"that is just so inconvenient, like LIFE"

(pitcher by Gary Rith)
Such were my mutterings, vis a vis, our spaztic water system here on this holiday weekend....

oh yaaaaay!

We were over at the Cornell plantations yesterday morning airing out the beagle, and I had been watching this goose family of nine goslings grow each week, and darnitall, i think I miscounted: I got a good closeup of them, I think there are ten babies! Then there is their friends, the other family, who have one gosling!
We were out Friday at the Chapterhouse enjoying the brews. Christi snapped this aerial shot of 4 of us after stevo left: on the right is Nicki and her daughter Elise. We introduced Elise to our evil ways, and lets just say, as charming and friendly and fun as Nicki is, SO IS Elise. Christi and her little skull bag are BACK, having driven hundreds of miles from Michigan the previous day, just in time for our happy hour....

"what is that ice cream cone with boobs thing?"

I send the wife a heart symbol and she is like
"what is that ice cream cone with boobs thing?" and I am not sure what she is talking about although it sounds INTERESTING but then she shows me and its like "OH!"
Here is our chubby 16 year old kitten Emily doing a little cat yoga.

large piggy teapot

(teapot by Gary Rith)
I have more to post and shall do so later, but what a nifty item this is, eh?

nice pair of.....

(pottery by Gary Rith)
Nice pair of jugs eh? I want a certain narrow base and big friendly round shape. This channel makes me think of a river. Groovy.
The edge of our yard where the woods begins is coated with wild phlox. ZILLIONS of gorgeous pink and purple flowers, here with Buster....

like the Sears tower....

(tall and black, like the Sears tower, pitcher by Gary Rith)

the owl and the pussycat and the dawg

(butter dish by Gary Rith)
I had a customer in Canada order an owl and pussycat mug and it was a big hit and they asked for a butter dish. Superbo, eh?
Sometimes you are taking pics of your dog, and you get a MAGIC picture moment, can you believe Penny here?


Pushing the clay, super deep grooves here making a groovy pot, super fun experiment :)

the dream hamster reappears....

For years i have cared for a hamster in my dreams, and had not seen him lately. He has been back the last day or two. Many of these dreams are of the variety "shoot, I forgot I had a hamster, I better go find him and feed him!" which is what we had here the last 2 days. Alive, but not well. I tend to wonder if this is related to anxieties or guilt over undone projects, but I am on top of things and happy, sooo....? Who knows.

typical Frenchman....

You figure my rotton French sock monkey Georges Le Soq is a typical Frenchman: lazy, smelly, rude, shifty, always chasing tail, but magical with food.
Yesterday was record heat (supposedly---felt pretty good to me, 80s!) and I had my kiln going (HOT in the studio alright, 100 + degrees) and there is Georges in the kitchen--baking up fresh scones, banana nut muffins and pizza. he tells me
"ees for the lady. She gets HONGRY. Maybe, you be nice to me, I share with you too"


After dinner the wife is all excited to garden. I am all excited to sit there and watch her garden and enjoy a little cheapo jug vino. You can see she is working quite hard on the weeds and whatnot....

dig IT

I am working on many ideas lately, and one is this bottle here--DEEP spiral grooves. The idea is to push the piece...until it nearly falls down.
Our fat little kitten Emily turns 16 this summer...and has been on a diet for a bit. She has def cut some flab. healthy and glossy and like a little rag doll, what a sweetie....




Dig it: HILARIOUS!

"won't you take me down, to bunny town?"

I think the original disco tune used "funky town" instead :)
Bunnies are everywhere, per spring in this gorgeous town. Drives the beagle nuts. Drives me to draw them. I absolutely love bunnies, and will work on the same pose over and over again in pencil and now I am trying them in ink. If I get bunnies I like, and I am, they will be painted onto mugs :)

"don't blog that"

A minute ago the wife is like
"don't blog that!" but I am sure she didn't mean it, and what she does NOT want me to blog is what she said before that:
"the nice thing about wearing a dirty tee shirt is you can just wipe banana goo on it instead of your napkin"
You have to love a woman like that :)


Pots now for sale at my etsy shop :)

5ish...

