The Lady of the South | A Dirty South Pottery Blog

Empty Bowls, Full Hearts

The holiday season is also the giving season; and I’m not just talking about gift-giving. Although we see charitable causes throughout the year, the weeks leading up to Christmas seem to be filled with good deeds, festive cheer, and people going out of their way to help others. Above everything else, this is why I love the holiday season.

Posted on November 08, 2017

Ashley Norman

"DOWNTOWN IS DYING" And Other Lies We Hear

Habits are hard to break. I know from personal experience that habits involving language and the tones that we use are probably some of the hardest habits to kick. Why? Simply because we learn them at such a young age. We have been speaking longer than we have been using toilets, guys. But our words, they have such power. I believe that language and the energy behind it are some of the strongest forces in our everyday lives: shaping ideas, spreading gossip, sharing feelings.

Posted on October 05, 2017

Ashley Norman

Ask Not What Your (Community) Can Do For You...

Three years ago, while at the Beer Cheese Festival in Winchester I saw signs that an absolute auction would be taking place for one of the buildings on North Main Street. When we invested in that property later that month, we did so knowing that we were not just investing our money towards our business but to create a platform in which we could give back to our downtown and community as a whole. Dirty South Pottery is designed to be a source of good; quality products, exposure to fine arts to the citizens, and also a way for us to get involved in giving back.

Posted on June 01, 2017

Ashley Norman

What Your Mother Doesn't Know She Needs

I hear it all the time: "My mom is so hard to shop for - she has everything!" And I can say without a doubt that I feel ya on this one. I happen to have a Mom who is just about as kind-hearted and low maintenance as they come, which means that she doesn't require much "extras".

So what do you get a woman who has everything she needs?
Things that she doesn't know that she needs, of course.

Posted on May 03, 2017

Ashley Norman

Hot Brown Sliders for Derby Day in May

The Kentucky Derby is a wonderful tradition that runs deep in most Kentuckian’s blood. A quick guide for those of you out of the loop, the Derby is a horse race that is held once a year in Louisville, KY at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May. It is the most anticipated horse race of the year, and is kind of a big deal in the Bluegrass State.

Posted on April 19, 2017

Ashley Norman

Inspired in the Spring

Spring is always such a wonderful, magical time for me – and I suspect for us all. It is the time of year that inspiration comes barreling at me like a train and I cannot help but let it collide.

Posted on March 30, 2017

Ashley Norman

The heART of a Dirty South Holiday

Hello Dirty Southerners! We have found ourselves at the start of the holiday season once again, and like always it has taken us by surprise. Who knew that August, September and October went by so quickly?

Posted on November 12, 2016

Ashley Norman

A Glimpse of Main Street Living

The collective 'they' in this world always say that you will never be completed with a renovation. ‘They’ are correct.

I’ve been waiting to take our official ‘after’ photos for the day that our apartment is magazine ready. With the year anniversary of our move approaching next month, the reality that life doesn’t ever reach magazine level of readiness has hit.

Posted on June 24, 2016

Ashley Norman

Aspire to Inspire

I love running my own business. It enables me to set my own pace for work, lets me take half days (as long as I am willing to work late the next day) and has allowed my deep rooted desire for purpose to come forward. It’s a great feeling to wake up and know that you are working hard on fulfilling your dreams.

Posted on March 05, 2016

Ashley Norman

Creating A New Perspective on Creating

I have developed these false assumptions about what dictates good art from bad art off of a variety of influences, from the media to textbooks. But I have to say the worst purveyor of these thoughts came from my classroom critiques in college. Roughly every two weeks you would put your work up in front of the class, in a row with the other students’ art. Everyone would step back, take a look at everyone else's work. This is the piece that has had their attention and sweat (not to mention sometimes blood) for weeks and then everyone would….. shred it to bits. Look, I get it. It’s amazing how your work can benefit when you get other’s point of view, and you must be taught that the world will sometimes reject your art. Blah blah blah.

Posted on February 10, 2016

Ashley Norman

Interview With A Potter

Most of you who follow this blog know this, but for the new comers here I (Ashley) am the writer and author behind this blog. It can be a little confusing when running a husband-and-wife business on social media, because a lot of the time you can’t tell who’s posting what content. 95% of the time when you see a Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest update, it’s me (Ashley), and 100% of the blogs are mine.

Posted on January 30, 2016

Ashley Norman

The Origins of Creativity - Bourbon Edition

When I decided to become a full-time ceramic artist, there are a few things I didn't expect to happen: that we would be able to afford a storefront in the historic Downtown Winchester, that Carvel would ever quit his job to join me, and that we would have a mug that would be considered our flagship product. Here we are, almost 2 years later, and all three have happened. Of these things, what I have been asked about the most is the origins of our flagship mug's phrase, 'this might be bourbon'.

Posted on December 16, 2015

Ashley Norman