Handmade Pottery + Ceramic Jewelry

Seashore themed porcelain box with decals

This covered porcelain box is long overdue!  Make that past due….  I made this on my Mom’s request as a gift for my niece for Christmas.  Yep – I said Christmas.  I’m only, what? 3 months overdue.  Ouch.  The box was constructed, bisque and glaze fired in time – however it didn’t survive the glaze fire entirely.  The lid was glazed shut and 2 of the feet stuck to the kiln shelf leaving some rather large divots because my new Skutt 1027 is firing really hot.

Back side of porcelain box with decals

I managed to pry the lid off with minimal damage and also filled in the feet with paper clay.  I sanded problem areas down and refired.  When I added decals to my kid’s cups last week, I decided to decal this porcelain box too – based on my Mom’s original request which was a “sea shore theme” because my niece, brother and sister in law spend time at the shore nearly every year.  It’s one of my niece’s favorite pastimes.   So, here it is, finally finished and looking mighty good, I might add!  Mom, I hope to have this in the mail to you this week sometime – sorry for the delay.

Back of porcelain covered box

Meanwhile, I really like using Ubuntu – in fact I’m writing this post on my Ubuntu sign on.  For the most part it’s fairly intuitive, but I have had to familiarize myself with the OS and have been customizing my space.  I do have a dual boot – so I have the option of booting into Windows or Ubuntu when I fire up my computer.  I’d like to cut the cord, but haven’t had the nerve yet.  I like all the FREE (free as in libre) open source software that is available – there isn’t one software package that I can’t find to replace what I have on my Windows sign on.  The only bummer about writing this post is that all my photographs are saved in Windows and I can’t access them from Ubuntu.  I’ll have to switch over to Windows to finish this post.  Firefox, my favorite browser, also behaves much better under Linux – yesterday Firefox crashed at least 5 times when I was in my Windows login.

There is even a little decal on the lid of the box

There are many different distributions of Linux – Ubuntu happens to be friendly for beginning Linux users.  There are other beginner friendly Linux distributions out there too, but I decided on this one thanks to the very helpful Ubuntu Community.  I know I sound like a newly converted evangelist – but seriously, I’m not sure more people don’t know about alternative operating systems.  I can’t compare a MAC OS because I have such limited experience with it – but I know it’s not free.

Okay, there are more pros and cons out there, but this is what I’ve noticed so far.

Happy Sunday,

~Cynthia