Happy New Year! + New Pots + This is Post #195

A Happy New Year to all and to all a new year! If you're still living in 2011, I guess that's your prerogative but I'd think twice before getting too upset with anyone you think "stood you up" on Monday, January 3rd, because, you know, for most of us January 3rd was Tuesday, and Monday was January 2nd. So, you've been warned - but it is a free country and all that.

I'm looking forward to getting back into the groove around here. Took 10 days or so away from "home" and visiting family and friends in Iowa. Mostly family. Mostly friendly family. That's the way it goes sometimes.

But I'm excited! For pottery! And related suchness! I had a glaze firing unloaded the week before Christmas that was a real joy. Some Christmas orders that had to be boxed and shipped away (with minimal shipping casualties) and then some just for funs. I think I've finally figured some things out and I'm looking forward to kicking back into production mode and increasing my supply of what I hope will become "staples" of my work. Because they're gorgeous. And I don't have any of them left. Because they're sold. Mostly. I guess I have one or two. But seriously. Good times.

Also a good time (dork moment): upgrading our main home computer's RAM from 2x512MB to 2x2GB. For those not in the know, that's amazing. It had become standard practice to go grab a bite between instigating computer processes because you could. And now I can't even keep up with things. I open a window and BAM! Firefox is going shopping and playing videos and sending e-mails and downloading music and writing webpages and I'm still trying to find the cursor on the screen. I'm afraid I may have just unleashed the Singularity.

So I may also be inclined to blogging more, with pictures, since it will hypothetically take less than a leap year to crop, edit, and upload new pots. So yay for that.

I also procured some large stone brick things to boost my wheel six inches higher off the ground. I'm thinking this will ease some back pain I've been having (too young!!) and make throwing more enjoyable. All around: excited.

So here are some of the pots that came out pre-Christmas. I think they're beautiful.

These eight were shipped. Seven survived. Looks like I'll be making some more. Thanks, USPS Shipping Insurance!

Glaze Detail.

 

I've been working on my love-hate relationship with mugs. Heading into a "love" phase. I think that's a good thing. I was excited about these. Also had some blue mugs that were cute, but a bit small, and not as dynamic a glazing effect. Back to the drawing board on those.

Finally figuring out this blue with some consistency. There are two left, if you're interested.

Batch of these little darlings. Love the blue-red bleed. I have one left.

Glaze bleed detail.

I tried a couple of other glaze things as well, to some stellar results. I believe I still have one (singular) in a new glaze that I will need to be incorporating regularly, because beautiful. The end.

Back into the studio for me this week, or at least this weekend. Maybe both?

ALSO: I've made my selection of my favorite (musical) albums of 2011. I need to post it soon before the late arrivals sneak their way in.

Back to the grind, friends. Happy potting!

Here Hast I Beenst

Sometimes I like to imagine that there's a whole throng of folks out there that read this blog with regularity becoming a Swiss watch.

That aren't my mother. (Hi, mom!)

And in this imaginary world, all of you have been desperately wondering just where I went for all of November, as I seem to have missed an entire month of posting opportunities.

But really: "Hi, mom!"

The way it hangs there (above, see: "where I went for all of November) it almost looks as if I went on some great expedition. But mostly I didn't do a whole lot, and I'm so sorry for being absent. I've been in and out of my studio, and a little travel here and there, and back into the studio...

But generally, I feel as if I used up about 2 years' worth of discipline, motivation, and drive in the preceding three months. And while it was wonderful, and all things went great, that was just an awful lot of exertion in a short amount of time and so, intentionally or not, I took a little break. And since I don't depend on the selling of pots for the buying of food, I can afford to do so. For this I am thankful.

But I've kept myself sort of busy. Some pots, some travel, some pictures? Here:

Mugs! Yes, real mugs! And bowls. These have been drying since the first week of November. Waiting for some friends to justify a bisque firing. I'm getting there.

Spent some time in Phoenix to eat some turkey. My mother-in-law's bobcat has a thing for fine footwear of the smelly, leather variety. Seriously, look at that sublime state of bliss.

