Wednesday, September 16, 2009

A lovely weekend and a new dress.

I can't remember the last time I bought, or even wore a dress,
let alone got excited about one (for myself).
I'm happiest in jeans, or pants of any kind, as long as they have pockets.

But this past weekend I went and splurged on a lovely summer dress (yah, I know
it's almost over). And "No" it wasnt' even on sale.
I guess now I'll need decent shoes or sandals to go with it :)

I love the colors & it's so comfy, but best of all...it has pockets!

That makes all the difference in the world!
To me anyhow.

I bought it from a small, local shop in Balfour, which is on the way to
Queen's bay beach (where we were heading to take Spike for a swim.)
This was one of the loveliest & fun weekends we've had in a while,
so I took lots of pictures.
Have a wonderful day.

Here's a few of my photos...


Spike loves going to the beach, almost as much as
we do :)

Spike and his big stick.



A small flock of Canada Geese


Sunset on Kootenay Lake.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Time in my studio




Today I spent a good part of my day working with clay in my studio.
I don't get to do that as often as I'd like, because there's always some other things that
I need to do, like: go to work, do the dishes, feed the dog, make dinner, do the laundry,
get off the computer, or something else that uses up my time.
Anyhow, it was a rainy day today. My favourite weather for working with clay, because
it doesn't dry so fast, and I like to take my time. I wanted to make at least 2 sun faces, and
something to hold all my earrings and whatever else popped up in the process.


I started off with a bucket of left-over clay I had to recondition. (I love using new clay from
the box, but since I had lots of time today, it was a perfect opportunity to dig into the bucket and get dirty.)

Sometimes it's fun to take the slick lumpy clay scraps, and wedge them out into a nice ball .
(It's also hard to take pictures when my hands are covered in clay).



Once it's conditioned enough (doesn't stick to my board or hands) I roll it out onto a board, and make a nice slab. I use an old rolling pin (that never made a pie) to flatten out the clay, draw my sun face outline and then cut it out with a sharp tool!



Once the outline is cut out, I shape little pieces of clay to form the eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, then "stick" them on.



I lay the sun face over a round sponge (to support the basic shape), touched up the face,
smoothed and shaped it a bit. Now it's gotta sit overnight so it'll be a bit harder, so I can add the hanger on the back.
I made 3 sun faces and various other simple pieces. The
bird head here is going to be my earring holder.
I'm not sure what the eye is going to be for, but I can never have
enough eyes.
Ok, so it's not a kiln load, but it's a start.
Once these pieces are dry (in a few days), I'll smooth & clean them of dust and
add my initials to the backs, and then they will be ready to fire.
If I do this a few more times, I'll have enough pieces to fill up my "new to me" kiln,
and see how it works.
P.S. ( Hubby was kind enough to barbeque burgers and corn for us, so I didn't have to
make dinner. )