Rob Cartelli

late nights

2010-11-06T19:20:00.000-07:00

This past week I put in some late nights decorating some pots that got fired today. These photos are from election night. Between checking in on radio's the election coverage I was blasting some of my favorite motivational albums to drive me along. What does that include? The playlist was something like early Rolling Stones to Jay-Z leading to the Led Zepp to Les Savy Fav to Hot Chip and ending with a bit of the Replacements. Loud music helps me forget that sleeping is really what I should be doing.

I started decorating the bottoms of my pieces with little doodles and patterns as off-the-top-of-my-head whimsicals, but after a couple of slow decorating sessions I started keeping a sketch book of some of the repeats to keep this moving along. Sometimes these sketches some up just as you see them here on paper other times they morph and become new doodles.

artsy

Any guesses as to what's under the slip?

It's a banjo!

Back in the Saddle

2010-10-31T08:29:00.000-07:00

Howdy Howdy,
After a blogging hiatus, it is time to get back to the sharing. And a lot has been happening with your truly. I had the great pleasure and honor of teaching ceramics at the Putney School Summer Programs, a fantastic arts camp for high schoolers in close by Putney, VT.

Once the summer teaching ended I started making lots of porcelain pots for my Fall craft shows. The first was the honorable Weston Craft Show in Weston, VT. It was my first time doing that show and it was lots of fun and I'll be back next year. Thanks to all who took a piece or two of mine home with you!

Next on the schedule is Twist in Northampton on Novemeber 12-13th. I always look forward to this show. If your in the area, swing by for really cool crafts, music and.....beer!

Okay, back to the studio for some decorating. Stay tuned 'cause there's more to come.
Cheers,
R

Thanks and now back to work

2010-05-13T06:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who stopped by Twist last weekend and a special thanks to all who picked up a pot or two from my table. I had a blast at the show and really enjoyed the company of my fellow vendors and their wares. This was a hard show to not just immediately spend what was coming in. I hope to be back in November for Twist V.

And now I'm getting my ducks in a row for this coming weekend in Worcester, MA for MayFair at the Worcester Center for Crafts. I'll be in the outdoor section at booth #38.

Ok, back to the to-do list.

Have a Good One,
Rob

This Friday und Saturday

2010-05-06T16:41:00.000-07:00

If'n you're around Northampton this weekend stop by Twist and find some rad treasures! I'll be in the main ballroom hawking a slew of new porcelain pots. Hope to see you there!

Post-dated update

2010-03-15T19:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so we lost our digital camera and I don't like to post without visuals, but that's really no excuse for not saying anything in like..... three months. Of course a lot has happened and some exciting things at that. Let's see, 2010 arrived with some bitter cold weather, which is why we went to Berkeley, CA to see some friends. Green grass and strong coffee, it was amazing.
In January Quinn went to NYC for a trade show and I tagged along to take in some culture. The highlights:
Lucie Rie's bowls at the MOMA
Anish Kapoor at the Guggenheim
Islamic Platter at the Met
I also visited Sara Japanese Pottery in the upper east side. I have some work there and stopped in to visit with the owner and see all the wonderful top-notch work represented. If you're in the city take the time to visit, you won't regret it.

In other news I've been juried into the New Hampshire League of Craftsmen. I'm just finishing up a winter wheel-throwing class and about to start another.

I post later in the week with more upcoming events.

Holiday Sale This Saturday!

2009-12-15T20:30:00.000-08:00

THE TURNPIKE ROAD POTTERY
38TH ANNUAL HOLIDAY SALE
SAT. DECEMBER 19
1-4 PM
EVERYTHING DISCOUNTED

MALCOLM WRIGHT
ROB CARTELLI

MARLBORO, VT
802 254-2168

www.theturnpikeroad.com

PLEASE CALL FOR DIRECTIONS

Thanks E'erbody

2009-12-09T14:06:00.001-08:00

Thanks for all those who came out for gallery walk last Friday and stopped by our show. We had a lot of peeps stop by and we "put a hurtin" that block of Grafton 3 year. Thanks for all those who took some of my pieces home with you. Thanks to all the folks who I didn't know before but got to meet and talk about my pottery with.
It feels so great when someone else enjoys what you make enough to give you money for it. For me it's not so much the financial incentive to making a sale that I enjoy (although don't get me wrong, I like and need money to pay bills), it's the reward of hearing some say why they like a particular piece or even just one small part of a pot; the feedback is what I mean. It makes all the little decisions that all potters stress over in the studio that just as easily get ignored feel appreciated.
If you missed the opening, don't fret the show will be up through December 23rd.

FRIDAY IS GONNA ROCK

2009-11-30T18:03:00.000-08:00

This come our to the Brattleboro Gallery Walk and make sure to stop by Through the Music Gallery for the opening reception of my show with the talented Marias (of the Perkins and Chambers kind). I'm going to pick up some Grafton Cheddar Gold for the event, so first come first served.

Friday, December 4th
5:30-9:30pm

The show will be up through the 23rd of this month, so if you miss the opening stop by later.

new slides!

2009-11-25T16:25:00.000-08:00

The incredible John Polack delivered my photos on Sunday. At some point I'd like to get to the point where I can take some of my own photos for the blog and my website, but I know they'll never look this good.

Halloween Party Preview

2009-10-21T06:10:00.000-07:00

The somewhat impromptu Scary Home Companion Arkestra will be performing Halloween-related songs at Mike and Emma's. Here is a sneak peak(look for me on bass):

Crack!

2009-10-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

As addictive as the making of pottery can be, sometimes it can get aggravating. Recently I've had some issues with cracking. It happens sometimes at the bottom of my porcelain bowls and is usually horizontal; it tends to aline with the direction of the throwing. It happens in the drying of the piece or in the bisque so it's not a glaze fit issue. I'm wondering if I throw them too thick and am not trimming of enough. I'm going to try throwing them off the hump and see if that changes anything.
And now a different kind of cracking that occurred in the wood-firing. Of the clay that I mixed up I made some bottles, vases, and low wide bowls. Six of the ten bowls did this:
This cracking I'm thinking is definitely a glaze fit issue. These bowls were glazed with a thick coat of temoku only on the inside. I probably won't be mixing this clay up again, so I know just to make vases out of the rest of it.

Snaps from the Wood Firing

2009-10-13T18:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the best pots from the firing. These stoneware bottles with green runny glaze are made of the clay I mixed up from North Carolina and Vermont clay. I love the color of the clay and the stray quartz rocks that made it through the screening and show up as white chunks.
The following are some white slipped with some wax resist and stain designs.

