I think Santa reads my blog!

So after I started opening Christmas gifts this year, I decided Santa has a few helpers...and clearly the elves read my pottery blog! Ha ha!

I got underglazes, overalls, and then there was this odd shaped gift under the tree...no guesses what it was? Ha ha! A new 5 gallon bucket to replace the one Murphy claimed a few weeks back!

(You may recall a skating episode through dad's shop after a cracked 5 gallon bucket of freshly mixed glaze, ugh!) Thanks Tommy, I will put it to great use!

If necessity is the mother...

If necessity is the mother of invention, then creativity is the crazy "stage mom" who believes her child is going to be a superstar! Ha ha! (My ideas are greater than my skill set...)

Nevertheless, sometimes you have a few trial and error attempts, right? I'm working on a few new ideas...but with new ideas come new issues! (plenty of them)

Speaking of mothers, at Thanksgiving this year we sat down for a traditional dinner with mine, but something was missing! (Now if you know my family well, there is NEVER a shortage of food, so clearly that wasn't the issue). We needed trivets! A pot holder to place underneath the hot dishes on the dining table....

...don't have what you need? Make it! I am cautiously optimistic that one of my "big ideas" will work out. (But as you all know...the kiln is the enemy, so nothing's set in stone yet...or should I say "set in stoneware" ha ha!)

Keep your fingers crossed, and I will update you all as the other ideas take shape!

Using my own words against me...

Don't you hate it when someone ruins a perfectly good rant with logic? Yeah, me too! Ha ha!

So dad calls to tell me how awesome those flur-de-lis coffee cups turned out. (I had glazed them last time I was there and anxiously anticipated the reveal). I have to say, the kiln firing fairy that lives in the shop makes pottery so much easier! You simply turn it and sign it and the kiln fairy bisque fires it...then you glaze it and the kiln fairy fires it again!

Therein lies the issue...this time the kiln fairy also sold it...before I got to see it! Ha ha! So someone out there has a set of matching coffee cups that I made which I have never seen! Too funny!

I hope they enjoy them, because as my dad so happily reminded me I always tell him "the object is to sell pots!" Thanks dad, you are right...

If Midas touches things that turn to gold...

...then today belonged to Murphy!

Murphy's Law exhibit #1: nothing, and I mean NOTHING that went near the wheel today became pottery...it was a lot more like "hey let's watch you attempt to center, attempt to pull, and then it can all fall apart."

Murphy's Law exhibit #2: Know what 5 gallons of freshly mixed glaze does when the plastic bucket it's mixed in cracks? Well, I do! And so does dad's freshly "glazed" shop floor! It went EVERYWHERE and is the slickest, stickiest mess you have ever seen!

Murphy's Law exhibit #3: fine, no turning today...I get it, so...let's do some slab work. Except, without boring you to death in details, lets just say it worked out as well as any other task planned for today.

So what do you do when Murphy takes over for Midas? Relinquish the throne dear subjects...and wait for another day.

Pottery...the full contact hobby...

So while the rest of you are watching football, I feel like I've been playing it! I turned for the first time in several weeks on Sunday and didn't remember exactly how many muscles you use to throw a piece of pottery...

Not to worry...I was quickly reminded the following morning as I rolled out of bed and crawled toward the ibuprofen bottle.

Seriously...your legs hurt, your shoulders hurt, your bottom feels like you climbed 212 flights of stairs...and the hands, forget it! I looked like I was practicing my monster claws for Halloween!

The side effects are pretty fun though, it's pretty funny when some huge shouldered muscle can't get the lid off a jar and I can reach over and twist it like its nothing...a phenomenon better known as "pottery torque"

so...for all of you struggling with the jar of pickles, the lug nut that's a little too tight, the childproof pill bottle, or the lightbulb that won't come free... you know who to call...your local friendly potter...

I am humbled!

Just finished my 2nd pottery show, and I am so humbled and honored that people actually wanted the things I've been turning...

I just can't seem to really take it all in? Thank you to each and every one of you who came out to the 9th annual Hilton Homeplace pottery sale today. You can't know how much your support inspires me and drives me to try new things!

I look forward to seeing you all again soon...until then, look for me right here!!!

