like splitting and stacking 2 cords of wood....

(2 seconds ago, really!)
Yesterday, I push it. If you throw a million cups and bowls, then they are drying and you have to finish them, and I just did (the caffeine count was HIGH until 3 pm...) but I am some kinda physical wimp---I get exhausted sometimes making dozens of pots--just like if I had to split and stack stove wood, which i did for the ten years we lived in New Hampshire. So like NOW I am loafing in bed with the baby top computer and Emily cat and Penny dive in with me.....
dinner probably gonna be nachos and beer today.....

a pack of bichons and poodles....

(mugs by Gary Rith)
Store in Chicago contacts me and asks if i can do bichons and poodles, of course I can! Even if I have not before. You just make stuff a little more curly, right?
Penny beagle was looking cute. Then Emily kitten arrived, and Penny looked alarmed. Then Goerges Le Soq arrived and Emily looked alarmed....
have an awesome Tuesday :)

"dreaming of better bone-on"

That was the subject of an unread spam from Miss Angela. It was probably meant for my dogs. This blog was also visited by a fellow calling himself "the old geezer" who says he favorited my blog and I should favorite his too. I looked at his blog. I don't think he looked at mine too carefully and I doubt if we have much in common. His posts are all about dressing modestly and asking whether Christians drink. The original Christian drank wine, Catholics and Anglicans drink in their service every week, others on occaision, and sure, some people can't handle alcohol, but others pray with it. I passed on the geezer to Miss Angela, I am sure he could help her out with her modesty.
Groovy vase and mug eh? Have an awesome Monday!

Subaru Saturday....

I drove a million miles all over NY state last week, delivering items here and there. A week ago we drove past the community where I went to high school, and the car lot where we have bought all our cars (even when we lived out of state) there was a 72 VW bug. I looked it up online when we got home. For kicks. Only 4 thou! The car lot has been there 44 years. The owners are still youthful, but suddenly very grey---they were my neighbors when I was in school, and their daughter Heather (A KNOCKOUT) was a year ahead of me, Lisa, (awesome) in my grade, and son Peter 2 years younger than me. We like and trust this family car dealer and he gives you a guarentee on a used car.

The town where I ended my high school career and where my parents have lived for decades is about an hour and a half from our place, but I went over Tuesday night to look at cars. I was talking to the wife about VWs on the cell while I was there. She was NOT going for the VW idea. She really really wanted to think more like little sedan subaru.
The point with our old green subaru outback is this: it just passed inspection, and we either keep it until it collapses (and in recent months it has suddenly developed a lot of rust and strange smells, noises and leaks) or try to trade it in while it is worth a few bucks. Our last car collapsed into a noisy heap in the driveway, and was towed off as a donation to the kidney foundation.
We took the last drive in the green outback yesterday morning and bought the new (to US!) used silver subaru sedan. Holy cats it is sharp and the price was excellent, and it has new tires and brakes and feels new. The green car never let us down. But it was time. And we stayed with subaru because they never let us down, and this is a snowy place---you really like that all wheel drive.
So we took our first road trip to Purity Ice Cream, which for the first time ever has ice cream I can eat, dairy free soy! I had cookie dough and holy cats tis good...

happy Saturday ya'll :)

Georges Le Soq murders Stanley Zuccini for breakfast!

We were over at my buddy Tracy Helgeson's in Cooperstown last Saturday, which I told you about here on this blob. She served us some KICK AZZ zuccini bread and gave me the recipe (and the biggest damn zuccini I have ever seen, named Stanley Zuccini). Zuccini bread was probably invented because zuccinis suddenly take over a gardener's life every August. So you have zuccini stir fry, zuccini bread, zuccini fritters and make zuccini relish so you can eat it all year long.

This morning my rotten French scok monkey Georges Le Soq pulls out a big knife, and I see him sneaking up on Stanley Zuccini, who was having coffee and checking his facebook updates. Georges does his Jack the Ripper thing on Stanley, who was really quite HUGE, and then he is like
"Mon ami, we need to, how you say, dispose of le body. Get a wood zipper."
"Wood chipper you mean???" and he is like
"YES! Le chipper." and I am like
"Georges, I think a vegetable shredder will work fine...and GOD, I sure hope your probation officer doesn't see this..."

Glenn Beck: NOT MLK

A petite haiku for the tea bagger rally at the Lincoln Memorial on the anniversary of MLK's I HAVE A DREAM speech:

The American Way?
Glenn Beck's hatred and lies
Make him very rich.

between the tigers and the penguins...

