Yes, Sir That's My Baby!

Sweet Sabina Folding Floor Loom.

We don't know each other yet, I suppose you could say it is an arranged marriage. I think I will love her and I can only hope the same applies back to me.

I have cleaned her up; still more to do, she needs a little bit of care but she's not a fixer-upper at all. She doesn't weigh much but she HATES being moved. It was very surprising how she bucked and swayed to get away while coming up the stairs, thought I might lose her a couple of times!

So I told my friend to warn me if I started to get crazy with the "pretty-on-sale" yarn. She asked what were the parameters for buying yarn? Well, I guess I should know what I'm going to make with it when I buy it, not just buy it because it's so pretty and the price is very good and it will cost double that next week and all of that kind of nutty thinking. Is forewarned forearmed like they say? We'll see...

Not Another Hobby!

Well, after much angst I have decided to accept the offer of a loom and learn once again to weave. My hobbies are such space-eaters. I am going to start doing some very serious de-stashing...to make room for yarn, uh, I didn't say that.

My Tibetan beads don't take up much room so I can keep them, and paper, well, how big is paper, really? I'll toss out old repetitive genealogy papers that I've stored on the computer. Hmmm, books, yes, I'll need instruction books for weaving again but I can get rid of my small collection of collectible books. Besides, they aren't really all that collectible.

I've requested these books at Paper Back Swap; Warp and Weave by Robert Leclerc and Weavers Book by Harriet Tidball.

I'm not much interested in formulating my own glazes so I may donate my raw materials to Skyline Community College if they want them.

Who needs the out-dated old glass top coffee table anyway?

Ugh, that horrid lamp; out it goes!

Scrap material will go to Judy for her quilt creations.

The misc. dishes, yes, I have lots of those that someone must want.

My pottery this-and-that; no one even wants cool hummingbird feeders anyway....

Probably no one wants cool handmade shaving mugs either but I simply must make a few more before I'm done. Before I'm done....

Las Vegas is Hot..What Else is New?

Gripe, gripe, gripe, too cold here, too hot there! Now it's hot here too, back home at the beach...September and October are the best times of the year here in case anyone is interested.

I made a jade green matte glaze, hmmm, it isn't so matte, it's kind of shiny. Never mind, it's not an ugly color and I kind of like it.

Green, Irish, frogs, they just seem to go together so nice so I put them all together. This is one jar...urn...container...lidded vessel that I'm very happy with. The lid fits like a dream and it's just a good size and everything. Can't resist playing with it, hence the frog, beach glass and Irish pendant!

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...

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.

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!

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!