Another Week

Still cleaning up past work and rearranging my studio so I will be able to survive a winter there, if it doesn't go on forever!  Meanwhile we have had sunny days and no rain; although we did have about one-half inch last night.  It wasn't enough to do much for the water table but it did give the garden a nice bath and refreshed the plants.  Ponds and rivers are lower than they have been for years, but all we can do it wait and conserve water where we can.

Below are two more pufferfish whistles.  I am having fun painting all the unglazed stuff I have found.  I keep thinking that it's tons of stuff.  In reality it's no more than two kiln shelves.  I'm using stuff I had set aside for one reason or another for glaze experiments and tests.  Gosh at some point I may have to make more test bowls!

We are definitely entering autumn weather with warm days and cool nights.  I am hoping that the dahlias that I put in so late will have time to bloom.  They are budding up nicely.  Woody is still around, my he does love a tasty petunia.  I've moved the pots up close to the house for their own good.

Proge's father has a woodchuck that only eats the weeds in their garden.  If they figure out how to get others to be so discriminating they will be in the money!

Enjoy the coming week.  As always, thanks for stopping by..........*s*

Teapot Tuesday

I made this one last winter when I was thinking of doing a different handbuilt teapot every week as a way of staying away from the winter doldrums!  Unfortunately family stuff intervened and I never got very far with the idea.

Ceramic Arts Daily did a post last year about making handbuilt teapots over a form in about an hour give or take some time.  I made this one over a bowl.  I did everything while it was still on the form.  The form gives the clay enough stability to be able to do everything.  By the time I had cut the lid opening and added the handle the clay was stiff enough to have the form taken out.  I placed it immediately on a clay slab.  I cut a circle a bit bigger than the base and attached it quickly using spooze.  I didn't worry about the tissue paper left inside as it peeled away when the pot dried.  I think I made a different lid from the one I cut out of the form. 

I've glazed it with my old faithful Spectrum #799 Majolica White on unfired clay.  The fish designs look odd as I cover them with a green tinted wax resist as soon as I am finished with a design.  Unfired stains smear easily so this solves that problem.  I think I'm going to add a little something more to the background.  I don't want them to look like they are floating in air.  Although, now that I think of it the fish in the pond look like they are swimming in air when the water is clear!  Hmmmm, now I have to think about it.

It's a cloudy, warm, muggy day with heavy rain on the way tonight and tomorrow.  Hopefully we will get several inches.  We are by no means suffering from water want, but rain in summer and fall prevents drought in the winter.

We are considering Woody's Garden behind the shed.  We have violets galore this year and I may get some end of season marigolds and petunias.  These appear to be the great favorites.  If we were starving I would not hesitate to kill and eat him, but we are not, so he can live on sufferance for now.

Lastly, I am so saddened to hear of Robin Williams death.  What pain he must have been suffering to have been driven to take his own life.  We knew him for all the joy he brought.....let that be his legacy.

Enjoy your day.  As always, thanks for stopping by...........*s*