tea for 2...

I make a lot of teapots and I drink a lot of tea.  You may recall I had a college girlfriend who told me "nobody should be able to graduate from this program without making a dripless teapot" which is how my teapot obsession began…and I DO think I make a nice teapot.

This one just out of the kiln seems nice :)

COLORS!

Yep, that time of year again--Wednesday was such perfect weather and color, we have colors at their peak this week.  Here I am around the house, with the river and Mt. Pleasant amongst all the color….

a rainbow of vases...

DANG this worked out nicely.  My purple glaze varies from lavender to deep purple, and this time it came out deeper….I wanted to add a 4th color to the rose series and purple makes sense.  The light green is still my favorite, but they all look rather smashing, don't they?  Thanks for looking!

the aftermath...

So, it was open studio weekend (another one just after Thanksgiving!) and it was wicked good fun.  I am always happy to see people, and GOLLY, 3 nice side-effects:  1)  the studio is pretty clean and 2) I get a LOT of work done and finally 3) people from out of town who can't visit order a LOT of stuff….their virtual visit!  It is a fun world….

day 2 open studio...

Day one was a boatload of fun, why not come over yourself, today?  11-4!

TODAY! Open studio...

I know!  Here already!  Our picture perfect fall weather changed overnight to gloomy-ass rain and grey..perfect for shopping indoors! C'mon over, 540 Main St, Etna, NY 13062, rte. 366 just north of rte. 13, the light green house!

you could come see these TOMORROW!

So, like I say, open studio this weekend!  These guys and many of their pretty friends came out of the kiln yesterday, YOWZA!  You don't want to miss this!

540 Main St, Etna, NY 13062 (light green house on rte. 366 just north of rte. 13)

swimming with the sharks….

You know, you just want to doodle on mugs….
somebody asked me last summer if the sharpie wears off…its not sharpie!  I use an underglaze and it all gets fired in….

dreaming of pots and Mickey returns...

You will recall that yesterday I showed pictures of Mickey the mouse, whom I had trapped and released across the river.  Well, either he somehow made it all the way back across the river OR, more likely, one of his numerous cousins moved in last night…either Spike or me is gonna catch his ass, believe me….

I awoke just now having had a dream where I lazily planned an entry, I was allowed one, to a pottery competition with the winner being awarded a fabulous fellowship, and I was realizing my entry was due in front of the judges Monday. Except I either spaced on the calendar OR they arrived early, because here they were….and my entry, which I was still planning, was NOT on display, so I was running to my studio, telling them to wait, and trying to decide on the fly what pot I already had that would work (jar pictured here!).  And so I awoke.  But before I did, I had imagined making a piece that I have never made before, and so I doodled it out and will make it today :)

catching Mickey….and inflicting him upon my neighbors….

A few years ago, I was walking the dog across the bridge by our house one day and said hello to a neighbor coming my way, with a trapped mouse.  He lives on the other side of the river, and was letting the mouse go on OUR side of the river.  So the little bastard didn't return to his house, presumably.  There is a tradition of this in our neighborhood….

WELL, I don't care what the rodents do outside, but the little jerks are moving into our house, as they do every fall, and Spike is a good mouser but not allowed in either the studio or basement.  I can't stand having mice in the house, but I am not out to kill anybody (what Spike does, though, is his business…) so I got a small havahart trap and loaded it with peanut butter and caught Mickey yesterday…he was very scared.  I don't like making anybody very scared.  So I told him I wouldn't hurt him, hadn't he just enjoyed a pleasant meal of peanut butter?  And now I was going to introduce him to MY NEIGHBORS ON THE OTHER SIDE of the creek.

So I walked him over there and let him go and our house was quiet once again…..although the trap is reset, in case Mickey's friends come over….

gluten-gree molasses spice cookies, HO BOY!

The weather has been cold and wet (returning to hot and sunny, though, soon!) and you start to think of  pumpkin spice and all that….
and then you think "I really like molasses spice cookies….well, I did once, and I wonder if there is a good gluten-free recipe for them????" and you look around and OF COURSE there is! (click here for recipe) 

You will notice that, even though you cannot taste mine which tasted AMAZING, the pictures of mine are a million times more delicious looking than the recipe's picture….

Next Saturday and Sunday!

I very much like things tidy and clean, but find cleaning and tidying very BORING.
But you have to do it….especially when next week the public is invited!  I have had open studio every Columbus Day weekend, plus Thanksgiving weekend for ten years.  People have come from Canada!  You could too…I am even cleaning the studio a little bit….

yesterday I was noticing this bunch of pigs….and making more…kind of an amusing grouping, isn't it? I'll be making things like that (and selling them!) next week!

end of...

September was wicked hot and beautiful.  Until yesterday! Then it got cold, wet, gloomy, typical for us.  I suspect there might be a lot of cold, wet and gloomy ahead…until May, when the snow ends….

SPEAKING of snow I dreamt I was going around in terrible circles, driving in a parking lot full of deep snow with the car windows covered….I didn't hit anything but I had no control over the car…a nightmare indeed.  But it isn't snowing yet….

Because of the weather I took a lot of the last tomatoes off the plant and will let them finish ripening indoors.  I got SO MANY tomatoes this year, just from some pots on the back porch, several weeks of eating them hand over fist, and it isn't over yet :)

Another nautical sort of pot…..have a great Saturday!

the seven seas….

Why YES, this new blue along with white and a sea shell DO make a tidy little nautical theme :)

and then some new blue….

I needed to replace my dark blue glaze.  This is actually the first dark blue glaze I ever mixed about 20 years ago, but hadn't used since about 2000…that one was called blue jeans, but then I mixed something ELSE and called it new blue jeans then I mixed ANOTHER replacement which has not worked well lately calling it blue jeans 2010….so now I am back to blue jeans :) It has a really nice visual texture as you might be able to see….

and more blue….

I am soooo very excited about these rose pieces…thanks for looking :)

…and a couple more….

A couple more from the last firing.  This vase didn't photograph the way I would like…do you angle the camera up, down, straight on?  Anyway, you can see the mugs I am trying more colors than my FAVORITE light green…of course, light blue is a favorite too…have an awesome day :)

don't call ME….!

I was dreaming just now that my neighbor the firefighter asked me to fill in for him and gave me the keys to a firetruck…and I was already babysitting a little kid who looked like Prince George.

SO, I strapped the kid into a carseat in the firetruck and tried to learn to drive the thing, in a bad snow storm in an unfamiliar city….why on earth did I agree to all this?  Let's just say that if your parked car has a ding with yellow paint and is missing its side mirror you know who to blame…in other news, nice bowls, eh?

round and proud...

I am making some shapes lately that are new to me, or at least not much explored, and am very pleased:  a particular kind of foot, wider lid with a tapered knob, a certain body  shape, and, of course, these flowers…..

Dumping a prescription and getting back to …normal?

An asthma medication I have been on for a few months made me feel….fukked up.  I talked with a doctor, not the prescribing one, about some problems with it and he said try going without…GAWDAMN am I glad I stopped taking it.  I mean, my breathing had been magically clear, but sleep trouble and depression are SO not worth it.  I haven't talked with the prescribing allergist yet, but no way do I do want to do that one again.  Doctors are quick to prescribe because they want us healthy, but who wants to feel like a messed up medicine box?

So yesterday I made my first apple pie of the season…YES, I am too lazy most of the time to mess with  full-size pie dishes and rolling out a big piece of dough etcetc…these little baking cups, I just pat a little disk in the bottom, then add the apples and pat a little disk on top, mmmmmmmmm….made corn bread and a huge pizza too, you KNOW I was feeling wicked good….