Who Knows Where My Mind Goes?

I seriously go AWOL on here, don't I?
I don't mean to, I just get busy and it's seems like it's been a hectic few months. I don't even know why exactly. I've got more time to do the things I really enjoy, but I also get called out to do volunteer things as well, so the time zips by and here we are in December.

I've been doing lots of things. Lots of different things. I almost don't like to sleep because it seems like every time I close my eyes I get some new vision of a different thing in my head, and I have to make an effort to stay focused on the project at hand.

Right Now, Right This Minute Today - I'm working on tiny, tiny houses that will have alphabet letters on them so that folks can spell out a greeting of their choice, or a name, or Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Yay, it's Kwanzaa.......or Nice to See You, Now Go Home. You get the idea. I saw these somewhere but they cost a LOT of money and they had one saying - Merry Christmas - and it was over $100. I decided I could do it for $3 a letter and people could spell out what they want. That's what I would want to do. So that's Thing #1.

Thing #2 - Don't we all just LOVE baby's hand prints? You have to! They're so tiny and pudgy and adorable. I loved the ones that I still have, one from my youngest sister and one from my almost 30-year old daughter. They are precious to me. SO.... when I was watching my friend's granddaughter last month (she's two) we had "art" time and played clay. We made a delightful hand print from stoneware and I thought it would be so sweet to give to her Mom for Christmas. You know, hang it on a ribbon like the rest of things like that. But then I found a simple frame that my husband had made for me for some other whim I'd had a couple of years ago and thought, "how cool would it be to have it in a frame? Very! And how even cooler would it be to have it in a frame with wood blocks on the top to spell out her name? Even cooler! So, that said, I've got three in the works - pictures here.

Thing #3 - Maybe I am the only one who sees things and immediately I have my own idea of how I'd like it, how I would do it differently, how very "if that was MY work, I'd do it this way" of me. I don't know if that's good or bad, but that's how I roll.... so when I saw some very simple paintings, very simple, with scriptures on them, I thought - "Now THAT is something I would really like to do, and put MY favorite scriptures on them." I've only just started so I don't have anything to show - yet!

Thing #4 - Some Random stuff I've been working on.... salt and pepper birds, a fat round cobalt blue bird....etc.
Thing #5 - This probably isn't new, but I'm always drawn back to my sewing machine to make my patches or to work on one of the art quilts I've got started.

I know - I've got more "things" in progress than you probably have on your keychain, but that's how I think. That's how I work and it suits me. I feel like this is exactly what I was meant to do. So I'll make no more apologies for it. Now if I can make it lucrative - THAT would be heaven!

Kate

P.S. That's PLENTY of stuff to look at, but if you're looking for some other really cool toy kind of stuff, check out this website, full of cool Etsy toy-type things!
http://app.bronto.com/public/?q=preview_message&fn=Link&t=1&ssid=12675&id=46j33dsyk9omocda24gyikn67suz7&id2=2hw3amk7njlva2o70sttuzsp349nl&subscriber_id=bcqeievnkdhxayrkgoxvomgboaiubjn&messageversion_id=brbizkxyzxisxuicuqatrmvdyqjtban&delivery_id=aooevmzdnjpxdxkjwrggyemxqeeoblf

Bird Work Interrupted By Seemingly Random Questions

I've been working non-stop, pretty much, to get ready for a showing of my birds that will be included in this month's Third Thursday Artwalk to be held downtown. I'm excited about being included and can't wait to show what I can do with a little clay and a brain that keeps me up at night.

Since I do not go to 'a place of work' to work, I don't interact that much with people these days. Most communication is computer based, or text based with the occasional real live phone call to my mother which is always great because we volley ideas around and I love it. She is the one who, along with her brother, my much beloved uncle, gave me my love and great appreciation for art in its many forms. I love texture you can touch, color that you see even when you close your eyes and many many different kinds of art. So it makes sense to me that I would try my hand at everything, settle with some things for a time and then move on.

