Sign of Spring!

• Sun and clouds with temps in the sixties.  What a treat!
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• I took my first real morning morning walk around the yard, looking at what needs to be done. And I raked the leaves off the crocus bed.  The daffodils are up enough so that I will use the leaf blower to get the dead stuff away from the house.
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• I found this little viola blooming in one of the pots I didn't empty last fall.  Their hardiness is always a surprise!
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The fish are swimming sluggishly  The water is still pretty cold..  Proge left the small pump in last fall to provide a bit of circulation.  It appears to have helped.  We don't usually take the net off until the trees are leafy and some of the water plants are covering a bit of the surface.  Otherwise we have visits from Hawk, Owl, and Heron, to say nothing of raccoon and fishercat!

Warm weather this early can be chancy.  The wild blueberries are apt to bloom then freeze if we get down to more normal temps.  We'll see, grasshopper....we'll see.....

Toes crossed that all are enjoying weather throughout the world.

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

Sweet Sunday

Sweet because we are finally getting some weather that at least slightly resembles spring.  Temps are still below normal, but at least we have sun and warmth in the middle of the day.

 Proge took the leaf net off and started the little waterfall because the fish were getting active.  The water is still clearing but fish are coming up to the surface.  

I got out the fish nonwhistles to prepare them for going outside.  It's still too cold to be messing around in water, but they will be ready to go out in a few weeks.  I call them nonwhistles because I screwed up when I was doing the whistle parts.  I forgot to check them before putting them in the kiln.  If they don't whistle when I bisque, I can usually correct them.  But not if I forget to test them!

I'm getting to the point where I want to start adding holes for ocarinas.  I have to look at relative hole sizes on my old recorder.  I find the book From Mud to Music by Barry Hall an invaluable resource for clay instruments.  What I remember is that the tones will stay relative to each other, although shrinkage will change the key.

After all that about clay fish I had to put in a photo of the real guys.  A couple of dollars worth of fingerlings has certainly paid off and brought us much enjoyment.  These were supposed to be the trial fish to see if we could manage them.  If they keep having babies we may have to give some away!  That's a far future worry!

This post will be on Sunday Ceramics #11 and Mud Colony and my own site (suzi caswell and, yes, someday I will put up a link) on Facebook.  Look around and see what's cooking in the world of clay!

Enjoy spring, or fall as the case may be.

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

Happy....

......Autumnal Equinox, which officially occurs at 4:44 PM or 20:44 for those international readers who might be stopping by.

And for all the J.R.R. Tolkien fans out there, a Happy Birthday to Bilbo and Frodo Baggins.  If I were more organized I would be offering a mathom or two......perhaps next year.

We had rain all night and for the better part of the morning, but it has begun to clear.  The clouds are quickly heading west.  It's going to get cool again tonight, but not cold enough for frost.

My one large surviving dahlia has begun to bloom.  The rain knocked the stem of this bloom around so I brought it inside to enjoy.

Fall is coming.  There is a flock of grackles grakeling around the pond and woods.  They are loving the pond.  This is an unexpected benefit to having a water feature in the yard.  I hope we'll be seeing many more birds coming through.

I'm supposed to be writing my artist's statement for my upcoming show.....which I will find many and all excuses to avoid doing.  I don't like to say too much about my stuff as I believe that once I put it out in  the world it should speak for itself.  What a viewer brings is as important as what I give.

I think my computer keyboard needs cleaning!

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

Recycle Or.....

Bust?!

We have had a stretch of hot, humid, sunny weather so guess what I have been doing?  Yes!  Drying clay enough to wedge.  I first I just spread it on boards.  Then I decided if I was going to get serious about it I needed to dig out my drying screens.  These are old silk screen frames I replaced with screening.  I lay a piece of old sheeting and then put the clay on it.  The whole thing is raised on bricks for air circulation.  When the clay is ready I roll it up like a jelly roll and wrap it in plastic.  I get even drying with this method and I can do about twenty pounds at a time.

The day lilies are finally blooming.  I bought these last year for Proge to plant by the pond.  They've grown by leaps and bounds.  Others are in bud.

