Celebration of Seagrove Potters

Shame on me no pictures, but I am sure that Samantha will have some more on Bulldog's page. Sam and Bruce are our resident behind the scenes photographer and marketing subcommittee for Seagrove! Many, many thanks for all the work that they do for our area. AND to my luck, they are my neighbor at the Celebration. Wow, what wonderful work they have (will try to remember my own camera tomorrow!!) and I am so lucky to count them as my good friends. If you don't know their work, check them out above. They do the most incredible work, the colors, crystals, images, surfaces, wow. Absolutely amazing, Sam and Bruce are incredibly talented!

What a  great event so far. Thanks you to all that came by the booth. It was great to get to meet and re-meet people like Heather from our Facebook note and earlier Hermitage meeting, to so many faces and friends from each year. I love these events just for this reason, to see all of you and sometimes get a glimpse at earlier stuff I've done! And to say missing those of you that couldn't make it (Jeanne and Ben, boo... first pottery fest missed in a while isn't it? and thanks for sending word). And to all my new friends and customers. Thank you all so much!

I hope you can come visit the Jugtown Pottery Holiday Kiln Opening on Sat the 4th of December. Doors open at 8:30, (museum opens at 7am with hot drinks and warm snacks  to keep you warm in between window peaking for your preveiws!) . Come stock up, and then doors open a bit later for holiday kiln openings at Chris Luther, Westmoore Pottery, Bulldog Pottery and Thomas Pottery. Go to this page to find NC Pottery Events.

Again thanks to all who came by , Ihope to get my web site more updated, thanks for looking at it and I'll keep at it! Any questions or comments??? Email me!! jennie@jlkjewelry.com.

Birds of a Feather?

Celebration of Seagrove Potters.....this weekend! Sometimes I just like to try something different. I've done my pottery bird and chicken earrings since I came to Jugtown and thought about expanding on that and creating some year round ornaments. My test run putting them in the shop at Jugtown worked, first one sold within 2 hours! So I will have a selection of these birds this weekend.

Teapots

Teapots by Pam Owens, lids and handles by me.

Art and Nature

16 days....That is all that is left until the Celebration of Seagrove Potters. If you haven't gotten your Gala tickets, go directly to the web site and buy them on line!

I am working away on some new designs. Here are a couple that I have just finished. This is such a busy time of the year for all of us here in Seagrove, and of course all artists and craftspeople.

Yesterday morning our dog was at the pond barking like mad. Wes went down and thought he saw two beavers swimming around, and I joined him. Of course, Bacchus launched himself into the hyacinth filled water, the lab in him suddenly kicking into full gear. He swam in circles all around the pond, completely oblivious to the fact that these "beavers" were more adept in the water than he was. I was afraid he'd run out of steam in the hyacinth and go down. We finally coaxed him out and back into the garage. We were thrilled! Beavers eat water vegetation, and we have a ton of it! The water hyacinth is very pretty and horrendously invasive! (And people will pay $2-3 per plant for it, in nurseries.) We thought perhaps our answer to getting rid of it had come....two cool resident beavers to clean out the pond!

After a bit more research on line, after Wes saw them on the bank cuddling and noticed that they had long straight tails rather than big flat ones, we discovered that they were a pair of NA River Otters. That had been my thought when I first saw them swimming, they reminded me of the otters I watched in the Shed Aquarium, years ago. River otters are not vegetarians, they eat fish and sometimes small mammals. We had about 200 small koi put into the pond earlier this year (though we soon acquired a resident Great Heron right after, so there may not have been any left in there). I don't know if they got any koi, and I seriously doubt they wiped out our huge mole and vole population. They may not have been really keen on seeing 5 of us on the hill by the pond armed with cameras and binoculars, while they cuddled together, wrapped arond each other. I don't know what the deciding factor was, where they came from, or were they were going, but this morning as soon as it was light I went looking. No otters to be seen. We were thrilled though to have their 24 hour visit and hope that they'll be back to see us one day.

Home Again

New England in October is always such a wonderful time. We drove up on the 10th and spent some time on Cape Ann before heading to NH. I love the New England coast and all the great seafood that goes with it. Then back to NC with my parents and Max the cat, and spent a week here goofing off.

Now it is only 4 weeks til the Celebration of Seagrove Potters with the Jugtown Holiday Kiln Opening following right behind, on December 4th. I have come back with my mind bursting full of ideas and now need to organize myself to get everything produced! Though it is hard not to head out for the yard and garden with this beautiful weather!!

With my mind on the Dunes at Crane Beach, off to the studio I go!

Back from the Mint

Back from the Mint Museum's 6th Annual Potter's Market Invitational. Once again it was a great show, and the selection of pottery was outstanding. I had hoped to get some pictures of other booths but time was not available for that! I did get to visit with many potters and customers that I hadn't seen for a while, came home with a few pieces from Matt Jones and a nice order for the new Mint Museum gift shop opening in downtown Charlotte in a few weeks!

Anna King, Pam Owens and Jennie just before opening

This was my first time with my new booth set up. We have streamlined a lot of it, so we are much more organized, have a lot fewer "pieces" and a much better look. Lighting was not so good in the tent for a photo, it was overcast (which was great for temperatures for the day!).