And Santas!

It wouldn't be Christmas at Pine Ridge without me making a quantity of little pottery Santas or Santa-like creatures. This year I've done some of these:

I had a few last year, and people liked them so I quickly ran out. Made lots this year! They are pretty small, but you can hang them on your tree or put them on a shelf which needs a little extra Christmas cheer.

They'll be on my table at the HOMEmade For The Holidays sale in Carleton Place next Saturday. November 29, from 10 to 3pm, Carleton Place Arena. No idea where that is.... in Carleton Place somewhere. I expect I'll find it!

Autumn Leaves

One of the things I've been busy with in the Studio has been pottery decorated with autumn leaves. Every fall I get an attack of leaves - they are so gorgeous outside that I have to go in and paint them on pots.  I use a stencil for the outlines of some of the leaves, but all the small details and the other smaller leaves are done freehand with a brush. Here are some serving platters, arranged (not intentionally) to look a bit like an old-fashioned hopscotch game:

"Autumn Leaves' platters

The hardest thing is to arrange the leaves randomly. I want a 'fallen on the ground' sort of look, but it is fatally easy to start to arrange the design elements logically. I have to watch myself!

These platters vary in size from about 8" to about 15". You could use them for any number of things: bread, cake, cookies.... fresh veggies.... a roast surrounded by potatoes and carrots.... a broiled salmon.... oooh, getting hungry.

Speaking of which, I made a couple of large plates with small bowls for veggies and dips. I left the bowl loose, which I think is more flexible and makes it easier to store and to wash the platter, but a nickel says customers will ask for plates with the bowl attached. I'll make a few like that next week, and we'll see which ones sell first.

"Autumn Leaves" Vegetables and Dip platter

Christmas Stars

I also had some fun painting some stars. They make a nifty garland or tree decoration, or just look fun lying on a table between the food dishes.

My first plan had been to give them touches of gold, but I like the white better.

Rustic, that's what they are. Rustic.

Hard At Work

Yes, really. I haven't been posting..... because I've been busy working! Never enough time in the days, or energy in the potter!

One of the things I've been working on, in between other things, is some new bonsai pots. I've just learned that, traditionally, evergreen tree bonsais are planted in unglazed pots. Unfortunately, I don't have to many clays available in my firing range (cone 6, oxidation) that are really attractive without glaze. These are OK:

Next week I'm going to get a couple of boxes of black clay and see how that goes. One thing I love about making pots - always something new to try. Well, most days I love it. Other days, I wish I could just do the things I know how to do.....

Over the next few days, I'll post some pictures of the other things I've been working on.

Knitting Bowls

Speaking of knitting, which we weren't, I've made some yarn bowls. Tomorrow is Alpaca Day at the Carp Farmers' Market and I thought some yarn bowls would be appropriate. Since I can't draw an alpaca to save my life, I finished them in plain colours although I did do a few with my cartoon sheep design.

This one is a left-handed yarn bowl, for the left-handed knitter. (All the rest are right-handers.) If the bowl is sitting on the floor beside the knitter, the yarn is pulled upwards and to the side, so the slot or loop has to be on the correct side. Other than that, I wasn't too sure of the size, so I made some Pair-of-Socks size, some in Hat-and-scarf size and some in Cozy-Sweater size.

Since I'm currently knitting myself a narrow scarf, I think I'll just go and test one of them!

Of Honey Pots and Bees

I have just finished painting 283 bees.

No, I didn't catch 283 fuzzy buzzy things and daub them with CIL Interior Latex in Lagoon Blue. Although the bumbles might look nice with a little touch of blue on their tummies....

It's Honey Day at the Carp Farmers' Market this Saturday and I got a little carried away making things decorated with bees to jazz up my booth. I made a few honey pots (not many, I didn't have much time), but then I went on and made some hangtags:

 And some bookmarks:

Here are a few of the honey pots, before they got dipped in clear glaze. I have them in the kiln right now, hopefully to be ready in time for Saturday. There are also some square coasters and some round trivets. I throw my trivets, by the way. When I tried to make them from slabs they kept coming out slightly oval, due to the clay being stretched by the slab rolling, so now I just throw them. Easiest thing there is to throw!

