Norman is Coming Home!

This was posted by Norman's mother, Mary on July 27th:

Day 196

Mary here:

Well, today is the BIG DAY! Norman is leaving Winston-Salem and I will be driving him home to Indiana. We’ll take two days to get back, stopping frequently to rest and stretch. We plan to drive half the way today and half tomorrow. So by tomorrow evening we should be home. It is surreal – feels like another dimension of reality to actually be leaving this place. So many emotions; joy, love, apprehension and fear. But most of all gratitude. Norman has spent the last couple of days saying good-bye to all these wonderful people who have cared for him over the last six and a half months. Angels. Instruments of God.

Norman has asked me to say that he will need a while to settle in at home before seeing his friends. He is looking forward to returning to his home and family, and plans to have a party sometime this fall for all his friends and the CaringBridge readers who kept up with his story, wrote to him and prayed for his recovery. We have all the email addresses from CaringBridge and will send out notices to all of you. In the meantime, please understand that this transition is a difficult one. He needs time to adjust to being out of the hospital and on his own again. Time to establish a routine and physical therapy regimen, to learn to manage pain. Thank you, each one of you, for understanding.

Signing off from the rehab center, as we pack the car and hit the road!

Mary

Spray Booth for the Small Studio

I found a spray booth on line that is the perfect size for my studio. The studio is 17 X 20 and there really was not room for anything large. I read lots of info on making your own but decided my time was better served elsewhere than to take the time to gather all the necessary parts, etc., not to mention the hours it would take to build it. Everything I had previously seen for sale was large and very expensive. After much searching on the web, I found a company who made the perfect size: Sugar Creek Industries. Inside dimensions are: 27 3/4 H X 20 W X 17 D. The spray booth lists for about $350 but, since they are located about 3 hours from Louisville, they said they had a number of seconds I could choose from for $250 if I picked it up. I did not get the one with squirrel cage blower. It came with a very flimsy filter but I was able to find reusable filters at Lowes that work perfectly. I just cut them in half and have 4 to use while I am spraying. Recently I sprayed 6 dinner plates and 5 smaller plates and used two filters. The glaze dries very quickly on the filter so you really could just go outside and shake it out and reuse it. A friend of mine who also purchased the same spray booth found a more substantial filter in a frame that can be washed also. I have pics of both types.
Clean up is so easy. The interior is so slick, if you are using one glaze, you can scrape down the sides with a rubber rib and throw it in the glaze bucket. One thing I did is drill a hole in the back right corner so that any liquid will go right down into a bucket I place below it on a shelf. This is very handy as I have one of those coil sprayers that can reach the corner and I just give it a quick hose down. Takes minutes. Dump the bucket, wipe it dry if you want, you are done.
The fan on the spray booth is quite adequate. I was fortunate in that I had a window right where I was placing the spray booth. I would not recommend having a very long duct to the outside, the shorter the better...also, no extreme angles. The existing duct around the fan is 9"...not your standard. Lowes or the Depot will not have duct work to fit this. Went to our local plumbers' supply and they had exactly what I needed. If you have any other questions, just email me: Dolita Dohrman The couple who runs the business are wonderful.
Here are pics of the booth and how it is set-up:

Here is the one spot I could place the spray booth. Perfect fit!

Vent to the outside.


Here is the outside vent when not in use.


Just cut this in half - fits perfect


This is also a washable filter - life time guarantee

Clear as Mud: Early 20th Century Kentucky Art Pottery

Collectors of Kentucky pottery have come together in Clear as Mud to give us the first comprehensive look at the art pottery produced in the commonwealth in the first half of the 20th century. The potteries covered include Cornelison Bybee, Waco, the Louisville Pottery Co. (Cherokee), Kenton Hills Porcelains and Hadley. Such other ceramics as art tile, drain-tile premiums and Western Kentucky's "pinch pots" are included.

This modest but ground-breaking book places what was going on in the commonwealth with what was happening in the rest of the South, especially North Carolina and Georgia, and touches on the influences brought onto the regional scene. These influences include mass-market magazines, such as Gustav Stickley’s The Craftsman, which showcased the Arts & Crafts potteries of the Northeast and Midwest; tourists, who sought pots that reminded them of classic Asian and Greco-Roman forms; and the itinerant nature of pottery work, with craftsmen moving from one locale to another as work − or the lack of it − demanded.

Each chapter is written by a collector/scholar of that pottery and contains a concise history, including, if possible, known potters, dates of operation, catalogs, etc. In some cases the histories overlap or conflict; much that is known is not as clear as one would like, which explains the book’s title. Also included are all the known marks and tips on identifying unmarked pottery.
Clear as Mud is the second book produced under the aegis of the Cane Ridge Publishing House, Paris, Ky. It was edited by Warren Payne and designed by Julie Payne, who also did the photography. The publisher's first book was Kentucky: The Master Painters from the Frontier Era to the Great Depression, which came out in 2008.

The book is available at various bookstores and museum shops, on eBay and through the Clear as Mud Web site:

http://www.caneridgepublishinghouse.com/clearasmud.html

It is 120 pages, all-color and soft-cover.

About Cane Ridge Publishing House:

Cane Ridge Publishing House was founded in February 2008 to address the need for substantial publications on the fine- and decorative-arts traditions of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Contact:
Warren Payne
Cane Ridge Publishing House
caneridgebooks@aol.com