Busy busy

No matter how careful I try to be while working it seems I wear clay on my clothes. I usually have my overalls on over top of my clothing but... I broke the buckle thing on one of my straps :o(
I've been busy producing and "testing". When I say testing it makes me feel a bit better when I screw something up, if it comes out ok then it wasn't testing... it was intentional ;o)
Here are a few shots of my most recent works

I'm a slacker...

Geeze, so it's been months since I blogged anything. Honestly I think I've been having issues with my mojo. Well I have lots of catching up to do. The last time I blogged was June 12th eek!
I left June 18th and went to Virginia to house/pet sit for my sister while she was vacationing in Hawaii.
While in VA I visited with family and friends and did some touristy stuff.
My niece's birthday and 4th of July happened while I was there.
But let me rewind a little. I met up with Jeff M, Mike B, Dave P, and Dave T, some flickr friends I met online and in person at the DC flickr meet up earlier this year. I had dinner with Mike, Dave & Dave at a spacey little place in Carytown, Va called Galaxy Diner, afterward Mike B and Dave P took me to Belle Island to shoot some pictures. Jeff couldn't make it because he had a meeting after work so we made plans to hook up at a later date. When Jeff and I eventually met up, we went to Great Falls, Va and took lots of pictures.
Then we did a walking tour of Washington, DC at night, which included the White House and monuments. There was lots going on there; protesters were everywhere protesting one thing or another. We even got snatched up to do a video in support of the Iraqi citizens protesting the elections. I tried to wiggle our way out of it with no luck so I let Jeff do the talking, I dummy-ed up because, I really didn't want to be on camera. But I stood there and smiled and held up a picture that the gentleman gave me to hold while he was taping us, Jeff did a great job speaking, I did a great job at being a dumbass, I'm sure .

I was able to visit with my family quite a bit which is always a good time.

Siblings (Left to right:) Renee', Fran, Nicci (she's standing on a cooler!), Cody & me.

Me & Cody, Cody is my youngest brother, he's 19, I'm 39.
Maturity wise I think we are are the same playing field ;o)

My step mom Cookie and my Dad.

I can't even put into words how much I hated leaving Va to come back to Georgia *insert huge sigh here*.

Away from home

My oldest son Michael left for NCRC (The national organization for cave rescue training) today. I could tell he was a bit nervous while waiting for his ride to pick him up. Then came the phone call late this afternoon, "Mom... I can't find my tent poles, I've looked everywhere". I searched the areas where he had his gear stored and outside by the driveway and found nothing. I could hear the hint of panic in his voice, mind you his nerves were a bit rattled already. He said "Mom... what do I do? I've looked everywhere". He's in Indiana for this training, we live in Georgia so it's not like mom can come to the rescue. So in my best cool calm and collected mom voice I walked him through the check here and there list, finally he came back with "Ahhh here they are".
So just 15 minutes ago my phone rings yet again and I hear a much more calm and confident Michael on the phone. He went up to the training area and practiced some rope work, change overs (A change over is basically when you are on rope either rappelling or climbing and you switch from one system to the other, not a fun or easy thing to do without lots of practice). He nailed it of course, he's really good and little did he know he had folks watching, when he was done he got a few compliments and questions and alas.... the ego has soared *lol*

Michael in a rope climbing competition 2008

Travel mugs

The past few days I've been working feverishly on getting a load of mugs ready. I managed to remember to take some pictures over the course of the few days it took to get everything from bisque to finish.

Bisque waiting to be glazed

Glazed and drying

In the kiln ready to be fired
Fresh from the kiln
And listed for sale in my Etsy store :o)

Brownie time!

I made brownies tonight and used my favorite bowl. I made this bowl a few months ago, it's hand built with coils of clay. It was not a fun process because I was completely obsessive about it. Hand building is my least favorite thing to do. But I think it turned out great, I use it for everything. While I had it out tonight I figured I would blog about it because I really do adore it. It's the perfect size for everything, well maybe not everything... but I'm in love with it :o)

Busy day today

Well as promised, this is one of my experimental pieces, testing out my new glazes. This is 2 different glazes. The bottom I did in cobalt blue and the top is Rosie's red. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I went to the SERA cave carnival for a few hours today. Bumped into a few friends and chatted for a bit then was off and running to do some birthday shopping. Today is my youngest son's birthday, he turned 17. After gifts and cake, which by the way was strawberry cheesecake and super yummy. I went to work on a little project in my studio. I got a request for ceramic mushrooms, so I assembled the tops and bottoms of 2 tonight and comepletly trashed 3 others *ugh* So I get to redo them. Which is fine I reckon because I really would like to change how I did the tops. Maybe I'll buck up and do a video while I make them, depends on my mood haha!
Health wise I feel like I'm about 90%. I think this funky flu stuff has about left my system, just in time too because I'm out of klenex ;o)

fingers crossed!

I woke up early this morning and loaded my kiln to do a test firing of some new cone 6 glazes, I'm testing on a few different body types to see how it reacts. 1 is a cobalt blue and the other is called Rosie's red. The Rosie's red has a reduction type appearance to it and was gorgeous on the samples I saw so I guess we shall see what happens. I put it on a few luminaries and small jewelry / trinket boxes. Good or bad I'll post pictures to share my results with it. I think I may have applied it a little too thick but I'm hopeful.

I worked in my studio for a little while this morning. I got a custom order for some ceramic mushrooms. I decided to throw them on the wheel with earthenware instead of stoneware just so I can use this textured paint that I have, it's fabulous. The earthenware was a dream to throw, very smooth and handled nicely. I've only used it in the past to do hand building. After they dry a little I'll assemble them. I threw them in 2 parts, the stem and the top are separate. I'm kind of eager to see how they'll will look when they come together.

That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it

I've been very lazy with my blog, I'm trying to snap out of it and stay more on top of things.
This past week I've been sick with the flu and I'm having a very difficult time shaking it. I'm thinking swine flu, I'm waiting for my little piggy tail to grow so I can be sure of it ;o)

I just slipped out to the store to get more medicine and I ran into a man who was very rattled and finally asked me if i could help him. He was picking out a pregnancy test and was clueless. I couldn't help but giggle to myself over that.

In other news, I've become addicted to Mafia Wars and I'm blaming my friend Joe. He put out a call for needing more members on facebook and I offered to help if he needed it, if not then I wouldn't join it. Of course he was like Yes!!! I need you!!! so... yeah, it's Joe fault.

For the love of cupcakes!

I've always loved cupcakes and I love visiting bakeries to see what they are creating.

Alas... I'm much better at eating them than I am at making them.

Here's a picture of me I did when I was working on my 365 days photography project.

I started making ceramic cupcake trinket boxes several months ago just because they are so fun and make such a cute gift. I gave one to my niece the last time I was in Virginia visiting her and she just loved it. She told me last night on the phone that she keeps a very tiny toy inside of it so that she won't loose it.



I started selling cupcake trinket boxes in my etsy shop and I received such wonderful feedback from them that I started making a different type, so now I have 2 styles available.