Beginnings.

This is a backside view of what will be my kiln shed. In the background is an old grainery I have converted into a pottery shop.




My Dad and I along side of the beginnings of the kiln shed.


Here is the newest member of my household. Her name is Irene. She is a great companion.

Building a kiln is a big step for any potter, and I am feeling the pressure as a young potter living in Seagrove. Although it is a big task I am very excited to be putting down some roots as a potter in my home state. I have been planning and sketching for my kiln for a long time and now have a large hole along with a yard full of bricks to build this puppy. Being a journeyman is great, but it is time to make working for myself and this kiln the priority.
I have decided to go with a kiln that is around 300 cubic feet. It is big enough to be worth firing up and small enough for a quick turn around which enables me to learn and grow as a craftsman quickly. The kiln is big enough for me to fit large scale work inside of which is something I am excited about since they are some of my favorite pots to make.
I hope you enjoyed the update. There are many new things happening here at my new place in Seagrove. Thanks for reading and keep following because there are many new and exciting updates to come!
Brad
 

New Clay

Since living here in Seagrove I have been fooling around with digging clay. I found a few different types but none I enjoy more than the red body. I have fired a few tests and hope to have a refined clay body very soon. I really love turning freshly dug clay. It is one of my favorite things to do as a potter. I hope these pictures show you the raw difference between something freshly dug, and something not.
Only time and firing will tell if I can make this clay look as good fired as it does raw.
I hope you enjoyed the short update!

New Shop Video.

This video should have been posted a long time ago, but I got a little busy. Business as a journeyman has been great lately since the summer has arrived. People are coming and buying pots so potters need me to turn pots. It is great to have plenty of work t do here in Seagrove.
In the video you will see me riding my bike up my driveway and back to the grainery which I have transformed into a new workspace. This grainery was full of junk when I arrived, but is now looking pretty good. I have made pottery here, but it was quickly moved out and sold as greenware to a few local potters for some quick cash. Right now those are the only type of pots being made there, but hopefully that will change soon!
I have found some kiln brick at a very good price and designed a wood kiln for myself. I have been clearing out space and will be putting up a kiln shed as soon as the next few weeks. Hopefully there will be a post on it very soon!

Big Ole Jar!

My good friend and fellow potter Tom Grey standing behind my first big pot since before my apprenticeship.



Here is a picture of it with the lid I made for it.

I was fortunate enough to be contracted for this piece. I was able to sell it to another potter in the green stage for him to glaze and sell. This type of deal is perfect for me right now because I am in need of the quick nickel (as opposed to the slow dime) in order to continue setting up my shop.
I had a blast making this piece and cannot wait to make more in the future for people to enjoy!
Thanks y'all
Brad

New Dance

This video was shot at Hot Club of Durham. It is favorite place to dance in on weeknights. There is a very strong core group of people there that have a great time. In the video I am dancing with Genevieve. She is an amazing follow.

Lately I have learned a new dance. I am no longer working as an apprentice. I am working for myself as a journeyman potter. I have found a sweet spot in the lovely small town of Whynot to begin setting up my first full time pottery shop. Being a journeyman in Seagrove is a great way to get started. It enables me to learn various approaches to full time pottery. I haven't picked up this many tricks and techniques since being in college. The people are generous and willing to help me out any way they can, and living in the beautiful Uwharrie hills of North Carolina is a blessing. Being self employed at the age of 23 is something I am thankful for. I feel like I am the luckiest man alive.
I am swing dancing two to four nights a week, and with the weather warming up I have been fishing like a mad man at every open opportunity.
I am finding enough work to keep the bills payed and more. I am also working on a private shop of my own which I plan to have up and running before the fall of this year. Life is good.
Thanks for reading. Please feel free to let me know what you think.
Brad

Quick Mugs

I shot this video last week while working for cross Creek Pottery in Seagrove, NC. The shop is owned by Vivian Hunt. Enjoy this video and let me know what ya think!

The Outsiders Music Video

Just made a music video with some of my friends. it is some cool stuff. let me know what ya think.

OK, so this post is a new experimental video idea. I am swing dancer and dance up to four times a week depending on when and where dances are. The equipment used to make this video include a video camera and baseball cap. I turned the hat backwards and strapped the camera to my forehead via baseball cap. After that I asked my friend Lily to dance with me. I am sure she felt weird dancing with a guy who had a camera strapped to his head, but she was comfortable enough to disregard the awkward headgear. I think this video needs work, but with a little practice from yours truly the next one should be much stronger. I tried to get shots of our feet multiple times, but it just didnt work out well. I need to make more dramatic movements with my head in order to obtain the correct shot. I plan to use this method to film multiple other ventures outside of swing dancing. Any tips would be apprecited. ENJOY!

PS. I have used this method to document a kayaking trip I took recently. You can check that out here: Click me to see a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet video!!

Video Posting Project.

