Home Depot - No!

The minigama dried before finished. I had to use a drill on it to cut into the sides for the peepholes and into the top to cut a feed-chamber opening. It is so ugly. Maybe I should just start over...what a whiner I am! I'll try chimney pipe for the flue. I hope Orchard Supply Hardware has some chimney pipe the size I want because the thought of Home Depot scares me. I seem to get so out of whack when I go in there. Once I even got so out of whack that I stood in the aisle playing chicken with the big beep-beep vehicle so I could ask him where to find something, I suppose I'm lucky he stopped, or he is...either way it's a dangerous place.

There are fires in Northern California and lastnight the sun was all blurry before it sank into the Pacific; I liked the way it looked.

The photo is one of those Tibetan beads that beckon me...

Revisiting Longview Washington

So... the last time I was in Longview I was not in my "happy place" as my granddaughter says! Not that I was joyous at this visit but it was very nice and pleasant. I walked to the post office and I had my camera. Battery running low of course! I did come up with a few 1/2 way decent photos of the post office.

The Longview Main Post Office is an integral part of the Longview Civic Center. The building is classically influenced, Art Deco in style and faced in red brick and sandstone. Like the other buildings facing the Park, it is compatible in scale, featuring classical aspects of organization, form and elements of entry. The parapet end gables and slate roof of its frontal wing are similar to the library. The interior features a double-height lobby with a barrel-vaulted ceiling, red and black inlaid marble floors, and walnut paneled walls inset with a gold leaf pattern. Constructed as a Depression Era Public Works project, the Post Office was built to aid the local economy during a period of national emergency.

Good to know it hasn't been torn down or redecorated!

Summer To-Do List 2008

I love to make lists...my list for this summer includes the following:

1. Make a tile mural for the wall behind the stove.

2. Make a set of squat vases for someones wedding party - using Shino glaze, yum!

3. Make some 3-D fish for multi media display...twisted roots, rocks and the like.

4. Handbuilt ice cream dishes in happy primary colors.

5. A tray with this image I have in my head that involves a Jacob's Ladder with stars, eyes, etc.

6. Some of those heat/cold therapy neck wraps (I will offer them for sale at the Johnston Holiday House in the fall and they are nice little last minute gifts too.)

7. I had it in my head once and now I lost it but I think it involved making a tray using a sort of patchwork style...fish in the patches, various colors with a pitcher and some tumblers too.

Can a person look at one more dragonfly on a piece of pottery? This little guy is such a nice size, maybe some mints or nuts would be good in it.

Long Time Recovery

This Whipple procedure was a real ordeal and the recovery process is so slow...sometimes the days just drag by for me and I'm sure they do for him as well. It feels like years since life has been normal - normal, hmmm, not sure what that is really! It all started 10 February and hasn't stopped, normal is now different for us. I am gaining weight while he lost nearly 25 pounds in the hospital for a month....the nursery rhyme about Jack Spratt keeps surfacing.

I do, however, have high points and the gas kiln firing was one of them - although it occurs to me to make something more than dragonflies....

Coleman Red Serving Bowl

ReductionfiringMay08 044
Originally uploaded by sheilasthings

The last firing was a good one for me, not only did I get the nice Groeger dragonfly serving dish but the Coleman red glaze on this bowl also turned out great. It isn't a deep, dark red and a few people were disappointed (did the reduction take place too early or too late or wasn't it a heavy enough reduction?), I don't know and don't really care because this is the red I like. I've seen the Coleman Red become almost maroon and that's not the color I'm after.
The rim on this bowl was very, very thin and I like to have a heavier rim for a variety of reasons. I ended up manipulating it and I'm happy with the graceful curves I got. Guess I like it, huh??? Well, yes, I do even though it's just a serving bowl with one glaze.

Dragonfly Serving Dish

Just wanted to post the photo of my dragonfly bowl! It turned out just the way I hoped it would. Cone 10, reduction firing.

I made this for Dr. Eugene Groeger and when the kiln was opened - ta-daaa...I was so happy that it turned out! This summer I'll attempt to make another one or two....and if they turn out like this one - well, I'll be one happy potter!

Our Prestigious Degrees Grant You the Legal Right to be called Doctor

So, I was wondering about the nature of faith and what not having faith must be like. I know that I am always going to be OK no matter what happens in life, that feels right and good to me, I rest in that faith. Then there are others I know that see life as a big fat struggle that they have to "soldier" through, just keep pulling themselves up by those bootstraps, they just hang in there and advise others to hang in there too. Not that I am against hanging in there!
Hmmm, so, if people without faith in anything beyond themselves think that life is great and this world is so great....worldworld, not that world within, if it's all just one big accident, then what makes it so great and why should anyone care about it? If it blows up tomorrow, oh, well, there will be another accident someday, won't there? If there isn't, who cares, it's all just random anyway. I'm just trying to wrap my mind around some things.
If you thought your child was going to die soon (even if that wasn't true) what kinds of things might you do? Would you call them and say I love you, I am praying for your peace, happiness and well being or would you advise them to hang in there?? Both?
I just finished reading the Mitch Ablom book, For One More Day. He writes a lot about death and what it's about for him. I guess it gives a person different ways of looking at it....I wonder was he a good son/father/person in his personal life? Are his books penance? I like reading them, well, I have just read 2 so I'm no expert...
Another thing I am wondering about is the term "Reverend". Who is a Reverend? Are they supposed to be Ph D's, or graduates of theological school? Or can it be just someone that is real holy and revered...
I started reading 3 Cups of Tea today and it's hard to not rush through it, I had to put it away for a while and wonder about "stuff".