Happy Halloween...

Its Halloween already?? From now until New Year Day, time will fly.. but today since its Halloween, its appropiately dreary and rainy; there are favorite Halloween movies I love to watch. My first choice is The Haunting... the original, not the remake... The original version works on your mind, your imagination. Julie Harris' "who was holding my hand!?!" still sends chills up my spine. I'd much rather watch a movie that makes you think than one that just wants to gross you out.
I love to watch The Sixth Sense, even tho I know how it ends, I will make time to watch it... the premise I do believe in, that sometimes when people go before they're ready, they still stay with you, helping or guiding you, or finishing unfinished business. That sometimes souls need some help to move on, and they in turn also help us to move on.
And for just fun of course is Young Frankenstein.. I am not that much of a Mel Brooks fan, but this one he got the formula right. Its so entertaining...
And speaking of entertaining.. I love the old Bugs Bunny cartoon, Hair Raising Hare, some of my favorite lines are in that cartoon... 'and don't think it hasn't been a little slice of heaven... because it hasn't'... and the monster realizing people are all around him and he screams "PEOPLE!?!?!" and runs for his life.. I've felt that more than one time in my life...
Now, for my favorite snack food.. POPCORN!!!

Fall....

Fall... by far my favorite season. I've always been drawn to earthtone colors, so, do I love fall because of the earthtones or I love earthtones because of Fall? Kind of like the 'chicken and the egg' question. Regardless. I love fall. The air has a crispness to it, I love walking in the woods, horseback riding even better in the fall because no bugs! But I think I actually enjoy walking, because I see more. Tho this time I used the 'alternate mode of transportation'... and it floats on water too! Drives like a bulldozer and rides even worse....but what a workhorse. Important note to women with this vehicle... wear a heavy duty bra!! Hubby says he bought it for me... he just hated seeing me carrying those 50 pound bags of grain down to the barn... HA HA!!! Gads, we bought that thing years ago, before the offroad utility vehicles became fashionable.



One of our trails that leads to the favorite place for the dogs; and its one of our riding trails too.



This is the dogs favorite play spot, our creek, complete with a swimmin' hole and a waterfall.






I love walking along the creek, its National Forest on one side, and our property on the other.



Look Ma... no head!!!



But actually Toby does love playing in the creek, someday I need to get a video of him just running and plopping his big feet in the water.




Today is soup making day.. I already made a pot of homemade chicken soup, and now that we've eaten all of that, its homemade beef barley. So, here's a couple of the last of the fall colors, its raining today, the trees are dropping leaves like crazy, so I kind of figure our colors are about done.

What a Gloomy day...

How gloomy is it?? Its so gloomy that its just as dark upstairs as it is down in the basement...
But, on the good side, it does give me more incentive to work in the studio, when the sun is shining, it makes its REALLY REALLY hard for me to be inside. Plus today, hubby hasn't got any cars to work on, so even he is staying in. So, I am trying to finish up the last of my commissions, one is the kiln cooling off, one I am working on for myself, its an earthenware Heart of Darkness, sculpted by Karen Gerhardt, love her work! Oh, for a bisque Optime!!! I am still working on shading and dappling.. sorry these photos are a bit on the yellow side, and yes, there is dappling...very suttle tho.


And this Hadrian is probably the last stablemate I'll ever do, unless I get some really good magnifying lenses. I just cannot work on such a small scale anymore, and hats off to those that can still work on such small pieces. I've had him here with me for longer than I care to admit, waiting to hear from the owner how she wants it done and now I can get him done for her.


And for a change of pace, to break the monotony and add some color to my life.. I am working on Christmas pieces, gads, only two months away. I have roughed in the design and just started on the color for the poinsettia, then add leaves, holly and whatever strikes my fancy. And to top it off my son will be 18 in December, so December is a busy month. Not to mention all the Church related activities between now and Christmas.

Getting ready to go trailriding

I haven't figured out what is harder to pack for..the stuff we need for riding and eats; the stuff the horses need for riding and their eats or getting all the stuff ready for the stuff. Gary spends days getting the truck ready, the trailer ready, I get the food ready, the clothes ready, our son ready to have a few days without mom and dad... what teen doesn't relish that one!!! So now, the trailer and truck are ready. Horses, I think they figured it out, and they seem to look forward too it, Rocky is a 'busy-body' always watching up towards the house to see what's going on.. Toby... our farm dog gets this dejected look of 'their going away again'. We meet up with my sister and her husband, they live in Tennessee, so we get together and trail ride for a few days, and this time the husbands are combining their fishing along with this trip.



