reggie the potter

working with Bob the Sculptor

2012-01-05T10:09:00.000-05:00

Today I went to Bob Raymonds to help him hone his computer skills!

http://www.annsartcenter.com/

The Big E.... Eastern States Exposition 2010

2010-10-30T17:23:00.000-04:00

Just another great year. My 6th Year! Every year I look forward to pretending the year is 1820. Every day for 17 days, I live in an old house, my friends live within walking distance, we cook over the fireplace, we share our crafts and skills, we eat together, we go out into the "world of the fair" together, old friends stop by.

Its a good time. So this year, I think I will just post photos!

And another fair is over! The last evening.

Mini Sgraffito ready for the Big E... next week!

2010-10-15T23:23:00.001-04:00

Time for the Eastern States Exposition in Springfield MA! 17 days of food, farming and fun! I have been attending this for... well, many years. When I was small, I looked forward to the Giant Slide, and plan to go down it again this year with my little grand daughter.

Traditions such as the Giant Slide and the Storrowton Village, among other things during the next 2 1/2 weeks, keep us coming back to the fair year after year, fighting the crowds, getting stuck in traffic, eating too much junk food and smelling animal poop, but boy, it's still fun! I will be at the Storrowton Village Green demonstrating pottery in my old fashioned dress, playing the part of an Early American Tradeswomen! See you there!

Burlington Tavern, Burlington CT

2010-10-12T23:17:00.000-04:00

The tiny town of Burlington has a little event every year at the old tavern. Burlington Tavern Day, second Sunday in September.

Few can drive through Burlington without noticing the Brown-Elton Tavern on the Town Green, painted in the historically documented shade of pink. This beautiful Federal-style house, built by Giles Griswold in 1810, served as private home, public house, and inn during the next 164 years, until the Town of Burlington purchased it in 1974. Now listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is headquarters for the Burlington Historical Society. Giles Griswold was the son of Jeremiah Griswold, a farmer who settled in Burlington prior to 1770. Griswold is listed on the town assessment for 1806 and 1807 as a merchant. It is likely that Griswold began construction on his new house (the Tavern) in either 1809 or 1810 with the monies he received from the sale of his store. It is most probable that the TAVERN was substantially completed in 1810. The Grand List for the Town of Burlington reveals that Giles Griswold did not own a house until tax year 1810 when the was taxed a total of $103.75 for a house with a total of nine (9) fireplaces. This house is undoubtedly the TAVERN. The house (Tavern) was definitely standing by June 1810 when he bought a small piece of land adjacent to his dwelling house (the east side yard) from Joseph Lankton. Market value of the new house (Tavern) at this time was about $1150.

And I demonstrated my pottery in front of this lovely pink tavern. (The upstairs front room runs across the whole front of the house and was used as a ball room, as many old taverns in New England had a ball room upstairs, running the expanse of the house).

September day at the local CT lake...

2010-09-11T22:57:00.000-04:00

Some dear friends share some quiet moments at their lake cottage...

Canoe-ing

laughing

looking for spiders

The hostess with Meta

The host giving a fishing lesson

What more can I say?

Goshen Fair 2010

2010-09-05T22:22:00.000-04:00

Goshen Fair 2010... another three days in the "Town above all others"! What a nice country fair this is. Good local foods, all the right farm animals and country people having a good time eating, dancing and looking at critters, contests and the every interesting History Barn... where I am demonstrating pottery or eating another fair food.

Here is a friend playing his bag pipes again to the enjoyment of the crowds....

And the annual last night of the fair "Pickle Party". Thanks to Helen, we always have a great time sampling her delicious pickle varieties along with snacks and beer!

Cattaraugus and Erie County Fairs... A month in New York State

2010-08-30T07:34:00.000-04:00

This year, I was invited to demonstrate making pottery on my home-made treadle wheel at the Cattaraugus fair in New York State. Cattaraugus is a lovely little fair in Little Valley NY, located in the southwest corner of the state. I camped near the livestock barns and woke every morning to roosters crowing and cattle mooing. The staff was very nice to my group of craft demonstrators. The people in that area of the state were very interested in learning about my craft and sharing with me their interests.

I had a lot of spare time and started to learn how to play the spoons with my friends Deb, Cindy and a local very talented young fellow named Sam.

Roger and Sam in my tent, Roger on the banjo and Sam on the spoons. Deb gave me this lovely old quilt. The quilt has become a conversation piece at my following demonstrations.

Its hard to call demonstrating a job. I spend my days with a great group of craft friends and dress up in costumes. I eat lots of great food, learn about alpaca and roosters and how to show a cow. I meet vendors from all over the USA, like the temporary tattoo couple who turned out to be potters and paint tattoo's on the side! I get to teach people about the history of potters and clay. I learn about different styles of pottery and techniques myself too. And... I make money doing it!

Torrington's first Downtown Street Fair

2010-07-02T08:56:00.003-04:00

http://www.registercitizen.com/articles/2010/07/02/news/doc4c2d6d16eee6d122578063.txt

Had a great time at Torrington CTs first downtown street fair for this year. Torrington is one of those great old industrial towns with great brick buildings so popular at the turn of the last century. The buildings have fine cornices and decorations, with old shops on the bottom floor and apartments and studios above. But with the influx of box stores and shopping malls, our downtown has gone a little shabby. People complain about the lack of parking and their are too many closed stores. After a battle with folks who want to tear down our lovely center buildings to put up cement box stores and parking lots, the Arts Commission, store and business owners are rallying together to get people to come downtown, meet their neighbors, relax and have some fun.

TheWarner Theater was almost demolished years ago. This art deco buildings' roof leaked, carpets torn and stained and paint was pealing everywhere. Some people thought it would be a new parking lot, but local folks got together and raised money to fix it and now, fully restored, it brings in great entertainment and patrons from near and far. This expanded to other businesses. We are so glad that this icon was saved. We have a dance studio, theater studio, micro brewery, sidewalk dining and one-of-a-kind shopping that you cannot get at the box stores.http://www.warnertheatre.com/

I was there last night with my pottery. I got there early, and their was lots of traffic, the streets had not been closed off yet. I considered going back home with my pots, but soon the police had blocked off the street, people set up tents in the middle of the road and I decided to stay. I am glad I did. Over 500 people showed up to hang out, eat, shop, be entertained by live musicians and meet friends. If you missed it, we will be back every Thursday through July and August 5-9 pm. See you there!

