Pumpkin Patch 5/3/25

Was at the Pumpkin Patch 5/3. First one of the season. It rained. I was cold. I was still happy to be out there again. Pictures!

First picture is my full set up. Two 4ft stair displays and three 4ft fold up chairs. My canopy is still in good shape. 

Next picture, a close up of one of my stair displays. Overall, a nice display of various sized bonsai. 

Next picture is my other stair display. Mostly new bonsai, but there's still a few from last year.

First 4ft table. Pots and tiny pots. I forgot the airplants for my tiny pots. I also forgot a bunch of my tiny pots!

Second 4ft table display. This one had my masks, my fish and my sea slugs. One customer got it right and called them nudibrachs. Hey look! A goblin head pot from last year is still hanging around.

And finally I have my last 4ft fold up table. I didn't really have enough stuff to warrant a third table, but I made use of it. I had my Cthulus, Spider, and Beholder pots here. 

Final picture is a panoramic picture of my view. This is what I'm seeing. 

Note the following: 

Booth is at the corner. People see me as they enter and leave. I'm easy to find. 

Booth second to me is a food vendor. I try to place myself by the food vendors. I get more traffic. Plus if I'm hungry, it's a quick jump over to grab some food.

Be prepared! Notice my ice chest, lunch bag and coffee thermos. Ice cold drinks in chest, hot coffee in thermos. Snackies and half/half in lunchbag. If it's hot, I drink cold drinks. If it's cold, I have coffee. Snacks are there in case I don't have money for a hot dog. 

Try to keep everything neat and tidy.

That's all I have for now. 

2/12/25 Update: I'm Still Alive

 I'm here to say I'm alive and kicking. How are you?

I'm still making pottery but at a slower pace. It's been freezing lately and difficult to get motivated to do pots. We even had snow last week. In the last post, I said winter has been mellow. Yeah, that came back to bite me in the ass!

The BYOA art show at Studio Bob was well attended. There was a lot of interest in my work, but nobody bought it. Maybe I have my prices too low. Time to adjust my prices up!   

What else can I say? Indoor trees are indooring. Outdoor trees are for the most part sleeping. 

All for now.

01/28/25 Update: Happy New Year!

I don't have much more to add from the last post. I'm still making pottery. I slowed down the past couple weeks. It's Tuesday and I've only done one pot for this week. Being honest, I'm starting to run out of room for all these pots!

Local place (Studio Bob) is running a bring your own art show. I have a few of my pieces in the art show. I figured it would be fun to display my stuff. And while I'm at it I may make a sale. Doubt it, but whatever. 

Though we've had a mellow winter, everything is asleep outside. No point in posting anything further than that. 

12/20/24 Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad, and Mele Kalikimaka!

Holiday wishes to everyone: I hope you have a very Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, Feliz Navidad and a Mele Kalikimaka. I'll be making tamales and possibly pozole for Noche Buena (Xmas Eve). We plan to make a turkey for Xmas dinner; I may have potato latkes and spam rice and eggs for brunch on Xmas. We're extending our holiday celebration to include Epiphany on Jan. 6. It's just a nice, low-key way to enjoy some family time. 

I looked at my last post from November where I say I've been on the slow burn, turning out pottery at the rate of about 6 per week. I continue to go at this pace as my minimum. Being it's the week before Christmas, I turned up the heat. I have 12 pieces from this week (rather than 6) that I have to pick up tomorrow!

I've taken my own good advice and have been making crafty pottery regularly. Fuckery that nobody asked for. Shit that I do just because I feel like making something stupid. I started making stylized stone lanterns and mushroom lanterns. Just for the fuckery of it. 

I'm doing my best to keep busy and motivated. I work out most days and I watch what I eat. I don't drink. I don't smoke. My drug of choice is coffee. Diet, exercise, weight loss = healthy body and mind. 

I'm still in the studio most weeknights, blasting Deadmau5. The craft room is crowded. Bernie has decided to store our holiday decorations in there. I like that everyone in the house is using the craft room.  

