A day with funny talking people

Yesterday I spent the day doing the thing I love most in the world, talking with potters and visiting the potters of Seagrove. The weather was beautiful and the company was even better. First of all I have to say that this shot is for Dan up in Fredricksburg, Ron promised him he would make tea for the visitors and he did. Here we all are toasting Dan with tea at Meredith's.
So, unless you have been under a rock or don't read all of the blogs on my blog roll, you will know that there as been a British/Aussie invasion this month. I drove down to Seagrove yesterday to meet up with Ron Philbeck, Doug Fitch, Hannah McAndrew, Angela Wolford and Meredith Heywood at Whynot Pottery, and we began the grand tour of Seagrove that Meredith planned for us. I have lots and lots of photos, but I have to pack and leave for Shakori this afternoon, so here is the bunch of group shots we took at each pottery we visited and next week I will post a few a day so as not to give you potter overload!
Our first stop was with David Stuempfle, who had much needed coffee ready for us and gave us a great tour of his amazing pottery. If you haven't been to David's place it is well worth a visit. He is a charming host and his place is wonderful!
Next we stopped at Michael Mahan's, where we had a foot soak and massage (not really but we wondered why those foot soaking bowls weren't ready for us when we got there, haha). Michael's place is also beautiful, you can tell he has put a lot of love and hard work into his place.
It's the kind of place where you just want to plop down and stay awhile. In fact, I think that Meredith and I plopped in a chair everywhere we went. She is the kind of person I could just sit on the porch with and chat away the day.

By the time we got to Westmore Pottery, it was getting warmer and we were getting hungry and silly and sort of obscene. I think Ang had about enough of the shenanigans in this photo, don't you!
We had a great visit at Jugtown, which you have to visit if you go to Seagrove, it's a requirement. I have lots more pics from here, I'll post later.
Next group shot at Johnston and Genthesis with Fred and Carol, one of my favorite potteries in Seagrove. So much humor and creativity in their work, it's all eye candy. We also stopped at the NC Pottery Center behind Fred and Carol's place to see the teapot show, more pics of that later.
And our last stop of the day at Bruce and Samantha's at Bulldog Pottery. I don't have the group photo here because I was in it. Maybe Samantha will post it on her blog at Bulldog Pottery. We got the grand tour of their new house/studio space and I don't even know what to say about this. Mostly we all walked through the new building with our jaws sort of gaping open and saying WTF. This place is just an amazing feat that my house and studio would fit in. I think about what a pain it was building my tiny little studio/kit and then try to imagine what it took to build this place and my head wants to explode. Bruce and Samantha were lovely hosts as everyone was and we enjoyed their tour. Everyone bought amber tea bowls there and then we were done for the day, tired and in need of beers. There were so many potters we missed and so many things to talk about that we didn't. I envy the time Ron will have with everyone as they traveled up to his place in Shelby last night and will be there for the week for another workshop. Ron said that 35 had signed up for his workshop so that will be a great time.
We had lots of laughs and talked about a lot of things that I should probably just leave off of my blog, to keep it sort of family friendly :) Ron, Doug, Hannah and Ang are the kind of folks you instantly love. They are some of the very first people I started blogging with and we have become friends over the past few years through words only. I just can't tell you how wonderful it was to finally meet them and I will miss them. I hope to travel over to England sometime and visit them at their studios, they are just some of the best people you could know! At least I can get to Meredith's in a couple of hours, she too has become a great friend through blogging and I could spend hours sitting and talking with her.
Wish all of you could have been with us. One of our blogger friends Susan Meyers had emailed me this week to say that she was sorry she couldn't be with us but to say hello to everyone, and I did. We all know Susan through blogging although she is more of a lurker and just emails us and supports our work at shows. This blogging thing has become a truly great way to meet some of the best people and I am so glad that I stumbled on Doug Fitch's blog one day, read it, went and read Hannah's and then it just snowballed into this huge thing. Doug kept looking at me and saying "this is so wierd, I am sitting here talking to Tracey Broome". He gave me one of his band's CDs and I listened to the Love Daddies all the way home, thinking of my new friends, Fantastic! Safe travels to the funny talking people from across the pond :)