Locals and Pottery

Even though we don't have a lot of human company, locals abound. There will be more on the bats, but this is a resident who welcomed us the first day we got here, and continues to be a bit of a nuisance. . . I mean sweetheart. Both, really. Because of John's rather intense allergy to cats, there's no way this guy can come in, but I gave him some serious pets on our first day here. When I turned away, he grabbed my leg and clawed me pretty deeply. It WAS NOT time to stop, apparently. Since then, we've had a bit of a truce. He rubs up to us, and tries to dart into the apartment, but lets me pick him up and escort him outside with no further violence.He's quite a beauty, I think.  The owners told us he's an "outdoor" cat. He has, apparently missed that announcement.

We also have been able to do a bit of Possum spotting in the yard. Australian possums, while considered as much of a nuisance as their American counterparts, are considerably more attractive. Dare I say it? Cuter?

John and I came home one evening to hear a scrambling above our garage door, and when we looked up, all we could see was a long furry tail hanging down alongside the rolling door.

The Australian Bush-tailed Possum

And check out that tail! Makes all the difference doesn't it? I had a friend in Grad School who had written a song about squirrels. She ended it by saying something like "without your tail, you'd just be another rat. . .". Smile. So. Here's a fun fact. Our not-so-attractive possum in the U.S. is "The unsung hero in the fight against lyme disease." This was concluded by The Cary Institute (http://www.caryinstitute.org/discover-ecology/podcasts/why-you-should-brake-opossums) who have found that because possums are
a) magnets for ticks, and b) incredibly excellent groomers, they single handedly (pawedly?) take a large number of potential human lyme disease vectors out of the equation. What a terrible sentence! But then again, Who knew?

Our guy: The Virginia Possum

Now. Here's the next topic. Pottery. Totally unrelated, I know, but I wanted to talk a little bit about my pottery experience here. It has been a good thing for me to do, if for no other reason to appreciate all that I have in Boise. And of course, I've met some nice folks.

Northcote Pottery, Weston Street, Brunswick

Prey No More

Dog Hunting

The place where I've been working is The Northcote Pottery Studio: Small things. It's about a 15-20 minute bicycle ride away, which is usually not a problem. The weather, after the initial heat, has been lovely, and I am truly grateful for the ride. On most days. The exception is when I need to transport greenware (dried, unfired clay objects). What a nightmare. So I have made, and likely will contribute to the landfill,  two animal head sculptures in the "broken ear" series.  These heads, by the way, were made using a process that Lisa Naples has made available to potters everywhere via the Ceramics Daily.com. Because the rabbit had so much attitude in his face ("Do NOT mess with me"), I had decided to call the piece "Prey no more". Ha. But then, as I transported him to Northcote for bisque firing, his ear broke off. Now he's really got attitude, right? I decided to go ahead and fire and glaze-fire the whole mess, just for the experience. I found out that I a) really don't like "brush-on" glazes; and b) really didn't like the way this Celadon cone 10 glaze looks in an oxidative (electric) firing. Too much information for many of you, but necessary for the potters, I think. THEN, exactly the same thing happened with my Dog Head. Broken ear during transport.  And believe it or bot, that white on him is the same green glaze as on Prey No More. Oy. Two things I dislike. One is the shiny shiny (my fault, since I wanted a transparent glaze over the black underglaze, and didn't want to buy a third jar of glaze. In hindsight, I should have just gotten a matt white and glazed everything in that.

Fallen handle teapot

A couple of things worked better, though nothing I've ever made is without flaw. The body of this teapot was first thrown on the wheel, and then altered to an oval. Embellished, bottom, spout and lid made and top cut out. Handle attached. And ouch. The handle fell over in the final firing, glazing it to the top. If I had my studio at home, I could fix this pretty easily, but I don't have a flex-shaft or a kiln for refiring after I zip off that handle. I expect this will go into the landfill, too, though I DO like the glazing better. It's a mix of that celadon, red underglaze, and a matt glaze (on the inside and on the spout) called "jade". Not a bad effect.

The last show-and-tell's for this post are 3 mugs. All ok. None great. I like the handbuilt one in the back best, and am drinking tea from it as I type. The other two were thrown, and as usual, looked HUGE when I threw them, and eventually ended up being just a little smaller and a little heavier in the bottom (aren't we all) than I had intended.