Full Circle

When I first started to learn on the pottery wheel I needed every bit of concentration I could muster. In fact, I couldn't talk and use the wheel at the same time. At the beginning, I dreaded someone coming over to look at my pot on the wheel, spinning away on the bat, to say, "nice pot" because as soon as I looked up to say, "oh, thank you" I would mess up....lose center, gouge the side, pull it too thin...my control and the pot would be lost. Several years have past and I find myself able to chat up a storm and make a pot. In fact, I have come full circle and am the instructor at the above center in Draper. It is a beautiful, brand new multi-use senior center. Instructing someone to make a pot on the wheel for the very first time is awesome. The views out of the window are awesome as are the people running this place. I was going to take some exterior photos of the water feature and the exterior of the building but I was afraid my camera would freeze up at 0 degrees. At the moment, I do believe it is my turn to shovel since we are in the middle of a snow storm. Can't let it get too deep or I won't be able to move the greatest snow on earth off my driveway and sidewalk!

A different kind of shino

Here's the mug glazed. I used c.w. plumb on the inside and lip, Mayco shino on the body with an overlap area just below the lip. I am really liking that overlap area. The Mayco shino has potential but I am not sure whether I got enough on there to see it's full potential. I am comparing it to Coyote shino which has more of cream breaking to rust and less brown.

My Perfect Handle

I've made a few mugs over the last few years attempting to make the perfect lip, perfect handle and perfect extra large size without the extra weight.  I call my heavy mugs  "hurricane proof". You'd be packin' heat if you carried one of my mugs around full of hot coffee!!! I feel I have succeeded with improvements with this one, however. The handle, since I wanted it thin could not be pulled...at least I couldn't pull it and get the thin results that I wanted. So I took a strap of clay that came from a thrown bowl. That did the trick. It didn't take long for the strap to be the correct firmness in order to apply without cracking. Of course this is Utah and "dry" is our middle name. I did take a chance and glaze it with a brand new glaze and glaze combo. mmmm new glazzze....I couldn't resist. I'll let you know if that was a wise choice on Wednesday.

Tea light stand

Just a little tea light stand I made to give a bit of height to those short candles. It's about 3 inches high and wide. I figure this would be good for votive candles also. I am working on a set of 3 with various heights...a designers bunch! The glaze is c.w. plumb with a slathering of a green glaze on the top half, which interacted nicely. Happy New Year, by the way. It's been a very cold one so far with night temperatures of zero, daytime highs of 20 degrees and snow on the ground that is refusing to melt. When this past summer was so unbearably hot, I promised myself that I wouldn't complain no matter how cold it would get this winter ... so I am not complaining. Just stating the facts  :>  brrrr  Hope it's warmer where you are.

A very white Christmas

 No doubt we are having a white Christmas this time around. The view out my window looks like a Christmas card and it is a wonderful sight to behold despite all the shoveling required. (No snow blower yet)

Hoping everyone keeps a light heart and a sense of humor and  has a very Merry Christmas. 

Dangerously Drippy

These pots went through two glaze firings. The first glaze firing did not fire to temperature for some reason and the pots were crusty and flaky. So I touched up some bare spots with glaze and hoped for the best. The second firing went into a much newer kiln which fired differently than the first, older kiln (10+ years old) and got a very differently drippy results than I usually get with this glaze combination of  C.W. Plumb under Snowflake. The lidded pot stuck to the shelf and a bit broke off at the base and the lid fit is wobbly now but how dramatic! I am going to make some test pieces and use a  bisque dish under it as a glaze catch. I have my doubts as far as duplicating this look, but try I must!

My blog is my bubble

When I started this blog almost a year ago, I made a conscious decision to stick mostly to pottery and the artistic influences (such as sunsets) that have inspired me and helped my pots to evolve. I decided, for one, that I wouldn't post photos of the family. For one, they would disown me if I did and secondly, I would be infringing on their rights to privacy, which I wholeheartedly respect.  The only family members that are okay with it all is my pottery assistant the cat and my parrot. No complaints there ;)  I would not discuss politics or make comments about the horrendous news events that have happened in the past and as of late. This little pottery world  I have created is something that I enjoy sharing ...locally and around the world according to ClustrMaps, which never ceases to amaze me.  Meeting others who create with clay has been awesome since it is my experience that they are few and far between; in the circles I travel in anyway. But  also keeping it isolated in the clay world is increasingly a challenge. I could double my posts if I didn't censor myself, but then I would be breaking my own rule. So my blog is my bubble. The local and world news is so sad on so many levels, that keeping this blog very focused seems more important than ever. Maybe this seems shallow to some, but sometimes you've got to do, what you've got to do.