The Good Shepherd - update

The Good Shepherd made it into and out of the last glaze firing. I was unsure of the best way to glaze him, but decided upon a grey glaze. In the future, I would like to try accenting with a white/cream, leaving some details bare stoneware.

The last glaze firing took so long - approx. 20 hours! It's time to change the elements... I found out this past weekend, it should only take 8 to 12 hours at the most. Hm, this change might help on the electric bill! It might be a little while before I'll be able to do another firing though.

shew...

well, it's been quite a busy 2 weeks! I signed up to do my first pottery show - and I have to add that I didn't have any pots ready to sell when I signed up. I seem to need deadlines to get some things moved to the top of the list, and this show moved the pottery up quite a few notches. The kiln seemed to be either heating up, or cooling down nearly every moment of the last two weeks. Of course the last glaze firing wasn't "quite" ready when it was time to leave for the show - but that was ok. ( i don't think there was enough table/shelf space ready for the extra pots anyways)

The show was at the Owen Co. Fairgrounds / park. This was the first 'arts in the park' that Owen Co has had, but they really had a lot of great vendors for their first show. And the music? Excellent bands playing all day long - between that and the breeze, it made the heat tolerable! The best part, was meeting the other artisans. So many interesting and talented people. I am looking forward to going back next year.

This is the goat milk soap display that my neighbor Marlene (from http://www.nkywindyacres.com/) set up at the show. Her soap is delightful!

And I couldn't leave out Shellys' latest felted creations that she let me take take to
the show! However, not all of these guys made the trip back home with us. They are adorable.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Good Morning Sunrise

Lambing season complete..

and since it's the middle of June, it should be!

We ended up with 9 little rams and 4 ewes.

Here's a pair that was born earlier in the week.. they're little mouflons. Thank goodness the mother is keeping up with them now.. ther first few days she was always leaving one behind somewhere and couldn't remember where! (she must have a lot on her mind)

Pottery ...

I fired the kiln this week and this morning was the "opening" morning. I used just 2 glazes in this firing. Pictured are a few of my favorite pieces from todays kiln opening. The washbowl/pitcher is really a small sink bowl with the pitcher... they were just combined for the photo.

I sampled several new glazes on small test tiles, and was hoping to have new great glazes to use in the next firing. With the exception of a new white glaze, I don't think I'll reuse any of the sample glazes that was tried. Looking for new glazes is kind of like that old saying of finding a prince.. have to kiss a lot of frogs!

An unforseen happy ending

This sweet yearling had her first baby this past Sunday morning. We didn't intend for her to get bred this year, and actually, thought that all was well up until she started making milk a few weeks ago. Back in January, we thought she had a prolapse on the back side, but the vet determined that her intestines had been "fischered" (sp?) (torn). We don't know how it happened - possibly a goat hooked her with their horns while they were feeding? Not sure, but long story short, she was a mess and she would need surgery. The vet didn't know that she would make it. He said the only other similiar case that he knew of was a calf and that the calf didn't make it - plus sheep strain so much, it would be hard to keep the stitches in.

The sweet thing about this gal is that she was wild as could be prior to this happening, but when it came time to go to the vet, she was like a pet! (keeping in mind, she got to ride in the car on my lap... i wasn't driving...) She just sat so still laying her head on my shoulder and watching out the window. Sort of got the feeling she knew we were getting help for her. She was calm as could be on the ride home as well, and she sure knew when we were back in our driveway! We decided to back up and take her to our other barn and she -for the first time on the trip- tried to get up and away! And they say sheep aren't smart. She had watched out the window the entire trip, and I have a feeling she would've found her way home if we'd left her at the vets. lol.

Chances are she'd jump back in the car for a road trip if the opportunity presented itself.

so, here's the happy ending..

We were so glad that she made it through her lambing without any problems. She had a little ram (and who here hasn't this year?) and she is a wonderful mother that just loves her little baby and he is a sweet little thing! I tried to get a better picture of him, but he was pretty busy.

Felted Buddies from felting friends..

This handsome fella -lil cody- arrived here as a gift from the crazy sheep lady at Punkins Patch http://myfavoritesheep.blogspot.com/. (fabulous blog site!) I thought I was just getting rid of some wool when I sent her home with it! What a thoughtful gift she sent back this way!

