Whistle Creek

Augusta

2012-06-03T15:06:00.001-04:00

Saturday dawned early, but not before I did. I was out of the house before 6 and started on the 70 mile drive to Augusta Ky. All went well but about 5 miles from the show a deer jumped out of the bushes in front of the van. I thought we were both in trouble but after a small bump, she ran off and later I couldn't find any damage to the van. It was as close as I have come to a big deer crash and it was close enough that I don't need another.

Set up and check in went well and about 10AM folks started strolling down through the show. It was cool, breezy, and partly cloudy so there was a pretty good turnout. I sold a cookie jar, a pitcher, some baking dishes, a square casserole, a big bowl but not one mug or cereal bowl until 2PM when mugs started selling. I didn't sell a cereal bowl all day and mine are really nice. You never can tell what people are going to want. It is a beautiful site with gardens on one side of the street and art show on the other. The ferry docks at one end of the show and there is always that anticipation that George Clooney will come back to his boyhood home for the day. It is a nice little show.

Last year I had sold a LARGE baking dish/serving bowl to an older woman named Jane. She was walking with a cane and needed help getting the pieces she bought to her car so I had carried them to the car for her and wished her well. This year, Jane pulls up in front of the booth in a golf cart that her son was driving.They both started carrying on about how much she likes the big baking dish and how often she uses it for cobblers and casseroles. She said that she uses 8 cans of green beans to make green bean casserole in it! That's big. She was hoping to get another but I didn't have one that big so she bought the biggest one I had. I love it when people are happy with their pots and I really love it when they use them.

I didn't get rich but I did ok and it is always pleasant to show there.. One thing I did learn is that I need lights. We were set up in the shade on a cloudy day and it was a little dim in the tent. I picked up some battery powered LED lights this morning and will try them next time.

This morning, I woke up too early but too sore to go back to sleep so I wrote a poem instead. If I don't make it big in pottery, I can always fall back on the lucrative field of freelance poetry.

Early to bed
early to rise
oh my aching
back and thighs.
I used to be
strong like oxes
had no trouble
loading boxes.
Does no good
to sit and grieve.
think I'll take some
more Aleve.

Day of Reckoning

2012-05-29T16:10:00.002-04:00

Well, I reckon I'll have to make another big bowl. The 25lb bowl made it through bisque but got a rim crack in the glaze firing.Other than that it looks fine and I learned a lot about handling and glazing large ware.I'm not the first guy this has happened to so I might as well blame the clay like everyone else does! No cracking would have been a lot better but I am really not heartbroken about this. It was a learning experience.

On the other hand, the blue, the green , and the ketchup glazes are working great.I got good coverage and nice color on everything else in the kiln and with minor tapping, all the lids are unstuck.Actually, this part of the load is a lot more marketable than a huge bowl and a lot easier to carry. If any of you are in Northern Ky Saturday, stop by Augusta for Art in the Garden. It's supposed to be a beautiful day. Thanks for reading.

Death in the Afternoon

2012-05-27T09:52:00.001-04:00

My friends Josh and Marie are excellent potters, brewers, and slayers of evil doers.They celebrate all this with an annual Memorial Day picnic. There is not a lot to say other than I'm glad they invited me and enjoy the pictures. Oh yeah, if you are free next Saturday, I'll be at the prettiest art show around. ART IN THE GARDEN in Augusta Ky. From Ohio, you can go east on the AA highway on the Ky side or go out route 52 in Ohio and take the ferry. Hope to see some of you.

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME

2012-05-21T11:19:00.002-04:00

That telltale plunking sound I heard when I was loading the big bowl must have just been my heart skipping a beat. The big guy came out fine. However (here comes a cautionary tale) I did have a 12 lb pot blow sky high. I knew it was not dry but I gave everything an extra long preheat that should have dried out a wet mule BUT I put a teapot inside it. I think the tea pot kept a portion of the big pot from drying completely. From the looks of the damage, the bottom of the pot exploded, lifted the tea pot until it crashed against the shelf above it.The teapot broke to smithereens then fell back to where it came from.. All damage was contained inside the big pot and there was no kiln damage. You live, you learn, you adjust. Unless you are a man then you just keep doing the same stupid things and hoping for better results. Thanks for stopping by.

