Copyright and other blogs currently being worked

Happy Year of the Dragon. Here is my Dragon Girl Bird sculpture from 2018.

My info

Saturday, June 30, 2018

June's over now

Goodbye to sweet Panther, my last cat.  I'm too old, too emotional to do this again. I shared about her extensively HERE

And life kept giving me surprises, like an amaryllis that bloomed this month. I read an interesting blog post about similar plants Here.

The first of these pod-boxes sold this month and are trucking across country to their new owner right now!

And Sepia Saturday gives us this as a prompt photo...


I can't think of any old photos of a marching brass band, though I'm sure Michael will have a great story about one.  I was delighted by another blogger's post (not sepia at all) which included a band HERE, (shared with her permission.)



So my most sepia contribution is that I read blogs, and sometimes comment upon them.  And read others' comments also!  They give information and opinions which are usually delightful.
Quote for today:

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep." -Ansel Adams

Thursday, June 28, 2018

More bounties of the season


 The yucca has just about finished its blooming for this year.

 Soon to be a zucchini!

Just look at those fat purple beans...

In the shady area, some lettuce is doing ok.

Other squash (or maybe cucumbers) aren't doing much but blooming yet.

 No beans just blossoms...
 Kale that needs to be picked soon!

Some kind of lettuce I think.

The veggie bed with a couple of bare patches...we're working on them.  Planted a new crop of beans in one area, and some posies in the shady area.


Tuesday, June 26, 2018

Goblets to the firing

How do I get to this...

 from this...

Step one: (after assembling) bisque fire...


Step two: apply glaze to bisque-ware

part of step two, wax the bottom edge to keep glaze from sticking to kiln shelves

Step three, wait until kiln is loaded and finished, then it's Christmas...how did they come out? Can they be worthy of being sold? What should I charge for them (I actually asked one of the potters at the studio who supports herself with her work.)

Voila... two goblets with the altered swooping designs, and two without.







The glaze choices are our studio satin white, as liner and down 2/3 of the exterior, then dipped in raspberry up 2/3 of the way, after the white had dried quite a while. I love that warm grey the white/rasberry combination gives.


Dishwasher safe, but the bases are hollow, so you might not want them in the dishwasher to fill up with water!

The bases are slightly heavier than the tops, at least I haven't tried it with wine yet.  To celebrate, don't ya' know.

Sunday, June 24, 2018

The hardest thing of all, forgiveness

I am thinking this morning of how to approach forgiveness - not for the victims - they don't need this, though they need a lot of other forms of loving.  But for the abusers - bullies, those who seem callous, those who seem to have pleasure out of hurting others.  Not to understand them, (abusers) but to find a place to at least begin to look for their humanity under the evil that we see.

Many of us lead some kind of spiritual life.  We usually include love as an outgrowth of our connection to the greatest to the least of our blessings.  But when it comes to considering the most evil of the human creation, we usually prefer to either a) forget them or b) (and most usually this is the outlook that is prevalent) just consider that these are people in league with the devil and therefore hate them.  Punish them for the crime, but mainly hate them.

In my practice, I try to consider that there is good in everything, and everyone.  So how do I find a way to love those who commit crimes?  I start by saying, I'll just consider that maybe it's possible to forgive them.  Not today.  Today I'll just consider a possibility.  And maybe in many years (centuries?) to come, there will be a way of finding forgiveness.

What will that look like? My own path gave me several abusive people around me.  The child abuse was the most difficult to consider forgiveness.  I really hoped he'd die before I had to actually forgive him.  Well, it's not that I'd ever go up to him and say "You are forgiven." So what was the purpose of this aim?

It's to let go of a clinching, a roped off part, of my own heart.

It looks like a loosening of those ropes on my own heart...it looks like seeing his eyes and that that person's idea of love was wrong, but it was still a form of love.  Ouch.  There is the limit of where I am today.  But in over 3 decades, I've finally arrived here.

And here's a writing (perhaps a poem) that speaks of forgiving the abusers.  Today I'm using it in considering some people who have been brainwashed by those who abuse, and these followers are perpetuating the lies today, which is certainly difficult for me to understand.  I can't forgive them. I do hold them responsible for their actions (including their words.) I can only hope to remember the good, which might still be somewhere in their beings.  I have long ago learned to set my own psychic shields to protect myself from abusers.  Working on my own healing has let me move away from being vulnerable as part of interactions with abusive people.
Kuan Yin’s Prayer for the Abuser
To those who withhold refuge,
I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.
To those that cause a child to cry out,
I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.
To those that inflict terror,
I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.
To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,
I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.
To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,
I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.
To those who cling and grasp,
I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.
To those who vent their rage on small children,
I return to you your deepest innocence.
To those who must frighten into submission,
I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.
To those who cause agony to others,
I give the gift of free flowing tears.
To those that deny another’s right to be,
I remind you that the angels sang
in celebration of you on the day of your birth.
To those who see only division and separateness,
I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.
For those who have forgotten
the tender mercy of a mother’s embrace,
I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.
To those who still feel somehow incomplete,
I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.
copied from Facebook posting 

Friday, June 22, 2018

Enjoying summertime blooms

I love the cascades of day lilies here at our apartment complex!










Ok the last one is a day lily.
But what are those lovely purple ones? I wonder if they're related to asters....

Here's Stokesia which I found on line (Thanks for comment giving the name, PotterMiller)
Rufino Osorio: Stokesia laevis – Stokes-Aster

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

The rest of the tiny vases - or shot glasses?



 I was interested in the 2 yellows which are background to the strange black lines. I won't be using that glaze pen again!

 The Jade color looks good on the white clay!







There were a few other tests which I didn't like, so am not bothering to photograph, and actually the little pieces (as well as the glazes) have gone in the trash!



Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Mugs for Monday

The Georgia O'Keeffe style...some bright poppies, and these will cheer up anyone's day!
Hand painted with Mayco Stroke N Coat glazes. There were no decals used, which a comment on Facebook brought to my attention.  Decals are great, but not for me...I want each object to be a piece of different art, not a manufactured item in any way.