POTTERY ANYBODY DO ANY???
Weezie

I've been dabbling at pottery for the past 4 years. I started in a "wheel" class but quickly found that I didn't have very good control of the clay because I had recently sprained my dominent thumb in a car accident, when the airbag deployed. Did you know that they no longer recommend that you hold the wheel at "10 and 50 around the clock" because these injuries are very common with airbags? A few other pieces I've made are a stepping stone, tissue box cover, birdhouse, candle holders, plates with melted glass in them that looks like the turquoise of water by a tropical island , and some puffed heart paperweights.

By the way... the glass I used to melt was brought in by a guy who works for the NYC traffic dept. It is the light used for the green in traffic lights - he has access to some broken lights. I found it fascinating to learn that the GREEN lights are actually turquoise glass lit from behind by a yellow bulb.

I've never been very artistic, but find this a great outlet for stress, and a nice way to spend some time when I can't be outside gardening. It's also been a nice way to meet people from all different stages of life.

Our latest projects have involved a "patchwork" procedure and is a lot of fun, though very time consuming. I can't wait to see my first pieces back out of the kiln! Lynne

My mommy went back to college,
and one of her first classes she signed
up for was a pottery class.....
She made some really cute windchimes out of it.
The tricky part for that is even weight,
but she had alot of fun in the class..

Just something to do to keep her busy,
but she found a few new "young" friends,
and when she runs into them, they are
very happy to see her, I guess she made the
class alot more funner than it would have been.

I loved the class in my highschool, and still
have pots that I made and vases, and bowls.
Truely a satisfying hobbie....

Send some pictures in when your projects are done.

Weezie

I forgot about the windchimes I made - all twisty and pretty and hanging by the front door!

Really gotta get me a camera soon.

Lynne

Plants&pots...
Do you melt the glass yourself??? WOW! I know high temps are required..Not like I could do it on my stove or anything. I can't imagine anything as fascinating as working with glass.

Hi Jillie~

No, I don't melt the glass. We make dishes and things that have a lip/edge on them and then place the broken glass on the bottom fitting the pieces together like a puzzle, so hopefully it will melt into a smooth surface without pouring out of the project and ruining the kiln. Most of the time the glass crackles under the surface and the project ends up looking like "fried marbles" if you know these from years ago. Sometimes we get line fractures on the surface, but to quote my teacher "nothing is perfect in life".

I'd love to work with glass - even stained glass, but I don't think I have the patience for that right now. You can make those "fried marbles" on your stove however.

Lynne

Does working in polymer clay count? My middle daughter is a miniatures artist and she got me hooked on the stuff. When she lived in TX, she sent me a little goodie box with about ten colors of clay & instruction books & cutters. It's such fun! I learned how to make canes & millifiore (spelling?) and pinch-pots. She makes tiny sushi that's incredible.

My daughter also likes polymer clay - she's only 13 though. I LOVE millifiore, but don't think I have the patience to do it. What do you make with yours? I used to have a great website about it bookmarked, but lost it when my computer crashed last year.

Do you have any pictures of things you've made? I'd love to see the sushi too!

Lynne

Plants&pots...coming up... trying to get this @#%^@#! download to work....

Jillie and Plants and Pots,
they just had something on Carol Duvall show,
with that clay, someone wrote a book, called,
Clay Charactors 101...
It was sooooooooooooo cute, they did santa's and snowmen and reindeers...
Cute..
Weezie
You can go to HGTV and access her show to see it.

Did this work?

Fudge...gonna try again..

Hi Jillie~

I was able to see the picture by right clicking and then clicking on properties, and then cut and paste.

Wow!!! I cannot believe how TINY the sushi is!

Lynne

It worked for me too!!

How awesome!!
That is tiny!!!

unbelievable....

Thanks for sharing!!!

Weezie


Plants and Pots,
Thanks for helping with that!

Glad to be of help, Weezie!

