Friday, July 15, 2011

Alma Fest Preparations

It's Friday! Alma's Festival in the Clouds begins tomorrow at 10:00 am. I'm looking forward to listening to music all day.....

Every year, I donate work to the Alma Foundation for my name to be on the Alma Fest T shirt. Here is Vlad displaying this year's bowls:


It rained yesterday afternoon and my pottery collected the rainwater.



 



I hope we have sunny, dry weather this weekend!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

In Celebration of Flowers and Greenery

I finished the vases and delivered them to a local florist, Petal and Bean. These are 12-14" tall, and they all have a triangular shape.


Can vases have "mug" shots? Everyone turn to your right, please.

"Normal" vases, about 8" tall.


Do you remember the mini-planter I made for my brother-in-law's oh-so-cute succulent? I made another planter, this time for the minuscule cactus given to us by Piers's wonderful mom. It's lived in a boring plastic pot for too long, and I hope a change of scenery is all this li'l guy needs to grow big and strong! He's only 1.25" tall currently.

A dainty ladder brings you to the front door.
A fox for Piers.
Stylized walls continue along the back side of the planter.
In contrast to the miniature adobe-style planter, which is 5" at its longest and a mere 3" tall, the columbine flower on my new piece is almost 7" wide! The box shape is 12" x 12" x 6" tall. It's finally dry enough to bisque, but I have to wait until after Festival in the Clouds to move ahead with firing and glazing.


On Sunday, after the large planter was finished, I found myself at a buy-one-get-one-free sale at our local Mountain Growers nursery. Irresistible!! My friend Erin oohed and ahhed around the nursery with me as I picked out Speedy Sonnet Bronze snap dragons and Wave Blue petunias. (Who makes up these names?!)

We planted them outside my studio that afternoon, and it wasn't until the next morning that I realized that the color combination I selected mimics almost perfectly the red-orange Indian Paintbrush and purple Lupin already in our yard.

This evening shot doesn't do the colors justice. Is this Lupin or false Lupin, I wonder?

A good luck bunny watches over the newly-planted flowers.