I'd Rather be Potting

If I was a bumper sticker kind of girl, the title of this post is what my bumper sticker would say !

Instead of making pots I've been:

Moving equipment across wintery roads

March 23, 2011. My 16 year old daughter had a day off school and she was quickly enlisted to move
 the extractor out to a field

I'm following behind with the 15 ton tandem grain truck

here the extractor is set up to a bag and auguring the grain into the truck

I'm standing at the end of the 10,000 bushel bag here.
There's quite a bit of snow in the fields this year so that has to be cleared away from the bag with snow plows and some human shoveling before we start .

dumping the grain into the storage bins in our yard

during harvest, out of necessity, some of the grain is bagged with a high moisture content. It must be dried before shipping or storage.
The high moisture grain goes into the wet bin on the right, augerd into the dryer (you can see the steam) the the dry grain is then augered into the holding bin on the left before being shipped or stored

here we are loading railroad cars for shipment. The grain is usually shipped by rail across the  prairies, over the Rocky Mountains and out to ports on Canada's west coast, either at Vancouver or Prince Rupert. 

This is a shot of my studio from my kitchen window... where I'd rather be !

East meets west over the breakfast table

I hear that the maple sap has started running and the sugar shacks are gearing up for a sweet season !

Since I can't jump on an airplane and go to a maple festival, I decided to do the next best thing and make these buttermilk and flax seed pancakes.

Nothing better than combining the best canadian grown grains with the natural maple sweetness from Quebec !

Heres my recipe if you'd like to make some too:

1 cup all purpose wheat flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

3 rounded tablespoons of freshly ground flax seed

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt 

3 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

 3 cups buttermilk * 

 4 tablespoons unsalted butter - melted

1. Heat griddle to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar in a medium bowl. In a 4 cup measuring cup add buttermilk, eggs, and 4 tablespoons melted butter; whisk to combine and warm gently in microwave untill warmed through. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just blended. Batter should have small to medium lumps.
2. Test griddle by sprinkling a few drops of water on it. If water bounces and spatters off griddle, it is hot enough. Using a pastry brush, brush 1/2 teaspoon of butter or  bacon fat onto griddle. Wipe off excess.
3. Using a 4-ounce ladle, about 1/2 cup, pour pancake batter, in pools 2 inches away from one other. When pancakes have bubbles on top and are slightly dry around edges, about 2 1/2 minutes, flip over. Cook until golden on bottom, about 1 minute.
4. *you have to use the real buttermilk or the batter will be runny
5. smother in warm maple syrup and enjoy !

I hope that this years sugaring off season is a bountiful one !

I'm going out to the studio and make some maple syrup jugs

Color to Dye For

As I said in my last post, I've been out in the studio just not yet into the clay this year.

I've been having a great time mixing up colors and then seeing them pop or fizzle as they either work - or not - next to each other. 

Working on fabric is so different from working on clay and yet there are many similarities. Unlike clay, the process is almost immediate. Like clay, the ideas flow like crazy and I can't keep up with what I want to do next... if I only had another frame/wheel ( or 6 ) I could work more ideas instead of impatiently waiting and scribbling and sketching in my note book. While working on the fabric I am exploring 2d and then once its complete it will be 3d as it wraps and drapes in use. Sometimes I have the urge to throw my brush aside and use my fingers to push and manipulate the dyes in the same way we work with clay, and I do... should have taken a shot of my hands. Oh well, once I get back into the clay my multi-colored fingers won't draw such attention in town .

Juicey color, sparkle and sheen ! Great therapy for dull winter days !

Best to Ya !

Happy New year to All !

small copper enameled hand made tree ornament
given to me (years ago)  by my Mom

I hope everyone reading this blog; family and friends old and new have enjoyed a lovely Christmas season and are revved up for this new year.
I think I can speak for everyone here when I say that we all enjoyed a quiet, restful break.
Things can get pretty hectic around here through harvest and then my christmas sales season overlaps and I have a difficult time getting the things done for my own family in time for Dec. 25th. But somehow it all works out and I have been pretty chill since then !

10 inch dinner plates finished in time for a good customer

Heres a picture I forgot to post last year... My friend Lillian traveled to England and dropped in at Muchelney Pottery and here's what she brought me ! Lillian and her husband met John Leach and the rest of his crew and had quite a good visit with them. I've been using this as a tumbler and have been throughly enjoying it as such although it could probably be a vase as well.

Lillian was also in California last year and brought me back some sourdough starter from a
( famous ? ) restaurant called The Cheeseboard.
      mmmmm !! lucky me !




So, recently, I have been out in the studio but haven't been into the clay yet. My friend Bonny http://www.bonnymacnab.com/ came over the other day for a studio play date. Going to her website you'll see that Bonny is an accomplished artist who has been painting with watercolor and oil for years. She has recently gotten into painting on silk. While in art collage I took several classes in the textile department and then did alot of surface design/painting on cotton and silk when my kids were really young. So Bonny came over to experiment with the many different dyes I have and I tried hard not to overwhelm her with technical data ! It was a very enjoyable day and now I'm playing around with bright colors and shorter work cycles - for awhile but not long - I love the immediacy of working with textiles and all the juicy colors but I am a potter at heart .

That's all for now. I hope some of you will post more to my blog this year. I really enjoy hearing from all.

Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each New Year find you a better man.
Benjamin Franklin

Show and Tell

Last weekend marked my 14th year at Lloydminster's Christmas Craft Fair. 

( yeah, I know - not a very creative name for the show )

I have slowly been building a loyal clientele at this 3 day event. It is very gratifying that I have alot of repeat customers. They tell me that they love using my pots and the pots are standing up well to everyday use. That's what I am aiming for, function and enjoyment !

These photos were taken pretty quickly as I was packing to go.

1st version of this new design I was experimenting with. The edges of the inset design didn't really go with the shape of the cup so I made some changes...

I think this flowing edge works better.

not enough contrast here so I didn't make many of these

juice jug

handles are improving... on going project !

large gravy jug

handle on the same jug - I like the curve it has to it, but may not work for a lefty

squared 6" bowl
the contrast is too high in this picture - was better in person

baking dishes - always a good seller

really large casserole. 

I made several of these large bowls and they all sold. I had meant to keep one for myself !

large utensils container. I've been doing this glaze/deco for awhile now, even though it is quite finicky.
The brush work was done with one of Brandon Phillips brushes. If you need some new brushes I can recommend his !

levitating mug !

more baking dishes

large bowl
this one was better in person too.

hand built baking dishes

aprox. 4" square

aprox. 10" square by 4" deep hand built bowl.

It's always a big panic to get ready for this show. It comes so quickly after harvest that I am always promising myself to start earlier....

I have good intentions but I have things to get caught up with and,,, before you know it, it's christmas and then ... well, you know how it goes.

I go down to the "big city" tomorrow for some kind of neurology test on my wrists. It'll be good to know if it's carpal tunnel or not. I've been having trouble with my left shoulder and wrists for several years now and the MRI hasn't shown any rips or tears.

Wish me luck !

Happy Thanksgiving to all south of the 49th !

Bragging Rights

Our oldest daughter, Jenna, is away at University taking a degree in Business.

As part of the universities' Co-Operative Education program which ties business students with community partners she accepted a position with non-profit, Volunteer Alberta, this past January.

Jenna thoroughly enjoyed her work there. Karen, the dynamic executive director of Volunteer Alberta, pictured here standing to Jennas' left, recognized her abilities and work ethic and gave her lots of responsibility and challenges.

At a luncheon last week, Jennas' outstanding hard work and insightful contributions were recognized and she won Co-Op student of the year ! 

Studio Mates

My studio mates, Ziggy and Wilson were hard at work with me out in the studio. Here you see Ziggy keeping the handle plugs ready and moist for pulling handles.

Wilson fits snug around my right wrist as I am handling the mugs and keeps the excess water from running down my arm.

Don't you hate wet arm pits... I do, worst part about making mugs. Rather have a wet wrist band.

Mugs I've been working on... I think I'm going to have to re-name my studio to something more appropriate to the speed I've been working at "Sloth Potter Studio" comes to mind at the moment. 3 days to construct 32 mugs !

As you can probably see, I don't throw to a gage. I'll go through these mugs and sort them into like sizes and then group together a few 4 mug sets. The rest I will sell individually. I find most people like a collection of mugs as opposed to a matching set. 

It's in the Bag

Oct. 25, 2010

The thrills and drama of  harvest are over for another year and the 2010 crop is in the bag... literally !
We ran out of bin space and began bagging the grain. These bags come from Argentina and are especially made for grain storage. For those of you that like numbers - ours measure 9 feet in diameter and are 250 feet long with a 10,000 bushel capacity.

Oct. 25, 2010 grain bags beyond the beaver dam

We finished combining late Friday night. By Sunday the weather had turned wet and the snow began that evening.

Oct. 25, 2010

Saskatchewan had some great harvest weather this year. We had almost six weeks of mild, sunny, windy days. I'm sure it was the longest stretch of good weather we've had this year. We experienced very few breakdowns and the quality and quantity of the harvest was pretty good - all things considered.

We are truly thankful for that !

Sept. straight cutting wheat
precision operating required for "catching on the go"
 saves lots of time as the machinery doesn't stop while the grain is unloading

Sorry the above picture is a bit out of focus but I wasn't used to using my daughters' camera and was in a bit of a hurry to get out of the way !

Next post will be back to regular programing and clay related !

My New Ride

If the skies clear up and the wind blows and the sun shines, this is where I'm going to be spending the next 8 - 10 weeks. Our new Case IH was delivered awhile back. It's got 485 hp under the hood and a 40 foot header. Lots of lights- gonna need them.

This years growing season has been really crappy. The spring was late, cold and wet.  Normally, about 32 million acres of land are seeded in the spring. This year, heavy rains in the spring made the soil too wet and prevented many farmers from getting out into their fields.The result was that about 10 million acres of Saskatchewan farmland went unseeded this spring.

Rains have continued and have flooded out many of the plants that did get started. We weren't as bad off as some of the farmers in the eastern side of the province. Our crops were late into the ground and now almost a month behind normal development. I'm surprised we haven't had a hard frost yet but that is a certainty sometime in the coming week.  It’s that time of year. The days are getting shorter and we can’t seem to get a sustained period of warm, dry weather. It’s been a difficult growing season and so far the same pattern is holding for harvest. 

Q: What it's going to take to make me happy?

A: These guys pulling onto our land.

photo credit to William Dekay

Do you think I'm asking for too much ??