Upcoming Events, pt 1

Mountain Biz Works is having it's first ever fund raising event, and it's going to be a great party that will benefit a really great resource for entrepreneurs and small businesses in Asheville.

The party is next Thursday, September 18 at The Orange Peel from 6:30 - 10:00pm, and will feature music by MBW alum Kat Williams, Jason Pogue and Virginia Waite. Other MBW alums will satisfy the tastebuds with yummies from Sugo, The French Broad Chocolate Lounge and Heinzelmannchen Brewery.

AND - as if that's not enough - there will be a silent auction featuring donated work and services from all over Asheville, including yours truly who donated a piece of pottery and a month of private lessons at the new studio. Bid early, bid often!

Tickets are onsale online, at the Orange Peel box office or from any MBW location. Tickets are $35 for general admission, $25 for MBW alum.

Come get up close and personal with some of Asheville's thriving small businesses, and the help support the organization that supports us so well!

back to school...

It is that time of year, isn't it? I'm usually oblivious to days of the week, much less the seasons, but I do like the serendipity of starting classes at Crazy Green with all the other studious souls going back to their desks.








classroom all ready and waiting!






Miranda and Scott, members of the Thursday afternoon class gettin' down and dirty on the first day.







For any locals watching, there's still room in the Thursday afternoon and Monday morning class, and a third class will be forming soon - the votes are still coming in for the day/time, so if you have an opinion there too be sure to be heard!

I am happy to report, for anyone keeping score, that I managed to teach the entire class on Thursday, not kicking anyone out early. This was a great first week of class - everyone here so far is brand new to clay, but unafraid to dig in and they all have great attitudes toward having fun in the process. Emily joins the Thursday crowd next week, and she may even be brave enough to tackle the kick wheel!

Preparations are underway for the Grand-Open-House on the 27th, stay tuned for more details and if you're not already on the mailing list let me know and you'll get all the info.

As for me, back to the wheel to fill the next kiln. I'm actually looking forward to the glazing portion of the process this time, having had such good and interesting results with new combinations in the last load. It's not that I don't enjoy the glazing portion, but usually it's just what I gotta do to get back on the wheel. The slab roller will be housed in the next week or two, and then I can start the tile series I've been making notes about for a while. Just a little of everything going on here at Crazy Green! Stay tuned for more class updates and other events brewing!

gotta love all the parts...

This week really launched the studio into it's 'regular' schedule...regular as in it may change week to week in some respects, but as regular as I can be and still be a good clay weirdo.

Classes started this week, and I have new students that started Monday and more starting on Thursday! I've had other interest, and I'm polling prospective students for the third class time slot.

I meant to capture the Kodak moment with my Monday students, but in the excitement of getting them registered, touring them through the east and west wing of Crazy Green Studios and then actually getting them on the wheel, I forgot all about the camera. My brain continued to speed ahead of all ourselves and I actually...yes I did this and I'm admitting it here ... misread the clock and ended their class an hour early. None of us caught it in time, and I didn't notice till after they left. Oy, no wonder it seemed to go so fast! I'll introduce you to Chuck and Pat in the blog next week with their permission, but they did beautifully on the wheel their first time out!

I intended to get back on the wheel and get the rest of my waiting orders finished and start some new things, but administrative duties were calling. My accounting goddess Glenda did her magic last night until my brain melted, and today I dug in and got the books caught up. Nah, it's not the way I would have planned my day, but I really do embrace every aspect of this experience. I'm still much happier with anything I do here every day than any other place I could be, and I'm grateful if the biggest grumble I have for the day is that I gotta do the book work. I also met another new student who will start Thursday, and had a visit from Fransien Schuller from Kala Gallery in Lenoir to pick up some work. They're having a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new gallery coming up, and I'll of course feature it here, even though I'll be teaching when it happens.

I also met with neighbors in the 'hood to plan the East West Holiday Art Sale - celebrating the cluster of creative enterprises in a very small nook of 'East' West Asheville. And of course you know you'll read more about THAT here soon! So it was a good day that got a lot of good things done, even with eye-crossing, butt-numbing amounts of time in front of the computer. Tonight I'll relax while I update my 'clay-do' list. There's clay to pug so I can have clay to throw! peace.

