Butterfish Update

 Painting another mini butter dish.  My glaze is Spectrum #251 Satin White.  I love the way it looks when fired but it’s a real bitch to work on.  Does not absorb color and smears easily.  I’ve been experimenting with adding bit of using paste (g.b. And frit #3124)) along with a drop of glycerine  to make things more workable.  I am also waxing areas as I finish them.  The body is waxed; the striped head is not, but will be soon when color are dry. 

 I am also trying out a gray instead of black to outline and define everything. I mixed this one with stains, neutral and charcoal, with paste and a dollop of Spectrum low-fire base underglaze.  It’s making me quite nervous, which is probably a good thing.  Nothing like exploring new methods to keep me on my toes.

In other news…celebrated my eighty-first birthday on the twelfth……the same day my fix-it guys called to tell me that the car will need a new head gasket! GAAAAH!!  And here I was concerned that it might need a new radiator, if only! 

We are finally into sunny warmer weather.  Daffodils are in bloom, columbine is coming along nicely and violets of many varieties are starting to flower.  I may actually get out to do a bit of work.   We’ll see, grasshopper….we’ll see.

Speaking of grasshoppers remembering one of my all time favorite potters, Ronin Hopper, who’s birthday is today.  And who can forget Will, the Bard of Avon himself?

As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by…………*s*

Anudda Budda!

 This is the base of the butter dish in my last post.  Glazed in Spectrum #252, Satin White, three thin coats brushed on.  This glaze lifts when brushing colors.  I sprayed it with hair spray which helps. Waxed and waiting for the wax to dry before I proceed.

I've been having fun with these mini butter dishes.  I'm trying to use a looser brush style. 

Watched the eclipse reflected in the fish pond.  I took some pictures; they didn't come out very well.  It didn't get all that dark here, but it was noticeably cooler and the fish all clustered in the middle of the water.  We were fortunate to have a sunny day.

Driving home from Hope Valley on Friday the temp indicator suddenly went bonkers up to the top of the gauge.  Leak somewhere. Had it towed yesterday down to our very reliable fix-it guys.  Toes crossed it won't cost an arm and a leg to get it going.  It's always sumthin'!

Toes crossed that the weather has finally changed and that we will see some real spring.  Only a few more weeks until I move plants out to the deck.  Clean-up is in progress!

As always stay safe. and thanks for stopping by.................*s*

More Butter

 Here is another mini butter dish pinched from terra cotta clay.  It still needs a bit of sponge work on the surface.  It will be glazed, decorated and single fired at ^05

I recently have become a bit more active on Instagram where I am @suzicaswellmjolica.   I have done a few posts but my activity increased due to manatees and elephants……and pandas.  All places for finding joy.

As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by…………….*s*

Butter Dish

 I've been seeing various butter dishes here there and everywhere.  Charlie Cummings Gallery even had a show all about butter dishes.  Who  knew?

This is inspired by various ideas. I like to keep butter out.  My kitchen is fairly cool so it's no problem..... until summer arrives.  So I thought, little dishes to hold what will be used in one day.  This one will probably hold about a third of a stick.  It's a single fire so I will have to wait and see, grasshopper, until after single firing. 

It's all pinched, with a slab plate. I love the notion of decorating inside and out.  Any surface is fair game!  The glaze is my favorite Spectrum #799 Majolica White.  Mason stains are mixed with frit #3124, most fifty/fifty.  I have been using a black underglaze with a black Mason stain #6650 added.  I also experimented with added some wax to the stain. Makes for a nicely brushable medium, and. it doesn't smear.  The colors are a bit strange due to wax resist.

I haven't tried anything new (to me) since Covid started so this feels like a new leaf, or fish as the case may be.

I watched the final of The Great Pottery Throwdown after the Oscars.  Delighted by Donna's win.  But all three chandeliers were pretty amazing. I loved seeing the different ways each approached the problem and the way personal stories came through.  I have always had a soft spot for Donna, but this one was really close.  Well done all!

