Echo Gallery: images from the opening

Last night Biltmore Park threw Echo Gallery a grand opening celebration, and it was indeed a happy event! Roux restaurant (from the Hilton) catered, and wonderful Sarah from Biltmore Park made sure everything was perfect, right down to finding a coat rack/umbrella stand for the expected arrival of many umbrellas!

It was raining, and I think all of us at Echo had moments of 'deja-vu all over again!', as we had torrential downpours at the soft open that seemed to keep many people inside and away from the gallery. Well that certainly wasn't the case last night, as our gallery was filled with people and great energy throughout the reception! The new show looks great, and it was wonderful to share it with friends, old and new. I'm still a bit gob-smacked myself, and ever so grateful to be a part of this group.

I was also thrilled that my friend Anne drove up from Atlanta for the party and brought the camera with the BIG lens, and roamed the event capturing moments. Gallery member Laurie McCarriar (MC-Carry to those in the 'hood) also covered the party with her camera, so look forward to more pictures from her. Here are a few from Anne:

Echo Gallery members: me, Susan Webb Lee, Genie Maples,
Laurie McCarriar, Barbara Fisher & Anna Koloseike

the quiet before ...

Susan Webb Lee took one of my plates home,
and came back with this gorgeous table runner
that just transformed the display!

Barbara's husband sent beautiful flowers to wish us well

starting to get crowded...

Laurie talking about her photos...


Susan & guest artist Tekla


it was incredible to have trouble getting through the
crowd in this very generous space!


more crowd fun...


Barbara & I posing in front of
Laurie's very cool photo


pots were appropriately fondled...


Laurie, with Marty & Eileen, who happily
snapped up the two new pieces behind them


it was really a very happy crowd, and fun to be with!


the rain kept on, but so did the people!


admiring work by Barbara Fisher


sculpture by Anna looks on while more patrons
admire Genie Maple's beautiful paintings


Anna with friends


guest artist Heather Tinnaro (and Tekla in the back)
working the crowd


I don't remember the what, but I remember the laugh


Sarah from Biltmore, who helped make this a great party


Barbara, with guest artist Susan Finer


Guest Artist Alex Stevens, Anna & Heather
enjoying delish treats from Roux


Genie & one of her two beautiful daughters
(both were there)


got Anne out from behind her camera for one shot!

Echo Gallery Grand Opening this Friday!

This Friday, 6-9pm. Food & drink from Roux, new work from all core artists plus some new guest artists. Come and see us!

full house at Crazy Green Studios!

It's funny to think it's only been about a week since my last post but it feels like a month has passed! Lots going on, lots to come, but I just had to stop and take a moment to celebrate the great energy my studio members bring to the studio. I'm officially 'full' at the moment, with four studio members and two special members working on their Senior Project.

Katie H. is the newest addition, but in fact she's also one of the oldest members. Katie was with me almost from the beginning of my open studio membership and was one of my former students in at Odyssey. When she's not here, she's doing incredible work with Mountin' Hopes therapeutic riding center. As a matter of fact, it was the intensity and passion she has for her work that had her staying round the clock with a sick horse last March, which turned into pneumonia, which turned into severe injuries from coughing and over SIX months off the pottery wheel! But she's back, and even back on the kick wheel, and we're so glad to welcome her back to the fold!

Katie H, back at the kick wheel!

Our other Katie also had to take a month or so off, but is now back working on mugs for the holiday season. Helen is starting to try teapot forms, and Matt has ventured into plates. They all bring great energy, good ideas and much needed balance to my crazy schedule, and I'm so grateful to have them here!

a lovely bowl and small plate by Matt


a fun mug Katie S did this summer -
her new forms are really cool and will be
featured in another post

Helen, selling her wares at 2nd Saturday Artist Market
teapots are drying in pieces on the shelf now...

My senior project students, Alex and Caris, are also doing great. Alex and I will be working with the colored porcelain soon, and Caris is showing a very natural touch on the wheel. I have no doubt they'll end up with beautiful work for the project, and I'll have learned just as much from them.

Caris, showing her stuff after just
two sessions on the wheel!


Alex's test piece - consider it the black & white
version - the project version will use colored porcelain

Rounding out the full house is studio assistant Brittany, who keeps us well stocked in pugged clay but still needs to find more time to do her own work - if she sees this perhaps we'll get her in on the wheel!

our goal: to get a shot of her at the wheel!

Very happy to have people and pots bursting at the seams at Crazy Green!

Empty Bowls

This weekend, Crazy Green Studios will be participating in two events for Empty Bowls, and if you're in the Asheville area I hope to see you at one or both!

Friday, October 16 is the annual Empty Bowls Luncheon to benefit MANNA FoodBank. This annual event brings together many facets of the Asheville creative and business community to support MANNA, who in turn supports people throughout western North Carolina.