June in Connecticut... Sale on Sunday and I am almost ready!

2010-06-04T20:36:00.000-04:00

My temp job at White Flower Farm is over for a few months. Can you imagine me in a cubicle? Answering phones and telling people how to plant daffodils and raspberries, what goes with peonies... tree or herbaceous... why we can't ship that plant to Nevada... tomorrow. Plant people are generally pretty nice and I will miss talking to folks across the USA, Canada and sometimes Europe! The best thing is the plants. These Iris I got last fall and they are coming up beautiful. What a joy it is to step out the back door and be greated by these lovely flowers.

These are some Scarlet Runner Beans. My grampa was a florist on my property, and left hundreds of little red clay flower pots up in the barn. I glazed some in bright colors and planted scarlet runner beans. These are one of my favorite plants as all my friends know. They grow 10 feet high, are easy to grow, have bright red pea flowers and then you can eat the long beans in late summer. Or save the pods and dry the beans for some winter chili.

Plants, Bird houses, Flower pots and my usual Yellow Ware with the lovely feathering pattern will be on sale Sunday, June 6 from 9-5. And don't forget the seconds. Every year on the first Sunday in June, I sell off all the slightly imperfect pots gathered over the past year and sell them at dirt cheep-cheep prices. Get a bowl for $5! Pitchers, mugs... just take it away! Get here early for the best selection.

Happy Summer!

May Day in Connecticut

2010-05-01T20:29:00.000-04:00

Litchfield CT. A beautiful town green surrounded by the most photographed New England white-pillared church, lovely old homes and shops, was the setting for todays open house of the Historical Society. I was there teaching and helping kids and adults learn about early press tile-making. There were children doing stenciled bookmarks and James Vibert was there talking about woodworking and teaching folks how to use a drill or a draw knife.

A tag sale on the way, I bought some thin baby blue yarn for $1. Eight spools to be made into tapes at the next tape loom demonstration. After the kids made lots of tiles, I swung by the Northfield Daffodil farm. The cattle were peacefully grazing next to our local windmill. On the ridge above the Litchfield green is a wonderful view toward New York State in the west. Yes, there is still a lot of country views here in Ct. Continuing on past the Windmill is the Daffodill farm, thousands of daffodils fill the woods and meadows on both sides of the road. further on the road turns to dirt and I saw two vultures today who had found a squirrel dinner. They are such big, uunusual birds but necessary road kill clean up brigade.

And then home again to open the kiln. Today I unloaded some finished tiles from my Tuesday nite group. And some new green glaze colors. A new glaze is always interesting. I mix up my own glazes from Kaolin, Frits, Feldspars, Flints and Coloring Oxides, and with the varying temperatures and clay colors that I use, I never know what will happen with a new glaze. I like todays new colors. My red clay glazes have tended to be rather to bright and shiney for my liking. These new greens and cream are a little more subdued and have a matt surface.

A pleasant day of sunshine and warmth from folks at the Historical Society, met new friends, enjoyed fantastic views and enjoyed the people out on a nice Saturday walking through daffodils, mowing lawns, riding motorcycles and everyone having a good time.

Botswana Bird Houses

2010-03-29T18:10:00.000-04:00

Eight children from the Goshen School made these lovely Botswana Bird Houses today... inspired by Alexander McCall Smiths stories of the #1 Ladies Detective Agency series. These are still wet clay, check back in a couple of weeks to see how they turned out after firing.

Tuesday night handbuilders club starts on Tuesday night April 6 at 6:30. Check my web site or call 860 482 0051 for details... and you can make a Botswana Bird House too, paint it and hang in your yard.

Maple Surple Time

2010-03-08T12:33:00.000-05:00

Surple as a friend of mine calls it... Other people call it... Maple Syrup. Because I am home this time of year, I can make some maple syrup. I have a very small operation. I have two maple trees that I tap, both about 30 feet from my fire pit that I cook on and bake pots in. The trees were planted by my gampa, so I think they must be about 100 years old now. I used to tap more, but they are farther to carry the sap to my wood pit, and I really dont have time or inclination to make more sryup than I need. I put in 4 taps, ugly plastic milk jugs work well, tap spouts are sumac branches. Stag Horn Sumac is pithy inside and it is easy to hollow out 4 inch spouts. I drill the hole into the tree with my brace and bit and tap in the spout. I have cut a hole in the top side of the milk jug (cap back on) and attached it just above the spout with a cord and nail. The hole in the tree will heal up by summer. I feel like I am stealing the trees life blood, but no more so than if a limb had broken off. There are drips from small branches overhead that had broken off in the recent wind, sap dripping onto snow.

I get about 5 gallons of sap a day, just enough to fill my white bucket and put on the pit for my days production. It takes about 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of syrup. I use a turkey pan. big flat bottom with more surface for steam to rise. I have to stoke the fire every half hour or so. The past few days in CT have been above 50, so going out every half hour is very pleasant. At the end of the day, around 8 o'clock after 10 hours of boiling the 5 gallons, I am down to about a gallon of dark yellow liquid. This I bring in the house and finish off on the stove. I get 2 cups of finished syrup from my days work. I put the hot syrup into a pint canning jar and seal it in a hot water bath. I found that using a empty olive oil can saves a lot of time and enery than using a canning pan to seal only 1 pint jar at a time. 10 minutes later, I have another jar to store away for french toast, waffles and maple brandy!

Sap Coffee. Was it Roger that mentioned sap coffee? Well, it is on google! I tried it yesterday. Put sap instead of water into your coffee maker and you get lightly sweetened coffee. Its also good as an iced coffee. With our 50 degree temps, I can sit in the sun on my back deck that used to be snow covered and sip iced maple coffee with my feet up while I watch the sap boil in my fire pit. Talk about a life of luxury!

