New Pool Surface, New Roof

Our pool is now filled after resurfacing. We are on a well and we started filling at 2 p.m yesterday and it was filled at 7 am this morning. We calculated we have approximately 15,200 gallons of water in the pool. I guess we have a really good well. Oh, and in this part of Florida, the water comes out of the ground at 72 degrees F, nice and warm. Once the pool is filled, refilling won't be necessary as long as the chemicals are kept in balance. After one month of using chlorine, we will switch to a salt filter system which is less expensive and easier to maintain.


Of course the pump doesn't work so now we have to do repairs on that. Isn't that the way it goes. But the pool does look much better than it did before. I guess we won't be redoing the deck surface surrounding the pool for quite some time. We'll fill the cracks in the surface and give it a good cleaning.

Oops, pump guy just came, the pump does work, yippee! I guess we had to turn it on to get it to work. Gary said he did, but it must have been too early in the morning. Thanks to Veteran's Pool Service and Repair for coming out so quickly and for their patience with newbie pool people like us.


Here the guys are putting on the white with blue speckled diamond brite coating. We chose the blue color. The dark color showing in the pool is the bond surface applied before the final coat of the diamond brite coating. If you live in Citrus County Florida and want your pool resurfaced, call Greg's Marcite, it's a local family run business and they did a super job.


Here's a shot of our new roof; it's a tan/beige color. We had the loquat trees up against the house taken out as they were planted too close to the home and are messy trees dropping fruit everywhere and large leaves in the gutters. I really hate to take trees out but these also went to the wood turner so he could try his handiwork on that type of wood.


The before photo of our home was taken a month ago, look at the difference in the trees that have leafed out. We're still deciding on the house color. If you notice the left front of the house is now a tan gold color, we have one more color to try more tan with less gold. The trim will be a charcoal gray. If you need your roof done we recommend Above It All Roofing. They were on time, thorough, cleaned up all the debris and did a good job. They also filled out a hurricane mitigation form which reduced our home insurance costs. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Appreciation

A gentle breeze drifts up from the gulf and blows in my window. A movement catches my eye outside my window and I see a brown rabbit come out of the forest and nibble on blades of grass. A whippoorwill is serenading me hidden in a tree where I can't see him. Then a bright red cardinal lands on the ground suddenly and frightens the shy rabbit who scurries back into the woods flicking sand in the air with his back feet. I'm appreciating my new home and studio more and more each day.


Later in the day I went to class only seven miles away and I found a textured rolling pin in the closet, so I tried it out on the vase above. I took the photo of the vase when I got home. The vase was sitting on my work table next to the light. I like how the light shines across the front of the vase on an angle. I didn't notice the little indent at the bottom till I got the vase home. I must have pressed into the clay releasing it from the ware board. Now it's too dry to press it back out. Oh well, that adds character to the piece. I might make more pieces with this texture; I like the rough surface.


This past Sunday evening I just had to make something in clay and I ran out of the frost clay I initially brought home. So I dipped into my precious black clay. I had a strong image in my mind of a black vase with white slip and a white element standing upright in the vase, perhaps a piece of bleached driftwood. I tried to form the vase when the clay was too wet and the vase wouldn't stay upright. To save the piece, I cut off the edges and made a wall sculpture. Perhaps I'll mount it on a piece of weathered wood. You may not be able to see in the photo, but where the white slipped portions are located I have punched them out to make undulations in the clay. I have more ideas for the black clay with white slip deco.

The first piece I just played around with and let the clay tell me what to do. For the second piece I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted to create, but it ended up telling me what to do anyway; sometimes it happens like that. How about you? How do you proceed with your art, do you intentionally make pieces or do you let the medium tell you what to do? Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Cedar Key Arts Festival

The painting above is a rubbing is made from a real fish and is 4 foot across. This was first of many beautiful pieces of art we saw at the Cedar Key Arts Festival this weekend. What a beautiful location for a festival. I really enjoy looking at art and talking with the artists. Besides I'm going to as many art festivals as I can to see which ones I might like enter next year.


