lapin, lapin, lapin: year of the RABBIT

(pottery by Gary Rith)
You hear that in a week or 2 it is the Chinese Year of the Rabbit. Does not mean a whole lot to me, except for the fact that with year of the Pig a few years ago, I sold a boatload of piggy pots all winter long. That was cool with me, and so I set out to do the same, with bunnies, which have the extra appeal of Easter later on. These cute bowls just outta the kiln. I am bad though, already bored with bunnies, back to skulls and other projects :)
I absolutely love Wallace and Gromit. They use a clay like material in making their movies, and this sculptor shows how they make their bunnies.

SPIKE!

rock OUT

Me and the wife went with Stev0 and Judy to have the tacos and see The Purple Valley at Castaways last night. Bluesy rock and roll and such, kind of a family band as I explain below. We know the drummer Curtis and lead guitar John and wouldn't miss them for anything. It is hard to beat the Castaways happy hour: 5:30-8 free music. I am a very early bird and totally dig an early night. They sounded fantastico, you can hear them a bit below :)
(Those are my boots, and that is my dog)



The Purple Valley live a couple years ago, same place, but with a slightly different lineup. Lead guitar and male vocals John, the dude who looks like Keith Richards, is a librarian and marathoner and grandfather. Keyboards is his wife, female vocalist Gina is her daughter and his step-daughter---I think that's how it all works :)

a wee warm fuzzy

(teapot on teapot style teapots by Gary Rith)

I awoke in a slightly crabby mood, but coffee and the message below cleared all that sh!t away....I AM AWESOME.

Message from a punk in Canada, buying a skull teapot and mug:

"SUBJECT: skull stuff

Dude, no thank YOU a million. You're awesome.....Can't wait to get the order looks SUPER awesome. :3"

misbehavior and misdemeanors.....

OK, you see a lot of pictures of Penny beagle rolling around looking cute, like yesterday's post. I took video yesterday which shows the typical Penny at dinnertime: first she chews on Spikes leg, then jumps on Buster, then she starts her happy food dance all over the floor. And YES that is me squealing in the background. As the author and speaker David Sederis said of himself "I have the voice of a little girl" and as my optician said to me on the phone last week, and she knows me pretty well "hello Mrs Rith".....at least she didn't ask to speak to my mommy.


(badass cups by Gary Rith) As Kasey once said "teh goths rock the red and black"


The RATINI strikes again. Got some more raspberries at the store, wicked yummy, and makes a fine raspberry martini, the well known RATINI.

the gizmo

As some of you know, we had below zero temps for a few days and half of our water pipes froze. The house is 150 years old and nicely restored and the basement is not too scary. Actually, the original part of the house has the monster sized furnace and is always temperate, and that is where most of our pipes are. But the studio additon is younger, about 70 years old, and not as solid or as well insulated. It was the studio pipes that froze. Those pipes go out from the main basement in a cleverly built tube which has its own heat vent. Super smart, having the pipes warmed by extra hot air from the furnace, but something went wrong. If we ever have extended below zero temps I will leave the tap running, but nothing had frozen in 5 years.
Anyway, you cannot get at the pipes without tearing something apart, but there is that nasty hole in the wall pictured there. So I devised a clever hair-dryer-light gizmo on a ski and slid it into the hole and dang, can you belive, I got things thawed properly???
Clever: c'est moi :)

skullz.....

I told Kasey my New Year's resolution was "more punk in 2011!". What does that mean? Keith Richards has a skull ring. The Offspring's first album: a flaming skull. That is pretty punky to my mind. Also heavy metal (think Iron Maiden!)and goth---goths are all black, skully, halloweeny.
But why does anybody like skulls? Just so you can seem badass?
I was with a friend at a store the other day looking at this huge skull bracelet. It is pretty awesome, but Jacci was all shivers and like "what is the appeal???".
I have to admit that as an artist sometimes you don't think a lot, you are just making designs that appear appealing--if it looks good, you're doing it. You're having fun and it looks good. Half my work lately is the usual bright and cute, the other half? As Johnny Cash said of his closet: 'its dark in there'.
There is a large blog spot called Skull a day featuring skulls in art and nature or even beer foam etc that I am submitting work to. Like this wicked excellent teapot, also for sale at my etsy gallery.....

BIGFOOT, c'est moi

Kerry is like "I'll need a Bigfoot teaset" and I am like
"Brilliant! of course you do!" and I spend the rest of the weekend figuring out what that might look like.......getting there :)

(YES, the wife got home OK. Her flight was canceled and she ended up at an airport that was thankfully not Buffalo)

talking about BLISS...

SO, like I was saying a day or 2 ago, nothing makes this boy happier than making teapots. No wait! Pulling them out of the kiln looking so good, that makes you happiest! No wait, pulling out nicely fired teapots and the wife coming back from Kansas, yes! That is the ticket.


