ive been workin' like a dog,, im determined to get all my comission-pots done by the ''may-fair'' and the more i get finished the more comissions i get,,, [and im happy as hell to be getting the work!]  i may just put up a big sign solicting commisions and just make what im told to make, and then i won't have to be creative all the time,, my brain does get worn out [ is dancing roaches a good idea?]

my favorite commission I'm working on is a spoon holder,, [for my pal pat] not just any spoon holder but one to display her museum quality collection of florida souvenier spoons,, and they are all different sizes, and all to die for,, but i sculpted one up this morning and they will hang from a mossy tree vase sorta thing,, i will definitely get a picture of it ,, its soo cool, i hope she likes it

this weekend was so much fun,, my couch was full all weekend w/ pottery pals visiting,, everybody has great stories to tell and even pictures to show,, lotza laughing
and i didnt get many pots thrown,,, somehow i came up with the idea [or maybe jean did] with having a POT CLUB,, every month or so i will make a special mini-pot for just the club memebers, and we will have badges, secret handshakes , a pottery club oath, and lots of rules,, sorta like the movie ''fight club'' ,, well maybe more like the daughters of the american revolution,, anyways when i get a chance i'll get busy on figuring out the details,,[and make badges, and ID cards]

clint brought over his newest homemade wine creation,, he just put yeast into a bottle of ''big lots'' grape juice,, and it was GAG-ALICOUS!!!! it stunk and the first sip was most hard to swallow,, i didnt want to hurt his feelings, and usually he makes really good wine and interesting flavors,, i nicely as possible told him it wasnt his best effort,, actually i think he was testing me to see how honest i am and to see if i would really drink it,,,, later that night i noticed when i peed it smelled like the wine,,, gross huh?!

mandy did a fancy charity ''iron chef'' cook off saturday night and she and her boss won!!! so now mandy is an award winning chef,, i told everybody at the market about it ''my daughter the award -winning chef!!!'' only at renningers market can you have your hot dog grilled by an award winning chef,,
thats all folks

well as you can see by the picture,, i have a camera and the seminole indian nesting dolls exited safely from the kiln,
i found money in the dryer this morning and figured it was a gift from the blog gods for me to go get a new camera,, so off i went first thing and bought the cheapy ghetto kodak piece of crap, to tide me over till the chinese can figure out how to put the spring back in my old camera,, the checkout girl offered me the extended warrenty,, i could only laugh and tell her it wasnt worth a walmart nickel,,

anyways im most happy with my seminole indian nesting dolls,, i went back and used a low fire metallic copper and gold glaze to ''doll'' up the neclaces and earrings on the gals, i have no urge to make more, as it was kinda complicated getting them all to fit together,
thats all i can think of today,, cept my tomatoes and pole beans are growing like weeds, im soo ''green''!

hey blog-buds,
sorry i've been away so long,, but my computer screwed up and then when that was fixed my camera died and i assumed since it was a new KODAK and i bought it at WALMART that i could just return it and get another or have them fix it,, fat chance, they both already got my money and could give a rats ass about my perdicament,, the worst part is that it was just a spring that popped off and its so tiny and in a tight spot that i couldnt fix it,,
long story short im having to mail it back to china and they will fix it and return it to me,,im so glad its under warrenty,,

so im over the whole technology thing,, so over it!

anyways,, the big kiln is working and now the little one is ''sparking'' , but im busy back making pots,, sunday morning i was throwing a weird wallpocket and after awhile it started to look like one of those seminole indian dolls,, so thats what i decided it was,, and then i threw another and another [i was idea-less and in a crappy mood,  then it sort of occured to me that they look like those russian nesting dolls that have a smaller doll inside the big one and then another smaller one in the small one and so on,, [none of that made sense, but i think ya'll must know what i mean]
so anyways i have a bunch firing in the kiln right now,, theres 5 that go together and 4 more that stack inside each other,, and one extra that didnt fit anywhere and became a penny bank,, i cant wait to see how they turn out,,, i hope folks like them ,, it could be another one of my unsellable boondoogles,,

i also got busy and came up with a nice clear matt glaze,, instead of messing w/ the chemicals i messed w/ the firing tempature and it came up a success,, so i did several little carved clematis flower pots and a landscape pot and all turned out great,, the flower ones look sort of ''newcomb college'' ish   now i have a big pot w/ carved spiderworts on it, ready for the new glaze,,

im really in a flower mood,, everything is blooming,, clematis, nasturiums, spiderworts, orchids, jasmine, gardenia, limes,, my jungle smells great in the morning,,  and they always look good on pots,

