Archive for the “Life in General” Category

Hybrid Leaf Vases

I liked making these 2 vases - the bases were made from slabs of clay and the wheel thrown neck was added after the hand built portion of the vase had set up (not quite leather hard) enough to withstand having the neck addition.  I also made a bisque texture plate using ginkgo leaves from the little tree I planted in my yard - though I haven’t used it yet.  The white glaze is new for me - it’s from Mastering Cone 6 Glazes by Hesselberth and Roy, pg. 108 “Faux Majolica”.  There’s a great interaction between the white and the aqua color glaze where they overlap that I really like.

In an effort to use and store a limited number of glazes and all the associated raw materials in my small garagio, I thought this white would be good as both a liner and I might like to try painting some stains on top in the future maiolica style.  I decided to be conservative and only made a 5,000 gram batch just in case I didn’t like it, but I have to say, it fires terrifically!

In regards to glazes, I decided to bite the bullet today and purchased the Digital Fire Insight Glaze Calculator after testing several different programs, even a free glaze calc program.  I’m all about free, unless it isn’t working for me and this one isn’t a terribly intuitive program - but that really applies to me only.  Maybe now that I have the glaze calculation program, I can add my glaze recipe page to my website.  I’ve been too lazy to format tables in word for my recipes and it would be really cool for others to see the analysis that accompanies each.

Square Bottom Mug - hand built from slabs of clay

I really like the way this mug turned out - round top, square bottom and the faux majolica MC6 glaze interacts nicely with this green one too! In an effort to move away from the templates that ceramicist, teacher and writer Annie Chrietzberg gave to everyone this past summer during a workshop I took here in Denver, I tweaked her template just a tad giving the mug a square base instead of a round one.  The tweak was minimal, but effective.

Speaking of Annie - I wonder if her ears are ringing right now…I enjoyed spending a couple of hours with her yesterday in my studio.  She’s warm, funny and very generous with her knowledge.  Oh Earth to Annie…thanks for stopping by!

Meanwhile, yesterday was hectic and I didn’t get a chance to do all my daily Internet activities such as responding to blog comments, answering emails etc.  In the am, I took my daughter to visit the Denver Center for International Studies, which is a 6th grade -12th grade public magnet school in Denver.  Denver residents are lucky to have school choice - but we are also cursed because choosing a school is like applying to college.  She will be starting middle school next year and we’ve narrowed our choices down to 4 including the one above, Denver School of the Arts, Morey Middle School which has a gifted magnet program, and one other neighborhood school.

My first choice for her is the international studies school - it’s so cool, they start studying a foreign language in 6th grade (French, Spanish, Italian, Chinese or Japanese) and they visit countries where their language is spoken starting in 9th grade.  Her first choice is Denver School of the Arts - but they only accept 20% of applicants.  Besides, does our family need more than one artist?  DCIS accepts about 50%, Morey is an automatic in - and the other school is just an extra for decision making purposes.  All 3 of these schools are urban & very diverse - and bonus upon bonus - they provide busing!

The downside to all of school choice is that applications are due by Dec. 12 for following year and include essays, interviews, teach recommendations, test scores - all for 6th grade!  It’s a little overwhelming for both of us.  I promised her that if she decides to go to DCIS, I’ll take classes in whatever foreign language she picks.  Wouldn’t Japanese be cool?  Of course I’d sign up to chaperon field trips whenever possible!

TGIF,

~Cynthia

Get ready for a woowoo post!

With each passing year, I’m becoming crunchier.  It’s sort of a weird awakening, but that’s exactly what I feel is happening to me.  I’m waking up to the world around me and realizing that each individual is responsible for the earth’s safekeeping so that future generations of people will thrive. I had an epiphany this morning - talking about the environment is for some people like talking about religion or politics.  It can get heated or ignored all together. My apologies in advance if you are tired of hearing about the environment - fair warning to read no further.

