So long, farewell

I have a lot of huge changes happening in my life right now. I'm not sure where to start, so I'll just go on down the line and list them.

First of all, my husband and I fell in love with a little house in a neighborhood we adore, and we're in the process of trying close on it. There have been some snafus, but the inspection is some time this week, and if it passes, it's ours. Nich and I have already planned out our lives in this house! So fingers crossed. If this doesn't work out we'll keep looking, but I'm hoping to be announcing good news by next week.

Desire House - by Catherine Wilson

Second, I have been volunteering my time at a Montessori school doing clay with the kids there. So far I've only spent one day there, but I love being there, and Maddy gets to hang out with awesome kids, chickens, a chinchilla, and a very sweet dog while I'm there. There is the possibility of a job there for me in the near future, so I really hope this pans out. More and more I feel drawn to working with kids, and I think this would be a great fit for me, and for Maddy!

Finally, my time as Artist in Residence at BGCW has come to an end. Josh Heim, our Thursday night instructor, is purchasing the studio, and will be taking my place. I decided to let this be my last week so I could put more energy into the house plans, the Montessori school, and spending time with Maddy. Also, as much as I loved teaching there, it left very little time for developing my own work, and my skill level is just not where I want it to be yet. I will still be a part of BGCW, filling in from time to time and teaching the kid's workshops. I'm really looking forward to seeing how the community grows under Josh's knowledge, experience, and care. It's definitely in good hands:) I definitely learned a lot teaching there - probably more than my students learned from me! It was a blessing, and I'm so grateful for the experience, and the friendships I made.

It is my plan to take a small hiatus from art making and social media while I figure out the new directions my life is going in. Over the summer, I hope to get a small studio set up in the new house, and maybe take some time developing my work without distraction or pressure. Anyway, if you don't hear from me for a while, I hope you won't forget about me. After some adjustments, some r&r, and some much needed time with my family, I will be back. Hopefully with new adventures, new work, and a new website (finally!)

Thank you for following along with me, guys!

Baby Party EXTRAVAGANZA

Maddy had her first birthday party this past Sunday, and I've been dying to blog about it all week, but I've been teaching a kids clay class and flipping out over how me and my hubs might be buying a house... (More on that stuff next post!) It was a super fun and adorable party, and Maddy was pretty much awesomely happy all day long.

I was really ambivalent over what to do for Maddy's birthday. At first, I thought, "She's a baby. All she needs is cake and a few family members. She won't even remember this party." Then I thought about it for a while, and I was like "Screw that! I'm gonna do something awesome for her!" Maddy had recently discovered her love for tunnels and crawling back and forth between our ankles, and I had seen a cool cardboard play tunnel with colorful socks hanging inside on Pinterest. I thought, how cool would it be to build stuff out of cardboard that she would enjoy playing with? I decided to do everything for the party based only around things I know she'd play with and enjoy. If it was something she wouldn't notice, or would be too young to appreciate, it was out. That made for a nice happy medium between flipping out over planning the perfect party, and totally slacking off on doing things right. There was an article in Parents magazine featuring this BYOB party (that's Bring Your Own Box) for twin one year old boys, and that pretty much cemented the idea that I was going to build a castle.

I put an ad on Freecycle asking for large appliance size boxes, and scored one 70" flat screen tv box that I was able to fold into a perfect castle base. Smaller boxes made the tunnel and the turrets, and my mom-in-law crocheted the chains for the drawbridge, and added brown floral wrapping paper to the castle where we needed to hide yellow duct tape. She also made the totally adorable pennants!

Andre guards the gate

Moat monster

Pennants

Here are Maddy and Virginia, our baby party guest, playing peekaboo with the window flaps. 

