Wednesday, March 27, 2024

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*


Monday, March 11, 2024

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*

Friday, March 1, 2024

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*