Ever tried to carve a face in soft butter?

...yeah, me neither, but I assume it would go a lot like trying to carve jack-o-lanterns in soft clay. With dad's October show quickly approaching it was time to start carving pumpkins...

Mother nature, however, was not that cooperative since about the time dad had 1/2 a dozen pumpkins turned the bottom dropped out and it poured down rain. Luckily, dad decided about 3 minutes before the rain to put a tent over the drying pots.

After a session in front of the fan, and a trip around the propane torch, the pots were a little closer to carving consistency...but 100% humidity is not the best environment for drying pots! Ha!

Had a little help from the mad scientist (my brother) and even mixed another batch of glaze today. Fingers crossed a few of these pumpkins survive!

Who needs a "shake weight?"

Have you ever tried to shake a gallon of glaze that has settled? Well...I have! And it is not fun! Actually it is a lot of hard work! And quite a work out! I have to admit it worked better than the late night infomercial shake weight (that I bought in a weak moment...stop laughing, you know you thought about it after watching that commercial too).

So after a lot of shaking and not a huge return on that investment, dad resorted to cutting open the jug and mixing with this magic "glaze thinner" that, frankly, I'm not sure why we didn't just start there? Ha!

One would think in a shop with milling machines, a commercial mixer, and every tool known and unknown to man that dad would own one of those "paint shakers" like they have at the home improvement stores to mix your paint? We really have to find one at some estate sale!

Ok enough about the shaking, sorry I got carried away...anyway, once the glaze was less solid and more dip able I was able to glaze the pots from last week, and even able to turn a few more! October will be here before you know it!

What was that periodic table thing again?

So...I haven't even thought about Chemistry since 9th grade science (which we will just say was a "few" years ago).

Anyway, I had a lesson in mixing glaze this week and apparently the periodic table and all of its contents are a lot more familiar to potters...

Of course dad writes his glaze recipes with symbols, not words, so after a brief refresher to the elements and their symbols it turned into a lot more like baking a giant cake...without the oven...

Actually a lot of fun, as long as you have someone to decipher the secret code! Ha! Not sure I'm ready to come up with my own recipes though...

Flur-de-who?

Well looks like after a break from turning I haven't forgotten all that I know...

It's amazing how it all comes back. I haven't turned in well over a month, maybe two? (that whole "work" thing gets in the way, you know? But the bills gotta get paid! Ha!)

I turned my tallest cylinder to date today (a whopping 7 inches!). Granted, you won't be using a yard stick to measure my pots anytime soon, but I choose to look at the glass half full...where would I fire a giant pot? Ha ha! So when the magic "wood fired kiln fairy" shows up and builds one in the back yard I'll start worrying about larger pots!

Until then, I'll keep turning my little pots and putting pretty little Flur-de-lis on them.

If only the Production department...

If only the Production department worked as hard as the marketing team! Ha! So now I have cards to hand out with the purchase of a piece of my pottery, price stickers to place on the pieces for sale, a logo for Heather Hilton pottery, a blog, and more pictures than I could ever use...hmmmm...

Now I need to actually turn some pottery! I guess when you consider that I had a few extra (unpaid) employees in the marketing department it makes a little more sense, but I have got to get back at the wheel!

Thank you to my Marketing team: Robert Hilton & Dawn Crouse Photography! As my dad would say "thank you till you are better paid" ha!

Some days you just can't get it up!

What?...hey wait...get your mind out of the gutter! I am talking about pottery!

Today was just one of those days where everything I touched tore apart. So frustrating! After a few hours of trying I just gave up!

Not happy with anything I did today, but really liked the couple of new glazes I bought a few weeks back. Maybe if I get anything turned, I'll be able to try them on a few pieces.

only a potter would give the gift of clay!

  So, as I celebrate the anniversary of my 29th birthday (I stopped counting a few years back) I got a really cool gift.  Picture this...

dad walks in with a bag of clay (not unusual yet) he holds it out and says "happy birthday" (odd, but hey he is a potter, I am aspiring to be a potter, clay is not really the most out of the question gift to give I guess) So then the curiosity gets to me...I pull out the clay block and the real gift arrives...

check it out I'm legit!

