cat mugs, version 7.0, 8.0 or something like that....

You will recall last week, Pete was like "make cat mugs, people love them! you could fiddle the rim like a heart mug..." and it had gotten me thinking, indeed. I showed the first couple out of the kiln yesterday, blue pair of bowl and cat mug (sold right away, actually--I am onto something here, hmmm?) and a puppy mug, here are the other experiments fired below. Well, first are the mugs I was finishing yesterday---I had been thinking about a couple of things:
1) first attempts: these are a lot of work, adding faces inside there and all, so I am not gonna do that anymore and
2) Summer was like "how about the handle is a tail????" which I had been wondering about, and decided to go with

****added later that same day, because of confusion: I don't think I explained myself very well at all. I am now making 2 different styles of cat mugs, which I like: seen below here in grey, raw clay, the rim shaped with cat ears, and also the added ears and face on the rim --when you look at the glaze fired pieces pictured further down and see the face INSIDE on the bottom, those are the ones that are too much work :)

SO, what we have is 2 versions of cat mugs I was finishing yesterday here, and there are bowls too...have an awesome weekend!


(new pottery by Gary Rith)

of GODZILLA dragons and GINORMOUS cats....

You will recall, last week Pete was like "can you shape a mug into a cat???" and I tried several ideas. Here are the first! I made a puppy too, wicked cute eh???? I am making more of a different type too, more on that Friday morning,,,,, (THANK YOU PETE! and today I am gonna try to make tails for handles....)

Kasey was like, with pictures "I cut a circle out of bread and made my cat wear it!" and meanwhile, on Jezebel we find that food on your pet is a big new deal, and bread on your cat an especially big deal, as Kasey did....

SOOOoooooo as you might imagine, I wanted to try something like that with my huge cat Spike, and being creative, I was gonna try a bagel. Did NOT work too well, actually.......

FINALLY, below you see the wee wall sculpture I was making, of Godzilla (NOT DRAGONS no no!) and Godzilla's friend having tea...I sculpted them, but made the tiny teapot, cup and saucer on the wheel, as I would a larger teaset....YES, the cup and teapot have faces, so you can wonder if, well, they were human heads first :)

The cat bowl and mug and puppy mugs for sale now at my etsy gallery, lucky you!

holy cats, 20 years ago TODAY!

I am really good with all the little anniversaries, like first met (11/30/1989), first outing (11/28/91), first kinda date--to see Beauty and the Beast (12/13/91) first time first kiss--she was getting on the Halstead bus to go home (1/30/92) and like, of course, as you see BElow, wedding (12/24/92). But goldarnit to hell, I nearly FORGOT A SUPER BIG ONE TODAY: TOGETHER> 2/1/1992 we were TOGETHER. An item! I had a party 1/31/92, and, well, she (the future wife) stuck around late, after, saying "OH! I could, um, help you clean up!".....and you know HOW THAT can, well...anyway...as of the next morning, February 1, we considered ourselves an item. You can wonder all you want at what happened that weekend (YOU FILTHY PREVERTS....I am not gonna tell you any LURID DETAILS), but the day after the party, as I say, we were an US. We had some distant wedding date planned that spring, but, well, July 4th, we were at Kathy's wedding, and were like "shoot, why wait months or years? Let's get married CHRISTMAS!" and we did...but that was 10-11 months after the big ONE...where we learned that we are an item :) Shoot, I am sooooooooooooo lucky to have this gal!

(12/24/1992)


I remember this rather awesome tune on the radio when we got together and...


I remember talking with (the wife) winter of '92, about this album, whose cover, as you recall, had the swimming baby:
she was like "you can see his little winkle!" which cracked me up....

Garyzilla strikes again! And one fact and one dream, chapter 4, we need you!!!

AFTER YOU READ THIS GO TO COMMENTS AND SHARE YOUR FACT AND DREAM!

Rather awesome wall sculpture I made down below, hmm?

I wrote a limerick just now to go with it:

Just as you shell the pistachio or walnut,
Godzilla treats cars like we do a peanut!
Grab a car,
Open it like a jar!
Juicy people inside to fill his gut....

My fact today, as with much of the northern USA, is HANDS down that was the nicest and most mild January EVER. Yesterday was incredible, sunny and nearly 60 degrees. Most of the month was sooooo warm it made me happy....December was too....they say we will pay for it, but last year was VERY wintry, so I think maybe we earned this Here is another fact: I hate that movie GROUNDHOG DAY. That irritating actress Andie something reminds me of...never mind.
I'll tell you what I am dreaming of: in addition to another mild month, as a NEW YORKER I am dreaming of another Giants super bowl, oh yes I am......



(wall sculpture by Gary Rith)
Check out this rather extraordinary video from the Creeping Cruds, a punk bands like a rougher version of the Ramones, awesome visuals too, and so appropriate today...

when pottery meets BLACK COMEDY

But first, a wee HAIKU:

Godzilla eating
A tasty human being
Is hilarious!