I have some ideas on pursuing this blog with the primary focus on the medium of video. I am making this decision because I believe videos are generally more interesting and attractive to readers and viewers. The idea is that it should increase the number of viewers, which should help to progress networking. I am not chasing the dime here, but I would like to be able to sale some of my pots. Haha!
This is a video that may be the beginning of a larger project, which is a documentary type deal in my head for now. I have been living alone and have no one to share many of my beautiful experiences with. Hopefully these short video documentaries will enrich and inspire the lives of the viewers so enjoy my first intro video post!

Rabbit Gum Project 1 (unfinished)

Hey everybody sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I realize this is a problem so I have decided to start getting into doing videos. So hopefully there will be many more videos to come.

Lately I have spent much of my time alone. I am a very active person and look at my time as an investment so even as I am alone (which is often the case) I often search for productive ways to save my money or time in order to properly invest my life in something that will prove to be beneficial for myself and others.

The most recent project has been one I call rabbit gum. I have been a hunter and fishermen for as long as I can remember being alive. My father taught me most everything I know about the subject and his father taught him the same. The practice of hunting and trapping is something that is very near and dear to my heart, and I often find it is hard for most people to understand the respect I have for the practice. It is an immediate tie to my family.

Growing up my dad taught me how to build rabbit boxes. A rabbit box is a live trap in which the rabbit is trapped safely in a box until the trapper arrives to check the trap. He then takes the trap and the game back to wherever it is he prepares his food and prepares it for eating.

I have been practicing this trapping method for a very long time, and am currently practicing it. I have not bought meat to eat out in the cabin a while now (maybe three or four months...I have not been counting. It has probably since deer season began with a bang for me.)

These traps are made of scrap lumber. As with many other activities I build in my lonesome. I have begun to realize I have different mannerisms when I am alone than when I am with others so I decided to video myself in order to study it. This is a very raw video of myself in the upper part of the barn at the Hewitt Pottery. I have finished the boxes, but they are not finished in the video. I will upload the second video very soon.... so you can look forward to that!

I would also like to add that I am still trying to figure out my movie program so it is a little choppy, but this is only the beginning. Thanks! let me know what ya think!

Brad Lail

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Christmas Firing!

We just finished burning a kiln load of pots at the Hewitt Pottery. We finished Friday evening and will unload and start cleaning pots on Friday of this week.

Here is a picture of the faithful firing crew minus Glen.

This is a shot of the inside of the front firebox when the kiln was around 1100 degrees or so. Pretty cold, but a sweet shot of some swirly flames!

During my first shift I felt inspired to speak for the kiln. Hopefully these messages were inspiring to some stokers other than myself.

I made a number of shots while the pots were at peak temperature and cooling, but only uploaded one because they all started to look the same to me.

After my second cycle at the Hewitt pottery I have been working here for six months. It has taken some serious adjustments, but I am starting to get the feel of this place. I am much more satisfied with my pieces from this cycle than the ones from the last, but still ended up trashing quite a few pieces before they could be loaded into the kiln.

Making work here is becoming more and more fun with time. I can tell I am becoming a much more skilled craftsman every day. Although I do feel more comfortable here I still continue to be humbled on a daily basis. I hope to see you all at the holiday kiln opening the first weekend in December! If you have any questions just ask! Thanks!

Lots of Pots!

I know it has been a while since I have posted on here, but it has been somewhat busy. I guess that is no excuse. All of the pots pictured are ones that I have made this cycle.

We are three weeks away from starting to load the salt kiln here at the Hewitt Pottery which means we are making work as fast as possible. The vases above were a first for me in this location and he does them differently than I did them so they were a good learning experience. I spent a week making vases of this style in different sizes.

This is the biggest sale of the year here and also the shortest cycle of the four that are done annually.

I went a little crazy doing these cups. They were a load of fun to decorate!

These are quart jars that are not this blurry in real life! haha!

The shelves are filling up fast here and hopefully in good time for loading. I am learning and enjoying this place more and more every day. I am looking forward to cranking out a whole lot of work in the next few weeks as well as doing whatever it takes to do my part in keeping the place in order.

one more loading picture.

First apprenticeship kiln loading.

The big pots are behind all of these guys.

Here are some pictures from the loading of Mark's huge kiln. We are currently on day four and will finish on Monday. Getting the monster pots in was serious work and took serious planning, but I sure loved seeing them get to the right place in the kiln. It is a beautiful sight to see all of the pots in one closely tight space. All of the well planned curves and decoration tucked away nicely is a beautiful sight within the process of making hand made pottery.

This is my attempt at a sexy camera angle.

