Perfect, pretty, clean, and some new stuff

^5 thrown & sgraffito

Since this is my last week of working in wet clay, I am frantically taking full advantage of the ceramics studio. I heard we are supposed to have a 300-lb. limit of clay. I have no idea how much I've used but I do know it's been a lot. The last class is April 18 so after this week I'll just be glazing and finishing my pieces. This won't require too much of my time so I'll be able to turn my focus on my gardens, catching up with friends and getting set up in my future pottery studio. Perfect timing!

^10 thrown & altered

Last week I broke down and purchased an iPhone4. For someone who never even bothered turning their cell on, this is quite an upgrade. I had been considering an iPod Touch so I could get music and Wi-Fi access but realized I really wanted was anywhere access, iTunes, text messaging, a camera (with optional flash) and a phone. I am now accessible, can make hands-free calls in my car and have an iPod
in my phone. Pretty cool!

Now the downside of this purchase was that my MacBook Pro's operating system was too old to run the newest iTunes which was on the iPhone. This necessitated an installation of the Snow Leopard OS. I had actually installed it before. I had purchased it years ago only to find that the printer-drivers were not yet available for my printer and had to revert to the original OS. So last week I tried to upgrade the system again. Long story short, apparently this caused my hard drive to crash beyond repair losing everything. Aggravation and $230 later, I now have the most current hard drive with about twice the space I had previously. I believe I now have all my apps re-loaded. Clean slate!

^10 thrown & carved

Tim spent today photographing Julie's new wood-fired pots plus a sampling of my latest work done at the art museum. Here's some new stuff of mine.

Is it spring yet?

Who else is ready? Some positive signs—it's finally March and Daylight Savings Time starts in 11 days on March 13, followed by the first day of spring on the 20th. The 577 community gardeners also gathered on Sunday for the annual garden meeting. Although I did not attend, Tim, my favorite garden assistant, attended on our behalf. And where was I? Where else have I been nearly every day for over a month?

Making pots at the museum ceramics studio. Not sure if I have ever been this consumed with an activity before. Definitely being obsessive-compulsive about attempting to perfect this craft. I am also trying to
take advantage of the facility by using the equipment/materials and learning as much as possible while enrolled in this class. I've met some really good and creative people there and I'll miss seeing them when I'm done there.

I still manage to get over to the 577 pottery barn every once in a while. It's always nice to see those friends and getting there is never an issue when the weather is bad. There, I have been exploring different designs and techniques with small wall plaques (tiles). One of these days I'd like Tim to take some photos to document my progress then I'll post them.

Made another visit to the site of my future studio in BG—now named,
the Manabigama Pottery Center. Tiffany and John have accomplished so much in such a short time. Chris J. and I finally found a good day to go down there and we both returned with some great wood-fired pots
of John's.

Vicki's potager class is this month. This should really push me into garden planning and re-directing some of my focus. As of now, I just know I'm growing eggplant (my assignment) for the food bank.