Happy Thanksgiving

Samantha Henneke, Bruce Gholson and Luna Bella, Bulldog Pottery

Happy Thanksgiving!  

We want to thank all of you for making our artful adventure fun and fulfilling.  We love making pottery---And we appreciate all your support.  Good wishes to everyone on this wonderful Thanksgiving Day.

Gloria and Ed are fixing turkey today (thank you Fresh Market!) --- Bruce and I are working in the studio towards our Holiday Kiln Opening.  We will take a break in the afternoon for some yummies and then back to the wheel to make a few more pieces for Saturday, December 13. We are attaching labels and stamps to our Kiln Opening postcards and mailing them to you this week. 

Best to you and your families,

Samantha, Bruce, Ed, and Gloria  

Samantha Henneke, Bruce Gholson, Gloria Henneke, Edmund Henneke

"Cousins in Clay" - Seagrove, North Carolina

Bruce Gholson, Samantha Henneke, Michael Kline, at Michael Kline's Pottery

"The Cousins Are Coming" - May 31 - June 1, 2014 to Seagrove, NC at Bulldog Pottery

Samantha Henneke, Bruce Gholson, Michael Kline

We are putting our finishing touches on making pottery.  Life is super busy here at Bulldog.  We are getting ready for our clay cousins to come to Seagrove. Dan is driving from Illinois, Blair is traveling from Michigan, and Michael will be rolling down from near North Carolina's Roan mountaintop.  

Samantha Henneke, Bruce Gholson, Michael Kline

Back in 2009 we had our first kiln opening here at Bulldog Pottery.  We invited Michael Kline to join us. We wanted to give it a name and Bruce remembered a blog post that Michael wrote on "Sawdust and Dirt" about visiting his clay cousins here in Seagrove. Little did Michael know (or did he?), that his post would lead to an invite to our pottery sale. Since that first sale, we have now partnered with Michael and hold two "Cousins in Clay" pottery events a year.  At the beginning of the summer "Cousins in Clay" is at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove, NC, and at the end of the summer "Cousins in Clay" is held at Micheal Kline's Pottery close to the Penland Crafts School, in Bakersville NC.

This year we have invited Dan Anderson and Blair Clemo to be our honored "Clay Cousins".  Dan Anderson retired from teaching in 2002 and is very outgoing and involved in the clay community. He curates shows, does workshops, makes lots of pots, and is actively engaged on social networks sharing lots of images.

Blair Clemo is a young, up and coming potter with an amazing touch, and unique flair with clay. We first met Blair when he was a presenter at the Utilitarian Clay Conference at the Arrowmont School of Crafts. Congratulations to Blair, who has accepted a tenure-track ceramics teaching position at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond VA, the #1 rated University Arts program.

Saturday, May 31, 2014

We hold the "Cousins in Clay" event in our breezeway. We always hope for splendid weather, but if need be we will move inside.

"Cousins in Clay",  Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

Last year Michael and Bruce gave a duo demo, this year will be different, and we are honored and happy to announce that Blair Clemo will present a demonstration on Saturday at 3:00pm and Dan Anderson will present a demo on Sunday from 1:30pm -2:30pm.

Michael Kline and Bruce Gholson at 2014 "Cousins in Clay"

The whole weekend is filled with good times. Beginning on Saturday Chornis Pou Vasilou will play his Greek bouzouki in the morning.

Chronis Pou Vasilou playing the bouzouki, and Jack Troy's pots 2013, Seagrove, NC 

Blair Clemo will be demonstrating on Saturday beginning at 3:00. The Saturday event winds up at 5:00pm. Blair posted a time-lapse video a few weeks ago on you tube of building one of his covered jars.

Blair Clemo, Seagrove, NC

Sunday - June 1

Sunday is a super fun day as well. Beginning at 10:00am we will be ready for you to join us for more pottery loving times.   At 12:00 the potters potluck begins. Bring a dish to share and sit for awhile with the potters from the region.  This has become a very special time for us.  We invite the local potters to take an afternoon off from their busy schedules to vista, eat, and welcome our out-of-state pottery guests to North Carolina.

Potters Potluck at "Cousins in Clay" on Sunday June 1, 2014, Seagrove, NC

Some of the potters will be bringing their instruments to play music for us as well. Al McCanless will be showing up with his fiddle, and Michael Mahan has said that he will show up with his flute. Eck McCanless mentioned that maybe he will be able to make it as well.

Michael Mahan and Al McCanless at "Cousins in Clay" 2013, Seagrove, NC

At 1:30pm we will break for a 1 hour long demo with pottery master Dan Anderson and I am for one looking forward to seeing Dan behind the wheel.  There is a good podcast interview by Brian Jones of Dan Anderson on the "Jonescast".

Dan Anderson, Seagrove, NC

As Dan winds down his demo maybe we can get an encore from the musicians for a few more tunes.