For the time being, and the last couple of years, I've been enamored of clay and it's many ways to use it. Right now I'm about all things "bird," and I'll post some pictures of what I've been doing. My endeavors today will be to make cookie jars. Bird cookie jars... and I'll post pictures of them when I've got them to the drying point. I want to get at least a couple of them done before next week when I can actually show them to the public. We'll see how that goes.

So, since my interraction with people is fairly limited to the internet, I get blesses with some of these random questionnaires designed to help someone know me better. First thing the sender surely must understand about me is I am not, nor have I ever been, limited nor held in bondage to directions. Nope - I care not for directions and even less for recipes, although there have been a time or two that I could honestly say that they were helpful.

I'm still trying to figure out what the following questionnaire was designed for, I think the only thing anyone could tell about me from this is that I create my own rules for THEIR stuff, and that people are both my main annoyance, and my main delight. See for yourself. Bird pictures follow.

35 Seemingly Random Questions That Surely Must Indicate SOMEthing.

1.What time did you get up this morning? 8 a.m.
2. How do you like your steak? Medium-rare
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? “Julie and Julia,” loved it. And since I love the whole movie experience, I’ll go back and see it again. Before that, “The Ugly Truth,” clever and somewhat endearing but really, I mean really, do we need ALL the sexual innuendoes? Seriously? And before that was “The Proposal,” I say, completely without shame, that I’ve seen that three times at the theatre.
4. What is your favorite TV show? Right now? Burn Notice, In Plain Sight, Royal Pains (sort of), Joyce Meyer Ministries (because she offers great insight and it’s usually along my same lines of thinking). All About Jim….oh yeah, and that’s not the most embarrassing show I choose to watch – I love the New Jersey Housewives – I love it and …….and so what?
5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? I’d divide it up between Seattle, New York, Ojai and Alaska.
6. What did you have for breakfast? An antibiotic and a pain pill……..if this gets drooly, or I start typing with my forehead, that’s why.
7. What is your favorite cuisine? MexAmerItalian…. Will that count? Love all things taco but they run neck-and-neck with MY Perfect Cheeseburger……which I can send a picture of to your cell phone if you give me the number, and good pizzalasagnaspaghettirigatoni is always good. Mostly anything I make.
8. What foods do you dislike? Liver, and chicken liver, all things liver, and though I’d love to use beet juice for coloring fabric, the fruit of such will never pass over my lips. I don’t even know why they were made, but the color is beautiful.
9. Favorite Place to Eat? This little Mexican place right by the the state beach in San Luis Obispo that makes really good margaritas but even better, (yeah, I know, I’m an obvious ‘foodie’ )– they make the absolute best shredded beef stuffed chile rellenos! I’ve found nobody else who makes them, nobody! And are they great, oh yes …. And did I come home and try to do it myself? Oh yes. And was I successful? Definitely. And am I making this list of questions even better than it was? Of course,I always do, and I now turn the mic back over to you Kelly.

10. Favorite dressing? Paul Newman’s Ceasar, my own Thousand Island, and a newly homemade Ranch.

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? A ’95 Thunderbird, but my heart belongs to Volkswagen. But if I had a serious butt-load of cash, I’d be driving a Chevy Tahoe.

12. What are your favorite clothes? Bohemy (my word) skirt and t-shirt all the time.

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? Santa Fe – Oh shut up! I’m going there for the balloon races in October. Hello! Oh, so that means I have to choose another……the whole Eastern Seaboard…..and I want to see wherever it is The Outter Banks is. Why, you might ask? This is why – this one part of dialogue in "Message In A Bottle"- “To all the ships at sea and all the ports of call... to may family and to all friends and strangers - This is a message and a prayer. The message is that my travels taught me a great truth. I already had what everyone is searching for and few ever find. The person in the world who I was born to love forever, a person like me, of the outer banks and the blue Atlantic mystery; a person rich in simple treasures, self-made, self-taught, a harbor where I am forever home. And no wind or trouble or even a little death can knock down this kind of love and be healed by it. If my prayer is heard, then there will be an erasing of all guilt and all regret, and an end to all anger. . . . “.
14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 3/4 full, and I've got another one in the cupboard.
15. Where would you want to retire? Santa Barbara

