Production Resumes at Record Pace.

nancyandburt Worldwide is pleased to
announce that the milk crisis is over.
Pottery production has resumed to the
previous pre Baltimore pace.
Today in fact, was an exceptionally productive day.

Milk Shortage Threatens Pottery Production.

Pottery production screeched to a halt this morning
when nancy opened the refrigerator door. She was
alarmed to discover less than one ounce of milk in
the gallon jug. It appears that burt neglected to purchase milk
during a recent trip to Costco. Having assumed that the
milk procurement had already taken place, nancy
did not purchase milk during yesterday's trip to Trader Joe's.
It is unclear at the moment when production in the studio
will resume without nancy's morning latte.

nancy and burt announce innovative grant program.

You are invited to be among the first to submit your
application for the nancyandburt Grant Program.
We sincerely believe this new concept in funding is going to change
the landscape of the American art community.

Application Information.

Defying all odds, 3/4 inch nails are a success!

After a nearly disastrous experience
at Home Depot the day ended on
a happy note with three sections
of shelving glued and nailed together.

An event without precedent. Home Depot is out of nails!

According to a Home Depot associate
(identified by his orange apron) there was not
a single one inch Porter Cable brad nail in the store
and possibly in the state of Illinois.
Quick thinking was required.
Was it possible that a 3/4 inch brad nail could be
substituted? We decided to take a chance.

Emergency trip to Home Depot saves booth.

The booth building project was in serious danger
of falling behind schedule this afternoon
when the wood glue could not be located.
An emergency trip had to be made. North Avenue
was congested, there was an accident with two
drivers standing in the street about to pummel
each other, but adversity could not be allowed to
deter the timely completion of the shelving unit.

nancyandburt corporate headquarters

Don't be fooled by the
run down facade.
It's a world of luxury inside,
one that few people
have been privileged to enter.
And yes, the building does
lean, just like the pottery.

Practice, a promise for a better looking blog.

This blog is going to look better, I promise.

Student models her art from dinner.

We are so proud of our students when they strive for excellence.
This standing rib roast is the subject of a students wood working project.
We can't wait to see the finished product which will
have it's worldwide debut here in two weeks (project due date, get to work CVM).

Trees give their lives to keep pottery out of trouble.

Like little lambs ready for slaughter, this lumber is going to be cut up, sliced and diced, then reassembled into our display shelves. Today two thirds of the boards had their edges rounded over and dadoes cut to fit the horizontal crossbars. It's going to get ugly around here before things get better.

announcing nancyandburt award winner

We are pleased to announce that Jenny Mendes
(jennymendes.com) is the winner of the
semi-annual, prestigous nancyandburt award.
Be sure to visit her booth if
you make it to Baltimore ACC. Jenny makes
tiles, vessels, and sculptural forms.
Her work is strange, beautiful, compelling, and witty.
Congratulations Jenny, you will be receiving
a certificate and check in the mail!

The line up waiting to be painted.

Queue of pottery waiting to be fired for Baltimore ACC.

World headquarters portrait.

This is a portrait of our
Wicker Park headquarters by Chicago Painter
Kathryn Trumbull Fimreite. We like it a lot so it
is now on the blog in addition to our living room.
It's a pretty accurate image of the studio
with a little added pottery hallucination.

Ann Arbor Art Fair 2007.

This is the original ceramic tile for the
2007 Ann Arbor Street Art Fair poster.
We were selected as the featured artists
last summer and designed the poster, t-shirts,
hats, tote bags, etc. for the show. If you compare
this image to the poster you'll notice that
the dates on the poster are printed and the
hand written text is gone (a little photoshop magic).
Posters and some items are still available
from the Ann Arbor Street fair organization at artfair.org.

A line up of pitchers, vases, and assorted pieces
on our favorite shelf at a show last summer.

This is our booth from last year that is about
to be retired. I'm in the process of building a new
booth for the 2008 season. Say goodbye booth.

In the kiln.

This is a kiln in the process of loading for a bisque fire (the first firing). The ware is packed as tightly as possible on the shelves which are stacked in layers. We use electric kilns which are controlled by computer timers. The temperature rise is controlled so the clay has enough time for moisture to escape and to fuse and expand and contract without damaging the ware. The bisque fire takes the clay to cone 04, which in plain English means just a tad above 1900 degrees farenheit. It's zero degrees F outside at the moment, hanging around a kiln at 1900 F sounds pretty good to me.

More of the same kiln load.

We went to some openings last night.
This is one of one of Phillip Hanson's new
paintings at Corbett Vs. Dempsey Gallery
in Chicago. These paintings are exceptional.
Check them out if you get a chance, they
were the highlight of the night.

This is a kilnload of pottery in the process
of being glazed. It takes from 2 to 5 hours to
complete the process of unloading, glazing,
then reloading the kiln. The firing takes about
10 hours and another 5 or 6 hours to cool enough
to unload.