Spring Break Firebug/Toads…

It’s been a while so let’s get down to business with the really important stuff. The butt dictionary…

It doesn’t have all of them but there’s a few new ones. It is currently spring break here in Louisville and we spent a couple days down at Lake Cumberland at some friends’ “camp”. I use the quotes there only because it’s nicer than my house. Here’s the view from the deck…

A brief history… Lake Cumberland is actually the dammed Cumberland River. Years ago my friends purchased property on a bluff overlooking one of the many many arms of the lake that were formed when these “hollers” were flooded. The property is only a parcel where there are probably over a hundred lots. When my friends started building, a problem occurred with the dam and the lake had to be partially drained. It was supposed to be fixed and return to previous levels within a year or so but it apparently presented more problems to the Army Corps of Engineers than initially suspected and now it’s been 8 (I think) years and although the water level has increased finally in the last year or so, it’s still quite low. The good news as far as I’m concerned is that the drained lake put the kibosh on building of camps and we were literally the only ones there… not another human in sight save a few bass boats that tried to make their way up the creek that was once the lake. The first day we went down to the tributary in front of the camp and explored with the bug. She found toads…

And here’s a rare pic of Mom with the bug…

So it was a few days with no internet, no phone, too much food and much peace and quiet. One highlight for Sofia was the campfire. Just typing that makes me cringe with the realization that we are not spending enough time out in the woods. Anyway, there’s no bigger bunch of firebugs than potters and this may be where it all begins…

Another highlight that I didn’t get pics of was a small pond with, really, hundreds of mating toads. Under the surface of the water were wads of what looked like yarn but were in fact long strands of eggs. There had to be tens of thousands of them. In other news, we broke down and got an iPad which has allowed me to use instagram. I read that someone (I think it was Carol Epp) said at NCECA that instagram is the crack c0caine of social media. I can see why. I had tried it before with an old iP0d but the resolution was low and I didn’t like the picture quality. Needless to say, it allows me to post in progress pics without coming upstairs, downloading pics from camera to desktop, resizing in photoshop and then posting. Here’s a collection of some of the greenware I’ve been working on…

I’m happy at this stage of the process and am looking forward to seeing them finished. As always, there’s that one last hurdle and I’ve got a bunch of new color combos I’m itching to try out too. I was invited to participate in an Emerging Artists show in Houston at the 18 Hands Gallery. My friends Mattie and Katie in Houston went to see it and sent me this pic…

That’s all I have for now.

Nuke The Old Uke/Alabamy Clay…

The bug got a new uke. It’s a bit of a step up from her pink beginner’s uke and it’s wooden. Regardless of appearance, it sounds better…

A friend told me that at the Guitar Center stores they won’t allow anyone to play “Stairway To Heaven” in the store. I’ve never been interested to learn it but this prohibition has inspired me to learn just enough of the intro to maybe one day get thrown out of the store. In other news, Sebastian and I traveled down to Birmingham for the Alabama Clay Conference. I was a bit remiss in the photography department but managed to get a few shots. A good time was had by all and I got to reconnect with acquaintances that are fast becoming friends. There was the big Alabama clay sale reception the first night, the presenters’ exhibition reception the second night and the big beer party/mug exchange the third night. I got lucky this year and got Megan Gulland’s stached mug…

Here’s a shot of the commode that’s askew…

I see now that it’s at a hangle to allow a bit more space to step in and out of the shower but still it seems a bit of bad planning at the very least. Here’s some shots from the clay conference. I apologize for the quality of some of the shots at the exhibition. It was in a very cool space with big windows and although there was probably plenty of light during the day, it was quite dark that evening so many of the shots were just too dark to be worth posting…

Mr. Beasecker throwing very precise pieces. Here’s some of his cups…

Gary and Daphne Hatcher presented also and had great stories of there idyllic pottery in Texas. Here’s Gary throwing…

I didn’t get a good pic of Daphne on stage but here’s a piece (albeit dark) that was at the reception. It’s quite big and looked almost like cast bronze on the exterior…

Last but not least was Bonnie Seeman. I’ve always admired her work and after seeing her presentation at the end I am even more admiring. Here’s one of the pieces she was working on and then a couple that were at the show…

I also got to see 4 of Curtis Benzle’s pieces. I always loved his work but had never had the opportunity to see any in person. They are so beautiful and delicate and translucent…

I don’t usually hawk for others but I bought Mr. Sherrill’s new trim tool which I thought a bit steep but I have to report that I love this tool. If you have a foot fetish like me and spend too much time trimming, this is quite a fine tool…

Lastly, I’m experiment with something completely different and I’m not sure where it’s going or if it’s going but am quite excited by the prospects…

That’s all I have.

Why Are You Carrying That Empty Cup?…

I’ve kept tight-lipped about this for far too long so the time is finally here. Regular readers may remember this post about how movie and tv makers use stand-ins for the backs of actors’ heads in the infamous over-the-shoulder shots. I have since trained myself with limited success to not dwell on the foreground blur that’s supposed to be the actual actor in the scene only to transfer my observational skills to the most bothersome of all movie and tv nonsense… the EMPTY to-go coffee cup…

First off, we’ve all come to know the manner in which a cardboard cup acts when it either has a liquid in it or is empty. I, personally, have 55 years of this experience. Now that I’ve started noticing more and am completely unable to ignore it anymore, I don’t think I’ve ever seen movie of tv show that has the to-go cup with any liquid in it. Consequently, the scene breaks down because even the best actors can’t make the empty cup they hold to their mouth or set on the table look like it has liquid in it. I’ve even seen scenes where the actor takes the “last” swig and finishes the drink only to later pick the “now empty EMPTY cup” up and take a sip as though it were full again… continuity problems. I don’t really understand this problem as putting a couple ounces of water in the cup would not mean any more expense, would not present a hazard on the set if spilled and wouldn’t be something with alcohol or caffeine in it that would alter the performance. Last but not least, it’s disposable and it would be nice if every now and then the cup was handmade. Enough of that, how about the weather… please please please stop with the polar vortex. If I hear it called that again my head’s gonna explode… reminds me of weapons of mass destruction or trickle down economics. I know it’s not sexy but it’s just cold weather and it is nothing compared to what Shackleton and his crew endured. On the up side, we had enough snow in Kentucky that was packy enough to make a snowman…