16. Favorite time of day? Early morning, late at night. The middle of the day is no creamy filling to me.

17. Where were you born? Pasadena, Ca.

18. What is your favorite sport to watch? Surfing, all surfing, all the time.

19. Who do you think will not tag you back? Beats me.

20. Person you expect to tag you back first? I have no expectations.

21. Who are you most curious about their responses to this? Everyone!

22. Bird watcher? Why thank you, I love to watch birds.

23. Are you a morning person or a night person? Yes.

24. Do you have any pets? Yes

25. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Hmmm……….can’t think of any on such short notice.
26. What did you want to be when you were little? A torch singer in a piano bar.

27. What is your best childhood memory? Any time, all times with my grandmother.
28. Are you a cat or dog person? Dog

29. Do you work? I pot. I'm a potter. I'm an artist. I am. At the moment, that’s my job. Do I love it? I love it. Can I make a living at it? THAT is the multi-bizionnaire question. Am I any good at it? I think I could be headed in that direction. Will my timing be perfect? I would hope so but who can tell?

30. Always wear your seat belt? Who wants to know?

31. Been in a car accident? Not exactly

32. Any pet peeves? OMG…… let’s see, stupid people, people who drive with their cell phones..and it’s not that I mind THAT so much, but when they’re obviously engrossed in a long conversation so they can’t pay attention to who is around them; people who don't take the time to delve deeper into any kind of meaning whatsoever; trendiness, it's gets old; cliches, those get old fast; people who talk with their mouths full; people who are like the interrupting cow......Moo; people who KEEP mentioning themselves and all their accomplishments - get it folks, humility is a wonderful thing, if you're that great, we're not going to forget about you; people who think they have rhythm but they don't - oh wait a sec, that's just seriously funny, never mind; and finally, and I mean this, people who just don't "get it", and it's not because they are in any way impaired, but they don't want to exert the effort, nor do they want to be responsible for anything in their own lives, they want to lean so absolutely on you, on your work, on your life, on your effort at figuring life out that they think they're coasting - but they're not, because still, at the end of the day, at the end of their lives, still - they'll stand before God and have to account for what they've done with what God gave them, not what they latched themselves onto. ****and thank you folks, that concludes my message for this morning****

33. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Pepperoni, sausage, pineapple, bell pepper, onions, mushrooms and olives…..all the time. Perfect combination!

34. Favorite Flower? Gerber daisies

35. Favorite ice cream? Yes! Ice cream is my favorite!

So there we are!

TECHNOLOSER

See those keys? The keys, just to the left, on the keyboard?

THAT keyboard is what is familiar to me. That's what I grew up with, know how to do, and that is what is evidently creating in me a horribly aged and inept feeling that keeps lingering close by.

I have a cell phone, and I even know how to text, much to the amusement of my children's friends whose parents are apparently not quite so hip.

The other day, in all of my smug, techno-coolness, I was ripping off the beginning of what was to be a very long, very funny, email to my daughter. I wasn't looking at the keys because I was so confident in what I was doing - it's all in the counting of the keys, I told myself, tap, tap, tap on the "7" key gives me an 'r', one more tap is the 's'. Most letters I use, I have come to realize are three taps on different keys, I use a lot of 'r's, i's, o's, and c's. Who knows why? All this to just say, that my hip-mom, techno-coolness world came crumbling down like ... hmmm. .... like what?......I should be good at the adjectives here, ... came crumbling down like .......like leaves falling in an autumnal breeze? No, too slow and lingering. Like water droplets off a shaking dog? No. That's too wet and dog-smelly. Maybe it's just as simple as a house of cards, crashing down quickly in a mille-instant. Yes, that's probably it. All at once I looked down at my phone because some letter didn't feel right..... what did I see? Two and a half lines of jibberish. In less than one tenth of a breath, my self-appointed coolness was gone. I felt really silly dumb. I had just wasted probably three minutes getting thumb cramps and probably signing up for early hand arthiritis, for what? Nothing. All at once I wished my daughter was there becasue she would have cracked up, and glad that she wasn't at the same time because I would never live it down and it would have been future fodder for all family gatherings to come. I couldn't tell you now what the funny story even was. And it was a good one, too!
And so, uncool, I'll go back to what I know - showing what I've been working on the last few days and trying to figure out how to get my voice and my art, out to the world.

