Merry Christmas!

.....'twas the night before Christmas, and all the orders were done, all the clay was put away, the kilns were standing ready....

... a branch of green lay on the table, wafting scents of balsam and fir around the Studio....

... stars twinkled in the cold sky outside....

... eggnog and cookies were abroad in the House....

and the Tomtes came out to play:

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

'Leaves' Design

Here is the picture I promised of the pottery with the leaves:

Not a very good picture, but you get the idea.

The basic leaves are stenciled, then the details are added with brushwork. The only hard part is making the design random!

Gopher Guts?

It being Friday, which is no reason for anything, I decided to have a catch-up/clean-up day. I've been very busy getting things ready for my pottery sale, fireGifts, for quite a while now, and frankly, the local environment is a little the worse for wear.

In the Studio: pots in every stage on every possible horizontal surface. Drifts of dog fur under the tables. A couple of butter dishes still drying, they weren't dry enough to go into the last bisque load. The porcelain clay can go in a bit damp and never causes trouble, but the buff stoneware, if it has the least bit of moisture in it, kabloooie. They'll have to go in the small kiln tonight. Decorated ware with leaves design ready for the glaze kiln...... bisque waiting to be dipped in white glaze and similarly 'improved', finished pots waiting to have the bottoms seen to and then be packed. The only clear spots are the wheel heads.

In the office: little scrips of paper all over with maybe important info on them. I have an awful habit of scribbling important stuff on little scratches of paper (envelopes, shopping lists, receipts, bits of newspaper, all are apt to be pressed into unaccustomed service) and then losing them. Also invoices, paid and otherwise, drafts of ads for fireGifts, recorder music I am supposed to scan and re-size to fit on one page, a whole pile of pottery ideas...... and tiny dried-up leaves all over from the hanging plant I evicted the other day. Dead. Could be I didn't water it....

And the house itself, well, the less said the better. Let's just say, we've been having meals, sleeping comfortably is possible, and all residents are warm and dry. But now I have guests coming maybe on Sunday so action is required. Urgently.

Before I get started vacuuming, here is a collage of autumn leaves:

No, I haven't gone completely wahooo.... and you have not accidentally fallen into a photography blog, there is a connection. My latest pots have leaves stenciled and painted on. I'll try to get a photo to post when they come out of the kiln. Unless they are all awful, in which case I'll have to, well, I don't know what, take up knitting maybe.

Better get vacuuming. Now I'm humming the old silly thing my daughter used to sing: Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts. (She was about 6 at the time.) Hmm. Certainly suits the state of this place. Now, don't tell me I am going squirrely. It is too late.

fireGifts, by the way, is going to be terrific! Some 30 artists, mostly potters but two glass workers, all getting masses of new work ready. We open next Friday at 4pm. I'm not nervous! Oh, no, I'm quite confident, except when I'm shaking in my boots....  The ads in the papers look good, I've had several phone calls from people who have seen them.... everything on my to-do list is done except buying duct tape.... what can go wrong......

Nothing. Great Green Gobs......

My Wonderful, Ugly, Rubber Boots

Once upon a time, in a land not at all far away, there lived a young girl who suddenly, after many years of being home-schooled, had to go to a Real School. She was fairly neutral about this, having long ago learned that adults were prone to unfathomable behavior and her energies were better spent on other matters such as insect collecting, sketching, and keeping a sharp eye on small brothers.

All went well until the weather, as weather does in this land-not-far-away, especially the Northern reaches of it, turned cold and snowy and it transpired that Senior Parent did not intend to purchase attractive boots for her to wear to this Real School. Her dreams of lovely, taffeta-textured boots with shiny buttons and fur trim were cruelly dashed. SP actually expected her to wear, gasp, horror of horrors, rubber boots. The awful farm kind, black with red rubber soles. SP pointed out that many kids wore rubber boots to school. Our heroine pointed out that they were all boys. Talks failed. Negotiations failed. Diplomacy failed. Relations became strained.  An atmosphere of great chilliness developed.

She decided to wear her old canvas sneakers to the bus, a matter of a two kilometer trek twice a day.

It rained. She wore her canvas sneakers.

