I also found this very cool old ice cream maker. The blue color is the exact same as my new terra sig color. Guess I should make some ice cream buckets!
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Indoor booth
I also found this very cool old ice cream maker. The blue color is the exact same as my new terra sig color. Guess I should make some ice cream buckets!
Saturday, August 27, 2011
Fellow bloggers
Here's Laura working in her studio which is just visual steroids. I'm always so inspired when I leave there!
You can check out Laura's blog for more info on cups and paintings and shows here.
I also wanted to mention a new blog by Maureen Gaurde, whom I have mentioned here before during the raku workshops I did last fall. Maureen had great success that day and just made the day a whole bunch of fun. Anyway, she has a little write up about me on her blog that is very flattering, thanks Maureen for your very kind words. Her blog is about a great support group here in Chapel Hill. Here is a description of the group I took from the blog:
Welcome to Women Starting Over After 50. WSO50 is a North Carolina non-profit organization dedicated to education and support of women in transition. WSO50 was founded in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, by Donna Nelson and Noelle Randall. WSO50 is about change, it’s about growth, it’s about finding your passion once again. Some of you are single, some of you are married, some of you are empty nesters and some of you have never had children. Some of you have a working history, and some of you have never taken that path. But we all have one thing in common…We are wonderful women 50 and beyond and starting our journey for the second half of our lives.
So, go on over and check it out if you are interested.
Well, that's it, Gerry survived the storm and will be shooting clean up tomorrow, Wes is too busy for a visit tomorrow so I plan to work out in my studio until the heat and humidity cause me to pass out :)
Friday, August 26, 2011
Body Bags, seriously?!
Frisco Fire Chief Richard Marlin told The Associated Press that he ordered 75 body bags to supplement the town’s normal supply of 10.
“I anticipate we’re going to have people floating on the streets, and I don’t want to leave them lying there,” Marlin said. If the storm maintains its current track, “the Coast Guard will either be pulling people off their roofs like in Katrina or we’ll be scraping them out of their yards.”
So far the storm has killed three people in Haiti (probably because they had no place to go, maybe?) This is a category ONE storm, I just can't imagine that there are going to be people floating in the streets. First of all, there is hardly anyone left on the Outer Banks, they evacuated. What in the HELL has happened to these crazy news people. I know I am married to someone in the news business, but trust me, he is nothing like this, in fact he has turned off the TV, can't stand this ridiculous panic these people create. In fact, I got this email from him today before I turned on the news:
" I just can't watch the tv news while I'm in the room. I saw one guy on tv doing his report, and he made it sound pretty bad where he was...then I recognized the guy and he was right outside my hotel window on the beach, and it was hardly raining, not blowing at all. His crew standing around him with lights and microphones etc....This'll be the guy later that will give me a great photo of someone getting swamped in a wave :)"
Where are Peter Jennings and Walter Cronkite when you need them! Remember the days when journalism had integrity and we sat at the breakfast table and read the newspaper? Sorry but I miss those days and it makes me sad to think where our world will be without trusted journalists and people that take what they do seriously and aren't just fighting for ratings. I even heard someone on NPR today refer to this storm as a storm of historic proportions. again, REALLY?! I do realize that a hurricane is nothing to joke about and there is some danger and I'm sure there will be lots of damage. But what will this be like when a class three or four comes in. These people are likely to explode from their excitement! When a really bad storm does come, people aren't going to trust the news, boy cried wolf and all that.
TV news makes me so sick I am seriously thinking of turning the thing off for good. Except for the fact that my husband is down there in it and I would like some clear concise and honest reporting of it.
Whew, that feels better, stay safe everyone!
Ups and downs and widespread panic
New color palette. I love the addition of blue to these colors I have been using. It makes me smile. What is it about blue.....
my favorite pail blew up and so did my favorite barn. Of course, isn't it always the way. The things you like most or need for a deadline are the things most likely to not make it. How do they know? And then, as Paul Jessop wrote on his blog, I had expectations of what I thought some things should look like and they didn't so I'm adjusting to that. It's odd to me that all of the comments I got on the last post were positive remarks on the two pieces that I really don't like and will not make again. Sorry, but I really don't like them, they aren't what I wanted them to be and I don't enjoy looking at them....
I'm having lunch with my pals today and then hunkering down for the storm that may or may not hit NC. Say a little prayer that Gerry will be safe on the Outer Banks!!!! Happy weekend.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Back to the farm
I had a few pieces blow up in the kiln this week. The large barn I had the sand dollars on came apart at all the seams. I have made this same shape with success several times so I don't know what was going on, maybe it dried to fast... also a couple of buckets blew up, didn't let the terra sig dry enough I guess. And then I dropped a few things..... grrrr.
In case you are wondering I deleted the previous post to avoid being repetitious, I shot new pics of all this stuff this morning.
I'm not so fond of these, I liked them better before they got fired. They're ok, just not my favrorites...
I do like this one though
I think her head is a tad too small, maybe not, I don't know.....
The color of this one is so pretty, again, thanks Linda for convincing me to take another look, I almost bashed it up. The oxide wash helped a lot.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Hmmm...... this is kind of nice.....
