ROAD TRIP!!!!!!!!!

All good Canadian Road trips start at Tim Hortons.India's beverage of choice, is a mocha ice capp.

music for the Road includes this lovely collection by those long haired punkrock boys The Ramones.

Across the street from the Tim Hortons in North Sydney, is this Chicken Place. we giggle everytime we drive by. Apparently they make the best chicken, we haven't tried it, so can't make comment. But we do enjoy the name.

India took some photos of our Island from the car, its kinda pretty you know

but then her icecapp ran out, and she was sad....after many hours we hit the causeway.

No more Cape Breton Island. We were Mainlanders now.

We stayed on the road til Amherst, where we had lunch at Duncan's Pub , the bruschetta was to die for, and they brought me my own pot of coffee.

we then continued on to Fredericton, our home town. It was a ninja visit, we told very few people that we were coming. And we managed to squeeze in a few adventures in NB before my asthma interfered.

It was 32 degrees celcius and humid, when the air conditioner died in my car. How Gross we felt!

HOWEVER-

The main reason for our trip, was to visit with our dear friend Les, and his family, before they head off to the west coast of Canada. We love Les, and Lisa, and Adrienne, they are family.

I met Les while I was at University, He too started out all textile artist like studying fabric surface design at the same school that I studied weaving and potting. He went on and studied printmaking and painting at NSCAD. We have spent most of our friendship in different cities, Me in Montreal, Him in Freddy, Me in Freddy, him in Halifax, then Vancouver, we were briefly in Fredtown at the same time two years ago, but then I left. I was thinking how sad that is, always in a different place. When Les and Lisa announced the move back to Van, I knew I had to go see them one more time. We had such a good visit! we finally met Lisa in person, and dudes, she is the cat's azzzz! We drank boxed red wine, and played with puppies, and talked about art, and got oodles of hugs, and ate good food. And now we miss them even more than before.

this is me and Les catching up on the snuggles!

and India and Adrienne are catching up in the way teenage girls do. yup, you see it in full colour folks, modern communication at its best, two couches, two laptops, three teenage girls. This is how they talk. They did eventually put away the computers and go out to the store for junk food and on a long explore of the neighbourhood. I wonder if they spoke???

On Saturday India and I hit the road again, to sell pots at a medieval event in Woodstock, about an hour away. It was fun, some pots were sold, some old friendships rekindled, and some fighting was watched. I took lots of pictures of the action, and a bit of video.

then we went back to Freddy for more visits with the puppies and their people

Dharma adopted India, and slept with her the whole visit. Just outside Camera's eye, there is a large black standard poodle snuggled at India's feet, and below the lovely Dharma on the floor is the Golden Doodle , Penny. We have dubbed India the dog whisperer.

this handsome fellow is Lamby. There were also two kitties, but we seem to have no photos of them.

we visited my old school, and there was a fantastic metalwork show on. The gallery was closing soon so we only snagged a few photos, wish we had more time to explore, but what we saw was stunning. The quality of work was top notch. I was much impressed. My photos do not do the work justice.

these pendants were a media exploration project made by first year students, in the first term of school.

these salt cast brooches were made by a first year student as well.

such great stuff from first year students. I am blown away I must say.

When we wandered down the hall from the gallery toward my old stomping grounds we found this-

when i was a student here, we pushed a ware cart out in this hall way, stuck pots on it, and hoped someone wanted to buy one. They have come a long way in the last sixteen years, it looks like actual paint on the walls, and real shelves to display pots. oh my how things have grown...

but some things stay the same no matter what

This one came home with me. I love it! and I drink out of it every day. It feels so good in my hand, it looks great with my lemonade in it, and, I suspect, though I have not yet proven, that it will work exceptionally well for Gin and Tonic on the Deck when summer hits. It was made by the lovely Chelsey Ann Fitch. Who aside from being a kickass potter, great mommy to Jacob, and all round cool gal, is also my cousin's daughter.

Despite a few glitches along the way, I declare the mother daughter road trip a rousing success. No major incidents occurred, everyone had a good time. There were puppies, and plans to visit the west coast are being hatched. I leave you with this lovely photo of the girly girl, and the godfather, saying goodbye.

kiln offerings

so there they are,the white bowl was a pain to photograph, but these are the best shots I could get. The other shellac bowl was icky so I will try agian

I Might Just Need to Learn to Wait

I am a very impatient potter, I want those pots NOW not tomorrow when they are cool and safe to remove from the dragon. I have experimentally glazed two of my shellac tea bowls. It is driving me crazy waiting to see if I ruined them. arrrgh.

The Loft at the End of the Drive

A couple of years ago, I was living in my hometown, Fredericton NB, and loathing every minute of it. I was working long hours at two jobs. One job, was sitting the days with a dear friend who had brain cancer. Now don't get me wrong, hanging with Rick, was the best. He's a crazy cool graphic artist, brilliant conversationalist, and punk/hardcore/heavy metal guru. The man Knows his s**t . Aside from the cancer thing, hangin with Rick was awesome. I first met him when he was a first year student At the Craft school. He already had been to journalism school, and had decided to move on to art, Journalism's loss is the art world's gain. Rick Rocks. The man woke up from major, like I am serious, life threatening , removing a massive chunk of his BRAIN, surgery and declared his personality was intact by saying, yup, I STILL HATE NICKELBACK!!!!. Aside from all of that, Rick had the incredible good sense to marry my High School friend Megan- musician, scrabble queen, and computer ninja extraordinaire. I miss you guys, we should really chat more.
My second job, was possibly the one that could buy my ticket to hell. I was a Bartender, for the Army, on a Golf course. Slinging the devil's liquid, to golfer's in uniform. The part I had the least problem with, was the army. And that is saying something.Vast quantity of land, groomed, and pampered and watered and sprayed with god knows what, to be pretty and green and perfect. so someone could knock around a little white ball, take a walk, drink a beer smoke a cigarette and still claim to be participating in a sport.
It was brutal.  But the worst was missing my kids while I struggled to feed them, and nurture them, and teach them about how we should be treating our planet. So that we still have one, when they have kids.
Enter another high school friend.
She owned a loft, at the end of her drive, with a studio space beneath. We came here, and found home. In the loft at the end of her drive.