WISH ME LUCK

2012-05-19T08:34:00.001-04:00

I don't know if it is from nurture or nature or a combination of the above but many of my gender seem to have a problem asking for help when needed. We will hurt ourselves moving things that are too large or break things that are two awkward before admitting defeat. Since we last talked I have tried things both ways.

Putting a 22 inch bowl in a 24 inch kiln seems simple until you try to get your hands out and by then it's too late. I should have called a friend and used a sling to put the big bowl in the kiln. The last move of sliding my hands up and around was tighter than I expected. I may have heard that telltale plunk of breaking greenware but I can't find a fracture so I'm firing today. Wish me luck.

Project number two has been something I wanted to do since I built the barn. The building sits on fill with a a bank dropping off behind it. I have been wanting to build a retaining wall, fill behind it, and put more usable space behind the barn. Last week fortune smiled.
I talked to a crew that replaces utility poles and ended up with 11 of them in my front yard on the condition that I move them out of the right of way immediately.Usually workers around here just cut poles down and the cut them in 2 or 3 pieces. That's what I was expecting anyway. I found out these guys had a crane that would pull a 26 ft pole straight out of the ground. These suckers were BIG. I started the tractor, checked the chainsaw and called my brother. This was HE MAN work. Most of the poles we cut in half but some we skidded whole. The little tractor did an amazing job and thanks to lots of help from Norris, we had everything moved in about 3 hours. I even managed to stack some of them with the loader bucket! here is a shot of about half of them.

Next week my friends Josh and Marie have their annual Memorial Day picnic. The extra fun parts- Josh brews beer and they are both medieval reinactors. Armor, clubs and swords all around. It's a spectacle. I'll try to have pictures for you. Have a good week and thanks for stopping by.

Relapse

2012-05-11T08:21:00.000-04:00

This week I have been suffering from a relapse of big pot fever. A friend had asked if I could duplicate a planter that had been in the family for many years and I agreed. It wasn't that great a pot but it weighed about 40 pounds. After checking it our, I thought I could do it with 25 pounds. Now, I could have done it in sections but it was 15 inches wide and it just seemed simpler to throw it in one piece. I had never thrown a 25 pound ball of clay before but nothing ventured nothing gained, fools rush in ...etc. Actually, once I stopped trying to muscle it into submission, it was not as hard to center as I expected. I opened it up and started pulling up the walls. Just as I was going for that last inch, I lost control and the top of the pot started to flare too much to choke back in, What to do, What to do? This clay obviously wanted to be a bowl instead and so it became one. At 22" it is just small enough to fit in the kiln. Trimming was another issue. To keep weight off the rim, I used a foam bat with a big chunk of mattress foam on it so the bowl was supported from the inside and it worked great. I did get the planter thrown on my next try. No pictures of it yet but I will try to get one after it is fired.

Spring Fair in Review

2012-05-06T11:36:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Spring Fair. It is Clay Alliance's big kick off for summer and we always have 50 or more potters in attendance. The day dawned, well a little of the dark went away, with drizzle and overcast skies. Not the best news for an outdoor show. Set up was uneventful other than me cursing myself for 3 hours for bringing so much stuff. Usually, when the show opens at 11am, we have a big crowd hit the streets. This year, it was still grey and drizzly so the crowd swelled more slowly. In the afternoon the brighter skies helped me sell a big jug and a set of plates to help move things along but I still ended up about 15% off of last year's total. Still, it was a pretty good show for me and it is always a fun event. Even so, these days always make me think of all the artists who depend on week to week sales to pay the bills and how fragile that can be. One of the highlights was a sale of a mug to a woman who heads the ceramics dept at a local college. She said she was going to take it to school to show her students what a good mug looked like ! Yes Meredith, it was one of the red clay w/ green glaze mugs. I wasn't able to get around the show and take a lot of pictures, but here are some booth shots showing the new shelves in action. Thanks for stopping by.

