So, today I made… more mud pies

Today I managed to have 2 pots “blow out” on the wheel, and got a third gingerly off the wheel intact. We’ll see if it is too stressed from water to actually cohere. I am hoping to get some time during the week to go back to the studio and do some experimenting.
I guess the color in this day’s post is “mud”.
The Rainbow-shot (sort of like a moonshot over the week) was inspired by Lolly’s Project Spectrum. I’m not sure if she’s still doing the project on Ravelry, but there’s also a Flickr group that gets updated with peoples’ photos.  Thanks, Lolly, for inspiring me to find a corner of my porch that works almost like a lightbox in the early morning.
You might wonder why I didn’t do ROYGBIV. It’s all the fault of Captain Noah and his ark (thank you regional kid’s television).  Now I’m trying to figure out if I want to do another week long project.

Making mud pies

I’m off making mud pies… well, actually it’s a clay class.
Unfortunately for me, my first effort looks rather like a blonde version of the cauldron in Lloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron.

So, now I contemplate if I should fire it in the kiln and see if trying cool glazes will make me think less of it as an interesting exercise.

And… I’m making more mud pies. Maybe pictures once something is done.

Seagull in a pool of water

Seagull in a pool of water, a photo by rjknits on Flickr.

For Project Spectrum (September), I went to one of the beaches by the bay, and looked for natural yellow elements. The sand and yellow reflections on the water here, made for a fun picture. Alas, no knitting for the color yellow was done. I’ll post other images, once I’ve sorted through them. But this one sums up the end of summer and beginning of autumn for me — bittersweet and filled with rain.

Experiment with Pearl watercolors

Experiment with Pearl watercolors, a photo by rjknits on Flickr.

Since today is the first of many days with weak sunlight, this is the best my camera will be able to do.So, what do you think? Try the Yasutomo watercolors out on darker watercolor paper? Or try using them to accent things where I want a bit of shine, even if the background is white?

Pearl watercolors

Who knew that the Yasutomo paints I talked about in my last post would have such satisfying results. Sheer, with a shiny sheen. So now, it’s time to find cold-pressed dark watercolor paper. Or maybe these can be used less like watercolors on sheer paper, and then layered over something else.

If the paint doesn’t fade while it dries, I’ll take a picture in the daylight of my doodle.

A girl in a blue beret

From his seat on the train now, he watched as the farm filed yielded to ragged outskirts, which melted into factory buildings, which gave way to the switching yards …. His stay with the Alberts in 1944 overlapped his visit now, as if he had jumped over time and might still be hiding behind an armoire or in a haystack with a cat. The shadowy figures of the brave people who had saved his life — in barns, in hidden rooms, on bicycles — were coming clearer, almost reachable. He welcomed them. … he could almost believe that the girl in the blue beret would be waiting when the train pulled in to the station.” — Bobbie Ann Mason. The Girl in the Blue Beret. Published by Random House, 2011.

A lovely book, well paced and interesting. For me, it was more about the mysteries of lost connections than WWII, but there’s enough of both. Sometimes the main character seems egocentrically North American, but that seemed to ring true to the character’s development and his reason for visiting France decades after his plane was shot down during the war. I enjoyed the gentle unfolding of the different truths within this tale, and will look for more books by the author.

Knitting things (apropos of nothing): I have done some knitting for PS5 blue. But mostly, with the hot weather and book sales at closing bookstore chains, I’ve been reading or taking photos of cool blue. If you’re doing PS5, hope you had a good time with blue and are gearing up for August (pinks and purples).  I’ll probably be wrapping up “blue” a little late, since I still have some yarn to photograph and I got some yarn that fits in with this months’ theme as well.

Cool blue

The weather is too hot. It hit 107 °F (42°C) today. So far, the electric is holding. Fingers crossed. It’s too hot to knit. But tonight… tonight I’m looking at photos of the water from my holiday. Sigh. Love the curved horizon you see on the ocean sometimes.

We’ve been told the heat should break after Sunday. In the meantime, I’m going to sulk indoors, read my library books, play with paints and try to find some sorting to do.

Wishing you the bluest sky

I’ve been traveling lately. And sometimes, the clamber is worth the view. The picture on the right was taken (I think) at Burnt Head, on Monhegan Island, Maine. One can quite see why the artists clamber around on cliff sides with their easels strapped to their backs.

Lovely calls of gulls as they wheeled overhead, cedar waxwings back in the bits of forest, etc. The Gardener and I took it slowly, mercifully meeting only one or two people going down when we were climbing up the paths through the underbrush. No sprained ankles, luckily.

In keeping with the “blue” theme of Project Spectrum and July, we spent one evening relaxing while looking at the water on the left, sipping on Bombay Sapphire gin and tonics. It was a wonderful way to unwind.

I’ll probably limit most of the vacation photos to Flickr, since mostly they’re pictures of sky, water, surf, and oceangoing vessels. Possibly not all that interesting to my readers. However, I did visit Tess’s Designer Yarns in Portland and Halcyon Yarn in Bath, Maine, so there will be photos of yarn for the knitters in the future.

 

Red azalea from backyard

Red azalea from backyard, a photo by rjknits on Flickr.

Since I’m not the Gardener, I can’t really tell if this is an azalea or a rhododendron. Project Spectrum 5 has started, with red as the first color. [And, somehow, I lost the rest of this post, so I'm typing like mad to reinsert the quote I found, at least.]

“Bees and butterflies are generally not attracted to red flowers because they lack visual sensitivity to that color.” David Lee. Nature’s Palette: The Science of Plant Color. Published by University of Chicago Press, 2007.

Don’t look Mabel

Don’t look Mabel

Originally uploaded by rjknits

Like Garbo, the sheep at Maryland Sheep and Wool seem to want to be left alone. After having I don’t know how many people snapping pictures or sticking their fingers through their pens, I’m always amazed at how serene they are.

Of course, I’m the dratted paparazzi here.