New Earthenware Pieces (December 4th, 2012)

Pics of some new low fire work:

Horses, a goat, dog, cat and peacock

Mallard and a Piping Plover

Owl figurines: the 2 on the left available at Jenny Jib $20 ea

Pig ornament: available at Jenny Jib $22

Atlantic Puffin figurines, 2 available at Jenny Jib, $25 ea

Cats and mouse figurines; available at Jenny Jib $20 each

Cow figurine; available at Jenny Jib $20

Moose figurine

Appaloosa horse: available at Jenny Jib $75

Calico cat, available at Jenny Jib $25

Goat: available at Jenny Jib $25

Grey Mare: available at Jenny Jib $55

Large Brown Horse: available at Jenny Jib $95

Golden Dog: available at Jenny Jib $25

Black bear figurine

This Week's Favourite Things! November 24th - November 30th

The glaze kiln is cooling down and I have some pics of new low-fire work to take and post, coming very soon...  But here's the list for last week:

1. Lunenburg Santa Claus Parade - this was a very sweet afternoon parade on last Saturday full of creative floats and community spirit, advertised by the Board of Trade as the 'biggest small town parade'.

2.  Lunenburg Christmas Tree Lighting - another beautiful event in the evening after the parade with the town gathering around the bandstand to sing carols, listen to a couple passages from the bible, watch a pilgrimage with live donkey and watch as around 100 trees were lit.  It was nice to be in a town that still embraces the word "Christmas"; not to the exclusion of other traditions, but in celebration of this one.

3. Local pottery! tis the season and again there are so many great home studio sales happening. Toni Losey's sale in Dartmouth was last weekend though she has work available by appointment.  Seastar Pottery, Dragonfire Pottery and Crescent Clay have studio sales on this coming weekend, among other group craft sales going on.

4. Knot Pub in Lunenburg - went here between the parade and lighting, really reasonably priced good food and a great atmosphere

5. Christmas on Lincoln Street in Lunenburg - a lot of shops will be open til 8 on the first three fridays in December

 

This Week's Favourite Things! November 17th - November 23rd 2014

It's been a long week of glazing all sorts of stuff, and taking a lot longer than planned! But hopefully by next week I'll be able to do a firing. 

This week's list:

1. This song "The Snake" by Al Wilson, which was actually written in 1963 by civil rights activist Oscar Brown. 


Here are the lyrics:

On her way to work one morning
Down the path along side the lake
A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake
His pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew
"Oh well," she cried, "I'll take you in and I'll take care of you"
"Take me in oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake

She wrapped him up all cozy in a curvature of silk
And then laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk
Now she hurried home from work that night as soon as she arrived
She found that pretty snake she'd taking in had been revived
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake

Now she clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried
"But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died"
Now she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed and held him tight
But instead of saying thanks, that snake gave her a vicious bite
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake

"I saved you," cried that woman
"And you've bit me even, why?
You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die"
"Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin
"You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in
"Take me in, oh tender woman
Take me in, for heaven's sake
Take me in oh tender woman, " sighed the snake

When I saw the lyrics online I noticed the song is similar in theme to this poem I wrote in the spring "Lucy and the Snake".  Must be a lot of people running around who have been bitten by snakes!

2. WestCote Bell Pottery! In LaHave.  This is a beautiful artist run studio, right on the ocean, full of really great work.

3.   I thought I'd watched everything on psychopathy this year but here's a good video I listened to while glazing:  

"How to Deal With a Psychopath" 

4.  Classic "Spinach Dip" only instead made with Kale and mostly greek yogurt.  The recipe I ended up with was a LOT of steamed chopped kale - probably equivalent to at least 3 packets of frozen spinach, 4 cups of organic greek yogurt, 1 cup 1/2 fat mayo, 1 big pouch vegetable soup mix (eg, the size that makes 4 cups of soup), 1 big pouch leek soup mix,  bunch of greek onions.  Really good! Though next time I'd try it with onion and garlic powder instead of soup mix.  awesome use for the bags of kale we steamed, froze and put by this year.

This Week's Favourite Things! November 10 - November 16th.

1.  The talk by Vandana Shiva at Dalhousie last week.  It isn't online yet that I can see but was excellent and optimistic.  She pointed out that if everyone everywhere would just switch to small farms, and small farming based communities a lot of the worlds problems would be solved immediately: fossil fuel depletion, climate change, economics, health, water shortages, pollution....  Why doesn't this happen already? Because of a handful of powerful Agribusiness companies that were formerly into weapons manufacturing that are now in bed with governments.  The talk validated some ideas I had in this draft 'Behavioural Ecology of Sociopaths and how to save the world' post.

2. This Australian radio interview with Richard Bach (link is to a youtube video).

3. This youtube video by Wayne Dyer about interpreting the Tao Te Ching

4.  The Tao Te Ching (full pdf)

5.  The new Mother Mother cd "Very Good Bad Thing".  awesome!

6. Cafe Chianti on Barrington Street in Halifax, it's really nice, run by the same chefs that cooked at Trattoria in Lunenburg.

Merry Creatures! November 14th 2014

The first batch of "Merry Creatures" one of a kind papier mache Christmas ornaments that I've made since 2007 are now at Jenny Jib.  

Each ornament is initialed and has a "Merry Creatures" label with its name - the labels are made out of recycled cereal boxes etc that were fed through an inkjet printer.  The Merry Creatures are made out of recycled Chronicle Heralds, masking tape, cornstarch paste and sometimes wire for the armatures.   Their gold coloured elastic cords are sculpted into them.  They're painted with professional quality acrylic paints and varnished with an acrylic varnish.  The early ornaments weren't documented, but from now on I'll be naming and photographing each Merry Creature, with posts indexed on this Merry Creatures page.

Audrey The Christmas Haddock $25

Mark the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Jason the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Doug the Christmas Piping Plover, $25

Mike the Christmas Piping Plover

Frank the Christmas Bluebird $25

Beatrix the Christmas Rabbit $25

Bill the Christmas Dinosaur $25

Alfred the Christmas Owl $30

Esther the Christmas Owl $25

Glenda the Christmas Octopus $35

Julia the Christmas Goose $25

Kim the Christmas Owl $30

Lucy the Christmas Cat $25

Oscar the Christmas Pig $25

There are 3 other Merry Creatures from this batch with pics that can be seen elsewhere on the blog:  2 Christmas Hockey Raccoons: Brendan and Nazem, and the second "My Little Lobster" Christmas Ski Jumper. 

Pulp Creatures November 14, 2014

These pieces are now at Jenny Jib and $45 each:


Deer John

Morgan Moose

My Little Lobster #2 - Christmas Ski Jumper

Here's the 2nd "My Little Lobster" - one of a kind papier mache lobsters.  This one's name is "Christmas Ski Jumper" and is also a Merry Creatures ornament.  

Christmas Ski Jumper wears a Santa hat and stripey scarf and likes to ski around on downhill skis holding his magic candy cane.

Christmas Ski Jumper is available as of this afternoon at Jenny Jib for $35!


Front view: 

Side view: