Interpreting Cat hand writing is tough

As I posted previously, my youngest son Levi joined the Army and is going through hell basic training now. He's been gone for weeks and his letters sound home sick and like he's having a bit of a rough time. So after a few glasses of wine last night I decided that the cats should write him letters. These will surely make him laugh.

from Little Cat

Also from Little Cat

from Spookers

 The good news is he comes home for Christmas break on Dec 16th. I can't wait :)

As promised, the new plate

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pictures

Over fired plate = more work

I did a custom plate for a friend a few days ago and over fired it, which needless to say I ruined it. Today I redid the plate and if this turns out the way I'm hoping it does, this one will be so much better. It needed more color. Since this plate is for a little girl, I wanted the colors to pop and be vibrant and happy. The other colors were more pastel and the whole plate was white... boring! The good thing about making huge mistakes is you can look at it and know what needs to be tweaked. So sometimes screw ups are awesome :)

Here's my screw up... if you look closely you can see blisters in the glaze. 

I also hate that it's all white. 

 And here is the new version, This is before the firing, which I watched like a hawk and it fired perfectly. This looks dull right now, but after it's fired the greens are actually a pretty bright lime green and the same goes for the reds, they will be bright red. I'll post a picture of it tomorrow when I unload my kiln.

Here are some sketch shots, originally I had her holding a leash, but I scrapped that idea and went with her hand on her hip.

She evidently has a favorite stuffed kitty that she carries around so of course I had to put him in there.

  I also rounded the dogs nose and got rid of part that comes down. The more I looked at it, the more it just looked odd to me.

I can't wait until I can open my kiln tomorrow to see the finished  plate :) Just keep your fingers crossed for me that I didn't screw up again!

Roll on!

The sky has been a dreadful grey color for days, I hate that it affects my mood, it feels like the life is sucked out of everything including me! The past few days as I posted previously have been awful. Today I attempted to shake the funky mojo. I failed. I packed up a bunch of orders and went to the post office only to be told they can't take any credit cards or debit cards, their system was down for the entire nation! wow! How does that happen? So here I come back home with my orders pouting the whole way. My business account doesn't have checks, only my debt/credit card, so much for technology. So I bought myself and my wrists a new gift to make myself feel better... ready?

Taa-daaa

That would be my new slab roller *doing my happy dance*  Typically when I roll out a slab of clay I use a large wooden dowel like a giant rolling pin and it kills my wrists and it takes forever. Almost. This new baby will be here next week! Boy oh boy do I have plans for this baby! Together with my slab roller and my new extruder I'll be ready to take on the world or at least my own little world within my studio lol

RIP Annie

The past few days have been nothing but terrible. My dad got sick Thursday, fell on Friday. He's ok but boy did he give us a scare. My father in law also took a fall and ended up in the hospital.

Saturday very suddenly we lost our dog Annie to a stroke. Emotionally and mentally, I'm drained.

My baby boy is gone :o(

My youngest left for the Army Sunday. I was prepared for his leaving, it's been coming for months but when it came time to say goodbye... I broke. Yep, I tried to fight back tears with everything in my soul but I failed. I've pretty much cried off an on for 2 days now. Funny how kids have this way of breaking you down. The good news is he is getting a nice 2 week Christmas break so that will be awesome.

Ok so now on with pottery stuff. I have 2 new glazes I'm dying to use, I'll do that hopefully tomorrow.
I made this little dish and I'm liking it so much that I think I may use the texture on the left for full size dinner plates, what do ya think?

I'm Back! And my Etsy is open again :o)

I'm baaack! My Etsy shop is now open! I'll be adding more new things this week. This is a new spin on my travel mugs. I made decals and fired them onto the mugs, this is permanent and will not wash off. The iron oxide in the ink has been fused into the glaze. I love this process and the experimenting that goes along with it.

 I'm still hard at work, I have so much glazing to do. I literally have 3 large tables and 6 large shelves filled with bisque waiting for glaze.

The count down

We are 5 days away from my youngest son leaving for the Army, he ships out this Sunday. I have some really mixed feelings over this, not only being the mom but the control freak in me is starting to have anxiety about it. I'll just keep breathing and working and remind myself that this will be good for him.

Halloween came and went, we all stayed in with the family and in our traditional halloweenie way, I went out and bought too much candy and we spent the evening loading up on sugar and watching scary movies in the dark.

I closed my etsy shop for a few days which has turned into a week (I'll be open Thursday). I'm working feverishly to crank out work.