Hi, Lynne,

Those little sushi's started out as large clay canes and were reduced over and over & then sliced to make the minis. She gave me a plate of tiny oreo cookies and a balogna sandwich with a tiny stuffed green olive on top. Last year, in my Christmas stocking, she gave me a little bento box and a tiny bowl of miso soup. Her gyoza, a different process, is on our webshots under Claychik's Minis. As I get more of her photos, I'll post them.
She has a website under construction & will eventually be selling to dollhouse crafters, etc.
Check out the gyoza...
http://community.webshots.com/album/101455024VwwCVR

Just wonderful, Jillie!

I have to ask you about your koala planter - I have a friend who has the most extensive collection of koala bear things - but she doesn't have one of those yet. She just put in a pool with extensive landscaping last summer and I'm sure she would love a planter like that. Can you tell me where you got it, and if I might be able to find it somewhere near here?

Thanks Lynne

Hi, Lynne,

I bought that koala at a yard sale about 10 years ago for $1.00. I'm always on the lookout for unusual animal pitchers or bowls and used to prowl thrift stores & yard sales for them.
The koala still has the store sticker on the side. It says, "The Mud Daubers, pottery and gifts, Sapulpa, Oklahoma (how it got to a yard sale in the Calif high desert, I'll never know ). On the bottom, it's marked, "MD KPB Henri" Hope you can track one down.

Thanks for the info, Jillie! I can't believe you still have the sticker on it after 10 years - wow!

I did a search and didn't come up with anything. Oh, well... You certainly got a great buy on it. I just love getting bargains, but haven't tried yard sales yet.

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone,
Lynne

People get rid of the darndest things at yard sales. Other peoples' trash become my flower pots. Teapots from the .99 stores make great planters, too & you can stick miniature sedum in the spouts. After a day of prowling the cheap stuff I come home and get out my goggles and Dremmel & make drainage holes in everything (Instead of pot shards to cover the holes I buy window screen & cut it into little squares. You get good drainage and it keeps the buggies out....MUCH cheaper than buying the pre-cut flower pot drainage screens)
I love the neighborhood signs that say "Big, multi-family yard sale." I know I'll find lotsa planter possibilities..

I love the teapot planters where you put sedum in the spouts! I had never thought to do that. The same friend of mine who collects koalas also collects teapots, and I'm forever trying to find different ones for her - however she likes the ones that are characters, like animals, cartoons, or symbols of holidays, etc. I sent her some of your pictures so she can get some ideas for around her new pool.

Thanks, Lynne

Plants 'n Pots, hope she likes my ideas & can use them. Spread the fun!
I found another shot of Claychik's mini food. It's the hambuger & fries she gave me. Check Claychik's minis:

http://community.webshots.com/user/jc2weho

I am just amazed, Jillie, that anyone can work in such teeny tiny pieces - they are terrific!!!

I just started an album over at webshots.com of a few pictures of some of my pottery. I got my daughter a very belated camera on black Friday - and I am having so much fun with it.
http://community.webshots.com/user/ciminim

Lynne

Lynne!!!!!!

Those are amazing. You're my pottery hero!
Great Job!!

Very Nice Lynn,
Thanks for sharing,
I loved the one with
the plants coming out of it...
Were they growing there?
Or just placed there??
Nice idea!!

Weezie

Thanks for looking! You should see some of the work people do at the studio - I am in awe everytime I go in and see new finished pieces! I have a few vases that are not on walls yet - they can't hold water, so I'm looking for just the right dried flowers or grasses to put in them. I prefer real ones, as opposed to the silk ones. When I get them on walls, I'll post more pics.

Lynne

Plants~n~pots,
I really like that idea!!
(we filled old shoes with the hens~n~chicks,
red sedums, and a lime green sedum.)
Very nice in coloring and NO WATERING!!
But I like the pots,
I loved the one with the faces!!
I loved the classes I took at school
and when I'm done with the wee~ones
That's one of the first things I'd like to do.

But I love the idea of the teapots and sedums, they sound alot of fun (Thanks Jillie) I am going to do that one for my mother next year, she
loved the shoes, and would move them up and down
her side walk.... I'm thinking of making a bunch more and she can line the sidewalk like a parade.
But we have a few cracked tea pots, and now
we have found a project for them......

