Larkspur party

The Larkspur Party June 9th & 10th


This is Larkspur just in case some of you are not familiar with this plant. My friend Frances who opens up her gardens and home to a number of artists once a year has this plant growing everywhere around her gardens. Her gardens are really amazing. Every year when I go to set up for the show I am always amazed at what she has done. Gardening is her life and it shows. She is a good friend of mine from when I worked at Cedar Creek gallery and she talented in so many things. Here is one of her garden sculptures. (When the gates open at 10 am on the Saturday of the shows opens, her sculptures are gone with in an hour.) Here is a little something from the web site about the show. You can visit it and check out some of the people who will be showing there.








The New Year is here and we are getting to work putting together the 12th annual Larkspur Party! The Alvariño family invites you to join us in this coming show. The show will be held the second weekend in June. Our garden will be open and our artist will be selling Saturday, June 9th from 10am until 6pm and Sunday, June 10th from 10am until 4pm. No early birds please. Admission will be free as always, though this year you will have an opportunity to donate to the community. We will be featuring 25 regional artist displaying and selling their work in our gardens. Check back with us soon, we will be putting up pages to view our featured artist work and some information about them. The gardens will be in full bloom. Check out a few photos by clicking the "photos" link on the left, or get to know each individual artist.The Larkspur Party is named after an especially beautiful flower in bloom, is a chance for us to share the happiness our garden brings us. It also allows regional artist to display and sell their work.

Moma

My favorite piece in the Moma was this one by Dan Perjovschi. It was a huge wall of drawings; just sketches that made a statement about what the world has become in the last few years. Some of the sketches where very simple but Witty and to the point. Here is what was said about his work -

Dan Perjovschi (Romanian, b. 1961), who lives and works in Bucharest, has transformed the medium of drawing, using it to create an object, a performance, and an installation. In the last decade, Perjovschi has made his drawings spontaneously in museum spaces, allowing global and local affairs to inform the final result. For his first solo museum exhibition in the United States, the artist will draw witty and incisive political images, in response to current events, on one wall of The Donald B. and Catherine C. Marron Atrium. Two weeks before the official opening, beginning April 19, Perjovschi will draw on the wall during public hours, allowing visitors to observe the creation of the work. The project is accompanied by a pamphlet created by the artist.

I was able to see some of my favorite painters like Kandinsky, Motherwell, Kline and Jasper John. I have to admit I've taken a lot of art history classes and really enjoyed most but modern art has always needed more of an explanation for me. I never enjoyed teachers who just made you learn the movement and dates behind a significant piece of art. I had a few really wonderful instructors that actually told the stories behind why the artist did what he did. In Moma they have a wonderful audio system in which they choose various works for the curators to talk about. This was great. Someone like Duchamp really does need some type of explanation or the pieces by Malevich ( which is basically just a white cube painted on a white background). I of course am always drawn to the color and multi shape and surface pieces. It all about what you like. I"m sure people who are into simplicity really enjoy the more rigid,almost very sophisticated work. I read a blog entry by a potter the other day who really had a strong opion about color on pots. He said that most people use color to hide really bad forms. I have to disagree with this because I've seen some really bad wood fired pots with no glaze on them. People can be a novist and just want to make blue pots or they can be a novist and make just brown pots. Its what they like to do. I've seen a lot of this in teaching and in schooll I think it doesn't really have to do with trying to hide anything but rather the vision of what the potters is drawn to and there personality. You really can tell a lot about a person by just looking at there work.

May 28th

Pretty low key birthday but after New York, what could compare. I did get a balloon cake that the girls picked out and Joey as always made a nice meal. I had to teach last night but only one student showed up so it was pretty easy and I went home early. I got to work almost a 1/2 day in the studio and started making these tiles that I have been wanting to explore. Tonight I'm going to put them together and start drawing on them. I got the inspiration from a potter I saw in New York by the name of
Stepanka Horalkova, she has a website that I tried to get on today but seems a bit slow. (If you have high speed maybe you'll have a better chance at checking her stuff out!) From what I could tell by her website the images where a bit different than the stuff I saw in New York but I really liked her stuff. It was very clean, nice images and made out of porcelain some thrown and some altered. I wish now I had purchased one of her cups!
I'll get some images up of the tiles when there done.