The details are so nice on lil Cody, I especially love how she felted the wool while leaving the locks long.

Big Cody - his indian name means "provider of wool for adorable felted lil cody"

(note: just made that up)

Now, speaking of felted gifts...

This adorable mouse was a gift from my friend Shelly. (Shelly, where is your blog?) This is Shelly's first felted creation. My pictures here just do not do either of these little guys justice. It's hard to see from this photo, but he has the cutest little slingshot in his back pocket that she made from a small tree branch.. and his back side is just as adorable!

What fun felted gifts! Thanks CSL and Shelly!

Lamb update - we have 3 more since the last post and one ewe left to lamb! Tally -- 9 RAMS, 3 ewes. Maybe next year will be the year for little ewes? We're just glad that they're all doing great. This year was SO MUCH easier than last year's lambing season. Just enjoying all the little ones running around out in the pasture.

Morning fog..

hay rake... awaiting the next assignment


the dew looked like frost on some of the plants this morning... fortunately, it's just dew!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

New little lamb...

This is Dottie.. our 2nd ewe lamb born here this year.

Sometimes our white lambs are born with little markings that fade away, but I'm thinking this looks more like a spot that might not fade away. It looks like her ears might show some brown too.

This is the ewe lamb born last week.

And brothers, virgil and leroy.

Dew Diamonds

These pics were taken last fall, but just ran across them and wanted to share...

a tribute to a natural spinner!

There's only one MonaLisa...

One leaning tower of visa, (oops.. Pisa) one new york town- one fifth avenue. There's only one Eiffel tower , one somethin..somethin.. (finest hour?) one Paris and there's only one....EWE! Ok, now I can get that old song out of my head... (sorry if it's in yours now) Wanted to share the news that out of 8 lambs now, we have a ewe lamb. This was a bit of a surprise last night- I wasn't expecting Dixie to lamb until tomorrow, but had been noticing that she had been off to herself more than usual the last 2 days, so I should have been watching her closer. I went to close the gate last night and all of the sheep were up but Dixie. Sure enough, she had lambed during the day. Dixie is one of our lambs from last year, so she's the youngest we have had to lamb here. Fortunately, she did ok on her own. The lamb is brown moorit.

Took a few shots of some of the other lambs while i was out this morning - this is Virgil..

...and his brother Leroy

and remember the freckle faced white lamb? He's solid white now (other than a black marking on his hind foot) This is Frank and Jesse.

Ziggy is getting to be quite a chunk! (As well as his brother Henry, who is now bigger than he is) I caught on to some of the mischeviousness that is going on last night. I feed the dog morning and night as I go in the pen... the dog follows me around while I'm in the pen, meanwhile- Moose is eating his dog food. (and teaching the little ones to do the same). So, this explains why Moose is so big, and the dog looks like he's been dieting.

No way this can be good for the sheep, or the dog for that matter! We had this problem with Lambie when she was still in the house. She wanted to eat the dog food because she saw our little dog Oscar eating it. Rosco broke her of it - but now we have to start over with these guys.

And our yearling Charlie.. I have been noticing that his wool 'glistens' even when the sun isn't shining on him. He really has a beautiful fleece. I love his rosy cheeks too.. looks like we made him blush.

sunset

The Good Shepherd..

I have signed up to do an art show/festival later this month. This will be the first time the pottery here will be leaving the property, so the goal has been to throw and glaze as many pots as possible this month. So, with that in mind, I'm already off track and on to something else! lol.


This little sculpture of Christ was to be a flowerpot. I had thrown a few small mugs, pots and was just struggling with everything. I decided it was not a day for throwing, so I just "coned" the clay up and began to add clay and shape it into a rough figure. As the clay started to harden, I continued to add a few details.

This is the first time I've tried this. so I'm not sure if this is the proper way? I saw something on one of those 'creative channels a few years ago where a gal sculpted and when the clay was at leather hard stage, she took a wire (i used thread) and cut the figure in half and hollowed out the center so that it would dry evenly.

After both pieces were hollowed out, I scored the edges and sealed them back together and now I'm just waiting to see what happens. In a few places, it was a bit thin, and it might crack during the drying process, or in the kiln, but like everything, it will be a learning experience either way.

If this works, I have some ideas i'm excited to try, shepherdess and lambs - shearing sheep, etc. But for now, back to making and glazing pots....