I'll be thinking of a ton of ideas for them.....

Weezie

Weez, I agree, the one with the stamped faces is my favorite. Love the coloration, too. I keep looking at 'em..

Hey Jillie ~

I just saw part of a show on the "food channel" here that had a young woman on, named Celeste, who makes the teeny tiny foods like your daughter does out of polymer clay. That wouldn't be her, would it? They showed some incredible things - the tiniest being gummy bears in full detail that were only 1/12 of an inch!!! Just amazing, as I said before! Lynne

Hi, Lynne,
Nope, that's not my Claychik, but I'm sure she's heard of Celeste. They all seem to know each other's work. If you ever see a show with Nora-Jean Gatine, Karen Lewis or Marie Segal; they're my daughter's claying buddys, & in the same guild.

Plants 'n pots,

I've been going nutz trying to find your post again, so I could ask you a question.

Can you pretty please tell me how to make fried marbles?? You wrote "on the stove?"

Been dying to ask you that.

Hi Jillie ~

Don't go nutz

ENJOY!!!
fried marbles

Wow! Thanks, Plants 'n pots... I gotta fry up some marbles this weekend. We have a bazillion marbles from the 99-cent-only store. My head is spinning with "garden art" possibilities

Oh watch out now! Do share when complete!!!!

Oh My Gosh!

Is that the smell of frying marbles coming from the kitchen Jillie?

jc2weho

Nope, Hollywood....I overcooked the asparagus again....

LOL You two are hilarious!

A few posts ago, I wrote,

"The koala still has the store sticker on the side. It says, "The Mud Daubers, pottery and gifts, Sapulpa, Oklahoma"

I misspelled "Dobbers." Wouldn't it be funny if they were still in business after all these years?

Catlover, I just had to get up and turn up the thermostat just now . Is it chilly-ish in your neck o'the woods? Are we having Winter, yet?

....I'm really, truly so bad at cooking asparagus. It's supposed to be "al dente, si?". I'm a pretty decent cook, but, somehow.....
I time-warp back to the 70's..... when, for my kids, it had to be all mushy with salt and butter to get them to even come CLOSE to eating it.....heck, I got used to being able to mash those spears with my fork...
before I even have time to throw some ice and water into a bowl for "the plunge," the asparagi are goners. (((sigh)))

I've done it really well a few times, not limp, lil' crunch at the taste test. The rest of the time I do the time-warp thing and ..you know.

Thanks again, Jillie...

I searched using a bunch of search engines and came up empty. Oh, well... I'll just have to keep my eyes open...

((((sigh)))

Yep Jillie it has a nip to the air tonight. That breeze is the shocker. Went to the mailbox and had to run....okay walk really really fast!!!!

I was gone part of the day and forgot I turned the heater down before I left and when my daughter got home of course I was quickly reminded about the lack of heat!!! Payback for leaving me freezing on the couch last night!!!

Cat, you got left freezing on the couch? Who'd ever do that to you??? Shame! <img border="0" alt="[tongue]" title="" src="graemlins/tongue.gif" />

My 20 yr. old daughter and I watch Survivor together and we were snuggling on the couch. (I'm lucky ....she still allows me to cuddle with her). Anyway she left me there asleep...was she being nice and letting me sleep or was she trying to freeze me to death with no blanket!Ha Ha! We both razz each other so not quite sure!!!!! Bill suggested I be sneaky and take her blanket in the morning...but darn I was too late....then I really thought about turning on and off the sprinklers while she was in the shower! Ha Ha....."oh you were taking a shower...I'm sorry I didn't realize". :p How many times has she flushed the toilet while I was in there?????? It was all in good fun! Just wait....remember what goes around comes around!!!

If she reads this I'm in trouble...

My granddaughter used to climb in bed with me and snuggle ...& she's one of those kids who do the "grip the blankie and roll with it" when she'd turn over....Brrrrr Grandmacicle....

LOL My friend and her husband have that same issue!Ha Ha....she puts the blankets under her arm and he says she miraculously does a jump and turn and takes the whole blanket and sheet!

