Chaotic lives

I'm currently reading Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. And by "reading" I mean "listening to the mp3 version on my ipod nano while I walk around Boston and make pottery." Someone had suggested this book to me since it is about a woman who takes a year to live around the world and, for lack of a better phrase, soul-search. It is super interesting, and while there are a lot of things I can't relate to (praying on her bathroom floor, living in Rome and drooling over the hot Roman men, living in an Ashram in India) there are many things that I do. An excerpt, below, I found particularly cool... it's about a building in Rome that has survived 20 centuries being reinvented for dozens of uses:


"I find the endurance of the Augusteum so reassuring, that this structure has had such an erratic career, yet always adjusted to the particular wildness of the times. To me, the Augusteum is like a person who has led a totally crazy life, who maybe started off as a housewife, then unexpectedly became a widow, then took up fan dancing to make money, ended up somehow as the first female dentist in outer space, and then tried her hand at national politics.... yet, who has managed to always hold an intact sense of herself, throughout every upheaval. I look at the Augusteum and I think that perhaps my life has not actually been so chaotic after all. It is merely this world that is so chaotic, bringing changes to all of us that nobody could have anticipated."

I dont really agree with her conclusion, but I have for years loved this idea of living a life of reinvention. I want to be that woman who is a fan dancer, dentist, politician, and who knows what else. Well, actually, I think I'd make a mediocre fan dancer and horrible dentist... I want to be a business woman, a world traveller, a writer, a politician, a potter, a high-school civics teacher, a producer for NOVA, a baker, a mother, and maybe a couple other things. I think the world has so much OPPORTUNITY for chaos, and that people dont take enough advantage of that. It is so easy to keep going on a straight path (or what SEEMS straight, at least,) but I want to be 8 different people all wrapped, strangely but somehow in a way that makes sense, in one.


Does that make me a schitzo? I like to think it makes me ambitious... ;)

Damn you Oreos and your Double-Chocolaty Goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the oreos came back to haunt me at the 4.0 mile mark... oy

Philisophical questions of the day

Does taking a nap from 11am to 2pm constitute breaking my rule of waking up by 10 every day?

Will the 8 Trader Joe's Oreos that I just ate help, or hurt, the 5 mile run I'm going on in a couple minutes?

If I spend >4 hrs a day playing with mud, does that mean I'm just reliving kindergarden?

Nike+ >> Gmap-Pedometer

check out yesterday's run. HOLLA



Up to now I've used www.gmap-pedometer to estimate my run distances, but I finally got to use my Nike+iPod device yesterday and it turns out my routes are about 10% longer than I thought. I mean, Nike might be the wrong one... but since they say I am going further and faster they MUST be right

I was getting nervous about my 5mi run in March in Virginia Beach so I decided to run 5 miles yesterday, with a half a mile in the middle just walking. So I did 2.5 run, .5 walk, 2 run. It was WAY better than I thought. That half marathon in Aug/Sept isnt looking QUITE as a$$ crazy as I had thought

and since, despite it's lack of accuracy, Gmap-Pedometer still shows a visual representation of my route... i give in

and when I got back to my apartment my knees screamed very naughty curse words at me. quite naughty.

Back in the Saddle

I was still sick over the weekend... however, I powered through in order to a) make pottery, b) drink beer with friends, and c) watch my crazy sister play her crazy japanese koto. crazy koto!

at the Pottery studio saturday there were a bunch of beginners standing around chatting as they wedged their clay, and one made the comment to the instructor "Pottery is so addictive! I could just quit my job and do this all day!" I love my life!

