SPRING HAPPENINGS

With Spring comes all the festivals and shows that make being involved in the pottery world so much fun!!

The meeting at Jerry’s in St. Augustine was fun and informative.
- We started out by previewing Jerry’s garden where we had our “Ceramics in the Garden” show and sale the following month (more on that later in the post). With wandering paths and “innies and outies” everywhere we were sure this was a perfect place for the third annual show.
- Next, Marcia enticed us with information that we are getting close to being able to bring in a known artist for a workshop in October. We are not sure yet, but we are pursuing the possibility of a two or three day alternate firing workshop in the fall. Details will follow, but we are sure members will have the first opportunity to sign up, so be sure your membership is current.
- We ended with a fun program exploring various knobs and handles our members have used or have found interesting, We all left with new ideas! Check out the pictures!

“Ceramics in the Garden”
- This spring show and sale was held in Jerry’s garden on April 30, 2011 10am to 4pm. It was his third annual event.
- Twelve ceramic artists displayed their works, from fanciful to functional and everything in between.
- The garden was beautiful and provided the PERFECT background for our pottery. Did you see that stag horn fern? It was enormous!!!
- Another benefit of membership is participation in group events like this one, sponsored by Clay Network. Clay Network provided a central packing and collection point, collected state tax and provided each artist a check for the net amount of his or her sales. All this for 10 % to the organization and no entry fee! How easy is that?

The Clay Network of Northeast Florida is an organization where clay artists have the opportunity to improve their knowledge, to foster interest in sincere, creative craftsmanship and to educate the public in the appreciation of ceramics in our community. If you have an interest in ceramics and pottery, please join us at our next meeting, May 22, 2:00 pm at Karen's near Craig Airport. She is going to demonstrate a process she saw recently at a Knowledge Clinic held at St. Pete Clay given by Jennifer Hoolihan, Technical Advisor for Highwater Clays. It is a combination of reverse painting on a plaster bat and making a tile using low fire commercial slip ending up with a hand painted tile.

Another incredible benefit of membership is use of our extensive library of books, CDs, and DVDs on all aspects of ceramics and pottery. The library is available at each meeting, so join us and browse the library.

Join us for fun and informative meetings. Be sure to bring your favorite food item to share during our traditional potluck dinner that follows each program.

If you would like more information and directions to the meeting please contact our secretary, Mary Ellen at ClayNetwork.com@gmail.com.

Beginning our 17th year

woven coil pottery demonstrated by Pat

Our January meeting was held at Lisa's home in Neptune Beach.

It was a good way to start off 2010!

We had Marcia's “Photo Cube” set up for members to take some nice photos of their pottery. If you didn't take advantage of it this time, we will have the opportunity again when we meet at Christie's place in March. Once you have your pictures on a disc please send it to Marcia. She will make sure that Randy gets your work displayed on the “gallery” pages of our under-construction web site.

The Clay Network board has allotted funds from our treasury for donation to Jo Nell's church, in her memory. We had loads of goodies for everyone from Jo Nell's studio. Everyone selected items they can use, and in exchange we added our personal donations to increase the monies we will send to a favorite ministry of Jo Nell's.

We will pursue some group sales for the spring. Art & About in Orange Park sounds like a good event. The St Augustine Spring Art and Craft Festival is another one for which we will be organizing a group booth. If you want to be a part of either of these, please jump in. Whether you are a beginner, or a more seasoned potter, we will have a great time together as we share the space, the work load, and spend happy times together. Clay Network handles the tax collections for you. We have the tent and shelves. We split the entry fees, take care of applications, and we help each other. This is an easy way to get involved in art festivals.

We have been talking about a saggar firing workshop and we are going forward with that. We will have more information when we meet next time about preparing pots for that. We plan to fire in saggars this spring.

A raku workshop is in the planning stages as well.

The most important item of business was our yearly election.

Our officers for 2010:

President - Marcia Scheeter

Vice President - Christie Rogers

Secretary - Mary Ellen Davidson

Treasurer - Jane Langford

and in appointed positions:

Librarian – Pat Robey

Historian – Carole Malcolm

Hospitality – vacant at this time

We thank all of them for stepping up to lead us as we begin our 17^th year.

We are always welcoming new members. Come and join us in our Clay Network.

We would love to have you with us.

Please remember our dues are now due for the new year. Please send your check to Jane.

We have Clay Network T-shirts available for $20.

Program
Pat demonstrated her technique for making woven coil pottery.
She uses extruded coils of very soft stoneware clay. She starts with slightly flattened coils around the rim. A coil then crosses over the center, and another is placed perpendicular to the first, making a cross over the hump. She used a hump mold to shape the piece over, but you could also create this weaving inside a bowl type form. Coils are added and the under and over pattern is created. She lifts a coil over, and pokes the clay under using a gentle touch. She warned us not to cut the coils too short as some of the length is taken up as you weave. Pat smooths the coils to the rim making a good join. Then she adds a flattened coil over it to make a solid, strong rim. The form must be allowed to stiffen, then it is flipped over and the rim is refined. Perfect for bread! Nice for fruit too.

We finished up with our traditional potluck meal, which was enjoyed by all.