I finally got around to wiring up some of the ficus cuttings I started earlier. I'm re-using some aluminum wire that I had laying about. While I was wiring, I took the opportunity to look at their root systems. The roots are looking nice and strong, really a nice beginning.
While I was back there, I took some more ficus cuttings, some f. benjamina, but mostly f. retusa/microcarpa.
I took one of the wired ficus and set it in a new octopus pot I made. It's a small, stoneware pot, fired to cone 10. I think it looks pretty good. I haven't added this to my etsy shop; I don't know if I will! I did add a bougainvillea to my stilty raku bonsai pot and I added that to my etsy shop though.
The grapes are growing strong! When I cut back the grape to that one single crook, I didn't toss out the top growth. I just stuck it in some damp potting soil and stuck it under the bench. Well it's growing really well. I think I already mentioned that in a previous post, but it's worth repeating. The grapes are again trying to set fruit, so I again cut back on the tiny fruits.
I got some things going on with my clay, but as usual, I'm not talking until I have something. Erm.... I might have some finished this weekend.

I just noticed that I haven't mentioned word ONE on the craft shows I've been attending, or will be attending. They're worth mentioning, as they're having an impact on my productivity and someone reading this blog might be interested to know where they can see my wares.
Before I do that, let me say a few words about the studio where I do my artsy work- Desert Dragon Pottery:
http://desertdragonpottery.com/
This is my instructor's (Mishy) studio, and where I go for raku and regular kiln firings. It's also a great source of inspiration and a great place to get into the mudslinging thing.
Okay, fine you ask, the studio is great an all, what does that have to do with craft shows? Well, Mishy has listed me as one of the featured artists there and has a link to my shop. She also has a link to the Phoenix First Fridays:
http://www.artlinkphoenix.com/alp/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=12&Itemid=27
And she also has a link to the upcoming Fairy Fest:
http://www.westerngatesfaerierealms.com/PhoenixFaerieFestival.htm
Every First Friday of the Month, we go down to the Roosevelt Row First Friday Art Walk event. I'll talk more about the First Fridays as they come up. The next one is scheduled for Nov 7. That's in two weeks. The week after that is the Fairy Fest.
Fairies. Butterfly wings, ren fair atmosphere and homo-erotic themes. This isn't necessarily my preferred venue, but the more I think about it, the more I find myself embracing it. Well, I can't embrace the homo-erotic part, but I'm embracing the fantasy ren fair thing.
The dragons I was talking about earlier, the pipe cleaner fairies and dragons, the dragon cup, the horns, the tree, tree castle, etc etc... all inspired by the fairy fest. Did I mention I ordered a vizier's coat and a pirate shirt? Yep, for the fairy fest. I'm pouring a lot of time, energy and resources into this fairy fest thing.
Let's talk about the coat for a little bit. If you don't know what a vizier's coat is, you can get a good idea here:
http://www.renstore.com/ItemCombination.asp?GroupCode=CHI3009
Better yet, go to the Etsy shop where I bought my coat here:
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=16249537
The coat was *FANTASTIC*. Really great and really great price. Willow hand knotted these frog closures for the coat, and they looked great, but they were impractical as they kept opening.
Enter Vickie, the local seamstress that made my pirate shirt. Vickie is a SUPER STAR seamstress! She does really fantastic costumes locally. I'm not sure how I found her, but find her I did and I'm happy! I was really impressed with the pirate shirt she made me; I asked for balloon sleeves, ruffled collar and cuffs, a lace closure in the front, and an oversized fit to the shirt. She hit a homerun with these requests and she delivered in EXCEPTIONAL time!
I asked Vickie if she could fix the frogs for me. I went over with the coat and one of my pendants. I just reached into my box of pendants and pulled one out, allowing fate to choose a pendant for her. It was a multi-color flat patina raku heart with a carved design and melted crystals. It sort of looks like a bleeding heart. Turns out Vickie LOVES hearts and she loved her pendant. She fixed the coat, calling me the next day to pick up. She added toggle buttons to the closures to fix the fastening issue I had. Then she added these great leather trimming to each closure 'to give it more of a pirate look' she said.
Did I mention Vickie is a SUPER STAR seamstress?
Finally, Vickie included this small, black leather pouch on a leather string. 'All pirates need a small leather pouch' she said. She added this pouch as a 'thank you' for the pendant.
I was floored. I nearly lost my composure. Such a beautiful gesture. Not only did this woman drop EVERYTHING to do my coat in the middle of the most busy time of the year for her, but she took the time to add little extras to my coat that I did not request. The leather trimmings and leather pouch really do kick up this coat.
I didn't go straight home, I went to Mishy's after I picked up the coat. I had to glaze some pieces, drop off a robe to Cary, and drop off a couple of dragons. When I did get home, I tried on the pirate shirt, coat, and sash. Fantastic! I don't know if I'm going to dye the shirt and sash, but they look great in their natural being colors. I was at the Harvest Festival this last weekend, so I didn't get a chance to finish some pieces. I was tired, but these things don't take care of themselves, so I went to mishy's to glaze some pieces. My first dragon was in multiple pieces, so I took that home to see if I can fix it. The second dragon sort of looks like a griffin, so I painted it in browns. While painting, I gave the paper clay more credit for strength than I should have and I broke the tail. Being it's paper clay, I fixed it, glazed it and I'm hoping it will work. At least now I know not to overestimate the strength of paper clay! I glazed most of the horns and my one bonsai tree. I didn't get around to glazing one set of horns and my tree goblet thing. Did I mention I was tired?
That's all I have for now. Gonna go sleep.

