Aftermath

Ok, here's what I know after the show last week. I blame the Doppler effect. The one where local TV stations all have Doppler radar anymore and justify it by screaming about rain, lightening  storms and eternal damnation whenever there is the chance of a shower. We had beautiful dry weather but a small crowd. I don't think I did $100 after 2pm. The total for the day was ok but getting there was odd. I had a couple of folks who bought over $100 each that helped a lot. One of them also wants about $250 more of the items she bought. There were a lot of people who labored over whether or not they could spend $18 for a mug. One poor guy had to go ask his wife if he could spend $20!!! He's got bigger problems than not enough mugs. In all, I had 7 square sales, 5 checks, and less than $100 in cash. That tells me that the people who did come mostly did not come prepared to buy. I usually see a couple of $50's and maybe a $100 but the biggest bill I saw that day was a $20. I understand that times are still tough and appreciate all my customers but it was just an odd mix.

You were right about the rectangular slab platter with the fish on it. It found a new home before noon and it was the fish that sold it. People seemed to like the others but money talks louder. Soup mugs sold well too. I'm going to have to make more. I had several local and online clay buddies and supporters show up. That always makes for a better day. Sometimes what you really need the most is to run to the porta-pot. So a fair income, a good order, saw lots of friends, and stayed dry. I took my time packing up and was still out by 7:10 for a short drive home. Big thanks to those who came out.

In other news, this year we will find the answer to those questions " will she still need me, will she still feed me" Yup, I turned 64 yesterday. Thanks to those who sent greetings and good wishes. As for the rest of you, how were you to know? I also share the day of my birth ( not year) with Doug Fitch and John Bauman. John claims there are at least 4 other potters on the list too but he could not remember them. I never expected to be on any list with guys this talented ( and nice) but if it takes an accident of birth, I gladly accept the honor (honour in Doug's case)

That's about it for now. We'll talk again soon.

Finished Work

Hi everyone. Thanks for stopping by. I've been getting ready for ART ON THE LAWN in Yellow Springs, Ohio next Saturday. It's a great little town and the last bastion of liberal thought in southwest Ohio. I've done the show 4 or 5 times and always do pretty well so I'm looking forward to going. Here are a few pots I fired this week including the slab dishes I promised to show you. I'm happy with them and hope to fire about 10 more later this week.The pictures are quick and dirty but you should at least get an idea of what I'm bringing. If you are in the area, stop by the show and say hello. Who knows, I might even let you booth sit for a few minutes. All the joy of being a vendor without the heavy lifting!

Just one additional thought. A friend has been having a rough week and probably has many more ahead. We all get there sometimes. It's hard to know what to say but the best words I can think of are " When life send you down a long dark tunnel and you can't see the other end, don't forget there is a light inside you, let it shine" When I was teaching, I would wake up at 5;30 put my feet on the floor and say" It's going to be a great day"  I would repeat it as many times as needed until I believed it. Later when the kids came into the classroom, I would give them each a big smile and a cheerful greeting. It didn't fix everything but it did make it better. Have a great week.



July Update

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we chatted and I guess it is time to catch up a little. I am still making the slab dishes on the wooden molds. I sprayed them heavily with WD40 and the dishes are just falling away from the molds when I turn them over. Nothing is fired yet but I will show you as soon as they are. Several things have slowed down the pottery around here. Last week I had to have a tooth pulled and some bridgework started. A couple of weeks earlier, I had broken off a tooth that was mostly filling just about all the way to the root and there was not enough left to cap. The dentist also felt it was a bad spot for an implant so here we are. I have a temporary bridge while my gum heals and will have it about 8 weeks before the final permanent bridge is installed. It has been a bit uncomfortable and I have been uninspired. We also spent a day driving to Louisville to pick up our granddog so Tina could show her with our Audrey this weekend. Yesterday was pretty well consumed with clearing a site and building a platform for a small storage shed for Tina's camping toys. It's level and sturdy enough for me to dance on so it should be ok. Thanks to Mike Baum for helping out. I did fire a glaze load last week that had some big cups ( 24 oz) or vases ???? I like them but don't know which way to sell them. Customers always like suggested uses. Help me decide.

