Goshen Fair 2010

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.