Subversive blankie-nappers! They add the artsy twist to throw you off-guard.... :rolleyes:

We Have Fried Marbles!!!
...and because Mr. Murphy has taken up residence....G'daughter and I opted to "bake" the marbles in a 425 degree oven in a cake pan instead of on the stove (If you'll notice in the Jillie and the Bluejays pics I have this scar running accross my forearm....I was chasing a hamburger patty accross a BIG skillet last week and layed my arm on the edge. YOW!

HOW EXCITING JILLIE!!!

How wuz that nappy, Laura?

Glad you had fun, Jillie!

When you baked them, did you move them around at all, or just let them sit the whole time?
What did/are you going to do with them?

Any pictures yet? (can you tell I've been housebound for 3 days now - what with the weather? No school for Amy or pottery class for me today... I'm climbing the walls!)

How old is Ashleigh? Does she have any fun ideas for me to do with my daughter?

Ok, I'll stop now... think I'll get ready for bed... g'nite

Lynne,
One of the funnest things for my boys to do is,
I get out all of my Fiskar scissors, (the one's that cut the funny edges) and give them construction paper and let them have my stapler, punch holer (one and 3) glue, gluesticks, colored glue, doiley's, etc......They have a ball........
Keeps 'em busy for hours....
Go to the warehouse stores (BJ's or Sam's)
and get some flashy stickers and make a sticker books, and feathers'........
Weezie

Thanks, Weezie - great ideas!

What crafts did you like when you were a teen?

I really enjoyed (and still do) making my own jewelry. Craft stores like Michael's have a whole isle of the glass type beads, and all that jazz...

I also like scrapbooking...

On the HSN they have really neat looking sewing
machines, that come in 3 pastel shades, yellow, pink and blue and also white.
It's a little humpty~dumpty looking type, I think it's really cute.....$25.95, 5.95 s&h.........
Does a basic stitch, no funny stitches or anything, comes with a ba~zillion bobbins and spools......

I liked to sew alot, my mother bought me this little tiny sewing machine and I loved sewing purses!!! OHMYGOSH!!!! such fun, I had a new purse every week... I'd take old pajama's *Flannel* and zippers and sew... I made belts, and suspenders and skirts (of course, I should have been taken out back and slapped for my sewing) but my mother saw that I had such fun sewing that she went out and bought one of the
biggest, new~fangledest sewing machine with drop in cartridges to make dogs and little emblems. (sp) Well, I'll tell you that little one was the best, I got on that new one and COULDN'T STAND IT!
I couldn't understand it, work it, the bobbin never seemed to work right, I'd beat that thing, it got me soooooooooooooo frustrated, I was tramatized for life, I can't sew to this day now!!
Truth!!!
I would imagine it has alot to do with that little sewing machine, that you don't have to worry about the tensions, etc. on it, and it just works...
I did knit...that was somewhat fun..
I collected rocks like mad!!!!! *Still do*
I drew alot, many, many pictures!!!
(pencil and charcoal are my favorites)
I loved silk flowers (STILL DO!!)
I loved picking wild flowers for my mother (STILL DO!!!)
She also got me a crafting book that had many things to do that were like science experiments and you didn't realize it...

Later when I got older I made alot of my own earrings and decorated sweatshirts...and T~shirts.
I can give you two of my most favorite sites to go buy stuff over the internet.
I never once had a problem with them and found them to have awesome prices and good deals......

bolek\'s craft supply

Enterprise Art

I really like them!!!
Lot's of GOOOOOOOOOOOOOD STUFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!

Weezie

Let me know what you think of them,
get yourself a catalog and sit down and go through it.
I got, ponybeads to make key chains, paint for T~shirts, gitter, jewerly findings...necklace's and charms, oh, my goodness!! I am druling!!!

The other one of my favorites for books and crafts books, stencils, stickers, is............

dover publications

Good morning!

Lynne, we didn't move the marbles around at all...just put 'em in and left them alone.

Ashleigh's only 10 1/2, so she's still easy when it comes to doing simple crafts...

These ideas are fabulous, you guys. I'm keeping every one of 'em. Thanks a million.