 

Oh yea, it's been muggy outside

 

Life Gets Tedious

 

 

The sun comes up, the sun goes down

Hands on the clock go round and round

I just get up and it's time to lay down

                                                            Life gets teejus. don't it?

                                                                                                    Carson Robison

 

 

Seems like I'm not getting anything done. Of course when you start about 10, quit about 3, and take a generous lunch break I guess that's bound to happen. In the mean time I've got to send in my Ohio Sales Tax, pay some bills, get my booth fee in for a Christmas show, mix glazes. glaze several loads, warm up my coffee, scratch Blondie's ears etc. It's always something, especially if you tend to let them pile up. With all this on my plate, I'm going to address it by going to a noon jam session for a couple of hours before I go to the evening jam session. And you thought I didn't have a plan.

 

In the studio, I have been heading off in a different direction. If you have ever seen my work, you know it is 99.99% wheel thrown. This week I got the wild hair to make some slab serving dishes and do some glaze trailing in them. I had some very old sugar pine from an old house I helped demolish 30 years ago. It cut like butter and after sawing the angles, a few strokes with a sharp plane made them ready to go . I also had a few blocks of hard Styrofoam. It cut very easily and I did not try any smoothing as it would just crumble. A finer grain foam would be better I think. This left some texture which might be nice on some pots but I smoothed it out with a rib on the one I did this week. I'll post some after firing pictures if they make it that far.

 

 

Roll a slab, rough size it, drape it, smooth it down, final trim. Next morning, off the mold, clean up edges with a peeler. Set aside to dry. Here are the results, molds and tools.

 

results from 3 molds
 

Styrofoam and wood molds

Handy tools



Stranger Than Fiction

They say you are never too old to learn something new. I've learned a few things from reading the internet this week.

1. Michele Bachman announced she thinks the president should be impeached for his crimes. What ever they are. Rep. Bachman could have written up a bill of impeachment and given it to Speaker Boehner for further action but she preferred using a microphone to using the constitution.

2. If you complain about fireworks ( mostly illegal) scaring the shit out of your dog you are unpatriotic and not much fun.Shortly after starting this post I also read a Blog from a disabled vet who was a combat medic in Iraq. All the fireworks were rough on her too.

3. If you sigh a rental agreement that says you cannot hang things on your balcony you should be given an exemption if you hang an American Flag there.

4. We need to return to being one nation under God. You know, like Iran.I guess religious theocracies are only bad if they are not of the Evangelical Christian variety.

5. Corporations are people too and even if they invest in pharmaceutical companies that make billions off birth control drugs and devices they can make the choice of which of these methods if any their employees use. The slippery slope is when employers of other denominations decide they will only cover prayer and laying on of hands.Well, I guess in the case of birth control prayer usually follows the laying on of hands etc.

6. By offering a $1000 reward for proof of voter fraud in Mississippi, Chris McDaniel is admitting that he has no proof of wrong doing by Cochran's campaign. Of course that doesn't stop him from making unfounded accusations even though there is no proof that Cochran broke any rules. This from the Constitution waving Tea Party. Rules are great until they give an outcome you don't like.

7. My buddy said he was going to call a gastroenterologist. I asked what he thought was wrong. He said it was just a gut feeling he had..

8. Plants can hear themselves being eaten. They don't like it!!

9. God has written a coded message in our DNA that is a recurring patten similar to ancient Aramaic . Translators at BOB JONES UNIVERSITY have determined that the recurring patterns spell out the first verse of Genesis. If I were looking for impartial unbiased code breakers I'm not sure BOB JONES U> would be my first choice.

 

• 1980

   
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10. Students in a freshman biology class in Atlanta’s Grady High School were shown a PowerPoint presentation that linked evolution to Satan, abortion, divorce, racism, and homosexuality.
The Grady High student newspaper, the Southerner, reported that Anquinette Jones used the PowerPoint presentation to teach the theory of evolution to her students during a freshman biology class last spring.
One slide in the 52-slide presentation included an illustration that shows creationism and evolution as two sides in a war between good and evil. Creationism is shown to be from Christ, while evolution is from Satan. The illustration suggests evolution is the driving force behind euthanasia, homosexuality, pornography, abortion, divorce, and racism — social ills that are all defeated by creationism and Christianity.

Yes folks truth is stranger than fiction and all of these except #7 happened this week.