For the H.P. Lovecraft Fans

Some time back, I began a series of tiles with relief sculptures of mythological creatures on them. Those remain in progress, but the whole idea - and a suggestion from a friend - got me thinking about expanding on the idea.

This is decidedly not Rowantrees, but the need to express myself artistically and i my very own style is deeply important to me. It's a body and soul thing. In fact, I often worked on ideas of my own while I was working at Rowantrees. Sheila encouraged that sort of exploration (on my own time, of course) and lent considerable support and advice in those efforts.

So this isn't all that far from the apple tree. It is, however, somewhat around the bend. I am a recent convert to the literature of H.P. Lovecraft although I have been familiar with it all of my life. Many of my friends are ardent fans and still others play role playing games based on the mythos he created. With that in mind, and with the Kickstarter campaign set to launch soon, I decided to offer something that Lovecraft fans might find interesting and fun.

Enter Cthulhu (if you dare). The best known of the Great Old Ones is the subject of Lovecraft's novella The Call of Cthulhu.

And he's a badass.

This is a plate intended for sushi, but anything that floats your boat would probably do fine. The sculpture is low profile so anything that can be set down and picked up discreetly will go nicely on it. Many may simply choose to put it on display and leave it at that. After all, the wrath of a creature like this won't be assuaged by piling food on it.

Or will it? You decide.

Cthulhu - work in progress

Cthulhu stares out from his home at R'Lyeh, awaiting the day when the stars align in the right manner to allow his underwater domain to rise out of the sea. He seems anxious for the day as he reaches out from beneath this vessel to snatch it away from you ad claim it for his own.

Because of the method I am using to make these plates, no two will be exactly alike. You can follow the progress of this project on my Lowell Hill Pottery Facebook page. I'll be posting more about it here as well.

These plates will be made in a limited, numbered edition. Other Cthulhu plates will no doubt surface in the future, but the design will not be the same. The projected price/Kickstarter contribution level will be $100.

October 22, 2014: Day 22

Where did the month of October go?

It is finally getting "seasonably" cool on the hill, and I am sitting here listening to a classic Maine Nor'easter beating away at my walls. The house isn't buttoned up for winter just yet and I will again be a bit late getting it done. The pottery move is but one reason but at least this year plain old fashioned laziness will not be on that list.

I am tired, achy, cranky and a bit overwhelmed. I have lost precious sleep on many occasions and wondered where all of this is going.. But I keep coming back to the same sense of adventure and a feeling that it is heading in a good direction. Somehow, this is all going to work out for the better.
That's so unlike me that it has to be true.

The building is getting more and more empty with each passing day. Now I am down to the bric-a-brac and tiny bits that manage to fill up box after box. I'm talking about Scotch tape, pencils, staplers, yardsticks, rulers, brushes, box cutters, office supplies and a few odds and ends of pottery that I forgot I had. Some of this stuff has had over 80 years to get distributed around the place and has used its time well. Some gets tossed into boxes that I'll have to find a home for and some of it is getting left right where it is. I can't take it all.

But sometimes it feels as though I'm at an animal shelter trying to decide which pet to take home with me. Selecting one makes me feel like I'm abandoning all the others. I can't stand it. So I bit my lower lip and make some decisions.

I can't take it all. And I don't really want to.

I'm spending a lot of time cleaning up after myself, but only in the larger sense. There is a fair amount of dry clay on the floor here and there, but after all, the building is slated to be torn down. There's no need to go through the place with a vacuum cleaner.

I brought all of the glaze buckets home yesterday. Somehow, I managed to find an out-of-the -way spot for them. They now line the wall under the bathroom window. That has led to the most recent change int he atmosphere on Union Street.

Remember this?

Well, now it looks like this:

Sigh.

Day 22 down, 3 to go. I think I'll make it.

October 20, 2014: Day 20

Well, that went well.

The big move was held this past Saturday, and if you're wondering why no daily dispatch for the last couple of days, it's a combination of factors. For starters, it has taken this long for my fingers to stop aching enough to type, and you can follow that up with the sudden need to sleep most of the time.
I figured you'd forgive me the absence. Hope I was right.

In any case, the big moving day went very well. Most of the pottery is now in storage The only items remaining are some small tools and a fair amount of cleanup work. A couple runs to the dump should take care of that.

Saturday started out a little weepy. The sky couldn't decide whether to rain, fog or just clear out. It was well on its way to a misty compromise when I pulled into the truck rental place and picked up the 16 footer I had reserved. I waited there for my helper to arrive, but didn't have to wait long. If you recall, I was in a bit of a panic as I had found help a little hard to come by. Then the truck itself fell out from underneath me. It was a time to try the soul, but in the end, I found both a truck and a helper.
The helper came in the form of a 15 year-old named Hunter. His mom is a coworker of mine and she said he would be more than happy for a days work at a decent wage. I had no inclination to argue and accepted the offer. The two of us got into the truck and away we went.

