bloggies 2007

No, I am not in the bloggie voting this year, but maybe, oh yes MAYBE this thing shall be nominated for best Art Blog in '08???? I better get to work, and stop goofing around and being mean to my customers and teasing my visitors, and probably post more pictures of the cat. People's pet pix always get them to the top of the voting pile.

elephant banks

Fresh from the kiln. The upcoming Chinese year of the pig has been AWESOME for sales, I think 2008 should be the year of the elephant, but Gordo tells me something like 2008 is the year of the rat, 2009 year of the buffalo....uck, I think year of the elephant is a better idea.

Banks: not just for pigs anymore

Looking at all the baloney below, you might foget this is POTTERSBLOG, but you know, I have varied interests.
I am so pigcentric, I sometimes forget that I make maybe 15-16 different banks, ducks, penguins, cats, bunnies, and as you see here, elephant banks. This guy comes out of the glaze firing later today, and I will post the after.

fifteen years: first kiss

You will find I celebrate a lot of anniverseries. Me and Mrs. Pottersblog had, as I said, our first outing around Dec. first 15 years ago, got married Dec. 24 14 years ago, BUT TODAY Jan. 31, marks our FIRST KISS (at a bus stop)and, you know, becoming sweethearts, 15 years ago tdoay. Wowee. Neato!

Lucia has something to say

Lucia spreads the love this morning over at her blog. We have a rather nice little community here, of 30-50 bloggers who seem to circle around each other's blogs each day, and thanks Lucia, for the business and nice words.
Anybody who missed it yesterday, try it again today, it is GOOD--The Black Keys 'Your Touch'.

More me me me me

So, the guys were tossing around meme tags, and I jumped in. Maybe they will join me, but I am definately tagging Celeste and her new blog. You're it Celeste!!!!!!!!
Five fives, sorta:
1) (if) I (had/have) 5 tattoos and they:
-are an 'M' in a star on my bicep--for the missus!
-a pig flying over my navel
-a natural purple tattoo on my head
-a hula girl in a bikini playing a ukelele on my lower arm
-the other arm has a heart with 'G and M 4evah' in the middle
2) My 5 favorite movie villians are:
-the guy with teeth named Jaws on James Bond
-Dracula
-Frankenstein
-Pee Wee Herman
-Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street
3) My favorite 5 vacation spots:
-take me to a Maine beach
-mom and dad's farm
-sister in northern Minnesota
-NY,NY
-gotta go all over eastern Canada
4) The top 5 tunes on my IPOD (or just your 5 faves)
-'Remain in Light', Talking Heads
-'Private Idaho' B52s
-'Mesopotamia' B52s
-'Save it for a rainy day' Jayhawks
-'Rebel Rebel' David Bowie
5) If I was a 70s TV character I would be: Gotta say, Hawkeye Pierce on MASH was pretty cool...

you may need these piggy cups

2 small piggy cups, for sale together at the online gallery!

hard working potter

Today's dress for success outfit...

pig mugs

My wife reminds me I have not made 'niche pigs' mugs lately. I take a plain mug, whack the side when wet, then make a little pig to fit in.
Wicked busy day. I need to get a bunch of stuff glazed, and readers here will I hope not be shocked to learn I am still in my jammies, and figure, since nobody is looking, I need to work in my jammies and get the stuff glazed and loaded. I have little cowboys on my flannel PJs, in case you were wondering.

The Black Keys

Dreamt my dad and I were at a baseball game and I was eating hot dogs. I was also dreaming nausea. This vegan prefers a nice tofu wiener.
Who are the Black Keys? Some kind of old fashioned slacker/grunge/blues/garage band made of just TWO guys. Here is their 'Your Touch', awesome.

a wee bit of success

Yesterday as I began listing items in my NEW online gallery, browsers descended right away with nice comments, and I sold 3 items within an hour of opening shop. Sometimes you go out in your boat, toss out the hook and worm, and a giant trout hops into your boat. You never know what may happen, but I am grateful for a nice start.

THE SHOP IS OPEN: SPEND EARLY AND OFTEN

My technical know how is limited. The folks at the online gallery ETSY make it easy and cheap to set up a store, yippee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SO, go to my store and gallery, and my link is always up on the right.

purple house with white accents

It is a bit January-ish this week. In back of the house is the river and you can just barely see here 5 million geese and ducks happily quacking away. Your host is wearing his Bears coat and hat, as it is Super Bowl week, and the front of the house and studio, built as a log cabin in 1865 and the shoemaker's house and workshop, but probably not purple until recently.

