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!