Mint Museum Potters Market

Well it is a week and a couple of days after the "Potters Market" at the Mint (2010) and I am not sure if it feels like just yesterday or last month. We have been working on a few organizing/clean up projects. Not sure if anyone can tell or not but I do know that a few more boxes have been packed and moved, and furniture moved and waiting to be placed. Our main project in the next month is to get our hand building area set up, but we also would like to get moved out of our old throwing slash glazing area so we can begin to expand our gallery space. Oh yeah, did I mention our pottery making and glazing goals too? Smile.

We had a great time at the Mint Museum's "Potters Market". Talked with some old friends and met new ones too. We had a wide selection of pots that we took and Harriet Spleth helped us tremendously, from the unloading of the kiln (lots of grinding), and packing; and at the Mint, unpacking, setting up, making sales, packing, and then unpacking again when we got back home. The weekend had many stages and we appreciated her help in every way.

Harriet took this image of us as we put finishing touches on our booth

Here is a selection of our Moka glaze pottery

Bruce has begun to work with his Shino glazing again. We are excited about bringing some of our new techiniques and glaze developments into the future of his old friend Shino.

We love exploring shades of green.

Another image that Harriet took of me putting price tags on some vases.

This Thursday evening, the 23rd, Mark Hewitt will be giving a talk at FRANK , in Chapel Hill. We are planning to attend.

Moka Glaze and Molybdenum Crystalline Vases

We unloaded our Moka glaze kiln yesterday and a grouping of molybdenum crystalline vases. We thought we would show you some of the pieces that came out. This morning we pack the pottery into boxes, load the van, and head to Charlotte for the "Potters Market"Mint Museum show this weekend. We have more vases that we will be firing in the next couple of weeks. We are looking forward to working on our spotted crystalline mattes and a new glaze test or two.

Cheers.

A grouping of our Moka Glaze Pottery

Bruce is working with his Shino again. We are excited to bring this glaze back.

Moka Glaze mug by Bruce

Iron red molybdenum crystalline

Here is one of our crystalline mattes.

Thanks for the help Gloria and Harriet and Ed.

Just call me dotty Sam.

Bulldog Pottery gets ready the Potters Market

Lining the inside of vases with glaze before gluing on pedestal rings.

Our Moka glaze kiln is cooling, and we have some of these vases in the kiln firing as we write this. We have our fingers crossed that we are blessed with a successful firing, and unload some great pots. As always with a potter's kiln, no matter how many times one has fired, something can and usually does come up. Why? Well not sure. Materials change, touch changes, life changes...... moods change. But you know that is what is so beautiful about hand made pottery. Each piece is individually made on a particular day, depending on the artists feelings and environment. Bruce and I started buying pots a handful of years ago. We enjoy having other peoples pots around us. We have a lot of our own too, but it is special to see a Cynthia Bringle on our table, Micheal Kline at our entrance way, or our Mark Shapiro flask with handles on a counter top. We bought a Matt Kelleher basket form at last years Potters' Market...Love it. It sits in our kitchen. I bought a plate as well from Matt, and a plate from Kyle Carpenter. We collect plates from different artists and when we have company, we bring them out and everyone eats off of a different plate. Fun! We collect plates of various sizes and acquired a nice sandwich size from Sam Taylor this past May, and one from Shawn Ireland during this years Toe River Arts Tour.

Well for all of you that love pottery, the Mint Museum's "Potters Market" is this weekend at the Mint Museum on Randolph road in Charlotte. This one day show features 40 potters from across North Carolina. The proceeds go to the Delhoum Pottery Collection where they purchase new pieces of pottery for the Mint's collection. You can see their 2010-2011 itinerary and the list of potters at the Mint Museum's website.

We were able to get three of these vases in last night. They have incredible swelling bellies and take up a lot of space in the kiln. More will be fired next week.

Here is our Moka glaze pots before we stacked up the door. We will be unloading this tomorrow afternoon. It usually takes the gas kiln a solid day and a half (with help from us) to cool down enough to unload.

Gloria and Ed will be holding down the fort here at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove.

Bruce and Samantha - NC Clay Invitational at FRANK

Red Dung Beetle, porcelain glaze painting for the wall - Samantha Henneke

We were both asked to be apart of the Clay Invitational at FRANK, a new gallery in Chapel Hill. The "A" in Frank is supposed to be upside down but I am not sure how to get or if my computer could do this. There is an interesting line up of events happening at FRANK while the show is on exhibit. The itinerary is as follows:

Sept. 9, 4pm Kidzo Kids event/project on NC Clay Invitational; sign up at KIDZU

Sept.9, 6pm Daniel Johnston--making large pots, using traditions from North Carolina to Thailand

Sept. 10, 7-9 opening NC clay Invitational

Sept. 16, 6pm Starworks -- where and what is clay? The process of making the material....

Sept. 18, 1-5 Daniel Johnston demonstrated his unique style of making pots

Sept. 23, 6pm Mark Hewitt -- studio potter and renowned artist, Mark talks about his favorite North Carolina pots.

Sept. 30, 6pm Terry Zug -- author of "Turners and Burners" speaks on the traditions of clay in North Carolina

There are around 30 NC potters participating, and the exhibition is up until October 24.