Upcoming event:

March 14 - Maple Harvest Day - 11:00 am-3:00 pm... Storrowton Village, Big E fairgrounds, Springfield MA
This event focuses on the history and folklore of maple sugar making in New England. The Village will offer demonstrations of tree tapping, sumac spile making and sap boiling in the front yard of the Gilbert Homestead; fireplace cooking, basket weaving and wool spinning demonstrations inside. Storrowton Tavern will offer a special maple-themed menu featuring items unique to this special day. Admission is free.

Alafia Rendezvous, Florida, 2010

2010-01-31T14:12:00.000-05:00

My first ever Alifia. It was nice to have no TV, no electricity, no phone, no car for 10 days. Walking around by candlelight with a bunch of other crazy people experiencing the old days. We had to wear our costumes, drink out of yellow ware steins and eat next to the campfires. It was a good time. I demonstrated weaving on the tape loom for the days when school kids came to visit and the "outsiders". I sold some pottery and met some new friends.

I won 2nd place (out of 17) in the foot race of "A day in the life of a wilderness woman". We ran through the course putting children to bed, washing, cooking and killing varmits. That was a lot of fun. There was a Scot group, Native Americans and folks from many states come together to buy, trade and have a good time.

My Hovel.

Will I go back next year? That is the big question. From CT to Homeland, FL and back was close to 3,000 miles of driving by myself. If I can rope someone else into coming with me, that would be great, but trying to get there and back, 2 days with no stopping to see America inbetween, was the worse.

Early New England Potters and Their Wares

2009-12-29T18:21:00.000-05:00

My lecture on Early New England Potters and their pottery was presented at the Harwinton Library on November 18, 2009. I had created a map of all the potters in New England from 1627 to 1900. There were three groups of the earliest settlers on our Northeastern shores. One was a group of German Immigrants landing in Philadelphia and spreading across Pennsylvania. Another was the Dutch landing in New Amsterdam and spreading into New Jersey and up the Hudson. The other group was the English landing near what is now Boston.

The colonies of New England in the 1600s included Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Haven, Plymouth and Massachusetts. New Hampshire and Maine were part of Massachusetts and Vermont was held by New York till 1777. So New York was not considered part of New England even though the borders shifted over the following years.

The first mention of a potter in Salem, Massachusetts in 1629. Rev Higginson wrote in a letter:

“It is thought here is good clay to make bricke, and Tyles and Earthen pots, as need be. At this instant, we are setting a brick-kill on worke to make Brickes and Tyles for the building of our houses.”

Potters were not usually listed as occupations on early census. They usually had other employment, ferrymen, inn keepers or farmers. They passed down their skills to sons, nephews, cousins, brothers and occasionally a wife or daughter. They may have taken on an apprentice who started as a child and did the hard work for five to seven years. Many of the relatives and apprentices moved to other areas to start their own pottery.

Small red ware potteries florished, over 400 potters turned the humble clay into serviceable objects.

One of the local potters in the Northwest corner of CT was Hervey Brooks. Hervey is famous because he kept excellent records. He was a potter in Goshen in the early 1800s and wrote in his journals what pots he made, where he sold them, bricks, trades, working at other jobs and how much supplies cost and sold for. His building was moved to Sturbridge Village in MA. A reconstructed kiln and excellent staff teach people about the potters simple life two hundred years ago.
Hervey was somehow influenced by the Germans in decorating with sliptrailing. Most red ware potters here just used black, green or clear glazes.

In doing the research for this lecture, I came across several receipts for flowerpots my family had purchased in the late 1800s for their florist business in Brooklyn NY. The industrial revolution had a big influence on the small town potteries. With the use of jiggers and jollys, the factories could turn out thousands of identical pots in half the time it would have taken Hervey to throw one.

I have very few original red ware pieces. The above plate by Hervey is privately owned. The shard next to it was given to me by a good friend and it is hard to tell if this is Herveys or one of his predicessors, John Pierce, Jonathon Kettle, John Norton or Jesse Wadhams.

The 3" flower pot to the right was found in my grampas greenhouse. I wonder if it was made by the Hews Company over 100 years ago. The pottery made by two hands squeezing clay as it spins on a wooden wheel like this little flower pot with its lumps and flaws is somehow more appealing than factory made pots of the industrial age.

This is the reason some of us still make things slowly, contemplatively with our hands... it is in the making and the imperfections our hands create that shows a bit of ourselves.

2009-12-27T10:30:00.006-05:00

My newest side-line product. A Christmas seed packet. I was answering phones at the plant company in my little cubicle when someone called to ask if we sell seeds. The woman wanted some special seeds to put into her husbands Christmas stocking.

Bing! Another great idea. This is a watercolor of my grandaughter, Isobel. The seeds are Scarlet Runner Beans. I printed them up at Staples and packaged up the beans for Christmas gifts to family and friends. I fell in love with Scarlet Runner Beans years ago. They grow 6-10 feet tall up trellises or houses or telephone poles. They have abundant bright red flowers. The flowers are edible in salads. The long string beans taste great and you can let them go to seed and make a nice chili next winter! What a beautiful and versatile plant.

How does this connect with pottery? My grampa was a florist and left me a house, barn and greenhouse parts. This may be the year I finally put up a makeshift greenhouse from the old redwood window panes he left behind to add to the ambiance in my yard. And, working at a plant company, I have access to some wonderful plants. This coming May, I will have my first May Day... Pottery with Plants Sale. I am designing some new pots for tulip, hyacinths and daffodil bulbs that can be grown on your back deck or porch. Buy a pot and get a free plant! Pottery and Plants are an obvious combination. And, you will be able to buy the new packets of Spring Magic Beans!

Happy New Year to you all!

