Still Here!

Yes,  I am still here and hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  It wasn't white; no snow except on the mountain tops; but it was fun.  Now we have a new year awaiting us. I have gone back to making pottery again and I am warming up to more production in 2026.  Creativity is a delicate thing and reviewing this blog is actually helping to inspire me. Who knew.  I hope you find your creativity in the new year.  Good health and lots of creativity to all.
 

Collaborating Clouds

I've enjoyed a week of beautiful clouds that have decorated the sky all day and into the evening. Luckily, some of those clouds organized into a storm and gave the neighborhood some greatly needed rain. The storm system was moving so swiftly, it was fun to see various images form. In these particular clouds, I see a puffy dragon talking to a little duck. How about you?

Bowl Full of Berries

It is so very special when someone shares some of their garden's bountiful harvest. I was the recipient of some delicious red raspberries! They looked beautiful in my bowl. I had a renewed appreciation for this bowl because the green actually matches my newly painted kitchen walls. The glaze is Seamist with a drizzle of Iridescent Iron glaze. Both glazes are by Standard Ceramics. The raspberries tasted delicious, by the way.

Bowl and Shallots

It has been an extremely hot and dry summer and as a result, productivity is near zero. I have been using this time to review pottery that I deem successfully glazed that I want to try to duplicate. This bowl is one of my favorites. Layered Seattle Pottery glazes of Grey Stone and Opaque White give this noodle bowl such a rustic look. The shallots were a nice discovery. I could only grow onions and shallots this year since our mild winter spawned hoards/clouds of grasshoppers. Yes, masses of grasshoppers are called a cloud. They will eventually rule the world, by the way, unless we start eating them. Ewwww.

 

Two Mugs on a Log

 I'm happy with these two "beer stein" mugs. I used all Amaco glazes on the outside. Obsidian on the bottom, Ancient Copper on the top half and Seaweed in the middle overlapping. That Seaweed glaze overlap created a very pretty turquoise band of drips which happen to match the interior turquoise color. I live for those happy accidents. The interior glaze is Seattle Pottery Turquoise. Cone 5/6 on Laguna b-mix with grog.

Mix and Match Glazing

This was a glaze experiment, which more often than not, is the case. The bottom half of the mug and interior has Chris Wolf Plumb Glaze. The recipe for that glaze can be googled. The band of white is Opaque White by Seattle Pottery and the creamy looking  top inch, inside and out, is Albany Slip Brown glaze by Amaco. They are all 5/6 glazes that seem very compatible. Clay is Laguna b-mix with grog. I will try to duplicate that combo in my next firing to see how predictable it is. And why do mugs look so great on weathered wood?

I HAVE RETURNED

Yay, I remembered how to log in and post photos on this blog after a year and a half! My pottery production has slowed down to a crawl but break-time is over. Our winter and spring gave us great amounts of precipitation which is unusual for this high-desert area.  Greatly appreciated, however, since we are always recovering from a drought. Tons of yard work since everything had been growing like crazy. My ryobi electric mower is my best friend right now. My new best friend will be my kiln. I'll post pots from my glaze fire soon.

I Did Like It!

 Last year I had to figure out how to get myself out of a non-creating rut, so I purchased some new glazes to help to inspire me. Two of the glazes were Amaco Potters Choice Cosmic Tea Dust and Cosmic Oil Spot. Now I personally am drawn to glittery things but I wasn't sure I would like the look on my stoneware creations. I used Tea Dust on a cloaked figure (pictured a few posts back) and I kinda liked how that looked. To get the best reflection of the glittery particles in the glaze, I applied two coats of Amaco Obsidian glaze and then two coats of the Cosmic Tea Dust to my small lidded pot that's 3 inches tall by 2 inches wide. It's so beautifully glittery in the sunlight. I'm mesmerized. 

The mug has Cosmic Oil Spot on the rim and sprig. I like the watery/oily look but the glittery flecks are larger. I think it's use on the mug is successful but I'll have to figure out how else to make it work. And isn't that part of the fun.

I'm Back At It!

Me, when I realize that almost another year has passed without posting to my blog!

I kinda took a break from pottery this past spring and summer. I worked on my neglected garden to grow some garlic, onions, golden zucchini and sweet red peppers. Soil needs more ammending to lighten the clay.  I'm pleased, especially since we had 30 plus 100 degree days. Love breaking records 😓 . After I recovered from covid AGAIN, I started to miss working with clay and got back to work. More to follow, I promise.

