At long last here are some progress pics of work about to go into the kiln. For a change I thought I'd photograph things in progress after I was done underglazing. Underglazing can be as time consuming as carving I've realized!
All of the pieces in these pics are still "greenware", not yet fired. As soon as it stops pouring rain I'll be able to start shuttling things across the yard to the kiln shed for the bisque firing. Then, all the pieces will get dunked into studio glazes and fired again (all the pieces in this firing are cone 6 stoneware). The super painterly pieces here will get a clear glaze, the animal bowls will be glazed various colours. I took lots of photos for my own reference as I'm not sure how everything will turn out - we'll see!
A lot of these pieces will be going to the supremely wonderful Jenny Jib shop in the beautiful town of Lunenburg. As always these are all hand sculpted, I don't use any types of molds.
First up, who doesn't need a butter dish with a lobster on it? Jenny always has cool Jonathan Adler pieces in her shop and this piece came out of having fun asking myself "What would Jonathan Adler do if he was designing things especially for Jenny Jib?". Probably not this. But it was fun to pretend. These are all different views of the same butter dish, which is made from slabs for a change - usually all my sculptural-functional pieces start on the wheel.
Next up, Whale Mugs! I'm excited about these, there are two humpbacks, a fin whale and a sperm whale
Next, what visitor to Lunenburg hasn't wished they had a mug with the Bluenose II on it, and a lobster for a handle? There's just one mug and 3 pics of it:
Making a mug with the Peggy's Cove Lighthouse on the front and a lobster for a handle also seemed like a good idea:
Next up are two largish flounder platters that will get dunked in studio glazes, much faster than painting underglazes. I left my feet in the pic for scale. They'll be foodsafe, dishwasher safe, and also able to hang on the wall.
When I started art school I loved making relief carved vases. I haven't tried any for awhile as the ones I've made in the past were red clay with black stain. Adding colour makes things more tricky, so we'll see how these turn out. First here's one with a fox on one side and a heron on the other.
This next vase is larger, with a rabbit on one side, an owl with mousie on the other, and birch tree trunks all around. Back when I started it fiddleheads were just coming out...
Here's a kraken mug:
And a fox mug:
A rabbit bowl:
Two black bear bowls:
Moose bowl:
Chicken bowl:
Skunk bowl:
A flock of six sheep bowls which will be glazed white with black legs and heads (Suffolk Sheep)
And finally a batch of figurines. My figurines started getting bigger, more time consuming and the prices started creeping up, so these ones are smaller than most of the ones in my last firings.
1. Great art shows opened in Halifax this past week! Here are pics from Evgenia Makogon's new show inspired by Peggy's Cove - on at the Teichert Gallery (in the same building as the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia) until Aug 31. Nearby on Barrington St at Argyle Fine Art, is amazing new work by Halifamous oil painter Gordon MacDonald and ceramic artist Toni Losey. Links to pics of the pieces can be found here.
2. All the pouches of Organic Traditions superfood that are available at Bulk Barn and I think I saw some at Healthy Bug too. It's awesome - I've been buying the raw organic cocoa for awhile but this past week picked up raw cocoa butter and chlorella. Chlorella is a dried algae that is apparently great for detoxing heavy metals and chemicals from one's system because it binds to them. This article even points out that taking chlorella is recommended when people get old silver fillings containing mercury replaced. [note Aug 9th - I felt pretty feverish and irritable after taking chlorella for awhile and have since read up on detoxing. apparently you have to be careful because there's a risk that the chlorella will drag out toxins that will get reabsorbed into your blood if you don't also take lots of fiber and stuff like cilantro. Anyhow it's worth researching further]
3. No, You're Not A Psychopath. Helpful article from the psychopath free forum for folks recovering from run ins with psychopaths. This is interesting too, from the same forum: "It's Not About You".
4. This Doreen Virtue blog post about manifesting that actually gives a good explanation of the Hermetic Law of Polarity.
