Jimmy

I went to yoga this morning and then stopped at Panera for a coffee and a bagel and a little quiet/me time. I sat near three men who after about 20 minutes finished their conversation and then parted ways. One of them came over to me and told me that I’m too beautiful to be sitting all alone, especially at holiday time. Why is there nobody with me? That started a whole long conversation. He asked if he could join me and we talked about this and that: life, family, politics, money; we told a few jokes. Then as he was leaving he walked over to me, held my face between his two hands, and gave me a kiss on the cheek. He was 75 and going off to join a card game that he was already late for.

I will never forget this day.

Where will your artistic inspiration take you?

Sometimes artistic inspiration comes from unexpected places. Recently I got a custom order from another seller on Etsy. In fact, he “found” me after I ordered a bazillion handmade soaps from him (they’re incredible…buy some!).

He said he wanted cereal bowls akin to my scroll handle mugs. He imagined them shorter and wider than the mugs but left me room to experiment according to my creative whim. I love the results!

By the way, I asked for his permission to credit him with the inspiration for these bowls and here’s what he said (and I quote):

“Yeah... sure! But I did nothing really :o) I'm just a lazy schlub who wants to drink out of bowls.”

Love him!

Incredible Yoga/Break Dancing - Unreal!

Break ton Neck from Alex Yde on Vimeo.

A bucket for your coffee

This mug is Mega Ginormous. No, seriously. It's a whopping 32-ounces. Waaaay bigger than you think it is. It’s so big that it comes with it’s own Doberman Pinscher.

 

 

  

Nah. I was just kidding about the Doberman. Wouldn't know how to mail that out to you anyway. But it’s big. Really big. Your ego needs to be well intact for this one.

Denim and Leather

   
 There are so many aspects to the creative process involved in making pottery. When it come to the glazing, I’ve been known to mull over colors for weeks before I come to conclusions. Sometimes I will stand back and squint my eyes at a piece and imagine colors and combinations. Sometimes I will dream about them instead. The Denim and Leather series came to me in one of those quiet moments before falling asleep one night. It just clicked and I smiled visibly. I knew it would be a passionate and perfect glaze combination.

On the Bisque Shelf

Here’s a peek at what is on the bisque shelf in the glazedOver pottery studio. These babies are going into the kiln by week’s end.

Gym Membership and Protein Shakes

I bit the bullet this week and signed up for gym membership, for the first time in my life. I’m very intimidated, I must tell you. I’m thin and in very good shape. I have a naturally muscular body, so it certainly looks like I would fit right in, but I don’t. I’m a runner, not a body builder. I’ve been running on and off for about thirty years, but this past winter, I finally committed and successfully translated my love/hate running relationship into a fruitful and productive habit that at this point I’m convinced I can’t live without.

I was even shocked to discover recently that if at any time anything thwarted my running schedule, I’d be depressed and preoccupied with trying to get back out again. And then, once I did and started my run, I noticed that I’d breathe an audible sigh of relief just to be back out there.

So why did I join a gym when I’ve got the roads? Turns out that a runner needs cross training as well, who knew? I lost more weight with the running than I had planned for, so now I’m on the other side of the process. Now I need to gain. It’s surprisingly difficult to gain weight and a little disheartening too, because all of the media buzz is focused on weight loss, not weight gain. I feel like a salmon fighting to swim upstream, only I don’t have any salmon buddies swimming alongside me. It’s very lonely, and being at the gym with all of those people who look like they know what they’re doing is very daunting. I’m completely intimidated, I admit. I’m doing everything that I can to conquer my intimidation and press ahead. So far so good.

Today when I got home from the gym and in the spirit of doing things right, I made myself a protein shake. I’m not going to give you a specific recipe, because it’s really just a dollop of yogurt, one splash of milk and one splash of orange juice, a smidge of flax seeds and some fresh fruit, in this case some kiwis, a banana, and a peach. All blended up, it was yummy and made me feel like I must be doing something good for the system.

  So let’s see how this thing goes. Fingers crossed it doesn't defeat me. Truth be told, I’m feeling a little delicate and inadequate right now, but I’m going to give it a go. A little more upper body strength can only be a good thing for a potter, right?

Custom order ceramic coffee and tea mugs

Here are some mugs I’ve been working on. They are a custom order for one of  the mechanics who fixes my car. He recently commissioned me to make an 8" x 14" ceramic planter for his two year old daughter. One day she said to him: "Daddy, I want a cactus garden!" Devoted father that he is, he set out to find the perfect planter for her but everything was too small, so he asked me to make him one and write "Kaylee's Garden" on it. When I showed him glaze options by thumbing though listings in my shop, he got keen on my mugs and ordered some. He wanted one for his wife and one for himself. First, he thought to have me write her name and his name on them, but then he changed his mind and went with “tea” and “coffee” instead. I made an extra “coffee” mug just for good measure. I’ve listed that in my shop here.

This is the process photo of his mugs:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here’s how they turned out. I love them!

Talk about a Green Thumb!