New York, New York

Here is the play bill for Talk Radio, the play we saw starring Liev Schreiber!
New York, New York!!!
New York, New York!!

Here I am in front of a sculpture I have known almost all my life because growing up in New York State in the 70's, the symbol was everywhere to promote tourism. I really regret I didn't get one of those I LOVE NY t-shirts that are on every corner because, of course I always need t-shirts and two, I do love NY.

New York, New York!!!
This is one of those huge TV screens in Time Square where they had all these cool M&M images!

We're back! It was a good trip and we can not wait to go again. I hadn't been to NY in almost 15 years and I felt like I was new to it all. The walking, all the places, the crowds, looking up at all the buildings, wanting to see it all!!We had our moments of getting turned around, not finding the right place to eat and deciding what we were going to go see in the frenzy of the 1/2 price ticket line. We decided we would never make it on that reality show "The Amazing Race" because we could never decide on who would be in charge. It was great to get away, see great sights and have no where really to be. We needed that.
Quick over view of the highlight and later I'll talk more about each -

* We saw the play " Talk Radio", which was very good but a little heavy. The lead was great!

* We had a great time in the Museum of Modern Art. Museums are always fantastic in my book!

* We went to a craft show in front of Lincoln Center that had some pretty good stuff in it. I even found a potter from Sparta NC and another girl who I really liked her stuff ( she was from the city)


*And finally, I learned a lot of foot wear and what kind of shoes to travel with and what kind not to. I was quietly obsessed with what kind of shoes all the women where wearing and how Podiatrists must make a mint in NY.

Clay maginzines

I got both my Clay Times and Ceramics Monthly this week. Like most people I just love to sit down right when they come and look through them. I was just telling someone the other day that lately I like Clay Times a bit better than Ceramics Monthly because Clay Times just has more...well pots in it. I do appreciate all the sculpture Ceramics Monthly has in it, but for me that magazine has changed in the last 10 years.

This issue I'm sorry to say kind of got the "gruff" up on my back and I angry about it all night; here is why. It had all these short articles on studio potters making a living for themselves and how they go about there work day, sales and general life. I was very excited to read these but as soon as I breezed through the pages and saw the people who where interviewed, I realized that only one of them was a parents and of course....it was a male who had a wife to help him.( Now I am not sure that Ken does not do a lot of domestic duties around the house but if he's making a living supporting his family and making pots, I kind of bet his wife is dealing a lot with the children..but it could be wrong). Anyways..back to my rant. They seem to have hit all the other type of life styles that most potters have. There was the husband and wife team with no kids. The young female/male pretty fresh out of grad school and so on and so forth. I'm sorry to bring this up all the time but it really bugs me that there are hardly ever any women potters who are trying to raise a family mentioned in the magazines. If it hadn't of been for Lana Wilsons articles (Mud Mama's) I don't think I could count on my fingers how many times this demographic has even been talked about. And yes, I do know we are a very small group in the world of ceramics and I know why. All those people pretty much talked about how they live there career. Pottery is there life and they never venture away from it...they live it. I think Ken Sedberry, the only parent in the article mentioned that he liked coaching his sons soccer team, everyone else I think said or implied they where pretty selfish about there work. We pottery mom's live and breath ceramics too, we just have to put it on the back burning a bit more and I really wish Ceramics Monthly had asked someone like Ellan Shankin or Lisa Orr for there business advice on being successful at doing both. Ok......I got that off my chest.
Onto Clay Times this month. They had some really great articles :
*Going Green" and how potters can help the environment.
*Pete Pinnell said his two sense worth on how rude some people are at NCECA....and I agreed!
* They had some great shows advertised that I can not wait to apply for and see on the web.
And my favorite ( by Lana again) was an interview with Nick Joeling ,which next week I think I put some quotes by him on my blog. Some of his advise I could really use!
I guess Clay Times won once again this month with my vote!

Thurseday news

Today was a good day. I had class and we had a great time while I did a demo on these boxes. One of my students told me today that the proper name for these is "Parisian boxes". It took a while for me to put them together but we had so much fun laughing about various things while I worked, the time went fast. They are a funny crowd and I will miss them in the fall when its time for me to move onto another class. Sometimes you get really attached to students but you realize you have taught them all you can and they need to learn from someone else. I wish sometimes it was mandatory that the students there have to take from all the instructors at clayworks so they get a taste of everyone. I know there are some students there that have never taken my class I'm sure because they don't care for my work and visa versa with some of my students that won't go to other classes. Anyways, class was good.