Is my life really so geeky that I get all excited when a big box (allegedly) filled with nursery pots arrives at my house?

YES!

I'm not sure when the box arrived. The postman does not knock. I thought it was because our postman was lazy. But then I read somewhere about 'valet' service, where the USPS will delivery your package to your door and actually knock (one time delivery attempt!). I thought the USPS already did exactly this as a standard service. I thought wrong! In the age of fees up the yang for things you used to get for free, this should come as no surprise. But I digress.

So anyways, the kids brought me this big ole honkin box. It was a Burger King chicken breast patty box. The box made me kinda hungry, at the thought of a big, fat honkin box of BK chicken patties arriving at my door, but I knew what was really inside! JOY! Just over 200 3.5 inch thin plastic nursery pots. I get these from ebay all the time, and they work brilliantly! They're re-used, so they're cheaper, but it also means they're not just being tossed. Plus, they're very inexpensive, so I can keep my costs down! So yeah, I was doing my happy dance while opening up the BK chicken patty box. The kids fell for the roose, and they thought we were having nuggets (from hell) for dinner. Ha ha, silly monkeys! No nuggets for you, I have NURSERY POTS! WOOOO HOOOOOOO!

Big flippin deal, you say. Woop-dee-wow! Settle down there, ya party animal, they are JUST nursery pots, says you, the jaded reader. Not JUST nursery pots, says I. They represent the future of my little garden!

I finally (yay!) got to pot up the remaining Adenium seedlings. Yes, I tore into those pots, what can I say. By the time I got around to giving positive feedback to my ebay seller, I had potted up 50 Adeniums. I'm a happy camper, as I now have more seedlings potted up and I've freed up two starter trays!

Each of my GP trays holds 25 pots; From this batch of seeds, I now have 5 trays. One tray only has 15 pots, the rest being from another batch of seeds. The first batch of seeds gave me about 40. From this batch, I have 115. Altogether, I have over 150 Adenium seedlings started.

While I was outside counting adenium seedlings and practically pissing myself with joy, I looked at the bougainvillea cuttings I recently started. As I expected, most of the leaves have fallen off. The same thing happened with the bougainvillea cuttings I started earlier in the season, so I'm not overly concerned, at least not yet. What happened with those, and I'm hoping the same thing will happen with this batch, is that the leaves fell off and new ones eventually sprouted. If and when that happens, I'll repot the bougainvilleas. Aaron looked at the tray of yellow, wilty cuttings and declared the batch dead. I had to correct the boy, stealing a scene from The Princess Bride, and blending it with the Monty Python dead parrot scene:

Aaron: Dad, these cuttings are dead.

Me: They're not dead!

Aaron: Yes! The leaves are all yellow, which means they're dead.

Me: True my boy, those leaves are dead. But the cuttings are only MOSTLY dead.