Lovely time in Asheville

It was gorgeous weather in Asheville for a day outside with OrganicFest. Thanks to everyone who stopped by - saw some friends, met lots of great folks, have some new interest in classes and got to take a nice look at all the work from the last kiln under the sunlight.

I didn't get many pictures taken - it was a crunch to get up by the opening bell and then I just didn't remember between all the booth chatting. My roommates did remember when they stopped by and made me pose for a shot. I took just a couple more before it got busy again.





The crowds were good, and it was an interesting difference being out there representing myself as someone who's just opened a studio vs. a resident artist at someone else's studio. A nice difference!




I was going to put the back flap down on the tent to show the work off better, but the breezes were so nice coming from all directions I left it up. Plus, the tree bark on this tree gave a much more interesting backdrop and blended nicely with the table covers and rug.









Free with purchase - I made a bunch of magnets to give as thank you gifts with purchase - and I think a few people got through their transactions without claiming their 'prize'. If you read this and can identify your purchase, I'll send you a magnet! Also gave out many 'save the date' cards for the Empty Bowls event in Asheville in October.


Today the studio gets put back in order - classes start tomorrow morning!

pots from kiln #1

ah...I know I must be avoiding the yard-long task list I have before OrganicFest, otherwise I wouldn't be stopping to post these now. But I just got back from taking the pictures, so I'm still in that mode.

To recap, I took pots over to Krug Creative, where Emily Krug has set up a small photo studio and is making it available to area artists to shoot their work at a very reasonable fee.









Above: the photo studio set up and Emily!

Here are some of the results of my little shoot. I'm still playing with the camera to find the best settings. The white balance is still doing what ever it wants...but I shall eventually prevail!!










This is a series I did on some cups to test a new glaze combo with brush work, wax work and brush AND wax work. They were a bit dark for all the shots, but I really just wanted them as a reminder.


These bowls were testing both a new glaze, new brushwork and a new application of using wax with oxide. I'm having fun with the flower, as it lets me be a lot more free with the brush without worrying so much about where the line goes. I try not to worry about that in the cornflower motifs, but sometimes it gets a bit spazzy.




These two are the same glaze combo, different thickness on the cover glaze. I did a couple of platters with the cornflower brushwork, but the wax didn't hold its line as well. Even the glazes want me to do this one more!



This one was a bit of a leap of faith. I wondered what the combo would do with a tenmoku glaze as the cover, being reasonably sure it would be alright. The brushwork was more abstract and 'let the wax flow' kind of thing that when I was doing it gave me great pause. But a little voice told me to keep going and let the kiln to the rest, and I'm glad I did. Awfully darn shiny for pictures, but oh so nice to fondle!




Part of the new series of fluted mugs. Overall, the copper green glaze was pretty gnarly in this kiln, not doing what I'd hoped. These mugs had the most interesting action on them. I'm going to make another copper green recipe to test for the next kiln, but I think if I get the kiln placement right I can get what I want out of the Willie Hillix still.



I made several yunomi/tea bowls, partially to work on the fluting technique with trimming and partially just for the fun, since I hadn't made any in a good while. I used oribe as the cover glaze over a shino, and I don't think this picture shows just how blue it went.






I'm just getting back into my sake sets, and I'm looking forward to doing more tray sets of all kinds. This tray didn't exactly go with this set, until I decided it did when I was glazing. These are the only pieces I remembered to use my 'magic wash' on. It hadn't been coming out very well in the last Odyssey firings, so I thinned it out and played with a different application, but then forgot all about it when I was glazing and decorating the tumblers. It looks a lot more like it should on this, and it certainly makes the tray go with the set now!



I was bummed on a couple of levels that I forgot to go by the Chocolate Lounge to get some truffles this morning. I wanted to do a shot with them in the picture, and then have myself a little post-photo shoot treat! But I remembered only as I unpacked the mug...I may still have to go later today to get that truffle. Dan and Jael were as happy with them as I was when I opened the kiln, which is always what you want in client reaction! The time we took to test forms, try glaze combos and refine the look really helped me know what they wanted, and it gave them a lot more security in knowing they'd get what they wanted. Can't wait to go try them out...guess it's more of a business trip now...quality control and all...do I really need to rationalize a truffle trip?!



