Pottery photo shoot...

I was trying to get a few good photos of some pots to post on the website, but it wasn't as easy as it sounds. The pots were reflecting the background, the sky, me... One after another I placed them on the fence post (the finest of pottery photos must include a fence post, right?), and one after another I had bad pictures!

There's so much reflection on this pot that it's hard to tell what the glaze looks like! I'm sure a class on photography, or even a book on the subject would be money well spent. (but for the time being - I'll keep experimenting)

Then I turned around to check on this sweet little guy that had been so patient as mom was trying to get something done and i realized that my camera had been pointed in the wrong direction.

This is what I should be taking pictures of!

He was quite tired, so we don't have any smiles, but sweet just the same.

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much more cooperative than the pottery!

New Pots..

The kiln was opened yesterday, and with a few exceptions, I was happy with the results. There was several new glazes in the kiln this time - like this clear glaze on the bewelah mugs and yarn bowls. This glaze did well as long as it wasn't applied too thick (then it got cloudy)

Above is the clear glaze over the white stoneware, and below is the same glaze over brown stoneware, which came out a nice tan color.

This is a glaze that I used a few times quite a while back called "ketchup red" I liked the way it turned out as well.
And this is an experiment of Ketchup red with a blue glaze sprayed over it. Some of this turned out ok, but some of the pots will be put in the "yard sale" box. lol. I've found that even the worst of glazes/pots are big hits at a yard sale! ? I liked how this one turned out though.

This mug was a little cloudy..
yard sale box!

I'll be adding the pots to my website within the next couple of days.

Thanks for stopping by!

The month of June

Where has the month gone? I haven't posted to the blog since..goodness, early June, so I will try to get caught up here.



It seems like it's been a wet month with a lot of storms!



This storm came thru a week or so ago and brought the darkest clouds that I could remember. Fortunately there were not any funnel clouds.



Earlier that day...Fortunately, we didn't need all those wagons. Jack cut quite a bit of hay, but decided with storm clouds coming to roll bale quite a bit of it. So even with all the rain, we have been able to get some hay cut and put up.

No pictures yet, but I have been glazing pots. It's always been the most time consuming aspect of making pottery, but it has taken on a whole new meaning with a baby now. Even though the glazes are safe once they are fired, it's an entirely different story when they are being mixed, and when I am spraying the pots. I wear a respirator during the whole process, so it sure isn't something the baby can be around. Getting the pots glazed has been a struggle - but it's all downhill from here.

Speaking of struggle... the rams are all sheared (and it's almost July, why wouldn't they be??) Actually, they were sheared the last week of May and first week of June. That was a process as well.. one here, one there. For some reason I thought they would be easier to shear because they were so much bigger - seemed like they'd be easier to hold than some of the smaller sheep. And.. well, if it weren't for those horns, they might have been. I think I have figured out the shearing part now, but still need to work on how to get a good hold on them and keep it! (and need to work on those second cuts -arh) Oddly enough, despite the struggle with the rams, I enjoyed shearing the sheep this year.

This is Cody - he was a good sport and very cooperative with the shearing (and shearer). I've been taking pictures of the boys this month for the website. I finally put a website together. It has several "check back for updates" pages, but it has been published. Stop by and visit if you have a chance http://www.flatcreekwoolandpottery.com/

Andy..
and LeRoy.. I can't believe how much the sheep have grown the past couple of months! It's like there's a miracle gro out there in the pasture. And when I say "grown" - it's not just 'up'! Sometimes it's 'out'. So many of our ewes look like they're expecting again ...But maybe it's just the angle. They do say that the camera adds pounds.

Speaking of growing...

Wyatt just loves checking on the sheep. He loves to be outside and around all the animals.. and looks like they love it too. They keep coming back anyways, and we seldom have treats.
I love Rosco's eyes in the picture above.. he's saying "what about petting me Wyatt?"

ok.

Poor little guy has been sick this whole last week. Come to think of it, we've all been sick here within the last month. Isn't it June?

A brief "mutton bustin" lesson.

Well.. i think this brings us up to date!

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer!

Myrtle

Just wanted to share a few pictures of Myrtle. She is so full of personality. She's a year old now, but still jumps around and hops like a little lamb. She might not ever grow up and we're ok with that.

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She had her first shearing recently, and what she was hoping for was "a little off the top and sides""this is not what I asked for!"
"does this new cut make my ears look big?" "um, well Myrtle...it makes your neck look small"

"Wyatt, it's me... Myrtle"

A Hero

His letters made it home

But he didn't

He never married

Never knew the joy of having children of his own

He left home a young man to serve his country

He lost his life fighting a war

Freedom is not free

In Memory of a Hero

Opal C Atha

Just Catching Up

Well it has been a week of catching up around here now that the fiber festival is over. I've actually been enjoying getting the house back in order. (if there ever was such a thing) What am I going to get into now?

Fiber! This is some beautiful Llama fiber that was sent to me from my friend Terese, over at Gizmo quilts http://gizmoquilts.blogspot.com/ I was thinking a hat with the darker fiber, but I'm not sure yet what I'd like to make from the brown fiber?

It is so soft and silky! I was thinking I'd like to spin it and make a lacy scarf with it. I haven't spun Llama before, do I need to spin it with another fiber, or can I spin it alone? I'm looking forward to this. Thanks Terese!

