Sunday, February 14, 2010

February 14th

February 14th - 9:30 a.m. - Valentine's Day - Rick just headed out for Arkansas for a consulting job he's been working on.  We celebrated Valentine's Friday night with dinner at the new Hallowell restaurant, Francesba's.  Nice atmosphere, good food, friendly and fast service with lots of extras. 

Saturday Rick played with The NitPickes at a private party here in Belgrade Lakes while I went to the studio for a few hours. 


I glazed the tea set I've been working on, along with some larger bowls and a plate.  Decided to use celadon froth alone on the tea set but I got pretty creative with colors on the bowls and plate.  I'm always anxious to see how glazing comes out because I just never know what it's going to do.  New batches are thicker or thinner than the last, they sometimes react differently in the kiln and vary when you combine them, depending on which color is on top.  I really like the way the glazes on this mug came together and will experiment with this a little more.  I'd like to combine some red glaze with a brown to see if I can get kind of a brownish rust color and get kind of a southwestern feel to it.     


I was pretty nervous after glazing this piece Thursday night.  The green stain I used on the bottom coil and the cover was way too green when it went in the kiln but seemed to diffuse a bit in the firing, or else the celadon and spamboo just toned it down - just about enough. 


Here's a tile I made last November but just got fired last week.


After pottery I visited Betty for a while and then we went down to Hattie's to partake of the Mardi Gras festivities.  Fun parade, good friends, a little dancing music and headed home before 8 p.m.

David Bustin

Betty, David, and me.

Bob and Susan

 
Betty and Bruce


I had to get the goblet I'd just finished for Justin out of my car to use instead of the plastic glasses they were giving us.

And, of course, the parade . . .