bodner045

There are always pots waiting to be glazed. Just a little more decorating to be done and then put them in the kiln. It was Sunday afternoon and I try not to work on Sundays keeping one day for myself. But there I was again, working. My studio is still a bit crowded and so I decided to move my "open" sign outside wondering if that meant I really was open. "Whatever." I decided. " I am or I am not open. What does it matter? I'm here." It used to be more significant being open or not. I used to have walk in traffic, lots of people I had never met before. Now, if someone finds me they are usually looking for me. So I am glazing to some of my favorite music and the little door is open,as opposed to the garage door, and a car parks outside and two ladies get out, one about my age and a younger lady. They are looking for me so I stopped glazing and talked with them. It turns out the younger lady is 27 and has been making pots for about 7-8 years and fou...

It is fun to make the pottery for this wedding and the bride, Monica, has a great idea. The pottery on the tables will be gifts for the wedding party etc. as well. I think she is planning to put dried flower arrangements in these pots. They should add a lovely earthy and very meaningful touch to her wedding. She has ordered 16 small vases and 6 larger ones with a personal message on the bottom and the date. This is going to be a lovely wedding in Austin and I am giving the bride a couple options for her larger vases. Originally we planned to remake the black and white pot in the picture twice this size but glazed like the shiny brown pots on the right. Yes the 23 ounce bottle is in there for a little more size perspective. After several attempts to remake this pot and the play being very soft plastic, it kept wanting to collapse in the center. So I chose one of my favorite methods of hand building , building with slabs and coils and recreated a similar feel to the smaller th...

I have been working on my book for about 10 years and I think it is time to finish it and try to get it published. It may be one of those projects I feel is never really finished. Talking to a friend, he said.” So what is your book about? “ I started to laugh a little, being embarrassed and not wanting to put him through the agony of me trying to sum up about 45 unedited chapters. He knew what I meant immediately. He is an old friend and a retired preacher I knew in Knoxville when I taught middle school. “So it is just like when people used to ask me on Tuesday what Sunday’s sermon would be about.” It goes something like this in my own interpretation. There is the book I plan to write. There is the presentation you hear. There is what I actually write and the book you remember me writing. Sounds like a good explanation to me! I have been writing this book off and on for about 10 years. I started scribbling it on paper rapidly in outline form when I was at a...

So I try not to like to cook and really enjoy food. Can't help it, I guess. Found this recipe in a Cooking Lite Mag today while doing physical therapy for my arm. I made it a little better on the second round. Quite tasty and fun to make. PS I can never follow any recipe exactly, it is just not my nature. I can always make it a little better! This was part of a propel water advertisement and I had to read it three times to see where the water comes into play. So, here it is, my version and theirs. Goat Cheese and Roasted Corn Quesadillas Ingredient shopping list: 1 cup fresh corn kernels (about 1 ear, I bought 2 just in case) 2/3 cup (5 ounces) of goat cheese, softened ( I bought 4 oz because it was that for $3.79 or more for about $7.50 or so, I can find something else to add for the price difference.) 1/4 c green onions, (forget it, I have sweet white onion I can add with the corn) 1o TBS of bottled salsa verde, divided (never bought it in a bottle before but OK) Cooking...

Give me some purple paint and I can make this into a fun traveling school bus. Can't get it out of my mind. I would love to start a new business called Wild Women Wear Purple Traveling Company. Well, I may have to shorten the name but... So here is the plan or dream or whatever you want to call it. Doesn't everybody just love traveling and having a good time? John and I are real "snarfers" and we snarf out every interesting place we can find and be there. We have a tendency to gravitate to bookstores, coffee shops and brewpubs and galleries where ever we go. I got the spirit and energy and he has the reporters nose and the map skills and never forgets any details. I want a more than comfortable big van to start small for long trips in the US and I think a purple school bus would be nice for closer trips with more people. Everything funky luxury. We never run out of fun places to explore, wine, good cheese and dessert. Main course meals are optional. John and I c...

Liberty Kiln 2 1/2 " brick, easy to use and easy to plug in, fits a dryer plug and usually sells for $1645, now $1345 till Dec. 31st. Get the specks from hotkilns.com. Great for schools and hobby potters. L&L Kiln on sale at Brookside Pottery Tulsa until Dec. 31st I use and sell the very best electric kilns on the market, L&L Kilns. Mine get heavy use and have had very little maintenance. A really important feature that makes all the difference in the world is that the elements are encased in hard brick so they don't fall out and dangle. That saves a lot of money. My studio has no heat and I figured I could use these kilns to heat my studio in the winter when I fire. Wrong. They are made to hold heat and they do a good job! So much for that idea. I love both my L&L kilns. Before I bought them,I figured I wanted to sell and buy Skutt kilns. They are good too but I feel L&L has surpassed them over the last 35 years. And Paragon is cheaper, but you get what you...

A simple bird sitting on the line outside my pottery shop. This guy named Neller's rescued from a city drain has been scene in the yard with several birds of all species in his mouth looking proud. Never trust him! Angel holding bird, made by me last year. Still available in a gallery in Sapulpa. About 29 " Tall This was really fun to make. Bird Woman. $45 Book with wings. Located in the Contemprorary Museum of Art in Fort Worth. Enormous! Parakeet for sale spotted in a pet shop in Costa Rica. I love birds and tonight was a very good bird night. I was sitting at my potter's wheel throwing in the early evening and I felt like stopping and looking out the big garage door behind me to enjoy the evening sunset light. And there, on the channel 2 tower I saw what I thought might be a hawk. It shuffled and shook it's feathers and I knew it was true. I am certain it is the same bird I have been circled by in my studio all week. I usually look up only to see a trace o...

Having lived and worked in a pottery shop in Austin Texas for 4 and a half years this is an especially fun special order. Weddings in Austin are fun and variation is appreciated. It is a sophisticated down home kind of place to be. The arts are strong there and it is a great place to be part of again. The blue pot is the one Monica saw that she liked in my shop and we based her pots on variations of that pot, about that size. She ordered 16 variations of the tall vase and 6 variations of the pots pictured below. She also like the black and white raku pot form and wants me to make 6 about twice that size. A coil will have to be added to make the hole smaller and to keep it earthy. A few of the 16 pots drying upside down before they are fired. I always make extras. So far I have 19. This form loves to sink in because of the plasticity of this dark brown clay. I will re-support it tomorrow when it sets up a bit and narrow the hole. Almost, not quite. But it will be altered and be j...