1. I’ve been told to explain to you, again, that I have no desire to learn how to use electronic gadgetry.

1.5. But that’s obvious, isn’t it?

2. That doesn’t stop me from pushing buttons.

3. Blog headers are overrated.

4. I don’t know how to design my own blog header and I tried, see that awesome picture with the awesome font up there at the tippy-top of my blog?

 

4.5. Get your bifocals.

5. People that know how to design blog headers speak a different language.  I say, “I want this” and they say, “It can’t be done”  and that doesn’t make sense to me, at all.

6. I’ve said for years that my art needs to be 3D.  That’s why I wanted to be an Industrial Designer and NOT a Graphic Designer.

7. I hate scrapbooking.

7.5. I would have more friends if I enjoyed scrapbooking.

8. I also hate stamping and card making and the inner workings of a camera.

9. One of my good friends has made me go shopping with her to pick out card making supplies.

9.5. I wanted to poke my eyes out and pull her out of the store by the hair, whip her around my head a few times and fling her like a discus across the parking lot.  

9.55. Instead I went and bought silk flowers for a floral arrangement.

10. Flower arrangements qualify as 3D art.

11. I don’t know many women that like the same things as I do.

11.5. Like pottery.

11.55. And metal art.

11.555. And pulling weeds in the rain.

11.5555. Or reading books written in the 20′s and 50′s about women that enjoyed gardening.

11.55555. But that’s okay, right?

Time for a pottery class update. Calm down, I know, it’s exciting. Okay, I’m gonna need everyone to just sit down and take deep breaths, because you are about to behold some of the most excruciatingly awesome pots ever made.

Here my priceless gems are sitting on the rack covered in glaze and waiting to be gently lowered into a kiln to be fired. See the one in front that is sort of bowlish-spittoonish? That was probably my nicest piece, note I said was. Ike dropped it on the way out of the studio when I went to pick up my finished pieces. Poor guy, he was so distraught. Lesson: do not take children with you to pick up your pottery.

Ink pot and Wobbly Bowl…I know, cute eh?
Ellen claimed these bowls for herself, she’s really likes the ink pot, I think it’s just the right size for earrings.

Superman and Strange-Squished-Bottom Spittoon

This is Seth’s favorite…. but, the Superman belongs to Ike.

Flower pot and Syrup Pitcher
Ike got dibs on the pitcher.

Disaster. This piece I spun right off the wheel while I was learning how to trim, but I made it into “Art”. I think it will be stored under the kitchen cabinet with a rusty Brillo pad in it.

I have lots and lots and lots more that I made, so many that I don’t reamember what most of them look like. But, alas they are not quite finished or I can’t find them on the pottery shelf with the other student’s work.

And in other news….

These sweet fence finials I bought at the Gypsy caravan. Look at those forms. Aren’t they lovely?

Maybe someday, I’ll have a garden gate that I can adorn.

Chickens adorning TBLDBT.

I made these two things in my third class. The big bowl was made with five pounds of Clay, I mean clay…the mud stuff, not my husband. I used a different wheel and it had a profound effect on me. I also, think I throw better with larger amounts of Clay, I mean clay…the mud stuff, not my husband.

I jumped the gun a bit and put a handle on my batter bowl, cuz I thought I knew so much about pottery, but it turns out I didn’t apply it correctly and most likely my handle will fall off when it’s fired in the kiln. That will make me very sad.

I call this my batter bowl and big-honkin bowl

I’ve learned that you can’t get attached to anything you make…because it will break. I broke my first pot last week when I was learning how to trim. Trimming occurs when your piece has dried to a leather hard stage, you put in on the wheel and use tools to take off the extra Clay, uh I mean, clay…the mud stuff not my husband. My teacher told me I was very good at trimming during the throwing stage, that’s when you shape the mud stuff on the wheel, so maybe I’ll not learn how to trim and just do all my finish work on the wheel. But, then how will I become the greatest potter in the world? Maybe I’ll be the greatest non-trimming potter in the world.

I need a new term for clay…..the mud stuff, not my husband. How about wet earthen material and I’ll shorten it to wem. Okay? From now on when I speak of pottery and clay it will be wem.