Thursday, August 21, 2008

Have I Said It Has Been a Damp Summer?


Well, it has and I'm leaving, I am going "over the hill" to the Bay side of the Peninsula for the weekend. Nice retreat with friends...then off to Vegas, baby.

Here is the view I had this morning, nice, huh? It was like this all day, haven't had fog like this for quite a few years now.
I threw 2 fairly good sized pots this week, kinda heavy but they look real *purdy*. Then I poked them around a little bit...trying to loosen up my work. So hard to do, I struggled to learn my perfection and it's hard to give it up...

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Learning to Throw and All That Clay Talk

I learned how to throw pots on the wheel in Illinois at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey; just a great big jump from the Mississippi River, near Alton which is across the Mississippi from St. Louis. OK, geography lesson done.

Don Scott was a graduate student at SIUE and he was also teaching at above named college.


We mixed our own clay in an old clay mixer and what a pain it was to clean. All I wanted was to learn to throw on the wheel and I think I was the last one that learned. People just taking the class for credit to graduate learned and went on and I'd look at them and wonder what was wrong with me. So, in order to get anything fired we first had to prove we could center, pull a cylinder, and make it 6" tall. Ugh. Anything else was a waste of clay according to our student instructor! Oh, I learned to make things neat and tidy around the base so that very little trimming was necessary too. I learned so many good solid skills, things I use today; he was a clay drill marshall all right. And I'm still a clay geek after all these years, I wonder if he is too...I don't know.


Don would sit down at the wheel, plunk down a 5 or 10+ pound ball of clay and make absolutely enormous, thin, beautiful vessels. This all with a cigarette dangling from his mouth...in class no less. Ha, we smoked and joked and it was all great and then we became grandparents and it is even better, minus the smoking, you know! This is one of his pots I've had for so long I can't even remember back that far. I broke it during one of our many moves and that's why it look a little tired, because it is! I won't move it again, it has been a good and loyal pot to sit on my shelf so long.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Three on a Match


I keep making these embarrassing mistakes, 3 in a row now so maybe I'm done. I offered someone one of my prize red fish and then realized that I showed the wrong picture, the other one is similar but not the same and they didn't want the other one. Is there a hole somewhere I can crawl into?
I blew up a piece in my kiln that another person was waiting for, it will take forever to get another one made and dry, it is so lousy cold and damp here. I should be in Summerlin at the pool, can't wait until Labor Day.
Oh, then I am a free-cycler too, and had some trellises I'll never use and offered them to a lady but didn't give her my address. DUH...what is going on?
One month a few years back I spent about a full day waiting for someone to come unlock my car on various days. I locked my keys in my car 3 times that month! I haven't locked my keys in my car previously for over 20 years and then, BAM, BAM, BAM.
I know I'll get over this I am just beating myself up for being so un-mindful and it's kind of scary too. Get it together, Sheila!

Monday, August 18, 2008

Mermaiden


I bought her, isn't she great? A friend, Linda Fahey makes these mermaid-ens. She can't give them up easily but she was ready to let this one find its way into my world. Her hand was broken when I brought her home. I did such a terrible job fixing it, I seem have this glue problem.

I think she intimidates my husband, he kind of shies away from where ever I place her. Well, she does have some atitude and how brazen to hang around my house topless too!

I begin class tomorrow.

I plan to make some ceremonial vessels.
Oh, and back to teapots too!

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Let The Journey Begin

More boats of course. Because who can make just one? I have this armada in mind. How many is an armada? One more thing to look up. We have to pick out the boat for our journey, which one fits us best? And off we go, no oars or rudder, just shove off into the deep water and let our boat take us where it will. The little turquoise one has a heart glued into it. Now I can't get it off; E6000 is a better glue when I don't want it to be...


Sunday, August 10, 2008

My Love Affair With Gillian Welch!!


I have fallen in love with Gillian Welch. It's kind of a secret, some people just wouldn't understand and who needs to explain anymore? I don't know anything about her except her music from Hell Among the Yearlings and so of course, I think I know her. It's never that simple though is it? Her song on this album, My Morphine reminds me how anything can become my morphine....

One other thing, I have become a terrible snoop, I read other peoples blogs. There is a woman in my town that has a blog on Blogger also. I started to read her blog and she seems like me, that you forget that other people can read your blog and see into your private feelings and life. I wonder what I might say if I ever met her face to face...

I have made more little boats.

I am busy on the computer too much.

My husband doesn't know how to do birthdays; other peoples birthdays that is...

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Big Little Boat


Big Little Boat
Originally uploaded by sheilasthings
Well, I sanded this big little boat to make it distressed and old looking. There is a SKULL under the prow. It doesn't look like a pirate boat at all but I couldn't resist the skull. The little white beads just make it So Special!
I'm not sure if the fish is protecting the boat or if it's like the whale in the story of Jonah and the Whale....about to swallow it up.

Friday, August 1, 2008

New Pitcher Style


I made this different kind of pitcher. Fun.

Boat update; boats fresh from the kiln, bisque fired. How to finish them now? Glaze, paint, embellish?