Signing Off

for now…

It goes like this…

I have a dear friend who is getting married in May. She has asked for my help with her wedding. I am making/designing her dress and her two daughters dresses. I am helping her design the wedding invitations. I am helping cook, as the caterer does not do Vegetarian and the bride is. ( not the groom) I am also taking the wedding pictures. I said Okay to all of this, because I am okay with all of this. Yes it’s a lot, but I love her.

I am also trying to get some pottery done for the upcoming show season. I am also trying to get some other art stuff done. I have a two stained glass pieces that need to be finished by the end of next month.

I have company coming starting the end of the month and running through the end of next month. ( 4 different sets..)

The 15 year old needs me to help him learn Spanish, he failed it again.

I have a car in the driveway that I need to fix the starter and then replace the CV boots on both front axles. Need to get this done if I am going to be doing any shows, cause this is my hauling machine.

So right now I feel like I am a little overly busy. I enjoy spending my time here in the blog world with so many wonderful people. I hope that you all understand when I say I am taking a break, and if I am not around to comment or post, it’s just I am a very tired puppy. I will be back when Time is more available.

I just wanted to share whats going on here.

Please take good care of yourselves,

Walk easy

and Be peace.

Vent,Growl and snarl….

I just need to put this out there..

I am so tired of this crap

I have been pushing through a lot of pottery, It is getting on to show season and I need to start making some money to pay the bills..

(You know those bills that seem to be getting BIGGER AND BIGGER…while the amount of money you make stays the same or gets smaller and smaller. )

Anyway, since I moved to the new digs, I have been struggling to find a clay supplier local, (so I am not getting clobbered on the freight) After a year of trying , I finally tossed my hands up in the air and said “I give!” Thus the trip to Atlanta…

But I had to share..

I had to show you what the issues were…

See one clay had a shrink ratio of about 18-21 %, even though the manufacturer says it’s 12%. I am convinced that maybe once it was that way, but to keep costs down and profits up they started adding copious amounts of water. Grrrrrr

Then I have this lovely problem. I have clay bodies that will not take glaze and it blisters…even with a simple clear glaze!!!!

Grrrrr.

This is a piece made from th clay from Atlanta

Notice the lovely even green…it is suppose to break brown over all the carvings, but stay green where ever it is smooth.

This piece was fired in the same kiln, same firing, same glaze, only difference is the clay body.

Notice how the green is only where the glaze was a bit thicker? what makes it worse is that it blistered and spit…

yes….spit the glaze off in certain spots.

I am sure you can imagine the heart, the time and energy that goes into something that has been carved and sculpted like this, and now it’s not even a piece I can sell.

What really gets me, however is that when I call and complain, they tell me it’s my glaze!

HUNH?

How do they figure that? When it’s fine on one piece, but not on another? It’s the standard,” Not My fault! Nope not me! It was you!!!

YOU screwed up!”

yeah I did, I bought clay local, instead of going with someone I knew was good, and had good company policy! This is where I plug Kick Wheel Clay Co. in Atlanta Georgia, and don’t even bother mentioning the …ahem.. other “clay company”.

Thanks for letting me Rant…

I could go for a few Poor babies..if you feel like it…

sigh

Contributions…

        I just wanted to let you know that I have collected 45 $ at the Labyrinth of Life shop, and an additional 10$ at a local gift shop that is carrying the Inner peace T-shirts.

I am so thrilled to be able to send a check at the end of this month to the Good Shepherd Mission Fund for their work in Swaziland. I could not have had this happen if it were not for all of your generous support and encouragement! Thank you so much!

WW

Oil painting

I enjoy painting a great deal, I confess that mostly I am copying some other great artists work. It is hard to get paid to paint your own inspiration. Most people want a Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso or Da Vinci painted on their dining room wall, Not a Sorrow. Which is fine with me, I enjoy studying the brush stokes and techniques of the old masters, and I am not so proud to say it pays some of the bills.

Recently I felt the urge to paint, not copy another tinker bell or Manet, but just play in the paint. With some of the funds from the sale of some pottery, I purchased some oil paints. I have not painted in Oils in 25+ years, so I am not sure exactly what I was thinking, but I was enthralled by the concept of ‘water based oils’. It sounded like heaven, no smelly turpentine, and the ability to blend and fuss for a few days. Well, of course it turned out to be a lesson unto itself. I will spare the gory details , suffice to say it was harder than I thought, but still fun as all get. I am not unpleased with my first attempt, and have another canvas waiting in the wings.

I would like to express my Deep gratitude to Mig Bardsley. She is a photographer of amazing skill. She manages to turn the most ordinary lane into a road to infinite possibilities. Her photo’s are more than a snap shot, they are a story waiting to unfold. She was my catalyst for painting, I kept looking at her photo’s thinking “Gawd, I would love to try and paint that!” So one day I mustered the courage to ask her if she would mind if I tried. She was so incredibly gracious and supportive, she even sent me a slightly larger image so that I could  print it out and work from it! She is so sweet and kind, I can only  hope she is not appalled at me first attempt at a landscape in 25 years…

Please go and visit her wonderful world at Pictures speak quietly…

The link to my inspiration is Here… 

It now sits drying on my sewing table, I have fiddled with it to my last..

