2015-04-16 - Thursday - Set up

On Thursday afternoon I went to Clayworks to set up for the Annual Spring Sale & Open House. It was exciting since it was the first one in which I was participating. In the past when I was a student I would volunteer to do throwing demos for the sale, but this time as a studio artist I had a table to display my work.

Exciting changes.

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2015-04-13 - Monday - Moths, leaves, and caterpillars

Monday I found a large moth on the storm door when I was leaving the house. It would have blended in very well on the bark of a tree, but it apparently thought it was doing pretty well on the glass door.

We have a pest here called the fall cankerworm that does a huge amount of damage to our trees. We are supposed to band the trees in the fall to catch the wingless female moth when she tries to climb the tree to lay her eggs.

I didn't get our trees banded last fall and now we are paying the price. Our maple trees look like doilies and for more than a week we could here their waste falling through the leaves like the sound of rain. It's pretty disgusting.

I will definitely be banding the trees this fall.

One thing we have going for us is the fiery searcher beetle. It is also called "the caterpillar hunter" and we have a bumper crop of them this year. We have a large concrete pad in front of our two-car garage and some afternoons I have seen thirty or forty of them hurrying around on the concrete. And I do mean hurrying. They are always on a mission, each zooming in different directions.

I was standing on the back landing trying to capture the sound of falling caterpillar waste on video when I saw one run up on the step. It stopped short when it found some prey and then pounced.

Sorry about the shaky camera work, but I had to hurry up and zoom in.

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2015-04-11 - Saturday - Potters of the Piedmont

Saturday I drove to Greensboro for the Potters of the Piedmont show. It was a good show and attendance was very good. The Leonard Recreation Center is a nice location and I look forward to going back again for another show.

I met several nice people during the show including a couple that recently purchased one of my pots from Pottery 101. I'm definitely getting out there into the world.

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2015-04-10 - Friday - Packing for Greensboro

Friday night I packed the van to go to Greensboro for the Potters of the Piedmont show on Saturday. It's a full load and I have to drive almost two hours to get there. It's going to be a long day tomorrow and I ain't gettin' any younger. Wish me luck!

Meanwhile the Spring continues. The hazelnuts are leafing out and as usual, the right one is late.

A side note: I love the current gas prices and BJ's prices are even better.

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2015-04-06 - Monday - Photos of new work

I have finally finished photographing my latest pots. I am very pleased with the results. If you'd like to see them you can click on the collage below or this link.

I have also changed the menu at the top of this page. By clicking on the "My Pottery" link you will be taken to my website, which features my pottery on the "See" menu. Once there, you can review my current and previous work by firing date. Watch for more changes in 2015, including sizes and pricing.

2015-03-13 Throwback - Empty Bowls

I found these photos of the Empty Bowls event on the SD card in my regular camera and thought I would share them with you.

Adrienne took the one of me getting ready to demo and I took the one of my bowl with the Clayworks card in it. I don't know why I look so grumpy except that she caught me off guard. I wasn't grumpy when the public came in and I talked to lots of people about Clayworks and Muddy Fun. We had a good time. Two of my favorite things are demoing on the wheel and talking to people --go figure.

Grumpy potter.

New style bowl.

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2015-04-06 - Monday - Over 1000 posts!

I have apparently lost track of the number of times I have posted to this blog. Today I looked over to the side of the edit page and noticed that I've written 1057 posts. It doesn't seem like I could have written that many posts since 2006, but there it is. I know people that post way more than I do, but I had no idea I had that much to say, especially looking back at my beginnings.

Here is the first one from June 2006.

When I first started this blog I thought it would be a good way to keep family and friends informed about what was happening in our lives. It's been that and so much more. As you know I post a lot of my pottery progress here, my interesting photographs, and a lot of my observations and feelings about things. It changes constantly as my life and interests do.

Wherever it's heading, here's to the next 1000 posts.


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