Downtown Etna

Etna is a a small hamlet a few miles east of Ithaca and Cornell. We have a cemetery, bus stop, playground, nature preserve, firehouse, bridge and river (pictured) little old church and community hall/post office (pictured)and about 200-300 residents. The shot of the river is looking from the bridge up behind my back yard.
Etna was once a toddlin' little town with 2 stores, creamery, black smith, train station, school and the cobbler's shop: our house was the cobbler's.

lalalalalala unicorn pot lalalala

Elves must have visited the studio last night, making a unicorn pot with weird squiggles all over it.

snuggly wuggly bunny bowls

Think Valentine's day, folks. Get one of these babies and fill it with chocolate. Your sweetie will become your devoted love slave.

The Sleepy Jackson

I figured The Sleepy Jackson was a band from Mississippi (Jackson) or maybe New Orleans (Jackson Square?) but they are from Australia, Perth even, which in my memory is the remote western city close to nothing down there. Check them out at Myspace and give them a listen on the video for 'I understand...' or the video for 'Miniskirt' which is exactly what you would expect a band from western Australia to make. These guys remind me of World Party, that band from the early 90s. Fantastic music, whaddya think cm and celeste and missus?
Speaking of dreaming, while my wife dreamt we had gotten a little tiger cub for a pet, I dreamt my dad and I were trying to sneak into a Detroit Tigers baseball game, an ambition I did not know I had.

cat mugs

Special order. Turned out well.

Sonic Youth: Bull in the Heather

Fantastic. New York Magazine's year end issue expressed (as I did) extreme dissappointment with The Killers new album, and named Sonic Youth their number one album and band. Punk rockers moving gently into their mid-fifties. Typical Sonic Youth video here, low budget, I think Kim Gordon's (and her husband's, one of the guys in the band)daughter Coco is the dancing teenager here in 'Bull in the Heather'. cm and celeste, you MUST check this out.
Oooogh. Dreams. Dreamt I had a serious kidney disease (my sister dreamt last month I did too) and I was totally weak and wasting away....
OK, let's try happy little daydreams of frolicsome unicorns in a grassy spring meadow......

CHARLIE THE UNICORN

It gets worse and worse. Charlie the Unicorn, with music and dancing and a quest and betrayal and friendship too!

Giving in to temptation: the curse of the unicorn

I had to do it.
Now I need to make a pot to go with this unicorn head and torso. At least it's cheerful.

THE ELEPHANT DUNG LOVE PROJECT, the final chapter

A quick break from unicorn obsessions here. Alert readers will recall an interestng call to entry I rec'd last week. LNHC Gallery in Littleton, NH sent out little elephant dung paper hearts, asking us to make it into an art piece, for exhibition all February long, to benefit the elephants of New Hampshire and their dung. Or some kind of elephant charity. I rose to the occaision, with the wife helping with a surgical effort on the paper heart, so my little elephant sculpture is framed.

unicorn-free zone

I was sitting there idly, Friday afternoon, thinking of zebras and I said to myself 'hey, make a zebra without stripes, add a twisty thing on top and you have a unicorn!!!!'. Fortunately, sanity returned, and I said 'GR, you DO NOT want to go in that direction'.
A google images search confirms the worst, gauzy fantasy scenes of near naked nymphs cavorting in silky meadows with gleaming and pure unicorns..........
no way.

Not quite Saturday, but Saturday's tunes o' the day

I am releasing myself from the responsibility of posting at 5 am Saturday, and imagining a large platter covered with omelet and potatoes and strawberries on the side AFTER sleeping in. Who knows what I shall dream?

OK, tunes o' the day for Saturday, THE JAHAWKS! This is sooooo good....

sold!

As the fisherman tosses out the hook and worm, this morning's vase pic caught a big juicy trout. Actually, a midwestern reader emailed me and bought it. I like this person, so offered a free gift as well, a surprise. That is how potsblog is SUPPOSED to work. Yippee! Off to the store to buy cat food.....

Studio front door

Le studio is fairly modest. On the street side it has a seperate entrance from the house, 2 angles seen here. (on the back is a bunch of windows, a deck, and the RIVER with all the little ducks and geese) In 1986 I named myself brown Trout Pottery and started selling pots, my sister made the rather fab sign and logo. Sure, I also use the Pog and Pot, and even a third logo Suki designed....depends on my mood.