And finally, not from my kiln #1, but Akira's kiln #2. I didn't remember to bring the box of pots I picked up, but I was drinking out of this one so I was happy to be able to get it as well. It was one of the best of my grouping - I only had time to glaze or put flashing slip on a handful of pieces, but this one I dipped in shino. I'll have to check my notes to see if I wrote down which one, but shino is definitely the way for me to go in his kiln. This has some nice shino-y stuff going on in the glaze, a nice little crawl just inside the lip, and I like the way the fluting gives a visual texture behind the texture of the glaze.

Oh, and if you won't be in the Asheville area to come by OrganicFest on Saturday, maybe you want to head over to Charlotte for the Potters Market Invitational at the Mint Museum. Akira will be there, as will Kyle Carpenter and many other talented folk.


Ok, my little break has gone on long enough. Time to clean the studio, inventory the pots, price them, pack them and start putting together the booth for Saturday. Oh but first perhaps I'll just have a little chocolate...

OrganicFest!!

As the official potter of OrganicFest (my own title...I may get there and find out it's a shared title this year!), I'm happy to return for the 3rd year to OrganicFest. When I first moved to Asheville, I signed up for it (then just in it's own second year) as a way to give me a goal to make work in my first six months. I'll keep doing it as long as they'll have me, and I'm happy to promote sustainability through offering locally made, reusable ware that holds organic foods beautifully and is made using recycled materials with my own local-artist hands!

OrganicFest will be downtown Asheville this Saturday, September 6, on the streets around Grove Arcade. My booth is #18 (one of my very favorite numbers) on Battery Park Avenue, toward Page Street. If you're in the area please come by and say hello! I'll have work out of the kiln that's cooling today, plus some fun treats to take away with your purchases. I'll also have brochures about classes and workshops, and information about the upcoming Empty Bowls event benefitting Manna Food Bank. All that in one little booth and the whole rest of the festival to enjoy! Hope to see you there....

firing #1 away...

So many times during the past few days I wanted to post and update here, but alas I just couldn't make the trip all the way down to the end of the driveway to get online. I started out thinking I had a luxurious amount of time to prep and glaze my load...this would be my first kiln load that's mostly mine at the WestFire kiln, so I'm calling it #1. It was made rather quick and dirty over the past few weeks so I could catch up on orders and have something for OrganicFest next weekend, but somehow I fear those kinds of deadlines are always going to sneak up on me!

Anyway, started out leisurely enough, moving pots to the studio on Friday to get them prepped for a Sunday load and Monday fire. I mean that's two days! I was rather self-congratulatory I think I was...

But as with all good intentions...Friday first started, after a nice urban hike with Lissa and taking her back to the house, at my studio, loading the car with everything I'd need for the glaze session. WestFire is only about five blocks from my studio, but I still don't have the bike serviced and at any rate I didn't want to waste time buzzing back and forth for things forgotten. So pots and brushes and washes and underglazes and scales and gloves and respirators and stools and fans were loaded. This indeed can take longer than you think! I got everything unloaded at WestFire and set up my work area just in time to head back to Odyssey for a very lovely little 'good bye and good luck' party that some of the renting studio artists put together for me and another artist who is leaving Odyssey. Peter had a huge cake, and finding out that I can't eat dairy only after he ordered it, he even picked me up a slice of vegan chocolate/peanut butter cake! Just the right amount, and considering I hadn't had breakfast yet by the time I got there, all the appropriate food groups to go with my coffee.

So finally to WestFire, after a quick run to pick up a sandwich so I might actually eat something out of the sugar/caffeine group (that's the bottom 2/3's of the food pyramid, isn't it?). Back at the studio, the first order was to mix up a glaze I need for the Chocolate Lounge mugs. Lo and behold, in spite of recently buying a load of glaze chems for the studio, my chosen glaze calls for Wollastonite ... and only a little bag of dregs here to be found! So back to Crazy Green where fortunately I had plenty, back to WestFire and finally the glaze got mixed! Then it was on to wiping dust off all the bisque that had been stacked in the studio for the past weeks, and setting up the space to wax bottoms.

