The Mountains: Dispatch From Bakersville!

It's 64 degrees here in the Blue Ridge today! A welcome rain has cooled everything down and the gardens are bursting! I [cousin Michael, here] have been working towards a new collection of pots for my wood kiln and the summer couldn't be finer.

Our little field of corn, potatoes, beans, and melons is a pleasure to walk through every day with its fragrant tassels and searching vines. After a nice rain, it's a must to take my boots off and walk on the red clay in bare feet.


Soft clay, imprints, a trail.

A lot of this red clay finds itself to my shop where I turn it into something with a different use. It's no wonder that pottery thrives in NC to this day, from the earliest transformations of the stuff by Native Americans to the Cousins in Clay!

view from the Mountains Cousins in Clay in Bakersville (on a sunny day!)

Michael Kline demonstrating at Cousins in Clay 2011

For the upcoming Cousins in Clay on Memorial Day weekend, 2011, Michael Kline will demonstrate his brushwork technique on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday he will begin at 2:00pm and on Sunday at 1:30pm. This brushwork demo will last around 45 minutes. Michael has a you tube station where you can watch some of his techniques.

Michael's You Tube Station

Michael just unloaded a wood kiln, and will be having his kiln opening this weekend at his homeplace in the mountains. Check out his fabulous pottery at his famed "Sawdust and Dirt" blog.

Michael also has a "working potter" two page feature in this months [June, July, August issue] Ceramics Monthly Magazine. Check it out!

April and May ads in Carolina Arts Online

This year the Carolina Arts went online. We appreciate Tom and Linda's publication about what is happening in the Arts in South and North Carolina. This month they did included Cousins in Clay. You can read the article at their online newspaper at Carolina Arts Online. We begin on page 36 and on page 37.

3rd Annual Cousins in Clay May 28 & 29

We are in the last three weeks until this years Cousins in Clay. Always such an exciting time for us! Getting the house and yard ready, and pottery made and fired. Recently we have been up early in the morning clearing out the area that Michael will be giving his brushwork demonstration. On Saturday, May 28 he will be presenting his demo at 2:00pm and on May 29 Sunday, 5/29 he will showing at 1:30 pm. He has been making some great work over in the mountains. Michael and his wife Stacey just had an opening at Crimson Laurel Gallery in Bakersville. Follow Michael on his Saw Dust and Dirt blog to find out what he will be up to next!

Jack Troy is at a wood firing conference in Australia. When he returns he will be firing up his own wood kiln.

Peter Lenzo has told us that he has been filling his days with making his head sculptures. He will be bringing various sizes to Cousins this year.

As for Bruce and I, we are throwing and glazing for our Moka glaze kiln. Which means we will have an assortment of bowls, mugs, plates, and jars in our soft and satiny matte glaze. Bruce is also pulling out his bucket of shino glaze, and will be revisiting shino on porcelain and stoneware for this kiln and kilns to come. You can follow us on our blog "Around and About with Bulldog Pottery".

Please join us for this years Cousins in Clay! Sat. May 28 or Sun. May 29, we all will be here and are looking forward to your visit and conversations!

Cousins in Clay ad in Carolina Arts-March 2011

We placed this Cousins in Clay announcement in March 2011 edition of Carolina Arts. Did you know that they are now online? You can visit their website and view and download March's edition of the Carolina Arts. It is full of articles and ads announcing art shows throughout the Carolina's.

Do you read Tom and Linda Starland's blog "Carolina Arts Unleashed"? Carolina Arts Unleashed is a blog that focuses on the arts in South and North Carolina.

It is great to have a publication like this that focuses on the Arts in our communities.

Peter Lenzo - Cousins in Clay- May 2011

Peter Lenzo - Face

3rd annual "Cousins in Clay" - May 28 and 29 , 2011

Bulldog Pottery - Seagrove, NC

We are excited to announce another "Cousin in Clay" guest artist Peter Lenzo, to our May 28-29 pottery weekend at Bulldog Pottery in Seagrove. He will be joining Jack Troy and Micheal Kline here with us (Bruce Gholson and Samantha Henneke) for the two day event. Peter is a sculptor living in Columbia, SC. He makes these incredible and thought provoking heads encrusted with porcelain finials.

There are videos and images from a workshop that were posted on jbf times blog.

To see more of Peter's work from 2008 visit Michael Baynes website. Michael has posted many images of Peter's face scupltures that they worked on together in 2008.

To read a little bit more about Peter Lenzo click to Mo' Coffee.

Jack Troy - Cousins in Clay-May 2011

Jack Troy

3rd annual "C0usins in Clay" - May 28 and 29 , 2011

Bulldog Pottery - Seagrove, NC

We are very excited to announce our 2011 "Cousin in Clay" guest potter --- Jack Troy. He is a potter, teacher, and writer from Huntingdon, Pennsylvania.

There is an interview of Jack Troy on his local NPR station that aired on September 24, 2010. Jack is firing his wood kiln and getting ready for his Saturday, October 30th (noon - 3:00) fall pottery sale along with his partner Carolanne Currier. A local potter, Edge Barnes from Raleigh, NC can be heard during the radio interview, helping Jack fire his kiln.