I love it when a plan comes together!

Ok so maybe not quite the same as when Hannibal lights his cigar, but I certainly felt like part of the A-Team today...(there's a whole generation that analogy was wasted on).

On the first day I have turned in 2013, I really just wanted to make SOMETHING without tearing it all apart. Once the first cylinder stood up without much trouble I set out to make flower pots...(ok, herb pots, I don't make things large enough to plant flowers in yet)

With a little guidance from the master potter himself, I learned how to turn the flower pot and even put an attached watering overrun tray on the bottom! Thanks dad!

I also mixed a new glaze to try, hopefully it comes out as I have it in my mind's eye. All in all a very productive day playing in the mud! (Fingers crossed they live through the firing!)

I think Santa reads my blog!

So after I started opening Christmas gifts this year, I decided Santa has a few helpers...and clearly the elves read my pottery blog! Ha ha!

I got underglazes, overalls, and then there was this odd shaped gift under the tree...no guesses what it was? Ha ha! A new 5 gallon bucket to replace the one Murphy claimed a few weeks back!

(You may recall a skating episode through dad's shop after a cracked 5 gallon bucket of freshly mixed glaze, ugh!) Thanks Tommy, I will put it to great use!

If necessity is the mother...

If necessity is the mother of invention, then creativity is the crazy "stage mom" who believes her child is going to be a superstar! Ha ha! (My ideas are greater than my skill set...)

Nevertheless, sometimes you have a few trial and error attempts, right? I'm working on a few new ideas...but with new ideas come new issues! (plenty of them)

Speaking of mothers, at Thanksgiving this year we sat down for a traditional dinner with mine, but something was missing! (Now if you know my family well, there is NEVER a shortage of food, so clearly that wasn't the issue). We needed trivets! A pot holder to place underneath the hot dishes on the dining table....

...don't have what you need? Make it! I am cautiously optimistic that one of my "big ideas" will work out. (But as you all know...the kiln is the enemy, so nothing's set in stone yet...or should I say "set in stoneware" ha ha!)

Keep your fingers crossed, and I will update you all as the other ideas take shape!

Using my own words against me...

Don't you hate it when someone ruins a perfectly good rant with logic? Yeah, me too! Ha ha!

So dad calls to tell me how awesome those flur-de-lis coffee cups turned out. (I had glazed them last time I was there and anxiously anticipated the reveal). I have to say, the kiln firing fairy that lives in the shop makes pottery so much easier! You simply turn it and sign it and the kiln fairy bisque fires it...then you glaze it and the kiln fairy fires it again!

Therein lies the issue...this time the kiln fairy also sold it...before I got to see it! Ha ha! So someone out there has a set of matching coffee cups that I made which I have never seen! Too funny!

I hope they enjoy them, because as my dad so happily reminded me I always tell him "the object is to sell pots!" Thanks dad, you are right...

If Midas touches things that turn to gold...

...then today belonged to Murphy!

Murphy's Law exhibit #1: nothing, and I mean NOTHING that went near the wheel today became pottery...it was a lot more like "hey let's watch you attempt to center, attempt to pull, and then it can all fall apart."

Murphy's Law exhibit #2: Know what 5 gallons of freshly mixed glaze does when the plastic bucket it's mixed in cracks? Well, I do! And so does dad's freshly "glazed" shop floor! It went EVERYWHERE and is the slickest, stickiest mess you have ever seen!

Murphy's Law exhibit #3: fine, no turning today...I get it, so...let's do some slab work. Except, without boring you to death in details, lets just say it worked out as well as any other task planned for today.

So what do you do when Murphy takes over for Midas? Relinquish the throne dear subjects...and wait for another day.

Pottery...the full contact hobby...

So while the rest of you are watching football, I feel like I've been playing it! I turned for the first time in several weeks on Sunday and didn't remember exactly how many muscles you use to throw a piece of pottery...

Not to worry...I was quickly reminded the following morning as I rolled out of bed and crawled toward the ibuprofen bottle.

Seriously...your legs hurt, your shoulders hurt, your bottom feels like you climbed 212 flights of stairs...and the hands, forget it! I looked like I was practicing my monster claws for Halloween!

The side effects are pretty fun though, it's pretty funny when some huge shouldered muscle can't get the lid off a jar and I can reach over and twist it like its nothing...a phenomenon better known as "pottery torque"

so...for all of you struggling with the jar of pickles, the lug nut that's a little too tight, the childproof pill bottle, or the lightbulb that won't come free... you know who to call...your local friendly potter...

I am humbled!

Just finished my 2nd pottery show, and I am so humbled and honored that people actually wanted the things I've been turning...

I just can't seem to really take it all in? Thank you to each and every one of you who came out to the 9th annual Hilton Homeplace pottery sale today. You can't know how much your support inspires me and drives me to try new things!

I look forward to seeing you all again soon...until then, look for me right here!!!