7th annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters, November 21-23, 2014

Celebration of Seagrove Potters, Seagrove, North Carolina

We are excitedly looking forward to the Celebration of Seagrove Potters this year. It is coming up soon, and will be here before we can count to three. Well I hope not that fast, many pots to be glazed and fired yet.  We will have a new selection of our decorative crystalline vases for the Celebration event, and then on December 13, 2014 we will have a fresh kiln load of our functional pottery for our Holiday Kiln Opening here at Bulldog Pottery.  

Every year, we the Seagrove Potters, gather under one roof at the Historic Luck's Cannery just a short distance from downtown Seagrove. This weekend is a good opportunity to see the diversity of pottery that we all have available throughout the year. The Seagrove Potters are open to the public just about every day of the year (except most of us are closed on major holidays). We all have individual shop hours and each shop is unique in its own way.  The Seagrove Potters website is a good way to get in contact with individual shops.

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters

November 21, 2014 is the special Gala from 6:00pm - 9:00pm

November 22, 2014 9:00am - 5:00pm

November 23, 2014 10:00am - 4:00pm

At the Historic Luck's Cannery 

798 Pottery Highway 705 

Seagrove, North Carolina 27341

Gala tickets (includes Friday night dinner, $45 per person) can be purchased online by visiting the Seagrove Potters website, and this ticket is good for the entire weekend. The Friday evening Gala is a great time to shop the Seagrove Potter's booths. You get first selection of the potters work and participate in the special collaboration auction. 

Saturday morning the Celebration opens up at 9:00am and Sunday at 10:00am.  On Saturday and Sunday, tickets ($5 per person) can be purchased at the door of the Historic Luck's Cannery.  We are always amazed at just how many pots there are to choose from for this event, under one roof at the Historic Lucks Cannery on Pottery Hwy 705. There is pottery for everyone here, and we hope you make it out to our little town of Seagrove in central North Carolina.

You can follow the Seagrove Potters on facebook at Celebration of Seagrove Potters, and Seagrove Potters. This is a great way to keep up with all the pottery and activities that the Seagrove Potters are working on.

  

List of Seagrove Potteries Participating in the 7th annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Avery, Ben Owen, Blue Hen, Blue Stone, Bulldog, Caldwell-Hohl, Chad Brown, Chris Luther, Crystal King, Daniel Johnston, David Stuempfle, Dean & Martin, Dirt Works, Donna Craven, Dover, Eck McCanless, Frank Neef, From the Ground Up, Gingerbread House, Great White Oak Gallery, Hatfield, Hickory Hill, JLK Jewelry, Johnston & Gentithes, Keith Martindale, King’s, Koepnick, Kovack, Latham’s, Levi Mahan, Luck’s Ware, Lufkin, Matthew Kelly, McCanless, McKay, McNeill's, Michele Hastings & Jeff Brown, Nelda French, Nichols, Old Gap, Patrick Rowe, Pebbles, Potts, Ray, Riggs, Rockhouse, Seagrove Stoneware, Snowhill, Southern Spirits, Studio Touya, The Hutch, Tom Gray, Triple C, Turn & Burn, Whynot, and Windsong.

New Moka Glaze Pottery just in time for Celebration of Seagrove Potters Weekend

Bulldog Pottery Seagrove, North Carolina

 We have unloaded our second Moka glaze kiln this year for this weekend's Celebration of Seagrove Potters - Nov 22-24, 2013.  We will have one more kiln firing in time for our Holiday Kiln Opening on December 14, 2013.  There will be a few more Seagrove Potteries having kiln openings on that day.. Ben Owen Pottery, Michele Hastings and Jeff Brown Pottery, Dean and Martin Pottery, Donna Craven Pottery, From the Ground Up Pottery, and Johnston and Gentithes Pottery.  If I find out about anymore potteries we will let you know.

We enjoy making pots.

Lots of ideas whirling around in our minds.

We have mugs, bowls, cups, covered jars, and plates.

Bulldog Pottery Seagrove, North Carolina

Samantha made some of her insect plates.