Martha Stewarts Yellow Ware... the story of plates

2009-12-15T08:17:00.003-05:00

Martha Stewart collects old yellow ware, along with lots of other folks. I think many collectors use the low pie plates for their place settings. Although yellow ware has been produced since the 1600s, dinnerware plates and sets made from these yellow clays where not generally made until the mid 1800s when they were mass produced with the use of a "Jigger". Jiggering is a method of making pottery by pressing a ball of clay into a plaster form on a potters wheel. This doesn't take much skill and was a form of mass producing pottery. Plates made by jiggering were made with flat rims like the plates you buy everywhere today. However, the flat rims tend to warp and fall while being fired in the kiln. Large potteries used rolls of clay between plates to support the rims during firing.

Before the large factories took over the small potteries in the 1800s, plates were not made by small potteries because of the warping and complications in firing.

My plates have slightly raised and rounded rims, with a rolled edge. This keeps them from warping and mades them a little more durable. Hand thrown pottery plates are a little heavier than the pressed plates but they have their own charm. Visit my web site for more information on dinner ware. www.eastknollpottery.com

Goshen Center School

2009-12-04T22:27:00.002-05:00

Working with the great kids at Goshen School this week. Our pottery class is making Christmas jars and ornaments for their trees. Kids have great imaginations and like to play in the clay!

The Flames from The Sawdust

2009-10-31T16:33:00.009-04:00

My first sawdust firing was a grand success!
I fired the pots yesterday. Being October, I was waiting for a day I had time to do this and dry enough. I started a fire in my grill the day before to heat up the wet bricks and had the fire blazing all day. The pots are made of local Red Clay. I had made some of them on my treadle wheel and some of them by coil. Most decorated with shells. They were plenty dry, but I placed them on the grill over new hot coals the next morning to heat them up and remove moisture. My bricks I had mortered with my stoneware clay earlier this summer and they have dried and heated up over the summer BBQ's to set the clay pretty well. I wanted the mortar to be temporary. I can easily knock these apart to make a new kiln or use them for something else.

When the coals yesterday were down to a small glowing log, I raked it around and set 3 inches of very dry sawdust on the bottom. I then carefully placed the pots about 2" apart, bigger ones on the bottom filled with sawdust and small pots or whimseys. 3 more inches of sawdust on top and then another layer of smaller pots. I kept them about 3 inches from the walls with 4 inches of sawdust on the very top, a layer of crumpled newspaper and my burning piece of log. Soon the paper caught on fire and the sawdust began to burn and smoke. I placed a tin lid on the top and left it to smolder.

16 hours later, the next morning at 8:00, the sawdust had burned down with only a dotting of hot sawdust embers and the pots were cool enough to handle. And here are the results.

The pots are still fragile. The smoke and carbon have turned most of them black, but the effect is quite pleasing. And they are hard.

The last photo has a spash of yellow. This is where I actually put a diagonal band of yellow vanadium slip. Most of any colors I applies has disapeared or turned black.

Now I have to wait till spring for another attempt... glazing in saggers perhaps?

2009-10-11T08:48:00.006-04:00

So Many Photos And So Little Space! For more photos of this years Big E go to my Flickr page...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29942392@N08/sets/
Little Isobel came along this year in her new dress I made (while at the fair). It's always nice to see my old friends, many who I only see once a year, both at the Village and the visitors.

Met many new, interesting folks this year. The kids had a great time making marbles. Marbles are so simple... easy to make with many games to make up... but they are also a history lesson too. Clay marbles have been made everywhere and from long, long ago. They are decorated with colored clays, fired and then make durable toys. Of course many have been lost during play and the old ones still turn up in peoples homes and yards.

This year, a source of fun and interest for our reenactor group was a box of buttons brought in by Guy. Yes, we had a great time sorting our hundreds of brass, bone, shell buttons, along with many other little oddities; hindges, pins, toys, clips, needles. Many were very old. Some of the buttons were very interesting. Not much source of fun for everyone, but for those of us interested in history, this little box brought on many a conversation about the old days. I made an impression of some of the buttons in a clay bat and will be used as stamps in my pottery in the future.

Now back at home, I am battening down the hatches for the upcoming snow and ice. Closing off the "Cellar Pottery Cave", getting out the quilts, cleaning out the pellet stove and buying some new thermals! Its going to be 30 degrees tomorrow morning!

I made over 700 mini pots at this fair alone. Now I have to sort, fire and glaze them all... with tweezers! Started potting in the "Cellar Pottery Cave" yesterday. I am working in the cellar of my old house this winter. Half the floor is still dirt. With the dirt and hugh stone walls it is like working in a cave.

Pottery classes start next week at Goshen Center School. We do an afterschool pottery project for one week each month. We have a great time and kids come up with some wonderful pottery. You can see some on my web site... http://www.eastknollpottery.com/id12.html

Goshen Fair 2009

2009-09-14T20:44:00.011-04:00

Another great year at the Goshen Fair, Goshen, CT. The weather was perfect.

I get to work in the lean-to addition in the front.

Goshen Fair is a small, but fun-filled fair up the the Northwest Corner of CT. One of the earliest New England potters, Hervey Brooks, lived right down the road, along with Jesse Wadhams and Jonathan Kettell, made functional redware pottery from the clay in Goshen in the late 1700s till the mid 1800s.

Herveys' pottery barn has been moved to Sturbridge village in MA.

So I feel right at home here in this simple country town and among woodcutters, ax-throwers, tractors, barnyard, farmers and stitchers displaying their skills and their wares.

See you next year in Goshen!

Another year at Erie County Fair

2009-08-28T10:42:00.012-04:00

Another great time demonstrating at the Erie County Fair in NYS.

This year, I brought along some new Slip trays, Face Jugs, Wall Pockets, Butter Jars and of course lots of Miniatures!

The Miniatures sold like hot cakes! It is so much fun to make them on my old treadle wheel. I made red clay Minis and miniature Scraffito Plates, Stoneware Whistle Jugs and Tiny Butter Churns. The smallest Jug I made was 1/2" tall, and yes, it was hollow. People ask me what are these Minis for, and I say.. "Nothing!" "Just for Fun!" I made over 400 Miniatures at the fair this year. I can box them up when dry and at $3 each, will easily sell them at my next fair... which is the Goshen Fair in CT. (My local fair is small but it is the "Fair above all others" for us. Labor Day Weekend. )

....................This year, I had Austin back to help out. His dad is the demonstrating Blacksmith and last year, Austin made a nice tile. Often, I ask kids to help me out, and Nathan put a face on a little jug for me. He and my other little helpers got to take their pots home. Sometimes, kids and I do a marble swap. I bring some wonderfully colorful and smoothly burnished Old-Tyme Clay Marbles along, fired and ready to use. The kids make me a marble out of fresh clay trying to make them perfectly round and then we swap for a finished one. Clay marbles are dried and then rolled around in a metal bowl with a mix of water and colored oxides. As they rub against the bowl and each other, they acquire a nice patina that is enhanced when fired.

