Here is a photo of some body parts that I made this weekend ..that little old guy looks real happy among them...He's probably wondering if any belong to him...hummmmmm..I'm sure I can pick out a few to make him happy...Monday, February 22, 2010
This is a photo of a charm bracelet that I'm still working on. I traded with a few people in my certification class when I went to the PMC convention at Purdue University over a year ago. The bracelet is sterling silver and I must confess that there are a few sterling silver charms that I picked up when Syd and I went to Italy. Most of the charms are fine silver.
A WET MONDAY
It sure was a dreary day today...Glad I got called to work at the Gallery in Morgantown..that job saves my sanity...today was the second day back this month...
This past weekend my muse directed me to do a little clay work, so I got out the cernit clay and played making hands and feet and arms and legs... I do this occasionally just to keep my skills current...I just love doing the hands..(a la Mo Carlson...thanks Mo....she taught a really simple technique at CFCF the first year Syd and I went)......one can make them as expressive or as thick and old as one wants...I love twisting the feet and toes ...I feel like I'm tickeling them as I make them..I can hear them gigling in my head and I just go further and further twisting and rubbing and turning...hummmmmmmm...guess I should stop that for now...my muse just loves it when I get zoned out with the clay...then I usually will do a head or 2....I can spend the whole afternoon and most of the night out there playing around...maybe have a glass of wine or two...
I just started using the Cernit clay that I got from Marie Segal at our retreat last June....I just love the stuff...it is so easy to condition and when I start manipulating it into figures, hands and feet, legs and arms, it just seems to do what I want it to do with no effort at all. When it is cured, I can antique it and then use a terry cloth towel on it and it rubs out to a soft glow...the light flesh color is what I use...if I can get the photos to post, I put them up as soon as I can. I plan to use them on some dolls that are hanging out in my head just waiting to come to life thru my hands...
I am waiting for my new silver kiln to get here...supposed to arrive on Thursday...I am also a PMC certified artisan and I'm having a workshop the end of April, so I'm working on some silver charms and other pieces of jewelry. I love doing the silver..imagine taking a lump of silver clay and turning it into a beautiful pendant or a pair of earrings or some charms...everyone that has taken the workshops just love the process. Last year I had a stamp made out of a design that I doodled...yes, doodled..it has a number of different sections that I can combine and the results are unusual and one of a kind...I hate doing production work..had enough of that when I was a potter...making dozens of mugs is very boring. I did enjoy the process though...now my granddaughter is in college and has visions of becoming a potter...she will have all the equipment since I still have the kilns and potter's wheel out in the barn..all she has to do is get pappy to set the basement of the barn up for her....that is going to take some coaxing.
We may have some more snow this week, lets hope it's just flurries..everything is getting black and kind of dirty looking out there now, especially along the roads. We still have a lot of snow, one of our front gutters has fallen away due to the ice accumulation...."OH SPRING WHERE ART THOU.".!!!...just think, she should be here in 27 days....
more later...stay tuned for some photos..that is if I can remember how to load them ......
This past weekend my muse directed me to do a little clay work, so I got out the cernit clay and played making hands and feet and arms and legs... I do this occasionally just to keep my skills current...I just love doing the hands..(a la Mo Carlson...thanks Mo....she taught a really simple technique at CFCF the first year Syd and I went)......one can make them as expressive or as thick and old as one wants...I love twisting the feet and toes ...I feel like I'm tickeling them as I make them..I can hear them gigling in my head and I just go further and further twisting and rubbing and turning...hummmmmmmm...guess I should stop that for now...my muse just loves it when I get zoned out with the clay...then I usually will do a head or 2....I can spend the whole afternoon and most of the night out there playing around...maybe have a glass of wine or two...
I just started using the Cernit clay that I got from Marie Segal at our retreat last June....I just love the stuff...it is so easy to condition and when I start manipulating it into figures, hands and feet, legs and arms, it just seems to do what I want it to do with no effort at all. When it is cured, I can antique it and then use a terry cloth towel on it and it rubs out to a soft glow...the light flesh color is what I use...if I can get the photos to post, I put them up as soon as I can. I plan to use them on some dolls that are hanging out in my head just waiting to come to life thru my hands...
I am waiting for my new silver kiln to get here...supposed to arrive on Thursday...I am also a PMC certified artisan and I'm having a workshop the end of April, so I'm working on some silver charms and other pieces of jewelry. I love doing the silver..imagine taking a lump of silver clay and turning it into a beautiful pendant or a pair of earrings or some charms...everyone that has taken the workshops just love the process. Last year I had a stamp made out of a design that I doodled...yes, doodled..it has a number of different sections that I can combine and the results are unusual and one of a kind...I hate doing production work..had enough of that when I was a potter...making dozens of mugs is very boring. I did enjoy the process though...now my granddaughter is in college and has visions of becoming a potter...she will have all the equipment since I still have the kilns and potter's wheel out in the barn..all she has to do is get pappy to set the basement of the barn up for her....that is going to take some coaxing.