PET SETS ETC

2012-05-03T08:18:00.005-04:00

I unloaded the cone 6 firing yesterday and was very happy with the new line of pet bowls.There is a food bowl and a water bowl that is designed so long eared dogs can drink and keep their ears dry.I don't know if they will pop as much on your screen as they do in person but these are really hot. I also had a big pot and a nice casserole make it through the firing. Ok , I'm off to finish packing and loading the van for Spring Fair. Why oh why do I always take so much stuff??

More Self Promotion

2012-04-29T12:36:00.000-04:00

Last time you stopped by I told you about Spring Pottery Fair. Imagine my surprise to see one of my pots getting featured on the news today! Check it out at http://www.wlwt.com/video/30973973/detail.html Thanks

Addendum

2012-04-28T08:52:00.001-04:00

Just a couple of quick notes today. First, I decided to add a diagonal brace to the new shelf unit. It had just a little wiggle in it, probably because I used the cheap poplar dowels instead of the stiffer birch ones. It wasn't going any where but it bothered me so I screwed a 1x3 scrap across the back. It's rock solid now.

I also have been getting ready for Spring Pottery Fair next Saturday. It's our club show and we have over 50 members showing. We get a good crowd and have very good sales.I already have more pots than I know what to do with but there are a couple of big'uns I want to take so I am making a bunch of kiln filler pots to go around them. This year's new filler item is pet bowls.I'll have about 20 ready so we'll see what happens. If you are in the area, the show is at Madison and Woodburn in Cincinnati and we open at 11AM. Don't miss it.

Magical or Tragical?

2012-04-23T17:27:00.000-04:00

Opening a kiln always makes me excited and apprehensive at the same time. Like Schrodinger's cat, all the pots are outstanding until you open the lid. I had fired the cone 6 electric kiln over the weekend so today was time to peek. I had made up an ash glaze with 50% Ohio Slip, 25% Wood Ash, and 25% Whiting and I was not sure how much it would run. I got lucky and it seemed to work very well with my iron red "Ketchup Red" ( Google it if you want the recipe). The Xavier's Warm Jade is very dependable. My blue is Hansen's 5x20 with 10% zircopax and 2% cobalt carb. It works well if you get enough of it on the pot. One nice long dip does it. All in all the load came out very well with only a couple that will need refiring.Thanks for stopping by.

Shelf Construction Part Two

2012-04-16T14:41:00.001-04:00

OK kids this is the post that makes the last one make sense (especially the pictures). Yesterday we made a pair of ladder framed uprights for the end pieces of our shelves.They are wider at the bottom and the front slants back to make the upper shelves more narrow as we go up. This makes for a stable shelf assembly with a low center of gravity. We also made a back panel to keep our uprights, well, upright.

Today we are going to assemble the frame and make the shelves themselves. Match up your two uprights so the rungs line up. Then take a big framing square and mark where to trim your feet so they sit flat on the tabletop. This also ensures that the back post of your upright stands vertically and does not lean to the front or back. Sand, file or whittle a small bevel around each foot. This really helps keep them from splintering as you drag them around.

Clamp your back panel BETWEEN your uprights and trim to match your uprights. Putting it between the uprights helps keep the frame from racking side to side. Drill through your back posts and back panel posts for 1/4 "x 3 1/2" carriage bolts, fender washers, and wingnuts that hold the pieces together. Alternately, you could hinge the uprights to the back panels but I think the carriage bolts allow less wiggle.This completes the frame.

