Works In Progress: Whaleware, A Skulk, and Relief Carved Bowls

I'm still working away getting things carved up for the next firing and thought I'd post some pics.  

I've really been enjoying myself! And waxing nostalgic that this fall will be 10 years since I started selling art, back in Regina.

I'm pleased to report that lately I've started feeling as excited about making art as I did back in 2005.  Hooray! It is so nice to feel this way again but now with lots more experience..

First up, some sitting fox figurines.   Apparently a group of foxes is called a 'skulk'.

Next, 3 Relief Carved Bowls.  These are new, and inspired by the happy outcome of the 2 relief carved vases in my last firing.  These are each a good size for serving or snacking.

The first is a fox chasing 2 rabbits, with some birch trees:

The second is a fox chasing a pheasant, with some cattails:

The third has 2 humpback whales and 2 peace signs, and is definitely for Jenny Jib in Lunenburg.

On the topic of Whaleware, there is also a sperm whale plate, that will be able to hang on the wall.  It's 11.5" long now but will shrink in the firing process.

And four more whale mugs.  I have a new blue stoneware glaze I'm excited to try with these!

This next firing will also have a big turkey and ornaments from this last post, as well as some other animal bowls and figurines that I won't photograph until they're done.  

For potters, or anyone, who gets tendonitis  - I can't believe I haven't had tendonitis flare back up from all this carving! I credit this powdered magnesium citrate supplement I started taking this year, Natural Calm which I picked up at the Healthy Bug in Halifax.  Apparently due in part to depletion of minerals in our soil from intensive agriculture, and our poor diets, magnesium deficiency is a widespread issue that can cause all sorts of symptoms, tendonitis being one of them.  Google 'magnesium deficiency' to learn more.  Eating more anti-inflammatory and/or alkaline food, along with doing yoga is probably helping too!

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday September 21st - Sunday September 27th, 2015

1.  Afterglow, Bridgewater's art at night fest that was this past weekend, for its 3rd year.  Great music, art, dancing, shadow puppet show.  I really liked this lady's art

2.  The full moon/lunar eclipse Sunday night!  Here are some cool supermoon, really love the one of Glastonbury

3. Shipbuilders Cider!  It's really nice, local, and surprisingly inexpensive. 

4.  Nutritional Yeast.  In thinking about how to become as vegan as possible I started eating more of this tasty stuff, on everything, it's good and apparently very nutritious.  Here's a post that lists off the health benefits "Weird Myths and the real truth about Nutritional Yeast", and another post: "5 reasons why I'm obsessed with nutritional yeast".

5.  Speaking of healthy vegan food here's a nice, filling, easy anti-inflammatory breakfast:  chia seed gel with raw apple, frozen blueberries, cinnamon, hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds.  Bulk Barn is a good place to get seeds, spices and nutritional yeast.

6.  This video which I think is Stuart Wilde and have probably listed before:  How to Activate Your Superconscious Mind.  Early on he mentions Cosmic Consciousness, written by Richard Maurice Bucke.  Here's a 1990 slide show about him "The Illumination of Dr. Bucke".

7.  Twitter for cool account with art, there's so much! eg. I really like this guy's stuff @GordonBruceArt

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday September 14th - Sunday September 20th, 2015

1.  This recent ABC news article with a photo of a seal riding the back of a humpback whale in Australia.

2.  Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret.  This is a great documentary, backed by Leonardo DiCaprio, now available on Netflix in Canada at least, or click the link and download it for $4.95 only. 

So glad this film was made, it validates my intuitive chucking of my conservation biology career in favour of growing vegetables.  And it reminds about how weird it was that the land trust I last worked for in BC served rare steak, with no vegetarian option, for its fancy fundraising dinner.   

It also reminded me of my research for my MSc on songbirds in the grasslands of the Okanogan Valley of BC.  Some cattle range on crown land managed by the government was in way worse shape than privately owned rangeland.  Go figure.
 
It'd probably be awesome for the planet were all humans to immediately go vegan but that's probably a tall order - but even if everyone cut back dramatically on animal products, and cut out all factory farmed animal products, it'd be a good start.  Then maybe the planet could even sustain small amounts of animal products for those who wanted some.

Personally though I try to be mostly vegan though at this point I do find myself occasionally - like once a week or less frequently - craving small amounts animal products (not dairy). I'm guessing this is for brain health from what I've read.   I think vegans, like everyone, need to be careful about making sure they get all the required supplements, though it seems it can be done.  This article lists off some brain nutrients and has a lot of interesting comments/debate below it.   Luckily in Nova Scotia there are a lot of farmer's markets with non-factory farmed animal products, and local seafood.   