I have some really big ideas right now - I would love to build an earth shelter somewhere in Colorado in about 3 - 4 years time frame.  After talking with an architect friend of mine, the trick would be to find a county with an open minded building zoning commission.  Here in Colorado, I would think that would include many mountain communities or Boulder.  Some parts of Colorado do embrace alternative building techniques including geo-domes, straw bale homes, cob structures, earth shelters and more.  I’ve been doing a lot of research lately and have a stack of books piled high on my coffee table, including several written by Dan Chiras who happens to have built his own earth shelter nestled in the hills of Evergreen, CO just 40 minutes from downtown Denver.  He has a gray water reclamation system, native plant landscaping, uses passive and active solar energy, grows some of his food, installed a composting toilet, geothermal energy, and used recycled tires and straw bales to construct part of the home.  His annual energy bill?  Practically $0.00.  Can you imagine?  I think the only thing I would need to pay for that I consider a utility would be for my internet connection!  Is there satellite internet technology that’s widely available yet?

Why build an earth shelter? These homes are incredibly sustainable (save for the fact that virgin land might be built upon), and can be owner built off the grid.  I have visions of a passive & active solar earth sheltered home with adjoining pottery studio, kiln shed, a posse of small farm animals and veggie garden all fueled by solar panels, wind, geothermal energy and homemade biodiesel.  I know - sounds Utopian.

I can just hear the laughter bubbling up now from your side of the computer monitor!  But, that’s okay…roll your eyes all you want to.

The upside is that earth sheltered homes are incredibly weather safe & naturally climate controlled since a portion of the home is sheltered by the earth.  Even in the winter, many homes only use supplemental heat such as a pellet or wood stove, and since the earth’s temperature below ground is a relatively stable 50°F or so, summer remains cool with no need for AC and the passive solar design heats in winter. There are natural precautions when building this type of home such as consideration for water drainage & water proofing, air flow ventilation and radon for obvious reasons.

I’ve been so excited about the possibilities that I almost pushed my husband  (former real estate appraiser) over the edge a few weeks ago.  Suffice it to say, he’s not on board yet - not even luke warm, but I keep trying…  I think so many people consider this type of building a foreign concept, despite the fact that people have lived like this since ancient times.  I suppose aesthetics and some conflated notion of resale values has something to do with it, but I kind of like the idea of having a sod roof over my head and no utility bill.

I’m not sure if my husband and I will ever get to the point where we move to a more rural area, and when I think about it, this might not be the most environmentally wise choice for us either, especially if he has to commute by car to an urban area to work.  Although, if we had our own biodiesel refueling station at home….  I asked my architect friend if there are brownfields in the Denver metro area that would be possibilities for building an alternative structure.  His response, “Brownfields? Definitely!  Being able to build on one?  Maybe, but it will be difficult getting plans approved, let alone getting past the NIMBYs.”  Building on a brownfield also depends on the level of pollution, though there are plenty of remediation techniques available including plant life that remove certain chemicals through their root systems.

There are a ton of links out in cyberspace to learn more about alternative home building methods, but one place to get started is architect Malcolm Well’s website - he has links to books, discussions, other websites and more.  He even designed and built an earth sheltered art gallery for his artist wife on Cape Cod.

In the meantime, I’ve been wondering if there is such as thing as a green pottery.  I don’t think there truly can be one, even if you’re using solar panels or biodiesel or methane gas or farmed wood to fuel your kilns, you’re still mining the earth for the raw materials.  With that said, I do think making a ceramic cup is a better choice environmentally than producing disposable cups, even if they are made from recycled materials.  Additionally, buying a handmade cup from a potter is much better than buying cheap mass produced work from off shore with questionable environmental production practices.

I was also thinking about carbon offsets this morning too.  Can buying carbon offsets assuage a potter’s practices of using fuel and raw materials to produce work?  I sort of think buying carbon offsets is like buying indulgences during the 1400-1500’s.  I think a better solution is to try to green your life in other ways which goes back to thinking about the home I live in.  I may be off the mark here though.

