We will be kicking off the holiday season with the Small Business Saturday - a day filled with creative pursuits. Please join us on November 24th between 11 am and 5 pm. We guarantee you will be well entertained, you may even leave as a soon-to-be-published author!
11 am Holiday ornaments – decorate your own
Potter Sue Adler brings majolica holiday ornaments ready for your decorating touches. Materials fee will be collected. Ornaments will be ready for pick up 2 weeks after the event.
12 pm Eco-friendly gift wrapping
Reuse, reuse, reuse - Jolanta Zamecka and Ewa Rumprecht gift wrap with minimal environmental impact. Guests are encouraged to share their own ideas and projects.
1 pm Quilts – what makes them special
Quilter Sherry Phelps, third generation quilter, presents her family heirlooms as well as her own work and explains what makes a successful quilt.
2 pm Feng Shui, crystals, stones
Jeweler Sharon LaMonica introduces the basic concepts of Feng Shui and speaks about properties of crystals and stones. Perfect chance to adjust your energy or relaxation level.
3 pm Decorate with ribbons
Kristi Halpern creates festive decorations with ribbons. She guides you on a quest for a perfect ribbon for any decorating project.
4 pm Holiday poetry reading
Bring your own or your favorite holiday poem and read it to guests. Selected poems will be published by the Prehensile Pencil Publications, ready for purchase before the holidays.
For the greater pleasure of the company fiddler Eric Marten will accompany the poems with old holiday tunes while his wife, Trudy, introduces the limber jack.
Throughout the day, guests will have a chance to observe painter Yvonne Dagger and wood carver Don Dailey work their holiday magic with brushes and knives, respectively.
Please review the event's Press Release for more information.
Earlier in his career Herb Schay of East Norwich, NY, was constructing technical prototypes in the radar lab at Sperry Corporation. He is now, and has been for many years, an Instructional Support Specialist at Stony Brook University in the Geosciences Department. Herb enjoys the technical and conceptual challenges that come with working for a scientific lab. A faculty member, graduate student, or a visiting scientist from anywhere around the globe, will request an instrument for his/her research. Sometimes the specifications are clear, sometimes they require a lot of creativity on the part of the support team. Meticulous design stage, heavy research into materials, precise drawings, rigid tests follow, until the instrument is built.
Mammoth by Herb Schay
Herb has an exactly opposite approach to his creative work in ceramics - all designs come directly from his head, he does not draw any sketches, he takes no notes, he does not catalog his work. He wants to just have fun. A true parade of whimsical creations: elephants, mastodons, cats, giraffes, dragons, unicorns, leaves his hands. Whatever creatures he chooses to make, they end up with an approximate resemblance to nature; realistic representation is not what Herb is after. Well, unicorns and dragons are not taken from nature anyway, so here the poetic license may be stretched to the limits. Since Herb is not a production potter and does not have to answer to any market needs he can be as playful as he his heart desires.
The "just having fun" sounds deceptively simple. To make whatever his fancy suggests, Herb still needs to utilize all his creativity, manual dexterity, and a solid knowledge of clay, glazes, and kilns.
Elephants by Herb Schay
Herb does his ceramic work at the Stony Brook Union studios at Stony Brook University. This wonderful place was started in 1969 around the time University was established. Studios are open to all students and faculty members in need of relaxation and release of creative powers. This is also where Herb learned the skills after stumbling upon an open invite to a pottery class. He has since taught hand building courses there. He donated his private kiln to the studio, where it is used by advanced ceramic artists for delicate work, the kiln only fits three pieces.
Dragon by Herb Schay
Herb prefers low cone glazes and firing. He experiments with clays, frequently using different ones in the same piece. He experiments with textures, as well. An elephant may end up with skin that is either smooth or hairy or old. Glazes, from matte to very glossy, match up the character of the piece. Herb sometimes also adds a non-clay element, either a feather or fabric, if a piece calls for it.
