Here are the three teapots from the previous entry that I'm getting ready to glaze. They have been bisqued and the green color is wax resist, the rust/reddish color is a terra sigillata slip. Sigillata is a clay that is reduced down to its smallest particle size, it's really smooth and once fired, makes for a nice rust colored glaze. Next, I'll dip the teapot in glaze and my hope is that the glaze will flow over the wax resist, leaving just a subtle hint of the dot since the glaze will be thinner in those spots. I have never made dots like this. Usually I make stripes to break up the swath of glaze color, but while waxing today the dot idea came to mind. I'm not the first, but it's new to me. We'll see if it works.

Three New Teapots

Here are three new teapots. They still need to be bisqued fired and glaze fired, so stay tuned. The last teapots I made were similar but with these, I'm no longer flaring the end of the spout. Also, I'm seeing how far I can push the fat portion of the spout, the part just before the opening. The one on the right is furthest along. Also, I like spouts that are smallish relative to the pot. My friend Rick and I had a long discussion about teapot spouts and we both agreed. The spout does have to rise above the lid flange.

I'm still working on two more, similar but with different proportions.

Opening Night in Pittsburgh, PA

Opening night for the "Greatest Show on Earth", a themed show in Pittsburgh, PA last month at NCECA. The show was curated by Lorna Meaden and Ilena Finocchi. The opening was fun with good conversation and many libations. I love going to NCECA and spending time with new and old friends. After all the fun, I'm always a little deflated when I return home to my quiet studio. I made this sculpture specifically for this show and am always flattered to be included in shows like this.

Can You Make Money At This?

Today, a gentleman stopped by to mostly talk about himself. One thing that he asked that has been asked many times before, and it always puzzles me, "Can you make money at this?". The answer is "no". That said, we do make "sufficient for our needs", but our motivation isn't money. We do need to make it financially, but not at the expense of my soul. I may be naive, but if you're going into the arts for money, then you're in the wrong "industry". Whenever an artist derives their self esteem from how much money they make, I think they need to dig a little deeper and find meaning in making work that comes deep from within their soul.

A Letter in the Mail

Not long ago, we received a letter from the local den-mother scolding us for not making cub scouts a priority. If fact, we've decided to not encourage Eli to attend. For us, it was too closely linked to religion and we prefer to instruct our children based upon our own morality.

It was a lengthy letter but one sentence that stood out was "we should at least be willing to sacrifice an hour a week for our children". Implied is that since we don't participate in what is perceived as the proper and legitimate "family" activity that we must not posess "family values". While we don't attend church or send our kids to scouts it doesn't mean that we don't do anything or have no structure. We have our own set of priorities. For example, in our home, music is important. What that means is that we spend about $180 a month on lessons plus the drive time 20 miles away and waiting for the lesson. There is practice time that we're around for, plus all the group music events and more. I'm not saying that our priorities are better than church goers or sports families, everyone has their thing. But we do spend time and make sacrifices for Eli, Brynn and Ella, so when a fundamentalist of any stripe tries to claim their family values are superior to mine, it gives me pause.

Another priority is family dinner. We make it a point to sit around the dinner table each night to share a meal and tell our stories. We live on the main road through town and the church is a block away. At dinner and other times throughout the week we see church folks coming and going, alone and as a family. Far be it from me to judge their priorities, but I dare say that we spend as much time or more together as a family, around the hearth and elsewhere, than they do. It's our priority. We refuse to be too busy for dinner.

We're all in this together. An "hour"? How about sacrificing everything for our children?

Clarification

Even though we are paying extra for wind energy, I recently found out that as of now, we're not necessarily using the wind. Our money goes towards the development of clean, renewable power. All energy created by the wind is going into the grid so we could be using the wind and/or coal. I wish we could get just the renewable source, but for now, we're still putting our money where our philosphy is.

Making Art with Wind

Last week Lori, the kids and I went to a public hearing concerning the Toquop Coal Fired Power Plant just over the border in Nevada. It's about 28 miles from St George. Most of the speakers were against it. I am too. Coal is antiquated, it fouls the air and water and there are better options out there. The air around here is mostly clear and I'd like it to stay that way.

After the meeting, we stopped by the hardware store and purchased more Energy Saver bulbs( the curly ones) and replaced several of the older less efficient ones. Also, since there is better, renewable technology, we've decided to purchase wind power for our home and studio. Wind energy is more costly, but it's time that we live what we believe.

I fire an electric kiln about twice a month, some times more. Each time I fire it, I think I really should be using renewable energy. Eventually, I'd like to purchase solar panels and do the reverse metering, but for now we are using the wind to make art.