Bisque fire over weekend

Hey! This will be quick because I need to hit the hay, but just wanted to let everyone know that I did a bisque fire this weekend and have lots o' pots to glaze now! Chips 'n Salsa trays, huge mugs and soapdishes are on the menu. I'll post them to my Etsy shop when they are finished! My head is swimming with glazing possibilites... :-)

Pottery Shop on ETSY

NEWS FLASH : : : : : : : I've set up a Pottery Shop on the Etsy website! It's a great place where you can go to check out my latest pottery that is for sale... http://www.dancingdolphinpotter.etsy.com/

I'm two-wheeling it!

Hey! I got my motorcycle permit on Saturday and bought my helmut today! This evening Terry (my hubbie) and I went out driving around to practice. I am riding his 2008 Honda Ruckus scooter and he's on his 1969 Honda 450 motorcycle. WOW! Going 25 mph seemed fast! But, my turns are getting smoother. The fastest the scooter can go is about 40mph, but it gets 100 MPG!! Cool! Maybe someday I'll work myself up to a "real" bike!

Fall is here!

Hello, again! I don't know what happened to the summer other than I seemed to have spent most of it working on the Troy Arts Alliance. I was so stressed out with it that I couldn't get myself into my studio.

Anyway, I'm very happy that Fall/Autumn is here and the air is cool and light with a hint of dried leaves in the air! The older I get, the more I love the month of October--in Ohio anyway!

This weekend found me in my studio again and I'm starting to throw again! Yeah! I've got some fun functional pieces that I want to make for the holidays. These include Santa & Snowman mugs, Chips 'N Salsa trays, funky soap dishes and maybe some casserole dishes with handles. I've set up an account on www.Etsy.com and need to get some inventory going so that I can start up my shop! This will be fun!

Also, I can't wait to try more Lotus Zen fountains. The next ones will look more like water lilies (pointed petals) and I'm thinking of using porcelain for the flower part. I'm hoping that the porcelain clay will make the flower look translucent.

Attached is a picture of one of my new mugs and a FRESH chips 'n salsa platter. I'm using my brown clay again and it smells so awesome!

Cheers!

Di

My Studio

Well, it's Sunday night and I feel like I've spent all weekend cleaning my studio. Of course this isn't accurate, but it sure feels like it! I'm not much of a clean and tidy person (if I were I'm sure that I wouldn't adore making pottery) but there comes a time when one must throw stuff out and create some order amongst the chaos! After it started looking a bit better I took a few pictures to include it in my blog. I love to see photos of artist's studios to get a feel for their creative space. Not sure what my space says about me except that I haven't yet learned to keep it simple and color is good!

Dogs make the world go 'round!

Terry and I don't have any children--yet. But, we're both animal people and can't imagine our lives without our dogs! We currently have 2 canine companions: Quee and Buddy. (Quee is sitting the wheelbarrow at the right and Queg is sitting on the ground in front of the wheelbarrow). Queg died suddenly last Fall from cancer on a Friday afternoon. That weekend, Terry and I wished we had died also. It was like losing a son. Can't say anymore than that, but I still miss him like crazy. Queg LOVED tennis balls! He would fetch the ball so many times that my arm hurt. Last Spring I was reading the last Harry Potter book outside in my Adirondak chair that my husband Terry made. I think I threw the tennis ball for Queg the entire time that I read that book! Queg was PURE JOY. He showed us how to live in pure joy in the moment. Quee is still with us and is the sweetest dog you'll ever meet. She is an excellent hunter and guard dog and has a very deep bark! She's 10 now and in her younger years she could have been a Dock Dog because she's a leaper! She is PURE UNCONDITIONAL LOVE! She's always right by my side in the studio and all around the house.

Buddy is a bit over 2 years old and still thinks he is a puppy. :-) He is incredibly lovable and happy. He makes us laugh everyday! Remember when you were a kid and loved playing with empty boxes? Well, Buddy STILL loves to play with boxes! Pizza boxes, clay boxes and even empty 2 liter pop bottles are his favorites! We adopted Buddy last Fall a few months after our wonderful dog Queg died. We're so happy that we did because he is such a clown. We lovingly call him our big doofus! He also howls to the emergency vehicles (ambulance, fire trucks) when they pass near our home!

New (to me) Kiln!

It's been over 90 degrees here for 3 or 4 days and I'm starting to yearn for FALL! I'm very thankful that we have air-conditioning in our home!! Happy news today is that my friend Loretta sold me her used kiln and we got to pick it up today. It's larger than my old one and after 25 years of use it still works! I'm very psyched!! There's only one catch. After we got it into my studio we realized that the plug is different from our current 220v outlet. So, Terry has to change either the plug or the outlet. Oh, well. I'm so lucky that he's handy. :-) Time to take a break! We just ordered pizza and we're going to watch a DVD that we borrowed from my sister in law of Jeff Dunham's stand-up comedy. Should be a nice evening.