Stormy night!

I was packing up The Watermelon Bowl last night. As I held it in my hands for the last time, I felt the lumps, bumps and grooves that have been so familiar to me. The red glaze looked richer and darker than I remember. Perhaps it was the subdued night lighting. I ran outside in the rain to pick out a cutting. Thunder rolled as I made my selection. I was protected under my shade cloth from the rain, so I took my time. Lightning flashed as I made my final selection. I ran back inside cradling my little cutting. I picked up The Watermelon one final time and carefully wrapped and packaged it. The Dragon Red glaze definitely had a dark, rich blood red color to it. Almost a maroon. I packaged the bowl and cutting with care and got it all ready to ship.

I went into my garden early morning yesterday. My bougainvillea bonsai is in bloom, so I decided to take it to work for a couple days. It looks very nice. The pot is an eight inch 'cloud' pot, with a dark blue glaze. The bright coloration of the pot is very complimentary to the hot pink and bright green colors of the bougie's flowers and leaves. This is definitely a feminine bonsai. The bright colors of spring and summer reflecting the verdant growth of youth.

I don't like the pot though. There's nothing wrong with the pot, It's very complimentary to the bougie. It's a very nice pot, actually. It's just that it's not *MY* pot. I've grown accostumed to my own pots and I would prefer to see this bougainvillea in my own pot. I feel as if this bonsai is only half my creation, as I had nothing to do with the creation of the pot.

I like my pots. Like my bonsai, they are a creativity expression, best shared with others. Again, like my bonsai, they are also vulnerable. I worry that they'll break or become lost en route when I send them off, like so many a message in a bottle, bobbing about in the world's oceans, at the mercy of any storm's passing.

Again with the storm thing. What can I say, we've had a lot of storms lately; always at night, always more thunder and lightning than actual rain. It's very electric and commands my attention. I'm unable to sleep because of the electricity in the air, and when I do sleep, I sleep soundly and I have these wonderful, indescribable dreams. The storms are having an effect on my pottery. I want to talk about what I did last night but I don't want to jinx it, either. So let's move on then!

I was going to go to Mishy's tonight. For some reason, I thought I had enough pieces to drop off to make the trip worthwhile. I called to see if she had bisque fired the pieces but she hadn't, she'll have done it by this Saturday and it will make a Saturday trip worthwhile. She does raku on Saturday mornings and I've been wanting to try it out, so I think I'll try raku on a couple items this weekend.

Bernie called me while she was dropping off a package being sent priority mail. I asked her how much the postage would be and she says $25. Holy COW!!! Why is it so much, I ask her? Turns out she misunderstood the clerk. The postage is $8.25. LOL! It's a bit more than I thought, but it's much better than $25! I've now adjusted the shipping on cuttings to a more realistic rate. Now it turns out I might have paid TWICE for shipping, and it might actually cost me less than what I paid! Oh well! I 'll get it right next time.