Sink and Pool

As promised, this is the sink with some of the hardware in.  I have since coppered the mirror trim which in this image is antique gold and the sink is actually functioning.

These 3 examples of tiles glazed with a copper, coal and a gold glaze came out of the kiln with such beautiful success.  I am not telling which we have decided to use, but will post finished pictures when that step happens.

Now I have to glaze all of the previously fired bisque tiles.  Exciting isn't it?  Well it is for me. 

We are involved this weekend with a pool tournament here in our little town.  Even the 4th ranked player in the nation is here for demonstrations and they are using the Mr's personal pool table at the events center.  This is the one he purchased and we trekked to Colorado for.  Luckily he didn't get sick.  Colorado is my home state and he thinks that every time he crosses the state line he will get sick. He played last night and lost at the hill game in a race to 5 so he played 9 games in one match.  After spending a week with two others re-covering all 17 tables, lifting slates, replacing side rails, etc., he was really tired before his match began.  He is down there again this a.m. working and will play another match later this morning I think.  Sometimes I think there are 3 in this marriage-him, pool, and me.  As for me, I have been doing the spring house cleaning so the reason for no posts is that I have been scrubbing.  My poor arthritic wrists are suffering too!! Almost finished though after a week.  I have a garden club luncheon this week and a list a mile long.  I am a list maker, but it is the only way I can stay organized, and I get much satisfaction from crossing things off the list. Crazy, I know!  We had another snow storm this week and so many accidents on the interstate and state alternative that both highways were closed in the afternoon on Thursday.  I am going to order a bunch of Dahlias and I am sure that will bring warm weather our way.

    "A flower touches everyone's heart." - Georgia O'Keefe 

Tiles

Here are the tiles after first firing to bisque. I did end up with a few cracked tiles, but the fish survived the fire.

I had to re-roll a few tiles and I now have a few in the kiln with a glaze for a test fire on the color.  Will know tomorrow about the color on red clay.  Cross your fingers.

This is the copper sink and you can click on each of these snaps to see more detail.  The bottom picture shows the progress prior to the sink installation and next blog will have the hardware.

The sun is shining today, but the temp was 9 degrees when I got up today so it is cold still!!  Will spring ever come.  My friend, Bonnie came over on Friday and we worked on a stained glass project for her.  She started it a year ago last Thanksgiving and hasn't had a chance to get back to it. So it was a very good day.  Will get pictures when we get back to it as it will be a beautiful piece and will be a first project.  

Today is Easter and kids everywhere have been hunting eggs I am sure.  When we were kids, I remember my Dad helping us all color the eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide for us.  Living out in the country, our eggs were hidden among bails of hay, at the base of trees and in Mom's flower beds.  We had such fun!! Occasionally, one would be missed and later on when the planting of the garden or the mowing of the lawns and weeding took place, one of those eggs would magically appear.  Yuk!  We always got a new outfit and new shoes and after Sunday school, we would go to one of Dad's sisters, in the earlier days it was his brother Bill's home.  Of course, we would hunt eggs there also.  Dad was one of 11 children, 9 of whom lived to be adults, he being the youngest.

His mother, our grandmother, was in her 40's when he was born and basically had two families.  He and his brother, Bob, were the babies and had nieces  and nephews older than themselves.  Except for Bob's two sons, we were the youngest grandchildren and I remember everyone paying so much attention to us.  For the most part, large families are a thing of the past and we all get scattered so far and wide that family gatherings on holidays are a thing of the past for many of us.  If you are among the fortunate to have your cousins, and aunts and uncles, and grandparents and grandchildren together this Easter, count your blessings!

"Families are like fudge...mostly sweet with a few nuts." -- unknown

 

Fire in the hole (kiln)

Below are two of the tiles I fashioned from my lump of clay with my sophisticated tools--a rolling pin, some clay tools that Erica left with me and my limited knowledge.  These are for my backsplash in the bathroom.  More pictures to follow.  These first two are in a very wet stage.

The tiles below are the tiles as they are ready to go to the firing stage.  Note that they have lightened considerably after about 10 days.  This is due to the loss of moisture.  The copper sink has fish engraved around the perimeter so I decided to dry to mimic the fish in the tiles.  The larger is a previous post but the smaller fish are imprints from a copper gelatin mold.  

My kiln hasn't been fired in a while so I loaded my tiles and turned all of the switches on  and after two hours went out to kick up the heat and discovered that it had shut off at some time.  (Evidently in my haste, I didn't pay attention to the back-up timer in case the kiln setter failed).  The timer is usually set for several hours but as with a lot of other body parts, my eyes seem to be playing games with me as I age.  Did I set it for one hour rather than 7?  Probably.  So I have started it again.  Hard to believe that tomorrow is the first day of spring and that Sunday is Easter...hope the bunny wears rubber boots.  It is a soggy mess around here!!  

Happy Easter!!!  

Chalk up!

This weekend was spent at a state pool tournament in Casper.  These tournaments can be grueling for both participants and spectators.  The Mr's team played the first three matches Friday and Saturday winning all three.  That qualified them for the finals and in a 64 team bracket, 16 went to the finals in his division.  The last match Saturday finished up at about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday (today) and they started playing again at 8:00 a.m.  Unfortunately, they were put out but tied for 5th/6th place and did get into a little payback money, but not the calcutta money.  We woke up to snow again this morning and March is typically our worst month for snow, so we booked it for home and our pantry is stocked.  I did however buy some blueberry plants.  Optimistic I guess and I am not sure how I will manage to keep them alive until I can get them in the ground.  

