Outside, Inside

Can you blame me for going twice to this mustard field in the last week? Its been three days since my last visit and I'm already plotting ways to return today. A bridge spans over the creek, and the swallows have built a metropolis there. There are hundreds and they swoop all around you, emitting soft little peeps as they dive after the insects that drone above the water.

The mustard is so high this year. If I were to clomp around down there, it would be about two feet over my head. All this yellow, all these birds and sweet clean sky make me feel airborne too, just like those swallows. So clomping seems unseemly.

Looking North from the bridge, our house is about two miles from that clump of eucylptus.

A squirrel watched me, hanging from a new fence that keeps the cattle from creek trespassing.

I nearly stepped on this one foot long lizard, I was so intent on looking up, not down. He skittered away just in time.

A brand new winery up the highway. They planted fields of lavender and roses. Olive trees too.

I was hesitant to go inside . In overalls, boots and a sweater with a patch on it I decided to wait til I wore my Sunday best to try their wine tasting.

These are their cabernet franc grapes, just emerging.

Now we are home. The inside part. Thought you might like a gander around, and this is my pantry. If you open the doors its full of dry goods. I only have about two built in cupboards in the kitchen and so this has given me a wonderful excuse to indulge my cupboard love!
The painting above of Moonstone Beach is by Terry DeLapp, a local tonalist painter.

English cupboard in the kitchen. I know this because there are little hooks in the side with donkeys, from Clovelly, near Devon.
heee haaaw

Dining room. The wall is painted a pale robin's egg blue. Old botanicals on the wall.

Dining room again. This is the first antique I bought. I got my drivers' liscense on my 16th birthday, drove to Orange, near our house in Southern California and bought this with my babysitting money. I had borrowed my brother's convertable and brought it home sticking straight up from the back seat. I still can't believe I didn't get pulled over.

Now just so you don't think I live entirely in a Charles Dicken's novel, I do like contemporary things too. Especially craft. This rabbit is by Paulina Temmes. Paulina's things are tender and exquisite. She doesn't have a blog but does have an Etsy store:

http://www.lemmikkiapina.etsy.com/

Pottery by local Potter Paula Teplitz. Dark clay, wax process. I really don't understand how Paula makes this , I just know its beautiful. Paula shows her work at Chamber's Gallery in Cambria.

A Cathy Cullis heart with a poem about a traveller. An anniversary gift from the mister.

The back as wonderful as the front!

In pottery news, new lady and animal plates.

and beakers too.

Back outside!

xx

julie



juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

my green sky

I know flocks of girls who admire bluebirds. There's Carolyn, Barbara, Pat , Nancy, Sandi, Delila Vicki, Colette,Dana, Lori, Nina, Jody, Janet and Heather. And Carol g! and thats just the beginning. They must feel like Thoreau who said 'The bluebird carries the sky on her back'....

Every once in a while I paint a bird girl piece. This pale pink wall in my studio is holding them up for now

While we are in my studio, right outside my window, there's a blooming going on of pink and white petunias

Back in side, here's one of my first girl and birds, a swan.

I've got loads of spoons to list. They're dangling from an old rake while they wait for me to
get busy with the camera.

But instead of being productive, I decided to write down things that are pink.

I forgot mouse ears.

and cotton candy!

A pink breasted pigeon. Isn't she beautiful?

This is my best friend, Kary. she is a little shy, loves red gingham, Teddy, home, and 1962. Calls this hairdo a 'birds-nest'. And her favorite bird is the owl.

http://www.myfarmhousekitchen.blogspot.com/

Emily Dickinson wrote 222 poems about birds, including The Hummingbird.

Here's what Pablo Neruda had to say about humming birds;

The small bird on fire

Which dances out of the pollen

Just a short drive from here the pink sweet peas are washing the hills

Standing in the middle of this pinkness I was swaying with the scent . I wanted to lie down and sleep there. But I carried that scent home with me, in the form of a single sweet pea .

Because I beleive in the Chinese proverb

'If I keep a green bough in my heart,

The singing bird will come.'

wishing you a pink spring

xxx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

Pot dogs

` As dog figures go, the Staffordshire Spaniel has no peer. It was a quintessential mantle ornament to any home loving, dog adoring family in Great Britain. I've been making some of my own 'pot dogs'; keeping true to the basic idea but adding embellishments here and there.

