Family Tradition?

evelyn at the treadle!

Today was a snow day and the girls were home with yours truly. Stacey had a pile of work to mow down up at Penland and we thought it best that I stay home and try to supervise the chaos!

Evelyn had quite a day! The girl was in the flow. She made up a cake recipe this morning with a lavender chocolate frosting. Hmmm, I know what your thinking, because that was my first thought, too...but it was pretty tasty. By some kind of trial and error she's getting better at her epicurean lab work! It will do her good when she starts glazing her pots! In my mind I saw us all heading up to the shop at some point and I could tend to my pots while they played quietly in the corner! Ha! Well come 3 o'clock we finally made it up there!

We got Evelyn set up on the wheel John Britt gave us and she fit it without any adjustment. Then we came up after supper for more and she ended up with a decent board of pots. In the past I would help her center and sometimes show her where her fingers should be, but today she was on her own. I was across the room handling pots myself.

some of E's pots

some of my pots

Here are Monday's mugs with handles. I thought I would dip and comb the pots before the handles to get a better combing on the handle-less cups. But then the handling got to be a challenge. I may try dipping just the handle part of the mugs. In my experience that seems to work OK.

Still not sure about the stencils. It was exciting to cut the paper and apply them and was fun to see the contrast of the clay and the slip, not to mention the sharpness of the stencil design. Some of the patterns reminded me of some patterns on a dress that Stacey has. The dress has white lace or crochet??? flowers on a black fabric.

The stencil-play intrigue me as anything new and different to one's experience can be. I thought about all the folks who do a stencil treatment with their pots and also thought how I could incorporate some brushwork. Placement of some of the stencils seemed awkward. I didn't handle one mug because I couldn't decide which design would have to be covered up, all in the cyclical experience of making pots. These things can get worked out. I also thought that I could use plastic for the stencils and reuse them. I guess we'll just have to wait until after the firing to make any judgements.

Well I'm back tomorrow for a full day. I'm hoping I can get my 12 pots made. There is a one hour delay to school in the morning but I'll be at the Shimpo! See you there.