This is one of the few occasions where Sofia allows me to take her picture anymore. The cold weather is hindering some progress in other areas, namely delivery of things from distant locations and as far as clay work is concerned I cannot use my garden hose to rinse clay from my sieve. Meanwhile, I’m making a bunch of cups. Here’s some shots…

Colder Than A Brass (Singing) Bowl On The Shady Side Of An Iceberg…

It’s that time of year again. Trip to Des Moines, Halloween, Sofia’s birthday and this year the now infamous cross-country state championships. I traveled to my friend Ig’s house last week since he is visiting from his two year overseas trip. On the way there I stopped off in Champaign-Urbana to visit with Mr. Don Pilcher. I didn’t stay too long but got a peek at his new work which was very cool and we sat and talked for an hour or so. The trip to Iowa was filled with coffee, dinners with friends and long nights conversing on anything and everything. The last night there, Ig hosted dinner with good friends Loulou, Mark and Tom. Here’s a shot of my good friend Mark…

Always a pleasure to hang out with Mark. Ig brought home a couple of Tibetan “singing bowls” which are hammered brass and are used in conjunction with meditation. We all played with the bowls for quite some time. To make the bowl sing, one must take the felt-covered rod with a handle and rub it around the rim much in the same manner that people rub their finger on the rim of a crystal goblet. Once the bowl starts singing, the pleasant ringing sound is sustained for a remarkably long time and apparently meditat-ors/ers try to match the tone to the pitch of their own OM sound. Here’s a link to a video of Ig and Ellen banging on the bowls, they’re upside down but it’s posted just to get an idea of the sound. Unfortunately, wordpress won’t allow me to embed these videos anymore (or else I’m unaware how to) so if you’re interested you’ll have to go to the following link…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqXHWN1Xg1c&noredirect=1

Of course, not being satisfied to simply bong the bowls and listen, I tried to have this all happen with it on my head and had trouble concentrating on the sound as I was sure the heavy brass bowl would topple off my top…

So after driving all day Friday to come home, Saturday Sofia and I had to drive to Lexington for the state cross-country tournament. I agreed against my better judgment. We left 2 hours early to arrive one hour early and after leaving the interstate to travel the last 8 miles on a two lane country road, we got to about 2 1/2 miles from the entrance to the park where the event was taking place and the traffic came to a halt. We inched along and made it to her school’s “tent” to sign in one minute after the race began. So that was bust and we headed back home. Here’s the bug… “hey, you lookin’ at me?”…

Later this week is birthday and Halloween and then a couple free weeks before the insanity of holiday bullshite. Before I left on the trip Sofia and I spent a bit of time at a workshop at U of L where Christyl Boger was demonstrating making figurative work using coils. Here’s a couple shots of Christyl…

Ran a bisque before I left and haven’t finished unloading it yet but here’s some shots of the greenware…

Until next time.

Bike Crashing And Lettuce Pilfering…

Things are moving right along here in the very temperate Kentucky spring. This saved my life or at least kept me from having a serious brain injury…

I was taking my normal 30 mile ride a week or so ago and this route passes by downtown Louisville’s newest “attraction”, a pedestrian bridge over the Ohio River with an enormous spiral ramp on the Louisville side…

My interest in the bridge is that it would provide cyclists with a safer route to Indiana than the 2nd St. bridge which is not a bridge I’d take to get to Indiana on my bike. Unfortunately the Indiana side’s ramp remains unfinished. Months ago Sofia and I traipsed up the ramp and across the river only to find that the other side was closed still. Someone told me that it would be finished by late May so when I was riding by I thought I’d go up on my bike and see if it was finished… it wasn’t. As I came down the ramp (which wasn’t crowded) I approached two groups of people. Three were on my right coming up the ramp and three teenage girls were on my left going down the ramp. As I approached, the 3 coming toward me were closer to me and the 3 moving away were getting further away creating a gap which was more than ample to zig through. So I drifted to the left intending to cut to the right as I passed the closer group and as I passed them the girl closest to me moving away caught a glimpse of me in her periphery and panicked. She did that thing squirrels do when you approach them in your car. Fake left, then right, then left. Her eventual direction, of course, was into me and my handle bar snagged her purse strap. And down I went, smashing my protected head on the concrete as well as scraping my right shoulder, elbow, hip and worst, my knee. As I lie writhing in pain, the girls decided to pick my bike up for some reason and didn’t understand that my right foot was still clipped to the pedal. During the first 30 seconds or so, you know, when the pain is too intense to really speak… the girls are lifting my bike and wrenching my ankle because my shoe was still engaged. I finally managed to squeak out, “my foot is attached”. Oh they said and laid the bike back down and I twisted my foot free. As they walked away I heard one say, “that’s kinda dangerous”. I’m glad she survived OK. Anyway, no broken bones and no concussion or brain damage. Hurray for the helmet.

In other news, the bug is 4 days away from finishing the 2nd grade… hard to believe. Here she is making fairy houses at some school thingie…

Another thing they did at the school was plant a garden with a bunch of different greens. Since it’s the last week, each child harvested a bunch of greens to bring home… they were delicious. There was quite a bit left over and the bug’s teacher told Mom that if she wanted to take some of what was left to help herself because it was just gonna go to waste. So the following day, Mom walked Sofia to school and afterwards grabbed some romaine and collard greens. The day after that a woman at the school called her into her office to let her know that a different woman at the school had seen Mom “stealing” from the kids’ garden and took a picture of her in the act with her phone. Of course, this all got straightened out but we thought it amusing that someone would think we’d go on a lettuce pilfering extravaganza. Oh well. I’m done throwing, trimming, terra sig-ing and burnishing and am ready to begin shellacking next week. Here’s some shots at various stages…

That’s all I have… sayanora.