We may have some more snow this week, lets hope it's just flurries..everything is getting black and kind of dirty looking out there now, especially along the roads. We still have a lot of snow, one of our front gutters has fallen away due to the ice accumulation...."OH SPRING WHERE ART THOU.".!!!...just think, she should be here in 27 days....
more later...stay tuned for some photos..that is if I can remember how to load them ......
Monday, February 15, 2010
NOW FOR SOME SNOW PICTURES
This is the view of our back yard when we woke up on Sat. morningthe first picture is of the pond
MORE OF THE FISH STORY
ohhhhhhhhhhhh... check out those hot lips, the dorsal fin and the georgous eyes..also notice the wine glass..yepper, it's empty....now for the story of 'WON FON FISCH.'I've decided that we will call her she....
W.F.F. lives in the outer waters of Decker's Creek...she hangs out along the mossy banks and keeps her eyes and gills pealed for other unworthy kritters who try to call the creek their home. Her tale began with her humble beginnings in Anne's mind and resemble some of the fish that swim in the Lily Pond. She escaped a horrific fate by jumping off the hook of Anne's grandson Aaron's hook one day last summer while he and a friend were fishing. scared her to death..!!!...She almost became know as Filet-O..( you know Mc Donald's filet o'fish) and could have very easily ended up roasting on the end of a stick over a bonfire. She somehow found her way from Dunkard Creek down to Deckers creek via the Mon River ..quite a trip for a polymer fish...This is where she met the Friends of Decker's Creek and may someday become famous. More on her later.......
ok...this is the beginning of my new fish ..it's name is "WON FON FISCH"....I started with an aluminum foil base, poke a hole in it and added the hanger...covered it with masking tape and proceeded to add the polymer clay, poked in the glass eyes and then got out my cane assortment and started to cover it randomly....notice the wine glass....1/2 full....NO PHOTOS YET....
Hey out there...I've been trying to post photos for the past 2 hours and for some reason, I'm not being successful...so I guess I'll just write a few words...
When I made my first post, I mentioned making fish out of polymer clay ( inspired by someone on the internet)...well. I made a couple, gave one away as a birthday gift and then made another one that I will be donating to an organization called FRIENDS OF DECKER'S CREEK... the owner of the gallery where I work called me yesterday and said that someone representing the organization came in and was asking for a donation to their cause...(Penelynn contributed last year)I think they are having an auction or something, ...so...I said sure..I had one that I had finished...it's name is "ONE FON FISCH" and he lives somewhere along the creek banks... no one really knows for sure...he has been swimming in my head for a while now and finally he is for real....I had a bank of photos showing his creation that I was trying to post and on the table I noticed the glass of wine I was drinking ...as his creation took place the glass of wine slowly dissapeared....more on that later....for now, he is finished and some time this week, I'll take him to Morgantown to meet everyone....He just may make the pages of the newspaper..who knows...
I've also been doing some pretty little heart earrings of polymer clay and sometime this week, I'll get started making more fine silver earrings,...the hearts were for "V" day, but I just didn't get down there in time to get them in the gallery...the snow has really messed things up for everyone around here...there has been no school in Central Greene Co. for the past week..I guess some people still don't had their power on ...I'm betting the kids are getting tired of this also...can't get out to see their friends...not tv, no internet....AGHHHHHH..!!..
One thing for sure is that our dog MOE just loves the snow...have photos of him also ...damn, I wish I knew more about how to post photos....it's snowing again out there...we are supposed to get 3-6 inches on top of what is already on the ground...this winter reminds me of past winters when I was a kid...we just prayed for snow and had lots of fun sled riding on some of the steep hills around where I grew up...everyone walked to school since it was close ..didn't have school buses back in those days..everyone had coal furnaces, and I can't remember the power being off during the heavy snows...it probaly was, but by the time we got in the house from playing in the snow, we were so tired we just flopped down on the rug and fell asleep.....I remember the smell of baking bread and soup simmering on the gas stove at home and putting our snow clothes over chairs near the floor heaters to dry....my grandmother had a wood stove..none of those new fangled contraptions for her...she always had the coffee pot warming on the back of the stove and I remember her making me coffee loaded with milk and sugar(it looked like caramel milk) when I went to visit her...we always had jelly bread also...homemade of course.... I'm going to have to seach my memories , do some sketches and come up with a watercolor of the good old days....have a few photos of the good old days and the snows back then....
I love to paint from old photos...putting color to the sepia toned photos and making them come to life in my mind is great for my muse...she just loves it when I paint, or do anything creative
...time just flys by ...
