Hammer time...... break it down.........

Firing tests and waiting and waiting and waiting........  I usually clean the studio and get ready for round two of testing and glazing but this time I wandered the blog o sphere.  Over at June Perry's blog (Shambhala Pottery) I drool over her dinner's and the dishes she serves on!  Tracey Broom (Tracey Broom Pottery) can make a bowl of humble bean soup look like it belongs on the cover Bon Apetite'  (their awesome sites are linked on the left) 

So I roasted a plank of salmon in the woodstove!  It was yummy and smokey and all the things you want a piece of salmon to taste like, charred ever so nicely.  Now if I could only take pictures!  

Last night I ate dinner alone as MMp was working into the wee hours pouring concrete at the airport.  What mouthwatering dish did I cook up?  Popcorn, sardines, a banana while I watched The Smurfs.  Hot times in Paine Falls!  

Well the kiln is unloaded and here are a few of the tests on the new clay body...... 

gonna be a learning curve........ again.

and this beauty just makes my eyes water........ it's already hammered with chards labeled and tucked away never to be done or seen again!  

and the girls got their coop cleaned....... 

nothing better than fresh straw on a rainy cold day! 

All in all I have one glaze that I'm going to work with.  Tomorrow adjustments will be made, new test batches will be mixed and I will fire again....... mercury is retrograde so I will offer extra wine and flowers to the kiln gods........  

kill me.........

Sitting here waiting for a kiln to cool so I can unload test tiles and see what I will be doing the next two days.  

MMp (Mr. Madpotter) lit out the door at 5:30 a.m. on this lovely Saturday morning telling me he had a big concrete pour and he was late.  Love you, miss you, want you......... SLAM!  Bye Honey..... 

Now I am wide eye awake and isn't even the butt crack of dawn and it's Saturday.  

Made my awesome breakfast of steel cut oats, rye flakes and 1 tablespoon of real maple syrup washed down with hibiscus tea and a handful of herbs (literally!)  Check the chickens, check the kiln, clean the studio, answer the phone, make shopping list.  While outside I noticed the temperature had ticked up.  Whoa!  It was 33 degrees and it felt balmy.  Indeed 5 more degrees and I will break a sweat  and need a Brazilian or just have hot flash and shave one leg (it's all I have time for) 

Keys in hand, shopping bags securely locked under armpit, list clenched in teeth, ready to roll.  God, I hate grocery shopping.  Opened the door to my truck but noticed pulling in the driveway behind the truck....... the little black clown car.  I'm back, short day!  Where ya going?   That's Great, I said!  Make coffee, I'll be back in an hour!  Hey!!!  How 'bout I come with you?  My inside voice is screaming, throwing myself on the driveway and pounding fists on pavement.... no, no, no, no.......   my outside voice said;  Great!  

We shopped.  I never go to the middle of the store I prefer to stay in produce and a very quick trip through anything else I might need like toilet paper!  I have not tried making my own yet. Oh and on another rant.  My feet have been killing me since I started walking so much but figured they should hurt because I had not used them in months.  Alas..... discovered I have plantar warts on the balls of my feet!  I am now checking my armpits for locusts.  I hate this!  and I hate the Dr.!  So I perused the foot care aisle, there is a lot of stuff in the foot care aisle!  I shared space with a little old man tethered to an oxygen tank in the baby seat of his cart.  He smiled and gasped for air.  I want to go to Victoria Secrets and shop for underwear right now!  Instead I spied some stuff in a bottle that promises to burn the little bumps right off in one application.  Whoa!  Times have changed!  Flashing back to when I was a kid being raised by crazy Hungarian people and wolves I had complained about a wart on my pinkie finger.  Never ever complain about anything to short Hungarian old people about anything!  Especially body things!  In Hungarian she said:  Give me your finger!  I did because nobody was faster than my cute little Granny at whacking you upside the head and then while holding your head and crying, she grabbed your finger or toe and yanked a splinter.  I have never been able to match the speed of 5'2" 75 year old Hungarian!  

Ooooo she said;  You have a wart!  Dragging me out to the old Dodge and opening up the hood of the big brown beast she found the battery.  She pulled an eye dropper out of her apron and dropped battery acid on my pinkie wart!  Slapped a canvas bandaid on it and order me to go play.  She did it again the next day and the day after that....... by the third day I asked her to just put my finger in the battery, it would be easier and I had a headache.  

