If you have been following this blog for many years, you probably remember that in 2010 we bought a school bus and used it to move from New Hampshire to North Carolina. It took few trips to complete the move. We hung on to the bus and used it for storage. At one time we had dreams of converting it to a mobile studio to teach classes in. We realized over time that our focus needed to be on building our business here in Seagrove. Off and on we have toyed with the idea of selling the bus and when a friend approached us about purchasing it, we decided that the time had come to let it go.
Our school bus has lower mileage than my 2008 SUV! Even after not running for over two years, she turned over after a couple of tries. Today was the day she went to her new home where she will be transformed into a food truck… or should I say, food bus!
Since she isn’t registered and inspected, a tow truck came and hauled her away.
Good-bye old friend. You helped us get started on an exciting new adventure and we will always have fond memories of our many road trips.
Danielle and I had a fabulous weekend in Asheville! The Biltmore was amazing. It was difficult to get good night time photos with the camera on my phone. I had a lot to delete when I got home.
Quite the fancy library ladder!
We spent the entire day on the estate. Lunch at the Bistro at Antler Village and Winery was delicious. There were lots of little shops, as well as stables to visit. The wine tasting included with admission was sort of a joke. They gave you samples in tiny plastic cups… like the pill cups in hospitals. The line for the “tasting” was very long and we didn’t bother. We had a nice glass of their viognier with our lunch, no need to wait a half an hour for a few sips!
We spent Sunday in downtown Asheville. Of course I had to take a photo of Danielle sitting on the ginkgo leaf bench…
Our choice for brunch was Rhubarb’s. We both had the duck confit hash and bloody Mary’s too.
The weekend flew by way too fast. We timed our work schedule so that the kiln would be cooling while I was away. Monday afternoon we unloaded it before taking Danielle back to the airport. We packed Etsy orders until quite late on Monday night. The postal carrier picked up our first batch of boxes in the morning. By 3:00 pm we had the rest packed and delivered to the post office. It was a huge relief to get all orders shipped in time for the Priority Mail deadline. Everything is now in the hands of USPS and out of our control. Knock on Wood for smooth deliveries!
Here it is the 10th of December and this is my first post of the month. Life and work have been crazy. Isn’t that always the way? The crazies just can’t come one at a time.
Let me start with life.
My 90 year old Dad put his name in at a Catholic nursing home last year. He had visited a few places and said if he had to go to a home, this was the only one he would want to be in. The week before Thanksgiving he got the call that they had a room for him. It was such a big decision for him to give up his apartment, and in the end he decided he was ready. He had been relying on meals on wheels and frozen dinners because he didn’t want to clean up. My sister was going every Saturday and cooked a big meal with leftovers for the next day. She also brought him grocery shopping, to the library, and the bank. Dad was dependent on the “Care Van” to pick him up every other week to have his blood work done. The van lost it’s funding in October (Make a America Great Again – yeah right!) and he was going to have to ask my uncle to drive him or take a cab back and forth.
The call came at the right time.
My sister Anita and I have spent countless hours on the phone or texting back and forth about making this transition as smooth as possible for both Dad and her. Most of the labor fell on her. There was no way that I could get away during this time of year.
A photo from my visit last February when Dad turned 90. We spent some time going through old immigration documents from grandparents when they moved back and forth from Canada to here.
Last Thursday was his move in day. He seemed to settle in quite well and was exhausted when I spoke to him at the end of the day. He slept well that first night… that is until he got up at 5:30 am and on his way to the bathroom fell and hit his head on the dresser! The nurses came right way and he was off to the hospital in no time. He was fine. No concussion and no stitches needed. He told his nurse that he wanted to make a big impression on his first day at the home. At least he hasn’t lost his sense of humor!
As for work… this is definitely our busiest time of the year. My goal this year was to hit 1000 total sales on Etsy and I met that goal and then some! I should be dreaming of piggy banks every night but I think I have been too tired to even do that!
Here is a sampling of piggy banks from last week’s firing. I am really happy with how the “bull” piggy bank came out! This week we will fire again. I have about 26 more piggy banks and salt pigs to ship by the December 20th deadline. I will get a little break next weekend when my girl Danielle arrives. While the kiln is cooling we are headed to Asheville and a candlelight tour of the Biltmore Estate. I am so looking forward to it!
November is coming to a close very soon and what a month it has been! I am happy to say that the Celebration of Seagrove Potters show was our best yet. Jeff and I were exhausted by Sunday night, but it was a good tired. The kind of tired that lets you know that you worked hard and it paid off.
We haven’t heard what we sold, or if we sold anything, at the Piedmont Craftsmen’s show. We did get the official letter that we passed the physical jury process and we are now fully juried members of Piedmont Craftsmen.
With Thanksgiving happening just four days after the show, there was no time to rest. Since Jeff and I are centrally located for his family, we are now the hosts of dinner. We unpacked the trailer on Monday and spent the next three days cooking, cleaning, and making pots.
Just to add a little more work to the mix, Jeff helped David Stuempfle fire his wood kiln the week before Celebration. I put just one cup and a few spoons in the firing. I am pleased with the cup. It has the toasty variations that I love.
