Happy Spring to all our customers who’ve watched our gardens grow and seen our work evolve! Spring always seems to catch me by surprise. March 1st seems so early but there’s no holding back the Cherry trees and our deciduous azalea from bursting into color.

Mo and I have to find time to plant the gardens while working in the studio. We’re getting ready for our Spring Kiln Opening April 19th and 20th. Please visit if you can.

The tough drought we had last summer taught us a lesson. We picked up Lantana and Verbena to plant around the pond, hoping we’ve chosen plants with drought resistance and a lot of color. A great show for this summer!

We want to welcome a new assistant in our studio. Kim, the 19 year old daughter of a neighbor, has been a delight to work with. She isn’t a potter but has artistic skills and is a really quick study. Tell her what you want and get out of the way. She’s a great help with our candle holders, gazing balls, does some glazing and many other jobs that are needed in a studio. It will be hard to replace her when she leaves for College in the fall.

Buttons, our newest four-legged addition to the family, is finally calming down a little (some of you’ve had the pleasure of walking away with paw prints on your back side) but still jumps up on customers when we aren’t looking. She and Scout (our big black dog) are best friends, wrestling and playing and running off in the woods when we go on walks (which has contributed to Scout losing weight, but drives Mo crazy).

We feed the Birds and Fox Squirrels who’ve learned not to worry about the new dog, which thankfully can’t climb the trees!

Our sheltie, Clay, and Buttons are becoming good deer chasers but I’m afraid it’s a losing battle. I’m not sure how we’re going to keep them from eating our tomatoes this summer!

Mo has been firing the kilns at least twice a week which may seem a lot but we’re making larger pieces and only so many can fit in at a time. I’m in the process of glazing a “garden full” of my Botanicals to be ready on the 19th and finish up a couple of large pots that are taking forever to dry—the humidity!

Hope you can make our Spring Kiln Opening in April but don’t worry if you can’t, we’ll have plenty of work throughout the year.

Mo and I have been very busy making new pieces of work for Christmas. I have made many botanicals in all different sizes so there is something for everyone; and Mo and I have collaborated to make our candleholders, which are so popular. I’m about to display my new platters spanning almost 2 feet across that can hang on the wall. I am just waiting for them to dry so I can fire them; I tend to get really impatient waiting! I’ve got some ideas I want to work on after the holidays when things get quiet again. I keep thinking about a mobile like sculpture of disks on a pole that have ball bearings between them so they turn in the wind. I think it would look great next to the pond. It may evolve into something very different when I get through with it but there might be something new when you come to visit in the spring!

Just a snapshot of our family. Sally and I would love to show you around and have you meet our clan.
The first photo is "Clay" our Sheltie.
The second is "Scout" our big girl. (and yes it does snow in North Carolina)
No. 3 is "Cinnamon" who adapted us last Christmas. She found the perfect place to keep an eye on the birds.
And No. 4 is "Crookshanks." A real cock of the roost.

PostScript (12/01/06): "Crookshanks" is now someone else's pet. He made the near fatal mistake of attacking Sally. It was a new home or the oven!