seeings as there is 5 weeks in this month i decided this would be a semi-vacation week,, so its been half work and half doing nothing, w/ no expectations of getting any real work done this week.

so this last weekend i threw pots w/ no ideas in mind and i threw shapes that i don't usually throw,, so this week ive been looking at the odd shapes trying to figure out what to do w/ them, so as you can see from the picture they are going off in all directions,, ive even made a whiskey jug, which i underglazed black and i will go back and carve out the white clay underneath to give it a woodblock print look,, im trying to be creative and not do the same old gators and orange blossoms, which i love and always look good,

clint bought a flat screen tv! the last tv he bought was 20 years ago,, and he bought a high def antenna and i'll be damned if it isnt getting lots of channels and great reception,, my dream has always been to buy a big ass tv, but common sense seems to always prevail,, but i always visit the tvs at the walmart and drool,, now its worse cos clint has one,

speaking of tv,, my favorite guilty pleasure tv show is ''john and kate plus 8'' ive never told anybody this,, but its so sweet and inocent and those adorable rascaly kids are just the cutest, watching them erases away all of lifes headaches and hassles
SO anyways its making me insane all this shit about them on tv,, whos cheating on who and such,, i wished they would just leave them alone, so they can go back to carving pumpkins and knocking each other off the the couch

part of my not working much is cos of my dad,, he was diagnoised w/ alzheimers this week,, its at the  beginning stages, and its all most worrisome to me and my mom,, we are a very close family,, ive been online researching and watched a 5 hour documentary on hbo about ALZ,,,,,,,,,,,,, i dont know,,,,,,,,

the updated version of that saying is ''a billion spent, is a billion,, what the fuck! its only money''

anyways i met up w/ mr. Duer and delivered the pennie banks to him,, and he was very enthused and excited and grateful for what i had made,, i was even blushing while he looked them over,
now i remember why i make pennie banks for him, cos he really loves them, i knew there was a reason why i went to all the trouble of making them, now im excited to make pennie banks for next year,, the convention is in new orleans,, imagine little face jugs wearing fancy masks! i know i love the idea too,, of course one year from now ill be complaining about making them and procrastinating the whole project until the last second

gosh this rain won't stop,, we've gotten 10 inches of rain since sunday,, the poor pooches just lay around damp all day,, ive been spraying them w/ febreeze [to keep them from mildew-ing]

clint brought by his latest batch of wine,, this time made from a bottle of apple juice,, better than the last batch, but not gourmetable, im sure you can get drunk on it, but i bet the hangover will be a bitch,

im really pissed that Adam didnt win american idol,,
i think he should team up w/ elton john and jimie page and write a rock opera and stage it at ceasers palace!!!! can you imagine??
thats all, off to the market tomorrow, i have pots still in the kiln,, i hope something turns out good so i don't go to work empty handed

this week has been all about ''pennie banks''

as you recall i am the foremost contemporary ceramic pennie bank artist WORLDWIDE!
so ive been making my commemorative 2009 gettysburg penniebank convention pennie banks..

Mr. duer asked me to make them last year and to feature ''Gettysburg'' as thats where the convention is this year,,, no problem i said, thinking that gettysburg is a mountain or something [ booklearnin' isn't my strong point]  so later on he sent me a packet of inspirational ideas that he printed out.  thats when i found out it was a major battle of the Civil war!!! the Civil war on a pennie bank!!??!! ei-yi-yi!  so i did what i normally do,, put it off and forgot about it,,and hopefully i'll have a genius idea sometime and know what to do

so i put it off for as long as i could and never had the slightest inkling of what to do,and my deadline is monday
 
so for the last 2 days ive been labouring over 15 pennie banks shaped like little whiskey jugs [soldiers like the whiskey][potters like the gin] and then i painted american and confederate flags on one side and little fighting soldiers and cannons and such on the other side,,it was crazy hard work, my brain actually hurt at the end of the day, not to mention crosseyedness from painting little tiny soldiers,,, but i wanted really great pennie banks for Mr duer to take to the convention, and of course i want to sell them. so sometimes its just buckle down and do the work the best you can until its done[and then complain about it on your blog afterwards]
now they are in the kiln cooling down as i write and im pretty proud w/ what ive made,, i hope they all turn out good

its been cold and raining here in florida for the 4th day in a row,, and the dogs have been running around wet and stinky, but everything is bright green and growing like crazy!  the tomatoes an pole beans have doubled in size [the peppers not so much]we need the rain badly as weve been having brush fires all over the place, and i wake up at night smelling the smoke and think my house is burning down


im also making an ''aqua-net'' lamp which is shaping up to be OVER THE TOP,, the shade will even have fish net w/ sculpted sealife tangled in it as well as fish painted on the shade, nothing subtle anywhere
on the other hand i am working on a small carved orchid vase and a sculpted raven sitting on a pot and a shiney drippy little fat pot,,
thats all for today,, i'll put the pennie bank photos  on when i get them out of the kiln friday morning

as you recall i made four unbrella stands before i ever made one that actually turned out, and i have to say the fourth attempt  was most beautiful,,