It snowed. She wore her canvas sneakers.

Further chilliness developed, and not in the atmosphere. SP figured she was having a Learning Experience.

She was. But what she learned was that, if it is wet, then it isn't all that cold, and if it is not wet, then canvas sneakers with two pairs of wool socks are no colder than rubber boots.

Yes, of course, this young heroine was me, and I still well remember changing out of those cold wet dirty sneakers in the school bus. It was years later that I finally began to appreciate rubber boots. I was getting interested in hiking and gardening and needed something to keep my feet dry..... Now I love my rubber boots!

My wonderful, ugly, rubber boots! (I got a new pair yesterday!)

Bonsai Pot

Ok, here it is:

Ugly, huh? Not really! The glaze didn't come out as interesting as I had hoped, but I'm quite happy that it didn't crack or otherwise embarrass me. I was trying to make something that would look like a rock, and I think it does.

All you have to do is imagine it filled with soil, lightly mounded up and mossy, with a wild and windswept tree growing in it......

The other stuff in the kiln was berry bowls. I'm pleased with the strawberries:

And the blueberries aren't too bad:

 

Maybe a little too organized.... but blueberries sprinkled around just look like dots. Hmmmm, dots are easy to paint.....

Joy of Pets

I love my dog. Really. He's a great companion and a fine early warning system. He alerts me to bears raiding the bird feeders and Hydro meter readers requesting permission to come aboard. He lets customers' little children pat him on the head and charms their parents. He adds adventure to our walks by inventing new ways to pass me on the trail without knocking me over by running full tilt into the backs of my knees..... but why, oh why, does he have to roll in things?

Dead things, that is.

And I love my cat too, sort of. Her nickname is Hellcat so you can see why I'm a bit ambivalent here, but really I'm pretty attached to her. She's the aloof kind, so it pleases me that she seems to like me, too. Sometimes when I feel a bit dented by some experience or other, usually involving people, I think, "Well, at least my cat likes me" and it helps. But does she have to drag things into the Studio?

Alive things, that is.

So this afternoon I chased an angry chipmunk all around the Studio until it finally leapt out through the window and escaped. Never mind the screen, it had a hole in it anyway.

Than I washed Kip with soap and the garden hose. Took half an hour and he's not coming in until he's dry.

After that I got out a really weird glaze I have and sloshed it all over a bonsai pot I have been working on. This glaze (and I have no idea what is in it, it's been around the Studio for years and there is only a small bucketful left) fires up a mottled grey/green/blue. Really. But it has to go on unevenly or else you just get plain grey. I brushed it on with a house-painting brush! Nice and blotchy. It'll go in the kiln tomorrow and come out Friday, and I promise, no matter how bad it is, I'll post a picture.

Dead or alive..

Oops....

Don't anybody tell Workmen's Comp, but there was a little industrial accident in the Studio this morning.

I was happily throwing Utensil Jars, the "don't you have anything smaller" size, and was cutting the almost last one off the wheel when, somehow, my knuckles got down on the surface of the plastic bat and the hole in the bat cut the skin right off my knuckle. Since I wire stuff off with the wheel spinning at a good clip, the second hole immediately followed and took the skin off the next knuckle. Oww.

I finished the Jars with gritted teeth and am now sporting a nice new pair of band-aids.

Not a major accident, but it reminds me how easily we can damage ourselves. Just when you think you know what you're doing something gets you. I've used those bats for years (and never liked the ones with the holes, I prefer the other type which has depressions underneath to catch the bat pins) and have always cut the pots off with the wheel spinning and this is the first time I've done this. I did once cut a finger by holding the wire too tightly but that was just me - I was too stubborn to let go because I didn't want to ruin the pot. Don't remember that pot now though, just remember the cut.

And that "don't you have anything smaller" size? Well, everything I make comes in two sizes: too small and too big. So these, which will be about 9" high and 6-8" across the opening when done, will be the 'too large' size. I had fun because I made 6 different shapes and didn't worry too much about the exact size. People tend to buy only one, so it's exact size isn't critical. Besides, they're all going to be too big (or too small) anyway.

We will now have a short pause in throwing activity while the knuckles recover.