A Feathered Favor?

I've already babbled a bit about the raku workshop that I'm going to attend at the end of February. But wait, there's more! The lady teaching it wants us to bring one bisqued and burnished piece so we can try smoke painting. Isn't that a great phrase? I get all sorts of nifty imagery from it. Smoke painting. Cool.

What it really means is that you take bisque, get it really hot in a kiln and then burn the sh*t outta your fingers putting horse hair, pet fur/hair and or feathers on the pot. It burns in very quickly, leaving patterns behind. (I stole this picture from here. The scratchy lines are horse hair. The feather looking thing is, well, a feather.)


The burnishing part of the process is going to be a royal pain, but I'd like to do one or two just for the experience. I have PLENTY of fur from the fluffballs, but I do not have a source for feathers.

Anyone have any that they'd be willing to share? Or know of a good cheap source for natural feathers? I'd really appreciate it, and I'll trade pottery for them!

Today and Yesterday

This is one of my current projects. The clay is still fairly damp - it's the right consistency to trim. After I finished trimming it, I painted on several coats of red underglaze and then used something sharp and shiny to carve squiggles into the clay. This particular clay is little loafers, which is white when fired. The plan is for the bowl to be red, with the white lines showing.


I'm so very proud of this bowl. It will break my heart if something happens to it. It's huge, for me, at 6" or so across. It's also thin and even and not lopsided! I love it so! The first picture is as thrown, the second is after trimming. It's bisqued now and waiting for me to figure out the glaze. So pretty...



I threw this one on the same day. It's a nice bowl. I have no idea what colors to make it yet. Something happened during the bisque fire - there's now a chip on the foot. Grrr. But, it's a minor problem.



And here are some of the things I finished ages ago and never posted...

My first squiggles bowl, from September. The clay is called desert buff and it fires to a very nice oatmeal color. I carved in the squiggles and then dyed them with rust oxide. The rust color darkened to black in the kiln.



Here's the completed zebra dish. It's kind of shaped like a bathtub. The clear glaze is kind of gobby and my orange dancers faded out so I'm not thrilled with it. I do like the little zebras though.



This is how the squirrel vase turned out. The red in him faded away, leaving him a black squirrel. Kent State University, in Kent, Ohio, is known for their black squirrels so I've decided that he's a Kent squirrel.


A lot of the glazes that I use are from Coyote. Their site also features a really cool gallery of things that have been done using their glazes. I REALLY liked the sun bowl done by Terri Baldin. (Go here, it's the third one down.) This bowl was my version of her idea. I used mottled blue by itself, and it came out a bit dark. Next time, I'll also use Oasis.



Given the stack of bisque on my shelf, I'll have more to show soon. Actually, it may take a while. I signed up for a raku workshop, which has me ridiculously excited, and I'm busy making things from raku clay to have bisqued and ready to go by the workshop at the end of February. Do check out the video on raku - that, in a significantly more amaturish fashion, is what I'll be doing soon. The artist that is having MY workshop takes another step and quenches the pot in water after pulling it from the sawdust. This means that I have to use a clay that can withstand some serious man-handling. I REALLY hope stuff turns out! So excited!

Wordless Wednesday - Truth in Advertising

Somewhat Overdue...

Happily, thanks to the small wall heater and 2 space heaters, the studio wasn't freezing tonight. Yay! And we had cherry lambic, which made it even better. That stuff is so good. I have to import it from home - I haven't found it anywhere near here. The upscale grocery has the small raspberry, but not the cherry, or the apple. It's okay - friends supply me when they visit, so I'm good to go for a while.

Here are the finished pieces that I picked up from the studio right before Christmas. There's one more purple bowl, but it has to be re-fired. We have come to the conclusion that there are significant heat fluctuations in the kiln, and if your piece ends up in some areas, you are probably going to have to re-fire it. It's annoying and one day I may commandeer the kiln for a day and figure it out but for now, some things just have to wait longer to come home.

This is a bowl that I originally threw in June. I did a lid for it, and spent HOURS making daisies and painting them only to have something explode in the kiln during the bisque fire and shatter my lid. That was my first important lesson in not getting attached to things before they are actually finished and in your house. The bowl spent months languishing on my shelf, waiting for me to get over it enough to throw away the shards of the lid and move on. It's not particularly fabulous, so I had no problem experimenting with it.