The Doubletree Biltmore donates a great space for the event, which takes place from 11am - 2pm. Inside, you'll find bowls from potters near and far, adult and child, small and large! With your $20 ticket, you'll be able to select one of these beautiful, handmade bowls as your own. In addition, you'll find other donated pieces for sale in the "Collector's Corner", and this year the event will also feature a silent auction of other art work. All these pieces have been donated by the people who make them, and by students in area schools.

Some potters send a bowl or two, others, like David Voorhees, organize events to make and decorate over 100 bowls. And at Odyssey Center for Ceramic Art, a special class is offered where each week features a guest potter demonstrating various bowl making and decorating techniques. The students in that class, along with students from other classes and rental studio members, will send over 300 bowls to the event. And then there are potters from all over the area who are making bowls and sending them to the event, giving everyone who comes a wide range of hand made gorgeous-ness to choose from!

And if you always wondered how we get these beautiful bowls from a simple lump of clay, two brave, local potters will be throwing bowls for the crowds (and will take requests if given truffles).

demos will be done on this very wheel,
and you can try it out if you want!

The collector's corner will feature small sets, larger pieces and art pieces, and some pieces come from beyond our region. In Viroqua, Wisconsin, the Empty Bowls event is a dinner that happens on Saturday, October 17.

poster for the Viroqua Empty Bowls dinner

Devorah Yahn is one of five potters who make the bowls for their event, and she dedicated herself to throwing 200 bowls for this year's dinner. She and I have traded pieces for our respective events (adding drama to the excitement by shipping as late as possible!), so be sure to look for her beautiful vases, either in the Collector's Corner or perhaps at the Silent Auction.

Heather Tinnaro & John Hartom at last year's event:
this year, Heather and I will be throwing bowls!

And then there's the food! Area restaurants (like 12 Bones, Corner Kitchen), bakeries (like West End Bakery) and confectioners (like the French Broad Chocolate Lounge) donate delicious soups, breads, cookies, truffles and beverages, often served up by the chef who made the dish.

All of this is done so that the entire ticket price of $20 can go to MANNA FoodBank. With each ticket sold, MANNA can provide food for 60 meals, so in addition to enjoying a delicious lunch and fondling your new handmade bowl, while you're there you can learn more about what MANNA does for our community. And more importantly, perhaps you can learn more about what YOU can do to help beyond the lunch!

But wait, there's more!

On Saturday, Biltmore Park hosts their Fall Festival, which will be great fun for the whole family. If you've been following along, you know that Biltmore Park is also home to Echo Gallery, where I am a coop member.

Echo Gallery will be hosting a tent during Fall Fest, and we'll have bisque-fired bowls and underglaze paints available for those who feel like letting their artistic freak fly a bit by decorating a bowl. The decorated bowls will be glazed and then sold in Echo Gallery to benefit MANNA FoodBank. It's going to be a great, chilly fall day - come out and enjoy the Festival and paint a bowl for MANNA!

In closing - while I was writing this, I was scanning my files and online for images, and just out of curiousity I 'googled' Empty Bowls and looked at the images view. I think this is just incredible - I'm only posting a small portion of what I found, and not all are for this year, but I couldn't resist sharing some. Hunger is not something that occurs in other places or to any specifically 'special' group of people. It's here, it's everywhere, and it happens to many, many people in all our communities. That's the bad news. The good news is this (to see more, google it!):

Fridays at Echo Gallery

If you've been following along, you know I've recently joined and helped open a new coop gallery in South Asheville: Echo Gallery at Biltmore Park. While we're open for business (2-8 Thu - Sat, 1-6 Sun and by appt), we're still putting things together, adding more work, adding new members, planning guest artists, etc. Biltmore Park, where we're located, will be throwing us a Grand Opening party on October 23 (more on that later!).

Friday is my day in the gallery, and while I have a quiet moment before the dinner crowd comes by, I thought I'd toss out a quick intro of my gallery-mates. If you haven't made it by yet, of course I'd love to see you when I'm there (come by for a rare chance to see me out of my clay-covered clothes!), but any time you come, you'll be greeted by a member artist, so come on by!

Genie Maples is a painter and has her studio in the River District:

works by Genie Maples, and admirers of the same, in her studio

Genie, working in her studio

Barbara Fisher also paints, and also has her studio in the River District:

one of Barbara's newer works

Barbara Fisher, at it...

Laurie McCarriar is an art photographer, who just got back from Ireland, by the way!

Laurie may have the nicest 'studio' of us all!

perhaps not Ireland - you'll have to check her site to see when she posts those pictures!

Susan Webb Lee is a textile artist who makes amazing quilts:

Susan, with her work

'No Direction Home'

Anna Koloseike is a ceramic sculptor who ALSO has a studio in the River District!