This tall bottle is one of my favs from the the load. I didn't do it justice with this photo, but it stands tall and pround. When I'm throwing big sectional bottles I try for a higher "belly", maybe "chest" works better here. There will definitely be more of these in the future.

A canteen.

These porcelain and flashing slip tumbers are some more favorites. Quinn was helping me sort and price and chipped one of these so it's now the newest member of our cupboard.

A few faceted whiskey cups.

I made a bunch of these porcelain bowls with the inlay lines and was super excited to see that they came out nice and clean. I was a little worried that the fly ash would show in the glaze, but this clear glaze eats it right up.
My clear glaze doesn't usually craze like it did on a few bowls. They seemed to be in the hottest spots of the stack and probably recieved more ash than others.

A smaller bowl.

An out-of-focus sugar bowl and creamer set.

Underneath the lid

Under the creamer

One of my favorite line drawings to make, albeit time consuming.

Sneak Peek

2009-09-29T20:13:00.000-07:00

A couple of not so great pictures for y'all. At any rate, we unloaded the kiln today and for the most part we were all happy. There were of course some mishaps, but some beaut's as well. More pics to follow.

While The Kiln Cools...

2009-09-24T19:35:00.001-07:00

We loaded up Orv's kiln and fired it a week ago now. Tomorrow we'll unload. I've uploaded a couple photo's from the decorating, loading and firing. I'm looking forward to opening the chambers tomorrow, but am keeping my expectations in check. I've found that I can't open a kiln hoping for what I think is the best. When I do that I find that I feel somewhat disappointed, but after "hanging out" with the pots days and weeks after the firing, there are things about the pots that I had dismissed at the opening that later become beauty.

These porcelain vases received some stencil-wax-stain decoration that's new. I'm really into this form and love the proportions on some of them. In the past when I've made these there was no foot at all the wall of the vases went all the way to the table surface. These sort of hint at a foot and I'll probably give them a little more the next go round.

Now you don't see 'em

Now you do

I've been messing around with stencils and wax for about two years and whenever I go to decorate a bunch of pots at once I wish that there was a quicker way; it just feels so slow to wax around some of the animal stencils that I use. I used mostly just these circle stencils to make this go a little quicker this time. I found that I could get a nice grassy look at the bottom of this vase sans stencil, which I believe means I ventured into brushwork that I'm usually very hesitate to commit to a piece.

Here's Orv loading the second chamber.

Here's the third chamber almost completely loaded. The majority of my pots went into this part of the kiln.

Some serious spider webs over the ware racks in the kiln shed.

Around noon on the day of the firing. Orv fires his kiln in reduction so there's a lot of black smoke that billows from the stack and from the blow holes pictured below.

Some vids:

I usually have the first shift for firing Orv's kiln which begins around 8pm and goes to about 1 am. It's a nice quiet time. A great time to simply organize your wood for the next stoke, have a seat, listen to the cracking fire and think.
When I start stoking the first chamber pyrometer reads 200 or 300 degrees, by the time 1 am rolls around it's reading somewhere around 1200 degrees. Orv will show up and take over for the deep night shift. The next day Matt Tell and Grayson take over at 6 am and start stoking the first chamber. Steve Procter and myself take over at noon and finish the first chamber and start the second. Then it's up Rosti and Michael to finish the second and start the third. With most of my pots in chamber No. 3 I helped organize wood and stoke until cone 9 was down in the cool part while cone 13 is over in the hot spot. One of my favorite parts of wood firing is just after the kiln has been clammed up and everything's set to let the glowing pots cool that we can sit down together and have a beer and visit in earnest unencoumbered by the focus devoted to the firing.

Inlaid lines

2009-09-03T19:22:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share a bit about decorating using a inlay technique. I put lines around the rim and doodles on the feet of bowls and other porcelain pieces using this process. I start by brushing on some wax in a band around the rim maybe two inches wide. I usually do a couple boards of pieces at a time so when I'm done waxing the last piece, the first is dry and ready for the next step. Using a needle tool I scratch through the wax and into the clay. I usually have the piece set on a banding wheel for this so I can turn it at a slow pace. I go for a wavering line, I want a little "action" between the lines (insert crude joke here). Once the lines are scratched I brush off the crumbs and then brush a colored slip into the lines. I use slip left over from throwing mixed to taste with a mason stain. Because the wax has been removed in the lines, the slip wants to hang out in there as the pieces absorbs the slip's moisture. The excess slip stays on top of the wax and is therefore easy to wipe clean, like so:

just some pictures

2009-09-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

Vases, etc.

2009-08-22T19:54:00.000-07:00

This week I delved into some porcelain pieces. More bowls, some creamers, tumblers and the vases above, which will get trimmed up a little bit and I'll update with some photos. The vases below were part of last week's production. I'll update with a photo of them once they're trimmed as well. It's been so humid that it takes forever for the pots to dry out.
I'm beginning to find a rhythm within the three days a week I have to make pots for this firing. I try to make pieces the first day that I can leave out and trim on the third day. The humidity sometimes throws a spanner in the works, but pots are getting made and ware boards are filling up.

A Taste of North Cackalacka

2009-08-12T16:30:00.001-07:00

I've had a pair of bags of North Carolina clay that have been in storage until today. They date back to my trip to Penland back in the Spring of ought eight. Upon leaving Penland, I packed up my poor little corolla with loads of pots and clay full of ideas and enthusiasm for making pots from the "wild" clays from the workshop. Now I'm finally getting around to doing that. I cannot wait until it's dry enough to become pottery. I remember using commercially produced clay for the first time after the Penland workshop in which we used mostly dug clay. The clay from the box seemed so sticky and tight. The slipcast clay that was being used where I worked felt closer to wax then clay. I was surprised that the difference felt so stark.
Well now that I'm again aclimated back on the clay from a box, it's time whet my appetite for that southern clay. I mixed up a small batch with some Mitchfield, Cameron, OM#4 ball clay, a little local earthenware for iron and a dash of feldspar.

The bag of Mitchfield or Aumond Pond clay I have is full of some serious quartz rocks. Here's what I screened out.
The clay mixing was my morning and in the afternoon, I made a couple of sectional vases. It took me a long time to make these. I'm finding that I'm a pretty slow thrower compared with most potters I know. Yesterday I made 43 pots, I pretty damned good day for me. In less time then that took me, Malcolm made 98. Alas, he's truly a master potter and I'm somewhere way below that but it's something I need to work on.

Turnpike Road Pottery

2009-08-11T18:07:00.000-07:00

Today I started making pots at Malcolm Wright's Turnpike Road Pottery for a wood firing in September. Since I work four days a week for vegetable farm (Walker Farm) I only have three days a week for the August to make pots for the kiln. But Malcolm and I threw pots all day long so we're getting there. I made some 1.5 and 2 pound bowls to get used to the clay since I usually use a different body. By the end of the day I had a board of bottles that will get flattened a little tomorrow. Despite the beautiful weather outside, it was a great day to be in the studio slinging some mud.