3.  Speaking of even more reasons why we should all be eating no, or less animal products, this lecture on youtube:

Meat, Milk, and Human Diseases / Life Science Seminars International - Raymond Obomsawin

4.  Canned coconut milk as a delicious substitute for cream

5.  What I made for supper the other night: kale 'fried' in water with some raw coconut oil on top, a chopped up cucumber, a chopped up avocado, some chia seed gel, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, cayenne, sea salt, pepper. 

6.  The Forest Lakes Country Club website. This development underway near the Halifax airport looks nice and has some cool sustainable site prep techniques being used like cleared trees being recycled to topsoil.

Works in Progress - September 15th 2015, Turkey Bowl and Ornaments

Thanksgiving is coming! Both for Canadians and Americans, so I decided to make a giant stoneware turkey...

... that comes apart into 2 bowls for serving.  Perfect for vegans and vegetarians that would still like a big festive turkey on the table.  

Christmas is coming! So I've been working away on stoneware ornaments. 

This year I'm trying out ornament hooks from Dragonfire Pottery & Supplies so that I can finish the bottoms of my ceramic animal ornaments with the help of stilts.  These will be able to hang with a simple ornament hook, no more heavy wire!  Eg, here's a seal pup...

 ... and its bottom.

 Frog, mushroom and bunny.

 Horse with a donkey behind it

 Pig!

Reindeer!

Sheep:

 I've also been working on making them smaller and lighter - they started off this way in 2009 but started getting bigger, and a bit heavy for natural trees - these should be better.  

Here are a great white shark, Sullivan's pond goose and owl with santa hats.

 

New Merry Creatures will be coming to town too - brightly painted papier mache animals wearing santa hats.  Here are the first frames for the season, made from 100% Chronicle Heralds and masking tape.  They've gathered under our avocado plant that Brendan managed to start from a pit:

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday September 7th - Sunday September 13th 2015

1.  Turns out the giant plant taking over a chunk of the garden is making pumpkins.  This is the biggest pumpkin I've ever grown! Handtools are in the pic for scale but it's hard to capture the size of this thing because the plant itself is so huge.

Here are a couple more smaller ones from the same plant, they just look so perfect. I think this is a Conneticut field pumpkin plant, not sure though.  In any case it's quite vigorous, and we'll be saving some seeds from it.

And here are this year's Russian Giant Sunflowers.

2.  This Bob Proctor interview on youtube that looks to be from the 80's.  Do You Know Who You Are?

3. The Gaff Point trail at the end of Hirtle's Beach, Kingsburg, around 20 minutes out of Lunenburg.  This is a 7 km loop around coastal bluffs, on land that was protected by the Kingsburg Coastal Conservancy in partnership with Nature Conservancy of Canada and the Nova Scotia Nature Trust and the government.

4.  The schedule for Afterglow, Bridgewater's "Nocturne" which is coming up September 25th and 26th, really nice to see how this is evolving and hope there will be good weather!

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 31st - Sunday September 6th, 2015

1.  "Deliberate implosion of the US economy"  This is an interview on youtube with Catherine Austin Fitts, former assistant to the Secretary of Housing in the United States for the Bush administration.  Interesting stuff re: countries being run by corporations, but also uplifting with some suggestions for solutions, eg 'let's screw over the globalists via localized peer to peer lending'.  And it was cool to hear someone use parasites as an analogy for what is up with the global economy.

2.   This article with an alkaline forming juice recipe - ginger, celery, cucumber, lemon, concocted to help reduce joint pain and gout.  I've been drinking this and it's nice.

3.  Soup.  Been chucking lots of vegetables from the garden, including a lot of kale, into a pot and eating it. It's nice.  Kale is part of the cabbage family so using it has the same slimming effects as cabbage soup.

4. Ornament hooks for ceramic ornaments, and epoxy glue for sticking clay to wood. I'd never used either before!  Progress pics coming soon.

5. "How to train the mind to attract what you desire"  youtube video from the 'we are creators' channel.  This is an interview called "the Power of your mind" by John Kehoe.

6.  How to stop black magic by love.  An Infinite Waters youtube video 

7.  This "Higher Perspectives" article with pics of stunningly detailed pencil tip sculptures.

Now Available at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Shop, September 2nd 2015

Here are some pics of stoneware pieces from my last firing that I dropped off at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Shop in downtown Halifax last Friday (August 28th). 