One dog above has a bluebird around his neck and dreams of going back home, while the other sits on a river bank as a fish swims silently by .

Cats qualify for the mantle too, especailly tortoiseshell cats. One has a teapot, the other a cup.
The tiny pair in front are salt glazed, about 1820.

The Spaniel mania began in the 1660's when King Charles II came to the throne, his adoring crew of King Charles spaniels capering around him at the palace like a gaggle of geese. And in the center of England, there were the Staffordshire potteries with all that clay, salt , water and coal for firing and the icon of all dog figures was born.

Above, a sample page of more things the potteries produced. This charming page courtesy of

James Kent Potteries and Reggie of Reggie Darling. He has a wonderful blog, and an amazing array of Staffordshire too.

www.reggiedarling.blogspot.com/

All this beauty and whimsy came from this remarkable, bottle kilned, coal spewing, terrible, beautiful area of England. Women, men and children worked in shocking conditions and usually for twelve to sixteen hours a day. At one time more than 100 seperate potteries operated here, the center of the pottery world.

My little piece of history, a small black elephant.

When Victoria became Queen, her Spaniel, Dash came along too. Right after her coronation she returned to the Palace, hurried upstairs and gave Dash a bath. There's a woman who has her priorities in line!

Even though I walk by a rose covered bower on my way to work, I still felt a connection to the hard working, brave craftsmen and women in whose footsteps I followed as I painted these, and they are very hard footsteps to fill, even with my size nine shoes.
xxx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

beautiful japan

Japan is rich in many things, and symbolism is one of them. The Cherry blossom is compared to the fleeting cloud , its beauty and swiftness of life. I've been thinking about Japan and all it has given to the world of art and of culture. Not just their brilliant pottery, woodcuts and the haiku poetry but their grace and dignity in the face of this recent disaster.

Since the third century people have gathered under the cherry trees for celebration of life.

I have watched like you have how the earthquake and tsunami has seemed to weave them more tightly together, their stoicism and and sometimes selflessness heart wrenching. Like the workers who stayed behind at Fukushima , risking their lives so others might be safe.

I've made a bluebird perched on a mound of cherry blossom and offer it for sale,

all the proceeds to go to Save the Children for Japan. If anyone is interested, bluebird is five inches tall and six wide. **This little bird is flying away, Thank you so much , Jacki!xx

The bluebird because it brings luck and happiness. He is 90 dollars and that includes shipping.

Also a pottery friend , Maki, has a 1,000 bird project on her blog and is making wonderful bird chopstick rests, all proceeds to help Japan

http://www.makikohastings.blogspot.com/

The goldfish in Japan symbolizes perserverence in adversity, watching them takes the viewer to otherworldly states, as these rabbits will testify to!The temple bell stops.

But the sound keeps coming

out of the flowers

Basho

xx

julie

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com

1810

1810 was a banner year for crafts. Samplers, silouettes, and paper mache flourished.

In Staffordshire, the world's pottery center in 1810, classical themes were abandoned and potteries began to represent current events in their pieces. This couple are wearing the fashions of the time. Tee Totaling was popular, but you can see the mister isn't too happy about it.

This was made while Jane Austen was writing Sense and Sensiblity down the road apiece. And Beethoven was preforming live in Germany.

So when Ann Wood offered a tutorial on her blog, one for a cup that reminded me of early nineteenth century pottery, I printed it out and bought a tub of wallpaper paste. I have alot of pent up paper mache love. My theme for the cups is 1810, even the paper on the butterfly cup is 200 years old. When you moisten the newspaper with the paste its very much like clay. And the pattern is so refined; Ann is not only brilliant, but generous.

Here is a pile of paper crockery of Ann's, showing how evenly she lays the paper strips.

One of Ann's other creations. All can be seen here:

www.annwoodhandmade.com/

French paper mache doll head of the era.

Just like the ones Jane wore as she dipped her pen nib into an inkwell and scribbled away.

I took Ann's pattern to the print shop and had it enlarged to make this loving cup.

The best part was adding the gold ink to make it sparkle a bit.

Listing as promised today and tomorrow

And over the weekend I went looking for spring.

I think I found it!

xxx

juliewhitmorepottery.etsy.com