Dry Ridge

People keep asking me why I chose the name Dry Ridge Pottery. We live just south of Weaverville, North Carolina in an area known as Dry Ridge. We are surrounded by mountains which do interesting things to our weather. Often in summer, huge rain storms will come toward Dry Ridge, and they pass right by us without leaving a drop of rain. Others in the area get frequent downpours while we get almost nothing. Last summer we had two days of rain, the preceding summer, one. Better to be Dry Ridge Pottery than Dry Ridge Farm.


Today I picked up some gorgeous new glazes and am anxious to try them on those lidded jars. Buddy accompanied me to Highwater Clay for the first time and made lots of new friends. Unfortunately, he cannot hang out in my studio, as the stuff on the floor of a pottery studio is not something he needs to ingest, and Buddy eats just about everything he can get hold of. One of his current favorites is maple tree seeds.

Kapow!

I opened the kiln today to discover that two pots had exploded in the kiln. These were two of the four pieces for the fountain. I imagine they were not quite dry before firing. The challenge will be making replacements that will fit with the pieces that survived. Thankfully, it was a bisque firing, so I did not have pieces glazed to the kiln, and there was no damage to the kiln. It did motivate me to vacuum the inside of the kiln, something I needed to do.

Clay shrinks as it dries and again with each firing. Making replacement pieces of a certain size and shape is always a challenge. Pieces also tend to change shape a bit, which is why lids are usually fired on their pots rather than separately. Even teapot spouts thrown on the wheel tend to uncoil a bit in firing, so, if a spout has a definite bottom, many potters will attach them turned a bit so they will rotate to the correct angle. Just one more reason I don't like to make teapots!