Tomorrow we leave on our trip. Joey is very nervous about flying these days even though I don't seem to recall a major US plane going down any time lately( besides 911). I do not like to fly either but for the fact I get really bad motion sickness and then I just feel sick for days after. Of course I'm sure they have some sort of pill for that but I really don't like taking a whole lot of medicine so I just rather whine. ( Lucky Joey!)

I spent some time blowing bubbles with the girls today/playing outdoors and gardening a bit. That kind of ended abruptly because I stepped on a rack which in turn knocked me in the head. It was a regular Tom and Jerry cartoon. The kids where trying to doctor me the rest of the afternoon while I layed in bed with an ice pack on my head. So...I'll be going on my trip with a big goose egg on my forehead!

Boxes and birthdays

Monday the 28th is my birthday and for my 40th birthday this year my husband saved up money for us to take our first real vacation since our honeymoon. We are going to NY City and can't wait. Vacations are so important I've decided. Its like the importance of playing for kids, adults need to as well. We have done a few shows together that have gotten us away from the kids and of course family vacations but not one with just the two of us having fun for the last 7 years. So...my brain has been getting ready for that this week and I guess since its my birthday I have been transfixed on making boxes in my studio! My intermediate class asked to do boxes this session and we have explored many. The last one they wanted to see are those really labor intensive boxes that Micheal Simon makes. They are square, thrown in two pieces, cut with a flange added and than they have paddled feet. I own a little one by him that is very plain, no slip work and paid $75 for it. At the time I thought I paid what I did for it because, well he was Micheal Simon but now that I've been making them I see why you need to charge so much for them. I'm not even sure I'm going to be able to sell them for what I need to price them at, but its been a good exercise for me and I've enjoyed it. I'll get some photo's of those and some others that I made this week up on the blog soon.

Weekend review

Most exciting thing!

Quaid learned to ride his bike this weekend we all where cheering him on the entire weekend.

Clayworks Sale.

Friday nights opening was a bit slow and I can't say my pots where flying out the door. I still have not figured out the buying crowd there. I did see a lot of students and they do buy a good amount work. In fact, I think all the stuff I sold was to my students that night. I think I have figured out that since I don't have my mailing list hooked up to the studio's mailing list, my customers are most likely...not there. This could be the problem with low sales!!!!!!! I have to admit I enjoy hanging out and seeing everyone and the food is always great.

Studio work.

I did get a good amount of time in the studio this weekend. I trimmed big bowls, started on some boxes and threw some big fish dishes,which are big oval, bakers. Tomorrow in the morning my mothers helper is coming to play with the girls so I can get more work time in since we will be out of town next weekend and I can't afford to lose work time with a big show around the corner. I'm thinking even more about really utilizing my stacking space in the kiln and looking at what I have on my shelves that need "partners". An example of this is cream and sugars with no trays or a salt shaker that its twin did not come out. In other words make the most of what I have grow. I'm even useing a ruler to match the height of my big thing to heights of whatever I make small to fit in the spaces around in.

My husband was great this weekend a built a wonderful addition to my table space in my kiln shed so I can hook my new pug mill up this week. What a treat that will be! I need to get in there this week and clean, re-arrange while mixing up some glazes before the next kiln load. My elements are really slowing down and I hope I can get these last fireing in for the Larkspur show before they totally go out on me. I hate changing elements more than anything!

On the kiln front.

Well....that is still in limbo. My super kiln friend Ron is still helping me decide on what kind of kiln I need. I did finally get a quote on getting a propane tank set up and that was more than I thought it would be so like I figured, this adventure will be costly even with the grant money and that is something that I don't like to think about when we struggle to keep things a float. I'll keep you updated on that evant!

