relief

my friends, let me show you what relief looks like:

This is the dinner set that I referred to as "green ware" in my last post.  "Green" means that it hasn't been fired.  I have to remake one mug and three desert plates, plus do some spot-reglazing on almost every piece in this set, but the bulk of the work is done and I'm not sweating over it anymore.

Plus, I have an incentive to get it (and two other big projects) off my plate.  I'm going to San Francisco (tagging along on a work trip) the first of October and I want a clear slate before I leave.  This means that September will be busy, but that's good because I need immediate goals to stay focused and productive.  Now I know this about myself, but it's always good to have it reaffirmed.

This coming week I'll attack those other two projects with a vengeance and get these pieces re-spot-glazed.  I'm grateful today that they're 4/5 finished, that my bout with the flu was short-lived (but oh!  I got LOTS of rest, which I needed), that my friends on the East Coast are safe and the hurricane packed less of a punch than we anticipated, and that I finally got a batch of okra pickled and processed.

Hope y'all have a good week.

watching and waiting

Last week was the first week of school, right on the heels of our beach trip.  It got massively, oppressively hot.  Then it got really nice and cool. As in, 80 degree days in which you can hang out in the yard with the chickens and a cool beverage in the evening sort of days.   I threw and threw and threw and ran out of clay last week.

My husband landed a new job after a long long long time of uncertainty and trying to keep everything together by the skin of our teeth.  It was hard, so now that it's over I've been having a bit of a post-emergency collapse.  Periods of resting and doing nothing, periods of remembering that I have a full fall schedule and will kick myself for watching Mad Men at noon on Monday.  It's not something that I'm used to (luxuriant laziness) and I'm not sure I like it.  I prefer being productive.

Having run out of clay, I fired several kiln-loads of green ware this week and am spending the last half glazing and firing it.  I'm getting more clay this weekend and next week will glaze my dinnerware set in one fell swoop.  I'm really excited about it- unglazed, it looks good.  Unfortunately, it is always the last firing that shows where the flaws are hiding- either through weakness in the clay or sloppiness in my glazing.  We'll see how that goes.

Summer is fleeting.  I'm ready for fall.

return

 

We've been back for almost a week and school's begun.  Our trip was filled with art, inspiration, rest, rejuvenation.  We were sorry to leave, happy to be back.  Still a little quiet around here.  Working steadily, wrapping projects up, beginning new ones.  

Captions: Walter Anderson Museum of Art, Ocean Springs, MS.  Community Center Mural

Beach glass

Ship Island, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore

Bottlenose dolphins following the ferry

Last morning's low-tide beach combing expedition