New Mugs

 I made these mugs to test a new glaze idea.....and to use my new braille stamp (love it!).
I was planning to get a really good picture of them but I just sold them!  Which is good.....still wish I had a better picture though!
They were actually a bit more blue than brown ....and there were little thin brownish swirls that don't show up very well in this photo.  There's also a dent where the handle attaches....so your knuckles won't feel cramped (or hot) as you hold the mug.  The braille stamp is in the small turned up place on the base.  
I really, really like them and I'll make more....perhaps I'll keep one for myself!

Pretty Fairy Houses

My sister, Annie, and I worked on fairy houses today...they can sit on a string of Christmas lights or have a tea light inside.
These were so much fun to make...each one is different!
I think they'll be glazed with a clear bluish glaze that really shows off all the intricate detail (although salt would be nice)...it was a totally fun day!

Saint Milburga Fount

Today I made a Saint Milburga fount.....she's the patron saint of songbirds.
Birds would listen to her when she asked them to avoid damaging crops....she had the gift of healing, caused springs to appear, created beautiful gardens at her abbey in Wenlock...... and she could levitate!
I've decided to do a series of founts...some saints, some goddesses but  all will have something to do with water.
I don't think I'll raku them (don't really know how I'm going to glaze them).
 Perhaps no glaze.
Salt would be nice.
Alas...no salt kiln.
Pity.

New Pasta Plates

These are so pretty in real life...they're black and dark, dark, brown and a mottled bluey gray...I love them!!!

Braille Signature Stamp

It's here!!
My signature stamp.! I had it made by 4clay when they were at the Dillsboro Pottery Festival.  They were so nice to work with and really fast getting it to me....It has my initials in braille so that I can stamp my pottery.....and there's a dog on the handle!
How cool it that?
When my dog, Rufus, went blind I decided I would start using braille to sign my pots.  He was such a great studio dog...he loved to be right next to the wheel or under the slab table while I was working.  Things just aren't the same without him...but now, everytime I stamp a pot I'll think of him.  This is a good thing.

Dillsboro Luminary Preparations

The little town of Dillsboro has two luminary weekends in December (6th and 7th...14th and 15th)....a tradition started almost 30 years ago as a thank you to the town from the merchants.
It is truly super cool! White lights outline all the shops....white candlelit bags line the streets.....there are carolers (real singers from WCU), Santa, ice skating, cookies, hot cider and the last night....fireworks...pure Christmas magic!!!!

Justin (who is young and spry...and available), from the Choclate Factory across the street (where they make the most delicious you-must-eat-this peppermint truffle), is going to hang our icicle lights....until then Annie and I have started decorating what we can reach on the ladder...behold the windows!!

Emily, our niece, came and scraped the fall trees off the windows and helped string cotton balls (snow).....a really troublesome activity for those of us with bad vision.  Now we have Narnia windows....5 of them!
Annie's working on little white lantern houses that will go along the windowsills....can't wait, can't wait!

If you happen to be sitting around feeling all Scroogy the weekend of the 6th or the 14th, you should jump in the car and come to Dillsboro, NC....there's a beautiful, funky, hand-built inn on the river (where the fireworks should be crazy amazing!).  The Dillsboro Inn (google it! Dillsboroinn.com)...such an amazing place.... it won't be long before I just walk across the street one night and book a room.
.....But....wait, wait there's more!.....beautiful mountains, to die for sunsets (and for those of you who never sleep....crazy surreal sunrises) wonderful people, great restaurants and, of course, one-of-a-kind shops....come to Dillsboro and Christmas shop, make some memories.....you will love it and so will everyone you give presents to!!!

Asintmah

 It's taken some time but I've finally finished Asintmah!  She's hanging at Rabbit Creek Pottery with some smaller saints and goddesses.  The leaves on the other side of her grotto are all coppery and fallish looking.....I'm very pleased with her!

