Nutmeg and celadon

OK, I've gotten into a groove. I like how nutmeg used to be a solid brown on white clay, and celadon would be a turquoise ( not as translucent maybe as I'd wish, but pretty.)

Simple butter dishes

 But look at that brown...it was poured after the celadon...and has variations!

 plate number one with high edges...

 plate number 2 with high edges...

But others that have these two colors haven't been as nice...so I'm still working on the combination.

A little oops

I made a cute little butter dish, and made sure the dimensions were right.  Almost.

The joke's on me.  The height won't let a stick of butter sit inside the lid.

Back to the drawing board!  Well, just make the thrown lid higher before closing it down.  It's relatively easy to make...though a bit time consuming.  And having done it once, the next time will be a breeze.

When I don't have a show coming up next weekend, at least.

Go check out Linda Starr's efforts, HERE, who is doing this with a pattern, smart potter!


Today's quote:

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.

Eckhart Tolle

Bloom where you're planted

I can't help but share these beautiful day lilies, the more exotic kind, which are landscaped around our parking lot.

I have been doing a bit of this and that in the studio also in clay.
Here's my fun butter dish which reminded me of an airstream trailer.  It works really well however, to keep the butter out on the counter where a certain cat has learned to explore when I'm away!

And I have babies in my raised bed garden already - planted last Wed. and now sunflower seedlings have popped up.  I stuck some rocks and twigs next to them so maybe the birds will leave them alone.

I water my garden and the goats go marching along the electric fence that keeps them over in the trees.

New Teapots

A couple of pretty teapots just came out of the kiln.
Butter Yellow with a blue liner (which only shows well on the lid.)

Some fun effects with the blue glaze!

And what better place to have butter yellow glaze...?

making pottery again

Ah, I saw someone's tankards on his blog, so I had to throw at least one.  Mine's probably for me, and that cool beer when I get home and put up my feet.

I also finished a butter dish.  Had to change the original plan and did a thrown lid...without a bottom, then fit it to the slab-built dish form that I'd started.  It took about 5 hours of work over two days.  Geese, maybe there's a better way?  I do like the finished piece, which is drying slowly under plastic, just like my "beer stein" at the BMCA studio.

I had another fun project, to make a foot-tall planter for a Venus Flytrap plant...for Tim who helped me get my wheel down from June's studio in Bakersville.  He raises Venus Flytraps, and says they work well in a foot tall planter, where the little saucer can be full of water and the top pretty dry, and there's just one root that reaches all the way down to keep it alive.  My first effort is a combo of thrown base, then slabs added to make it tall enough.  Of course the whole thing toppled over and it got some new bends and bulges.  But it can still stand tall (and of course is 14" tall prior to the firings that shrink it down 15%).

Sorry, these are all at Black Mountain Center for the Arts clay studio and I didn't take my camera today.  I did some glazing yesterday, and maybe a couple of pieces will be fired tonight.  This afternoon was my volunteer time as well as tomorrow during BMCA's open studio, and we had lots of students and independent studies folks working today.

It's starting to get really hot in the afternoons, and the sun continues to dominate our skies.  Many plants are blooming.  I love that tulips are in the gardens around here, and the dogwoods are blooming down in town.  Next to my house is a pink dogwood, and I promise a picture of it soon.  It's really sick, and had termites in it last year...so it may not be blooming much longer.

Both the cats stayed outside while I was gone about 5 hours.  They were so happy to come inside and get fed and watered.  I loved that feeling, being greeted eagerly by animals.  Hey, I just love been greeted eagerly by anyone!