Soooooo, didn't mean to neglect the blog for so long, but 3 or months came and went in a flurry of activity. In January, I attended the Ceramic Surface Forum #1 at Arrowmont School of Craft, which was organized by Jason Burnett. This was awesome in so many ways, and I was honored to be part of the Surface Crew that attended. There is a traveling show that came from the forum, with one show already done at Marlboro College in Vermont and an upcoming show at Amaco which travels onto Baltimore Clayworks titled "Shirts and Skins". Hopefully more details to come about the shows. I don't remember February, but I believe I was busy making pots. In March, I was an invited presenter at the North Carolina Potter's Conference, which proved to be another amazing experience. I was invited by Cynthia Bringle as an up and coming potter, and I was flattered and honored to be invited by someone who has worked with so many different people. Other presenters included John Glick, who invited Martha Grover, and Jack Troy who invited Jake Johnson. Extremely good company to be in! Hopefully more on this later. And then in late March-early April, I trekked on down to Fairhope, Alabama for a "Scratching the Surface" workshop at the Kiln Gallery/Studio. We explored surfaces involving slips, incising, carving, terra sigs and glaze layering in this 4 day workshop. Amy Sanders and I had a show the month of March, and it sold extremely well. Susie Bowman does an excellent job at the Kiln getting collectors and buyers to see interesting shows and great presenters for workshops in beautiful gulf coast Fairhope, definitely worth checking out.
Now to the present:
I am very excited to say that I was invited by a great group of potters to take part in their Spring sale on April 28. Emily Reason invited me (thanks Emily!) to be part of the Potters of Madison County Sale at Marshall High Studios in downtown Marshall, NC. Here is the flyer for the sale, come on by, there will be lots of nice pots!
I am also part of a very interesting show at Mudfire Gallery in Decatur, Georgia, titled "Pirates vs. Zombies". Erik and Luba at Mudfire have really outdone themselves with setting up this show, asking ceramic artists to present their take on Zombies and Pirates, setting up a duel to the death (undeath death?) of two pop culture icons. I think it is an extremely creative approach to theming a show, and a nice departure from the 1001 cup shows of last year (disclaimer: I am happy and thankful to be invited to cup themed shows, but I embrace fresher and more invigorating invites, but still want to be invited to more traditionally themed shows. Thank you for your invites, all you inviters). Here is an image of a plate I did for the show titled "Zombie Fried". Take a gander at the show at mudfire.com to see the back of the plate and other great works of high seas, scurvy filled adventure and entrail, brain munching mindlessness.
And finally, I will be teaching a workshop on cone 6 reduction firing at the Jacksonville Center for the Arts in Floyd, Virginia, April 23-27. We will look at glazes and glaze approaches for cone 6 reduction firing, glaze a kiln load and fire it up to just under 2200 degrees F, let the kiln cool and talk about our results and discuss what worked and what didn't. While the kiln is cooling, we will discuss firing schedules, kiln choice and I am ready to demonstrate different surface techniques that can be used for cone 6 reduction, but is not limited to this temperature and atmosphere for firing. I don't normally do cone 6 reduction, but Claymakers, the studio where I teach, does a lot of cone 6 reduction and I was one of the advocates for transferring over from cone 10 to cone 6. Ana Howard at Claymakers did lots of research and testing to formulate a cone 6 palette, and I have also done a lot of testing and firing to get a good handle on cone 6 reduction. So I will come with glazes and firing knowledge and we will bask in the glow of the blessings of the kiln...I hope. Will check back in with results. Here is a bowl with shino/ash/blue slip action from a Claymakers cone 6 reduction class I taught.
Another great show of cups just opened online at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville, NC. This show is entitled "Interpreting the Cup: Process, Influence and Intent" and was curated by Jason Burnett. There are a lot of great cups that run the spectrum from sculptural to functional. Jason did a great job, and I am honored to be part of the show. Check out the link: 
