Well tomorrow is supposed to be the first day of loading. For whatever reason though the time to stop making new pots came and went and I just kept on potting I don't really have a good explanation as to why. So tomorrow is loading day and I have a whole bunch of unglazed pots:


Luckily Christy came to my rescue last night and glazed a couple of boards of mugs that I hadn't gotten around to yet.



We're still running about a day behind schedule though. Which doesn't leave as much time for loading as I would like. We did of course do a Triathlon this weekend which could explain at least part of the day that we are behind

Christy and I decided to do one last Triathlon as a team (she swam, I biked, then she finished up with the run), a last hurrah before it got to cold. It was a small local event. We took before, during and after pictures for everybody. However Christy decided to edit out her during picture as she didn't think she looked "lady like" enough for all of you. I on the other hand have no qualms posting pictures of myself looking stupid.

the happy couple before:



Me during:
and hot and sweaty afterwards (along with me showing off my very white chest):


We both had a good time, however now I've really got my work cut out for me. I've still got some bowls to trim, and more pots to glaze.

Loading starts tomorrow. Well maybe tomorrow afternoon....
Joe

Stardom here we come!

Sorry for the cliff hanger on our last post I wanted to wait till we had a couple of pictures to post.
Pictures like this one:



That's right folks, Christy and I are well on our way to stardom! Our friend Eli is a film maker and wanted to do a film about us. We are obviously pretty excited about it. Eli showed us some of his previous work and it's quite impressive.


It's not clear exactly what will come of all of this in terms of length/format of the film. Eli and Jason, the sound guy, spent a good portion of the day here, filming 90 minutes of footage today of me working (I only know that because his camera can only capture 90 minutes and he ran out of space this afternoon). They spent Saturday filming Christy working, and Thursday they shot scenery . They plan on coming out for several days during the loading and firing of the kiln. So certainly it appears Eli will have quite a bit of footage.
Yep, fame and fortune are simply around the corner.

Our chickens played a staring role on Thursday


Given the high quality of the work Eli showed us we're pretty excited to see what he comes up with. There is certainly no time line though, and given that he and his wife have a two month old baby we don't expect to be hitting the big screen (or youtube) any time soon. We are still pretty excited though, and expect to be hitting red carpets nation wide in short order.
Joe

Finishing a couple of pots

I spent the last couple of days finishing up more pots. I took the opportunity to snap pictures of several of my favorites, before I put the last layer of glaze on so you could see the decorations. Not much else to say, I've been working pretty constantly making pots and they seem to be coming along well. Christy has gotten herself a new position at work. With this new position she gets out of work at 3:30pm so she has had more time to make pots as well.... Looks like we will have plenty of good pots for the Fall Art Tour!
We've also got something else in the works, which Christy and I are pretty excited about.... I'll leave that for another post though. I hope you enjoy the pictures.
take care

Getting back into the swing of things

Sorry everyone I've fallen out of the habit of blogging... I'll try to get back into the habit again, especially now that I'm back making pots. The house work is on hold until after the Fall Art Tour. Four those of you who are not familiar with the 'Fall Art Tour' it's quite a big deal in these parts, and we were luck enough to be accepted to take part in it this year. So best course of action? Wait until the last minute to start making pots of course, nothing like the last minute to get started in preperation. On the bright side, the house is looking great, most of my work in the kitchen, bathroom, and bedroom is done. We just need to get the countertops finished and put the plumbing in and those rooms are all ready. The dining room and living room should not take long either, just a little patching of drywall, a tiny bit of electrical work, paint, and they will be all ready as well.
For now though, it's time to focus on the pottery. I've been potting now for about a week, and we'll be firing the first weekend of October, about three weeks of making.

Last cycle I made quite a few smaller items: mugs, tea bowls, soup bowls, ect... thinking this is what people would be purchasing the most..... Boy was I wrong. Most people stopping by seemed to be much more interested in vases, pitchers, and covered jars. Who knew?
So I started this cycle of with vases:

small and large


I've now moved on to pitchers, covered pitchers, and jars.
Sorry not the most incredible pictures. I'll get back into the habit of blogging and start posting better pictures soon. The potting seems to be going smoothly. I felt a little rusty the first day or two, and had to throw a couple vases out due to some chronic ugliness, now though things are moving along smoothly.
I'm adopting a different strategy this cycle. I'm leaving the dehumidifier off, and letting the humidity creep on up (80% humidity right now). I feel this way I can throw pots for three or four days straight with out sweating having to decorate, handle or trim pots. Then after a good session of throwing I've been trying to finsh everything in one day. This involves a bit of hauling boards of pots out into the sun to quick dry between layers of glaze/slip, but it seems to be fairly effecient use of my time, breaking it down into small making cycles followed by small finishing cycles. Wow, I know all of you are impressed. What will they think of next at Windy Ridge pottery? Time will tell.....
I'm sure it will be equally exciting though, no worries.
Joe

Family Time

Did you hear the news?

What? What? Tell me! I simply must know!

Christine came for a visit!

And Doug, too, of course! A good time was had by all of the people and animals at Windy Ridge. Christine took some wonderful pictures of our week, too, that we'll share with you...

We mixed some clay...

and burned scrap wood (totally under control, of course!)....


and had some hay baled...

while Christine took some photos of pots for us...


as well as some landscape shots...

and we all enjoyed a few good beers and time around the campfire. We're hoping for another visit soon!