Anna

'Sleeping Stones'

And then of course there's me...

in my happy place...

part of the 'trees' series - hopefully some

decent pictures will be taken of the new work soon!

Senior Project Updates

My second Senior Project student, Caris, started her clay adventure today! After chatting a bit about the many, many different ways there are to work with clay, she's decided that she'd like to do a wheel project, and she's got her sights on making her own versions of my aromatherapy diffusers, along with some votive holders. These will be great wheel projects, as there are three different components to the diffusers, some with trimming, some with altering and all with opportunities for all kinds of decoration.

I love that one Sr. Project student has chosen wheel and the other a completely different project in handbuilding. They'll be able to vicariously learn more through each other, and I'll get each into the other world for at least a taste at some point.

Sr. Project student and studio member Caris -
momentarily clean as she begins her fun in the mud!

So Caris started today on the wheel and was spectacular. Just like all my new students, the focus was getting comfortable with the clay on the wheel.

jumping right in and doing very well with the centering

After some demos on centering and a couple of quick looks at a teabowl or two off the mound, she spent a good while working on centering and really just getting the feel of it all.

toward the end of the day, feeling out the clay
- note she's happily wearing much more clay
than when she started (sign of a really good day!)

Before long, she was trying out her instincts on forming bowls and other shapes, and really showing a good sense of how the clay needs to be handled.

When she returns for her next studio visit, she'll continue throwing small bowls off the mound, which will be used for glaze tests. Then it's on to working the different components of the diffuser. At some point, we may take a break to play with some hand building techniques as well.

This afternoon, Alex also returned for more studio work, and we also had a very productive day!

a nice variety of glaze tests on her first pinch and coil pots

First off, we had to review the glaze tests she did. These were good for general use, but we realized that since she'll ultimately be working with colored porcelain, we should have concentrated more on the translucent glazes, but we still got some good information, and now she's got an idea of what she likes in stoneware as well as porcelain.

Next, it was time to finish pounding the dried porcelain ...

And then measure it out into equal quantities for coloring ...

And then add the mason stains and underglazes ...

And thoroughly re-hydrate and mix the new, colored clay.

While the porcelain was drying out to a wedge-able stage, Alex went back to the bowls she started on a bisque mold the last time she was here, adding more decoration and feet.

finishing touches on her bowl

Tomorrow, she'll be back to finish prepping the porcelain and to decorate another bisque-mold bowl, and then we'll start planning the actual design of what we'll do with the colored porcelain. And who knows, if we keep making good time, I'll get her on the wheel even sooner than expected!

As for my own homework, I'm still plugging away at the list, with about half a kiln ready to load and hopefully the other half to be at least off the wheel tomorrow.

The wonder dog has had a minor digestive issue lately, and kept me up most of last night, so I may make it back after the dinner break tonight, or I may crash and start early tomorrow. No point barreling through when I'm getting fuzzy, there's plenty of time for that when it gets closer to the firing!

October Open Studio Calendar and Events

It's falling!!! We've been having some exceptional weather in Asheville, and now when I look out my studio window it's almost an animation of swirling leaves in the breezes against a bright blue sky. Good sleeping weather, great cool sweater-worthy early mornings and late evenings, and a dog so very happy to roll in cool grass!

Here's the October Schedule, and a little about some of the yellow splotches that color it so:

Of course, it's all subject to change, but hopefully with good notice. For those of you coming on a regular basis, please note the following:

There is no 2nd Saturday Artist Market this month! The Empty Bowls event requires more attention, and we've decided to break the Market for October and November, concentrating more effort on the Holiday Market in December. Stay tuned here or at the 2nd Saturday blog for more details as they evolve.

The week of the 12th: I'll be open Monday - Wednesday (that's right, Wednesday!). Thursday I'll be packing and loading bowls for the Empty Bowls event, and making a couple of appearances on WLOS in support of Empty Bowls (early birds can watch for me in the 6:45am slot). Friday October 16 (World Food Day) is the Empty Bowls event, which runs from 11am - 2pm at the Doubletree Biltmore. Tickets are available online through MANNA FoodBank - get yours early!

Saturday, October 17 I'll be at Biltmore Park, where Echo Gallery will celebrate 'Fall Fest' by hosting a tent where patrons can decorate a bowl that will be glazed, fired and then sold in the gallery to benefit MANNA FoodBank.

Friday, October 23 is the Grand Opening celebration for Echo Gallery, and I hope to see lots of you there!

Days that show the studio closed with an '*' are days that I can't be here on a regular schedule as I'll be glazing and firing off-site, but if studio members want to work, they can get in touch and if possible we'll work out something that will get you some studio time. Likewise, clients are always welcome to call and set up an appointment during or outside of studio hours! On those weeks that are more gnarly on the regular schedule, I've added Wednesday to help ease the pottery jones for members and students.