No photo with this blog, but an update to let you rest assured, I finished constructing this year’s (the 13th annual!) Valentine’s Day cards! Woo-hoo! I’m a bit behind my usual schedule, but I should still be able to make the posting date.
You’d never think I was a potter…
So here we are making tile choices for the basement, and what does this good ceramicist do? Does he go for ceramic tile? No. How about good old tumbled stone? Nope. Glass tiles. Yup, glass. There’s the accent tiles we used in the black shower surround (now corrected from the version I posted earlier this week)…
I hear tell that the grouting and the painting will be done tomorrow. Is that even possible? Wasn’t it a week ago we were just putting doors on the walls?
We certainly weren’t putting up glass tile back-splash…
We’re going to swap out the cabinet over the stove for a smaller unit like over the fridge area so that the microwave fume hood will be higher, but here’s a before picture for you…
And the is carried over on the other side of the fireplace, in what we’re referring to as “the bar area.” We still have to swap out the cabinet doors for the leaded glass ones with the blue colored glass inserts, so consider this a “before picture” too. I have to create drama and suspense somehow, don’t I?
Design elements at last!
Our imported Italian marble counter top has arrived, and is now installed and we’re very happy (especially considering I chose it on Monday)…
We’ve used the same marble for the shelf on the other side of the fireplace as well (the wine refrigerator and the rolling table I constructed are designed to fit underneath it for storage).
Here’s the marble, close-up…
And then there’s the tile for the shower. This was a hail Mary on my part. We knew we wanted something more than the black tiles, and we had limited choices for accents. Thanks to everyone who suffered through me asking their opinion, shoving my schematics in their face. There is one misplaced accent tile (the topmost blue glass piece on the left wall) which will be repositioned where there is a missing tile on the right hand wall, and in its place will be a quartet of the blue crackle glass pieces. Hopefully you can get a sense of this. There will be more photos when the shower is in, of course.
The grout will be charcoal black, and you can see where the shower head and temperature handle will go on the left hand wall. And yes, the tiles will be finished on the top right wall.
It’s the engineer in me…
So, when I was getting my engineering degree, a teacher illustrated the process of being an engineer (as opposed to a scientist) as the ability to think logically for the first few steps of a project, and then taking a leap three steps forward without having to show the intervening steps. You build the confidence in your theory or calculations early on and then just take them to the next level without having to show all calculations. I think that’s what I’m doing with my pottery all of a sudden.
You saw me start working last year on composite vases as a way of getting the body shape I wanted with the height I required, something I didn’t want to do in a single pull of clay. Then I started working with the clay extruder to make my own handles. Then I started trying to think creatively about the handles and move beyond the traditional. My new concept is to work either symmetrically or asymmetrically about the negative space created by the neck of a piece and how to employ the handles.
Look what this hath wrought… all still in the initial setting up phase prior to the bisque firing, so they may not survive, but the fact that the cantilevering made it through the week is encouraging.
What? Let’s see that from the other side, shall we?
These take a lot of work and care along the way. But I hope they are worth it. Here are some action shots (can you see Patrick Swayze just behind me? And can you sense that I’m telling him to get the heck away from me before he knocks my arm and I have to go all exorcist on him if he ruins this piece?)
Are these the first photos of me on this blog? I think they may well be. Maybe I should look up. (I hide behind my pottery? I live in it. You will be in this pottery. I cannot divide my feelings up as easily as you… or maybe I just need sleep.) Smile for the camera. Then get back to work. These vases don’t just make themselves, you know.
It’s not all about walls…
Let’s hear it for doors, shall we? Doors and cabinets? Anyone? C’mon… this it the exciting stuff. And yesterday David and I went and picked tiles for the shower, paint for the entire project, knobs, handles… even grout colors. It is a wild final race to the finish line all of a sudden. Aesthetic decisions being made left and right. Just as a preview, you can look forward to the day when you say, “I remember when these walls were white.” You know us. Think color on the rich side. Not necessarily dark, but deep and hopefully saturated. Just a teaser.
Steve and Marla: Don’t look! SPOILERS AHEAD!
My cousins Steve and Marla are expecting twins, due this spring. Identical boys, Zack and Theo. Or is it Theo and Zack? I can never tell those two apart in the ultrasounds. What’s an excited relative on the wrong coast to be of any real help supposed to do? KNIT, of course! And now, if I can just wrap these up and send them out, I should be in time for the baby shower in February… if only my Valentine’s Day cards were similarly on schedule.
Made from the finest hand-painted Uruguayan wool, I made these matching baby kimonos. From a pattern? Well, sort of. When have I ever met a pattern I didn’t think I could tweak? Longer ties, belt loops, smaller eyelet patterning in the increases by using kfbs and pfbs instead of yarn overs; and the TechKnitting secret of doing an extra kfb just prior to binding off the neck, separating it nicely from the shoulder. These came out great. David, coincidentally, has a cousin also having a baby boy this spring, so I broke out the Wool Ease yarn and made another one while I still had it ingrained in my muscle memory using a store-brand, regular thickness yarn (not that I’m playing favorites or anything, but, well, sure, I am. Zack and Theo get the good stuff. There, I said it.). After three in a row, I could keep churning these out in my sleep.
The walls… it’s like they’re CLOSING IN ON ME!
Ok, no need to feel claustrophobic. It isn’t just you, the walls really ARE closing in. At long last, we have walls, actual walls, not just studs and exposed wiring. Maybe this will give a better sense of what the final space will look like.
Bamboo lace?
Yes, it’s true… this lace scarf is made using a yarn made entirely from bamboo, one of the more renewable resources (it’s an invasive weed according to my horticultural sources). The yarn has little “pull” to it, so it works well for lace.