I knew I'd see an ocean influence in work at the festival, but fish seemed to be swimming all over the place like this metal sculpture. I love the patina on the fish.


These were some nice wood turned bowls made from various local woods.


Birds were also prevalent in the art displayed. This one is made from wood.


Here's some thrown and slab built pottery with a coastal influence. In my last post I talked about tropical influence; I made my pieces before going to the festival and seems I was correct about what type of work might be made in this area of the country.


Long needle pine baskets have always intrigued me and I plan to take a class from the woman who does this work. I'd like to add a pine needle portion to top of one of my pots.


A giant sculpture of a fisherman and a beautiful mosaic wall graced the middle of town.


Another fish sculpture, there were quite a number of metal artists at the festival. There was much more beautiful art, but even though we got there very early, the crowds moved in and I couldn't get any good shots of the work.


Cedar Key is a picturesque town which I suspect reverted back to a sleepy fishing village after the festival ended. Gary and I plan to go back again real soon to see more of the town and to take advantage of the relaxing atmosphere. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Tropical Influence

Last year I ordered a variety of mason stains. A short time later we sold our home, so we were busy packing and making travel arrangements. Then we were traveling across the United States looking for a new home and studio location. We eventually decided to move to Florida. All the while I have been dreaming of using all the bright colored mason stains I ordered, but I can't find them. So I am forced to be creative with the three colors I have of blue, green, and black.


Today I was in a reflective mood, wondering if my work is a product of my environment, my culture, or my heredity. I like to think my work is a combination of all of that and is headed toward a consensus of influence. If you've been reading my blog for a while you've noticed my Native American heritage coming through in my spirit jars. The natural world around me has an influence in the leaves, trees and bird symbolism I use. Mid century modern style also shows up in some sculptures and patterns I use in clay. And now that I am living in Florida, I suspect a more tropical influence will start to surface.

What do you think, is an artist's work a product of their environment, their heritage, their culture or a combination of all of them. If you are an artist what do you think has the most influence on your work? Do you make work specific to your local market. Since I've recently moved to a new area I wonder what type of art would appeal to those living here. Should that even be a consideration in making art?

This week I am experimenting with cone 6 frost porcelain clay from Laguna and these are the first pieces I have made with that clay. The first two pieces have a definite environmental influence since we are now living a stones throw from the gulf. The second has a bit more modern style with the stylized surfer riding the waves.



The star burst flower dinner plates are a combination of nature and a modern style. On the second plate I smeared the flowers taking the plastic hump mold off because I used olive oil since I couldn't find the WD-40. The smudged flowers look a bit like wet newspaper print. I wouldn't mind putting more layers on that piece, have to think about it. Colorful geometric shapes come to mind; where in the heck are those mason stains. They'll probably be in the last box I unpack. Or if I order some more, the day the new ones arrive will be the day I find the ones I ordered so long ago.


The last piece is the first one I tried with this frost clay. It started out as a pinch bowl, but the clay was so plastic and floppy it got away from me. So I decided to make an appetizer tray rather than re wedge the clay. We plan on going to a local art faire on the coast, so stay tuned for photos from that excursion. I'm curious to see what type of work artist's make in this area. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Duty and Desire

Clay cravings appear out of no where and I am constantly pulled between duty and desire. Duty has been pushed to the forefront so I can organize my studio and satisfy my desire for clay. This week I got a few steps closer to my goal.


I looked at several used kilns, including an Olympic gas kiln, but have ruled them all out. I was happy to be given information about the gas kiln by Tracey Broome, thanks Tracey. Today I talked to Joan at Bennett's Pottery and Judy Shreve, thanks Judy, had referred me there. I am looking at a square L&L kiln. Since I make mostly one off pieces and handbuilt ceramics and I have a bad back I thought a square kiln would be easier for me to load.