Kids books

A few entries back I had spoken about how much I love the illustrations in kids book. The other day while I was waiting in the car-pool line I grabbed a magic marker and started to just quickly draw some of the images I remembered out of one of the girls books. I thought these where really quick and fun and I have no idea whether I'll use them in any way but I just felt like putting them up in my studio to spark some idea's. I've been doing a lot of incising lately on my pots with an exzacto blade and I really enjoy doing the drawing. Its something a bit different than my brush work and I can see it branching out in more things other than leaf images. Years ago in school when I was playing around with low fire work especially Majolica, I did these dishes that had what I called "chicken fish" on them. They where pretty wacky fish with legs, tongues and eyes that looked like they where on ...well crazy I guess. People really liked them and I enjoyed doing them but my professors kind of frowned upon them in a crit so I stopped doing them. ( That is a whole other topic in titled "grad school and crits!!". I could on for hours about that.) So.....we'll see if "The chicken-fish" comes back sometime soon after looking at these fish everyday while I throw. The girls keep asking me why I have these drawing hanging up and if they can color them!

Books

When I was doing the workshop with Julia Galloway, she had a great set of historical slides that I always wish I had for teaching. She gave me a list of historical books I could get some images from and I thought I would share these with everyone. I have yet to purchase any of them so I'm not even sure how easy they are to find but maybe if you get a chance to find some before me, let me know where you found them!

*History of World Pottery by Emmanuel Cooper
*3000 years of world pottery ( no author named)
* Art speak/ Art spoke by Atkins
* Color and Fire by Lauria
* World Ceramics by Hugo Munsterberg

This evening I'll be at Clayworks for our spring show. It is always a good time because all of us that sell for the show ( instructors, resident artists and associates ) all make great food for the event and we usually have a good band. I have to admit I haven't connected as much with the customer crowd there as I have with the crowd that I usually see at all the shows I do around here, so tonight I'm going to try and make an effort to remember names and faces more. It can get pretty crazy at the register so I'm sure that is why I haven't had this connection.
Tomorrow we plan on building a table for my new pug mixer...very exciting! I'll let you know how it goes.

Always playing catch up

Its Thursday and tonight I got back into my usual work pattern. Last night I had to pack pots for the Clayworks sale this weekend and clean up my studio so I only got to throw three big bowls. I usually start a new throwing cycle with small things first ( mugs, soup bowls) but at the sale last weekend I didn't really sell those small items so I have a lot of those leftover. Yesterday I just decided to go for the gusto and start the big work right off the bat. I like to make all my big stuff that takes so long to dry first and I save the small stuff or things I have learned to assemble quickly till last. So..last night and this evening my shelves got full of big rolled rims bowls ( always fun to throw as well). The next show I am doing only has 5 other potters so I have to think about what items they will be making and how I can tap into my own market with different things. I wonder if other people think this way when they are doing a show with little variety but the quality is all good. We really all do really different work so it really is never a issue but I still like to really show the things I feel I do really well if I know another potters is better at lets say teapots than I am. ( I'm just thinking out loud......)

As for the catch up, I'm pretty much referring to my house and family stuff. After every show I always need to catch up on the house stuff I put to the side the week before the show and I feel guilty for all the time I've lost with the kids. So what I do is make up for it the beginning of the new work cycle. This week was the girls last week of school and unfortunately I had to miss there final little program they put on for the parents. I could not take off another day of teaching so Joey played Mr. Mom and went in my place. We did spend a lot of time playing the beginning of the week and now the summer will soon be here ( Quiad gets done the end of the month .) and I'll come up with all sorts of fun things to do during the week to keep thing interesting for all four of us. Tomorrow we are all going to Quaid's school for a "Teddy Bear" picnic to introduce the girls to there new school for next year. They are very excited to be going to the same school as there brother. I too am excited because I will have every morning free to work next fall and that means maybe I can finally go to bed at a decant hour! The older I get the better I think my brains work in the morning studio wise plus I won't have to freeze at night once winter hits!( We'll see!)