11/4/24: I Continue to do Pottery

Quick November update: 

I've been on the slow burn, turning out pottery at the rate of about 6 per week. This is 3 sessions a week, with two pots made each session. I'm starting to catch up on inventory. There is still a long way to go before I'll have enough pots for all my trees but frankly, I'm running out of room!

I need to make more 'crafty' pots: urchins, octopots, Cthulhus, Beholders, etc. 

Other than that, Autumn is here, leaves are falling, temperate trees are falling asleep. Tropicals have been moved indoors. I forgot to give my scheffleras their autumn trim back, but I can do that at my leisure. There's still time for that. 

Thought just crossed my mind: It's November 4! Thanksgiving will be here shortly, and then Xmas. 

Anyways, I'll be in the studio if you need me. I'll be blasting Deadmau5, so you'll have to speak up so I can hear you. If I'm not doing pottery, I'm tending to the tropicals. Or playing video games. 

All for now.

10/8/24 I Continue to do Pottery

I'm low on inventory. I need to make more of everything. I need large pots for my unpotted bonsai trees. I also need variety. I recently made a dragon head, a large sea urchin pot, and some spider pots. I also had a large Cthulhu pot from last winter in Oregon Brown clay body that was recently completed. I have a few fish and some sea slugs. However, my sea urchin and spiders sold. I have to make more! I currently have a sea urchin and a couple spiders in the studio, waiting to be finished. To balance production/crafty work, I've challenged myself to produce two items daily (daily meaning 2-4 times a week): One a production pot, and a crafty work. 

Sudden thought to myself: 

Maybe I should do some older forms:

Rocket

Old man pants

Goofball stuff

I could include these in my crafty count.

Yeah. Let's have fun!

All for now

10/1/24 Update

 Update: I struck down the outdoor tropical growing area last night. All tropicals are now tucked away in their winter quarters. Initially I forgot my Brazilian Raintrees. Ran out in the middle of the night to retrieve them. I'm going to leave the Chinese elms outside. They should acclimate to the weather and will be fine. 

I continue to do pottery. I struck a bargain with Fairview Studio: I clean the studio on Wednesday mornings in exchange for my studio fees. I still have to pay for clay. 

I was planning on taking a few months off over the winter. Sales slow down and I can't afford the studio fees without the sales. I don't have to worry about that now! I do have a bit of pottery I must do. I have a bunch of pre-bonsai trees that need pots. Now I have all winter to work on that. 

I can also explore other shapes that take a while to make. I recently made Cthulhu pots, dragon heads, spider pots and sea urchins. These shapes are time-consuming. If I pace myself, I can do production work and more crafty shapes at once. 

All for now.

9/30/24 Shutting Down For the Season

I went to the Pumpkin Patch 9/28 for the last time. I meant to say for the season, but it may be the last time ever. There's talk about selling the Pumpkin Patch, so I don't know if it's coming back next year. If it does sell, I'll likely go to another venue(s). For shits, here's some pictures from Saturday:

That's a picture of how my space looked. Yes, I'm a bit stretched thin.

Just a bunch of pots here with my fish, sea slugs and dragon up top. 

This is mostly small pots. One beholder is still there. One goblin head is still there. My raku ware is there. Yes, I take Square! :)

My bonsai for sale. Did I mention I'm starting to get a bit stretched thin out here?

Second display with bonsai. I got some cute stuff. 

This is the if you know, you know section: Pre-bonsai material for creating your own finished bonsai. This stuff sells!

Alright, let's look at some of the stuff fresh out the kiln: 

I have this wacky-looking dragon. Wacky!

LOOOVE this glaze combination. I believe it's Floating Blue over Shorebreak. 

Great look on a sea urchin pot! It's okay if it's not your thing. This was sold fresh out of the kiln, so someone absolutely loved it. Paid more than I asked for it!

Small selection of pumpkins in different glazes. Hard to get the scale of these things!

 Here's a spider pot that I'm working on. Tiny clay pumpkin for scale. 

The weather is still warm during the day, but it's getting cool overnight. In anticipation of moving my tropicals indoors, I'm moving my vending supplies into winter storage. Down in the basement. I'm taking advantage of the move to clean up the craft room. I have so many projects that led to nowhere: 

bent pieces of wires here

odd rocks there 

It's getting to the point where I can no longer craft. I did what I had to do: 

I left the door to the craft room open. 

