Come to "The Potter and the Painter"

Dara Pannebaker and I open our two-person show Friday evening at the StoveFactory Gallery in Charlestown, an old Boston neighborhood. The opening reception Friday runs from 6 to 9 p.m. All are welcome and in fact encouraged to visit.

I hope I haven't given everyone too much information about this show in the past few blog posts, but little else pottery-wise has been happening around here for a week or more. I'm off to Boston Friday morning to do things like number the pots and wash the gallery floor.

Anyone who is in the neighborhood, please stop by. The gallery is also open Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Photos: A few of the 113 pots in the show.

Putting pots on the walls

I spent most of Saturday in Charlestown, an old Boston neighborhood, at the StoveFactory Gallery, leveling shelves, drilling molly holes and screwing shelf brackets into the wallboard. Dara Pannebaker and I were there to prepare for our show "The Potter and the Painter," which opens Friday night. I brought something over 100 pots for the show, and at this point we're not sure exactly how many paintings Dara has. Many, in any case.

It's an interesting process, deciding which pots go with which pots, and then deciding which paintings go with which groupings of pots. There was much consultation between the two of us and also with Carla and Cindy, two of the other Charlestown artists who were there to help. I suspect the consultation will go on into Friday afternoon.

I forgot a card for my camera, and was forced to shoot a few pictures with my iPhone. Here's a look.

Numbering pots, pricing pots, packing pots ...

I'm finding there are always more details to be figured out in putting together the show that opens next Friday at StoveFactory Gallery in Boston. Taking off old price tags, figuring out the right prices for pots, numbering each pot for inclusion on the descriptive price list, building and painting shelves, getting out publicity ... it all goes on and on. I'm numbering and packing pots today because I'm off to Charlestown (it's a Boston neighborhood) to meet with Dara and begin screwing the shelves into the walls. And doing it all so that her paintings work together with my pots.

We open a week from tonight, Friday the 29th of April. Come on down.

Photos: The brochure that Dara laid out for us; cleverly, after the show it can be cut down the middle and each side works as a general purpose brochure for each of us. And many of the pots, now numbered, awaiting packing upstairs.

"The Potter and the Painter" opens next week

Any regular reader of this blog could be excused for thinking nothing has happened here for the past month other than the slipware workshop with UK potters Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew. And that is largely true. But just before they arrived, I dry-stacked my gas kiln and then left it alone for a couple of weeks. Then I spent this past Monday glazing and loading and Tuesday afternoon firing.

Not a bad batch of pots. Many hakeme-decorated shallow bowls and teabowls, most of them in an iron kaki glaze.

A few of the pots from this load will go into the show at the StoveFactory Gallery in Boston, which opens Friday, April 29. Come on up and see my work and Dara Pannebaker's beautiful paintings. We'll be starting to set up this weekend, then wrapping up the details late next week.

The photos: Five shallow bowls from yesterday's firing, brushed in white slip and glazed in a Leach Kaki; a group of pots that will be in the show.

Left behind by Hannah McAndrew

We here at Hatchville Pottery think that our young kitten/cat Cleo took Hannah seriously last week when she said she wanted to take Cleo back to Scotland. She appears to be missing both Doug Fitch and Hannah, after they bonded with her over five days living with us last week. Here, she gets a whiff of Hannah from the tiny slipware jug she left with us.

The basket has become her favorite nesting place since Dan Finnegan left it here Monday. Finnegan handed it to me in the Coffee Obsession parking lot, saying, "Here, I brought this for you." Frankly, I think he was so overwhelmed with luggage and boxes from the three traveling potters (Australian Angela Walford was the third) that he was desperate to get ANYTHING out of his Jeep. Hence the gift.

We thought Dan, a longtime cat man, would be delighted that he gave Cleo a new resting place.

Two-person Boston show in late April

My friend Dara Pannebaker and I will join our work in "The Potter and the Painter" later this month at the StoveFactory Gallery in Charlestown. It's a lovely little gallery, part of the Artists Group of Charlestown complex in an old factory building in the Boston neighborhood. Dara and I are still assembling the show and planning how to mix my pots with her paintings. In the meantime, here's a look at the e-invitation.

The Brits are on the road

Visiting potters Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew are even now on the road with Dan Finnegan and Australian blogger-potter Angela Walford, somewhere between Cape Cod and Fredericksburg, Va. The people attending next weekend's slipware workshop in Fredericksburg and the following weekend in Shelby, NC, are in for a treat. We knew from looking at their blogs and their online photos that these are two fine potters and decorators. Now we know that they're personable, funny, modest about their considerable abilities, generous ... and all the good things that Hannah probably tries to teach her Cub Scouts in Scotland. Everyone at the Cape Cod workshop liked them a lot. And so will the folks in Virginia and North Carolina.

Yesterday they finished up decorating several pots and Doug threw a couple more to make up for speedier-than-expected drying overnight in the classroom. We cleaned up teacher Stephanie York's room and then a small group of us headed to the British Beer Company in Falmouth Heights, next to the beach, with Martha's Vineyard on the horizon, and ate and drank British beer and cider and enjoyed a fairly noisy hour or so.

Back here after dinner, the four of us sat down in front of the television to watch the Red Sox beat the Yankees. Many, many questions from the tired Brits about this foreign game, and Hannah is still trying to work out the proper time to applaud something that happens on the field. Maybe watching the Nationals out of Washington will help her with that. In the morning, Doug donned his new Red Sox cap and took a couple of swings with a bat at my underhand pitching. The man can hit, driving a hard line drive into the neighbor's yard.

