Moving Right Along...

We hope everyone had a nice holiday! We enjoyed spending Thanksgiving in Vermont with family. We were so busy with the preparations, we forgot to stop and take pictures. I did manage to take a picture of the flower arrangement the following day. As you can see, it is in my favorite vase!

And moving right along with holiday decorating. They are coming so fast! On Friday I quickly set up the winter village to show off to family (we spend Christmas with family in Massachusetts so we don't really have an opportunity to display our decorating around the holidays).



This year the village expanded. The cats love to sit in the cotton batting so we made some sitting room behind the houses.



Dave has been busy with pottery. He is firing today. He will follow up with pictures when the pots cool.

Busy as Usual

Well over the flu. Time to get back to stressing about time. Turkey Day coming up during a super busy week at work. This weekend I was able to squeeze out two bisque fires and some work on the house.

Also here is that pot I am currently carving. I am not sure how far along I am going to get with it this month so its currently mummified with water and painters plastic.



When Finished it will get a bisque and then a paint job with iron oxide. I will look similar to these guys below.



Well if you don not here from us, "happy Turkey day" i am off to work. Hopefully I will get some glaze work done this weekend (although I am working Saturday) so I will have some of the new stoneware to post. If anyone is going to Portland Pottery South let me know I NEED SUPPLIES!. Later.
~DS

Carved Vase

Dave was very sick this week so we neglected the blog. The Swine Flu rapidly infected many at Dave's work.

While Dave was re-cooperating, he decided to work on carving a vase. He was experiencing pottery withdrawal even though he had very little energy to expend.

This is the vase before Dave started carving.



This is Dave carving the pot. He did not move for hours.



Dave will follow up with pictures.

We are a little behind in getting ready for Thanksgiving. We finished all the shopping and Dave was even able to do some small projects around the house this weekend.

Have a Nice Holiday!

~AS

Farmers Market

We were able to get most of the vegetables for Thanksgiving. The farmers market was really fun.

And for our impulse purchase...




This wasn't a total impulse. We had been looking for some seating for the studio in front of the fireplace. We weren't really sure what we were looking for. A couch seemed too formal for the space.

Besides really liking the piece, we are very happy to be able to support a local artisan. It is nice to know where the piece came from and who made it.

Of course, Chiffon and Archimedes were also excited!

~AS

Thanksgiving

This weekend we are starting to prepare to host our second Thanksgiving in Vermont. Tomorrow we are going to the Dorset Farmers Market for some Thanksgiving provisions. We try to buy almost everything from Vermont. We ordered a fresh turkey from a local farm and will try to buy all local vegetables and herbs. We are ordering dessert from A Dozen Eggs Bakery (the beautiful cookie in the picture was a gift from our friends at A Dozen Eggs).

We are also trying to finish projects in the house. The ceiling that was half painted last Thanksgiving is still half painted. We are hoping to pretend we did not go the entire year without finishing the painting.

~AS

To fast!!

This week has gone to fast! I thought I would get so much more done and did not. I know that is always the way it works. One big project is I have the old studio space almost completely cleaned up. That was a beast of a clean up. We have also been getting a new wood furnace installed so we need the space for wood.



I have started throwing in red clay again. First picture (above) is a few pieces thrown for my thousand crane firing. These are thrown, trimmed and drying. Soon I will start burnishing them. They will be fired in the style that I had done this bowl below.



I also started whipping out my small cups.



They will end up looking like these (below). They are such a simple little cup but the sell like crazy.



I did break down and use my calipers this time to make them a little more uniform. I love them all being a little unique though.

Lastly, being that it is Friday the 13th here is the little black cat Chiffon inspecting some clay I picked up in a pinch today.



Making sure its not to dusty.



Enjoy your weekend. Happy Friday the 13th!!

Living in Vermont

We moved to Vermont from Scituate Massachusetts two years ago. We bought our first house. We fell in love with the location, size of the house (including the extra room for pottery) and the property.




This is a picture of the hill (we think) behind our house. It is on the other side of the Mill River. The foliage is beautiful in the fall.



We also love the Mill River and Freeman Brook on our property. It is very soothing to fall asleep to a flowing river.


Although we LOVE our house, we weren't really prepared for how much work and money it would require. We have done a lot of work inside and out and have a LOT of work still left. We have truly enjoyed the trials and tribulations of being homeowners!
~AS

Bisque fire soon

Well I will be doing a few bisque fires soon. I have had a lot of requests for my "triangular" bowls. A few unfired pieces are pictured above. Problem is I have made a mess of these, I do really like them, but I have not yet run glaze tests of the new clay body yet. Hopefully during my up coming vacation I will be able to do some tests and glaze chemistry. Hoping to get a lot done in the studio but I have a lot of chores, least of which finishing up the wood furnace, on my list.

Next post I will start talking about these.

I hope I soon will be able to finally complete this firing project. These is the type of ceramic art I love to do.

~DS

Sand Vase

One benefit to living with a Potter is testing the new prototypes! This is my favorite vase! Dave used two different clay bodies to create "sand". He burnished the vase to bring out the grog (for layman like myself, that is the texture from the sand particles).

This picture reminds me of the summer. I loved picking the flowers from the garden. Now the garden is an ugly pile of dirt and dead plants. I am longing for next summer!

~AS