I have to admit a thing or 2: I am not really into dragons and sh!t. Dragons have their place, but I really prefer cheesy, campy, destructive and awesome Godzilla and crappy B movie science fiction and toys from my childhood (see Beastie Boys video below, that is what I mean--they have the same inspiration). It is different, liking that stuff for a laugh and its aesthetic humor, compared to loving fantasy.

You know I have made a lot of monsters lately, but last Sunday night I was falling asleep, and you know this is why there is paper at the bedside: I start laughing, wake up, and tell the wife
"what if Godzilla was holding a bowl full of people to snack upon, like doritos????" and I doodled it out, as you see below. The appeal, to me as a potter and sculptor, is making a tiny little bowl on the wheel, as I would any other bowl, and incorporating it...hilarious indeed!
Last night I was like
"monsters having a teaparty???"


(pottery and sketch by Gary Rith)

getting ready for St. Pat's.....

In my family, our background is, OH, a little Hungarian maybe, a little German maybe (the last name is German protestant), a lot of Welsh for sure (therefore my compact height!), a small sprinkling of English and then maybe you have some protestant Northern Irish, and the biggest dose of all, using math and applied physics, Irish Catholic--you look back, and see YES, the great-grandfather was a cop in NY city, typical, typical..... We all know that there are a) a whole lot more people of Irish ancestry in the US and Canada than there are in Ireland, and also that b) Ireland is an unusual country, from what I understand, in that there are many fewer people living there now than 100 plus years ago. They had good reason to leave alright, and I am, like so many other North Americans, a huge mixed jumble of ancestral material, but since I can pick and choose when I feel like it, I can, for example, a) hugely enjoy German beer (I used to love Irish and English beers too, until I found out they are made with FISH GUTS, which is illegal in Germany) and b) hugely enjoy English literature and c) hugely enjoy Hungarian pastry and d) hugely enjoy, ah, um, err, being compact thanks to the Welsh bits (ride a bus or plane--the compact people aren't uncomfortable--although I am 5'8" or 9", the downside to compact is needing a stool in the kitchen to reach the upper kitchen shelves)

and, of course, e) hugely enjoy Irish stuff. Americans love to pick and choose all their favorite Irish stuff! Like WHISKEY! Like THICK WOOLY SWEATERS! I also love Irish breakfast tea, my favorite, and McCann's original-takes-forever steel cut oatmeal for breakfast. I'd love to go to Ireland. I was talking to Goofy Kim Saturday and she wants to visit our mutual friend Denis in Africa, and her niece is going there this summer and she is like "I want to GO BACK to Africa myself, and see them" and

I am like "No WAY...bugs, snakes, malaria, ebola, all that crap. I wanna go to some of those snake-free places, like Ireland". I mean, you look at the green hills, and you imagine yourself in the wooly sweater wandering around amongst the cows and sheep and rain with your cup of tea....pretending you are a very handsome Aidan Quinn, Liam Neeson or Michael Fassbender...the best spoken accents on the planet? IRISH. So silky and lyrical!

Anyway, I used to make Irish soda bread all the time. It is so easy and tasty, easier to make than yeast bread. BUT, my 2 recipes call for milk and butter, and for several years I have had the dairy allergy and not made them. Until Sunday. I was like "what if I use rice milk and margerine?" Flippin' PERFECTO!

Here is the simpler of my 2 Irish soda bread recipes. The other has raisens etc in it, a good breakfast loaf, this one is just brown. I have had the recipe so long I don't know where it came from, but she explains that Irish flour is a lot more coarse than American, therefore all the wheat germ and bran she adds here.

Preheat oven to 350 and place cookie sheet in there to warm---or like me, use your iron skillet.

In an enormous mixing bowl, add 2 cups whole wheat flour, 2 cups white flour, 1.5 cups wheat bran, 1 cup wheat germ, 1.5 teaspoon baking soda and 1.5 teaspoon salt (I never add salt though)

Cut up half a stick butter (I use margerine, as I say) and mix into flour etc. with your fingertips, mixing everything together that way. Stir in 2 1/4 cup buttermilk (I used rice milk this time, as I say--next time I will add a spoonful or 2 of lemon juice for a buttermilk tang). Turn out onto counter, knead a few times into a nice round loaf, flatten a bit. Pull out heated bake sheet or skillet, lay dough in, cut a deep cross across the top and bake 30 minutes, pull out and rotate around then bake a further 30 minutes. Put onto cooling rack covered with a clean dish towel for at least an hour before slicing. Great any way you want, with cheese, butter, jam whatever!

Speaking of awesome Irish Americans, loooove Dropkick Murphys...this live clip in Bahston has all these women dancing onstage...my niece has been a student at Hahvad these last few years, and looking on stage here, you are like..."is that.....?"....but maybe not, all young women look the same anyhow.....

Had a glaze firing Sunday, this is the before and after on top...looking pretty good....

new work :)

You hear me talking about applying for a gallery show of wall pieces...whether I get the gig or not, I sure am having fun making wall sculptures....


(new pottery and sculpture by Gary Rith)

when dog lovers come over.....

Maggie and Katie came over Saturday, my absolute bestest pals....my dogs and cats were especially glad to see them :)
Have an awesome Sunday!