beauty and the beast...

You know how it is somedays, first you make some beastly T-Rex mugs, then you make some beautiful rose mugs….

dragons coming out of my ears….

The kiln is full of them too…I am quite in the mood for these :)

carved and turquisey….

I started carving some pieces last week.  I have, as I have said, fluted pieces many times (long, parallel slashes down the side) but wanted to try something more free-form that would allow me to make a wavy pattern. And I have this turquoise glaze I haven't used in a awhile that I mixed and
WHOA BABY! THAT LOOKS KINDA AWESOME!

day of the pigs...

I have a banner I roll out at shows and it hangs on the studio wall, it is a drawing I did of a piggy making a pot.  Outside the studio door is a sculpted pot and pig with my name.  Why, Gary, do you love pottery pigs so much?  WELL, in the late 80s I saw my first pottery pig and and realized it was a bottle turned on its side and with ears and feet added, etc, you had a piggy! I still have the third piggy I ever made (on a shelf somewhere…).  I make a different style or 2, different sizes, but this type, about 5 inches tall, 5 inches wide, has been pretty much the main pig for nearly 30 years…I made so many in the 90s and loved them so much they became my mascot.  In the late 90s I began to try sculpting little things on pots and…you guess it, the lucky pig went on there, in that classic pink and green combo…. these are all just out of the kiln yesterday….

some pretty odds and ends...

I am entering a cup competition later this summer and am working on some entries, different ideas.  I really LOVE this sort of cup and saucer.  It is both simple and complicated at the same time.  Same with the blue vases, the flowers and vines are very subtle, showing through the glaze.  I have found a way to add some green leaves there too …. ANYWAY, the kiln is cooling, more new pots to see later today!

dogs and cats at mealtime...

I think our dog and cat figure if they don't play they won't get fed their lunch.  Our guys split a small can of tuna (well, canned cat mystery meat) every midday, but GOSH the ritual play before I can feed them…you see the cat waking up as the dog jumps on him…and jumps and jumps and wrestles…
happy Saturday!

here is a cute frog cup and saucer for all of us depressed and dismayed by Brexit

I know that a high percentage of the British public voted on the EU referendum yesterday, but you have to imagine the leave people were a lot more excited and motivated to vote, the stay side might have been more complacent and didn't bother to get to the polls…and we all wake up and SURPRISE! The sh!t hits the fan, prime minister resigns and the stock market crashes and that is JUST FOR STARTERS.  The problem with people who push for revolutions like that--they might be well meaning but they forget that revolutions make a lot of people suffer, and in my calculations, staying in the EU, maybe pushing it to do more of what Britain wants, would have benefitted the British and the world better.  There is a lot of crazy nationalism in this world leading to this vote, and andy n the US leading Trump to gain the repubs. nomination.  Nationalism can be a very dangerous thing, forgetting that you are part of the world and you have to work together with all people's for a common good….

ANYWAY, hopefully in November the US won't have any such disaster on our hands….I have been hands off with politics and important sh!t for awhile in this blog lately, and maybe it is time to let loose again.

Here is a wicked awesome cup and saucer with a frog to celebrate all that is cute…

speaking of T-Rex...

(YES, little boys like me and Calvin grow up one day to be grown men making dinosaur mugs….)

A couple of days ago I showed you a mug I had made with a dinosaur drawn on it…a cute and cheerful dinosaur!  I quickly made and fired another, and more will be coming, I am pretty pleased with this. THIS particular dude is for sale now at my easy shoppe, click to get it now!

  

carving a pot, the before and after ...

I have a little glaze experiment going today, thinking a particular color might look very good with carved pots, as I showed you yesterday with the teal ocean glaze.  I am entirely new to carving pieces, but have faceted them for years, or fluted them (basically straight lines with a special tool).  I want the same sort of line as fluting but more fluid, so I just grab a loop tool and….wave it along. Not sure what will happen, but I was pleasantly surprised! And think the glaze will look good here…. (this is the rough cut, later cleaned up)

teal...

I love this ocean glaze, dark teal.  It shows off carving and texture pretty nicely.
I have been fiddling with carving lately, just a bit.

polka dots and larceny...

I was having along and strange dream just now--the usual, in other words--that 4 friends planned a burglary in an electronics shop…they wanted my help, but I didn't want to join them…they managed to pull it off, until they were caught….and I woke up.

In other news, spotted bowls and teapot!

T-rex and bowling pins…..

So a couple of weeks ago I am in the store and see a papier mache T-rex… and I figure you bring it home and paint it or something like that but I notice, as artists do, I s'pose, that it is basically a bowling pin shape tilted with legs and mouth added…SO I make the bank below by making a bowling pin shape on the wheel, etc….WELL, the same shape holds true for drawing, right?

This mug came out of the kiln yesterday and I was like "MINE, but make more…."

where are all the frogs and dogs?

I know.  But bowls like this?  They don't need frogs and dogs :)

the roses….

The emerald and rose glazes make a pretty striking combo, don't they?  New pots by me, and thanks for looking!

elephants and tea parties = a natural fit!

New wall piece by me.  Elephants have that trunk, they are naturals when it comes to serving tea!

do pigs host tea parties?

Sometimes :)

ocean blue….

I have a glaze I hadn't used in awhile but plan to use A LOT now which I call ocean.  It has that sort of teal-blue-green dark ocean water look (not tropical aquamarine but cold New England ocean!)

ANYWAY, I was fiddling around with some squiggles on these…..why YES, that does give sort of a wave feel, does it not?

dragons AGAIN...

You saw me make dragon cups in light green, here is dark green, with texture! And a teapot friend….

dinosaur bank

I was thinking the other day "what if a dinosaur body and head were basically a bowling pin propped up on feet with mouth, legs and tail added?!" then I was thinking "I can make a bowling pin shaped bottle on the wheel and take it from there" and so I did….

This is a bank, with a slot on one side and a hole and cork underneath, turned out pretty well, hmm?

Yogi at the dog park….

We have an extraordinary dog park in Ithaca, on the lakefront.  Fenced and quite large, seems like a couple of acres, with water, trees, baggies, trash cans and a lot of nice people. I was babysitting Yogi Friday and we went over…he slept the rest of the day away….

it is all just a little freaky...

I wouldn't write about this if I lived in Florida:  our last 2 days were cold!  Wednesday was 40 in the morning (35 at my mom's hilltop farm) and the day got no warmer than 56, with rain and wind, etc…Thursday was in the 60s, but sunny and breezy.  You get into summer and you really don't want to be talking about 30s-40s do you?

But anyway, Thursday was gorgeous and I was babysitting Yogi…we hiked down a favorite trail and he went swimming in the creek, AFTER dropping the wife at the airport.  She is on the road visiting the cousins.  My parents didn't want me to be lonely (I wasn't!) so they stopped by.  I think they just wanted to see Yogi and our Penny.  Who wouldn't?

In other news, I had a very long dream I was living in a college cooperative house, as I did my sophomore year, amongst friendly housemates and a lot of mismatched dishes and spoons and furniture….except for the midnight fire in the kitchen (overcooking something) it was quite congenial and you can understand why sometimes people like having roommates or co-housing schemes…all of which is NOT something my waking self likes, as I prefer a quiet house with as few people around as possible….anyway, have an awesome weekend :)

some tasty odds and ends...

A few more items out of a recent glaze firing….have an awesome thursday!