Diabolical Clay — Page 71

Please fill this space.

by frogpondsrock on September 12, 2008

In November there is an exhibition for Art, Craft and Design students at the Long Gallery in Salamanca Place. Before Mum was diagnosed with lung cancer I was excited about this exhibition and had some vague notions of making some quiet pieces,some simple forms that just were themselves and arranging them as a still life.

Now I am not so sure. My foundations have been rocked and I feel like I am slipping away from myself.

It has been a few years since I have flown out of Tasmania and because I live surrounded by so much natural beauty I tend to forget how ugly cities are.

When I flew into Melbourne with Mum, as we approached the city I noticed that nearly everything was square. Square fields, Square dams, Square houses on Square blocks of land. I dont particularly care much for squares.

The red tiled roofs of the houses reminded me of a bad rash on the face of a beautiful woman.

I have thought of starting a new blog. A new blog where I can just blurt out the shit that is inside my head. But I really cant be bothered and I just dont have the time. Mum reads this blog so how can I write about how much her cancer is upsetting me, without upsetting Mum as well? If I cant write about what is in my head what is the point of writing at all.

It is not really the cancer that upsets me because I reckon that we can beat that. It is the thought of life without my Mother that has rattled me. I really feel like I am swiiming through treacle and I am so pleased that I have finished drinking.

I have always been upset by the sight of dead wildlife on the side of the road, not overly upset at the fact that they were dead but more upset by the waste, a waste of their life as well as a waste of food. Now I find that I want to photograph the roadkill and I want to document the callousness of a society that leaves an animal lying dead in the middle of the road.

I think that for the exhibition I will cast some shells and cover them in graffiti and that will be my simple statement about what we do to beauty.

{ 13 comments }

Three phase power, red sticks and teenage boys..

by frogpondsrock on September 11, 2008

I have written about my poor lonely electric kiln before. If you click back and read the whole sorry post I wont have to repeat myself will I ? hint hint.

Right I am assuming that you have clicked back and read this post and now your heads are full of sympathetic thoughts for me. Well they dont need to be. The stinky pit of doom has been built at the other end of the house and we will have three phase power up here by June next year…

Look! Look! Look! See that red stick next to my power pole, (you can click the picture to make it larger). That little red stick has made me unbelievably happy. It is a little red marker advertising the fact that my ordinary everyday power poles will soon be transformed into power poles of total bliss.

Yesterday the spouse and I went to town and left our darling son at home. I had done the dishes before I went out. How on earth did one teenager make this amount of mess in six hours???

{ 11 comments }

Weekly Winners..

by frogpondsrock on September 7, 2008

If you have a spare moment could you please go here and sign this petition? Pretty pretty please????

{ 31 comments }

Ivy girl…

by frogpondsrock on September 4, 2008

This post has been copied, with permission from Veronica at Sleepless Nights

Ivy is beautiful and Ivy is sick. Ivy is only 2.

And yet, at age 2, Ivy has seen the inside of a hospital more times than anyone should have to. Ivy has a rare immune deficiency IgG. Because of that, she has Pemphigus which is an autoimmune response to the IgG [please note, these are photos of Ivy’s pemphigus blisters and they may be a little graphic for some people].

These are horrible conditions that no adult should have to deal with, let alone a child.

Ivy is currently on Prednisone and Mycophenolate to help control her symptoms and blistering; however, these drugs suppress her immune system, on top of the deficiency.

Ivy’s mum says “…she was never good at mounting a response to infection but the meds make it worse.”

She frequently ends up in hospital on IV antibiotics, just to help control the infection in her ears that never seems to completely disappear. She cannot be exposed to a simple virus in fear that it will land her back in hospital for days at a time.

She can’t go to the playground to play.

She can’t attend playgroup.

She can’t head to the supermarket with her mother.

She might never be able to go to regular school.

She is only 2.

However, there is a treatment that would give Ivy a good chance at normal life.

It’s called IVIG (intravenous immunoglobulin) and it is a transfusion of immune cells that would bolster Ivy’s own immune system and help her fight infections in a normal way.

Think about it, a chance at a normal life. A life that doesn’t involve frequent hospitalisations.

Unfortunately, the officials at the Australian National Blood Authority have denied the request for Ivy to have this treatment. This treatment that could very well keep her out of hospital. So far, all appeals have been in vain.

As Ivy’s Mum says on her website:

“My little girl is going to have a life of hospital admissions and illness, some chronic, some life threatening, because some guy in an ivory tower decided she could survive without this medication.”

How is this fair?

What if it was your child? What if it was your sister’s child? Do the rules change for daughters of the officials? How come someone with a big stamp gets to say yes or no to this little girl’s chance at a normal life?

It shouldn’t be like this.

All I am asking for is 2 minutes of your time. If you could just head over here and sign our petition, we might be able to get enough support to convince the National Blood Authority officials to change their mind.