Aaron: That's what I said. The cuttings are dead.

Me: No, they're only MOSTLY dead. That's means they're slightly alive.

Man oh manischewitz! My ficus bonsai all need another haircut! I've been putting off doing the trimming until I have space for trimmings. With the Adeniums all potted up, I have two seed trays at the ready. Maybe I'll do some trimming tonight. I'll follow the same basic method I used with my bougainvillea (strip the bottom leaves off each cutting, soak the cuttings in water, then plant). I'll do the trimming at my dining table, as it's too hot to do this work outside. I'm running out of space for all my cuttings, but I'll make due. I should be so lucky that my biggest issue is that I'm running out of room for my cuttings.

Dilemma! There's only so many minutes in the day, and every decision has a price to pay. If I chose to do something during my time off, It will cost me in the loss of time to spend doing something else. So what shall I do with my precious little time I have when I go home tonight? Do I trim my ficus and start the cuttings, or do I throw some clay work? For that matter, should I throw slab, or glaze some bisque work? Perhaps I can do more than one, perhaps I can do all this tonight?

On the other hand, I could use my time off to exercise, get some rest, make dinner, spend time with the wife and kids, unwind and be a little veggie in front of the TV.

Quality of life, or quality use of time? This is my proposed itenerary for tonight:

3:00-3:30 run

3:30-4:00 shower & dress

4:00-4:30 trim the bonsais

4:30-5:00 pot up the trimmings

5:00-6:00 help make dinner or nap

6:00-6:45 dinner

7:00-9:00 clay time

It's way too early for me... just five more minutes.

*hits the snooze bar, but turns off the alarm instead*

Ugh.... what time is it? OMG! I'm late! How can it be Monday morning already?!!! You ever have one of those days, one of those weekends, where you wake up to find that everything is later than you thought, and nothing has been accomplished? Yeah, it was one of those weekends. LOL

I packed up a few pieces of greenware to drop off at Mishy's. I don't know how many, maybe 17 or 18? They took up two boxes. I felt really dumb though because I kept asking Mishy for my pieces I had to pick up. Turns out I already picked them up and/or never dropped them off in the first place. Those 17-18 pieces, half of them were from the week prior. I never got around to dropping them off.

D'oh!

Yeah, that about sums it up. Being that I didn't have anything 'NEW' to add, I added some of the stuff that has just been lying around to my Etsy account. I added 'The Watermelon Bowl', small beaded mame bonsai pot, and some ficus

'The Watermelon Bowl' is a piece that was born from the bits and pieces of other pieces. Strictly speaking, I never set out to make this bowl, yet it is. I was throwing the slab, creating bonsai pots and feet, and I had already put away my clay. I found this bit of leftover clay. I didn't want it to go waste, so I just started smashing it, squishing it in my hands, adding a bit more water and just enjoying the feel of the clay in my hands. I started zoning out, watching 'My Neighbor Totoro', as I slowly rolled the clay in my hands. Before I knew it and not realizing it, I had created this bowl. My one conscious act was to flatten the bottom so it could sit properly. I kept it as greenware for a couple weeks before finally bisque firing it. The bowl then sat by as I glazed different pieces. The Woodland Fantasy glaze was applied because I had some leftover while glazing other pieces. It then sat for another week before I glazed the inside with dragon red glaze, leftover from doing my red dragon trays and bonsai pot. Even after I finished it, it remained by my side until I finally listed it on Etsy. I was expecting the red to be a deeper shade, more maroonish, with lighter shading in parts. I was expecting the woodland fantasy on the outside to be a more chocolate brown. I was expecting it to be brown, with shades of red brown on the inside, more expressive of autumn than the peak of summer that I find myself in. Instead, the red came out true, rich and RED. The outside finished in a lighter than expected shade, with subtle greens coming through and the browns being less dominant. The end result has a more organic feel to it. It is very expressive of the peak of summer that I find myself in, and in which it was created. I had a nice bit of early summer watermelon earlier in the season and I haven't had peak summer SANDIA this season, but the end result of this bowl just reminded me of hot summer days, enjoying the sweet, refreshing taste of watermelon. Don't get me started on watermelon! Quick flashes come to mind: eating watermelon on my Aunt's ranch, feeding the rinds to the goats, camping trips with my family to Viejas Indian Reservation (before it became a casino), AGUAS FRESCAS- Mexican drinks, made from fresh fruit, I'm just gonna stop there.

