Getting back into Potting

So Zips has enrolled me in the ceramics class that is offered at the local art museum downtown. I've been at it since last October, after a 15 year hiatus since undergrad art classes (!!). This means I've had 50# of clay (Laguna Speckled Buff Stoneware) and access to some glazes (not a great variety-- but enough to get my legs back under me).

My early attempts at even centering the clay went poorly. I experimented with the colors and consistencies of these new glaze colors. One of the first successes I had was throwing a bunch of small pots "off the hump" (this means making 6 to 10 tiny cup/bowls from the same larger piece of clay-- cutting each off and centering the top of the hump of clay that remained on the wheel to throw again), and then flipping those pots over to make Japanese furin wind bells. I love the green iron furin we purchased at the Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. I love how round their forms are, and how often poems and prayers are written on the paper tag that catches the wind.

My first three were experiments in scale and in figuring out how I would construct them-- how to hang them and where to install a clapper (which are actually cuttings from last year's Christmas tree branches that I'd cut into firewood!) . The glazes here are Robin's Egg and Shino

The next ten or so, I was ironing out shapes, experimenting with looping handles and cutting the holes into the furin body so that it was all a single continuous piece.

And I got a bit more experimental. The bright blue below is Amaco Cara Bien Stroke & Coat underglaze striped over light blue Shino, and blue Shino speckled with Gun Metal Gray (which has turned out to be my favorite combo!)

 

Zips called dibs on this one immediately. I haven't even had a chance to put a clapper into it to make it a proper bell.

Because the clay class has always been meant as a kind of stress management art therapy for me, and because I've grown rusty and out of practice in the years it's been since I've worked with clay, I've had to really work at allowing myself to focus only on throwing clay when I'm there. I get self-conscious, I lose confidence. The other folks who are in the classes seem like they've been doing this forever. I watched a guy make a huge, lovely bean pot in the time it took me to simply center my hunk of clay the size of my fist! Another guy pulled a chips/salsa platter, a young woman makes enormous, shapely bowls and planters. And since I feel my blood pressure increase and my confidence plummet as I feel my meager skills draining out of my body, I decided to stay small and threw a set of tiny bowls.

And I decided to purchase my own glazes (since they have such a limited, weird array there), so this is blue Shino with the Gun Metal Gray flecks (I love this!)

 This is light green Shino

This is light blue Shino

And this is the blue Shino painted on the outside (it was rather thin, so it turned out a nice, even dark brown), and Tamale Red Stroke & Coat inside. This is great, since it's a vibrant red while also being food-safe.

So this is some of my wares. Not everything, of course. I'm also giving and have already given a couple of pieces away. I felt weird that the very two pieces I made I gave to my parents for Christmas. I didn't know what else to get them, and they were very small and very wonky. I hope my parents understand that I wanted to give them something my hands brought into the world, however imperfect. I'm afraid it just communicated "I'm poor and I have no idea what you want."

My favorite pieces of them all (so far) are this trio of low Japanese-style bowls. The shallow, rounded shape is actually inspired by a set of inexpensive dishes I bought in Japantown in San Francisco. In any case, again with the blue Shino and the Gun Metal Gray. I think this first one was with the communal glaze bin at the art museum-- it has a lot of lovely inconsistencies in the dark blue that create a lovely galactic effect.

My subsequent efforts to duplicate this with the blue Shino that I bought are nice too. But that first little bowl is my favorite of everything I've made. Here's a larger bowl:

As I write this, I have a ton of greenware drying. That will need to be glazed. Something like 7 small plate/bowls, 4 large bowls, 2 jars, on top of 4 other large bowls that are already bisqued, and a small hunk of leftover clay that I'm going to hand-build things with until I run out. Zips demands a likeness. I may have to do the rest of the animals as well.

Most of the other folks who've been in class with me are very generous with their expertise and with their encouragement. I've learned tricks and gotten ideas for projects and how to layer the glazes they have. I'm probably going to keep purchasing my own (oooh! professional!). I already know I want to buy a white glaze and maybe a speckled yellow one. When these classes pick back up in the fall, I'll probably be there again. I've got to give better Christmas presents this year!

Green Grass in the Land of Xeriscaping

Well, technically, our backyard has "zeroscaping"-- xeriscaping in the front, but zero in the backyard. It's a major drawback of the house we currently rent. The backyard of the first house we rented here in Southern New Mexico was the single reason we chose that house before we ever set foot inside. It had a grand eucalyptus tree, it had rosemary shrubs dripping down the top tier into the lower half of the yard. It had white and pink oleanders blocking the neighbors to the east. It had roses. We spent so much time in that backyard. We loved it and miss it.

But those owners wanted to move back into their house, so we packed everything up and moved literally one mile down the road. Now our backyard consists of lots and lots of hot, pointy gray rocks. And our midwestern cat and dog babies miss having a yard. We resorted to container gardening, and have potted tomatoes. We built a raised bed for baby red potatoes last year and finally decided to re-purpose that raised bed for a yard!

In fact, Zips talked me into purchasing not one but FOUR pieces of sod, even though one is all it takes to fill the raised bed. So I filled that bed, then filled whatever other container I could find. I have 3 wine crates, several terra cotta planters (one is now in our bathroom so Zips and Bijoux can have nibbles), and a 4x4 "yard" on either side of our back patio.   

 We even found mini garden gnomes to stand watch over the grass boxes.

The babies seem content, even blissful. And there are enough boxes allow each of them to have their own personal spot.

Since they're all in the shade of our patio and the rock wall that is closest to our house, the grass is always cool under paw, soft to lay in, and edible. 

"It'll do for now, human."