Diabolical Clay

Good morning everyone, it is very grey down here in Tassie at the moment. We are just coming out the other side of a few days of heavy rain and it has been a bit cold and miserable.

Actually, it has been freezing and so of course my thoughts today have turned to sunshine and summer sunsets and the pressing need to buy a heater for the studio so that my hands don’t turn an alarming shade of red then blue when I am working.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

Over the past 72 hours I have been accused of being jealous and of nursing a galloping case of sour grapes. This morning I was also told that it is very poor form on my behalf to have “attacked” the remarkable bloggers so viciously.

Oh dear internet, you are being very defensive.

If I had worked furiously, filling up 24 hours a day in my quest to be an uber successful blogger, if I commented everywhere, joined in with everything, courted PR firms, blogged about cleaning products and hosted giveaways. If I had turned my blog into an easily marketable package and my bookshelves were lined with Darren Rowse’s “How To” books nestled next to  Everymans guide to SEO for Dummies.

If, my lovely internets, I had done everything in my power to become  the number one blogger in the world and failed miserably, well then it might be fair to say I was suffering from Sour Grapes.

What I am suffering from internet is an inability to keep quiet and an overwhelming urge to poke at the status quo.

All my life I have asked, Why?

This is not the first time I have used my blog to ask questions about what is happening within the Australian Blogosphere. With the help of friends I mounted a rather successful albeit very short lived, “Die Churp Die” campaign. I am not sure if we killed the birdie or not but no one has been churping in my twitter stream so I count that as a win.

I ruffled more than a few feathers when I wrote this blog post titled, A question of Personal Ethics, where I banged on about Nestle courting the Australian Mummy bloggers. I wrote about my views about the so called  A list of Australian Bloggers and exhorted everyone to act like they are an A list blogger.

I don’t write these posts for the stats as It was pointedly suggested on twitter yesterday, my stats could be through the roof but they wont do me any good as I don’t run advertising that pays by page view. All a high traffic day does is make my graphs look uneven and messy.

I write these posts for the same reason that I bang on about plastic in the environment. I am driven to start conversations that some people find unpleasant because there is a huge culture of silence within the Australian blogosphere and I don’t like silence when it is coupled with business, it makes me nervous.

This morning as I was reading my rather unpleasant emails and asking myself If I really did have sour grapes, am I an arsehole who just wants to “bring people down” I clicked over to twitter and in an instant knew who I was again.

I saw that @ChadLaFarge had given me a +K on Klout for Bacon and a +K for Eek.

This made me very happy and restored my equilibrium.

If I really was the nasty grasping piece of work I have been accused of  I wouldn’t be at all pleased by a Zombie K at all, nuh-uh I would be chasing Ks for blogging and marketing and whatever it is that Klout thinks is important.

So there we have it internet, I am back being happy with myself again. My place in the blogosphere in secure because Klout tells me I am influential about Zombies. I really think that is rather remarkable, don’t you?

The fact that a plain brown caterpillar can spin a cocoon and after a bit of a snooze, emerge as a multi coloured butterfly is pretty remarkable. Cramming hundreds of people into a tin can with wings and flying across the ocean at speeds of over 500 miles an hour is also quite remarkable. Alan Shepard thwacking a couple of golf balls across the surface of the moon is also classed as remarkable.

A bloggers talent agency in Australia, whilst long overdue, is not that remarkable.

There was a very loud and muddled conversation on twitter about The Remarkables Group, which wasn’t helped at all by whoever runs the @TheRemarksGroup twitter account only posting half a tweet at a time and responding defensively, if at all to questions by other Australian bloggers on twitter.

Other people joined the conversation and words like Storm and Furore were used, shouts of Tall Poppy Syndrome were heard and then the crowning glory of conversation stoppers was used, as Zoey Martin and I were described as Vocal Minorities with a galloping case of sour grapes.

*Sigh*

Nothing is ever easy when you are trying to get your point across in 140 characters but I thought this tweet of mine was pretty clear in its intent.

I don’t have a problem with the @TheRemarksGroup or with the Remarkables themselves. I have a problem with the promotion of Superiority

Indeed it is the promotion of superiority that I dislike very much, but I am very well aware that Brands and PR love it.