There were two other friends at the pottery waiting to help load the truck, and we got it loaded in jig time. We used up every square foot of that 16 foot truck. We first loaded the bisque ware, followed by the finished products, then the heavy equipment (wheel, kiln, pug mill and evaporating table - more on that later), and finally the 2,300 pounds of clay. Sweaty and hoping things would unload as easily, I started to climb into the truck when Hunter asked what the stuff in the barn was.

Oh yeah. The packing and shipping supplies.

Open the back of the truck and start tossing stuff in again. There were rolls (HUGE rolls) of bubble wrap and micro foam, boxes measuring anywhere from 6 to 18 inches in all directions, tissue paper, and a box of Tyvek suits (don't ask). Not all of it went into the truck, but I took everything that wouldn't fit into my Toyota Corolla anyway. Then off we lumbered.

Stop number one was my brother's house in Hermon. This was where the clay will be stored. The clay can't be allowed to freeze and I didn't have the resources to pay for heated storage. My brother has a roomy garage at his home that is only half used and remains above freezing all winter. Score! We got the clay unloaded and stacked neatly on a pallet and then headed off for Ellsworth.

We stopped at Dysart's in Hermon for lunch. Dysart's is a difficult place to pass up if it's mealtime, you're hungry and you're passing right by. Hunter and I had a great lunch and headed out again fueled and ready for more.

We got to the storage facility about 45 minutes later and the unloading began again. We took off the heavy equipment and Hunter started unloading the boxes of pottery while I put some shelving units together. Those units snap together pretty easily and don't take long to put up, but in the time it took me to do it, Hunter had unloaded almost the entire truck. Three boxes still remained on board, and those came off before I mentioned it. The two of us commiserated on the best way to get things stashed most efficiently and then put it all into practice. We had to adjust here and there, but in the end, everything fit.
 
The only hitch in all this was the evaporating table. I had qualms about bothering with it. It's a large wooden base that holds a larger plaster "bowl." I would guess it weighs at least as much as a refrigerator. Well, I decided to take it with me. Hunter and I tipped it up on end and moved it with an appliance dolly (with no small amount of struggle) only to discover that we could not put it back on all four legs without snapping two of them off like twigs. So there it stands - on end and wondering if it will ever be normal again And here I am wondering why I didn't break it up with a sledge hammer and cart it to the dump. Plaster is cheap, after all. I could always make another.

Oh well.

We finished unloading and storing everything just as we lost daylight. Hunter's mom called to see how we were doing and I told her she could pick him up in about half an hour. We went back to the truck rental place where I put the key in the return slot and locked up the truck.

Then I remembered my camera. It was still in the cab of the now locked truck.

Well, I guess something had to go at least mildly wrong. Fear not, I have since retrieved the camera. Not that I remembered to take many pictures, of course. But here are a few before and after pics for your consideration.

Remember this?

Now it looks like this:

Remember this?

Now it looks like this:

And this,

is now this:

And so it goes, dear reader. This story is not yet over, and even when it is, the next chapter will begin. Stay with me. The journey is far from over.

Day 20 down, 5 to go.

October 17, 2014: Day 17

It's hard to believe that October is more than half over. Lately it has felt more like June. I am not complaining about that; I'd be perfectly happy if it felt this way in January although I know that would be catastrophic for our planet - and by extension, us.

But the warm weather has served to make a difficult task just a little bit easier. I have reprocessed all of the clay that I could, leaving only one 5-gallon bucket of liquid clay that has to be protected from freezing. I now have about 2,300 pounds of clay to store. That will give me a huge boost when production starts again. I will not need to buy clay for at least a year.

Everything I intend to sell at some point is packed and ready to go. All of the bisque likewise. And today I did something that proved as cathartic as it was sad. I took a hammer and smashed every second and irregular piece on the shelves with a small number of exceptions. "Why?!" you may ask. Well it's pretty simple.

I keep the seconds and irregular items to sell for half price. They made for my largest single sales day this year, although I do believe the 30% sale on top quality items did it's share as well. But a large number of the seconds have been sitting on those shelves for five years not getting sold. When something sits on your shelf for that long, it's not making you any money. It's costing you money. Why would I want to pack all of that stuff up and lug it around when it has a proven track record of not selling?

Nope. Smash. So now I have 8 boxes of shards to take to the demo pile as soon as possible. I'd say one pickup truck load of trash and I'll be pretty much done. That feels good.

I plan to take Sunday off and spend as much of it lounging about in bed as I can. Then I will rise, go to breakfast (I eat breakfast out on Sunday morning) and then go back to bed when I get home. It will be bliss for one day.

Monday the remainder of stuff at the pottery will be redistributed. The glaze buckets will come home so I can use their contents over the winter. I'm still looking for someone with a kiln, but truth be told, I haven't really started searching yet. Too much else to do right now. First things first.