And did I tell you that we were getting more sheep? Oh, I may have hinted around about it here and there.. you know, with all that money we were saving using cloth diapers..lol. At the time, I really was kidding. That was before I knew that Karen was going to sell more of her Icelandics! Our ewes here came from Mike and Karen at Whippoorwill Farms in WV, and we have been so pleased with all of them. When I saw that she had a spotted ewe for sale, well, we(ok, I) just couldn't resist! So - this is Mildred and her Shetland cross ewe babies Bea and Brady.

There's more beautiful ewes where this one came at www.whippoorwillfarm.com/main/page_sale.html It looks like she has just added cashemere kids to her sale page, too!

Karen has Shetlands also, and gave us this beautiful Emsket Shetland fleece! I am sure looking forward to spinning this fleece! Thanks Karen! (and thanks for the beautiful ewes)

It sure seems to be raining a lot here lately. We've had a bit of flash flooding in the area here - just hoping that it's not a terribly wet year - or dry either. That's maybe asking a lot, isn't it? This picture was taken as a tornado warning was posted on the news for an area north of us. The sky looked great from here. Fortunately, we didn't hear of any major damage caused by the storm.

I'll wrap this up here with a picture of Ziggy. He's so hard to get a photo of. (he's always under foot) To get this photo, I would run away from him and try to get a picture of him, but here he was running behind me... this went on and on.. so long, that if you look close, you'll see his tongue is hanging out!

What makes a great festival?

There were a lot of fabulous wool and fiber products at the first Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival.

Just to list a few, there were raw fleeces available, rovings, yarns. There were vendors with processing equipment, combs, carders, and spinning wheels - again, just to name a few. You could also find beautiful finished handmade items. In the department of product, the turnout was great!

There were Llamas, Alpacas, Rabbits, and Sheep on display. Sheep shearing demonstrations... oh, if I had only taken pictures of all the goin' ons!

There were some very impressive items being made as a result of the workshops. There were needle felted Santas that were just incredible. You could make a basket for drying wool. Instructional spinning, knitting, and wool dyeing and wet felting classes were also available.

There was a great turnout for the photo contest - so many fun and great photos to be inspired by. Keep in mind the photo contest when you're out taking pictures this year. The categories were:

• Portraits (sheep and fiber animals)
• Working (herding dogs, guard animals, shearing, feeding, etc.)
• Landscape (that include fiber animals)
• Products (yarn, handmade fiber items, spinning wheel, etc.)
• Junior (all the above classes - age 17 and under)

In the way of competitions, there was also a fleece and skein competition. If you didn't get your entries in, start planning for next year :)

The food was great too!

What I really need here are photos to tell the story. But I'll wrap this up by saying that what I thought made this festival great was the people. From the organizers of the festival, to the fellow vendors, the volunteers, to the visitors of the festival. It was so nice to meet everyone, and get to know those who came out to this new event. It was a great time and I'm already looking forward to the next one! This was a great festival.

p.s. Wyatt would like to say 'thanks' to the ladies who gave him attention and smiled at him - in his little eyes, that is what makes a festival great and he sure had a great time!

Ky Sheep and Fiber Festival

It occurred to me as I was unloading the kiln yesterday, that I had only posted what I "wasn't bringing" to the festival! (I guess because the other pots were busy being fired, glazed and fired.. they didn't have time in their schedule for photos.)

So, now that they're out of the kiln and relaxing, here's a few examples of what is coming to the festival with me.

www.kentuckysheepandfiber.com Hope to see you there! Stop by and say hello!

Lambing season complete!

These two lambs that were born this week have wrapped up our lambing season for this year. We have 10 ewe lambs and 5 ram lambs. With the exception of the markings on this little lamb here on the left, they are ALL WHITE!

Charlie sired all the lambs this year - except for Lambies little rammy. Charlie was born here 2 years ago. He's a gentle natured ram and sure throws that white! He's shedding his winter wool in this photo, but his fall clip is beautiful! Hoping he passes that wool on.
Had a chance to scraffito a few more mugs and bowls earlier today...

they'll need to be bisque fired, then glazed with just a clear glaze.

Wishing everyone a great weekend!

Pottery

Well it has been forever since I've posted on pottery!

I've been working on getting a few pots ready for the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival that will be held in Lexington May 15-16. http://www.kentuckysheepandfiber.com/ This is the first year for the festival and I'm excited to be a part of it! The organizers of this festival have been working really hard to bring a festival to our area that is all about sheep, fiber animals, wool and fiber.

I have to admit, I don't feel that I'm doing my part here. I will be bringing "ewenice" pottery and yarn bowls, but most all of the new ideas that I had for my booth are still in the 'ideas' file. One idea though, is mid-process. It won't be ready in time for this fiber festival, but it's a good time to start executing ideas for next year!

This is a technique called scrafitto - a clay slip, or underglaze is painted on the pot before the pot is fired and the clay slip is scratched away, revealing the clay underneath to create a design.

This is "Bewelah" - sort of a ewe-in-law to Ewenice. (Without going into all the drama of the relationship, they share the same ram, so really there's no "in-law", but this makes it sounds a little more proper.) In defense of the ewes, it's no different than a lot of the drama on tv these days.

Bewelah is also looking for work - she's been seen with a sign "Will work for weed" I'm still debating if this would be appropriate. It seems it might be wrong on a couple of different levels.