Raku and rain

Raku ...fun until it started to rain.  It started out as a very hot day.  But the kiln just wouldn't get up to the right temperature...so we waited and waited!

If my friends don't want their pictures here, just let me know, and I'll pull them off.  They can be anonymous anyway.

 Beverages and snacks help make the waiting more enjoyable...plus just chatting with other potters.

 Yes, that's a temperature gun, which said the outside of the kiln was pretty hot.

The dog hair experiment about to be tried...you've probably heard of horse hair.

Tailgate Market party coming this week!

Don't miss the funTailgate Market fund raising "Pig and Pint" on Thurs at Pisgah Brewery.  $20 and samples of lots of beer and foods.  Silent auction, including one of my plates (value $30).

You can buy tickets for the party at:

Pig and a Pint: A Tasting Benefit Event for the Black Mountain Tailgate Market

www.brownpapertickets.com

Just saying you should definitely be there from 4-7 this Thursday.  You know I will be!

10 inch diameter. white clay body.

Varigated glaze with stamped design.

Fair pictures

 Peg Morar's scraffito work...

Rodney Lefwich

Somehow I didn't write down the name of these artists...great turtle and owl objects...and I really enjoyed them.

Nancy Kubale

Gordon Batten

Nancy Jacobsohn

I really enjoyed a lot of other potters, glass, fabric, wood and mixed media artists.  But these were the ones I took the time to honor with their works.



The Southern Highlands Craft Fair

I have a few pics that I'll add here this afternoon...but wanted to give anyone in the Asheville area the news...this is a great venue!

I know the musically inclined will be off in Black Mountain at Camp Rockmont for LEAF.  So I hope you got a chance to see the crafts before today...I think SHCF closes around 4 today.

I bought a few raffle tickets, so I know the drawing is at 4:30-ish at the Civic Center.  I really hope to win the doll!  She makes me smile every time I look at her.  I enjoyed volunteering yesterday by letting a couple of potters take lunch breaks, then sitting at the raffle/information table for a while.

Also there are bunches of events coming up in honor of Samhain next week.  Our choir is practicing early today, then Wed. night, then just before church next week (I know, you could care less, but I'm just trying to get a handle on this calendar of events for myself.  OK, I won't go into each day's appointments.)  But I know Byron Ballard will be leading the congregation on next Sunday, which is always a high point for many of her friends.  (She's the Village Witch who blogs for the Asheville Citizen Times)

Public things to know about are the BIG fundraiser and taste of foods/drinks at Pisgah Brewery on Thurs. Oct 27 from 4-7.  The event will support the Tail Gate Market of Black Mountain.  I donated a plate for the silent auction.  I know I'll be there, and the $20 tickets are a deal for all the food.  It's being called A Pig and a Pint...something to do with barbeque.

Friday hosts a "Boo at the UU" family party.  And then Saturday from 9-1 is the last Tail Gate Market of the year.  It's sure to be lots of fun, with special kids events, as well as a gala last sale for all the vendors.  We've had a pretty good season this year...though pottery didn't do all that great at times.

Halloween itself is another event that we all will enjoy, and for me by attending a Baba Yaga fete in Asheville...and  for me joining singing with the Sahara Peace choir.

A brief mention from the pagans and wiccans out there...the veil between the worlds becomes thinner for Samhain, and there is definitely communication with those who have died.  Our ancestors need to be honored, not denigrated in funny ghost stories.  We owe our existance to their strength and the decisions they made...their loves and passions, their fears and faults, and the joys and efforts of their lives.  So I daily ask for those who have gone before, mostly my ancestors, but some my friends, to give me their wisdom.

Computer down and back

So Steve checked out the computer, and turned off some of the "background programs" that were running that he didn't think I was using.  That did it.  Now things load, play and are  responsive while I want to do them.  No longer wait and see if it will do what I asked...while I pray, or pause, or get up and fix lunch.

Yay!  I'm so grateful that it didn't have a virus.  A friend did have one, so I was worried that I might have one too.

