FRANKENSTORM??!!!

At 11:07 AM we are on the very edge of the storm. There is gusty wind and a little rain, which should start kin ernest in the next hour or so.  Most of the state is pretty much shut down and coastal area evacuated.

I've been working on the plants I brought into the sun room....arranging and re arranging.  The Christmas cacti have set their buds.  It looks like at least some of them will be Thanksgiving cacti.

I hope everybody in the path of Sandy is taking the proper precautions and staying off the streets.

Take care, and as always.......thanks for stopping by.....*s*

Sandy?

Sandy's coming, hide your stuff folks......ummmm.....maybe....

The cold night last week scared all the color out of the heavenly blue morning glories.  I stuck a few unfrozen buds in some water and this is what resulted.....strange but beautiful, almost like miniature moon flowers.

Winter is trying out her new coat.  It's a little big but she seems to be comfortable in it.  The next one should fit better now that I know what I'm doing!

I took it yesterday while we were cleaning up the yard.  We are pretty much done.  Things are put away.  The chain saws are gassed.  We have plenty of oil for the Aladdin lamps.  Water is in buckets.  All this is just in case for a storm that is probably not going to be much of a problem.  The people along the coast should be a bit more careful as there probably will a storm surge.  We are on top of a hill so unless there is an end-of-the-world surge we will not have a problem with flooding.

Winter and Aloysius are representing the animals attitude.  Sleep through any storms or anything for that matter.

Be careful but not hysterical.

As always, thanks for stopping by................*s*

Santa Daze

I'm making Santas again.  These little guys are glazed but not fired.  The faces have clear glaze on them; details will come out after firing.  The glaze is Speedball red with Spectrum Satin 200 series clear, white and black.  I've found that I can use Amaco, Spectrum, and Speedball commercial glazes on unfired clay, thus saving time and money.

I have finally accepted in some part of me that there are no cheap Santas!  I can do mice and pigs and penguins easily and quickly. but Santas are time consuming.  I think it's a case of finding the right location to market them.  

After all the health hassles I have gone through since I retired, I am finally feeling mentally and physically excited about getting back into selling beyond the small from studio sales I have done lately. BTW, my health problems have not been major or life threatening.....more of nuisance factors which have slowed my life down.

This is the top of my favorite beech tree.  I love the way the sun hits it in the early morning.  It may be the last of what fall color we have had as we are supposedly getting A BIG STORM at the beginning of the week....hurricane, snowstorm and northern blast of cold....it's FRANKENSTORM!   Oh Please! Yes we will prepare for the worst, but it's also time to clean up the yard for winter; work that has to be done anyway.  Any rain will be welcome; wells are beginning to have problems here on top of the hill.

I'm sorry if I sound a bit cynical about this, but I can't help feeling that there is just a bit of disaster porn going on here.  You would think we had never had a storm before.

It's supposed to be nice through tomorrow.....good outdoor weather.  It never hurts to prepare.

This will also be posted at Mud Colony.  Jump over and see what is going on.  More posts every week.  What do they call hurricanes Down Under?

Enjoy the week end and as always.............thanks for stopping by............*s*

Wordless Wednesday

Transformations

These little bulb shapes can be made into many little animal whistles.  When I was first learning to make whistles my mentor/teacher/dear friend, Nancy, hand built all of hers.  I wanted my whistles to be informed by, but not indistinguishable from hers.  Thus I came up with the idea of a thrown form I could use in a variety of ways.

I turn the cones on their side for the fish and pig.  The penguin and mouse are trimmed and have wings, ears, noses, beaks added.

I'm trying an elephant, a hippo, a rhino next.  We'll see, Grasshopper.......we'll see......

There seemed to be some confusions about the house on Wordless Wednesday.  I showed all four sides of one building.  I'm contemplating more.

We covered the pond with the leaf net last week end.  Just in time too!  The first year we just put it on the water surface....BIG MISTAKE!  We spent the winter watching it slowly sink under the weight of wet leaves.  A mess to get out in the spring.  Now we use s few saplings to make a frame to put the net over.

The fish are still swimming.  It's easy to mistake them for leaves on top of the net if we just glance at them.

The frogs like to sit on top of the net.  Sometimes they sit on on the frame and sometimes on the net itself.  Different strokes for different frogs.  They don't seem to have any trouble getting out from under the net or getting back in.