Ivy is only 2. She deserves a chance to be normal.

Please, a minute of your time could make all the difference for Ivy.

Sign Petition

If you have a blog and you would like to help spread the word, please feel free to copy this post and link back here to me at Sleepless Nights [so that I can follow where it has gone].

And if you would like to follow Ivy’s story (and that of her twin brother and older siblings) you can find them here, at My Three Ring Circus, written by the talented Tiff. All photos were taken by Tiff as well.

{ 13 comments }

I don’t like green snakes.

by frogpondsrock on September 4, 2008

Caution !!!! You are now entering the zone of discontent...You will encounter copious quantities of Moaning, Whining and general Complaining for the next 34 lines…..

Rightio, now where was I? Something about not liking green snakes.

Mmmm, that is not exactly 100% true. I like proper real life snakes and some of them are actually green. It is the sweet variety of snake I am talking about and there are only green ones left.

*shoosh* I know that there are orange snakes in there as well but orange snakes are even worse, sort of a failed red snake if you like. I like to eat red snakes when I am writing and green and orange snakes just aren’t up to scratch. At All..Not by a long shot.

So I am sitting here trying to write a halfway decent post in a ‘snake-free zone’ *sigh*

Recently I bought a new (2nd hand) computer and last weekend David and I changed them over. My old computer has been moved into David’s room and I am sitting here thinking that I am using a dud, *sigh* . Someone had nicked half the RAM and this computer is really fucking slow. I mean really, really, really fucking slow. To add insult to injury I had all my favourite blogs bookmarked and my screen looks very sad and empty without you all sitting up there in the tool bar distracting me keeping me company. I have you all in my google reader so don’t worry, I haven’t lost you, but but but…. this computer is soooo sloooow!!! *sigh*.

To add to my already high level of frustration the cd door thingy wont open, so I cant install the photo program that I am used to using Grrrr… I have installed picasa and I will use that for the moment but I don’t really like it. So if anyone out there knows of a good photo editing program that is also free, as well as easy to navigate can you please please please let me know..

Right what’s next on my list???

I told my husband last night that I wanted a divorce and he just grinned at me. Bastard never listens to a word I say.. Hmmphh.. Bloody Men…

I am going to boycott Target. Well I am at least going to avoid Target like the plague when I am out with Miss Amy.. They have changed the checkout system, so instead of standing next to an assortment of lollies,magazines and other useless crap at an individual checkout. You now have to line up in the toddler heaven, tantrum zone, ‘chocolate alleyway of doom’ before you even get to a cashier. Poor Amy had a lovely time playing with me in the toy section of the store and once Veronica and I had manouvered her toward the exit she just couldn’t understand why she wasn’t allowed to play with all the lovely chocolates conveniently placed at toddler height… Bloody Target…

You have now left the Zone of Discontent….

It is Miss Amy’s birthday soon and my lovely friend T, gave me her son’s castle and trampoline. It is really nice to know that these well loved and well played upon/with/whatever.. items are now being rediscovered and re-played with..

cheers Kim….

{ 14 comments }

Not mysterious, just messy…

by frogpondsrock on August 30, 2008

This week there is a winner YAY…

Xbox4NappyRash Says:
August 29th, 2008 at 4:01 am

Dried up mess from after you’ve done that like pottery stuff n’things.

Yep Martin that is exactly what it was… Yay!!! WooHoo!!!

I had been messing about with some raw clay and when I poured the wet clay out of the jar it left a really nice pattern. My first thought was to photograph it and use it as an idea for decoration. I really like the flowing almost feminine shapes that the clay trails have left on the jar. My next thought was hehe “this will make a great mystery object”

Ree came very, very close with her guess as well. in that Ree mentioned wet clay..

Slip – (isn’t that what it’s called? the stuff that potters use? wet clay?).

And if ever I need to produce an image of Kelleys frozen bladder I have one to hand.. Thanks Kel..

Cheers Kim xxx

{ 12 comments }

Very Mysterious…

by frogpondsrock on August 28, 2008

OK mystery lovers what do you reckon this is?

You can click on the image to make it a bit larger if you like.. Have fun…

{ 12 comments }

wordless wednesday

by frogpondsrock on August 27, 2008

Wordless Wednesday shhh..

{ 20 comments }

I needed cheering up a bit.

by frogpondsrock on August 26, 2008

I am all cheered up now… thanks to lolcats.. and River emailed me the cereal killer..

{ 12 comments }

Weekly Winners…

by frogpondsrock on August 24, 2008

Monday morning there was an amazing covering of frost on my car. Normally the frost is just a plain sheet of ice that I quickly remove with a bucket of water. This frost was just beautiful and I took heaps of shots before I reluctantly cleared the windscreen and drove to the pottery.