It's just a few pieces since most of this firing went to Jenny Jib in Lunenburg, but I'm working on the next firing already.  Time to make Christmas ornaments!


Two black bear bowls:

Four sheep bowls:

 

A rabbit bowl:

And a fox mug:

 

These 7 figurines are in the smaller size that I've begun making - which is probably as big as when I first started making ceramic figurines in 2009.  So these are back down to the $15 price point, where I started and I'll be making lots more.  Unlike my earlier figurines I now use stilts when I can to glaze the bottoms of things.

Bear

Two Rabbits

 Crow:

 

Rooster:

Three Sufflolk Sheep:

Now Available at The Dart Gallery, September 2nd 2015

Here are pics of a few pieces I dropped off at The Dart Gallery  in Dartmouth last Friday (August 28th). 

First up, wall-hanging stoneware flying crows!  I brought in a small flock, varying in size and price point from $40 - $125. There's this brand new one from my last firing which is $85, the others are a bit older.

 Here is one of six smaller ones for $40

 And this one is $75

This is the largest one, for $125.  These are all hand carved as I don't use molds.

This large stoneware tortoise comes apart into 2 pieces that could be used for serving food. I made this piece back in 2010 and plan on making more stoneware tortoises soon.

Tortoise.  Stoneware $220

The next 3 sculptures are older but favourite pieces of mine!  Time to see if they're ready for new homes.  I made these from earthenware in 2008 while I was studying ceramics at University of Regina.  They were bisqued, then wiped with a black stain, and fired again.  

These owls were part of a big body of work I did for a show that year call "Portraits, Presence and Play" with Regina painter friend Jana Kutarna.  

Single Parent. 9" tall x 13" wide x 4" long, $225

These Owls Are Going To Get A Divorce.  11" tall x 12" wide x 6" long $240

Teenagers. 8.5" tall x 12" wide x 10" long $275

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 23rd - Sunday August 30th

1.  Collapsing Empires and failing central banks in a world awash with unpayable debts - youtube video of Max Kaiser interviewing Charles Hugh Smith.  

Despite the title this was actually sort of cheerful and maybe even makes Nova Scotia with all it's small farms, crafters and breweries etc look cutting edge and poised to emerge from the rubble of whatever this foolish fiat global ponzi banking thing is that we've all been sold.

2.  Speaking of how cutting edge Nova Scotia is for banning fracking,  this youtube X22 Report Spotlight was interesting.  At approx 14:30 minutes in,  Andrew Hoffman calls out Shale oil as being the most over leveraged commodities in the world, up there with the ghost cities in China.  "Shale Oil is the high cost oil of the world financed by 500 billion dollars of junk bonds and leveraged loans".  Yep.  Possibly not worth risking the potability of the province's water over.

3.  Harperman!  For those who may have thought Canada was a free country, with free speech, think again!  Apparently Big Brother is watching.  

Tony Turner, a bird biologist working for the federal government wrote a bouncy folksy protest song pointing out obvious truths about our Prime Minister, aka Chairman Harper, and got laid off with pay while the matter was investigated.  

This investigation pretty much validates the content of the song and inadvertently made something that was largely unnoticed into international news.

Check out Tony's Harperman song here on youtube, and notice that, last I checked, only 3% of viewers dislike it! Interesting statistic!

This sparked a debate, Can Public Servants be Political Activists? (link to a cbc article).

Wow!  Tony Turner, once again, is a bird biologist.  He is being paid by our taxes to protect the environment.  I won't get into bill C51, the wholesale opening up of Canada's water courses to exploitation, and all the other anti-environmental stuff Harper is known for, muzzling scientists and whatnot.  In my opinion Tony is doing a great job of attempting to protect the environment with this song by calling Harper out.  

Hats off to Tony, this oppression from Harper is exactly why I washed my hands in my 'formal' conservation biologist career 10 years ago when I realized big business interests intermingled with politicians who cater to this run the show in this country.  Sorry, birds.  Rock on, Tony. Kudos for channeling your frustration into something creative. 

Tony has been using his leave to host a Canada-wide singalong of his song on September 17th.  More information, song lyrics and chords are available on the Harperman website.  And here's the Facebook Invite.   There are some interesting comments on this event page by people afraid of facing consequences (eg, cut off funding) for joining the event publicly.  Fortunately someone has provided a Stephen Harper mask template for other government workers to wear.