I don't know quite what I was thinking with this one. I love the goldenrod shino and I should have left well enough alone. I'm not fond of the way the stripes came out. I will probably end up donating this one to the empty bowls charity event in February.


OMG, this one was a pain in the keister. I used a fork to make even gouges in the damp clay and then painted the stripes. Then, after the bisque fire, I used wax to keep the glaze out of the stripes and dip glazed it. It took FOREVER. Note to self: NO MORE STRIPES.


I've been playing around with textures and the way the glazes behave on them lately. You can get some really cool effects if you have some idea what you are doing. The teal middle of this one has deep vertical ridges carved into the clay. The effect turned out pretty cool.


One of the ladies in the studio came up with a glaze formula that is just beautiful. It has an aurora aborelus effect that I really love. This bowl is me playing with the colors somewhat. It turned out okay, but I like hers better.


I did a larger one very similar to this one a while ago, but with green and someone said they really loved it. So, I did this smaller one except now I can't remember who I'm supposed to give it to. *sigh* It'll sit on the mantle with everything else until I figure it out.


This is another bowl that I bisqued months ago and it hung out on my shelf while I pondered how to glaze it. I goofed while trimming and removed a chunk of the rim that I didn't intend to remove. The only way I could think to fix the mistake was to cut chunks out the rest of the way around and make it have a jagged effect. Now, I like it and will probably do it on purpose to something else.


These next two were another color experiment. I threw them from the same clay on the same day and was curious how much of a difference I'd see with different application methods. The first one was dipped in glaze first, allowed to dry thoroughly and then brushed. I did the opposite on the second one. I love the super shiny finish on the first one, but the color on the second.



This poor thing got shoved to the back of my shelf and forgotten. Then I cleaned and found it, squished against the wall. It was round when I threw it, honest! This is another color experimentation - we just got a red into the studio and we were all dying to know what it looked like. This particular red looks better on the dark clays.



More to come soon!

Wordless Wednesday - I'll Help!

Happy New Year!

In spite of the freezing fog, frigid temperatures and semi-crazed drivers, I made it home safely. Yay!

Christmas was good. I drove straight to mom and dad's and arrived about 11:30 am. My brother came over around 12:00 and mom got up around 12:30. We sat and chatted and ate until around 5, then tore into the presents. I ended up falling asleep on the couch so my Christmas ham dinner was at around midnight.

My treasure this year is the cobalt blue kitchen aid mixer. Oh, I loves it! I've been asking for one for ages and was about to break down and get it myself when Santa Mom decided that I'd been good this year. Mom also sponsored a draft horse in my name at a shelter here so we get to go on a tour and maul the animals at some point. That'll be nice too. I miss spending time with horses. It's ironic that I found a shelter to volunteer at outside of Chicago, but can't find anything in rural North Carolina. They exist, but people (as usual there) don't follow up worth a hoot and I haven't managed to connect with them. Grr. I'll try again shortly. Anywho, I used to volunteer at the place we'll be touring so it'll be good to see some familar faces and also what they've changed since I was there last.

This week has been a whirl of social activities and catching up with friends and family - something every day. Yesterday was particularly great - I went to breakfast with a group of friends from college. Around noon we freed up the table and moved to my friend T's house. I ended up leaving there around 4:30 in the afternoon. It's the first time we've all been together in probably 10 years and I'd forgotten how much fun we all had together. My sides hurt from laughing and it felt really good to realize that we can pick up right where we left off, in spite of marriages, divorces, moves, children... you know, life. We will not let so much time go by before our next gathering.

I have a bunch more stuff on the agenda for my visit, and some things that I know aren't going to happen - the time always goes faster than I think it should.

Special bonus - my aunt and uncle got a wireless router for Christmas, so my iphone is already set up for it and my laptop will be as soon as I retrieve it from mom and dad's. Yay for having use of my own computer! (My uncle is a solitaire JUNKIE and spends HOURS on their computer playing. I expect my aunt to acquire her own computer shortly.)

Anywho, whatever you end up doing, be safe this New Year's Eve and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

All Is Bright

Nothing is calm. I'm running around here like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get ready to leave for home. Cards? Mailed. Shopping? Done, as of about 2 hours ago. Laundry? Last load's in the dryer now. Kitchen? Clean, except for sweeping the floor. Cats? Box scooped, water fountain cleaned, food out, more litter and food purchses. Check. Wrapping? In progress now. Packing? Um. That's next. Loading? After packing. So much for leaving before dark.


