WOW!  i got lots of great emails about my second anniversary of blogging,, i guess i will keep it up and maybe even try harder,, maybe even spell check and learn grammar

i expect the next 2 years to be even more exciting,, i have secret plans and impossible dreams that i hope will come alive

but even more important than pottery is my gopher turtle story,,,,,
 
yesterday i was wandering around the yard and found a baby gopher walking up the sidewalk to the back door,,, so i snatched him up to go show bob, we had talked before about how to keep the babies safe from the lawnmower,, i worry about that every time i mow,,,,, i left him on the porch till we figured out what to do w/ him and i went back to work,, AND then i found another one toddling about,, so i looked around and damned if i didnt find a third baby gopher,, TRIPLETS!

so i was in a quandry,,, i didnt want 3 turtle pets,,and i wasnt sure what to do w/ them,, i figured to paint a big red dot on their back and that way i would see them in the yard,,, BUT then i went back out in the yard just in time to see a hawk swoop down and snatch up a fourth baby that i didnt see,,

oh the horror!!   i love nature until it eats each other,,,

then i didnt know what to do,, a red spot would just make it easier for the hawk,, start a turtle sanctuary? build little fences? all afternoon i wondered and worried and bob found nothing on the interweb to help figure out what to do,,, so in the end i just set them free,, i let them go next to a turtle hole and they ran north and then i set them in the forest and they ran into the sun still north,,, so i ended up just tagging along behind watching them head north off into the woods,, i followed them until they were in the woods and hawks would have a hard time getting to them,, i guess they knew where they were going,,

it would have been cool to have them as pets running [not really running ] around the house,, but i think they like to dig holes,, so i wouldnt want my floors ruined,, i did have a friend who had a tourtiouse pet and he was smart and friendly,,,i guess if i need a turtle pet i can just borrow the big old one that wanderes by the studio

ok thats all,, im busy working on my gulf oil spill series of pots,, and doing some gators w/ seminole kids riding on their backs,, and then theres at least 10 more pots, that i have no clue as what to do w/ them,, im waiting for a lightning strike of inspiration,,,, xomartin    thank you again for the encouraging emails

well ive been doing this blog for 2 years now,,,, i just scrolled thru all the words and pictures,,, i have to say i love all the pictures of the pots and they all look great,, and seeing pictures of the stacking indian dolls was a hoot,, although my writing seems like that of a whiney retard,,, broken leg, borken camera, broken kiln,, ,,
if i ever write an autobiography,, i can just print out the blog,,,
and reading all the new house drama and recalling all the hassles and worries [actually right up till last week when the old house sold]  and reading about mandys resturant,,,

and being an ''ongoing exhibiting artist'' at The Backus Museum

pause just a second to brag about lauren, my younger daughter,,, she started teaching a class at rollins college this week,, its a class where the students have to put a a play from writing to lighting and performing,,, she still has her other job there,,

anyways its amazing how much happens in 2 years,, both good and bad , dramatic and boring,, not to mention all my weather reports,,

 i]hope the next  2 years is all about making beautiful pots and no drama of any sorts,,

thanks for reading ,,,
 the next blog is about baby gopher tourtiouses,, [are you sick of hearing about them yet?]

heres a picture of my failed atempts at monkey sculpture, and dolphin vases

after this weekend i think im taking a break, i opened the kiln saturday morning to  to find that none of the pots i made turned out,,, the monkey sculpture had a cracked butt,, the dolphin vase,, one dolphin was missing his fin and the rest were cracked bubbled or covered w/ ''ugly''

then at the market the people were only there for the car show and the airconditioning,,, i was chatting w/ a nice older couple about what i was doing [throwing pots] and explaining the process,, when the ''old fart'' asked how much the pots cost,, when i pointed out the prices he laughed, patted my on the back and said ''good luck with that!'' i was speechless and couldnt [and still cant] come up w/ a snappy rude comeback,,

the next day a guy wanted to buy a pot,,, the thought the price was $1.60 not $160,,, he handed me a five dollar bill,,, i felt embarassed for him, and didnt laugh,,,