Tropical Feathers Beaded Mame Bonsai pot-

What did I use to form this pot, I forget. I think I used this egg shaped candle that I bought because I liked the shape. I do know that I used these Mardi Gras beads from my kids to impress the outside. I used bubble feet on this piece, and finished with a tropical feathers crystal glaze. The finished result is a very cute little mame bonsai pot. In this instance, the crystal glaze did not come out as rich as other pieces. It's very green with subtle color variations. The bead impressions allowed the glaze to pool, forming dark spots. The overall shape is conical, the feet sticking out in a non-symetrical fashion. It's not forced into a perfect shape, it's just standing in its own fashion. Perhaps it's waiting, or maybe it is contemplating its next move before pouncing.

Ficus bonsai cuttings-

The cuttings are from my own ficus bonsai trees. I've applied wired to some of the cuttings, and I'm allowing others to just sort of develop without interference on my part. Some of the cuttings are hardwood cuttings, so these have a more developed look. What can I say about the cuttings that I haven't already said in a previous post? I really like the cuttings and how they're developing. They are fattening up rather quickly. It is my opinion that they will develop into very nice bonsai in a very short time. The question then becomes 'how long until this tree becomes a decent bonsai?'

Lots of caveats involved, and this question is not as easy to answer as it is to ask. You have to define what is meant by bonsai and what end results are you shooting for?

Allow me to expand this further by describing my cuttings. Some are hardwood cuttings, taken from wood that is several seasons old. Most of the cuttings are softwood cuttings, taken from wood that is this season's growth. There are lots of things to differentiate between the two, but what I want to look at is the fact that softwood cuttings are almost starting as matchstick thin. The hardwood cuttings have some girth to them. How much depends on how old the wood is. And therein lies the answer.

I took a hardwood cutting earlier this season. I got really lucky and this cutting took. This cutting had plenty of branching already, so once it started to leaf out, I took as as and planted in a small mame bonsai pot. The results are nice: I have a small mame ficus bonsai, which was created by me. The tree was grown by me, and the pot was created by me. I wouldn't call it a 'spectacular' bonsai, however. Heck, some bonsai purists wouldn't even call it a bonsai, as it's the result of a single season of growth.

I'm going to allow some of the cuttings to grow tall. I will prune back severely, and in a few short years, I should have some very nice looking bigger bonsai. when it comes time to prune back, I can use the cuttings to create multiple potential bonsai cuttings.

Adeniums-

Blah blah blah, blurb blurb, yada yada yada. Pfft.

Yeah, more of the same, they're growing like gangbuster, still waiting for my nursery pots to arrive so I can pot the seedlings. Phone call to Bernie:

Hello?

It's me!

Waddaya want? I'm busy doing [insert laundry list of busy house work]

I just called to see if there's any packa-

No Victor! They're not here.

What?

Your pots haven't arrived.

But... how.... oh... okay then. Thanks!

Of course this is a phone call, so I cannot say for sure, but I'm positive that Bernie rolls her eyes at this point, then hangs up in disgust.

Hey look a Soap box on which to stand.

*takes axe to soap box, creating a kindling pile*

Now it's useful!

Honest, I don't have anything useful to say. I'm afraid if I open my mouth at times like this, I'll start going off on a tangent. I don't want to go off on my soap box. Maybe if I do a time frame of my day yesterday, it will help:

5:15 Wake up, shower and get ready for work

5:45 Leave for Work

6:00 Arrive at work

2:30 Leave work

2:50 Arrive at home, turn on sprinkler for garden, water the grapes and the 'welcome' bonsai

3:00 Power up system, read and respond to e-mail

3:30 Afternoon work-out (treadmill)

4:30 Shower and dress

5:00 Eat dinner while reading more e-mail

5:30 Take a nap

6:30 Wake up, work on garden

7:30 Work on pottery

9:30 clean up pottery working area, take a shower (third shower of the day)

10:00 It's now past my bed time; Bernie is watching LIFETIME movie, so I read/respond to more e-mail

10:45 Go to bed.