Cool May Day…

For my 500th post I’d like to start by kvetching about the endless “special” days… you’ve heard it before, Mother’s day, Derby Day, Memorial Day, Valentine’s Day, Thunder Over Louisville, Easter, Tie You Own Shoes Day, Walk Backwards Day, Clean The Camera Lens Appreciation Day, Grey Moustache Awareness Day, Hammer Toe Awareness Day, Dogwood Pruning Day, Don’t Buy Reading Glasses Day, Do These Make My Cankles Show Day, We Need More Days Day, Green Day, National Haircut Day, Integumentary Care Day, Peeing Outdoors Day, Clean Your Dashboard Day, No Deodorant Day, Train Graffiti Awareness Day, Don’t Give Me That Day, Busboy Day, Pepperoncini On Your Pizza Day, Ignore Facebook Day, Chase A Raccoon With A Broom Day, Unmarried Sister Awareness Day, Going Off My Diet Day, Throw One Back For Me Day, Ride Your Bike One-Handed Day, Swim With Long Pants On Day, Dig A Tunnel In Your Back Yard To China Day, Shoot At Aircraft With Your Homemade Potato Gun Day, Oh, Isn’t It Such A Coincidence That Two People In A Room Of Over 500 Have The Same Birthday Day, Drive Without Texting Day (actually that one got shortened to Drive Without Texting Hour because no one could do it for a whole day), Save Your Toenails In A Mint Tin Day, Sit Without Crossing Your Legs Day, Steal A Fork At Lunch Day… oh shite, the list goes on and on. Actually we are having the coolest spring weather in memory. It’s 54 degrees as I type and it’s May 12th. Anyway, went out to the mount last night for Amelia Stamp’s opening reception. There was a lot of nice work. Here’s a bunch of pics…

Here’s Amelia herself on the right with Joy…

Last but certainly not least, here’s the bug with a strawberry the size of an apple…

I finally have gotten back on the wheel after months of shellacking. Some greenware…

(B)eer (G)lasses, (B)uddy (G)uy and (B)isque (G)oing…

Where to start… Mom and I had a rare night out the other night and went to see the one and only Buddy Guy. Jonny Lang opened for him so it was night full of greasy screaming blues guitar work. Buddy, at age 76, was fantastic. I’ve always liked his guitar playing and I have an acoustic album titled “Blues Singer” that is really my favorite and it shows off his singing prowess which is pretty great too. I never got to see him before and found him to be wildly entertaining in between songs also. Here’s a video my friend Jennifer took with her phone (there’s some cussing at the end so beware the kids)…

There was quite a bit more cussing as the concert progressed (which I enjoy) and Buddy seemed to credit hip hop for making it so he could be himself on stage and talk the way he does normally. Got a bisque going as I type this and hopefully can do a glaze firing next week. I went over to my friend Jeff’s the other day and he’s finally gotten some of his pieces fired. Here’s a bunch of pictures of the work…

I have to say that one of the dudes strapped to each other in the chair looks like Henry Kissinger. So I was very happy a week or so ago to come home and find that Sofia had dug out the chess set. I taught her how to play and she seemed to catch on to it pretty good. Here’s the bug playing with Mom…

Of course I think she thought it would be like Sorry or Monopoly and that she might win right off the bat. I haven’t let her win yet and you know what that makes me?… a meanie. Anyway, when she came home from school the other day she was busy writing down some important notes and I found out later that she had some better ideas about how chess should be played. Here’s her rules…

My favorite rule is that bishops actually accompany the king or queen when they move. Let’s see Bobby Fischer win playing the Queen’s gambit with those rules! The bug has also started doing these silhouette drawings…

Last but not least, I’ve finally finished burnishing, shellacking, etching, shellacking, etching, shellacking, etching, painting terra sig thrice on a bunch of beer glasses (my aching back)…

Here’s some psychedelia for any of you shroom eaters…

Element(ry) My Dear Kiln Repairer…

Look what I got…

The post’s title seems to be a bit misleading in retrospect. I got the elements a week or so ago and was waiting for a warmer day to spend in the cold basement replacing them. So yesterday it was balmy out… typical January weather in KY (and certainly nothing to be concerned about). After spending all day I felt a little stoogie about the whole endeavor…

I replaced the elements first because I figured even if that wasn’t the problem, it was long overdue as I haven’t changed them since I got the kiln and I’ve never changed them on this brand of kiln. Coneart kilns have a groove that the element rests in and the entry gap is just slightly smaller than the diameter of the element itself. Although this is a pain to remove the old one because if one is not gingerly about it the area of the joint between the bricks can easily break off, it really is simple to put the new ones in. See how nice and clean it looks for a change…

Here’s a closeup…

Anyway, after that I put in a new thermocouple and tested it. I opened the kiln at about 900 degrees and the middle elements still were not glowing. Next, I replaced the associated relay and tested again… no luck. So now I don’t have any idea what to do although it’s been suggested that at 900 degrees or so maybe the middle elements just aren’t required yet. Guess I have to talk to someone at Coneart or do the test again only at a significantly higher temp. While in this mode I decided to clean my shelves and kilnwash them and the two new ones I got. It seemed like a good time to try Mr. Jeff Campana’s self-leveling kilnwash recipe that one can read about here if you get a hankerin’. Aside from the self leveling aspect, Jeff has replaced half of the EPK with calcined kaolin (glomax… which I cannot believe that I had on hand. Must’ve purchased it over 6 years ago and can’t for the life of me figure out why I got it) and added Darvan 7, ostensibly to reduce the shrinkage of the kilnwash. Darvan is a deflocculant and I never get tired of the apparent magic of adding a deflocculant to a pasty mess and seeing it instantly get less viscous. Here’s a short video about flocculated and deflocculated glaze preparation by the inimitable John Britt…

I followed the recipe to a T but tried to use a roller and the shelf soaked up the water in the kilnwash instantly. After removing that, I soaked the shelf with more water and tried a brush. This worked much better but not what I wanted exactly… so I tried something else. I took one of my brand new shelves and ran it under the kitchen sink until it was completely saturated then poured the kilnwash out of a measuring cup and let it “level” out. There was much tilting of the shelf back and forth to get coverage but look at this beautiful pool of kilnwash on the new shelf…

It dried nicely too. I don’t usually get carried away like this on this type of activity but thought that may the thing to do next would be to add a little ridge along the perimeter of the shelf and “fill” the space with a perfectly level shallow pond… we’ll see. Last but not least, there’s been a lot of shellacking goin’ on. This pic has all the pieces with two of the three coats of shellac…

Might be able to fire in another month or so.

