Pottery Mug Giveaway

I only do two festivals a year, but I like to have new designs for each show. For the Ky Sheep & Fiber Festival coming up in May, this will be one of the new items. I have several made for the show, so I'd like to give one away!

This is a 10-12 ounce mug and it's a little taller than it looks from the photo.
The mug was made on the pottery wheel, and the design was freehanded using the sgrafitto technique (painting liquid clay on the pottery and scratching away that clay to reveal a design)
Just leave your name below and next Saturday, with the help of random.org, we'll draw a name, and I will publish the winner in a blog post next Saturday evening.

These boots WEREN'T made for walking..

It's a little hard to tell from the picture, but these are Wyatt's favorite boots. At the slightest mention of putting up the cows for the night or checking the sheep, he's scrambling for those boots. "boots momma"

Unfortunately, they are way too big still and every 20 steps or so and this is what we have!

Sometimes you just have to sacrifice a little comfort and convenience for the sake of style.

Waiting on lambs

and it shouldn't be much longer!

Meanwhile.. the firstborn here is getting quite a bit of attention from us- not that he looks like he wants to be- is he sticking his tongue out at me?

oh wait, no that must have been a mistake-he's too sweet for that!

Aren't lambs cute when they're smiling? (and .. well, even when they're not?)

What a happy little lamb.

(And Alice, you were asking about a name... I haven't named him, but if you can come up with a name for him, it's all yours. While you're working on that, I'll work on shearing his momma)

All the signs of spring

Trees are blooming

Record breaking temps (83 yesterday) We have dandelions blooming too - doesn't it seem early for that?

We have a new lamb. It's time to be getting that wool off of the sheep. I have started shearing, just haven't got very far. Seems like spring used to come in a little slower than this. We're loving it though.

On the bookshelf..

Who doesn't just love a great book? I saw this book at the library and when I opened it, I knew it was going home with me for a spell! It's titled "Ceramics for Beginners". If you have every wanted to work with clay and want to get started making things without the wheel, this book will get you on your way. And while I agree it's great for beginners, I have to add there's likely something in there for many levels of potters.

There were so many great tips - and without giving away the contents of the book, here's just a small sample of tips:

Making a stamp using hot glue? I love it! If I was wanting to do something like this, I would have been carving on clay for days to make a stamp, but how neat is this? Just a wood block, and hot glue!

There were other great ideas for making your own stamps, and doing applique on the pottery.

I love this next idea here too - they are showing how to make a bird using newspaper as the armature. The paper will burn out during the firing. I love this idea too!

Hm, this would be a great way to make..... sheep!

Kiln Firing Complete

The kiln had lots of ewenice mugs (all brown) a few white sgrafitto mugs, (with the b&w designs) and some of the new "hot tub" or "fiber" mugs. I shared in a post before that the intent was that they were trying to get out, but they looked so relaxed, I just played on that with the others I made. This first mug was made for my neighbor that raises Nubian goats.
Their bodies would be much easier to sculpt if they had wool..lol. (i didn't do so well on the shape here)


and then sheep...

there's that wool. These mugs were fun to create, but had a few more challenges than the other style mugs. I look forward to trying more of them, it's really fun to watch the characters rise up out of the clay.

Sheep photos

It's been so long since I've posted pictures of sheep, it might seem as though we don't have sheep anymore! It's been hard to get out to get pics of them, and I had forgot how much time I used to spend trying to get good pictures. You can tell by these pictures, that this was a very quick photo session. We have 39 sheep right now, with possibly a few more on the way this spring.


above: Sweet Carlie.
Below: Lil friend.
Little Brown ewe. She doesn't have a name.. there are a few lambs that were sold, but never left here, so they didn't get named. I guess we need to come up with names for these gals -since they've been here nearly a year now. They deserve names.


This little lambs name is "carlies lamb"


Girlie:

These are the two new ewes we bought last fall. Daphne is in the corner with part of her face chopped off in the photo (great photography, huh?) And the other gal - well she's really one of my favorite ewes but I just can't remember what we named her! I'll get her a "HELLO, MY NAME IS_____" tag if I can come up with the name. My mind really is shot these days. I'm hoping it's just the lack of sleep.

