Gettin' Ready but Still Idling!!

Well, this is Jen again. Just stopping by to let everyone know we are trying to get started again doing some pottery. What with Ambre's classes and my work, we haven't been able to do much. I have an order for some Christmas mugs, so I will be posting again soon. In the meantime, everyone have a great Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by.

Idling

Hello, everyone! This is Jen. Just checkin' in! Sorry the blog has been in idle mode for a while. There has been a lot going on here. Ambre' hasn't had much time to make any new pieces. Kojak has found a new job with DirectTV. He has been in training for a few weeks now out of town, so Ambre has had the kids all by herself during the week and studying hard on the weekends for her class. I have a few pieces made that have not been fired yet but I also have been sick with a flareup of my asthma and very busy at work. They let our clerk go a few weeks ago and I have had to do her job and mine too. This past week the site manager took a week off, so I have been doing his job also. Very tired by the time I get home. Hopefully before long we will have some new pieces to display. In the meantime, please bear with us as we get through this harsh period. Thanks, Jen

New website

I just wanted to let everyone know that I started another blog today. This one is for Poppy and I to post news and happenings about the family. The name if Hodge's on the Hill and the address is www.hodgesonthehill.blogspot.com. Come and visit. I promise I will try to keep it fresh.

Well here they are....

The pictures aren't that great but the pots turned out so nice! Thanks for stopping!

Funky Pots from Foothill Country

Well, here are a few pieces that I'm working on. They are currently in the drying stage. I will be bisque firing them soon and will hopefully get them glazed and finished. They will all have the same glaze effect as the pot picture below except I will be trying out some different glaze colors. The pot below was dipped in glaze and then scraped in places to reveal the natural clay color underneath.

I really fell in love with the design of this pot. Apparently so did Beth!

These two are vases.

These are going to be tumblers. They are just the right size and fit perfectly in the hand. Each one of these new pieces is different in pattern or shape.

That one on the right says things like Faith, Hope, Love, Laugh!

I just thought this one was so sweet and whimsical!

The next 3 pictures are of the same cup from different sides so you can get the full impact. I love it!!! And absolutely true!

Just in case you couldn't make it out...the top line reads 'Haley, James & Cameron' and the bottom reads 'My cup runneth over. Ps. 23:5'

And again the next 3 are of one cup.

Top line: Live~Love~Laugh
Bottom line:Well~Forever~Often

I just love the versatility of pottery and these pieces are no exception. They are not the usual "stick-them-on-a-shelf-and-never-use-them" pieces. They are functional and fun! What more could you ask for?
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the lastest installment of 'Funky Pots from Foothill Country'. Leave me some love and your opinions. Thanks, Ambre

Jennifer's New Pieces

Well, I have some new pieces to show, so let's get started. This first picture is of the Japanese style teapot I made. I changed my mind at the last minute and painted it with Poppy Fields Crystalline Glaze. I just need to add the bamboo handle and she's all set. I think it turned out very well.

I made two more rice bowls but instead of painting them red, I tried another effect that I think turned out well. The inside of the bowls are done in Peacock Eyes Crystalline and outside is Stormy Blue. Yeah, Yeah, I know it doesn't look blue. But this is fired to cone 5 and this is the effect that you get. I still think they turned out well.

>

The next few pictures are of a set of cups and creamer and sugar. They are dipped in raspberry and nutmeg. I overlapped the two colors a little and that is the effect in the middle.

The next three pictures are of some new birdhouses that I made. They were a lot of fun to make and kinda whimsical.

The top of the birdhouse in the middle was done by coiling ropes of clay. The weird thing about this is that the glaze on the top of this is Stormy Blue. I'm wondering if the blue effect we got with this is because I dipped it in clear glaze too. I'll have to do some trials and see. Anyway, do you remember the platter below?

Well, how do you like it now? I had a hard time deciding what to do with it. But finally decided to dip it in Brown Glass and trim in white.

That's all I have for right now. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave your comments. We will probably be showing and selling all these new items at our next sell. So if you see something you like let us know.

Coming Soon!!!

Unloaded the kiln this morning. Beautiful stuff. Will have pics up later this afternoon. Thanks for stopping by. Jen

A few new things.....

We fired again finally but it's all mine. Mom is working on getting her stuff painted so we can get them in to fire this week. This first one was my favorite piece from this run but it's gone already. I gave it to Beth for her birthday cause she loved it so much.