5. What the Cancer Industry doesn't want you to know - youtube video by Freelee the Banana Girl. This has a bunch of clips of various videos she found and is pretty interesting.
6. This CTV article about a study underway at University of Toronto to see if probiotics can help people with bipolar disorder. Good to see proper research investigating the mind/gut connection, as I wonder how many people are getting diagnosed with mental illnesses that could be remedied by addressing things like lack of proper nutrition, magnesium deficiencies, food sensitivities to things like sugar, dairy, wheat, caffeine, as well as overall gut health.
Anyways you are what you eat. Speaking of which:
7. Good to see the global uproar against the poaching of Cecil the Lion, as sad as the story was - hopefully this effects some positive change that will prevent other animals from ending up poached. More airlines are already banning the transport of animal trophies, thanks in part to a change.org petition. It would be awesome if, as well as the anti-trophy hunting movement, more people could feel the same outrage over how factory farmed animals are fed (with lots of GMOs) - and treated (animal cruelty). My hypothesis is that people would be more chill in general if they ate more raw plants and boycotted factory farmed animal products by instead buying from small farms and farmer's markets. No more people eating sick, fearful, abused, malnourished animals which are possibly making people sick, fearful, malnourished and abused. Then more people could make a living growing food in small sustainable ways thus promoting a more happy, healthy lifestyle for producers and consumers alike where people felt so much harmony with nature they wouldn't want to trophy hunt in the first place... wouldn't that be a nice tribute for Cecil "King of the Beasts".
1. Raspberries. Yum!
2. This Mind Valley article about "quantum jumping" - a meditation technique dreamed up by Burt Goldman who is in his 80's and was formerly an instructor for the Silva method. Fun idea! Burt has done some impressive things like learning piano and becoming an artist in his 80's.
3. This coming Friday July 31 is a Blue Moon! 2nd full in a month. Here's a nice Elephant Journal article about it. I'd been reading up on using moon cycles for manifesting and this coming moon could be a good one!
4. This pic by Gali's Healthy Kitchen of an older chicken bowl I made with some of Gali's delicious raw vegan food, that she shared on social media this past week. Artistically arranged by Gali's artistic daughter Evgenia, thanks guys that was a nice surprise! Gali can be found on Saturdays at the Halifax Seaport Market and is a great source of knowledge on healthy eating.
Evgenia has an amazing show of stunning new paintings of Peggy's Cove opening at the Teichert Gallery this coming Saturday, here's a sneak peek of most of the paintings on the gallery flickr page but there are a few more paintings yet to come.
5. This video about more impending economic collapse blah blah blah that I didn't even listen to because I was too busy enjoying all the comments by MissCattitude63 below it.
6. More stuff about narcissism and psychopathy - becoming aware of having experienced being screwed over by these types of people is like having Chicken Pox, it seems to bring immunity and an ability to spot the same condition all around; within society, within government, media, and within all sorts of business and personal relationships. Maybe for the upcoming Blue Moon a nice thing to manifest would be a global awakening to this dynamic for everyone on both sides, leading to more awareness world peace... rah rah rah.
Stuff I enjoyed this past week while underglazing:
Clockwork Orange Penguins, Narcissistic Abuse and CPTSD, a youtube video of a google hangout by the Spartan Life Coach, it gets juicy in the middle where he points out how we've all been brainwashed by the media
Narcissism Liars - Youtube video
Narcissism - Narcissistic Double Victimization. Youtube video
The Narcissist's Social Circle Youtube Video
Narcissism Why We Can't Win. Youtube video
The Narcissist Smirk, Smile and Grin of Satisfaction - Youtube video
Narcissists - Five Powerful Ways Narcissists Get Inside Your Head - Youtube video
A take on the narcissist/target dynamic from the 'everything is energy' point of view: Abraham Hicks No One Ever Does Anything to You That is Not Active in Your Vibration. More reason to heal/raise one's vibration and set some boundaries...(boundary setting video from Sam Vaknin, self aware Narcissist/Psychopath)
7. Corporations are Psychopaths With Zero Degree of Empathy
- a Natural News article listing off evidence on this topic.
