Home...another...night at home.  A Saturday night.  I don't mind Friday so much, but Saturdays are a wrench.

I also approach D-day with trepidation.  Monday...June 17 at 5pm.  I am almost calm, but I am sure I will become nervous and angry.  I am anxious to get the 'chat' over with and out of my head and off my chest.  I think that is why I might be kinda calm...that I will have the opportunity to get all this anger and sadness and thoughts out of my life.  At least I hope it helps.

Friday, May 31

...spent my lunchtime with friends at Urban Table...yummy pancakes and bacon and coffee.  I tshsould have something differetnt than breakfast next time...I always have breky.

...spent my morning helping daughter with a break-in in her/my car in Cali.  Theft and vandalizsm and fraud.  He paid his phone bill with her debit card.  Duh.  I think he will get caught...don't you? 

...part of the day was spent at Lowes, buying some thin concrete block, rebar and concrete mix to make a retaining wall on the south side of my house/patio area.  I dug and arranged and then pounded in teh rebar to hold the block in place.  Next I must start arranging and placing rock, mortaring them to face the block and make it purty.  Then a rock top...like one of those old timey rock walls with the crenelation on the top

...my evening was spent walking with my sister (Kim and I whined about all that happed today.  It was good to walk, nonetheless).  I also watched my hero Bill Maher and had a Strong Bow.  All in all, a productive day...but a lonely night.

Love my studio at Jewell

Thursday, May 30.
Spent 7 hours in studio at William Jewell.  Heaven.  I had the room to myself..my student did not show up to work. 
 
Pots:
I spent the day making work as prototypes for more pots and taking care of unfinished pots from Monday. 
I made another cup and saucer to get my fingers limbered up...then moved onto cream and sugar containers (I love vessels with lids), a bowl (icky) and the beginnings of a teapot.  I got the body, foot and handle completed.  The next time I go up I will work on the spout and the lid.  I will also make some kind of tray for 'spills'. 

I am going to go look at my favorite artists online and on Pinterest for inspiration. 

Surface: I am applying rolled surface texture, stamping, sprigs and some rolled lines.  I am trying different ways to apply underglaze before bisque firing.  I have used a lime green mixed underglaze and flower patterns cut from news paper to make prints on each surface...at least twice on pots...inside and/or outside. 

If I get the surface right, these will be gorgeous...I shouldn't let glazing and color, get the best of me.  It is soooooooo intimidating!

I wish I could get that HIgby Water Blue to work correctly...when it does it is sooooo beautiful. 
I wonder if it has anything to do with the RIOx wash I used to put over my work???

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

back...back to have a place to whine without anyone asking questions.  I went to visit my DBT friends for coffee at Homers in OP.  I broke down in front of them.  I am fairly despondent today.  One of them told me that maybe I could find happiness in being alone.  I told her I have heard THAT so many times,
that I am ready to punch someone out who
says it next.  I HAVE been alone for 20 years as of June 7...and I just can't do it anymore. 

I was 39 and few months.  I am now 59 and a few...a couple of boyfriends here and there, but no one who stays.  I am always the 'bad guy', the person with the problem they dont want to deal with...nevermind their issues.  *I* am the one who is crazy. 

I just wanna say 'fuck you' to all of them especially TC.  He ruined me...ruined my ability to trust men, to be able to speak up and be myself.  I feel like I will never meet or be able to be with anyone the rest of my life.  I am too young to live without romantic love the rest of my life. 

I don't believe in fate...or god...or karma...or luck...even though I talk about them...curse them.  I used to pray once in a while...of course, not getting anything I wanted; like my dog back, my first boyfreind back, unconditional love...

*sigh*

February 3, 2012

A new post...got tagged by Cindy Bracker Sturm on her Facebook page...a photo from 2010 Orton International Cone Box Show http://www.coneboxshow.com/2010-award-winners/
Thanks Cindy!

no pots again, again...today

Sorry clay fans,
I just don't feel like photographing or writing about pots at the moment...small crisis(es) happening around me and I'm not coping well.
I gotta be happy to make pots, so I guess it goes to say, I gotta be happy to write about 'em.

