Here is another mini butter dish pinched from terra cotta clay. It still needs a bit of sponge work on the surface. It will be glazed, decorated and single fired at ^05
The Smart Cat
Mostly majolica..... functional and decorative pottery
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
More Butter
Monday, March 11, 2024
Butter Dish
I've been seeing various butter dishes here there and everywhere. Charlie Cummings Gallery even had a show all about butter dishes. Who knew?
This is inspired by various ideas. I like to keep butter out. My kitchen is fairly cool so it's no problem..... until summer arrives. So I thought, little dishes to hold what will be used in one day. This one will probably hold about a third of a stick. It's a single fire so I will have to wait and see, grasshopper, until after single firing.
It's all pinched, with a slab plate. I love the notion of decorating inside and out. Any surface is fair game! The glaze is my favorite Spectrum #799 Majolica White. Mason stains are mixed with frit #3124, most fifty/fifty. I have been using a black underglaze with a black Mason stain #6650 added. I also experimented with added some wax to the stain. Makes for a nicely brushable medium, and. it doesn't smear. The colors are a bit strange due to wax resist.
I haven't tried anything new (to me) since Covid started so this feels like a new leaf, or fish as the case may be.
BTW four years ago today Covid was declared a pandemic. I was in the hospital when the whole masking thing began. I still have not had Covid.......toes and fingers crossed. I keep up with boosters and still mask when I go into stores. The one time I didn't was at a Christmas party where I promptly caught a massive cold which I promptly passed on to Proge. Sometimes you're the bug; sometimes the windshield!
Did anyone watch the Oscars? I recorded it and started watching so I could fast forward through the ads. I watch so little commercial tv these days that the ad are a surprise. Cillian Murphy totally deserved his win but sentimentally I would have loved Paul Giametti to win. (Just rewatched John Adams on HBO.) I was pleased that Mr. Miazaki won for the Boy and the Heron. I found myself in tears when War Is Over won for best animated short. So much history and love there. I was massively disappointed in the In Memorium section.
Enough of the rant, grasshopper........
As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.................*s*
Friday, March 1, 2024
March Hares
Well! March is here, the days are longer, daffodils are poking their leaves up.
That doesn't mean we couldn't have a raging blizzard next week.....this is New England after all!
As always, stay healthy, and thanks for stopping by................*s*
Monday, February 19, 2024
Baking Bread
Well! My sourdough starter bit the dust which means starting over. Before anyone offers advice on reconstituting, it was moldy as a result of a refrigerator melt down. (Yes at some point we will need a new one. Meanwhile the old one is limping along.)
Sunday, January 14, 2024
Interesting Times
Our Christmas was quiet but well celebrated. We had our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day we went to a gathering of friends and Proge’s relations. Since it was fairly small and I knew everyone I decided to forego a mask. BIG MISTAKE!!! I caught a killer cold which I passed on to Proge within a few days. Better now. But I am such a baby! I haven’t had a cold or any sickness in six or seven years..
I had to relight the tree. I used old lights, which went out a few days ago. Sometimes my hoarding pays off. I just opened new boxes I bought last year on sale.
Rain…..lots of rain, with flooding in low lying areas. Our dug well has been flooding, which usually happens with late spring rains. We are madly doing catching up on laundry and washing whatever needs washing. Too bad it is much too early to top off the pool for spring opening.
We started out with a lovely sunny day. Wind is picking up and clouds moving in. Who knows what will come? This is New England.....weather changes!
As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by.................*s*
Monday, December 11, 2023
WELL! That Was Fun!
Due to health problems and general obliviousness we forgot, put aside getting the car inspected. Until we got a notice from the DMV that we had a week to pass the emissions test or else the car would have its license revoked....whatever that means. DMV does enjoy making threats it does not carry through on.
Whatever! Auto definitely needed to get inspected etc. Put in a call to the shop I have dealt with for the last fifteen years. Brought it down the next day. Happily it passed the emissions test, so that dealt with the DMV. Unhappily it needed much work for safety, new front tires, brakes, fortunately calipers were okay, muffler, tail pipe and other things.....Cost was over $2000.00 which is heart stopping! On the other hand this is the first work it has needed in three years, so it averages out to not so bad.
I always say when it costs more to repair in a year than car payments then it's time to start looking for a new vehicle. Der Blau Reiter (The Blue Rider) still runs like a champ, gets good milage, and the body is in excellent condition.
Meanwhile life goes on. We repotted a white pine that had outgrown its too small bucket for at least a year. It's kind of funky and cute. Toes crossed it will be our tree for years to come. The Christmas Dragon has already arrived so we do have dragon approval.
As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by……………*s*
Sunday, November 26, 2023
Nemises!
What’s happening? Two posts in the same month? WOW!
Some not great photos of a teapot I have had hanging around for far too many years. Made it over a form and as soon as I bisqued it I asked myself why I did not send it too the recycle bucket. Instead I have let it haunt me over time. A few days ago I bit the bullet and painted it with a design I have used many times. The colors look odd because they are waxed with Mr. Mark’s Wax On which has a bright pink coloring in it.
Not sure what I will do with it once it’s fired. It might look nice with a ferny type of plant in it. It also might look nice as driveway fill.
We’ll see, grasshopper………….we’ll see.
As always, stay safe, and thanks for stopping by…………..*s*