Look What Happened

Spring finally happened, that's what!  

On Friday it started getting warmer so I was able to wedge some clay.  On Saturday I threw these little guys....I started with about two pounds of clay for each.  The white earth is a departure for me.  I use it for hand building, but I don't think I have thrown with it for at least five years.  But I had a dream about a bunch of little white teapots altered into various shapes and decorated with slips and underglazes while in soft leather stage.  Kristen Kieffer calls it suede, which I think is an apt description.  Then I saw Gary's ewers, and was looking at some little cruets that were my Nanu's.  So these little guys are going to be some sort of vessels with spouts and handles.  By early afternoon they'll be ready to play with.  We'll see, Grasshopper.......we'll see.

Lo and behold the daffodils have finally decided to bloom.  These are by the slab my house is built on which is the warmest part of the garden.  The others out in the yard are only up a few inches.  The bloom season gets stretched a bit this way.

The crocuses are going strong.  I don't know what happened to the snow drops.  I think little underground critters ate them.

I made a lasagna last night using the no-cook noodles for the first time, definitely an idea whose time has come.   I think these may be the best thing since sliced bread.  They are just as tasty as the regular noodles, but without having to dealing with wet noodles slipping and sliding around.  Not for nothing do we say as limp as a wet noodle!

Meanwhile Winter, Aloysius and KikiLaSois sleep through everything.....Except the smell of lasagna!

If you celebrate Easter may it be the most joyous of days.  

And happy spring days to all.

This post will also be over on Mud Colony.  There are lots of posts this week so click on the link and take a little tour of the world of pottery.

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

ONE YEAR!!!

HUZZA and CONGRATULATIONS!!!  To Adriana for starting and maintaining Mud Colony for the last year.  A great big THANK YOU! for all the time and work you have put into maintaining this site.  I am a relative newcomer from over oceans and continents.....what a great way to become connected to the pottery world.

My original post title was going to be.....WHAT HAVE I DONE NOW?

In the middle of October I decided to join my old art association and participate in their annual Christmas Sale.  At one time it was just for potters.  Several years ago it was opened up to all members of the association.  Things are looking up with improved security etc. so I decided to give it a go once more.

Then we had stormzilla and a nor'easter in quick succession.  I lost almost two weeks time, including a kiln firing,  Now I am madly playing catch up.  And relearning all my organizational skills, which were pretty good, but which I seem to have left behind when I retired from my day job.  Slowly the wheels and cogs are engaging gears and the knowledge is coming back.

Below is one of the tests I did in a firing from last summer.  It's a new-old glaze called Taffe.  I call it a semi-matte.  It's a little thin on the exterior of the test bowl.  It's easy to work on the raw glaze and fires very nicely at ^05.  It probably would be a little shinier at ^04.

The little bowl below is glazed in my favorite Linda Arbuckle Majolica.  The plaid is a new design.  I'm still working on getting a good photograph but the idea comes across.  I think I'm going to enjoy combining this with some of my flower and fish images.

My Christmas cacti are in the holiday spirit.  They started blooming a few days ago.  The orange, which is an older variety, is always the first to bloom.  The other colors will follow in succession in January.  Does anyone else feel odd speaking of 2013....where did the year go?

Edited at 2:00 PM:

I intended this post for Mud Colony, but stuff came up before I could put it up there.  Hit the link and take a look anyway; there are more new potters every week!

Enjoy!

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