Valentine's Day

Folks, shop here first for vases, then get your sweetie some flowers.

wall of voodoo

Totally choice video for today, 'Mexican Radio'. Was it BR suggested this the other day? The video holds up very well, and the guys don't have embarassing 80s hairstyles or anything, they could show this to their grandkids with pride.
So, dreamt last night I was in summer school, English class, and I was the teacher's pet and the other kids threw chocolate at my head and the teacher was mad about it so she took me out for coffee and conversation. I guess nobody was allowed to throw chocolate at her little darling.
Crummy weather blown in from Canada this morning. Below zero degrees F, windy, a few inches of fresh snow. Our heater is a large natural gas monster PLUS I ran a glaze firing yesterday. The house is toasty. I worry about all the ducks and geese behind our house in the river. Those guys should be in Georgia or Mexico, I doubt they had an easy night.

colorful teapots

I am opening the store sometime this week, and have several items ready to go. I am the sort of person who approaches contracts and fine print slowly and warily, which i why I have not pounced on the store quite yet. Still checking it out.

Buggles: Video Killed the Radio Star

Whoooowhee, what an 80s style video. 'Video Killed the radio Star' for tunes o' the day. Sure, we can laugh at our youthful excesses!
Ah, the dreaming. Well, painting a school, some house and river not my own, you know, just clearing out the space junk.

8 things

I would tag Celeste, but she doesn't have a blog and some people say she doesn't exist. GORDO YOU'RE IT! But read this first.
8 things about me, PLUS

A person sitting at home in front of the screen blogging away wonders what picture the world gets of himself. Folks told me quite a bit, generally what I expected in terms of what I project, and which I once told Celeste: what you see is what you get. I am ordinary, and this blog pretty much tells the story of my daily doings. I tell people I am a reclusive flake, which is part of it, and when people meet me they may be surprised I am more shy than they guessed, UNTIL they get to know me well. There are several nice bloggers who have met me and will agree, like Greg and Gordo and cm. Some folks said:

Lucia said:
OK, here go my speculations aka things I think I know...

You spend most of the day working while listening to music. Once in a while, you're inspired to do a blog post which you've thought of while working, and hop on over to the computer.

You're a very happily married guy.

You live in Ithaca.

You have store and individual customers who really like your stuff.

Your musical tastes tend toward not new.

You get a kick out of Gordo's comments.

You're the quintessential nice guy.

You're not a conformist so will take a meme tag and make it your own.
-----Lucia gives a very accurate view!
Gordo said:
You claim to be a "reclusive flake". But, you seem to be more of a socially conscious Democrat to me.
------um, well, read on
my anonymous wife said:
Dearest,
You can't do tedious things that bore you. Take a walking tour of Wales before you kick.
----she is totally right, and she wants to go to Wales
and Mags:
has decided that your blog reflects your life in its G-rated nature - that being of a kind, good citizen, animal loving, cartoon watching, ever the nice guy type.
----well, Mags, I watch football and hockey, don't really see any cartoons
and Jaysus, Mona, you make me blush, where is your credit card?
I think you're a very talented person, as every time I come to your blog, I want to buybuybuy all the stuff I see.

What I can do:
-throw pots, that is pretty much the whole list but--
-sculpt small animals (pigs and zebras! Plus about 18 more)
-make a tasty vegan baked ziti, and vegan stew, and as cm says, turn anything into a burrito
-groom the cat. He is fussy and prickly about it.
-Scrub the kitchen and bathroom. Not well, because who wants to be good at that?
-read a book a day
-wiggle my nostrils like a bunny. This sets me apart, I am special.
-I can do easy crosswords, like the NY Times Monday, sometimes Tuesday.

What I can't do:
-Remember things well. Don't know how that happened, I think I am extremely focused on art, to the exclusion of the rest of the world.
--grow tomatoes or other veggies or fruits or anything other than weeds. This year I GIVE UP.
-write neatly. My handwriting is awful.
-Speak another language. I had Greek and Spanish and forgot them both right away.
-can't eat dairy anymore.
-can't ski or skate. Oh well!
-can't see small print anymore. Oh well!
-can't dance. Sorry sweetie. Once again, oh well!

Things that scare me:
-Maybe I am, like Charlie Brown, scared of everything? Strangely, I am not scared of flying and love it, tiny cramped seats and crying babies and all the rest.
-People. Despite what Gordo says, I really have always had a hard time being with people or meeting others. Paralyzing shyness. That is why I value my friends and family a great deal.
-I am scared of German shepherds, dobermans, rottweilers, and pit bulls. Unless their owner goes out of their way to introduce them to me as friendly.
-Something happening to mi esposa (ok, I remember some Spanish, but I don't want to say the above in English)
-being in a little boat far from shore
-pond ice. I do not go out on winter ponds.
-lack of business. It hasn't ever been a problem, but it keeps me working hard!

