Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Degrees

We are so connected. I have taken a vow to continue to make them. To build them. To shore them up.  As a last resort I will invent them out of good intentions in the face of anger.

This morning a person who has given me encouragement by being... themselves, shared a bit of artistic expression on her blog that took place far from me - and her.  At the work place of another fine woman. I woman I know fairly well through our shared profession.  We have many friends in common, we do know each other.  They don't know each other.

I sat in front of this amazing screen.  Two degrees of separation.  If that.  Women geographically far apart.  Of different generations.  All touched by the same work of art in the same way and linked to one another simply through a love of art and this odd hive machine.

You know, radio used to do this within the same block, town, even region.  Radio, your ass has been kicked.  This is so much more.  And less.  It's far more intimate, tiny and cozy and warm.

And ass-kickingly HUGE.

We are all connected.

Lucky Boy

http://icanhascheezburger.com/2011/11/28/funny-pictures-videos-the-faceless-kitten/

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Ruins

When you think you are alone in rebuilding your life and identity, look around.  Next to me is a woman who worked for NASA, now married to a police officer and working at an hourly job she must keep because she has MS. An English and drama teacher who was also a successful actor and a comic but who left his much-loved home town to shed bad influences and substance abuse.  A lovely young woman who lost her mother when she was a child and has no family to whom she can turn in her moments of insecurity or need.  A former IT manager who used to make five, not just three times as much in salary, but who walked away to care for his widowed mother.  In his forties, he has just purchased his first car. He never needed one in New York City.

There's the woman who counselled the incarcerated until one death row inmate decided he wanted to kill her.  Her former husband decided he wanted to sleep with other people and she discovered his lack of discrimination and various inclinations only after an appointment with her doctor. Now she has to tell family that she cannot suffer his presence at the holidays because she will not look in a face that once gave her so much joy, but now carries no trace of the person she thought she knew.  The person who has given her a gift she never wanted but will carry as long as she lives and will keep her from trying to find a love that will be true.  There are more stories surrounding those around us like auras.  Some we know, more we never will.

I have much to rejoice in and for which I am thankful. 

Friday, November 18, 2011

Noms

I had a good day at pottery, except for discovering a damaged piece of my greenware on the firing shelf which I will try to replicate and improve upon today (there's no way the repaired piece will ever be anything other than chipped and damaged even if it does emerge whole from bisque firing).  Complaints about people who aren't more careful around greenware will have to wait for another day.  But it does hammer home the need for a place of my own to work.  I glazed four pieces and made three more.  There will be a tiny teapot, two cups and a tray.

I missed out on the kickwheel in Lakeland.  Not having anywhere to store it made the bargain price easy to resist for a change.  But missing the opportunity still stings.  It helps that the portable slab roller works nicely. 

I came home and made dinner - do not rush slow cooked country ribs, save them for another day if you can't cook them all day.  They were tasty, but they could have been more tender.  There were these six very ripe pears that needed to be dealt with - I told Mom the other day to "deal with" the swiss chard I brought home and she told me if I bought it again I could "deal with it myself" - hee.

So I peeled and cored and quartered those bad boys and booted up the trusty laptop and found a tartin recipe that called for... you know what?  It was completely different from what I made, I just stole the idea of making a carmel topping for the pears in a crust.  That recipe called for stove-top cooking and oven baking in an iron skillet with the stems left on. 

There is a cup of sugar (or so) and 6 T butter and the juice of two lemons, ginger and allspice in the carmel sauce poured over the pears which were then wrapped in crust and baked until brown.  Mom added that the lemon juice and spices probably would have been better mixed with the pears (and flour or other thickening agent - I didn't use one so this was juicy) and the carmel left basic - butter, sugar melted and browned - to be added later.  She definately has a point.  As she did when she said the whole shebang would have been better with a handmade crust.  It was still really good.




This is our "greens."  Sue me, I was tired. :)

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Contest

There's this bowl that needs a home. It's a big one. Coils. Centerpiece size. Bicolor. Blue - turquoisey outside and sorta white inside. My coil bowls are textured on the outside and smooth as silk in.

Want it? Want to see it? I certainly do! There's something about the wait for the glaze firing that's akin to Christmas. In a big way. We'll see. If this bowl is as epic as I think it will be, I'd like it to have a person who truly loves it. Is that you? Tell me...

Friday, November 4, 2011

Time Traveler

Today in the studio I looked up at the clock and it was two-thirty. Five minutes later it was three-thirty. What the flip?

This has a couple of little clay balls inside the finial. It's a rattle and an eternal flame.





Thursday, November 3, 2011

Some Mud

I have class tomorrow and that makes me so happy. I have a small slab roller (that has yet to be put together because they have to send me some more parts - damnit), and other than the construction snafus THAT makes me happy. There's a kick wheel in Lakeland that I hope to buy soon - if it will fit in the Element or I can wrangle my 'phew into helping me pick up with his pickup and that makes me happy... The kiln will have to wait until I have a home and I am one step closer to a mortgage (such as - I can't afford much) and this makes me happy too.

making these?

makes me REALLY happy.


We should strive for happiness. Do what you love.