Saturday was a busy day for me. In the morning I took my daughters over to Spruce Pine for the annual "Fire On The Mountain" Blacksmith Festival. Here is my neighbor Andy Dohner putting the heat to the iron during he and Zack Noble's forge welding demo. looks like Zack better get out of the way of that flame...It was a beautiful spring day and there were a lot of folks dowtown to see the blacksmiths do their thing. There were blacksmiths from all over the Southeast in attendence. Unfortunately, for me, I missed the dedication of the new sculpture by Elizabeth Brim that was installed at the new clock on Upper St. Elazabeth created a full scale sculpture of a Sarvisberry tree to wrap around the clock. Here is a picture of Elizabeth and the work in process. I'll try to get a picture posted of the completed piece.
After I left the Blacksmith Festival I headed over to Seagrove, NC and the North Carolina Pottery Center.
It was the day of their annual benefit auction to which I had donated a piece. According to some of the folks there the attendance was down quite. There were some delicious snacks and plenty of refreshment for the public and the potters in attendance. It was great to look and pick up the pottery that was on display. There were contemporary as well as historical pottery that had been donated by potters and collectors respectfully. I wanted to get more pictures of those in attendance but got caught up in conversations with my "potter-cousins" and failed in my mission as a "poterrazzi". I did get these pictures of some curious pots that my friends Bruce Gohlson and Samantha Henneke picked up for a pittance.
We thought they were probably from Spain. I had seen a similar glaze treatment on a piece that Tom Spleth bought in Spain while he was vacationing but the press molded shells and other additions were different.
In the blurry detail above you may be able to see that it has a curious perforated neck with some flower shaped additions in side the neck. That was something I had never seen. Samantha thought that the body of the pot was thrown as a closed form and the neck was thrown onto the body. Interesting pot with no clear reason as to why it was made this way. Has anyone seen anything like this? Please comment if you have.
I had a great visit with all my Seagrove "cousins" at the after party at David Steumpfle and Nancy Gottovi's house. I stayed with Bruce and Samantha and I had a great visit on Sunday looking at their pots in their cupboard and their show room. Here are a couple of their fine pots.
Unfortunately I had to leave and they had to get some work done, so I shooed myself off to the mountains. I snapped a picture of Bruce and Samantha's new home and studio that's still under construction.
The little shack in the foreground is an old canning kitchen that served as their first studio after they had moved to the Seagrove area in 2000. I will look forward to visiting again after the new place is finished. It's an awesome space that they've been working on since last August. Maybe we'll see it in Dwell magazine! 
