These are incredible icicles building up on my back porch stairs. Beautiful, but not quite safe. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen these form like this on my third floor landing. Guess that’s another good reason to stay inside today?!

And what’s with these strange “bubble” rounded bumps of ice forming? Pretty groovy.

Another cold Saturday. It’s snowing again.
And there’s more frost forming on my windows. Love the feathery crystal formations!
Guess I “need” to stay inside today…

C’mon… don’t they look like feathers??? I love the delicate swirls.
The repetition of lines. The organic way they’re all “growing” out from the center.

Looks like the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia are starting with a bang!
And as always, the Opening Ceremonies left us with some incredible visuals. Lots of floating islands. Incredible projection imagery. Thousands of performers. And an incredible gantry system that moved all of the hanging scenery pieces across the stadium. A little disconcerting to hear that this entire stadium, and the MILLIONS of dollars spent on it, is only being used for the Opening & Closing Ceremonies. No sports will be played in there. Seems like a waste… even though it was stunning for us to watch on TV. I can only imagine seeing it in person… some day…

And then there was the moment when they did the traditional “Dove Of Peace” representation that happens at every Olympic Opening Ceremony. However, they did it in an incredible, mesmerizing way… twirling, glowing, undulating… practically flying!

Of course, a production this huge can’t go off without a hitch somewhere. The only one I really saw was when the fifth snowflake didn’t open up into an Olympic ring as planned. No biggie… we still knew what they meant.

Now we leave it up to our American Athletes to go out and conquer Sochi.
Bring on the games!!!… and bring home the GOLD!!!

I had no idea this was actually a real thing!
I thought some one was goofing with the letters on the sign.
But apparently not. Seems like they actually do a big deal on Valentine’s Day with red linen tablecloths, waitresses and all. Who knew???

Tonight I did a little detailing of my class demo bowls from Tuesday night.
They’re still a bit too wet to trim, and al little too squishy to stamp… but what the heck…
I decided to go for it!!!

Stencil & Slip Bowl – now with a decoratively stamped rim.

Flared Flange Bowl – now with a stamped interior band.

Split & Pinched Rim Bowl – now with stamped dots on the pinches!

Super-Wide Flanged Bowl – now with a band of decorative stamping.

Fluted Rim Bowl – now with some graduated “beads” along the rim.

Flanged & Fluted Bowl – now with a ring of stamps!

Today I was contacted by an Estate Sale coordinator. She was asking if I sign my pots with the signature “Gary.” After a little double-checking, I found out that a collection of my work is going up at an Estate Sale at the end of the month. Hopefully another pottery-lover will snatch them all up to start their own collection!

I find it pretty cool that she could track me down purely by my signature!
Although I’m still not quite sure how I feel about my pots being in an Estate Sale???…
I guess better than a Goodwill or Salvation Army, huh?

Click here for the link if you want to go snatch them up yourself.
I’m sure you’ll get a great deal on them!

You know it’s extra snowy & windy when there’s a snow drift INSIDE my condo vestibule! But I guess that’s really no surprise after I woke up with a dusting of snow on my bed. Guess that’s what I get for keeping my window open year-round, huh?!

Well, we’re at Week Four of our Beginning & Advanced Beginning Wheelthrowing class.
And tonight we tackled BOWLS!!!

Bowls on purpose… not a whoops, my cylinder just turned into a bowl!!!

So I taught them the basics of throwing a good bowl. Right from the start… from opening the ball of clay with a curved bottom… to shaping the bowl with a rib from inside. I always stress the importance of throwing the “inside” shape of the bowl. The outside you can trim to match the curve of the inside… not visa-versa!

After I threw my first demo bowl, my students went back to their wheels to start making bowls. In the meantime, I threw eleven more of the same basic round bowl. We then all reassembled for Part Two of the bowl demo… altering & decorating each of them in a different way. My goal is to show my students a few quick tricks, encourage them to try some new techniques and to emphasize that “it’s just clay” and they need to play more & express themselves!!!

So here are the twelve bowls after Part Two.
They all started the same, but didn’t stay that way for long!

Bowl #1 – Just a couple finger flips for a new “twist” on a round bowl.

Bowl #2 – And if two twists are good…. eight twists might be better!

Bowl #3 – Then I flared out the rim to add a flange all around.
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #4 – A bit of flange is good, but more dramatic is always better!
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #5 – Why not combine them – finger twists & flared flange?
This one will be stamped later when it stiffens up a bit, but not too much… tomorrow?

Bowl #6 – With a simple dragon-scale tool…. a few impressions makes a nice flower!

Bowl #7 – A split rim pinched back together… kind of a quilted rim!

Then I introduced them to colored slips. I planned ahead and threw my bowls with Ochre Stoneware. When it fires it will become a dark chocolate brown. I knew that white slip would make a great contrast in the end. I explained slip possibilities & overwhelmed them with too many options. You could see their eyes glazing over… or looking back in fear. Too many options!!! And we haven’t even glazed anything yet!!!

Bowl #8 – After coating the inside, I dragged a round tip through for a fun spiral effect.

Bowl #9 – Kinda the same, but this time banding & squiggling through the white slip.

Bowl #10 – Another white slipped bowl, but this time chattered with a rounded rib.

Bowl #11 – Two letters cut out of the newspaper stuck on & slipped over. Then pulled out to reveal a little monogram inside the bowl. Shhhh… Don’t tell anyone, but there’s a “really good chance” that it will go to my niece Taylor… they’re her initials!!!

Bowl #12 РThe last bowl was a two-tone ombr̩ effect with white & blue slips.

So now all twelve bowls are back in my studio. Wrapped up for the night. Tomorrow I will do a bit of stamping, some more altering and some more detailing of the bowls. Always my favorite demo of the session… now I just hope my students make a bunch of bowls. And not just plain old round ones!!!

So not only do they MOVE, LEARN & EAT…
they also made a great little movie that is visually stunning.
Mesmerizing as is quickly passes by. The visuals are stunning. Enjoy.
MIRRORLAPSE.

Click here for another mesmerizing short film by Rick Mereki – MIRRORLAPSE.

I want this guy’s life.
I just found these videos online and was instantly mesmerized.
Such a simple concept. Such a wonderful adventure. Such beautiful videos.

Three guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage. All to turn three ambitious linear concepts based on movement, learning and food into three beautiful and hopefully compelling short films by Rick Mereki.

Click here for the short film “Move.”

Click here for the short film “Learn.”

Click here for the short film “Eat.”

Pretty impressive, huh?! Now don’t you want to walk around the world too???