Coutts AB is a village of about 250 people. Last week a customer wanted to mail me a cheque to pay for a bowl and she asked for my address. I sent her the address, but what I didn’t tell her was that she could just send it to ” Pottery Cindy, Coutts AB” and I would get it. There are only two Cindy’s living in Coutts. I am Cindy-Lee and the other is Cindy-Lou. We are both friends with the lady in the Post Office and Tracey, the post office lady, would know which one is Pottery Cindy. If for some reason Cindy-Lou got mail for Cindy-Lee, she would walk over to my house and give it me. There are only about 15 streets and avenues in total in Coutts, so walking all the way across town to deliver a letter is not a problem. Being new town, everyone knows where the new people live.
We have been busy in the studio making pots and making videos. Here are the next two episodes in the saga of Studio Life in Coutts.
Winter has returned. Last week we were out walking in our shirtsleeves and this morning I woke to -18C with a nasty wind. Dang….. I am looking forward to spring. I am hoping for a cloudy start to the day tomorrow and that little smelly groundhog does not see his shadow. Fingers crossed! No more winter.
The video blog is so much easier and quicker than writing a blog. When I write the blog, I will write, and then go back and read, change a few things, and then think about it a bit more and maybe do a rewrite. It can take me long time to get to the point where I hit “Publish”. The video blog is completely off the cuff. After I am done, I often forget what I have said. It is fun, fast and then finished.
Here is Episode 9.
Yesterday we were in Lethbridge selling raffle tickets for a shiny red Corvette. It is a local fund raiser organized by the Milk River Kinsmen Club. Towns that participate get a portion of the money the car raises. Coutts will use their share for community events. We like to do our part.
Today was a beautiful day. The sunrise has moved along the horizon so can see it again from my living-room window. This morning I watched the sun come up on a day that warmed up to fourteen glorious degrees Celsius, or about 60 Fahrenheit. We live in Coutts, as far south in Alberta as you can get ad still be in Alberta. However it is Alberta and it is January, and temps in the teens is wonderful gift. I left the studio early this afternoon so Jim and could go for a walk. A walk without cold, wind, ice, coats, hat or a scarf. Just a lovely walk in the warm sun in our shirtsleeves. It felt good to be out and about.
This morning we shot the next in our blog series, Episode Nine, and how to throw a casserole. Yesterday we shot Episode Eight.
We have been creating videos and them putting up on YouTube for a few years. It is a little odd and uncomfortable to see yourself up there. Over the years I have gained, lost and gained weight, aged and have gotten better at speaking. I have often said that I am much taller, thinner and younger than I am in real life. This next venture or adventure is exciting. Recording my day to day life in the studio will be something that I, if no one else, will find fun to follow. To be able to look back a week, month or in time, years, and see what I was making and how I made it, will be, again, for me at least, interesting. To be able see how much work I do, or don’t do. We will include town people, friends, and anyone else who will let us aim a camera at them and talk. The interview with Sharon the Librarian was only the start.
How does it feel to be shot? I guess the best word I can think of is flattering. I am always sensitive to how I look, not being tall, thin or young, but we get new subscribers daily. People must like what we are doing and what I have to say. We all want to be liked. “They” seem to like the videos. It feels good to be shot.
Here is Episode 7.
Friday afternoon the kids came and we made Garden Gnomes. It’s not quite spring or gardening time, but we will be ready with Gnomes when it is.
They made wonderful gnomes! It was a fun afternoon.
Brook’s train
Brook
Mr. Clay
Abby
Jordan
Kieran
Autumn
Chase
Sample for the students to follow.
It was a good weekend. Winter left with temperatures in the teens and high winds to blow all the snow away. I am glad to see it go. I am sure it will be back, but tomorrow is to be another day of temps in the teens. I will enjoy the warm days while they are here.
Jim posted the first few videos we shot and I have let a few days slip by and I a few videos behind. Here are episodes 5 and 6. Please keep in mind, I am much taller, slimmer and younger than I am in real life.
For more information about the library, here is a link. We have episode 7 waiting in the wings. I will post that soon with pictures of the gnomes the kids made Friday afternoon.
Here is the latest video blog. As you can see I did some trimming yesterday. First order of business will be to clean that up! We did walk a mile this morning just to get the blood flowing.
I’ll add some more about the weekend and today’s activities later when I get home.
Last week we had planned a clay run to Medicine Hat, but the weather was so miserable we stayed home. It has been around minus 20 with a lot of wind making it a good time to stay home. I have pots I should be making, but I am almost out of clay, so I took some time to play.
Face Vase profile.Front view of Face Vase
His eyes still need a little work.
I will rip his eyebrows off in the morning, I don’t like them. I will give him his pupils and add a bit more “meat” to the area. It is good to see a picture of what you are doing and get a different perspective. I don’t like his eyes, but I think the changes will help. I enjoyed playing with his face and it doesn’t matter, at this point, if I like his eyes or not. I like playing with them. It was a nice day of working with face while talking to my daughter on the phone.
Friday was the first day back for the kids class. We had a good turnout and they made some Arctic Scenes. They did a wonderful job, even the little ones. I thought we might as well celebrate the winter as we certainly have been having our share.
Inuktitut
One little boy thought that if a few extras on the piece were nice, more had to be better. We are still working on, less is more.
