"Concepts in Clay" opens Friday

Gail Turner, of Mill Stone Pottery in Dennis, and I talked with a group of docents today at the Cape Cod Museum of Art, answering as many questions as we could about the work now on display there. "Concepts in Clay" is a show of work by members of Cape Cod Potters, a very loosely organized group of clay people here on the Cape. The show was juried by Ellen Shankin, of Floyd, Va.
The show was designed to challenge clayworkers to think about their process and their ideas, and then put those thoughts into words and into clay. That's the way I understood it, anyway.
The result is a fine show of work, from functional to sculptural. Each entrant's work is mounted separately on a pedestal or pedestals, allowing separation from the other pots or sculptures in the show.
And on one wall are eight large photographs, shot by this photographer, showing steps in the clayworking process. Images of Kim Medeiros, Dan Finnegan, Sarah Caruso, Tessa Morgan, and myself make up the wall display. Firing is represented by my loaded kiln and flame protruding from the noborigama of Robert Compton, in Bristol, VT. You can see the photos in one of the overall shots here.
The show opens this week, with a formal reception (that means free beer and wine, people) this Friday, from 5 to 7 p.m. Come one, come all.
Photos, top to bottom: bottles by Toni Levin, Oribe work by Linda Riehl, big serving bowls by Kevin Nolan, coil-built and wood-fired vases from Frances Johnson.

Sunshine after the storm

Sandy went away from Cape Cod yesterday, taking a sudden left into New Jersey. The winds died here in midafternoon and then the clouds made way for the moon around 9. We survived just fine, without even a power or cable TV outage. Some of our friends in town were not so lucky, and power is still out in some parts of Falmouth. Trees came down in the gusts of 50 mph wind and knocked out power lines and poles.
But other than a few traffic hazards and thoroughly undermined Surf Drive on the south shore, we got through OK. Even the coffee shop was open this morning at 6, as always.
I spent most of the day glazing pots for the woodfiring this weekend. Kim Medeiros was here using my Shinos, temmoku and a couple of other glazes. We're hoping this weekend's weather will be entirely anti-hurricane.
Here's a look at our back yard, the day after the (not very) big storm.

Waiting for Sandy and its wind ...

The wind is still rising here on Cape Cod, though Hurricane Sandy is still hundreds of miles south of us. It's a big storm, winds apparently reaching out more than 500 miles. It's gusting into the 30s here right now and the wind has driven the water south of Falmouth into rollers and whitecaps. High tide drove water up over some docks and low-lying beach roads, but that will no doubt get much worse in another seven or eight hours, as the winds rise and high tide returns.
These photos are from near the entrance to Falmouth's inner harbor, right on Vineyard Sound. No doubt by high tide tonight, I'd be good and wet standing in the same place.

I'm ignoring the storm for the moment and going to the studio to make room for Kim Medeiros and me to glaze pots tomorrow for next weekend's woodfiring in Truro.

Picking up shells for firing ...

I spent part of the day yesterday walking the Falmouth beach along Vineyard Sound, head down, filling an old clay bag with bay scallop shells. The shellfish live on the bottom not far from shore. Their shells wash in and eventually are crushed and become part of the beach.
My old hometown of Vineyard Haven is on the horizon there; that part of Martha's Vineyard lies only three or four miles from the Cape Cod mainland. I always wonder what's happening in that place I left so long ago.
Anyway, these shells will hold wadding and lie against the Shino glazes on some of my pots in the wood kiln in Truro next weekend. Their remnants will be ground and sanded down a bit after the pots are out of the kiln, but that mark of where they were made will remain. They'll fit right in with the kind of glazing I do - overlapping Shinos and general glaze chaos, combined in this case with the ash and flame of the Castle Hill kiln, fired on the bluff above the Atlantic.

Aiming toward the Truro kiln

I just finished up making pots for the loading late next week of Castle Hill Center for the Arts' train kiln on the bluffs at Truro, a few hundred yards from the booming Atlantic.
I've never fired there, though lots of friends have and Dan Finnegan came here a couple of years ago to lead a woodfire workshop. I've resisted, for some reason.
But this year Gail Turner of Mill Stone Pottery in Dennis persuaded me to fire in the kiln and I persuaded Kim Medeiros of The Barn Pottery in Pocasset and now the three of us plus Brian Taylor and a few others will fire the kiln the first weekend in November. Brian heads Castle Hill's clay program and is apparently the one elected to remain more or less sleepless through the whole 35 hours or so of the firing.
We'll get in somewhere between 30 and 50 pots. I'll bring more than I need. If they're not there, it's certain they won't get in. So I'll bring some bisque home for my gas kiln. For me, it's B-Mix with a couple of Shinos and perhaps some crackle slip, plus some unglazed B-Mix woodfire clay body with flashing Helmar kaolin. Fat vases, a group of medium-size mugs, big and rough faceted teabowls, smaller faceted cups, and the pinched and coiled-foot teabowls I finished today.
We load Saturday Nov. 2, then light the kiln early in the AM Sunday and fire into Monday afternoon. Should be fun.

More from the Cape Cod View article

The magazine chose to feature glassblower Bryan Randa, paper artist Ruth Bleakley and fellow potter Kim Medeiros in sidebars that went with the main story of our holiday kiln-opening and sale. Bryan and Ruth have been with us for several years; Kim joins us for the first time this year. Also involved in the event, and mentioned in the magazine, are jewelry-maker Kim Collins, raku potter Lois Hirshberg, coffee-roaster Mike Race and possibly potter Angela Rose. And I neglected yesterday to credit the great maker portraits in the piece. Christine Hochkeppel of Cape Cod Media Group did the photography, and she did a great job.http://www.capecodview.net/this-issue.html

Magazine spread on holiday opening

Here's a look at the two-page opening spread in Cape Cod View magazine, just out in the past few days. They did a nice job with the story, laid it out well and - aside from too many pictures of yours truly - may have encouraged a few more people to come out to the holiday kiln-opening and craft show here at Hatchville Pottery.
Paul Jessop and Barrington Pottery are forever getting into magazines, so I thought I'd post this to the blog so that he doesn't think he's the only one the print media pays attention to. I'll put up a few more images tomorrow, but right now wanted to get this in here before I put it in Facebook.