Soda Fired Pitchers and Mugs

Here are the results from my soda firing last week.  I've been having fun pairing them up and seeing how nice they look in good light and on the nice backdrop.  I think I am going to be ordering some business cards soon so these photos will be great for that. I love to order my business cards from Moo.  They are my favorite! I still have a lot more pictures to take before I'm done so that's what I will be doing this weekend when I am not lounging in the sun.  I am so excited for daylight savings.  Yippie!  Next week we should be putting in another soda firing.  Have a delightful weekend.

Sunny in Santa Cruz

I finished my first two week class at CSU Summer Arts and had the day off so I decided to get out of the fog.  I headed up to Palo Alto for ACGA's Clay & Glass Festival.  I saw a lot of wonderful work, but for some reason was shy about taking photos of anyone's work.  However, I had the delight of running into this Patrick Dougherty sculpture outside of the Palo Alto Art Center.

Here is a video of the construction of the sculpture.

After being in Monterey's 60 degree foggy weather for two weeks I was eager for the sun and warmth which I got in Palo Alto.  It was about 78 degrees and I felt like I was in an oven so I hopped back in the car and headed out to Santa Cruz.  Yeah, I know, go figure?  

This is the view from the pier look south towards Monterey. Yep, that's the thick grey blanket I have been living in lately. 

But turn around an this is what you see.

 The sea lions migrate up from Southern California to feast and rest in the marine sanctuary.

Smile pretty for the camera!

 I love architectural elements,

and the different blues of the ocean and sky here.

And when I finally drove back to Monterey, I found out it had been sunny here today.  It figures.

Wednesday was such a great day that the fun was bound to end somehow and how did it.  By evening there was emotional wreckage.  No one was upset at me personally but it is still hard not to react emotionally when someone else is very upset.  So that kind of threw me in a bad mood even though I tried my darnest  to go through my affirmations, positive self talk and deep breathing.  I thought I would wake up Thursday and feel a whole lot better but not so much so.  Today I decided all I would try to get done was get out in the sun.  So I went to upper park and took a short hike, relaxed on the benches in the sun and watched all the different kinds of birds.  There were lots of pretty woodpeckers in the dead trees and these other tiny birds I think that are called titmouse.  I might have saw a warbler with a pretty yellow chest of feathers and then a small bird of prey.  I better get a bird id book so I can figure them out next time.  I didn't feel like taking the camera and then, of course, I wished I had.

I also worked on uploading rewards and information for my Kickstarter Project.  I still need to make the video and put together some images also. I should have it ready to launch next week.  Tomorrow I am making my flight reservations for North Carolina. I'd be more excited right now but I am falling asleep while I am typing.

Here's a funny cup experiment idea I was working on.  Trying to make a non-funtional mug.  I like the way the green glaze breaks over the red clay. That's all she wrote.  I'm planning on making tomorrow a better day.

Making Molds While the Sun Still Shines

We haven't had rain since the early rain of October.  Let me tell you it is dry, dry, dry!  Now storms are on the horizon again and we are supposed to get a good amount of rain with a number of systems backed up to come in the next few days.  So today was run around and do stuff outside day.  The rabbit got her cage cleaned out and the last of the fall leaves got racked out of the yard.  Even with the hard freeze last night I was pretty warm with all the racking and cleaning.  I thought, why not pour those molds I've had prepped for two weeks.  It was nice working outside but I forgot how much time it takes to make these things and I was pretty cold by the time I was done working.

Now that I've had a warm bowl of roasted red pepper and tomato soup I'm ready to relax and paint up some more of these flat-rimmed plates.  Hand painting underglaze is kind of tedious.  These would have been great candidates for paper stencils but when I made them six months ago I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them.  Now I want them to match the shino mugs and tumblers that I have been making.  I think these are going to look pretty nice when they are done.

Kickin' Back

We've been quite spoiled here in Northern California lately.  I'm not complaining!  I went up to the park today in capris and a short sleeve t-shirt to soak up some rays.  I can feel the days starting to get a teensy, weeny bit longer already and every little bit of light helps.  I do fear with all this gorgeous weather that if I doesn't rain sometime soon we may be in for a bit of a draught.  But knock on wood, winter has only just begin.  I think I need some more sun, though.  Check out those lily white winter legs!

I really, really wanted to hike down to the creek and sit on that little beach there.  Except for there being no leaves on the trees it looked deceptively like a beautiful summer day.  I could just imaging jumping into that refreshing water in late August.

But the path goes almost straight down and it was over wet, slippery rocks and I could just see myself falling and breaking a leg.  Maybe not the best way to start out the new year.  No, I think not.

So, instead I basked in front of this big basalt rock.  The sun was so bright it made my eyes tear up just trying to keep them open a split second to take this pic.  Love the shadow of me on the rock.

I'm lichen this rock. He he he!

This one looks like a mini mountain.  I love the cleft.

May you have a clear view in 2012.  Happy New Year!