Along with meeting some really great people, other crafters, locals, visitors and staff, I reconnected again with Athena and Pete who let me hold Butchy the snake. Butchy is a 7' phython and very friendly. Here is Roger the Bowlmaker, a giant broom specially made by Little John and me with Butchy. You can find more information about John and Roger at my web site on the "Reenactors I know" page. http://www.eastknollpottery.com/id18.html

Athena and Pete are the owners of Butchy the snake and the other larger snakes they bring for people to marvel over.

For more photos of the people and attractions at the Erie County Fair, check out this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29942392@N08/?saved=1

Paulette and Barry are fairgoers that live "off the grid". I had a great time visiting with them everyday and learning of their solor and heating meathods. The sweetest couple in the world have been married 34 years!

I miss all of these friends and wish them a year of happiness and success till I see them again next year!

2009-06-27T08:12:00.008-04:00

Summer is here and I will spend the month of July at home making lots of pottery for upcoming fall exhibitions. And teaching kids pottery, Tuesday nite Handbuilders club and my occassional Potters Wheel student.

Its a busy month, but I hope to spend some time enjoying my yard. The garden has been visited by a lovely elegant Doe. She ate the tops off 4 of my 8 sunflowers. I now have dog hair decorating the surviving sunflowers and most of my bean and pea plants. Sigh. If she wasn't so elegant and beautiful, I would call my brother, the hunter over. But no, I will just try to get her to move on.

I have some new clients for my pottery. White Memorial Foundation in Litchfield will now be offering some face jug birdhouses, garden sculptures and other decorative and usefull pottery pieces.

Stop by to see a wide variety of new pottery and tour the 200 year old pottery barn...or sign up to take a class. Click on my web site to see more about the pottery and classes... www.eastknollpottery.com

Old Deerfield Village 2009

2009-06-22T06:31:00.007-04:00

Old Deerfield Village's craft fair was not very well attended this year. The forcast predicted heavy rain, but as usual, the forcast was wrong. The sun came out between patches of clouds, and the light misting was a relieft to the heat.

Sold out all of my new little red birds. They look great in your garden or house plants and people also bought them for flower arrangements. Their bright red color attracted many customers.

Lots of mini pots were made and sold too. It was a good weekend for me with sales. I saw many old customers and crafters to catch up with. Talked to some other potters about our craft and ate lots of blueberry perogies.

Home again for the month of July to make some stock and teach children pottery making. And, I hope to finally get my greenhouse up.

My new Face Jug Birdhouses were a big hit also... adds a little fun to your yard and attracts the birds too!

Treadling at Mercer

2009-05-16T09:19:00.003-04:00

Reggie the potter, daughter Erin and granddaughter Isobel, the youngest apprentice at 17 months old, working on the old wooden treadle wheel at Mercer Museums Folk Fest in Dolyestown PA.

Mercer Museum 2009

2009-05-15T06:10:00.010-04:00

Another great year at the Mercer Museum in Pennsylvania. This is a wonderful place to hang out for a weekend. The crafters are experts in their fields, fashioning with enthusiam furniture, baskets, pottery, weavings, soap, paintings, so much more and even home brewed beer over a wood fire.

The lifestyle of the traditional craftsmen are in a world of their own. They have studied and practiced their craft. They have sought the simpler way of making useful and decorative crafts.

People have told me I can get a motor for my potters wheel instead of the slow steady kick of my wooden treadle, but that would defeat the purpose. The idea of starting a craft from scratch, a piece of wood, a ball of clay, a hank of wool... and slowly and meditatively turning those raw materials into a work of art; semetrical, smooth flowing lines, perfect balance... is not something to be rushed, but worked on subconsiously, meditatively, slowly. The craftsmens hands caress their work and instill a bit of themselves into it.

And the end product reflects the craftsmens lifestyle, practice, patience and skill.

Campfire Cookery

2009-04-29T20:04:00.006-04:00

I have moved on to experimenting with campfire cooking.

These are my pottery crocks for cooking on campfires. My first attempt, was to throw some greased pottatoes in the crock on the left and stick it near the coals. It took about 40 minutes and they were soft and great!

My second attempt was not so good. They must have been too far from the coals and after 2 hours, yes they were soft.

Tonight I mix together 2 eggs, 2 cups of milk, 1/2 cup brown sugar, 4 tablespoons of butter in the crock. Then I crumbled a dry loaf of french bread crumbled into chunks. A handful of raisons and half an apple then went into the mix. 1 hour near the coals and it was perfect.

In the other crock, I placed 1 inch cubes of potatoes, carrots, pork, shredded cabbage, garlic, onion and salt and pepper. I stuffed it in and filled the crock with beer. This mix took about 1 and 1/2 hours to soften the potatoes.

The crocks held up well, no cracks even when the flames got 2 " to the crocks. I wouldn't suggest the flames get any closer, and most of my logs were coals when I put the cold crocks in. The lids kept the steam in and both turned out quite tasty.

2009-04-11T07:36:00.008-04:00

Spring Again!

After a cold winter, working in my Cellar Cave under my house, I am ready to move back into my Barn Workshop!

I have spread wood chips on my parking lot, they were free thanks to my son-in-law. Hopefully they will keep down the mud... we'll see how they work out.

Some new things I am working on are the marbled tiles and small trays. I was inspired by a friend, John Bielik (periodpaper@yahoo.com) who does beautiful marbled paper. (You can see him and his work on my web site: http://www.eastknollpottery.com/id18.html.

