Beach B, hand-made, slab-built clay torso with raku necklace by Tammy Vitale

I am taking a breather before I plunge back into the week.  Busy, productive day yesterday right down to the end of the day, extended because Nicole of Bronze Door Day Spa came by to pick up a torso.  It just happened to be the torso I had designed with Mayan symbols.  Seems one of her regular customers had seen the torso on my website and knew Nicole represents me, and asked her to try to get it for the shop.  When it was originally made for the shop!  And now it’s sold and I have to plot out another Mayan based torso, because Nicole indeed liked it and wants another.  Of course I never do two exactly alike, so some thought is required..  This one’s symbols were:  Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars (see right: Mayan) .

Made 8 totems yesterday.  Each still needs to have the sides stained and hangers put on (today, maybe, late this evening).  And fired the last torso waiting for rakuing – and she turned out GREAT!  I’m definitely closing in on getting the results I want in some kind of systematic way (as systematic as I and raku get, anyways).

Then I noticed that Pink really did need a bit of something to perk her up, so I added an amethyst at her cleavage and a sprinkle of amethyst crystals down her skirt. You would have thought the world was coming to an end.  All the other finished girls from yesterday demanded their own decorations.

Don’t believe your art talks to you?  Come on into my studio some day, or read what writers have to say about their characters rebelling.

An Unexpected Frost wanted not only "bling" but also a bit if metallic paints.

There went another two hours (and then I had to rephotograph every thing – see details below of An Unexpected Frost – note the metalic orange on the upper chest and some on the lower edge too.   Refer back to yesterday’s post for how they all looked originally.

Then I had to plot out today’s "original" for my one-a-day-program with Kat’s Paws for November.  I’m waiting for new watercolors that I ordered;meanwhile, have to make do with the few I have.  And old paper (which doesn’t really matter).  I have decided to play with water colors because I haven’t really much in the past and think this is a great opportunity to see what they do, every day (or most every day) this month.

So here’s today’s One-A-Day(left), which has not title and didn’t even turn out like it started.  I think I could have left it with just the red and the yellow and then it would have had something to do with the moon. But, nooooooo.  I had to have water.  Which didn’t work.  But I’ve promised myself not to judge.  So I pulled out the black pen and started doodling, and a town grew up in the background.  Now I have no idea what to think this is:  sun rising?  Moon rising?  A street light magnified by rain?  Any ideas?

Today I’ve met a friend for coffee and loaded in (and loaded out) at Heron’s Way Gallery for the month.  I’ve bought hangers to do the hanging at Joie de Vivre (Cambridge) next Monday and I’ve worked with Tammy Watier of Watier Design to update my website for this quarter (Hey – if you need a great website, click over and tell her I sent you – she’s got a great referral program runnning right now).  And I found this great post on Craft Show Tips by O’Brien Photography that I thought I’d share.  Later this afternoon I will help Tricia Darrow of Tricia’s Treasures write publicity for the new bead shop she’s opening in Prince Frederick (Md) in December.  Tricia makes almost all of the jewelry I regularly wear.  She’s great!

Whew.  And I’ve still got more to go….love this job!

thought for the day:  Finally the neural network people had succeeded in building a computer as intelligent as a human being.  It not only was as smart as a human, but was able to report out the secret and invisible workings behind its own intellect.  Scientists rubbed their hands in anticipation.  They asked the first question. ‘What is the nature of human knowledge?’

Lights momentarily flickered and a soft resonant voice replied, ‘Let me tell you a story…’

Allan Combs, The Radiance of Being:  Understanding the Grand Integral Vision; Living the Interal Life

[how much do I love that my masters work, Story and Social Change, was tracking right along with all the PhDs in 1995]