This past weekend, I pruned the shrubs in our garden using my new, green, Burpee gardening gloves, the same ones I used as a photo prop for this picture of my garden stakes:

I loved these gloves especially because they were green, but I have to say, they’re not terribly practical. They got wet while I was using them and this is what I found when I pulled them off my hand:

Crazy! How is that Burpee doesn’t realize this happens? It took a whole day, a pumice stone and several attempts with butter, lemon, mineral spirits and soap to make even a dent in this. Just imagine how pretty it was to watch me eat the pizza I had for lunch that day!

Sleepy Bunny

“Mommy!” my little one yelled from the side door of our house, “Come quick! There’s a sleeping bunny!”

I came running. We get bunnies from time to time. Bunnies in our yard always remind me of Watership Down and I always apologize if ever I have to I start up our hrududu and drive off while they are nearby.

Never have we  seen one ever taken a nap in our yard. Sure enough though, there it was in the fur, lying on its side and snoozing just 10 feet from our door. I ran for the camera to get a few shots but I had trouble focusing well through the screen. So I got brave and slowly opened the door. The bunny didn’t move. Maybe it knew that I was the one who had put out the celery leaves for her the previous day. Either way…

Slowly, she roused herself,

yawned,

  

stretched,

 

…and yawned again. Finally she sat up for a minute to collect herself. Then she hopped off.

I put out some carrots for her after that. Fingers crossed she comes back to find them.

Coil Pot

Remember that coil pot on the bisque shelf I said would require some extra special mulling? Well, it’s all mulled and finished and it’s just perfect, if you ask me.

I love it!

Auto Body Repairs and Oil Change Opportunism

I love this photograph! I snapped it this week with my new, fabulous iphone while I was waiting for the mechanics to finish doing an oil change on my car.  This car, as they told me, is some mint something-or-another with an $8,000 paint job (who DOES that??). They bring it every week to one of those pop-the-hood car shows. They say they make some really decent money buying, fixing up, and selling cars like this.

It all reminded me of the auto body work I did way back when I was in high school. I had worked for several summers at a very cool snack bar at our local ferry dock to Fire Island. I loved working there because all of the Manhattan weekenders would come through on their way to their island bungalows and it made me feel like I was a part of all of that. Difficult bosses excepted, it was a great experience.

Anyway, I had saved up my money and bought myself this awesome Volkswagon Superbeetle convertible. It was the most fabulous thing, I felt like the cat’s meow driving it. The honeymoon lasted for a while and even included the great day when it made an appearance in the high school homecoming parade.



This was the photo that made it into the yearbook. That’s me in the back seat all the way on the right and that’s my dad driving the car.

But alas, like most old beetles, mascara and blush could only get it so far before the rust started to become a serious problem.  Once we started to dig around looking for it, we discovered that it was covering most of the body of the car. It was so severe that it ate through much of the floor. Funny, we still needed to use the car at that point so we simply drove it without most of the floor. We were driving like Fred Flintstone, watching the highway speeding by under our feet! I kid you not.

Here I am on the day we started digging around for rust. I was heartbroken as you can see.

 
And it only got worse.

It was a long and grueling process and I learned more about fiberglass and Bondo than I would ever have wanted to, but in the end we too turned a profit. We sold it for twice what I bought it for.

Not bad for a couple of rookies.

What Photography and Allowance have in Common

Shev just got a some good shots of me with this new ceramic tray. I think I'm going to double her allowance.

Thanks, duckie!

On the bisque shelf

Here’s a peek at some of the pieces on my bisque shelf today. I’m now in “glaze inspiration” mode. That’s when I mull over what combinations of glazes I think will work best on which surfaces.

I admit, some mulling is quicker than other mulling. That coil pot in the back, I fear, will require some extra special mulling.

Springtime blooms

After the winter thaw, it’s such a delicious relief to see the blooms of spring, wouldn’t you say?

After my mother died, we planted one of her favorite trees—a  Weeping Japanese Cherry—in our backyard. Each year without fail, it blooms exactly in time for Passover. Happy spring, everybody!

Clay

This makes my eyes happier than you can ever know.

Around town

It’s beautiful outside today. Faced with the dilemma to choose between glazing or doing taxes, I decided to play hooky instead and take a few minutes to go for a short drive around town. Here’s a glimpse of where I live.

We’ve got ship yards and ferry docks…

 
Charming beaches of all shapes and sizes…


Summer reading…

 
And a charming downtown.

 

Right now, on the cusp of Spring, the grass here is doing its best to become greener. Sometimes it actually is.

Mini Dipping Bowls

I tend to go in spurts with respect to my creativity. I could go on a binge making just mugs for weeks and then switch over to TAPAS sets and back to nesting bowls in record time. These past few weeks, the muse has navigated me towards the minis. I’m loving how the glazes are coming out.

 

It's only fair – a nod to JCrew

I totally lifted the color scheme for these bowls...

    

...from the JCrew catalog:

  

Watch out. Soon I'm going to dress like this too.

Heart You Lime Popsicle Mugs

I’m getting more into the carving on clay thing. I love how the seem to have so much to communicate.