Chad Brown pottery project to build his first wood kiln, Seagrove, NC

We wanted to let you know about another pottery happening the weekend of the Cousins, which is Chad Brown's "1000 Mugs to Build a Kiln" project.  The mugs are $25 and these can be picked up at his newly purchased property on Chriscoe Road.  You can e-mail him at chadcameronbrown at gmail dot com .

Chad Brown pottery project to build his first wood kiln, Seagrove, NC

Celebration of Seagrove Potters Annual Spring Kiln Opening

Visit the Seagrove Potteries, Seagrove, North Carolina

  There are 37 Seagrove Potteries collaborating together on April 26 and 27, 2014 for the annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters Spring Kiln Openings. Bruce and I will have a large selection of our crystalline vases here at our Bulldog Pottery shop.

We want to thank all the volunteers that are working hard at organizing the Seagrove Potters' spring kiln opening event.  And thank you to our sponsors, Heart of North Carolina Visitors Bureau and Life 103.1. We do appreciate your support! There will be a map that you can pick up at any of the participating potteries.

 The Seagrove Potteries that are participating are

Avery Pottery & Tileworks, Ben Owen Pottery, Blue Hen Pottery, Bulldog Pottery, Caldwell-Hohl Artworks, Coop of Seagrove Potters, Chris Luther Pottery, Crystal King Pottery, Dean & Martin Pottery, Dirtworks, Donna Craven Pottery, Eck McCanless Pottey, Freeman Pottery, From the Ground Up, Great White Oak Gallery, Hickory Hill Pottery, JLK Jewelry @ Jugtown, Johnston & Gentithes Art Pottery, Jugtown Pottery, Keith Martindale Pottery, Kings Pottery with Crystal King, Latham's Pottery, Luck's Ware, McNeill's Pottery, Michele Hastings & Jeff Brown Pottery, O'Quinn Pottery, Pottery by Frank Neef, Pottery Road Studio & Gallery, Pott's Pottery, Ray Pottery, Seagrove Stoneware, Smith Pottery, Snowhill Pottery & Tileworks, Studio Touya, Thomas Pottery, Tom Gray Pottery, Triple C Pottery.

Follow, Like, and Share our Celebration of Seagrove Potters Facebook page, there are many posts of all the different potters that are participating in this years spring kiln opening event.  We also have a Seagrove Potters Facebook page that is filled with images of Seagrove Potters.

Visit the Seagrove Potteries, Seagrove, North Carolina

Vases on the Table

Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

Daffie Days is this weekend on April 4-5, 2014.  Our Bulldog Pottery shop is located at 3306 US Hwy 220 Alt. Seagrove, NC 27341.  We are located 5 miles south from the town of Seagrove's traffic light. Look for the large blue water tower and our driveway is right beside it.  Take the gravel driveway to our pottery shop. See you soon!

The exploration of the vase form is fascinating to us, with so many possible nuances. Vases as well as the bottle forms provide us with such a diversity of great silhouettes for our glazes.  We enjoy the process of the search, and experimentation involved in looking and testing for new colors and glaze effects. Testing original glaze formulas takes a lot of time, and we have to figure out how to squeeze in a couple of more days to get the test glazing accomplished. Usually when the tests come out there is hopefully at least one that can work, and the others will have to go back to the drawing board. Below is an assortment of some of the glaze tests that we pulled out from the last two kiln firings.

Glaze tests, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

Samantha and a table full of vases, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC 

The glazes that we apply to our vases are very fluid and it takes time prepping the rings so they fit just right onto the bottom of the vases. Below Bruce is carving the rings thinner so when cutting the ring off the vase after the glaze firing there is less chance for a mishap.

Bruce finishing clay rings for the vases, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC 

Koi insists on sleeping on Bruce's table while he works. Sometimes this is just fine and we let her but other times she messes with the wet pots and is banned from table sleeping.

Luna Bella has settled right in. She loves to be with us in the studio. She is very active and has been a wonderful puppy.  Luna Bella and Koi have a great relationship and we think they will be long time friends. Sometimes Koi will even push objects off of the table just for Luna Bella to chew.

Luna Bella, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

We currently have this lovely pink centered daffodil blooming, and the color is enchanting.

News Alert - Watertower cleaning for "Cousins in Clay"

Water tower landmark for Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

It was a chilly weekend, and neither winter ice, or snow would stop the Montgomery County water tower from being cleaned and spruced up for "Cousins in Clay" this year, at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove on May 31 - June 1, 2014.

During the past couple of weeks, intermittently through the snowy and rainy weather, our water tower has been prepped, cleaned, and now is being painted.  This has become the landmark for our pottery ever since its construction in 2002.  Sometimes it's such an enormous landmark, that folks can miss it when turning onto our gravel driveway right beside it's massive metal legs.