Large Honeycomb Bowl

Red/white clay mix; amber celedon glaze outer, mocha inner; 10" diameter and 6.5" tall

This was attempt numero dos at a bowl I had made back in the summer. I had liked that bowl a lot, but had given it away as a gift. Good thing I had pictures and so could replicate it (only better/ faster/ stronger/ etc a la Daft Punk and Kanye West)

I am much happier with the glaze on this one, since the dripping of the amber between ribs causes a cool effect and the mocha on the inside is a much better counterpoint than the white was. These bowls are pretty big for our studio... I wont lie, it's entertaining to be working on one of these and have some beginning student walk by and gasp. "Yeah, that's right. I am your Pottery God. Bow down before me. And get me some more clay."


I spent about 6.5 hours in the studio today... part of that I was helping out by recycling clay and making glazes. Making glazes is fun because you get to be a pseudo-chemist, playing with lots of toxic chemicals in powdered form and wearing a fun HAZMAT mask. Too bad there werent any men folk there at the time, I'm pretty sure I would have had them swarming around me.

i am a woman of many talents

Good thing clay doesnt require verbal communication

Not a lot will keep me away from the pottery studio. OK that's a little bit of a lie... ultra-cold weather and sickness will do the trick. Yesterday I had a fever and so I didnt make it in. However, the advantage of not working is that I could still go to my wine-tasting without feeling guilty! Today my fever wasnt as bad but, somehow, my vocal chords got covered in junk. I sound like a 70-year-old man who has been smoking Marlboros since age 13.

So I was able to make it to my studio tonight for my class. I missed the first class of the session last week due to my going-away-party for work, so this was the first time many of the people in that class met me. And they must have been looking behind me to see the trail of ciggies.

Amber and Blue Tall Pitcher

white clay; amber celedon glaze with noxema blue detailing; 9" tall, 4.5" diameter, 7.5" wide including detailing

Purchased for the collection of Anonymous

This was a renewed attempt at a pitcher, since I have learned how to throw taller pieces and make better handles. I love the way the amber glaze looks against the throw-lines (circles of valleys/ridges in the clay) and shows the texture.

However, there are many problems with this piece which I shall be happy to point out, in chronological order of occurance:


1. The piece had a hole in the bottom. Somehow when I put the ball of clay on the wheel, there was an air hole, and when I pulled the clay up and down the air pocket got bigger. Then when I drilled in with my fingers, my finger hit the wheel head. So it was a pitcher with no bottom. See, thing is, I have this pesky habit of wanting my pottery to be functional. So I had to slap on a thin layer of clay to the bottom afterwards.

2. I wanted a certain shape to the bottom part, so I could only trim a certain amount of clay away. I didnt throw the bottom thin enough, so in the end it was very thick. The whole thing now weighs a LOT. I mean, really heavy. If it were filled with liquid it would be not-so-fun. and I like my pitchers to be fun :(

3. The handle... while better than many I have made, it still has a lot of imperfections that show through the glaze. It is a little too far out from the piece, which makes holding it a LITTLE awkward. and it goes straight from the bend to the bottom attachment, instead of sloping inward with another bend. So it looks kind of stiff.

4. And last, but not least: the blue on the bottom is WAY too contrasty with the amber. There is actually amber on top of the blue, which I thought would make things blend really well... but it just looks like a blue slob of paint on the bottom. Gross.

Wow, I just realized, I'm such an artist, criticizing everything I make. How proud I'd make my parents!

changing the rules

besides my resolution/rule to run 4-5 times per week, I've made some other rules for my time off. One of the most important is to always wake up by 10 on a weekday. I want to get a good night's sleep, but not be a TOTAL worthless lazy bum! (I save that for the weekends)

Today, I broke that rule.

Of course, all that means is that I need to revise my rules!!

Rose's Revised Rules of Voluntary Unemployment

1. Wake up by 10am every week day
2. Run >3 miles 4-5 times per week
3. Do >45 minutes of yoga 1-2 times per week
4. Say "yes" to as many social invitations as possible
5. Rules 1,2 may be broken in case of extreme weather (nor'easter, hurricane)
6. Rules 1,2,3,4 may be broken in case of extreme sickness (fever >100F, other heavy illness)

Rule 6 is the new one today. I was so sick I slept until 12:15... then again from 2-5:30. I only woke up at 5:30 because I had signed up for a wine-tasting class with Thom and Kelsey, and I thought that by that time in the day rule 4 overrulled rule 6. Plus wine is DELICIOUS.

