Friday Night

I'm sitting in The Creative Oasis waiting for my teens..I haven't heard from anyone this week and it's beautiful out so I have a feeling attendance may be limited this evening. While I wait I thought I would reflect a little on the week. A lot has happened this week, some of it is in process still but some of it is done :)

Letsee..I am thrilled to have a new Dolan trimming tool. Dolan went out of business last year, but someone has revived them. I am so glad since this is one of 3 tools I ever use and this one is my favorite. See in the picture how worn out my old one is?

I arranged for a clay order today, so I can stop skimping on production and get to work (hey one of my kids showed up!) Morgan should be schlepping it into the studio now.

Ro and I loaded a glaze kiln, which is cooling right now.

(hey all my kids showed up!)

gotta go..they're wild tonight!

War of the Roses

We returned home about 1:00AM from the East Kingdom's War of the Roses. It was an interesting event. It was held at a motorcycle campground with some structures already in place, but the event took place in a couple of empty fields on the site. The merchants were all set up a a crossroads between campsites and battlefields and ranges. Everyone was very nice and seemed to like our pottery a lot.

The weather was mixed..most of the time it was sunny with a mild breeze, but Saturday afternoon to night it rained a lot and it got pretty breezy. By the time we left on Sunday night it was sunny again but the winds were very strong so we decided to pull out Sunday night rather than stay till this morning.

As always, I feel the pictures tell a better story than I can compose.

All packed

The truck is loaded except for food,clothes, airmattress and sleeping bags. I went and picked up the salt pieces. You can see the Udu's came out nicely and there are a few shots of other peoples work. The man in the hat is Jake Johnson, a potter out of Illinois who relocated here so his wife could go to school and he ended up getting his masters degree at Penn State. He makes some fine pots.

Wish us luck for the weekend!

last moment of peace before the storm

I'm having a bite to eat, a Swiss and Pepper-jack sandwich with carrots and spring greens and some yellow mustard and a mug of iced ginger-peach tea. I'm trying to enjoy the moment because in a few minutes I have to take photo 1 and turn it into photo 2. Then load a kiln, and pack for the weekend. Sometime today I need to get those salt pieces and gather camping equipment.

*sigh* better get on it!

Working it

Post sale stress disorders. I would rather be sleeping.

When an event like our homestudio sale goes really well we often feel elated at first...but then we realize that it's not a done deal. There's always more work to be done and rarely enough cash flow. I felt pretty good about weekend 2. Unplanned but we still did well enough to pay the bill I needed to pay. YAY! but then I realized there are 2 more bills I forgot about. Dammit! So...I am going to scramble to complete a couple of orders this week and restock the gallery in Berkeley Springs by early next week and see what I can do to raise the cash. *sigh* I'm moving an awful lot of pottery but rarely is it in sync with the bill schedule.

So on my agenda for today are 10 goblets, 20 small round mugs, 20 large round mugs, 20 cereal bowls and 5 plates.

In addition I want to inventory the pottery I still have and pack it to send to Jessa tomorrow for an event next weekend.

I also wanted to get the Etsy shop reactivated, that is done, but now we have to add a few new items. Maybe this evening. Wish me luck!

Sale Day II

Today was a much better day for sales than yesterday was. The weather was a crisp 61 and breezy..did I say breezy? I meant gusty.

Notice in the picture how the shelves are not on the table? We were forced to quickly rearrange when the gusts blew the table covers hard enough to dump the HUGE vase (not pictured) and the row of pitchers on the top of one of these shelves as well as a goblet from another shelf and the mugs and soup mugs below the suicidal pieces. Yeah. It was a loud disaster. I was so very sad.I said all the curse words I know repeatedly, then said them again because I didn't feel better yet.

Despite the loss of about 10 pieces, we had customers and I had a great day meeting new people and contemplating the next round of work.