I set the alarm in my iphone last night. The one thing I really don't like about the iphone is the alarm. If someone calls and you miss the call, or texts, or if you have an app that sends alerts, that supersedes the alarm. So, I missed a call since I was asleep and therefore my alarm didn't go off until I woke up and looked at the phone and cleared the missed call out. Very helpful. So I'm running about 5 hours behind. I've decided that I probably needed the sleep.


I picked up 11 things that were glazed and finished yesterday at the studio. So, one of these days I'll manage to post all of my finished stuff. One day... It's going to be after the fourth 'cause that's when I'll return here.

The lights are someone's house a few miles from here. I was on my way to work on Christmas shopping and stopped for a quick look. My pictures don't do it justice - they have several acres of decorations. I think my favorite is the cannon that "fires" an explosion of lights. Very cool.

Well, I'm off to run around in circles some more before heading out. Have a wonderful Christmas! (And any other holiday you may be celebrating!)

Science Geeks Unite!

Um. Okay.

Am I the only one weirded out by this ad?

His eyes, they follow me...

Maybe It's A Communication Problem...

Like one of you is an idiot.

I read this post by Jenny, the Bloggess - which made me laugh so hard I nearly snorted an oyster cracker out of my nose. I don't recommend it - it burns. So, then I went thru the comments and one of them referenced this article about some spy flap 'cause of a pretty flower on a coin.

And that made me think about a coworker's HILARIOUS story (we'll call him P) about being lost in Poland during a recent business trip. He went, by himself, to Poland from Germany to visit a supplier without a cell phone. Also without speaking the language. In a rental car that needed gas... fuel... petrol... whatever they call it over there. Without a map. Or the address of the company he was going to visit. Because he'd decided that Poland was small - smaller than Rhode Island - so of course he could just drive right up to the company 'cause they only have one road or something. (Truly, this man is the testosterone version of me sometimes.) And he got REALLY lost and couldn't find anyone who spoke English and he wandered in circles in Poland for hours. He went on to say something about finding a McDonald's that was attached to a Shell station and it was like a Heavenly light bathed the gas station and the angels sang because of course they would totally speak English there 'cause that was like American soil except in Poland 'cause we have fast food places attached to gas stations everywhere - that is OURS so if they have one, they must be us. Well, except that they aren't and they didn't (speak English, that is) and he nearly added something NOT gas to the car but was thwarted by the weird non-dispensing pump, which they apparently put on there to stop ignorant American tourists from ruining all of their cars with the wrong flameable liquid. Then he saw the sign on another pump with Pb in the ghostbusters no-ghosts circle thing and somehow made the leap (that I probably wound't have in a million years) that is was no Pb, no lead, UNLEADED so at least he had gas to wander around in circles some more. Somehow he made it back over the border to Germany, called another visiting American coworker (we'll say "R.") and went out for a beer. What he did not do was let the company (ours or the supplier) know that he was back and okay so the supplier called the company who freaked out and called everyone including the border guards on both sides of the Poland/Germany border. Someone called our admin here in the States, who called "R" on his international cellphone. The admin was freaking out over the missing "P," and got the answer, "no, he's not missing, he's right here next to me."

And that made me think about being in Mexico and being completely confounded that the pay phone didn't take quarters which struck me as being insane, until I remembered that we haven't yet taken over the entire world and their coins do not equal our coins.

I have no idea where I was going with this post, and it's 4:30 in the morning and I'm sleepy so I guess the moral of this story is to never let me travel anywhere alone. And Jenny rocks.

Peek-A-Boo

You say octopuses, I say octopi... And either way, they're pretty cool. Scientists were shocked to recently discover that they can use tools. Why are scientists so frequently surprised by the natural world?

Anywho, check this out for the story, and cool octopus video.

Holiday Hours!

The studio is open on Sundays until the New Year! Yay! Which means I have to go to the store now 'cause I'm probably not going to get any laundry done until then. This started last weekend, so I spent Saturday and Sunday at the studio. It was awesome, but I got nothing done. *sigh* Oh well. Maybe next weekend...

I've got scads and scads of stuff to share, but for now these are the two things I picked up today.

The black footed bowl turned out okay. I LOVE the green one. I'm so happy with it!

