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!
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
Another year bites the dust and we are in the first week of 2015. Where does time go? When my daughter was about 3, I said that , and she told me “behind the clouds”. I never understood what that meant. My son, being a pilot, should be able to get me some time back…… Jim and I have gone through a number of changes in the past year and I look forward to more in 2015. I often got melancholy on New Year’s Eve, sad to see one year go and other start. Not this year “Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades“. New Year’s Eve was a good one. We went to visits friends for a while. Friends we didn’t know this time last year. Then back home for midnight.
Every year at this time, a lot of people start making New Year resolutions. Next year I will be thinner, eat less, exercise more, and so one. They all talk about change and the changes they want to make in their lives. The changes I want to make are the same ones I have wanted for years, all the ones I listed above. I have “battled the bulge” my entire life. Living here is different than most places. People accept you for who you are. It doesn’t matter what you look like. There are of people all sizes and they accept me, themselves and everyone else, for who they are. If I want to loose any weight, it is only for me. The only Coutone’s opinion that should matter. This year I plan to be healthier. I feel much better when I eat properly and exercise. Healthy food and exercise, it is not as easy as it sounds.
The holidays are over. We ate, drank, stayed up late and watched way too much TV. Spent time with family and friends. It was a great holiday and a good break, but it is time to get to work.
I wish everyone all the best in 2015. May it be a year of health and happiness.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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