The Estacada Development Association
presents
The 3rd Annual
Estacada
Winter Artisan
Show & Sale
Fine Art...Fine Crafts...Folk Art...
Quality Handmade Works
December 6,    5-8pm
December 7,   10am-5pm
Estacada City Hall
on Broadway at Historic City Hall
in Downtown Estacada
Proceeds benefit Estacada’s Main Street Program
Door Prizes Drawn Half Hourly
more info at:
 www.EDA1.org
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U Know Me (or Yunomi)

Yunomi (Japanese: 湯のみ) is a teacup, that is taller than wide, with a trimmed or turned foot. Unlike the more formal chawan tea bowl which is used during the Japanese tea ceremony, the yunomi is made for daily (or informal) tea drinking.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. Although we haven't had much of a chance to camp, as we do most summers, we have been getting lots of things done around the farm. In addition to the daily chicken, goat, garden and dog chores, we've added bees and I'm putting in as much time as I can in my studio. I've got a couple interesting projects coming up. The 4th annual The Powerhouse Project, 2nd Annual OPA invitational show at the North Bank Gallery in Vancouver, and most importantly my own show at The Spiral Gallery September 6-29th.

I'm working on some new and very different decorative pieces. A little out of my comfort zone, but I'm having fun and enjoying the challenge. I hope you will consider joining me for the opening reception of my show "hands/fire/heart" on September 6th from 6-8pm at The Spiral Gallery, 341 S Broadway, Estacada, OR 97023.I'll be showing work from wood kilns as well as some low-fire Terra-cota. Speaking of that, I better get back into the studio. 

Just Days Away

I'm counting down the days till the 29th Annual Ceramic Showcase. This is such an exciting event for the members of the Oregon Potters Association. We work on putting this show together all year round. We meet monthly to discuss the details of all aspects of this show. We run this show entirely with volunteers. From the set up to the tear down each participant in the show has a job to do. We have a central sales area so you can shop the entire show and check out all at once instead of making multiple purchases from individual artists. We will also have UPS on site for shipping directly from our show.

There is a nice map that is put together so you don't miss anything. We have demonstrations, music scheduled for Friday and Saturday evening, Clay Play areas so you can try it out for yourself and beautiful galleries set up to showcase our finest work. It's a labor of love and I hope you will join us.

What a thrill

So a few nights ago a potter friend, Linda Klaus, had my husband and I, and Brian and Sarah Davis, also a potter, over for dinner. Linda is also an antique dealer and has incredible items all through her house. She has a real eye for display and has something to look at in every inch of her home. The big thrill for me was to see my work here and there displayed with other very famous potters and artists work. My stuff looked so professional and worthy and useful. Linda also had a small lidded vessel of Sarah's displayed next to a Don Sprague and they looked great together.

At the beginning of the evening she put out a some crackers and cheese. She said "I think I will use a Brenda to serve the crackers" and I said "I didn't make that". On closer inspection I did make it. It looked great.

There are days when I wonder if my pottery is viable. After the lovely dinner at Linda's I felt great about it. Thanks Linda and also thanks for a delicious meal...Lasagna, broccoli with capers and olives and a beautiful boysenberry pie for dessert.

Mahonia Hall

For the next year a few pieces of my art and 7 other potters work will be displayed in the dinning room of the Oregon Governor's mansion, Mahonia Hall in Salem, OR. Mary Lou, of Mary Lou Zeek Gallery, coordinated the display. It was an exciting day for me and an honor to have some of my pottery displayed at this venue. I think they do tours on Fridays in the summer, but so far I haven't been able to find that information. I want to take my mom there when she visits next year.

Group Photo: This photo includes the outgoing displayed artists Mindy Chaffin and Mel Perrigo
Second Photo: Mark Heimann, Kenneth Standhardt, Leslie Green and Bev Curtis
Third Photo: Linda Heisserman, Brenda Scott and Dawn Panttaja. Brian Jones could not join us.

What a summer it has been

and it's not over yet. I have to admit I should be in the studio right now making pieces for the fall wood firings, but my main focus this summer has been my garden. This summers garden could only be described as abundant. It's been amazing and I've learned so much. We had a great snow pea and snap pea crop and I was able to put lots in the the freezer for winter stir fries. The summer squash is getting a bit old and after about 101 different recipes I'm ready to just let them grow and see how big we can get those last ones to be. Of course they will be composted at the end of the summer so they will not be wasted. We are currently enjoying egg plant, swiss chard, all sorts of peppers, fennel flowers, beets, cucumbers, onions, beans and of course tomatoes. I'm about to try my hand at pickles...I have about 40lbs of cucumbers so I better learn fast.

I will get in the studio soon, but for now it's still garden time. I hope your summer is abundant as well.

Just a week away

We are getting down to the wire and there are hundreds of potters in Oregon and Southwest WA that are scrambling around getting all their pots, garden art, sculptures ready for the largest ALL ceramic show in the US. Next Wednesday we will descend on the Oregon Convention Center and start setting up the show. It's organized chaos and Friday morning we open the doors to the public and hope they like what we do. Here's our add in the Willamette Week.

On that note...I'm going to take my dog Duke for a walk up our hill, breath deep and stretch. Then I'll come home and do what I've been doing for what seems like months...get ready for Ceramic Showcase.

Namaste,

Ceramic Showcase hitting the Roads

Well Look at That!!! Ceramic Showcase is hitting the roads to get the word out about the largest all ceramic show in the United States. Thank you Trimet. Which by the way is a great way to get to the show. The MAX stops right in front of the Oregon Convention Center.

Opened my Chicken Pot Pie kiln last night and once again got some nice results. We got come 12 down all over at 03:30 so we just went another hour and shut down at 16 hours. This was shorter then the other firings and we wanted to see the difference. I think it was just fine, not much a difference and got a whole bunch of salting effects, orange peel, and we didn't put any salt in the kiln. Strange, but they looked good so who cares.

Now, I'll head to Vancouver, WA and open the Soulgama kiln with the SoulBuds and see what pretty things we made there...so excited. Ted Ernst, Sandy Segna and Robin Hominiuk all fired last weekend at other kilns besides Soulgama too. We are all just bursting with ceramic energy.

Where does time go?

I wanted to get some more shots of the last firing results and maybe shots of what happened to the grate, but time keeps slipping away from me. We actually had some nice weather today so we spent it transplanting roses. Eric and I also celebrated our 4 year anniversary recently so we of course didn't get anything done then. We are planning our next firing in late Feb so I've been making pots, which is what I should be doing right? I'm also working on some changes to my Ceramic Showcase booth and taking pictures for a clay interpretive display at the show. This is a picture of one of my casseroles with beer bread in it...yum!