Drove up into the mountains and met a week-old zebra. Cutie-for-surie. (we call that a "Slant Rhyme.")

Got up close and personal with a giraffe. Krystal got to feed him. He was wrinkly, but friendly.

May I also say, the pinnacle of this experience was the "Predator Feed" which was essentially a parade led by a beat-up pick-up pulling a trailer full of seven hundred pounds of raw meat which was shotgunned over the fences by park staff (shotgunned in the football sense, for anyone following along at home). First of all, if you've never watched another human being chuck a 12 pound turkey in the air (and I mean, intentionally chuck - because I'm aware that Thanksgiving brings about all sorts of mishaps) - if you have never observed as someone shot-putted a 14-pound roast in the air, you are missing out. Because it's amazing. All on its own. Standalone entertainment in a heartbeat. Worth it.

Now, on the receiving end of that roast is a 6 year old, male lion - and he catches the roast in his mouth and runs off with it, shaking it dead while roasty-juice flies everywhere; on the receiving end of that flying turkey is a regular old Hobbes who up and poaches that turkey out of mid-air with a disconcerting crunch of fowl - THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT.

 That said, aside from the carnivore's buffet, it was one of the strangest places I've ever been. And I've been sucked into some odd little tourist joints. But it seemed that most of the critters in the park were rescued private pets who would have otherwise been put down. Resident White Rhino Boom-Boom, for example, was originally booked as the main event at a canned hunt in Texas before being redeemed by Mark Ecko, "founder of the world famous rhino-branded apparel line, *ecko unltd., and a staunch supporter of rhino relief."  Boom-Boom is now on permanent loan to Out of Africa. So, apparently good for the animals. Right.

Got Christmasy up in here.

Home-made ornaments, even. Maybe I should be marketing these things?

My lovely ladies. Tempy was helping to set up the tree.

Finally getting around to more pots this week. So there's always that.

So that's what I've been doing. Pots. A little. Running. Catching up on my reading. Shoveling snow. Scraping windshields. Running the furnace. Making soups and chilis and such things. Also, plenty of music-listening. Today I've been getting into the brand new release from the Black Keys. It's pretty dope. <--Hip=Me. Thinking that maybe this is the year that I'll actually post a "Luke's Favorite Music/Top Albums of the Year According to Luke with some input from Tempy" post.

So there it is. Nothing too exciting, but it's what I've been up to. Finishing some Christmas orders. Still lots of pots in stock around here if you're looking for any specific gift needs.

Stay warm, and keep potting (if applicable).

Bye, Mom!

I have finished the race!

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." -2 Timothy 4:7

Boy, that sure feels like fitting words to share tonight. I thought it about time to pop in here and let y'all know that I have survived the last two weeks and come out relatively unscathed. Having successfully completed the IMT Des Moines Marathon last Sunday (10/16), I came home and tackled the back end of my "Marathon(ing) Week" with a show this last Friday and Saturday. Good times all around.

Friday and Saturday I had the great joy and honor to be selected to participate in the First Lady's Prairie Arts Showcase, a local event held in conjunction with the Governor's Invitational Pheasant Hunt. I certainly consider it to be a great honor to be among the 32 South Dakota artists selected to participate and would certainly like to take this line of text to thank First Lady Linda Daugaard, the South Dakota Arts Council, and the South Dakota Department of Tourism for their work in preparing a fine event.

My booth space. Click on the picture for a better view.

According to other artists that have done this show before, this was a bit of an off year - sales-wise, mood-wise, etc. Somewhat to be expected - with an election last fall, this is a new administration which translates to a new guest list and so no telling just what people were expecting. As a result, Friday evening saw very little action for the artists, at least in our section of the show. A handful of folks did stop by the artist booths to check out the work and do some pre-shopping, but there were very few sales to be seen.