It’s getting down to the wire for the Celebration of Seagrove Potters. Today I have been working on all the little things that need to be done to the pots. None of it is glamorous, but it’s still important stuff. In the morning I worked on polishing the bottoms of pots from the last firing. After that I moved on to printing some tags.
We added foaming soap pumps to the offering. I can tell the difference between the pumps but I don’t think most buyers will. I created tags for the foamers, to make it easier for buyers to choose. When the booth is busy, there isn’t as much time to answer question.
The cheese stones got tagged. The backside of the tag has “instructions for use.” I wish I had more of these for the show, but they just didn’t fit in the kiln. That’s the downside for flat items. They are space hogs. The upside is, we will have more fired for our holiday open house in December.
My afternoon job was lino-block printing our large handled bags. I didn’t do as many as usual. The upside of this show is that many people bring there own bags, baskets, and even little wheeled carts. I really don’t go through a lot of bags.
Tomorrow we start boxing things up for the 1/2 mile trip down the road on Thursday.
The Celebration of Seagrove Potters show is next weekend. Each year at the Friday night Gala Preview Party, there is a live auction of special collaborative pots and sculptures. Jeff and I have been collaborating on a couple of pieces with our friend Phil Pollet of Old Gap Pottery.
Phil created a large slab built square bowl and stamped his design in the center. He delivered it to our studio and Jeff applied white slip.
When the slip set up, I carved ginkgo leaves onto the rim.
We all signed the back. One piece was lost in the bisque so we were glad that we made two! Jeff sprayed the bowl with ash glaze and we fired it in our gas kiln.
We are all really happy with the finished piece. Almost hate to donate it! You never know what price it will bring at an auction.
Celebration of Seagrove Potters 10th Anniversary Show
We have three deadlines to meet. Etsy orders to ship on Friday, Pottery for the Piedmont Craftsmen’s show next week, as well as the local Celebration of Seagrove Potters show. We unloaded a bisque in the gas kiln and started glazing on Sunday, while we had another bisque load firing in our neighbors electric kiln. Since the move we have not wired our electric kiln. It may be time to get that done, although it won’t be as easy as one would think, but that’s a whole other blog post.
We had a lot of pots that needed to be sprayed with ash glaze. In reality, all the pots for Piedmont Craftsmen had to be sprayed. Jeff got started on some and I took over mid-afternoon. When I flipped the switch on the compressor it made some very strange noises and didn’t produce any air. Thinking it had run too long, I shut it down and gave it a rest. Twenty minutes later and still nothing.
Jeff had to leave in two hours to do the evening shift at David Stuempfle’s wood kiln.
The next day we would have another load of pots that would need spraying.
Thankfully, there is a Harbor Freight in nearby Asheboro!
I hopped in the car at 3:00 pm and at 4:30 arrived home with a new compressor.
It’s a step up from the very old one and on sale, was under $60. While I was gone, Jeff took the old one apart and put it back together.
The “No Drying Pots In The House” rule has been broken once again…
These make me laugh. Don’t they look like they are at the hair salon getting a color?
I ordered a bag of these elastacized platic bowl covers to see if they would work in the studio. We have been trying to keep rims from drying out too quickly. Jeff cut a whole out of the center to allow the bottom to dry. We really wanted them for larger platters and bowls but they don’t stretch to size they were advertised to. They were less than four dollars. If we don’t find them functional in the studio we will use the rest of them in the kitchen.
We have a lot of pots to get fired in the next three weeks. After that I am sure it will be the mad dash for last minute piggy bank orders.
Jeff and I are getting our collaborative work done for the Piedmont Craftsmen’s show next month. We will be exhhibiting our work in a group booth, the weekend before Thanksgiving… the same weekend as the Celebration of Seagrove Potters.
Last week Jeff threw a few large platters and shallow bowls. It was so humid that it took forever for them to get to the point of being trimmed, slipped, and carved.
Yesterday I was finally able to get my hands on them.
Jeff had brushed on the slip days before.
I lightly sketch my design with a pencil. It was a little softer than I like to draw on, but we really needed to get these platters done.
Next I carve the ginkgo leaf outline.
Then I carve away the background. This is obviously the part that takes the longest. I usually like to turn on the radio and listen to whatever is on WUNC public radio while carving. Sometimes I am amazed at how much time has passed when I am finished. I often switch between standing and sitting while I carve. It’s a little easier on my “getting old body” to move around a lot.
Done!
One more to go today and then it’s back to the wheel.
We unloaded the gas kiln on Saturday and I was really happy with a couple of green and shino bowls. I haven’t done as much in this glaze combination this year, since I have become infatuated with ash glaze. This combination is time consuming because I have to wax the rims and then carefully pour out the green, without getting any drips onto the sides of bowl. Occasionally I have gotten some drips and have had some success with scraping off the green over the shino. This go around I had one drip that was problematic. I scraped it a little thin. Jeff hit on the idea of spraying a light coating of the ash glaze over the shino and it successfully covered the thin spot.
I had a lot of piggy banks in this firing. Many were orders but there were also some extras to have in stock in my Etsy shop. It would be good to be able to be ahead, the holiday rush will be upon us in no time.
