There are 5 different instructors besides Jill Hinckley, and classes can be taken during the week with children's classes offered as well. Hinkley Pottery has been there for around 20 years, you can read about Jill Hinckley here (also if you click on the other instructors faces you can read about them too). Her partner Susan is the other 1/2 of Hinckley.

The crowd for the Pot Jam numbered around 45, and all were enthusiastic about pottery and seemed to enjoyed the 4 demos that we gave simultaneously. People went from wheel to wheel to see what we were making, all of us doing something different.

I think the four of us enjoyed giving the demonstrations as much as they enjoyed watching them. I will have to admit that it was a challenge for me because this was the first time throwing in front of so many people. I have had a lot of practice talking with Bruce in our studio here at home while throwing, but not so much in front of an audience.

Sam Taylor's Hands

Mark's Hands

Samantha's Hands

Bruce's Hands

Bruce's and Sam's Hands

This was Sam's idea.

Mark just finished editing a new book that will be coming out in August about Karen Karnes.

Can't wait to get our copy.

Pot Hop in Washington DC

Bruce Gholson, Sam Taylor, Mark Shapiro, Samantha Henneke

We had a great time this past weekend. Met new and wonderful people. It was such a thrill for Bruce and I. We have seen Mark's and Sam's work for years and it was a treat to meet the artists behind the pots. We brought home some of their work for our collection. Bruce is holding one of Mark's mugs in his hands. We had to slow down our visits to Sam and Mark next door because we kept wanting to bring something new back with us.

Below is our work displayed in the home of our hosts, Cass Johnson and Matt Radford. They were incredibly generous, and we thank them muchly for their warm hospitality. They had this amazing garden, and now that I am home I thought I had taken more pictures of it, but I only have a few. I was totally taken by their beautiful roses, and they had such a sweet scent. I sat in their garden and relaxed for quite a while examining our pots making future creative decisions.

We passed out Seagrove maps and found many people excited about visiting us and the other potteries in the future. There were many that have heard of Seagrove and wondered if it was the center? Well, we are all the center of our own universe I think, and well yes frankly we are very near the geographic center of North Carolina. There is a marker around 5 miles south of us in Star.

We set up a table in Cass and Matt's garden. I like how our crystalline looks in the day light.

Here I am (below) in their living room. A beautiful baby grand that was refurbished and put back together. Thinking back, I should of tried sitting at it, but I'm not sure why I did not. One of these days I will pull out my electric piano from its case. Not quite the exquisite piece of furniture that Matt and Cass have. I played the piano when I was a kid and Ed and Gloria replaced our piano with an electric one when I went to college. I love listening to music and picking out the piano chords.

Here are a few of our pots out in the garden.

Wonderful windows that lets the light in and views of the garden.

We hopped on down to Sam's and Mark's place frequently, where their host was Mark's sister, Judy and husband Rick. Sam has a wonderful selection of t-shirts. We recognized the creator of the images on Sam's shirts as an artist by the name of Ray Troll. We need to get some new fishy, skull, and fossil shirts for Bruce. Marks and Sam's pots were interspersed with each others on the shelves, it was a great mix.

Here is a selection of Mark's work. Another slender Tall bottle maker. They remind me of Cycladic Sculpture.

There are more pictures on our Bulldog Pottery Facebook page if you would like to see some more images.
We were at Hinckley Pottery Saturday night for simultaneous demos. More pictures to come in next post.