Ten Years In

I retired from teaching the last week of February in 2005. 30 years of combined state employee and teaching credits 54 years old. I was a teacher of students with multiple disabilities and many abilities. I was dept chair and had great support from my students, their parents, and my employer but it was time to go. I have seen way too many people work until they die or until their bodies are so broken they cannot enjoy their retirement. I had vowed long ago that I would take a different path. I also had developed diabetes, sleep apnea, and had a couple of transient but scary episodes of Atrial Fibrillation I took our new ( first ) camper on a trip down the Blue Ridge, I put new windows in the house. I bought a boat and went fishing. I went to Yosemite and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival while visiting our son in San Francisco. I visited our daughter in Charlotte. I had a year to spend with my Mom before she passed away. There was time to get her groceries, time to cut the grass, time to take her to the doctor. She passed away in 2006  It was a year well spent. Then I took a clay class.

I had harbored an interest in making pottery for a long time but had never done anything about it. My wife had retired by this time and she was signing up for a jewelry class at the Middletown Art Center.  I asked her to see if they had pottery classes. They did. I started and 8 weeks later, I could center clay effectively and had made a few pots. I was hooked. I was spending a couple of days a week playing in the mud. Had we bombed Afganistan with those pots we would have been out of there years earlier. The pots got better and I kept making. I joined the Clay Alliance and became active in the local clay community. I took workshops and actually stayed in touch with people afterwards. I volunteered for stuff. I started blogging. I didn't see the blog as a way to sell pots but as a social connection and I have met many, many wonderful people both virtually and in person.

The inevitable happened and I started doing shows. There went the free time but it also brought the adventure of a new challenge. Making pots and selling pots are two different skills. You really can't sell crap at any price but even nice work at fair prices takes skills you only learn from experience and being a sponge around friends and mentors.

The other thing that is different is that after being told just to move my lips in music class as a kid I have recently gained the confidence to actually sing out loud and play guitar in front of people that usually takes up most of my non-show Sundays.

OK, enough about me for now. Here are some pictures of current work. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Snow

It has been a cold and snowy week in Ohio. Mid week we hit -15 F with a daytime high in the single digits. It finally warmed up a little Friday night and into Saturday so we could get 8" or so of fresh snow on top of out previous layers of snow. The studio is well insulated but the electric heater only kept it at 37. Nothing froze but even turning on the big gas heater did little to warm the clay. What few pots I made this week were done with water from the microwave and popping the clay balls in too for a brief warm up. It helped a lot but it is a slow way to produce much work. This has put me a bit behind schedule but I'm hoping for spring and hope springs eternal. I shoveled the drive a couple of times but after yesterdays blessing I had to get the tractor out this morning. I dug the car out and made a path to the studio and I'm hoping warmer temps today will help clean it up a little more.My biggest help all week has been my 16 inch, insulated waterproof, snake proof Bass Pro boots. They are the only thing that has let me get to the studio and back without frozen toes. Style be damned, they work. The astute viewer will see that a zipper pull broke but a spare split ring was a quick fix and I think maybe an improvement over the original little tab.

 

I had really wanted to go to the first (annual?) Clay Alliance Garage Sale yesterday but it would have been 60 miles round trip through heavy snow. I wasn't registered but I still like to go visit and be supportive of my friends. Good sense won out and I hear it went ok without my attendance. Maybe next year.

 

It is nice enough today to go jam with the balladeers tonight. Here is this weeks offering. Just imagine a fiddle break at the designated spot. Thanks for stopping by.

 



 

The youtube link is  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-D5TT-s6Lc in case you prefer to go that way.

 

 

 

February

Hi everyone. It has been cold in Ohio except for a couple of days last weekend then it got cold again. I think it is about 20 F outside I've had a cold for a couple of weeks but am finally recovering and coming back to life. Haven't felt like doing much so I didn't. I've made a few mugs and bowls but nothing exciting or much of it but hey, I'm not going to climb in the rankings of " Top Pottery Blogs " by posting once a month. I've been nominated by a couple of people to post pictures of 3 pots/day for 5 days on Facebook. Again, I didn't feel like doing it so I didn't. I have been teaching the Clay Monkeys on Tuesdays and a wheel class on Thursday. Both of these have been going well. I have one wheel student who took classes as a kid and a couple of times I subbed for her teacher and showed her some wheel tips but she had mainly done handbuilding. She is making altered casseroles in a wheel 1 class ! Another class member who started in Nov. is making mugs with nice sprigs on them and doing some pierced carving ! I better find a way to stay sharp.