Below are the tops for the windchimes I'm putting together. I think they came out really nice!

These are a set of bowls that I made and they turned out beautiful! They are dipped in Ryoko and Moss Green.

Bowls again!

And this is a platter that I did as an order for a lady. It came out nice.....the edges came out not as curved as they were supposed to be but it's still a beautiful and functional piece. It's also done in Ryoko and Moss Green! I am really digging these colors!

Well, that's all I got for now but I hope we have more to show you soon!
Thanks for stopping in! Ambre

Waiting!!!

Waiting!!! Waiting!!! Waiting!!! I hate waiting. It's a cruel thing, this waiting. We are still working on some upcoming pieces and waiting for them to dry. We have a few pieces that can be fired to glaze and a few pieces at the college that are already fired but not picked up. Class is tomorrow night. Sorry for the inconvenience, but we will have some posted as soon
as possible. Thanks, Jen

FIRING!!!!!

Well, it took longer than we hoped but we are firing a bisque load as I type. I've been glazing some jewelry pieces all evening. I found out there is a glaze that I can put on greenware and I only have to fire the pieces once instead of twice. Nice huh? I guess we'll see once they come out. We've got some other pieces in there that need to go to the college and be glazed, so hopefully within a couple more days, we'll have some finished pieces to add to the blog. Be on the look-out. See ya later, Jen!

Things To Come

Well, I know it's been awhile since I posted. Things have been a little hectic around here. Ambre has been studying a lot. She had her final exam in micro-biology last Thursday evening. She's really been worried about that. But we have been going to pottery class on Wednesday nights and trying to make things here at the house when we can. The following are a few of the things we have in the works. They are all greenware right now. We will be doing a bisque firing sometime today. The first one is a birdhouse that I made. I'm trying new styles. The roof was done in three pieces that were joined together. The next picture shows the detail on the roof.

I made the detail with a pine cone. It kinda looks like a thatched roof. Really neat. I have two more at class that are similar but with different roofs on them. I'll take some pics and post them next week.
Your gonna love these! Their windchimes. Ambre came up with these. Can't wait to see the finished product.
Here is another pitcher that Ambre made. These are really popular. And very beautiful.
This is a few coffee cups and a chili bowl that I made. The next picture show a sugar and creamer to go along with the cups.
This picture below is of a new kind of teapot that I made. I made it in the style of the Japanese teapots. I can't wait til it's done. I think I'm going to do it in a deep red trimmed in black with Japanese writing on the sides. It will have a bamboo handle when done. Also working on some teacups to go with it. I'll show those later.
We're going to do one more sale out on the road. Then we'll be working a lot to get stuff ready for the Hilltop Festival in October. We are hoping that we can make it into the Hickory Show coming up in March. That show is very hard to get into, but we are hoping that we can. That's all for now. Keep checking back, we'll try to get more on the site and we'll be firing again and hopefully these pieces can be seen by midweek finished. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave your comments. Jen

Today's Results!

Hi! Everyone! Well , we were back out displaying our pottery again today. I think next time we may start a little later. The only customers we had to begin the day were looking for directions. The real customers showed up after 2pm. We had a pretty good day and sold a lot of stuff. At least we came home without one huge box and one container empty. Yeah! I made some more little pieces with my jewelry pieces. I made another key chain with my dark beads and a zen piece attached. It sold first thing this morning. But after that we were afraid no one was going to come. There was a long dry spell. Then afternoon rolled around and here they came. It was a lot of fun and we enjoyed meeting all the new people that travel thru. Below are some of the pieces I worked on today. Ambre is wearing one right now, so it is not here.
The one on the far left is for Gabby. They came by today and she picked out her piece and asked if I would make her a necklace. We got a lot of requests for special items and an invite to furnish some pieces for a new shop opening in Inman, SC. We are really looking forward to it. Well, that's all for now. Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave your comments. Jen

A New Thing

I made some beads and things. And after they were fired I made this. What do you think?

The beads have variations of black and light brown. They turned out stunning. I made some red ones too. Will post those later this evening. jen

We're doing it again!

We're doing it again ya'll!!! We're gonna be out there again this weekend selling some pottery. So ya'll come on by and check us out. We had such a good time last weekend and I hope we'll do even better this weekend. See ya there!