The first rule in Marketing is:- If you want to sell Product Z, you first have to make people want to buy Product Z. The easiest way to make people want to buy Product Z is To make Product Z exclusive, thus heightening its desirability by a zillion marketing points.

But there is also a very real and clear danger here in this small Australian fishbowl, that  this premise of exclusivity will backfire on the remarks group and ultimately hurt those bloggers that are involved.

The tweets from @TheRemarksGroup linking to a blog post by Seth Godin titled, You will be judged or you will be ignored  also act to further shut down conversation. The Remarkables Group make it clear that they are coming from a defensive position of the injured party being wilfully misunderstood by some disgruntled and jealous members of the Australian blogging community.

*Sigh*

The Remarkables Group represents five Australian bloggers, two of whom are internet friends of mine, I would like to state clearly and for the record that I wish all five remarkable bloggers the very best in their new venture. May your blogging careers be truly remarkable and may your spare rooms be forever full of interesting product.

A bloggers agent is a fantastic idea, but surely the job of an agent is to promote those bloggers in their stable to the best of their ability. Not to deliberately provoke some members of the Australian blogging community with the assertion that we the unremarkables have also been judged and somehow found to be lacking?

Your world can be turned inside out in an instant.

The words, “Mum I am pregnant” are not words you want to hear from your seventeen year old daughter on Christmas day and I well remember feeling an unhappy mixture of grief, fear and anger. Grief for my daughters loss of innocence, loss of freedoms and loss of all the possible futures that a Mother dreams for her daughter. Fear at what toll a pregnancy would take on her already fragile body and anger that she could be so stupid as to bloody well fall pregnant at her age.

Of course Veronica didn’t fall pregnant accidentally, it was a well planned pregnancy and with the benefit of  20/20 hindsight I have accepted that my teenage daughter knew exactly how her life was gong to proceed and everything has turned out for the best.

Fast forward seven years and Veronica is now 25 weeks pregnant with her third child, a girl baby.

A baby girl that I didn’t realise I was so invested in until I receive a phone call last night in the middle of dinner.

Mum can you take me to the hospital, I haven’t felt the baby move since 4 am.

I am tearing the house apart searching for my bra, trying not to cry, trying to fasten the stupid bra whilst looking for my handbag. One half of my mind is going through my personal checklist of the accoutrements of appearing in civilisation, bra-teeth-shoes and the other half is going, please don’t let the baby be dead please don’t let the baby be dead please don’t let the baby be dead.

I was completely fine until I had to tell “The Spouse” where I was going.

Telling “The Spouse” anything always brings me totally undone, because as long as the words stay inside my head they can not possibly come true. Saying the words aloud gives them power, so I whispered where I was going, burst into tears and tripped over the fucking dog on my way out the door.*

Veronica lives a good sixty minutes drive, away from the hospital and we drove  for fifty five minutes, not saying much to each other but both aware of each others fears, until the baby gave a little kick, five minutes away from the hospital.

Bloody children.

So today I am a little bit drained and I am contemplating eating more chocolate than is healthy but you know sometimes chocolate is a necessity.

*the dog wasn’t harmed, though he did look slightly annoyed to be trodden on and yelled at the same time.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

These photos were all taken here at my home with my little Lumix point and shoot in 2009.

Adriana Christianson from the Mud Colony Blog has a weekly link up of ceramic posts on her website.

I thought that It would be nice to do a weekly what has, or hasn’t been happening in my studio and link these posts up with the Mud Colony Blog.

When I decided to get serious about clay in 2006, I knew deep in my heart that I was a thrower, in fact I knew that I had been born to throw. In my first year of study, I spent hours and hours on the wheel and with each pot that I cut in half and threw into my recycle bucket, my conviction dimmed.

It took me three years of serious effort on the wheel to finally realise that I don’t actually like throwing all that much. I don’t like the time it takes to get set up, I don’t like sitting still and I really don’t like coming back to the work and turning  yesterdays pots.

I was taught by Dawn Oakford a slip casting maestro with a love of colour who fires in oxidation and Ben Richardson a woodfiring, production potter with a passion for digging his own clay and glaze materials.

Both of my teachers influences are strongly evident in my work and I have learned to balance my love of delicate slip cast pieces with my need to create rustic earthy slab formed platters.