Kate

I Can Only Stay A Minute...

I can only stay a minute - it's sweltering here in mid-Central Calif. A lovely 106 at the moment and the air conditioning is being rendered decidedly ineffective. Fortunately, the house we're in right now has a pool. We've never had anything more than a dough boy pool when the kids were little and that was great for then, but now..........oh Mommy.........a pool will drop your body temperature down so quickly and it will stay like that for hours afterward. It's wonderful! It's a blessing. We lucked out. Among many things that are wrong with this house, the pool is not one of them.

What I've become enamoured of the last week or so are birds. I started making small ones, then as I got a feel for them, they got a bit bigger, and now I want them to have wings, and after I play with the wings for a while I think I'll give them hats or crowns. I like this big one, she reminded me of how birds splash around in my bird bath and make big watery splashes as their feathers fling water up and over them. I think it also reminds me of my kids when they were little and would play for hours outside with the hose. Something so simple could keep them captivated for hours. Simple. It's a gift to enjoy simple things. To not be concerned about anything else, just focus on one thing for a while.

Here are pictures of the flock I've been working on, but now I'm going to take a break and refresh. I'll be back soon.

Kate

International Commerce

Is ANYONE I know going to Australia any time soon? The reason I ask is this - I woke up this morning to find that someone had purchased several pieces of my pottery on Etsy. (If you don't know what that is, please ask, you will be amazed!)

In my excitement I hurried to gather up the pieces, some of which I had just listed this morning at 2 a.m. (Way too hot to sleep!) So she must have seen them just as soon as I put them on the website. Yay! Excitement! I was so excited that I wanted to sock myself in the arm.

So I exchanged emails with the purchaser and told her, as stated in my shop policy, that I would box everything up and head down to the post office and get an accurate shipping cost. "Fine," she said.

Down at the post office, where there was no line.... hello, did you hear that? NO LINE! I walked right up to the counter and said "OMG - There's no line!" "OMG ! It's because we're closed!" the very nice postal worker woman said. She said that my face looked VERY funny at that point.

So talk, talk, talk, very nice woman by the way, very nice, very helpful.......and I'm out the door with an estimate of $52 to ship a half dozen pieces of pottery, and they're relatively small, to Australia! I want to give her an extra piece, if she proceeds with the order, just because it must be horrible to get things shipped to you if you live there.

Is it just me or is that just crazy?

So - if anyone is going there.......take my stuff with you would you?

Kate

New Thought on Finding Your Center

On this very hot day in mid California, I was out trying to make some semi-dried porcelain turn itself into a pot. It was reluctant, at best. There were spots deep inside that were drier than others and I could feel them but I thought I could work around them. So I centered the clay pretty well, thought I detected a teensy wobble, but ignored it. I brought the clay out and started to bring the sides up and that was simple.... and I LOVE that part, it's like magic.......the clay just slips between your fingers. Always good.

So the sides come up and they're even, everything is good. But I had to keep messing with it.... tidying up the runny stuff from the sides, sopping up the excess water from the inside, thinking maybe I could squeeze up another inch or two on the sides, and therein lies the problem. Why can't I just leave well enough alone?

Nope, I pulled the sides up a bit more and it started to get wobbly. I kept trying to correct it and it went well for a while until I flinched and whooooosh, the whole top slid dangerously at a serious right angle in a fraction of a second. DANG IT! And it was so perfect.