My usual plan for Jan and Feb involves making a bunch of bisqueware, hopefully enough to take the pressure off this summer and fall when I am doing shows. I am a load or two behind with firing but basically I'm on track. I did get into a bunch of clay that was too wet to make jars and vases with so I switched  and started making plates. Soft clay, warm water and blues on the radio helped a dozen or so jump off the wheel yesterday. They are sitting on every available flat space until they get dry enough to trim which should be tomorrow. Then it will be time to make another batch. Some people don't like to make plates. One of the best potters I know confided once that she couldn't make a plate to save her life. I like making them and I love selling them. People may buy one mug and never come back. If they buy a plate, I know I will see them again and again !

Here are a couple of studio shots and a video of the first song I felt like singing after being sick.

 

Here is a link to the video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIyJ_AVkq4M

 

 

 

 



A Recipe and Some Self Promotion

When I started writing this blog, one of the first things I said was that I was not going to bore you by writing about what I had for breakfast. Well, this one is about dinner and eventually pottery. Tina and I were spending a quiet Christmas together. No reason for a big feast. No reason to eat hot dogs either. I bought a ham and a big bag of "Normandy Vegetables ". I knew they weren't really from the coast of France but they looked pretty good anyway.I put the ham in the oven and decided to improvise a casserole with the veggies. The bag contained broccoli, cauliflower, yellow carrot slices, and baby orange carrots. I added a diced onion. I put the veggies in the microwave to defrost them while I made cheese sauce. Tablespoon of butter, tablespoon of flour, cook for a minute then add milk stirring all the time. White sauce sounds a little intimidating and I can't even spell what the French call it. For a country boy, butter gravy about sums it up. Salt, pepper, and a good dash of hot sauce or two to bring out the flavor of the cheese. I used a 4 cheese Mexican blend but make yourself happy. Cheese up the sauce to taste then take it off the heat and stir in a couple of eggs. I then took a WHISTLECREEK baking dish, buttered it and dusted with generic seasoned bread crumbs. Spoon the veggies into the dish and pour in cheese sauce to cover.Top with more crumbs and a little butter. I just made another one but the ham was gone so I chopped up some cooked chicken breast and added it. Put in the oven set it to 350 and let er go until the casserole bubbles and the crumbs brown.     ( 45 minutes or so.)  this is absolutely delicious and much much healthier than the mac and cheese that it resembles.

Oh yeah, I promised we would get to the pottery part. I have been using Hansen's 5x20 glaze with zircopax and a little cobalt carb on some of my baking dishes.( Thanks Tony ) The second picture will give you an idea of how well the glaze cleans up. Even with all the cheese, the casserole just scoops out and the dish is clean. Try this recipe yourself and you will love it. Of course if you don't have a WHISTLECREEK baking dish your results may vary but we can fix that. Thanks for stopping by.



Happy New Year

Hi everyone. Happy New Year! Life has been busy around here lately. After Holiday Fair I had a small order of baking dishes to get out. All you potters know there is no such thing as a small order. You still have to make a kiln full of stuff so you can fire effectively. So that took a week. The getting ready for Holiday Fair and hurry up throwing session left the studio a shambles. That took another week. When we were in Charlotte for Thanksgiving, I promised our Daughter Kate that I would make her a fixture to mount some bathroom lights on that also covered up where the wires came out of the wall to feed some old hanging lights. That was some work over a couple of days then three days last week to go back to Charlotte, install the fixture, deliver the baking dishes, and have Christmas with Kate and her husband Lucas. A good time was had by all and Kate even remembered how much I love Eastern N.C. style pulled pork from BUBBA'S. She gave me a tub of it to take home and it has been great.

Now, I am back home. I'm teaching a kid's class and an adult wheel class so that will help get me out of the house this winter. I'm also starting to throw this summer's inventory. A couple of years ago, I decided to throw a bunch of pots in the winter and just pile up the bisque ware. Best Idea I had in a long time. It helps my consistency to make several dozen mugs, bowls, or plates at a time and in the summer, if I am running low on a certain item or color, it is quick to glaze up a load and fire it. Oh, I almost forgot. For the second year in a row, I have received an honorable mention from TOP POTTERY BLOGS. I think it is based more on the number of posts that get reviewed than on total quality but I certainly will take it.

I have also been going out to Plain Folks Café and singing on Sundays. This is supposed to be a jam session but other pickers have not been showing up so several times I have ended up doing an hour and a half by myself. As they say it is good training. Any day the audience doesn't throw things is a good day and folks have been pretty nice. I've even gotten the occasional tip. No, it wasn't " shut up and put that thing away" I don't claim to be a great talent, but I do like to introduce people to some good old songs that they may not have heard before. Here's one of them now. http://youtu.be/np8EVnaV2yg