I'll be able to check up on the blogs I follow tomorrow, maybe.  I didn't know what to do with myself for the last 24 hours...without checking all the news from all those great sites.  I'll be back soon!

a Buddhist quote...

 Prayer

May I be a guard for those who are protectorless,

A guide for those who journey on the road;

For those who wish to go across the water

May I be a boat, a raft, a bridge.

May I be an isle for those who yearn for landfall,

And a lamp for those who long for light;

For those who need a resting place, a bed;

For all who need a servant, may I be of service.

May I be the wishing jewel, the vase of plenty,

A word of power, and the supreme remedy.

May I be the trees of miracles,

And for every being, the abundant cow.

Like the great earth and the other elements,

Enduring as the sky itself endures,

For the boundless multitude of living beings,

May I be the ground and vessel of their life.

Thus, for every single thing that lives,

In number like the boundless reaches of the sky,

May I be their sustenance and nourishment

Until they pass beyond the bounds of suffering.

--from A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life

by Shantideva, Indian Buddhist Teacher, 8th Century AD

Yep, I'm driving (slowly) up Montreat Rd.

Uphill...

Or downhill...

The Season, The Studio

With autumn, there's an abrupt change from summer...things just don't look the same and there's an earth shaking realization that life is going through the same kind of thing.

So, I jump around, looking hard, taking lots of pictures.  I also enjoy the feeling of the air, cool on my skin on one side, and hot in the sun on the other.  The breeze is not just blowing, it gusts in cold chatters through the trees, and seeps into my bedroom chilling me each night.  Then while the house is still full of the chill, suddenly by noon outside the heat from the sun makes it warmer by 10 degrees than it is inside.

Ah, the clay studio at Black Mountain Center for the Arts!

 Afternoon light beams in the studio.  It's much more fun to work then, than at night.  At least I think so.

There's more light from the sun reflecting off the floor than will be available in the glaze area at night.  So this is my best time to glaze.

TODAY!

It's the most wonderful day of the year.
Got up with that song chanting in my heart.  Seems appropriate, don't you think?  What,, you think only Christmas day is the most wonderful day of the year?  Well, you'd better start thinking about that!

A new film "Connected" by Tiffany Shlain opened in New York to a sold out crowd and is touring the country. - a personal tribute to the filmmaker's father, celebrated author and neuroscientist, Leonard Shlain, who passed away in 2009. (author of The Alphabet Versus the Goddess) http://connectedthefilm.com/

check that clip out, it sounds interesting...though Leonard Shlain's work on the goddess seems somewhat strange...though again interesting. http://www.alphabetvsgoddess.com/goddesses.html

Haven't downloaded the last pictures of fall trees and pots.  Yesterday was such a beautiful day in the great windy outdoors here, and it did warm up eventually, but still shady places were cold.  My friends froze their noses...and other parts, at the TailGate market early in the morning.  It wasn't my shift this week...of the MudBuddies. 

Oh, I want to include (in case I haven't) the link to the Black Mountain webcam.  It's somewhat jerky, and has no reflection on the people who live here.  It unfortunately only looks at the street that one of the sponsors is located upon...and it isn't the main street of the town anyway.  But it's interesting enough to at least see the Seven Sisters mountains in the background.  http://blackmountainwebcam.com/  Actually it's better than when it was first started, somehow the scene is now zoomed in so you don't have the great view of the public bathrooms that is the next area to the right of these buildings.  I bet someone complained about that!

93 YEAR OLD

I ran into an "old friend" last night at an art gallery opening...Vesta Stern has her 93 birthday TODAY. She has been a UU for 69 years...and used to own a craft store. I can't wait to hear more about her life. Who do you know who has stories that you'd love to hear? I'm hoping Vesta will tell me some. Call her to wish her a happy birthday, she doesn't do computers.

Sorry about posting this also on FaceBook, where some of my friend might read it again, as well as some of hers.  I hope this helps her have a sense that we still care about her.  She's living in an Assisted Living Facility here in Black Mountain, and no longer drives very much...not at night or as far as Asheville any more.  There is another reason she doesn't make it to church much...the Sun. meal is served just at noon, and there's no supper served on Sun. night, so she would miss eating lunch and dinner if she came to church!  There's an obvious answer to that.  I hope someone will offer rides to church and lunch with her sometime.