Here in the USA it watch for free on <HDClump.com>

My soft spot for Donna is because I did sort of the same thing.  I did pottery for about six months, loved it but stopped due my personal life. (funny thing, through all my wanderings I always kept that first pot.)  Twenty years later I went back because the prof. I wanted to study with to finish my BFA was on sabbatical.  Sat down at the wheel and muscle memory took over as I centered and threw a pot.  And proceeded to question why I stopped. Almost forty years ago now and I haven't stopped yet! 

BRAVO DONNA!!!

BTW four years ago today Covid was declared a pandemic.  I was in the hospital when the whole masking thing began.  I still have not had Covid.......toes and fingers crossed.  I keep up with boosters and still mask when I go into stores.  The one time I didn't was at a Christmas party where I promptly caught a massive cold which I promptly passed on to Proge.  Sometimes you're the bug; sometimes the windshield!

Did anyone watch the Oscars?  I recorded it and started watching so I could fast forward through the ads.  I watch so little commercial tv these days that the ad are a surprise.  Cillian Murphy totally deserved his win but sentimentally I would have loved Paul Giametti to win.  (Just rewatched John Adams on HBO.)  I was pleased that Mr. Miazaki won for the Boy and the Heron.  I found myself in tears when War Is Over won for best animated short.  So much history and love there.  I was massively disappointed in the In Memorium section.  

Enough of the rant, grasshopper........

As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.................*s*

March Hares

Hares and Rabbits

Well!  March is here, the days are longer, daffodils are poking their leaves up.

That doesn't mean we couldn't have a raging blizzard next week.....this is New England after all!

As always, stay healthy, and thanks for stopping by................*s*

 

 

Baking Bread

Well! My sourdough starter bit the dust which means starting over.  Before anyone offers advice on reconstituting, it was moldy as a result of a refrigerator melt down.  (Yes at some point we will need a new one.  Meanwhile the old one is limping along.)

I have been doing yeasted bread which is different but equally delicious.  This is an oatmeal loaf.  I used a cup of Bob' Red Mill thick cut oats which sat in two cups of boiling water until cool.  I added a bit more water when I started the actual loaf.

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 It is delicious.  As a Type 2 diabetic I don't eat a lot of bread so when I do I want it to be tasty.  

I rarely use a written recipe these days.  I do write down what I am doing if I am experimenting.

And happier days have the sun shining through my bedroom windows when it rises.  It's a small joy, which I have been thinking about a lot.  Yes, there is always gratitude to practice.  But there is a great deal to be said for finding small joys in our daily live.  Perhaps I will do a longer post on this.

As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.............*S*

Interesting Times

This is something I thought only occurred when aloes lived in sunny, warm climes.  Yes, that is a bud stalk.  I just noticed it his morning since it grew tall enough to reach above the plant itself.  This may be the original plant that my sister gave me when she moved to Florida.  Or it may be one that I rooted from the original plant.  Either way I find it fascinating that there might actually be flowers.  Wish I knew what I did to achieve it.  Possibly the warm wet summer followed by El Niño winter.  We have had cold weather but not a deep freeze winter.  I still have green petunias.

Our Christmas was quiet but well celebrated.  We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.  On Christmas Day we went to a gathering of friends and Proge’s relations.  Since it was fairly small and I knew everyone I decided to forego a mask.  BIG MISTAKE!!!  I caught a killer cold which I passed on to Proge within a few days.  Better now.  But I am such a baby!  I haven’t had a cold or any sickness in six or seven years..

I had to relight the tree.  I used old lights, which went out a few days ago.  Sometimes my hoarding pays off.  I just opened new boxes I bought last year on sale.

Rain…..lots of rain, with flooding in low lying areas.  Our dug well has been flooding, which usually happens with late spring rains.  We are madly doing catching up on laundry and washing whatever needs washing.  Too bad it is much too early to top off the pool for spring opening.

We started out with a lovely sunny day.  Wind is picking up and clouds moving in.  Who knows what will come?  This is New England.....weather changes!

As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.................*s*