Christmas Part III

All I really wanted for Christmas was a box to destroy.



All dressed and ready to go.



Beautiful and very stormy Christmas day.



20 people for dinner, noisy and fun.

Christmas Part II

Very beautiful Korean vase and twisty wood by the front door.



The tree with way too many presents underneath.



The beginning of the gingerbread making extravaganza.



Oops, too much icing.



The completed houses all lined up on the hall table.

Here is the NORAD Santa tracking site for anyone who is interested.
www.noradsanta.org/
Very cool and worth the visit! You can see where in the skies santa is and other cool stuff.

The girls are bouncing off the walls and so is my dad who is a notorious early Christmas morning riser, banging cupboard door and flushing toilets until everyone is awake. Merry Christmas everyone.

Christmas Part I

They said that if I swallowed my pill I wouldn't feel sick, they were wrong!



We, however, felt great and played and sang songs the entire trip.



The weather was super crappy, big bus accident that held up traffic for two hours (no one was hurt). We missed our ferry but caught the next one and arrived 3 hours later than planned.



Did I mention that I felt really, really awful?



Very careful and cautious driver (seriously!...40kph most of the way).

Merry Christmas!

Turquoise and white tea lights, absolutely translucent and VERY BEAUTIFUL!



The lovely jewelry of the lovely Holly Drage.



My shelves are full, which is good because I am sending some stuff away with Sue for her friend to sell in her shop in Rossland.



More stuff with the greatest turquoise wall to make it pop out.



I love the simple symmetry of this photo.

We are off in the morning, somehow filling the van with 4 children, 2 adults, 1 small dog with a big personality and way too many presents. The Coast should be wonderful and relaxing with some of my huge family (22 people I believe) being in attendance for Christmas dinner. I plan to play with children, walk the dog, watch movies and visit with my parents. Oh, and drink lots of wine and eat lots of yummy things. I think decorating the tree and the gingerbread houses that my mother baked are first up. We are all very excited and all really needing the vacation. I will leave you with a promise to post during the next week as I will be bringing my laptop with me. Merry Christmas everyone!

This one is for Michelle

The special order turned out well and it was picked up tonight.



I unloaded the kiln today and I LOVE the new clay and glazes. These will be on the shelves tomorrow morning and on Thursday there will be matching sushi plates.



I am so very happy with these bowls. They are big and generous and beautiful.



My future lunch plates. A beige clay with manganese flecks. Should fire a stone colour with great iron spots. I am undecided as to which glaze I will use. In the studio again tomorrow hoping for many customers and getting ready for another glaze firing in the morning.

8 more sleeps...

Glazed work heading into the kiln tonight.



Handbuilt frost tea lights also going into the glaze kiln.



Lots of ware waiting for room in the bisque kiln.



The tea bowls were trimmed today. I like them a lot. I think I may have to use this red clay more often.

Only 8 more days before I leave for holidays. I figure I have at least one bisque firing and 3 glaze firings (counting tonight) to get finished before I go. I am feeling optimistic, I hope my kiln holds out. I have a sneaking suspicion that it might need new elements. Calgary (the closest place for elements) is 3 hours away and I DON'T HAVE TIME. Pray for my elements please.

quicky

Lovely and trimmed.



Large versions of the bowls for soup or noodles.

utsuwa (tableware)

My lovely new red clay, rice and soup bowls, some of which are for an order I took yesterday to have ready for next week because I am crazy. But I was wise enough to say no to an Etsy order for 25 bowls that needed to be in the states for Christmas Eve. I did consider it though...



I love the shape of this bowl. I want to keep some to eat rice out of.



My porcelain mountain work in progress. Getting closer, I love the depth. Hopefully it will look even better when fired and framed. Should be translucent in the window, we shall see.

almost done

Phew, finally (almost) done the KHMR mugs. Just need to pop them into the kiln for a decal firing and then they are on their way up to the hill in time for the official opening.



Pretty porcelain ornaments hanging in the window in the sunshine.



I find this one to be particularly sweet.



I adore the way this glaze looks on the porcelain.



Up next, a porcelain wall piece depicting a backcountry mountain scene that is due for curating by the 20th. I am applying the wax today and doing the sponging tomorrow. Fingers and toes crossed for me please.

tired of waiting

One of my students, meticulously glazing her work.



Her canine companion, not impressed with the lengthy wait decided to disembowel his cow stuffy and take a nap.



I used my time less destructively and decorated dog dishes for a potential order from a fancy pet shop. Flower and butterfly decals on the girlie dishes, flower and bug decals on the boyie dishes.

new clay

I have no classes running this month so I feel like I have a lot of extra studio time on my hands. I also have the opportunity to use a red clay because I don't have to worry about contaminating anything else. These are sushi plates or side plates. The photo doesn't do justice to the deep rich iron red of the clay. I am going to use a fat white glaze on them with a lot of the clay body showing. I plan to do some drawing on them as well. I am very excited.



Little bowls in the same clay, to be trimmed tomorrow night after I come back from taking Taz to be (shhhhh) neutered. He got new stuffy toys from the thrift store today so he is quite happy about it all.



The ski hill mug order, the rest of a wedding shower order, and porcelain Christmas ornaments all glazed and waiting in line to be fired.

little porcelain tea lights

Since the Frost is kicking my ass in the throwing department I have moved onto hand-building. It is beautiful to hand-build with but you have to dry it very, very carefully or the attachments pull apart. So far so good.



I have had a lot of requests for these so I made a bunch but not too many in case they don't work out like expected. It is very like me to just go full tilt without much testing so I will probably make more tomorrow. Although I also need to bisque fire, glaze and throw some bowls.



I am also selling my good friend Holly Drage's glass jewelry. She does fused and lampwork neclaces, bracelets, earrings, wine stoppers, brooches etc. If she had a website I would direct you there but alas, she does not....yet....
This is one of my favorite neclaces.



This is another favorite of mine. I have a ton of her jewelry and I just can't seem to get enough.



Another day at home that culminated in a solo snowman building. Sadly he is quickly melting and will probably be gone by morning.

snow day

This is what we woke up to this morning. At least 40cm of snow with no end in sight. The school buses weren't running so although we walk, we decided that we should have a snow day.



Cars are shovelled out because more snow is coming, not because we were crazy enough to drive. Although some people were and I have seen at least 6 vehicles stuck in front of the house already this morning.



The backyard, note the tire swing which is almost buried.



We have all the kids today plus a friend, so we all went out and broke trail to get to the video store. It took a long time, we had to have rest breaks.



Like this climbing break we took in the grocery store parking lot. The kids are happily sipping hot chocolate and watching the Muppet version of A Christmas Carol. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer is next and then playing in the snow time. No studio time today.