Quechee Aftermath

2009-08-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

So the show in Quechee was pretty much a bust. I didn't make booth despite the beautiful Saturday weather. I found that the slow sales pushed me to interact more with the browsers who did happen to stop by and look at my work. It felt as though if I just told them a little bit about myself and the work they'd be more likely to buy something. In one or two cases this worked, but mostly people were not there to buy things. It was pretty discouraging. I came really close to packing up and leaving at the end of the day on Saturday after selling one lonely bowl the entire day. Sunday picked up a little, but it was still dead. I certainly won't be back next year, but I did learn a lot in the process.
At any rate I got some photos after we had set up on Friday. Above is the whole booth complete with "shabby-chic" dirt flooring. Below are some detail shots.

Here is my beautiful wife helping me out. Quinn is the retail manager in a very hip store in Brattleboro called Altiplano. I credit her for making my booth look so good.
These are newer porcelain blue-and-white pieces you've seen in previous posts.
Now that this show is done, I'm working in Malcolm Wright's studio to help fill his wood kiln for a September firing. I'll get some photos up shortly.

Quechee Vermont this Weekend

2009-07-30T08:36:00.000-07:00

I have a show this coming weekend, August 1 und 2 in Quechee Vermont. Here's a link to it:
www.castleberryfairs.com. They've got one of my plates as an image on their website. Unfortunately, it's not a plate I've made in a long time and won't have any of those at the show. Doh!
Let's see before I pack up the van I need to price and pack pots, unload a kiln and pack them up, finish my booth shelving, figure out lighting for my booth, get bags for customers, get a sign made, and eat, don't forget to eat. Ok, I'm on a mission.

all grown up

2009-07-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

On July 11th, I married Quinn Maguire. I was the best day of my life. All of my favorite people (excepting those who couldn't make it) were there and even though I didn't get to spend nearly enough time with each of them it was just amazing to see them all there.

Now that all the craziness of getting ready for the wedding is over and we've had our couple days on Cape Cod to chillax, it's back to work but this time with a ring on my finger.

Recent stuffs

2009-07-01T19:18:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been dipping my toe, well the whole foot really, in some porcelain work. It all started when Marco and Anna asked to register for the wedding with me, but just wanted simple white pieces. So here are some of the fruits.

Below are some teapots that need decoration. I'm thinking a little bit more than just the lines at the rim; we'll see what happens. This is the first time I've made quote-un-quote blue and white wares. I feel like I've always thought of it as selling out in a way or felt like I was supposed to think that, but it doesn't feel like selling out. I'm really enjoying adding the lines to the simple shapes. I just lay down some wax on the leather hard pieces, scratch through with a needle tool, paint on a slip/stain and wipe away the excess. I use a banding wheel which slows down and accentuates hesitations and slight movements while scratching through the wax. I really like the quality of that line, the way it wavers and seems a bit more alive.
I'd love to hear any feedback you might have be it about form, pointers on handle placement or on working with porcelain.

BoSox 6, Yankees 5

2009-06-11T07:20:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been long while since I've posted here last. A couple reasons are at work. Quinn and I've been focused on getting things ready for our approaching nuptials. Ever wonder what a wedding blog looked like? Well check it out here. I've also been doing some work for these fine folks and not too much pottery-related is happening. Yesterday was a good break from both the farm and wedding planning. A good high school friend of mine who happens to be getting married on Saturday scored Fenway bleacher tickets for a BoSox vs Yankees throw down.
I haven't been to Fenway in a long time, certainly not since they've become a very popular and successful franchise. I had totally forgotten how wicked ahsome that park is. We got there early enough for batting practice and found a wonderfully emasculating pink Red Sox visor for the lucky bachelor.
The game itself was fantastic. We took an early lead with some base hits in the first off of Yankee pitcher Wang, who's current ERA is somewhere in the 14.5 zone (oops). The Yankees however found a lot of Wakefield's knuckleballs to send into the outfield or beyond (three homers by Damon, Pasada, and Teixeira). But the Red Sox held onto the lead and brought in Papelbon to finish the game with a win.
There were some really great Bahston accents audible all around out in the bleachers. It was perfect.

What a curious thing

2009-04-03T15:05:00.000-07:00

I found this shard yesterday. I was walking through a cornfield adjacent to our house and this little fellow was just laying on the ground right in my path between two rows of corn. It's an old piece of a stoneware crock or jug. I couldn't believe that the piece of this pot that I found was the piece with a partial maker's mark. It reads, "JULIU" then "BEN". I assumed assumed this meant it was an old Bennington Pottery piece and looked it up online. Lucky for me Lura Woodside Watkins' book "Early New England Potters and Their Wares" is online in its entirety (here). So I looked to see if a Julius was associated with Bennington. Low and behold, Julius Norton was the grandson of Capt. John Norton who founded Bennington Pottery in 1793. Julius' mark dates from two different periods 1841-1844 and 1847-1850.
As you can see there is some flashing from the firing as well as some salt glazing. The inside is rich with the potter's (Julius Norton probably didn't make this pot, a slew of hired craftsmen potters would have actually done the throwing) throwing lines under the ubiqutous brown slip glaze.
I tend not to believe in fate, but I'll be damned on this one. I almost never walk through the cornfield, but this one time I do and a relic from a past I've been thinking a lot about recently appears at my feet. I'll be damned.

Winter Beard

2009-03-17T10:45:00.000-07:00

I've grown a modest beard this winter, but I'll shave it off as soon as spring is official. I decided I want to make this an annual endeavor, to put on facial hear when all the leaves have fallen and then clear the whiskers when the spring buds appear.

mugs and flat bottles

2009-03-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

I worked on some porcelain mugs this week. It's a new form for me so I had to play around with the handles a bit. They'll be part of a registry for some friends which I'm have a great time working on. With the plates and bowls they want uneven, organic, undulating shapes and bright color accents. So it's pushing me to try some things I've never really done, but have always wanted to. I'll keep posting updates.
Below are some slab bottles that I made in January up at Malcolm Wright's studio. I'm please with the way they turned out so far, they probably won't get fired until this summer so they're just hanging out for now. Three of them received white slip and will get some stencil decoration. The other one got some sprigs and will get the temoku dunk.