Bulldog Pottery Seagrove, North Carolina 

 Ed and Gloria help us polish the bottoms of our pieces making the bottoms smooth to the touch.

Bulldog Pottery Seagrove, North Carolina

Bulldog Pottery Seagrove, North Carolina

We have a new puppy. 

Her name is Luna Bella. She is 4 months old today.

Both Bruce and Samantha made collaborations this for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters. Samantha decorated a large vase thrown by Ben Owen III and Bruce glazed a covered jar thrown by  Fred Johnston. These pieces will be auctioned off tonight at the evening Gala. Tickets can be purchased using eventbrite. Visit the Seagrove Potters website for more information about the Celebration and the Seagrove Potters.

The pots travel back in forth between both potteries... from making to decoratiing to signing to glazing to firing. 

Collaboration Vase going back to Ben's to be signed 

After Ben turned the large vase, he drove the vase over to us when it was still to wet to pick-up and sign.  The decorating that Samantha planned to do needs to be done at a specific time and Ben wanted to make sure that it was at Bulldog Pottery wet enough to put the dot pattern onto.  We drove the vase back to his pottery so he could sign the vase.  A lot of effort and time goes into the collaborations. These pieces are made by many Seagrove Potters for tonight's evening Gala. The Gala is the kick-off for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters weekend.

Ben Owen III holding the vase after he signed it

Samantha is holding the vase after it came out of the firing yesterday.  We could hold a contest to guess the number of dots on the piece, but then we would have to count them.  This is by far, the largest piece that Samantha has ever dotted.

Samantha Henneke with collaboration piece 

Bruce is holding Fred Johnston's thrown covered jar. Bruce glazed this piece with one of our celedon glazes and fired it in the gas kiln.

Bruce Gholson with collaboration piece

Collaboration by Fred Johnston and Bruce Gholson

We set up most of our booth for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters last night. We are still working on polishing, pricing, and packing our Moka glaze pottery for this weekend's Seagrove Potters show. 

Samantha Henneke at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters 2014

Bruce is wheeling out empty boxes to take back home to fill up with more pottery! There will be lots of pottery this weekend at the Luck's Cannery on 798 Pottery Highway 705 in Seagrove, North Carolina. Follow the Celebration of Seagrove Potters Facebook page and the Seagrove Potters Facebook page to find out more about us working potters here in Seagrove, NC.

Bruce Gholson at the Celebration of Seagrove Potters 2013

Bulldog Pottery booth last night. We will put the finishing touches to our booth later this afternoon, just before the Celebration Gala tonight.

Bulldog Pottery booth almost finished Thursday evening for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters 2013

6th Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Celebration of Seagrove Potters November 22-24, 2013 in Seagrove, NC

Next week...

6th Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters

at Historic Luck’s Cannery 

798 N.C. Pottery Highway 705

Seagrove, North Carolina, 27341

• Friday Nov 22, Gala 6 - 9 Catered reception, live music, collaborative auction, 1st pick of pottery
• Saturday, Nov 23, 9 - 6 Silent auction 1 - 3 Demonstrations 11 - 5

• Sunday Nov, 24, 10 - 4 Demonstrations 11 - 4

• Saturday & Sunday Show Admission $5 Children 12 & Under Free Friday night Gala $40 in Advance Gala tickets purchase here and more info available at www.CelebrationofSeagrovePotters.com

The Celebration of Seagrove Potters kicks off the weekend with an exciting and festive Friday night Gala event.

The 6th Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters is November 22nd – 24th. Seagrove potters have been working for months in preparation for this big event. This year’s Celebration features 57 Seagrove pottery shops and more than 100 authentic Seagrove artists. The Celebration, held in the historic Luck’s Cannery on 798 N.C. Highway 705 in Seagrove, is one of the most spectacular pottery events in North Carolina. Approximately 5,000 people visit each year throughout the weekend.

The Friday Night Gala, November 22nd, provides customers the opportunity to preview all the pottery available and to be first in line to purchase. Additionally, they enjoy live music and meet and greet with Seagrove potters during the catered reception. This year the menu features local restaurant, "Something Different" of Asheboro, live music and festive beverages.

