Vase a Day

Bruce Gholson

Large Baluster Vase with molybdenum crystalline glazes.

16" x 8.5" x 8.5"

Dan Finch and the Finch Studio Potters : North Carolina Pottery Center

The Dan Finch and the Finch Studio Potters exhibition will be on view until August 1. The North Carolina Pottery Center exhibits around three shows a year. To view the past exhibits go to their website.

An excerpt from Dan Finch's website : "The studio is not only Dan's work space, but is also a school for pottery students to explore the craft. The relaxed atmosphere and studio hours are a result of Dan's friendly, generous teaching style. He is quick to share his knowledge and experiences as he quietly guides students through the learning process. Each student is allowed to grow at his or her own pace, resulting in pots that reflect the individual's personality and creativity."

The next exhibit is :

"Historical Pottery of Fayetteville Pottery"

Highlighting: 19th Century Webster and Pot Pottery

In Gallery I & II.

Also featuring Webster reproductions by David & Deborah Garner of Turn & Turn Pottery, Gallery III.

More information.....

Artist Reception: Friday, August 14, 2009 5:30 - 7:30 pm

(Free to the public)

Support the North Carolina Pottery Center and become a member today

This past Thursday we filled out our membership renewal for the North Carolina Pottery Center located in Seagrove. It is that time of the year again. It is crazy how time flies and it has been a year since they did their membership drive. It is time for another! The Pottery Center, like all non profits has been hit hard with the economic downturn, and can use all the support it can get from potters and pottery lovers. This year we decided to buy a brick from the Gift Brick Program. We have been wanting to do this for awhile now, and there is no better time than the present.

This is the placement of previously purchased bricks.

Three Corners Clay

We have started a new blog. It is called Three Corners Clay. I will be posting about events in our community in which we live.
There are many reasons that make the working Seagrove Pottery Comunity unique, and one of them is our location. The Seagrove Potters are situated geographically in the center of the State at the corner of three counties (Randolph, Moore, Montgomery), hence the name Three Corners Clay. There are some potters with their property in two different counties. We live in Montgomery County and we are about a mile or so drive from Randolph and Moore.

I think it is a great opportunity for all of us, and has many positive benefits to be part of three different counties that can work together.

What does this have to do with the new blog we have begun? Well, it is something I am testing out in wanting to having a central place to post activities of the working Seagrove potters, and other events that happen around here, or places to visit when people travel here to central North Carolina.
Today we posted about a ground hog kiln firing that will be taking place at the North Carolina Pottery Center this coming Saturday. There will also be two kiln openings this Friday here in Seagrove. Ben Owens III will have an opening on Friday evening, and Johnston and Genthesis Art Pottery is have a kiln opening on Friday and Saturday. There is the annual peach festival taking place in Candor on Saturday as well. The Seagrove Pottery shops are open for visitors daily. For a quiet rural area there always is something to do here.

As the Grateful Dead sing..."Nothin shakin on shakedown street. used to be the heart of town. Dont tell me this town aint got no heart. you just gotta poke around."

Draw + Decal MudFire Studios: Samantha Henneke

These are images of Samantha's pottery that are in MudFire's "Draw + Decal" invitational exhibition.

Draw + Decal MudFire Studios: Bruce Gholson

These are some images of Bruce's pieces that are on display in the "Draw + Decal" exhibition at the Mudfire Studios in Decatur, Georgia. The show will be on exhibit until August 1.  I visited Mudfire at the beginning of July to drop off our work.  I was impressed with their facilities, a great community studio, and the gallery was filled with a wonderful variety of pots to purchase.  I really liked a flask I saw there made by Josh Copus.  It was faceted dark clay with a fatty white wood fired glaze.

Somewhere I have the sizes of these pieces I am showing here, but I am not sure which pile that piece of paper has ended up lost in.

All of these pots are glazed with our molybdenum crystalline glazes.  Bruce has been throwing  red clay recently, so all of the pieces below are of that series.  The flask at the top is porcelain.

There are crystals all over this pitcher.  You just can't seem them well in these photographs.  These glazes have always been a challenge to take an image of.  The crystals on them are illusively refractive, and only show at certain angles and intensities of light.

If you are interested in any of these pieces please contact Mudfire Gallery.