So Sleepy...

Holy smokes, y'all, it's been over a month! I've been around, reading blogs, but I'm spending so much energy at work that I mostly come home and collapse into a heap.

The pottery is coming along. I've got six things from last Saturday to trim. I think one is dead - the bottom is too thin and I think just getting it off the bat will kill it. The others might make it though.

Tomorrow is family day at work, so I have to spend a couple of hours there but I should be able to get to the studio by noon. We have a class tomorrow - salt and pepper shakers so that should be interesting.

I'm either hormonal, coming down with something or both. I'll be in bed by 10 tonight - which is unheard of for me - 'cause I'm just beat. And, I've teared up twice in 15 minutes - over a commercial, and upon reading that FC's snake found its way home. Clearly I'm sleep deprived.

So, sleep tight!

The Latest From The Studio...

I got 5 things glazed and ready to fire today. Given how ridiculous I get about glazing, this is nothing short of miraculous. Here they are on the glazing shelf. They should be in the kiln cooking away right now, so they might be done by Monday evening.



This is how my squirrel looked after the bisque fire. I'm pretty happy with him - I think the shading turned out pretty well. I used clear for the glaze to protect the underglaze and to water proof the vase.


I actually threw this mug in July, and it's been sitting on my shelf waiting for inspiration to hit with the glaze. I broke my previous record for glaze colors by using 14 different shades on this mug, all in greens, blues and purples. I love the shape and the handle, so I really hope the glaze turns out.


The sunflowers bowl is for my aunt for Christmas. This is how it looked after the bisque fire - so far, so good.


I tried something new - yay for experimentation! - by painting latex over the flowers, like so:


After it dried, I painted the bowl with espresso bean (which is brown that breaks black), peeled the latex off the flowers and then used clear glaze on the flowers. I'm a bit worried - I did another bowl with espresso bean and the blue band in the middle disappeared. If my sunflowers poof, I will not be happy - but I will hopefully have time to redo it before Christmas.

A friend visited the studio the other day and called this one a bathtub. There is a distinct resemblance.



While it was still soft, I pressed stamps into the sides and ends. After it dried, I painted it with the underglaze. The irony is that I've been looking for something to use the dancer people stamp on for a while, but I ended up being much more fond of the little zebras on each end. These pictures show it after the bisque fire. I decided to give the clear glaze in the bucket another try and dip glazed this. We shall see...




The fifth thing was not actually something that I threw. One of the other members was cleaning off her shelf and was going to throw it away, so I saved it. It's a low bowl, plate thing that I think will be perfect for holding a large pillar candle. I dipped it in the green blue that P and I purchased, then brushed the top with gun metal green and dripped archies base over that. Gun metal green runs, and so does archies base, so I'm hoping for cool designs in the glaze. Chris (who owns the studio with Shelley) says regularly that "it's a crap shoot!" and he's right, but I will remain hopeful.

I have 2 things ready for the next bisque fire, and I'm caught up so Monday evening will be spent on the wheel.

The finished things that I don't really have a use for in my house live on the mantle in my dining room. The mantle is getting full. If there's something I've done that you are particularly fond of, let me know. If it's on the shelf, it can probably become yours.

Wordless Wednesday - What Am I?

Random Travels Thru The Web...

So, this is what made me happy today.


A Treesweater. Of course. I'd knit a sweater for my tree out front but it's about three feet in diameter and I'm just not that good at knitting. Also? It just doesn't get that cold here.

I don't know who Discover has doing their ads, but this one rocks.

Who knows who or what Blur is, but this struck me as funny too.

There are days when the only ball I can sink in a pocket is the white one, so this is just amazing to me.

RAWR! Zombie octopus chandelier will eat your brain! Or, um, light up your living room. Whateva!


As I looked at the piles of books surrounding me on the couch - that I've been too lazy to put away... for weeks... I watched "Hoarders" on A&E and now I'm feeling MUCH better about myself. While bare flat spaces may be scarse, they do exist, and I can see my floors so I'm okay. Right?

I'm okay, you're okay. How about a hug? Free!

So, happy Monday!

Baby Hummingbirds...

These pictures are really neat. Check 'em out here.

Interesting Developments

You know, it's not like I have a grand plan here. Mostly, I just float along, and end up wherever the current takes me.

