Class act

My kiln is full of pots I did not make. Last Saturday was the final session of my class through Lost River Artisans’ Cooperative. We hold it at my studio, since moving wet pots bodes doom. Six students met two weeks earlier to make their coil and slab works of art. After those were cleaned, dried, and bisque fired, the students returned to glaze them. Most find glazing a trickier task than the building, since it is hard to imagine what the opaque glaze will look like after it is fired. There will be some grand surprises when they pick up their pots!

Some students had previous experience throwing on potters’ wheels, but few studios offer handbuilding classes. Perhaps we are a society too dependent on complex machines to think of rolling out clay and pressing leaves into it as creative. To handbuild, you need only your hands, some clay, and a sense of what you and the clay might do together. It is quiet and peaceful. Even my slab roller is a simple mechanical contraption. No learning curve there: turn the wheel and the roller squeezes the clay flat between two pieces of canvas. The potential is endless! 

 

Compost Heaven

There is a lot of action in the compost pile these days! Ours is a generous size—a railroad tie in length on each side and a couple of ties high. All year, I make pots over pumpkins. I love their irregular curvy ridges and overall great forms. Eventually those pumpkins give way, however, so I make clay molds of the ones with the shapes and sizes I like best. Then I can still make pumpkin pots when pumpkins are not available. The succumbing real pumpkin disappears into the compost until late spring when its seeds germinate to remind me of its heroic past in my studio. By July I have the biggest tangle of vines you’ve ever seen, with magnificent leaves of myriad shapes and sizes not only from pumpkins but other seedy sources too. Then we dig all the new compost into one side of the pile and let the verdant vines cascade over the other sides of the compost square and into the yard. I cut the largest leaves off to use to shape platters and plates. Their veining is wonderful, their shape pure summer-- talk about organic! Who says pumpkins are only about autumn?

Art on Cullers Run 2014

The 4^th of July is nearly here! The big event is the “Art on Cullers Run 2014” show from 10 AM-5 PM both Friday, the 4th, and Saturday, July 5^th. Last year was the first of these, and a great show! Joshua Miller puts this show together in his lovely old home, yard, studio, and woodworking shop. The drive to Cullers Run is lovely, and then artists from Virginia, Maryland, and West Virginia with thrill and fill your artful hankerings! There will be 2 woodworkers, 3 potters, a printmaker, a fused glass artist, “mixed media home furnishings and furniture for the independent thinker” (I intend to know what that means by then), and gorgeous jewelry! Come on out and bring your lunch; sit under the big old trees and just drink in the beautiful countryside.
Directions: 2 miles south of Mathias, WV, turn right on Crab Run Road. Continue 2 miles and turn right on Cullers Run Road. In about ¾ mile, look for the old green frame church on the right (that’s Joshua’s workshop). Park in the cow pasture across the road and join us. (The cow pasture bit suggests practical footware.) Have a great 4^th! See you there!

 

American Flags

American flags. That’s what I made this week. I began making them years ago when our oldest son graduated from the Coast Guard Academy. I pointed out to him that I did not relish hearing about 64 foot waves, but that I was proud of his search and rescue work. Then I made a stoneware flag for a neighbor, a military physician, when he was promoted, which began a wider call for Kahoka flags. However, I still make only six or eight flags a year. It does not take many of them to meet my quota for straight lines, measuring, and counting. While I always count the stripes, I admit that I never count the stars but simply fill up the blue space. It a privilege to create such a significant icon out of clay, and I do so with respect. On the other hand, it is the meaning of the symbol that matters, along with its care, rather than precise replication. A neighbor took a picture of a Kahoka flag in the White house; I was pleased, but I had no need to go see it there. The only time I toured the White house, I saw JFK. (Wow, that really dates me!) 

Now if you want to own one of these somewhat limited American flags then head on over to OASIS Fine Art & Craft or to Lost River Artisan Cooperative. They will be more than happy to assist you in your purchase.

Arctium Lappamay?

I found this year’s first haul of burdock leaves along the driveway where we recycle our non-compostables. I got some odd looks from drivers of big trucks as they drove by me merrily clipping the weedy leaves with my husband’s Leatherman.  Arctium lappamay may be maligned in the books as a “troublesome weed,” and it lacks any American botanical market or cultivation potential – although some Brits and Europeans make tea with the roots. It casts burrs (hence the name) that tangle into any passing animal’s fur, and is about as unpopular a plant as one can find. But those lovely, dark green leaves are big and leathery, and their beautiful veining makes incise fascinating ridges when pressed into my clay.

I made a dozen great platters, bowls and pots with my gleanings from the recycling center! Soon the burdocks will practically come to me in several places along our lane and then in the deeply shaded roots of a huge old maple beside the creek. I aim for the patience to let those leaves grow hefty and great. A weed may merely be a plant out of place, but I know where the burdock can find love.

Searching for something to do in July? Come and visit me at the Art on Cullers Run 2014 event.

What's New

What's new at Kahoka Handbuilt Stoneware studio? I live in the woods, and leaves are part of why I am here. Yes, those were real leaves that made the designs on many of my pots. I use them all year, so in the autumn I press masses of leaves between Washington Post pages for the winter months. I have cedar boughs, pine needles, and other things to play with all year, but I really love fresh green leaves on the clay.
 

Leaf Bowl

Right now the fern fronds are unfurling like magic. Then I keep an eye out for burdocks, which will be along soon and make wonderful images because they have intricate veining and they are undaunted by being rolled and pummeled. Burdocks are some of the toughest vegetation I know. (Just try to get one out of your garden!) Only a potter could love them!

I hauled new pots to the Lost River Artisan's Co-op in Lost City, WV, and to OASIS Fine Art & Craft in Harrisonburg, VA last week. Now I'm getting ready for Fiber Fest at Lost River on June 24th. That's a great gathering with sheep shearing and other events, including a fundraiser for Potomac Highlands Animal Rescue. Come "rescue" a whimsical animal potholder or two, or even a Kahoka animal mobile or bowl.

Kathy Kavanagh

     

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