Bowls

I spent the day working on making bowls. I'm doing more of my soup bowls with a cracker pocket like these...

The pocket is very handy, especially if you like sitting in front of the TV snuggled up eating chili, beef stew or soup (or ice cream! don't forget the ice cream!) while watching a movie. I don't like to put all of my crackers in my soup at once, they get all soggy and I hate that.

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I made a template for a new bowl a few weeks ago and today I was finally able to use it and I made some slab/ hand built bowls and decorated them with one of the stamps I carved a few weeks ago.

I still have to clean up the rim, but overall, I'm pretty happy with these. Maybe I'll make some plates to match. I really enjoy hand building, if you are unfamiliar with that term it basically means you roll out a slab of clay and build with it. It's one of my favorite things :)

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If you've kept up with my blog then you know I got a new puppy several weeks ago that I adopted from my local humane society. To update you on the terrorist  little darling...

Cheese! Yes the fool dog smiles

Jackson has overcome his fight with parvo and is a healthy boy. In the past 24 hours he has killed 2 new kong dog toys (they lasted less than an hour), he chewed the insulation off the pipes of the heating and air unit, chewed up a bottle of cuticle/nail oil, 12 (yes twelve) plastic glaze test containers and the lids, 1 aluminum can and ate a wad of clay. I spend most of my time saying no and drop it. I refer to him as "The Infidel".

Mugs and stamps

I'm being naughty and avoiding my etsy site for few days. I'm trying to get some work done so I can restock my nearly empty shop. Everything has just been chaotic at home, hopefully things will calm down and I can get back to business as usual.

slab built platter with pine cones

slab built tray with an acorn and leaf

A few posts ago I showed some of the stamps I had been carving, here are two of the stamps now that they have been bisque fired.  I used them to decorate one of the mugs I threw this week.

I've been making plates like crazy. I stamped the rims on these with one of my favorite flower stamps (I didn't make this stamp, it was a purchase from another potter).

No title really, just stuff.

I'm bringing sexy wonky back! Yes, I am a dork, thanks for noticing.
I'm not sure why I stopped making my wonky pots, they were so much fun. Recently I've had a few requests for them so that's what I'll be working on this week amongst other things.

Here are a few wonky ring holders I just finished.

I've also turned out a few cornbread bakers and sponge holders. 

I'll try to get these listed tonight or tomorrow in my etsy shop.

Cornbread baker

Juicer

Juicer's are new to me so I made several of them with different handles. I've never owned a juicer, but I just made something that required the juice from 2 limes so I used one of my juicers and it worked wonderfully! 

ring holder with a butterfly

sponge holder

My new little dog Jackson is doing well, finally finished his medicine and is very much on the road to full recovery. Our new drama for the day, he's been collared... yes friends this poor baby has been forced to wear a collar. If he could dial a phone and speak, I'm sure he would have called animal welfare on me and reported me for abuse. He instantly was depressed, walking around with his tail tucked and cowering down as if he'd been whooped. Bless his heart... tragic isn't it?

This is what I've had to look at all day.

I took him outside to use the potty, at first he wouldn't even get off the door step and when he did, he walked along the foundation of the house behind the bushes. What in the hell is that about? It's a cute collar! He acted like he didn't want his friends to see, hell he doesn't even have any neighborhood friends, the local neighborhood cats did make an appearance. I bet that's why he's acting all weird, the cat bullies must be taunting him.

Bow wow baby!

It's been a few weeks since I last updated. So far 2012 hasn't been very good to me. Pardon my language but I feel like I'm standing at the bottom of turd hill and shit just keeps coming at me. The good news is my finger is healed, I still have a weird little lump and it's tender when you put pressure on it, other than that, it's good.
I had planned on having my store stocked up last week but... well let me tell you the craziness I went through last week. I went to the humane society and I found a great little dog who we've named Jackson.