I used fence boards for my shelves. I cut them 6" longer than the frame so there is 3" overhang at each end. They are 5/8" thick and need stiffening if you span more than 3 feet with them.( If you buy nominal 1" cedar planks you do not need stiffeners.) The stiffeners are just strips of cedar 1 1/2" wide and stood on edge then glued and stapled to the rear of each shelf. If you cut them to fit between the back panel posts, they will help brace the whole frame and keep the shelves from sliding if someone bumps them. I also included a simple system to display plates on the bottom shelf. Just look at the picture and you'll see how it works.

All in all, the finished unit is stiff enough to get the job done without sagging or wiggling too much if you set it up on a level table. My guess is that it weighs about 20 pounds total and it assembles with 4 wingnuts. It looks good now and a few dings and scratches won't even show on this surface. The roughsawn finish of the shelves will also keep my pots from sliding around. Thanks for stopping by and good luck with your shelves.

Shelf Construction Part One

2012-04-15T18:25:00.000-04:00

Last year I built a new set of shelves for the booth. They are a table top design and people seem to like them pretty well. My friend Toby asked me to blog on how to make them and I have finally gotten around to doing that while I make another set. They have angled fronts for stability and an attached back panel that is either hinged or bolted to the ladder framed uprights.They are not difficult to build but you need to work carefully. Angles need to match and holes need to lineup.I am posting part one today. Part two will follow in a couple of days. Annotated pictures follow the text.

When I think about shelves for shows, they have to be stiff, stable, stowable, and lightweight. They should also look nice and take a beating without needing any upkeep. Western red cedar is my first choice of wood. It is not the cheapest wood to use but it is light, stiff, easy to work with, and looks good with no finish on it. As a bonus, it makes your van smell great.

For a tabletop unit, you can make your uprights out of 2"x2" balusters for deck railings. They come in 42" or 36" lengths. Look for straight pieces with a minimum of knots. You can use 3/4" dowels for rungs. Depending on how long you want your shelves and how much weight you plan to put on them, you can use 5/8" fence boards ( cheap but they need stiffening strips) or 1" stock ( stiffer but more expensive).

The back posts are vertical and the rungs go in at 90 degrees. The front posts are angled and the rungs need to be angled as well. As shown in the pictures, you decide how wide you want your top and bottom shelves. I wanted an 11 inch bottom shelf and a 6 inch top shelf. The difference is 5 inches. I set the tops of the posts together and swung the bottom out until the angle between the posts sloped 5 inches from top shelf to bottom shelf. Then I put my square on the back post and drew lines across both posts for each rung. If you drill for your rungs using these lines as guides, you don't need to know the angle, just drill carefully. Use a 3/4 inch bit and go 1"" deep in every hole. A drill press makes this much easier but you don't have to have one.

Cut a pair of dowels 2" longer than the width of your top shelf and another pair 2" longer than the bottom. Dry fit both uprights together. Don't assume that a 3/4 " dowel will fit in a 3/4" hole. Don't force them, just whittle or sand the ends until they fit. Once you are sure everything is square and the uprights match, measure between your posts, and add 2" for your other rungs. Dry fit for good luck, then assemble with a little glue spread around each hole. Don't use too much glue or you won't be able to push your dowels in their holes. Make sure the dowels are well seated, square everything up and let dry.

A Tale of Two Jugs

2012-04-13T14:05:00.002-04:00

One of the nice things about coming home this week was that I had a kiln waiting to be opened.There were a bunch of red clay pots that I had glazed with my blue that was too thin. Not terrible but not great either. These have been reglazed and I'm firing them again.They may not work out but I didn't have much to lose by trying.The other pots included these jugs that had been sitting around for a couple of months. The taller jug was dipped in Ketchup Red then sprayed with my ash glaze (50% Ohio Slip 25% wood ash and 25% whiting.) The shorter one was sprayed with the same Ketchup Red and the same ash glaze.Same clay and they were fired side by side to cone 6. The difference? Where it is thin, Ketchup breaks to blue or black. The sprayed glaze was thinner giving the two pots totally different looks from the same glazes.

