Vintage Photo Effects

This post is called "vintage photo effects" or "how I can take most of the day doing a photo shoot of my pots and then spend hours and hours tweaking them."  I'm kind of wondering what I like to do more, make pottery or take photos of my pottery?  Hmm.  I DID get other things done today, I think (scratches her head.)  I trimmed bowls and decorated mugs.  I went to the grocery store because we were all out of fruit and it was on sale. Especially the raspberries which is what got me into trouble when I realized what a great prop they would be.  Delicate little pieces of fruit.  They wont hold up long so I'll just have to eat them.  Huge sigh!

OH!  By the way.  This did have a purpose when I started.  These two porcelain and celadon pieces were from my Bachelor of Fine Arts Culminating Exhibition.  I just listed them in my Etsy shop to see how popular they might be.  Swing on over there and take a look.

French Toast And Strawberries

I made a delicious breakfast this morning, french toast with low fat yogurt sweetened with stevia and a dash of vanilla and mixed in with sliced strawberries.  I rummaged through the plates to find just the right one and then sprinkled some almonds on top of the whole thing.  My plan was to go sit in the backyard at the picnic table while it was still cool outside to enjoy it.  But there it was in the bright blazing, hot sun and oh yeah, I forgot I still had my light tent set up on it.  Well, the only thing to do was place the breakfast into the light tent and take a yummy picture.

I hope all of you are having a yummy morning.  I am off to trim pots, buy and install air conditioners and whatever other mischief I can get myself into.  See y'all on the flip side!

Put De Lime in De Coconut!

Ok, ok, already!  I WAS going to go into the studio.  That was before I got sucked up into Etsyland.  Take a look at this fun treasury I made.  I know, I know, I'm going now!

Terracotta Re-do's

Before I left North Carolina I gifted or traded a number of pieces.  Some I traded for other art and some I just gave to people I really liked. 

It can be both beautiful and difficult to give away your favorite pieces but I am so happy that the people who got them were really excited about it and that makes me feel great.  Yet, I miss them so now I have a great excuse to go back into the studio and play some more.  

It's time to reward myself for all the paperwork, cleaning and errand running I have been doing for the past week.  It will also give me a chance to test the glaze recipes I got at Penland with my local red clay bodies.  And I do mean TEST.  Not all of the glazes fit certain clay bodies as I found out the hard way when I forgot about the recommendations Ronan had given the class. Oops!  Learning curve, doh!

So I will remake some of my favorite pieces and some test pieces and probably try out a combination of glazes that I already know work and then test the new glazes.  Spiffy!  I love glaze testing!

Happy Summer Solstice Everyone.  Stay cool!

Gertrude Graham Smith Pottery

Field trip day!  Ronan took the class on a field trip to local potteries around Penland during the Terracotta Throwdown.  Our first stop was at the studio of Gertrude Graham Smith, aka, Gay Smith.

What a delightful woman with "to die for pottery!"  She welcomed us into her studio with true style.  She had homemade brownies, pretzels and pitchers full of water and lemonade with an assortment of gorgeous cups from her favorite potters to drink out of.

Gay is truly a beautiful person.  I absolutely love the sense of movement in her thrown and altered pieces. They seem to be dancing on the shelves.  She was getting all set up the the Toe River Studio Tours which was wonderful for us to see everything out on display.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, Gay!

Ronan Peterson, Gay Smith, and Chanda Glendinning

Penland Pics Part 2

Terracotta Throwdown was held in Upper Clay, the top floor of the ceramics building at Penland.  This is my view from roughly my wheel space.  I have so many great pics of my time here and yet looking over my images I can think of so many I wished I had taken.  Here are some fun highlights.

 You want us to do what with your underwear?

I am pretty sure this is Ronan's first demo of the session.  You can tell by the still clean apron he is wearing.  He borrowed this from the illustrious Sandi Pierantozzi who was teaching The Slow Pot Duet with Holly Walker in Lower Clay, aka Deeper Clay. 

This is Teresa Pietsch.  Isn't she adorable?  She was one of our studio assistants and is currently a resident artist at the Energy Exchange in Burnsville, North Carolina.

Kay's pots in progress.  I love, love, love the textures!

Lorimer hard at work.

Some of my pots in progress.

"Wedgin' Boy" Mike.

 Livvy, aka "Livvy Box"

 Ronan showing us how to close up the bottom of a tripod vessel.

Terracotta Throwdown with Ronan Peterson

Mark Errol and Ronan Peterson deep in conversation during show and tell.

I was going to wait until tomorrow to make another post but I got sucked into the computer and spent most of the afternoon uploading photos.  Here is some of my work from Ronan Peterson's workshop at Penland School of Crafts.

 

 

I can't wait to get back into the studio and play around with some new ideas I came up with during this awesome workshop.  Thanks Ronan, Teresa and Mark!

Penland Pics Part 1

Hey all y'all!

I finally made it home from my trip to Penland School of Crafts and Asheville, North Carolina.  I've been gone three weeks in all.  I really, really, really wanted to update my blog as I went along but not having a laptop, smart phone or access to something other than an old computer with sluggish internet connection really kinda got in the way.  So the way I figure, it will take me three weeks to catch my blog up and then I will be perpetually behind for three weeks.  Oh well, the lazy days of summer.  Yeah right!

I arrived at Penland on Friday, May 27 after a rain storm.  Saturday was a full day of work study cleaning up and prepping the rooms for everyone.  Sunday, I woke up early and decided to wander around and take photos.

View from The Pines looking towards Upper and Lower Clay

Rocking chairs on the upstairs patio of Northlight

 

The Pines after the fog burned off 

The "cat walk" I went across in the rain dragging my luggage so I wouldn't have to go down the outdoor steps and back up the stairs to the second floor.  This goes into the third floor.

So I will get some more photos uploaded soon with images of the studio, instructors and clay work.

Y'all have a great weekend!