I invited my wife in to 'do her thing'. Meaning she cleaned: 

Tossed the side projects. 

Vacuumed. 

Cleaned up, organized, and put away the odd rocks and items of interest. 

It was brutal but had to be done. I will finally have room to craft without being hobbled by too many projects and distractions. 

WRONG!

The boys rediscovered my stash of Nintendo: N64, Game Cube, and Game Boys. They bought an old CRT TV/VCR to play the GC and N64. There's no other place to place it in the house so they set up shop in the craft room. The GC works fine; still have not tested the N64, but I doubt there's any issues with that thing; it's bulletproof. There's been some talk of purchasing a nicer chair for the 'retro station' as it's being called. 

I am glad to hear the craft room is being used by more now. Our next step is to strike down the outdoor tropical growing area and bring it indoors. I have more things to clear before that can happen, but it's gonna happen very soon. It has to. Winter is coming. 

9/4/24 What's All This Talk About End of the Season?

Last weekend was Labor Day. Glorious day, glorious weather. Sun was out, and everybody and their brother was out (I think) at the lake. Had to be, cause they weren't at the Pumpkin Patch!

Ha! What do I care? I'm just there to kick rocks and chew bubble gum. And I'm all out of bubble gum. Or something or another. 

These pictures are just random pictures I took at the Pumpkin Patch this year. They're not even from this week, necessarily.

Just for randomness, here's some pictures from this year:

That's a picture of a trident maple in a weird little broken egg with feet pot I made. Such a cute little weirdo!

Frogs, frogs, everywhere there's frogs. I dunno, I like this shit!

Frog bonsai pot. Sure wish this blog would let me post updated pictures like a normal place would. 

More crazy pots. I know, right: crazy!

Allo! My name is Inigo Montoya! You keel my fadder. Prepare to die. No, just a repost of an old pic to remind myself that I should drastically prune my tropicals.

That's pretty sick! Sea slug in raku glazes. Love this piece. Was done about what, 15 years ago?

Not sure if this last picture will be accepted, but it's a GIF of a long-spined sea urchin.

I don't have much to say this time around. I just dropped off some pottery at Lost Mountain; that may be done next week. I just restarted my monthly membership at Fairview, so I'll be busy dropping off pottery there.

I have some other pictures that I'd like to post, but blogger is being weird today. Oh well. 

All for now. 

First Wholesale Order Delivered

I ordered the following items wholesale:

10 Chinese elms

10 Tiger bark Ficus

2 Exposed root Pemna

2 Brazilian Rain Tree

Ordered on Monday, arrived on Saturday. 

Looks like the raintrees dropped some leaves, but they're healthy. Everything else arrived in tip top shape. We spent Saturday unboxing, unwrapping, prepping benches and setting up the trees. 

Don't know when these will be available for sale. They're going to be pricey. 

My first set of concrete molds arrived. These are the Chibi Buddhas in 3 poses. I should be getting the Lucky Frog cement molds this week. Not sure when I'll get my snail cement mold. 

I just wanted to document date of first wholesale delivery. Pictures maybe later.

All for now.

The Dig, One Year Update

Last year, I posted about a dig (7/24/23)

It's been about year, thought I'd do an update how everything is doing: 

Sargent crabapples (Malus sargentii)

I'm not sure how many I got; there may have been as many as 60. A few that did not survive, but for the most part, these are doing great. I currently have about 50. Initially, I threw them into grow bags, putting them into 3-gallon nursery pots in the fall. Some of the first trees did not include enough soil. These were likely the ones that didn't survive. By the fall of last year, the growth was way out of hand, so I pruned them all severely. They grew back and as a whole are likely going to get another severe pruning in the fall. Next spring I'm planning some root pruning. That means more root cuttings.

Dwarf blueberry

These were doing very well. I decided to prune back all the growth about a month ago. A bit late in the season. The growth has not returned - it may be that I killed them. Time will tell.

