Road-tripping

Since my husband had to be in the area last Friday, I suggested that we go to the KSU Gardens and Insect Zoo. The insect zoo was interesting and well worth the $2 admission fee.

We also stopped at Council Grove to see the Council Oak. It's a coincidence that I've been trying to finish Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee this month. Did you realize that when the Fifteenth Amendment was passed that Native Americans still couldn't vote? At least, that's what the book says.

Summer session pieces

This last piece is called "Vertigo!" and is in the display case on third floor.

Still have a saki set and another piece that will be glazed over the break. There are more pictures on my flckr account if you're interested in looking.

Greta's art exhibit

Finally took some time to post this...













Click right here to be transported to my flickr account for close-ups. The exhibit is up until August 28th if you'd like to see it in person. Be sure to read her artist statement towards the end!

Butterfly rescue mission update

Yesterday morning the first butterfly emerged and have had three more since then. There are more pictures on my flickr account (link on the right) of them.

Hope to get around to posting some pictures of my finished pottery and Greta's awesome art exhibit soon, so stay tuned.

Caterpillars/My science project

On July 22nd, I found these little caterpillars on my parsley and fennel and put them in jars so the wasps wouldn't eat them. Thought they would be good photo fodder.

Here's a picture of one yesterday---

And here's one of them pupating today.

How many people do you know my age that get excited about caterpillars? Told you I was weird. Let's see if I can get a better picture than last year (link) of the butterflies.

Cloud Rorshcach test

What do you see?







This?

Or this?

I will so graciously analyze your answer for a $50 fee, but you may not analyze my drawings...okay, I might do it for free if the answer is funny enough.

Sky for Saturday

Does anyone remember when I did Photo Friday (link)and took a picture based on their subject? Yes, it was a long time ago. I'm toying with the idea of "Sky for Saturday" or "Sepia Sunday" as picture subjects for blog posts to get me posting more. I love taking pictures of clouds and the sky, so guess I'll try it for awhile. Do you see anything in the clouds here? Maybe meringue or caterpillars?

The Welcome Prayer

Here's a prayer that Goteeman (link) shared on his blog this week:

The Welcome Prayer, by Father Thomas Keating:

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me in this moment
because I know it is for my healing.

I welcome all thoughts, feelings,
emotions, persons,
situations and conclusions.

I let go of my desire for security.

I let go of my desire for approval.

I let go of my desire for control.

I let go of my desire to change any situation,
condition, person or myself.

I open to the love and presence of God
and to the healing action and grace within.

AMEN

I can speak the words, but not mean it yet...Too many things happening with two important people in my life to welcome any other relationship to be changed. I do know this should make me closer to God and trust he can use the situations for good...just not ready to welcome anything else right now. Am not looking for sympathy, just telling the truth.

More red, kind of...

Unbenounced to me, the high-fire clear glaze turns green when put on clay with iron oxide, so I was expecting all these to be red. Luckily, I only put glaze on the inside of the vase to seal it. The next piece is a tumbler.

Here are two pictures of a three-handled vessel. Would like to do more in the future.

Please vote now

Have you ever visited the
Bartlett Arboretum? It has suffered from flooding in the recent years and has been nominated for a grant. Please click here and vote for Robin Macy and the Arb' to get a grant from said wine company. Did you know she was the founding member of the Dixie Chicks?

On a somewhat-related topic (in my mind at least), these were the best pictures I could get of a tree hopper that I found in my yard about a week ago. I think it's so cute!!! Do you see how in my mind this can be somehow related to the arboretum, as it hops on trees? Just a little peek of how my mind works.

Thank you for you support (I by no means just subliminally suggested that you should drink wine or listen to the Dixie Chicks (even though I like both) by voting, but you may do so at your discretion (or even drink Bartles and James for that matter in case anyone remembers those commercials using said phrase)).

Have I used enough parentheses in this post? Maybe this would make a good "mind teaser" quiz--How many parentheses do you see in this post and did I even spell parentheses right?

Another plug...this time for a very cute blog!

Did I say I was going to post pictures of Independence day? Well why don't you just gohere (click right here for Cloud1000) and see some for yourself.