2 minutes ago...maybe 15...I was asleep dreaming of making what I actually made yesterday. Now I need to glaze a bunhc of stuff, get the kiln going. TIRELESS potter, 24/7, that's me....

(mugs by Gary Rith)

my trunk monkey Georges Le Soq scores the throne....

Ever mindful of my AZZ, Georges is dragging this down the street today. I am like
"Georges, don't steal things, TAKE IT BACK" and he is like
"NO monsieur Crabby, ees for YOU. Leetle gift. Said free on it, was on le curb. Only missing one wheel!" and I am like
"GEORGES!!! Nice....help yerself to some of that cheapo jug vino in the fridge....".
The chair at my wheel was like, high tech office, circa 1949. I got it out of a dumpster. Rugged steel and a "cushion" with sprung springs, including one that is a little too intimate if you see what I mean. It goes to the dump or something, and I am grateful to my neighbors for putting this on the road and Georges for grabbing it. Sometimes you think
"Georges has got my back". Check out trunk monkey below (and dig it: CLAY already on the new chair! wood block for the fifth wheel!)


(thanks Maureen Johnson for the suggestion)

purple and green

(vase by Gary Rith--for sale now at my online gallery)
Mother nature does purple and green beautifully (see iris below!) and the people who owned the house before us painted the house to match these exact flowers, which are at their peak this week. Some people think it is a crazy house color. Truckers and neighbors tell us it is good for directions: go a block past the purple house! or next to the purple house!
We absolutely love it, and ther is Buster in back checking things out....


GOING THROUGH MY MIND.....

le frolic....

Saturday the wife was, as you know, shopping for junk at the huge garage sale thing, and I took the beagle to Cornell Plantations. The wife was jealous, she is like "I want to go too!" and Sunday morning we went back :)
(there is another weird Jupiterian cloud attacking the new camera and the backup computer, now that the old computer is fixed--is this how life is??? You fix one stupid item then another item immediately breaks down???)

Dang, lookit the beautiful plate Becky Jo sent me--what a wonderful potter! I am humbled by this kind of talent! I cannot BELIEVE the skill with which she decorated this plate! Thanks Beckster!

The wife wanted to go to huge garage sales and I said I would drop her and go to Cornell Plantations (acres of gardens and woods and all) with the beagle and meet her at JJ's. JJ's has the nicest patio in town for your coffee and such, and JJ herself gave Penny a treat. Moreover, they have a book swap. I think you can help yourself to the hundreds on the shelf, but it seems fair to leave 2 and take 2, for example. I left 2 dud books and took away 2 prizewinners, YAAAY!



This is the second piggy teapot I have made, the first was small, this one very big. Bill asked for it. Total fun to make, and then these pitchers: I am experimenting with shape and making sort of river forms on pieces.....these things are looking GOOD...now have to move the idea along to the next experiment....

ovulation?

(pottery by Gary rith) Let's just say I am super pleased with how the pots are going this week, OKAY? It is a very good streak.
I am not vain about my hair. It gets longer and fuzzier and every 8 weeks Rachel hacks off a bit.
Rachel is the COOLEST haircutter with the magic fingers, and she is also a COWGIRL for real. Well, she lives on a horse farm. Although Rachel is a beauty, she refuses photos, BUT I did manage a pic of the tattoo on her toe. Forgot to ask how much that hurt? Rachel explains that she has a WILD side. Michelle, the other cutter over there at the salon, is the coolest too. She doesn't mind photos, and she is also a beauty, and was wearing PINK cowboy boots and a little skirt yesterday, now that is COOL. Michelle is, drumroll please, also an accomplished, very accomplished potter. How about that? She and her hair customer were talking ovulation. I don't think many men go to this salon and women feel free to talk about things like ovulation. But believe me, for the magic fingers, YOU would go to Rachel too and feel like a movie star after.

You can see the wife making an important point here at the Chapterhouse bar for Friday happy hour. Someone seems to have punched out the window by the demon lamp, and the solution seems to be this paper pinup beer ad. It works.