Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Fishes and Loaves


Well, I like the story about the fishes and the loaves of bread. As a child when I heard it I thought it was such an odd story, how in the world can someone feed the crowd with 2 fish and 3 loaves of bread and have leftovers? So, as an adult I think it is an amazing story. If you don't know what I am talking about I bet you can Google it and find it. You know, seek and you will find....

Friday, July 27, 2007

July 27, 2007 Just Another Beachy Day




I forgot to take the picture that I went to the beach to take, how does this happen? I took these pictures of the pier instead. I have been taking photos also of all the rules that are put into the world. Wednesday a woman asked me had I noticed all the rules posted in the ceramics studio. Well, I had seen them but never thought too much about them. She said they are everywhere (am I oblivious?). So after I edit them I'll post them tomorrow unless I forget again what I was doing!

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Some Raku, Good, Bad and Ugly






The title says it all. I am happy with all of the results except the plate, it has spectacular color but very bad design in the placement of the glaze. The pink/black pot was burnished, coated with slip, a thin layer of glaze over the slip and raku fired. The slip cracked off revealing the pattern underneath. It's naked raku because no glaze remains on the pot.


I will work in the yard today. It has huge potential; if only it would remain in place once "fixed". I like a nice yard but I am not a gardener; the joy some feel from yard work escapes me...













Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Road Trip




Sunday my husband drove me to visit one of the most special people in the world that is sick and far from home, stuck in the hospital for over a week now. Cottage cheese ordered for lunch and she was excited about it!! She is really sick. I don't mean that to sound funny even though it does.
Just thought I'd post some silly pictures I took on the way there to keep me distracted.

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Not a Fish TILE. A ? Tile


Look how brave I am getting. This tile was done very free and easily. Inspired by the drive to Half Moon Bay, California. There are fields of various things growing along the 2 lane highway to the north. There are some trees and a big hill. I see migrant workers as they work in all kinds of weather working in the fields, planting or harvesting. Anyway, I look at these fields and tried to capture it on a tile, this is my first effort. When making it the rules about perspective were forgotten and I just did it from memory - plus imagination. It is so different from the others.....

Sunday, July 22, 2007

My Rusty Neighborhood

As soon as I got my digital camera about a year and a half ago I took photos everywhere. This house has a wet suit hanging out in front to dry. Must be a surfer. The reason I took it was the rusty old car, later I saw the wet suit and thought it was a person. Oh, well.

Cheryl, the co-owner of the Rusty Hook Bait and Tackle Shop called and left a message that one of my fish sold. There is a mighty fine looking striper in the making right now that I am hoping I will dry, fire and glaze and re-fire successfully.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Meet the Monkey

My dear friend gave me this sock monkey, don't even ask why....
I am thrilled with him, she tells me it is male and his girlfriend's name is Bella. She lives a few miles away at her own place.
We don't know what his name is though, so until then he is The Monkey.
If you have suggestions feel free to post them.
Isn't he cute? Some people don't "get" sock monkeys, my dear husband is one of them but that's ok, he doesn't need to understand, just to go along with it.
This was very unexpected (because she doesn't sew much).... she makes these very beautiful boxes and plates, etc., using images that she manipulates using Photoshop. You can see ther work here: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5177554
We play mah jong together and I commissioned her to make me a mah jong money box, I received it yesterday also. It is perfect in every way! Our mah jong money is donated each holiday season to a women's shelter so that when we must pay a dollar or two it isn't so painful.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

I Know This Place



Originally uploaded by john curley
Even though I know this place I don't know it like I see it here. This man has a fantastic eye for the extraordinary. His name is John Curley and his photos of Pacifica on flickr always grab me and make me look at things in a new and magical way. Thanks John Curley!

Tiles of Fish

My low-fire/raku class is coming to an end. There is a ton of things on the raku shelf because I haven't had my raku fix for a while. Last fall and spring I didn't get to do raku which is a long and boring story about how I was a victim caught in unhappy circumstances between some people having a personality/power struggle. So I just sat out a few dances until it was safe again. So, anyway next Wednesday is going to be a long and dirty day and of course I have scheduled 3 other things that day also. Nothing like the rush of "things to do". I am working against my own best interests here and I know it but I do it anyway!
Of course I had to do some fish on the tiles! These fish turned out kind of freaky ~ like they are I suppose! I have it in my head to do a series of them in different colors. You see, if I call them a series it deflects whispered comments about obsession, of course the like-afflicted know....
The beach, the beach...it is lonely for me!