 

Happy Holidays to All

 Enjoying a cold rainy evening by the fireplace this Christmas eve. This laptop is quite the heat generator, adding to the total affect 😄. Remember to take a deep breath, relax and reflect. It's good for creativity which, in turn, is good for us all. 🌟 

Spiffy and Sparkly

 This is a statue I made just for my own amusement.  It's about 6 inches tall. I threw it on the wheel as a thick-walled enclosed shape. Once it got to be a soft leatherhard, I carved away the excess clay to reveal this figure. I carved a space behind the hands to put a crystal or a tiny bowl for an incense cone as shown here. The sparkly robes are are from Cosmic Tea Dust glaze by Amaco. I used it 3 ways: alone, layered over a black glaze and over Iron Luster glaze (Amaco). The glittery glossy black finish is my favorite. The others resulted in a dark brown glittery finish which works well in texture and adds depth and interest to another wise dark piece. 

Happy Halloween 🎃

 Photo credits go to my daughter who inspired me to make her a pumpkin that uses a tea light to heat scented oil.

I Made 2 But I Have 3

 I completed my 2 pumpkins before Halloween.  Yay! I used Spectrum Saffron Shino glaze to get a realistic satin finish. It's exactly what I was hoping for. Now the third pumpkin is a furry one. She is a very sweet neighborhood cat that comes to visit me in the garden. I named her Pumpkin and she comes when I call her. 

Power to Pumpkins

 I recently enjoyed creating two small pumpkins. Many Halloweens have come and gone and this is the first time. Before I throw at the wheel, I find I am more successful if I make a little sketch. It usually winds up on the back of a junk mail envelope. Of course, that's when I wished I had worked in my sketch book to save for future reference. Especially when I include notation of  measurements. 

Anyway, the one with the thicker, cup-like stem is an essential oil burner and the other one will be for a tea light or incense cone. I made a hole in the stem to act like a chimney to funnel the hot air or smoke. A lot of adding and subtracting of clay to the fish bowl shapes, that I threw on the wheel, was necessary to achieve realistic looking pumpkins. There's lot of detail to a simple pumpkin.  🎃

Deer Feeder?

 I made this feeder awhile ago to feed the local chickadees that nest in a nearby hedge. Of course it's fair game to any wildlife that finds it. I happened to hear clicking by my front door on my front porch. Well not one, but three big bucks were hungry. The fact that it was a small bird feeder or a small front porch didn't matter.

An Order For A Friend

 Two smaller sized mugs were requested for a friend. Both are for her grand kids.  Custom made mugs ordered by grandma. How cool is that?! I like the idea of introducing young people to the arts and crafts. You never know what might enrich someone's life or spark a new hobby or even a career. I hope they like them.

 I haven't traveled much lately, in fact, not at all. But my mug made a trip. It went camping in a ruggedly beautiful and remote area of southern Utah. It sat on a rocky precipice to enjoy the views. It felt the wind on its handle and soaked up the warm sunshine. It even cozzied up to the campfire to watch the fire flicker. It had a great time so I've been told.

A Nice Surprise

 I was perusing around the internet for glazes and wound up on www.coyoteclay.com. I clicked on their Gallery tab and scrolled through all the wonderful customer submissions to previous contests they held over the years. I participated a few times but forgot all about it. So I scrolled down the page to Matt And Crawl Glazes and to my pleasant surprise was my large egg in nest! There's a typo in my name but I'm still 😊 thrilled. 

Christmas Came Early

 When I created this blog, I didn't  give any thought about how my pottery and pottery mark related to this site. I just had fun documenting my progress with clay projects over the years. It eventually acted as a digital portfolio for anyone who wanted to check out my work.  I stamped my initials on my work with no real link to this blog unless a customer managed to keep my business card that links the two. So an upgrade was necessary. Since my son just happens to have a cnc machine in his garage, I asked him if he would make a new pottery stamp that says Mom Cave Pots. I gave him the pencil drawing and voila.

 

It's been awhile again

 It has been a few months but I've been busy training my new assistant. Meet Allie, my Q.C.C. That's....quality control cat. As you will see in the photos below, she is very thorough with her inspections. 😅