TLC gone.

no pots again, today

Just got back from a wonderful trip to Taos, NM. Terry and I camped, but were busy in town or in the mountains or wild environs every day.

• hiking to Williams Lake (alt. sickness....ugh!)


• Ojo Caliente (all I can say is WOW!...but, ash in the water from the fires


• Rift Trail overlooking the Rio Grande


• Taos Box raft trip (Far Flung River Rafting with Ricus)...again, all I can say is WOW!


• bought some pots...bought some earrings in SAnta Fe


• ate a lot of Green Chilis...even GC beer at Eske's...great beer and pizza at Marble Micro Brewery in SF, too


• visited the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum as well...really great! Santa Fe Clay as well


• Terry had wonderful Marg's at Taos Inn...a great place to people watch...lemon curd cheesecake, too!
  

Off sometime in the future to the WHW.

no pot today

I will be away from the computer for several days, besides I haven't taken an pictures of my pottery collection for a while...I ran outta piccys.

I *did*, with the help of several KCCG members and their loved ones, take down the 2011 Teabowl National. What a job!

We are looking for a new venue, so If you read this and know of a cheap or free gallery WITH pedestals...lemme know.

pot #53...beeen away soooooo long...

This is just one of a set...
This is my olive oil server. I keep it on the stove on my Bill Alexander plate and my pepper grinder and salt shaker.
I traded for this set at the Smoky Hill River Festival in 2009. The mark on the bottom is 'P Frehm'. Can't find his name on the list of 2009 participants...cuz' there isn't one on the site anymore.
This piece is thrown, stamped, salt glazed and lovely.

pot #52

Potter's Lunch at the Nerman Museum, JuCo with Carolyn, Nancy and Christy. Yummy.
But...onto the pottery. This is a small bowl by Anne Mulvihill of Kansas City and the Barbershop Gallery (www.barbershopgallery.org)
She also teaches at KC Clay Guild one evening a week.
This piece is eiether made of porcelain (it's really white on the bottom), carved and glazed...or maybe the other way around??? It is 2.25 x 5.25 x 5.25". Anne has signed it on the bottom with her last name.
I love this piece and I love Anne's work. She is one of my local pottery heroes. I will be reviewing another piece of hers in the upcoming weeks.

pot #51

What shall it be?
Another small piece. The last few pieces on the blog ahve come from the top shelf of my dish dresser in the kitchen. I bought this at the Prairie Village Art Fair (I think)...in the 90's. I have forgotten what I paid for it...it couldn't be much as I had just bought my house. Pottery is my vice and even though money was tight, I bought a tea cup and saucer.

The potter's mark is scratched in...2 short lines intersected by a long line...like an elongated "H".
The entire set is 2.5 x 4 x 3.75". It is made of porcelain and has applied stained everywhere. What you see is what you get.

pot #50

Well...the second part of today's blog has to be about the piece I bought from Steven at his KC Clay Guild workshop yesterday. It is a 'yunomi'. What is the greatest thing about this piece is that I know *how* he made it...(wondering if I can apply a little of the technique of 'stretching' to my handbuilt slab work???)
This piece has been thrown, stretched and altered, thrown again, slipped, ribbed, slipped again, ribbed, trimmed, dried, glazed and single fired to ^6, electric.
*whewwwwwwwwwww*
By Steven's own admission, there are multiple glazes...sometimes up to seven...on each pot and I guess this one is no exception.
I am drinking coffee from it as I write this entry. Yummy.

*not* pot #50

I will start by reviewing the last weekend...clay, clay, clay.

The KC Clay Guild Teabowl National 2011 opening was this last Friday, June 10 and the Steven Hill workshop at KCCG was Saturday, June 11. I feel both were successful.

I haven't any pix of the reception (I forgot my camera), but I have a few of the workshop. I will post a few here, but will put the giant's share on KCCG Facebook page in 'photos'.

This is a photo of Steven pulling on the lip so that it will slump just a bit and change the shape...getting it ready to apply the spout and handle.

He seems so thorough and every step seems thought through. He knows his work and his techniques.

