Press Release

Hand Thrown Pottery Comes to Lavonia

Pottery comes to Lavonia!  Local artist Jerry Beatty is starting a new career from an old passion.   Art has always been a part of his life and he always wanted to be an artist, but making a living got in the way of his passion.

Back in the late 70’s Jerry started painting in oils but decided that getting a job was necessary, as the term “starving artist” was too close to the truth and that was no way to make a living and support a family.  However after slowing down, Jerry decided to take up the arts again and bring art to downtown Lavoina.   He went over to the Art Institute in Anderson and studied pottery under the instruction of a local artist.  Soon after enrolling in the class, he created Jaybeescrafts, the name under which he operates and sells his pottery.   “After just the fist class, I realized that pottery is my new passion,” Jerry said.  “The process of creating something beautiful with my hands is very rewarding and I really enjoy it.”  Jerry’s pottery is made from several different types of clay and glazes.  “Experimenting with different glazes and colors is where the real artistry comes out. Each piece is as unique as they are beautiful.”

The pottery is all hand thrown and created in the same manner that pottery has been for thousands of years.  Pottery is an art that besides having been made safer by removing the lead from the glazes has not changed dramatically over the years.  All the pieces made by Jaybeescrafts are food and dishwasher safe.

Along with pottery, Jaybeescrafts offers wood turned art.  Jerry has been working with woodturning for over 25 years and continues to create bowls, pens and wine stoppers.  Most of the wood art is made from wind fallen trees and salvaged limbs that normally would end up in landfills or chopped up for mulch or firewood. “It’s so much nicer to see them turned into works of art,” he comments.  The woods Jerry loves working with most are Cherry, Pecan and Walnut.

The doors are always open at Jerry’s office and he invites you to stop by and see the pottery and woodturning anytime. His office is located at 725 Grogan Street, just off the square in the heart of downtown Lavonia.  If the wheel is going, you can see a technique that has been passed down over the ages and maybe you can try your hand at throwing clay.

New Casserole Dishes

The new casserole dishes are coming out of the kiln.  I have done in two different glazes over two different clays.  The first one is thrown out of a brown clay with small dark spots which showed up after firing.  It measures about 9 inches across and is about 3 inches deep.

The second one is thrown in a white clay and has a floating blue glaze that I have been working on for several months.  I found this receipt in Ceramic Art Daily and made my own changes to get the greens to come out a little more and still have it floating within the blue.  I will be posting several different shape and different approaches to this type dish over the next several weeks.

I will be in Blairsville Georgia this coming weekend for a festival and hope the weather tones down a little on the heat.  I hope to see everyone there!  Thanks for looking.

New Art Show

We are planning to be in Blairsville GA on July 30, 2010 for a Green Bean Festival.    You can check out the website at:  www.GreenBeanFestival.com 

I will have about 150 pieces of pottery and 50 pieces of wood art.  Please check out the web site and check out my web site at http://jaybeescrafts.com   I hope that we will have a great day just like the Crane Creek Festival last month.  I will post photos of the new pottery coming out of the kiln.  I have fired some of the casserole dishes.  I will get this posted within a few weeks.  This is a new pot to replace the honey pot sold at the last festival.

New 2 QT. Casserole Pottery

Started a new casserole dish.  I have not seen this style with a uneven ridge in a scalloped fashion.  I hope this will fire without any problem.  If it turns out, I will make some companion dishes.  I am using a new clay that is a brown, with darker spots (dark oxide) after firing.  I plan to use a dark brown glaze with several colors mixed in to give it a very different finish.

  I will upload the finish piece next week if I have a chance to fire.  Thanks for looking and if you like what you see, please check out my web site at www.jaybeescrafts.com.  I do not have all the pottery on the website.  I am trying to upload more, but with over 150 pieces in the shop.  Let me know if you need something, as I may have it in the shop.

Crane Creek Art Show

The art show at Crane Creek Vineyards went over very well.  The weather was great and the traffic was better.  We sold a lot of inventory and got a lot of different ideas and suggestions.  I had one lady want a butter dish.  Does anyone know a easy way to throw the base and the top?  Let me know if your have a good idea you would like to share.

We had the wood and the pottery displayed for both side inspection and got a lot of positive feedback on the pieces shown.

This is the scenic view from the open porch area at the vineyard.  This winery is one of my favorites for relaxing and just chilling out.  The wine is very good and that is from someone that does not drink a lot of wine.

I will get some new pieces posted later in the week, as I have to go to Florida on business next week.  Please leave a comment if you have any new ideas and any suggestions for a butter dish.  I will upload some new items on the web site, as the most of the inventory shown sold this past week.

Crane Creek

Heading to Crane Creek for Spring Festival for the day.  I hope that a lot of the pottery and wood art will sell today.  I forgot to take a picture of the two new projects I got finished yesterday.  I finished another cherry bowl.  It measures a little over 8 inches across and 4 inches deep.  This is part of the cherry tree I got from a friend's yard.  It has been drying for over 8 months and show the grain great.  You be the judge. 

I also got a small bowl from a Red Gum piece I had in the shop.  This piece was a little old and started to crack and ended up only being about 3 inches high.  I do like the way the grain comes out in the red gum wood.  Take a look and let me know what you think.

New Manzanita Bowl

I started the new bowl using the Manzanita wood.  I think I make a mistake in trying to let it dry.  I should have turned green and worked with what I ended up with.  This is a very hard wood to work, and lost a coffee mug in the process.  The piece of wood came off the lathe over my head, and right on the mug.  I could not have done it better if I was trying.

You be the judge of the rough bowl.  I love the grain and the way the cracks and knots leave an open space in the bowl.  I am going to let set for a week and come back and reshape and cut as thin as I can get without losing the whole bowl.  I have loaded it down with linseed oil which I hope will be compatible with the oil from the wood.

 Please let me know if you have any suggestions on finishing this bowl.  I am working with this wood for the first time and need all the help I can get. Check out my website at www.jaybeescrafts.com