Kabuki and Cute Labor

Ahhhh, the feel of clay under my fingernails (along with a little garden dirt), what a great feeling. Over the weekend, I was able to get back into some clay work and since school is now out, check out my new apprentice! Lucky girl that I am, my new apprentice is willing to put off  few fishing trips and installation of our new hardwood floor, to help me get caught up on some work. Even though he prefers fly fishing, here he is throwing down some slab rolled rockfish. I did promise him that welding was on the schedule this week and he could suit up in his favorite, well-worn Carhartts.

Last week I welded up some steel bird's nests and thought they needed to hold some clay birdies, I haven't decided how they well be glazed, maybe some matte black or blue with bright orange beaks. We'll see. 

Along with the slab fish and sculpted birds, I pulled out this plaster Kabuki mask mold and drape molded some masks. The mold was tossed in with a bunch of misc. clay items I scored from the classified ads. I think I'm going to weld steel "branches" with wire, metal and copper embellishments around each of the faces for some wall hung sculptures. I really dream of doing Raku and think the pieces would look so cool Raku fired, but I'm just not set up for it.  Tracey's new set up is inspiring and her work is looking fabulous with the Raku firing! The masks may be good pieces to at least kick up the temp of my electric kilns to ^6 -something I've been wanting to do to expand my glaze palette. 

I've been doing all low fire, which has limited my glaze choices. I want to start mixing my own satin and matte glazes in larger quantities, some of which I saw at Seattle Pottery. I've got the clay, I just need the TIME to do some testing and experimenting. Finding that necessary experimentation (both physical and mental) time currently doesn't 

coincide with our busy summer schedule; I've got several great shows coming up, school is out, the house is full, fish are running, the sun is high in the sky, dogs just want to run, the garden is sprouting, kids want to make new tree house forts and potato guns, the BBQ grill smells even better with cold beverages in hand and I've got a stack of good books lined up for summer reading. What's a girl to do? Continue to live the good life, one step at a time with one foot in front of the other, feeling the sunshine on my face -oh, and try to make a lot of great art!