I found out about a pottery class at the local community college so I decided to stop in and see what was going on. I met the instructor and all the students and, surprise, I signed up for the next six weeks. The class rotate every four weeks, but there are no classes after May until the end of August, so I figured I could handlea few weeks before summer. The class works with mid fire clay and raku. I think I'm in for a real treat as I have always wanted to try raku. I picked up 25 pounds of Laguna Frost clay which I am trying now.

I have been researching cabinets for my studio and the cost of anything nowadays is unbelieveable. I decided to watch the ads for some used cabinets and even put an wanted ad locally. Today I found an ad for a complete kitchen full of cabinets, uppers and lowers and counters, being taken out. I rushed right over there and paid for them. They are taking them out on Sunday and we'll pick them up and bring them home then.


When we went to pay for the used kitchen cabinets, all the while I was telling Gary what a good deal they were. Gary said, "You don't have to convince me about the cabinets, it's the kiln you need to concentrate on convincing me on". Ha! I haven't told Gary about duty and desire yet, but come to think about it, he probably already knows. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Silver Lining

They say there's a silver lining in every cloud, and at the risk of being trite, most times I've found there really is a silver lining in every cloud. Sometimes it's hard for me to remember the silver lining part, especially at this time in my life, but today I was reminded to focus on the silver lining. Be sure to read all the way to the end to find out about the acrylic crystal light and the silver lining awards.

We told ourselves we'd never buy a house that needed work, but as things often go, we were forced to make some compromises. We have so much work to do stripping wall paper, painting, pulling up carpet, and on and on. We've been feeling a bit frazzled, overwhelmed, isolated, and wondering why in the heck we moved here. Besides the fact we moved across the country and we don't know a soul here.

Before we moved in we knew our home had mauve carpet and we planned to pull the carpet up and put laminate flooring down. After we moved in we realized what a big job pulling up all the carpet was going to be, especially since Gary would have to do most of the work himself. I told Gary someone would probably take the carpet, but Gary said no one would want that color carpet. I thought to myself surely there is someone who could use the carpet which is slightly worn but not stained and seems to be a good quality. Habitat for Humanity said they'd take it but we'd have to pull it out and our poor old bones just couldn't do that. I put an ad for the carpet and amazingly a few people called.

First one person called and said they'd take all of the carpet. Then they didn't show up. Then someone else didn't show up. Then one person said they'd take one room of carpet but they'd have to come and look at it in a week or two. I'd just about given up and Gary purchased a carpet knife to cut the carpet up. Then the first people who called, called back again and said they were coming to get it all. I didn't believe them, but amazingly they showed up and they pulled every bit of carpet up and all the pad and took it away. After they left I realized they had saved us a ton of work. Actually saved Gary a ton of work. Having someone take all the carpet at once and pull it up themselves was a silver lining indeed.

On the way home from the paint store this weekend we were feeling sorry for ourselves and wondering how we would get all the work done around here. Then we saw a sign for a Greek festival. The festival was right around the corner from our house, so we decided what the heck we'll go even if we we're in our grubby clothing. We had a wonderful time and we didn't even have any ouzo, just a Greek beer. I had the best dolmas I've ever had. We also heard traditional Greek music and saw traditional Greek dancing and chatted with folks who live nearby and were feeling much better by the end of the day.

The biggest silver lining of the day for me was that I met several potters at the festival which was the last place I would have expected to meet a potter. I met Patrick Bates who does raku and horse hair pottery and his parents Barrie and Len who make functional and handbuilt pottery. They were so friendly (what potter isn't) and shared their time and knowledge of the area with us. And we've been invited to their next raku party and I told them I'd like to invite them to a barrel firing party here as soon as I get organized.

We placed an ad on craigslist to sell our motorhome and our travel trailer. Several people called and a few came to look at the motorhome, but no one called about the trailer. The folks that looked at the motorhome all wanted us to reduce our price way too low. We were thinking we might never sell the motorhome, let alone the trailer. We wanted to sell the motorhome first since the registration is due in May. Also we need a roof and pool repairs and the sale will help defray those costs.