Saturday was a horse of a different color. There was a bit more interest from hunt guests (and their accompaniments) as they congregated for the day's events. Mid-morning the show was opened to the public and things really started to pick up.  I had pretty regular sales throughout the better part of the day and got to meet a whole lot of great folks from town and made some connections that could lead to further opportunities to display/sell my work locally.  I had a great afternoon. Things slowed down again in the early evening as we transitioned back to a private event for the Hunt Guests and I made one or two more sales to guests in the evening - mostly local folks who were also contributors to the success of the Hunt, whether organizationally or hosting hunts on their land.

All that to say, despite the fact that the show was open for over 20 hours and I'd say 15 full hours were spent NOT doing anything remotely resembling business, it was a good event. I got to share a hall with some great South Dakota artists and managed to have some fun along the way.  I do know that if I were not a local artist I might not be so optimistic about the turnout - I had no travel expenses to do this show, no lodging, no gas costs, no on-the-road meals. If that were not the case, what I sold would barely have covered my expenses for the weekend. That would be, generally, a problem. But I got through.

I had a lot of concerns as this was my first show in nearly two years and certainly a different setting than I've showed in the past. At the end of the day, I think I did a fair job at things. I could elaborate if any of my loyal readers have questions, but for now I'll leave it at that and say that I'm certainly glad to have that one under my belt and thinking that I'll be much more prepared for the next one to come my way.

BUT!

Before I could prep for this show, I had a marathon to run. So yikes. As this is not a running/fitness blog I'll spare any nitty-gritty details.  Like, I'm not going to post a picture of my toenail that went from deep red to ink-stain-purple and is still hanging on quite tenaciously. But, as it's quite a significant accomplishment, I'd be amiss not to share a bit. Including pictures. Great big thank you to my parents for being our "pit crew" and cheering all morning! So, the short story: we finished! All three! In reasonable times!

Read on for the longer version...

At the start - me, Krystal, and Krystal's dear friend Sandy.

It was a great day for running. Specifically, a great day for running for multiple hours. It was a bit chilly at the start, but reasonably temped as the sun came up - starting around 45 degrees and warming up not much higher than the upper 50's with reasonable sun and mixed breeziness. Krystal and her dear friend Sandy ran most of their race together - significant as they ran their last marathon together in 2004. Well done, kiddos.

I'm not sure what we were talking about, but I couldn't pass on this photo. I call it "Anticipation" and I think I need to blow it up to 16x20, frame it, and hang it prominently in our home. Waiting at the starting line, listening to the Star Spangled Banner.

I settled into the starting corral somewhere around the 4:30 pacer (that's four hours and thirty minutes total, not a per-mile pace) and quickly found myself keeping pace with a nice runner who would stay with me for 24 miles. Martijn was a very nice fellow originally from the Netherlands who has been living stateside for the last 15 years or so and works for an Iowa Ag company as a corn breeder. I told him that sounded like a pretty kinky job and he thought that was pretty funny.

Me and Martijn somewhere around mile 13, I think. Still feeling pretty good at this point.

Somewhere around Mile 8 I said to Martijn, just that two more times and a little bit. It doesn't sound so bad when you say it like that. Again, around Mile 13, the halfway point, you have this moment of "I feel great. Everything we've already run, run it again? No problem!" Three miles later, 16 miles in, with 10 miles to go, you realize you're rather bored of the run. Over the next six miles boredom turns to irritation turns to discomfort turns to something resembling pain. Martijn and I parted ways just before Mile 24 - I was fighting my first bad cramps of the run, my quads were seizing up (<--nitty-gritty?) - and I was falling behind. No words to share, I was just slowing down and he was still feeling good. Turns out he felt good only for the next two miles and got hit with a nasty cramp within sight of the finish line. I had to take my time through the last two water stations at miles 24 and 25, but finished strong to the finish, banishing the cramps to far away places.

At the finish - I'm a marathoner!

It felt good crossing the finish line, mostly to be done running. But I felt great otherwise. My ever-supportive father's response to my good feelings? "Then you must not have run hard enough." My final chip time was 4:12:14 - a very respectable time, and a good pace throughout. My goal was to land somewhere around 4:30, I thought 4:15 was an optimistic goal #2. Finishing under four hours would have been incredible as goal #3, but we certainly didn't train to run at that sort of pace and given that I felt really good about my run I'm not sure that there was anywhere I could have realistically shaved 12 minutes from. Besides, now I have a goal to strive for on Marathon #2 :)

Me, Krystal, and Sandy - we all made it!

