ashville...we walked, we ate and ate some more...

I'm back tracking once again.....Thursday Ron and Sarah took us on a tour of Ashville and what a cool place plenty of galleries great old mom and pop store with the best rocking chairs in town in the front foyer apparently peeps often have a snooze in them and I can see why...

after breakie at Early girl eatery Hannah's handy work on the lovely brown paper table cloth above...we ate we walked..we walked, we ate and ate some more... we had tea!!!! and a lil daliesque moment Un Chien Andalou courtesy of doug...

the woolworth store in Ashville has been converted into an Artists Cooperative, 2 floor of cool art space...

the Blue Spiral Gallery was awesome.... 3 floors of art and a really cool print show in the basement..

Ariel Gallery another art space of amazing work with some really cool sculptures by Holden McCurry and Jane Peiser among athers.. oh dear I'm afraid a little too much food of all the wrong kind this day finished me off and sent me in search of green salads and peppermint tea :P

seeing the grove...

Huge touring, great pals and lots a lots a pots!!!!!

Settle in for a bit of a long tour around 6:17 mins long...

Hannah and I had the royal treatment with a cooked breakie to get the day started before the epic day began....the lovely Meredith took us a touring along with surprise Tracey Broome appeared on her driveway....after lots of ahhhhh i cant believe your here screaming we piled into the cars and off we set...
anyhoo here's some pics...enjoy

on the road again...

Kevin, Hannah and Doug some serious kiln talk

Monday found us on the road again from Fredericksburg to Charlottesville with Dan, stopping in for lunch at  Kevin Crowes pottery and met up with our man Ron Philbeck....

Kevin's crew was prepping for the next firing wadding pots and broke for lunch with us.. what a treat the table was all layed out with a huge range of woodfired teabowls and plates....yummy chowder prepared by Kevins wife and tea from the biggest teapot I have ever seen!!

Kevin's kiln is a 3 chamber combination anagama and noborigama totally huge and check out the wood stacks.... it was a stunning day outside the first time I'd felt warm in days mmmmm sunshine and heat..after a lil swapping around of pots and a great chat we hitt the road again with Ron heading towards Seagrove and Meredith and Marks Pottery we arrived to a house full of potters and potluck dinner mmmmm curry and heaps of salad woohoo....... tues in Seagrove contd. next...

Kevin, his apprentices and Dan

Kevins showroom!!!!! mmmmmm...

ciao Dan...

weekend at freds...

So we're here in Shelby with Ron and Sarah, we made it last night after dinner at Fongs very nice vietnamese restaurant...and i'm attempting to collate all the info from the passed week. Here's a snippet of the last weekends demos at fredericksburg... hope you enjoy the pics as my files are stacking up and some semblance of order is required :P....

We had a super stop at Meredith and Mark's with a brilliant tour of some potteries yesterday in Seagrove....our bud Tracey came over for the day and it was just like hanging out with old friends...thanks guys it was brilliant!!

DC...

  

Unreal it's catchup time again....these images are from last thursday in Washington DC, an hours trip from the farm in Fredericksburg to the big smoke DC itself..A visit to the Native American Museum with huge traditional art exhibitions and contemporary ones too..

 

The amazing sculpture garden complete with squirrels and interesting security guards....some really amazing sculptures and brilliant views..We had picnic lunch in the city at a park not far from Dan's friends bookshop...Its a truly stunning city but not a cup of tea to be found anywhere but the main park from a kiosk where Liptons came to the rescue!!!

 The Peacock room at the Freer Museum was amazing..

All in all another amazing day filled with great art and amazing characters.....

while the slippers work...

The Slipware workshop is well underway and while the 'slippers work' I'm composing some more movies and working on thoughts for the slipware workshops movie.....more on that soon..

A little change in the weather has brought down some rain today there was mention of a tornado last night that def. had me concerned!!! amongst other things snakes and snapping turtles were the kitchen topic of conversation!!! and they say Oz is dangerous... I don't know there seems to be critters everywhere you go.

Doug has done some blasting with the burner today and Hannah is quietly jewelling the puzzle jug from this morning a lovely Fredericksburg Virginia across it's belly... Libertytown is quite the lively place today kids painting classes and peeps keep wandering through the gift shop.. it truly is a hive of activity and local artists, reminding me similarly of the Jam Factory spaces at home where artists can rent space and get exposure to all manner of shows going through. Last night was the opening for this slipware weekend truly a successful event and a testament to Dan's ability to create an event and draw in a crowd... Loads of lil red stickers that we all love on the pots, surely a great start to Doug and H's exposure here...

dan's town...

dan's old workshop

Tuesday started slowly we had breckie on the verandah and the light was strange after a humid night....it was clear and filling the trees with amazing colours....

moma of dada

the verandah

Dan took us on a quick tour of the town visiting all of his past studio spaces....
A quick tour of the farm we're staying on included Dan's mystery garden with all sorts of treats for the kids... His very neat lil studio space complete with bee hives now and all manner of pots in and around the place, this gorgeous teapot sits amongst others in the garden..
A very chill day with Sammy T's for lunch mmmm..... Thai sandwich with ginger, chilli and lime....

dan's garden

E

tea

the lake

walkies

the mural wall awaiting restoration....

moving pictures...

guy wolffs

a lovely guy jug

sweet garden

the green hornet...

Just taking a mo at Liberty Town...Dan Finnegan's lovely spot to do some catching up..... So much has happened and the stories are getting crazier as we chat over meals about who we've met and the characters along the way... It's just beautiful here in Fredericksburg a gorgeous ol town with so much charm..

Monday was a mammoth road trip traveling from the Cape through Connecticut with a stop at Guy Wolff's Pottery for a couple of hours, it's quite the place and I love that lil jug on the shelf.... Doug has some great film of that visit.. we arrived at the farm we're staying on 3.30am Tuesday, our hosts are some very cool friends of Dan who arrived from Washington last night, it's a lovely property with a great verandah and deck outside where we sat for breakie the first morning a very easy day yey!!!! and very much needed Doug and Hannah needed a break and I needed some serious zzzzz's after that long trip...the green hornet radio show kept us awake amongst others on satellite radio... a very cool tool!! Ooooh and they have ticks here ewwww!!!!

Cape Cod workshop day one...

 

Saturdays workshop in Cape Cod at the local High School Doug and Hannah started with a slideshow and some home movies which were great!!!

 and the obligatory student torture how to drink from a puzzle jug...

 

It was tag team all day with both working and decoing apart from when doug slacked off and drank tea....later we had some munchies and I got to tour Hollis's gallery in the garden so much cool stuff mega shino :)) swapsies of course were in order...