Yesterday I changed the ads to another city thinking I'd have better luck. Two times someone flagged our ads and they were removed. Both times I retyped the ads and reloaded all the photos. I was getting really angry since there was no reason my ads should have been flagged. Finally I gave up and put the ads back in the other city listings. Meanwhile someone called and said they were coming to look at the motorhome and never showed up. Then today one of the people who had offered a really low price, came and bought our motorhome for what we wanted to sell it for. Another silver lining.

I really hate to throw things away, so I put an ad on craigslist for some funky light fixtures we replaced. Yes we had four matching acrylic crystal hanging lights. One of them is shown in the top photo. These are the ones I thought no one would ever want. Then when not one person called, I was thinking to myself I was right, no one wanted them.

We noticed if we put recycle items beside the trash can the guys who pick up the trash will take those items and put them inside their truck. I thought about putting the acrylic lights out with the trash this morning, but forgot to do so. Then not ten minutes ago a woman sixty miles away called and asked about the acrylic lights, hoping I didn't sell them. She sounded almost desperate for them. I told her where I lived and thought for sure she wouldn't drive all that way. The woman and her sister are driving 60 miles to get the acrylic crystal lights tomorrow. Apparently they are just what they want. Surely these four matching acrylic crystal lights are a silver lining for them.

Oh, I met two more potters via telephone today and each one is willing to fire my work till I decide which kiln to get and have it wired. So I should have some work to show in a week or so. Finally I'll be able to see what will happen with all the work I did in the RV for the past four months.

This is getting to be a real long post, but I really do have an important message. Before we sold our motorhome this morning, Gary was feeling kind of worried about not selling the motorhome and I was feeling bad that he was having to do so much work around here and then I got a message to look at Kittie's blog, The Block. Low and behold I got a Silver Lining award for my blog. Thank you so much Kittie for giving me the award and for reminding me to focus on the silver lining in my life each and every day. If you haven't stopped in to Kittie's blog, The Block, you are in for a real treat. Kittie weaves her tales like no one else; she has such beautiful thoughts about everyday life; and, well, I can't say it as well as Kittie can, so be sure to visit her blog regularly, you will be glad you did.

Now in keeping with my silver lining award I am going to pass on the silver lining award to more bloggers. Before I do, I just want to say that starting my blog has had a silver lining for me in so many ways. I started my blog to learn and share about clay, but along the way I have found the real silver lining is in the people I have met through my blog. Each and every person has enriched my life through their blogs and their comments and their generosity. Thanks so much to all of you for your support, your comments, and for your blogs. I wish I could give the award to all the blogs I read, but here are just a few of the ones which have a silver lining to me. All those awarded below should give the same award to as many bloggers, spreading silver linings all the way.

Amy's Clay Ventures
Artmaking in the North, Cindy
Kittie's Spanish Studio
Off Center Productions, Joan
and Joan's other blogs:
A Wild Patience
Path With Heart Workshop

Peter's Pottery
Sister Creek Pottery, Gay
The Inquisitive Magpie, Barbara
Through the Sapphire Sky
Tracey Broome
Whynot Pottery Blog, Meredith

Tiles Right At Home

We’re having our pool resurfaced and wanted to change the border tiles to a style and color we liked better. But when we got the bid for the cost of the tiles and labor to install them, we discarded that idea. The tile above is the one that surrounds the edge of the pool and was made for Daltile in Mexico. Until I took a photo of the pool tile up close I didn’t really appreciate the design in this tile.