Draw + Decal Exhibit Tour: MudFire Studios

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT:
Draw + Decal Exhibit
Opens July 11, 2009
Reception from 5pm - 9pm

In MudFire's Words:

"MudFire Gallery's exhibition Draw+Decal presents the work of thirteen contemporary clay artists known for their use of imagery and narrative on vessel forms. In doing so, the exhibit and sale takes a detailed look at updated studio techniques for creating illustrated ceramic surfaces. Read more about the show.

It is impossible to grace the surface of clay without acknowledging thousands of years of history. Many of the techniques and materials in use today were developed millennia ago, but those leading the field are combining new technologies with fresh viewpoints on design and illustration.

In the contemporary studio pottery movement, it may no be longer enough to simply master form and apply the age-old transformational alchemy of glaze and firing. A new visual language is developing on the surface of today's vessels."

New Fish in the Pond

We have two ponds on our property. One of them is about an acre and the other one is small. I was at the Tractor Supply buying puppy food for Maxwell, and there was a truck set up selling fish. The last time Bruce and I bought fish was back in 2002. Out of the four grass carp, two koi, and many catfish, only one survived from the batch, that is how we got Moby. Moby is our white koi that we can see swimming around the pond from our house. Well this time we bought some more and thought we would give it another go. It has been long enough that our fish disappointments have faded. We bought four grass carp in hopes that they will survive, and eat some of the grass and that has filled our large pond from the mowing.


In our small pond we released five koi and 50 catfish. We decided to give it a try in this pond since all of our fish there seem to be gone. The baby catfish and koi would be supper for the bass in the larger pond. We had our small pond dug out and made deeper last year when digging trenches for geothermal, and we think all of the fish kicked the bucket. Hopefully this will be a safe haven for them to grow up in, and maybe later we will introduce the koi to the bigger pond. I bought two oranges, two whites with black spots on their heads, and a solid white one. I think it would be so much fun to see a group of koi swimming around together from the house.

A baby catfish. In a few years he may be supper!

Some more Bulldog Pottery Images from the Asheboro Library Display

The above vase was thrown by Bruce and is glazed with one of our crystalline matte glazes.  The last series that we made like this came out really well.

The rest of the images here are our Moka Glaze work.  The image below is one of Samantha's Bowls

Samantha's (Dotty Sam) covered jar

Samantha's Jar

Bruce's Tumblers

Samantha's mugs

Bruce's Pitcher

Setting up a display at the Asheboro Library

Display of Bulldog Pottery at the Randolph County Library in Asheboro 

Last Thursday Gloria and I went to Asheboro (16 miles North of Bulldog Pottery) to set up a display of Bulldog Pottery at the Library.  The display will be up for a couple of months.  What a great opportunity for us to be able to have some visibility right here where we live.  I picked up a garden mystery to read while I was there called The Trail of the Wild Rose, by Anthony Eglin (so far so good).

Here is Gloria helping to arrange the pottery on the shelves

Before I took the pots to the library, I documented them.  Here is one of Bruce's pitchers.

Bruce Gholson's Covered Jar

Samantha Henneke's creamer and sugar condiment covered jar

Samantha Henneke's dinner size plate

Phil Pollet of Old Gap Pottery lectures in China

Michael Mahan of From the Ground Up Pottery, and Phil Pollet of Old Gap Pottery discuss the firing results at the North Carolina Pottery Center after the Seagrove Pottery Community Woodfiring.

This image was from the April community kiln firing at the North Carolina Pottery Center. Around 20 Seagrove Potters got together and spent 4 days loading, firing, and unloading the "Ruggles and Rankin" wood kiln.  Phil Pollet, the fellow on the right, is on his way to China.  Phil has been invited to lecture at the Jilin College of Arts in Changchun, China this coming July 8th.  To see a couple more pictures of Phil, visit Three Corners Clay, and to read a bit more about Phil and Michael visit From the Ground Up.  There also is a You Tube slide show "Two Potters, Three Pots", showing Michael and Phil making their collaboration for the Seagrove Pottery Community Wood firing.  One of these pieces was donated to the April's annual NCPC fundraising auction. 

We just recently received our membership renewal for the North Carolina Pottery Center.  We are planning to renew, and we want to show our pride in the NCPC and what a gem it is for promoting North Carolina pottery.  So this year, we are going to buy a comemorative brick to show our support.  Are you a member of the North Carolina Pottery Center?  It is a wonderful place and an honor to have it located here in Seagrove.  Consider becoming a member.