Heart Handmade

Marichelle from Heart Handmade interviewed me earlier this summer and the interview is now up. You can read it here. I am afraid I got kind of wordy but her questions were so interesting and thought provoking. I hope you can take a few minutes and check it out.

The photo above is from a hike we took recently up the slope near our house - actually the Sherwood Ski Lift at Alpine Meadows. We have less than two weeks left of our mountain summer. I will miss the pine smell in the air, the sound of the wind in the trees, our morning bike rides up Blackwood Canyon. It's been great having friends and family come up for a visit. But I am ready to rejoin the action of our urban life and I'm REALLY ready to get back to work at fourth & clay. Let the glazing begin!

Go Jump in the Lake

OOO WHEE... it is hot up here...93 degrees and we are at 7,000 feet above sea level. There's no telling how hot it is in the Sacramento Valley...maybe you could even fry an egg on the sidewalk - something I've always wanted to try. Thankfully our studio is in the basement of the house so it stays pretty cool.

I've been making roses, roses and more roses. I started out making a series of Rose Bush Vases continuing the work I began before the ACGA show and now I've moved on to Rose Bowls. I couldn't have picked a more tedious direction. I always thought I would be great working in a bakery decorating cakes. I could put my talent to use making icing roses out of all that yummy "butter cream". I like repetitive motion and enjoy the production aspect of working - making the flat clay turn into multiple little blossoms. I think I must have rolled well over 1,000 roses in the past week. I have to admit it gets kind of addictive but I'm beginning to feel like screaming. No more for awhile... I was pleasantly surprised to have only one sorry little bud left over after the last bowl was completed. This must be a good place to stop.

Time to take the dogs and go jump in the Lake.

Handling It

John and I (plus Kitty and Harry, of course)are making pots in the mountains for the rest of August. We converted our old garage to a great little studio with a small kiln we use for bisque firing, a slab roller, tables, running water and best of all big doors that open into the forest.

At the start of the summer I took a tea pot workshop with Sam Chung and I've been obsessed with the form ever since - especially the "overhead" handles he demonstrated. They are hallow, cut from a paper pattern and rolled. The trick is rolling them at just the right moment so that they don't get little wobbles when they close and so that they stand up when you attach them. It's all pretty challenging and a kick when it actually works.