Fresh for Fall...

I'm keeping it short and sweet in the wordy words department these days like I said a few posts back...but I wanted to just acknowledge my very eventful weekend and post a bunch of new pics for you to have a peep at.

My 6th year on the Indiana County Potters Tour was a good one and it was wonderful to return to my old stomping grounds and visit with Nancy Smeltzer. I saw a lot of old friends and even met some new ones...

And then last Saturday night I trucked my butt from the cozy hills of Smicksburg all the way into Pittsburgh to go to the opening of Rival Cities: One Field at The Clay Place at Standard...and I am glad I did! Graham Turnbull and his father Jim, the owners of Standard Ceramic Supply Company, played host to a large crowd that turned out for this great show. Works from ceramic artists living in Baltimore and Pittsburgh were chosen to be shown and the opening was strategically marked to happen the night before the big Steelers and Ravens game. Football is serious stuff around here. There are so many really nice pieces in this show and it spans all interests...absolutely luscious wood fired functional ware to brightly colored, object based, sculptural narrative pieces. I feel lucky to be in such good company and also to be treated so well...GO STANDARD!

I still have a couple events coming up and I have also listed a lot of new pieces in my Etsy shop...and as promised, here are some new PICS!...take a gander at some of my new stuff and if you feel so inclined, click on over to my Etsy shop and purchase something for yourself...or a friend...or yourself.

Hope to see you this Fall...

SEE ME>>>

Large Platter ,one of five pieces included in Rival Cities exhibition.

Hello everybody...I am thrilled to announce a full Fall schedule.

October 19 and 20:

Indiana County Potters Tour

www.potterstour.com 

click above link for all the details, times and directions...this is my 6th year on the tour with my good friend Nancy Smeltzer at Little Mahoning Creek Pottery

Also in conjunction with the tour, Artist's Hand Gallery in Indiana, PA opened a month long exhibition of the Potters Tour group...This show opened 10/4 and will run through the month. We all have a couple pieces in this show!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Opening Reception 6-8 PM

 Join us as artists from Pittsburgh and Baltimore square off 

the day before the big football game in.........

Rival Cities - One Field

  

Curated by

Deborah Bedwell from Baltimore Clayworks and Kate Lydon from The Society of Contemporary Craft in Pittsburgh.

Select artists from each city will be represented in this show
which will be exhibited through December. 

There is so much really awesome work in this exhibition and I am super excited to have been asked to be a part of it...Baltimore artists include: Brett Freund, Shawna Pinkus, and Jim Dugan among others...Pittsburgh artists include: Ed Eberle, Kirk Mangus, Dale Huffman, Scott Cornish, Laura Jean McLaughlin and myself among others.

November 22 and 23

I Made IT...for the holidays!

I am pumped to be doing this hard to get into indie pop-up fine craft show! This is a really interesting event that is completely curated with a fine tooth comb as if it was a gallery show. Who is going where and what will be next to what, all considered and laid out! They even give everybody a square to use for credit card sales! I am sharing a coveted corner spot with my friend Kirsten Lowe Rebel...see her work here and here.

Pour Over Set in blue!

Poison pour- over set available at The Outside In

AND, if you are in the Hudson Valley area of New York, please search out The Outside In Gallery.

This was where I went a few weeks back. I was delivering new work to them and checking out the area. What a great place! I am stoked to be part of this gallery and I absolutely love dropping the work off in person and spending some extra time hanging around. This is a beautiful area just 12 miles outside of Manhattan. We stayed in Tarrytown and explored Sleepy Hollow(headless horseman stuff galore)and the surrounding little towns.

Outside In Gallery, Piermont New York...Hudson Valley area just 12 miles outside Manhattan.

Surly pour-over set available at the Outside In Gallery.

AND, AND, AND if you can't find me at any of those places you can stop by Stray Cat Studio and you might be able to catch me running in and out during the Holidays. FINALLY as always, you can find new work in my Etsy shop...homefry ceramics. 

Busy Weekend?

Hey, its me again. Looks like I'm back in the blog business.

I just wanted to let everybody know that we are having a 'Saturday Sale' THIS Saturday the 21st from 11 am - 4 pm. It will be at the studio/shop here in the greater metropolitan area of Beaver Falls, PA. We are located about 45 minutes outside of Pittsburgh and if your in the area, stop by and check us out.

Unfortunately I will be away this weekend but I will have plenty of work there along with several other potters, weavers, jewelry makers, and painters. The fam and I are taking a weekend trip up to the Hudson Valley area of New York. So much going on, things are kicking in to high gear...the official start of Fall, my birthday(woohoo,ugh), the sale at the studio and way more that I will post about next time...including the trip to New York.

Till then...

True Love

I think its love.

Cool flower pots for your Fall mums? Praying Mantis not included. homefry ceramics

He Went That-A-Way

More new stuff. homefry ceramics.

Been A While...

Oh, Hello...remember me?
 It has been a good while since my last post...I admit it. I thought I have moved on from this blog. Although, maybe not. Honestly, I'm a bit undecided about the fate of homefry sketchbook. Just know that its me...not you. I thought I needed some space...you know, to get my head together. But here I am again...back at your virtual doorstep...and I am bringing lots of juicy pics for you to check out. For some reason you keep me coming back...not sure I can quit you.

So lets just leave it at that...no explanations, no details, no anything but a load of new work to have a gander at...

Please feel free to comment...I do love that...I miss the way some of you would talk such sweet words and the way others would bashfully just lurk in the darkness of the internet. And if your interested in seeing more of me...because I would love to see more of you....follow me on Instagram @khouser922 because I have been living through my cell phone camera quite a lot lately. AND if you want to get serious...visit my Etsy shop... khouser.etsy.com ...where there is plenty of work to purchase.

Enjoy the pics. click to enlarge and just remember that I love you.

Mermaids, Hula Girls and Glaze Failures...

As most potters know, there is nothing quite as frustrating as opening the lid or unbricking the door of your kiln only to find...dunh,dunh,dunhhh... glaze failures! Instead of being like a kid on Christmas morning with their shiny new gifts, its like a kick in the gut and a horrible sinking feeling about all that work that went into those pieces. Last time I posted I mentioned that about half my load was not so good due to application issues...well, I tried to re-fire them...added another coat or two of the questionable commercial glazes and fired to a true cone 6 instead of cone 5 with a hold...rationale being it might need that little bit of a higher temp to flatten everything back out...but NO DICE. Still dry and still looks like crap...bummer. I am currently looking at a couple new glazes and moving on...oh well, as I have said before, "that's ceramics".

But on the positive side, I did get to work on some of the wall platters that came out nice...decal city baby! Posted here are 3 images of thrown and slab built wall platters made to hang...all are roughly 12 x 12...some softly squared, others thrown, circular platters. The layers are looking good...slipped and carved, under glazes and other glazes, and now my graphic decals are in place...they still need to be fired so cross your fingers and hold your breath.

I shot these pics with my new smarty pants phone...and I used Instagram...man, I love Instagram. I will admit to being a little late to the party but hey, better late than never. Its my first smart phone and it does take some getting used to but like Instagram, there are a lot of cool things to do with it...and I am just getting started.

Hope its starting to feel like Spring in your neck of the woods...decal firing next week...aloha!