Sautee Nacoochee Folk Pottery Museum

Yesterday we happened upon the Sautee Nacoochee Folk Pottery Museum in Sautee, Georgia. Let the photos tell the story of one of the best pottery museums I have been to. 

Sorry about the photo quality but we arrived late almost at closing.

In the meantime I hope you enjoy the eye candy.

Adjacent the folk pottery museum was a historical museum of the Native Americans and early settlers of the area.

I look forward to learning more about the history and legends of the Native American heritage of the Sautee Nacoochee area.

This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments. 

Sea of Sunflowers

The other day we turned a bend in the road and came upon a sea of sunflowers, acres and acres of them. They're growing near the quaint village of Townville, SC. When I normally think of sunflowers I think of the giant ones but these were a very short variety.

I suspect they are being grown for the seed or oil. Notice the silo to the right. There were four of them probably for storing the seed temporarily. The flowers above look less vibrant as the flowers are facing the other direction, to the West.

Here's closer look at the diminutive beauties with their faces turned to the West to capture as much sunlight as they could.

Above is model for the pattern for the florets of the sunflower proposed by Vogel in 1979. It is a form of Fermat's spiral. There is beauty but also science and mathmatics in nature, so much to learn. Click the link for sunflower to read about the uses of the sunflower, a truly amazing plant.

Seeing all the sunflowers reminded me of the sunburst platter I made some time ago. I must make more of these, was contacted by someone just this week about purchasing one. Hopefully I find a new place to land soon. OK, what does a potter do whose living in a motorhome? Why read an ad for a shimpo and be prepared to drive five hours to get it. But wouldn't you know it I just missed out on purchasing a shimpo wheel I noticed for sale on the Clay Club. Hopefully another one will show up one of these days. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Greenwood Studio Tours

First stop on the Greenwood area studio tours was Martha Peddicord, Earth Works Studio in Ninety Six, SC. Martha converted her former horse stable and an adjacent building into her studio.

 Martha showed us her studio layout for working and teaching classes.

Next Carolyn Genders critiqued a group of small pitchers Martha has been working on.

We all had a great time talking out the trials and tribulations of pottery making.

The next studio tour was Laura Bachinski at Bell House Pottery.

Laura showed the hump molded jar she was currently working on. Laura had carved an intricate pattern on the top portion of the jar.

Laura converted a small log shed behind her home into her current studio. Laura specializes in outdoor bells and showed us how she puts the two bell parts together.

Laura talked about her love of carving in her work and we admired her new red glaze which breaks to green, blue and blackish brown, lovely.

Later Carolyn Genders suggested Laura make sketches in a variety of patterns to vary the patterns she normally works with. Next we broke for lunch at the Mill House Restaurant in Greenwood.

After lunch the next tour was in Greenwood at the Partners In Clay studio where a small group of potters work in a group studio, including Dohnna Boyajian, Beverly Burton, Phyllis Collins, Hannah Poe, and Colleen Tebo.

Above are some random shots of the potter's at their studio and some of their work. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Carolyn Genders Workshop Synopsis

Carolyn Genders began by outlining her career in ceramics. She brought along her sketchbooks, one of which was a small pocket size she carries while traveling.

Here is a close up of the rich surfaces Carolyn builds up with layers of slip applied on bone dry work.

Most of Carolyn's work is pinched and she gave us a demonstration of her method of pinching. Carolyn uses large coils and scrapes the inside and outside of the pieces as she goes with various sizes of metal ribs.

Carolyn treated us to a slide show of artists who inspire her and then examples of surfaces which inspire her from patterns in nature to buildings. 

We had a wonderful lunch at the Landers University cafeteria; I'd eat there everyday if I lived close by, it was that good.

In the afternoon Carolyn demonstrated how she applies her vitreous slips or engobes to bone dry work. The engobes are the consistency of cream or half and half and are mixed with stains, oxides, and frits, sieved and brushed on the clay surface.

Carolyn applies the various colors of the engobes in many layers and patterns. After a once firing the rich surface full of color is revealed.

The pieces are then scraped, scratched, or Carolyn uses various sgraffito methods to carve through the surfaces to achieve just the patterns and surfaces she desires.

When Carolyn's pinched pieces are leather hard Carolyn sometimes adds feet or completely enclosed the form and makes a small opening in the piece.

The final shape of the pinched piece is scraped and scraped away with metal ribs to obtain the smooth and well defined shape Carolyn wants.

At the end Carolyn cuts off the rim and uses a surform to smooth and finesse the rim's shape.

