It's barbecue season

I couldn't waste a perfectly good barrel fire without doing some experimenting. Before I started the fire, I put a few of mostly small pieces of pottery (1.5 inches wide and high) in the bottom of an ash-filled metal barrel. Only one piece was larger and might have been of hand dug Draper clay. All were bisqued fired but one little jigger, which was greenware. I wrapped each pot in a salt-soaked ragged and thoroughly dried them in the sun before barbecuing. I got many complaint from my kids who were cooking hotdogs when the largest pot exploded and a shard or two flew out of the barrel with a bang. Oops...there goes my Mother of the Year award again, lol. I like the results. I'm not sure the salted rags did anything in particular but the barrel seemed to have reached a high enough temperature to reach the clays maturity....cone 5 maybe. The chips on the side of one pot occurred, I think, when we kept adding sticks on top of everything not knowing where the pots were in the ashes. Just some outdoor fun.

Draper Arts and Crafts Festival 2014

I had a very enjoyable day at the festival and the time just flew by. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. Meeting the Events Director, attendees, customers and fellow vendors was a great pleasure. I am in great debt to my daughter who helped me pull it all together. It is true that the devil is in the details! But she told me that is was part of my Mother's Day gift so I won't feel too guilty. I have only one complaint. It was too cold! Maybe 50 degrees, and breezy. The sun didn't show itself either. I guess we're lucky it didn't pour like it did in the neighboring town. My booth was under the pavilion but not too many customers want to walk around in the cold rain. Despite that, I actually managed to sell some pottery and I look forward to doing more of the same next year. Hopefully without a winter jacket, however!

Attention Utahns!

I am so excited! I have been assigned booth #10 which is in the open pavilion. I have made limited edition and one-of-a-kind pieces for this event. Great gifts for Mom's Day which is Sunday. So come early for the best selection or just come by to say "Hi."

Getting ready

Saturday, May 10 there will be the 2nd annual Draper City Arts and Crafts Festival. I was going to be lazy and not participate but my daughter convinced me to enter. Since I started making pottery about 5 years ago, I have accumulated quite a few pieces. So it is about time I take the next step. My daughter ordered these business cards to make me official for the festival. She is quite the organizer. Good thing....I need all the help I can get!

I spoke too soon

I woke up to sleet and snow, with enough accumulations to make the lawn white and the roads slushy. The weather people claim it will be sunny and in the 50s by afternoon. To me, it looks like a great day to do some glazing and make some pots in my Momcave. : - )

Storms have passed

We had an all-day rain yesterday with snow in the mountains. A few days before that, the wind gusted to over 45 mph. Some folks around Utah State were without power due to downed trees on power lines. But today is a new day and the Eastern Red Bud tree (yes Eastern, not western) managed to hold on to those pretty blossoms in all that wind. Just a little update from my locale. Hope your weather is calm where ever you may be.

Light to dark

I got the idea that a vase would have an interesting look if I could get the glazes to blend from light to dark. Overlapping multiple glazes that I had, sort of did the job. I had to use a glaze that I knew would run in order to get a bit of running and blending at the shoulder of the pot. Next time I will reverse the order because I like the upside down image, better. Or I could always stand on my head. Yeah, that's the answer.