Joey and Julie were firing their kiln, which you can see glowing in the back of the picture. You can also see that in spite of taking over just about every surface, I still needed to work and shift and move ware around to get to it all. Got the ChoLo mugs lined just as Melissa Weiss, who also makes ware for the Chocolate Lounge, dropped off some work to add to the firing. And then I had just enough time to put the glaze on the logo stamps and wax over them before Holly came to get me for the funeral march and celebration for John Payne. I was gone a lot longer than I thought I'd be, but I'm so glad I went. I didn't get to know John as well as a lot of people, but being in that group of friends, family and colleagues Friday night I got to know him better, and the love and respect that buzzed through the crowd echoed the reach he had into this community. I forgot to take my camera for the LaZoom bus ride to the parade start, the march across the bridge and the great party, incredible puppet presentation and dove release, but I know there are lots of pictures of the event floating on the internet airwaves.

Back at the studio, I managed to get the ChoLo mugs done, diffusers base glazed and most of the rest of the load logged so I wouldn't have to spend hours wondering what I was about to do on Saturday. Saturday is market day, and I hadn't been for the past couple of weeks and I had a jones for some fresh market veggies, so had to make that diversion. Back in the studio, the first group got base glazed and then brush work began. There are a lot of new things I want to try, and I have to keep reminding myself to pace it out - it's so tempting to try a little of this and that on mugs and tumblers, but I don't want to end up at OrganicFest so much variety that it looks like a garage sale. But it's been a while since I glazed at this studio and had the variety of glazes available that weren't at Odyssey, so I had to play a little.

So underglazing and waxing ensued, and that took me through the day and into the evening. I finished the diffusers, glazed a few other commission pieces and got my self to a point where Sunday would be all about my work. I still felt I had plenty of time, since I couldn't start loading until Julie unloaded her kiln on Sunday. I did go home Saturday night and cook up some of my market veggies so I'd have good eats on Sunday, and it was late but not too late getting to bed.

All this and it's only Sunday? I babble too much....but Sunday had it's own delays. Got a nice romp in the park with Lissa, then had to go by Odyssey and finish cleaning out my studio. Those boxes (how much stuff I had in that tiny space!!) are all shoved into the new studio, on top of the lovely new display boxes and risers that Alex delivered on Friday. Today is gonna be fun putting the studio back in order, which is why I'm writing this from home to avoid yet one more distraction!

So back to Sunday, finally getting to the studio and back to finishing brush work and shifting ware to glaze more pieces.


some new brush work...not sure if I saw this flower somewhere or if it's just an invention of a sleep-deprived mind, but I'm likin' it so far...

Julie came to unload, so of course there were breaks in work to look at her kiln results, check out Joey's work and talk about the firing.
Julie had work that didn't make it into her kiln, so she stayed to glaze it for my kiln. I had plenty to load from my work, but because of the inventory I needed to throw for this load, most of it was on the shorter side, so her addition of pitchers and big bowls gave me some stacking options and let the load be tighter than it would have been.

The downside, as pleasant as it was, was learning that I really get a lot more done when I glaze alone! We were both working away, but I noticed after she left around 8pm that I started getting a lot more done...and I also learned I had a lot more to do than I realized. I got down to a smaller grouping of teabowls and cups, so I decided to start loading what I had done as a way to clear some of the tables and shelves. A little loading, a little brushing, a little glazing, a little more loading. I'm not gonna say just how late it was when I finished, but some could say it wasn't late at all, it was early...early the next morning.

So the kiln got a shorter candle and I got a shorter nap...but all in all I had a good, if not caffeinated, energy level. Monday was firing, cleaning the studio and taking some time to work on studio forms for the classes that will start next week.

Anne and Steve were in town camping, and they came by during some earlier hours and gave me a nice break with a quick trip to the Chocolate Lounge for some yummy truffles (client research, of course!), then a bit later treated me to dinner at the Noodle Shop. And I had been worried that since I worked so late the night before I'd be eating peanut butter sammies all day and night!

The firing seemed to go okay, but it stalled a bit around cone 6. I have dozens of theories on the stall, but all in all with the later start it was maybe an hour and a half longer than I thought it would be.So the kiln went to bed around midnight, then me a couple of hours later after catching up on emails, and today as the kiln cools I'll get Crazy Green looking like a studio again. Kiln opens on Wednesday, so send a nice thought out to the universe for pretty pots!

ok, enough babble, I slept in a bit and now it's time to dig out of the boxes and get the studio back in order...more later! peace.