Monday, July 16, 2007

I Could Have Sworn This Way The Right Way...Porcelain


What a productive day, even though I didn't get anything done that was on my list of "Things to Do". I had so much bisque work to glaze that I never got around to making anything. Glazing is every potters nemesis it seems. The form can be really great but the glaze makes or breaks it... So, from now on I am going to enjoy glazing, I need a change of attitude. I can change, I have done it unwillingly and willingly. Willingly is sooooo much easier. So, from now on I like to glaze, I like to glaze, I like to glaze.....

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Oregon Fossil Found

Today we will study fossils - or not. I just wanted to show off the fossil my husband found on a little trip into Oregon. There is a spot along side of a 2 lane road frequented by big trucks near Vernonia, Oregon. It has a lot of fossils, just pull over and open up a chunk of rock (limestone?) and viola - fossils. It is almost that easy, really! Cool clam, huh?
Later we hunted for agates in Rock Creek, the water was absolutely clear, clear, clear and cold! The agates hid from me and I forgot my camera, just believe me, it was good. Vernonia is like stepping right back into the 1950's (pretty much)...the kids were swimming in the Nehalem, hunting crawdads, riding their bikes down main street, a lone police officer cruised around scolding them for not walking their bikes across the bridge. I am told that it is becoming a bedroom community for Portland, I didn't see it unless it means some scary looking people guarding a gate leading down a long straggly forested drive outside of town.
Oh, Vernonia's claim to fame is that they filmed the Johnny Cash movie, "Ring of Fire" there!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

On The Wheel Again


The time has come to make some things that I want for myself. I threw some tumblers recently and I use them all the time now. In fact I don't really want to use anything else. They make me happy, I am a simple person I suppose but hey - simple works for me....in fact I strive for it! What I like is they way they fit my hand and how they are substantial and blue and I can feel the throwing rings and I signed them and, and, and.....

Friday, July 13, 2007

Cyber Visitors Welcome


I am always surprised when anyone visits my page here and I love to see comments, cyberspace is amazing and too wow sometimes. I fought even getting a computer until a few years ago because I knew I would become a wanna-be nerd. You see, I like to take things apart to see how they work. Things like telephones and vacuum cleaners, but I don't like to put them back together. So a few years ago we got a computer and I'm like a dog with a bone, can't give it up. These people that visit me must be even bigger wanna-be nerds because they know how to do things like put little gadgets into their blog and zipppp - takes you right over to another cyberspace room. When my mind is a little less cluttered with images of what I will throw on the wheel next I plan to investigate how to do that. The thing is, I can't read instructions very good, I just do it and see what happens. This has caused trouble in my life as you can imagine but there you go.

One thing about people coming to see me is that sometimes the house isn't clean, like my crabby blog post about Longview....

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Beach Life


Well, some time ago the couple that owns a local bait and tackle shop said I should show them some of my fish. So today I took some to their shop; The Rusty Hook. It is a nice a large, clean shop with a friendly neighborhood atmosphere to it. Since I don't fish I hadn't been in it before and I think I have been missing a vital link to our community. They took all four fish that I had to show them and they will put them in the shop. I have no great expectations about sales; they are there on commission. That is fine with me, I just like to let the poor guys out of the house for a while! Joe, one of the owners has also asked me to make a large striper (hmmm, will try again!) and to put on it the name of the store....I can only try. I have found that fishermen (and women too) and very, very particular about the size, structure and color of the fish. Getting the right color is probably my biggest challenge.


I really dislike the marketing things....I would much rather be home making things than trying to sell them.


I was selected to participate in a holiday boutique, I just found out on Monday and I have ordered some extra supplies for that. I will be selling the tiles-trivets-installation accent tiles plus some great small clip-on watches that I assemble. They are for clipping onto handbags, backpacks, jeans loops, golf bags, etc. What is so good about this sale is that they do all of the selling, I just deliver the merchandise! YAY.....

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Twisted Longview Washington

Longview, Washington.
Big Deal.
Little People.
Big Stink.
Longview Fibre.
Reynolds Metal.
Weyerhauser.
Many Other Stinky Polluting Industries.
The Original Town Without Pity.
Nice Face; Don't Look Too Deep.

Monday, July 9, 2007

Out on the Lawn

Since returning from a trip to my hometown I have been feeling just a little nostalgic. Parents are gone but I still have family there... The picture is me, I don't know why I am pointing at the ground, maybe I just got new shoes. The real question is why my mother would have to write my name on the photo.
My mother-in-law and I took a walk and she wanted me to take a picture of a sign with names on it about the history of Longview, WA. So I did, I don't know what I will ever do with it except put it on my blog tomorrow. Someone doing genealogy will happen across it and it will be their missing link perhaps!