This is another little ewe i didn't anticipate being here this winter, so she is lacking a name as well. I am going to have to get creative with naming sheep here.. or maybe buy a baby names book. Wow, that will get the family talking.


And Petey... he was going to leave us in the fall (to visit the butcher) but it's just been bad timing on our part.. when we were ready to take him, it was deer season - and lately, there's just been other things coming up. I was worried he would lose weight when the grass declined and we started feeding hay full time - yet, from the photo, he's either eating ok, or bloated. Maybe it's my camera? I sure don't remember him looking this wide, and one would think that would be noticeable?? Note to self, just in case it's the camera, I sure don't want to have my picture taken with it!

NOT another unfinished project..?

Oh YES IT IS! lol. I could spend a year just finishing up different thoughts and little ideas and projects around here.. and here's another example.

This is an idea that I knew I wouldn't be able to complete for a while (because I haven't found the glaze that I have in mind for it). I went ahead and started it, because if I didn't do it while it was fresh on my mind it would get pushed to that "i thought of doing that" pile.

This is an attempt to carve lil Wyatt onto a handmade tile. The original photo that I used, he was about a year old and had a blade of grass in his mouth. Well.. that ended up looking like a cigarette, so that didn't stay. It was a fun little project to sculpt/carve, but I really need to take a class or read a book on sculpting the mouth and eyes.. I had fun with the rest of it though.

Meanwhile, I'm looking for a glaze recipe that will have the look of something like bronze. When it's glazed, I'd like to make somewhat of a simple shadowbox style frame (without glass) to mount the tile to.

I need to focus on a few things, and not be so scattered with things i want to do, but there's just so many things you can do with clay! (and wool...) I just can't seem to stay focused!

Good news though - I'll be opening the kiln today, and the projects in it are completed..

Thank goodness.

A Shepherd's Cartoon

The caption is a little hard to read - "yes, I have a 2 o'clock footbath"

Woolworking Cabinet & Carding Station

This woolworking cabinet and carding station was something I drew up a while back and Jack made from wood he had down in the shop. It still needs to be painted, and it needs doors, but meanwhile I went ahead and started using it. (He's building a house right now..lol) Thinking of painting it with some sheep on either the top, or the doors.. something fun.

The cabinet is on rollers, so it's easy to move around (even though it's quite big) The carder is on a sliding shelf and it works nicely to card wool right there on the shelf while sitting in a chair next to it. I originally thought I would just store it on this shelf, and wanted the shelf to slide out so that the carder could be picked up easier and be placed on the top of the cabinet, but found that it's really more comfortable to sit and card the wool than to stand.

I would like to make one up that is just for a carder. I would put a drawer with sliders on it on the bottom to store wool that's being worked up in. Also, a thin drawer on the top to hold carding tools might be nice as well. The spinning wheel in this one, really was the motivation for a cabinet to begin with. (since i have a little boy that likes to pull on the spring, etc.. thought it would be nice to house it out of sight when not in use!) It's still in sight at the moment.

More Wool Experimenting

I am forever looking for ways to use up wool here..


Our former church goes to India every year and they take little dollies that are made and donated . I initially thought I would just be stuffing the dolls, (wool -of course) but when I was given a link to the pattern it looked simple enough. To think that some of the recipients may have never had a doll, or may never, was great motivation to make as many as possible before the deadline.

Even greater motivation was knowing that there would be a translator there to tell the girls the simple gospel message. The dolls were 2 sided, with a sad face on one side that represents life before Christ,

and a happy face on the other that represents the change that He can make in your life.


So that was the motivation behind the dolls, but the other advantages are that I'm 4 pounds lighter! (wool only..lol) And another advantage was getting to experiment with making dollie hair. The hair on these dolls were made from washed Icelandic lamb locks. They were made by taking a strip of black wet felted wool and the wool was needle felted onto the strip a layer at a time starting at the bottom working toward the top. (I used a strip of felted wool, but only because the doll had a face on both sides.. if the doll wasn't dual faced, i would have used a base the shape of a little cap to fit their head) Initially I was hand sewing the hair onto the dolls, but finished the last few by spraying Super 77 glue onto the back of the strip. It worked really great, much quicker than sewing and it was a good bond, but just had to be careful not to get any overspray of the glue on the hair. I'd like to experiment more with using wool for doll hair. If anyone has any experience they'd like to share.. . tips appreciated! :) Meanwhile, here in the upcoming months I'll be looking forward to starting dolls for next year- and hope to not be so 'last minute' finishing them this next time around!