Isaac Button reels

2009-03-12T19:30:00.000-07:00

I noticed that more Isaac Button videos appeared on YouTube:

This movie of Isaac get my mind cranking. Here's a bit more about Isaac and his pottery, courtesy of Grit in the Gears. In watching this extremely efficient and practiced potter not only turn that many pots but load and fire that huge kiln (did you see those kiln shelves?!!) with such ease, I can't help but think how machine-like our bodies and actions can become. On the one hand I would love to get to that level of craftsmanship, to master the clay and glaze like it was nothing at all to throw twenty pound jugs in two minutes flat. But on the other hand, I think about his speed to make pots was out of necessity as they were cheap wares for the everyman. That I can take a little extra time to add to what my pots are is a privilege and I should consider that more. If I'm going to take the time to make a pot (let alone pots at all), it better be damn good by my standards.

The other thing that comes to mind while watching these videos of a man working in a very old fashioned and obsolete way are some of the Garth Clarke essays. I'm thinking of one from a Studio Potter in which he criticizes the followers of Leach as miring themselves in nostalgia and not moving ceramics as an art forward. It's hard to watch these videos and feel the urge to live that Isaac Button kind of life. Perhaps that's exactly what Clarke is criticizing, i.e. it's kinda backwards to want to live make pottery strictly in a way that has expired from our culture. I don't know, I still want to make pots all day long regardless of the cultural relevance.

On a less deep and introspective note, I love that the pipe never leaves Isaac's mouth. Also, it's time I started wearing some button-up shirts and ties to the studio.

Cheers

mud season preview

2009-03-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Quinn and I went for walk down by the West River on Rice Farm Road on Sunday and came to this distinct reminder that spring is coming! Well, after mud season, but it's coming sure enough.
It was also around 50 degrees, sunny and perfect for a stroll. We meandered a little on the Black Mountain trail and struck our best "old mountain man" poses.

"His name was Jeremiah Johnson, and they say he wanted to be a mountain man.
The story goes that he was a man of proper wit and adventurous spirit, suited to the mountains. Nobody knows whereabouts he come from and don't seem to matter much.
He was a young man and ghosty stories about the tall hills didn't scare him none..."

Our walk took us past a formidable property with the requisite collection of camping vehicles, old school bus on blocks, cargo container turned house, half-burned old house, half-built old shed, pony, emus, carnival ride parts (maybe?), and a nice office desk chair in the middle of the yard. The"posted no tresspassing keep out" sign hangs above a "friends welcome" sign. Sorry for the poor photography, we tried to take the snap quick and subtle like to avoid raising any hackles.

God's Gift to Man: Cheese and Crackers

2009-03-08T15:08:00.000-07:00

Vermont seriously sharp cheddar, stoned wheat thins, and irish breakfast tea. Tumbler by Walter Slowinski, a local doctor, jazz musician, potter, gardener, renaissance man. The plate is one that I threw upside down to get the wire cut off marking on the face.

Molly Hatch tumbler

2009-03-08T14:47:00.000-07:00

I picked up this tumbler by potter Molly Hatch at the Clay Studio when I was in Philly for the Buyer's Market. I brought it home as a gift for Quinn since I was gone during Valentine's Day in hopes of mending the fence there. It's a really beautiful design. I love the slight bleeding of the inlaid stain under the clear glaze and how that lends a depth to the images. There's a level of restraint in form and decoration that just seems so "right on." Also, I love seeing the thought given to the foot where the design continues. I'm always impressed when I see that kind of thing, it's like an added bonus.

Philadelphia

2009-02-18T13:11:00.000-08:00

I got back from a week in warm Philadelphia this past Tuesday. Laura was going to the Buyers Market of American Craft which is a wholesale trade show of hand-made crafts. I was there to help her set up her booth and help assist buyers during the show and then help her break down the booth at the end. The set up and break down all went fine and dandy, but the assisting with buyers wasn't so hot. There just weren't that many buyers there. By the end of the second day we noticed that very few buyers we coming from anywhere other than the states right next to PA. It seems they weren't even making the trip to Philly, let alone ordering pieces.

Despite the horror stories I heard this past week, we didn't go home empty handed, but my heart goes out to those who didn't recoup their expenses. This was my first time to this show so I didn't have the expectations that most there carried with them. For me, this was a chance to see what how this show worked, what sort of other work was represented, prices that other potters were posting, and if it seemed like something I'd like to do in the future. Based on the weak sales I'll probably hold off for a year or two, but there was work there that made me realize my work wasn't as bad as I keep thinking it is.

I walked through the ceramics section of the show each day I was there and found great pots and met potters each time. There was some really great work that blew me away such as Alan and Brenda Newman's work. They impressed me with their goblets. I've never before seen a ceramic wine glass or goblet that I've liked; I don't know why, they just seem clunky to me. But I actually really like theirs as well as all their other forms. Their website photos don't really do the glazes justice, there's a lot more going on than what you see there. Good stuff. Also Amelie Stamps work was great. Jason Bohnert's work was really good stuff. Goyer Bonneau Ceramics jumped out as pretty different from the pack.

While in Philly I took some time to check out the Clay Studio and found these humorous plates by Garth Johnson.

The rest are some impressions of Philadelphia.

Who's Going to Philly?

2009-02-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

I'm headed to the city of brotherly love tomorrow with Laura Zindel to assist in the wholesale madness (hopefully). This will be my first visit to the Buyer's Market show and I'm curious to check it out. I'll be sad to leave VT for a week, but I'm looking forward to some visits with friends down yonder. Let me know if you'll be at the show and I'll stop by your booth!
I know it's been a while since my last update. I've been pretty busy with working for Laura, housesitting, making pots, and teaching my first class at the Clayworks. The teaching has been fun and I'm finding the challenge in verbalizing just what it is I do with my hands to do that thing with the clay.
Ok time for sleep.

Oh Nuts!

2008-12-19T14:30:00.000-08:00

I've been making plaster molds for Laura this week. Just as I had finished pouring the plaster into the last mold of the week and leave work before the snow storm got too crazy, the mold let loose and sent a wall of mixed plaster slurry. It was quite the mess. I guess 15 lbs of water + 22.5 lbs of plaster is too much for one pour into my gerry-rigged mold form. Crud. Oh well, let it harden then clean up is the only thing to do.
Once the plaster was all spilled out in a big puddle it reminded me of watching Tom Spleth working with plaster to create vase forms, if you've never seen that check it out here.
On a good note: Happy Holidays! Quinn and I went to Sears earlier this week and got our ugly holiday-sweater-portrait taken.

good morning

2008-12-14T20:41:00.001-08:00

I woke up this morning and for some reason the light through the bathroom window was really striking so I had to take a picture. This window is also one of the reasons we first signed our lease for this place. Quinn and I are both really big fans of hot dog plants; they have such beautiful flowers. Some times we talk about farming hot dogs as a business venture.
In all honesty, we don't know who made this window, but it's always a pleasure to live with.