 Ticket information at Celebration Of Seagrove Potters. Tickets for the Gala are $40 in advance purchase here. The Gala ticket price also includes Saturday and Sunday admission to the Celebration.

Saturday and Sunday event tickets can be purchased at the door for $5, with children 12 and under admitted free.

Celebration of Seagrove Potters November 22-24, 2013 in Seagrove, NC

Over 100 Seagrove potters, from 57 shops, are participating this year. Participating shops are: Avery, Ben Owen, Blue Hen, Blue Stone, Bulldog, Caldwell-Hohl, Chad Brown, Chris Luther, Crystal King, Daniel Johnston, David Fernandez, David Stuempfle, Dean & Martin, Dirt Works, Donna Craven, Dover, Eck McCanless, Fireshadow, Frank Neef, From the Ground Up, Gingerbread House, Great White Oak Gallery, Hatfield, Hickory Hill, JLK Jewelry, Johnston & Gentithes, Keith Martindale, King’s, Koepnick, Kovack, Lantern Hill, Latham’s, Levi Mahan, Luck’s Ware, Lufkin, Matthew Kelly, McKay, McNeill's, Michele Hastings & Jeff Brown, Nelda French, Nichols, Old Gap, Patrick Rowe, Pebbles, Potts, Ray, Riggs, Rockhouse, Seagrove Stoneware, Snowhill, Studio Touya, The Hutch, Tom Gray, Triple C, Turn & Burn, Whynot, and Windsong.

Celebration of Seagrove Potters November 22-24, 2013 in Seagrove, NC

The Celebration appreciates the support of the following sponsors: Life 103.1, Randolph Telephone Membership Corporation, Starworks, Carolina Arts, Flowers on Main, Village Printing, Bay Electric and Century Link.

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.

Daffie Days- March 25-27, 2011

The UPS man delivered our Daffie Days postcards yesterday. We will be mailing these out soon. Would you like one? If so send us an e-mail with your address to bulldog @ bulldogpottery dot com. Would you like to receive our e-newsletter ? There is a form right next to this blog post where you can fill out the form. The information goes to our account on Mad Mimi. This is the service that we use to send out our newsletters. They will send you an e-mail for you to confirm that it was you that sent it.

We have a busy and exciting schedule this year. We will be attending the American Art Pottery Association Convention in Langhorne, PA on April 27-May 1. On April 30 and May 1 we will be setting up along with 44 other vendors at the hotel. Cousins in Clay is coming up at the end of May, and we are looking forward to Jack Troy, Peter Lenzo, and Michael Kline coming here to Bulldog with their awesome pottery. Of course there is the Celebration of Spring in Seagrove on April 16-17.

And at the end of the year? We have been invited back to the Potters Market on September 10! At the end of August we will be headed over to Michael Kline's place in Bakersville for the first Mountain Cousins in Clay we will have more details about that soon!!! Our Nature Art Gallery Show will open on October 7th and off to D.C. for Pot Hop and Jam with Mark Shapiro and Sam Taylor. We have listed where we will be and when under Bulldog Events in this blog's sidebar. We also have a list of events on our Bulldog Pottery website.

Follow along with us as we venture into the new year......

Color

After the Mint Museum's Potters Market we continued to glaze and fire vases and cups. Bruce had a couple of ginger jars sitting on the shelf waiting to be glazed that came out really sweet. We are motivated by the results that came out, and had spent some time working on new color combinations when we realized that the days have whizzed on by. Between organizing & moving stuff around in our new studio, and glaze testing, we now have to re-work our schedule.

We have decided to stay focused on our crystalline glazes for the rest of the season, and look forward to testing some new clays and glaze colors. The oranges that came out are new for us and we want to continue to work on developing these colors. This means the Moka glaze firing will have to wait till the new year.

We are preparing for the "Celebration of Seagrove Potters" which will be on Nov 20 and 21. The Gala is on the 19th, Friday evening. Our booth this year is located in the back left hand corner.

On Saturday, Dec. 4 we will be having a holiday show and sale here at Bulldog Pottery. Lots to do and lots to look forward too!

