The pottery hole is deep

[wayfaringwordhack]

 ...apparently a three-month, one-day deep hole, according to my last post.  Momma mia, has a lot happened in those three months.  Seriously, where has the majority of 2025 gone?

First of all:  Going downtown to a studio to take pottery lessons (mostly for things I can and have learned by myself, thanks to YouTube) and to transport all our greenware there to be fired was not sustainable. SO:  We bought our own firing baby; yep, we are the proud owners of our own kiln.  Thank God for J's salary in Lebanon.🙏  And while it is a learning curve to use one (especially here in Lebanon with Electricity Issues™), it is such a joy to have control over the process. We have many lovely pieces now and plan to keep making more, more, MORE!

Which we actually need to do because J and I will be participating in a pottery fair a month from now.  Here are the pieces I shared for the fair's promotional use:



The above are made using local clay (part of the 50kg I mentioned the post linked below).  As you might be able to deduce, I absolutely love carving and sculpting with clay.  You might recognize this next piece from my last post:




The color on the top of the frills is a bit darker than I wanted, but it is still OK. Glaze and learn; glaze and learn.  "Make and accept there will be breaks" is another mantra. Oh the beautiful pieces I have lost. Even the one above piece is slightly damaged at the base of one of the frills because of a glazing accident, preventing me from selling it in good conscience.

As you can imagine, with the purchase of a kiln and a pottery fair to produce for, there was a lot of making going on in June.  In July, the family and I traveled to France for a brief stay to visit home, family, and friends.  It was difficult going back for a "short" time because many tasks on a homestead need more than a few weeks of sustained labor.  Only one more year to go on the Lebanon contract.  What's next? Only the Lord knows.  The kids want to stay in France, but with J's job, that might not be a possibility just yet.¹

As soon as we got back from France, we welcomed home a kitten we had anticipated adopting before she was born. I will give her her own intro post.😻. And I'll get to start using my "kitty" tag again.

The pottery hole is deep, yes, but wide as well; it needs SPACE.  Therefore, we did the logical thing and sold our salon furniture to make room for crafting. 🤣. We were throwing pottery on our terrace, but what with all the leaves and bugs getting into our clay, we decided it would be better to work inside.  Many Lebanese homes have a "formal" reception area in addition to a family living room/den (or they have a very large room divided into two spaces: Fancy receiving side and comfy, everyday side.  We didn't get much use out of the fancier stuff and figured it was better to offload it now and use the space to our liking rather than having "extra" furniture to get rid of before our move next year.  And with a kitten in the house, the sooner the better for the state of the merchandise. 😜

The same morning the buyer came to pick up the furniture, we packed up the kitty and went to resort for the weekend with friends.  Whoosh, there went most of the money we got from the furniture sale.  I don't feel like getting myself into a bad mood right now, so I won't talk about the quality vs price disconnect that exists here. Suffice it to say, it was waaaaaay overpriced for what it was.  Not all was bad, though.  We had a great time with the kids and friends, and (cue a tiny bit of sarcasm) thanks to Farmer Boy losing his glasses, I was on the beach early morning and saw a baby sea turtle making its way to the water.

Despite the verrrrry early hour, I called J and had him bring down the kiddos for their first-ever sighting of a baby sea turtle.  This wee one was apparently the last to make it out of the nest, so we were very fortunate I happened upon it when I did.



(yes, my boys have long hair)

This species of sea turtle is black as a baby, unlike the ones we saw hatching in Mayotte. I went back through my entries tagged "Mayotte" but didn't find any that showed the baby sea turtles we saw hatching there, but I know they were much lighter in coloring, like this one here (not my photo). 

