Face the facts...

People like face jugs!  I have never understood the fascination with these pieces, but there are so many potters and so many collectors that really go crazy over these jugs?  So in the spirit of Catawba Valley potters and the obsession with face jugs dad turned a pitcher and we put 3 faces on it.  One by B.R. Hilton, one by Robert Hilton, and one by me...probably the only thing like this you will ever see with all three of us, but it was really fun! 

left: Robert Hilton  center: B.R. Hilton  right: Heather Hilton

I think it's only appropriate that the face jug was a Christmas gift for my aunt Linda...the biggest fan any of Hilton pottery any of us could have!

family works for free right?

I'm sure hoping so! ha!  I put my brother (Robert) to work on creating a logo for Heather Hilton pottery.  I mean, if I'm going to keep making it I might as well have the full marketing to support the process right?  Ha ha!  So anyway, after spending three times the amount of time I have spent turning creating a "signature" and driving Robert absolutly bonkers with my constant "what if you moved this here..." and "oh no, I like it better over there" I think we have a logo! 


artist at work...


He created the logo from one of my earliest pieces, a little pot with rings on the side.  He is quite a talented artist and I think he really was happiest showing off his fancy tablet drawing board and computer programs.

oh glazing, how you infuriate me!

Like it's not hard enough to turn the pieces, trim the pieces, and bisque fire them...then you have to glaze them!  If you haven't had the joy of this experience yet, let me just tell you...it can all be over with one wrong dip...ha!

So, another lesson learned the hard way (or possibly the hard-headed way) is don't experiment with glazes on pieces you like, use the ones that you aren't sure about to try new things on...

My winter man, and my dogwoods are just a little off in the coloring, but that coffee mug with the floral design, it is a HOT MESS!  The glaze ran down and clumped, the color is okay but boy was it too thick! Gotta work on my glazing skills before the next time around.