after that i decided i need a break,,, so yesterday i had the briliant idea of fixing all the cracks in my fish pond by filling the cracks w clay,,, seeing as the quikest way to clog up a drain is put clay down it,,,, and believe it or not it worked [sort of],,, it held water but was leaking slowly ,, today i poured clay/ mud in the pond thinking that the water going thru the cracks would seal themselves ,,,, im still waiting on the results,,, also i planted tomato seeds for my fall garden,, and mowed the entire yard, all 2 acres,, i did everything but pottery,, i have at least 20 unfinished pots in the studio wrapped in plastic,,, they will just have to wait,

the dealers threw i big potluck lunceon for a retiring dealer [miss Kay] on sunday,, so mandy was swamped w/ dealers wanting to keep their ''passing dishes'' refridgerated, and used her kitchen to finish up their food,, at first mandy was good natured about it and soon my little miss martha stewart was fit to be tied,, and she was a growlin' and a snarlin' all day long,,, so it wasnt just me that had a bad weekend
i think tomorrow i will take the shotgun around the woodpile and hunt for rattlesnakes,,,lol
no picture i lost my camrea,, but i would have taken a picture of the broken monkeys butt and the one armed dolphin

goodest news!  i closed on the sale of my eustis home [er lease option]  this morning,,

big exhale,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

all week long ive been moving and working on the house and it just never seemed to want to end,,
bob and micah helped moved on tuesday,, and it freakin rained all day at least till we got done,, i didnt realize how heavy my jukebox [broken] was till i had to drag it up and down and back and forth,,
then wednesday and thursday i cleaned out the garage and cleaned up the house,,
when i was finished yesterday afternoon i took my time and wandered from room to room to reminice about the last 20 years, slid down the bannister one last time and then and went and said goodbye to all the plants and trees in the yard,, im getting choked up again writing about it,,

its weird in that you know life changes every minute and nothing ever stays the same, but saying goodbye to my home made me want to go back and do it all again,, and the sudden endness of my life as a father and the bbq,,
ok im rambling,, anyways ONward and UPward!

somehow during the week in my spare time i did manage to get a few pots in the kiln,, i finished up everything that i didnt want to fiinish,, now its time to start making pots for the Backus Museum, they need them by the last week of september [is summer over yet?]
time to start the next 20 years of my life!   xoxoxmartin
ps the picture is of the fireplce tiles i made for the fireplace,, its the only time a tile project like that turned out

i was coming out of the studio this afternoon and heards some ''thunking'' and looked over and saw 2 gopher tortouises fighting,,, a real battle, flipping each other over and biting,, when i ran up to take their photo [like a national geographic picture]  they stopped fighting and posed,, then the;y chased each other back and forth around the yard and gave up and want back in their holes,, so that makes 4 turtles in my back yard,,

nature is so much fun,,, except the turkey vulture eating the possum

the fair weekend was poopy,, when will i learn that summers in florida are useless unless you are in a beach condo drinking fruity rum drinks?  mandy was very busy,, she made the best sandwich anybody has ever made,, it was chicken salad on cranberry walnut bread,, OMG,, it sold out minutes  when word got out about how good it was,,, and she had coconut cake,, so i ate good,,

all the people walking by were sweaty and their kids were obnoxious,, i felt like i was in walmart throwing pots, though a nice vietnamese lady told me about her childhood growing rice and what it took to get it on the dinner table,,and all the kitchen pots and bowls were made of clay,, how cool

friends Hardy and Garnet visited sunday afternoon and they were very entertaining we sat around chit chatting Hardy went browsing about and came back w/ the best james gibson painting ive ever seen,, even the frame was   killer,, damn he is good at ferreting out treasures at bargin prices

an;yways today i was over at the eustis house packing and cleaning out the garage and so on,, i ate lunch in  the garden and got very sentimental thinking back over the twenty years that the girls and i lived there,,, im glad that a young family is taking over and will build new memories,,, i guess im starting over w/ a new home and new memories,,, bob and i drove around and looked at the other ''sam stoltz'' houses in the area,, they are all impressive and very different from each other,, but i have to say ours is the best
ok thats all

