things lead to things...

WHY YES, that is my little beagle Penny at the bottom of Yogi's diving tackle....they would be quite bored this Arctic winter if they didn't have each other to play with....

I find making teardrop shaped bottles/vases the most meditative thing I do.  I feel cold or tired or generally crappy, sitting there making that classic shape revives me body and mind.
How lucky potters are! It is all a meditation.
The teardrop shape is tricky in some ways, making a closed in top with a fat belly, etc, but it seems that if you follow a certain sequence of a million steps, it naturally comes together for you.
Just like a teardrop forms, naturally, also a bottle of that shape as you go along....

Just below is a vase I made a year ago and gave us.  I was at the florist yesterday with this vase and its near twin in blue, filling them on the spot and the couple who owned the shop were like
"nice vases!"
me "thanks, I made them!"
they "can we sell your work?"
me "why certainly!" which I said because it is a place I like.  I am picky about where my things go, right? And this winter I have been filling the studio with vases and what could be better than placing them for sale in a fine family florist's shop?
Like I always tell the wife "things lead to things".



2 new bottles/vases.  I like a really small opening at the top, but earlier in the week got to thinking more people would like a bigger opening for a bouquet.  So I have been making those too....
have a great Friday!

when a QUIET Wednesday becomes.....

(me, at the barber--I am outside all the time in winter and have permanent HAT HEAD...you'd never guess the flat mess on my head is actually curly....)

Rather busy.
The calendar looked halfway free Wednesday, after an insanely busy Tuesday...but Wednesday filled up and suddenly it was dinner time and I was wiping the clay off my hands and looking for the corkscrew....

Good GOLLY it is all fun, though.

Now I have been asked to teach again.  I said YES.  Luckily that doesn't start till summer, so I can put OFF that particular anxiety attack for awhile
 (summer????????????? is that where, you know, it doesn't snow??????? I can't remember anymore.....).

Isn't this picture wonderful?  I walked Nook to Ithaca Falls. It is the largest waterfall inside Ithaca, entirely frozen, along with the whole creek in that area. People have been walking around in the snow under and around it, which seems VERY scary to me, I mean, the water is DEEP under that ice, but how strong is the ice...?

YES, my Australian friends, waterfalls CAN FREEZE.


Kiko's family has a giant dragonfly in the yard.  Hilarious, eh?
Have a great Thursday!

ever feel like...

Ever feel like even if winter is a bummer you're having a great time?
I do, and I am.
Sure, I am slapping leaves on a LOT of pots, but then there are these....

so you were wondering what all that snow looks like....

SO, like I was saying yesterday, about the roof rake--trying to clear some snow off the roof to prevent a collapse plus reduce ice dams (meltwater builds up behind icicles and starts to come into the house) .... other places have a lot more snow than us, but we have plenty.

Let's look at pots instead.
I wrote a haiku yesterday as I was working in the studio:

Work until cold has
Frozen my fingers, clay spins
Into bottles.

mugshot Monday and 2 feet on the ground...

(Isn't this cute? Came across this somewhere...)

I fear winter a little less now.  We have an  AWD Subaru but the driving has been scarier lately than usual. We lived in New Hampshire for years and always had steel studded snow tires.  Saturday I bought 4.  They are SNOW BEASTS WITH STEEL TEETH! Really!  Small steel spikes embedded in the tire for traction in snow and ice.  Of course, it was very satisfying to drive off the mechanic's lot with snow and ice falling--if you spend the money, you want to use the product, right?

The wife started asking yesterday if we still have a roof rake.  We have 2 plus feet of old snow on the ground and more falling today.  If you don't rake off your garage or other vulnerable roofs at some point, they may collapse under the weight, or if they don't, ice dams certainly build up.  An ice dam is the back side of a row of icicles along the gutter and roofline--meltwater backs up behind the ice and ruins your gutter and tries to get into your house....winter can be sh!tty, right?
(I showed a pic here on the blog a couple of days ago of our lethal icicles hanging from our roof, and later today I will certainly get more winter pics...)
OH! What does a roof rake look like?  Just a flat bit at the end of a long pole.  Like, 10-20 feet long.  You reach it up while standing on the ground and scoop snow down and off.

MUGSHOT MONDAY!

