Baltimore Annapolis Solomons part 2

At the show we also met up with some of our friends, David and Polly Brooks who own Appalachian Spring Galleries in the DC area, Donna Milstein, Hanson Galleries in Houston, and H and Pat Childs who own G-Squared Gallery in Pennsylvania. It's always great to see them - we compare notes and share ideas.

We went to dinner with Donna at her favorite restaurant in Baltimore Tio Pepe. Donna says she's been eating there for 30 years. The Sangria is outstanding and the duck was fabulous.

I've always heard about Solomons but have never been there. It's kind of like Oriental, NC, you have to want to go there because it's not on the way to anywhere. So we decided to take a couple days off and go there on the way home.

On the way we stopped in Annapolis and had breakfast at Chick and Ruths Delly on Main Street. It's a pretty funky place. At 8:30 am during the week and 9:30 on the weekends everyone in the restaurant stands up and recites the pledge of allegiance!

Then we drove to Solomons. We went to Annmarie Garden - it was great. As we pulled up to the gate I saw that it was done by Peter King. I took a workshop with him a couple years ago.

When I got home from the workshop I made this sculpture for the front of our house. It's about 5 feet tall.

At the Annmarie Gardens was a  "fairies in the garden" show with a scavenger hunt type puzzle (similar to our Downtown New Bern "Dickens Detective" puzzle during Christmas).  Very clever and well done.

 

Wherever they had cut a branch off a tree someone had painted the wound. Neat!

Loved the sculptures as well and how they had them displayed in the woods. Every once in a while there was a cleared path through the woods with sculptures in the distance. This garden was my favorite part of the trip. And glad to report that their gift shop had about 95% made in the USA. Most of the artists whose work they carry are people we know!

We stayed at the Solomon's Victorian Inn and had a great view of the harbor.

We rode our bikes to the Calvert County Maritime Museum. which was fabulous and even got to take a ride around the Island on The William B. Tennison, a Chesapeake Bay bugeye for $7, what a deal.

Tomorrow we are heading home with a stop in Suffolk, VA to take photos of a house I have to do a tile of.  It was a nice trip.

More projects!

While I've been waiting for my other sculpture to dry I've been working on other projects. It seems that one idea just leads to another.

This Raven sits on a tall post, a large ball, then a small ball. He too is in the process of drying, very............. slowly............. As I said before I've done some sculpture off and on for as long as I've been working with clay, about 10 years, (or is it 15? yikes!). I've had some issues that I never could figure out how to overcome until I read a few articles and then took 2, 2 day workshops from two very accomplished clay sculptors. One was Steve Fabrico and the other Peter King.

Their construction methods help me to build big and strong. Another thing I've done is started using a different clay body. One with more grog.

Grog is clay that is fired and then ground up and added to another clay body. It adds a gritty texture, reduces shrinkage and aids even drying. It helps prevent cracking and allows the gasses to escape during firing. It also adds structural strength to hand-built and thrown pottery during the process of shaping the clay.