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.
Cheers!
It’s Friday which is kid’s day at the studio. Wow were they wound up today! After a couple of weeks of cold weather it has warmed up a bit and they all found a new well of enthusiasm to tap. We made polar bears and I’ll add some pictures later. Here is today’s video blog which shows a little bit about reclaiming clay.
Hope you are finding these interesting! The next one will be Sunday.
Bye for Now
Hi!
We’ve decided to add a video blog to our YouTube channels showing the day to day process! Here’s day one and day two.
We’ll see how productive I am today!
Later!
Yesterday I was playing with a face vase and I didn’t like his eyes. Today I ripped off his eyebrows and rearranged his brow bones. I then added some ears, but they looked too low. I sliced off his ears and put them back on a little higher.
Better eyes but low ears.
I had fun playing with the vase, but I am not sure you can really tell the difference in the higher or lower ears.
We are going to Medicine Hat for clay tomorrow. Work is picking up and I won’t have a lot of time for funny faces, ripping off eyebrows or slicing off ears. But it is fun when I do.
Until next time.
AKA Mrs. Clay
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.
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.
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,
But then I had to clean all over again.
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.
Until next time,
AKA Mrs. Clay
Jim and I have been am trying to get more people using the school. Here in Coutts, there is this wonderful old school that is no longer a public school but an Arts and Rec Centre. It houses my studio, the local library, a massage therapist, and a storage/ practice room for the local country/ rock band. There is some use of the facilities, but for the most part, it is underutilized. Monday was to be the start of the Senior’s Walk. The school has a gym and weight room that are almost always empty. Since I am at the school and in my studio weekdays, I opened the doors to the local seniors. The idea was to get people out of the house and have a safe and warm place to get a little exercise. However Mother Nature had plans of her own.
Minus 20 Celsius and 70 Kilometer winds is not a good way to start the week, or to get seniors, or anyone else for that matter, out of the their house. The school was quiet this morning, so I cranked the music and cleaned the studio. She looks good, a great way to start the New Year. Clean and tidy. It won’t last, but ….. so
I should have had before pictures to go with the after shots, but trust me, it was an unorganized mess. I had the ladies clay classes with a Christmas party and then the kids class and party. There were orders to get out, a couple of little trade shows and the Galleria in Calgary. Last year, when I was done, I walked out and shut the door. It was on its way to Hell in a hand cart, but it got refused at the door for being too messy.
Last year I was playing with what I thought was to be a new blue glaze, but it’s not what I had hoped for. I plan on working on some new glazes later this month, but I have never really liked experimenting with glazes. We will see how it goes and how much I get done. My next blue has to be better than this syrupy sweet, baby powder blue. The test looked interesting.
But as it got onto larger pieces, it reminded me of eating chocolate. The first little taste is good, but once it gets big, it is just too much. Candy Blue will not be seen again.
It felt good to back at work today and in such a tidy work space. I use a blend of two clays, and I have to pug to blend all the clay I use. Before the Christmas break, I pugged a couple of bags or so, and today I threw what was mixed. When I ran out of clay, I had the option of pugging more, or walking laps in the school. Jim came down and we walked in the school. Fourteen times around, the inside, is one mile, a bit boring and a lot safer than walking outside on the ice.
Until next time.
AKA Mrs. Clay
Christmas time, and the livin’ is easy the snow is dumpin’ and the drifts are high …….
This is the first year since for…..ever….. I am ready for Christmas. The house is clean, well as clean as it is gonna get. The baking is done, again, as done as I am going to be. I’m just waiting for Christmas. Oh don’t get me wrong, I am not complaining, it just feels weird. This time of year is usually so crazy busy. Last year we were working on the house here and overwhelmed by the size of the job. We had to drive back 600 K to Edmonton on the 23rd, 450 K to Grande Prairie on the 24th. Then back to Edmonton Christmas Day to finish packing up the house to move out by year end. The years before we were working right up to Christmas and then I had all the prep to do. The kid or kids were home. This year is so nice.
