More Weeds

I did some more intricate bowls yesterday using the burdock leaves.  This one is so big and fragile, I really don't expect it to make it through the first firing.  It is pretty though.

I thought about adding the vine, but ran out of time.  Last night was my daughter's senior night for track and I had to work the event.  Last track meet EVER for me!  whooo hooo!

I liked this one a lot.  It was a more manageable size and I liked how I made the vines intertwine.  It would make a great wedding gift.  I call it the double dipper because it's a perfect size for dips.

I made some more single leaves without the vines.  They add about 50% more time to each piece.  I'm not sure how I'm going to end up pricing them.

Pretty Weeds

I found a nice patch of common burdock or "wild rhubarb" this weekend.  I love this plant!  Since it's considered a weed, it might not always be where I found it from year to year if someone sprayed it.  It looks a lot like rhubarb, but I don't think you can eat it.  It DOES make some fabulous platters and since it is an undesirable plant, no one minds me stopping off the side of the road and picking all I need. 

I got 13 of these guys made yesterday.  

These are smaller for a cheese tray or an appetizer dish

I love the long ones.  Some of the vine handles I pulled are shaped so you can hang them as well

This leaf had a nice wide shape.  It made a fairly deep bowl although the picture doesn't show it well.  I could see using this for serving a salad in.

I can't wait to see them glazed!

Secret Garden - one week late

First of all, I would like to thank my sister and my brother-in-law for helping me get my pictures from my phone to this page.  I would have thrown my phone through the computer screen after about 10 minutes.  I have absolutely NO patience with technology!

Last week I had a show at the Secret Garden in Waynesville.  It was a wonderful small show.  Debbie and Bart have an amazing place on St. Rt. 73 with garden paths, a chapel on a pond, and the most adorable shop with everything you would ever need to decorate your garden - from the usual bird baths and feeders to unusual sculptures, peace poles and whirly gigs. Here's the link to their website:  http://www.secretgardenwaynesville.com/.   Every spring they have an open house and invite the artists that they consign with to come and promote their wares.  There's entertainment by (I'm going to say her name was Gina, but I'm probably wrong).  She is an amazing singer from Oregonia.  We had fried green tomato sandwiches, beer and loaded potatoes and it was just a perfect day for an event.

I had a lot of my own visitors and I appreciated all of them.  Especially Greg who went on a Mike's hard run for me.

Selection of garden decorations

Nice chicken display

I love this

And I was going to add more pictures, but they are gone.  I guess I should step away from the computer now before someone gets hurt.  

Open House at the Secret Garden

Debbie at the Secret Garden will be having an open house tomorrow the 27th from 11 to 6 at 4107 E route 73 near Waynesville, Ohio.  I'll have a booth there with some of my new bird feeders and chalkboard mugs.  Come out and buy a special treat for your mom for Mother's day.

Getting back on the horse

I'm getting back to the studio and trying to do some decal work.  I love how these mugs turned out.  It takes a lot longer to design than I thought it would and my desk looks like a bomb went off on it.  I have a show this weekend at the Secret Garden near Waynesville.  This will be a new show for me and I'm excited to get back to doing some work after Rob's passing.  I need to finish organizing the garage since I'm using my show tables to put the "what is this for?" stuff.

Fear of the Unknown and Procrastination

Have you ever wanted something so bad but then once you got it, you were terrified to use it?  This is the story of my new programmable kiln controller.  (the picture is of my incredibly handy hubby installing it)

When I first started doing pottery, a friend of mine talked me into going to a workshop.  We met in my instructor's garage every Thursday and made pottery for a couple hours a week but this was not nearly enough to satisfy my addiction to mud.  I started in July and by the end of August, I was addicted to Craig's list as well - checking several time a day for an unwanted kiln to find a home in my Gardenhouse.  I had started dreaming of turning the original house that was on our property from being part storage for chicken and pig feed, garden tools and any other unwanted junk to a full time studio.  Eventually in January, Rob and I found a suitable kiln for sale in our price range north of Columbus - about 3 hours a way.  Luckily it was snowing and the truck decided to start stalling out on us about 20 minutes into our trip so after one false start, we were on our way with a van and a trailer and a lot of straps.

They actually had 2 kilns, and they were both huge.  We took the better of the two and 14 shelves and headed back to Maineville.  I was so excited!!!!  Of course then I was so scared because I had never touched a kiln let alone install one.  I was clueless.  It took about a month or two (or 4) for Rob to get it installed and me to have enough wares and nerves to try it out.  It took a few times and a lot of questions but now I am very comfortable with my "Buela" although she takes up a lot of my time.  My kiln is totally manual which means I have to spend 2 hours flipping switches to get it started, and then after waiting 12 hours, I have to spend 2 hours shutting it down so it doesn't cool too quickly.   This does put a cramp in my social life of PTO and high school sporting events (ha!).

So - to get to the point of this tale, I asked for an automatic kiln programmer for Christmas this year.  I was so excited!!!!  I picked it up myself in November, wrapped it, took it to my in-laws on Christmas day, opened it, and ohh and aaauuhhhed about it till the middle of January.   Rob installed it for me and I took all of February making wares once again so I could fill it and figure out how to work this thing - AND working up the courage to try it out.

I did start it up yesterday.  It seemed to be working just fine until the very end.  I got an ERROR reading!!  Apparently I didn't set the backup timer for long enough and it didn't get up to it's final temperature.  Let's hope I don't have to ask as many questions for this!

I'm still excited and a little less scared. One step at a time.

Winter Blues

Ok - I'm done with this weather.  It's way too cold to even begin to work in the studio.  I have had 2 flat tires in 2 weeks, and did I mention I want to work in the studio?  I'm going to be like my Pollyanna friend Heather and Look to the bright side.  My house is clean, I have all of my items done on my resolution list (except start and etsy page), I applied to all the shows I possibly can at this time, and I have had lots of time to think about what I want to work on when I finally get back to the studio.  Specifically some work with graphics and vintage illustrations.

Tomorrow morning I'm helping out with my daughter's Senior class breakfast, always fun to see such a great group of kids. Saturday is her one of her last swim meets.  The weatherman has agreed to be good to me next week and I am looking forward to finally being productive.