Uh...hellooooo..I'm posting...

It has been a while.
I has been a little nutty on this end...
A week ago...
(It feels like 5 years...I really couldn't emotionally type this up before...)
I was just about ready to fire my kiln...
(About 2 pm: The kids would be coming home in about an hour...)
The lid was open.. I was on the other side of the room organizing or cleaning up after all of my glazing, that I did not rush through...
I did some the day before... etc...
The glazes that are (for months, years) stacked up over by my window got tripped up by some UNKNOWN SPIRIT...
OR at least MY spirit must not have made sure everything was secure because I start to sense...
THE TSUNAMI.
Yes.
It was a fricken' "Glaze Tsunami".
Now... it's one thing if ONE bucket falls...
That sucks...but generally it is manageable...
What happened here was a domino effect.

So... a bucket in the back started to fall and the 2 rows of buckets in front and before you know it...
about 18 buckets (we will discuss WHY I have all of these dang glazes later) from 1000g batches to 3000g batches not only flooded my studio BUT SPLATTERED ...
unglazed pots...A little into the just loaded kiln... up on the top shelf to hit my son's recently made and drying PLATYPUS...
Trust me...solids and liquids everywhere...

It was bad...

I start screaming, "HELP!!!"
(My husband had just come home-I could hear the garage under the studio)
I was covered, the studio was covered and YOU KNOW HE was thinking...
"This crap better not flood through the wood floors and ruin...the ...blah blah blah..."
I honestly thought I might pass out...
Needless to say... I was a TOUCH overwhelmed.
So...I just say... "Please get towels..."
He brings me ONE.
I have a moment of..."Seriously? Am I on camera?"
Which escalates into...
"MIKE!!! TOWELS!!! A LOT OF TOWELS!!!!"
and he is freaked...like...a deer in headlights...
He says, "All of our good towels?"
I was FREAKING!!!!
I say... "Yes... I need to sop this stuff up..."

I knew I needed to get the liquids out and go for the solids....
Anyway... After WWIII (now we have had a Tsunami and a War in my studio...not very Zen...),I continued to clean...put on my respirator...he took bags of towels out back which I would later hose off...)
Needless to say... IT WAS A LOT OF WORK...
AND EXPENSE...
When I thought of the Mason Stains alone... and I had JUST MADE A TON OF THESE GLAZES...
SO I WAS SICK...
I survived...
MIKE COOKED DINNER... hmm... a truce...
The kids were sensitive to my feelings...
I was wet and freezing outside hosing off the towels...as much as possible...

I really just felt like...
I should have sat on my hands all day and I would have been more productive.
I wondered if the Universe was trying to tell me...
"ENOUGH with the ceramic work...
It sucks...YOU suck...
Go to the DAMNED mall and spend about $1000 dollars next time because that would be less cost than this fiasco of time and $..."

This IS how I felt.

Now... I don't feel that way anymore.
BUT.
I still wonder..

Needles to say...
(Well obviously I feel the need to say it...)
Everything is in pretty good shape now and I had Mason Stains UPS'd from Ceramic Supply(Lodi, NJ) and began to measure chemicals and remake glazes the next day...
I still need to do a lot of sieving... but I am in pretty good shape...
I put the towels eventually in the wash twice and I didn't ruin THEM!
The studio has some remnants of LE DISASTRE but I feel "safe" again... and I put up an Ikea shelf from a previous booth set-up for some of the glazes... I have a cabinet... but all of the smaller chemicals go in there... so not there is LESS stacking:























I presume that you are wondering why I need all of these DAMNED GLAZES...
Trust me... we are on the same page...
HOWEVER... there is a method to my madness...
I am trying to achieve some interesting surfaces in my work that frankly an electric kiln in oxidation makes it a little hard to do...
BUT..I and making headway..
Layering and interacting glazes are allowing for some positive outcomes...
























































































Keep in mind that I also fluctuate between wanting loads of color and NEUTRALS...
This is my cross to bear but I feel like I am getting a handle on it...