I don't always work on my garden and work on my pottery all in one day. However, this is summertime. This means busy busy work in the garden. The bougainvillea cuttings I took earlier are starting to look scorched. I imagine the leaves will mostly drop off and I might have some die back or I might lose some cuttings altogether. And that's okay. My ficus bonsai are looking leggy. It's time for their August haircut, but I don't have room for any more cuttings at the moment. That's not true. If I rearrange (again) I can make room for them. I really don't feel like rearranging, at least not until I get my nursery pots in. I ordered some 3.5 inch square nursery pots, which I need to pot up my Adeniums that are in their seed trays at moment. The pots are in the mail.

I was also looking at my previous ficus cuttings. They're getting leggy. I like that word, LEGGY. It's hard to gauge the height, as I wired the fastest growing ones. Lets just say that they're coming along quite nicely. My seedlings are also doing okay; I have trident maples, sargent crabapples, japanese black pine (arakawa), and pomegranate. What can I say about the seedlings? It's their first year and they've had a very good year, but they don't grow as quickly as the cuttings do.

I thought I was getting a bit lazy, so I did some pottery last night. I only meant to work for an hour or so, but two hours came and went before I knew it. I did a bit of this and a bit of that. I did a dragon impression on thin, round slab, then I formed it over a mound mold. I let the edges sort of flare in and out. Once it dried a bit, I applied pinch pot legs. We'll see how this turns out. I did a few other pieces, with one being a 'turk' style. I simply let the clay shape itself, except for the turk.

More pots have been added to my Etsy shop!
Check it out:
http://gomezvi.etsy.com
I decided to include a small wired cutting with the mame and bonsai pot pictures. I figured it might help people visualize the size. In case I didn't mention it before, I'm really happy with how this batch came out.
I'm now waiting for stuff to come out of the kiln. We'll see how that batch turns out.
I wish I could add more, but I'm thoroughly beat, but in a good way. I had a full day at work, Bernie took me out for dinner (just the two of us!), and I added a bunch of pots to my etsy shop. By now measure am I complaining, oh no! Honestly, I'm loving all the activity- especially now that my girls are back home and my house is once again at a full tilt boogie. I'm just tired.

Holy crap I'm feeling lazy!

I didn't do *anything* with my clay. I did a bunch of glazing on my dragon pieces, but I didn't create new pieces.

Okay, me being lazy is not entirely true true. I posted four new pots to my Etsy account, so that counts as having done something with my pottery, right? I still have a bunch of pots that I need to post, but I'm rolling out a few at a time now. I figure it's better that way, as listings will show better that way. Hey, if you really want to see my newest pots, even before I put them on my Etsy shop, you could always drop an e-mail on me.

I counted all my Adenium seedlings; I have about 105 potted up, altogether. There's another thirty or fourty seedlings in the tray, waiting to be potted up. I thought about taking some pictures of them as they sprout, but decided that they look too much like bean sprouts to be photographed. No, not really impressive, unless you like bean sprouts.

It got to over 112 today. To the uninitiated, that sounds hot. 'But it's a dry heat' is what I keep hearing. Don't get me wrong, that is still hot no matter how you slice it, it's just that it's easier to take this heat with low humidity, versus being stifled with high humidity AND excessive heat.

Anyhoots, looked in on my ficus cuttings. They're growing like weeds. I wired up a few more while I was out there. The F. Microcarpa cuttings are growing faster than the F. retusa, but the retusas have smaller leaves and IMHO look more interesting.

I've been using Miracle Grow on all my trees. I've simply been following the package instructions, feeding once a week. I've been very lucky in that I'm not getting hit too badly by bugs. Maybe it's because when I see aphids, I knock them off individually with jets of water whenever possible. I keep my eyes open for weeds and manually pull them if I see any. I do my best to keep my garden area free of freeloaders while trying hard not to poison the good guys.