For first time visitors there is a bit more about me  on my ceramic gallery page.

So this week in the studio I have been distracted by crows (or Forest Ravens for the pedants) I have been trying to photograph the Ravens without much success as they are sneaky buggers, who well remember that one time, 20 odd years ago when I blasted a  few shots into the air to scare them away from my day old chickens. The Ravens have the most gorgeous blue eyes but this is as close as I am able to get to them. So Far.

Also I have been nagging (I asked him twice) The Spouse the cut off the tops of some tree stumps in my new orchard so I can plonk some sculptures onto the stumps.

I opened the kiln recently and was shocked by how very, very, very blue some of my work was. As I was staring blankly at the blueness of some pieces, I had a terrible thought. I thought, “Kimmy you added 5.0 g of Cobalt Oxide to 1 kilo of dry weight instead of .05 g didn’t you?”

Oh dear, oh deary dear. A quick check of my glazing notes confirmed my suspicion, that I had indeed made such a mistake. I have no idea where my head was that day but it certainly wasn’t where it was supposed to be.

The blue isn’t too bad on this bowl as the texture breaks it up but oh my word the blue is hideously measled on some of my slipcast peices.

The blueness of the cobalt mistake glaze, luckily also works here on my barnacle platter. So the whole firing wasn’t a total waste of time

And just for a bit of reality in the studio. I have been asked to make some slipcast cups for a friend. It has been a bit chilly down here in Tassie. So chilly in fact that I have been loathe to stick my hands into a bucket full of cold, cold clay.This is the chaos of my slipcasting area as it looked this morning. I will be cleaning this space up today in preparation for destroying it all over again with a quick burst of slipcasting. Or I might be chasing Ravens.

Recipes.

Blue Mistake glaze

Potash Feldspar 60. Whiting 20. Silica 10. Kaolin 10.  ( I added 5% Cobalt Oxide)  instead of .05%

The glaze on the Dragon Eggs is VSAG (Vitreous Slip as Glaze) one of Ben Richardson’s recipes

Nepheline Syenite 35. Silica 20. Kaolin 25. Dolomite 20 for the black colour I added Red iron oxide 5% Cobalt Oxide 2% Manganese dioxide 2%

I didn’t have any Dolomite so I substituted Talc 10 and Whiting 10. The glaze was almost the same as the original VSAG glaze that I have been used to but it is a touch shinier and inclined to run a bit if thick

For the red flash on the dragon eggs I added 2 level teaspoons of fire engine red stain to one cup of VSAG base Glaze.

Iron Wash on Barnacle Bowl

Red Iron Oxide 60. Rutile 20. Nepheline Syenite 20.

Happy Mothers Day everyone.I am going out to see my daughter Veronica and we will be having scones with jam and cream. I am going to dig out my Great Aunt Joan’s, Royal Doulton tea cups and we will sip cups of tea from proper tea cups.

It will be nice.

I am seriously pushed for time this morning, so without further ado here is this weeks Sunday Selections.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

There was much talk about the “super moon” on twitter the other night, I couldn’t see that this full moon was any different from any of the other full moons I have seen before. Now I know that this moon was closer to earth, yada yada yada but because I live in the country and don’t suffer from adverse light pollution, I have a wonderful clear view of the night sky every night.

I absolutely adore the full moon but I can’t be bothered dragging out the tripod and taking photos like a proper photographer. I just run around the house snapping away madly freehand, and hoping like hell I don’t trip over anything in the dark.

I get very bored with my own images very quickly, I mean how many photos of the full moon does one woman need? And the moon does end up looking like a speckly peeled orange with all those segments after a while. So I have lots of photos like these ones as well, where I am endlessly fascinated by the patterns the branches make.

I am more interested in the texture of the branches and the circle of light bleeding into the clouds than the actual moon itself. I have just used the moon as a handy source of light.

Anyway enough with the moon, last week we went fishing for a bit and this photo shows young players how not to hold their rod when targeting Tassie Black Bream. David was rolling a smoke and if a bream had taken his bait he would have lost his rod as well as a tooth or two.

I think I have Titler’s block.

The title of my blog post is generally the first half of a sentence, with the opening sentence of the blog post completing the thought that was started in the heading, with the post then following along in a semi-orderly direction.

