LMCP Gallery and Volunteer Foxgloves...

As I mentioned in the post just before this...recently I spent a little time up at Little Mahoning Creek Pottery aka. Nancy Smeltzer's aka. studio where I'm generously allowed to squat pot. While up visiting, Nancy showed me her new gallery addition...almost finished! I did post some pics of this place back in January but here it is pictured above and below almost ready to go! That's Nancy there peering up at the 10 x 24 foot new gallery space. This is a really great new space completely made from re-purposed materials. Nancy hauled all the old barn board that was used in this building from a barn that was being torn down near her home. The windows and door are also on their second life, now reincarnated in the service of this rustic and lovely pottery gallery. I can certainly see a whole lot of wood fired pots in that space. MMMMMM.
Speaking of wood fired, I am getting busy on two sets of work...throwing a nice sandy high fire clay for the bourry box kiln up at Nancy's and making mid range brown ware pieces for the electric kiln. The second group being similar to the pieces in the slide show in the previous post.

In between time I am home...teaching at IUP for the summer and enjoying the quiet life here in the greater metropolitan area of Indiana, PA. This also means I get to kick around in my yard and garden all summer. You have to understand, I'm a serious garden geek and for the last 3 summers I have been leaving to live and work in the Chautauqua Institution up in Chautauqua, N.Y. Well, I felt it was time for a change of scenery for me at the end of last summer and I now feel like I made the right decision. Now I can be like normal people(whatever that is)and not have my life stretched out in two states and I can really tend to my garden. I have enlarged my veggie garden to include onions and asparagus as well as a couple rows of zinnias. My 3 story high "rhodo-zilla" is in full bloom and looks like a giant purple blob swallowing my back deck. All of my bulbs and perennials are jamming right now and there is still so much more to come. However, I have to say that my very favorite thing out in my garden would have to be the foxgloves. I inherited them along with a few other backyard gems when I bought this old coal miner house. Each year they reseed in different places, sometimes not so much and sometimes a whole lot. This year I have bunches...tall spires of speckled slippers in shades of pink. Not only do I have them in almost every flower bed, but they are in big clumps and there are loads of this new creamy white color.

And in keeping with my wood fire talk, here are a couple gems that I gave a final firing of gold luster and commercial decals. These two babies turned out pretty sweet.

The Chinese menu mug is a nice big cup with a lot of flash and ash that add to the layered band around the top. The other is another "double flamingo homage to FLA." mug that I added the bling to...and I'm happy I did...look for more flamingos in my upcoming work.

How does your garden grow?