Krystal came in a bit after me (she hasn't disclosed me to share her time, but I'll say it was much better than her last marathon) and Sandy was about 10 minutes after that. Good looking trio, huh?

So that was that. Went back to my brother's place, showered, took a nap, grabbed some barbecue with a dear old friend in Ames and on to my childhood home in Clear Lake, IA. Monday we spent six hours in the car which is exactly the sort of thing you want to do after running a marathon (<--sarcasm). Upon arriving home I got to finish sanding, pricing, and packing up pots for the following four days which leads us back to the top of the post.

Looking forward to a break from things long-runnish and super-pottish for a bit. I do have some throwing to do to get some Christmas orders in, and I'll be back to running as soon as my joints tell me it's okay. In the meantime, trying to enjoy the last bits of temperate weather that we might be having for a while up in these parts. The last week (running Sunday through Saturday) represent the culmination of a lot of hard work and discipline set in action nearly 5 months ago, and it mostly feels good to have come out the other side stronger for it, rather than buckling or falling short in any significant way.

With that, stay classy and thanks for stopping by. I'll let you know when potting of significance resumes.

Untitled Post for a Friday

From the looks of the blog, it's been a little quiet on my end lately. But from this side of things I've mostly been super busy! Lunch hours that could normally go to updates here have been devoted to the pots themselves - trimming, decorating, firing, waxing, glazing. I've also been committing to squeezing in half an hour or so of throwing/trimming into my morning routine, in addition to my runs. As great as all this productivity has got me feeling, I'm looking forward to getting past Marathon/Show week so I can take some time and just be. "Cut back" my studio hours to "just" ten hours or so a week. Spend less than a third of my waking hours on the weekend running. That sort of thing. But overall it's been nice to go to bed at the end of the night knowing that I spent my day doing. And not just going, going going, but doing things that are valuable and important to my being. But like I said, I'm looking forward cutting back on a bit of the doing so that I have more time for other all important being activities such as abiding with family and friends, something that Krystal would confirm has been not so much happening as greatly as preferred this last fortnight. Or so.

All that to say, I don't have a whole lot of photos to show for my work, but I do have a few things to share.

I ran a glaze firing last weekend to mixed results. Actually, disappointment was the word of the day when I cracked the lid. My beautiful running blue combo did not so much beautiful this time around. I'll get to that later. But to start with the good things.

A few things glazed in the Retro Blue Green. The plate was supposed to have carvings in it, but the RBG seems to have had different feelings on the matter. Still, at least a pretty color.

Rusty Red did the same bang-up job it always does. A couple spots it got a little thick in the middle of the bowls and looks like iron ore deposits. Not my standard preference on functional ware, but beautiful colors and unique textures.

Ah, disappointment.

What I didn't take into account was that the two places I tested the combo were relatively flat surfaces - a platter and a shallow bowl - and the base glaze involved is a floating blue, which is to say that the desired result is for the surface colorants to bleed and create a streaking effect. Which, I'm thinking, is what happened here: it did exactly what it was supposed to do. And on the taller bowls, it bled the Dark Cobalt top coat with it. So, the centers of the bowls are beautiful, with deep blues and streaking effects. The further up the walls you go, not so much. These may still constitute "seconds" but unless my stock runs quite low will probably not appear at the show in October. The outsides are still gorgeous, but the insides are not what I would consider prime results at all. Yikes.

So that's about it. Lots of throwing last minute bowls and cups, lots of trimming said bowls and cups, trying to get all set on the business side of things - bags, boxes, business cards, display - lots of stuff that needs updating/restocking/first-time-decision-making. I'll get there.

In the meantime, a couple "businessy" things regarding my site.