The good guys in my garden are the fence swift, the assassin bug, the lacewing, the spider. I love all of them! Aaron enjoys catching the occassional bug, but I ask him to treat them all with respect and regard. He likes to keep bugs for a day or two, then he'll release it. A few weeks ago he caught this HUGE grasshopper. Now I'm sure it was only about 3-4 inches long, but I swear it looked a lot bigger. When Aaron released it, it hopped into the air and flew off. It's wingspan was about the size of a small bird, and it flew around for a while before flying off over the canal. He caught a juvenile preying mantis and asked to keep it until it grew to adult size. It looks like a regular Chinese preying mantis, so I let him keep it. He hunts beetles and other bugs to feed his mantis. He understands that his mantis needs to eat, but at the same time he treats the little bugs with about as much respect as you can expect to treat a soon to be meal.

Some new pots were added to my Etsy account you should check it out: http://gomezvi.etsy.com

Tuesday was Allyson's Birthday. I came home to find an aquarium full of angelfish eggs on both sides of the aquarium. The angelfish had formed two seperate breeding pairs. I bagged each pair separately, and made plans with George to drop them off. Unfortunately, Bernie made plans to go to Bookman's on the way to George's house. I insisted that the fish really really needed to get to George's house ASAP. Bernie insisted that we really really REALLY needed to get to Bookman's ASAP, as it was Allyson's Birthday, Bookman's was closing in 30 minutes, and that the fish would be okay. We went to Bookman's, and despite my constant prodding, we were in Bookman's for over 30 minutes. By the time we got to George's, one of the males was on the floor, very stressed. I thought we were gonna lose him. Fortunately George was able to revive him fully later on.

After going over to George's, I went over to Mishy's and picked up a bunch of finished pieces. We were in the neighborhood and we just sort of popped in. I was totally unprepared. I didn't drop off anything and I didn't have my lined box with me.

When we got home, we brought out the birthday cake and celebrated Ally's birthday. We got her a bunch of small items at Bookman's: some stamps, a sand castle making thingy, some other stuff that I don't remember. For those that don't know, Bookman's is a used book store. They also carry music, videos, video games, board games, comics, and small collectibles.

In case I forgot to mention, the Adenium obesum seeds I ordered last week came in the day before I left for San Diego . I hastily soaked the seeds for a few hours, then planted them in moist perlite in a covered Jiffy seed starter. I came home from San Diego to find about 40 had started to sprout, so I started to pot up the seedlings. Turns out there was close to 80 that had already sprouted. I was able to pot up about 66. I'll probably pot up the rest this weekend. Compared to my first batch of 100 seeds from the other source, I had a very miserable sprouting of about 25 in the first week. I looked at these first adenium seedlings while I was out there. On average, they only have about four leaves per seedling, but the stems are getting fat for their size.

The really nice thing about having two separate batch of seeds is I'm able to see the difference that a few weeks make. I really should take some pictures; the Adenium seedling start life with these chunky little trunks, definitely sturdy looking, yet they quickly grow into these even fatter trunks, ready for whatever harshness the desert environment might throw at them. The one thing that I have to watch out for is winter's frost.

LOL! Here I am, mid JULY. It's 110 today. On my mind is fall/winter. I start to think about what I want to do this for fall/winter. Phoenix bonsai club starts meeting again in mid Sept. There are seedlings that I want to order for next year. Seeds need to be ordered early enough so that I can plant them indoors by mid-winter and get a head start on next spring's growth. Pomegranates come into season in the fall and there will be fruits to purchase and more seeds to sow. My adeniums should be nice and fat by then; they'll require winter protection.

Of course I have lots to think about in the here and now. Some of the pieces that I picked up from Mishy were study pieces. The shells look mostly brownish, but you can sometimes make out a little yellow in some places. The technique I used of wiping off most of the brown that was applied gave the results I was looking for: the nooks and crannies in the shells were dark, but the raised portions remained light, thus bringing out the texture in the shells. I'm not seeing a lot of red, though. Perhaps it was overpowered by the brown, perhaps it melded with it and formed a darker, richer brown.