Home Again

2012-04-11T19:15:00.001-04:00

My whirlwind tour of the Carolinas continued after leaving Seagrove. I rolled into Charlotte on Saturday evening to spend some time with our daughter and her husband. Sunday started with a nice brunch and moved into a trip to Home Depot and planting a little garden in the afternoon. It was a nice low key day with plenty of time for catching up. Monday was the big day of the visit. Kate teaches Art at Hough High School in Cornelius and it was time to start the unit on Ceramics. I was guest lecturer and demonstrated wheel throwing for a total of about 125 students.They were attentive, well mannered, and we all had a good time. It is nice to feel like your grown children still need you.

Tuesday morning I headed off for home with a detour through Asheville. My friend Lori Theriault is part of VILLAGE POTTERS in the river Arts District and she was happy to give me the grand tour of her new studio. It is a big old factory building and the potters have a beautiful flower garden at the entrance that welcomes you as soon as you drive up. The building is totally renovated inside with a nice little gallery, studio spaces, kilns (including a new gas kiln), classroom space, a glaze area and just about anything a potter could want. It's on Lyman not far from 12 Bones BBQ. I met several of the other potters and everyone seemed very nice as well as very talented.If you are in the area, stop by(or stop and buy.)

My final stop in North Carolina was Highwater Clay. I was very pleased that Cobalt Carb. is on sale at $19 a pound ( Cobalt oxide $33) This is way down from a year ago so I stocked up a bit, got some of my favorite Forbes Wax and headed for home. I did make a stop in Campbell County Tennessee but it did not require a trip to the courthouse or the woods this time. Quickstop Beer, Bait and BBQ looks just like it sounds but it has the best lunch in the county. You can get well fed for the trip to Ohio for about $5 and it is just off I-75. Just don't go for the ambiance.

Here are a few pictures including a very nice mug that Mark and Meredith gave me and a jug from Sid Luck. You are not allowed to take pictures of the faces of High School students so there is only one from Monday.

Saturday

2012-04-08T09:48:00.001-04:00

Saturday morning came several times thanks to my neighbors at Motel6. For some reason folks were coming and going all night with noisy cars and sub woofers blasting . What was that old Dr Pepper slogan 10, 2 and 4? That was my schedule. The morning was frosty in Winston Salem and I was anxious to get down the road to Seagrove.

I had gorgeous weather and smooth sailing so it only took another hour or so to arrive at the North Carolina Pottery center. I love to see their collection of both early and contemporary pots. Useful first and beautiful in their usefulness. I particularly like the old jugs and churns that show skilled hands producing enough ware to make a living. Ware that is solid and true not fussy and pretentious. I was permitted to take pictures inside but many pots were behind glass so pardon the reflections. I highly recommend a stop if you are ever in this part of the world.

From the Pottery Center I visited a few shops in town, then I made my way out to Whynot Pottery to meet Mark and Meredith Haywood. We had a very nice visit and I got to take the grand tour of the operation. It's so nice when you meet old friends for the first time.I went out to Sid Luck's and got a tour of his groundhog kiln. Then went to Bulldog Pottery Bruce and Samantha were out but I got to see their work and had a nice chat with Ed. A few stops later, I met Michele Hastings and saw the Potter's co-op in town. What a nice bunch of folks I met on this trip! I really enjoyed my day and am now in Charlotte with my daughter. Tomorrow I will be showing her classes how to throw or should I say turn clay on the wheel then heading for Asheville Tuesday.

Friday

2012-04-06T18:55:00.004-04:00

This morning I left a glaze kiln cooling off and headed down the road to North Carolina for a Saturday in Seagrove, a visit with our daughter, and to demonstrate wheel throwing for her art students in Charlotte. It will be a short trip with a return Tuesday but I like to keep busy. I came down through Andy Griffith country on the way down and am currently in a Motel6 in Winston-Salem. When you see signs like RJR Blvd. and Tobaccoville Next Exit it reminds you where this part of the country made it's wealth. Even the no smoking room in the Motel is a wink and a nod because they give you an ashtray! I'll try to get some pictures from Seagrove tomorrow and post again later this weekend. Thanks for stopping by.