1. I'm proud to announce that you can now reach my site via lukelangholzpottery.com - no Blogspot required! I'm still hosted by Blogger, so there's no need to update your blogroll or feed - it will automatically redirect. But this is very exciting for me!
2. You may have noticed (as they've been up for a while) but there are now additional "pages" here to supplement the blog. You can find them at the top of the screen. "About the Artist" is what it is - currently you can read my personal artist statement and I will be updating a bit of bio as well. "Links" is a listing of sites I consider to be of importance in my artistic journey, including teachers, supporters, and fellow artists. Please check that out, as if you like my stuff you will most likely find "else" of interest somewhere in there.
3. Finally, if this blog is not nearly enough Luke for you, I can now be found on Twitter (if you're into that sort of thing) where I have been a little bit more regular in posting quick pics and thoughts from the studio, as well as complaining about the weather and blathering about music. You can find me under the moniker @EarthAndClay.

That's all I've got time for folks. Lots of glazing, and thus lots of new pots, in the near future. 21 days, 3 hours, 42 minutes to show time. Yikes.

There were happenings this weekend.

First among them, I came down with a nasty stomach bug. One of those 24-hour varieties, but ugly nonetheless. Sleeping it off was my solution. As much as possible. But UGH! Well, I shouldn't complain too much - our friend Katie was up from Tucson to visit for the weekend (You remember Katie? She pops up around here every-so-often) and she seems to have come down with the same bug, except that were I got to curl up in my bed and sleep all day, she had to travel home whilst being ill. No fun. So, Katie: I hope you are feeling better, or at least soon.

So that was the low point of the last 96 or 120 hours or so. I'll finish on the high point and deal out some pots in the middle. So, pots:

These big bowls are now trimmed, decorated, and drying. And I'm not a photographer.

The other big bowl.

This is a large platter.

This is another large platter, trimmed and drying upside down. The platters will hopefully turn out all right. Each is battling potential issues, but I should know before they bisque whether or not they remain issues post-drying.

Krystal has allowed my pots to take over even the finished portion of the basement to maintain a visual sense of inventory in preparation for my fall show.

Hey look, a tea set!

I'm sure you're wondering why you haven't seen pictures of that tea set in progress? Because I had to keep it a secret! It's that simple! Gosh! This was a special order from a friend of mine (Joan) for a friend of mine (Jon) on their (shared) first wedding anniversary. And he, apparently, supposedly, keeps up with this blog. And I probably could have kept my purposes on the sly, but I preferred absolute secrecy. Here's a situation of glazes going awry - which is painful for me, especially on special orders, where the end result must be judged by someone other than me. But you see the cream-colored portions in there? Supposed to be sandstone. I.e., not milky-white. But I shipped it, and they were pleased. Or so they say. Speak now or forever hold your peace! Ah, the angsts of being an artist. But how about that blue? Beautiful! So there you have it - in case there were any doubts - I will make teapots. But they'll cost you. Just saying.

While I'm at it I'll mention that Jon keeps a couple of blogs on food & foodie-ness and biking & fittie-ness, respectively. And while he's a great friend, and a decent blogger when he blogs, he's actually fairly horrible about doing any of the latter. But you can check out the stuff he used to write and mourn with me.

My other realization this week (sort of a low point) is that I totally bought 200 pounds of the "not right" clay while I was in Minnesota last week. I say "not right" because, as it's now the clay I have, it may turn out to be a very fine clay, and as such, certainly not wrong. But for the time being, and until I see positive results, it's the not-right clay. And that's totally my fault for not keeping my vernacular, loose-tongued naming of the company produced clay straight with it's ACTUAL names.  See, even though I would describe my clay as a buff-colored stoneware, to Continental Clay it is actually a "Mid-Range Oxidation Body." Because the name "Buff Stoneware" was already taken. By this other clay that I happened to buy instead. So we'll see what happens. It will fire in the same range, but it does have a different color and consistency and will take me a bit to figure out. But, bottom line: 200 pounds of clay purchased 600 miles away = not going to be returning that anytime soon, so I might as well throw it.

Moving on up, I did also buy 200 pounds of the correct white "B-Clay." So expect more white pots on the horizon.