Here's a very condensed version of her story....in case you've forgotten:

Asintmah

Athabaskan Goddess

Asinthmah was the first woman to walk the earth.  

As midwife to the earth she wove a blanket of fireweed flowers for a cover and sang to ease the pain of the earth giving birth to the animals.

                                                                         “Thus was the earth populated from woman’s art and woman’s song.” 

The Goodbye

A Parting Prayer

Dear Lord, please open your gates
and call St. Francis
to come escort this beloved companion
across the Rainbow Bridge.

Assign him to a place of honor,
for he has been a faithful servant
and has always done his best to please me.

Bless the hands that send him to you,
for they are doing so in love and compassion,
freeing him from pain and suffering.

Grant me the strength not to dwell on my loss.
Help me remember the details of his life
with the love he has shown me.
And grant me the courage to honor him
by sharing those memories with others.

Let him remember me as well
and let him know that I will always love him.
And when it's my time to pass over into your paradise,
please allow him to accompany those
who will bring me home.

Thank you, Lord,
for the gift of his companionship
and for the time we've had together.

And thank you, Lord,
for granting me the strength
to give him to you now.

Amen.

- © Brandy Duckworth, 1998

On Loss And Neutral

I forget that all people don't realize how fragile raku pottery can be...and so this beautiful angel is no more.
It's a pity...I was rather pleased with her.

Which reminds me....

Dear Jenny,
Never be too pleased, or too proud or too happy.
It will go away and then you will feel a loss.  Try to always stay neutral....
...think beige.
Love,
The Universe

Neutral is not my nature but I must say, I am exhausted from the losses.....so I think I will try to give neutral a little more energy.

Beige can be quite nice with a splash of turquoise!
...or perhaps turquoise is much more interesting against a beige background....

New Mug Ideas

 I've been working on finding a favorite mug shape and then adding something you don't see every day...like sgraffito!
These still aren't finished.....they'll get glaze on the insides and the little one will have glaze on the bottom.  I've made several more of both shapes and still another shape that is sort of a taller version of the short one...sort of.
 I think they'll all have a different design on them...but still go together.

I still don't have a favorite though.

                  I really like the bottoms!

Summer Break

I've had a nice three weeks off from school....most of it I spent in beautiful Atlanta.


I did go to an incredible raku workshop with Charlie Riggs (raku artist extraordinaire) in SC where I made these...naked two step raku wall buttons....I have great plans for this process!


....and these...ferric chloride wall buttons.....this was a seriously fun and somewhat dangerous process....but, my mom has a respirator (for dying things with lye....'cause that's just what 80 year old women do) so I'll be using that and making very cool things.







I also got in some raku with my friend in Winder and finished these icon boxes!

...and then I drove back up to NC...where two turkeys were standing outside my front door. Apparently they spent the past three weeks admiring their reflections in the door because they made me a turkey poop door mat....lucky me!

Funky Salt Fired Syrup Pitcher

Remember this odd pitcher I made a while back?




Well.....check it out after it came out of the salt kiln...rather unusual, quite orange and somewhat funky...although still retaining it's original oddness!

(I think pancakes might be in order.)

Saint Giles Icon

Saint Giles is the patron saint of protection from night terrors and fear of the dark.
When this icon is finished the crescent moon part of his face will be a shiny metallic gold or silver (depending on the weather and any number of other things) and there will be a sprinkle of metallic dots ...like the milkyway...in the background. I think I'll use a glaze that looks sort of like an oil spill for the outside of the box...hopefully, it will turn out all sparkly, dreamy-peaceful like!

I think these make a really cool and unique baby gift to hang in the nursery.

Pretty Little Wine Cups...Finished!

 Remember these?


Well, I fired two of them in the ancient, sort of held together with chains, salt kiln.....

...and they came out like this!

...so, I tried a few more glaze ideas and started the old kiln up again today.
I should be able to open it Wednesday......can't wait, can't wait!