Saturday Morning Doughnuts

Here's a little recipe that we've been enjoying here lately. They are doughnut drops and they are really quick and easy. The recipe makes more than this.. someone must have ate a few before the pic was taken! ?

1-1/2 c flour if using self rising flour, omit baking powder and salt.

1/2 c sugar

1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2/3 cup milk

1 Tablespoon oil

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 egg

Mix dry ingredients - add remaining ingredients and stir just until dry ingredients are moistened.

Heat shortening to 365 degrees. (i use an old iron skillet with at least an inch of melted shortening)

Drop the mix by the teaspoon into the hot oil -and cook 2 to 2-1/2 minutes, turning occasionally. Drain on paper towels or a rack. Once slightly cooled, roll in cinnamon sugar. powdered sugar, plain sugar, or serve plain

Cream, Sugar, and a lil Fiber

You know, I hate to waste anything.

(my mind being the exception to that rule)

This mug here was on its way to the recycle bucket. I had distorted the inside of the mug where the handle attached and it really didn't seem to be salvageable. I started to layer clay up on the inside of the mug where the problem was and thought maybe I should just put a sheep there instead.

For some reason I have an image of a sheep in my head that's stuck in a bag of wool with it's arms and legs coming out the top and an expression of "get me out of here!" on it's face. With that in mind (i don't know why it was there to begin with), but I thought I'd switch the thought up a bit and try it on a mug instead. This is slightly different in that the "bag of wool sheep" wants out, this sheep seems fairly content. She seems here more the girl along the edge of the pool... just kicking her feet, relaxing, and enjoying the warm water.

Fantastic Fiber Book

Just wanted to share this book that I received, Fiber Gathering. This is such a neat book. This book takes you to 10 of the top fiber festivals in the states, and gives a few photos and beautiful descriptions of each (and trust me, if you don't already attend, you'll be convinced you'll want to make a way to fit them on the calendar!) I want to go to all of them now! But wait, there's more.

There are lots of inspiring knit & crochet project instructions, such as sweaters, socks, scarves and mittens.

The book also includes really great instructions on "how to skirt a fleece", and "washing a fleece" "dyeing multicolored yarn" "andean plying" "spinning for speed" (in case you wish to enter the competition at the Tennessee state fair spinning competition!) "making a spindle from a knitting needle and a potato" and "making knitting needles using dowels, sandpaper and beads" "rug hooking" and even more.

I don't know how they managed to get so much information packed in this book! Yet, it was put together well and it is a book that I will greatly enjoy curling up with this winter while I plan my festival calendar for the upcoming year. (ok, I doubt I'll be able to travel this year, but someday)

An update

Wasn't I just blogging about how long it takes to sometimes finish a piece of pottery here? Well, that piece took 5 years to get glazed. This one, I couldn't believe it was all the way back in January that I posted about making it! That's nearly a year to get it glazed, but I guess it beats 5 years. (actually, this was glazed in October.. so that's not too bad, right?)

This is my second sculpture. (I was thinking it was my first, but I just remembered that I made a sculpture of Christ holding a lamb that I gave away) It is made from stoneware clay, fired and glazed. I have several ideas in mind for future sculptures, all in the theme of "Sheep Chores". I think I'll call this one "Getting to know the sheep".

Any shepherd knows an important aspect of caring for sheep, is knowing the sheep.

"The more you understand about their behavior, the easier it will be for you to spot problems" - Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep

As you can see though, getting to know the sheep really isn't a "chore", but a special time between sheep and shepherd.

"Make Do" Niddy Noddy

For the longest time, I've been meaning to pick up, or order a niddy noddy. I have just been spinning for personal use, so my hand to elbow has been a substitute for the n.n. We had a few pieces of wood down in the shop that was left over from ripping down some boards and I thought it was worth a try.. scrap wood and 2 screws, what was there to lose? I cut the 2 ends to the same length and left the center piece as it was. If I was to be technical, I would have measured it to a length that would work out easy to calculate the yardage by the wraps, but ...ok, i didn't.