Islamic Platters

2008-12-01T19:00:00.000-08:00

I've been looking at these platters recently. I saw a picture of a similar platter a year or two ago and was just floored by it. I can't remember which book it was in but the other day that platter came to mind and I just had to find some images to look at. There's something so alluring about them. The Arabic sayings that are painted around the circumference are so stark and intentional. There is a beautiful simplicity to the stylized script. The one above is from the 10th century and is a serious 18 inches wide! These are all Central Asian from Nishapur or Samarqand.

This one (below) says, "Whoever talks a lot, slips a lot." This one (again below) says, "Frugality is a symptom of poverty." At first that seems pretty obvious. But what's the deeper meaning? It comes off as if frugality is a negative, perhaps poverty is a positive state of being. hmm...

fizzy cider

2008-11-14T18:01:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying a cup of one of my favorite late fall treats: fizzy cider. Here's how you make it:
Buy a gallon of cider sometime in October and drink about a quarter or third of it. Then put it in the back of your fridge and kinda forget about it. Then in mid to late November when the plastic jug looks inflated and about to blow the cap pour yourself a glass and notice the way it fizzes. It's that easy.

The new kiln, a slideshow

2008-10-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

It went a little something like......

Photos from the unbuilding

2008-10-14T05:27:00.000-07:00

The Brattleboro Clayworks kiln served a hearty 25 years with only one partial rebuild until now. In one day we removed and sorted the whole thing into about five piles of work weary brick. Clayworks members came out of the woodwork and pitched in to create the best damn brick brigade I've ever been a part of. Not even walls could stop us, nope we just go right through those.

Here's the very bottom of the chimney complete with cracked lintel which crumbled in my hands as it came out.

Here's the main reason for the rebuild. As you can see the wall was feeling a little tired.

A new beginning

2008-10-13T20:34:00.001-07:00

The Brattleboro Clayworks kiln was duly deconstructed Sunday with lots of help from members Billie, Annie, Lucinda, Jen, Maria, and Sue. The kiln was built in 1983 and although I suspect parts were rebuilt every now and again this will be the first total overhaul. Pictures are forthcoming. Tonight I took apart the very bottom two courses of brick and cleaned off the cinder blocks exposing the clean slate for the new oven. I'll be there after work each night for probably the next two weeks putting it back together, luckily we've got a big crew coming on Saturday to pitch in. Woohoo!

Orv Wright burns number 138

2008-10-02T21:20:00.000-07:00

Last week was a busy one with prepping for the Clayworks' kiln rebuild (photos and more coming on that) and recovering from a cold while working. It was made even busier with a couple of night-time stoking shifts thrown in the mix as well. But busying oneself with the stoking of a friend's kiln is the best kind of busy I know. Orv Wright is a generous mentor and a bad-ass potter. I've been lucky enough to be a part of his firing crew for a couple years and it's always a pleasure. As an added bonus my pots from the previous post were in the kiln and ready for the heat.
On Thursday I started the wood stoking around eight pm and listened to the BBC for five or so hours while a distinct nip developed in the air. I had to shut the radio off around 11 when I realized I was grinding my teeth to McCain soundbytes.
Here's Orv taking over the stoking at 1am or around 1200 degrees for the night haul.
Here's Sorry about the poor quality of the photos, but their from my celli; although I kinda like the pink and purple in this snap looking into the main firebox. It looks a little ghostly, no?

There's the whole of the beast from the front. This was Orv's one hundred and thirty-eighth firing. Damn, that's a lotta mud.
Pictures of the unloaded pots will be forthcoming.

Some newish work

2008-09-22T09:52:00.000-07:00

Way back in January, I made some pots up at Malcom Wright's during a house-sitting gig. I had almost totally forgotten about them until this summer when Orv mentioned that he had bisqued them. So here are the more interesting pre-firing ones. I've been playing around with stencils and the lightbulb and giraffe are some new ones.

My goal with these bowls is for them to stack in sets of four. We'll see how they turn out.

My Favorite Pot

2008-08-31T17:16:00.000-07:00

This is my favorite pot. It's a two gallon salt-glazed jar made in Hartford, CT. I've liked salt-glazed wares for some time. As far as ceramic history goes, it wasn't that long ago (circa 1400 CE) that an unknown German potter from the Rhineland introduced salt into kiln probably on accident and low and behold it makes glaze on the pots in the kiln. This technique became hugely popular in production pottery since it eliminated the step of glazes the pots before loading and firing. It showed up in the American colonies in the early 1700s and became the dominant utilitarian houseware.
This pot came out of a house in North Chester, MA that was in my grandmother's family since it was built around 1805. It was among several jars and jugs in the house, but just stood out with it's tall stature and high belly.
The mark on the front says, "G. Benton & L. Stewart, Hartford." The other week during open studio tour I stopped by Mark Shapiro's spot with this pot in tow. Knowing Mark as a potter with a serious interest in New England historical pots I thought he might help me find a little bit about it. He consulted Lura Woodkins Watkins book and discovered that Benton and Stewart were retired sea captains who bought a pottery in Hartford and ran it for couple of years, around 1815 or so, and then sold it to the potter who was actually making the pots.
I love the rich brown color to it, so many early American salt-glazed pots are grey but perhaps the clay had more iron to it or perhaps it was in a reducing pocket of the kiln. There are a couple subtle flashing marks where it stood next pots in the fire. The handles are round and laid flat against the shoulder and neck with some cobalt and the attachment.
I've tried in the past to make pots like it, but haven't yet nailed the form. So far it remains as a challenge to shoot for, but for now I'm happy just to look at it.

Don Meno

2008-08-30T10:29:00.001-07:00

Sometimes just when you think you know all the potters who live around you one sneaks under your radar. This summer I met a potter whose been 'round these parts for a whole mess of years and somehow our circles didn't converge until just now. He's built a sweet little Olsen fast fire wood kiln near his studio in Brattleboro. This past weekend he invited me to take part in the loading and firing of it and here's some pictures of it.

These two pieces came out of the kiln a couple days ago. The vase on the left was a refired pot from Penland, it's got that Mitchfield clay which really did a lot with the modest two pounds of salt. The bottle on the right is a bit of some stencil work I've been playing around with of late.

I O Way

2008-07-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Iowa this past weekend for my cousin's wedding was pretty fantastic. It being my first time to that part of the Midwest I was charmed by the beautiful rolling cornfields, impressed by the humongous wind farms, scared to tears by the Jolly Green Giant. He's at least eighty feet tall and no joke. He could also use a couple more inches to his toga; there's not much for the imagination.
I took a short video of our epic ten hour drive from Chicago to Lake Okoboji, Iowa.

the ball mill

2008-07-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've decided to build a ball mill. It's gonna be great. It's just a jar full of porcelain balls that rolls on it's side and takes a geologic process of erosion and speeds it way up. Potter's use them to grind up glaze components or homogenize raw glaze or clay or just make some loud noises for hours and hours. Simple. No problem. There are many designs, but I've taken it upon myself to try and make one that will accommodate different sized jars and thus need a variable speed adjuster of sorts. Here are some plans courtesy of an Onis Cogburn article out of an old Ceramics Monthly. I like the compact nature of this design since space in my studio is somewhat lacking.I've begun collecting parts and had meny conversations with people who know way more about electricity (the magical energy that makes lights work and my toast crispy) than I do. I even was given an old motor to use. Makes a nice grinding wheel motor but originally came from an old GE washing machine circa the 1940's. Hell yeah:
At the moment I'm trying to figure out if I can put a variable speed control switch on this motor. Cross your fingers y'all.

Woah, these look important

2008-06-30T17:28:00.000-07:00

Well, here they are the fruits of my labors whilst I was away at Penland this past Spring. I'm pretty proud of the way these pots came out. Some went through a rigorous amount of cleaning, i.e. angle grinding with a wire brush, dremel tool grinding, then sanding, then mineral oils applied, some even got a healthy dose of tile and grout sealer to keep them from sweating (or straight up leaking water).
I took these pieces down to John Polak, a photographer in Easthampton, MA for him to work his magic on them. For me it's always a little strange knowing the pieces so well to then see them in the "professional slide format." I'm grateful for John's expertise in committing them to digital record, he really knows his stuff. It's always a pleasure to see a true craftsmen in his element. But, they almost look a bit foreign to me. Maybe it's like listening to a recording of yourself talking where you think, "Do I really sound like this?" Perhaps it's the way my perception of my own pottery is almost exclusively tangible. Their tactile details are indistinguishable from their visual details.
It is also a lot of fun for me to look at these images with that professional air about them. It really makes the pot stand up on it's own feet and command my attention.

These faceted cups make a nice pair. They helped me restrain the urge to trim round feet underneath. I learned sometimes just cutting an angle with a big kitchen knife is the way to go.

This bottle is probably my favorite for the time being. These are just two side of a piece that has a whole lot of great details 360 degrees in every direction.

This bottle was in a raging kiln for three days, but became buried under coals that insulated the piece from temperatures past pit firing temps. It laid on it's side and developed the bright orange nebulas where it sat. It's really pourous; I rinsed it out with water and it started soaking that water right up.

In the left corner we have a nuka-glazed pitcher inspired by medieval English jugs. Sort of a East meets West fusion of Japanese glaze on an Anglo form.

And in the right corner, we see a ovoid jug that took some serious ash hits to the membrane.

This guy was fired on his side resting on a cookie of iron-bearing clay that resisted the flame and left it's own mark.

Two faces to this vase; that red and blue markings to the left leave me speachless.

I find myself really missing the clay that was used to make this bottle. We dug it from the bottom of the hill in the llama pasture across from the studio. It felt great to throw and really opened up when cut or trimmed. And the brick red color leaves me nostalgic for shoveling it out of a ditch and into a pickup.

Ok, so this pot is the "better one" from the previous post all cleaned up and presentable. Despite a crack on the inside I totally love it. As my first success at making a large coiled pot I couldn't be happier. Not even to mention the amazing surface that developed in the kiln.

big pots

2008-05-12T20:10:00.000-07:00

This post is really a summary of one section of the course in which we made large vessels using a "coil and throw" technique. David Stuempfle makes a lot of these and to a enormous scale, essentially making them as big as his kiln can handle.

I found the biggest difference between making these large pieces and throwing tableware was the pace. It's much slower; it took me two to three days to complete just one. In that time it's hard not to get attached to the pot itself. When you spend that much time and work on it the pot becomes an almost personification of your energy and devotion to the process. All that is natural, but dangerous as I found out when I had just finished a rather tall storage jar and accidentally hit the foot control and sent the thing spinning at top speed which then sent it crashing to the floor.
As much as it pained me to lost that piece, I wanted that much more to make another. So I busted up the broken pot, threw it all in David's pugmill and used that clay to make another better one.

The following is a montage of sorts illustrating the making, transporting, kiln loading/firing/unloading.

Here's David at work on a HUGE pot - about 40 inches wide.

Once dried, the pots were loaded on a van and brought to Michael and Naomi's kiln.

The loading took about two days.

Michael and David ready to "clam up the wicket" and burn this kiln!

Early in the firing, when stoking was kept to those bottom air holes. Later we would stoke through main fire box hole in the middle of the door, as well as side stoke ports.

After three and a half days of burning and a day and a half of cooling the unloading began.

Viola! The aforementioned "better one."

one week to go?

2008-04-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Hey Y'all,
Again, I'm sorry not to be posting as often as blogging etiquette commands, but damn - pottery camp is making me crazy busy. This past weekend has been amazing though, we loaded a whole bunch of big pots into a big kiln and lit it on fire. It is still burning as I write this. I had a stoking shift last night from 10pm to 4am after which I had to do some more work in the studio so that I had some pots ready to load into a different wood kiln. I crashed around 6:30 am for about two hours just in time to be late for my dishes work-study shift at 8:30. As we're turning the corner into the home stretch of this two-month class, all of us are working flat out to finished projects and fire kilns and clean the studio. It's a bit hectic and disheveled, but so much fun.
Here's some other stuff that's happening:
-Yesterday I traded a mug for a sweet belt buckle made by a student in the iron forging class.
-Saturday night a bunch of us went drinking at the Moose Lodge Club, you know like an Elks club or a VFW. It was karaoke night. All the locals there, which is to say everyone except our group, could sing some serious Hank Williams, Jr. I was impressed. I walked away with a buzz and an application for membership.
-Before the Moose Lodge, our class had an art exhibition opening at a really nice gallery in Bakersville called The Crimson Laurel. It was a fancy event and a lot of fun. Our teachers gave a slide show/lecture on what our class was doing and why, etc. I'm going to try and get the slide show images up on here if possible. A huge thanks goes to the gallery owners, who agreed to put a bunch of student pots into their first rate ceramics gallery.