here a picture of my friends [and neighbors] Linelle and Francis Lynch and their new shop at the renningers.. they moved to a bigger nicer shop in a better neighborhood,,
I never pay attention to jewlery, [cos i dont have any] but when i was down visitng them i paid attention to what was in the case and it was all quite amazingly beautiful,, AND they make it!  and its not the ''art fair'' crap you see w/ abalone and silver wire stuff ,, this is all quality stones and rich gold,,,, Francis was showing me how he comes up w/ the designs and lo and behold  we both do it the same way,, pencil sketches that keep evolving into a finished idea,,  so it is all very cool and you should visit them ,, as Linelle said ''Art and Antiques just go together'' its nice to have other artists here besides myself,,

well the highwaymen weekend was kind of a dud,, i barely sold anything and the one pot i did sell had the glaze popping off of it in chunks [i didnt sell it after all]  BUT Geoff Cook did bring in an amazing selection of paintings all of them ''drool-worthy''  my favorite of favorites was a huge painting by eustis artist cathrine stockwell,, it would look great in my house,,  if only i had 3 grand to buy it,,, sigh,,,,

speaking of Eustis,,, i do believe my eustis house is  sold [lease option]  we are supposed to close next friday,, which means a i have week to clean out the garage and move all  the furniture in it,, luckily its nice and warm out so it will be miserable moving, and even more miserable is trying to find a place for it ,, but its sold [almost] so ''thankyouJesus''!!! amen

well i just finished up the last of the lamps for ''Harpers Tavern/Big Star'' resturant ,, the orlando paper wrote a huge article about the new resturant opening,, so im sure everybody will have to check it out and then they will see all the lamps and  they will came and buy lamps from me!!!! 

this weekend is the monthly antique fair,,, this summer is flying by!  the kiln is blazing as we speak firng more new and glorious new potteries,, ok i gotta go, this i my last chore of the week,,

heres pictures of my newest potteries,, its a new yellow glaze,, darker where its thinner and lighter where its thicker and  a satin finish,,, new glazes lead to new ideas

im trying to come up w/ new colors , but theres so much involved to getting glazes to fire consistantly and look good , im also trying out a commercial glaze that pot is in the kiln now

so this weekend is the highwaymen wingding in mt dora,, i guess they give you a map of where and who is where and doing what,,, so visit that and then come see the renningers exhibit,, Geoff Cook always has the best paintings,, if you think the highwaymen are schlocky, you need to look again,,

speaking of mount dora,, the beautiful Lakeside Inn is for sale,, its one of the coolest hotels in florida,, but it does need a serious redecoration,, it looks like my moms house [sorry mom]
i would buy it, if i had the money and make it the coolest old florida hotel in the state

i hate to jinx myself, but im working on a deal to sell my home in Eustis,, we are still tangled up in contract details,, but the closing is supposed to be august 28th,, if this goes thru it will be the biggest relief, it takes a lot of pots [to make and sell] to cover 2 mortgages, and this will make it much easier to go to sleep at night and stay asleep,,

ive been self employed for 26 years and doing something as foolish as buying a house before selling the old one is out of my realm of thinking,, im always worried about ''the rainy day'' so im always careful when it comes to money,, [rainy day meaning divorce, tornado, broken leg and all the glitches in between]
but my new home and studio is worth the risk, i just want to not worry,

back to real estate contracts,, Bob is a ''fine print reader'' so he poured thru the contracts and grilled the realator about every detail,, low and behold there were some serious flaws,, even the lawyer was getting confused, but thanks to bob this contract will be good for everybody,, if you need a contract read, give it to bob!! he can figure it out for you

the buyers are a nice family [5] w/ kids and this houe is perfect for them,, it was a great home for me and my girls, so its nice to pass it along to a new generation to enjoy,,

ok thats all ,, my work is done for the day, the kiln is firings so i will have new fresh pots for the weekend so i guess i can go have an ice cold gin and tonic   cheers

got a call from the IRS today and they have finally approved my tax credit on the house,,, this neverending drama has been going on since forever,, even my accountant was giddy w/ delight,,

sadlly all the money goes toward my taxes,,, but thats fine w/ me,, it just pisses me off that ive had to go to so much trouble for something that was offered to me,, they didnt offer the tax credit till a week before we closed on the house,,

bob has been on the phone for days w/ countless IRS agents,, determined to get their cooperation,, they are all very nice,, but they just cant do anything useful