Jackson, the first moment we met

On the 3rd day of this little guy being home with me he started showing signs that he wasn't feeling well. I immediately called my vet and rushed him in. I explained to doctor that he was typically borderline hyper, super friendly and that morning he acted depressed and he vomited a little and his gums were pale (because I am one of those people that checks everything and I know pale gums isn't a good thing especially when they were red and they went to a pale pink). The doc gave me all kinds of reasons why it could be happening, an obstruction, a change in food and then I tuned her out and I insisted on a parvo test, she doubted parvo but ran the test. 10-15 minutes later she walked back into the exam room and gave me the news, he was positive for parvo. I luckily caught it before it progressed to far. After going over treatment plans I just flat out asked "what would you do? if this were your dog, what would you do?" My vet and vet tech looked at each other and looked at me and both agreed that I should treat him at home. This terrified me. They said considering it was me (maybe because I'm overly protective,  ridiculously anal and controlling lol)  they were confident that I could do it, that was what they would do. Considering he came from a shelter and into my home, putting him back into a kennel type environment would probably depress him and he wouldn't want to eat also no one would be there in the evenings for him. So they set me up with a special food and anti vomiting pills and anti diarrhea pills and home we went. I spent about a week sleeping on the sofa with him at my side, feeding him small finger fulls of food and giving him pedialyte with a syringe every hour around the clock 24 hours a day. I had my alarm set on my cell phone to go off every hour so at night I was catching 30-40 minutes of sleep every hour if I was lucky (seriously I was so tired I was incapable of having a complete thought). I kept him from vomiting, the pills were a great help, I also literately held him like a baby and walked the floors petting his face to calm him down to try an stop the vomiting when the nausea would set in, it worked. I looked and felt like hell. I just kept thinking, this poor baby can't die on me, his life was completely in my hands. Today is day 9 and it's been a rocky road, but he is doing well. Lucky for him I was observant and acted immediately when I saw the first signs of trouble. He is eating and drinking on his own now and is doing much better, he gets tired easy and still has moments of nausea which I control by talking and petting him through it, his gums are still a little pale but over all he is doing really well. He's completely spoiled and knows I am his momma. This sweetie pie follows me everywhere I go. He has a lovely collection of toys and couldn't be a happier little dog. He still has a long way to go with healing from this mess but his outlook is good.

Jackson and I watching TV and enjoying some cuddle time

This is one very happy doggie :o)

My vet said he's about 6 months old and not a rat terrier as I had thought he was but he's a mountain feist, of course I had to google it because I was clueless as to what a mountain feist is, well it turns out they were bred to hunt squirrels. This spring and summer should prove interesting, I have a pecan tree and 2 peach trees in my yard and we are plagued with a huge squirrel population.I should add that treating him at home was a huge savings money wise, I saved $700.00 (the vets estimate for treatment was $850) which at the time I would have certainly paid, but so glad I didn't have to. Jackson got lucky because I knew the signs and I acted on the first symptoms. If you get a puppy or a young dog and they show symptoms that include depression, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea and loss of appetite get your pet to the vet immediately and ask for a parvo test, do not take the "lets wait and see" approach, it's better to be safe than sorry. Typically the parvo virus will land your dog in the hospital hooked up to an IV and there is a good chance your dog will die. The sooner it's diagnosed the better off you and you pet will be.
Jackson was picked up as a stray and was in the shelter for 6 days before I adopted him. I have no doubt in my mind that the previous owners weren't very nice to him, if you raise your voice he pitifully cowers, he's a hoarder, he collects every sock, shoe, tool, roll of tape and camera bag he can find amongst other things and drags it back to his bed.

Toilet paper thief

He had one accident in the house, pretty good considering he acts like he's never been inside of a house. I would venture to say that given his activity level, his prey drive and his mischievous puppy ways, he's probably been screamed at, whooped and tossed outside. He's a lot to handle especially if you think small dog = lap dog and that this little guy would be content just laying around. WRONG. I promise you that my phone conversations pretty much go like this, "Hey how are NO! you? I'm good NO! did you watch that show NO! last night? Wasn't that the funniest NO! thing you ever saw?" It's like I've developed tourette's syndrome.

