Into the Deep, hand and slab-built torso with shells, by Tammy Vitale

The plan yesterday was to go to Heron’s Way Gallery opening for local high school seniors’ art.  The best laid plans and all of that.  Despite the fact that we have numerous vehicles, 4 out of the 5 of which are available to Husband to use to get to work, only 1 vehicle was working.  Guess whose?  So I got to stay in the house all day.

It somewhat discombobbles me when I have a plan and then have to switch it with no preparation.

I finished Into the Deep here, which was fired but not stained.  Have many shells to choose from when doing water torsos after two trips to the Outer Banks.  Ocracoke in October yielded a clean sweep of a beach with plentiful broken welks…Why broken you ask?  Because anyone can buy a whole one that the critter has been ripped out of for financial purposes.  And because the interior of welks is a spiral, and broken welks are in different progressions of spirals and because spirals are feminine and spiritual and non-linear.  And because even though they are "broken," i.e., less than perfect, they are still beautiful and have a purpose.

And I glazed Beach B and the top of my latest experiemental mermaid (she’s long and the tail isn’t connected to the top torso which I glazed in clear)(I want to see if I can put her together in a way that she can be two pieces for travel).  The mermaid tail and two other torsos went into the kiln unglazed to be finished today or tomorrow with stains and metallics.

Speaking of metallics – two of my new ones have dried up completely to unuseable.  Bother!  I had to order them because Michael’s didn’t have the Chinese Red that I like.

I ordered cornwall stone, a glaze ingrediant for raku glaze, Del Faveo, which has to be my favorite because it is so unpredictable and does such wonderful things from copper, to a sort of pale yellow ochre to turquoise crackle.  It all depends on thickness of glaze and place in the kiln and length of time (how mature the glaze gets) and time between turning off the propane and getting it into reduction and how well it reduces (are the leaves and needles wet?  won’t reduce as well).

I have two raku clay torsos waiting to fire.  I could have made another one or two yesterday but wasn’t in the mood at all.  I’ve read that "being in the mood" isn’t required for being an artist.  Arriving at the canvass (or at the clay, in my case) is all that matters.  Well, yesterday I chose not to arrive and instead piddled on the computer, rearranging the sidebars here, adding a new album, planning to add more, reading other folks’ blogs, and genreally enjoying a Saturday weekend day.

That because I think with 3 or 4 more torsos I’ll have what I need for my show in November, so am feeling pretty caught up.  Although I do need some more masks.

Ah, an artist’s work never ends (if she’s selling – hey, I’m NOT complaining!).

thought for the day: We learn through the conditions in our lives, which almost always include relationships with other people.  So the BEST reason to be grateful for what we have that we don’t want is that we don’t have to go out and find other people or situations to help us learn these lessons.  They’re alraedy present!  When we thank this challenging situation or person, we often experience a positive shift in how we see them, which can include increased compassion and tolerance.     Katherine Q. Revoir, Spiritual Doodles & Mental Leapfrongs:  A Playbook for Unleashing Spiritual Self-Expression