Now at the same time(always nice to have lots of variables changing and moving...) I have wanted more fluidity and freedom in my work, my expression and less preciousness...
So... I have this going on:



































I am altering and allowing more fluidity... and I am still incorporating my other techniques... avoiding being too gratuitous at times...
I am working with a stoneware clay... now... and I have applied some slip of the dark chocolate brown stoneware that I love and I will probably throw with it too...
I am enjoying and exploring and ...
Oh by the way, looking to sell work for the holidays...
So... That's what has been up.

What's happenin' ?

On the shelf...Out of the kiln...


















Working...

















Developing...

A Little Advert...

Check out the ad my work is in in November's "In Jersey" magazine!
It is changing... it is currently 40 74 ...
Fun! Thanks for the include Lynda!

























Click on HERE for the gallery website!

While I wait for the kiln to cool...

Worked on my website and feed today...
Tell me what you think...
and thanks to my buddy Mike Amter for his hard work.
You can find his work...
HERE!

love.

I need to thank June Perry by way of Tony Clennell for the link to this video in which Eva Zeisel(then 94) Now she is....about 104...yes, it appears she remains alive!
Keep in mind, Beatrice Wood lived to be 105....
Anyway, it is so intense, as I have read about her before and truly adore her work, sense of exquisite design. She is from Budapest which my grandmother, Frances Pearl Kronheim Geller's family was from and I can't help wondering if the families knew each other, back in the day...(Frannie only made it until about 92...but she, too was creative and artistic,schooled in art, and in her 60's designed and made semi-precious stone-based jewelry that she sold to Neiman Marcus and Bloomingdales and called herself "The Grandma Jewelry Designer". I miss her.)
I wish this talk was longer!

Things are happening.

I know.

It's a process.

I have been doing a lot of glaze tests and this speckled clay definitely absorbs the mason stains/ glaze and pulls the color out a lot.
Actually the glazes are just totally different some times...
I will also start testing the 266 chocolate brown with the glazes too....
I am making headway and I like the pieces but I think I have a lot more exploring to do and I am trying to teach myself something I have been trying to teach myself FOREVER.

PATIENCE.

Not one of my strong suits.
BUT I tell you, I am seriously working on it, while enjoying the ride.
Because really, isn't that all we really have?
The ride.

Making Lemonade out of my LEMONS!

This is one of the only really good things that came out of the weekend:







Missing the North Carolina weekend sucked.
My cold got wet and drippy...
Apparently all went into default mode (meaning I had to be in charge of everybody's schedule-since I was home)...
BUT....

I glazed and fired these suckers yesterday....
Played with layering and combos and kept good notes...
and I feel like I am on to something that really makes me happy...
It's a process but the yumminess is starting to happen....
Of course my husband immediately says:
"Oh...I like these! are they for us?"
AND I SAID:
"NO!" I need them for my records for now....
****sadness....grumbling exit****
As my thirteen year old would say:
"What EV....".

Sad...but TRUE.

WEll...









Sadly, after hanging out at Newark Airport for 4 1/2 hours...I threw in the towel. LUCKILY... everyone refunded my flight, my hotel, canceled the car rental and I got some knitting done while I waited... met 3 men from Quebec, a woman from Glasgow, trying to get to Cincinnati...Had a non fat chai venti latte... some pretzels and water... and canceled the trip... UNFORTUNATELY I would not have made it in time to the opening and I was beginning to feel like the UNIVERSE was trying to tell me... DO NOT GO.
I know... the universe was telling a lot of stranded people all sorts of things but...
I called it quits. I spoke (ON THE PHONE!!!!) to Meredith, who really busted TUSH to make this happen... and then I spoke to Jen Mecca on my way home from the airport...
Everyone was great and PROMISED to post PHOTOS!!!! VIDEO TOO PLEASE...
I had dinner with my crazy kids and my husband and my friend and her daughter...
My 10 year old spilled his Sprite and the 13 year old tortured me continuously but really...it was very comforting. My kiln under-fired a bisque and we ar gonna run by a cocktail party for a committee I am on that I was to miss...
PLUS AMAZON delivered these:


















So... I guess things COULD be worse...