We will be posting our progress between now and then and letting you know some of what we will have available.

Set Up for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Yesterday we brought out all of our pottery for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters' Spring kiln openings. Here are some pictures we took in the early morning before the sheets became yellow with pollen. The pollen here is so thick this year, that when the wind blew it was like a dust storm. There were many visitors here in Seagrove enjoying the wonderful weather (despite all of the pollen) and all of the new work that the potters had out on display. We had quite a few cars here at Bulldog throughout the day. Spending days like yesterday, with enthusiastic and wonderful people is such a treat. We finished the day off by attending the Grand Opening of ARTifex gallery and studio school in Troy. We had a great time there. Beverly and Chad Dickson did an incredible job of transforming the building into a vibrant gallery space and art studio classroom. She displayed a group of stunningly colorful, and richly textured variations of her Petroglyph series. This series is partially inspired by the Judaculla Rock glyphs in Jackson County, NC. I think we will be visiting Troy again soon.

The Beginnings : Collaborative for the Celebration's Gala

We are working on lots of different activities in the pottery lately. We are busily getting ready for the Potters Market Invitational at the Mint Museum in Charlotte on September 12th. At the same time we are also working on our collaborative for this years Friday night Celebration of Seagrove Potters Gala auction at the Historic Lucks Cannery in Seagrove. Samantha threw these 4 tall vase forms and patterned them with red slip. After they are fired Bruce will draw his fossil fish and or serpent and then glaze them with a combination of our crystalline glazes. We will choose one to be auctioned off at the Celebration's Gala. The Gala begins at 6:00 pm on Friday evening, November 20th. For more information about buying tickets to the Gala and the Celebration of Seagrove Potters weekend, visit the Celebration's website. Hope to see all of you there. It will surely be a fun weekend for the family and holiday shopping.

Great White Oak Gallery: Seagrove Pottery

A few days ago I visited Benjamin and Bonnie Burns to pick up rack card fliers announcing Celebration of Spring in Seagrove.    The Seagrove Potters are announcing two events: April 4 we are having a community wood firing at the North Carolina Pottery Center which is coinciding with the closing reception of the Owen/Owens exhibition, and the April 18th and 19th spring kiln openings which is on the same day as the Saturday annual fundraising auction for the North Carolina Pottery Center.

Below is Benjamin's and Bonnie's pottery shop and it is where they make and glaze their pottery.  Their shop is located in downtown Seagrove right beside the Duck Smith House Bed and Breakfast.  I love the color Benjamin painted his house.
Benjamin was busy throwing pots when I dropped by.  He is a prolific potter and has wonderful designs and deep reduction colors.  I am particularly drawn to his white over tenmoku glaze.  I have my eye on a rectangular tray that was there in his pottery gallery.  I liked holding it and could easily envision serving cheese and crackers on it.  That tray is definitely haunting me since I touched it. 

Here is a grouping of Benjamin Burns pottery. It is only a sampling of what he has on display in his house.

Bonnie was there too, busily knitting a purse.  She has many talents.  I wish I had an image of her colorful and soft wrap around skirts that she has been designing and sewing.  I want one of those too.
Bonnie throws and glazes her pottery in tropical colors and images.  The strawberry salt and pepper shakers on the far right are a lot of fun.   I have a pear salt shaker..or is it a pepper pear shaker?  There sounds like a tongue twister in there somewhere.

This weekend: Carolina Designer Craftsmen and at home in Seagrove

We will be in both places this weekend.  Ed and Gloria are staying home and watching the workshop here in Seagrove and Bruce and I are going to be taking our decorative work to the Carolina Designer Craftsmen in Raleigh.  Our shop and van are full.

This is what we did for most of yesterday.  We unloaded crystalline vases from our kiln and Bruce put the finishing touches on them.  Since the glaze flows off of the vase we need to grind and polish the bottoms smooth.
Ed helped load the van, while we packed our work and accomplished the details that are needed to do a show.  Gloria worked on getting some business cards printed out on our computer.  My card order did not make it here on time for the show, and we are down to just a few.  

Here are a few pieces that will be coming with us to the Carolina Designer Craftsmen.