Got One!

Stood in line for “someone” today…

But for me, it is tea time. Back to work…

Did you note my new Running Dog Teapot?

It’s Easy…

First, you make a cup. Then you put on brown slip. Then you put on white slip. Then you carve. Then you put on blue glaze and fire. Easy, right?
…hey, is that a new color peeking through this line up?

Yes! Red! Fired, it will look like this…

Huh?

Just a couple of rocks, you say?…

Actually that is my media center!
Time to trim a bowl and watch a movie…

Makin’ Stuff

What to do with a diamond plate pattern…

Cut it up and put a bit into a bowl…

What bowl? Oh, a bowl made my Mike Stumbras, 323Clay Resident Artist. It just happens to be the perfect size.

Isn’t it pretty?

Next, use the circle of diamond plate to make a sauce server…

…hmmm, a new form for me.

Next, use more diamond plate pattern to make something else…

See, that was easy, wasn’t it.

Why am I doing this, anyway? A show! A show with my friend, John Lujan. He is a print artist. The show is called (in)organic and opens at Community Christian Church on the Plaza next (February) First Friday.

I better get busy…

In the Studio/at the Farm

What do you do when your studio is dark and dreary?

Whine? No. Pitch a fit? No. Sign a petition? No!
You simply ask the studio’s owner (in my case, David Lee, owner of 323Clay) for better lighting and look what happens:

I’ll post an “after” picture soon.

Making bowls to donate to the Lee’s Summit Rotary Club for their fundraising event in February…

Thinking about glazing pots.

(I signed up for Glaze Class!)

This…

This is Top Secret. You can’t see. Yet.

Basically, I am ready for anything…

…including geriatric hoops.

Slow pace at the farm. I lost a hubcap a few months ago and it took me all summer to find another. It was not painted so of course, I had to paint all of them for a good match.

Painting hubcaps is…DIFFICULT!

Here it is again. Before:

Now…after!…

I’m Baaaaack…

Weeks of problems with internet. Small price to pay for living out in the country, though. I think I can start to catch up now…

From September till Christmas time, I assisted an…organ tuner! A really fun job just one or two days a week. Here is a bit of what I have seen…

The insides of pipe organs are dark and mysterious…

Yes, I provided “key input”…

Sometimes I “pull out all the stops”…

(But not often)

Some of the churches are really interesting…

Fancy footwork…

I thought this was a pretty cool “piano bench”…

I dig this carpet! It is now the “wallpaper” on my phone…

PIPES! …

architecture…

history…

WoW!…

Hospital Cups!

In 2006, I went on a road trip and…well, I had a little coma. Bradley was on the trip with me and bore the initial traumadrama. My family and friends traveled to be with me in Georgia. My brother sat at my bedside for seven weeks. My daughter was in her last year of college, traveled back and forth…and still got straight A’s. I think she was in a “walking coma” of sorts at that time. My friend, Shannon, brought me “back from the dead” literally and Susan gave me a mantra that kept me alive. Larry got a plane, pilot and nurses to get me back to K.C. John is an interpreter at St. Luke’s and checked on me every day. Connie rallied my potter friends and sold my entire stock of work which went a long way in paying my bills. I would not be here without them, I’m sure. Many other friends and family members helped take very good care of me that year. It is too long of a story to tell but I consider myself very lucky to have these people in my life.

I am especially grateful to the staff of St. Luke’s Hospital. They saved my life and put me back together. A nurse named John sang to me every morning and a nurse named Caroline kept me laughing throughout the day. The therapists got me back on my feet and everyone from the volunteers to the doctors were so very kind. Three months later, I was able to walk out and go home. I felt genuinely cared for when I was there.

When I finally got back into my studio, instead of throwing 50 pound platters on the wheel, I was only able to throw with 1/2 pound of clay. So I sat my little (very little) self down and made 60 cups. Every year since then, I make 60 cups again because I am forever grateful for the care that I received. I give “hospital cups” to the ones mentioned above. Then I take cups to St. Luke’s Hospital. I leave 25 on the 7th floor where I stayed and I take 25 to the rehab area. I told these people when I left that I would never forget them and I never will.

Last month I sat my little self back down and made these cups…

Then I made more! …

A small cup and a big thank you to my family, friends, and the staff of St Luke’s!

Holiday Sale!!

Functional pottery helps to create an atmosphere of warmth and generosity in a home. A person who brings pottery for use into the intimate environment of a home or workplace brings so much more than a cup for morning coffee or a bowl for soup. We invite a different system of value by choosing to have and use items that are made slowly, one at a time, with thoughtfulness and heartfelt purpose.
For your holiday shopping list, consider adding one of a kind items that are hand made by local artists. The gift will be appreciated and you’ll make an artist smile!

On that note: Holiday Sale this weekend! We are getting ready at 323Clay. See 323Clay’s website for details. And if you like facebook, be our “friend”.

I walked around the studio last night and snapped some shots of finished work and work in progress:

I have some glazing to do! Hope to see you on the weekend.

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At The Studio/ At the Farm

Today I worked at finishing up some tea pots…

Nope…not finished yet!

And I’m almost finished making “hospital cups”! Fifty cups, before my birthday (tomorrow!)…year six!!

My favorite sighting today…

Mike!

“Mike, Dancer of Jigs”, that is…

At the farm…new farm babies…

Peeper 1 and…

Peeper 2.

Just another day…

Extinction Alert!

Alligator mississippiensis, fondly known as gator.
Until recently, the habitat of the alligator included all of North America, excluding Canada. Beginning in 1794, settlers utilized the gator as workmates during their treks across new territories.

During the late 1800′s the American Alligator proliferated. Family companions, they were often seen on city streets as well as seaside resorts. By the mid twentieth century, virtually all American families included at least one American Alligator. Valued especially by those with toddlers, this creature has been instrumental in the development of this country’s social and cultural structure.

Sadly, in a few months time, this beloved species has become nigh extinct. This near extinction has been chronicled in the following photographs taken from June 15 through November 12, 2011…

The last know American Alligator is thought to reside in a koi pond in Overland Park, Kansas…south of 95th street, near the Missouri line.