Before I learned the cost was prohibitive, I picked up a sheet of these blue green tiles with crystals which Gary and I both liked and thought would look super around the edge of our pool. If I had time I’d make tiles, but we need to get the pool filled before the rainy season and home insurance requires pools to be filled to be insured, so we have a short deadline. When I turned the tile over I was surprised to see these tiles are made in Korea. These crystal tiles remind me of Peter Gregory’s most recent beautiful crystal work. Now that we know we won’t be using these tiles and I’ll return them. Still it was fun to dream and learn these tiles were made in Korea.

The spotter tiles will be covered with the new pool surface so we still need 15 new spotter tiles which are placed on the steps and the bottom of the pool. The spotters are installed to show the dividing point between the shallow and deep end of the pool for child safety reasons. They are also installed on the steps for safety since water depth is hard to judge because surfaces appear closer or larger in water than they really are. We took a trip to the local tile store to see if we could find some spotter tiles which would coordinate with the tiles currently surrounding the pool.

I found out pool tile surfaces, colors, and styles are constantly changing much like clothing styles change. Natural stone and earth tones are popular for pools now instead of the shiny glazed surfaces of the tile which our pool currently has. There are almost no shiny pool tiles available unless we get the starfish or mermaid type tiles and those don’t appeal to us, especially since they wouldn’t coordinate with the tiles along the edge of the pool.


We discovered a few extra tiles in the storage shed out back, but a darker, solid color spotter tile would show up in the bottom of the pool much better than the tiles along the edge of the pool. We also found a few of these tiles which are spares for the entry way. The entry way tiles were made in Italy, but they are too light for spotter tiles.


Then miraculously we were putting in ceiling fans in the bedrooms and Gary discovered an ice chest in the attic. He looked inside the ice chest and found these dark blue tiles. Not sure why these tiles were saved in an ice chest in the attic, but I think they will work for our spotter tiles just fine. These dark blue tiles were made in Japan. Hope you enjoyed my tile tour around the globe. Who would have thought, though, that I'd find tiles right at home. Once we get our pool filled I’ll post some photos. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Rainbow Springs

We promised ourselves we'd take a day off once a week to visit local attractions. A week almost passed us by, but today we visited Rainbow Springs State Park, which is about half an hour from our home.


The springs are the fourth largest in Florida and the artesian spring produces 450 million gallons of water a day. The springs come from the ground ever so clear and teaming with wildlife both in and out of the water.


Today we saw so many flowers in bloom, including dogwood, redbud, azalea, flag iris, honeysuckle and many others I wasn't immediately able to identify. We also saw schools of fish, lots of turtles, and so many birds, including a pair of bald eagles squabbling in mid-air over a fish one of them caught.




Kayaks and paddle boats are available to rent to take down the river and there's an area set aside to swim in the crystal clear water. Today we were content to walk a short distance exploring the paths along the river wetlands.


Where the water is aqua green, the bottom is lined with white limestone which reflects back and shows an aqua color. In some places the water was over twenty feet deep. I couldn't decide which photos to show you. These are just a few of the highlights. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

Wood Turning

Three camphor trees sent their roots into the septic leach field of our new home so the field has be be replaced. Camphor trees have a very aggressive root system and no trees should be planted over leach fields especially camphor and many others. So before escrow closed on our new home we arranged to have the trees taken out and a new leach field installed.


I happened to be reading Craigslist and saw someone wanted fresh camphor logs for wood turning, so I sent them an email. That's how I met local wood turning artist Chad Leuckel. I told Chad if he came by when they cut down the camphor trees he could have as many logs as he wanted. So bright an early this morning Chad showed up when the tree and septic workers were here to get some camphor wood. Speaking of Craigslist, I sold the refrigerator and the carpet we removed from our new place through Craigslist in one day. Apparently everyone uses Craigslist in this area.


Chad was drooling over all the wood he was going to get much like a potter would be drooling over some free clay. Chad belongs to the local wood turning group and talked about his wood turning work while he was here. He has been studying with a master wood turner for many years. I learned Chad must quickly work the fresh wood and keep it damp so it won't crack or split.