Molybdenum Crystalline vase by Bruce Gholson

Molybdenum Crystalline vase by Samantha Henneke

Molybdenum Crystalline vase by Bruce Gholson

detail of a cup by Samantha Henneke

Red Beetle Covered Jar by Samantha Henneke

Star cups by Bruce Gholson

Skulls cup by Bruce Gholson

Love Bug 2010--now online

Bart Cusick # 4, "I heart stuff!"

ink on paper, 8 x 10" unframed

$25, or any 2 for $45, 3 for $65, 4 for $85

At the beginning of August, there was a clever, interesting, and fun event that took place in City Market, downtown Raleigh. At Epona and Oak there was an Insect drawing competition and exhibition of artwork. The theme of the show and event is insects, farming, environment, etc.,and was hosted by The Toxic Free NC organization. A portion of the proceeds goes to benefit this North Carolina organization. Their mission since 1986 has been fighting insecticide pollution and educating families about the wise and discriminate use of various chemicals around the household. They were formally known as Agriculture Resources Center and Pesticide Education Project.

There is a juried exhibition at Epona and Oak that will be up until the end of August, and Toxic Free NC has recently posted the art work online for the public to look at and purchase. The work is divided up into two groups.

One group is the artwork that was produced on the spot Friday evening in the Love Bug draw off. Artists could sign up for the draw off via the Toxic Free NC's website by the deadline given (which was around the end of June)---(so keep this in mind if you want to participate next year). The artists sat around a table and drew various sketches of insects. There was also a children's drawing competition. You can view pictures from that evening at their website here and you can see the grouping of the drawings here. All of the work is for sale and they have a shopping cart set up so you can purchase online.

The second group are images of the pieces that are now on exhibit at Epona and Oak. You can view these images here. Bruce and I both have a couple pieces represented. One of Bruce's spider cups sold, but there is one left. We posted the images of the pieces that we sent in an earlier post here.

If you would like to see the show in person, Epona and Oak is located in downtown Raleigh, City Market on 329 Blake St. Their hours are Mon-Sat 11-7 and 9-7.

We have picked out a few images to show you the range of work that was exhibited and created that evening.

Denee' Black

Bees at Work II

approx 1.5 ft square

$150

Elizabeth Niemeyer

Grasstachio

approx 1.5 ft x 1.5 ft

$200

Chris Norris # 4

ink & watercolor on paper, 5x7" unframed

$25, or any 2 for $45, 3 for $65, 4 for $85

Wesley Hare # 3

ink and watercolor on paper, 8x10", unframed

$25, or any 2 for $45, 3 for $65, 4 for $85

Handling a few pitchers

We are finishing up our functional pots and getting them ready for a round of glazing with our Moka color combinations. The Mint Museum's "Potters Market" is around the corner and we are wanting to have some of our crystalline vases ready as well. We have been steadily working in the studio.....more throwing and trimming than fixing up the studio right now.

We did buy some new wire shelves on wheels to place against the windows. They are really tall so we split them in half and have shorter ones to wheel around and fixed ones below the windows. We had originally planned to have our pottery wheels right up against the wall, but then we realized that it would be harder to open the windows, and there is the issue of reaching over a table full of wet pots.

I like throwing these smaller pitchers. They are a great size to bring OJ or water to the table when there is company.

Working away while the garden grows

Bruce is working on his flying saucer shaped covered jars. He mixed up his porcelain body from his shino years. I think we see shino in our future? Very exciting.

Yes, we have been working in the studio this past month. We have been enjoying showing you images of what is outside our studio. We think it is time to show you what we have been up too inside the walls at Bulldog.

We are getting ready for the Mint Museum's Potter's Market and also fixing up our new studio ..... one little step at a time. We think about how to organize while we are making pots. We are figuring out what kind of shelves and tables we would like and their arrangements.

A Star is Grown

We have been eating tomatoes everyday for a couple of weeks. We have had some worm issues this year, but there are plenty tomatoes to go around. This particular worm decided to leaves us a thank you for planting all of the delicious tomatoes for them and their friends.

We could not help ourselves, so Mista Tomato engages in a photo shoot.

Mista Tomato on top of Max's soccer ball. The soccer ball lasted all of about 2 minutes. It was Max's first and last soccer ball.

He loved the chartreuse zinnia. "Anything green", he says.

Mista Tomato and the Marguerite Potato Vine.

TT saw us walking around the property from her perch on top of the old chicken house. She wanted a picture with Mista Happy tomato.

Maxwell was not going to let TT gt away with being on the blog with out him. That is the way dogs are when it comes to cats.

Maxwell convinced me that it was my turn too.

Mista Happy Tomato in the tree. He sures does get around.

We found him hiding amongst Bruce's "found" buried goodies. It looks like the picnic table has seen better days. Maybe it is time to replace it?

Mista Happy Tomato is back home. The plums & onions not from our garden :) :)

Mista Tomato was not harmed during any of his modeling career here at Bulldog Pottery, but he did age out of modeling fairly rapidly, and has gone into retirement at Casa Composta. We are sure he will be very influential to many future veggie models that may have a seasonal career here at Bulldog Pottery.