Burnish, Shellac, Repeat…

Very busy around here because, you know, it’s that time of year again. I’m thankful, as many are, that yet one more 2012 holiday has passed and only two more and I’m in the clear til Smellentine’s Day. My timing this year is off as I’m a bit behind getting ready for the xmas rush (if there actually is one). I think the week and 1/2 I spent on the roof and the two times I’ve gotten a cold in the last couple weeks didn’t help much. So after the throwing and trimming, the tedium begins. First there’s a coat or sometimes two of terra sig and burnishing. I made a little video of the burnishing…

It’s not the most exciting movie but that’s what gets done before the first coat of shellac. Then there’s cleaning up the feet and shellacking the chop mark…

Then, after the etching…

Chop shot b&w glamor shot…

After first coat of shellac (first of 3)…

Another b&w shot…

So, on to other things. I went out to get a beer a while back with a friend and he pulled out on of these…

At the beer place he had it loaded with india ink and the reason he was showing it to me was that we had talked before then about some of the limitations of brushing shellac, in my case, but anything that gets brushed. The main limitation is that you can only brush a line as long as the brush’s load lasts. This is not a huge problem for me but I was and am very curious as to how the removal of this limitation would affect the decorative stage. So, a couple days after our beer drinking, two of them arrive in the mail and I’ve been waiting for the shellacking to begin to try it out. So here’s the pieces of the brush…

Then I got an eye dropper and loaded the chamber with shellac…

This is where the problems happened. The way it works is that a bit of a squeeze on the chamber holding the liquid forces said liquid to the brush’s tip…

But I had to squeeze like hell and once the flow started I thought I’d be home free but alas the shellac was simply too thick and dries too quickly for me to use effectively. However, if you’re a potter and you do a lot of stain underglaze work, I think this thing would be great and maybe you’d just like to use it with ink. I’m gonna get some different colored india ink so the bug and I can use them for our collaborative drawings. Last but not least, for her birthday (she’s 8! AAhhhhhh!) the bug got some high top sneakers with sequins and purple this and that all over them and I didn’t like them but that’s the way it goes. Fortunately, she did not like the way they felt so they took them back (her and Mom) and came home with some c0nverse allstar5 and it just so happened that I needed a new pair as my old ones are threadbare. Sofia was very excited for me and her to have the same shoes because other than our matching “hell0 k1tty” pajamas, this is the only apparel that we have in common. So I had to get the same color and everything…

Get Up, Stand Up, Mon…

“Stand up for your rights”. I don’t usually wander into the political arena here on the blog because, well because, people are crazy about all that deceit and disinformation but I have to say that there were some good signs of progress (at least for me) that came out of the election, not the least of which was the votes for legalizing the demon weed. Unfortunately, the conflict between the federal law and the state law have rendered the vote, more than likely, ineffective. But one can hope and as coincidences would have it, last week the bug and I stopped in at our favorite Vietnamese grocery to pick up some necessities and got some rastafarian hair… I mean some long string beans. Sofia immediately took to the rasta look and fired up a spleef in the kitchen…

Oh, they grow up so fast. There’s a striking resemblance don’t you think?…

Anyway, it’s been busy for some time here as Sofia’s birthday and all hallowed e’en are in the same week. She dressed as a hula dancer for halloween…

And she had a blue cake that Mom made for her birthday…

So she’s been having quite a whirlwind. She asked for books for her birthday this year (a dream come true for mom and dad) and hoping it lasts. Also, the bug brought this drawing of Mr. and Mrs. Scars home from school, it cracks me up…

Anyway, if you’ve read this blog at all over the years, you’re probably aware of how much I abhor the holidays so I’m glad to get one out of the way and been wishing the election would be over for more than a year. I have been trying to get another kiln fired before the holidays (the ones I really hate) and unfortunately I was already cutting it close and got sick on Monday and am still not well so I lost a whole week of productivity. I’m about ready for deco though…

In other news, I think this computer is on its last leg and hate the realization that I cannot function as a potter without one. It slowed down the other day to the point where I wanted to throw it out the window. I believe the hard drive is going as there’s an audible whirring sound when I turn it on. Maybe it has something to do the the 15,000 photos on there? So, I leave you with a bit of Bob…

During The Heat Wave…

Well, my 3rd bisque is cooling and I started glazing yesterday for the show I’m having up in Michigan in September. The people putting on the show will be coming through Louisville August 22nd to pick up my pots… how great is that? No shipping. So I’m hoping to do 3 glaze firings, take pics, pick out the ones for the show, price list, etc. in the next 17 days, no problem right? Despite the harried pace, other things are still going on, not the least of which is the bug’s summer vacation is winding down. It will be no fun when she goes back to school as the house will seem deserted again. So, I got in this show. We also attended a show at the Mount last weekend exhibiting the work of Sandy Miller who combines weaving with some of her pots. Here’s a couple shots from the opening…

Sandy also has a blog here with plenty of pots, plants and cooking going on. I don’t have any finished pieces yet so here’s some of my greenware vases…

I also managed to get a couple quick shots of my friend Jeff’s pieces in his basement studio…

I wish I had had more time to set the pieces up a bit but I was in a hurry. In other news, I shaved. As most men know (and some women too), one of the best things about beards is incrementally shaving them off to see the different looks one might adopt. It really never gets old. Unfortunately for me, I hate growing one so much (because of the constant tickling and itching) that I don’t get to do the incremental shaving ritual. So anyway, to Mom’s horror I shaved all but my mustache and acted as though I was gonna leave it that way. Anyway, before I get to the picture of that last remnant, I’d like to discuss Godwin’s Law. It states: “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Naz1s or H1tler approaches”. If you’ve been online in the past 3 years, you’ve no doubt witnessed proof of Godwin’s Law hundreds if not thousands of times. A variation of Godwin’s Law known as Godwin’s Hirsute Phenomenon states: “As the incremental shaving of a full beard to no facial hair whatsoever proceeds, the infamous H1tler mustache will inevitably be either the penultimate stage or the final stage.” So without further ado and with the appropriate disclaimers… one, it’s a joke so let’s leave the anti-defamation folks out of it and two, I should’ve taken my glasses off first.

Finally some more greenware…

Sayanora.

