The Cousins Are Coming!

I'm really excited about heading over to see my pottery cousins in Seagrove this week! Our third annual Cousins in Clay will feature South Carolinian artist Peter Lenzo as well as Jack Troy of Pennsylvania!

Samantha, Bruce and I are VERY excited to be hosting these two amazing artists and spending the weekend together in pottery cousinship! We hope you are planning a trip to the 'Grove to meet Peter and Jack and see their amazing work. Click here for more details.

This year's "Cousins in Clay" provides a rare opportunity for any of you Jack Troy fans who want to come out to Seagrove AND we are having a POTLUCK for Sunday May 29 lunch!

Bring your Jack Troy books, some food to share, we will have a pasta salad and drinks.

I will be demonstrating my special cousin brushwork at 1:30pm

This is a wonderful opportunity to talk with Jack Troy about pottery and see his pots. He will also have his poetry books available! Wooo Hooo!

Come see us!

Dedication

Speaking at the dedication of the Northeast Wisconsin Technical College dedication of the Artisan Center. I designed the clay studio and wrote the curriculum for the program. My former apprentice Chris Greenwood is teaching there.



Simon Levin is a regular contributor to Sawdust and Dirt. He lives and makes pots in Gresham, WI. When Simon is not making or firing pots, fighting fires, or caring for his lovely family, he is creating such wonders as WikiClay! To find out more about Simon Levin and his pottery go to woodfire.com. If you have questions for Simon he can be reached at simon@sawdustanddirt.com otherwise please leave comments for Simon here!

Simon Says: Plankin'

Simon Levin is a regular contributor to Sawdust and Dirt. He lives and makes pots in Gresham, WI. When Simon is not making or firing pots, fighting fires, or caring for his lovely family, he is creating such wonders as WikiClay! To find out more about Simon Levin and his pottery go to woodfire.com. If you have questions for Simon he can be reached at simon@sawdustanddirt.com otherwise please leave comments for Simon here!

38: More Pots: Preview of this Weekend's Big Shoe

Today's Unloading: Preview

scene from the chimney, Sunday

slipware-stoneware

combed jug

big jars

a bird in the hand

Here are a few pictures of today's unloading of the wood kiln. I took a few pictures as the pots came from the kiln. Here are a few of those.

Maybe more later!

First Peek 38!

Not the best picture, but so were the first images from the moon!

This weekend!

As I unbrick the kiln door, a thought popped into my head, "have I made any announcement of the kiln opening on ye olde blogge?" The pace has been so swift that I don't think I have mentioned the sale yet! Maybe too late for those wanting to fly in from Guam, but maybe you are close enough to visit? I hope so.

Come early and get one of these! I have about 50 copies of this commissioned letterpress limited edition print by Ragamuffin Press!

I'll have more on the pots later this evening after I unload and attempt to comprehend!

Time To Clean The Shop Pots

After the Firing, or as it became known in Stonepool parlance as ATF, is that special time reserved for all the things that should have been done, if it weren't for the rigorous demands leading up to a wood firing. Because after the firing there's the waiting.

One of the things that I managed to do today in my dazed-zombie-potter state was to bring the mugs down from the shop for their periodic washing. Coffee, morning noon and night, delivered by these great and noble cups, helped me make it through this unreasonable workload of a cycle.

Like a lot of folks, my dad drank coffee to make it through his work day. Lots of it. It's just one thing we had in common. He was born on this day on 1929. I really do miss him.

A Potter's Got To Eat!

I thought I better take a break from stacking the kiln and have a bite to eat and there's no better way to digest your supper than to sit back a write a few words on ye olde blogge. I've actually loaded 2/3 of the kiln. I am also running out of small pots, fillers. Luckily, I have a board of tumblers and have a few dishes to paint.

I'm getting very excited about next weekend's Spring kiln opening, and the following weekend's "Cousins in Clay" over in Seagrove. (More about all of that in my newsletter going out on Monday.)

Sign up for my mailing list to receive that, if you haven't already.

OK, back to stacking ye olde wood kiln! Firing #38 coming right up! I'll be tweeting kiln side with pictures and more. Follow the firing!

'til the Midnight Hour

I feel a little crazy rationalizing today as the last "wet" day for next weekend's wood firing, but here goes...