Extra Pretty Wings

 Ohhh! I just love, love, love the way these wings turned out!  I'm really excited about the way the colors on the leaves change from one tree to the other....
I seldom make wings before I make the angel they will belong to but this time I did....now I need to make just the right angel....hmmmm

Summer Solstice Fern Icon

Eventually, I'm going to make cards for the five sacred summer solstice plants (like the winter solstice cards...see the 1/30/2013 post) but while I wait for my pen muse to visit I made a raku icon for the first of them....fern (because the clay muse seems to visit more frequently than the pen muse...and it's almost time to eat fiddleheads...yum!)
To give someone the gift of a fern is to give them the hope of confidence, shelter, wealth and happiness....and, as an added bonus, protection from lightning damage!...so, give someone a fern......better yet buy this one and give it to someone you love and care about.
She's 48.00 and on the back has a hanger to hang her (!) on the wall...otherwise, she'll join my other pieces at Gallery 262 on Main Street in Waynesville, N.C.


...my small icons (like this one) are approximately 4" X 2 1/2" and have a tiny (get out your readers) handwritten card with their story included

Cold, Snowy Glaze Day And Saint Brendan

Monday was windy and cold and snowy.  I stayed home from school because I wasn't sure I'd make it up my road later that evening.....I probably wouldn't have.....it just kept snowing...all through Tuesday...and then it was all gone!

I did get some glazing done on several raku pieces I've been working on.  Hopefully the new Raku kiln will be here soon and I can fire them!
I also made a Saint Brendan icon....he's the patron saint of older adventurers.....
When he was 80 he set sail from Ireland to find the promised land.....he didn't find it but he did have a picnic on a whale's back (I do love saint stories)!
When he's finished the little compass will be hanging from the bottom of the box.

P.S.... he's looking through a spyglass...not chugging wine!

Pretty Little Wine Cups...Part 2

I think this is the second most ugly stage of glazing....the worst being the actual glaze...ugly, ugly, ugly!  Hopefully we'll get the salt kiln working soon and I can finish these.
In the meantime I'm going to keep making them because I like them and it's just dirt...and time...and when my hands are busy I don't think so much....

I Don't Know, I Don't Even Know

My entire class, except Helen and myself, have been in Texas at a clay convention most of the week and we have been left to our own devices....
Helen's making a huge tile wall hanging that covers much of the studio floor....me....I made this teapot...an odd combination of a much cooler pot a visiting artist made (Charity Davis-Woodard), an avocado that turned into an octopus (something I made for design class) and a pot that started as a vase but met with a mishap when I tried to lift it off the wheel.....
"I don't know, I don't even know" (something said frequently by a dazed friend from Alabama when he visited us in the Oz-like Little Five Points part of Atlanta).

Pretty Little Wine Cups

I've had a few bad wheel days...mostly I've thrown more clay into the reclaim bucket than into actual pots....but today my muse settled into my space and ideas started flowing.  These cups are the beginning of one...I think I like the shape of the one in the middle the best...the carved design was inspired by the the handle of my favorite silverplate knife and some zentangles.  I'm thinking I will fill the carving in with black slip, make the inside a pretty color, fire them in the salt kiln....for some funk...
and then have a glass of wine!

Anyone Want To Buy A Coffee Mug (or two)?

I only have six of these mugs left for sale. They are dishwasher and microwave safe and they hold about 12 oz of your favorite hot beverage.  The inside is a nice amber honey color and the outside is a greenish weathered copper.  These are class projects so I am selling them for less than I would my other work....15.00 for one mug or 25.00 for two and a 3.00 shipping fee.  If you're interested (please be interested...it will help me pay tuition), you can email me your mailing address (375.jenny@gmail.com) and let me know how many you would like and I'll send them to you with a SASE that you can send back to me with a check.

Keep checking my blog because I'll have more mugs and bowls and teapots for sale soon!

