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. 

 

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 10th - Sunday August 16th, 2015

1.  Molly Kool!  This is the name of my artist friend Helen Opie's Puddle Duck Racer sailboat that she's built herself and leak-tested last week.  

I think Helen was in her 80's already when she decided to design and start building this boat for her 'grand cruise' up the Annapolis River.  She's 82 now, good for her!  Though building such a vessel would be an accomplishment at any age! 

Molly Kool is named for North America's first female sea captain.

You can check out more pics of Helen's process here on the PD (Puddle Duck) Racer website.  There are some cool pics there of her peeling bark off the mast and other parts of the boat building process, as well as nice blog posts written by Helen.

It's clearly been a labour of love.  Photo credits go to Matt, the partner of awesome watercolour artist, Louise Williams who lives near Helen in Granville Ferry.  The captions are from Helen.

"Backing Molly Kool down to water - a longer tongue is next on my list!  Only hydropower station in province is there behind me.  That is the sluice I must avoid; will do all departures on rising tide until I know I can get around intake suction on falling tide by sailing along opposite shore."

"Pushing away from rocks so I can drift and look for leaks.  Tether keeps me near shore, but I had to pole upwind to stay off rocks"

"Ashore, grinning with delight."

Next is a video of Helen "Looking for leaks; now checking where the one leak was last fall"

Awesome! Way to go Helen!

2.  This pic from last Thursday's (August 13th) Chronicle Herald, so nice to see work by two of my favourite artists in the Arts section, side by side!  This really made me happy all day!

Speaking of art, the pics online of Dwayne Carberry's show "Paintings to Heal the Heart" look lovely, on until the 20th at Dart Gallery.  Then on the 21st Versus, a group show, opens with the opening from 7-9. 

There's also a food truck party Thursday night, Aug 20, from 7-9 at the Kings Wharf parking lot in Dartmouth.

Also on Thursday Aug 20th:  Downtown Artwalk for which Dart Gallery will be open until 8, as well as these Halifax galleries and spaces:
Art 1274, Studio 21, Art Sales and Rental (Teichert Gallery- AGNS), Zwicker’s Gallery, Hermes Gallery, Sugar Shok, The Darkside Café and Gallery, Secord Gallery, ArtZone, Inkwell, Viewpoint Gallery, SHAG Gallery, Puffin Gallery, Eyelevel Gallery (located inside Park Lane Mall), Mary Black Gallery and Argyle Fine Art.


3.  Also in the Chronicle Herald last Thursday, yes! an article about parking in Halifax, including the whole 'moved same zone' parking ticket thing I got slapped with in a previous week, though I see that offense conveniently got lumped in under some other term.  Good on the Herald for letting people know about this, not every part of the Halifax Regional Municipality has parkades that allow for long term parking.  

Speaking of parking, Who wants tourists??  and shoppers?? Lunenburg Does!  On the radio while glazing I heard that Lunenburg council is actually slacking off on parking restrictions to be more tourist friendly, by cutting the hours that meters are monitored, as well as offering extended parking  (3 hours instead of 2) at meters on key streets.  Makes sense if people want to take a tour and shop around.  

4.  Fiore Botanica's Shampoo!  Nice! This shop I mentioned before in Lunenburg has really really nice, homemade small-batch shampoo with organic ingredients, SLS free, that cleans hair without leaving a weird residue.  The shopkeepers are pretty picky of making sure nothing carcinogenic goes into their products, and apparently while not technically a carcinogen, there's an issue with how SLS is processed, that potentially involves the use of carcinogens. Not to mention that sulfates aren't great for hair anyways.  At $20 - 25 per bottle, depending on the scent, it's pricier than drug store shampoo, however, it works so well you only need a small amount, and there's no need to use conditioner.  I tried out the Cleopatra Blend and it's very nice!  A friend got some as well and likes it too!  Suddenly I'm reminded of this commercial from the 70's...   They also offer great shipping rates! free shipping on orders $50 and over in Canada, and on orders $150 and over in the US which would get Americans a lot of stuff considering how low our dollar is right now.

5.  Found out about this on twitter: Dakeyne Farm has Nova Scotia's first Sunflower Maze, located on Hwy 1 just after Windsor and well before Wolfville if heading from Halifax to the valley.   The maze is open every sunny day in August, 10 - 7, $10 adults, $5 for kids 3 - 12, kids 3 and under are free.  That must be beautiful.  Here's their facebook page.

6.  Peas and Beans.  There are lots of them this year to trim, steam and freeze.

Sugar snap peas! these vines are well over 6 feet tall, started from last year's saved seeds

Just some of the bush beans ready for picking

7.  Biff the Barn Snake.  This past week when the bisque kiln was cooling down Brendan and I went into the shed and he spotted a snake curled up behind a bowl on the work bench where I glaze stuff, and named him Biff the Barn Snake.  Biff was patient enough to pose for a photo shoot, there happened to be a pottery sponge there for scale.  We haven't seen him since though.  There is, however, less rodent poop than usual around the building. 

8.  This youtube video lecture about a doctor that develops MS but then manages to heal herself with an anti-inflammatory diet.  Nice.  How I Went From Wheelchair To Walking by Dr. Terry Wahls.