I have lots more to write, but I really don't want to bore anyone...will be back soon, so come back often...maybe I'll have the photos up by then...
When I made my first post, I mentioned making fish out of polymer clay ( inspired by someone on the internet)...well. I made a couple, gave one away as a birthday gift and then made another one that I will be donating to an organization called FRIENDS OF DECKER'S CREEK... the owner of the gallery where I work called me yesterday and said that someone representing the organization came in and was asking for a donation to their cause...(Penelynn contributed last year)I think they are having an auction or something, ...so...I said sure..I had one that I had finished...it's name is "ONE FON FISCH" and he lives somewhere along the creek banks... no one really knows for sure...he has been swimming in my head for a while now and finally he is for real....I had a bank of photos showing his creation that I was trying to post and on the table I noticed the glass of wine I was drinking ...as his creation took place the glass of wine slowly dissapeared....more on that later....for now, he is finished and some time this week, I'll take him to Morgantown to meet everyone....He just may make the pages of the newspaper..who knows...
I've also been doing some pretty little heart earrings of polymer clay and sometime this week, I'll get started making more fine silver earrings,...the hearts were for "V" day, but I just didn't get down there in time to get them in the gallery...the snow has really messed things up for everyone around here...there has been no school in Central Greene Co. for the past week..I guess some people still don't had their power on ...I'm betting the kids are getting tired of this also...can't get out to see their friends...not tv, no internet....AGHHHHHH..!!..
One thing for sure is that our dog MOE just loves the snow...have photos of him also ...damn, I wish I knew more about how to post photos....it's snowing again out there...we are supposed to get 3-6 inches on top of what is already on the ground...this winter reminds me of past winters when I was a kid...we just prayed for snow and had lots of fun sled riding on some of the steep hills around where I grew up...everyone walked to school since it was close ..didn't have school buses back in those days..everyone had coal furnaces, and I can't remember the power being off during the heavy snows...it probaly was, but by the time we got in the house from playing in the snow, we were so tired we just flopped down on the rug and fell asleep.....I remember the smell of baking bread and soup simmering on the gas stove at home and putting our snow clothes over chairs near the floor heaters to dry....my grandmother had a wood stove..none of those new fangled contraptions for her...she always had the coffee pot warming on the back of the stove and I remember her making me coffee loaded with milk and sugar(it looked like caramel milk) when I went to visit her...we always had jelly bread also...homemade of course.... I'm going to have to seach my memories , do some sketches and come up with a watercolor of the good old days....have a few photos of the good old days and the snows back then....
I love to paint from old photos...putting color to the sepia toned photos and making them come to life in my mind is great for my muse...she just loves it when I paint, or do anything creative
...time just flys by ...
I have lots more to write, but I really don't want to bore anyone...will be back soon, so come back often...maybe I'll have the photos up by then...
Monday, February 8, 2010
THE BIG SNOW
Hello again from Mt morris...
yes the snow fell ...wet, heavy and deep...we finally lost our power around 2 am on Saturday morning after a few brief outages..was going to post on Saturday morning, but we had no electricity...we did have our gas and water , so we were fairly comfortable...we got about 24 inches of snow on top of the 4 or 5 that had melted earlier and in between snowfalls, we were blessed with some freezing rain...woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful landscape of snow covered pine trees, (will post photos soon) downed limbs from the maples and a pond that is completely iced over and covered in snow. I'm really glad we were prepared with plenty of food, spirits, and toilet tissue...
our dog really loves the snow...he jumps and dives in it like a little kid ...he caught a mouse and played with it as it ran on top of the snow and finally got away from him...he thinks anything that moves is something to play with..on Saturday night, husband let him out to do his business and as he ran off the porch, he ran smack into a large deer that decided that he was going to come onto the porch and see if there was anything there it could eat...scared him so bad that he screamed...(imagine a dog screaming??)...and he almost knocked Henry off his feet as he tore around the hot tub trying to get back into the house...he did go back out, and then barreled back into the house to safety...big bad watch dog....I guess for 7 months, he is doing pretty well...I'll be really glad when his big boy teeth finally come in...he is chewing anything from the rugs to the rails on my chairs...loves my socks and my shoes (will have to buy more) and has devoured almost all his rag doll toys...he has a squeaker toy the he loves...we play catch with it and he is getting his eye- paw coordination together...he likes to play catch and for the most part is catching things that I toss up into the air...the other day he caught a piece of apple that I pitched to him..surprise, surprise.. he shocked himself that it was something he could eat....our other dog Freeland was an expert at catching food thrown to him...soooo...hopefully we will get thru the chewy puppy stage and get to the big boy refined, well behaved stage soon...he is growing by leaps and bounds ..doesn't know that he is too big to be a lap dog, and just loves to sit on my lap...he is turning into a small kinda well-behaved horse.