Thanks Steven!

pot #49

another little treat...
I purchased this at the Prairie Village Art Fair...back in the mid-90's. I forgot who the artist is, but the mark on the bottom in Red Iron Oxide is 3 vertical slashed with one slash through the center.
This is one of my favorites and a bit of an inspiration for me. I can't tell if it is hand built from a porcelain slab or thrown and left rough. There are no seams (like I would leave). If it is thrown, then the lip was, obviously, cut asymmetrically and smooth and the piece was cut from the wheel and left as is.
A textured coil handle was attached in much the same manner as I do handles now (my inspiration)...
The piece is glazed inside and out with a clear glaze and some colored stain or glaze.
This cup is 3.5" x 3.5" (with handle) and 2" wide (w0/ the handle). It holds about 1/4 of a cup of liquid.
Sweet!

New stuff. New direction...abandon old stuff and old work style.
Dislike: functional not funk-tional, sweetness, commercial
Like: easy to make, use silhouettes of other objects...bunnies, houses, birdies, trees...no glaze on outside (eliminate glaze problems...I hate glazing)...might sell more.

New shapes: cup, tumbler, saucer, trays, pitchers, cream and sugar, little teapots.

Problems: thinner porcelain, higher fire porcelain

pot #48

Another lovely, sweet little thing. This one was purchased at the Brookside Art Annual a few years ago...5-7. I think the name on the bottom reads "Pishe." (?)...hard to tell.

It is very delicate...porcelain, about 1/16th of an inch thick. It was made starting with a slab base...a slab cylinder placed on that and attached, then folded at the shoulder. This makes 2/3rds of the height. "Leaves" were slab constructed and attached to the base and to themselves. Little "stems" were added for handles as well as "stems" on the leaves. My guess is that it has been stained and then glazed...fired to ^6. The entire piece is 2 1/4" tall, 2 3/4" wide and 2 1/8".

pot #47

Hmmmm...takin' piccys of pots this a.m. AND trying out some new pieces and ideas.

Now...on to the work of Colleen Riley (http://www.eurekapots.com/)

She has yummy new work. These are several years old. We have been near each other at several art fairs, namely the Uptwon Art Fair. Her work is typically soda and wood fired. Go to her site and read all about it. (Her husband, Donovan Palmquist is a kiln builder and potter, too.)

This little cutie is 2.25 x 2.75". It is thrown, slightly squared off on the lip and hand decorated, glazed.

pot #46...where have I been

Well...I had a lovely lunch with the 'Potters' hosted by Susan Hill on Tuesday. She has the best backyard and garden. I wish I could drop it down in my backyard...lush and cool on a hot day. Thanks Susan!

I have been quite busy the last few days and totally forgot the Blog. Here goes...

This random little, tiny vase was purchased in El Paso, Texas. I was in grad school in 1999-2001. One of my itinerant instructors was from El Paso. I guess he liked us so much he brought all of us a memento of his home town (He flew in for our classes).

I imagine it was handbuilt of the reddish-brown earthenware you see on the unglazed portion. Is was decorated with black slip, burnished and fired. It measures 2.5 x 2.25". It rocks on it's rounded bottom and it sits on my giant book case.

pot #45

and now...something different. Another piece from my daughter, Fiona. She made this at Brownies and I recieved it as a present...Mother's Day or Xmas...1997 or 98. I wish I could remember.

Anyhoooo...it is a pinch pot of red, air-dried clay with various seeds and acorny things pressed into it. It measures 3.75 x 2 x 3.25".

It is next to a picture of me when I was 4 and my red SOMA puzzle...on our broken gas fireplace in the 'TV room.

pot(s) #44

Another horrible piccy. I am getting lazy.

I used to get little things like this from my previously mentioned grandparents (Kerr) when I was little. I found these at a flea market or garage sale or somethng a few years ago, because they reminded me of that.

None of the pieces are over an inch tall...nor much over an inch wide. I am missing he sugar bowl lid and a teacup. They are made of a white earthenware and have wonderful handpainted floral designs on them...over a white Majolica glaze.