Colored clay slips are placed on red clay tile and shaped into fields and flowers with the use of a pin. Also, I am working on a line of new Bird Houses. My face jugs were so popular last year, I decided to make some with a useful purpose and to help out the birds.

Happy Spring!

Marbled Slipware... Part 1

2009-02-25T18:47:00.003-05:00

Will Spring Ever Get Here!
Connecticut has been cold for months. I wake up, look at the thermostat outside my kitchen window and say, "Oh look, its 20 degrees". Again. Sunny days are nice, but I want the snow and ice in my driveway to go away. I want to sit on the porch in the sunshine. I want to plant seeds.

My winter project... rather, one of my winter projects are these slipware plates. They are decorated with colored slips on red clay. Liquid colored clay is positioned on the wet red clay coating and with the use of a pen point colors are dragged to produce lovely flowers, leaves and swirls. Come see me working on these this year at my many demonstrations, web site http://www.eastknollpottery.com/.

Tape Loom Demonstration in Newtown CT

2008-12-14T19:27:00.004-05:00

Newtown Historical Society, December 2008

Many people came out to Newtowns Winter Festival inspite of the cold. Here at the Historical Society, located in the Matthew Curtiss House on Main Street, was build around 1750. Much of the house is original including the impressive kitchen fireplace.

I set up my table tape loom, seen here being operated by a member of the museum staff. Two young girls were in costume to help too, and they soon learned how to weave on this simple loom.

I sat nearby in my 1800s outfit, keeping warm and working my paddle loom as shown in previous blog entries.

Come see their spring event on May17, I will be demonstrating pottery on my treadle wheel.

Christmas at Storrowton Village

2008-12-14T19:22:00.004-05:00

Storrowton Village at the Big E Fairground in Springfield MA is decorated every December for Christmas. This year the Volunteers and Staff did a wonderful job of decorating the old houses and buildings in the Early American tradition. Fruit slices, garlands of nuts and berries, greenery, fabric wreaths and cinnamon and spice. There was even an ice sculpture and live animals on the green.

I was there with some fellow crafters, braving the cold in the old barn. A broommaker, chair carver, hat maker and me demonstrating Scraffito pottery in miniature, all huddled in the barn demonstrating our skills. The fireplace kept us pretty warm this year. The weather was dry and there was no breeze.

Check it out next year if you are looking for another way to celebrate the Christmas season, you will not be disapointed! And its FREE!!! http://www.thebige.com/Yuletide/index.html

Tape Loom Class

2008-12-07T07:19:00.000-05:00

--Republican American, November 19th 2008

The first class was to my Goshen kids at Camp Coch this summer. The children did a nice job... but there were too many in the classes!

My second class teaching the fine art of Early American Tape making was at the Litchfield Historical Society. I was excited to hear that 13 people signed up, but was a little leary of that many people working in a tangle of threads and fitting around a room.

My paddle tape loom boards need to be attached to a door handle or something firm about 4 feet from the weaver. I attached cup hooks every 12 inches to a narrow plank and clamped this to a table. Then the weavers attached their warp threads to these hooks and placed chairs in a semi circle around the room.

I soon found 13 was quite a number of people to fit into this room and finish in an hour and a half! The set up of any loom is the longest and tedious part of the set up. Once the students got set up though and realized how the loom works, they did a beautiful job. We just ran out of time to get much tape finished!

Some bought a loom, and others planned to make one themselves. Some can now say they have learned something new and have a piece of weaving to prove it. These looms are simple to make and work and once they crasped the concept, I hope they will be able to tell others how looms work. It is another bit of history too. In years past, women would take these simple looms to friends houses or work on making rolls of tapes for future use in their spare time. Tapes like these were used as ties and bindings on clothing and fabrics before the use of zippers and mass produced ribbons.

There is a page on my web site if you would like to learn more about them.

Harwinton Fair, CT

2008-12-07T06:44:00.001-05:00

My first year at the Harwinton Fair... October 2008... Only 10 minutes from my house, but in October! Cold weather and making pottery is not usually a fun time. Putting your hands into water and exposing them to the cold air for hours is a chilling experience. But the Harwinton Fair people offered me an inside spot out of the wind in their beautiful Historical Building.

I met a new group of re-enactors... new group to me. I was invited to lunch, a fabulous meal cooked outside on their campfires. I enjoyed their company and insites into their re-enactors experiences and learned the craft of rope-making.

The giant mushrooms on my front lawn are an annual October occurance, but have nothing to do with re-enacting... just really neat!

Another Good Time at The Big E...Storrowton Village

2008-11-25T19:34:00.001-05:00

Goshen Fair, CT... "Town above all others"

2008-11-25T19:13:00.001-05:00

Goshen Fair 2008... My 8th year!I am still loving the Goshen Fair. It is still a small country fair, baked goods, sheep, cows, wood chopping, oxen pulls, tractors, kids and a lot of food.Nodines Smoke house makes great sausage sandwiches, there is a great clam chowder... with hot sauce, strawberry sundays and turkey legs... all you could wish for in fine fair cuisine. I get my own room! I demonstrate pottery in the milk shed attached to the Antiques barn at the main entrance. Here are a few of my fellow demonstrators.

The photo on the right is an object amongst the hundreds of old tools on display. No one can figure this one out though. It is about 30" tall. HELP!!!

America's Fair, Hamburg, New York State

2008-09-04T22:20:00.000-04:00

Well, I went to my first pottery demonstration at America's Fair in Hamburg NY. Met some re-enactor friends, met some new friends, ate lots of great food, sold some pots, went to my first bus demolition and danced at the Beatles tribute concert.

New redware tiles sold well. Also sold quite a few face jugs.

Scotland 2008

2008-07-26T07:18:00.000-04:00

Scotland!!!!