My own signature pottery stamp!  The best part is that it was a surprise, and a lot more work for dad because he didn't have a single thing with my signature on it...except a finished pot.  Took some creativity but he pulled it off!  Thanks dad, really great birthday gift!  



April ain't foolin!

Only appropriate that I spend April Fool's day throwing mud around!  Didn't get very many pieces made today (only 3 turned, in fact) but I'm working on a few new ideas that I hope work out for some neat items...a soap pump, a lotion dispenser...we shall see!

turning on April Fool's Day 2012

Yesterday dad and the rest of the Hilton Homeplace crew worked their fingers to the bone processing 3,000 pounds of clay...(glad I missed the hard work, ha!) I can't believe how much work goes into preparing clay! (and I thought the turning was the hard part!)  Thanks to Dawn Crouse for always being nearby with a camera!

Should've paid more attention...

...to that chemistry teacher!  So mixing glaze and changing colors sounds a lot more like my chemistry classes than art?  Geez that was a million years ago, and thank goodness dad remembers that stuff! 

  I had a few things that made it out of the kiln ok.  Copper carbonate turns into this really cool metal looking patina.  I painted the rings and designs of these two with the copper.

pretty cool metal look right?

  There have been a few other pieces that turned out ok.  Some bowls, a few little things with faces, or flowers, or other designs.  I like the dogwood bowl ok...think next time I will make the flower petals out of some non-speckled clay, kinda looks like the bugs got a hold of this flower...ha!



speckled dogwood (native to Newton, NC) ha!  



Not sure when I'll be back up, but if I only manage 3 or 4 pots per visit, it will take me all year to fill a shelf full!  Gotta pick up the pace...October will be here before you know it.

I have gone nuts!

...well, I've gone acorns to be more precise. I spent today working on a few hand built pieces rather than turning.

I made a few of these acorn spoon rests before the Holiday that were kinda cute, so I thought I might make a few more...that is until my pattern decided it wasn't going to work exactly the way I had planned...(we will blame the tool not the user, ha) anyway...with some minor modifications I was able to make about 2 dozen acorn spoon rests.

Necessity is certainly the mother...

...of all inventions! I wanted something that could make foot rims or decorative lips on my pottery. I searched EVERYWHERE for potter's tools shaped like the ones in my mind's eye! What did I find, you ask? Nothing! So what do you do when no one will sell you what you need? Well...you make your own of course!

So I explained to dad what I was looking for expecting to whittle myself a tool from a Popsicle stick and sandpaper...but NO!! (not in this family!!) ha! It never hurts to have a family full of eccentric "junk" collectors! Between dad's accumulation of gadgets and my grandfather's collection of oddities there's probably a tool to do just about anything you can dream up! Anyway, back to the story...

I had a lesson in milling machines, lathes, bandsaws, belt sanders, and even a drill press...I mean who has their own milling machine? Really?

The result? Two amazing little tools that have added a little flair to the foot of each pot! I think they will be put to great use! Thanks for the "shop class" dad...glad we both still have all our fingers!

my what a lovely foot you have...

Lion on the ground...

Well, week #2 in a row that I have been able to get to dad's and turn a few pieces.  I still really suck at this whole "centering" thing and I like to blame the crooked pots on that...although I'm sure that there are other reasons! ha!  I managed to turn a few pieces that are gradually getting larger in size and scale to the others I have turned. 

lion decapitation

Sometimes it doesn't always work out...this poor lion lost his head during the bisque firing...but then again, I'd probably lose my head at cone 6 as well, ha!  I've only had a couple of the pieces that didn't make it through the entire process so I can't complain really...

it's just like riding a bike...

...if that bike is a unicycle and you do not belong to the traveling circus performing group! Ha!  So first time I have tried to turn since before Christmas, and other than the initial "getting back into it" it really wasn't so bad.  I didn't tear anything apart today and actually managed to turn about 4 pots!



I haven't forgotten how just yet...

 I think maybe if I can get up to dad's a couple of times a month I might actually get a few pieces turned and glazed to sell in the October show? (at the rate I'm going though, it looks like I will be of much more use behind the B.R. Hilton staff tent than in the studio! ha!)

a couple that might make it to the show?