Many Thanks Mig for letting me Play!

Hotlanta

So Atlanta had a tornado, the day after I visited.

I am fine, and was well out of town by the time it went Boom!

The thing about Atlanta that we should all be thankful for was it didn’t happen during rush hour.

    Because I don’t have to drive it every day, and because I wasn’t in any hurry, I found 10 lanes of traffic coming and going stopped….worth not only a picture

but a laugh as well…

wow.

Asking…

I have been out of town,

I want to thank everyone who has come and left their thoughts and hopes on the last post ” No more “. I completely understand how difficult it is to live in this world and be conscious of our day to day choices and efforts.

Missharleyquinn and myself are trying to create a space where folks can go to find products that have NOT been created in sweat shops or gulags or places where there is a hazard not only to the product but to the individuals who make the products.

We are asking for your help.

If you have some product that you buy or know of that is made outside of China or any other place that does not provide a safe working environment would you please visit us HERE at silencedosomething.wordpress.com/ and let us know?

We would greatly appreciate everyones contributions.

Please understand,

This is not a stand for isolationism, but instead a statement that globalization must be wise and for the better of all.

Thank you…

No More

I am going to make a conscious effort

I am going to make a stand

I am going to stop and pay attention

to what goes in the cart.

What comes into my Home.

It started early today when the woman I purchase chemicals from for my glazes informed me that cobalt has gone up to 60$ a pound.

It continued when I needed to fix my car and the parts were double what they were last time.

It ended when I saw what the fear mongers in China are doing to cats.

I am joining Missharleyquinn , I am NOT buying anything made in China. If I can’t find it made somewhere else, then I am NOT buying it, and I will do with out. I too am tired of toxic cloths, toys, jewelry and house hold goods. I am sick and horrified at the way they treat not only their people, filling the air with pollution, but the way they treat the animals there. ( see Missy H’s page)

I am one person, she is two, I can’t change the world, but I will take my stand, and it’s next to MissHarley…

NO more.

Backround music today…

“Didn’t Cha Know”

Oh hey…

Ooh hey
I’m trying to decide
Which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere

Ooh hey
I’m trying to decide
Which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere

Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Tried to move but I lost my way
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Stopped to watch my emotions sway
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Knew the toll, but I would not pay
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Cause you never know where the cards may lay

Time to save the world
Where in the world is all the time
So many things I still don’t know
So many times I’ve changed my mind
Guess I was born to make mistakes
But I ain’t scared to take the weight
So when I stumble off the path
I know my heart will guide me back

Ooh hey
I’m trying to decide
Which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere

Ooh hey
I’m trying to decide
Which way to go
I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere

Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Tried to run but I lost my way
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Stopped to watch my emotions sway
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
Knew the toll but I would not pay
Didn’t cha know, didn’t cha know
I said ya never know how the cards may lay

Love is life, and life is free
Take a ride on life with me
Free your mind and find your way
There will be a brighter day

Love is life, and life is free
Take a ride on life with me
Free your mind and find your way
There will be a brighter day

Song by ERYKAH BADU

The Yellow Mask

    I have never felt that anger was a productive emotion, I think we have all been told/taught at some point or another that it is a destructive force. I don’t have any desire to be Shiva doing the dance of death, despite what my kids might feel when I am on a tear.

I have been holding a lot of anger inside me lately. I know it’s there, it’s this ball of flame that sits low in my belly. It’s this force in my haptic moods that shifts me from project to project with an unrelenting momentum. I am in a very different space however , than I have ever been before when it comes to my anger.

I am releasing it slowly , like an over long exhale. I have been looking at it, turning it over and studying it. I have tried to find it’s source. I know it has to come from something inside of me. I know me to well at this stage in the game to refute it’s germination somewhere from within.

I have been potting and painting out LOVE. In copious amounts.

Love is manifest in everything, and so is rest.

Love and rest. My inner voice speaking to me? I know logically that my source of frustration and anger, comes to me from the loves that I ache over.

I know that as we come closer to April, and the anniversary of my Yaya’s Death, a part of my heart mourns.

So as I sat today at the wheel, throwing, lost in the feel of the mud in my fingers I felt the lesson unfold inside of me. It’s one of those moments when your eyes well, but don’t spill over. It’s that long out breath where everything just lets go. It’s the yellow mask, that only my friend would understand. I have stared at it for weeks now,

“LOVE with out attachment to outcome…”

I understand the anger, and with the knowing it unfurls and dissipates. If I want to Love the world into change, it has to be it’s own change. Not what I want or believe it should be.  I can not make the world less violent through love, I can not make those I love choose the paths I see for them.

Love does not work that way.

When Love speaks, It has many voices.

It whispers ” Peace and Comfort” in a gentle touch.

It bellows ” Enough! I love you enough to say your actions hurt me, and though I will always love you, I let you go, to hurt yourself if you must, but I no longer allow you to hurt me.”

It speaks in volumes “Love sees all, the good and the bad, it is not conditional to one behavior over the other. Love accepts that we shall err.”

It states ” Love is…”

I remember now.