Tomorrow our painting group will embark on the birdhouse below.  Eventually, all sides will be painted, but we will be applying a crackle treatment and basecoating, and getting the front done first.  Not a long post today, but it seems like I have a difficult time getting all that I want posted.  

"Gardens are the result of a collaboration between art and nature."--Penelope Hobhouse

Happy St. Paddy's day from another Irishman!

More Snow on the way

My critters are hunkered down for more bad weather and even when they go out you can see that they don't understand why the wind blows and where the clear ground and grass went.  I am sure they don't understand seasons.

We are expecting more snow!!!  The Mts of Colorado may get up to 20 inches and some of those areas already have over 150 inches of snowfall. Even here we have ranchers who have been snowed in since October and are accessing town by snowmobile.  One of the gals in my painting group brought pictures of her place and she is only a short way from the main street here and there are high drifts as far as the eye can see.  Diana, it will be spring soon they tell me, but I am beginning to wonder.  I received a paint jar holder from one of my painting buddies and I am thrilled with it.  It has room for 18 jars on each of three levels and all shelves spin for easy access.  Thank you Terry!!

 

We are headed out for a tournament this weekend and will probably encounter more bad weather.  Such is life. 

Our bathroom sink is in and I am waiting for my tiles to dry so that they can go through the first fire and then the glaze. I will post more tile pictures as well as the next painting project.  Our stones came out great and I wish I could have gotten pictures of the colorful flowers, but it was pitch black when we loaded them up.  Good weekend wishes to all.

Spring Ahead

Barb, my good friend, and I ventured south to Colorado this past weekend for a chic shopping spree and a quick cure for cabin fever.  We had a great time and as soon as we crossed the state line, we thought we had arrived in a different country.  Did we become magically transported?  The weather was beautiful, there was no snow and some green things were poking through the ground and some even had the guts to bloom. Ohhhh...wait a minute.  I used to live there and that colorful state has at least two less months of winter.  I had forgotten that.  How silly of me!!!  It was so nice.  We pigged out and had a little chocolate to boot.  Thanks, Barb! (We even took advantage of the nice evening with daylight savings starting.)

Below is my first attempt at making tiles.  I have a large lump of clay, rolled it out with a rolling pin and as we are redoing part of our main bath with a copper sink, we had to decide about a back splash.  At first I thought I would make all of the tiles for the countertop, but after much deliberating, and being a novice, I went for only a few.  The sink has fish engraved around the top and since we live where the fish jump in main street, I thought it appropriate for the tiles.  I had picked up half of a wooden  fish mold at a flea market knowing it would come in handy for something.  

So this is my first large fish.  These tiles are about 6 1/2 by 3 1/2 before drying and firing in the kiln.  I have two smaller ones which I will post later. My intention was to make them rustic so we will see how they work.
Debby is still calving with 7 live calves now and 4 more heifers to go.  I had coffee with her today and got caught up on happenings.  The Mr. and I went back to Colorado yesterday and picked up a pool table he had purchased. We bought it from a family who run an establishment there and they were so nice to deal with.  We did battle the wind coming home (what's new?), but made it home just fine with our prize.  Today I was able to get a vaccination for shingles.  For old people in my age group, shingles is a fairly common ailment, related to chicken pox and the other herpes viruses.  Yuk!  But they are very uncomfortable and very painful and at $200.00 a pop for the vaccine....I really felt it was worth it.  I have had them 3 times since October.  Information you all didn't need to know, but this is a journal of sorts, not very private.  Put up with me!!

We are headed out again for a state pool tournament and with everything that keeps us busy, I haven't been able to post.  I will be so ready for springing ahead and the long evenings for gardening and the settling down to get to this blog on a regular basis.  I am anxious for the first blooms.

"FLOWERS ARE SUNSHINE, FOOD, AND MEDICINE TO THE SOUL."----Luther Burbank

Gardening

This is the moose to be done in tonight in a lesson on monochromatic colors. The girls intend to do this on different surfaces. Mine is a floor cloth and it will be done on trays and a paddle and other surfaces.
This flower is done on a cement stepping stone and a path with these in different colors, will grace my back yard for sure!! These need to be brought into the garage in the winter, but they hold up very well even if left out and sprayed again with acrylic, both in the fall and in the spring.

Flowers and plants from the new spring catalogs are making my fingers "itchy"! Finally we got a little break from the winter weather and while washing my windows out front, I actually saw some green things poking through the frozen tundra. Brave little green things they are. We got more snow yesterday, but I spoke with Erica on the phone Saturday, getting a "kid fix" and we both had the Spring Hill Nurseries catalog in our hands. Imagine that! So we spent quite a while on the phone perusing the catalog, page by page, trying to decide what to order. They have a sale happening now and if the order is placed before April 16th, 50% of the total order can be deducted. (up to $500.00 that is) Soooo--I have to decide now what to get.

My painting group gets together tonight, so we are going to try to catch up on unfinished projects and start the moose. We will be getting ready to do some garden projects which will include the stepping stone with the flower on it and some of the birdhouses. The sun is shining today, and I have a garden club meeting this week, which I hope I can get to. The weather has not been kind to those of us who have to travel to be able to get out of Dodge. Happy Gardening thoughts to all.