If you can ignore the fire puking in the video below you will loooooooove the tune.

wherein the wife goes out of town, Spike goes all ninja with a large library book and I invent the RATINI

(pottery by Gary Rith)
Why YES, yes I do accomplish a lot when the wife is out of town. You can see some of my many accomplishments here, of course, but first: Spike.
When the wife is gone you gotta get them BIG books from the library. I have a stack. I began the second in the stack yesterday evening, and at one point I took the dogs out and returned....Spike was hiding in my book. You can't make this sh!t up....


Wicked cold and snowy here in upstate New York, as it is all over the US and Canada. Stinking JANUARY, GOSH.....






My pal Kasey wanted to do a post on us drinks pioneers. She has invented TWO!
You will recall that yesterday I talked of the DAY OF THE RASPBERRY and made a NEW drink, the raspberry martini. I have named it the RATINI, recipe below...




Winter and Summer Ratinis


the winter ratini: place 4 raspberries in your favorite ratini glass, stab one with a fork lightly 4 times (releases a wee bit of juice!)
-pour 2.25 ounces, no, go ahead, make it 3 ounces, Absolut vodka or some other pretentious brand over the raspberries then drink with appropriate background music and a beagle at your side, but watch the beagle, because she will try to steal your drink.
the summer ratini, when it is NOT stinking 15 below zero outside:
-put four raspberries into your favorite ratini glass, stab one with a fork lightly 4 times (releases a wee bit of juice!)
-place ice cubes in your shaker, pour 2.25 ounces, no wait, make it at LEAST 3 ounces, Absolut vodka or some other pretentious vodka over the ice cubes, close shaker and shake DO NOT STIR vigorously a moment or 2
-pour that iced vodka over the raspberries and watch out for the fuching beagle, she will try to steal your drink ;)

Most excellent background music here

even when the wife is out of town she STILL steals the covers at night

Like I say, the wife is on the road, in Kansas for a couple of days. She arrived on time yesterday, but its a big snow storm there (HERE now!) and the rental car agency gives her a 2011 mustang convertible...good GOD...probably the worst car for snow EVER, and at 17 degrees? Who is popping the top open?
ANYWAY, you can see in the pics here that Spike and Penny have the bed all split up. I get the little sliver of space in the middle between them. And even with the wife gone? The sheets and blankets STILL end up on the floor at the wife's side. How does she do that, steal the covers even when she is gone?
At 5 yesterday the dogs were watching at the window for her. They saw the bus go past and went bananas. I had to take them out. After a while we went back in, and Penny stared out the window waiting for her for quite a long time....
and that was when I invented the raspberry martini.* You will recall that I broke the bank and bought a box of raspberries yesterday. They have many many uses. By themselves. With cracker jack. On my breakfast porridge, and OF COURSE they make, as it turns out, the most brilliant martini you have ever tasted.
*I KNOW, somebody probably did this years ago and recipes are probably also all over the internets, but I like to think I invented the raspberry martini :)

the wife goes to Kansas and....

The wife goes out of town, and basically, everything goes to hell.
Well, no. Of course not. But we get up at 3:40 so she can catch the plane that departs at 6. We live 5 minutes from the airport, but, well, you gotta get up and have a goodbye feast and take the dogs out and put on the lipstick. She tells me cheerfully "I'll be watching everything you do on your blog!". So, basically, gotta keep her updated.

Honey, I went to the grocery store after I dumped you on the cold and dark and snowy curb at 5:30. No, you know I am not one of those hang around and say goodbye types. Not since they forbade guests from walking with passengers to the gate. What can I do, hang around outside, looking through the glass longingly at your pretty face?
Anyway: the store. There were 3 Russian or Serb types doing things to the floor with equipment and one large dude at the checkout. THAT WAS IT as far as I could see. I think the large dude doubles as cashier and bouncer. I was in and out SO fast, but honey, I spent a fortune on raspberries. You know I could not resist that temptation, I was like "fork it, she gets to go off and have fun, leaving me behind to clean the cat box and such, therefore: RASPBERRIES IN JANUARY"

And honey, yes, I walked the dog and finished a boatload of teapots by ten am. It is absurd how much you can get done in life when you get up at 3:40, but then, of course, you want lunch at 10. It was cracker jack and raspberries....probably about all I am gonna eat these next few days....

NINJA KITTEH kicks some yarn in the azz.....

You know how insulting yarn can be to a cat, and Spike just wasn't gonna take any more of that crapola....
yesterday I tell the wife
"Just because I have a head doesn't mean I can think" and she replies
"Its just there for looks?"


dig these guys

extreme bliss

What makes a perfect and blissful day? Warm studio, making and glazing a boatload of pots. I especially looooove teapots, as you know, and I was talking with Peggy who shows my stuff at a gallery in Chicago:
"need more teapots???" and she is like
"how about those teapots on teapots you do? its been awhile and TRES CUTE" and I am like
"YES!"
Making teapots and more teapots = BLISS





Penny showing her extreme bliss by break dancing with joy at the prospect of her dinner, she's a Buffalo Gal....