Finally the highlight of the weekend came when we got to go to the annual Crow Creek Hunkpati Oyate Wacipi (powwow). Krystal's work kept her pretty busy with an affiliated event for the weekend, so that left plenty of time for Katie and I to take in the dancing and, in Krystal's words, "eat indian tacos* 'til you throw up!"** This was not my first powwow, nor is it the biggest (By any means. Whatsoever. Even a little.) in the area, but it was the best weather, food, and dancing that I've seen at one recently. The dancing was wonderful, and powerful, and the traditional dance costumes and regalia were beautiful. Stunning. And I happened to have a camera. So I'll leave you with a few pictures.

Mostly I'm awed by the tenacity of any people's spirit of cultural traditions. Which is not something I'm going to try to get into here, as it's a deep and complicated issue and I'd hate for the meaning of my words to be lost or misconstrued. But the celebration of deep, rich, cultural traditions is a beautiful thing and I'm glad to have the opportunity to witness and participate in even the tiniest way. 

*Fry bread + taco fixin's = awesome.
**Little did she know...

To the Northwoods and Back Again

I'm pleased to announce that in spite of spending 22 hours on the road this past weekend I have continued my streak of productivity. Friday saw us headed North by Northeast to Duluth, Minnesota, for the wedding of my dear friend, fellow artist, and sometime-brother, Alexander. It was a wonderful wedding, with much merriment and mirth and dancing and such. And you should click on his name there to check out his work. One of those folks that just oozes creativity. Kind of makes you sick, actually. But seriously, he does some phenomenal things in digital/illustration/mixed-media/printing/typography that are worth checking out.

So we spent some time driving through the Northland and accompanying Northwoods. Beautiful country, beautiful time of year to be there (as opposed to, say, January). If only we'd had time to stop and hunt for wild blueberries, it'd've been perfect. 

The woods. There are roughly 10,000 lakes somewhere in that picture. I think. Stunning view.

In the Northwoods, you can even look stunning while chatting it up with your mother-in-law. Well done, Krystal.

In an attempt to avoid the myriad stretches of construction on the interstate between there and here (and for a change in scenery on this drive we've been doing oh-so-often) we pulled off and took the back highways for the last couple hours home. It included Krystal's first visit to the world's only Corn Palace. I've been before, but Krystal needed to experience it. I think it also fits into the "stunning" category. And to think, after all these years, nobody else has even attempted to take the "world's only" qualifier away from the Mitchell Corn Palace. I mean, really?

I'd like to know just what it is we're voting "yes" to in the mosaic up there.

For those not in the know, yes, that building is covered in corn. Ears and shucks and tassels and all of it corn. I hear tell that the exterior mural is redone every year, which is why it isn't all rotted out. And of course everyone there was thrilled to meet Tempy. Because she's perfect.

But yes, this is supposed to be about pottery, right? So, despite all that driving I still got to do some throwing and other sundry pottery projects this weekend, last week, this week thus far. I'm working hard to stay productive and harness all that road-weary pent-up anxiety into something positive.

I made more slip. And put it in a nice big jug. And put a pretty blue label on it. Yeah!

Threw these big bowls Sunday night after 7 hours on the road. That's what makes me a go-getter, I guess.

These bowls are all dried. Not a particularly "active" process on my part, but it's shows what I  produced last week, I suppose. I'd like to note that I spent a few seconds trying to turn "productivity" into a verb before I settled on produced. It's been one of those days.

My little corner. It looks like a potter lives here. Also, this vantage point shows you exactly how tall I am. Bam!

And that doesn't even show the trimming of large bowls or throwing of additional large pots or recycling of 25 pounds of clay that have occurred. Take that! I had a picture of this little vase from a different angle, but I thought the overhead shot of my workspace had a better feel. Artists call this "view point" or "perspective" and it tells you something about the "agency" of subject and auteur, but unless you're really into art you really wouldn't know anything about that. No big deal.

All that to say that I've been staying busy and will continue to stay busy as long as allowed. Which might not be long. I'm getting tired of busy, to say the least.

So keep up the good work, and I'll see you here again soon-ish.