HEY GARY!  GODZILLA IS IN THE GARDEN!

I stuck the Godzilla head is a flower pot to keep it from underfoot.  Last week these violas, which must have reseeded from the spring, started blooming.  There's no reason a monster shouldn't enjoy the flowers!

The sun is coming out after a night of heavy rain.....hope your week end is sunny or rainy depending on what you need.

This post can also be found over on Mud Colony.  Take a look and see who is there this week.

As always thanks for stopping by............*s*

Wordless Wednesday

Little Nemo

Has everyone  GOOGLED  today?  If you haven't; you should, for the fun of the doodle.

Below is a group of whistles from the last firing......gossipers all!

Clouds with rain coming, but warm.  It's a good day for mostly inside stuff.

Stay out of trouble....or if you can't at least let it be fun trouble.

As always, thanks for stopping by............*s*

WHY NOT?

Visit Whynot Pottery HERE......they are celebrating thirty years of potting at their studio in...you guessed it....in Why Not, NC.

Below is the sweet little pot Meredith sent when I was the first to respond to her blog post.  A photograph cannot capture the depth and vibrancy of the glaze.  I love the sense of scale...it's a big little pot.

A Little Pot from Whynot 

Goldfish in the pond inspired the goldfish whistles.  They are still swimming in their little school.  The water is warmer than the air this morning.  All these little guys whistle.  I am thinking of using paper clay to make them as Christmas ornaments.  I hang my favorite ornaments year round from plants; perhaps others would do the same.

The balloon pitcher came through nicely and even pours!  I need to do a lot more work on the design, especially the feet.  I just stuck them on; they need to be incorporated into the body of the pot.  I'm not even going to show the interior.  When I was started sewing one of the things I learned was that the inside of the garment should be as finished as the outside.  The same is true of pots.  Of course with pottery we are making vessels so the interior has to be functional, and not have lethal bits of clay to cause injury to the user, but it needs to be pleasing too.

It was cold this morning, but not the killing frost that was predicted for most of the area.  I think it was 30 at 5:30 AM.  We finished getting the plants in yesterday afternoon.  I covered the outdoor dahlias because they are blooming and pretty.  I think it was down in the mid 20's in other parts of New England.  BRRRRR!!!

It's warming up.  Rain is coming, which is not a bad thing.  Meanwhile we have beautiful, clear skies with bright sun.  The sun is shining into my studio.  This afternoon we will do more work outside.  There is always something to do.

Winter is doing her deer chasing job.  As soon as she goes out on the deck or her run they run away to the other side of the stone wall.  There's plenty of stuff to eat in the woods, so she is not causing any great deer deprivations.

Enjoy the weekend.  If you are having a sale or doing a show may you have sunny skies and sell many pots.

This post is also on Mud Colony and Artists in Blogland.  Take a peek...there's always something new to see.

As always, thanks for stopping by................*s*

Wordless Wednesday

Tuesday

THIS is why I don't refire footed plates.   They crack in an almost perfect circle around the rim.  It seems to be the stress of cooling.  This plate was warm when I started the kiln.  The kiln cooled slowly.  The pots were warm to the touch, but it split as soon as I picked it up.  I assume this particular style of plate simply can't withstand the stress of a third firing.  Sometimes they crack in the firing.  Which only goes to show that it's only worth it to refire as an experiment.

It's interesting that coupe plates refire with no problems at all.  Clocks, on the other hand, crack into one, two or more pieces.  Some things are and will remain a mystery.

I am reasonably happy with the way the design came through.  After I smooth it off it will make a good trivet.

The rest of the firing gave me pretty good results.  I'll post more of them when I take more photos.

Below is the little version I made of my auto, Red Rabbit, last Christmas.  It kept getting pushed to the back of the shelves and neglected.  I remembered it this time because after a tune-up my car passed inspection with no problem.  Considering how well it's running now I have a feeling it's needed a tune-up for a while.

Much as I try to deny it the weather is definitely getting cooler....it's down and dirty time.  We're installing the wonderboard for the stove we are moving upstairs to replace the worn out Franklin stove.  Stoves are heavy and not fun to move around.

I would reeeeellllly like it if we could get the inside of the house looking half as good as the outside looks.  The cobbler's children go barefoot!

