Pictures of spring

Have been practicing with the tripod and my macro lens lately. This first picture has my grandma's china in it. I think it's so pretty.




My birthday flowers are still looking good--the Peruvian lilies. Also picked some flowers from my yard--daffodils and muscari or grape hyacinths.















And here are the miniature daffodils.

















Then I had to look up again how to do this feathering technique (the black foggish look) that I just learned a month ago . We had four rabbits in our backyard the other morning.





It sure felt like spring until the freezing rain came.

It's bursting forth!

Two more chim-chimeneas

These are the last of this size of chimeneas. I thought they'd like cute on my porch. I have another candleholder in the works, so watch for that one in a couple weeks.

Garden show 2009

Here are some pictures from the garden show last week. The first picture shows what it would look like if the trees were upside-down.





Some things I learned this year from a pest control company booth:

--Termites are white.
--A Brown Recluse Spider can go months without eating and prefers dead insects.
--Brown Recluse Spiders are commonly found in the sink or bathtub because they can't grab smooth surfaces to get out.
--Brown Recluse Spiders do make webs, for nesting and not for catching prey.


I also bought this book about birds. The authors were there to autograph copies.

You could get your teeth whitened! How weird is that?

Flower Pot Mound/Lake Coldwater

There is a legend of a man hearing a ghost on Flower Pot Mound in 1854 as told in this book, but luckily it didn't visit me.

Can you see the gypsum?

Mini chimeneas, orb, and mugs

I forgot how big a tealight candle is, and had to squish the candle in one of them. Oops. Clay shrinks 11-14% when from start to finish, so I did take that into account. There are a couple more of these chimeneas (or should I say chimenei) to come and hopefully I made the openings big enough. I still think they're cute and love the SB Red clay when it's high-fired without any glaze on it.

Then this round orb thing was going to be a salt pig, but it dried too fast. I didn't want to throw it away, so carved holes in it, thinking maybe it could be some type of frog for fake flowers? One lady in pottery class said I could use it as an incense holder, but because of allergies I tend to stay away from smelly stuff. Any ideas other than a paper weight? Would anyone be able to use it somehow (Hopefully locally, since shipping pottery is pricey now days)?


The next four mugs were glazed with Coyote glazes. The Expresso Bean was an alternate I picked out for the communion set.

This set of six were thrown using one pound of clay each, dried with a fan, trimmed and handled all in one day (5-1/2 hours). This is a big accomplishment since one usually has to wait until the clay gets to the leather-hard stage (one day) for one to be able to trim a foot on the bottom.

I think the cows are thinking...

Dude, look at that weird lady over there!

Enjoy, Hannah!





p.s. Yes, Jackie, I might even take some cow portraits when I come visit in July.

Best pics from yesterday

Here's a peek at some photos from my road trip to Gypsum Hills.

Abstract?

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Thought I'd share some photos I took during my photography class. It is done now, but we might be going on a fieldtrip soon. This is from the "abstract" assignment. They aren't very abstract, but I thought I'd post them anyway. These were at an import store and my local mall. Another lady in the class and I were discussing some places which don't allow you to take pictures. Did you know you're not supposed to take pictures in Starbucks or Victoria's Secrets?

Park

Learning feathering on PS Elements.

Bulbs

Two have bloomed so far.

Untitled (as I don't know what to call this and don't feel like sharing much today)

It is finished

I think it reminds me of this and this. Beatrice Wood made a lot of lusterware.

Two weeks ago...

These are the buzzards I saw.... by Lake Murray.

But I did not see this(supposed UFO sighted locally). Yes, that was me on TV last Monday night.

Road-tripping...

These are pictures from Sunday and Monday in Oklahoma while visiting my brother. I didn't mind driving by myself, especially since I could stop wherever I pleased to practice landscapes with no one waiting on me.

A Set and Handles

Here's my first try at making a two mugs the same dimension.

Have also been experimenting with handles. The second picture is two views of the same pitcher. The third picture is a result of my first spout and just playing and not caring so much about if I make mistakes. Yeah, I know it's a little weird.




EDIT: One of the handles on the last piece fell off; good thing there are three more.

My first dog dish

Finally made my dog her own personal bowl. I've been taking pottery classes for 2-1/2 years and thought it was about time. I think she likes it.

Winter bug fix

If you've been following my blog (THANK YOU LOYAL VIEWERS!), in the past couple of years I've had a new-found interest in insects. This month I finished reading Four Wings and a Prayer that I found at my local used book store. It's a book about how the butterflies migrate back to Mexico over the winter. I just happened to look up the Monarch Watch website and noticed that tonight there is a special on PBS called The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies!

Am planning on going to watch Vehicles play an acoustic show tonight, so will have to either record it with my VHS or watch in at 1 a.m. or midnight in the next few days...hmmm. Or maybe someone could buy me the DVD for my birthday in a couple of months? Oh, just kidding.

Anyway, I haven't been able to use telephoto lens on insects yet since I got it in November, so am looking forward to warmer weather in the next few months. Had my third photography class last night and am finally figuring out the F-stop/aperature and shutter speed stuff and getting more comfortable shooting in the manual mode. BTW, this picture was taken with my old point-and-shoot camera 2-1/2 years ago when I found a coccoon in my front yard. I do have three different types of milkweed (what Monarchs like) in my yard and hope to find one again.

It's supposed to be a llama...

These two pieces were thrown when I was still in my "alter it/not round" mode in November, carried over from when I made the saki set. The first one is triangular, and the second one is flattened on two sides. I am very pleased with how the glaze turned out on the second one, since I used the SB red clay and had no idea how it would look. I am planning on getting a cork for it and putting some type of decadent spirit in it...maybe amaretto, as I have baked with it before and haven't tried saki yet.

I think I am getting out of my little pottery rut I thought I was in and threw my first spout on Wednesday. It was very fun!

Thanks for looking!