Sango Kaku Japanese maple (Acer palmatum)

The Japanese maples are doing very good. I haven't done much with them, just letting them grow wild. Eventually, I want to start some air layers. 

Mugo Pine (Pinus mugo)

These guys look fantastic! Mugo pines always look great. 

Kojo-No-Mai Japanese Mt Fuji Cherry (Prunus incisa) 

I have two. One is short and thick. The other is tall and thin. I'm calling the short, thick one Pietra, meaning rock. I'll refer to the tall one Paula, cause that sorta sounds like palo. I snapped off some dead branches. Other than that, I'm leaving Paula alone for now. No root work, no top pruning. I'm just trying to make sure she's going to be okay. 

Pietra on the other hand has been worked. I root pruned and was able to get some root cuttings as well as a couple of suckers that took. In the spring, Pietra did throw out some flowers. I removed most of them, to avoid exhausting the tree with flower production. 

Japanese black Pine

Nope! None made it. The stress was too much and they've pooped out. Oh well.

Gingko Biloba

The only one that made it was the one I gifted to Aaron. The others just never woke up. 

All for now

End of Month Update 6/25/24

Summer's here and I'm busy. I've been doing pottery at Fairview. Wilderbee has my winter work mostly bisque fired. This is the Oregon Brown clay body. I have Lost Mountain pottery firing a few brown body pieces. I have pottery coming out my nose! I'm going to bow out of Fairview for the summer; it's just too much! I'll likely come back in the fall once things settle back down.

Regarding Bonsai: 

I've been watering and feeding heavy, trying to capitolize on the long summer days. The weeds have LOVED this! It's like I'm growing wheat, some of the weeds have reached 3 feet tall. I don't have time for weeding, but I don't like the idea of my bonsai being strangled by weeds, so I leaned into weeding Saturday night. This was after going out to the flea market. Did some more weeding on Saturday. Reconnected with my shimpaku juniper that was hidden in the weeds as well as a couple other trees. 

The vine maples are doing very well overall. A few never woke up, so those must have been duds. They seem to enjoy the high water and fertilizer. They're getting partial shade and some of the leaves are turning dark red. Seems it was a good call, getting the vine maples.

I tried some root cuttings from the vine maples.I'm not sure if  they took. I've taken root cuttings from almost everything I've encountered. Some rooting cuttings take, others just crap out. Some of my root cuttings were very haphazard, meaning they ended up getting mixed with some soil while I was trimming roots. I just threw some cuttings in a bucket with dirt and see if it works. For the most part, this isn't working. But then again, some does take. Confirmed root cuttings I have Chinese elm, kojo no mai Fuji cherry, sargent crabapple. 

All I have for now. Pictures later (maybe).

I'm not Hiding, You're Hiding! 6/4/24

 

Forgive me father, for it's been over a month since my last confession (blog post). Since then, I have potted up some of my fresh out of the kiln pieces and have been going out to the Pumpkin Patch. I'll start this post from there and work my way back around some pictures that I've already uploaded. Let's go.

First set of pictures are from this last weekend at the Pumpkin Patch. Almost every weekend has had drizzle or rain on Saturday. This last time I was ready for the shitty weather. I did not put out my tablecloths. I was ready to move out at a moment's notice.

This first picture has all temperate trees. Mostly crabapples, but with a mugo pine, a small trident and a Japanese maple. 

This next picture has some of my scheffleras along with a few small vine maples, a trident maple and derpy fish.

I bought this plant stand and I'm using it to add height and interest to my display. I didn't put out a log of my pottery. On the top are some assorted kusamonos.

The other display table with assorted small bonsai on top. I also displayed my dragon heads at the top. Filling out the rest of the display are some masks, raku ware, beholders, and assorted pieces. 

 

Final table. This one has small pottery. I'm featuring the small octopots with airplants on the main table. On top of the crate is a sea slug. On top of the other display stand are small pots, suitable for name pots. Definitely a market for small pots. 

So that's it for the Pumpkin Patch. I know I posted a few pictures of my stuff from the new studio, but I'm posting more pictures. 

