Always Room for Improvement

12 x 12 x 4 inches

This is probably the nicest large bowl I've ever made. But next week I might tell  you the same thing about another bowl. That's just how it is, there's always room for improvement.

I overlapped the same glazes with this bowl as the yunomi (tea bowl) below and expected gold highlights but the bowl was on the top shelf and what I planned didn't materialize. The bowl is made with speckled stoneware and the yunomi below with white stoneware. Using different clay makes quite a bit of difference with the glazes.

This is the nicest yunomi (tea bowl) I've ever made but again next week it might not be. This is pinched and textured and glazed with multiple glazes.

3.25 x 3.25 x 3 inches

I'm experimenting with overlapping several glazes with these pieces and each one is different. I've learned the top shelf of the kiln doesn't produce the same results as the lower shelves. Not only is there always room for improvement but there is always something new I learn with each firing.

4 x 4 x 1 inches

I tried a new glaze combination for one of my meditation bowls and even though it's the same glass I've used on others the color fired deep blue rather than aqua. More to come so stay tuned. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Lift me up or Lay me down on a Soft Pillow

Was feeling a bit low the last few days. I have a dysfunctional family and holidays are particularly difficult. I thought about making more of my pinched meditation bowls. Something I can do while working at ArtWorks. It's been a while since I pinched any bowls. Pinching is very meditative for me.

Then an idea of making a meditation grotto came to mind.  I thought of an alcove in a hillside with a reflecting urn I once made. I wondered how I could translate that feeling into a clay piece. I learned of a grotto in Dismals Canyon in Alabama, a place I'd love to visit. Why is it called Dismals; probably after the dismalites found there. What are dismalites? Click on the link to find out. I came across the Fredrick Kiesler Grotto for Meditation designed in 1963 for New Harmony Indiana and built posthumously in 2012 in Houston Texas.

An unusual concept using steel construction for a grotto. Yet I can imagine sitting inside must have a nurturing or cradling effect. When I went down to the studio I was thinking the season is for giving. Sometimes I feel like an infant in a cradle needing love and at the same time having so much love to give. Yet feeling inadequate or helpless on how to give or receive love.

Many may be thinking or feeling the same as me:  'Lift me up or Lay me down on a soft pillow'. I reminded myself to focus my energy outward, to lift up those I come into contact with. Maybe they need a kind word, thought or gesture. Maybe they need a soft pillow to lay their head upon. These are things I can give so easily. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Relegated

Here's another tower I made yesterday. The front and back are the same. For some reason I called this relegated tower. Whenever I save the images I have to save them with a name. I guess I could give them a number but that seems too mathematical, too inanimate somehow. Although they are inanimate objects, they seem to be more if held or observed.  Perhaps it's the feelings I have when I'm making the sculptures. The circle at the bottom is enclosed like arms which are linked. The arms showing a relegated stance. 

My meditation bowl was featured in this Earth and Ocean Etsy treasury. Oh and I changed the name of my Etsy shop to Linda Starr Pottery. This post is part of Mud Colony what's happening in the studio, check the link out. Hope you're having a great week, thanks for reading and for all your comments.

Hanging Out

Outside my window this anole lizard has been hanging out. I was finally able to get a shot of him in his threatening stance with his throat or dewlap puffed out. He bobs his head up and down and then he puffs out his dewlap pouch to warn other males from his territory. The pouch is also puffed out to attract females.

This is one of my hand pinched meditation bowls just listed in my Etsy Shop. I sold another one of these to the same customer, she said they make great gifts.

My salt and pepper server was featured in a Etsy treasury called 'Out of the Salt Mines'. I never knew there were so many different types of salt containers.

After the electricity went out the other day I unplugged the kiln. Later I replugged it in and started the firing again. Everything in the kiln looks fine. I didn't unload yet, I'll do that today. Thanks for reading and for all your comments.