I got the few pots trimmed that I made last week,
Trimmed and ready for the drying shelf.
But then I had to clean all over again.
So much for tidy.
Tuesday we are planning the clay run. We have to drive to Medicine Hat, about 2 hours away. We will make it pay trip with a Costco shop, a stop at Super Store and a few more stops. After a couple of stores, I am more than ready to head back home. The longer we live in this small town, the more I prefer it to the city, even a small city like Medicine Hat or Lethbridge.
It was a good week in the old school and the studio. I got all my pots made and delivered. We took a truck load, literally, but we have a small truck, to Calgary. Walking into Galleria Inglewood was like walking into Christmas. It was beautiful. There is over 9,000 square feet of gallery filled with art, craft and Christmas. If you live anywhere near Calgary AB, it is certainly worth to trip! Our pots looked good and now there is a truck load more.
A display of Moonshadow.A display of the Prairies glaze.The cupboard at the gallery is bare. Need more pots.
Tuesday, the town had their annual cookie exchange. To participate, you make four dozen cookies and bring them to the library in the Historical Coutts School. Put the cookies together, and everyone brings home four dozen cookies, just not the ones you made. Jim made chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal, they were really good. We got a great variety of wonderful and not so wonderful cookies. There were about 25 people that took part and the library was hoppin’.
Tuesday night was the last adult clay class, next week is our party. The studio was full of students. The gym was rented out to a family that was playing and exercising.The cookie people came to the studio to visit, the studio people were checking out the cookies, the family in the gym was back and forth. The school was buzzing with pre-Christmas excitement. It felt wonderful to be a part of it. The old girl was alive!
Tonight is another supper, not pot luck this time. We were invited to join the neighbours at the Milk River Senior Society Christmas Dinner. It should be fun. I am getting dressed up, new jeans, and taking my hair out of the pony tail that it has been in since we moved here. Tonight, I am letting my hair down.
We stopped in Lethbridge on the way back from Calgary and did the normal in town, run around shopping. We also got all new Christmas decorations. When we moved, I gave them all away. Back then, I was feeling like the Grinch and Scrooge all rolled into one. My daughter got all the decorations, wrapping paper, everything, if she wanted it all or not . I was done with Christmas. That was then and this is now. I am glad I did the purge. Out with the old and in with the new, is very much like our life here. As time goes on and we get our new rhythm in the new life, I can only wonder how different next Christmas will be. If last year to this year is any indication, I should hang on for the ride.
We have been in Coutts for almost a year now. Last year at this time we had the house here and were back and forth from Edmonton settling things there and setting up here. We moved here in January into a real fixer upper. Here is link to my last blog that talks about the move, fixing up the house and the studio. We finished in August.
Before we retired and moved we were The Clay Teacher reaching about 8,000 students a year. Before that we ran a gallery for a short while and before that, I was a potter known as Out of the Fire Studio. We shut the big studio down in 2006 to start the little gallery and studio in down town Edmonton. Like most bad ideas, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I was burnt out as a production potter. When we closed the big studio, Jim and I had about 45 different retailers across Western Canada and we processing about 10 tons of clay into production pots. We opened our shop just before the Financial crisis of 2007-08. That didn’t go so well. The building isn’t even there anymore.
Long story short. I was a potter. I worked way to hard making way too many pots for way too many clients and burned out. Then ran like a crazy woman to run a gallery, but we lost the race. Then ran a little faster when we were The Clay Teacher. In all that running, about 15 years of it, I lost the potter. She came back this week, or was it last week? I have been working in the studio for the last couple of months, but it wasn’t until just recently that it felt like the old me. But the old me was 15 years ago and now I am old….hhhmmmm… ??anyway…. I feel like I have my grove back. I am a potter again, and not just someone who makes pots.
We have been here for about a year. The house is done, the studio is done, and it took a while, but I’m settled and very happy in the new life. I had to catch my breath and find a new rhythm. It is a much slower rhythm. I only work when I want to and the hours that I like, but now I like working. I’m work longer and longer hours and enjoying it more all the time.
Today we went to the local craft fair, 11 vendor tables. It was a small show, $15 a table and juried by cheque. There are no small shows, just small potters! It was good. There has never been a potter at the local craft show. Not only did we do well at the show, next year, we are in charge of the show. Today we inherited a craft show. It has been the same two ladies putting on the show for years. They were more than happy to pass the reins. Next year I know there will be a potter at the show.
Me behind the pots.
The best part about a small table show in a small town is knock down. Packed up and home in less than 30 minutes.
I have been using the same glazes for about a decade. Playing with glazes and discovering new colours and textures has never been my strong suit. It has never really caught my interest as much as it should. But then, how much should it? We all have our areas of interest. That’s what makes us the potters we are. I have always had cool glazes….. I think. I combined two glazes I have used together for years, but in a whole new way, and voila…..
The new glaze “Couttsgrass”
Close up to show all the colours of the new glaze.
Details of the face.
It is a busy time of year. We have a new venue, Galleria Inglewood in Calgary. It is a wonderful store, and they will take as much pottery as I can send them. They sell a lot of pots. They don’t have me on the website yet, but they have been very busy. As I said, it is a busy time of year. I have a few local Christmas Craft shows coming up. Pot production is in full swing.