Heard from Syd this Am...she and her husband went to a hotel and are staying there until their power is back on...the Elec. Co, says around Friday, the 12...guess Allegheny county has thousands w/o power ...the shopping centers are functioning ..she is close to a Michaels, so she plans to get out there and try to buy some stuff to play with....guess they had to drain their pipes and do all that winterizing stuff before they left...I'm hoping that they come home to a nice warm house soon...
the gallery where I work also has a big problem...seems like the good neighbor that ownes the small shopping center that houses the post office and a couple of restaurants had his parking lot plowed out and the person doing the plowing just piled all the snow onto the Gallery property...now no one can get in and there is nowhere for us or our customers to park our cars even if we could get to work...very thoughtless of the person doing the plowing..so I guess I'm not going to work until the parking lot is cleared out....
looking out of the window onto my back yard ...I can see tracks of all the deer that visit and my bird feeder that is full of hungry birds..the pine trees and maple trees look beautiful dressed in all the snow...just like a picture post card....the sky is a rich blue with a few clouds and the sun is shining, turning the snow really glistening white with blue shadows ...glad I don't have to go out into all of this and I'm just glad that we have a warm house and plenty of food to keep us nice and cozy...it is so quiet with all the snow...
I hope that all of you out there are safe and those w/o power are keeping warm somehow..
until next time, stay warm and stay safe........
yes the snow fell ...wet, heavy and deep...we finally lost our power around 2 am on Saturday morning after a few brief outages..was going to post on Saturday morning, but we had no electricity...we did have our gas and water , so we were fairly comfortable...we got about 24 inches of snow on top of the 4 or 5 that had melted earlier and in between snowfalls, we were blessed with some freezing rain...woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful landscape of snow covered pine trees, (will post photos soon) downed limbs from the maples and a pond that is completely iced over and covered in snow. I'm really glad we were prepared with plenty of food, spirits, and toilet tissue...
our dog really loves the snow...he jumps and dives in it like a little kid ...he caught a mouse and played with it as it ran on top of the snow and finally got away from him...he thinks anything that moves is something to play with..on Saturday night, husband let him out to do his business and as he ran off the porch, he ran smack into a large deer that decided that he was going to come onto the porch and see if there was anything there it could eat...scared him so bad that he screamed...(imagine a dog screaming??)...and he almost knocked Henry off his feet as he tore around the hot tub trying to get back into the house...he did go back out, and then barreled back into the house to safety...big bad watch dog....I guess for 7 months, he is doing pretty well...I'll be really glad when his big boy teeth finally come in...he is chewing anything from the rugs to the rails on my chairs...loves my socks and my shoes (will have to buy more) and has devoured almost all his rag doll toys...he has a squeaker toy the he loves...we play catch with it and he is getting his eye- paw coordination together...he likes to play catch and for the most part is catching things that I toss up into the air...the other day he caught a piece of apple that I pitched to him..surprise, surprise.. he shocked himself that it was something he could eat....our other dog Freeland was an expert at catching food thrown to him...soooo...hopefully we will get thru the chewy puppy stage and get to the big boy refined, well behaved stage soon...he is growing by leaps and bounds ..doesn't know that he is too big to be a lap dog, and just loves to sit on my lap...he is turning into a small kinda well-behaved horse.
Heard from Syd this Am...she and her husband went to a hotel and are staying there until their power is back on...the Elec. Co, says around Friday, the 12...guess Allegheny county has thousands w/o power ...the shopping centers are functioning ..she is close to a Michaels, so she plans to get out there and try to buy some stuff to play with....guess they had to drain their pipes and do all that winterizing stuff before they left...I'm hoping that they come home to a nice warm house soon...
the gallery where I work also has a big problem...seems like the good neighbor that ownes the small shopping center that houses the post office and a couple of restaurants had his parking lot plowed out and the person doing the plowing just piled all the snow onto the Gallery property...now no one can get in and there is nowhere for us or our customers to park our cars even if we could get to work...very thoughtless of the person doing the plowing..so I guess I'm not going to work until the parking lot is cleared out....
looking out of the window onto my back yard ...I can see tracks of all the deer that visit and my bird feeder that is full of hungry birds..the pine trees and maple trees look beautiful dressed in all the snow...just like a picture post card....the sky is a rich blue with a few clouds and the sun is shining, turning the snow really glistening white with blue shadows ...glad I don't have to go out into all of this and I'm just glad that we have a warm house and plenty of food to keep us nice and cozy...it is so quiet with all the snow...
I hope that all of you out there are safe and those w/o power are keeping warm somehow..
until next time, stay warm and stay safe........
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