A new workspace and I can't stop making pears

Thank you, sun, for blazing through the clouds this morning. I can now wear one tee shirt instead of three, reassure myself spring really is here, and take photos of my new claywork space.

A whole five foot worktable thats deep enough to allow me room for making larger pieces. Above which I've arranged some old plates and some of mine too. And a clock I like, which does not work, but reminds me not to fritter time away.

I can stretch out here, roll out big slabs to make things like this fourteen inch platter fresh from the kiln. A country lady with her donkey, rabbit and stripey stockings.

I don't have to scrinch in my elbows. And more than one spoon at a time!

A long bench to store clay, tools and works in progress. Can you see the boquet of lupin to the right? I risked jail time for that bunch of flowers. My mother informed me its against the law to pick them. I hope she doesn't drop a dime on me.

(Scene of the crime.)

See what I mean about pears? My sister and I decided this morning they are one of the most beautiful shapes in nature. Here they are drying on a shelf under a sunny window, which I can open when the afternoon sun hits. This was a bit of a motherlode in terms of time and sweat equity (Mostly my husbands), but I can't wait to arrive here in the morning, put on music and turn the lights on, one by one.

xx

julie

Look what Nina did with a couple of my simple bird charms..........

Isn't she amazing?

www.ornamental.typedad.com

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Smoke and Ash

Its been smoky and ashy here. Up the road about forty miles is Big Sur, where a fires been raging for weeks, and a couple hours south there's another one in the mountains above Goleta. Some wonderful firefighters have come to help us in California, so we can kill the dragon.

We live right up the street from Otter Cove. It's the funkiest and oldest house in the neighborhood, and you can barely see it for the trees I've planted. I'd dig a moat too, if only the town would allow it.......My stepfather and uncle were telling me one day they counted 124 otters in the water. I didn't have the heart to tell them those were the top bulbs of seaweed, which appear each summer and do look remarkably like otter heads! You can see them in the photo. The otters do like to feed in the kelp beds, sometimes you can hear them hitting shellfish open with a sea stone.

The other pic is the fruit stand on Santa Rosa Creek, where we buy our oranges and avacados. An honesty stand, where you take what you want and leave your money in the piggy. Its good to mosey out there after being in the studio for hours. But as soon as I put the fruit in bowls and check the animals, I remember there's just one more thing I have to do out there. I see that the front orange box in the picture is empty, that's cuz we cleaned them out!

About me

I live in a small town, where wild deer gnaw at my Cecile Brunner rose bushes and the fog hurls in ghostlike from the Pacific, then suddenly withdraws just as quietly. There are twelve steps to the studio from my front door. No matter that it's stuck on the end of the house, a former laundry room about the size of a dove cote. It's lined with plenty of windows and my cup of coffee is still hot by the time I arrive inside. jkwhitmore@hotmail.com