Sunday, September 21, 2014

All Hallow's Eve...

  We are down to the wire...both figuratively and literally, with only 2 weeks until the fall Hilton Homeplace show...and quite a few pieces of clay to run a wire under.  

  Apparently I underestimated how much I already made for this year's show since I spent an entire day Saturday just glazing and wiping the bottoms off of pieces...it's like they were multiplying on the drying shelves!  


  And do I stop there? No...of course not!  Crazy me, goes back for more and actually made a few more things today.  Where do I get my inspiration, you ask?  Well what else could I think of besides Halloween with a black cat assistant?  


  So with minimal help from Hairy Houdini today I made a few things for my very favorite holiday!  Keep your fingers crossed that they... A) survive the next two firings...and B) are ready in two weeks for the show! 


Sunday, September 14, 2014

The monkey on my back...

  Aaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhh....there are less than 4 weeks until the 11th Annual Hilton Homeplace Pottery Show, and all the hoopla that surrounds it...and I have made, well...let's call it "less than enough pots" for said extravaganza.  I swear I can hear little ticking in my head, I'm not sure if it's a clock, or a time bomb...

  Now, for those of you who are closest to us you already know it has been a tough year for the Hilton Homeplace crew...but for those that don't...we've battled (and continue to battle...) cancer, illness, hospital scares, surgery, and death this year.  So when you combine that with the "real jobs" time starts to slip through your fingers quicker than the clay can. (Tick...tick...tick...)

   Nevertheless, with fewer than 4 weeks until the show the proverbial "monkey on my back" was pressuring me to get back in the shop and try to turn a few pieces. (Still ticking...are they getting faster?) 
  
  Well, I haven't turned in an embarrassingly long time, and was pleasantly surprised to see I hadn't forgotten how...exactly.  I made a few things without tearing them apart and I managed to get a few things fired and didn't hate them all.


  Seriously...I use commercial glazes for the most part, and yet every time I open the kiln it's like a mystery bag and who knows what colors you will actually get? 

  No, no, Heather...back to work, no time to ponder the great mysteries of glaze. (tick...tick...tick) 

  Well you may have read the previous saga introducing you to my "assistant" Hairy Houdini...(if not check out the previous blog post). Well Hairy decided she needed to help me today as I'm certain the ticking clock I hear in my head was loud enough for her to hear as well.  And apparently my sprig molding required supervision today since the "monkey on my back" became a literal cat on my back...

 
  Thanks Hairy...no pressure there...

But with a little work and a lot of cat hair, I finished a few more things for the show. Now if only I can keep paw prints off of them long enough for the bisque firing!  Keep your claws crossed for me! (tick...tick...tick...)





  

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Dr. Wheel-good...

  Ok, so I haven't posted in a while...make that a long while...and I haven't turned anything in quite a long while, but I decided TODAY was the day!  

  Apparently the universe had different plans...dad turns on a tall wheel he built 30 some odd years ago...he says it's better for your back, but to me it's just too tall and I enjoy the variable speed foot pedal this one doesn't have...(see below) I prefer the standard shorter Brent CXC wheel (to the right of gigantor the too tall turning tractor seat wheel) ok, back to the point...

  Dad takes the smaller wheel to shows occasionally to do live throwing demonstrations, (sooooo not on my agenda anytime in the near future) and today we needed to get the wheel off the back of the trailer and back in the shop.  Except that when we did, the aforementioned variable speed foot pedal no longer worked...well, that's not entirely accurate...it worked, there just wasn't any variable speed, in fact there was only on...no off...hmmmmm, could be an issue?

(Gigantor tractor seat dad wheel = left; reasonable normal height wheel = right)

After a short discussion about why cutting off the pedal from the other wheel we use for trimming and reattaching it to this wheel might temporarily fix the problem, but wasn't a great idea...since long after he and his electrical "rigging" skills are gone I am going to have to deal with the fallout...


So he goes digging around and manages to find the EXACT part he needed to repair properly...(imagine that) So the wheel Dr goes to work:


So while I entertain the cat, dad Macgyver's the wheel pedal and all is back to operational...perhaps the NEXT time will be more productive (but not likely to be as entertaining!) 





Sunday, March 2, 2014

I can handle this...