Missed the Lottery, Made No Pottery

2012-04-02T07:11:00.002-04:00

It's time for an update but there is little to write about on the pottery front. I've been bisque firing some red clay pots and glazing others for the next gas firing but that's the bulk of dealing with pots this week. I did start a new kids class at Middletown and did a wheel workshop for 20 middle school kids at Baker Hunt in Covington. It was a fun day and all of them got something thrown by the time we were done. Mainly, I have been taking care of the affairs of living.

Tina's Dad died a few years ago and her stepmother is in a retirement center. Tina is trustee of their home and property. The place was rented for a couple of years and the tenants started some renovations ( with permission) that were not finished when they moved out. I spent a couple of days last week extending the depth of door jambs so the casing would line up with the increased wall thickness from new drywall, then applying new casings and baseboards. It was a lot of work but it looks a lot better. It's always a challenge to finish up projects that other people didn't quite think all the way through. I finished up the week climbing up and down off the tractor patching potholes in their 3/4 mile gravel driveway and hauling some firewood out of the woods with my brother. I'm beat and I plan on spending today doing as little as possible.

Future plans include a trip to Charlotte next weekend to see our daughter and demo wheel work for her High School Art Classes. If I can work out the schedule, I might even visit a couple of potteries while I am there! Thanks for stopping by.

Travels with Norris

2012-03-23T18:17:00.001-04:00

This is going to be a long rambling account for those of you with short attention spans but it is part of the continuing saga of our land and heritage in Tennessee.A couple of weeks ago I purchased the UTV you see in the picture to help us get around the backwoods of Tennessee. It is a Cub Cadet Volunteer. What could be more appropriate for Tennessee? It has 4 wheel drive, hi/low range,31 horsepower, 11 inches of ground clearance, and generally kicks ass. Tuesday morning, my brother Norris and I went exploring with it.

The drive to Tennessee is about 4 hours and is usually filled with useful information and brotherly advice such as- Me -" The yellow light is on we'd better get gas" Norris- "Yeah , it's not good to run your engine after it runs out of gas" Me-" I think I have one of those engines that automatically shuts off when I run out" Norris-"That's good". We got to Campbell county about 11 and headed west to the Scott County courthouse to try to find the deed to a property that is referenced as our northern boundary. We were successful and one of the women in the office recommended another surveyor for us to talk to. She didn't know her current last name or phone number but she gave us her daddy's name and number. ( we will return to this).

After leaving the courthouse we went to where the roads used to be behind Elk Valley to search out our property.Regular readers might recall, this is where we broke a spring on a 4 wheel drive F250 last fall. The roads are very washed out, the side trails have almost vanished, and even though we tried several different routes, we were blocked by downed timber or washed out trails with vertical walled ditches as big as six feet deep and ten feet across at every trail we tried. The new buggy did a great job on everything we attempted but there are limits to what we were going to attempt miles from civilization with no help around. We made our way out of the woods and headed for dinner and our motel determined to give it another go from the other side of the mountain on Wednesday.

We also called and scheduled a meeting for 9AM with the owner of a neighboring property. He is being taxed by Scott County for land that is actually our Campbell County property that has been in the family for 120 years ( and taxed by Campbell Co ). A couple of years ago, he was told by the county that the vague 2 acre deed he bought at auction for $900 ten years ago was actually 38 acres but it's not. Scott County is just confused as to where the county line should actually be. I have deeds and evidence of my great grandfather having the State Legislature declare that the line was moved in 1897 to put all of his property into Campbell County but the official map was never redrawn. I have shown the evidence to the tax assessor and he felt I was correct but he's not going to change anything until someone (not the county) has a survey done.