However it got BROKEN!!,, my neighbor was moving furniture using my exit door to come inside at the market and he knocked the umbrella stand over and into a million pieces,,
believe it or not i was't mad or sad,,,  i figured that i defyed the pottery gods by making the stand after 3 warnings so i guess i got what i deserved [notice how i rationalize things like this so i won't feel bad] if i got upset over every broken pot i would have given up years ago,,, although this only the second one iver ever broken out at the market, the first blew away in a rain storm way back when i used to sell outside

the good news is that in mays' issue of Orlando Magazine theres a big picture of 3 of my pots,, the article was profiling an art collector [Sharon Smyth] and her home,, AND im actually mentioned by name in the article

so the next time you are in the grocery store, go to the magazine rack and turn to page 59,, and loudly proclaim to everyone around you '' I know the guy that made these incredibly beautiful vases!!'  i did it  and then i told the cashier too,, everybody was impressed, at least they acted like they were

heres a picture of my latest comissioned piece, for Maureen, in honor of her pet raven, as you can see it features one of floridas most famous icons,,, the cockroach! i did them in a copper metalic glaze and stylized the roaches a bit so it won't be so creepy,, on the other side of the pot are bats flying accross the moon,, i liked the roaches  so much that  i did a smaller version,, w/ just 3 roaches

dont forget folks its summertime in florida so i have plenty of time to make whatever you can imagine,, no holds barred as long as you're buying!!
ok i gotta go wash the dogs,, theyre a stinkin' and a scratchin'

all my dolls came out of the glaze firing looking wonderful,, i did have nightmares about them last night, something about breaking my leg on the dolls[?]
so heres a picture of them all aligned in their correct groupings, after the picture is gilded their collars with metallic gold and copper glaze

the aquanet pots all cracked up in the firing,, i should have known better they were still too wet,, i guess i was dizzy from glazing all day, but its been almost a year since i made that same mistake, so i guess im learning

i did have my owl vase to glaze,, and i glazed a trio of tiles of florida greatest hits,, oranges, birds, gators, spanish moss, waterlilies, palm trees and the moon, all on 3 five inch tiles [ i want folks to get their moneys worth,,]

i forgot to tell you,, i was bored last sunday afternoon, so i wrote poems for my wall tiles sets that are on display and taped the poems to the back of the frames,, and the poems all rhymed,, none of that fancy not rhyming stuff,, i got the idea from some barnhill phot prints where he wrote bible verses on the backs of his photos,, i know no bible verses, so i went w/ the poems

if you get a chance go look at crealde.org and see the ghastly wall mosaic that they are putting on the front entrance of the building,, its so shockingly horrible, i just can't imagine WHY,,,  crealde art school is where i learned to make pottery,, its great for adults to learn in the evenings,, the teachers are the best and the classes are cheap,,

i just dont understand why the concept of "beauty'' is so missing in so many artists work,, nobody gives a shit about their inner feelings or divine opinions of our world,

for christs sake just make something pretty that folks would want to show off  and be proud of in their homes!!!!

and while im ranting,, why do women artists all ways make women look ugly and sad, or put big hats on them,,

ok i better stop,, off to the market tomorrow,, im only taking half of the seminole indians stacking dolls, so my booth dosent look like ive lost my friggin mind

well a customer was interested in a set of the seminole indian stacking dolls , and then another expressed interest, so this last weekend i decided to make some more,, i figured 3 sets of them as mothers day is coming and what a perfect gift for mom it would be,,,

of course i couldnt recall how or what i threw in clay to make the durn things so that took a bit of figurin out,, and this time i was much more organized in my methods, that way i wouldnt end up w/ a bunch of dolls that didnt stack up,,
it didnt take long for me to lose track of what i was doing and i ended up once again throwing doll pots willy-nilly until i thought i had enough that would fit.
day 2 of the project,,, the whole thing grew into 4 sets of dolls thats 24 dolls of all different sizes,, i was trying to keep them separtated and marked them w/ colored felt pens,which didnt work, and the whole studio was full of the dolls

it was as if i had entered ''The Twilight Zones'' me sitting at the wheel spinning more and more dolls and the dolls were everywhere staring at me w/ their blank faces,, i was waiting for the studio door to suddenly slam shut [oh no im trapped!] and then the dolls slowing inching their way towards me in a menacing manner [help help, im being attacked by seminole indian stacking dolls!!] and then at the end they show my severed head slowly spinning around on the wheel,,,while the dolls giggle

i know it was very creepy,,

day three i had to carve them all to make them look like dolls and i made hats and stuff for some of them and tested them to make sure they would fit and everything made sense and in between i sculpted up 3 underwater scene vases w/ fish and fishnets which i titled ''Aqua-net'' vases,, [clever!] and then finished carving an owl vase,,

today is thursday and i just finished glazing all [24 count em] the freakin dolls,, im exhausted and if i ever see another seminole indian stacking doll it will be too soon!!

heres a picture of the dolls as they came out of the kiln this morning,, [before i glazed them] as you can see the sun is just coming up [this boy ain't lazy]
i hope the hell they all turn out good and then i hope i sell them all this weekend,
tomorrow im glazing the aqua net vases and glazing a set of seminole indian tiles, and of course the owl vase [thats 2 glazing days in one week, whats wrong w/ me?]

ok i gotta go bury a dead duckling,, i dont know where he came from or what happened to him [both dogs are acting guilty] but the poor little thing deserves a decent burial