I'll report on the events of tomorrow when all is said and done.

Day 17 down, 8 to go.

October 16, 2014: Day 16

Sometimes getting out of bed is not the best of ideas. But I guess you have to do it no matter what.

Today was not the best of days. I know bumps are a major factor in any road, particularly in those roads that lead to unknown destinations. While no road is altogether smooth even at the best of times, Today's could have come a whole lot closer without losing its entertainment value, I'm sure.
 
Earlier this week I made a commitment to rent a truck. The big moving day is Saturday. Not only did I make the arrangement, but I poured over inventory and equipment coming up with the best way to load the thing given the itinerary I have planned. Yup, it was all there. Until it wasn't.

Today I came to the understanding that every candidate I had in mind for a helper wasn't going to be available. One after another told me that they couldn't help. An offer broadcast widely on Facebook - along with an offer to pay well - also yielded nothing.

Then I got a call from U Haul telling me that I would have to drive 36 miles to pick up the truck I had reserved only 15 miles away from Blue Hill. They charge you for each and every mile you drive those things, so I didn't see the economic sense in driving about 72 miles in an empty truck if I didn't have to. Reservation cancelled.

Now I really had nothing to work with. And I have a suspicion that everyone around me knew things weren't going well. I don't do a great job of keeping that sort of thing a secret, I must confess.

Fortunately for all of us, both ambulances were busy all day, so I had the whole office to myself to stew in.

In the end, I drove to the Penske place and found it quite easy to reserve a truck that would be available at that site,, one hour earlier than U Haul, and rather less expensive. Should have tried them out first.

Later in the afternoon, I got a text telling me that I had a solid prospect for assistance. Details to be discussed tomorrow.

So that's a relief. But I'll be even more relieved when Sunday dawns and I can sleep in for the first time since early July. I need some extra sleep time. Really, I do.

October 14, 2014: Day 14

Yup. I missed posting yesterday. By the time I was finished with everything it was about 10:00 p.m. and I was finally too exhausted to do anything but go to bed. I figured one day without a post won't hurt. And nothing much happened anyway outside of the normal packing. There wasn't a lot of that anyway since I was working a 12 hour truck shift.

Today was a little different. I got a lot accomplished, but if you have ever packed to move, you will understand how it goes. I am up to 43 boxes full of stock. I looked out on the empty sales room and saw...more pottery. Yup. There was a bunch of little stuff.

No matter how much you stuff into boxes, there always seem to be odds and ends hanging around looking like they're waiting for a streetcar. A small box should take care of it, but by that moment it was time to leave for the evening.

The plastic totes in the picture are packed with stock intended for craft fairs. The rest of it will go to the storage unit. I have reserved a rental truck for this weekend and, with any luck at all, the vast majority of Lowell Hill Pottery will be out of the building for good. No doubt there will be lots of little stuff tagging along after that, but small stuff I don't sweat.

Day 14 down, 11 to go.

October 12, 2014: Day 12

I probably made more progress today than any day so far. At long last all stock that is headed for the storage unit is boxed and ready to go. It's all inventoried, organized and recorded as well. There were 33 boxes in all, most of them full to the brim. I will post a picture of them tomorrow. I forgot my camera today.

Tomorrow I will start packing up the stock intended for fair sales and other such events. I'm planning on doing some craft fairs (the sort you have to pass a jury to get into, that is), and generally circulating anywhere I have an opportunity. So there is still a fair amount of stock left to pack. Most of it will load up pretty quickly, though.

After that, the bisque will need to be boxed up. That won't take very long because 1. there isn't a whole lot and, 2. I don't have to pack it quite as carefully as the finished work.

Yesterday I managed to process a couple hundred pounds of clay. I have one more barrel to get through and that is the only part of this little adventure that has me concerned. I may be packing unprocessed clay into smaller buckets and storing it if I can't get all of it done, but that's not a big deal. I just don't want to toss out or leave behind any clay I can make use of. The stuff costs way too much for that kind of waste.

Next weekend I'm planning on doing the truck rental thing. Then it will be moving day in earnest. I expect I'll have the thing for a couple of days and if I'm lucky, I can get a couple people to help me with the heavy stuff.

After that, it will be clean-up time. All of the seconds and irregulars that I have had in the showroom will be smashed and hauled to the dump. They're not top quality, they take up a lot of space that I don't have in the storage unit, and I have no desire to haul them around. I'm sure a new collection of toss offs will eventually emerge.

I'm recalibrating my countdown because I will be leaving for South Carolina to visit with my dad on October 28. I need to be done before that. I have an appointment with a client on the 25th during which they will pick up their new dinnerware set. I would like to think that when I turn the key in the door after that appointment, it will be the last time I set foot in the place. Sad, but we must all evolve. So...

Day 12 down, 13 to go.