It feels very good the be loading this kiln. I have been here for two months now without an extremely great idea at how the pots I have been making every day will turn out. Without the knowledge of the particular places inside of the kiln I really have no clue what surfaces will appear on the work I have been making. Another reason it feels very good to be loading this kiln is because I have grown tremendously from the first pot of this kiln to the last. I am now aware of many faults within the way I was making and looking at work. This first cycle was more of an eye opener than anything. I have been admiring this grand style of work for a long time and am now aware of how seriously challenging and frustrating it can be. I was extremely humbled by the entire process and the number of pots that were made with great craftsmanship. Honestly, to look at my work from this cycle disgusts me a little bit. I see many flaws within my work and am in many ways not proud of it. There are a few monumental ones in the bunch though and I guess you never know until they are fired.

I think most people that work here feel like the first cycle is pretty rough. I am so ready for the next cycle to start so I can forget the rough beginning, but it is now time to fire up a serious load, and I do love doing that! Talk to yall soon!

I am going to Joseph Sand's pottery tomorrow to help him fire his fresh new kiln. I am quite excited bout seeing his first firing of pots. I will take some pictures and hopefully tell yall about it soon.

First Blog of at the Hewitt Pottery

Happy Friday everyone! I am sorry it has taken me four weeks to make this post, but none the less it is here now. I took this picture the first week I was here on a rainy afternoon. The rain dried up and I was walking up to shower. When I turned around I gasped and went to the cabin for my camera. It was much too big to fit the whole thing in one shot. It really was a blessing on that day too simply because I had just gotten there and was feeling a little lonely.

I have lots of different pots since I have been here. A much larger variation than I actually thought I would be making working as an apprentice. These are some vases I made yesterday. There is actually another board full as well. Mark made plates and bowls this week which meant alot of pugging and making balls for Seth and I. We also split wood for two days of this week. This week was a pretty hard one in terms of how much time we were able to spend at the wheel.

The days go much faster for me when I am making pots which is actually quite reassuring when I think about my job choice. Everything else seems to be just working up to the time you can spend working on throwing and decorating.

Mark made 100 plates, 150 bowls, and 50 side plates in two days and spent around 2 days trimming and decorating. It was pretty impressive and humbling. Seeing things like that make me wonder if I will ever get there..haha.

These are some of the trailing decorations I have been messing with. Loose swags with some wiping and combing. I have been doing a few other things as well and will post some pictures later. I am still trying to figure out all of the options here as far as decoration.

It has barely been a month, and it has been a real great start. So far I feel like a bit of a loser most days watching Mark work, and making dumb mistakes myself that he points out without hesitation.

Just to end this post with a little non pottery action I decided to post a hot item of conversation lately. The huge hornets nest that has formed outside the barn. I meant to get a video of Mark knocking it down with a stick and running for dear life, but there was no camera for that. My suggestion would not be to do that. Attack at night when they sleep. Guerilla war tactics are often a good strategy.

I hope yall enjoyed this first post. I am thinking of starting a new blog with just apprentice stuff. What do you think? Please comment and let me know.

Senior Show!!

Here is a video of my senior show. I just took it 3 weeks ago or so. Hope you enjoy it!!

New filler pots (unfinished)

Around these big pots I have to have some straight tall fillers so I made a few last minute ones yesrterday.

I have gotten to where I use more finger wipes and carving away slips than trailing now. I am sure I will get back to it soon though. I have a load of new pots finished too and will be sure to post some new pics of them soon. The glazes turned out well, and I am pround of them.

Up side downers and siders

Here is one of the two mugs that I tried a side firing on some shells. I was extremely pleased with it and have lots more for the next load.

This is the opposite side of the mug shown above. I have probably drank around 25 cups of coffee out of it already and it was just fired a 2 weeks ago from this friday. It works very well, and I hope many more come out like it in the future.

Here is the inside of an upside down mug with a pretty nice shell mark on it, and some sweet glaze drips

Here is a picture of the outside. You can see where that glaze caught on the under side of the ridge in the middle instead of the top because it was fired up side down.

Here is one of the underside. I put a piece of blue glass inside of the foot and it got so reduced that it turned purple and red in some places.

An up side down bowl with a little bit of glaze drip on the rim.

Here is the wild underside..... hope you enjoy!

Big pots

So I have started firing and working hard on some big coil and throw pieces, and they are most definitely humbling. This planter has a few cracks in the top of the rim which was a huge bummer considering the awesome quality of the glaze. I guess my mom will love it. I am sure it will go nicely with all of the other pieces that she has received lately.

Here is a closeup of the sweet glaze drips from one of the handles. I was very pleased with the glaze.

Here is a jar that did not crack or screw up. I do think the lid warped during the firing and now it sits a little high which bugs me pretty bad. On the positive side the finger wipes on this pots turned out really nice. I looked at the pictures from my previous blog with the four pots in a row and realized that only one of those four made it to completion without cracking or busting. Apparently I need to do something different, and I think it is the clay body I am using.

Here is a sweet closeup of the finger wipe decoration on this large jar.

These are jars for the next firing which will hopefully be loaded on Wednesday. The taller one has cracked in the bottom and now I am trying to fix it, but I am pretty sure I am wasting my time. lol. These bigger pieces have really come with a whole noew set of problems to encounter, but I am learning.