Dragon teapot by Herb Schay
Creativity and engineering run in Herb's family. His father lived as he preached: "don't be afraid to use your hands." After returning from WWII, where he served as a technical sergeant setting up pontoon bridges and such, he bought a construction book and took a GI loan to build himself a Cape Cod style house on Long Island. Everything there, except for the chimney, was put together by him and his brother. The house is still standing and is a marvel of perfection. He introduced Herb to basic electronics, plumbing, and joys of working with wood (Herb was a wood carver earlier on and made various items, including a full size cigar store Indian sculpture.) Herb's grandfather was also very applied. Herb remembers various toys made for him by his grandfather - a perfect xylophone, cigar box banjo, which was admired by his music teachers, or a baseball bat out of dogwood. It was a mixture of the inherited manual dexterity and ingenuity that carried on Herb's work. The clay creatures are entirely his own.
C.C. Bookout at Riverhead studio
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Let us start with unraveling the mystery of the initials - C.C. in C.C. Bookout - they stand for Calista Coe; the nickname was given her almost the moment she was born. Calista, a name passed through the family tradition, means "the most beautiful". The Greeks celebrated Callisto, the nymph of Artemis, who, by the most unimaginable set of circumstances, ended up in the skies as Ursa Major (Great Bear/Big Dipper).
Teapot by C.C. Bookout
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
C.C. Bookout's life may not be as convoluted as her namesake's, but it does revolve around beauty and unpredictability of the art medium she chose for herself.
C.C. studied psychology at Skidmore College, as she intended to become a social worker. Eventually she became a nursery school teacher, a profession she enjoyed greatly.
For her first pottery classes she traveled from Manhattan, where she then lived, to the Brooklyn Museum; later continued taking classes at the Riverside Church for a couple of years. She was advised to do nothing else for two years but practice throwing pieces until they would look like what she imagined them to be. C.C. attended many advanced workshops including one at the Great Barrington Pottery where she studied Japanese throwing techniques with an apprentice of Richard Bennett. One class given locally by Joyce Michaud lead C.C. to a Masters Certificate program at Hood College in Maryland, where she studied under many famous potters.
Small vase by C.C. Bookout
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
C.C. opened her own studio first in Islip, NY, and then in Riverhead, NY, where she moved on one Christmas Eve in the 70s (arrived for the closing with a van full of stuff and spend her first night sleeping on a mattress on the floor). Riverhead then was a farming community, the road that lead to her house was a true farm road. The couple was resourceful and built or adapted a lot of the studio equipment themselves. The base of her wedging table is made of an old dining table found on the side of the road. Her spray glazing is done in a converted shower stall. Her pots are kept moist in an old fridge. She had a gas kiln built on her property, but had to stop using it a few year back. She now fires her work in Watermill or upstate in Cold Spring, NY.
Bowl by C.C. Bookout
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
C.C. prefers high cone firing and works with porcelain clay to ensure strength. She makes functional and decorative pieces in many styles. She throws on a wheel, creates slab pieces, likes coil building. She mixes her own glazes and adjusts them to each type of clay and kiln. She prizes wood kiln firing with all its potential and unpredictability. She is particularly fond of the large scale sculptures: organic forms, hands holding things, head shaped planters, or female figures with titles like 'Making Strides', 'Standing Firm', 'Going Forward'. They have a strong connection with the fertility and most are intended for gardens, her own included - C.C.'s husband, Henry, is an avid gardener.
Tall vase by C.C. Bookout
Photo by Ewa Rumprecht
Let us conclude with some remarks on beauty and unpredictability of the wood kiln firing much preferred by C.C. at this stage of her artistic journey. In wood kiln firing the shining surface on the pieces comes not from the high silica glazes transformed by intense heat into glass, but from the ashes present in the condensed air of the kiln. Clay must be ready to accept it. The amount of heat generated by the burning wood, the mixture of chemicals and organic matter in the kiln, never the same, produce unique pieces every time. And this is what makes them so unpredictable and ... precious. C.C. is willing to take the risk.