Maddy and her Daddy

Aunt Mariah checking out the flower box windows

 I decided I wanted to make her a rainbow layer cake, because that's what all the cool kids get for their birthday, and I thought Maddy would flip for the bright colors. But then I read a thing about artificial food dyes being horrible for kids, and decided to try natural dyes instead, from this recipe. I wish I could say it turned out awesome, but it was a bit of a let down. I tried baking the cake twice, because I really screwed up the first one. You use fruit and vegetable juices to dye the cake, and if you forget to reduce the amount of liquid in your cake recipe, you end up with runny pancake batter. Not good. Unfortunately, even after reducing the liquid on the second try, the cakes didn't rise well at all, and the colors were barely noticeable. I think in the future, I will just stick to yummy recipes, and not worry about cool color cake. Maybe next year I'll do cool things with marshmallow fondant instead. I gotta say, though, that the frosting was some of the best I've ever had. Hooray Swiss Meringue Buttercream! I will never, ever make American style buttercream frosting again! I added lemon extract, juice, and zest to the frosting, which just pushed it over the edge of deliciousness. And Maddy smashed it all in her face, so she enjoyed it, which is all that matters:)

Here are those baby plates I was working on. I decided Maddy gets to keep both, because I can't bear to part with either one. I really did intend to put the cat one in my Etsy shop, honest. But just look at it! I love it so much! I think I'll hang both on the wall in Maddy's room until she's old enough to be able to use them.

So hooray baby parties! It was a little exhausting, but she had such a blast, so it was totally worth it. And now we have a castle! I look forward to next year, when she'll be even more people-like, and we can up the awesomeness. Or, you know, just take her to Chuck-E-Cheese.

Workspace

 I never show you pictures of my studio space at Beech Grove Clay Works because -

Well, because it looks like this:

But Kelly Daniels, whose blog I've been following since her Kickstarter for her Penland trip got funded, posted a picture of how messy her space is after just one week. And I thought Yay! I'm not the only one! And it gave me the courage to share my space with you guys.

And here is my old school Pinterest board;)

So my space is not hip or cool looking at all, and there's stuff everywhere, but I'm grateful to have it:D I kind of feel like, as long as I know where everything is, and I have a little space to work, I don't mind mess and clutter. I once had a teacher tell me that there are two kinds of people - people who are externally organized, and people who are internally organized. My keys may not hang on a neat little peg, but if you ask me where they are, I can tell you (usually) that they are under that pile of papers in the corner. If you try to clean up for me, I'll never find anything! Yeah, that teacher's quote stuck with me, because it made me feel less crappy about myself. I do try, but I'm just not a naturally neat person.


What about you? What does your workspace look like? Is it organized and inviting? Or a big ole' mess like mine? Which do you prefer? Which type of person are you?

Maggie Moo's Blue-green glaze

This glaze recipe is adapted from a combination of a Mastering Cone 6 Glazes base glaze and Maggie Schlebecker's blue-green glaze recipe. It is cone 6 oxidation, and I've been told it produces some red in a really good reduction atmosphere, though I've never tried it. You can adjust the percentage of copper, tin, and zinc to produce a range of color from a pale mint to a deep sea green. Varying the amount of tin and zinc will affect the opacity of the glaze and make it milkier the more you add. Overdoing it on the copper could cause leaching, so going over 5% is probably not a good idea, but otherwise this base is extremely stable and food safe.


Maggie Moo's Blue-Green glaze #5


Custer Spar  20.0
Ferro Frit 3134 20.0
Wollastonite 10.0
EPK 21.0
Talc 11.5
Silica 17.5
------------
Total 100.0

Add Tin Oxide 3.96
Zinc Oxide 2.45
Copper Carb 3.21 (or Black Copper Oxide 2.14)

Baby plates for babycakes

Hey look! I remembered to bring my camera to the studio with me for once!

Finally, FINALLY got a big dipping bucket of the new recipe for Maggie Moo's Blue-Green glaze mixed up. I am super happy with this version, and it looks fantastic layered with all the other studio glazes. Thanks to Maggie Schlebecker who did her school science fair project on glaze testing and provided us with her recipe. Hooray girls and science!

I got a cake plate out of the kiln, which warped just as I expected. We have been working on making a cake plate in my Tuesday night class that could double as a chip and dip when flipped over, but the bowl as a base just isn't enough support to keep the plate part from warping in the kiln (especially when you use porcelain, like me). It's not completely horrible, but I do want to refire it because I'm not satisfied with the glaze application. I will probably use it for Maddy's birthday party if I can improve the glaze on it.