Sometimes Carolyn cuts the rim on angles and uses slight dips to shape the rim. Sorry about the quality of this photo but you can see the idea of using different shapes to the rim.

I'm still synthesizing details from the workshop which was jam packed full of information. Up next information about GASP, Greenwood Area Studio Potters, and tours of several ceramic studios in the Greenwood area. This post is part of The Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Carolyn Genders Workshop

You know how I'm drawn to using colored slips in many of my pottery pieces. I noticed there's a workshop with Carolyn Genders at Lander's University in Greenwood, SC so I signed up. Carolyn is teaching her methods for making colorful vessels and forms for the first time in the United States. Carolyn is well known in Europe and the UK for her ceramic pieces and has been a ceramic artist for 30 years.

Her work is handbuilt, primarily coiled, and her surfaces are painted with vitreous slips (engobes) or burnished terra sigillata slip. Carolyn is a Fellow of the Craft Potters Association of Great Britian. She is author of 'Sources of Inspiration' 2002 and 'Pattern, Colour & Form 2008, both published by A&C Black. I'm looking forward to slowly 'slipping' (pun intended) back into clay. This post is part of the Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Connecting, Clay and Heritage

Yesterday we drove to Asheville to see the Southern Highlands Craft Guild show. Mind you I had to twist Gary's arm to go. He routinely tells me he doesn't like art. I know different but I somehow get him to go along.

After we walked the length and breath of all the booths in the the show and were about to leave, I asked Gary which work he liked the best. Gary said he was drawn to some ceramic boat shaped pieces. I said let's go back for another look.

Gary said he was drawn to some ceramic boat inspired pieces in a booth we'd passed earlier. I asked Gary why he was drawn to the pieces. He said it was because they reminded him of minimalist Scandinavian designs. I said let's go back and have a second look.

That's how we met Heather Allen Hielata. When we went back to see the work Gary noticed Heather's last name and recognized it as Finnish in origin. Somehow Gary innately knew Heather's work was influenced or inspired by a connection to Finland. Turns out Heather's family is from the same town Gary's mother grew up in near Boston, the town of Fitchburg. That's Heather and Gary in Heather's booth at the show.

As we were driving back to our RV Gary said I guess I do like art. Now I'm wondering about all the complaining I've heard from him about not wanting to go to art fairs over the years. Somehow I knew he liked art, he just needed to feel a connection to the art. Thanks Heather we had a wonderful time visiting with you, especially since Gary now admits he likes art. Ha. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Pisgah Forest Pottery

After Gary mentioned he'd read in the local paper of folks advertising wanting Pisgah Forest Pottery, I decided to do a little research. Above are examples of pots by Walter B. Stephen, 1876-1961, who ran Pisgah Forest and Nonconnah Potteries in Western North Carolina. Stephen is credited with creating some of the first crystalline pots in the Southern United States.

The first pottery, Nonconnah, was begun by Walter and his mother near Memphis, Tennessee about 1907. They dug clay from Nonconnah Creek with Stephen creating the shapes and his mother applying multi colored slip decorations to matte green surfaces.

Stephen moved to Skyland North Carolina in 1913 and started a second Nonconnah Pottery. It was there where he developed his crystalline glazes and his cameo wares, which are similar to wedgewood jasperware but are not molded but hand painted with porcelain slip in layers. Scenes from daily life such as covered wagons and Indian camps decorated the outside of his pots.

When I saw the cameo ware created by Stephen it reminded me of the slip decoration work I did in 2009/2010. For the white feather vase above I used a black stoneware clay and applied a thin white stoneware slip in layers. (Not the best photo).

I think it's the sharp contrast of white against black that is so appealing. That and the depiction of scenes from every day life that appeals to so many folks. I was also reminded of the dancing crows bowl I made with thin black slip painted on white clay. Ah, the places clay can take us. Perhaps I'll get back to some of this work when I get settled again.

In 1926 Stephen began his third pottery Pisgah Forest where he developed his cameo ware and crystalline glazes. Stephen was a member of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. Some of the major exhibitions of his pottery have been in the Mint Museum in Charlotte, the Asheville Art Museum, the Memphis Brooks Museum, and the McKissck Museum in Columbia, SC. Auction records show a Pisgah Forest cameo vase bringing $9000 and a Nonconnah vase brought $8700.

Today Pisgah Forest Pottery site is owned by the step grandson of Stephen and remains unchanged since the 1920s. The workshop contains the 1917 clay filter press and the 1929 wood kiln and early containers of glaze materials from the 1920s. Some photos and information for this article obtained from Pisgah Forest Pottery and McKissick Museum exhibition notice. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.