I got
interested in this after getting a "Moved Same Zone" parking ticket in
Halifax over a week ago while visiting friends from out of province that
were staying at a B&B near Dalhousie University.
FYI if you park
in a 2 hour spot you need to move your car out of the zone completely - a
zone is defined by a stop sign or another break with a no parking
sign. You can't just move to another spot on the same part of the
block.
This ancient bylaw began being enforced within the past year,
apparently to the dismay of many people living in 2 hr zone areas.
Parking enforcement is privatized (surprise!) so good luck talking your
way out of a ticket even if there are lots of legal parking spots all
along the block.
The attendant will say there's nothing they can do,
the clerk at the HRM office will let you fill out a form after which you
can expect a call from someone working in enforcement reviewing
complaints saying that unless you let the ticket lapse, risk paying 60
instead of 25 dollars, and spend the time and money to travel to court,
there's nothing you can do either. Nice. Great way to confuse tourists
from other parts of Canada where it's legal to move your car to another
part in a zone to avoid a ticket.
It also means that if you live or
are visiting in one of these neighbourhoods, you can only leave your
car in the same 'zone' for 2 hours within a 24 hour period, I imagine
that might get hard to keep track of.
IMO if Halifax is trying to
encourage people to vacation and/or move there for university or work,
over zealous parking enforcers enforcing laws that require more
explanation than current signage may be doing the city more harm than
good.
As an aside, there was a hilarious letter to the editor in
Saturday's Chronicle Herald suggesting that maybe the entire government
of Nova Scotia ought to be privatized. Why not!
Here are some pics of our garden, taken today. It's been awhile since I've posted pics but it's fun to see how it's been growing since we first started it in 2012.
Walking down into the garden, and most of the view to the left. Brendan made nice paths this year with landscape cloth and big rocks that he dug out the garden while turning the soil.
Garden view to the right from the same spot. Directly in front is a big patch of herbs like mint, sage, oregano, thyme, and our haskap bushes.
A view across the garden with a row of broccoli in front and tomatoes behind. We've learned this year - way fewer tomato plants, like 60 instead of hundreds, with more space for them.
Our currant patch! The sticks my mom mailed me in 2012, wrapped in damp cloths, have grown up into these fine bushes. I think they're all red currants and the black currants and gooseberries didn't make it. It's hard to tell from this pic, but these bushes are all loaded with ripe currants...we're glad the birds have left them alone. I'd like to think it's our payback for all the bird feeding we did all winter.
Yum. So pretty and nutritious!
Here's a pic of the currants from 2012 when they arrived as sticks and I stuck them in pots of wet earth, a great example of how abundant the earth and how awesome and easy it is to grow your own healthy food.
Two rows of sugar snap peas to the left, a first foray into seed saving as I saved all these seeds last year. Birch poles were thinned by Brendan off the property. There's a row of beans to the right with a sunflower in front.
Parris Island Romaine Lettuce, seeds from Halifax Seed. Highly recommend; this variety is heirloom, very green, delicious and pest resistant. We just need to get into 'succession seeding' so we don't have 100 heads of lettuce mature at once (oops, next year...)
Tiny Tim Cherry Tomato plants, also from Halifax Seed. Brendan loves these, tomatoes are fun to grow but I'm pretty sure I'm nightshade intolerant, it's a common thing, especially in those of northern European descent. Nightshades = tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplant. For folks with arthritis or inflammation issues it's potentially worth trying to give up on nightshades to see if it helps.
Our blueberry patch, just nine plants so far probably hard to see.
One of the three 'lowbush' blueberries we got from Land Care Nursery near by this year. They were the most loaded, but the bushes we had last year had a record snowfall that damaged them a bit.