And this morning, it was raining and kind of cold, one of those morning you just want to lay under a blanket and watch something on TV totally useless. But later the sun came out, it warmed up, and I always enjoy the beauty of the sky afterwards.



Then I figured to check on the peppers I still have growing out in the garden, this one is a perfect Christmas ornament!!

Say goodbye to summer, hello holidays??!!!

My favorite season, Fall...I have been anxiously waiting for the arrival of Fall, tho its not Fall by the calendar, its Fall by my standards, a very noticeable change in the amount of daylight hours, and even a different feel about being outdoors; plus the Poplar trees are giving up their leaves, they seem to be one of first to call it quits for the summer season. The horses are starting to shed their summer coats and as I was driving down into town the other day, and the trees all kind of had this "time to start changing" attitude, like they've had enough. The lotus plant in our pond is a sure indication of changing daylight, the leaves start shriveling as soon as the daylight hours noticeably change. The black locust are dropping their leaves too.
Its been a wet year, not record amounts, but wet.



The photo above is a Christmas bowl I am working on, the bowl is hand thrown on the pottery wheel. I still need to do a bit of details on it, I'm getting more satisfied with its "Christmasy" look. Yet, I can't believe that its getting to be 'that time' again... getting ideas for Christmas.



This one above too, obviously another Christmas bowl, its been a nice diversion working on these. They still need their glazes.
I have been working on horses, I've really slowed my process down, breaking old habits of 'hurry up and finish it already'.. it never seems to pay off.




And another firing for this one and the pottery bowl for a color fire, the porcelain drafter has been fired about 4 times so far... I am trying to use these guys as my guinea pigs so to speak for doing more handwork and blending before I move onto the really really good pieces.... plus I need the space...



And here are a couple of Barrister Bonanza's (aka Barry) that are waiting to be cleaned. I have others in various stages of cleanliness. There is a finished Barry in the blog title box.




I just had to click this photo of the last few blooms on my clemitis vine, it really was prolific this year with blooms.



And I cut off the bloom ends of my lotus, I had seen these things for years in dried flower arangements and never knew what the blooms were until we added the lotus plant to our pond.



And like mentioned above... I need the space....

All I could say was "WOW"

When I opened the kiln to see how this guy turned out... I was so happy he turned out so much better than I had envisioned, he renewed my confidence.



I really don't like to post photos of pieces in progress, I think that it jinxes my efforts. I had in an earlier blog posted some photos of him in progress.



I actually did more handblending with brushes, and taking off color than I had ever done before. I used a satin glaze, tho I did have bump up the temp to cone 05 to get it just the way I wanted.
He's a hard piece to photograph tho, I just cannot seem to get quite the right angles.



I hope I can hang onto him for a while.. I just love him, even down to the metal shoes.
All of you who've helped me along, I cannot thank you enough, it feels good to be so energized again, I think George helped me too.

When Pots Explode.. part two...

Well, not all exploding pieces are a total loss, some can be salvaged. Like this one...



It did blow out a small section on the outside, again an airbubble apparently that I didn't feel. You can feel them sometimes when pulling up the clay on the wheel, and they can be easily fixed, this one got past me. But not a loss, and the dremel saved the day.. or saved the pot, however you want to look at it. Actually as I was (not) merrily dremeling along, it did give me ideas of some other ways to do bowls. And I do plan on making a holding strap to loop around the back and thru the hole to be able to hang it on a hook. It is usable, obviously not for liquid, but useable nonetheless.



I don't recommend dremeling on bisque, at all, its messy, dusty, and kind of tricky, since the blade can just 'catch' and then its hard to control, so if I do anymore altering, it will be on greenware. But I was not about to just toss this piece since I felt it still wanted to be of some use, and it is a nice size bowl, and the fluted edges seemed to really agree with it.

And this one I am still working on, it blew out its bottom. (Don't you just hate it when that happens!). But I spent alot of time putting on that texture, and there is also a lid that goes on it. So, I'll find I way to salvage it.



And actually this red clay fires wonderful with Amaco's Opalescent Glaze.