Happy GoundHog Day!

I mean 4th of July....

But for us this weekend was about firing the GroundHog Kiln at the NC Pottery Center, here in Seagrove. I've fired several wood kiln's that resemble this design...a long narrow tunnel shaped kiln, buried halfway into the ground with a opening in the front you crawling through to load your pots. However, This was the first wood kiln that I've had to crawl into like a gopher to load pots...

We fired this beast on Saturday, and we'll see how it turned out on Tuesday when we crawl back into its belly to reclaim our pots from the fire.

From The Kiln

In October Michele and I got the opportunity to woodfire with two Dan's in one month. The first firing was with Dan Triece, my neighbor across the street. And the second was with Daniel Johnston a few miles in the other direction.

Dan Triece and I have been friends for nearly 20 years, and we just met Daniel in July. These were the first firings we did since the move to Seagrove, so we really appreciate these opportunities.

                                            Dan Triece - Anagama/Salt Wood Kiln

I've been woodfiring regularly for more than ten years, and we were very excited to be invited to fire in the Dirtworks kiln. It helped us to feel like part of the community...the bonus firing for us was being able to help Daniel Johnston with one of his "Large Pot" firings.

Daniel Johnston - Wood Fired Salt kiln

 And now for something that has been on my mine for a long time...Working with slip. 

These pots were salt fired in the the kiln with the last 30 of Daniel Johnston's 100, 100 pound pots project, that I just saw in Ceramics Monthly today. ...click on the photos to see them enlarged...I've been drawing through slip on pots, and working my usual texture into the drawings. The fuming effects of the saltglaze process are perfect for these pieces.

This next group of piece were fired for 64 hours in the anagama chamber of Dan Triece's Kiln.

I like the effect of salt glazing on certain things , but the magic of the fire and ash of a long hot wood firing on unglazed porcelain, and stoneware turn me on the most. The vessels are porcelain, and the platter is a local stoneware clay made by the folks at Starworks.

No I didn't fall off the edge of the earth...

...just been busy moving to Seagrove, NC, and settling into our new home and studio.
Michele has been chronicling our journey on her blog, Meeshspottery.blogspot.com .
I highly recommend reading her accounts of our trip starting in early March, or maybe even December 2009 when we came to NC for a holiday dinner with my family...I'll try to find time soon to write more and post photos of my own...but until then got to Michele's blog to catch up on what has been happening at Jeff Brown Pottery,...by the way, we are now Michele Hastings & Jeff Brown Pottery... the new sign is going up next week...hmmm....maybe we should combine blogs too...then we can share the blog writing....

The Gypsy Potter is on the road again...

WhyNot Seagrove, NC....
This week we're heading to Seagrove to immerse ourselves in a week of pottery, and the red clay of my home state, North Carolina. We will be staying in a quant little pottery studio/gallery/log cabin compound nestled in the longleaf pine trees, along side of the road called "Potters Highway"... Our host for this excursion is Jane Braswell, owner of the pottery studio that used to be the home of Wild Rose Pottery operated by Jane and her then husband Michael Mahan. They raised a family there while building a small studio/gallery, a beautiful home, and later a larger log cabin studio and apartment, and a thriving pottery business... After Jane left the pottery business the studio and log cabin became Avery Pottery for around six years. That's where we will be staying while we soak in the ambiance of the local mud.
Why Seagrove you may ask...my answer is WhyNot?....that is actually where the studio is...WhyNot, NC...I worked for a number of potters in Seagrove before I started my own studio here in New Hampshire, and one of the last days I "turned pots" in Seagrove, was for Jane at The Wild Rose Studio. Very Rustic at the time, the log cabin was only a studio with a small wood stove for heat, and clay everywhere. As I remember it the loft was freezing cold...Jane promises that it is more like a house now that a studio, with a kitchen and indoor bathroom. We can't wait to spend the week there.

Scholastic Art Awards

Last Month I took part in the jury for the Scholastic Art Awards. I felt honored to sit on the 3D jury, mostly because I had received three gold key awards when I was in high school over 30 years ago. This year was the first year that the artwork was chosen from all digital images ...quite hard for 3D, since you can't get the best view of the pieces. On the jury for last years awards, we made our selections from the actual art work. To see the pieces them self, you can get a better idea of technique, scale, and details. Digital/slide images are subject to the additional hurtle of the photographers skill...or lack of. I won't be showing you any of my early slide photos...! (it took me several years and dozens of rolls) and learning that the right pro can do a better job than I.
...but I digress.

I started thinking about my home town high school art class, and wondered what's happen there. It looks like the next generation has taken over, and all is well with a new art teacher getting her students involved in community art projects...score one for the A-TEAM.

Here is a photo of one of the pieces that I received a Scholastic Art Awards Gold Key for, in 1977...! On exhibit in the permanent collection of...MAMA...(not to be confused with MOMA)...to the left is a photo of me...working on another piece that same year.

We're planning a trip to Seagrove in March...maybe I'll go back to see what the old home town classroom looks like these days... IF...they let me through the door...!

In The Service Of Others

Now for a few words about working for other potters...

I have spent a large amount of my time at the wheel, making thousands of pots for other potters...some days painful, most of the time, a pure joy. I started throwing professionally, in Wilmington, NC, at a pig bank factory that evolved into a dinnerware production studio. I got to work out a design for a casserole form there, that I still make for myself. A couple years later, I made pots for Lanney Pelletier, a potter in Emerald Isle, NC...around the same time I was also working for another potter in Bayboro, before heading to Seagrove, NC, to make pots for a few folks up there....Turn n' Burn, Holly Hill Pottery, Tom Gray Pottery, Wild Rose Pottery, and Dirtworks.

And...then there are the nine years that I was a full time potter at Salmon Falls Stoneware, a factory in Dover, NH, that makes utilitarian Salt Glazed Stoneware styled after 19th century New England Pottery. I have made pots for SFS off and on for the last 10 years. I think that I can make pots for other potters because the thing I like most about being a potter, is touching clay...and production pottery is all about that, over and over again...thousand of pounds of clay, touching hundreds of pots... watching them appear in front of me filling my ware boards, loading my ware racks....seeing them on shelves in the retail shop...And getting paid weekly(I really like that part).
Yes...I am getting myself all worked up...gotta go...the clay is calling. Porcelain today...yum...

From The Kiln...

I am slowly adding photos to my Jeff Brown Pottery page on Face Book. So far I've been posting Studio and Show photos from the last ten years as Jeff Brown Pottery in Northwood, NH. Now I am starting a "album" of pieces I have made over the years...some new, some old, some blue, some bold... OK.... yes, I like Dr. Suess, and only a few of the pots are blue. Later I will be posting images from the years before I opened my studio...pieces I made while I was working for other potters...While I was tring to "find myself" as a clay artist.