I finally got a stamp in my passport! I finally got a passport! As a wedding guest a second time in one week, I flew off to Edinburgh, Scotland with some dear friends and my daughter, her husband and my little grandbaby girl. I went as a sort of "au pair", but after meeting the parents of the bride and groom, was invited to a most beautiful and fun 6 hour wedding, I joined in the festivities. It was wonderful to meet these folks from Scotland, they were so warm and friendly and took us on tours of castles and places of interest. We saw the Rosslyn Chapel, had tea and scones at a lovely inn, fish, chips and warm beer at a pub by the bay. The brides dad warmly met us at the airport and drove us to our flat in an old renovated church less than a mile from Edinburgh castle. The grooms dad gave me tips on finding out about early Scottish pottery. As an interior designer, he shared my enthusiam for restoring old building and appreciating true craftmenship. The grooms mom made us a dinner in their lovely old stone cottage... a gourmet meal with great conversation couldn't be beat! The brides mom gave me a place at the wedding feast and another meal that couldn't be beat. I went to my first "Ceilidh", pronouced Kailey, a sort of square dance... only with very fast Scottish music, lots of swinging and stomping and whooping. And lots of banging into each other and falling down.. which just added to the fun.

And it was nice to meet the bride and groom. A lovely and interesting couple, I am glad I got a chance to talk to them and learn about them. God bless Fraser and Denise.

I also found the mysterious pottery shard beach at Bo'ness. I had found this on a web site. A beach where pottery shards and kiln furniture were dumped. There were about 8 potteries in Bo'ness in the 1700s-1800s. They are all gone and it seems most people have forgotten them. It took awhile to find the spot. I wonder if the Scottish take sport in giving tourists misinformation. The maps of the area were wrong, sometimes it was hard to understand their accent and there was an odd communications barrier. But perhaps that was my interpretation. I did find the beach, I found lots of shards that would not interest most people. Except a potter or historian. The clays they used were I think white paste porcelain that I later learned was shipped up from England. I found they started using red clays from this area. The white shards were decorated with colored brushwork and a lot of cut sponge designs. Some pots were unglazed probably broken before they could be finished. The kiln stilts were interesting, I found hand rolled clay used for supports and blobs of clay used to separate pots. Lots of red brick.

A couple days later, I set off in Edinburgh to find the Huntly House. This was suggested for me by the Scottish Pottery Society beforehand. The Huntly House in not in all the tourist books. And I cound not find it on the Royal Mile till I found the street number. 142 Cannongate. There is no sign for the Huntly house, it is called the Museum of Edinburgh. The guide inside told me I had found the Huntly house. It was very interesting. Lot of maps of the early days of Edinburgh. As the grooms father had told me, most of the 1500 buildings are still here. The guide was kind enough to give me a private tour of the 3rd floor pottery room. Here is where I needed to stay longer. A variety of beautiful glazes and styles of pottery are on display. I left Scotland without finding out where the yellow clays were from... silly to most but I need to find out where their clay mines were, what color clays were where, where they mined out.

There was too much to see and do and not enough time. Now, for my next trip... romantic Hamburg NYS! Well, to camping out in a field at a fairgrounds and demonstrating pottery in the historical reenactment section! That will be fun too. Life is an adventure.

Mural for a Wedding

2008-07-26T06:23:00.000-04:00

I finished two walls of murals for my friends wedding. They are in an old house built in 1786. The house has been in the same family for all these years. That is quite rare. My friend, the owner of the house, gave me suggestions on what she wanted on her walls. But when one starts to paint, things just come out of your hand... ideas pop into your head and you paint them down... so I hope she is happy with it. It seems kind of bright for an old house. There was a famous painter, Rufus Porter, that did murals in the 1800s. His murals were a style all his own, whispy trees, block houses, folk style animals. One of the problems in recreating "reproduction murals" and many other reproductions like pottery, tin, painted furniture... is that the colors were bright when they were painted years ago. The people back then wanted to brighten up their belongings and surroundings. Now, 100 years or more later, the colors have faded and we modern people like that old faded look.

So what does an artist do? Do we use faded worn colors so our walls, furniture and pottery look old, or do we use bright colors with our new paints?

I am hoping my new mural will fade a little. The family will put fingerprints on the walls, Fenway the dog will shake mud on the walls, someone will scratch the paint when moving a table around. It will wear and blend in with the rest of the house eventually.

Someone asked me at the wedding what it was like living in an old house. I find it comforting. In my friends house and mine we know the names of all the people who lived here before us. We can imagine all the babies born in the house before hospitals and also all the people who died in the house. We can imagine conversations around the kitchen table, dogs sitting by the hearth. In my house, my grandparents were married by the mantel in the livingroom, and years later my grandfather died in that same room late one nite in his sleep. Twins were born in my bedroom. One died and one was cripped but lived to old age on Cape Cod. His sister wrote to me and told me how the house looked when she lived there.

My house was built by a family who had three girls. One girl died at age 19 of "consumption of the brain". My grandfather bought the house from her niece in 1927. There were another set of twins, Randolph and Winthrop Davis that rented the house for a few years around 1910. I have photos of them with their sheep "Peter Tumbledown". One photo showed the family purposely wearing silly hats holding buckets of blueberries they just picked. I like that, that the people here had a sense of family and humor. Our old houses are filled with sounds of the past as we continue to imprint ourselves into the house by painting murals, remodeling, restoring and living.

So anyway, the mural on the wall will continue soon, I have the stair wall, the big tree and a hall way upstairs to do too!

Old Deerfield Village in Massachusetts

2008-06-23T10:11:00.000-04:00

6:00 am on Sunday before the crowds and before the rain...>

Well, it rained again at Old Deerfield Villages Craft Fair. I was there demonstrating and teaching about the early New England clays and the potters that formed the clay into useful objects. This year we had a photographer that made old tintypes. And of course there were many craftspeople selling their wares and lots of great food. What a lovely setting in this quiet old community. Lovely old homes and an area full of history.

The Old Deerfield Museum boasts old buildings to tour, a photography exhibit, old tools, quilts... I was amazed at the quilt with over 82,000 tiny pieces of fabric, samplers, tavern signs and lots of old pottery... my favorite of course. You can visit their web site at http://www.historic-deerfield.org/ and plan a time to visit.

I brought my tape looms, Old Deerfield has an extensive collection of these looms.