Nostalgia…

I was very surprised this morning when a fellow Gottuso (whom I’ve never met) posted this picture on farcebook…

Yep, the boston store in beautiful downtown Utica, New York. It pains me in a way to think that I worked there for a short stint at the age of 18 and although I was legally an adult another 36 years has passed since then. This shot seems to have been taken a bit before the 70s as evidenced by the cars. Those cars were still around in the 70s but they were fewer and farther in between. Nevertheless the cars that were there were yet to be the cars of post-Japanese-car America. Anyway, the Boston Store predated the homogenization of the shopping experience. So, I was a “stock boy” there which didn’t mean that I was put in stocks all day for public humiliation although humiliation was part of the job. This whole nostalgic escapade will serve as a lovely segue into my first brush with hospitals and the medical establishment after my rheumatic fever diagnosis years earlier. Luckily for me, Mr. Fleming’s penicillin had been invented (discovered) prior to the mid-20th century and I recovered only to get appendicitis while in stocks at the Boston Store. I complained to my manager at the time of a severe pain in my abdomen, upon which, I was escorted to the “coat room” for the miracle sensation of the time… bromo seltzer. This made the pain increase and I left to go home early (and I never returned as it turned out). On to Faxton hospital where I was quickly diagnosed with a stomach ache even though me and my Mom ventured to them that appendicitis seemed to make more sense. Nope, we were told and I was given an antiemetic. I asked what it was for and they told me that it would stop my vomiting. I replied that I hadn’t been vomiting. They answered that it would keep me from beginning to vomit. Ten minutes after taking it, I was kissing the porcelain goddess (one of my early brushes with porcelain). They sent us home and my appendix burst inside me during the night. Surgery followed the next day and a Dr. Zwahlen removed most of what was left. I say most of because a week or so later as my recovery was in full swing, I noticed that the wound was swelling. I called a classmate that I knew had had her appendix out and asked if this was what happened to her and she said yes (of course I didn’t actually show her how much bigger it had gotten). Then I was lying on the couch watching TV in my underwear when I felt a warm liquid on my side. *warning: don’t read after this if your are squeamish. I looked down in horror as a milky puss was literally squirting out of a hole at one end of the laceration left by the operation. I ran to the bathroom sink and squeezed that sucker as hard as I could stand and I swear about a cup and a half of that poison liquid drained into the sink. I later found out that if the wound had had just a touch longer to heal and had closed up that the burst of puss would have happened inside my abdominal cavity and I would most likely have died. To add insult to injury and surgery, a followup was scheduled with Dr. Z and as I lie on the table, without warning, he reached down with both hands and grabbed the area where I had been cut and squeezed as hard as he could to make sure that I had gotten it all (and I had). Those were the days. In other news, I’m trying to meet a rapidly approaching deadline. Here’s a bunch of greenware with yet another coat of shellac to go…

Achy Breaky Heart?, More Like Achy Breaky Brain…

Where to start?, I guess I should post the puzzles we did on vacation that I forgot to post in the previous post. When we arrived at the bungalow in Florida, there was a box of puzzles… 2 were 100 piece, 4 were 300 piece and 4 were 500 piece. Sofia did the first 100 piece and there were 2 pieces missing upon which she decided that the missing pieces must have been put in the wrong bag of pieces and that if we did all the puzzles we would eventually find the missing ones from the first one. One week later…

So we ended up doing them all and guess what?, we never found the missing pieces and actually realized that there were more missing… so I guess we got our puzzle fix out of our systems. I’m gonna attempt to conflate two seemingly unrelated events but first I figure I’ll post some greenware pics. I’m hoping to finish up two stragglers today and run a bisque tonight…

Here’s an experimental vase…

Here’s another slightly experimental piece (the one on the right)…

OK, so here goes. Not many people believe me but during my adult life I have had 3 baby teeth that never fell out when I was a child. Of course I didn’t know this until I was in my late 20s. One fell out back then and that’s how I found out. A very sharp canine slowly almost took its place. Then when I was 39 or so, the second one fell out and I was left with one stubborn baby tooth remaining. Well, while brushing my teeth the other day it finally gave way and the two teeth on the bottom that flank the four middle teeth are gone leaving me a bit beaverish…

Wow, those macro shots of my facial hair are not flattering. OK, so keep that in mind. Last week, Mr. Steven, Mr. Sebastian and I were having some java and Seb and I decided to go downtown and check out the DinnerWorks show that Mr. Fong Choo curated. Seb thought that it opened at 10 but when we arrived with only one quarter for the parking meter, we realized that the gallery didn’t open until 11 so we strolled down the block to find change for a dollar to feed the meter. We eventually got in at about 11:15 when we were about to bolt. I’m sorry to say that since I wasn’t planning to go that morning I didn’t bring my camera but here’s a shot of who is in the show besides Mr. Steven who didn’t come with us because he is in the show and had already seen it…

Here’s the only pic I could find online of the show which is Ms.Schwartzkopf’s table and shows how the tables are suspended from the ceiling with fishing line. It also shows some of Mr. Julius Friedman’s beautiful photographs that adorned the walls…