8 things to do before I die:
-go to Wales
-ride a very slow and tame pony, then do it again and again and again
-get into the Smithsonian Show! The premier craft show of the US and maybe most of the world.
--Go to Ireland
-see my wife retire
-make a cat sculpture I really like. Why are they so hard to depict? Heck, humans are even harder, so them too.
-go to Scotland. I already have a bunch of postcards.
-The Lake District too.

8 random things:
-I have a red mountain bike that I love, and coincidentally a red backpack that matches
-I really like strong tasting coffee
-I prefer my wife and pets to just about anything on earth
-I ran the Chicago marathon two different years, coached cross country and track, and still exercise vigorously.
-I would really like a seaside vacation. We don't travel much.
-I have a lovely big purple birth mark on my head under my hair.
-Have I ever mentioned I live in a purple house?

and now for my own chapter,

THREE:

favorite albums:
-Talking Heads 'Remain in Light'
-B52s 'Wild Planet'
-'Van Halen'

Books:
-Annie Proulx 'The Shipping News'
-all of Robertson Davies' books
-just read Charles Frazier's 'Cold Mountain', unbelievable.

I believe:
-in my work
-in my family
-in my reading

3 intriguing colors:
-deep bluish purple
-celadon green
-rich strawberry red

3 pets:
-I have had 6 dogs
-2 cats
-3 bunnies
(no elephants, pigs or zebras though)

3 favorite pot shapes:
-round bowl
-friendly round teapot
-straight sided mug

3 place I have lived:
-Nebraska
-Chicago
-Vermont

3 Games I have played:
-football
-monopoly
-tennis

3 favorite magazines:
-the New Yorker
-Clay Times
Smithsonian

dragons

This was my father's book and has been amazing me all my life. (see below)

interlude: purple dragon goblets

Blogger won't let me comment on my own post! (surprise...)
Thanks for the many many many nice and helpful comments, except for Greg and Gordo, who are troublemakers. Mona, the store opens this week, I am getting it all together, thank you, and then you can browse. Yes, piggy things of many types. OK, now me and my tea will tackle this rather long thing I wrote about 8s.

8 things about me

I got tagged by Mags. 8 things I can do, 8 things I can't do, 8 things that scare me, 8 things to do before I die, 8 random thoughts. I have about 3 of the 40 spots filled. Ima gonna do TWO things here. OK, maybe 3 things.
First, I will think about all these 8s.
Second, I may develop my own parallel list, with categories of my choosing.
THIRD: use comments, tell me about ME. What do you people know about me, or think you know about me? I am curious to know. I have no idea how people in reality or online see me.

zombies

But first, Veruca Salt and 'Seether' for tunes o' the day, something vigorous, with kittens!

Ooooph, the dreams. I was on a team digging under a house for human remains, which we found, and assembled a skeleton which came to life, then the second one was assembled and came to life but it began wondering if its dentist hadn't strangled her. Her head and neck were quite askew and wobbly, and she was mad.

zebra mug

I am a beer journalist (hahahahahaha!) when I am not a pottery journalist (hohohoho!) and did a taste test for Belhaven Scottish Ale. This zebra mug, fresh from the kiln, jumped into the picture.

Potted Dragon Meads, finito!

My old pal Greg can hang this up and toast my good health every time he slurps some mead. I hadn't made a dragon before, check out the dragon goblets tomorrow!!!!

cat mugs

Sammy helps by posing for an order for mugs with cats perched on the handles.

bunny bowls

Romantic bunnies on a bowl, pre-Valentine's and Easter. Then next week you have four bowls, then 16 bowls....

ugh

Dreamt happily of chocolate desserts, but the other dream saw me as a teenager with a few other boys under siege by the FBI in somebody's house, yes, guns and all, and we eventually gave in and formed a basketball team.

Grateful Dead

You always wonder what your friends are gonna say when you bring up the Grateful Dead. Celeste rolls her eyes and says 'please', others simply raise their eyebrows, still others invite you in for a beer and open their cd archive of bootlegs. 'St Stephens' here in a TV performance from when I was...3. My favorite Dead tune is 'Fire on the Mountain', done here for 9 minutes with guest guitarist Santana. My little Dead story: I was a high school teacher in '94, and the SCHOOL had arranged a field trip for students to the Grateful Dead show at Boston Garden and asked me to lead it. So, me and 80 students went to see the Dead and Jerry Garcia died shortly thereafter......
(they did a whole half hour of 'Fire on the Mountain' alone.)

When in Syracuse....

.......go to Middle Ages Brewery. Maybe the best brewery in the US, very snappy logo here.

potted dragons

Slow as molasses, but now that the nose and chest are dry, finally getting around to some glazing...