Back at the foot aisle I thought this is clear liquid and for all I know it could be battery acid in a nice blue and yellow package.  Yikes!  It even has cute little oblong post it note thingy (bandaid) that looks like canvas.  $10 and that includes a pumice stone. Battery acid was free!  I am sure I can grind the pumice stone down into powder and use in a glaze recipe at a later date.  

Meanwhile MMp  was drooling at the lunchmeat counter.  Do not bring crap into the house I ordered.  I know but look at this stuff!  He ordered something called antipasta mix for 7.99 a lb.  You know those are just all the icky butt ends off the processed lunch meat and cheese, tossed with italian dressing and pickled peppers thrown in?  Yeah, it's really good.  He tossed it in the cart.  I whisked him away from the hydrogenated fat crackers, potato chips, corn chips and cheese doodles.  He said ....... but I like a snack in the car on the way home.  Fine but let me pick it out!  

We packed our canvas shopping bags, loaded the car, merged into traffic and I got out the surprise snack.  Something I could eat too and can I just say I love these!  Little tiny round rice crackers with a roll of seaweed around the middle.  These are way cuter than chips!   We hit the road and he held out his hand.  I deposited 3 seaweed crackers in the palm of his hand.  He never looks at what he is eating, eyes on the road and he popped one in his mouth.  I watched his face wrinkle up and turn into complete disgust.  WHAT IS THAT?  as he rolled down his window and blew the offending morsel into the street.  Rice cracker with seaweed, it's good for you.  C'mon, you sailed on that stupid boat all summer, doesn't this taste like the lake?  Can't your feel the sea breeze on your face while you're eating that cracker?  Yeah, but I think a seagull pooped on it he retorted!  Shut up and try another one, these are way better than chips!  I couldn't believe it he held out his hand and asked for another.  By the time we got home half the bag was gone......... 

I'm going to the studio........ 

The slog is on.........

February and I really need to see the sun!  Snow, high winds and cold, even the chickens are pissed although due to longer days, egg production is back up!  There are mountains of pots to glaze and not much desire to stick my hand in a cold glaze bucket at the moment.  Another diversion for going to the studio........ design a small wood fired kiln that can double as a pizza oven.

There are only so many seed catalogs one can look through while donning a flannel night shirt and ear muffs in the dark hours of the morning.  And do the fashion police frown on snow mobile boots while wearing this ensemble?  Keeping company with a glowing smoke belching wood stove is great winter company!  I have redesigned the yard for the uncounted time and if I stick with my blue prints this place will look like the gardens at Versailles next summer!  In an effort to see anything green I started sprouting seeds in the kitchen.   Delicious and green......... 

Yesterday morning I found myself on the floor surrounded by glaze books and binders of notes and then....... I flipped out.  Weather permitting I have been logging a good 3-5 miles a day.  I walk fast (well fast for me), in springy lightweight webby shoes meant to be worn by a lithe willowy person on a sunny 70 degree day.  With a pedometer stuffed in my back pocket while muttering, sputtering and sweating I slog the laps.  Sorts out the cobwebs, moves the joints a bit and I feel pretty good.  Walking a one mile loop in the cemetery (really good incentive!) 4-7 times and I am starting to feel a bit Hamster-ish!  

Launching myself off the floor (well hoisting is more like it) I grabbed my boots, tossed on 3 layers of outer and inner wear and headed to my favorite place.  It's was 1 degree when I left with light snow and high winds (22 mph with gusts to 40).  The place I chose to hike is secluded with terrain made for testing the best thigh and calf muscles.  It's also in a hollow;  to get out of the wind...... that did not work as planned.  Pulled into the park and nobody had been there!  YES!  First tracks to be made in fresh snow WHOA!  Thought it would be a quick walk but alas turned into a 4 hour hike.  I came out popcicled but refreshed and ready to glaze!  