But not today.

Today I have Titler’s block and so this post will be all over the place, completely without any structure.

It is 12 noon and I have done sweet eff all this morning.

Apart from drive the totally unplanned hour long round trip to get David onto a metro bus because he missed his school bus this morning.

And seeing the suburban bus stop is next to a supermarket, I did a quick ninja shop and bought ingredients for three different meal options for tonights dinner.

Tip for young players. Do not go to the supermarket before breakfast.

I came home with canneloni and couscous, ricotta and red snakes and now that I have had breakfast I don’t feel like cooking a bloody thing.

David read my blog post , “When Magic Kisses and Wiggles Bandaids Don’t Work Anymore.”

He kissed me on the top of my head and told me he loved me, I then pushed my advantage in the mum-needs-a-love stakes and also scored a giant hug and a kiss on the eyebrow for luck.

The proton pump inhibitor (40mg pantoprazole) has taken the edge of David’s nausea so he only feels terribly seedy each morning rather than constantly on the verge of throwing up. So that is a win, sort of. We also came away with lots and lots of Panadol-Osteo, some Celebrex and a small supply of Pramin (10mg Metoclopramide) for when he is really feeling like shit.

The paracetamol seemed to take the edge of David pain levels a tiny bit, but he complained it was making him feel ill so he stopped after 2 days. We still have the big guns of the anti inflammatory Celebrex to keep as breakthrough pain relief when he is having a big flare up.

One of the difficulties in dealing with an incurable, degenerative and rare genetic condition is that the medical profession are always constantly on the back foot and being reactive rather than proactive and it is disheartening to realise that all we can really do is muddle along as best we can.

I don’t like being reactive, I am a doer, I like to be prepared and to have a plan. I am a great believer in preventative strategies and I am sure I was a glorious boy scout in a previous life.

But Ehlers Danlos Syndrome doesn’t allow for plans and preparations. Veronica managed one of her most hideous and painful dislocations while she was sitting down being still. *sigh*

So we are taking each day as it comes and our next visit to the Doctor will be to get David a referral to a psych who specialises in talking with people who are dealing with chronic pain, it would be nice if this psych was also experienced with teenagers but I am not holding my breath.

In the meantime with winter fast approaching we took advantage of a glorious autumn day last weekend to do a spot of fishing down at the river.

I like to make rocks. I get a great deal of personal satisfaction from making ceramic rocks. As I am making rocks I go elsewhere in my mind and I find a place of beautiful stillness and in this space I am working at my most intuitive.

I enjoy making all the work that I make, otherwise I wouldn’t make it BUT it is these rocks that give me the most pleasure.

So without further ado here is the Ceramic edition of this weeks Sunday Selections. There are some rules to this meme but I am fluid, follow them or not, it is up to you. I do ask that you link back to me though.

The Blurb

I take a lot of photos and most of them are just sitting around in folders on my desktop not doing anything. I thought that a dedicated post once a week would be a good way to share some of these photos that otherwise wouldn’t be seen by anyone other than me.

I am also remarkably absent minded and I put photos into folders and think that I will publish them later on and then then I never do.

So I have started a photo meme that anyone can join in and play as well. The rules are so simple as to be virtually non existent.

Just add your name and URL to the Mr Linky.

Publish your photos on your blog using the “Sunday Selections” title.

Link back here to me.

The Photos

These little lidded vessels are about the size of a squished tennis ball. I call them puzzle boxes because it takes a few twists and turns of the lid to make it sit correctly. I had heaps of fun making these.

This is a candlestick and incense holder. We had a power failure recently and I didn’t have anything to stick any candles into.

This is the side view of the same candlestick and incense holder.

This is part of the first platter that I made in response to my recent trip up to Burnie. I can still feel the psychic impact of driving over the hill into Devonport and being smacked in the soul by the ocean.

This platter is available in the Off Centre Gallery in Salamanca Arts Centre

And then we leave my rocks and travel to the other side of my artistic brain and have this work, which I also adore making. These three pieces are part of the Rose Exhibition, which is showing now at the Lady Franklin Gallery in Lenah Valley. I have donated all of the sale price of this work to the Cancer Council.