Here's our brand new leach field put in with the new type of system that distributes the water evenly. Most of the soil is sandy here in Florida as is this soil, although there is a small layer of clay near the top. There is a huge mountain of local clay around the corner from here that I plan to experiment with in my work very soon. More about that later.

Chad brought over some of his work to show me. The first bowl is turned from cypress wood. Since Chad likes to fish, it was only natural for him to specialize in making custom wood turned fishing poles. Some are inlaid with turquoise and other semi precious stones. Chad even inlays feathers into some of the poles.

Chad is going to make some wood turned ornaments from the camphor wood for me, much like the one shown which he turned from black jack oak and hickory and then hollowed out. The ornament was beautiful and light as a feather.

I made plans to visit Chad some time in the future while he is wood turning so I can learn more about the process. It was fun to meet a local wood turning artist and I was so happy the camphor trees we cut down went to good use. Comments and suggestions are welcome.

New Home

Gary's grandfather built this miniature log cabin which has graced many fireplace mantles throughout it's life. We started on our travels and searching for a home with a tiny budget and high hopes about three months ago. We opted for a comfortable well built house with good bones in a warm climate. We'll have to do sprucing up, painting, and low cost decorating to turn it into the home we envision.


We have an acre of land which allows for barrel firings and hopefully a future wood or gas fired kiln. We're in a nice neighborhood and we've already met four of our neighbors our first day here. Sad to say but in many areas of California folks weren't as friendly as they have been here already.

I won't get into all the depressing details, but the last several months my back deteriorated further. I'm disappointed because this prevented me from stopping to visit places and potters I planned to in our travels. I learned if I lie down every few hours on my stomach for half an our or so, I can get my spine to realign and make it through the day.

Our health insurance disqualified my back, any complications arising from my back, or any arthritis. We can just barely afford the insurance premium, let alone any out of pocket medical bills, so I'm trying to improve my back myself. Since we moved to our new home, each day I've been doing much better so I have high hopes for the future. Once I improve I hope to venture out for visits and travels to surrounding areas.


The two loquat trees in the flower bed near the door have to come out since they're planted too close to the building and are a messy tree to have near a driveway. We'll pressure wash and paint the exterior and trim shrubs. I've been thinking of tropical colors since we moved to Florida. I painted a portion of the front with a coral color, but it looks more pink than coral, and this isn't what I had in mind.


Today I got a more gray green color paint to try on the exterior. Seems like my old standby color of 'streambed' looks much better on the house than the coral color. What do you think? I'm having a hard time deciding on colors nowadays; I had hoped for a little pizazz. Perhaps I need a ceramic sculpture out front. Oops, there I go creating more projects for myself.


Here's a view of the back yard which I took before the trees leafed out and the grass greened up. Since it was cold this winter much of the grass turned brown. Can you picture one of Peter's wood fired raku kilns back there? A couple of old barrels for barrel firings would be nice too.


We will resurface the interior of the pool very soon and fill it up just in time for the hot weather coming up. The pool is enclosed in a screened area and is about 28 x 16 and six feet deep. One of the reasons we wanted a home with a pool was so I can do low impact exercises in the water to strengthen my back muscles and hopefully improve my stamina and mobility. If you know anything about pool surfaces or colors feel free to give advice.


There is a long enclosed lanai off the back of the house which is huge, 30 x 10. It's behind the screen room you see around the pool. I thought about making that space my studio, but it isn't air conditioned and we don't want to add the cost of installing heat and air for that room right now.

The cats are really happy here and they have been running all over the house, happy to have room to roam. Gary and I feel the same way, but we're running all over the house for different reasons trying to find this or that. Ha! Here's Betty lounging on the bathroom counter. I think this is the only photo I've ever taken of her with her eyes completely open, she doesn't like bright lights and often squints. See that wall paper in the background, it has to go.


Well back to painting, unpacking, and sorting. Stay tuned for interior photos and before and after shots in the coming weeks. Comments and suggestions are welcome.