I'm just wondering now why I wrapped yarn hand to elbow all this time? The n.n. would be more comfortable if I rounded the edges in the center, but until I find that niddy noddy that I just can't live without, this one will do!

It certainly helped to make a nicer looking skein than my arm winding did!

How long does it take to glaze a pot?

Jimminy Christmas. I made this pot back when I was first learning to make pottery - the date on the bottom is February of 2007. (and it just got glazed a couple of days ago!) So, I guess the answer to how long it takes? Right now, up to 5 years.


I guess I waited so long because I didn't know what glaze would be best for the design. Some glazes are applied so thick that the design can get lost, so I guess I was waiting for the right glaze. As it turned out, I mixed up a new glaze to try - one I had never even sampled, and I glazed half a kiln load of pots. (risky, but I was just tired of looking at all the unglazed pots on the shelf!)I really like the new glaze and don't know if i could have found a better glaze for this particular pot, so this pot has a happy ending.
This pot on the other hand I left bare. It's dated January of 2007. Again, soon to be another 5 year old pot.

I don't really get attached to my own pottery, but this vase is one of two pieces that I've made that I think I'd like to hang onto. I made this just a few months after I started in pottery. (back when I was trying different shapes, and experimenting) For some reason, I have a hard time reproducing this shape? Anyways, I have yet to find a glaze that I think would work on this piece. At one point, it was going to be a copper red, but that glaze is too thick. I'm leaning toward the new denim blue that is on the iris pot, but we'll see... it's sort of ridiculous to put this much thought into it. Maybe something will come up in the next 5 years!

(anyone else have projects that sit around this long unfinished?)

Double Blessing

Today was a beautiful day.

My friend Donna offered to watch Wyatt for me today as an early Christmas present. How nice was that? Priceless. (not that I needed to get away from my lil guy, but I did have some things that needed tending to) So a welcomed Christmas gift that was.

The second blessing of the day was the incredible sunshine.

I needed to fire the kiln again today. I did a glaze firing last week (i glazed outdoors in 29 degree temperatures - not complaining, yet theres a possibility that the pots were very uncomfortable! I wondered if the glaze would freeze before it hit the pots, but all was well) The firing was successful with the exception of an element coming loose and the bottom shelf of pots in the kiln did not fire properly. Fortunately, things like that can be corrected by running them thru the kiln again, which brings us to today. In order to fire the kiln again, I needed to glaze a few more pots to fire along with the underfired - well today was just a perfect day for being outside glazing pots!

Sunshine on my face, I soaked it up. Sunshine drying the pots as I sprayed them - they were soaking it up too.

Just a perfect day.

New Designs

Sending thanks out to Kelly at http://mainelyewesfarm.blogspot.com/
and Christine at http://frontporchindiana.blogspot.com/ for submitting great photos and the opportunity to try something new! (and for the permission to reuse the designs!) I am excited to see how the designs turn out on the mugs. (they're in the kiln now, and will be glazed tomorrow)

I watched a show the other day on PBS where a lady would make animals out of gourds and she said sometimes she would get ideas while she slept. I thought that was funny, then last night while sleeping, I saw an ornament made from clay hanging on a tree that was an icelandic ram head - semi/side view. Even while I was dreaming i thought "here's an idea while i sleep..this is awesome" So I guess I need to get a good head shot of Leroy (because the ornament looked like him) Oh goodness, I have a list of things that I need to catch up on, but I'd better sketch this one out before it's forgotton. (or quite possibly, I might need to take a break from pottery?)

Happy Birthday

Dear Wyatt, Happy Birthday to you!

Wow- 2 already.
Looks like someone might have got into the cake too before the candles were blown out! We had a great day, and hope his birthday was the best to date. Of course, we had cake and ice cream after lunch, and we wrapped up the day with a trip to the zoo with friends to see the festival of lights.

(hm, those lights make my hair look gray)

I have been noticing that Wyatt will address everyone by name now - Daddy is "Da'e" or "jack" papaw is "paw" but he's only said Ma, or Mom when he was fussing, and that happened some time back. (not that he hasn't fussed recently) Well.. this picture, when he saw it downloaded on the computer, I got a solid "mom"! So.. Of course, I had to hear it again and again... "who is that?" "who is that?"

His birthday was special for us, and hope it was for him as well.