Wonderful Wednesday!

I keep forgetting to post!  The summer weather has seduced me!  I thought I would work backward after doing a Wordless Wednesday post and realizing I never posted anything else!

TEAPOT TUESDAY

I found this teapot during the general clean up; I have been slowly but surely making inroads on my studio.  It's the first of the 'bottle pots' I did. I throw these as narrow necked bottles; turn them on their sidess and cut a lid opening.

I kept it because there is so much wrong with it.  The lid is probably the worst.  That great bulbous lump does nothing to add to the design.  It needs a handle that echoes the teapot handle and carries the eye across the top of the pot.  The handle is okay but looks too much like a heart.  It needs to be more upright with, perhaps, three loops.  I'm not sure about the foot; I think it needs some of the seaweed to flow down onto it.

The long spout helps give it the Aladdin Lamp quality I was aiming for.  Believe it or not this actually pours quite nicely.  The bottom of the spout needs to fit to the pot without the visual break.

The seaweed and little fish work with the form of the pot. I would like the seaweed to move down onto the foot a bit.  The big fish are simply superfluous.   If some is good, more is better is not always the answer!

I did make several teapots that addressed these problems, but I sold them.  I was doing these many years ago, around 1997, long before digital photography.  I may have photographed them, but I lost many or most of my photos when a broken window during a hurricane did them in.

MAJOLICA MONDAY

This is by Linda Arbuckle and is just about my all time favorite piece of majolica.  I love the way she decorates all her surfaces.  It's hard to see in this picture but the exterior painting moves into the interior.

It's a delightful surprise to have the decoration on the interior bottom.  Linda even decorates the bottoms of her pots where she signs them.  The feet raise this bowl about a centimeter or so.  Because majolica glazes are so stable there is no problem with glaze sticking the pot to a kiln shelf!

LAST: MY FIRST ROSE OF SUMMER!

Between our terrible winter, sodden spring, and deer sneaking into the garden, (It looked like they sat on it!) I thought my poor rose bush was done in.  I did a lot of coddling and it seems to have pulled through.  In addition to this bloom I have one bud half out and several more forming.  Is the secret to growing roses to encourage the deer to sit on them?

The sun had risen a little too high when I shot this.  I get much better outdoor results in the early morning or evening when the sun is setting.

We are enjoying real summer weather, I hope everyone else is too......or at least not being rained, snowed, or hailed on.

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