In high school, I was considered "gifted" and therefore was allowed to participate in the Governor's Summer Institutes for the Gifted and Talented. They were summer camps ranging from 1 to 3 weeks long at various colleges around Ohio, each specializing in a different topic. I applied to Shawnee University's program to become certified in scuba. I was rejected for that, but they put me into the engineering program. Of course, I went anyway. A week at a college far from home and parents at sixteen? I will study anything you want me to, just let me go. When I got there, I learned that every single one of the 40 of us in the engineering camp had applied for scuba and were put into the engineering labs instead. We got intensive four hour lectures followed by two hour labs, homework, and quizzes the next day. The scuba kids played in a pool all damn day. I still firmly believe it was a trick. They didn't really need my math scores for scuba, did they? Of the 12 or so people I stayed in contact with, every single one of us ended up going into engineering in college. Coincidence? I think not.

My first "real" job came about because of a random post on a cross-stitching forum... something along the lines of, "I can fix this, I'm an engineer dammit." And one of my online friends replied back that she was hiring engineers, what sort of engineer was I? Several hours of interviews and a personality test later, I had a real job as a junior supplier quality engineer. I've been in supplier quality ever since.

So, yeah, no grand plan. I just bumble along, and so far, it's mostly turned out okay.

Well, the winds of change are blowing again and I'm not sure what to do about it, so my plan is to go with the flow and see what happens.

My boss (or, as I call him, the asshole) has taken a new job. Starting on October 1, he will be production manager in our factory. Also on October 1, his job will be posted. I don't really want it, but I can't think of anyone who is even as qualified as I am, and if I don't go for it, I have no right to complain over whomever the next person is. So, I'm going to go for it.

I've told my boss' boss (aka the idiot) that I'm going for it, and while he is hard to read, my odds may be better than I thought. I really thought that, since the idiot and the asshole hate me, I have no shot. But, the idiot informed me that he wants me to go to the next global meeting for my department - which is the job of the lead engineer, which is the job opening.

I pretty much have to apply - I can't complain that there's no room for advancement in the company and then not go for the one and only opportunity likely to come up. Also, it's the next logical step in my career, and will get me management experience, which always helps when looking for the next job. I have no idea if I'll get it - the idiot told me that he never gets many applications for jobs. (Partly, this is 'cause quality is a nightmare. Also I am not alone in labeling him the idiot, except my label is nicer than most. No one who isn't completely miserable where they are is going to apply to move into his department.) So I may well be the only applicant. Keep in mind that with the current economic environment, we are under a total hiring freeze, and all jobs must be filled internally. I know there are scads and scads of really qualified people out there who don't know enough about our company to run for the hills, but we aren't allowed to hire them. This greatly improves my odds of getting this job.

So, if I get it... probably not more money, 'cause as a degreed engineer, I make more than my boss now. But maybe I can negotiate for additional vacation time or something. The chance to do more travel, especially international. Direct management experience.

But, as much as I'd like to, I can't take a new job with them and then bail, so I'd be stuck here for at least another year. Our little department of misfits is NOT a walk in the park to manage, and will probably turn my hair even more grey. I have said, more than once, that if it were my department, I'd clean house, fire everyone and start over. Given the hiring freeze we're under, that isn't going to happen. I'd get to spend scads more time with the idiot. Oh joy. Of course, with the asshole leaving, that's going to happen anyway.

If I don't get it, I will have a new boss. As they are opening it up to international candidates, my new boss will almost certainly be German. He'll come in and change everything. I hate change. *sigh*

It'll be interesting to see how this works out. The asshole is a VERY political creature. He's quite charismatic, he's been in this area longer, and knows everyone, and made it pretty clear to people that they could be friends with him... or with me. It's one of the reasons that I remain so alone here. Now that he's out of my department, that may change. Of course, if you're the sort to be influenced by that sort of thing, we're probably not going to be that close, but it would be nice to be invited to the parties and things that pretty much everyone else in the factory gets invited to attend.

Another interesting tidbit - I told the idiot (during our two hour car trip aka bonding expedition the other day) that I was perfectly willing to go to overseas on assignment for the company. He was surprised by this, since the asshole told him that I wasn't. *sigh* Sabotage at every turn. So the seeds have been sown there too.

Wish me luck, and stay tuned for whichever direction I float in next...

Wordless Wednesday - Melaleuca, or Paperbark Tree