Dr. Frankel who wrote the book ''old florida pottery'' visited me at the market and he was glad to see his book on my coffee table, and he commented that i was one of the few people to ever buy it,, after he left a person i didnt know and i started talking  and she said she loved the book, so we chased down Dr. Frankel and she got to meet him,, and then a minute later i found another person who owned the book and introduced her to him,,  he was at the market looking for florida paintings for his new book and then yet another fan of his showed up and got to meet the doctor,, Im sure he left feeling famous,, his book has been a real inspiration to my art and i highly recomend it, i think you can get it at ''old florida pottery.com''  tell em martin sent you,
well thats all for today

sunday morning i go to the market to throw pots and sell, and i reach under the table to get my throwing tools and my finger got bitten!!! the table cloth was thrashing around and i looked down to see a mouse on a glue trap tangled in the tablecloth,,

not to panic,, i remembered my first aid from the old cowboy movies and i imediately bagan sucking the mouse poison from my finger and then i went to mandy's resturant and washed the hell out of it w/ bleach,, i figured i was fine

i went back and had to figure out what to do w/ the vicious rodent,, he was too tangled up to try and rescue him from the glue trap,, so i figured a quick firm stomp would put him out of his misery ,, what i didnt figure on was the fact my shoe would be stuck to the glue trap [and the mouse ], so then i had to pry the trap and the mouse and the tablecloth off of my shoe,, my shoe stuck to the floor all day,,

the news of my mouse attack spred quickly through the market and of course all my neighbors warned me of my impending death from rabies,, and they also suggested i sue the market, and go to the emergency room,, and of course the ''peta'' people and their disgust at glue traps,,  way more conversation than i wanted to talk about,,

but if i do die from rabies don't forget my pots will be worth twice as much,, so now is the time to buy! buy! buy!  im not sure what the rabies symptoms are but i do feel lazy and itchy and sorta chilly,, so i could have rabies and there still is a red mark on my finger from where the rabid mouse fangs chomped down on me,, im thinking i have a 50/50 chance

im busy making 2 more clocks,, simpler versions and a lamp and 3 more ocptopus pots,,one has six octopuses on it, and a landcape painted pot,hopefully w/ a matt clear glaze and i'll start glazing the umbrella stand tomorrow but i wont get it finished for another week, due to its size
thats all and heres a picture of my first octopus vase

heres a picture of the umbrella stand im working on,, so far im most happy w/ it,, i wished i could just glaze the whole thing a matt green,, but folks love colorful pots so im looking at another day of hand glazing all the scenery,, i spent all day sunday throwing it and another day of sculpting, and carving

i got the part for my kiln, i installed it and im test firing it now,,, i hope the hell it works

i forgot to give credit to the wonderful photographer who took the last pictures of me,,  it was the amazing photo/artist Patrick Flynn,, i wished patrick would have told me to take off the stupid bow tie and suck in my gut,,, thanks patrick!

i went and bought clay,, but they were out of my favorite little yellow good luck sponges, and they were out of the glaze sprayer that ive wanted since forever,, but at least i got the clay,, 400 lbs of it! and i got the sprayer on ebay for $20 so that was a deal,,

i have 11 tomato plants growing in my victory garden,, clint told me 6 were pepper plants, but they are very tomatoey looking,, so soon i'll be up to my ass in tomatoes, i also have limes, figs, grapes, pole beans and oranges,, soon i'll be living off the land