Also took some very weird pictures I might post later, but I took 91 pictures and have to narrow them down a bit.

Plug for Greta

Remember this post (click here) from October when I talked about Greta letting me take pictures of her sketchbook?

Well, she's having an art show!!! I finally get to see some of her paintings and ogle over them. (BTW, why don't they spell ogle with two o's?) She will have her ceramics as well. I'm going, even if I have to by myself (hint,hint)!

Here's a preview of an unfinished piece of hers using the masking technique.

Love ya, Greta; bye!

Finally...

If you've looked at my hands in the last month, I've probably had to explain to you that I've been using red clay and haven't had a self-tanning disaster. Finally got some finished pieces. The clay is called SB red, and it stains hands and gets stuck between fingernails and cuticles.
There are a few more pieces that need to be bisque-fired, are drying on the shelf, or almost done in this clay. These are tumblers with the sgraffito technique with black covercoat.
This pot is my ode to fennel. The glaze didn't turn out like I expected, so of course I'm not too excited about it.


A couple more tumblers.


What else is in the works? I'm out of the vase phase and want to do pitchers for some reason...and have been kicking around ideas for the class project and bowl assignment and maybe even the communion set I keep putting off.

Will post some Independence Day pics when I get around to it.

Out of the kiln

The following tumblers were made with this tool, the Ultimate Edger, which I got when I was in Lawrence in May. There's a lot of grog in this clay, so you can also file your nails on the bottom ridge of these cups--double purpose!




This lidded piece was done in May as are most of these pieces and is finally finished.

And a mug.

Pictures long overdue but will post anyway

This was a couple Saturdays ago...the chalk festival, dinner at Lara's and Paul's including margharitas, and the
Mentos/Diet Coke fountain trick--all in one exciting day!

BTW, have you seen the Weezer video featuring Experiment #711? I don't know half the things they are referring to. Guess I better watch more YouTube.

Macro milkweed

Have been practicing with my new camera lately. The first picture is butterfly milkweed with the macro setting on the camera.
This second picture is using an extension tube and magnifying filter (not very good, but just to show as an example).
On this last one, I cropped and tweaked it in photoshop.

After about 20 minutes of shooting, was kind of tired of closing one eye and squinting the other while looking through the viewfinder. Will have to get used to that.

Have more "bug" pictures on my flickr account if you care to look.

So that's what I've been up to and more.



p.s. Will have some pictures of my pottery to post soon, as there are 9 pieces in the kiln.

What made me laugh today

Thought this was funny after seeing Pat Robert's new commercial.

Juicy airmass

The following is a statement from our local paper weather section for watches, warnings, and advisories:

THUNDERSTORMS WILL BECOME MORE NUMEROUS THIS MORNING AND TRACK SLOWLY SOUTHEAST ACROSS EASTERN KANSAS TODAY. HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE DUE TO THE SLOW STORM MOVEMENT...AND JUICY AIRMASS YIELDING HIGH RAINFALL RATES.

No, not another juicy airmass!!!

Cruet and new glazes

The cruet is with Coyote Pistachio Shino glaze. Am really pleased with it and actually knew what glaze I was going to use while making it. It's really exciting when I decide what glaze I'm going to use while making the pot, as sometimes I spend a lot of time deciding which glaze to use on already bisque-fired pieces. Decisions, decisions.

The vase has Highland Tweed glaze and came out a little bit lighter on the picture than it actually is. If you do pottery, you can probably guess that I didn't plan on the faceted bottom third. It flew off the wheel while not properly secured while trimming and got dented..thus I proceeded to creatively mask the dent with a cheese cutter.

These bowls have Copper Wash on the inside and Black Licorice on the outside.

Lilies, the photographic triangle, and b&w TV

The first asiatic lilies are blooming in my yard.

Am also learning about the photo-graphic triangle and will be able to take better pictures of the lilies now that I have finally figured out how to set the metering mode on my new camera.

Also figured out how to revert your color TV to black and white...view it through your camera set on monochromatic. Yes, that's Merrill and our forecast.