GGs Gallery and Gifts Pottery Display, Statesville, NC

Okay, I said I would be at GG's for the first Gallery Crawl of the season, (downtown Statesville, NC). Sorry if you looked for me, I had a funeral to attend in Pennsylvania. Totally unexpected.
Instead of visiting with art collectors, I was visiting with family I hadn't seen in years and saying goodbye to my Uncle Allen.

Carol says you all had a wonderful time without me. Glad to hear it. And the display they put together of my pottery looked great (pictured above). I'm glad some of my friends had a great evening of fellowship with them.

Now for the upcoming weekend:

Saturday, March 21st from 10 until 6
The Yadkin Valley Studio and Wine Tour
http://www.foothillsartscouncil.org/tour.htm

Be sure to visit Buck Shoals Vineyard (not listed on link above, but open during the event) to see my pottery display on the Swan Creek Wine Trail. New pieces will be added before the event. (Sorry, my studio won't be open - I have two soccer games to coach.) For directions to Buck Shoals hit the link to the right under "Sites I would visit"!

New Pottery : Lidded Urns & Wine Goblet Trees

It's very hard to work in the studio when your husband is at home. After 26 years of marraige and raising children while he worked 60+ hours a week, we have found ourselves at home together much of the last three months. It makes it very difficult to work when I could be spending time with him (not to mention my studio shares space with his and quiet isn't possible when saws and planers are running). Fortunately, he had time to create some beautiful pieces for our garden and our son and daughter-in-law's new garden, as well as gorgeous cabinetry for the media room. And we got to spend some time hiking with our daughter in the mountains. Not a bad trade-off!

So, here I am, after nearly three months, unloading a kiln full of new pieces, and there is another kiln soon to be fired full of special orders. I think the "break" did wonders for my perspective and I can't wait until the next firing because I love the pieces now drying in the studio.

These new Mossy Bark pieces, along with a new Misty Forest grouping, will be available at GG's Gallery and Gifts in Statesville. Visit us there this Friday night, March 13th from 5:00 until 9:00, for the first Gallery Crawl of the 2009 Arts Season.

New Pottery Glaze Series!!!

Everyone seems to love the Misty Forest Series. Even the Orchard Dawn Series gets a lot of attention. My house just doesn't support those cool blue colors, and maybe some of you have the same issues. Still, I love the mystery and movement I get with those glazes. What to do?

Well, I have been trying for over a year to develop a new glaze series with earth tones (that meets my standards and suits my style). Finally, I think I've got it. So, new for 2009, a glaze series titled "Willow Wind"!

This glaze begins with four or five layers of only two colors of glaze, mixed just the right way to create the look of four or five seperate glazes. Shades of deep chestnut brown, tan, sage, olive and forest green emerge from the kiln the final firing!

As always, I love to make things run, melt and create excitement once they reach prime temperature (and I keep them up there for a while). So, after weeks of air drying, bisque firing and glazing, drying and glazing again... voila. A finished product! Strands of green weeping and waving from the top of a deep brown base. Fantastic, if I do say so myself!

And, now available at a new location...GG's Gifts (formerly The Frame Gallery)of downtown Statesville (Broad Street). If you are in the area, come in and see!

If not, check the Little Bear Clayworks webshop link at the right (or visit one of the other retail locations in North Carolina).

Potter, Organic Farmer?

Okay, I can't decide.

I love my garden. I love my farm. I love my pottery wheel.

But right now, the studio is cold. My family is upstairs laughing at the Wii and working out in the exercise room. And me, well, I'm looking through seed catalogs and dreaming of Spring!

I've spent so much time immersed in pottery this year, my winter garden is nil and the chickens aren't laying and need attention. This picture is my garden in summer, and the beautiful garden shed that my husband built to keep my tender plants warm and my dirt loving fingers happy.

So, like every avid gardener, the seed catalogs that started pouring in last week have replaced the Christmas magazines. And now that new birth has occurred, I can move on to growing things! Playing in dirt in my garden and playing in clay, creating vessels, and spending time with The Potter growing the truly important things in life.