When Opening the Kiln is a Delight!
( The following is a posting I started writing last week, the idea was to share a visual process of one of my creative endeavors… before I took a picture of the finished product someone scooped it up at our annual Winter Sale last weekend! Sadly – you don’t get to see it but I got a sale & a very happy customer! Yah us! But I thought I’d share what I had with you anyway. :} )
Some things are really worth the wait!
A year ago Kerry’s wonderful sister E., indicated she was interested in a larger version of a vessel I had done ages ago. OK I say, all perky with optimism, that shouldn’t be all the difficult. Yeah right.
First I had to find a mold to use & that meant endless dollar stores to troll. Months late I finally found one that would work.
TA DA:
plastic ugly thing from $! store that will be perfect for a mold!
Then creating the thing… this is what it looks like before the first firing:
Raw Vessel
Then I got to go through 3 more versions after each blew up in the bisque kiln. #%&^^*%^&^& as you can well imagine. ( we still really don’t know why either)
Finally one survives the bisque kiln & glazing. In it went & all I could do was send up a prayer to the kiln Goddess & wait. One week before I got out to Kerry’s to open the kiln.
( This is where the picture would have gone if I hadn’t sold it! Note to self: Take the freaking pictures before putting the item in a sale! )
Damn Nagging Birds!
Once upon a time I created this monstrosity of a bird feeder, it truly was an engineering obsessive disaster. I wish I could tell you that all my creations are amazing but… well not so much. But I put it out onto the balcony off my bedroom, the one with no door (to the balcony, not the bedroom). Don’t ask me why there’s no door – it was the 60’s & the builder was doubtlessly imbibing some of B.C.’s bud.
I had decided since I had a cat, she could have the big balcony and the birds the small one since it was unlikely they would need a door. They were very kind and didn’t hold the ugliness that held their seeds against me and would gorge with abandon. The problem was I needed a door to get out and clean up their mess as well as refill the feeder. This meant climbing over my worktable and out the window. Needless to say this got old quick, especially in the winter with gale force winds trying to suck me off the balcony.
I just realized this has developed into quite a long story, sorry. But there is a reason, which is that even though there has only been seed out there intermittently over the last 10 years those damn birds have generational memory and sit out there chirping their wee little hearts out causing much guilt for me and distraction for the cats. Normally I could tune them out especially if it was sunny and warm and there would be a kajillion things that needed doing outside and away from clay. Sadly there is to be no sun this summer and really instead of bird feeders I should be building an ark but that’s not going happen, so the birds win. I am now thinking, dreaming, and fussing about the feeder designs – again. This time I am going as simple as humanly possible, really. Ok maybe a little somethin/somethin goin’ on, like wind chimes? Do birds like wind chimes? Colour, what colours do they like… hmmmm google time!
Do you have a fav bird feeder? Share pics and stories…
Bird Feeders in the Making!
You can just see the door-less balcony in the background, so you can see how daunting that would be!
donnae.ca 