I’ve decided to start small and have been making conscious changes at home - buying organic food, local when possible, switching my cleaning products to environmentally friendly ones, looking at solar panels, selling one car, biking or taking light rail when possible, growing a small vegetable garden.  I can do these things easily, though the change over hasn’t come naturally because it takes awhile for old habits to die, and new ones to form.  A funny thing happened the other day - I was out an about and ran into a conventional grocery store and after I made dinner, I didn’t think the food tasted as good as the food that I purchase at my local natural grocers where I’ve been shopping since July this year.  At first it was the other way around.

In other news, I haven’t tried constructing my test diy solar heaters yet, but have all the materials (all recycled courtesy of the dumpsters in the alley behind my home) ready to go now.  Now that the Potters Guild sale is over, I have a lot more time to play.  Recently, I have also enjoyed listening to Green Talk Radio podcasts while I work in my studio.  The host, Sean Daily, has had some terrific guests on his show and his mantra is start slow - every little change makes a difference.

What do you think in regards to sustainability and the environment - are you doing anything differently?  Are you even concerned about it?  If you’re a potter, do you think there can be a green pottery?  I’m not one of the sky is falling type of people, but by being proactive, I feel a whole lot better.

Just curious,

~Cynthia

Porcelain Birds

In August, I had an order come in through wholesalecrafts.com that included several porcelain birds.

Plaster Bird Mold

The birds are not terribly difficult to make because I made a mold years ago in a workshop I took back while living in Maine.  During the workshop, participants used bird illustrations from an old Audubon book and translated into clay from which we then made plaster molds.  Can’t remember the name of the instructor off the top of my head, but she specialized in architectural ceramics and used molds like this to create large installation ceramic pieces.  The most time consuming part of the process is allowing the mold to dry between uses and then cleaning up the rough edges of the birds.

Saffron and Tangerine

It’s officially Fall and has been for a few weeks now - it also happens to be one of my favorite times of the year.  Warm days, cool nights and an explosion of color makes me incredibly happy.  The leaves are slowly starting to change color here in Denver and flowers are still blooming like crazy.  While there is plenty of color inspriation in my own garden, I am particularly inspired by the flower beds at my nearby park where I walk my dogs nearly every day.  The colors are what I hope to replicate in developing a new glaze palette for my work.

Saffron, Tangerine and Chartreuse

I need to remember my camera next time I meander over to the park before the gardens are put to bed for the winter.

Golden Mustard and Chartreuse

Even the leaves reveal wonderful color combinations as they turn colors - I’m not sure if this leaf is from a cottonwood tree or other.  The Ash tree is one of the first to change colors in the fall and one of my favorites as the color morphs from green to yellow to orange to bright crimson.  No photos of an ash leaf right now.

Meanwhile, last week was one full of necessary dental and medical appointments.  You may remember that I started taking a medically supervised weightloss drug in early July because nothing else seemed to be working.    Quick recap - I developed a thyroid disorder shortly after the birth of my daughter in 1997 and gained a lot of weight as a result (in addition to a variety of other symptoms like hair falling out, extremely dry skin, being contantly cold, extreme fatigue, and depression).  Apparently it’s a fairly common occurance for women to become hypothyroid after pregnancy or other physical trauma.  Even after my thyroid levels became stable through medication and my other symptoms disappeared and regular visits to an endocrinologist & nutritionist and trying to lose the weight unsuccessfully through diet and exercise for two years - going so far as to train for and run a half marathon in 2006 and 2007 - I opted for drugs.

Anyway, I had my follow up appointment on Friday and I’ve lost 20 pounds since July and am down to a number on the scale that I haven’t seen before being diagnosed with hypothyroidism.  I feel better physically and since I didn’t throw out my “skinny” clothes, I now have a whole new ward robe!   That’s about all I’m going to say on the topic of my foray into weightloss drugs - now I just have to keep it off.

Have a great weekend,

~Cynthia