the making of a gnome

I was invited to a cross country croquet tournament...the video invite showed a gnome getting hit by a croquet ball...over it went, slowly and safely. I thought I should bring my own gnome to the show. Who should it look like? well, my friend Maryann was the perfect choice, so I set to work.

 

This is Maryann...and some tools on my deck table. below is the sculpted face. I worked on it outside on the deck, for the most part, but some things had to be donein the studio_basement.

                                                                                     I use all the basement, including the washer and dryers. I made the feet really long, which looked odd, but she really stood upright, and that was the most important part.

Here are a few raw photos and the under glazing. I used weathered bronze and chartruse high fire glazes for the bigger areas and clear over the under glaze shown here.

So, here is the finished product and the real Maryann with her little effigy. Gnome Maryann already has a boyfriend and he lives in a lovely cave on Steven and Olivia's land.

 

and he also ventures out to stand on his hill of colorful fairy mushrooms...someday Gnome Maryann will stand beside him there.

hello again

I have been taking some blogging time off to get my life together. After a year of job searching, I have decided to make my own job.

First, I started at the Wayne Art Center and was lucky enough to get hired as a part-time ceramic tech. This has me very busy, loading and unloading kilns, mixing glazes and cleaning (the clay traps are particularly choice jobs). So half of my working week was fixed.

The rest of the week I am an "elder personal assistant". I drive, clean, cook, garden, organize, file, and anything else that is needed. This is a good thing, helping others and not trying to get folks to buy stuff they might not need. Or struggling with website coding, not fun at all.

No pictures today...my little pot got fired (a mediocre naked Raku, at best) and then somehow jumped off the table and died an uncertain death. Rey's beloved fish, a bottom feeder, somehow made it to the top of his tank and jumped. He crawled towards the refrigerator and expired there. We don't know why these strange things happened, but we are very sad about them.

So today I am creating a gnome for a cross country croquet tournament and that will be photos and a story to tell.

pottery for Wednesday....

What's for dinner...we could defrost some turkey...that is the first question of the day.

This blog will include food as well as pottery. This Raku bowl is the first of my ocean series. It is inspired by my water dreams and a recent show at the Wayne Art Center that made me want to up my game. As a result, my Raku is getting more and more detailed. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Today is a working piece, tomorrow I will post a non working piece, but a learning experience, none the less...

What ARE we having? I opted for the Turkey burger sans roll (bathing suit weather is appoaching) and my partner, who we will just call "Rey" wants it all wrapped in a tortilla with chilis and such (he is not concerned).