  Finally...I sat down at the wheel today and actually turned a few pieces.  My last several attempts were complete failures...dad says some days it works and the other days you just close the shop door and go back to the house. 

  I was pleased that today the lumps of mud stood up and actually looked like a cylinder.  (The walls were even close to the same thickness on both sides!) ha!

  So I turned those cylinders into coffee mugs!  Well...I turned those cylinders into coffee holding cups...ugh, I hate pulling handles.  I know you can extrude them, but they are never just what I want, and the scale always seems off.  So, after I let them dry as long as I could (some may also refer to this step as procrastination) it was time to attach handles.


I think they turned out ok...now as long as they survive the firing! (Famous last words...) maybe the kiln fairy will trim them for me so they don't become coffee holding cups again? Ha! 


Sunday, February 9, 2014

Every 50 years or so...

Whether you need to or not, every 50 years or so you should clean up the shop.  Well, that's my dad's idea of "spring cleaning" anyway...

  The second week of February is when you should be turning...especially when you have a show in March.  But Dad is a really great procrastinator...(as several of you who have ordered custom items can attest) but he procrastinates in such a way that you don't always notice he's not doing what he's supposed to be...because he's usually busy doing something else!   Hence the storyline of this blog entry...

  The Hilton Homeplace has been not only home to 4 Generations of Hilton potters, but it was also declared a century farm by the state of North Carolina in 2013.  There have been Hiltons living, farming, and "potting" there since the civil war.  

Do you know how much "stuff" accumulates in 100+ years?  A LOT!  Dad's shop...back when it was HIS grandfather's was actually the chicken hatchery...(where the baby chicks live until they move into the chicken house with the adult chickens...which is now the Gallery).
 
 My grandfather (Poppie), Boyd S. Hilton, turned it into his pottery studio many many years ago and after dad, Boyd R. Hilton, graduated high school he and Poppie added on to the original shop creating  the space we now use for slab work, glazing, and firing.  (Some 50 years ago) 

  Now, those of you who know dad, know that "spring cleaning" is more likely to mean "getting rust off of springs" than what you and I consider "spring cleaning" and yet the glaze area had taken on a life of its own...and kiln stilts? Forget EVER finding 2 the same height!  Things just kinda end up where they were last used...

..."Dad, have you seen"...(insert item you are looking for here) "sure Heather, it's right there!" (Dad points to the below pile)



  So Saturday dad and his long time "right hand" Dan decided to build new shelves...that apparently needed to be able to support the weight of my car...to hold glaze & kiln stilts.  (Hmmmm, could this be a productive form of procrastination?) 

I have to say, these 60+ year old men worked me to the point of exhaustion, but we can actually get to the things we need now.  


Although I am still convinced it is more of an excuse not to start turning, the shop is ready for glazing...(just nothing made to glaze yet!). So lesson learned...in 2064, I guess we will "spring clean" again? 

Saturday, February 1, 2014

"Hairy" Houdini...

  This is how my Saturday turned into "Caturday".  Allow me to tell you the tale of this hairy little escape artist with a fluffy little tail...

  A few days ago this little black cat started showing up around dad's looking for someplace warm and mybe some food.  Not willing to let the poor thing starve dad started feeding her...(mistake #1) then we got snow...and dad didn't want her to freeze so he let her in to eat food before he put her back out...



(This is still a pottery blog...I'm getting there)

  So now, having been invited in, this little monster knows how the "other half" lives.  Not willing to be cast out into the cold she finds a broken window pane and chews her way through the "temporary" replacement pane and finds her way back into the house after 2am...not once, not twice, but 3 times between 2am and 4am.  (I might mention here that upon each successful breach the barricade to keep her out became increasingly Macgyver-ed)  In a house already full with 2 dogs and another cat, there were loud objections to this "cat burglar" waking the entire house each time and earning her "Houdini" name...

  Ok, you have been patient and we are getting to the pottery part...I finally had some time to come visit dad and start turning a few things today.  When it became evident that turning pots from frozen and thawed clay was not going to work in my favor, I switched to hand building. 

  This...is where "Hairy" Houdini comes in. Sweet as can be, but the most mischievous cat I have seen in a long time Houdini decided she should help me...by walking all over the drying racks!  


  So this October, if your platters and trays have "paws" on them, now you know why!