Busy Weekend (and still one day left).

I've had a busy weekend so far. But a good kind of busy. Pottery, non pottery. All good things. Well, mostly good things. There was the 30 inch vase that I had to trash, but it wasn't too much time loss (section thrown; pieces thrown quite nicely, quite quickly; went a bit too far dry before joining, too much weight in the top half; the pull of reshaping and the added weight caused some issues in the support on the bottom of the vase. I'll be trying again this week.). But productivity was not lost on me. This is what I woke up to this morning:

Them are glazed pots in there.

So of course yesterday was filled with the accompanying sort of messes of glazing and such.

Not the final arrangement: still playing with the best spacial arrangement.

It only took me 4 hours to glaze this kiln-load. Had the table cleared before dinner!

Speaking of dinner, the First Course: garden-fresh grape tomatoes and basil on an olive oil brushed whole wheat crust, topped with feta and just a touch of mozzarella. Grilled. Fabulous. Needed more tomatoes, which we had. Had I known, it would have not been a problem. As it was, hardly a problem.

Among the other things that happened yesterday: we started the morn with a 14 mile run. My longest run to date, Krystal's longest run in nearly 7 years. When we were within a mile of home (we were delirious - debating whether or not rhinoceros are hoofed mammals or not. Because seriously, if you've determined that you're trying to guess a horned, hoofed, herbivore native to the African plains that isn't a cow, buffalo, antelope, or goat, this is an important point. I'm pretty sure they're not hoofed, and I convinced Krystal* as such, but seriously.) - so, let me restart this thought. When we were within a mile of home I observed to Krystal that the Marathon will just be this, twice. Not too shabby, I say. I think I can do it. I think it will not be fun. I think it will hurt. But yeah, I'll get medieval on those 26.2 if that's what it takes.

I also asked Krystal, somewhere around halfway (so, we've already run 8 miles) if going out and running for hours on end ever just seems stupid. She just gave me the look.

All that to say, by noon or so we were all cleaned up and ready to tackle the day with the rest of our tasks, like glazing and groceries and teaching Temperance how to dance. Because she's awesome.

Our dog is an awesome dog: she trains with power and love, our Dog is an Awesome Dog.

So that was our day. Running for the better part of the morning, teaching our dog to dance, buying groceries, glazing pots, grilling pizza. Ready to do it all over again. Except with less being on my feet. Cause I'm sort of done with that. Here are a couple more pictures of things that have been happening this week and last week and such that never got photographed or posted.

This one's actually in the glaze fire already, so a bit behind the times.

This one's drying. Discovered I have sore few of bowls in this style for October show. Time to kick it up a notch. BAM! (Must be channeling my inner Emeril this morning. Don't know what's up with that.)

Bigger mountain vase. Pretty nice balance to it. And the camera's autofocus needs some help apparently. Sorry!

Well, that's all I've got for now. Still working on shots of the last firing, and there may be new pots in view by bedtime tonight. As you saw above, the kiln is still glowing. In fact, it needs to drop about 2000 degrees before I can open it yet. So that may be awhile. But I'll certainly keep you posted.

Thanks for stopping by, and don't forget to keep your Sabbath holy! Or at the very least, restful!

___________________

*in Krystal's defense, when we play the "Guess the Animal Game" she normally goes places like "Grevy's Zebra" or "Reticulated Giraffe." Most people are all like, "Horse" or "Cow" or "Bear."** So, she's hardcore, don't think otherwise. I'm willing to say this one was just misstated.

**In my defense, she has met her match. She may know the rare specifics of Blank Park's collection, but I'm all like, "Amur Leopard, BAM!" or "Narwhal, BAM!"*** Yes, in fact there is such a thing as a European Bison, and that's why I kick butt at this game. And I've got a secret weapon for the next time around. Been saving it for years. She'll be like, "What? Can't be!" and then I'll come home and bust out or Guide to Wild Animals of the World and be all like, "Read it and WEEP!"

***I'd also like to point out that she required three (3) reliable sources to convince her that Narwhals were real and not just fantastical. Yeah, take THAT!