One of our honored guests, "Clay Cousin" Daniel Anderson from Illinois, has been long inspired by water towers. Water towers are wonderful structures, and are awesome inspirational architectural forms.  Daniel Anderson has done this form so very well, it has become an icon that is identified with him when done in clay.  He will be here at Bulldog Pottery early this summer, along with Blair Clemo and Michael Kline.  We are looking forward to "Cousins in Clay"!

Water tower landmark for Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

Water tower landmark for Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, NC

Dan Anderson, Water tower Covered Jar, Illinois

Pottery Mugs and Wabi Sabi

Bruce Gholson, Large Mug, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, North Carolina

Our recent pottery series, that we made and finished in our studio just before the Mint's PMI has us really excited.  We are  contemplating the results, looking, and thinking about what is possible next. We are intrigued by the effects we are getting by layering glazes and slips onto red clay. Where will we be able to take some of what Bruce has discovered, and some of what Samantha has brought back from our glaze archive? This is a good question, and one that we converse about daily.

Our pottery cycle frequently hits a crescendo, and thankfully we come back down to working more sanely in arpeggios.  Working in the studio making pottery from day to day is a wonderful experience, then a deadline comes along.  Boom the adrenaline pops in and final decisions need to be made. This is one of the balancing acts a full-time potter needs to make, how many deadlines to put on the calendar and how close to have them together to stay sane and healthy.

Bruce made these mugs out of red clay and has played around with layering glazes along with slips.  A few years ago at the North Carolina Potters Conference, Jack Troy mentioned a book called Wabi Sabi. We purchased the book after the conference and have recently bought another book about Wabi Sabi Painting. Wabi Sabi defined (from Wiki) - Wabi-sabi represents a comprehensive Japanese world view or aesthetic centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".  Our interpretation from this is how to work with the materials in a more casual and playful way and respond to the results as they develop.

Which actually reminds me of another book series by Umberto Eco. Two of them that we have is on the "History of Beauty"and another called "On Ugliness". So much to read out there, how lucky are we!  Especially to have the internet to build our library.  We seem to get to a bookstore, at most, every two months living out here in the countryside, so we frequently buy books online.  We love books!

Bruce Gholson, Large Mug, side 2,  Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, North Carolina

Bruce made these two, of the many mugs that we took to the Potters Market Invitational in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago. Both mugs sold to the same person that said she couldn't choose between them so she decided to buy both.  It is great that they get to stay together, and that she appreciated the experimental fun they exemplified.

Bruce Gholson, Large Mug, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, North Carolina

This is the same mug.  We love the 3 dimensionality of pottery for its potential of slip and glaze painting that can be evolving as it wraps around the form.  Exploring the potential of the materials and moving and changing them across the surface of the piece. 

Bruce Gholson, Large Mug, side2, Bulldog Pottery, Seagrove, North Carolina

This is my image of the morning, September 21, "Into the Earth", for day 252 of my 365 day project.  This is the first photo that I have actually taken something and moved it from where I found it. I first saw this beautiful autumn leaf in the grass and clover.  I moved it a few feet away onto the dirt and liked the contrast of the color to the brown and grey hues. To see more of my images from my 365 day project visit our Bulldog Pottery Flickr page.

"Into the Earth" Image by Samantha Henneke and title by Bruce Gholson, Seagrove, NC

Cousins in Clay in the Mountains

Cousins in Clay

Cousins in Clay August 24 - 25, 2013

Michael Kline Pottery

Bakersville, NC

Our guest artists are Rick Hensley and Donna Polseno from Floyd, Va

Sat 10-5

Sun 10-4

Potters Potluck on Sunday All Welcome

We are preparing for the next Cousins in Clay coming up in one week. The end of the summer Cousins event takes place at Michael Kline's Pottery on top of a beautiful NC Mountain top.  Rick and Donna will be our special pottery guests.  They live and make their pottery in Floyd, VA.  They create wonderful pots and this will be a great time to add to your collection.

We are looking forward to spending the weekend with Michael and his family, Rick and Donna, and all the good people out in the western part of NC. 

I, Samantha, have been taking a picture a day, everyday since January 13. This is my "365 day project" inspired by Noah Scalin. It has been awhile since I have updated my blog page of these images (at the right hand side of this blog post), but the images are posted each day on my Instagram, and our social sites Twitter, Flickr, and Tumblr. And then I play catch up on Pinterest, and soon this blog.  I have enjoyed the process of taking a picture every morning. It has become routine and a habit now.  When I come back from my picture hunt in the mornings, Bruce helps me with the title.   I will talk a bit more about this in future posts. I would like to get back into the habit of blogging in the weeks to come. I have taken a little break and focused on some other things. This summer has been a full one for us.

Today's image titled is "Grinches Admire Tigridia"  

"Grinches Admire Tigridia"