"I'm alright, don't nobody worry 'bout me..."

Sure it is dumb, but still maybe the best movie ever made... I am wearing my green hat here and think "whoa, CADDYSHACK!" Have a great weekend!

sure of some things, trying some others.....

Had to make a last minute dinner last night and FORTUNATELY I had just seen a recipe for spicy pork ramen noodles.... or in our vegetarian case, spicy "pork".  I also don't go for scallions when I can use a little sauted broccoli and spinach....thrillingly tasty, you know?  AND PRETTY.  I buy some brown rice ramen in ten packs so that there is always a quick and tasty meal ready in minutes, like ramen peanut noodles too which is another stunning, simple recipe....

OK, but like I was saying, there are some pots these days I KNOW I need to make, but then others items, like below, I am feeling my way in the dark.  So far these flowers look pretty good, pressed into clay, but with glaze....??????????????????????

3's company....

As you hear me say, I like a good, round pot. Teardrop shapes in particular. And greens. when I use 2 glazes I often try for contrasting colors which mix nicely on the overlap, but I am thinking in my glazing efforts today I might explore 2 different glazes that are very similar, and they sort of fade into each other....
 

if it is Wednesday, it is BOWL DAY

(new bowls by Gary Rith)
Sure, you've seen my bowls before, my flowers too, but you havn't seen THESE bowls...I am trying a little yellow for the flowers, looks good, eh?
Have a great Wednesday!

slackers....

I wasn't really, not all day! I mean, we biked twice this weekend, I baked cookies for the wife, cornbread and made a rack of pots----made a mistake there, first time ever, I think, in not covering a table of pots which got a little overdry overnight.  Hopefully a heavy spritzing of mist and covering with plastic until I can trim them this morning will moisten them slightly...and I dreamt that a kid I grew up with and havn't thought of since I was 16 grew to 11 feet 2 inches tall....gotta see if he is on facebook... have a great Tuesday!

mugshot Monday and cornbread pizza revisited...

(cup and saucer by Gary Rith)
You will notice, of the cup above, that it is blue with teal blue.  I was thinking a) ocean! and b) glaze it 2 colors, nearly the same, different but subtle.
It comes out of the kiln Sunday afternoon and the wife is like "I want that, it looks like the ocean!" which, as I say, was what I was thinking.

We had been in a rush to return home after going to a bike clinic in the afternoon.  Our bikes had not been out yet, it being so wintry, really (Sunday morning:  temps AGAIN in the 30s, frost out there, us out in our coats and gloves--later it was a nice 84 degrees).
Anyway, so we tuned up the bikes then rode...since I blog EVERYTHING, how come I forgot the camera for the season's first bike ride? Oh well.  We came across a garage sale and said we can only buy what fits into our pockets...and the wife got 3 little dishes and a change purse which were all pocket sized...but ANYWAY so we get back late and I want pizza.

My cornbread pizza is SUPER fast.  (recipe follows) I made a couple of changes to how I do it and I am SO GLAD, it makes it perfect.  It is not a pizza that should have tons of toppings on top, cornbread is a little too soft for that. SO I thought "put diced pepper and onion INTO no on the pizza" plus I made it in the skillet instead of 8 x 8 brownie pan.  DANG how come I hadn't done that before?

Have a great Monday!


Gary's quick cornbread pizza for 2+

-preheat to 350 and grease your iron skillet or 8 x 8 brownie pan
-in a large bowl stir:  1 cup fine cornmeal (or cornflour or just cornmeal)
1 1/2 Tbs sugar
1 teas bake powder
1/2 teas salt
-in a small bowl beat an egg then stir in:
1/2 cup milk (I use soy)
1/8 cup cooking oil

-Add wet to dry.  You can dice up half an onion, half a bell pepper (or use your imagination!) and stir that in too.  Stir several times, until nicely mixed.
-Scoop batter into skillet or pan, spread the top evenly with a wet spoon. It will be maybe 1/2 inch thick.
-Bake about 22 minutes, remove from oven.
-Top with some tomato sauce and toppings and cheese on top...not too much.
-Put it back into the oven, still at 350, for a few minutes until the cheese has melted and toppings look cooked.  Remove from oven, let it sit a couple of minutes, slice and serve OH BOY!

front steps follow-through...

I know:  you heard me say a week ago "the new front steps are almost done, here are pics, you need to see them once the railing is on and the flowers in place!".
So there you go.  New steps into the studio.
I tell my dad "we had a bench added!" and he was like
"so you can watch traffic passing?" and I was like
"NO, so we can put flowers all over :)".

THEN, imagine my happy surprise, as we walk the dog Friday and come upon a garage sale and find these 2 massive ceramic planters in a pleasant green....I had 2 large plastic planters with sunflower and cosmos seedling in there, they fit inside the new planters perfectly, for the OTHER front steps...

have an awesome Sunday!

Soupy in shades....

I babysit Soupy everyday, and her family doesn't dress her up like SOME people dress up their dogs. Soupy wasn't all that crazy about the idea, but I got her to test out my glasses.... have an awesome weekend!

 

a Friday confession! not an original idea, but hey....

(new bowls by Gary Rith)

I know, you all have your minds in the gutter.  Go ahead to comments, leave your own confession!

I confess:  it has been noticed around the house that I put cans and bottles away with the label on the back.  So you never know at a glance what stuff is.  I am trying to correct this.  Why on earth do I do it?

I also toy with my food between bites, pushing it and arranging it together on the left side of my plate.  I never noticed that one either until it was pointed out to me, but see no reason to change it.

