Handmade Pottery + Ceramic Jewelry

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