BR: show yourself

Strange, but I spend all my social time hanging out with people from Alan's office. What is it about this faraway building in Canada that holds such interesting people, and by extension, what is it about all the friendly guys in Kingston, Ontario? There must be something superior in the drinking water.
BR, comment here what you wish, email me in confidence, and answer that question the Who asked so well: who are you?

DREAMT:

That I was shopping at Lord ad Taylor with the missus. Sure, I would rather be doing almost anything else awake or asleep, but I am a nice guy and can go shopping with her. So, does this count as a nightmare?

CHUM FM, Martha and the Muffins and ME

So, as a kid growing up in western NY, Buffalo and Rochester radio were all Foreigner and REO Speedwagon, all the time. However, closeby as the crow flies and illustrated above, was the massive and cosmopolitan city of Toronto and CHUM FM. CHUM at that time (around '80) had close ties to London and NY music, with the rather excellent music of the Clash, Talking Heads, The Jam, B52s and such. Terrific and exciting music. (They don't seem very cutting edge anymore, although they have had a lunch time program of 80s music).
Anyway, for today's tunes o' the day we have Martha and the Muffins. Music I liked and still hear on the radio, but I didn't realize until today, Martha and the Muffins were from TO, therefore the extended airplay. Alright, their hit, and it holds up well over time, 'Echo Beach'.

THE ELEPHANT DUNG LOVE PROJECT AND WASABI

You sometimes get these invitations to exhibitions. Friday a little wasabi colored (see below) elephant dung paper heart arrived from a gallery, with an invitation to create art using it. Apparently elephant dung makes awesome wasabi colored paper, and people making the paper are somehow involved in elephant charities or awareness or something. Sure, I make a cool elephant, and gladly shall participate, this guy will be glazed blue and then hold the heart with his face peeking out of a hole in the middle. Tres cute.

Color theory and purple and Wasabi

Was reading a New Yorker article last night about color theory. Two or 3 important points here. There are professional color forecasters and designers who track trends and make colors for the design world. One person interviewed talked of her work for a paint company, the same company that provided the paint for our house, and her work on WASABI. Just as the 70s had avocado green, here in the mid-noughts, we have WASABI, a friendly light spring green with yellow in it, although not acid green, and by gosh, my purple house has WASABI accents and I didn't even know it! (the house was painted just before we bought it) Which introduces the next point, about monkeys and purple. Rhesus monkeys apparently have innate color preferences, as humans generally do, too. Blue, green, yellow, orange, red, in that order. I SAY: WHERE'S THE PURPLE? I love purple, but don't see it on the list. I live in a purple house, I am wearing a purple shirt now, I have a purple birthmark, my favorite glaze color is purple. But to explain further: I like red too, and have an awesome strawberry red glaze, an awesome buttery lemony yellow glaze, but all the rest of my glazes are cool greens and blues. Which according to the article AND THE MONKEYS is very au courant.

Flock of Seagulls and Dippity Doo Too

Thought Flock Seagulls 'I Ran' was good? I love love love 'Wishing' and you will remember you loved it too, watch carefully for the space aged dream sequence. Wiki tells the story of the hair, which is magnificent: like a 56 Caddy with tailfins. My old pal Sean is having a wild weekend at home with his energetic children, and he is secretly a HUGE Flock of Seagulls fan, so you know we dedicate this Sean.
Speaking of dream sequences, sooooo many last night. I have to be careful about viewing these music videos before bedtime, whhoooowheee! So, Denis and Burgess and some kind of train trip where my wife was mad at me for not doing the laundry but then I got mad at HER because I HAD done the laundry, then I awoke, very pleased that the laundry is actually clean and dry and the house is happy and peaceful.

FOLLY AND INCOMPETENCE!!!!

I know the theory of studio shots of artwork, and I have watched pros do their thing. I can arrange a good setup and such, as you see pictured here, in the happy moments before I realized how incompetent I am.
I need teapot slides. The studio has a nice skylight and there was plenty of light flooding the room, and I made a nice setup to get my shots, fiddled with the camera (the best a person could buy, around 30 years ago!) but I havn't used my wife's camera in years, and once the roll was shot I realized:
1) I had forgotten to take detail shots
2) I hadn't turned on the light meter
3) worst of all was when I was trying to rewind the film, and popped the thing open--yes, exposing the film....
so I went out and bought more film. Sigh. My wife is a pro, she can handle it. I like my digital camera, which is designed for the simple among us...
I hope Gordo reads this and has a good laugh.

restocking, reshuffling

Three boxes out to Spirit and Kitsch art gallery and coop.