That's it for now

It's July 5th. The girls are still at Grandma's for one more week. I'll be leaving next Friday to pick them up. I'm looking forward to it. It's quite without the girls and I'm missing them.
More adenium sprouted; I now have about 36. I went out this morning to pot up the new sprouts. It was 88 at 7am. The older adeniums are definitely taking on a redish tone to the trunk.
I poked around my little garden, moved a few items that were just taking up space, and pulled a few weeds. It's a teeny, tiny grow area, but it's being very productive. I need to get more soil.
The ficus microcarpa cuttings are growing nicely. They're suddenly putting on lots of height! Maybe I'll do some initial training on some. The ficus retusa cuttings aren't showing the vigor of the microparpa, but they're not as old, either. I'd say they're doing pretty well, all things considered. As soon as I get some more soil, I need to pot up my retusas.
I did some more training on my pomegranates yesterday. It was later in the day and very hot, so I just grabbed them, brought them inside, and did some wiring and training at my leisure.
I finished up glazing a few more pots. I don't know when I'm taking them to Mishy's, sometime next week maybe? I ran out of my favorite glazes, so I'm heading out to the ceramic shop to pick some more up.
That's all I have for now. BTW- at 9am, it's already 95f. Supposed to get to 105. Woot!

I just got back from Mishy's. I was dropping off and picking up. I dropped off all the dragon pieces I worked on last week. Out of the seven glazed pieces, six survived. I lost a giant 'Mog', done in agate. It looked good. And by 'looked good' I mean good and broken!
There was about a dozen bisque-fired pots and another dozen or so 'misc' pieces. There's some shells here, some rollers there.
My girls are at Grandma's house in San Diego . I sent them off last week for a couple weeks. I thought it was important that they spend some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa. There's never enough time to do things that Grandma wants to do when we visit San Diego . So much to do, so little time to do it. Now Grandma has the time to do things with the girls. It's the little things that are important. Sure, they're spending a lot of time in the swimming pool. And yeah, they're spending lots of time visiting their Great-Aunt and Great-Uncle and the rest of their extended family in San Diego . But more importantly, they're doing all sorts of little things with their Grandma. My cousin, Estela, and my uncle, Cacho, both think that Chelsea is the spitting image of me. At twelve years old, Chelsea is already taller than most of her extended family. At least the family on my side.
We're planning on going out to San Diego for the July 11 weekend. We're going out to pick up the girls and spend some time with Grandma. I want to take the boys to Lego Land , or some place special. The way I figure, the girls got to spend 2 weeks with Grandma, it's only fair that the boys get to do something fun as well.
I made some more pieces featuring the dragon impression that Mishy let me borrow. I made some pots using my emu egg as a mold and impressing the outside with the dragon. Those look interesting, I can't wait to see them once they're finished.
What else do I have? Oh, it's HOT! Hotter than hot, hot! I'm off for the next three day. I'd take off to Mexico, or Hawaii, or some other land of ice cold beers and tasty seafood, but I'm broke! Oh well, I'll just lay low and work on my pottery, mess with my bonsai and what-not.

Dragon pottery

I went to drop off a few more pots at Desert Dragon. Mishy had a full house; she had her Saturday morning raku firings, and quite a number of people in the studio. I had about 7 pieces that needed glaze firing, and quite a few bisque firings (not sure how many, but there was a lot).
I was poking around the studio and found an old dragon piece from a stearing wheel cover. Mishy let me borrow it. I made a bunch of dragon pots, saucers, rollers... you get the idea. I was inspired by the dragon. Ended up making 13 different pieces. I'm now waiting for them to dry. I'll probably bisque fire them next week sometime.
The pomegranates continue to grow. Heck, everything is growing pretty quick, now that summer is full on here! It is HOT, and I have a hard time standing out there for any length of time, but the plants love it!
We went to go see Wall-E. The kids weren't too thrilled about it. I loved it! I ate too much popcorn and now I'm sleepy.

Dangit! Pomegranates don't come into season until fall! Why didn't I know this? Oh well, I'll grab a fruit in the fall and plant me some seeds.
More Adenium obesum seeds have sprouted. I will pot some as soon as I can. Maybe I should go do that RIGHT now.
I have a few more pots to take to Mishy. Mostly greenware, but there are some bisque pieces that I've applied glaze to.