So anyway, the show looks really nice but my story is about the restaurant that we passed on the way to get coins for the parking meter. There’s a pizza joint that we passed on the next block that has been a Louisville institution since before I lived here so at least 25+ years. I hadn’t gone there in almost that long. Anyway, that evening we were supposed to take our neighbor friend out to eat as a thank you for watching the Dingus Dog while we were in Florida. I thought… why not get pizza at this place? Indeed, why not exactly? So, later that evening we ventured back downtown for some pizza, beer and conversation. I have to point out that on the menu is a “super pizza”, which according to the menu is 12 pounds and takes 45 minutes to prepare. We didn’t get that. So my neighbor, Mom, Sofia and I were seated in a booth. Before the waiter even came to our table, a doofus looking dude in a big black cowboy hat and cowboy boots comes up to our table talking about “the show” and whatnot. Of course he was talking as though we knew what was going on and we didn’t so we just waited for him to finish… something about a drawing for a 20 $ gift certificate. I looked at the stage and was relieved because the band wasn’t even set up so I figured we’d be gone before anything happened. I have to point out here that I hate country music and I assumed, because of his costume, that that’s what was in store. Don’t get me wrong, I like Johnny Cash as much as the next person and there are other exceptions including Tennessee Ernie Ford that are fun to listen to. In both those cases, I’m speaking strictly of their secular work. You know… “if you see me comin’ better step aside, alot of men didn’t and alot of men died. I got one fist of iron and the other of steel, if the right one don’t getcha then the left one weel (that’s a southern example of assonance). So anyway, we ordered a beer and the cowboy went up on stage and said, “everybody ready?” and launched into one of my all time most unfavorite songs by Kentucky’s very own country legend… “achy breaky heart”. I cannot express how dumb I think this song is, mostly because breaky is not a word and falls into the same category as far as I’m concerned with “obla di obla da”. Anyway, I could tell that this was not a karaoke night even though it was just this dude with a karaoke machine. So as he sings the breaky classic he’s dancing around the restaurant and hovering over table after table much the same way a belly dancer does, making everyone uncomfortable… or so it seemed. All I’m really sure of is that he made us uncomfortable when he hovered over our table trying to sway his hips like a Elvis wannabe. Now, we’re shouting across the table because we cannot hear and the song mercifully ends and cowboy dude sits down and hands the mike to his father?, not sure, but he was a very short man with one of those haircuts where the hair cups over his ears like a helmut (kinda like, maybe Conway Twitty or someone like that back in the 60s or 70s). He says, “everybody like Conway Twitty?” and launches into one of his songs. Then the haggard Merle, Mr. Jones and so on. At this point we’re trying to just have a shout conversation. So, a bit later the Twitty wannabe does his rendition of Elvis’ “American Trilogy” or “Freedom Trilogy”?, not sure but we’ve all heard the medley before. The second song in the medley is a hymn and I looked up only to notice for the first time that even I was one of the youngest people dining in the restaurant and during this magnificent trilogy, older people all over the restaurant had stood up from their seats and were swaying from side to side rapt, as it were, much like the groupies who must have thrown their undies at Elvis back in the day. There’s 70 year old couples swaying back and forth to the Elvin karaoke trilogy and taking pictures of the Twitty dude with their phones. At this point, we realized that we were the outsiders on this wednesday evening and I got that familiar feeling that we all get when we are the one person in the room that doesn’t belong, but… then I realized something. After growing up in central NY and living in KY for some 35 years, I had finally accomplished what had been so elusive til now. I mean, over the years I’ve learned to speak the language but that only allows me to blend with speech but now I have not 1, but 2 missing teeth in the front part of my mouth and it became clear that I could walk amongst the natives with nary a suspicion of my northern heritage. In other news, look what I have in the back of my car…

My friend traded me for some bonsai pots, yet to be made. Another strange but very welcome occurrence is that my abandoned beehive has new residents…

I’ve neglected the hive since two winters ago when my bees all died for the second time and the bottom area where they enter and exit has been overgrown with ivy etc. but unbeknownst to me there’s a little 1/2 inch hole in the back of the hive and they are going gangbusters in and out. My current plan is to ignore them and maybe if I do, they’ll survive. Last but not least, Mr. Steven loaned Sofia all the Hayao Miyazaki movies and the bug’s been making her way through them all and she loves loves loves them. I caught her in the sandbox the other day with this getup on…

I can’t remember the character that she’s supposed to be… Kaya or something like that. I’ll close with another pic of the bug that I just liked doing what I assume I will soon wish she had never learned to do…

Porcine Transportation…

This here’s the story ’bout 4, no 3 wet, no not really wet, pigs. Oh hell, I can’t really make the picture fit the song. My friend Ig is in Cambodia and posted this picture he took last week and I thought it was a really great pic so I’m reposting it here…

This picture cracks me up. First off, their asses, or more accurately their thighs look a bit too much like pale human asses. The more I thought about it, I realized that maybe they were positioned feet end up so that if they pooped in transit it would be a bit less messy… kind of like holding one nostril closed while cycling and blowing the offending mucous out away from the bike and your arm or clothes. Also, the dude driving is sitting way up front on the gas tank. Anyway, the whole scene (which I wished there was a picture from the other side where their heads are) reminded me of a song from my college days. The version I was familiar with was by Bryan Bowers and this is the video of that particular song. Don’t ask me why but while the audio is the exact song I used to listen to, the video is nothing but a front loader shoveling snow and I don’t think there’s a connection there…

My favorite line is “throw their little eyes out in the rain, pickle their feet and scramble their brains”. Well, it’s getting hot finally… 96 F today and tomorrow. I live near the Louisville Water Company and they’ve been building a rather handsome water tower for months. I don’t have a pic because the foliage betwixt us has obscured my view. They have been sandblasting the tower for a couple weeks and the foliage hasn’t interfered with the constant sssssshhhhhhhhhh of forced air. The bug’s out of school after next week and we are looking forward to her being around the house all day this summer. Here’s a little drawing we’ve been working on together…

I’ve been living in Shellactown for weeks and foresee many more weeks to follow. Here’s a couple greenware pieces…

Au revoir.

Cursive Pancakes…

Occasionally two close friends of mine reminisce about a game they used to play in the car on their way back and forth to college in Murray from Louisville. There’s no structure to the game, just that they would see who could come up with two words in the english language that had most likely never been uttered (or obviously been in print) together. The one that is inevitably mentioned during these recollections is “spaghetti wrench”. Well, quite a while back Sofia expressed a notion of a pancake not tethered to tradition by its shape and that led me to start making bear pancakes. This would simply be a regular circle pancake with two tiny circles where the ears should be on a bear. She was quite satisfied for a time but this led to putting two dolloped eyes and a dribbled mouth and then flipping it one more time to sear them in place. After a bit, this had to be topped and we moved on to letters. Of course drizzling pancake batter with a spoon lacks the precision of a fine point pen which kept me on capital letters like “O” and “Q” and “L” and then this wasn’t cutting it either. So, the suggestion of making cursive letters (the bug has been interested in cursive writing although they don’t teach it in school anymore). Would that I had and nice batter syringe to write “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” in the frying pan. Of course, if I did, how could I top that? Here’s this morning’s (“P”)ancake…

And we all know why “P” is such a compelling letter… because poop and pee amongst others start with a p. Anyway, “cursive pancakes” did come up in conversation naturally but it had me thinking about this spaghetti wrench thing. Spring has been incredibly temperate this year and everything seems to be out a month or more early. The mulberries have been ripe for two weeks at least which has usually happened about mid to late June as I have mentioned in previous berry posts like this one and this one. I’ve been very busy terra sigging for the past couple weeks. Burnish, burnish burnish…

