straight from caesars

western and country contd..

what a class act the martin's are....we were treated to 4 tunes done in 3 chords, anyone for ukulele lessons??...





and what we think should be the next marketing tool by mc donalds,..... a new 'fresh' ad.....

western and country night - our annual club dinner bash

we just can't resist turning things on their head here, so we had our annual club dinner bash- western & country theme night this wkd. It was an absolute hoot literally we had a hoe down......leaving that!

the barbie cooking was spectacular if i do say so myself, all cooked under our three legged gazebo.... we had indians, a mexican, 2 sheriffs, one undertaker, one bar girl, lots o' cow folk, no cows though....8 square dancers, one caller, one one man band....and 2 dogs.......?

off with your head - it's my tea party

my journal has taken over and i can't possibly keep up.....here's some more tile ideas playing with some early illustrations from alice in wonderland, i'm thinking about some colour wash under pencil work or pen if the lines are too soft..

and had friday afternoon to play with again, bonus, so did some serious throwing in my studio, planning for when my gas kiln gets reconnected, i made some desert bowls serving bowls and a bunch of mugs which take serious concentrating when putting on handles coz it's not my strong point! and i must be out of practice cut through the bottoms of 4 pieces going way to thin on the bases..

anywho happy with that little effort..and some tiles got the workup with ceramics pencils also tests...

cheers all have a great week, it's our  annual club dinner sat evening and there will be plenty of shots to put up we're going western or country any take you like on the theme, so it should be fun...

'woof'

well today's efforts, i must say under duress it's 36degC out there and pretty stuffy at the club even with the a/c on... 

anywho enough whinging, for becky the 'woof' and cats meow bowls pre bisque i did a little scrafitoing over the brushwork, don't ask me what kind of dog it is!!

and mixed up a raw clear glaze that alan was advising me on, it's for fellow clubbee pam who makes lovely little bowls and wants to glaze the inside clear and engobe the outer with colourful slips a recipe i worked on at college..

Leach Pottery

I've just finished watching a remarkable video of Leach Pottery its on Russel Fouts blog, its a great view of the pottery life and an amazing tradition  carried on today..

'the cats meow'

  

                                                                                                                                                                                                         

 just the way I like my fridays...I had some time up my sleeve today with finishing work by midnight last night, truly excellent so I spent some time at the club. Kevin came down with a bigger piece of wood for the table top, something that you only learn by doing custom jobs the tiles all had to be extended because of shrinkage and wow it's more than i thought.

also did some cleaning up of some animal bowls i made wednesday and sloshed on some colour the characters will be drawn pre bisque and a little scrafito this time, there are 2 kinds 'the cats meow' and 'woof'..

and the last of the teapots which i'm thinking of doing in satin black c6 fire and for cynthia my 'stand up' wheel not quite as stunning as yours but it works great..

what's eating my marigold???

this is a new one to me, there's no snail trail, no visible bugs, just munched leaves, so what's eating my marigolds??..... my new tactic is to cover them with drink bottles until they grow more..

also the end of the orchid flowering, hopefully next

year the new plant will flower too...

and last but not least the recovery of the lime tree after the winter frost, I thought he was a gonner and even purchased a replacement but there ya go maybe that's all limey needed and sprang back to life

fishy

this post is to mark where we're at tile wise... most are cut out and drying under weights, I'm aiming to finish saturday with the cut out stage and do the new colour tests for one strokes and the new blues..

this shot is the fishy cafe table pre bisque firing, the tiles are all cleaned up and ready to go..

sun comes up...sun goes down

thanks ab fab, for some of the best lines on the teev,   ooh and a madness song or 2.... I've been adapting a few lines in my journal for tiles that will be happening shortly plus messing with a few kids stories too...

under pressure

Today I've been fitting all the pieces together lining everything up and recutting pieces that are too warped. The weathers been crazy hot and windy hence the pieces are drying faster than i would like making working on warm days difficult. As you can see i've grabbed everything within reach to weigh down the tiles and kevin brought in some weights for me too.

There's some lovely green stuff happening as well and you can see the lines in the design are coming together, I'm anxious to get all the pieces cut now so that settling can occur in moisture content and colouring can begin..