Friday, January 23, 2009

Field Trip

Today Barbara McKenzie and I went to Asheboro to pick up some ceramic molds for slip casting, stopped by the Pottery Center in Seagrove to drop off some vases and then went to Star to visit Starworks. They are making NC clay and it's a really interesting place. Takuro Sibata gave us a tour and some samples of the clay. Can't wait to try it out! They will be having an open house soon, well worth the trip to Star to meet the Shibata family, they are a wonderful couple! There is so much to do down that way, and we didn't even get to visit any potteries. If you haven't been to the pottery center it is a must visit. It was so fun to see pottery in there from many of you bloggers. Well done!
Here is the 3 chamber kiln at Starworks
a couple of Takuro's pieces fired in that kiln, they're really beautiful

Here is the Kaolin clay
the mixer
the sieve (it's a big sieve!)
slip is shot through this thing at a very high psi, can't remember the number
it comes out looking like this

and then goes through the biggest pug mill I have ever seen! I'm really excited to know that soon I could be throwing some N.C. clay without having to dig holes in my yard. I really admire you guys who are doing that, but I just don't have what it takes. This will be a good alternative for me.

7 comments:

Hollis Engley said...

Wow ... that's a big operation, Tracey. How many times a year does he fire?

cookingwithgas said...

Hi- sorry to have missed you- I was over there returning our keys and picking up some clay yesterday.
We too are excited to have some local clay. Takuro has put some test through our kiln with good results.
It is quite an operation.
The NCPC is always worth a trip- I hope you enjoyed the show.

Tracey Broome said...

Hollis, I'm not really sure how often they fire, but yes it is a huge warehouse space with lots of possibilities! Meredith, so sad to hear that I missed you. I saw your work at the pottery center, very nice. I told Barbara that I had a standing lunch invitation with you, but she had several things that she needed to get done and I was just along for the ride. We just ran out of time to do all we wanted. I'll plan something next time I come get clay.

cookingwithgas said...

hi- give me a call or email anytime you are coming and you still have an invitation to lunch!
And lately the bread around here has been very tasty thanks to Tom Gray's help in the bread baking department.

Jen Mecca said...

Hey..good post! Like the photos and your new photo of your self. Jen

Bulldog Pottery said...

Hello Tracey! Great post on Starworks! They have worked really hard to get that clay making opereation up and running. You drove right past us and did not stop in??:) Next time please come visit us. We are on 220 5 miles south of Seagrove and 5 miles north of Star. All the best, Samantha and Bruce

Tracey Broome said...

Thanks Jen! Bruce and Samantha, we drove by everybody and didn't stop, it was hard to do, but I was with Barbara and she had a specific agenda. We were already planning another trip down just for studio visits as we left. Spring is very close!