Then a big crowd around the table at Coffee Obsession, with chocolate-espresso pecan pie provided by Janet. Doug and Hannah made lots of friends while they were here on Cape Cod. They'll do the same down South.

McAndrew and Fitch in their first day at Falmouth

A great day today at Falmouth High School. Doug and Hannah are natural entertainers and pottery educators. I won't write much tonight. Let the photos tell the story. Suffice to say that the workshop participants in Fredericksburg, Va., and Shelby, NC, have a treat in store for them. Oh, and we're flying the Union flag on the sign outside our house, customary when the Queen is in residence. Well ... OK ... it's a tea towel. But it serves the purpose.

Photos: Boys with toys - Doug drying the beginnings of a harvest jug; Doug's puzzle jug was a hit, as was Hannah's decoration of it later in the day; Hannah threw and slipped a couple of plates; at home in Hatchville.

One day to the Slipware East Coast workshop

I suspect Doug and Hannah will be happy to sit down at their wheels and just make pots tomorrow, after a few days of meeting Americans speaking with strange accents. A potluck dinner last night here was a fairly raucous and noisy affair, with lots of good food and a fair amount of good beer and wine. There were potters and non-potters alike here and everyone got on just fine, though I did see Doug and Hannah sneak out onto the porch to listen to the unusual American birds around sunset.

We visited Kim Medeiros's studio this morning, with her husband Mark (barbecuer of great shrimp) supplying us with a first-class gas burner for Doug to use drying his pots during the workshop. Then we swung by the high school to get the video projection system straightened out with the help of specialist Ryan Webber. There will be films tomorrow.

Then we stopped at Anne Halpin's place for a studio tour and a tour of her husband Jim's machine shop and clock shop. Wonderful stuff.

We blasted on home to get some lunch and let the two potters work on their presentation and get a bit of a rest (they're both napping now). It's possible the jet-lag has caught up with them.

Fish and chips tonight. Oh, and Angela Walford arrives in an hour or so. Busy place ...

Photos: Kim Medeiros, Hannah and Doug on Kim's porch; Doug contemplating flame-throwing with Mark's raku burner; the two bad students waiting in the principal's office at Falmouth High School; working out the video problems with Ryan.

And the tour goes on ...

More coffee this morning at the World's Best Coffee Shop, with tea for the two visitors. Then shopping for tonight's dinner and a visit to Falmouth High School to see the clay room. Stephanie York, the clay teacher, showed us around and helped us figure out what we need for the weekend. Stephanie will be there for the weekend, as will two of her students. We're looking forward to sharing Hannah and Doug with the younger folks. They should see more working creative people.

As I write this, Dee is looking at pictures of England on Doug's laptop. Sheep, I believe. Dee can't get enough sheep. More tomorrow.

Photos: Doug and Hannah toast Meredith Heywood of Whynot, N.C., the maker of the two small cups holding the Harpoon IPA they're drinking. Or maybe Mark made them. Anyway, one of the Heywoods made these lovely little cups. And below, from yesterday, Doug offering Asian durian fruit to a reluctant Hannah.

Roaming potters' first day in the USA

This was the day for visiting potters Hannah McAndrew and Doug Fitch to get to know Cape Cod a bit. The day started at Coffee Obsession in Falmouth, with tea and croissants and new friends. Bruce, Mary, Betsy and Janet showed up. Janet is actually a blog-reader, though not a potter, and she greeted Doug and Hannah with hugs and the familiarity of an old friend. And she brought apple tart to share. And shared her durian, which some think is a foul-smelling tropical fruit, but which Janet quite loves.

We went on to visit slipware potter Ron Geering's studio and gallery (Ron is off-Cape in England, but left a key). Lovely work, as always. Then down the road to Tessa Morgan's place, where Doug was enlisted in showing Tessa how he makes big pots. Then lunch, opening of the boxes of pots that arrived a few days ago (minimum breakage, lovely pots), and then down-Cape to visit potter Gail Turner, another avid blog-reader and one of the people who initiated bringing these two to Cape Cod.

Then dinner at Jack's Lounge, a Hyannis pub, with this blogger's softball teammates. Fairly raucous, with Doug trying to figure out baseball, which was playing on a nearby TV. "Oh," said Hannah, "It's just like rounders."

Then back home to blog and bed. More tomorrow.

Photos: The atlas comes out at Coffee Obsession, so that we can figure out the potters' UK geography; Janet and Doug and her apple tart; Doug throws big clay at Flying Pig Pottery; unwrapping the newly arrived pots; with Gail Turner at her Mill Stone Pottery in Dennis.

Fully conscious and on American soil!

Doug Fitch and Hannah McAndrew arrived safely in Boston this afternoon, after a slightly shaky flight from Heathrow in London. I was there with our friend Tammy Race to meet the two potters. We gave them a drive-by tour of Boston as we exited the tunnel and head south, stopped at the Races' for a beer and conversation, then on to Hatchville for a light dinner and off to bed.

Both are slowly getting used to the idea that they're not in the British Isles any longer. At least not for the next few weeks. And it's been an adjustment to be driven on the "wrong side of the road." Or so they say.

More in the days to come. The two will teach a slipware pottery workshop this weekend at Falmouth High School. You can still sign up for the workshop. Just go to capecodpotters.org and follow the workshop links. Or e-mail hatchvillepottery@comcast.net and I'll lead you through it.

The photo: Dinner in Falmouth, left to right are Hannah, Doug and my wife Dee.