So I tried to fool myself into thinking that I could just pick up the side and smooth it out and it would be okay, but no. I had to yank most of the clay off until I was down to a few inches.

I'll try again I thought. So always the experimentor, I centered that part, and put the heel of my palm into the middle and gently shoved out. I figured I would at least get a small platter.

But I notice that the piece is just a teensy bit off center, but I am too lazy to fix it, so there's this extra little lump of clay that goes off to one side along the rim, not bad, but it's there. I can see it but I want to ignore it.

I stop the wheel and cut it off figuring it would be okay. I continue on and the little lump around the rim forms again. I try for the third time. Same thing happens. Well now I KNOW that the clay is off center and no matter what I do, it's not going to throw right. No respector of persons.

Life is full of these little analogies. It screams for us to just "GET IT"... That platter spoke volumes to me. When we have a bump in the road, relationships, alcohol, drugs, substance issues, whatever, just cutting it off, is not always enough to correct the problem.

That platter showed me that you can trim the obvious away again and again, but eventually you have to rip the whole lump of clay off the bat and start over. You DO have control.

Anything less than getting to where the weak point began, will not suffice. You'll just keep working and working to create something that is atop a wrong foundation.

I tried to take the easy way out to get that platter to work, and then I thought about people I know who struggle to fix things, get their lives to work, but never address the real issue. They never scrape the mess off the bat, gather up their supplies and tools, assess them and start over. And I wonder, will they be doomed to repeat the process over and over? I hope not. I pray not.

In any case.....I do have something fun to share. I made these birds yesterday, and I love them!

Squeezing my day

Like a freshly picked orange, I am usually up and ready to see how much I can squeeze out of my day first thing in the morning.

In my effort to become at least a passable potter, I have to throw, and throw and throw, which I love mind you, but the thought occured to me the other day when I was talking to a friend - this whole 'work for yourself' thing is not without pitfalls.

"GOING" to work is one thing, you go there, you might snivel and stick your foot in the sand sometimes, you might even grumble, but at the end of the pay period, you collect your check and you don't give a second thought of how exactly that company pays you as long as it's a cashable check. So you don't really have to LOVE it, you don't even have to like it, and you might even grumble, or maybe even be considered company subversive - but in any case, they paid you, you can buy pizza, maybe a movie ticket - call it a day.

But Hoe-Dee-DO......working for yourself - WHOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLEE other story. You can't swipe aspirin from yourself, you'd surely better not bitch about yourself to your(self) boss, and you can't go napping in the break room either because you might have to fire yourself. There is no pocketing of pens, no pilfering of paper clips, and there will be no excessive copies being made on company time. Nope, no perks here.

However - working for myself does have it's perks .... I roll out of bed, stick my hair up in a paint brush, tie an apron and head out to ponder 25 lbs of clay and what can I get out of it. Who can SAY that? Not many. So by 7:30 - 8 a.m. I'm up to my elbows (most days) in mud, well clay, but mud sounded more earthy, and maybe I've even gotten a few pots out of the deal before I break to make my husband breakfast.

That's the good part. The part I love. The part for which I drag myself out of bed.

But then there's the part when I grab a cup of coffee, that I have to do, like check email and try not to be distracted by all the new male enhancement products, how to go to school for a $100,000 a year job without it costing me anything, and ooo ooo baby, I want to be your friend, ads that I need to delete before I find out if I've gotten any orders for my pottery.

Back outside, a bisque load comes out of the kiln most days (because it's so tiny) and then I'm scrambling for inspiration before starting to paint. I don't know why but I get really intimidated by the blank pot. Some get intimidated by the blank sheet of paper or the blank screen, if they're writers. "Poo," I say.........I can talk forever, I'll talk for days, and I may even stay on topic, but putting color on a blank pot can be scary. You don't know what you're going to get to begin with and if it turns out ugly you have to do it again, otherwise you've just wasted your canvas, so to speak.

