big and happy

 i made a quite large happy bowl ..... it is a shallow bowl and i have high hopes for it!!! only time will tell!

i found a giant leaf on the side of the road ... its stalk had been run over ... all the other leaves were standing tall ... and this was on the ground .... so i felt ok taking/stealing/rescuing it for a higher purpose. i carried it about two miles home.

 i rolled it into clay... then trimmed it ... then made a nest of towels and dry-cleaning bags for it to rest in ....

rolling the leaf took a lot out of it ... i'd been hoping to use it for multiple platters but discovered one was all it could manage.

i babysat it. i went down to my basement studio and visited it often .... to make sure it didn't crack ... it was doing great .... 

i measured twice to make sure it would fit into my kiln .... i knew i was cutting it close! 

and then the magic moment of opening the kiln .... oh! no! .... it had exploded. likely because it was not bone dry .... i thought it was! wah!!

 i did not do my usual kiln happy dance!

unicorn. you. you'nicorn.

i'm a painter. sometimes in all my pottery joy, i forget that. but i had an idea for a BIG piece for a friend .... and then decided to do a small version for LIAV camp auction .... so i did the little one first to practice before i tackle the giant one..... i like the painting ... but i'm super proud of the words. that's my poem on there.

when turquoise goes green.

 i'm not sure what happened.
and i'm a bit disappointed.
and it's one of those things, where i should be appreciating the learning opportunity....
but my turquoise glaze ( a new one) turned out green.
objectively, they look fine.
but since they don't match my expectations, i have trouble loving them.
i did not do the open the kiln happy dance.
but i think it'll all be ok.
as potter errors go, this is a small one, huh?

8 bowls

i glazed 8 bowls tonight ....

 that one in the bottom left of the photo is pretty big ... top left is pretty small .... these are all working on better form on the wheel .....

four of the bowls have a celadon base ....

 four of the bowls have and ann's blue base .....

 the celadon ones have blue bits ... the blue ones have celadon bits....

... some of them have black .... it's the part that looks black in the bowl photo....

two of the celadon ones have some mexico point  on them too .....

and now it's all about finger crossing to see how these mixtures worked out.