Summertime joy

Yes, the living is easy.  Taking a deep breath.  So grateful to be able to.  Another deep breath.

The guppies have fresh water and food.  Cat is curled on chair cushion, having first and second breakfasts in her tummy.  I'm on my third half-cuppa.  That's half decaf and half regular coffee, and I just keep adding to a half full mug.  Not sure how much caffeine that makes!

OK, here are the pots for today.  More tea-bowls, cups, or small bowls.  A few pleasant designs added to the basic off-white glaze.  I admit to not having been able to paint designs lately, so these are from springtime throwing.

4 inch diameter for sipping with a sea turtle swimming with you - $20

Would you otter, or maybe another little critter who loves fresh fish?

Lots of good ladybug luck on this little cup.  Pale yellow roses on the other side.

All for just $20 each

...and free shipping for orders of $25 or more in August in the 48 US states.

Mermaid and cooling off

Floating along in the deep blue sea...
with the heat these days, just thinking of being immersed in water is cooling.

I took a tub bath yesterday, a nice hot one.  Coming out was the cooling bit of that experience.

What do you do to keep cool in the summertime?

These little tea bowls with designer liner decorations are for sale...of course.  If I show it here, I've got to let it go...to it's forever home.

I do like drinking something hot out of a tea bowl in the winter, letting my fingers feel the warmth.Somehow the cool sides when filled with iced tea just turn wet in the humidity, and I don't feel much cooler by the touch, just the drink.  I also like iced coffee!

Hope you have a great day!

Happy cups/tea bowls

I finally finished and shipped an order for a couple of tea bowls, which some folks call cups.  There aren't handles, and they are really small for bowls, and pretty deep too.  They just are what they are.

I hope she likes them!

Teabowl with mermaid and a flower garden

I'll return to the studio tomorrow...Can't wait to do some neat things.
Well, it's good to get some perspective, which is what vacations are all about, among a few other great benefits.

So here's one of my last tea bowls I made before my hiatus.

It's fun to see how curved lines and even straight lines change when you paint them on a curved surface! 

And I was thrilled at my friends home to see her gardens in the woods..so here are a few of the inspirational flowers I saw when it wasn't raining!

Maybe mugs on Monday

Or maybe a small ewer with tea bowls? There's also a plate which can either be for serving tidbits of food, or as a tray for the beverage set. 

Today's quote:

“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.”  Dr. Seuss

Teapot Number 3

It started out as number 2, but got shifted to 3rd place when I decided I wanted some of the qualities that number 3 (original number) had for the submission to the gallery.
That is the one you've been seeing for the last week, and will be brought to Black Mountain Center for the Arts on Tues.
This one, now number 3, isn't black.  It isn't cone 6 porcelanous clay (white) but a stoneware.

Yes it has bees on it, and leaves and flowers.  And it's been glazed in my favorite turquoise combination glazes.

Unfortunately the photo has indoor lighting which turns everything slightly yellowed, thus the turquoise is washed down to a grey.

That's ok, cause the yellow flowers turned into just a clear glaze over the clay color, but still have a bit of orange outlines.  The bee looks ok however.  That's me critique-ing my work.  Tell me the right way to spell that word and I'll learn it.

There are also a honey pot and some tea bowls in the same glaze...in case this had become the gallery submission.

OK, I just noticed I could take these pieces out on the front steps and take pictures in natural light, since the sun has almost gone behind the trees already.  So now you can see more of the true color.

These are obviously less than professional level photos.  But that's mainly because the glaze is so shiny.  I'd need to use reflectors and have a good photo cube set up if I were going to give you better photos.  This is as good as it will be this time however.  I like the green and speckled glaze still, and it's much prettier in person!

Today's Quote:

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

Tea bowls or cups?

When is it a tea bowl?
When is it a cup?

I have no training in making tea bowls...so of course I defer to masters with many years of that heritage...which I believe is sacred to certain potters.

So without any mistique, I've thrown some slightly imperfect, losely decorated white clay cups.  The decoration was just cobalt carbonate stain, painted onto the leather hard greenware.

And one of the goals was to make indents in the sides where fingers/thumbs could get a better grasp on the cup.

I made 10 of these, which will be mix or match at pretty reasonable prices.

And then there was the second tea jar with cork lid.

The orange glaze (over white clay) is imperfections in the bottom of a tub of glaze.  It's gone now, so you might say this is one of a kind.  (You also might say each of my works is!)