Sunday at the park…..

In the garden….

Lots of greens.  Many different kinds of greens.  I just cannot have too many greens.  I seed them really close together so the first harvests are just thinning them out.  This spot gets lots of morning sun in the spring but by late summer it is quite shady so most of the greens will last all season.

Radishes and broccoli raab on their way.  From now on, every week the garden will be offering more and more.

And my sweet garden companion is growing every week too.

Raspberry snack….

Calgary….

A little road trip to Calgary last week.  The sweetest visit with family and good, good friends.

Frances had a fabulous time and met a new buddy, Forrester.

Sometimes I dream of all the amazing people I know all living in the same place……..the world is both big and small.

 

p&p…..

Parrots….

and printmaking are two things I am pretty excited about these days.

These are just some proofs, first prints off of my latest collagraph plates.  Looking forward to refining them a bit and reprinting some variations over the next couple of weeks.

I am working towards a series of these three prints that will be displayed at Bijou, in Nelson, beginning mid-June.

New mugs…

Here is a peek at some new mugs.  There is more on the way….. I am just starting to load the kiln again.  Every mug is different.  I didn’t make any two exactly the same.

You can find these mugs and more on the Oso Negro mug shelf for the month of May.

Outside my studio window…..

A new game…..

Frances-Pepper has a new game.

Throwing anything that will fit through the gate down the bright red basement stairs.

Out of the kiln….

A few experimental pieces from the last glaze firing.  The rest have been returned to the kiln with decals and lustre for the third and final firing.

Glaze tests complete.  I used the same glaze base that I already use for a couple of my glazes but tested with ten different stains.  A few of them I will be incorporating into my palette, definitely the bright coral and the soft orange.

I have been doing a lot of drawing and print making these days and it is beginning to have an influence in my ceramic studio.  This is a underglaze tissue paper transfer from one of my lino block prints.  I just used a section of the image and then put on a clear glaze.

After doing so much drawing on paper, it is impossible to resist drawing on a few pots.

In each glaze firing I try to include something of an experiment.  It could be a new form, a new decoration, a new colour but it has to be something out of my regular pattern of making.  I think it is important for the continual development of my work, to remind me there is always more to learn and to maintain my emotional involvement in the process of making.  I may not pursue the experiments further for the moment but they remain in my studio and I often come back to them again for further exploration when the time is right.

Glazed, loaded, fired…..

Finished glazing, loaded the kiln and fired it yesterday,

including some ceramic earrings and pendants.

Now-waiting to unload.  Patience until tomorrow morning but it is a beautiful sunny day to distract me.