Why yes, that is a birthday gator! Or a crocodile, which ever you prefer.

These are kid's plates I'm working on. One is for Maddy! I can't wait until she's old enough to use it! I'm going to get them painted today. I cannot wait to make more of these. They're so fun!

Last but not least, I got my painted pendants out of the kiln. What do you think? I keep wanting to sit down and roll out more of these, and do some different shapes, but I haven't had the time. Maybe after the baby party extravaganza?

If anyone is interested in the glaze recipe for the Maggie Moo glaze, let me know. I'd be happy to share!

Playing catch up

Everyone jokes now a days about how this generation is so attached to their smart phones and digital devices that they burst into tears if they can't find their iPhone for a day. I had no idea I was one of those people until I got my iPhone good and lost this weekend. It's been missing since Saturday morning, and though I haven't fallen to the ground sobbing yet, I really am kind of lost without it. I had no idea I was so dependent on that thing.

I managed to take some pics this week in the studio and of my girl outside enjoying the weather, and I thankfully uploaded them before I misplaced my phone. Argh! Now I have to actually charge my real camera, and I have to use the landline to make phone calls, and I can't check in when I go to the movies or check my friend's status messages every 5 minutes! HOW WILL I LET MY FRIENDS KNOW INSTANTANEOUSLY HOW MUCH I ENJOYED THE HUNGER GAMES???

Anyway, I spent some time catching up a bit on my own work at the studio after mixing a new dipping glaze and doing some test tiles. I didn't realize how much half finished stuff had piled up in my space. I made two scallop edged plates that I intend to decorate, and one of them is to commemorate Maddy's 1st birthday. We're having a real party for her April 1st that's a cardboard box extravaganza and playdate. Unfortunately we are antisocial people and only know a handful of parents with babies, so I'm thinking it's going to be a sparsely attended affair, at least by baby to adult ratio standards. I feel like going to the park and finding random people with babies, and just dragging them to our house. Here! Come play with my baby! Before she becomes an antisocial recluse like us! NO REALLY WE'RE NOT CREEPY STALKERS I SWEAR

I'll probably write again post baby party, as my mother-in-law and I are preoccupied with getting ready for that, plus this is the last week of the session at Beech Grove. Hopefully I'll be back with lots of adorable pics, taken with a real honest-to-God camera, and maybe even my phone if I can freakin' find it.

Btw, just a heads up: if you have the Find My iPhone app, it works great until you turn off your phone. Stupid phone.

Happy Birthday, Madeleine

Today is Maddy's birthday. Much like every other parent out there, I find myself marveling at how quickly the time has passed. Much like every parent out there, I find myself wanting the world she grows up in to be a better one than it is.

I've been reading a lot about human rights, been reading bell hooks and a lot of blogs, and following all the women's rights issues that are being stirred up by the upcoming election, and also the continuing turmoil in Egypt and the women who are being abused and violated because they speak out, and the case of Trayvon Martin, the young black kid who was shot for walking through the wrong neighborhood at night with a bag of skittles and a can of tea. Some days I'm just infuriated, and sad, and overwhelmed. But I want the world to be better than it is, and I believe that the best way to do that is to educate myself, and to be a better person. I cannot change what's outside without addressing what is inside. I cannot raise my child to be open and loving and respectful of all peoples if I do not set that example for her myself.

A friend of mine posted a link to a blog post about bullying, and a letter the blogger has written to her young son to read when he is older. It is beautiful, and so full of love, and it is so apt right now. Because if the world is to be a place where everyone is ACTUALLY EQUAL, regardless of their sex, race, social status, culture, religion, body type, clothing, or any other feature we choose to prejudge others on, it has to begin with us, and with our children. I want to share it with you, because I think it may be the most awesome thing I've read in a long time. It being Maddy's birthday, I may just write a letter to her myself.

A Mountain I’m Willing to Die On

Happy Birthday, babycakes:)