This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 17th - Sunday August 23rd.

1.  My artist friend Evgenia Makogon's new website: www.evgeniamakogon.com  Awesome paintings on an awesome site! and she built the website herself with no experience! Woah!

2. Speaking of cheerful Russians our first Giant Russian Sunflower opened up this past week 

3.  Gardener Sweetheart Tomatoes, seeds from Annapolis Seeds.  This is a really delicious large, heart shaped cherry tomato

4.  Sequoia Bush Beans, seeds from Annapolis Seeds.  Never tried growing these before but they're a tasty bush bean with silky dark purple pods, bright green inside.  A good looking plant too, with dark purple stems and pretty purple flowers.

 

 

5.  Scarlet Runner bean flowers, needless to say the garden is full of hummingbirds. All the little yellow flowers are going to be humboldtii tomatoes soon!



6.  This gigantic winter squash plant that decided to take over part of the garden.  It's huge, and goes from the back fence in a few different directions, that's a summer squash plant in front though. Still not sure what this monster plant is, but whatever it grows we're saving the seeds.    



7. Homemade herbal tea!  This is easy, fun and cheaper than paying 5 - 6 bucks a box for good tea, I started dehydrating stuff like: nasturtium leaves and flowers, mint, sage, lavender, anise hyssop, chamomile, lemon balm, wild sweet fern and making my own tea blend.  It's nice.  The different plants have different medicinal qualities.  Eg, sage tea is good for hot flashes and a bunch of other stuff.

Some chamomile and lemon balm planted this year

8.  15 Traits of People Pleaser Syndrome in 15 Minutes - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach

9. 5 Tips to Stop Over Thinking to Prevent Anxiety and Panic Attacks - youtube video by Infinite Waters

10.  This article on tough love and enabling.

11. Home made vegan ice cream: shake up 2 cans of coconut milk ( we get a brand that doesn't have crap in it), pour in a pot, mash up a few ripe bananas, add blueberries, cardamom, cinnamon, shredded coconut, whatever, cocoa is good too, mash in some honey, stick in 2 quart ice cream maker and it turns into "I can't believe it's not ice cream"! It's nice.  The cocoa version passed a taste test for a human that loathes bananas. 

Now Available at Jenny Jib, August 21, 2015

Here are pics from my most recent firing, of work dropped off at Jenny Jib on Saturday August 15th.  I'm excited about the direction my firings are going, with a mix of big, medium and small pieces at a variety of price points.  Most of these photos can also be seen in this Facebook album.

Everything in this firing is cone 6 stoneware and foodsafe, technically they're microwave and dishwasher safe too but where the stuff is getting more sculptural, I'd recommend gentle handwashing.  And, of course, plates with picture wire attached shouldn't be microwaved!  

Click on the pics to see larger images.

There were 2 relief carved vases in this firing that turned out quite well. 

First, a vase with an owl and mouse on one side, rabbit on the other, and birch trees all around ($175).  
  

Detail of mouse, ground and fiddleheads, some of the colour effects were obtained by painting studio glazes over the underglazed areas.

Top of the vase, looking in

This is a small vase with a heron on one side, fox on the other and cattails all around ($125)

Whale Mugs!  There are 4, $50 each:

 

 

Next, the lobster butter dish: 

Next, large Flounder Platters.  These are both wired with picture hanging wire so can go from wall to table.  The blue/brown one is not available (due to a small crack) but I'll be making more!

The larger flounder platter worked out: $125

Lobster mugs! I made 2 of these, they were fun, featuring advanced comfort grip lobster handle technology.

The first has the Peggy's Cove lighthouse on it and a lobster handle, $75

Mug with lobster handle and relief carved Bluenose II - which is not actually available due to a small crack.

A Kraken Mug ($50):

 

Small figurines, these are at the $15 price point

Horse

Dog

Fox

Frog

Goat

Rat

Walrus - first ceramic walrus figurine I've made!  It's sold but I'll be making more!

Walrus side view

Here is a big rooster! He's 13" tall x 13" long.  And a bargain $175 only because one of his toes bust off during the making process, and again while I was glazing him, but I was able to repair it with glaze so it should be fine so long as he's handled with care.

I'm happy about the interaction of the commercial underglazes I use with the studio glazes I mix up in my shed.  This guy had all his details painted on for the bisque firing, and then was dunked in "Randy's Red Gold" for the glaze firing.   

  
Two small sheep bowls:

And I also dropped off a few pieces from a previous firing that I still had at home:

Mountain Goat Bowl ($85)

A large, stocky horse ($125)

 

Polar Bear Bowl ($65)

Larger Polar Bear Figurine ($50) 

 And two older small flounder plates, that can also hang on the wall.