After a long, hot, busy summer it's good to pause and take stock. We've enjoyed getting to know our new apprentices, Brad Lail and Seth Guzovsky, celebrated our eldest daughter Emma's college graduation, travelled to England for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, made and fired another wonderful batch of pots, and, unfortunately, had several deer jump the garden fence and eat most of my vegetables! You have to take the rough with the smooth.

We fired the old salt kiln for the 79th time, lovely to go back to "old reliable," and all went well. As you can see I've made some new vase shapes, and a sweet new tumbler style that is a delight to hold, and continued playing with the a slip decoration based on a "marbling" technique. I'm excited about all the old shapes, and glad to keep dreaming up new ones.

The Nasher show at Duke just came down, what a great venue and show! Thanks to everyone there. October 8th I'll be at the Smithsonian for "Crafting a Nation," and I'm excited to announce an upcoming exhibition of my big pots at the Ogden Museum in New Orleans which opens January 13, 2011. Y'all come on down to the Big Easy!

Brad Lail

Brad is from Shelby, NC, and recently graduated from Gardner-Webb University. He's been on the periphery of the NC pottery scene for a while, and we're very glad to have him here and look forward to watching his talent grow.

Seth Guzovsky

Seth is from Boston, MA, and recently graduated from Syracuse University. Seth brings a wealth of new ideas, some from time both he and Brad spent on a study abroad program in Jingdezhen, China, while undergraduates. Welcome Seth!