Our neighbor showed up at 8AM but we were ready. I had my deeds, topo maps, and copies of what the Legislature had done. He had a parcel map from the county ( this is not a legal description of property, just a general idea of where it may be) and a deed that only referred to the parcel map.. We each explained our positions and why we held them. He really wants to define his boundaries by his neighbors' lines because he has not been able to find an accurate description of his property. I went back to our historical deeds and did my own estimation of where our lines are but I am not willing to agree to anything about his lines without the survey points(calls) from his deed and he can't produce them. We parted amicably and a little wiser but I doubt that this is over.

Back at the room, I called Rhonda the surveyors' parents and talked to her mom who gave me Rhonda's number. I called but just left a message. ( Here's where it gets strange) We headed for the woods but stopped at the Pilot station for gas. My phone rang and it was Rhonda. I explained our problem and asked if we could meet her later today. She said she had to go to Knoxville but asked" Where are you now?" I told her Pilot on 63. She said "Me too" Absolutely amazing. She came out to the van, looked at our maps, and heard our story. She said she started surveying in the Air Force and has been at it for twenty years. She seemed very capable and is going to put together an estimate for us. If you ever need a surveyor in East Tennessee call Rhonda Ellis.You can get her number from her mom.

We went back Whistlecreek road from Newcomb and looked for a safe place to leave the van and trailer. We stopped at a Truck repair shop a little ways back in the woods and the boys said it would be fine for us to park for a while. We spent 3 or 4 hours trying trail after trail. We rode for miles and tried many different routes. There are small gas wells all over the place up there and the trails are like a rabbit warren. We tried 4 ways around Lamb Mountain to the east of us but the closest we got was (I think) looking up at our place from a trail with a big steel gate across it that went up to a gas well near our land. We went around to the west side of the valley and tried to go up Bairds' Creek road. We got as far as the old cemetery were we saw our grandfather John L.'s grave for the first time. There were also graves of a couple of my cousins who had died at birth around 1920 and sad little hand carved stones scattered about the hillside.We probably could have gone farther if we had a chainsaw to cut some downed timber that blocked the trail but we didn't so we called it a day and headed back to the Truck Garage.We chatted a bit and one of the guys said one of the boys we had met earlier knew the area of our land well and ATV'd and hunted up there. I called him and he agreed to guide us next time we come down.That will be a big plus.

All in all it was a great trip. We bounced the buggy up and down some God awful trails and it swam through ruts and marshes without a complaint. We learned more about our property and made some new friends.Thursday was a long drive home with no incidents and now I'm catching up on chores. Thanks for stopping by.

One final note. Last week I made some comments on another blog that were impolite. I should have found a more tactful way to state my opinion and I am sorry that I put it the way I did.

Another New Post

2012-03-13T07:27:00.002-04:00

Yesterday was Christmas in Middletown. Well, it felt like it anyway. Of course potters know this means we opened the gas kiln. It had taken a while to fill it and a bunch of it was my stuff so I was anxious to see the results. I was not disappointed. The black and red is Black Plum with Pete's Red poured on thickly. The Shino is Indiana Shino with iron oxide sprinkled on and spritzed with a little water. Thanks for looking.

Munchkin Ware

2012-03-12T17:10:00.000-04:00

I thought I would share some shots of what the clay monkeys have been making. Bad photos cute projects.

The reviews are in!

2012-03-09T11:52:00.000-05:00

Virginia Potter Dan Finnegan has been featured in a recent film by Timothy Ryan Poe.You can get yours and see it before Cannes, Sundance and even Youtube by calling Libertytown Art Center at 540-371-7255. I just got my copy yesterday and " The Artist" had better be glad it wasn't up against this masterpiece.I could rave on about everything from how this will change cinema forever to the incredible work done by the hair, make-up and costume people but I will poll some of our international correspondents to get a balanced opinion

From Japan we have Anna Gama " Anything about wood firing gets me hot" From our Italian bureau Terry Sigillata says " It barely scratched the surface" From Japan, Kao Lin reports "Smooth , very smooth" From the UK. correspondent Cotswold Ware " loved the nude scenes" and Cornwall Stone was "Just glazed over" German reporter Ohaus Scales was quoted " weighty, very weighty" and finally local bon vivant Clay Potter exclaimed "That's one dirty dirty boy, but I can dig him!!

