We had a relaxing weekend in Prince Edward County, staying in a B&B in Picton, dinner at Portobella (don't try to get into this restaurant between 5:30 and 8 pm without a reservation on a Saturday night - luckily we had planned ahead!), and visits to a couple of pottery studios and, of course, a winery or two.

This is a quick shot of tomatoes from our garden on a plate we purchased made by Maggie Murdoch of Wellington Pottery.  Great salad, great pottery - partner David Drown gave us a tour of the studio and great tips for our own studio.  See their work at: WellingtonPottery.com

We couldn't tour the county without a stop at Norman Hardie's winery - boy has this place changed since I was last there about 6 years ago.  Then, we trudged through mud & weeds to get to the tasting bar in the barn, which was pretty empty. Norman eventually arrived on the tractor, hot, sweaty and obviously annoyed to be interrupted, to pour us some samples.  Now, there's pizza via a wood burning oven, swarms of people, a second story tasting bar above a dining room and lots of stuff to buy besides wine.  Thankfully, the wine is still great - our fave, the County Pinot Noir - we made off with several bottles (as well as a couple of the Cab Franc).

View of bar and 2nd story tasting room.

Is the pottery marathon over?

It's been an interesting spring - frantically prepping pots for their final glaze firing just a day before the Kingston Potters' Guild Spring sale, helping to organize a pottery exhibition at the Tett Centre the following weekend and attending a 2 day workshop by Martha Grover the very next weekend - especially considering that pottery is my hobby!

 The spring sale went well - the Malting Tower at the Tett Centre in Kingston is such a great venue to hold the KPG sales in.  I had a table that was accessed from both sides - unexpectedly - but it seemed to work out OK.  I had opted for a very bright table cloth - looks pretty busy in the pics, but I couldn't resist as it contained the same colours as my glazes and it is the Spring Sale after all.

John had put together some new display boxes for me and these came in quite handy in terms of setting up with a new, 2-sided layout.  We decided on boxes with one open side so they can be used as plinths or the open side can be used to contain a piece of pottery as well.  Seeing the pics now, the table looks pretty crowded but I always like things to look bountiful. 

Whimsey Bowls

Here are some of the bowls I discussed in the last post - they were popular sellers.   These are a fair amount of work - drape molded, foot applied, slip added to inside and outside rim, carved, underglaze painted on, bisqued, black underglaze added to accentuate carving, glazed with transparent glaze and fired again. They seem perfect for a scoop of ice cream or berries topped with whipped cream - at least, if I had any left that's what I would use them for - I guess I'll make more.

The Ceramics Exhibition we put together attracted more interest in pottery and I think it helped to promote the guild. We got lots of positive comments.

 

The Martha Grover workshop was also a bit hit. Martha is a great workshop leader and she really went all out showing us her making methods.

Martha Grover demos 2 piece vase construction

Major snowstorm keeps me inside thinking about pots

So its mid February and reading week.  Along with marking exams, assignments, reading PhD theses I sneaked in a couple of quick trips to the basement to make pots - as usual, trying new things.  I made a couple of small bowls using a slump mold I bisqued a while ago.  Once the foot was added and they came off the mold I cleaned them up a bit and let them dry overnight.  Then I coated the inside and a bit on the outside with slip and did some sgraffito decoration. I hadn't slipped and carved on a bone dry piece before - works pretty good as long as you start carving the second the slip has lost its sheen.

I think I'll add some underglaze colour and then bisque them, paint them all over with black underglaze to highlight the carving and then glaze with either a white or clear glaze.