So, like I say, LEAFY.
With these I have been in the mood to go medium-small (3-4 inches tall) rather than my usual medium-large mug size (4 + inches tall).  The blue one on the left is medium-large.
And with that, I think it suits a smaller mug to have a smaller handle, not designed for 2-3 fingers but just one.
I gave US the 2 green ones on the right...so we can think about all these ideas....
have a great Monday!

its NOT all MURDER and MAYHEM....

(new mug by Gary Rith)

What if your dragon or what have you is sly, sure, but friendly and has a good sense of humor????
Have a great Sunday :)

like Monet gardens...?

That's pretty bold of me, isn't it? You have heard me talk about making leaves on pots in greens.  Now I have added a very light blue and a bright sky blue, and suddenly I feel like I am sharing Monet's color palate...which is either very high praise for myself or a simple observation OR EVEN just an acknowledgement  that people find certain colors pleasing to the eye, and people almost ALWAYS like Monet's watery blues and greens, right?


This was a super good firing.  Before and after you see some of the goodies, and that mug in the top left of the pic?  I am drinking out of it now......have a great weekend!

a bit arctic....

You hear about the big storms in Boston or Chicago.  Meanwhile, we get a few fresh inches snow every day.  It piles up.  It is worse in places like Buffalo, close to 2 Great Lakes, but we get our share.  What happens is winds blow from the northwest, clouds develop over lakes Erie and Ontario and then dump snow straight down on land within 20 to 100 miles.  It is called lake effect.  The northern side of those lakes, otherwise known as Canada, gets a much smaller amount of snow because the winds usually blow OUR WAY.
I was very glad for sunshine thursday and will complain a lot less when Saturday the muffler is fixed and steel studded snow tires go on the car....driving in snow is SCARY.



In other news, check out this bowl! And....


You may need a special deal on a pair of gorgeous spring green mugs, right?  For sale now at my etsy gallery! (click here)

all bottled up....

I am totally in love with Asian teardrop shaped bottles or vases.  What a perfect, natural form! Wouldn't you want to make your own version of the dude above?  So, lately, I explore the variations and toss on some leaves....

(new pottery by Gary Rith)

 When I taught high schoolers I showed them this whole video (just a few minutes for the potter here), which portrays a number of Japanese artists designated National Treasures, just as we designate historic sites and have a national poet. A recognition that these folks carry on an ancient artistic tradition. We talked about this when I was in college, where I was trained to follow that path (well, as much as an American in Vermont could follow ancient Japanese or Korean pottery aesthetics). These few minutes, watching this fellow, is very moving....

 

the biggest this, record that....

You read that the snow we had Monday had been Chicago's 5th biggest storm and that for Boston, 2 huge blizzards in one week made it the snowiest week for them EVER and that yesterday it was colder here than Siberia.
At least the sun was shining for a day!
Yogi came over and played with Penny...Penny has a little path and the two had fun until she got too cold.  She went outside a minute ago.  We got a lot more snow overnight....

Teapot Tuesday and THIS is what a snowstorm looks like....

(new teapots by Gary Rith)
I am starting to see that the subtle leaf patterns on my new work reminds me a little of Monet gardens...more on that later, right?

SO, the aftermath is I dreamt I was on a crew team, rowing across a lake--pretty extraordinary and vivid, and warm. The water was just like the video at the end of this post...
The reality is back to below zero following 2 days of storms.  After I took the pics below around our house we got 6-12 MORE inches of snow....

beagle bowl!

That is a TOTALLY misleading title for this post.  There are no bowls here!

The kids in our town lucked out:  schools announced last night (with good reason, this snowstorm is SH!TTY) that Monday was a snow day, which allowed all of them to stay up late and read books like I did.
Well, the little scholars may have been up late watching football and eating junk food, with no worries about the school bell today.....wait till you see my pics from TODAY'S SNOWSTORM--my little beagle had to go out into that deep and freezing mess to tinkle just now...TUNNELING!

OK, mugshot Monday and these things? Aren't they wonderful?  I love doodling on mugs...

You may need an awesome mug with drawn beagles on it, or some other wonderful pot, go to my etsy shoppe now! (click here)



I was jogging through the slop and snow yesterday and this came on the and I MY I love it so....

plenty on the ground, more coming...

I woke up just now dreaming that I was moving...packing, loading, what a nuisance! I think I woke up just because I was BORED and tired of it....

Friday was wicked snowy, they give us these DIRE WARNINGS that later today this storm comes through, straight from Nebraska...

Luckily, Saturday was quite sunny and pretty.  My little beagle Penny is ALSO quite pretty...have an awesome Sunday!