Monday

Just got back from teaching my beginning class. I've got a good small group of beginners so the class has been very layed back and enjoyable to teach. My friend Julie , who teaches with me and is in the Circle of Eight with me, just got back from helping out a huge pottery sale put on by The Minnesota Potters. Linda Christensen is one of the potters in this group and of course I would love to have been in Julie's shoes and been able to visit with her. Julie was lucky enough to be asked to help by Suzi Lindsey, who she has become good friends with and is a guest potter at the sale. I think this group had a great idea of asking others potters around the country to do there sale with them. It shows such a great example of community and also maybe sets a trend for craft people to not have to rely on the ACC or Rosen show to sell there work. Those venues cost so much for a crafts person that it seems almost impossible to make a really good amount of money for it to count. Of course those sales are more about getting your work in galleries I think other than selling to the public ( but I could be wrong). The great thing about doing home sales is that you get to meet your customers and have time to visit with them. The more I do show the more I enjoy this which surprises me because I am not a sales person at all. Anyways, back to Julie, she brought back some great looking pots and I even snuck her a little bit of money to get me a Kurt Lyttle piece which I can't wait to see.

As for Jennifer Mecca pottery this week, I most likely won't get back up and throwing until Wednesday night. Tomorrow I have to clean and re-price and pack pots for the sale at Clayworks this weekend and I have my last book club of the year that I need to go to. This weekend I'll be able to start a new on stuff for my favorite show all year round, Larkspur garden show in Raleigh Nc. I'll talk more about this show in some future posts.

(Ps.Once again my Tec guy refreshed my memory on linking the names of things to sites, so you can check out this things I've spoken about. Have a good beginning of week!) Also the first pot shown is by Kurt and the second is by Linda.

Report on the show

Just a quick note about the day. Today was the Clay guild show and it went pretty well. I was so organized last night in getting all my stuff packed up that I felt really good this morning. On the way to the show there was this amazing sun rise that made me feel like it was going to be a good day. ( The sun was the color of red fire..it was really awesome!) Anyways, the morning was pretty busy at the sale but around 1 this black cloud loomed over us and everyone became antsy about the weather so pretty much all my sales dropped off after lunch, which was kind of a bummer. For the most part I keep selling in the afternoon because I think I spend more time talking to people. (The morning rush crowd usually knows what they want and just pick it up.) But at least I made some much needed cash for our trip to NewYork in a few weeks and that made me feel good. Here are some photo's of my booth and the big vases I had taken photo's of green. I didn't sell any of these today but I was still pretty darn proud that they all came out in the kiln. I love this one because its my honey glaze and it just looks like carmel on this piece.

Prep. for the Clay Matters guild show

The last kiln is loaded and I plan on unloading it tomorrow night. I think that I have finally worked out a good cycle for getting thing accomplished before a show. I mark days on my calendar of what needs to get done and I try not to over do it , as I have in the past. I use to just try to throw as much as I could and then I would rush my pots, loss of bunch and be worn out. I know how to tell myself to stop these days and I still manage to have inventory to fill my booth. Thursday I always have my one of my "mother's helpers" come and this allows me to start packing and start glazing early if I need to do that. So tomorrow I can pack the rest while the girls play and load the truck in the evening. The weather man is calling for on and off showers but I'm hoping that will hit in the evening so we can all have a successful show. I enjoy this show because I get to do it with my friends and its in this huge old barn that a very prominent family in Charlotte still own and refuse to have a developer take it down. There was the huge Raccoon sleeping in the rafters during the show one year and all of us below didn't even seem to faze him.
On the mom front I went to see Quaids kindergarten class put on a play this morning and then they fed us brunch. Quaid got to have a little part in the play, not much but of course I was beaming. Nothing is better than being proud of your kid and seeing there little faces light up when they see you. Seeing your kid dressed up with some funny paper animal hat, singing a silly song makes up for all the trials and tribulation the comes with parenthood.

