Grrrrrrranimals!

I'm getting ready for a wood fired kiln in a couple weeks with the Swan Creek Potters.

And I think I'm going to make all salt & pepper shakers for it. Probably mostly animals, but other fallish stuff too. Fran and I shared a box of clay, which is different texture from what I normally use, so it's a bit of an adjustment. You can't tell here, but the clay is actually a buff color, and apparently bisq fires darker. And then in the wood kiln it will get the flashes of color from the ash and flames and all that goodness.

Anyway, here is a very small sample of what I'm making. The ones on the left are going to be wooly mammoth types, and will have red recycled cone tusks. Acorns in the middle, and a turtle on the right. The other turtle is scared. heh.

Other critters are in the works. Stand by.

Another batch

Soap and/or lotion pumps

Footed large & small leaf platters

Bracelets

Got a few more images done:

Olive trays. The olives are clay too, and don't come with the tray.

Footed square platters. They are @ 12-3/4" across. The brown one sold, the blue one is at Angelwood Gallery.

Mixing/serving bowls. These are about 10-1/2" diameter by 7" deep. Brown one sold.

Sheep bank. A rubber plug in his belly holds the change in.

Sometimes I have reasons

Sometimes I have reasons for the things I make. Sometimes, I just..... don't. Sometimes, often times, as I'm sitting here pinching out the base form I just start giggling, because an idea hit me out of the blue.

A few months ago I was talking with some friends about how this part of Ohio, being between 2 certain colleges, goes a bit.... crazy... every fall. That's where these S&P shakers came from. I have one pair of the footballs left, and Angelwood Gallery has a pair. The buckeyes are gone but I have a couple pairs in the works.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! Imagine the look on your family & friends faces when they ask for the salt and you hand them a blood shot eyeball. Heh. The brown pair are at Angelwood Gallery; I have the rest.

Antipasto anyone?

I was trying to think of a way to recycle the pile of fired pyrometric cones I have, and saw a commercial for baby elephant (Lucas) born recently at the Zoo. (He's really freaking cute. Click his name to see a video of him.) Anyway, that's where these came from. This particular pair was snatched up before they were finished by a friend who apparently has a thing for elephants.

And yes, they have butts.

Magic 8 balls. I don't know. Never had one when I was a kid.

Lady bugs, inspired by a friend.

I was watching movies with Brian and these popped into my head.

Calico & orange kitty for a friend.

Kitties that need a home.

I have a few more sets still need to shoot. Not sure how I missed them this round, but... did.

Check out the Sherwood Inn Pottery fan page on FaceBook to see more detail pics.

For my entertainment

I've been making a lot of silly salt & pepper shakers lately. Partly because they're good for filling up small spaces in my kiln, partly because they make me giggle while I'm making them, and partly because I can work on them in the living room (as opposed to in my studio) and hang out with my boys.

Been getting ready for the 10th Annual Swan Creek Potters Summer Sale in a couple weeks. I haven't been doing the show for 10 years, but that's when Maggie started it all. These elephant s&p shakers would have been at the Swan Creek sale, but were claimed before they were even fired. I'll take a more formal pic later, but here they are waiting for the epoxy holding on the [pyrometric cone] tusks to dry.

And I'll have more pics of other silliness in a few days.

Recommended Daily Allowance of Fiber

Next:

Focus on Fiber Festival

Sauder Village

Archbold, Ohio

10am - 5pm

Saturday, June 25th

It's been a busy couple months here getting ready for the Sauder Village Focus on Fiber Festival June 25th. When not throwing & trimming bowls or glazing them or firing kilns, I've been building display shelves and updating the studio and working on new knitting patterns.

Because there just isn't enough to do in a day. ;oP

I'm hoping to get some new pics up in the next week... Here is a teaser of what I'll have in my booth at Sauder's...

My regular glazes:

Brown and Almond

Blue and Oatmeal

Purple and Oatmeal

Brown and Rafia

I also have a lovely matt brown, but don't have a pic of it yet.

And I've been testing a few new glazes, but only have a pic of this one:

Chive and Almond

And I've been experimenting with some yarn troughs, for those who like to knit with lots of balls of yarn at one time.

And something new and fun, sheep salt & pepper shakers!

And and and.....

Progress!

What I started with - 42 balls of clay:

What I ended up with: 42 more yarn bowls.

I finished the bowls on the top left shelf Saturday morning. The not-a-yarn-bowl rectangular thing on the 2nd shelf is a bonsai pot for my cousin.

About 40 bowls left for me to make. Getting there!

Ode to my wheel

You spin my clay right round

right round like a record, baby
Right round round round
You spin my clay right round,
Right round like a record, baby
Right round round round

After a yarn bowl I donated for a door prize at a knitter's retreat weekend at Sauder Village caused a bit of a frenzy, the event organizers invited me to be a vendor at their Focus On Fiber Festival in June. In preparation for that, I spent the weekend throwing yarn bowls.

63 of them. Which looks like this:

I spent pretty much spent both days of the weekend down in my studio. :dreamysigh: Except for 1 quick errand and a call to my mom I didn't talk to anyone except Brian and the boys. And Brian was working and sleeping a lot, so I didn't even talk to him much! We've had so much stuff (of the social variety) going on the last 4-5 weekends it was glorious to just be able to stay home and be a hermit and make pots.

Anyway. I'm going to drop off the last 2 yarn bowls I have at Yarn Cravin' tomorrow, and hopefully will have the first batch of these bowls through the process this weekend.

What a load

Generally when I order clay it takes a couple months to get to my supplier's studio. I try to time ordering clay so I'm all but out when it arrives because of space constraints. This time, though, the clay came in in about a week. Surprise!

We've had a bit of a full schedule here lately though, so I wasn't able to pick the clay up till yesterday.

20 50lb boxes = 1,000 lbs:

Before I left the house Brian reminded me to back up to the basement back door, which opens to the landing of the basement stairs, so we wouldn't have as many steps to carry the clay down. The thought that the ground might be a little soft from all the rain we've had the last couple days cruised through my mind, but B said to pull right up, so I figured pffththt, it'll be ok.

Well. There were issues in the middle of the yard:

Yeah. Not going to be backing up to the door. Got stuck a good 20ft from it. Heh.

So B carried the 20 50-lb boxes (one at a time) from the jeep to the back door, where I met him on the landing and carried each box downstairs into my studio, and stacked them + the 350lbs I still had under my work table.

Even without the weight of the clay still had to put the jeep in 4-wheel to get unstuck, which left this in the yard...

Brian was standing on the deck looking at it, and I got out of the car and looked at it and looked at him, and we both started laughing. It's annoying, yah, but... we're looking at it from the point that the grass back there had issues anyway, and this will force us to do something about it.

When we got inside someone desperately wanted to be out...

Aaaaaaand he is much happier when he is out sunbathing.

Spring Events

I have a number of things coming up this spring. Actually, I have something going on every month through August. Here is info about the first few (if you click on the photo it will blow up so you can read it):