I bought a pottery kiln six months ago for the wife and she’s been firing it about every month or so. We’re having some problems with warping in the glaze-firing process, so we’ve been experimenting with plate molds of varying wood breeds and thicknesses. It’s been frustrating, but I guess you have to start somewhere. She’s been blogging a bunch of arts and crafts projects lately: Elizabeth Chandler Designs • Project Blog
The wife and I traveled to Albany, GA last weekend for a friend’s wedding. We got to town early enough to walk through the park and trails on the riverfront and even attended a Lumberjack Show downtown. Downtown Albany seems to have a pretty good revitalization plan in effect, but they’re a long way from seeing it realized.
I bought the wife a used Cress L-23 electric kiln for her birthday. Does anybody have any experience with one of these things? Any tips that’ll keep me from burning down my garage?
The wife signed me up for a second watercolor class at Furman. My technique is getting a little better, but I’m still trying to add too much detail. The excess paint muddies the image and bleeds over the white space that makes watercolor so unique. Maybe I’m just not a watercolor painter. You might recognize a couple of these images from our recent trip through the mountains.
For my birthday, the wife enrolled me in a watercolor class at Furman University. It ended last night, so I thought I’d post some pictures of my paintings. This was my first stab at watercolors since the second grade and my technique was a little rusty. Some of the paintings are out of proportion and I wasn’t very good at letting the white show through. As you might expect, the gallery includes the obligatory Bob Ross landscapes and the clichéd fruit bowl.
The wife made a pink, velveteen rabbit for one of her oldest friends who just had a baby girl.
You can see the assembly process here.
When we lived on Capitol Hill, we kept our copies of the free community monthly, the Hill Rag. The cover art was usually pretty good, and we thought it would be fun to frame them someday. So for an anniversary gift to one another a couple of years ago, I made this piece to rest on the mantle of our new house:
I made it in such a hurry that I forgot to take pictures of it during construction.