Have been having quite a time getting back to cycling. I’ve decided that I’m definitely a fair weather cyclist… which means I prefer the temperature to be above 90. Had to do car repairs on both vehicles last week… not happy about unexpected expenses. Not much else to say except that Mom has renovated the only closet in our house which prompted me to move another pair of previously unused old fashioned big giant speakers into my studio giving me that surround sound everyone’s so crazy about (or used to be anyway). I’ll leave you with the pogo master herself…

A Fool In April…

Well, there’s been a lot going on. I guess it’s because it’s April. First off, I’m in this book…

I’m amongst some very esteemed company in this publication. It’s a reformatting of the article I wrote for Pottery Making Illustrated. OK, and taxes are done… hated that. Taxes on the cars too. The bug…

was on spring break last week. It was very nice having her at home all week. She’s been very active. I mentioned the jump roping last post and now she has a pogo stick and we’ve been shooting baskets… of course whenever I shoot, I wince in pain from my frozen shoulder. The bug also went horse back riding last week for the first time and her granddad has been teaching her how to swing a tennis racket. Here’s one of her latest drawings that I thought was pretty funny…

I’ve been working like a madman and am probably a week or so away from the beginning of the deco stage…

I scored four 8×4 foot sheets of styrofoam for packing this morning…

I had to cut it up to get it into the car but I was glad to find it. The weather’s been dreamy and the garden looks about as nice as it looks all year. The hydrangeas I put in a couple years ago are kicking some vegetation ass…

We’re gonna get a bumper crop of peonies too…

An old friend I used to work with called me last week and said he was moving and had a potter’s wheel that he wanted to get rid of and would I like it. I thought, sure would. I asked what kind and he said it was electric and I asked what “brand” and he said he didn’t know but that his wife got if from a school (I think). Anyway, he had said something on the phone that led me to believe that he just didn’t have the name of the company that made it because it was packed away and not handy during the call. Anyway, the bug and I drove out to get a peek this weekend and I wish I had taken my camera. It was very similar to this…

Not a piece of plastic on the thing and no pedal, just a toggle switch. We plugged it in and it blew a fuse in my friend’s house and the wheel head was locked too. Of course for all I know it may have been that the drive was a direct gear drive with no play in it. The housing was pretty corroded and I just couldn’t bring myself to take it. The younger me would have taken it home and meant to fix it and then had it set around for 30 years but I don’t have the desire or time for another “project”. I did appreciate him thinking of me and it wasn’t a total loss since he gave Sofia the pogo stick I mentioned above. In other news, I’ve also bitten the bullet about my plantar fasciitis which is going on 3 years +. I really had given up on it but my friend was at his chiropractor’s office and saw a brochure about their treatment for PF. His dad had it pretty bad so he gave him the brochure and he decided to go and lo and behold, it worked. Now, I’m not getting my hopes up because I’ve come to realize that I have a particularly nasty case. So this dude uses some kind of “deep tissue massage” which entails using this plastic spring-loaded device to strike the offending fascia. I guess the theory behind this is that the chronic PF cases cause the fascia to adhere to the bone instead of slide and this little springy trip hammer hits it over and over to loosen it. Regardless, it is painful. I’m still not optimistic but after two visits, I’m starting to think that there is at least a chance that it will work. I have to say that I would consider this a new lease on life as I’ve been hobbling around for 3 years already. I would love to go for a run sometime. Last but not least, here’s a composite view of recent yunomis…

Well that’s it for now.

The Ides Of March Approaches…

Trying to squeeze some extra pieces into the bisque to get it going and glaze fire by the ides of March. Not a lot to say right now. Today makes five weeks with a sprained ankle and the hematomata has finally faded away but the pain is still there (although much less) and I still cannot walk freely without wincing a bit. I’ve been shellacking like a mad man. Most of the pieces have three layers of shellac finished off with 3 layers of terra sig in the unmasked areas. I’m excited to get all this work through the process. Here’s some pics, I tried to get everything in there but the brightness behind from the window was making the balance a little wonky. Anyway, here’s where I’m at (click to enlarge)…

A Beacon In The Night…

Say you’re marooned on a deserted island, or better yet, you wake up in a cave with broken leg only to realize that there’s a survival kit at hand with splints, instructions, food and water. But because you are pathetic, aged, and practically blind you are unable to read the instructions that tell how to administer the splints and inflate the life raft… did I mention the life raft? Well, I’m no longer worried about this possibly tragic end as I got these in the mail the other day…

Actually, my Mom was reading my blog where I was kvetching about the different strength reading glasses I use and that I felt I needed more powerful ones and she sent me a link to get these beauties. They’re 4.0 strength which is higher than I’ve seen in stores and the piece de resistance is dual headlights… and the two pair I got (buy one get one free) are in the haute couture crimson amber hue. Here’s another shot where it’s darker in the room to get the full effect…

Now I can finally work in the dark during an electrical storm. The bug and I took some short videos to discuss possible uses but as video sometimes does, things went off message. First there’s me and then the bug…

Sofia watched this one of herself and is disgusted because she says she doesn’t sound like herself…

OK, onward and upward. I shellacked all week and here’s some pics…

I’m really excited about the last two with the white terra sig over the black terra sig. Of course, I have no idea what will happen in the firing. I believe the white will end up translucent which could be really nice but it could also all but disappear. Last but not least here’s a bottle/vase that is down at KMAC that I hadn’t gotten a pic of before…

Tabula(e) Rasa(e)…

I traveled out of town last week to Southern Illinois to visit some very good friends of mine and we had a great time. One day I taught them how to play cribbage and oh hell and we played for hours drinking beer and sarcastically ribbing one another. This past monday, I swung into decoration mode from throwing mode and spent the week terra sig-ing and burnishing. The product is a table full of blank slates or more accurately blank canvases just waiting to get shellacked…

Here’s a closeup of freshly applied terra sig still wet (pre-burnishing). I would like to believe that the Italian/Spanish potters would refer to this state as terra sigillata mojada (sounds like supercalifragilisticexpyalidoshious)…