This is our little guy after I rinsed him with some sea water because he (or she. LOL) was so covered in sand, he was having a hard time moving: 

 

As soon as we got back home, it was, yep, you guessed it:  Pottery time.  But last night, after doing scraffito on my latest tumblers, I declared I wouldn't do anything pottery-related (besides unloading the kiln this afternoon as soon as it has cooled enough) until I have A) finished (not to mention started) the sermon I have to preach this Sunday, and B) done the latest art prompt the kids and I are working on.  We have missed the art prompts, which fell by the wayside last summer when we were stuck in France and couldn't come back to Lebanon.  So, at the kids' request, we have begun again.  Can't wait to start sharing our makings.

__________________

1) We have started the What's Next? process, which entails perusing and evaluating J's options.  Mayotte is possibly on the table again.  I had a lots of ups and downs there, and it is not my first choice.  I would, as I told J, prefer to discover some place different.  However, he loved Mayotte, and I am willing to go back if it makes him happy; I only asked that it be a last resort.   As always, we can orient ourselves towards certain options, but like with any job, we aren't the only ones deciding where he will be assigned/what post he will get.

Comments

[asakiyume]

So that's, from left to right, T'loup, Farmer Boy, and S? Your children are beautiful! And little sea turtle! Live long and prosper, little guy!

Love love love the design and color on the left of the two pieces in your promotional photo--at a glance, the exterior looked like wood, like the patterns were wood grain, and then on closer look it's like butterfly or moth scales, lovely. And I love the mother-of-pearl look of the interior glaze. And I love the way the frilled one turned out!

What languages do the kids speak? French, English, and Arabic?

I really look forward to hearing where life takes you next.

[wayfaringwordhack]

So that's, from left to right, T'loup, Farmer Boy, and S?. Yep. I think they are beautiful, too.😆

I really hope the turtle makes it, too; I know it is not always a done deal: get to the water and then have long life and prosperity.

One of the things I love about pottery is the unplumbable depths of possibilities: Form, texture, color, materials, etc. and all the variations thereof.

The kids speak English (mother tongue, therefore most used) and French with only a smattering of Arabic words. I didn't put it in my entry, but I told J I don't want to do another Arabic-speaking country. I want something completely different next time, a different sound and cultural flavor.😜

[asakiyume]

Seems fair--you guys have had a LOT of the Middle East.

How about Nouvelle Caledonie? Fancy a stay in the South Pacific?

[wayfaringwordhack]

Actually, that is one place J can apply for and we have considered it. Sprout is not big on the idea; she likes cold weather and the tropics do nothing for her. However, J with his love of spearfishing and surfing is pretty keen to go to such a place. He and Ti'Loup went surfing this morning, and J told me that if he gets Ti'Loup "bitten by the bug," he'll have another voice in his favor to go live in some such place.😂

[asakiyume]

Oooh, yeah: it's hard if some of you love cold weather and some love the tropics!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Very hard! I can do tropics for a time, but I don't want to finish my days there.🏝️. Give me some seasonal change! ☀️🌦️⛈️🌨️❄️🌫️

[asakiyume]

🥰🙏🏻

[queenoftheskies]

What an amazing life you lead!

Your pottery is beautiful. Good luck at the fair. And congratulations on your kiln.

Your boys are beautiful! I love their hair. (My sons both have long hair, too.)

What a cute baby turtle. I hope it makes it to adulthood.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Farmer Boy (in the middle) used to have hair longer than his brother, but he asked me to cut it for him recently. He loves not having the tangles all the time. LOL. Ti'Loup on the other hand, is afraid for me to cut his hair because his sister told him it won't be so blond any more.🤣

I really hope that little turtle makes it, too.

Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

>>Here are the pieces I shared for the fair's promotional use: <<

The texture on those is amazing. I'm intrigued that you glazed the inside while leaving the outside just clay. The one with the frills looks like some sort of sea creature. :D

>> Many Lebanese homes have a "formal" reception area in addition to a family living room/den <<

For a while, American homes that were big enough had a parlor like that. Now it's a rare feature, although some split into a "living room" and a "family room" that may or may not have any functional difference. But once in a while I see a house that still has some sort of receiving room for guests. It's useful if the family entertains a lot.

