The Clock is Ticking!!

Firstly, I must say a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Queeny, who has not only recently had her first show, but has also been asked to exhibit in a gallery, and has been kept very busy with orders for her beautiful necklaces!! Way to go Queeny!!

I also have an exhibition coming up, which I have booked my table for, and now I have to try to fill it! The date is Sunday 22nd November, but seeing as I can only access the kiln at class once a week, I am running out of time! It doesn't help when items come out of the kiln looking... not as expected! For example, my lovely little set of bowls which I collected from class this week...


They're streaky, which is never a good look, and the smallest one is a much lighter shade than the other two. Also, they have pinholes and little red dots that shouldn't be there. So these won't be included. Very frustrating. (Ignore the green splodge on the table - I took these photos at class which is held in a school classroom where kid's flick paint around all day!)


They don't look too bad in the photo, but trust me, the camera lies!!

So all I really have ready for the exhibition right now is my polar bear and swan! I've touched up the tree fairy vase and the original small ivy vase and they are back in the kiln (the leaves on the tree fairy vase needed to be more green, and a leaf on the ivy vase broke, leaving a bare patch), and I finally decided to glaze the other two little vases instead of leaving them bare and firing them to stoneware. They are in the kiln also.

I have to say that glazing those two little vases was pure pleasure! How easy it is to forget what a difference good quality glazes make! It made me realise that, no matter how skint we are at the moment, if I want my large ivy vase to come out looking beautiful, I really have to buy my own glazes. So that's what I did today. Monday will be my very last opportunity to get that vase in the kiln if I want it to be ready in time, and the supplier has said that they will get the glazes to me by Monday! Please don't be late! The clock is ticking!


UPDATE

Damn it, damn it, damn it! I've realised I did a really stupid thing yesterday - after retouching the small ivy vase I popped it in the kiln... forgetting that it had previously been glazed on the bottom... so I didn't put any stilts under it! I've just called the tutor John, and he didn't check it because, well, he didn't expect me to do anything as stupid as that! So the vase will now be stuck to the shelf. That's another ruined piece and one less piece for the show! Not to mention a ruined shelf, which John was great about actually. Thank you John.

Lots of Photos!

Yes, I know, I didn't post at all last week, so I have lots of photos for you this week to make up for it.

Let me first say a big hello to Anne from the clay class, who was on holiday this week with her family. Hello Anne!


And as promised, here are some photos of her amazing chess pieces. Just look at that detail!


There's just one piece there on the right that doesn't seem to fit in with the rest! I suspect someone has made this piece and put it in with the others!


But what's happening here? Yes, I'm afraid that while Anne was away John our tutor (on the left) and Anne's so called friend Pete (on the right) decided to bash Anne's pieces to pieces!!


Here's one of Pete's amazing miniature vases, which he has decorated too! (Click photo to enlarge)


Actually, we have a lot of very talented people in this class. Look at this beautiful plate by Sam! Such pretty detail!


Those are Lesley's hands hard at work. I love love love this lady's work! She's very productive and makes amazing sculptures.


And Zandra's stuff is amazing too. Look at this beautiful horse.


This is a sculpture that Zandra is working on at the moment. Both Lesley and Zandra work from imagination without photo reference!


So as you can see, I'm surrounded by lots of inspiring people at class!

Just as Cynthia has done previously, Lesley was encouraging me to just "play" last night, with no expectations. So I started with a lump of clay and cut away at it, and without putting too much pressure on myself, started my first figurine!


Ok, it's very simple and it's not that great, but it was just an experiment really. I'd love to eventually be able to produce beautiful figurines like Peter Holland.


It was so good to get my hands in some clay again! I really have to make some time for that at home!


It didn't matter how many photo's I took, her body looked too long and her skirt/legs too short, even though she looked in proportion in the flesh. The average person is supposed to be about 7 head lengths, so I drew out the markings just to prove to myself that the camera was lying!


She ended up in the recycling anyway. If I was making a figurine for real I think I would start with a hollow skirt, to save damaging it later when I try to hollow it out.

And finally, here are my naked vases with a pattern painted on with iron oxide. I say "naked" because they have no glaze on and they will possibly stay that way. John thought they would look good left bare and fired to stoneware, and I agree.



No class next week as it's half term holiday and also our 12th wedding anniversary! I hope you are all keeping well?

My second thyroid test has come back normal, so apparently I don't have a thyroid problem, I'm just tired because I sleep too much. It's all my fault. I just don't try hard enough to stay awake and keep active. I probably have water retention because I don't try hard enough to pee, and no doubt after my third sight test my vision is blurry because I don't try hard enough to see. I'm so lazy.

Results!

I received the results of my blood tests today, and as promised, here I am to share them with you! Thankfully I am not diabetic, so I won't have to cut out chocolate! But my thyroid is under active. As strange as it may sound, I'm actually really happy about this because my hope is that once I start treatment I will have more energy, lose weight, lose the uncomfortable water retention, feel less depressed and anxious, be able to see properly out of my right eye, and be able to remember my own name! (Which is just a few of the symptoms of hypothyroidism!) If it wasn't my thyroid then I would just have to continue putting up with these things!