Desert Rose seeds are growing

Check the date, check the time. It's Sunday morning, 10:30 am.
I was up until 2am this morning messing with clay. Actually, I was applying glazes to a bunch of pieces. Something like 36 pieces came out of Mishy's kiln for me, so I had lots to do. There's still seven pieces that I need to glaze. Got up this morning and did my rounds. Dogs and cat are okay. Looks like there was a disruption to the Angelfish breeding trio, one of the smaller angels is picking on the smaller female. Thing is, I don't know which is which. I'll have to do some more observations. I checked some of the clay impressions I did yesterday. The shell impressions look good. The roller impressions look good. The bead roller's impression looks like corn on the cob. Not too thrilled about having made a corn roller (WTH?). I remembered the desert rose seedlings. Bernie noticed some brown spots on Friday, so I sprinkled some cinamon on top. I had put them in a covered Jiffy nursery seed starting thing, you find them at Home Depot for about $5. I added a little extra water on Friday, I thought the whole thing felt sort of light. Look in on them this morning and I noticed a number of seedlings breaking through. It's hard to count how many, but I'd say at least 15.
I did some more wiring on my pomegranate seedlings. They're looking good. I'm going to keep my eyes on pomegranates at the market. Definitely worth growing from seed!

Mame pots are now ready

The first batch of completed Mame pots are now out of the kiln.

There are a few Mame styles that are emerging: 'Mog', 'Turk', 'Crab', and 'Rocket'. For the bodies, I have been using 'Agate' and a blue glaze with darker blue . I'm not sure of the name of this blue glaze, I think it's blueberry something. The agate is a matte olive green finish, with glossy chocolate brown spots. There appears to be a style that is emerging in my work. The bodies are usually a glaze with chunks that melt during the firing process, giving the finished work a richer finish. Sometimes the feet are a different, solid glossy color. For my feet I am using 'cocoa', I think, 'sassy yellow', and 'dragon red'. I thought the red was 'dragon blood'. It might have been renamed, but it is a very rich, blood red.

Mog- I'm calling the small, egg shaped pots 'Mogs'. I was going to call them Mogwai, after the cute, fuzzy critters from the movie 'Gremlins', but this means evil spirit or demon in Chinese. Anyways, for the mogs I used an 'agate' glaze. I used the cocoa glossy glaze for the feet. The combination resulting in a very complimentary color combination.

Turk- when I brought the first one in, Mishy commented that it reminded her of a Turkish toilet. This one is based on a crescent shaped bonsai pot, with a high back. The combination of the high back and hole in the bottom reminded her of a toilet shape. I'm not offended by this descpription, as that is exactly what they look like! I've painted the turks in all blueberry.

Crab- I'm using a basic shallow saucer shape for the body with flat,thin feet. My dog, Daven, was my inspiration, but they look sorta crabby to me. Blueberry body with 'sassy yellow' feet

Rocket- Bowl or egg shaped body with what was supposed to be bubble feet. I found that two stacked bubbles work better than three. I also found that this design works better with shorter feet. I painted the bubble feet 'sassy yellow' and 'dragon red'. For the body I used the blueberry. Mishy really liked this style. I think it's the dragon red feet. Really makes a bold statement.

I have a Mog with a broken leg that I'm trying to fix. It's been bisque fired already. The foot simply came off while I was working it, probably an issue with the way the feet were joined to the body. I've painted this Mog's body with a black glaze. I'm not sure the name, but it's black with red crystals within. For the feet I used dragon red. I really like the dragon red, so I used this same combination of black/red crystals for body and dragon red feet on a smaller Mame pot that I had.

When I picked up my glazes at Marjon Ceramics, there was a pot full of 'business cards' for a local potter. He used clay 'tokens' for his business cards, stamped with a raised scorpion or butterfly relief and glazed with a semi translucent glaze on one side, and the name of his website on the other. On his website, he demonstrated a technique where he would wind rope around a cylinder, then use the wheel to impress the rope design on the cylinder. I took a queue from this guy and used my kids' Mardi Gras beads to make impressions on an egg shaped Mame pot. I made a couple of pots like this, including a couple of bowls for my reptiles. They're all currently in the kiln, or waiting to be fired.

I also switched to a low fire clay. This clay is much more plastic and fires to a white bisque. It's also not as sandy as the stoneware clay I was using. I don't know if I necessarily like this clay better, as it's drier. Cracks tend to show more when working this clay. This clay is less sticky, meaning it takes an impression better than the stoneware clay. Plus, it doesn't stick so much to my hands when working it. I bought fifty pounds of this clay, so I have lots of time to get used to it!