I finished these jars off this evening and will get them to drying with a little help from the weed burner, gonna "fitch" 'em! They're all about 30 inches now. The one on the left will sport a lid. I'm not that thrilled with the forms and regret not mapping these out. The bases were a little narrow for the height that I


planned on making and it would have helped to sketch them out on graph paper just to keep a better eye on the overall line.

I have a few more plates to make and maybe a board of 6 lb jars for the back of the kiln and then it's a race to dry them. I plan on loading the kiln on Friday. These jars will be raw glazed and loaded green. I usually have a few pots in every firing that I make at the last minute and load green, but not on the scale.

I'm heading to the doc in the morning to have him look at my leg. If you remember I took a fall last week and it doesn't look like it's getting better. My schedule and constant standing while I make pots hasn't helped matters.

But on a very positive note, the opening Saturday was a great success and a very fun evening. I'm sorry I didn't make it to the after-party at Shane Mickey's, but I'm glad that I got these big jars one coil closer to today's finishing.

This promises to be an interesting week and firing 38 will probably have to least number of pots, but some of the biggest pots, yet.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

C U. K?

The reception for our show is tonight!
(as well as the Containment II Show,
and Eric Knoche's "quick look at function")

Come on out! Reception starts at 6 p.m.
Hope to see you at the opening tonight.
Should be a packed house!

I'm winding up my last days of making pots for the upcoming firing. Looks like these will get raw glazed! No time to bisque.

Red Dirt Crockery Revival

Ahhh, finally, some red dirt crockery in the house!

What I Wrote

I wrote this for the "Rubies and Vines" Show which opens tomorrow at the Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC. Also opening are "Containment: The Inside Story", a group show of pots that contain, and Eric Knoche's collection of functional work, "A Quick Look at Function".

Get the Preview: Lane & Kline, Rubies & Vines

Tiered Green Stone Necklace with Silver Links
and Encrusted Bronze Chain of Flowers and Swan Clasp

Our show is up for preview at the Crimson Laurel Gallery web site. Check out the collections!

porcelain plate with blue and black vine

Falling and Painting Walls

wearing my brand new Ron Philbeck T.

I spent yesterday afternoon painting a couple of the gallery walls at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville in prep for Stacey and my show that is hopefully all set up as of today. [that's one sentence y'all]

The wall was covered in red dirt clay from my field, but only after I tripped over some short black pedestals just inside the back door entrance to the gallery and spewed my clay ALL over the display along those walls. As I came tumbling down the clay went flying and I ended up with a welt the size of Texas on my shin. Not a good way to start a day. The irony was that as I set to spreading the remaining clay on the wall inside our gallery, David, John, and Deb cleaned the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and all the pots out in the hallway. [You'll be happy to know that no pots were broken during my Chevy Chase moment.]

I'm back at it with the red dirt this morning, making jars and pitchers. Last wet day is Saturday, also the day of the reception at CLG. Hope you can make it and see the completed walls in all of their snake-ified, bird-ified, and moth-ified glory!

(Oh, and the pots and jewelry, too!)

Photo Dump

Here they are.

The pictures from the camera.

But you'll have to go here until Blogger has an easier way to upload pictures en masse.

Thanks for traipsing all over creation to see pictures. Don't you have pots you should be making? ;)

On To The Next One

There are pictures on the camera as there are memories of the past few weeks, but today I start a (hopefully) productive week on the wheel with my home clay and set my sights on the wood kiln. The eKiln has done a fine job of producing new porcelain work that I'm very excited to show everyone who can make it to our opening this coming Saturday in Bakersville, NC. [We expect it to be a packed house.]

It was a very interesting journey into the land of vitrified white, but now it's time for my iron rich, unrefined clay of home. I'm looking forward to all of its course grained splendor after working with the smooth and white, and also looking forward to making some big pots. Since I have roughly a week to make the pots for my next kiln opening, the pots will have some pretty major scale. So, look out for jugs, pitchers, and crocks of large proportion to grace my worktable this week! I'll try to post pictures from the phone when time and cleaned-off-hands allow!

Until then thanks very much for your comments and thanks for reading! [and please visit our very generous sponsors! ]