Independance Day Sale Done!

Well, it's over. We made it through the whole two days and really didn't have any bad weather to speak of. It drizzled a little on Friday afternoon. And was cloudy and overcast this morning. It was drizzling this morning but by the time we got to the store it had stopped. It wasn't so awful hot today either. Here are a few pics of our tables after we got them set up. This last one is of a hawk that came by and settled on a pole across the street. Sorry I couldn't get a closer pic of him. Anyway, we want the thank everyone who stopped by and especially those who made purchases. We appreciate your business. Hopefully we will have the shop finished before long.



Oh, and just to let you know. We are thinking seriously about doing this again in about three weeks. We really enjoyed it. And got to met some really nice people. Thanks again for stopping by the site and please leave your comments. We like to hear what you think! Bye now! Jen

Beautiful New Pieces

Well, they are done. We were so busy that we could not post before going on our special Independence Day Sale. So I took pictures as we were setting everything up. We had a really great day. Ambre sold a few of her birdhouses and one of the feeders. Traffic was especially slow today, don't know whether it was due to the price of gas or that everyone had plans to spend the day with friends cooking out. There were a lot of trucks hauling big cookers today. So here we go.

Here are a couple of coffee mugs I made a few months ago and decided to finish up for our special sale. They were dipped in cobalt then white. I think the white got a little to thick on these. But they turned out pretty good.

This is that large vase that Ambre made. She dipped this one in cobalt blue then drizzled rutile green on it to get this effect.
These two turned out great. The pitcher on the left is one that Ambre made. She dipped it in floating blue. Can you see the top edge? The glaze broke into another color. This causes a beautiful two toned effect. Now the other piece is mine. Ambre calls it my spittoon (did I spell that right?) Ambre dipped it in cobalt blue then raspberry. It looks great and on the inside you can really see the raspberry.
Ambre tried something new with these two. She made the bowl and I made the pitcher. She dipped both first in raspberry and then in white. They both have a pinkish tint to them.
I love these two pieces. I made them both. The one on the left you've seen before. It's my garlic jar done in Herb Garden Crystalline glaze. I decided to try the same glaze on my pitcher. Turned out great, what do you think.
This one is beautiful. You have to see this up close to really appreciate it. Ambre dipped it in floating blue and matte iron yellow. It is truly a great piece.
These two pieces are Ambre's. The vase is done in Little Loafers clay and painted with Cappuccino Mint Crystalline glaze. Go back up to pictures # 2. See the brown cup in the picture? That was done in Speckled Brownstone and also painted with cappuccino Mint. That's the difference in glazes used on very different clays. The little cup next to it is done in Tahiti Grape.

These little beauties were made by me. Ambre throws her houses in one piece. I threw these in two pieces. First I throw a cup type bowl and curl the top inwards. Then I throw a lid off the hump and attach the two together. The two on the outside were stained with red iron oxide. The middle one was done Terra Cotta underglaze and dipped in clear.
Here are Ambre's bird feeders. I painted to two on the left, and Ambre dipped the other two. She really disliked the dark one and said it was ugly. Well, guess what, it was the first thing she sold.
Ambre made the one on the right and did the little squigglies. I think its gorgeous. I made the other two. One is done with Christmas Red and the other is done in Herb Garden.
A very large birdhouse made by Ambre dipped in Ryoko.
Ambre dipped this one in cobalt and drizzled rutile green over the top.
Here is one of Ambre's bird villages. We were heartbroken when we opened the kiln and the base was cracked. It's still all together and sealed but has a huge crack in the base. Well, that's all for now. We'll be back out there tomorrow. Have a great 4th and be safe. Jen

Special Note From Ambre: I wish you all could see these pieces in person. While these pictures are nice they really do not do these beautiful pieces the justice they deserve. I am sorry if that sounds like bragging, but I must tell the truth. And while I'm on the subject of truth, my word was it ever hot today? It was smoldering, we are exhausted but we are going out again tomorrow! It's so nice to chat with all the people that come by to see us. Meeting new people is always fun. Hope everyone had a wonderful Independence holiday, love to all and I'm going to bed now....but only because I want to be up early, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Well that and I'm very close to falling out of this chair nad sleeping in the kitchen floor. Goodnight Neverland!