I didn't get a chance to talk muchabout the pots I added to my etsy shop. They got added yesterday, and I was really too tired to talk much about them.

Okay, I have time now, I think, so what shall I say? Looks like the Fire Gods of the Kiln had a wicked good time with my pieces. The glazes have a funky, swirly look about them. In the past, the agate crystal glaze has had a different look: a flat avocado, with small, glossy, cocoa bean brown spots. This time, this same agate glaze was dominated with large, glossy flowing areas of a dark chocolate color, bordered with a glossy avocado. The tropical feathers crystal glaze had a similar, funky, swirly quality to it. Very flowy, if that's a word. Tropical feather is really fantastic; like agate, it's a green body, but it has rich, blue chunks in it. The green has gold flake in it as well. The Woodland Fantasy crystal glaze has a chocolate brown body with mint green spots. It reminds Bernie of mint chocolate chip ice cream. This time, the body was a light, greenish brown. Again, very flowy; very complimentary of the spots. I haven't even talked about the Black Opal crystal glaze! In the past, this has been a very difficult glaze for me to use. The black tends to overpower the red crystals, so you end up with a very black piece. This time it was very flowy and allowed the red undertones of the red crystal to come through the black body. On one piece, the black was actually more of a dark purple blue than a true black. I think this was simply a function of the dragon red that I applied under the black opal glaze.

I just picked up another batch of finished pieces from Mishy's. Most of them are dragon trays. I'm considering adding them to my etsy shop as sets. There were three or four bonsai pots in this batch. I don't know if I'll add them or not.

I'm thinking of including a section in my etsy account for repaired pieces. My bubble feet continue to be my bane. I absolutely love the bubble feet, but I'm experiencing technical difficulties! They're easily fixed, but I don't want to represent a repaired piece as a new piece. If I do add them, I'll probably sell for half price or something like that. Maybe I'll include a convalescent section- you know.... for pieces that needed rest and repair, but are now ready to report for duty.

So I decided that it might be a good idea to include some cuttings in the pictures of my pots. I figure they're bonsai pots, might as well take some pictures of them populated with a pre-bonsai. There's a picture I took of a Turk/Mog bonsai pot, upside down, in my garden, with a couple cuttings stuck in its pinch pot feet. I really liked this picture! The whole thing looks like Mickey Mouse Ears. I liked it so much that I've begun to take pictures of my other pots in the garden, populated with cuttings.

Taking pictures of my pots continues to be a real pain, let's just say it! I like taking the pictures. Composing the shot, making sure I have good lighting, etc... it's all good. Actually this part is very fun, part of the whole creative outlet thing. Editing and uploading each shot is the real pain. Plus, the batteries on my camera keep dying. Seems every time I want to take a picture I have to charge the batteries. Bernie doesn't understand how much power a digital camera consumes with the flash and all, so she thinks my rechargeable batteries are shit. I think part of it also has to do with the upload feature. You have to keep the camera on while uploading and I forget to turn off the camera.

My adeniums continue to grow. The new seedlings I planted last week are growing nicely. I still have another 50 seeds or so in the tray that are waiting to be potted up. The older ones are almost a month old now, I think. Looking at my blog archive, looks like I started potting them up about the end of June. Those are getting nice and fat.

The ficus cuttings are getting long, maybe a bit leggy. I'll check the wiring on the ones I wired earlier, just to be sure the wire isn't beginning to bite in.