Oyster Fest 2016, AMAZING Kiln Firings, WHY? October 12 2016
Whoa. . .Oyster Fest is here again but this year is really different because the kiln firings have been AMAZING. Really good. A potter (me) lives with the reality that you can do everything right with forming and glazing pottery, but THEN you put the pieces in the kiln and anything can happen. Good or bad. Jeez, this year for days and days of firings, all the pots are coming out exceptionally beautiful and I am so happy! The kiln Gods have been good to me or maybe my Dad (Meredith Newcomb Stiles) is flying around in heaven helping me out. Haha. . .
I have so many oyster platters in all different color (two sizes) and because they are so hard to make, I really only do them for Oyster Fest once a year, so stop by our booth near the Town Hall and check it out. . .And of course we will have some in the Newcomb Hollow Shop.
45 years of making pottery and I have never had such a good streak of beautiful kiln firings!
This is the inside of my kiln named "Mary" when I opened it this morning. Jackpot!
No blips, or runs, or glaze floo-floos (my name for irregularities) and I can't believe it!
Some cultures, esp. Japan, revere glaze floo-floos, and that is the beauty of Japanese pottery. However, little me, here in little Wellfleet, well I hope for the best when I open my kilns. MARY (a good potter names their kilns) is named after Mary Arey Newcomb, my great-grandmother who was born in this house where I make pottery.
My other kiln is "Connie" after Connie Olinder, a wonderful woman who was my first customer when I was 18 years old. I thought, wow, if Connie bought my clunky bowls, maybe I can make money doing this pottery thing! Thanks Connie! (a very cool person indeed).
This is a list of other kilns I had in NYC-6 kilns firing every single day:
Dito - nickname for Meredith-Dito Newcomb Stiles
Rachel- wonderful great auntie who lived in this house
Queequeg - my favorite cat
Lorraine- Lorraine Newcomb who briefly lived in this house. She had 9 children but still found time to can jam and tomatoes and PAINT beautiful paintings
Henry - Henry Akimoto a wonderful potter who sold me a big kiln that he carried into my loft building in NYC all by himself!
Adelaide- the magnificent artist who persuaded me it is ok to be an artist when I was 15.
See you at Oyster Fest! The weather forecast is great!