Sofia’s Dad’s Pots

March is over as of tomorrow and I don’t know about you but we kinda skipped spring here and went right into summer. 80s yesterday and got another 30 mile ride in on the ol’ cycle. Lots of stuff going on and having a hard time getting to the blog if you know what I mean. Sofia’s smack dab in the middle of jump-roping mania…

First it’s jumping with two feet, then right foot only, left foot only, both feet eyes closed, right foot eyes closed, left foot eyes closed, running in place… on and on and on. Here’s an action shot in mid-jump…

Last week I managed to get up to IUS art department where Mark Cole was giving a workshop…

Mark works with wax while glazing and achieves some very nice effects…

I really enjoyed the event (I was only there on the second of two days) as Mark has a wonderful sense of humor. His presentation was light hearted and refreshingly humorous. In other news, it was my birthday last week and I’m now 54 crowding the age my Dad was when he died. Club 54 met for beers and I received some birthday swag. Here’s a sculpture my friend Al gave me…

One may remember from previous posts that Al is the guy who makes sculptures from the flotsam and jetsam that washes up on the shore of the Falls of the Ohio and he has a very interesting blog here. Sofia and I went down to the falls last weekend when the weather was amazingly warm. The river was very high and we explored the giant piles of driftwood and garbage that people throw in the river. Sofia didn’t see it but there was a big, dead, bloated goat that washed up on the shore. I kinda guided her around it. I also received this wall piece from my other friend Jeff…

Believe it or not, Jeff’s a guitar guy and that guitar pictured on the plaque is a Martin. I’ve gotten most everything from the last firing up on Etsy. Here’s some new pieces (first click goes to Etsy, others enlarge)…

Well, I know everyone’s going on about the weather and I’m not gonna say anything except this was about a week or so ago…

And two days ago it was 82 and I went for my first ride of the season on the ol’ bicycle. I “zeroed out” my speedometer/odometer and accidentally changed the tire size that one enters in so that as I got out on the road going, say 15 mph, the speedometer was registering about 26 mph. If it wasn’t so far off it would have been a tremendous ego boost. I rode about 22 miles and the odometer said I had gone about 38 miles. This brings up the ankle. My sprained ankle will be 7 weeks this Sunday and on the day of the ride I decided it was about 90% healed. In retrospect I maybe should have turned around at about 7 or 8 miles but it felt ok as I was going away from my home. Upon arriving home I knew I was gonna be extremely sore the next day and that was true, I was. I finished my mad rush to get a kiln load through and get my mint julep cups off to the mint julep show that will be at the Mount. I drove out there to look at all the pieces are there are some really nice ones by some well-known potters and some really nice ones from some not-so-well-known potters. Steven let me take a preview picture of some of the cups gathered in the gallery in anticipation of the show being hung…

The next time I make it out there, I’ll take some closeups of some of my faves and post them here and on FB. The reception will be a closing reception instead of an opening and will coincide with imminent Kentucky Derby. It should be a fun closing. Regular readers may remember this post about when Sofia and I visited my friend Ray’s house and saw all his new chickens. Well, I went over to Ray’s the other night to drink some beer and the chickens have grown, are laying eggs and the roosters are crowing. The alpha male rooster (Ray died his head feathers blue) is a testosterone flooded individual and I was warned that he may attack me. I asked about this and Ray suggested that the macho dude would flutter up and attack my leg with its feet. In my mind I thought… so what? the bird jumps up and bounces off my leg with his feet. Well I have to say that I was shocked when, as I wandered toward the house for another beer, the little devil attacked me and it really hurt. No injury or anything but their little extender muscles are much stronger than ours. The damn thing didn’t bounce off my leg at all, it landed 5 or 6 rapid fire blows like a karate expert and felt like what I imagine a half-speed rubber bullet feels like. I shooed it away thinking that that would be the end of it but as I turned my back to continue into the house, the little bastard attacked me two more times. In other news, I have been posting new work to my etsy shop and will continue to do so over the next week or so. Here’s three views of my favorite from the kiln load…

And of course, while working in photoshop all day, I couldn’t help myself and put together this collection of closeups that shows me where all my hours in the studio go…

I’m happy to have had some activity already and here’s a couple that are already gone…

Here’s a little vase that’s in the shop…

Over and out.