My dear friend Seonaid, the Practical Dilletante.

Well this weekend was semi productive, I managed to spend way too much money at the grocery store, which led to a rousing game of Refridgerator Tetris. India and I shopped successfully for fabric and pattern to make her dress for year end formal, final decision was made to do an interprovincial mother daughter road trip on the long weekend, and I managed to get a few mugs done.

I live in an area that is steeped in Celtic culture. The music, the language and the art are preserved here as vehemently as they are in the British Isles. Our road signs denote place names in English and Gaelic, we boast a lovely Gaelic college, where you can study the language, piping, fiddling and weaving. Cape Breton even produces the only scotch distilled outside of Scotland. Not surprisingly, pots with knots and triskels are very popular round these parts, plus, I like making em! Last summer, some of my knotwork pots went home to Ireland with some tourists. That kind of made me giggle a bit

Progress, and India gets Plastered

I have been busily working on new mugs and yarn bowls this week, getting a bit of work done and trying to breathe a little spunk ino the new stuff.

All my friends seem to lead lives in places where one has drunks to take photos of. I am a simple country girl, and thus, have no strangers passing out where I can get Candid shots to post online. I have to look a bit closer to home to find someone getting plastered.......

Words Well Worth Repeating.....

As an artist I am alternately blessed/cursed with an incredibly vivid imagination, and sometimes a taste for the absurd. As a potter, we seemimgly have the life of Riley, we get paid to play in the mud, we get to perform alchemic rituals and turn gritty gray goo into beautiful glass in rainbow colours. We play with fire, that is the best part, really... But there are jobs associated with potting that are not nearly so glamourous. Recycling Clay being high on my list of nasty jobs.
I know I am not alone in this, most potters I know put it off for months, some even longer. When you don't own a pugmill, this can be an even nastier job. I try to fit it in every couple of months, but it certainly isn't a regular occurance round these parts. I try really hard not to think about that bucket of nasty.
Which brings me, in a roundabout way, to the words well worth repeating. You see, evrey morning I get up, pour coffee, grab some carbs and check my blogs/facebook etc.  Often this session is full of chuckles and giggles. The usual perpetrator is Gary, but a few days ago, it was a facebook wall post from my friend Sarah. Sarah is a raku potter, she is a fiddler, she is awesome. I could paraphrase what she said, but, um ,well she said it so well herself, I had to just share it with y'all in her words. Sorry to all you non potters out there in blogland.

i am reclaiming 7 years worth of scrap clay...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!
But it's sure going to feel good to have some of it cleared up. Plus I'm starting to run low on clay, so I need to do it!
This is when I wish I had a pug mill....or a mixer...but then Paul Soldner might show up naked in my studio or something...YIKES!!

I've had that image burned in my brain for nearly two full days now!!!!!!! I keep picturing Sarah, and the look on her face and......
Sarah and her Husband, Paul (not Soldner) are both AWESOME, she makes the cutest raku animals, plays a mean fiddle, and is a fun chick to have around. Paul, her beloved husband is a kickass musician, an all round nice fella, and makes the best damned coffee ever!!! Check out the work of the fabulous Ms Sarah Beck at Wildfire Pottery. The Fabulous Mr Paul Cranford, fiddler, publisher, pottery husband, shop minder and coffee officianado extraordinaire can be found here

None of These Things is Just Like the Other, but Therein Lies the Beauty...

I had a very happy firing, we will definitely be doing these again.......

whiskey cup....

a pleasure to the lips.

They Are Such BABB Boys!

These massively cool artist/bloggers have been added to our already ultra cool blog bunch. And They are soooo worthy! thus far we have Kasey, aka the Reverend Awesome, we Have Becky Jo, we have Gary, and now the next wave begins with (drum roll Please....) Benji! painter, potter, snazzy dresser....

and the ultra cool Stevo. Family man, photographer, Groucho Marx fan.

images totally scammed from Gary's blog

Mothers Day

So we lead a pretty quiet life, like right now, I am home alone listening to the winds. It is really nice. The folks from the Big House, and Mason, and the visiting Grandparents have all run off to North Sydney to the Symphony. India, is sitting on the baby at the big house, as he is only three, and can't quite appreciate the Symphony yet. I chose to stay home, and relax. Quiet like, in my robe, admiring the incredible bouquet that India gave me for mother's day.

she also made the Vase. Cone six porcelain, slab built, approximately 3 inches tall. The largest flower is two inches in diameter. This kid amazes me, daily, Unfreaking believable. the pics are a bit blurry, the camera is posessed by wee demons today. But you can get the idea of how much work and ingenuity went into these little puppies

Last night, she decided that she was in need of some Pad Thai. I thought that was a great idea especially since she wanted to make it. I had to make a special trip to town for fresh veggies but just look what I got out of a wee drive to the grocery store!

It was a kicka** supper.