well the monkey sculpture came out of the bisque firing in 3 pieces,,, goddamnit!   however the breaks were pretty clean and i think i can clay-glue it back together and refire it and then the glaze firing,, i know im most likely wasting my time creating another  ''doorstop''  for the studio

this heat is getting to me,, everything is taking twice as long and nothing seems to be going right,, even my brain isnt cooperating and my patience,,, what patience? and my poor garden is dying due to the dry heat wave,, so im watering constantly just to keep it alive,, luckily theres no need to mow,, the grass is practically dead,,

the good news is that the summer is half over and time to start working on autumn projects,, right now its just pencil and paper,,  well at least the IRS is off my mind and cooler weather is ahead,, i still have my stocking cap on the work table to remind how freaking cold it was last winter 

the highwaymen festival is on august 14th and 15th,, not this coming weekend,,,

ok Im wrong,,, anyways i talked to Geoff Cook,, highwaymen expert and he  says he will have 3 or 4 diffent displays set up throughout the market that weekend of the paintings,, i saw one of the paintings, by harold newton,, huge and gorgeous,,

anyways it was a hot boring weekend at the market,, SUMMER IS HERE!  folks walk by and you can see the heat fatigue on their faces,, however my gallery is right next to a best AC vent in the whole place, its about 70 degrees all the time,,,, theres a new dealer setting up across from me,, hes a framer from china, and has a lot of grand huge paintings from china and even bigger grander frames to go w/ them,,

so this morning im avoiding the lamp projects and dinking around making a seminole indian maiden vase, and i sculpted a little dolphing for her hat and to hold and it turned out cute as hell,, and my dolphins are adorable,, so now im imagining all sorts of dolphin projects [that arent lamps]

bob went to the walmart to buy a kiddy swimming pool as it would be wonderful to jump in it all day to cool off and the dogs would love it too,, however there are NO pools left for sale anywhere in the county,, can you imagine NO swimming pools for sale in the middle of summer in florida!?!

bob did buy a shot gun,, seeing as we are out in the country and we have seen coyotes, snakes and drunk hillbillies,, so today i went hunting for a rattlesanke for him to shoot [we have a huge woodpile],, i found a hole and a dried snake skin and then got ascaird and went back to work
ok thats all,,, the picture is of my shaded garden on the side of the house,,,

big news!  next weekend is the highwaymen festival in Mt dora,,, lots of highwaymen will be there and all their paintings,,, so much fun and lots of great art to look at

these men and women are living florida history,, what they did and still do is amazing its worth the visit and its a fun day trip,,,

AND renningers will have for sale 70+ highwaymen paintings on exhibit and for sale,, they have just been dequistioned from the orange county historical collection,, i cant wait to see those!

AND renningers is AIR CONDITONED [downtown mt dora is not]  and Mand;ys food is better and cheaper than the mountdora'' tendollarhambergers on a doily'',,

im busy making florida landscape highwaymen kinda pots for next weekend,, none of them look like the paintings,, but i didnt want to copy them,, they are firing right now,,

LAMPS! LAMPS! LAMPS!

well i finished up the last of the 9 lamps  [see the picture] it was most complicated as the shade had to be made of clay as well,, which requires thinking on my part,, and its too hot to be trying to think [100+ degrees every day this week in the studio]

anyways the lady picks up the lamp she happy and im happy and im all done with the lampapalooza festival ,,,, and then here comes the guy that ordered the 6 lamps,, HE NEEDS 3 MORE LAMPS!! actually he only needed 2, but he didnt like the st augustine lighthouse lamps as it looked too ''seafood resturant'' [i will take it back, hows that for scustomer service?]

so,,,,,

with shoulders back and a big smile i said "Yes sir i will be glad to make 3 more lamps''

after all i am making 2 mortgage payments,, and im not about to turn down any comissions [right now im making a monkey sculpture, that is a comission and it turning out to be one of the best pieces ive ever made, point being that i will make anything for a buck]

2010 will go down is the summer of ''lamps''

ok i gotta go,,, by the way the realtor says she has a family that wants to ''lease option'' my eustis house,, i told her HELL YES,,, seeing as more and more realtor signs keep popping up in my neighborhood,,, but i havent heard back from her,,, soooooo,, my fingers are crossed