We are all getting older, and those who are the most senior of us should have the most respect.  Don't you think?  I think we're also afraid that when we get to our oldest years, nobody will be around to help us out. 

That is serious business for us individualistic independent people, who never felt we should need others, nor wanted to be dependent upon them.

Last night I dreamed the feeling of rejection from my first love.  That utter dispair that somehow I wasn't right, I wasn't "the one" for him, that I was inherently not good enough, is a dispair that I know others feel also...though of course not for being rejected in love.  The commonality is the feeling...no matter what the cause.

We can all feel dispair and depression.  We can all feel alone. 

We can all feel love.  We can all be compassionate.  We can ask for our circle.

That's how my dream ended.  I asked for a circle of friends to care for me.  I am so glad that I've become part of a circle of friends, which is my "virtual family" for when my real family is not available, nor able to give their love.  And if I should outlive all those I now care about, I hope there will be a new circle of friends that can give and receive love to/from each other.

Tiny pots and "Occupy" demonstrations

Here are the tiny pots that will join either my friends in CA or WA, or go to the Tailgate this weekend.

 View of first four...

 View one of second 4

 View two of second four, the one on the left has three colors, thus a different looking pot each way.

 View of third five...

Do you think much about how the "Occupy" demonstrations are doing?  What challenges they face in looking within themselves as individuals, as well as trying to become a cohesive group?  This is worth thinking about here  Again I borrowed from another blog.  Hey, it's worth passing along.

I am part of the 99%...as are most of the people I know.  Funny about that.  If I looked for the 100th person that I knew today, then I'd figure that must be the rich 1% who holds the majority of the money of our country.  Just thinking.  But when I look inside myself, I wonder what's keeping me from doing a demonstration.  I think it's my physical limitations at my age.  SO if I were in my vigorous 30s or even 40s, I'd certainly be out there.  Being closer to 70, I can vigorously post blogs!

East Of Asheville Studio Tour

It's the peak of the leaf season...and this weekend will be crisp and sunny.  That's right kids, pack your snacks and hop in the car for a tour of this county's beautiful back roads and the warm and rustic  studios that inhabit them! Here's the link for the website complete with maps...just go to

www.EastStudioTour.com (828)686-1011 East of Asheville Studio Tour, a free, self-guided tour of artist studios in East Asheville, Swannanoa, Black Mountain, Fairview and Old Fort, takes place twice a year - Sprig and Fall. Everyone is welcome to visit any or all of the studios during the tour, whether they are serious art patrons or just browsers of beautiful and interesting works.   An article about it can be found here.

Latest pottery...again

Well, I've been a busy potter...churning out interesting shapes, being satisfied (on the whole) with the glazes these days.

 This little vase has eggshell glaze, inside and out, wiped on the highlight places with a sponge while still wet...to give the blush from the thin glaze over speckled brownstone clay.  I do like that!

 Here are two blues... floating above, and Black Mountain Blue below.

A coffee filter cone...which I've started using rather than all the trouble with espresso machine.  Just wait till the tea kettle says I've got hot water, and pour it through the grounds.  And I found out how the extra heat from pouring boiling water stays in the ceramic cone and I get really well brewed coffee, and enjoy the flavor more.  So at this point, it's staying in my kitchen.  I may make another one...maybe.

When I tried brushing off some of the blue glaze, it gave some interesting colorations from the thin glaze and the bare clay.  I happen to like this effect.

From New Grange, Ireland, or perhaps Malta's goddess temples, the triple spiral is a design which has meditative possibilities.  Our Women of Wisdom class participants painted their Triple Spirial Finger Labyrinths with glaze, and now will be able to use them for meditation.  I made a few extras that I'm willing to sell.

I sold both of these pitchers the day I put them out at the Tail Gate market.  It's too late to make any more before the market closes for the season.  But I'll try to have a couple by the time I next sell things at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts...that will be the first Fri. in December.  Until then, I'll just be enjoying exploring what can be done in clay.