Glazing porcelain pots for the NCPC Conference

In the image above Bruce is glazing a covered ginger jar shape. So close the glaze came to spilling out over the rim of the gray bucket.

We glazed and loaded a kiln full of porcelain pieces for the Chinese overglaze painter that will be here this coming weekend in Asheboro. The annual North Carolina Potters Conference takes place at the Randolph Arts Guild the first weekend of March. Dwight had asked us to make several pieces for the visiting Chinese artist. The pieces will be out of the kiln soon. We are hoping for the best. Glazing our work without color i.e. clear glaze is something that we do not have experince with, so this is a first timer.

There is still room to sign up for this weekend's conference. What are you waiting for? It will be loads of fun! Five Jingdezhen Porcelain Masters will be here demonstrating, throwing, trimming, handbuilding, overglaze painting, and underglaze painting.

Luckily the glaze did not spill over.

A sigh of relief

Co-op of Seagrove Potters opening soon

Jeff Brown and Phil Pollet are securing the shelves.

We have joined in on a new adventure with 9 other potteries from Seagrove. Opening soon in downtown Seagrove, 10 potteries will be filling this space with their pots. The ten potteries that will be part of the new store called "Co-op of Seagrove Potters" are (and in no particular order):

Tom Gray Pottery

Phil Pollet Pottery

Nelda French Pottery

Latham's Pottery

Lufkin Pottery

Seagrove Stoneware

Michele Hastings and Jeff Brown Pottery

Dover Pottery

Ole Fish House Pottery

and Bulldog Pottery

We are looking forward to working at the Co-op three days a month, and greeting the people that come through the door.

Everyone will take turns in the front window, and we each get a shelving unit like the one that Jeff is working on below.

Each pottery also gets one glass unit that stand in the middle of the building.

The shelves in the back will be a mix of people's pots. A bit of pottery for everyone.

Alexa Modderno sits where there will soon be a table for checkout.

The pots start flowing into place tomorrow.

Crazy Ant Song

A friend of ours sent us a link to Boing Boing letting us know about this you tube video of ant anatomy. He shares different insect images with us from time to time. We enjoy that he thinks of us when seeing insects on the internet. Thanks Dave! Keep them coming.

Vases

We are both throwing a variety of vase forms to be vehicles for flowers. We are getting ready for Daffie Days, celebrating the blooming of spring. This series of vases I threw a couple of days ago, have a wide opening to suit a group of flowers. Bruce said these look similar to Italian apothecary jars. Sure enough I just looked it up and these are apothecary forms. This is my first time throwing this particular form. It was definitely fun, and I am looking forward to throwing more. My tendency lately had been to throw bud vase forms with a small opening and longer waisted torso, somewhat like a wasp. These new forms should handle a good sized bundle of blooms.

Our First Daffodil

We have our first daffodil! Very cool. When we moved onto our property back in 2000 we had daffodils blooming all over. Since then they have multiplied in clumped bunches to a point where they just don't bloom as much anymore. Bruce and I have been wanting to divide the clumps for a few years now. We started yesterday, digging up the clumps of daffodils and spreading them around. We have our work cut out for us and I am sure it won't all get done this year, but one has to start somewhere. Not sure if this will set them back from blooming this year, but this is an investment into next years bloom.

There is a touching story in the Weeders Digest which comes free with a subscription to Green Prints called "Love and Daffodils Forever, A husband's final gift". I won't spoil the tale or even hint at what it is. If you subscribe to Green Prints it comes as part of a bonus gift. Green Prints is a gardening magazine that shares stories about the humanside of gardening: the joy, humor, frustrations, and heart of gardening in fine prose and fine art.

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......

Porcelain for Chinese Master Over-glaze painter

We received a phone call the other day from Dwight Holland asking Bruce if he would throw several porcelains pots for the upcoming North Carolina Potters Conference. The 2011 NC Potters Conference will be a once in a life time experience for us local potters. Five master Chinese artists will be traveling to Asheboro (only 15 min away from us) from Jingdezhen, China. These pieces will be glazed with a clear glaze for the Chinese master over-glaze painter. There will be a Master Trimmer, Master Thrower, Master Slab Maker, Master Over-Glaze Painter, and a Master Under-glaze Painter. There will be lectures by three other scholars, but hey why don't you go on over to the Randolph Arts Guild and read all about it, sign up and come and enjoy the fabulous weekend! We will be there!