I will be teaching classes in this early craft around the CT area this year... check my web site for listings or schedule a class at your place or mine. http://eastknollpottery.com/id22.html

Update on The Lorax & Innulas...

2008-06-20T22:38:00.000-04:00

The Lorax has been bisque fired and the Innulas are out.... finally!!

I finished the Lorax statue that I made to put among the Innulas. You can see below that I finished sculpting it on April 20 and here it is June 20. The Lorax is out in the garden and the Innulas just came out in full bloom this week.

The Innulas are really this yellow! They sure brighten the yard. The shaggy petals do look like they belong in a Dr. Suess book don't you think?

Happy Summer!

Its Spring... Finally!!!

2008-05-01T18:50:00.001-04:00

Josh is building us a

gazebo out of logs and

sticks. You can see it behind

the clay birdhouses and the

clay bird bath guy. See my

web site to see how the

Goshen & Torrington school

kids made these unusual

bird condos.

My new Almond tree

survived the winter! Yeh!

And here it is with pink

blossoms infront of the

tree fort and tree face.

Below is the new clay Rabbit.

He is that small sculpture,

way up above the fish pool.

He is made of red clay,

overfired to cone 4, which

made him hard and metallic.

And my newly painted sign for Spring! The 2 quart pitcher has a hole in the bottom to attach it to the pole, and for drainage in the freezing cold winter...that is now over...amen.

Three years ago, our little cat Fiona got hit by

a car. She was the sweetest cat you ever saw.

Orange, white and grey. She was found in a

garage in town, in a pipe. Her mom had died, but

she and her sister, Sweet Pea, survived and have had good homes. When I first saw the scrawny little thing, I thought...{what and ugly kitten}. But she turned out quite pretty.

She liked to go "way up". She climbed to the top of cupboards, sheds, bookcases, and even climbed

into the kitchen ceiling as I was replacing it.

We miss her, but are glad to have shared some good times... she with us, and we with her.

Dr. Seuss & The Lorax... "I speak for the trees..."

2008-04-20T19:49:00.000-04:00

A couple of years ago I worked at White Flower Farm, a well known greenhouse in CT. I fell in love with the Innula flower. It reminded me of Dr. Seuss and I sold one to a customer following a conversation about Dr. Seuss and how much the flowers looked like his world.

So I brought home about 50 of them as roots and planted them in a mass "grave" in my veggie garden till I could figure out what to do with them. Last spring I planted a 3 x 8 foot space... with just Innula's. They came up, all blossomed at once and I knew I had to make a Dr. Seuss sculpture for the garden. Today I finally did. I chose the Lorax, for "he speaks for the trees". Soon he will be standing on a stump in the mist of Innulas in full blossom!

This Lorax was made with red clay. I will over-fire it so it will have a metalic, tight bond... and will look like iron.

Oddly enough, my son-in-law is an arborist, although he has been out trimming trees in my yard, he is careful not to cut them all down like the Once-ler.

Tune in later to see the finished Lorax in the garden.

Also, I made some baby dragons today to go with the nest of dragon eggs that Alicia and I made a few weeks ago. All out of clay...

What a charmed life I live, to sit outside on a warm spring Sunday afternoon sculpting with clay and listening to the birds!

Demonstrating on a foot-powered treadle wheel...

2008-04-11T13:56:00.000-04:00

I have a new 1800s wood treadle wheel that was designed after one of our local potters, Hervey Brooks, nearby in Goshen, CT. Hervey was a farmer who dug up red clay on his property and turned household wares and flower pots in the mid 1800s. There were hundreds of potters in the early days of European settlements in New England. Not every town had a potter and some towns had many. Potteries in the smaller towns tended to be a part time job and quite a few potteries were often passed down to sons and son-in-laws.

This wheel is foot-powered and is made entirely of wood with a steel shaft and pins. The shaft is a crank style mechanism like an old treadle sewing machine. There are no ball bearings, just a strip of leather with grease to keep the shaft from rubbing on the frame and crank. The wheel head is a circle of oak.

It goes very slow. At first I doubted I could make anything on this wheel, but after I resigned to the fact that trying to make it go faster would only tire me out and cause "disturbances". Pottery should be a peaceful, relaxing craft. And once I relaxed and got into the rythum of my foot moving, the wheel noises and adjusted my mind and hands accordingly, I learned to love it. Old machines and tools are so quiet. The sounds they do make are clicks and clacks and tend to relax you rather than the whirl of engines and modern machinery.

Below is the wheel mechanism... and a few of the tools used for trimming and decorating.

Above... close-up of the wheel head... pressing whistles in a plaster mold...

We set off into the world as sutlers...

2008-04-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

Museums, civil war events, fairs and villages...

Lately, we have been attending more

re-enactments. We have our new

sutler tent set-up. After a few trials

and errors as to the design... what

to use for posts, how thick the rope

should be, and several other attempts

at tie downs (the 8" nails painted black

from Home Depot pulled out, so we

now have 12" nails painted black

from Home Depot)... still these are not

strong enough... I am praying the

wind does not rise up toooo much.

I am thinking about painting a
"Rufus Porter" mural on the back wall.

And what to do about shelves? My old

crates and planks seem to be working well.

Wrapping it all up in brown paper and

bits of strings is my next plan to round

out the overall effect of stepping back

in time.

A day on our farm...c. 2008!

2008-04-11T13:16:00.001-04:00

One lovely, warm and sunny spring day in April, we set up our canvas sutlers tent,

donned our costumes,

dressed up the new babe,

and set out to take some

old time photos....

It was a bit breezy too...

Our sutlers tent above...

Our new babe below...

Erin working on the tape loom....

Reggie... Early American Pottery & Crafts

2008-04-11T12:49:00.000-04:00

Here is some pottery for

Revolutionary War,

Civil War,

& Early American Re-enactors...

We make Yellow Wares,

Mocha Wares,

Red Wares,

Stone Wares,

Cut Sponge,

Fun Clay pieces like:

Fire place Cookery,

Face Jugs,

Marbles,

Clay Pipes,

Chamber pots,

Spittoons,

and so much more....

Some of our styles....