Sweat box camel 2013

Last time I mentioned this I had 3 weeks to go.

Now I have 5 days.

I think the nose has to be reduced by one piece.

I will have to think about this

This new head is taking shape.

I have been spening a lot of time the scuplture studio this week.

I have enjoyed the challenge,

and hope it all comes together in the end.

I made the eyes, large ceramic buttons.

Stoneware Tenmoku, work quite well, now the decision is

single colour eye lids or double.

At is stage I am thinking single but the option will be left open until the last minute.

What do you think?

Check out the other creative folks at

                                             http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

Rabbits love Rannuculi

It doesn't take the rabbits long to find the sweetest things.

I wasn't sure but I had a bit of an idea

that my bulbs weren't safe.

The furry little blighters ate my Asiatic Lilliums last year,

They also ate my dahlias,

my Calla lillies,

and anything else they could get there furry little faces close to.

I have to cage up sections of my garden and hope they don't burrow

underneath.

This was initially constructed for a clucky chook as a safe nursery for her

and her chicks when they hatched. 

I did hope that the Owl may scare them off but they are not afraid of plastic

Its a shame!

Fingers crossed my efforts works will be successful.

More camel lamps

With some interest from a Canadian reader,

I have made more camel lamps.

Perfect for using citronella oil if mosquitos are a problem in you area

as they are here in Mildura in summer.

I could hardly believe my eyes to see some mosquitos in the studio on Wednesday night.

It has been freezing, did they come in for the heater?

They were slow.....easy targets...but just as annoying as they are in summer.

This last few weeks have been an exciting time for the Pottery club.

We have been working out of my mother garage since our purpose built studio was demolished

(to make way for a swimming pool for the disabled).

Note the recycled drug cabinet we got from an old folks home.

All those drawers make it easy to organise the tools and

the children have more fun putting the tools away.

With 7 or 8 adults in here it gets a little personal.

Many of the wheels have been left in storage

Just a week ago we recieved couincil permission to build a new studio.

Yippee!!!

Now for the funding phase...

We are working on a storyboard for the video clip which will accompany our

crowd funding effort. Which platform shall we use?

More on that later.

Any ideas or suggestions greatfully accepted.
Click on the link to see what the other MudColony bloggers have been up to this week

http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

Jack Frost

The ground was cruchy this morning when I took the dogs for a walk.

I knew it was cold but had not realised just how cold.



I don't think I have captured the ice in all its glory

There are icicles on every thing, albeit tiny.

I might borrow a super camera from uni to see if I can get some better shots.

We are so lucky with our winter sunny days

but it is the sun on the ice that does all the damage.

Evening primrose can handle just about anything including frost and sun

It's a shame that these thistles also thrive in these conditions

I will have to eliminate them before any flowers appear this year.

Quince experiment

I have many quinces still on the tree

There was so much fruit this year a branch broke.

I have never cooked them to eat, but I have enjoyed many years of quice jelly

made by mother inlaw, Patsy M

Natures own bee less honey..yum

This year I want to be able to talk with my market customers

 about coking them.

Customers have raved about roasted quice being delicious,

so that will be on the menu this week too.

Husband put a recipie book in front of me this morning and suggested

Chocolate quince tart.

He even bought a tart pan

so I guess he is already tasting this in in his imagination.

I am not the cook in this house so it is quite the challenge

especially on such a glorious winters day.....

only a few clouds in the sky and 16 degrees C

                                           I think the scarecrow could do with a new out fit it,

looks like his arms have dropped.

With the sun so low on the horizon there is much shade in the garden.

Just one week to go before the shortest day of the year

then the sun begins it's climb back in the sky.

I have to show you my favourite weed....

its a salvia that self seeds every where.

I call it "Rogue red"

I think if you must have weeds, they should be beautiful, and easy to pull out.

This one easily meets that criteria

Michaal's bees love this one, as do I



Casting Pewter

This week in class we cast some pewter.

Design came first.

Pieces were made in wax and sprued together.

This was then placed in a tin can and covered in plaster investment.

Heated to removed the wax and kept warm to take the metal

This is what I had after all of that.

Then all those bits were cut free and the filing began.

Followed by carborundum paper.

Wet and Dry

The final polish has not happened yet but I am close.

These will be brooches, just a bit of fun.

The "JB" is going to be the signature on my small Sweat box exhibit.

I am going to share this on

                                            http://mudcolony.blogspot.com.au/

Check out what the other creative folks have been up to this week.

It rained!

27ml's of rain.

Over two days,good soaking rain

with a stange dry day inbetween on a market preparation day.

With so much rain the night before it was clear that just a few more ml's

would cancel the market. But the sky, cloudy but dry.

We spent a lot of time looking at the radar.

A monsoon off the Western Australian coast was feeding into our low pressure system.

 I decided early that it was going to rain and did not pick any flowers.

Had some in the cool room but left the ones in the paddock.

The market was called off at 3.30pm

My friend Lou and I planted daffodils,

200 of them. It will look fantastic!

Half of the circle on the left is Rannuculi

I'll repost a "before and after" in spring.

I can't wait!

Lou helped plant these trees in 1993

From little tube stock trees grown from seed collected in Silverton, near Broken Hill.

A fabulous forest.

It was designed to be our superannuation paddock.

Inside while it was raining I tried making a machette for this years

Sweat box art exhibition.

Sweat boxes are timber boxes were used to take dried sultanas to the packing sheds.

I have made ceramic buttons for eyes but they are looking a bit alien on that messy table.

Tenmoku is very close to a camels eye colour.

I want to make a new head for a body I made some years ago

Made from 2 sweat boxes, I like this body but the original head was never quitre right

I have three weeks to complete this,

best I get on to it!