It occurred to me an hour into this hike I did not have my phone but instead had lugged in a big camera and several lens.  Thought about that cell phone just about the time I stepped onto, what I thought was solid ground. While walking the ridge line above the river I found myself dangling and snow bound.  Solid ground turned out to be exposed tree roots that had collected last falls leaves and was now a white mound of fluff.  One leg down, one leg on terra firma......... OK get yourself out of this one.  I thanked my potters arms and back muscles and got myself on two feet again.  Camera equipment intact and me too!   And stepped away from the ledge.  

Below is a too long video of the stuff that made me stay out in freezing weather for 4 hours.  (Oh and I am so very thankful for my fat reserves!)  Everything I put in the slideshow is what I am trying to achieve in glazing.  I do believe it's time to start playing with lichen glazes, layers, texture and movement...... again.  It is what we call here;  The Dead of Winter.  Nothing was moving, singing or chirruping, well except me (grunting like an elk being chased by a pack of wolves)  

For now hunkered down and headed back to the studio recharged :)  Happy Trails bloggers! 

Cabin fever anyone?

Falling down the Pho hole........

In the last few days I've had a few phone calls and emails asking the proverbial question:  Are you OK?  No posts on the blog, phone calls or sightings.  So here is the run down for anyone who follows the spastic ebb and flow of this blog.

  

Sometime around December I got a phone from someone requesting stacked Pho bowls.  My inside voice was screaming NO!  No special orders, it's like a weight over my head and an anchor around my feet but I listened intently and thought;  What the hell is PHO?  I love Google!  Promptly ran out to the studio and started making bowls.  Then, I looked up a local restaurant and took myself out for a bowl of PHO.  Where has this stuff been all my life?  I am a confessed soup-a-holic especially in the cold of winter! 

The bowls were HUGE!  

Back to the studio, the original bowls were much too small so let me try again.  They had to stack and they had to fit on 11" shelf.  Two bowls stacked, no problem but there were other things you could serve with PHO so another dish was needed and maybe a small bowl for chopped scallions or whatever.

First attempt:

Liked it, sent it off to my trusted potter friend for a critique.  She wrote back... 

Looks like a bird feeder.  I wrote back....  No, a lantern!  Couldn't get the birdfeeder out of my head and now realized it wasn't working for me.

Attempt 2:  (design does not happen over night!) 

This was a bit too hard to tie down...... back to the wheel.

and back to carving out half moons on the rim of the plate....

Then over the course of a week of fiddling around I remembered playing with Matryoshka dolls as kid.  I couldn't put them down...... they were awesome!  

As I stacked and un-stacked PHO bowls;  I thought, look at all that space, shouldn't there be something else in these stacked bowls?  I started down the PHO hole....... 

First set, even after careful measuring it did not work.... try again.

and again........

and again......

and again....... 

and the shelves kept filling........ 

and then ....... TA-DA!! 

Not a bird feeder, easy tie down which I promise will get easier as soon as I fire these. 

Inside....... 

Dinner for two! 

Two plates, two Pho bowls, two tea bowls, two saki bowls, a pair of chop sticks, two napkins and a condiment bowl.  AND ...... it fits on an 9" shelf!!!  

In this age of mobility and small apartments and trendy tiny houses service for two on handmade ceramic dishes takes up 9 square inches!  

Happy Valentine's Day!!! 

 And not too worry I am glazing this load by the weekend for all those waiting for mugs and decorative pieces.  I once again apologize for the wait...... I've been on another journey and never left the porch. 

Again......

Oh and to be continued on another post:

After 15+ years I took myself to the Dr. and had a gazillion tests run because I felt like the stuff you scraped off the bottom of my shoe.  Good news I wasn't dying and mostly my body was just in default; it was January, my dog died, I was fat (I prefer Phat!) from Christmas cheer, and for the first time in my life my blood pressure was creeping up.  Feeling the gut punch of growing long in the tooth I bucked up, bought a new pair of running shoes, cleaned out the fridge, threw out the coffee pot, no dairy, no bread, started eating handfuls of herbs and supplements, drinking enough hibiscus tea and chlorophyll to float the Queen Mary and trying to figure out time management skills while walking and jogging my 10,000 steps (4.5 miles)!   After 6 weeks of this parade I'm feeling pretty good and the BP is back to normal but I have yet to achieve the willowy lithe look ....... leave me my illusions!