And then I went on to paint a bear sitting watching a bee.... then strolling over to see the source of the bees.... then leaping off the page with a swarm of angry buzzers after him. But you'll either have to imagine that, or come to the Market on Saturday!

Meanwhile, hum along with me: 'Oh, the honey bees are buzzing....'

It's the Berries, Dahling....

Berry bowls, that is. I'm kind of late this year, but I will have berry bowls for my booth at the Carp Market this weekend.

Always hard to know what size to make them. This is true of a lot of pottery items - which is why I joke that I make things in two sizes, too big and too small. Mugs, for example. No matter what size they are, someone will come by, pick up a mug, heft it to check the size, and ask me if I don't make one a little bit bigger.... or a little bit smaller. Sometimes I think it is just a variation on the old 'I am not buying this but it is your fault' game, but usually I remember that every person is different, every cook serves food for a different family and variety is the spice of life, yada yada.

Berries bowls, however, are kind of tricky. I know, myself, I like a larger bowl for serving strawberries than for serving blueberries. Mind you, the last time I served raspberries they came in one of those small paper fiber boxes, and I just handed my husband the box. He didn't comment, just ate the raspberries. Good husband.

The bowls I've been making take 2 lbs of clay (900 grams if you're metric) for the top and 1.25 lbs (600 grams) for the base. I trim the bases of the bowls flat, then attach a thin coil and throw the foot. The tricky bit is making sure the bowls are soft enough to trim, but stiff enough to allow me to centre the coil on to it. Then I let them stiffen upside down for a bit before turning them right side up and cutting the holes.

In case you're wondering, it's a real peeve-off to find you've cut the holes off-centre. I know this for a fact.

Here is a shot of one of the bowls with a jug left over from last year:

Berry bowls are great gifts: they don't have to match the kitchen! And nobody already has one!

Hmmmm, think I'll have strawberries for breakfast...

Raven, the Trouble Maker

 I see I haven't posted for a while.... well, blame Raven.

I started doing some designs with a large black Raven on them a couple of years ago. It was Hallowe'en that led to that, really. My booth at the Market was looking pretty skinny (it was the last week of the season) and I wanted something black and white so I painted some large bowls with Ravens on them. I liked them, and painting free-hand was fun. Painting large black thugs was therapeutic!

What I hadn't expected was that people would like them.

So I did some more, and then some more and then some mugs and one thing led to another until this spring I foolishly applied to be included in my local Arts Society's group show at the Foyer Gallery. This was totally uncharacteristic for me. I dislike competitions and know I never do good work when I am under pressure, so why I did this I don't know. Probably I didn't expect to get in so it didn't matter.

But I did. So I figured, well, OK, lots of time, I don't need these pieces until July 14th. Then I found out the theme for the show was to be 'Summertime and the Living is Easy', which didn't exactly help. I couldn't really paint Ravens hoisting cans of beer or b-b-q-ing or sitting by the pool, so what was I going to do?  I had the awful thought that I'd have to make Raven look happy. A happy Raven would definitely not be up to anything good.

So then I was told to submit pictures of the finished work by June 25th. Right in the middle of a Serious Project (Serious Projects are the kind that make money) and during the busiest time in the garden and while various Home Systems were falling apart, I had to stop and work on Raven instead. This is another way Raven causes trouble.

Making the pieces was no big deal. I decided to make some shallow bowls like before, some small plates and some mugs. I only needed 4 pieces for the Gallery so I figured the rest would be for sale. Then I started to paint..... and Raven just did not co-operate. Some looked like kind cheerful souls, quite the wrong 'look'. Others were limp.... or plain boring.... Raven causing trouble again.

Of course I ran out of black and my favourite large brush disintegrated and I couldn't figure out how to show mist in the distance. Just more Raven trouble.

But I got them done, and photographed. Here is one of the designs, which I'm calling Woods Edge Summer.

Whew, met the deadline, now I can relax.

Until Raven's next trick.