Well that's all for now, more pictures to come.

a new approach

2008-04-14T21:52:00.000-07:00

Except for the first three weeks of the very first ceramics class I took, I've always been a wheel throwing potter, but this week I tried my hand at some slab work. My teachers, Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish, do lot's of slab work and this week demonstrated some of their techniques. Now, where I work (Laura Zindel Ceramics) I roll slabs for platters and dishes, but this week I learned a new way to make slabs by slicing up a big chunk of clay creating five or six slabs at a time.
This tall bottle is about ten or eleven inches tall and it's pretty wonky. The right angles from my sketch turned into odd angles in the actual piece, but overall I was pleased with this one.

Next, I tried a flat but round form seen here.

Once the piece was leather-hard I brushed on an iron-bearing slip that will fire dark under the lighter white slip then carved through it to make the design.

Magnetitus of the Mountain Mine

2008-04-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday, April 7th, Josh, Maya and I went on a trip to find an old abandoned iron mine rumored to be in the area near Penland. Following Jeff Supplee's (he's a geologist potter who has done a lot of work with making glazes with locally sourced materials, i.e. rocks) directions we drove north on route 19 and stopped at the gas station in Cranberry to inquire about this iron mine. We saw this sign which we took as a good omen of the mine's proximity. We followed the simple directions and within the hour we found ourselves looking into a hole in the earth.

Thanks be to Josh Copus for providing these photos of our prospecting.

A word about why we undertook this trek: the focus of this class as well as the mentality of the teachers and assistants is that going out in your back yard to find your materials is A) pretty awesome and B) old school. A lot of potters can go their whole lives using commercially/industrially procured materials, which is fine if that's what they're into. I don't mean to be preachy or holier than thou, I'm just getting excited about the prospects of using materials that are locally specific. It is an aesthetic choice as much as it is decision to make everything harder, ie dig clay, find the right rocks, process wood ash, etc.
Now, about this mine: iron is a very common metal oxide in the potter's pallet. We use iron in glazes to get certain colors, or in clay bodies to give them a certain color for contrast. This mine is known to have a certain iron oxide called magnetite or ferrous ferric oxide or Fe3O4; it is not a common iron oxide for potters and it's kinda hard to find, but we hope to use it as a pigment for decoration on the surface of the pots. The coolest thing about this trip and the coolest thing about magnetite is that as the name would suggest it is magnetic. To figure out which piece of rock in the mine was truly magnetite we brought with us a couple of magnets to hunt for the right rocks. Whatever stuck to the magnet we threw in a sack to haul back to Penland (that stuff is heavy). We found places in the mine were whole sections of wall would hold the magnet, just like a refrigerator.

The mine itself was pretty awesome, apparently it goes a couple of miles into the earth although we only explored the very mouth having forgot flashlights.

These are some of the larger rocks we brought back. It's hard to make out, but you can see the magnet we used stuck to the hunk of magnetite.

Here's Maya and myself holding up a chunk of the day's find.

Off the Mountain

2008-04-08T14:06:00.001-07:00

This past weekend I finally left the pottery camp and back to the real world for 24 hours. It was awesome. I stayed with friends, Will and Katy, in West Asheville and on Sunday stopped by my pal Josh Lynch's diggs. He runs a carnivorous plant nursery and raises up some pretty rad plants. I took some photos, but they seem to be pretty washed out. Pictured are pitcher plants and their flowers as well as a sundew plant. Check out his website for more and accurate info.

Later on Sunday I stopped by the Matt Jones Pottery. Matt's studio and home is in the beautiful Sandy Mush Valley in Leicester, NC just west of Asheville. He was kind enough to show me around his studio, kiln, glass crusher, ball mill and goats on his one relaxed day of the week.

As I drove back to Penland in time for dinner, I felt rested and ready to get back to work. The next month is gonna be pretty full. Michael and Naomi are coming back to teach the class for the last month and our schedule is pretty full with demonstrations, glaze testing and making, and kiln loading and firing. David Stuempfle returned home this past weekend but will be back for the last week of the session. He'll be missed during his absence, but we're gonna be busy pottery bees these next few weeks.

Our First Wood Firing!

2008-04-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

Wow. I'm way behind on my updates - my apologies.
So a week and a half ago we loaded up and fired Penland's two-chambered wood kiln.

Pictured here are glazed wares ready to get loaded into the chambers. Maya Machin, our awesome teaching assistant is in the green vest.

Pots get categorized by size and stacked onto shelves with other like-sized pieces.

Here you can see the first chamber of pots almost full. Before the pieces get placed into the kiln they get "wadded." We put little wads of alumina and clay onto the feet of each pieces so that it doesn't get stuck to the kiln shelf during the firing. That is something that is unique in a wood kiln. Because the flame from the wood is laden with flying wood ashes which at high temperature will land every where in the kiln and melt we need a way to easily separate the vessels from the shelves afterwards. That's also the reason that the shelves look white, we paint the shelves with a similar wash of alumina and silica.

Here's a video of my class mates, Zvi and Kim applying wadding. Maya makes a cameo as well.

The firing itself lasted about 36 hours; we started on a Thursday around 10 am and finished around 10 pm on Friday. Pictured here is Josh Copus, our other awesome teaching assistant pulling pots out of the fire box.

Crap!, this video is sideways. Well, it's a video of Josh stoking the kiln with wood. We do this A LOT during the firing.

Unloading happened on the following Monday. Pictured is the first chamber just after the door was unbricked.

Below are some of the results. Left to right: a tall bottle vase by Maya Machin, a curvaceous vase by James Ward, an aeroplane bottle of mine, and a snail jar of mine as well.

Local potter, Michael Kline, stopped by to see some of our pots and posted some pictures on his blog here.

That's not Sugar

2008-03-25T22:06:00.000-07:00

It's snow! Yeah, that's right, it snowed over night and was still there when I took this picture at breakfast. It was really pretty and pretty wierd since it was so nice on Sunday. Maya, Fletcher and I took bets on how long it would stay. I bet it would be gone from the open fields by 10:30 am, I was right.

The other awesome thing that happened today was that my first pottery teacher, Charlie Tefft came up from Greensboro for a visit. It was great to see him and catch up with him about his teaching, family and pottery. He demonstrated for our class one of his 'wren' pitcher forms. Charlie also brought up some clay that he dug in Greensboro. I'll run it through the tests that we've performed on other wild clays and see how it performs.
I guess I haven't really talked about the focus of this workshop other than the short blurb, but we've dug some local clay to test and the instructors, David Stuempfle and Michael Hunt and Naomi Dalglish also brought other North Carolina Clays for us to test and use. The first week of the workshop was really focused on figuring out which of the eleven clays we wanted to work with. This involved a series of making test tiles of each of those clay bodies, firing them, then analysing the tiles. Since some clays aren't that easy to use straight out of the ground, we then made blends of the different clays to utilize the different properties unique to each clay to give us a couple good bodies to work with. We want to be sure that the clays we'll use and fire in the wood kilns will be able to withstand high temperatures of the fire as well as be plastic, workable clays that take glazes well.
So, I've got to make some tests of this new clay that Charlie brought and see what it's like. Another material that I'm testing, is a Vermont local clay that came from a clay bed a couple miles from my apartment. I will keep y'all posted on that progress.
We're getting ready for our first wood-firing so that past couple days have been spent glazing. We're also getting ready to make some really big pots with a coiling/throwing technique.
Time for bed.
G'night

Easter at Penland

2008-03-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

Easter Sunday is a pretty big deal here. About two hundred people from the community show up for lunch and a crazy easter egg hunt. All the studios contribute to make interesting eggs for people to find. They're on display before lunch and then hid by the core students while folks are chowing down.