Glazed Pottery....Finally!

At last...glazed pots!
It's taken me forever to try and find combinations of glazes that I like...I'm fairly pleased with these although I'm not sure what made me put little squares on everything...I'm usually more of a spiral person....
I started two more kiln loads today with different glaze combinations (same square pattern though)....hopefully I can unload them tomorrow before spring break starts......

A Day Off And No Monkeys

I woke up to this!  No school today, which is a real problem since I have 20 mugs that need to be trimmed and have the handles attached.....perhaps they won't dry out too much before Thursday.....
Since my internet appears to be working today, I think I'll try and figure out mail chimp.....I believe I've mentioned, several times, that I've always stayed away from anything that involves a monkey....I had a disturbing experience when I was 9 with a monkey, a tennis lesson and a lady tennis instructor who looked just like Johnny Cash.....the whole thing was horrible and no one would believe it...however, I do have a witness...my sister, who was 6 and going through a "phase" (according to my mother, my sisters and I went through quite a lot of these) where she wore a huge, rotting Victorian straw hat with faded flowers and frayed ribbons (I think there was the remnant of a veil too).... it was a gift from a neighbor boy....not the same neighbor boy that sat on his back porch with a bucket on his head (now, there's a good story that I should try and remember to mention sometime) and told everyone her name was Hortense...which it wasn't but she was so serious....even in the humongous hat....and really what 6 year old could make up a name like that?
Soooo.....we'll see about this mail chimp....I just hope it doesn't have a monkey logo I have to look at every time I use it....or, God forbid, a monkey logo that gets attached to my emails......

Hinge Issue

This was an idea for design class....the foam board project.  I decided to do a different thing for that but I liked the idea of this tree box so I made it out of clay....now I can't figure out how to make hinges for the doors...perhaps I'll just leave them off and hang a little clay bird inside....

First Of The Teapot Assignment

Teapot #1
There's really not much to say....except that lids are a pain!

The Wheel That Never Stops

...well, not unless you unplug it.  I've electrocuted myself several times in this house so I've been a little nervous to try this ancient wheel....wet hands pulling a taped up cord out of the socket just seems dangerous....but my mom was here weaving and she's a nurse so I figured it was a good time to try it out.
I made a mug!
First I had to throw the clay on the wheel, then jump up and plug in the cord, then back around to center the clay and make the mug....trimming it was another adventure since it always starts in super fast speed....perhaps I need an assistant!

Little Icons

I stayed home from school today because it was snowy outside and because I have the most horrible cold!
I got a bit antsy after awhile so I made some little icons...the one that looks like chocolate is a new clay I'm trying out....it's suppose to turn a nice black color when it's fired...and believe it or not....it's called cassius clay.

Design Class

Along with clay classes I also take a design class.  We're making models of tables or stools (and now, apparently, anything really) out of poster board that we will then make larger out of foam board....I'm not sure why.  
Anyway these are my first attempt at the paper models....which are due, to scale (?), next class..... so I need to stop this nonsense and get to work measuring and snipping paper.

Then I'll need to vacuum paper bits and locate bandaids...
I'm just not an exacto knife kind of person.

Dear Jenny, Please Glaze Your Pots.

Here's the thing....glazing is not my favorite activity.  You put a green glaze on a white pot and it dries brown and comes out of the kiln yellow....I just can't seem to wrap my brain around this so I'm making more pots and letting them all pile up while I await the grand aha.

On the home front.....I pushed furniture around and climbed up on top of things and balanced half on the banister while hanging on to the ceiling and dismantled the horrid smoke alarm that has beeped for three days.....quiet at last!