Under the heading of “Ripley’s believe it or not” I went to lunch with my friend Ray… you may remember a post about Sofia and I visiting him and all his new chickens here. Anyway, apparently having chickens creates certain conditions in the yard and in the coop. One is a hawk hanging around the backyard waiting for a yummy chicken nugget and another is mice… lots of mice. I guess this is because the poultry, despite their food supply not being paltry, still scatter the food as they scratch and fling it far and wide within the confines of their caged abode. So Ray says, “I go out the first day after setting traps and I’ve got two traps and both of them have two mice in each.” What are the odds of that? Then he resets the traps and the next day he found two more traps with two mice each…

Oh, I forgot to warn about the pic if you happen to be a bit squeamish. I simply cannot get over the chances of this not happening… what?, were they holding hands as they approached the murine guillotine? “hey, Minnie how ’bout we head on over to that piece of wood with the giant peanut butter buffet before we head out on the town for a night of gnawing through drywall?” Seriously, four times. OK, scrabble. My good friend Terry and I resumed our ongoing super scrabble tournament. We haven’t played in a while because Terry is becoming quite the pool player and tends to spend free nights practicing. Anyway, I gambled early and lost and got so far behind in the first 10 or 15 minutes that I actually considered forfeiting for the first time. I did manage to pull close toward the end but alas I lost yet again…

So I don’t know about all the other people who cannot see anymore and need “reading glasses” but they are one of the banes of my existence. I’ve gotten so that I need 3 different strengths, 1.25s for TV from across the room, 2.50s for throwing and 3.00s for detail work like shellacking. Of course, I can’t stand wearing things so I take them off the first chance I get and because of that, I can’t find them and if I have two pair on the counter I have to put one on to read the strength of the other one. I’ve been thinking lately of getting some 4.0s online since the strengths don’t go that high in any of the stores. Anyway, I found out that I can get 3 pair of them at this giant store that will remain un-named for 7.50 so I recently got 3 pair of 3.0s because my current 3.0s are covered with clay. When I purchased them, I noticed that the frames were metal as opposed to the plastic frames when I had gotten them before. Who cares, right? I’m only wearing them when I work. So I worked all week with my new glasses on and I kept thinking, these don’t seem to be all that clear. I kept taking them off and polishing the lenses on my shirt and holding them up to the window to see if static electricity was making clay dust adhere. But still, I had a general dissatisfaction in the overall clarity and just resigned myself that they were of inferior quality and that I was gonna have to get more expensive ones from now on. Then, on a lark, I happened to pick the specs in question up while wearing the old pair that was lying around and noticed something almost imperceptible…

There’s a thin protective piece of clear plastic on the lenses! What a dumbass. In other news, the bug lost another tooth…

It was really great having her home during the winter break. It seems that I prefer vacations from school just as much now as when I was in school. Here’s the bug with a “palace” she built with all her little creatures and some of her own that she made…

Sayanora.

Uke Ant Bee Serious…

T minus two days and counting… and all the hullabaloo will cease for a lovely forty two day stretch ending with another consumer-run-amok holiday where we will all be reminded that we really don’t know how to express our love for others and desperately need the help of a greeting card company, some blood diamonds and maybe some unfair trade chocolate. Wow, did that come out as stridently as it seems? See what this month and a half of nonsense does. On to more important matters, 2 be or not 2 be?…

The bug made a doll and I finally got it fired. Here she is in her Hamlet soliloquy pose…

She made another doll and I fired it but the arm broke off before we even bisqued it. She gave it to her grandfather for xmas and while he was unwrapping it, she warned him repeatedly to be careful because the gift was fragile. After he opened it, he joked with her and asked… where’s its arm? She immediately fired back… I told you it was fragile.

It seems that now that I’m 53 and am slowly (the key word being slowly) shedding some of the vanity associated with my appearance, I opted at the end of the summer to cut my hair off. I’m fine with it if I don’t see my reflection in a window or mirror accidentally and I have to admit that I’m loving the, not only low maintenance, but complete lack of maintenance involved in… well, maintaining it. Anyway, Mom loves it, Sofia loves to touch it (although she’s adamant about not liking the look of it) and I’ve gotten compliments about it but if I do look in the mirror, I see a grayer version of the little crewcut boy I was up until the 3rd grade… the one that desperately wanted long hair like one of the Beatles or any number of longhairs of the era. And just for the sake of context…

You may be wondering why I mention this. Well, after 45 years of having my hair in various stages of “long” and now having it very short I came upon this. It seems now that maybe I owe my past survival (and who knows?, maybe my catlike reflexes too) to my uncut locks and facial hair. So now all you Movember moustache growers have some scientific backup to nurturing that autumn chevron. So, a dilemma emerges… should I grow the mop back or should I flaunt the buzz cut and flirt with the disaster of going camping and being caught unawares while I sleep by a prowling bobcat, puma, or hell, what about a ninja? It seems extremely irresponsible to expose myself and family (if they’re camping with me) to this level of vulnerability. Next up, months back I got an email from a Mr. Sidney Swidler, who I confess, I hadn’t heard of at that time. If you are unfamiliar, Mr. Swidler collected POTS from the 80’s til the present and over the past years has spent much time arranging to bequeath his collection to a museum. The museum he chose is the Crocker Museum in Sacramento, CA. Apparently Mr. Swidler had collected over 1200 pieces and the Crocker got over 800 of them for the Swidler collection at their museum. Anyway, Mr. Swidler expressed interest in one of my bowls and I am now in Mr. Swidler’s personal collection. I was very happy to have been approached by Sidney and spend some good amount of time listening to his pottery collecting stories on the phone and am also very happy to be part of his collection. Here’s some pictures of the collection at the Crocker…

Also, if you’re on FB and a “friend” of J. Shiloh Gastello, he has many more picture from a trip he made to the Crocker here. If you’re really interested and not Mr. Gastello’s “friend”, maybe he’ll accept a friendship request from you. OK, xmas. The bug made me this box that I will hang in my studio. She was so excited to give it too me and spent about a week or so hiding it from me…

And no young girl should be without a pink ukulele…

And in the rock tradition of smashing instruments, here’s the bug feigning destruction…

It’s been awhile so here’s some bug drawings. A nice winter scene that hasn’t happened yet (it was 58 degrees today)…

And lest we think that the poop fascination stage is over, it’s more like it’s entered the hyper-poop phase…

I have to admit I love the expressions on their faces. Last but not least, I’ve been doing my excruciating physical therapy exercises and have increased my mobility although still have much pain during the exercises. That being said, I’ve been throwing lots of small things…