Thursday, February 19, 2009

the first step in solving any problem is finding the humor in it


(bottles by Gary Rith and one from C*ke)
I was in the mood to make bottles you see, and so I did. I had found this glass bottle half in the ground at my parents' farm, no doubt been there 40 years or more. It is of course the beautiful shape and pretty color, and is somewhat inspiring. The fired little green vase there is from a few years ago. I love it and kept it because the bottom had cracked.

SO, unsettled night with crazy dreams, partly because I am reading about the black death. Plague in the 1300s. More interesting than you might guess, but for bedtime reading?
BUT I am trying hahahaha to find the humor in my kiln breaking down once again 200 degrees short of finishing. I have plenty of spare parts but wish the stupid thing didn't break down every 3-6 months....hahaha heh.
Oh. Made tasty calzones last night. I make two huge things like you see below and save the second for the next evening, because today I will be out all afternoon teaching at the Cornell studios, whose kilns act a bit like mine and which also burn through a lot of spare parts.....
(note to self and others: totally automated electric kilns have A LOT of little parts that can break down....)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

We just started with beautiful green glaze, then went from black death to calzones... suddenly, I lost my appetite! Because calzones? YUMMY. But were they part of The Plague?

Gary's third pottery blog said...

I would say we are very fortunate to live in a time where plague is uncommon.

Anonymous said...

you got that right.

sorry to hear about the kiln misfortune (again). it's a good thing you're good natured and can handle the occasional breakdown with humour and calzones.

fiwa said...

I don't think I could stomach reading about it. I've read some about small pox, and that's bad enough.

Sorry about your kiln - I hope you can fix it quickly. Does that destroy the things that weren't quite done - or can you just start over with firing them when it's fixed?

That calzone looks scrummy. I have the pizza dough thing down, but I can't seem to get the sauce down right - I never use enough but it always looks like way too much.

Jessica said...

Have you heard about the mice from New Jersey that escaped, and have the plague! :O

Farmer*swife a/k/a Glass_Half_Full said...

Yum! I'm hungry and it's lunch time!

carmilevy said...

I like your attitude. Life tosses us challenges, and it's up to us to decide how we respond.

Found your link on Hilary's blog. And I've got to say you're an amazingly refreshing read.