After lunch everyone gathers, when the blowhorn sounds bedlam breaks out. People (kids, teenagers, and parents, lots of parents) bolt and run around the campus looking for all the eggs.

More bedlam.

This kid is sitting on top of the world. He found the biggest craziest easter egg; it's made of glass.

Then there was Bocce to be played on the llama hill

left to right: Marybeth, Marc, Aaron, Josh and Kirby

Josh and I dominated 11-3.

Working in Sections

2008-03-22T22:45:00.000-07:00

This week we started making bigger pots out of sections.
Here we have a ten pound piece of clay turned into a base for a larger form

Next, I throw the top piece. I think this was six pounds of clay. I left enough clay at the rim to make a grove to fit over the rim of the base.

Here the two pieces have been joined and the seam is smoothed over.

Here it is finished the next morning once the cap was done

Week Two?

2008-03-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

This second week was titanic. I dug some clay and rode in the back of pickup sitting on the pile of clay. I went to Marshall, NC to see the kiln of our studio assistant, Josh Copus. I threw a couple big pots in sections. Ok, so the following are a bunch of pics I took this week.

This is James Ward, he's my roommate and also in my workshop. He's rad.

This is a klezmer band that two of my instructors are in. This picture is of them practising and us partying. The quality of the picture was compromised by all the dust we were kicking up.

Time is Getting Fast

2008-03-22T17:08:00.000-07:00

First of all, I apologize that this blog is not update as regularly as anyone would like, but my schedule is a bit crazy. Here's a sample of a normal day: I wake up around 8:15, get some breakfast and then do some dishes. I head over to the clay studio around 9:30 until lunch time, around 12:15 then do some dishes, then I head back to the studio and hang out there until about 5:30 or 6. Dinner starts at 6:15 and then there's some dishes to do after which I'll head back to the studio until my body tells me it's time to quite, usually midnight, sometimes later.

So now that I've been here for two weeks, I've aclamated to my schedule and I've met most of the people on campus and checked out most of the studios. The first week before all of that was true time was really slow and everyday seemed like a whole week. Now, I feel like the next six weeks are just going to fly on by.

The other thing that's happening is that my southern drawl that I developed while living in Greensboro is returning. Quinn was the first to point this out to me. It's like a old friend that's come back to live in my throat. I keep saying that I'm from Ver-mont, not Vermont; I don't get it, it's totally unvoluntary, I cross the Mason-Dixon and bam! I'm talking like a Haw River hick.

Week One

2008-03-15T13:31:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe I've been here for a week already. When I think about it, it doesn't seem like it's been a week, because things move so quickly. But on the other hand, I've done so much, met so many people that it seems much longer than a week.

Pictured above are the two llamas that live in the paddock in front of the building pictured above right. That building is called the "Pines", I live on the top floor and the cafeteria is on the first floor.

Here are a bunch move building on the campus.

This is the sweet-ass clay studio that I get to hang out in 24/7.

And this is the first ware-board of pieces that I threw.

Arrival!

2008-03-12T10:41:00.000-07:00

I made it! After only four hours of driving through the rain I made up to the campus. I did get seriously lost for a little bit in a town called Little Switzerland where I almost hit a turky buzzard that had no intention of getting out of the road. Everything was really foggy and it is super rural here and it was a lot like a creepy movie, like Scarecrow or Cabin Fever.

Anyway I drove up a mountain and found the school which seemed a little deserted, but only the work-study students were arriving then.

I settled in to my bunk room, which resembles an orphanage or a civil war hospital room: it's big in and old attic and has about fourteen beds. I met two of my roomies, who seem pretty great and like we're gonna have some fun. After some beers and whiskey is was time for bed.

And this is what I saw looking out my window the next morning!

Road Trip

2008-03-12T10:18:00.000-07:00

I left snowy Vermont directly after voting in the primary and waving to Allison, Sebastian and Dorian who were just getting to the polls.

By the time I hit New Jersey, I was already entering Spring with Canadian geese flying north and grass sprouting up from the groung. I stayed in North Philly with my friends, Marco and Anna; staying up late drinking wine listening to mid-seventies Beach Boys and Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album.

The next day brought me to south Philly to visit another friend, Josh. We had a great visit and some tasty burritos.

Then I drove to D.C. and got royally (or maybe I should say 'presidentially') lost among the retarded city planning in DC and Arlington, VA. I stayed with Davis and Lauren, who graciously put me up, fed me fantastic Vietnamese food, drank me under the table and humored me with some Rock Band.

I drove to Greensboro, NC the following day with a stop in Durham to visit our friends and their new baby boy, Ayers. Sarah and I spent some time in a local park with Ayers who was in a grat mood and we totally bonded. They are so lucky to have such a cute baby. I just tried not to break him. I think I succeeded.

Greensboro is a great place to return to after having been gone for almost four years. Andrew and I had a great time catching up, drinking (you may notice a pattern here) beers and some of his home-brewed mead (smacks of viking). After and nice long sleep I hit the road going west for Penland.

I love having the opportunity to reconnect with friends while driving somewhere. Thanks to all for your couches and hospitality. Another added bonus was the chance to spread the good word of Quinn and mine engagement, people seem to be excited for us, which feels pretty awesome.

getting ready

2008-03-02T11:46:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm going to Penland. It's two days before I leave so it's time to pack. Here's a picture of just some of my stuff I'll be squeezing into the car.

I will be leaving snowy, snowy Vermont for rainy, rainy, North Carolina.

I will also be leaving my fiancee, Quinn for two months to fend for herself in the frozen north. Sorry about that babe.
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Right now and probably until I'm settled in at Penland, I'm kinda nervous about the whole thing. I don't know anybody there, I don't know what my work job is, I don't know where I'm going to sleep. But all that will be answered probably in the first couple hours after I get there. So there's nothing really to be nervous about.

I'm excited for the road trip south. I'll be visiting friends and family and rest stops all down the I95 corridor.