Cleveland County Fair

I just had my very first experience at a county fair, and did it all the way by going to the Cleveland County Fair in Shelby, NC. Brian and I met Ron and Sarah Philbeck at the fairgrounds and headed straight for the pig racing.

That's Hammy Hammlin taking a victory lap (literally) after being the first to race to the cheese puffs awaiting him at the CHECKERED FLAG (imagine a public announcer guy saying this in a very deep, excited voice).

After that, we headed over one of the main entertainment areas to check out the Kenyan Acrobats who were pretty amazing. They flipped, balanced themselves (on each other and a board full of nails, see below- yikes), jumped through flaming hoops- all on thin carpet over concrete. I couldn't help but be worried about their joints- how motherly of me.Then we checked out the giant mama pig, the rabbit house, chicken house, craft house, canning house and got corn dogs. Ron showed us his favorite fair game: Fat Albert. Its a betting game where you put a quarter on one of many colors that correspond with a wheel that is spun. Then a rat comes out of a cup and runs to a hole of a specific color in the wheel. I don't know if that's explained right, but check out Ron losing, again...

We finished off the afternoon with some fudge and a picture in front of the "famous" water wheel. It's where typically parents pay 25 cents to have their children paged to if they're lost. Ron generously paged me when I came out of the bathroom. It's good to have concerned friends!

Back to work

This past weekend was filled with exciting pottery-related events that I have been looking forward to for some time. After taking Sunday and Monday off for some well-needed rest, I'm back working in the studio today, starting with a good cleaning!

On Friday I had my opening at Iredell County Museums in Statesville. There was an amazing turnout- I was very lucky in that it was the first "Art Crawl" for the town of Statesville and the event was well promoted. As it was my first solo show, I was really excited to see so much of my work in one place. It was a bit intimidating too- I didn't realize just how nervous I was until the drive up; my husband did a good job of distracting me from this! Many friends made the drive and I really appreciate their support and reaction to the work. To top all this goodness off, Theresa Golas, the museum's curator (and maybe also executive director) and wonderwoman was amazing to work with. She was so patient and probably put in over 200 (shamefully, for real) screws in the wall to hang the show. She's a rock star.

Saturday was our Circle of Eight sale at my house. The weather was perfect and we had a good amount of people stop by. Its a lot of fun to do a sale with friends- and to be among everyone's nice work. Mark Peters came down as our guest artist- it was great to get to know him better.

I'll post additional photos soon. Of course I forgot my camera on Friday, but my buddy Julie remembered hers and took some pictures. There are also a couple on Elaine's blog, which you can visit by clicking her name on the sidebar.

Clayworks

After a long summer off from teaching, I started back today with classes at Clayworks. I teach two handbuilding classes- one in the morning, one in the evening on Wednesdays. Some of my old friends have returned, and many new students that will inject a lot of energy. I'm really excited to be back and am looking forward to a great session. I tend to make really bad jokes and talk way too much from nervous energy, but don't think I've scared anyone off yet!

Hooray clay: teaching at Arrowmont

I had a busy, but great summer this year. One of the best weeks for me was spent at Arrowmont School for Crafts in Gatlinburg, TN teaching a kid's camp class. My students ranged in ages: from kindergarten to third grade, and were super cute. We had a great time making birdhouses, mugs, fishy shakers and masks.

An unexpected plus to the week was spending time with my friend Virginia McKinney. She's an amazing sculptor who works with clay and metal. She had the foresight to have her daughter Loo (we became instant friends!) come teach another class during the same time so we could all hang out together. I'm not sure why we're all smiling so much here, I was about to leave! It was a great time.

Iredell delivery

After the demo at the Mint, Brian and I headed up to Statesville to deliver work for my upcoming show at Iredell County Museum. I'll have a large variety of work at the show, including these pieces which are from a new series I'm working on. These are medium-sized serving trays that have images of some of my favorite industrial areas of Charlotte.

Demo at the Mint II

Thanks to all who came out to see my demonstration at the Mint Museum of Craft and Design today. The weather was great on the rooftop, and the crowd was quite friendly- there was a group of women who had come up from Mississippi for the demo and for the big pottery sale that the Mint Museum puts on every year, which is tomorrow. It was really fun to share some of my methods in this way!

Demo at the Mint

Tomorrow (Friday, September 7th) I'll be demonstrating making some of my forms in clay tomorrow at the Mint Museum of Crafts in downtown Charlotte on Tryon St. It will take place on the rooftop, which I hear is really nice, during lunchtime from 11:30-1:00. So if you find yourself in downtown Charlotte wanting some entertainment while eating, make your way over to the museum and say hello.

New teapots

These are a few new teapot forms I'm working on for my upcoming show at Iredell County Museum. They're not glazed yet in this picture, but I'll be able to unload them out of the kiln this evening. Hopefully they turned out nicely.

Yardwork

Yesterday my husband Brian and I worked on a stone path in our front yard- connecting our sidewalk to the deck. It was a bit harder than I had imagined it would be. Making all of the stones fit together nicely was a challenge, not to mention that they were heavy! My legs are awfully sore today. It turned out looking nice- completed in time for the Circle of Eight fall sale coming up on September 15th that we host at our house. Nothing like company to motivate us to finish a project!

Procrastinate with purpose

That's actually how this site came about. I was procrastinating working on an artist statement for my upcoming show, and instead I ended up with a blog. At least I got something done. There needs to be a t-shirt with that on it!