Dwight Holland is a long time resident of Asheboro and has been a veritable rock for the NC Potters Conference for the past 24 years, and a pottery champion throughout the world. The Randolph Arts Guild is a treasure to the community and has hosted this annual North Carolina Potters' Conference for 24 years. They have brought in famous potters from all over the U.S., Great Britain, Australia and now China! This annual conference is truly a great experience for potters of all levels.

Bruce is throwing a couple of platters and smaller plate size forms, along with a few vases. I will try my hand at some vases too.

This table of vases are finished and waiting to dry. We are getting ready for Daffie Days here at Bulldog Pottery on March 25-27.

Collaboratives with "Cousin" Michael - The beginning

Earlier this week Michael visited us, and we began to work on some Cousin's Collaboratives. This is the first for Bruce and I, for having someone besides ourselves working with us in our studio. We had a great time and we are looking forward to doing more of this type of work in the future. Bruce finished up trimming a couple of vases that he threw for Michael to decorate. In the past couple of years I have been working with a shellac wash away technique to decorate my cups. Michael calls it resist hydo-abrasion. After one of my recent blog post that Michael read, he noticed my use of this decorating technique and recalled when he worked this way back when he was a Penland artist in residence. The three of us decided that this would be a great place to start. Over the two days that he was here Michael decorated around seven pieces and we plan to finish abrading them and fire with our crystalline glazes.

It took a bit of time to get into the groove, set up, and get focused. Of course Maxwell is in constant play mode and had his input on collaborative plans for Michael.

Bruce engineered a wood block stand for Michael to set his brushes in. Something that a little container could stand straight up in and allow for Michael's brush to be in water without the whole handle soaking in water. A bit more fine tuning is still needed. We discussed how sometimes we forget and leave our brushes in water. A big no no.

We finally settle in and Michael begins to paint the shellac with some of the signature vining decoration that he is recognized for.
Over the couple of days Bruce shows Michael some of the tools that he has collected from various sources for various reasons. You never know when you may need something. Bruce is sorting through his tungsten carbide bits finding the right one for Michael to sign his name in the pieces he decorated.

Horse Yunomi Glaze Detail

The past couple of days I have been thinking about the above image while working in the studio. I love the subtlety of the melon green that is around the horse's legs. The colors have a relaxing quality on me. This color combination also reminds me of orange dreamsicles. There is something about the textures and colors of this glaze that stimulates my mind's eye. The horse image also plays into an overall feeling of tranquility despite the active poise.

The image below is one of our favorite recent color combinations. The glaze has a subtle interaction in the way that the blue crystal has changed color over the horses nose, one aspect of the ways that glazes are so fascinating and thrilling to work with. I commented on our Bulldog Pottery facebook page a few days ago that this glaze combo is like blowing bubbles under water. The fancifully floating motion of the horse, makes for a liquid dream like quality .

Groovey - The Evolution Revolution

We want to send out our cheers to you in time for this evening's festivities, and wish you a Happy New Year!

Tomorrow we will be bringing in the New Year relaxing, reading, and figuring out our new Wii games that we got for Xmas.

Enjoy the song that we picked out to bring in the New Year by Evolution Revolution, a classic rock band that played in the early 70's. If you listen close you just may decode the message that was being sent out to the APE agents (Agency to Prevent Evil) of which Lancelot was the premiere agent. Lancelot Link and his colleague Mata Hairi are in a ongoing conflict with the evil organization CHUMP (Criminal Headquarters for Underworld Master Plan).

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Walk About

This past Sunday we woke up to a snowy landscape. After seeing many of my friends on face book post their experiences with these days of snow, I decided to pop on my macro lens and go for a quick walk about. I love the way the snow will pile up on a branch or leaf. The natural curves and shapes are inspiring. When we lived in Alfred the skies were grey most of the time, and we found ourselves complaining and wishing the sun would come out. There were many days in a row when the sun would not appear, giving many students from California the sun withdrawal syndrome (SWS), also known as Swiss, or is it SAD for "seasonal affective disorder". It was serious enough that they had annual workshops to address it. While Bruce was in grad school we acquired our first American Bulldog - Moka. I would walk Moka with a friend of mine Priscella and her large dog Cheves. One of those gloomy days that we went walking together, when after I finished thinking about how grey and yucky the day was, Priscilla looked up and said, "I love this weather". " Winter colors are my favorite, look at how beautiful the sky is". "Really??" I asked (all that I saw was that the sun was no where to be seen). And she replies "Yes just look at the lavenders, mauves, and pinks in the sky". I peered up and started really looking, and then began to see what she was talking about. I love experiences like that. When something or somebody can just turn your world around to see things in a somewhat different way.