So that explains why I haven't felt like doing anything all summer! I didn't go to class tonight because... I was asleep! I didn't have anything to glaze tonight either, and I just don't seem to be able to get into the "zone" with clay at class. I feel restricted by the time thing. (Yeah, "thing" 'cos I can't think of the right word. Hopefully this will improve too!)

So there you go. What else can I tell you? Umm... got an exhibition coming up in November which I have been invited to take part in! It's a bit posh there too. It's only held in a small village hall, but the people seem a bit lah-de-dah so hopefully they'll have loads of money and buy something of mine! I just roll my eyes at all the pomp, but I don't mind really; I fit in with all sorts me, 'cos I'm so cute and lovable :) And 'cos I don't tell people what I really think of 'em! Hahahaha! No, just kidding.

Back to class!

Firstly, I must say a big hello to Anne! Hello Anne! :) Anne is a lovely lady from my pottery class and she's been popping in (on the blog) to have a look now and again. She's making an amazing chess set at the moment, which I must photograph for you all sometime (permission permitting).

Well, tonight I glazed a few dishes, which is pretty much all I use the classes for now. They won't be fired this week though so it will be a couple of weeks before I can show you how they turned out. I spent all summer agonizing over which glazes I was going to buy for them, and in the end I just used one at the class! I painted on a little design with iron oxide first, so I shall have to see if it shows through or not. If they come out well, I shall glaze the two vases the same way.

And I finally collected Reeses from class! Remember Reeses? My lovely chocolate bunny that Leanne made when she was visiting all those months ago! And here he is, looking deliciously like chocolate mint flavour!


Thank you Leanne! He looks so scrummy I keep wanting to bite his ears off! Mmmm... I need chocolate now...

Weaknesses, Phobia's, and Sheer Horror

Mugs. My weakness. I said I wasn't going to buy any more - I have no room, and anyway, I can make my own! (Although I was toying with the idea of starting a new mug collection - mugs from all my favourite ceramic artists!) But today I saw these, and I just couldn't help myself...

a "Maynards Wine Gums" mug and a "Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts" mug
Do you have these sweets in the states?

Anyway, I decided I deserved a treat after my busy and distressing day. "Oh no, why was that Linda?" I'm glad you asked! I'll tell you why, because it is autumn here in sunny England - also known as the arachnid season. Actually, it isn't, I just made that up, but we do get rather a lot of them at this time of year. And they are my phobia. Now you know two things about me - my weakness and my phobia. So our conservatory has become one giant web and home to every spider in the entire country and my sister very kindly offered to vacuum it out for me because spiders don't bother her. Her phobia is rats and mice. But let me tell you, even she was freaked because there were so many and they were so big. I stayed inside, quivering and crying in fear.

Holy broomstick. It gets worse...

So then she goes to tackle the outside toilet (meaning attached to the house but the entrance is outside). I mean, whose idea was it to build outside toilets? What sort of a stupid idea is that? Who wants to freeze their butt off to go to the toilet? And who wants passers by to hear them straining to do a number two? Ok, enough with the mental imagery. I hate outside toilets because spiders love them. I have not set foot in that toilet the whole 12 years that we have lived here! So when my sister swung open the door we got a bit of a shock... the floor was covered in RATS DROPPINGS!!

(dramatic pause for effect)

Can you believe that?? I've been in shock for the rest of the day. I'm waiting to hear when the pest control man is coming round, but in the mean time I felt I deserved a couple of new mugs... and a couple of bars of chocolate... and a bottle of Bailey's. The back door is well and truly locked, and my poor sister was so traumatised that I felt the least I could do was to buy her one of those plug in things that deter rats and mice for her home!! Other wise she would never sleep again!

So that was today. In other news I have had a completely inactive, uneventful, unproductive, not worth writing about, summer. Which is why I didn't. Write about it, that is. I've not really been feeling all that grand, so I'm having some blood tests on Friday.

Also, my classes start again on Monday! I wanted to buy more glazes before then but I'm having trouble choosing!

It's a funny old game

No, this isn't a post about football; I'm talking about clay! It seems to have a mind of it's own!

Remember this vase?


At the time I had set out to make a replacement for the ivy vase that had been damaged. But it just wanted to be... something else.


Then recently I started working on a taller vase, and I intended it to be tall and very simple. But that vase wanted to be something else too...



...it wanted to be an ivy vase!


I didn't smooth out the surface of the vase so much this time. The idea is that I want it to look old with ivy growing out of it. I have thought about adding cracks to the surface, but I still haven't made my mind up about that.

It's larger than the original ivy vase (although only a foot tall, even though it looks taller even in the flesh), and the leaves look more like ivy this time thanks to the new leaf cutters I have! Click on the photo's for a closer look.

original ivy vase
(Which was my first coiled vase, and now looks hideous to me less than a year on, even though I was so proud of it at the time!)