Monday, August 22, 2011
Off to a slow start
Anyway, I finally drug my pathetic self off of the sofa, where I was curled in a fetal position, and I might have been chewing all of my nails off, and I went out to my studio and "just got to work" to quote that infamous Chuck Close. And well, what do you know, I felt BETTER. Wait, what's that? I had some new ideas, and yep, I'm getting excited to make some new things. Oh yeah, this is better, thank you studio! I found these little glass jars over the weekend that I plan to use with the moose hair from Cindy Shake and maybe some sand. Perhaps little niches in my barns or alter tiles, lots of possibilities....
I also picked up this angel mold that gave me all sorts of ideas today, these molds are always fun to play with. I once went to a studio in Asheboro that had a garage completely full of these molds and I think I looked at every one of them, then bought three.
I'm thinking about making Wesley a small alter for her dorm room with this angel. Maybe one that can sit on her desk....
some new color tests
and Linda Starr will be happy to know that I managed to salvage the blue barn after all. I put some black oxide on it and toned down the flourescent blue quite a bit.
Then Gerry and I had pizza and a bottle of cheap red Australian shiraz from Trader Joes. If I stay busy and buzzed on red wine, I just might survive this college thing :) for all of you with small children, call me in a few years, I'll talk you through it!
Saturday, August 20, 2011
Someone stole my little girl
We took her to dinner and then went for a walk around Old Salem. If you live near and have not visited Old Salem, you should. It's a beautiful old working Moravian village. When we lived in Greensboro, I would take Wesley out of school one day every fall and we would take a trip over for lunch and a tour. We would take the horse and buggy ride, buy bread from the baker, steal cherry tomatoes and grapes from the gardens and have lunch in some grassy place. And now her school is right across the street from this wonderful place. It started raining on us and we ran into this stable to stay dry while the storm passed. I could feel the stress of the week melting from all of us as we sat there together watching the rain. Nice......
What a life, going to school with a bunch of artists and having an old Moravian village across the street for atmosphere. I am so jealous! All is well, tomorrow rest, then Monday starts a full week in the studio!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Now what?
I've been keeping very busy with this cleaning process. Yesterday was closest and drawers. The art room got a good purge, out went all of the childhood craft items like pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks, glitter, paint by number kits that never were used. We always had supplies for school projects and I don't see any reason to keep a lot of this stuff. On to the thrift store so someone else can find some use for it all. I guess this is a process many parents go through when their kids go off to school, and it felt good to get organized and cleaned and get a lot of the old dusty toys and stuffed animals put away. I hauled four bags of trash downstairs and six bags of stuff for the thrift store. How can three people really have this much unnecessary stuff!
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
There she goes
Yesterday was a verrrrry long day! We were up at 6am and on the road to Winston Salem, taking Wesley and all of her worldy goods to UNC School of the Arts. We arrived at 9am, got her ID, room key, packet of information, mailbox and then got her unpacked. The school was so well organized, students were there unpacking everything for us and carrying it all to her third floor dorm room. We spent the entire day in orientation sessions for safety, health, academics, fitness, nutrition, student affairs, ate in the dining hall, saw a promo film of the film school, met all of the film faculty and somehow managed to spend a little time with Wes before we left her at 6pm.We are so impressed with this school and how attentive they are to the needs of artists. They understand artists. The dining hall has lots of vegetarian options and gluten free items which is great for Wes and the food is actually very good. They have yoga, which she will love, and the health services seems to be very attentive to the physical needs of artists. UNCSA was recently ranked the number two film school in the country next to UCLA and number twelve in the world, so I think she is going to get a really great education.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
so so firing
Friday, August 12, 2011
Thursday, August 11, 2011
Who knew?
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Some work, some reading
I finished Ahab's Wife, loved it, loved it, very sad when it came to an end. So I went to the library and checked out Moby Dick, just to exercise my brain, I suppose. This is some tough reading for moi, but I'm enjoying it, and it has pretty pictures, haha!
My friend Barbara brought me some sand dollars from Shackelford Banks and I wanted to use them somehow on the barns, so this is what I came up with. They are really pretty, fuzzy and brown.
These barns are getting bigger and I'm making platforms for them to give them some show presence. Not an easy task, but I still seem to enjoy making them and I am loving how they look right now with all the texture and gouges in them.
I have the kiln packed and ready to go. It's supposed to be cooler here on Friday so I am going for it. I have to get some of my test tiles fired before I move forward with some of the new terra sig I have mixed up. I have found that when the shelves in my studio are completely full is is just enough to fit in this kiln. So, fill shelves, fire kiln. I will be doing a lot of that for the next couple of months!
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
Disappointment, Elation, Frustration
This has been my Mac progression. Gerry bought me the little one up top for Christmas a few years ago. Then our friend bought this one I just got, so I got the middle one from him. We just got Wesley a Mackbook pro for college, Gerry has the same one plus an iMac desktop for work and now I have this one. That makes six Apple computers and three ipods, I think Apple should send us a coupon for something free! I know this looks a little sick, but Wesley's was discounted through the school and financed through her loan, Gerry gets his from the AP, and I got a deal you would not even believe, so don't think we won the lottery or something! We are just resourceful.