"weathering Florence..."

  While, North Carolina is no stranger to hurricanes, they make for a pesky deterrent when we are only about a month away from the 15th Annual Hilton Homeplace Pottery Sale.   I had sort of planned for the next 5 weeks to be filled with as much pottery as possible (nothing like last minute, huh?)  But Florence has put a "damper" on that plan, ha!  (pun most certainly intended!)  With a Category 4 hurricane headed straight for us, it looks like my efforts will need to be placed in the jewelry making portions of prep. 

  Even without power, I can make jewelry by the candlelight, ha!  One of the new ideas I had this year was to create essential oil or perfume necklaces.  Simply place a few drops of your favorite oil or perfume on a cotton ball and drop it in the little pocket and enjoy the aroma the rest of your day! 

Of course there will still be many other items.  I have a line of sayings that help you remember who you want to "bee" that say things like: be kind, be confident, be strong, and other little reminders.  

So as you all watch the weather channel and play "where in the world is Jim Cantore", you know what my hurricane party consists of...jump rings, chain, and pottery beads!  Come by and check out the goodies at the 15th Annual Hilton Homeplace Sale on 10/13/18!  www.hiltonpottery.com

back in the saddle...

  Well, it seems like forever since I touched clay, but I am back at it...sort of.  For those of you who know me, you know that the last 6 months have been difficult.  The love of my life was diagnosed with a rare neuromuscular disease called Myasthenia Gravis.  We've been living in and out of the hospital, touring all the different ICU rooms, and spending so much time there that we know the doctor's schedules as well as they do. 

  Hit me up if you need to know which days are the best at the cafeteria...  But I'm hopeful we are out of the woods.  Tam's surgery to remove the tumor in her thymus went well and we are hoping for a complete remission.  She's doing well, and I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes you have given us.  This is a pottery blog, so I won't get too deep into the medical stuff, but in the fall I'll have a few pieces available where the proceeds will be donated to the National Myasthenia Foundation of America for help in research and developments in hopes of finding a cure for MG. ( for more information about MG visit www.myasthernia.org )

  Okay, back to the pottery part of this...I'm back!  One might even say I'm "back in the saddle" so to speak.  I'm working on a few horse themed items as I was inspired by my mom & Tommy's relocation to my cousins' farm.  Belveu is home to some of the most beautiful Walking Horses you'll ever see, along with an alpaca, some cows, several dogs, a bee hive or two, and a whole host of kiddos to keep everyone in line. 

  But not to worry, I haven't forgotten the most important things in life...like coffee!  There will be plenty of mugs available this fall for the 15th Annual Hilton Homeplace Sale. (Can you believe it's been 15 years? Neither can I!)  The Hilton Homeplace crew suffered a tremendous loss this year when our beloved Jerry Hedspeth passed away after a long fight with Pancreatic Cancer.  He was loved by many and will be missed by us all.  Our condolences and prayers go out to Sybil and her family.  Here's to sunnier and healthier days in the future for us all! 

I still hate balloons...

  Finally back playing in the mud a little.  I managed to make a few new coffee cups with fun little messages inside and came up with a new idea how to get the words to stand out a little better.  I'll underglaze them before I bisque and that way I can sand off any excess when they are leather hard making the color more distinct.  (keep your fingers crossed this is still just a theoretical fix) So after a good day of turning I had quite a few "word mugs" ready for the test.

The good news is, this idea appears to have worked out quite well...Once bisqued the words came out much darker and more detailed than the mugs I've tried in the past.  Hopefully, this theoretical fix will actually work.  

Next step is to figure out how to glaze the insides clear so the words are still visible and manage to glaze the outside in other colors.  I started with the clear interiors...so far so good.  (but the hard part is next) 

So I saw this really cool idea online. (stop laughing, I know you all do that too) In this guy's post he was using a balloon to keep from getting the glaze on the insides of his mugs, a problem I am intimately familiar with when trying to glaze the inside and outside 2 different colors.  

  The joke here is that I really hate balloons...REALLY hate balloons.  When I was a District Manager my store teams used to call and ask where I was going to be on event day because if it was their store then they knew there were NO BALLOONS!

  I had to give it a try...and guess what, it's really awkward, and a little scary, but it works!  Stay tuned to see if these mugs survive their battle with the kiln (the kiln is always the enemy!)

  I don't know that I am quite ready to give up my dipping tongs, but I may have a little less hatred for the balloons after this endeavor...until next time, stay muddy my friends!

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.