I have a thing for UK accents. Well, Irish, Australian, New Zealand too (Canada, not so much...they sound like Americans, except more polite). BBC world service comes on the radio with Chloe's urgent voice "bombs over Syria, death and destruction everywhere..." and I MELT with PUPPY LOVE.  Ditto Fiona from Thistle and Shamrock....

Go to comments, what can you confess to the unwashed masses?

bottle it up....

(new vases, OR BOTTLES, by Gary Rith)
Some people live where there are alligators and snakes in their yard, it is so hot.
We have to move our seedlings and flowers back indoors our nights are again going below freezing...

pretty flowers and nightmares....

Well, I THINK these mugs have some pretty flowers on them, just out of the kiln.
I am trying some brushwork ON glazes, the green mug here, as compared to the more exuberant flowers which are underglazes. All of this is new for me, exciting to try, but admittedly, I don't know what I am doing and have a lot to figure out.

Well, OK, so like I say sometimes, it feels like my dreams put me into the middle of somebody else's life, into their head.  I was dreaming just now that I was a kid in a wheelchair with a brain tumor going into surgery...DANG!  I feel awful for that kid.  I woke up pretty sharply from that one.....

NOOK

Somewhere along the line, pet sitting took over my life...and I am so glad :)

that's just how things fit together...

(new pottery by Gary Rith)
Sure, I like how these 2 fit together when they stand next to each other, the outie, the innie....
That light green glaze is such a treat.  It goes speckly in spots, all kinds of fun visual characteristics.
Have a most awesome Monday!

stupid pet tricks

The wife was babysitting yesterday and they wandered back and forth, our house to theirs.  They found 20 four and five-leaf clovers! Planted seeds! And played dressup with Penny....Penny is mighty calm about all this and looks TRES CHIC!
Have a fantastic Sunday!

20 hours without the internet...!

(Nook in the wisteria, DANg that's cute :)

20 hours indeed, and nothing much happened, whoa!
Thanks for th emillions of kind remarks about our steps.
Such a little thing, but such a big deal to us...wait till you see them really done--with the railing and flowers.
have an awesome weekend!

OK, secret project REVEALED

(my flowerpots, my dog, my studio steps!)

Well, much ado about nothing, right?  or maybe just very little!
Big deal to me, though.
The door into the studio had these poky little concrete steps.  The usual rise on a step is about 7 inches, the top step here was 12, and DANG! You should see people stretch to get up into the studio....the wife wanted it corrected, and I was like "SURE! Steps....but how about making it BIG, with a bench to hold flowers!".

SO, our carpenter Roger came over and we measured and he made it happen.  Right away I had to stop at the farm stand up around the corner (isn't it cute?) to get purple flowers etc. to fill the flower pots I made Saturday while Roger was building the steps. How cool is that, making your own flower pots to go on your own steps at your own studio....well, 2 flower pots.  I got a dozen mixed red flower pots free on the curb the other day, how useful was THAT?

The railing isn't attached yet and there will be square stone pavers at the base, so I'll get a photo of that next week, with the flowers all over. But this shows you MY EXCITING PROJECT of the week....

THE BEFORE: note, handmade sculpture of a pig and pot saying GARY RITH POTTERY.


Roger says "measure once, cut twice"


Super cute farmstand up around the corner. I had to get a bunch of flowers to go on my new steps.


New flower pots by me, same old dog.


I am not much of a gardener.  But I don't mess up pansies much.... have a great weekend!

special secret project...part one

I know, you have been wondering what I am UP TO here at Studio Gary!

A VERY BIG DEAL, take my word for. Well, it is for us.  Considering we don't have a millionaire's budget.  OK, actually, it is pretty small potatoes. No, not to us it isn't, but it is STILL COOL.  And I can show you Friday morning.

In the meantime, this SPECIAL SECRET PROJECT needed a couple of new flower pots, was my thinking, so I made them, and they are out of the kiln and all the pieces to the project come together TODAY.

Yes, there will be photos...

putting ME in the picture...

You all must see me as some kind of narcissist....all those pictures of ME and MY WORK!  Well, sure, it is my blog, right, who gives a crap about anything else...amirite? I sometimes think it must have been ME who invented the selfie:  evidence being the photo I took of myself on my weeding day 20 some years ago hanging out the hotel's window (a film camera, I should add).

So, yeah, the dude on the mug wearing the cat shirt?  The skinny legs?   ME. Maybe even the bunny in the skull tee flying the kite, maybe I even think of myself having long ears.....because I DO LIKE my kites....

teapot Tuesday and probably better NOT to EAT buried treasure

(teapot by Gary Rith...textured!)

My assignment Monday:  bring Yogi over to Kiko's for a DATE.

Yogi's family had wondered about Yogi vomiting dirt after one of these dates.
I had to explain:  Kiko buried her toys in the yard for months at a time, digging them up to play with when Yogi shows up.  Then they both run around with that nasty dirty toy.
Not too surprising that would make some people, I mean dogs, upchuck....



Apple and cherry blossoms and bees are pretty darn amazing right now--I was working barefoot in the studio yesterday!
30s expected Wednesday though...typical.... have a great Tuesday!

many for mugshot Monday!

We went to see a play yesterday afternoon and driving home there was a RAINBOW over our house, how cool is that? New mugs...have an awesome Monday!

Mother's Day is....

Making the mother of my cat and dog a blue cup and saucer to match my green one...right?
Have an awesome day!


(new cups and saucers by Gary Rith)

a tale of two types of vases...

I love, as you hear me say, teardrop shaped bottles and vases.  So much to explore in that shape! Deceptively simple looking but can be tricky to make.
You have seen me decorating such things with flowers lately, but I wanted to try a particular devilish wavy-groovy ridged design on there....
have a great weekend!


(new pottery by Gary Rith)