Here's a pictures of a medium pot: broken egg shell with legs. It looks really nice. I haven't potted this up yet. It may end up going to my Etsy shop (eventually).

 

Here's another pot, same style. Haven't potted it, may go to Etsy. 

 

 

This next one I KNOW I didn't pot up. Last time I checked, it was sitting outside in my repotting tray. I was looking for a tree to marry it up with. Sometimes these things take time.

 

 

Group shot of some small juniper bonsai I have ready to go. Honestly, I'm not a big fan. But they have that typical Nike 'WOOSH' style that people seem to like. So okay.

 

This is more my thing. Small vine maple, wired up and potted into a broken egg with long legs pots. Really nice in person, take my word for it!

 

 

Finally I have a trident maple in broken egg with feet pot. I planted a broken concretion as a companion rock. I'm not really anxious to sell this baby. I will happily sit on this tree, as it's only going to get better with age. 

So that's it. I'm in talks with yet ANOTHER studio to see if they're willing to fire my brown clay body pieces. We'll see how that goes. 

End of Month Update 4/30/24

 Last update I talked about the new studio I was going to. Here are my thoughts: 

Wow! I forgot how fun it is to go to an active studio. This one's footprint is small, but they're always busy. Lots of students. Lots of studio members. They're constantly firing either bisque or glaze. If you miss a firing another will come up shortly. I mentioned they have a buff clay that I'm not a huge fan of. I also mentioned  I'm used to their glazes. 

All this means I had to put stuff out. Test the feel of the clay. See how the glaze would react with the glaze. See how the kiln itself would treat my work. The clay is a bit more plastic than I'm used to; likely because my clay has been sitting around for so long. I noticed that some of my thin pieces warped. I'll have to remember not to make them so thin. They have test tiles showing the expected outcome of combining glazes. The end results are sometimes unexpected. Overall, I'm happy with this new studio. It costs more than I'm used to. Time will tell if it's worth the extra cost. 

May 1 is opening day for the clay studio at Wilderbee. I'll drop off several strawberry boxes full of greenware this coming weekend. All of my winter's work. May 4 is the opening day for the Pumpkin Patch. My weekend is going to be busy. I have a bunch of new stuff, fresh out of the kiln. I have new bonsai. I've powered up my display tables. I've powered up my storage/transport capacity. My square card reader is online and operational. My business is online and operational.

*Checks weather report for the weekend* 

Huh. Looks like it's going to be shitty weather this weekend. Possibly rain all day Saturday. Well, if the weather's really bad, I'll just spend Saturday with the family. We'll see how it goes.     

Midweek Update 4/9/24

 

I've been going to this new studio, keeping myself busy. As a change, I've been working on frogs. Caricatures of frogs. Frog bonsai pots. There's no point in simply describing the process, so let's start with the pictures. 

This first picture is the concept of a caricature frog. Just this round thing with protruding eye balls. More of a pac-man frog:

Same Concept with this next picture, only with a tongue that sticks out and slightly more defined feet. I'm not really grooving on the feet:

Next picture is a frog shape, but more in usable small pot size. The details are lacking. I guess you'll have to wait to see the finished product:

Ah ha! A frog bonsai pot:

Moving on to more finished products, here's a broken egg bonsai pot with claws and tentacles in Plum. Honestly, this is not my favorite glaze, but it definitely has it's place: 

Sea Urchin Pot in Plum Glaze:

Crescent pot in Plum Glaze. I think it would have looked a lot better in Oregon brown clay body:

Found Semi-Cascade Crab Apple in Broken Egg Bonsai Pot Featuring Claws and Tentacles in Plum:

One has to understand that this crab apple may one day bloom. It will be a while before it does, but when it does, the plum glaze will look fantastic with the pink/white flower blossoms and the green/red of the developing fruit. The pot has a lively, youthful energy to it. 

One may say, wait, what flowers? What fruit? This is just a poor little sapling with wires. 

Where's the flowers?

Where's the fruit?

If you cannot see the fruit, you cannot see the flowers. Therefore you cannot see the little sapling. You can't even see the pot. And that's a shame as it really compliments the strange little crab apple. 

In it's own way.