Oh golly what a day what a week what a busy month! Yesterday I did 2 road trips. Early yI restocked the shelves at the excellent Aurora Art and Design Center. My display and shelves looks tres good, eh?
THEN I had been invited to spend the evening in Binghamton at the Ross Park Zoo selling pots. They have a clever fund raiser: called Feast with the Beasts--for 35-45 bucks people could buy a ticket and wander the zoo all evening...and eat and drink all they wanted. Wineries, breweries, restaurants all set up all over the place and folks just wandered around helping themselves, and there were artists like me for them to see too. You can see why I was invited, what with all the little animals I put on pots.
There were these 2 pissed off tigers pacing around and you wonder what they wanted (my leg? my head or an arm, or maybe all of me???? or maybe some of the wine?) and the wee little penguins spent the evening at the door to their little house. They have great ponds and a waterfall, but they are used to going in at 5 (to watch the news and have a sardine supper perhaps?). Then this flamingo, or flamingo-ish bird, was hanging around me, all his buddies nearby, and you sorta hope they are vegetarian (unlike the tigers...)

lions and tigers and bears OH MY!

(pottery by Gary Rith)
I swear this is the busiest week of my life. You wanna hear some of it?
OK--lucky me, lotsa orders and business, and LOOK AT this super duper skull mug experiment! Imagine it glazed black. You don't have to imagine it, you'll see it in a week :)
I have to deliver these mugs and more to a store today and then, oh gosh, the greatest adventure ever perhaps. I am doing a show in a ZOO. Real elephants? TIGERS? Who knows how many great animals I will see, but you KNOW I will get the pics and share it ALL HERE TOMORROW :)

oh joy, TUESDAY!

Here is a short haiku for Chip and Dale, currently setting up home in the wall of my bedroom:

Asleep all day long.
Then, mischief! Party on Chip!
Party on Dale! Schwing!

Gary cannot sleep,
Spike cat gonna shred your azz,
No tears for chipmunks!



(bowls by Gary Rith) I am sorta fiddling around with the shape of these bowls on the right-whacking them on the top half. I tried it with a vase yesterday, looks super good.

and that was Monday

OK, the day got better but it sure started off like a f##king Monday, didn't it? Torrential rains, and before that, all night long Chip and Dale in the bedroom walls here fornicating or partying or whatever, loudly, all night long. Darn rodents keeping me awake...
ANYWAY, but I unloaded an absolutely perfect glaze firing and made a boatload of stuff (some of it in this pic) and had this super good dinner, so, right, its not feeling like Monday anymore thanks GOODNESS :)

blue jeans 2010

(pottery and test tiles by Gary Rith)
I was fiddling around with a mug shape and this looks pretty groovy eh? Also fiddling around with a new blue glaze recipe. I have called a blue glaze recipe of mine blue jeans before, and another new blue jeans, so this version has the year added. I feel like I hit a home run: this looks sharp, now gotta try it on some pots.

Sunday...celebrating new BABB members

Fran and Sophie, newest BABB members....

My best pals Kerry and Stevo and Judy came over Sunday afternoon, supposedly to talk about photography. That took about 3 seconds, and then we pulled out the beers and the toys! YES, we are members together of the BAMF art blog bunch, and we were partly celebrating the addition of Fran, our 11th member. yay! Welcome Fran! We had a party for you even though you were 1000 miles away!
Judy had not met kerry before, and can you believe they showed up in matching Chuck Taylors? Same cute pattern!

Me, Stevo, his wife Judy and kerry the troublemaker....


Kerry always brings toys...the Ugly Wugglies...and various outfits for them....

Spike wuvs me and gives me kisses, and Emily is like "I'll perch up here like a vulture"

the big road trip....

Saturday I grabbed the wife and beagle and drove over to Cooperstown, delivering pieces to the Cooperstown Art Association 19th annual invitational called Made in NY: the Art of the Vessel. They invited me! Tracy Helgeson is another blogger and kick azz artist, who happens to live there and we stopped in to visit her awesome family on her awesome family farm.
Penny rides in the car very nicely. This was her longest road trip ever, 8 hours.
One of her highlights was checking out trashcans in Cooperstown.
Gorgeous Cooperstown Art Association: Cooperstown is probably the prettiest town in New York state.

Outside of Cooperstown on a distant hillside Tracy and her family have this big old farm, beautifully restored. She and her family are probably the nicest people on earth. They have 2 good dogs, and I have to admit, our Penny was not very polite to the dogs or chickens.
Penny likes it on road trips when people give her peanut butter sandwiches. She had purple jam on her nose all day.
Part of Tracy's painting studio.