We celebrated Christmas this past week with the community here in Coutts. We went to the seniors Christmas party, a pot luck and gift exchange. That was a HOOT.
We had a fun gift exchange of Rob Your Neighbour. On you turn, you can take a new gift from the table, or if you like someone else’s gift, you can take theirs. It was a lot of laughs. We almost had to take home an old and re-gifted box of very smelly men’s stuff, but at the last moment, some one surprising took it. The box of chocolates Jim ended up with was much better. 
Next we had the ladies Clay Class party. We had some food , drinks and another fun gift exchange. The girls made some wonderful pieces for their first time working with clay.
Friday we had the kids clay class party, but we didn’t get any pictures. We had 13 kids after their last day at school, just before the ski-doo party. We fed them some sugar, supplied the with all kids of paints and for some reason, we got busy and forgot to take pictures. It wasn’t until they had left in a flurry of parents, hugs and goodbyes, that we looked at the mess in the studio and thought ….. shudda taken some pics. Next thought was just leave the mess and close the door. It will be there next year. We did just that.
My son arrives tomorrow for a few days of doing nothing and taking the entire time to finish. We plan to visit the neighbours for Christmas Eve and then just us three for Christmas and Boxing Day. We will eat, drink and binge watch Netflix for a few days and then he goes back to Edmonton Saturday or Sunday.
I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and best of the season. I hope you all have a very happy, healthy, wealthy and wise New Year.
Relax and enjoy!
Until next time,
AKA Mrs. Clay
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.
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.
Until next time.
AKA Mrs. Clay
Last post I talked about being back in the grove again. Being motivated to work and really enjoying working. It’s true, I’m there. I have made more pots in the last month, than I have in the past 2 years. One of the motivators, I have to admit, is money. ‘Tis the season. I like making pots and I like selling them. The product is doing well at Galleria Inglewood. The sun is shining so I am making hay…..well pots……. I will deliver my Christmas batch the second week of December. However money is not the only motivator, it if it were, I would never have become a potter. So what is the motivator, what is motivation, where does it come from? I am only asking the questions. I don’t have any answers, to those questions and many others.
I am working on a batch of pots that I know will sell. The same old, same pots. Bowls, tea pots, casseroles, mugs etc.. I was checking out Facebook and a friend of mine, Dori Braun a potter and musician I have known for years, is working, I will assume, the same Christmas market and making some very cool candy dishes.
Now I have been in head down, flat out production mode. I have a good idea what will sell and have been working on that. The potter came back and the pots are flying. I plan to play in the clay in the New Year, but right now my motivation is making lots of pots, or so I thought. When I saw her candy dishes, I wanted to make candy dishes too. I was motivated. Time is tight and play time is short., but I took a bit of time time to play, to listen to the motivation. Her pots are very different from mine, but the motivation was the same, play with clay and make candy dishes.
We need to pay attention to what motivates us, what makes us want to work, what gives us that drive to create. More important, we have to act on it. I don’t know what motivation is or why it shows up, but if I listen to the potter inside, I know what it feels like. We all need to pay attention to that. Work with it. That’s where our best work comes from. I made some candy dishes. It is not for me to say if they are good, bad or ugly. (odd and out of place Clint Eastwood reference) We can never judge our own work. If we didn’t think it was good, we wouldn’t have finished it. All we can and should do, is go with the feeling, the motivation to create. What could happen?
It is a candy dish week. We, The Clay Teacher, are making candy dishes with the kids classes on Friday afternoon.
Since it is a candy dish week, if anyone reading is making candy dishes, or has been motivated to make candy dishes, please send me pictures and I will include them in a future post.
What can I say about motivation…..SWEEEET…..
Until next time,
AKA Mrs. Clay
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.
The best part about a small table show in a small town is knock down. Packed up and home in less than 30 minutes.
Until next time.
AKA Mrs. Clay