Update

Yesterday morning I glazed and loaded the kiln. I peeked in today and those three big vases look great. I'll try to get a photo of them up in the next day or so. I was kind of in a fog all day yesterday so I am thankful for today. I've said before...I love Wednesday at my home.
TUESDAYS EVENTS
Of course I taught Monday night and than got home at 10:30 and worked a bit more in my studio. On Tuesday morning I had to do the car-pool thing, up and back to Gastonia - an hour out of the day than get the girls to school, glaze like a mad women before they get out at 12:00, get them home , feed them and spen ometime with them reading and such then clean up the bomb that went off in the house the night before. Usually Joey gets home at 5:30 and we have dinner but yesterday I had to get all the kids dressed up and ready for a coral concert at Quaids school. So..everyone gets baths, cloths get pulled out and pressed (even my husbands) I throw some dinner together and listen to the "Yucks and I don't like this" for 20 minutes while I try to get dressed. We finally race out the door at 5:30 for the concert. I did manage to see Quiad sing, which was great but as always there is always one little girl who does not want to sit still so I spent the majority of the time out in the lobby entertaining McKenna. By 8, of course all the kids where worn out and pretty much whined the whole way home. ( Mental note, put in school suggestion box do concerts for lower school children on a Saturday in the afternoon!) We got home at 8:30, got everyone settled down and I was back out working at 9 until 11:30 finishing up stuff for my next kiln load. Today the girls and I are taking it easy. We went to the park with a friend of mine and her child and did some grocery shopping. I'm looking forward to seeing Joey at 5:30 for some dinner and then I'll be unloading and loading a bisque for tonight. Tomorrow is my last glaze kiln for the show on Saturday.
Boy.....that was some update!

No where to hide

So I go out into my studio at 5:30, Joey tries to keep everyone semi entertained for awhile but about 6:30 ( like clockwork ) and little body is out wanting to "help me". I have tried many times to work with the kids in my studio but for anyone who has tried to do this, it really only makes things complicated because for every 5 minutes you can work there is another 5 minutes of interruptions weathers your answering all sorts of questions or picking things up and helping with there projects. When I'm in " stress..got to get this done mode" I kind of freak out when the door opens and a voice says " Hi Mommy!". So , yesterday here I am trying to keep my cool decorating a huge vase, enjoying my music and having my soon to be 4 year old Mckenna right there with me. ( Notice her bear who has joined us also in the back). Joey got a kick out of this because he knew what I was thinking and took a photo of it.Today I think I'm going to give them some clay in the kitchen in sit in there with them and make a bunch of sprigs for the things I threw last night to save time tomorrow. I need to also stain 3 more pots today at sometime and get a bisque going. After car pool at 3, its off to my beginning class.

Weekend update

Quick post today - its Sunday and I'm on a time crunch of free time..lots of need to get myself out to the studio since I have free time from now until bedtime. I had a busy weekend because it was my mom's birthday and my sister and I planned a girls weekend for her so yesterday was spent shopping and just hanging out with my mom, sister and my niece. Joey and took my niece to see Spider Man last night so I was on bedtime duty and couldn't get back out to work until 9. Today is really my last day to make things because the next two evening are for teaching and a concert Quaid is singing in at his school. Tomorrow I'm going to try and be creative and figure out how I can maybe do some work in my studio and keep the twins happy. If it is a nice warm day usually the pool can occupy them for a good hour or so. Now that I've taken the plastic off my studio so I can see the whole backyard it makes it easy to just let them play and I can work more in short periods of time. We'll see how that goes. I don't think I'll get all my list of things made that I wanted to. In fact, I decide to try some small planters with herbs in them for the sale coming up this weekend for mothers day. I like making planters but they only seem to sell at certain times so we'll see if this is a good gift idea. Yes...kind of a sell-out item but sometimes you need to try stuff like this I think.
Hope your weekend was a good one!

They Don't make them like they use to.

Joey and I joined Netflixs a few months ago because we watch so many movies that blockbuster and other video stores just seemed like a waste of money. We both have loved the selection on Netflixs and I have really loved finding all sorts of good things to rent for the kids. Of course most of them are all from my childhood. There is just so much crap out there for kids to watch I'm amazed by it. I rented Free To Be You and Me and I was so moved by the message it sends to kids and also how having this record when I was little maybe had an impact on how I view things as an adult. I don't understand why at a day and age when all the religious Conservative right goes on and on about how our American values are in the garbage ( and we all know they blame it on the liberals) that we have things like "The Brats and Sponge Bob" for our kids to watch. Do we think it was all liberals who came up with that stuff???I was spewing off to Joey the other night how odd it was that programs like this one and The Electric Company, Sesame Street and even Fat Albert where put out in the early 70's when there where Republicans in the white house but public TV and the main stream seemed to accept these programs. But here we are today wiser and more into Tradition values and everything geared towards kids is horrible. ( Of course public TV still tries but I'm not seeing the progression in equality and reversals of male/female roles lately with them either. We still have mommy at home and Daddy going to work) What happened? Maybe like all people when they have kids , I just think things where better when I was little. I liked hearing how it was Ok for boys to cry and that Mommy's can be fireman if they want to be and little girls did not have to grow up and always get married. Now instead I have to see my girls watch big breasted teenage cartoon girls always wanting to look pretty and Bugs Bunny in a space suit shooting lazer guns instead of a pop-gun. OK, enough political talk for the month. At least you know what ticket I'll be supporting in 08'. (And once again, these are just my opions, I don't mean to offend anyone.)( And Joseph...you are not allowed to comment just to get a rise out of me!)

