glazing, glazing, glazing

A little detail work with the lovely squeezy bottle with tiny nib attachment.


Ready for the overall clear glaze dipping.


Making more clear glaze with a little help from my studio mate.

glazing, drying and signs of spring

I am feeling the pressure of space as my classes start again this coming week. Here is about 1 and 1/2 kiln loads of ware to be glaze fired, that should get in before classes start.


Pots waiting to be glazed, the light is beautiful in my studio right now.


Tumblers or glasses, I never really know what to call them, waiting to dry so they be bisqued.


Evidence that spring has actually sprung, despite the predicted minus 14 degree weather that we have forecast for Tuesday night. Today the sun is shining and it is georgeous out.

calgary craziness and yes this is still supposed to be a ceramics blog

Epic trip to Calgary yesterday to accomplish many tasks. We were busy and not back home until nearly 11pm (after a 7am start) but we did get most stuff done and still had some time for a little fooling around in the Ikea display rooms...


and some syncronized cart ballet in the parking lot.


Teenagers and photos, does anything say spring more than a bright yellow patent pleather handbag?


Here are my bags of glaze material. The car was heavily loaded down with 10 boxes of clay (at 45 pounds each), these 4 bags of powder (at 50 pounds each) as well as assorted bags from the mall, Value Village, Lee Valley and a huge carpet and blue chair from Ikea. Oh, and 4 people who totally stuffed themselves with sushi on the way out of town.


Here is today's studio job. Must wax and glaze a lot of pots. Then must make 64 coffee mugs. Then must somehow dry some not quite dry enough pots to bisque tomorrow. Must get this all done and organized before I have students again on Tuesday. Must try to get it all clean and ready to go for the open house on the 12th/13th of April. Must continue to have social life while doing all this. Must not have a nervous breakdown.

guess what i did today?

I threw some porcelain cups, and...


I was interviewed for the Force. I am going to be featured in their 'Mind Your Business' section for the April issue. This is a one page interview complete with pictures. Brian tape recorded our conversation and of course I babbled as I often do. He promised to make me sound brilliant and witty. And he let me proof each of the photos that he took and will send me the article to view later. He is a good guy, even Taz liked him...or at least he didn't growl and bark at him, for Taz, that is a whole lot of love.

finished painting

I finished my painting today. I like it, the red especially.


Here it is in it's new home in the studio.

guest blogger - Jada and dinner

yum yum yum...My homemade diner yum. Here I am reading out of the delicious desert cookbook in wich I found my meal


And here is were the recipe for our delicious main dish and salad dressing was found.... la dolce vegan!!!!!!!

Oh just look at those delicious succulent portabelos that we later sautéd in oil and garlic. Also in the background you can see the delicious red tomatoes and basil that later become part of the main dish of pasta and artichoke and the tomatoes and basil and delicious salad a la Jada and strawberry vinagret (wich needless to say i messed up because i was reading the recipe off two diffrent recipes by accident but it turned out even with a little paprika and maple surup in it to).


Haha here is the infamous salad. With lettus, strawberries, a few capers and avocado. The dressing had not yet been added or created.

Last but certainly not least we have the incredible chocolate vanilla whirl cookies. All I have to say about those is that they were cooked to perfection, delicious and very sticky I had to chill the dough for a half hour. When i served them I arranged three strawberry slices around it and topped each one woth a dollop of wipped cream. Delicious!!!!!!!

decal firing

Beautiful gold and white flowers.


A little touch of golden butterfly.


Baby dish set with ladybugs.


Baby dish set with flowers and butterflies.

traded dogs?

This is Taz the Havanese. He is 9 months old and very, very furry. His breed doesn't shed, they lose hair like we do. I brush him every other day, he picks up dirt and bits of the outdoors all the time.


This is what he looks like when he is freshly brushed, pre-dirt and stick attachment.


This is what he looks like now. He is a sable so his fur is a bunch of different colours. He still has the grey head, but his body is now a lovely cream colour. We weren't actually sure he was ours until he looked at us. Very darling eyes that dog has.


Isn't he cute.

guest blogger - Risa and dinner

This here is the beginning of the macaroni bake, wich is a delicious combination of milk, brown sugr, eggs, red pepper, leek, garlic, macaroni noodles, cheese , breadcrumbs, and perhaps a few ingredients i missed. It was fun to make because there was surprisingly quite a few steps even though it looks to be so simple. Also it aws sheer joy to watch everyone eat it because on top the breadcrumbs and cheese cover anything so no one could see the vegetables!!!!


This just happens to be the best vegetarian cookbook ever!!!!! As you can see the macaroni bake is seated in the far left corner.


Now don't think the delightful pink water bottel filled with milk is just absolutely perfect?! In this picture we are at that moment making the bechamel sauce to go into the macaroni, it contains2 eggs, brown sugar, and 800 ml of milk. This sauce gives the macaroni it's creamyness.


The salad was absolutely delicious! It was a lemony mixture of, avacado, lettuce, onion, egg, tomato, thyme, and I think the only remaining ingredient was pepper. The salad was easy and quick to make but very enjoyable.


Dessert was absolutely perfect! Well how couldn't it be it was cheesecake brownies topped with whipped cream. YUM! The dessert was harder to make because we had to make the brownie mix and the cheesecake mix seperately then combine them in lawyers and use a chop stick to make pretty swirls.

new stuff and a painting

I am loving this combination. The cobalt blue over the iron/titanium looks wonderful.


Some more mugs...


and more mugs...


and some white ones.


And this is my painting so far. I spent most of Sunday working on it. Next Sunday I am planning to try to finish it. I will post a photo.

glazing and a baby

Today is another glazing day. Trying to get the rest of the baby dishes and my own dinner plates finished up so I can get started glazing and firing all my exciting new work.


This is the reason that I was so very tired this morning. My friends Vanessa and Klay had their lovely baby at 1am. His name is Darner and he is the sweetest, quietest baby. It was the first delivery (other than my own which was so long ago I can't remember it) that I have been at and it was amazing. Those two are my labour heroes. I have never seem such amazing control and support. It was a wonderful experience, I dreamt about it all night.

quite possibly the coolest mugs ever

Well, the coolest mugs I have ever made. I love, love, love them. I can see them glazed in my mind and it is very good.


Here they are all in a row. Being loved.

humbly finished the lowly grant proposal...

Here it is, completed with the help of a bottle of lovely wine and some chocolate chips (feeling too lazy to go to the store and get some Lindt).


A very hilarious (and timely) comic created by some genius at Kootenay Carnival magazine. I hope you can read it, it is truly funny.


The above mentioned Kootenay Carnival mag. It represents Kootenay arts and culture, although a little Nelson heavy.

coffee mugs everywhere

Coffee mugs with handles, drying very slowly underneath drycleaner plastic (which is the best ever).


Coffee mug bodies that will be stamped and handled tomorrow. A new form, looks like a bowling ball, I kind of like it.

My friend Vanessa is supposed to have her baby today or tomorrow. I am in the delivery room with her and her husband. I am very excited!

tiling finished and advertising

Finally, finished.


Lovely new moen fixtures.


My what hairy arms you have...
This is my flyer made by vista print for me. I designed it myself and used a stock photo of throwing because it looks really appealing. Of course it is a very hairy man throwing, hopefully people will know it isn't me. I only have a few spots left for May so I am going to put these up around town and fill the next session up.


This is the postcard I have had made for my next open house. I am going to mail them out to my list and then leave a bunch around town for people to pick up.