Super Tuesday!

2012-03-06T10:57:00.001-05:00

This one is about pottery.Any Tuesday with a kiln full of nice pots is super. Over the weekend, I mixed glazes and glazed pots. I've got to get a Talisman Sieve. Pushing a bucket of glaze through a regular 80 mesh sieve with a spatula and brush seems to take forever With a Talisman I could be done in 5 minutes but wow are they expensive. Has anyone tried the system that Euclid's sells? It's about $40 instead of $175 but I have never seen or used one. If you have please comment.

Almost everything in the kiln was Jade Green on red clay Yes Meredith the blue cup you liked was green too .Maybe these pictures show the color better. The only other one was a test cup with wax resist and blue over white. I like the effect and will do more next time. Thanks for stopping. I'm off for glazing fun with my Tuesday Clay Monkeys.

Rush to Judgement

2012-03-04T08:53:00.000-05:00

This is not a pottery post.

What happens when a priest a rabbi and minister walk into a bar? It's the start of many jokes. How about when they walk into the Capitol ? It's a joke but it's not funny. When the House of Representatives stacks the deck by only allowing conservative men to speak at a hearing on any issue we all suffer. Hearings have become nothing but showboating on the path to a forgone conclusion. Sandra Fluke apparently had some misguided notions about free speech and representative government when she went to Washington last week.A woman wanting to speak about women's health? Outrageous!

We all know about Rush Limbaugh's ranting about Sandra Fluke after she had the nerve to want to testify at a House of Representatives hearing last week. Ms. Fluke had done nothing to deserve the vile names that Rush called her but that didn't stop him from calling her a slut and a whore on national radio nor did it prevent him saying she should make a sex tape for all of us to watch. According to news reports, women all over the country are offended. Here's a news flash, men are offended too. We have wives and daughters and believe that no woman should be treated this way. Listeners who support Rush should think this through whether or not they agree with Ms. Fluke on the issue of including contraception in health plans. Do you really want someone this crude and disrespectful speaking for you? Someone who has nothing of substance to add to the discussion so he degrades a courageous young woman in a failed effort to silence her? Political discourse should depend on more than name calling and character assassination.

As of this morning, Rush has issued an apology after losing four sponsors. Believe me, he's sorry about losing the money more than he is sorry about what he said. He will not change and this will happen again to someone elses' daughter. I have refrained from calling Rush a bigoted degenerate old misogynist with a drug addled brain because it would have made me stoop to his level and wallow in the same slime. Anyone who has been to a pond knows you find the rushes feeding off the muck and slime around the fringe.Thanks for reading.

Going to the Dark Side

2012-02-29T13:51:00.002-05:00

There comes a time in every man's life when things change, sometimes for the better ,sometimes for the worse.. While we try to look to the light sometimes all we see is darkness as it creeps like a fog through our lives. That feeling of dread has been haunting me for weeks and it has finally come into the studio. Everywhere I look, it stains my view and I doubt I will ever be totally free of it. I'm talking about red clay of course. I had been throwing Aurora all winter with it's easy clean up and unstained fingers but I sell a lot of red clay pots fired to cone 6 with a gorgeous green glaze and the shows are coming. Most potters throw one clay but some of us are cursed with a love of both. The red clay gets all over everything and is much harder to clean up so it looks like a couple of months of everything being red before a late spring scrubbing and a return to cleanliness.

On a totally different track, I'm waiting by the mailbox for my Dan Finnegan movie to arrive. They are only $ 12.50 and are sure to be up for Oscars next year. You can find out more if you go to his blog ( in my list at the right) and go back a couple of posts. Thanks for stopping by but next time bring coffee.