I hate warping!

Ok. I guess everyone has something about working with clay that frustrates them.  For me, it is warping.  My understanding is that it is worse with handbuilt pieces which is what I work on.  I just took some pieces out of the kiln in which warpage raised its ugly head. 

In the Brooklyn red clay I made a few pieces.  I hadn't done any coil weaving since I've been back at Pam's so I decided to copy one of her pieces.  She's a pro at the weaving!  Actually the weaving was the easiest part for me.  I still have problems with making my edges smooth and attaching feet so my pieces are level.  This piece did end up level, but the edges still need improvement. And, my strips aren't exactly straight.  Hey, it's handmade....give me a break.  This is fired at cone 6 and glazed in my favorite opal:

I also made a textured platter/bowl which is glazed in overlapping Opal and Randy's Red.  I didn't put a foot on this piece and it's a tiny bit wobbly, but not bad.  Warping was a little problem.

Also in red clay, I made a piece similar to the one I gave my friend's daughter when she announced her engagement.  It's a simple oval platter which is glazed in overlapping Randy's Red and Nickel Matt.  I added a small amount of Opal drops on top. I like this piece.

I wanted to try sgraffito carving on the white clay.  I made some slip colored with chrome and brushed it on the soft clay.  Then I carved.  I think I should have let it get a bit harder before carving, maybe leather hard. This piece warped pretty badly on the ends.  Arggh. The warping happened during both bisque and glaze firing.  That surprised me a bit.  Here's a picture after bisque firing.  The slip color is pretty accurate. 

 Now here's a picture after applying a clear glaze and firing to cone 6

The deep green color really surprised me.  I loved doing this sgraffito, especially on the white clay.  I plan to keep working on fixing the warping problem. 

Blood Cancer facts and statistics

Blood cancers are cancers that affect the blood, bone marrow, lymph nodes, and other parts of the lymphatic system.
Did you know:

• Every 4 minutes, someone in the U. S. is diagnosed with a blood cancer.
• In 2010, an estimated 137,260 people in the U. S. will be diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma.
• These new cases of blood cancer will account for almost 10% of all the new cancers diagnosed in the U. S.
• Every 10 minutes, someone in the U. S. dies from a blood cancer...that's 6 people every hour, 148 people every day!
• Leukemia causes about 1/3 of all cancer deaths in children younger than 15 years of age.
• In 2010, 447 children under the age of 15 years were expected to die from leukemia in the U. S.

(data from the Leukemia Lymphoma Society, Facts 2010-2011 brochure)

Natalie's Quilt

As I was sewing these blocks together I wasn't sure I was liking the color combination.  However when I was through, I stepped back and looked at it...I really like it.  I hope Natalie likes it too. 

Seagrove, NC potters

We had a wedding in North Carolina this past weekend, so X B and I decided to take an additional day and visit Seagrove, NC.  We stayed at an absolutely lovely B&B, The Duck Smith House, owned and operated by two sisters, Barbara and Suzanne.  What gracious hosts!  From the moment we arrived, Barbara and Suzanne were all about making us comfortable.  Barbara showed us the home and offered us drinks, cheese and crackers.  Suzanne was busy filling the dozen or so birdfeeders in the backyard black walnut tree which was filled with wrens, cardinals, bluebirds, woodpeckers and the most beautiful yellow warblers and goldfinch.  Two delightful other couples were staying at the B&B with us; we had a nice conversation with them at breakfast over Barbara and Suzanne's incredible stuffed french toast.

Seagrove was an interesting area.  There are 100 or so potters in the area who open their  galleries/studios to visitors.  X B and I visited about 10 potters, each with their unique wares.  Everyone was very friendly, willing to answer any questions about their pottery.  I bought 3 pieces.  One is a dogwood mug from Turn and Burn, done by an interesting potter who often uses emu feathers and horsehair in his pieces. It is a nice compliment to my other dogwood mug that I purchased in Boone's memory.