Jackson on his blanket with his froggie, the first time it went "ribbit" it scared the hell out of him.

Now that he's got his bounce back in his step, I'm making sure he gets lots and lots of indoor and outdoor exercise, I've taught him to play fetch and come when called which comes in real handy for burning energy.
 
So on top of dog drama, I've been working! woohoo! I had to relocate my operation from my basement studio to my kitchen table so I could be with Jackson around the clock but I'm happy to say, I have a kiln full of dunk mugs and a table full of more work in progress. I have so much pottery to glaze and fire it's ridiculous, hand built, thrown and molded.

Making stamps

My finger is on the mend and I'm officially back to work, I'm still slow moving but I'm at least moving.
For the past 2 days I've been tinkering with making stamps, I think I've turned out about 30 of them. Here's a peek...

This is a good sit in front of the TV or talk on the phone task and considering I've been held captive on the phone for the past few days it's all worked out pretty good.
Of course most people that work with clay are semi hoarderish when it comes to having textures and various tools, because you never know when you may be able to re-purpose something.  That being said I'll admit that I have a whole plethora  of shit cool stuff on hand that I can use, however I end up falling back on a few tools that just seem to do the trick. This is the small arsenal that I pulled out for this round. 

And which are my favorite tools to use? Well I'll tell ya, better yet I'll show ya.

These 2 items PLUS the nail are by far the best stamp making tools I've ever used. Pictured are one of my wooden skewers and my granny's walnut picken tool (omg that sounded pretty redneck, yep... that thar's my granny's nut picker) You know back in the day when my granny was alive she always had this tray that sat on her table with nuts, there were 2 nut picks and a nut cracker and yes I'm the new nut that has them, she'd probably have a cow if she knew what I was doing with her nut picker.

And to catch you up on where the owl landed from my last post, he landed here...

Up and running, kind of

I started doing a little work today in my studio, it's difficult with a broken finger to do too much, but I did throw a few things on my wheel and crafted a few little owls. Have a peek at this Lil Hooty. I rolled up a ball of clay and he just happened (actually a whole flock of them happened, wait until you see where they land).

I was on facebook tonight and I usually don't play along with these types of posts but for whatever reason I did tonight, get a load of this.

The book closest to me is one I received as a gift from some friends and it's called "The Zombie survival guide" and my answer to this turn to page 45 thing is, "Again, although the assault riffle is not ideal for defense against the living dead, a member of the ak-47 family will be your best bet". As you can imagine, I laughed pretty damn hard.

I made laundry soap today

There is a recipe floating around on Pintrest for making your own laundry detergent. Well of course I had to try it.
I even splurged and bought a 1 gallon clear glass jar for a whole 10 bucks at wally world.

So this detergent is easy enough to make, it's supposedly much stronger then the stuff you buy at the grocery store. 
The ingredients were all found at Wal-Mart (in the laundry detergent isle) and total cost was $22.00 (not including the $10. for the jar).
This is all you need:

1- 4 lb box of Borax
1- 4 lb box Arm & Hammer Baking Soda

1  box Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda 55 oz (3 lb 7 oz)

3 bars of Fels-naptha soap

1- 3 lb box of oxyclean (this is optional but I did use it for mine)

You mix up all of the ingredients, use a cheese grater to cut up the bars of Fels-naptha soap. Or cut it up in chunks like I did and toss it in the food processor, here's a tip I learned tonight. When you put the bars of soap in the food processor it's kind of sticky like cheese as it chops, BUT if you add some of the baking soda it will dry it out and be a wonderful powder consistency, I totally recommend adding the baking soda for the chopping. I lined a 5 gallon bucket with a garbage bag and dumped all of my ingredients in  that and when I was done adding, I twisted the top of the bag took it out of the bucket and rolled it around and mixed it in my lap, being careful not to puncture the bag and then I dumped it into my new jar and waalaa... 1 tablespoon per load and this looks like it's going to last for a long time.

I must say... it smells pretty good. Also it does not foam like soap and other users say it is safe for High efficiency washers and front loaders.