What have we been up to?

Wow!  I am not sure what happened but we blinked, and it has been a full year since we last used our blog.  And what an exciting year it has been!  Naomi finished a post-bacc study at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, and received an artist in residence at the LUX in Lincoln, Nebraska.  So she will be staying in Lincoln another year.  She also was just accepted into the Strictly Functional Juried Show, that was juried by Mary Barringer, which is very exciting.  This is the piece she has juried in.

She has been working on these condiment serving forms this past spring, and I am extremely excited about them.  When she was here visiting me at Ole Miss this July she made 5 of them and left them with me to decorate and glaze, they are about to be fired this weekend and I look forward to sharing them as soon as they are done!  Here are some in progress shots.  We are super excited to see where they go, and enjoy finding the time to work on things together still with the limited amount of time we get to spend in the studio together right now.

She also made some cups while she was here that were based off the commission set she is working on for some friends of hers wedding in September.  You can see previews of that body of work at http://www.davidlovesmorgan.com/registry/, and check out their website for their wedding while you are at, because it is completely adorable.

I made a few cups after she left those with me, playing on the same idea she was using, and here are my rendition of those, both in green form and then glazed.  I have been playing with Victorian patterns and transferring them from screen prints, and then glazing over them.

And then with the glazed version as well, a few images of those that are done.

They are a nice start of where to go this fall I think.  I am pretty pleased with the results now I have let them live on my table a few days.

I have been working on some large vase forms recently as well and will put some of those up soon.  I am going to try to work on posting my thesis research as I go along this semester, as well as a little bit of the mass amount of writing we do here at Ole Miss.  So feel free to send us messages of what you have enjoyed seeing!

Til Later,

Sara

Home again, Home again...

Hi There!! It's Sara here and I just got back this weekend to Ole Miss to start cleaning up my studio space and getting ready for the semester that begins August 23rd. Gold Star Pottery will be on a collaborative hiatus for a few weeks, but we will each be creating and continue updating the blog to show you the journey after Odyssey, and perhaps back! (We will see...) Naomi will soon be on her way up to the corn! At the University of Nebraska Lincoln she will be a post-bacc for the fall!

First here are a few pics from the last rush of things we finished for our big exit! We did a set of dishes you can find at Crimson Laurel Gallery, and here is Naomi trying to finish getting them glazed with me!

Want a finished shot? Go by the gallery and check it out! ;) Tell David and John we sent you! No that won't get you a discount, but they will be happy to show you around!

We also enjoyed the very famous bar-b-que from 12 Bones! Apparently it's our President's favorite, and we got to learn why. ;) There is a line around the building M-F from starting before 11 when they open until almost 4 when they close and finally gave into the heat and tried it. Man were we mad we waited to try it! They have misters on the overhang to keep you cool while you wait to get in as well as a cooler of water out front to beat the heat in the hot August days.

Here is Naomi with her BLT, it has a fried green tomato on it for the tomato! Brilliant!!

And my pulled pork with cheesy jalepeno grits and baked beans. Wonderful!

Also before we left we got to run by our good friend and fellow Resident Artist Patty Bilbro's reception at Clingman Cafe. Her three person show, "Imaginary Friends" is up until the end of the month! And is well worth the trip down to the RiverArts District to check out! And Clingman Cafe is one of our favorite places to have lunch as well!

Here is Patty adjusting some of the work at her openning! Her decorative reduction fired pieces have a fun addition to the traditional surface of shinos. As well as a mix of the shinos used that allow for outlines on the rims and feet of the pieces that break up the space nicely.

Here is a look at some more of her work from that exhibition. A nice size vase, along with a large plate, and some stackable jars.

More images from the show...

This piece was at the end of the room and I really feel like it says, "That's all folks!" More images of a revamped studio for year number two to come! As well as (hopefully) Naomi's packing extravaganza!

See you soon!

-Sara

And so it is time...

And so the weeks have flown by!! We are finishing our last week of kids camps here at Odyssey, finishing glaze firings for a load of pots that hopefully this week will have a new home, and beginning to clean up and pack it up!

:( We are sad that it is time to go but MAN did we EVER have a good time! Here are some recent pics from the kids camps!

Decorating the "big pot" they make each week in Gabe Kline's class!

Here is the finished product with the girls adding their names to the back! Each kiddo gets to add their name to the back of the piece. Gabe is awaiting grant response to have a children's show in Asheville and get them all fired and displayed!

The weekend before last we enjoyed an afternoon off when my friend Kristina Arnold came to visit. There was a derby bout that night and went to see the Blue Ridge Roller Derby Girls. Before we headed out to the Civic Center we had lunch at the Clingman Cafe and enjoyed the work displayed on the wall. Below are some images from that! The Cafe rotates work out every month, so we've gotten to see three different collections.

Most of the work featured here is by the Clayspace Co-op right here in the River Arts district. Clayspace is one of our favorite places to visit when we want to look at great pots and get out of the studio for a while!

Kristina decided to not let her ironing get in the way of getting to the next gallery!

Because we were on to Blue Spiral to check out the new shows we had yet to see! The last time we were there Matt Keheller and Shoko Teryuma were in the front! Here are some images from that! (Since they are absolutely OUR FAVORITE collaborative ceramic pair!)

Love this piece! Completely ceramic!

Beautifully decorated piece by Shoko!

Wall tile by Shoko! I was so inspired by seeing these again I just started another set of wall tiles myself! But more on that later...

Matt's slab built pitcher, soda fired. This piece was really large and had a big presence when viewing it.

Bird form on top of one of the larger jars. I absolutely love this piece! Every inch covered with decorative design!

One of the other artists featured in this area that I found intriguing. I couldn't stop looking at these fish that were made out of wire and suspended hanging. When you looked at them from this angle they are truly floating.

So when we went into Blue Spiral weekend before last we were pleasantly greeted with some large wood sculpture as well as some figurative ceramics by Lisa Clague.

There is something extremely comforting about this piece... It really drew me in and I had to stay a while and stare.

These smaller pieces grouped together I felt really "went" as a group. I wanted to snuggle them all up and listen. Each to me looks like they have a good secret to tell.

There were way more amazing pieces than just these, some sculptural pots in the down stairs show, as well as some very interesting sculpture in the back. But we will have to do part two for that! As well as the DERBY!! YAY! It was awesome!

That's all for now! Another post of our continued journey soon!

-Sara