I threw a pot!

No, this isn't me. It's Alma, who made a little Viking Longship.



And this is Susan showing Dee how to use Susan's hand made press mold to make a tiny medieval oil lamp.



And this is Steven, throwing his own pot. Or bowl, or whatever we're calling them when we have no idea...




And here's mine. I guess it's a bowl. It's a little lumpy and uneven, and it was one of the funnest things I ever did with an apron on. Now it seems I'm going to have to find a used potters wheel somewhere. I was born for this. :~)




All this was from "combat clay night" at Susan's house, where she generously teaches whomever cares to show up how to use the wheel, how to sculpt, slab build, coil or pinch. I'd say the pinching is why we call it combat clay night, except that moniker came from one of the pots flying off the bat and hitting the wall. Said wall still bearing the SPLAT mark. Pretty cool, having splat marks on your wall. I'm a little jealous.

Here's Susan and Dee again.



I should have brought my camera, but of course I didn't. My hands would have been all muddy anyway. But Alma did bring one and got these pictures. Susan took some too, and I'm going to have to pay her not to post the more clownish ones.

Once I get my kiln wired and ready to go, we'll have a Kiln Blessing Party. I'll definitely have my camera for that...

Woohoooo! Estimates!

The second electrician is on his way out here to give us an estimate on the cost to wire the shop. We need 220, 50 amps, to the shop for the kiln. Yes, I have this lovely kiln that I've been dragging around for three years. Haven't ever fired it up because we've moved several times and at none of those places did we have the right wiring.

That is all about to change. Hooyah. Phil and his dad built us an outbuilding this last fall, to be half motorcycle garage and half pottery shop. I love my half. Well, I got a couple feet more than half because the hubby is a generous man.


Still, my end has two windows and WILL have counter space, a big drying cupboard, space for the kiln, big shelves and little shelves. I'm so wired about it, makes me wonder why we need an electrician! Yay! It's in the works...finally. Once it's ready, I'll have to fire some practice pieces. I don't know if I can trust my inexperience to these practice pieces...because I've become fond of them.





Here's a couple of things I have ready to go in...




Once we have the kiln hooked up, I'll have a Kiln Blessing...maybe do a pit firing out in the sand lot to see what that's like, and we can roast s'mores while we're at it.

Oh--the electrician just pulled up! This is really gonna happen. I'm gonna have a kiln...a real, live, fire-it-whenever-I-want kiln.
Life is good, isn't it?

Warning: Extremely Cute Content

I dare you to see this little National Geographic story and not smile. It pretty much made my day.

Orangutan and the Hound


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Wearing the Teacher Hat...

I have a class to teach today on Growing and Using Common Herbs in South Texas, at the Copeland Activity Center. My contact said there will likely be around 45 people, all of retirement age. I have no idea what their average garden knowledge will be, but I figure I'll have enough material to get the brand new ones going and enough to foster a little curiosity in the veterans.

The hardest part in preparing the lesson plan was figuring out when to stop...it's only an hour and a half, and I'm supposed to leave time for questions! I love gardening AND herbs--there's just soooooo much cool stuff to share. I'll edit this post when I'm finished today with a little post-mortem on how it went. In the meantime, go make a cup of herb tea...maybe rosemary for a mental lift, lemon balm if you need to sooth your tummy.




Edited the next day to add:

I did teach the class, and had a great time. There was not as big a group as I'd expected, only 30 or so, which is good because there's more interaction with a smaller group. One thing I discovered as I taught the lesson--no, two things. First, when you are asked to teach a class, be sure to specify the level of material you are going to present, so you can draw a more homogeneous knowledge base as a target--and write the lesson accordingly. Second, put much less in the lesson plan! I had way too much to cover to be able to do an adequate job of any of it, and in trying to cover so much, it felt like I was just all over the place.

They seemed happy with the class, because I'd made sure to direct them to the San Antonio Herb Society, where the ones who are seriously interested can delve more deeply into their particular interests. But for future reference, I will know to be a lot more discerning when I write a lesson plan!