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Handbuilt Gardenware – Leaf Imprints in Clay
Over the past year or two, I’ve been using vintage lace doilies to make handbuilt pieces. Before this, I used some garden herbs to make spoon rests, but had not used them in a few years and had never used them with an underglaze on white clay. With the garden booming, I’ve tried different foliage to see what turns out well. Some leaves like pumpkin and okra are huge, which is why I need a slab roller or at least…
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Weeds, Mosquitoes and Garden Pics
June isn’t over yet and already the weeds are getting the best of the garden paths. I’ve now been suggested by multiple people to try spraying white vinegar of the weeds. I mixed up a little Dawn dish detergent with white vinegar in a spray bottle, and sprayed the weeds first thing this morning. By mid-day, the most prevalent weed in my garden was burned up, but the spider grass needed another application. I will stick to pulling the weeds…
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Creating an Empire
One of my earliest, most vivid memories is of a field trip I took to Mrs. Hampton’s house, my first and second grade teacher. Her father had constructed an elaborate network of concrete and cobble ditches through the woods for her when she was a child, and there was a beautiful greenhouse. I don’t remember many details except for the magic I felt in that place and wishing I could play there forever. We’ve lived in this house in downtown…
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Morning Garden Walk
Each morning I step outside to see what growing, what new, and as my son interjects, “what’s old.” I love the cool air and the birds with just a faint buzz of traffic in the city. I sat on the deck for a moment to watch the cat listen to the birds with her ears upright and her head slightly jerking from side to side, and when I had gone back in to feed her breakfast I glanced over my…
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Excellence in Mediocrity
Recently the opportunity was put before me to have a presence in an on-campus teaching setting. I thought about it, I really did. I imagined getting to know students, the environment I’d try to foster, the potential to invest in young people. I even went so far as to consider whether I’d allow music in the lab and if I’d show up with cookies — I’m truly embarrassed now for disclosing that last bit. And then, before I had…
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Kiln Unloading
Well… I just unloaded the kiln, and there were some real boogers in there. I used an earthen red clay that I was told could be pushed to cone 5 that didn’t perform well with the glaze. The indigo float pulled away from the clay. The small platter that I put on stilts completely slumped. A few pieces were okay, but still weren’t everything I had hoped they would be. I will definitely not be using this clay with my…
