Gorgeous Gift of a Day

Despite waking up with a headache Saturday morning I was determined to visit the Festival at Powhatan, only an hour and a half from Fredericksburg.

If you remember my friend at Woven Gems offered to display a small selection (that survived the last couple of firings) in her tent.

About 11:15, I was just minutes from pulling into the parking area and she called me with a request for more mugs!

Entrance 

I could not believe how beautiful the weather was.  The final number for the day was about 1,000.  And this is the first year for this Festival!

Waiting for the next herding exhibition...

Woven Gem's busy tent! 

A small display of my work.  I am so thankful for Diane's offer.  And a very good day for both of us!

One of my favorite fiber dyers...located right in Front Royal VA.

The central barn with the few animals.

Cashmere goats.  

This felted change purse ALMOST came home with me.  She also made beautiful felted and embellished bracelets.

Kathleen Oliver of Sweet Tree Hill Farm.

Churro.  (I think!)

I had never seen a "kick spindle" before!  I love this. The ability to spin on a spindle in a continuous way.  No stopping to wind on.  Still very portable and not as expensive as a traditional spinning wheel.

Alpaca from Hermes Alpaca.

From reading the posts on the PFoF Ravelry thread the festival was very successful!  I'm so glad I was able to support a new event, even in such a small way.

Next weekend?  Maryland Sheep and Wool!

I'll be meeting up with Ravelry friends coming down from New England.  I am so excited to meet them in real life!

And as soon as that electrician comes to fix the breakers in the studio I will have my hands back in clay.  It's been FAR too long.

Fiber Festival!

Remember that Fiber Festival show that I had to withdraw from since life got so complicated?

Well it's this Saturday!  Powhatan Festival of Fiber, 10-4

My friend Diane of WOVEN GEMS offered to bring a few of my pots!  

SO get to her booth early, as they may go quickly.

I may see you there!

Yard Sale This Saturday!

I'll have lots of pots for sale.  One of a kinds and old designs.  There might be some stash yarn for knitting and weaving as well!

Reality

There was a question on Facebook this week about seconds. What do you do with your seconds?

So I've had a very busy two months. There was some weaving.

My latest wool blanket


 I was working hard to build up inventory for a new fiber festival in Virginia this month (Powhatan Festival of Fiber).  I took advantage of an opportunity to move from my old studio at LibertyTown

(here my loom is already missing...)

 to a bigger and brighter space that I will share with my painter friend Carol Phifer.

Of course.  It was also FINALLY time to move into our new old house!  So the Saturday before the house move I decided to throw out my back. 

 I have finally learned the lesson of Asking for Help.  Artist friends helped with the studio, neighbors helped move items we didn't want the movers to take, the UMW girls rugby club (Rent a Rugger) helped move my pottery studio gear from the shed behind our rental and my buddy  Beth (Artist in Residence Extraordinaire) and her fantastic significant other helped me move my kiln.

After a full day of movers loading the truck, then unloading the truck we were left with this.

and this

We are getting there.  But slowly as I am still being careful with The Back.

Medicine helps.

Which brings us back to the discussion concerning seconds.  During all this moving and rearranging I had a kiln load of pots turn out less then good.  Sellable?  Maybe. But not a good representation of my work for a new show.  Seconds? I struggled with the idea of selling some at the LibertyTown artist yard sale in two weeks....but I finally decided that I was not happy with them and did not want them in circulation.  No matter that many people might not see the flaws.

So out came the hammer.

And it felt good.  No regrets.  (The best sign that it was the right choice.)

And since there is no time to recreate that load and my back is still healing I had to make the decision to pull out of the April show.

I will spend the next weeks setting up my home studio, organizing the home weaving space and working to have the few problems in the new place fixed.

And icing.

It's all good.

Even if that little clay box can hold half a kiln load of pots.

Proof

Evidence of Thursday's efforts.

Since LibertyTown is a working pottery school with limited space, I have found it best if I work in small batches, get them through all their steps (trimming, slipping, painting, carving...) and in line for bisque firing before starting the next batch.

(Some of you will be impressed to see that yes I made TWO lids for the jar.  Just in case.)

I have a commission for a cookie jar...I am very limited in my skills when it comes to throwing larger objects (anything over 5 pounds of clay!) especially when the pot has to go UP as opposed to OUT.  Larger bowls and plates are much easier for me then tall cylinder shapes.  So taking on this request was a big chance.  But luckily it was ordered by a friend FOR a friend.  And how big is a package of cookies anyway?

Slipped and drying.  Ready for decoration tomorrow.....

Evidence that Dominion came to lay the new power line!  All I need now is for them to come back and actually hook the new line to the house and the 2nd line to my studio.....

PATIENTLY (!?!?) waiting.....

Almost There!

I'm nearly done painting the new part.  

How do you like the colors?  We have decided we don't want to live in a dark house this time around.  And I am so thankful to be able to do most of the work before the furniture is  delivered.

The colors are pretty true to life.  At least on my monitor anyway.  The bedroom blue is a different intensity depending on the time of day.

I love the crazy green in the bathroom.  The taped area was helping me decide on an old cabinet I found in an antique store downtown.  (I bought it today.)

This morning the cleaning crew came and the place looks amazing!  I was beginning to wonder if we would ever feel like it was ready to move into.  Now it is shiny and nearly ready for us!

While that was going on I was actually sitting at a potters wheel!  Yup, it's true.  After 2 months I have finally gotten back to it.

By the time I was finished I had 10 small bowls, 2 yarn size bowls and a cookie jar with 2 lids, you know, just in case.

No pictures to prove it yet.

But my back is telling me it's true.

BOY did it rain last night!!

Our normally sedate river was raging when I woke up this morning.  I knew it would be wild.  Last night it poured and the wind BLEW.  It was still windy today.  74 yesterday.  Today I think it may have been in the high 40s but the wind made it feel much colder.

I know I have mentioned before how much I love living literally right across the street from the river, especially this time of year...not so much in the summer when everyone starts gathering and invading My River Space....

We are high enough to feel perfectly safe, so I can enjoy the power and sometimes unpredictable personality that defines the Rappahannock.

Our house is located right on the Fall Line, the point where the river was no longer navigable by the tall ships.  Just down stream is the tiny, now almost non-existent town, of Falmouth.  Falmouth and Fredericksburg were MAJOR ports during the eighteenth century.  All the local growers would roll their hogs heads of tobacco down the dirt and rocky roads to the ports to be shipped off to England.  Living here now it is difficult to imagine the hundreds of ships that would be docked here.  The river is tidal, and the silt build up over the years hardly allows the small paddle boat to make it to the City Dock.  (Oops!  Sorry for the history lesson, once an historian always an historian I guess!)

I especially like watching the geese.  I have never seen them in the water when it is raging like this.  Today proved me wrong.  This group was having a ball.

The six of them (obviously three very adventuresome couples into extreme sport) would fly upstream to a calmer area of the river....

Situate themselves with their backs facing downstream....

And just ride the current.....

Then they would call to each other, and fly back up stream to do it all over again! (Layla tugged on the leash as I was trying to take this picture...but you can see the geese in flight there in the center if you look closely.)

Luckily our new place, though not just across the street, will be an easy walk to the river path.

And SOON we will be moving in!  They are working on the last few details...and we are still waiting for Dominion to put the line in to my studio.  But the house is nearly there!!

One last thing....I can't help but boast.  Tiny A Story about  Living Small, the movie made by my niece Merete and her friend Christopher has been accepted into the SXSW Film Festival!  I am just so damn happy for them.  Such a creative, talented and motivated couple.

Makes me feel like it's time for me to get back into the studio and do some creating myself!!!