>>I was on the beach early morning and saw a baby sea turtle making its way to the water.<<

So adorable!

Re: Wow!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Hi! Long time, no see!

The texture on those is amazing. I'm intrigued that you glazed the inside while leaving the outside just clay.

Thank you. I wanted to leave it bare because the glaze usually obscures the texture a bit. And sometimes the ruggedness of the fired clay is a beautiful counterpoint to the smooth glaze.

Re: Wow!

[ysabetwordsmith]

I do like the contrast between glaze and clay. Especially wild clay can have more texture than commercial clay. I dug my own once at a summer camp, and it was so much more varied than commercial clay I used in summer art classes. We fired it in a campfire pit, so the coals added more colors.

Yes, glaze smooths over some of the texture -- more for a thicker glaze, less for a thinner one. The only glazes I've seen that leave a rough texture are a nuisance to work with and usually not safe for eating off of, but some of those give metallic tones so they're pretty for purely decorative pieces. On sculptures the effect can be very similar to bronze metal.

Have you seen the texture enhancing glazes, though? I know of at least two types. One is a milky white or light color, with some much darker pigment suspended in it. When you apply the glaze, the heavier pigment sinks into the low spots. So for instance, I had a bowl that was mostly white, but the faint spiral in the bottom was traced in vivid red flecks. Beautiful. Another type has a medium color glaze, often gray or blue, with a bunch of other pigments that will settle out in different layers. It's highly responsive to texture that will snag different types of pigment. So you might see areas that are more green or more blue, very pale or darker, and so on. It typically has a dappled or streaked effect overall, very pretty. These are usually used on wheel-thrown or hand-shaped pieces that have texture, rather than slab or slip-cast ones that are smoother.

I'm not sure what the official names would be, but these are effects that I see in pottery for sale around here, in central Illinois, USA. If it's not something you can buy, it might be something you could make if you're into mixing rather than buying whole glazes.

It's really interesting to see what different potters are making. There's another on Dreamwidth, offcntr, who often posts his work, from the West Coast, and he paints wildlife on most of it. Imagine plates and pitchers and such with paintings of otters, whales, sea turtles, herons, wildflowers, and the occasional redwood tree. It's beautiful.

Re: Wow!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Oh boy oh boy, making our own glazes is something we are excited to do. I talked us down from it because, like I said (I think I said), we just started pottery and need to spend a bit more time learning craft and the kiln. Not to mention that aggravation of trying to source raw materials in Lebanon. It is so hard to get stuff here; even glazes that are normally in stock can go off the shelves for months at a time. We were planning on packing several kilos of goodies to make our own stuff the last time we were back in France, but after consideration, it just wasn't the best plan.

Thanks for the tip about offcntr; I will check him out. I like incorporating nature in what I do and will share a couple of those types of pieces.

[mallorys_camera]

Your pottery is really amazing-looking. And your kids are truly seraphic.

thanks to Farmer Boy losing his glasses

Isn't that always the way it is when the Universe vouchsafes you a glimpse of magic? You are distracted, perhaps fretful—-and then, BOOM!!!. 😀

[wayfaringwordhack]

Thank you, thank you! I particularly enjoyed this BOOM😄

[tolcath]

Glad you were able to get a kiln! Good luck with the fair!

[wayfaringwordhack]

Thank you, dear!

[michaelboy]

Congratulations on the new kiln. I remember the one in my dad's art room class was a fire brick behemoth that used lots of power. I was really young at the time but do recall there were little ceramic cones that would melt to shut it off.

Your kids are adorable. Thank you for sharing.

[wayfaringwordhack]

Surprisingly, our electricity bill hasn't gone up as much as expected since we bought the kiln! But with all the electricity problems here, it is never a relaxing affair when we use it. Ours has a programmer that does most everything, but we do use cones from time to time to verify what temp we fired to (see above comment about electricity!)

Thank you for reading. ;)