Turn Thy Wheel

Not a photo of mugs, indeed a photo of me pushing my three kids home from school when the rain broke and turned all white and started to break the Hawthorne trees. Our usual bike ride didn't work as there was too much snow and it filled our wheels and fenders. I had to carry the stroller and bush whack to get to school on the pathway route so we took the long way home instead:). Ethan riding on the axle, two handmade blankets and (of course) several teddy bears.

Mugs in process, freshly thrown, wet.

Mugs. Cheese hard, trimmed and handled.

Taking a break on the rare-ish sunny days here on the island. The teal sweater is the one I knitted for Ethan's birthday and the little grey one was his years ago, my first with a real pattern. Dogs, Ben and Daisy.

Mugs. Dry, trimmed, handled, stamped and snuggling.

Mugs. Shorter and fatter, fresh.

My 5 year old made a Lego representation of my studio. Me at the wheel throwing goblets with the wheel head actually turning. I cried when I saw this. It was complete with batts to carry the fresh pots, the table that sits beside my wheel, a Lego piece with letters the way my old wheel used to have and wheeled carts for my glazes. The white Lego person is him. He spends time in the studio with me on a regular basis.

Mugs in the shape of latte bowls, low wide and freshly made here.

Mugs, well almost. I am wedging fresh clay (square slabs) into my reclaimed clay. I have yet to throw out a bucket of water or an ounce of clay since 1996. This means that I reclaim an ice cream pail full once or twice a week. I have huge hands so I wedge up a kilo or two at a time and ball it up then cut mug sized balls for my sealed Tupperware bin ready for the next day. This was a success tip from the autobiography of Beatrice Wood--do a bit extra work today to set up tomorrow's plan.

Mugs with a waist. It's been an interesting month of mugs and I am working through all kinds of shapes. I like a really focused study of any pot form---January is mug month.

Mugs. Above mugs with the waist, handled and a few with beaten dents.

Mugs. Wet here. I always find it odd how much the camera stretches the image. Clearly the mugs aren't crazy ovals;)

Mugs. Sometimes there's a real cutie and I pull it out to make a closer study of it! The mug was quite undercut in real life. I will take him out and throw this shape until I memorize it forever.

Mugs. Trimmed and handled, bike stamps are one of my signatures.

Mugs. I am a volunteer with the clay HUB collective here and one of the other potters from our public teaching studio stopped by to get a cheque for our new stools. Her comment upon looking at my drying rack was that I am prolific. It is almost cruel these days that I am only in the studio for an hour while the twins are napping and an hour and a half two nights a week. Hubby takes the crew grocery shopping and hiking on the weekends so I can have a bit longer stretches in the studio. 

Not mugs. I had a custom order from a regular customer for a sourdough crock pot. Of course, as any artist knows, I made 3 just in case;). I put the cutest little handles (inspired by Bill Van Gilder's DIY book) a bit after the photo.

Well, that's the update from the trenches. I fired a bisque load last night (three attempts to load the kiln as the kiddos weren't having any of it) and up against the weather that was threatening to go below freezing which would mean that if I didn't get the pots into the kiln and fired I would have had to bring them all back around to the heated studio. Anyway, turn thy wheel indeed. 

I will have an update about the HUGE MOVE THAT MY GALLERY IS MAKING INTO DOWNTOWN DUNCAN soon. I have booked a few special babysitter days so I can go help renovate/clean/paint/help with the new shop. I absolutely can't wait for the launch and I'm a bit scared to move my massive display unit (maybe uncle Trevor will lend me his truck in exchange for dinner again) but that's the life. Thanks for checking in:))