 This is one of the few lilliums that survived the red beetle infestation last summer.  The bugs hate day lilies, or at least they don't demolish them.  I've bought new bulbs and am planting in a different area.  We'll see, grasshopper.......we'll see.....

Mr. Frog is chilling at the edge of the pond.  The water is clear enough to make the fish look as though they are suspended in air.  Proge has won the fight with algae etc.

I've been replanting a bunch of stuff that just didn't make it through our June rains.  We do have a great crop of sassafras.  As far as I am concerned the only good sassafras is in the wood pile.  We took all this stuff down with the brush cutter in the middle of May.  We just have to keep cutting.

I've been baking a fruit (peach and plum) crisp to take to a get together with a group of friends from my first round of college days.  We try to get together at least once a summer.  Our ranks are thinning a little but we still go on with old friends and new.

This post will also be over on Mud Colony.  Hop over and take a look at what is going on elsewhere in the world of clay.

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

Fantastic Mr. Fox

On Tuesday I went to the post office and there I found a box of goodies waiting for me from Linda Starr.  Inside a cool bread book Our Daily Bread first published in 1970.  This is an oldie but goodie, that I once owned but lost in one of my many moves.  There are sponges.  Look at the big one; it looks like an underwater fern.  Aaaand I was going to buy a new sponge and chamois next time I went to the art store.  I think Linda can count mind reading among her many talents.

The piece de resistance is Fantastic Mr. Fox.  Has anyone seen the animated version of Roald Dahl's book?   George Clooney is Mr. Fox and this is a perfect portrait.  Right now he is hanging here in my plant sun room, but I think he is going to be down in my studio.  I find something comforting having other potters' work around me when I work.

BIG HUZZAHS and THANKS, LINDA!

Spring is here again after several days of too cool weather.  It's supposed to be in the seventies.

We're going to the pond supply store to get plants for the pond.  Hopefully once we get some plant cover on the water the fish will have places to hide from Mr. and Mrs. Red Tail, andwe'll be able to
remove the net.

I'm also biting the bullet and going to Walmart to look for some sort of containers for the gelli plates I have been making.  Yes, yesterday's Wordless Wednesday was a gelli plate.  It was so amorphous that I couldn't resist posting it.

Have a great day and, as always........thanks for stopping by...........*s*

Looking Back

 Mariette did a post on her blog on April 25, 2013 about Sisters Dressed Like Twins. That led me to find this photo of my big sister Prudence and me.  Obviously, since she was eight years my senior we couldn't dress like twins, but she used to make us look-alike dresses.  It's a little difficult to date this photo, but I know Prudy was in high school, probably a senior which would make me about nine.  We may have been going to church or more probably to some summer lawn party.  As you can see, even little girls wore white gloves when they were dressed up.  I don't think I stopped wearing them until I moved out of New York in 1964.

It being Time Warp Tuesday I think this is an appropriate picture.  It sure brings back the memories!

We had to put the netting back on the pond.  Well, at least it seems like a good idea.  Our old friends the Red Tail Hawks have spent days sitting on the branches over the pond eyeing the fish.  There's nothing like having a beady hawk eye on you.  It was like a word balloon over his head, "Dude, that is food and if you are not going to eat it I am!"

We've had hawks on our property ever since we started living here over thirty-five years ago.  I am assuming that these are descendants of the original pair...who knows how long hawks live?

Other than the nuisance of having to have the net on it's really cool to have the hawks around again.  They have little fear of humans or vehicles.  Once we get the water hyacinth and other plants in they will provide enough cover for the fish to hide.

I put the pump and filter in the pool now that really seems to be warm enough not to have frost at night.    The water temp is only 60F but I like seeing the pool open.  It should be warm enough to swim by the beginning of June.  68F is when I go in.  I still remember swimming in the ocean when sixty was considered warm!  I'm still not sure how we did it; I think children have some sort of built in armored we suits!

We are in for a stretch of beautiful weather.  I'm hanging the laundry out today, doing a little of yard work and continue reorganizing my studio, with clay play time thrown in.

Enjoy the day!

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

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*

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*