As always thanks for stopping by..............*s*

Firing

This is the top shelf of my kiln.  It's not really apparent in the photo but the top four inches is a blank ring.  As long as I have at least one round of elements above the shelf it goes up to temp.  I will put a half shelf over the area with glazed ware to help keep the heat in.

The plate is a refire.  I was extremely unhappy with the way it fired originally...too many crawls and thin spots.  I filled in all the bare and thin spots with glaze and repainted the areas where needed.  I use a thick mix of paste (gerstley borate and frit 3124) with mason stain.  Of course, it being a plate, it's entirely possible that I will open the kiln to find it has massive cracks or even in two pieces.  If this were part of a set for sale I would not even think of refiring it.

We'll see, Grasshopper......we'll see.............

We put the leaf mesh on the pond yesterday.  It's easy to open on one edge to feed the fish who are still actively swimming around.  The six black fish become almost impossible to see.

The trees aren't really changing yet.  Some of the swamp maples are changing, but it hasn't been cold enough to get real color.  We often don't get a lot until late October.  There is more color down along the river a couple of miles away.  Perhaps I'll remember to put my camera in the car.  Yeah!

It rained off and on all night and early this morning.  Now we have sun with high thin clouds.  More cool weather is on the way.

It will probably warm up enough this afternoon to get stuff done.  I'm bringing in my more fragile plants today.

Right now I'm off get the papers and do a little marketing.  Enjoy the day and tomorrow, Columbus day.  I think RI is the only state that celebrates it as a legal holiday!

As always......thanks for stopping by...............*s*

Some Say The World Will

END IN FIRE.....

But for potters fire is the end that results in something new and unique.  So our worlds do not end in fire, but rather are a step along a sometimes tortuous path to finishing.  

As you may have guessed, I am getting ready to fire the kiln.  I was going to fire tonight, but it's supposed to be in the mid seventies all week end.  Sun but in the fifties by Monday so I think I'll wait.

A dragon and toes crossed to insure that all goes well.

Meanwhile we are going to put the leaf mesh on the pond, plant a few more day lilies and bulbs.  Sunday, which predicts rain I am going to be cleaning out the back storage area so the electrician and kiln repair guys can help me figure out how to get Little Sister ( 3 1/2 cu. ft. kiln) up and running again.

May all of you who are doing shows, open studios etc. have happy, profitable week ends, and everyone else.....ENJOY AUTUMN!

This post is also over at Mud Colony.  If you follow the link you will find many interesting potters there.

As always, thanks for stopping by..............*s*

Wordless Wednesday

Because a picture is worth a thousand..............

Bag O' Cat

Talkative Tuesday and..........

OTHER STUFF

More rain today.......a good day for working inside....glazing and kiln loading.

I've decided that if there is Wordless Wednesday, why not Talkative Tuesday?

I am not happy about a response I received a few days ago to a Wordless Wednesday I did a few weeks ago.  The name on the reply was Aria Zoesch.  When I hit her name all I got was a blank page form saying this person had nothing to share with me.  Alarm bells started ringing so I googled the name.  Numerous bloggers have received the word for word exact same posting over the summer.  I cannot believe this is a legitimate or even real person.  Next will be offers from princes in Nigeria offering to give me untold amounts of money for access to bank accounts and a small fee.  Have I mentioned that I have several bridges for sale in this area?

I am almost certain this happened because I have been linking to the Wordless Wednesday site.  I am going to continue Wordless Wednesday because I like the idea of an image standing on it's own for others to connect with in their own way.  However I am no longer going to link with the site and have taken down my link to it.

Hey!  Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.

On a happier note I have been experimenting with making more goblets.  I have no idea where this is going.  Sometimes ideas take months or even years to mature.  I may end up with them on a shelf where I can look at them.  This is one of the cool things about making stuff.  It sort of ferments in the dark parts of my brain and eventually comes to the surface.

I have been cleaning my studio.  Not too bad since I did major sorting last July.  And getting the sun room shelves ready for plants to come inside.  And getting the wonderboard put up for the stove we are bringing upstairs. (The tiles will have to go in next year, as I am still making them.)  And recycling clay so I don't have to do it in the dead of winter........you get the idea.  Fall is a busy time!

Staying busy...staying out of trouble.

As always, thanks for stopping by............*s*