Phone calls, answering email, packaging orders, double checking to see if the product is paid for, printing out labels, working on new items, thinking of new items, writing descriptions, feeding my family, PLUS trying to complete a product so that maybe, with luck you have several so you actually have a 'product line'........so, all this to say - Do not underestimate having a job!

Hopefully this didn't sound too random...... I'm on my way to becoming who I've dreamed of being.

Thanks for listening.

Kate

Is this stuff cool, or is it just me?

I made these bowls a year or couple of years ago and I'm in the process of making some more. I think they're funky, but I love them and use them as often as I can just to show them off.

My tiny towns, or little streets are something I've fallen in love with. I love the little houses and I like that they are on their own block. The individual houses are kind of cool too, just different. It's fun and I love what I'm doing.

Okay, this is all the show and tell for today, I must work. I must accomplish, I must produce today. I must get these things out of my brain.

Many pots, no time to talk

This is what I do all day pretty much.

Funny little pots aren't they?

Here a Pot, There a Pot, Everywhere a PotPot

Sometimes I'm just amazed when I step back and take a look at some of the pieces I've done. This took WORK. And I just set it on a table and didn't look at it for ages. I havent' done anything this labor intensive for a while. I think I may try it again, and this time make it NOT weigh many pounds.

Just so you don't think that the little houses are my only "thing"... attached are pictures of a bunch of pots that had been sitting over at a friend's house waiting to be fired - for six months!

She wasn't firing up her kiln much in the winter, (afraid of setting her garage on fire) and her pieces were pretty large and kept getting fired in front of my stuff, so now that my kiln is up and running, even though it's about the size of an ice chest, I can do several pieces a day.

It's SOOOOOOO Slow, that's for sure, but it does give me the ability to keep a journal of what glaze I used and how much, what works and what doesn't. This is a labor of love for me, definate labor, because I really don't like making the tedious notes, but then I don't want to glaze several pieces with the same color only to find out that I hate that color, or I didn't use enough of that color, or whatever.

The bummer part about working at the college studio is that I have to wait to see where my pieces can get squeezed in and that could take weeks, and if one person's pot explodes, BOOM!, there goes my piece.

Sometimes I'm amazed that I enjoy pottery as much as I do, because it's really not all that swell for the impatient. You throw a pot, you wait til it's dry enough to trim. After it's trimmed, you wait til it's completely dry before you can fire it. You fire it for 7 hours, then you have to wait a day for your kiln to cool down enough so that you don't crack the piece when you swing open the door and the cooler air hits it. One piece can take almost two weeks to produce, so you're always working in tandem with something else, so I throw, I fire, I glaze......which is another 7 hour firing and cooling process. THEN, if it's turned out well, I can think about selling it.

Anyway - I just thought I would share that little process with you. I've got probably at least twice as many pieces as were in the photos, just waiting for glaze and their last firing. Etsy here I come!

Love,

K

These curvy things remind me of girls. Jennifer thinks they look like Thailand. Having not been there I can't say, but I doubt it. Some do remind me of Chinese hats though. The tall ones in this picture are 12 and 14 inches tall. I'm going to see how far I can go with them. They start getting a little wobbly at 12 inches and they want to droop. I just keep playing with them until they dry sufficiently to stand up on their own. I like 'em!

I can start my own city!

Kate

Okay... Even NEWER Stuff

I am totally enamoured of the small buildings that I've been working on. I think they're people. Gabe says that they remind him of one of his MarioWorld games, and suggests that I make a whole city of them. Now, I may make a city of them, but please, I'd like to wipe out the image of MarioWorld from my brain.

BECAUSE - NO, I don't want them to resemble mushrooms. I don't even like the image of mushrooms, although, one of the first experiences I had with clay was making two hand size mushrooms and they turned out pretty good.

Rambling aside, I like the image of twisty, turny buildings reaching up toward the sky. That's it, that's my whole reason. I'm just going to play that out til I run out of ideas.

So here are the pictures from the last couple of days.

Kate