9.  This was good too: How Food Affects Your Brain. by Dr. Drew Ramsay (youtube video). 

10.  This documentary on Netflix: The True Cost.  Woah.  Hard to watch, but well done.  It's about the human rights and environmental abuses that have allowed us our cheap clothing, and makes second-hand clothes shopping look like a good idea.

11.  I started this whole "Favourite Things" weekly post over a year ago to cheer myself out of a depression that stemmed from some upsetting circumstances. This led to a whole delving into the topic of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, sociopathy and psychopathy.  But things are good now!  phew.  This will be the last time it'll include articles on this topic in my "favourite things" post.  Instead I'm going to revisit another post I start last October (The Behavioural Ecology of Sociopaths and How to Save the World), and include any further helpful links I find there.  I'll also edit in links to all the helpful things I found from all the posts in between that one and this one, with a note at the top as to when the post was last updated. 

I still think this whole issue of people running around with no conscience, for whatever reason, whether it is mental or physical illness, early childhood circumstances, genetics, addiction, nutrient deficiency, parasites, some sort of alien invasion, alien parasites, whatever, is at the core of anything icky happening in the world from our banking system, factory farming, slave labour fashion industry, all sorts of corruption, ponzi schemes, etc. 

As the first article below mentions though, going on and on about narcissism makes you run the risk of looking like a narcissist because accusing others of narcissism is something a narcissist would do.  Oh well.

To those lucky enough to have not been impacted by someone with this issue, or who maybe have been but have not realized yet how they've been duped - in my case it was a few run-ins with this personality type before I saw what was happening and why I've been susceptible -  I can see that going on about the topic for weeks on end maybe would make one look like a whacko.  Hence the decision to corral any further links into one spot on this blog from now on.   I think survivors, who tend to be empathic, which is how they get suckered in the first place, get so excited about sharing their stories and researching the topic in order to help themselves and help prevent others from suffering. 

So here are the links to stuff I enjoyed this past week: 

When Narcissists Claim to be the Victim of Narcissists - Who is the narcissist?  Really good blog post full of links.  

How to take revenge on a narcissist - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach.  Very nice, though the word "revenge" is a bit loaded from a karma standpoint, it's really more about making peace than taking revenge IMO. 

How Covert Narcissists Brainwash Their Victims - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach.

Effects of Narcissistic Abuse - youtube video by Spartan Life Coach 

Narcissistic Abuse: From Victim to Survivor in 6 Steps youtube video by Sam Vaknin.  Sam Vaknin is a self-aware psychopath who now educates others on this issue.  This video has a lot of great points.








 

This Week's Favourite Things! Monday August 3rd - Sunday August 9th, 2015

1.  Anise Hyssop.  This pack of seeds was included as a gift from Annapolis Seeds in Middleton when we bought a bunch from them last summer I think.  It's supposed to be good for bees.  WOW.  Is it ever.  I planted them in a border at the top of the garden and the plants are constantly swarmed with happy honeybees.  So not only is it a beautiful perennial with big purple flowers, very easy to grow, and hardy because it came back after this past crazy winter, but I just googled it and apparently it has some neat-o benefits for humans, according to various cultures

 Hard to photograph all the bees but there are a few in this pic:

 Close up on a happy bee:

Thanks, Annapolis Seeds.  Who are, by the way, hosting Tomato Fest this Sunday Sept 6th 12 - 5. Where you can sample up to 120 varieties of their tomatoes!

Speaking of their seeds, last year we grew and saved seeds for Humboltii Tomatoes, a very heavily producing, delicious yellow cherry tomato.  We planted these ones late so they're only just flowering now but look at all the flowers, lotsa tomatoes coming:

2.  Nasturtiums.  This year in the garden I learned that if you give nasturtiums lots of room they actually get huge.  This was supposed to be our melon patch but the melons weren't looking too good. So I threw down a few nasturtiums thinking I'd fill in later with more plants.  But they got huge! there are few Marigolds poking through waiting to bloom.

 Nasturtiums are beautiful, good for trapping pests, and apparently the entire plant is edible and can be used to make teas and tonics with various health benefits. 

3.  Our biggest broccoli head ever! Brendan's hand is in the pic for scale, I think this plant is a Hybrid Packman from Halifax Seed.

4. Speaking of farming I noticed a kiijiji ad for Watershed Farm, a biodynamic farm who were looking for help bringing in the harvest. Their website and blog are very nice indeed!

4.  Melbourne Free University.  Turns out these smart folks in Melbourne went ahead and started a free university, where people gather in places like pubs and learn stuff.  Looks like a very cool idea.  I wondered if there was something similar online and found this:

5.  Coursera.  Cool! This is a cooperation of a bunch of universities around the globe that let people take certain online courses for free.  There are tonnes of courses in tonnes of subjects.

6.  These 2 videos by Spartan Life Coach that popped up in my youtube feed after wondering why this last firing has taken me so long to finish.  The bisque kiln is cooling now though, and hopefully I'll have the glaze kiln loaded by this evening. Sure it's summer and things got busy but it felt like there was something else going on.  Aha, these videos make a lot of sense and could resonate with anyone who hopped off the beaten path to follow a creative lifestyle.  Things are on the improve now though! Knowledge is power!

Overcome Perfectionism, Stop Procrastinating and Get Sh*t Done!

Removing Psychological Barriers to success/creative expression: overcoming trauma, depression and ptsd