The other two pieces are done by a husband and wife team, Dean and Martin.  Their gallery had many lovely pieces; I had a difficult time choosing.  Here is a vase that Dean made:

The other is a 9" plate that Martin made.  She paints the flowers, waxes them, and dips in a matte glaze.  I love the way the matte glaze runs around the flowers. 

I could have bought some other pieces, but this was all I had budgeted for this weekend.  In particular, I liked O'Quinn and Smith Pottery galleries.  I will definately be planning a return visit to Seagrove, NC

Natalie's quilt

One of my daughter's friends just graduated from Virginia Tech in Architecture and I thought I'd make her a lap quilt as a graduation gift.  This is the perfect opportunity (like I need a reason) to make my first solids quilt.  Natalie loves gray, so this is the palette I chose:

The colors from top to bottom are: Kona Coal, Country Classics Gray, Kona Ash, somebody's light teal, Connecting Thread's Cornflower, Kona White, and Connecting Thread's Brick.

Next choice was the pattern.  I wanted to do some sort of log cabin with wonky squares.  I couldn't find a pattern online, but in the search process I found a great tutorial about how to use Photoshop to design a quilt.  Well...that sounded like a wonderful idea.  Use this link to find this tutorial: http://www.freshlemonsquilts.com/?p=901

It was so much easier than I expected.  What a nice surprise.  I decided to make a quilt that was 4 blocks by 5 blocks with each block being 12 inch squares.  I made 2 basic blocks and just rotated them and changed the color combination to make them unique.  Here is the quilt I ended up with using the palette I picked. Pretty good, huh?

Today I cut out all my fabrics.  I made WOF strips based on the Photoshop dimensions and cut them into the proper size.  Here is an example of the pieces making up the first block:

So now I will keep my fingers crossed that I did all my measurements correctly.  We'll see when I begin sewing tomorrow.

On being human

Today is June 13th.  It's one of my least favorite days.  Five years ago today Boone received a phone call from his oncologist saying he had relapsed.  They had found more blasts in his spinal fluid during a routine lumbar puncture exam.  Boone called me at work with the news and I ran home as quickly as I could.  It was one of our darkest days during Boone's treatment.  We had been following the protocol to the letter, which was extremely difficult.  Boone was in the oncologist's office on average 3 times a week for either blood draws or chemo treatment. And he had been hospitalized numerous times for 3 to 9 days at a stretch, not to count the initial one month hospitalization.  Boone never expressed displeasure at what was being asked of him; he simply knew this was what he had to do.  We were all devastated by the news of his relapse a nd the resulting search for a bone marrow donor.  Often I will flashback to a particularly difficult time during Boone's treatment and literally feel sick to my stomach.  June 13th is one of those days. 

But I'd like to reflect on something we discussed in our Sunday School class last night.  We're studying the book "How Good Do We Have to Be?" by Rabbi Harold Kuschner.  Chapter 2 is studying what happened in the Garden of Eden.  One analysis says "He (God) is not so much as punishing them (Adam and Eve) as saying to them, 'You ate of that tree because you wanted to be like God, knowing Good and Evil?  Well, you're about to find out how frustrating it is to be like God, to create something and then give up control of what you have created, to want something to turn out as perfectly as your pictured it in your mind and then see how far short the reality falls of your original intention.  There is more pain than you could ever imagine in knowing about Good and Evil.'"  Wow, that hit home. The pain from losing my son is the worst pain that I've ever, ever experienced.  I suppose that as humans, we feel that pain as a result of our "original sin". 

However, I had one other thought....Would I not want to feel that pain?  Yes and no.  Yes, because it is so, so hard and hurts so much.  No, because in some weird way, it keeps me connected to Boone.  It helps me remember how much he loved each of us and how much I loved him.  To be human, is to feel pain; but it is also to feel joy and happiness.  And my 19 years with Boone were filled with joy.  I wouldn't trade that for anything.