Vases

Here are the tall vases I made yesterday. Those handles that I pull off of them have a tendency to split so keep you fingers crossed. I never had this issues years ago when I used that same clay body but for some reason in the last 2 years my small pulled handles off of vases and casseroles just love to crack. So I'm really watching these like a hawk this week. I think as far as form goes, the one in the middle works best. I like this form because it has some attitude to it. The handles look like arms and hands of a mother who is about to say, "what are you doing??"
This evening I threw the bakers I wanted to try and I played with some darting in them for awhile but I'm not sure if I totally resolved what I was looking for. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I also threw some small milk/syrup pitchers. I love breakfast when I can really sit down and relax with my cup of coffee, my meal for the morning and the paper. This of course only happens on the weekends if that. So I thought a cute little pitcher for milk or syrup would be nice. I'll get a photo of the finished ones up when they are done.

On the mom front, today I took care of another soon to be 4 year old girl for a friend of mine. The three girls had fun together dressing up and going on a "bear hunts" together. ( I guess I was suppose to be the bear but that is kind of hard to do when your up to your eyeballs in laundry.) We went to the library and they played in the kiddy pool while I mowed the lawn. Mowing the grass is another high up on my list of things I love almost as much as breakfast. I love the smell of it, its great exercise and I just like to see all the grass shooting out of the side of the mower. We had a good bit of lawn and Joey always wants to get a riding lawn mower but thank goodness we never have the extra cash to spend on something like that because it would be one thing I would really miss.
Off to class tomorrow morning!

Thinking pots

I realised today as I was drinking my coffee and getting an anxious mental photo of what I needed to do in the studio this morning, that this firing being so close to my last show needed "more bang for the buck". In other words I really needed to think hard about what I wanted to make, sizes that fit well together in the kiln and what would sell for mother day. This is how I start every Tuesday morning....brain storming.

This morning I was able to get the girls to school and instead of walking in the front door and being bum-barded with all the mess in the house that pulls me away from work, I walked to the back door to just start working. ( This proved to be a good new plan I need to in force with myself because I can take an hour away from my work time and justify how much house work I need to do to keep my sanity.) Anyways, I realised I needed to make some bigger things because I had a lot of small fill-ins from the last show. When I think of all my big work I also take into consideration the spaces around these pots for little things. I loved my new salt and pepper sets from the last load of pots but many of the trays I made did not fit the shakers so I have trays that need bodies and bodies that need bigger trays.This will be a good filler. I've also been wanting to make small lidded milk pitchers so they are also on the list.

Today I threw some big two part vases. I haven't done these in a long time but showed my class how to did one a few sessions ago and I liked the way the pots came out so I thought I'd make some. Since they are so tall I'm also going to make some tall candle sticks to fill in the holes. The last new piece I want to try is a darted serving dish. If you've read this months Ceramic Monthly , Gay Smith is featured and she has these wonderful darted bowls in there that I think are new for her. She inspired me to try a new forms so we'll see how it goes.

In "Life" today, I had to go to the dentist..(something I hate more than anything) because I had some cracks in my back teeth that needed to be looked at. She managed to save one of them and put a new filling in but the other will need a $900 crown. Thank goodness we do have insurance that will cover a good bit of that. Boy the cost of teeth care has really shot up! I haven't had a filling in so long ( and the last was a bad experience) that I got some laughing gas to take the edge off. I swear she left me in the room alone with that mask on for 1/2 hour to make sure my whole face was pretty numb. Finally she did come back and worked on my teeth but I the sound of the drill still freaked me out. All I can think about is the act of my tooth being chips away. As I was sitting there thinking about all this I came to the conclusion that when you are a pretty visual person, situations like this just do us in because our imagination runs wild.