Glaze Test and the Smoke Alarm

Since the reduction kilns are still in progress, I'm trying out cone 10 glazes in oxidation....these mugs are some tests I did.  The brown one is a more amber color in person and coffee looks really pretty in it...the green one has nice crackles going on in the inside and the blue one in the back starts out green at the rim and then looks like blue glass melted in the bottom of the mug...it's nice but a bit narrow.
Now, about the smoke alarm....it started beeping at 2 this morning....I stumbled around for a while trying to figure out which alarm was going off...no luck...too much echo, too much delay between beeps and too sleepy to pinpoint it.
After a few hours of not at all good sleep I got up and discovered it was the alarm that some dingbat put at the top of the stairs.  I can't even begin to figure this one out...where should I put the ladder (if I even had a ladder) when there's no wall to lean it against.....and this just in....the ceiling is vaulted so a really larger than life ladder is needed.
I was hoping it would wear itself out while I was at school today...no such luck.....6 PM and still going strong.
I'm so not amused.

Salt Kiln!

Here's the new salt kiln....with a chimney and a coat of paint on the frame.

Can't wait, can't wait!

Kiln Progress

 Another kiln building day.  This is Missy and Steve cutting bricks so that the cart rolls in to a taper....it's tedious work ( none of the bricks are really the exact size) but.....new kilns will be amazing!!!

More Mugs

Well....apparently, it's not 10 matching mugs I need to make ...it's 12.
I spent today working on trimming and handles...lots of trimming and handles.  The mugs don't exactly match but then they were not made by a machine or in a mold...they were made by me on a I-think-I'm getting-a-cold kind of day.
Here's 12 of the mug I decided on....and a mug for a friend's grandbaby and some salt and pepper shakers. (I got the idea for the shakers from a great blog I found...finemesspottery.blogspot.com....you should check it out)
I am most tired.

Mugs

I'm suppose to make 10 matching mugs for an assignment....so, I've been trying out several ideas....
I'm thinking I like the tall narrow ones on the left....although, the little round one is awfully friendly looking....

Snow Goddess

This past weekend we had a bit of snow...two days of snow!
So, I slid down my road on my saucer sled (that I bought to use as a form for a large clay platter) with my big dog Rufus anxiously slipping along behind me, to my sister's house.
We used the sled to gather snow and made a snow goddess!  My parents came out and added a few touches, Rufus got to
meet one of dad's goats, we all had a turn, or two, on the sled...it was lovely.

Kiln Building

We've started building the new kilns at school!  The almost finished one in the background is the salt kiln...next the car kiln (which just looks like a pile of bricks) then the raku kiln (!) and then a few more.....now, if the weather would only cooperate....

Six Sacred Plants of The Winter Solstice

For my final in design class last semester I had to make a series of at least 5 designs.  I drew mandalas of the 6 sacred plants of the winter solstice...wheat for abundance, evergreen for prosperity, oak for strength, ivy for honor, mistletoe for health, and holly for protection. I liked them so much (apparently my instructor did too...I got an A) that I had them printed on cards.  I posted them on facebook and sold all of them in one day!  I thought I'd reprint them and put them on my blog.  There are six cards (about 4x4) with envelopes, one for each plant, with a short description on the back.  They're tied with a pretty brown ribbon and they are 22.00...which includes shipping.
Here's how I'm doing this....you send me your address (375.jenny@gmail.com) and how many sets of cards you would like and I'll send you the cards with a SASE and you can mail me a check.
I totally lost my mind trying to add a paypal button to facebook and my blog so this is my low tech approach...besides, it feels more friendly.

Saints Bisqued In Cat Pee

These are Saints Rose, Milburga, Catherine, and Urban...and a summer solstice sacred plant icon (fern).  Since my kiln is in Atlanta and I am not, and moving bone dry clay is never a good idea, I asked my sister (who lives just down the road) to bisque them in her kiln.  Alas, and did her cat not pee (you would need to have sung in a church choir as a child to get the reference) upon the kiln shelves.  The pee burnt off in the bisque but the smell filled her home....and much of the mountain.
You never know though...cat pee could be the missing ingredient in amazing raku colors...I'll keep you posted!