Here we are 1/2 way through the day

I started this morning at 6:30. Unload the kilns, mix a new glaze, separate out the pots for the salt kiln and the electric kiln. Glazed the salt pots first. I left to help load those at 11:00. While I was gone Ro baked stuff and somehow found time to wax the pots for the electric kiln for me. When I returned I had a quick sandwich and got to it. I finished up at 4 and left for the Oasis while Ro finished loading the kiln. Then I found I wasn't needed till 5:30 or 6, so I came back after dropping off some clothes for Catherine. Now we're having a quick bite to eat and I'll head back in for the teen class. *sigh* we're really hopping today.

So here are some shots of the pieces going into the salt kiln..everyones pieces. We found there was nest full of birds in one of the exhaust pipes, so Don and Roger carefully removed the pipe and saved the birds from salt kiln fumes. I'm looking forward to seeing these pieces..but it'll be next week before they are unloaded.

Fortunately the electric should be ready tomorrow afternoon.

I won more than I lost

After digging into the rest of the kiln I only found one more broken piece. 3 out of 4 of my big bowls bit it. But the rest of the kiln is just fine. Speaking of fine..amazing how the bottoms of those bowls just disintegrated into superfine particles. WOW.

You win some, you lose some

As of last night I thought I had successfully rushed work to completion. Not so...but strangely enough the pieces I thought had made it through the process were the ones that blew up. The ones I thought might blow up did not.

I should have candled another hour or two..*sigh* as you can see I lost two off the top. I hope the rest of the kiln looks ok. I have a lot of big pieces in the bottom.

ahh well... it is cooling rapidly and I'll make some lemonade from the lemon of a firing. The pieces that remain will be amazing.

sale invitation wnk 2

We had such a blast last weekend, we thought we just do it all again! There are new pots fresh from the kiln...and we still have a lot of lovely stuff from last weekend.

And, of course, homemade goodies. Ro is plotting some new baked goods for this weekend....lemon poundcake anyone?

Hughes Pottery Weekend After
Mother's Day Sale

Saturday and Sunday, May 16 & 17
9:00 am - 5:00 pm

Come out and see our latest collection of beautiful, handmade stoneware. We've been busy little potters all Winter, staying warm in our toasty kiln-warmed house. Now Spring is finally here, and we've got some fantastic new work to show off!

To round out the festivities.....

* Springtime tea party
A fabulous gourmet spread with homemade treats by Rowan

* FREE GIFT for every mom!


We are located at the intersection of Routes 322 and 550 (Carson's Corner). Just look for the pink porch!

Hughes Pottery
www.hughespottery.com
5151 West Buffalo Run Road, Port Matilda, PA 16870
814-880-7516

Wednesday update

Today was a whirlwind of trimming and kiln loading. I got everything done and two kilns are candling now. They should start to fire about 4 in the morning and be finished about 4 in the afternoon. I should be able to glaze and fire early Friday morning and have it cooled by mid-morning on Saturday for the sale. UGH.

Ahh Tuesday

This has been quite a day. I got a lot made, though towards 11 PM I was starting to get a little morose..I just wanted to call it a day and go to bed..but there was more to be made. Ro took pity on me and came down and worked on a stamp for a potential customer. The company was nice. Anyway..here's some shot of what I made/finished today.

For the Salt kiln: 6 crocks, 6 big bowls, 12 cereal bowls, a couple vases and 3 udus (Those are the round pieces) the tops will be attached tomorrow morning.

For our kiln: 6 garlic pots, 7 sake bottles,4 big bowls, 4 berry bowls, 6 cereal bowls and 6 new tumblers

The little bunny was caught in the well around the basement window. The cats were all excited and jumping towards the window off of the dryer, I couldn't figure out what was going on for a long time. Eventually I found him and freed him. xx cute!

back to work

Since we've decided to have another weekend of sales AND I got a call for a salt firing this weekend, today I was hard at work making more stuff. The crocks and a couple big bowls are for the salt kiln. The jars are going to be garlic pots and I needed to replace quite a few tumblers from last weekend. I also threw a few bowls to add handles to so I also have a few soup mugs. I feel pretty good about production today :)

The sad thing is I am almost out of clay! Only 2 boxes left!