The wine actually made me feel a lot better... now I know how to get rid of fevers! I'm practically a doctor now.

i wish i had a Wii as a child

i am pretty sure this little girl is the reincarnation of my sister Juliet. Well, Juliet isnt dead. But if she were..... if she were!

Self-Motivation is worthless below 32 degrees

I am constantly amazed at how self-motivated many people are. Previously I had seen people running at night in single-digit weather and thought "wow, I guess they like running." No, they are crazy people who dont have nerves on their thighs or face. And have a lot more determination than me.

One of my many resolutions for my "time off" is to run 4-5 times a week. Looking at the weather report for the next 7 days, I have to pick those 4-5 carefully. 11:30am today it was probably just barely above 32, and I didnt quite take into account the wind. still, though, got through 3.2 miles. with a lot of walking-breaks. and a couple muffled screams into my neon-pink hands.

While I was running I started wondering what people thought of me. Whenever I used to leave the office to do an errand and see people leisurely exploring town, I always was curious who the heck would walk around the city in the middle of a weekday?!? Housewives? People with odd-houred employment? Students? I would see a 30-something couple walking and think "DONT YOU HAVE JOBS??" I hope people seeing me walk around in jeans and bright shoes during the day think I'm a graduate student. "Yeah, she's just taking a break from her earth-shattering research into the bio-luminescent properties of the ignalious perpetuous plant. Normally she uses her breaks to continue her book of Poetry, "Badass MC," but today she is enjoying the scenery" Graduate students are usually so passionate and dedicated... what I want to be when i grow up. MASS SHOUTOUT TO MY GRAD PEEPS Ethan/Lindsay/Mikey/Pallavi/Blair/MikeG/Tulasi/Thom

Casserole+Running=tummyache

Rust-Red Lidded Casserole with Ribbed Handles

Red/white clay mix; randy's red glaze; 8" diameter and 4.25" tall; 10" wide and 6" tall including detailing

I had made a casserole dish back in November and was sad that it sold at the sale I participated in. Sad... in the way that $30 in your pocket makes you sad... only a little.

This one is an homage to the original. it is a little smaller (8" diameter instead of 11) but I think the execution is better (handles look less amateur, lid fits a lot better.) The glaze didnt come out with quite as much red highlighting, but it's pretty bad-ass nonetheless. The interior did do a similar reddening based on the reduction reaction happening because I fired the top and bottom together.


Now that I have all this time off, I'll have to cook a bad-ass casserole to go in my dish.



On a non-pottery related note... I bought an iPod Nike+ sport kit today. Now that I'm training for an 8K and half-marathon, I've got to step up (PUN INTENDED) my workouts. Everyone at my sister's company got iPod nanos for the holidays (WHAT THE HECK? we got fleeces. Juliet wins.) My current iPod often stops working halfway through a run, so I'm buying a nano from one of her co-workers. with that, the Nike+, and my new workout clothes (see yesterday's post below,) I'm going to be a running MANIAC. Or at least a nerd with a pink jacket and expensive electronics.

a slight change...

My life has become more interesting than just pottery alone recently. I KNOW what you are thinking - how can there be anything more fascinating than POTTERY? there isnt, but there are supplemental events and activities which round out the exuberance that is my day-to-day goings-on

I recently decided to take about 6 months off from working. My itinerary, in oh-so-methodical bullet form:

• Approx 3 months of that will be travelling around
  
• the US
• the world
• the far far away and beyond
  
• The rest of the time will be spent
• making pottery (DUH,)
  
• training for
  
• an 8k run in March
  
• a half marathon this summer (now THAT is what they call a 'reach goal.' or a 'what the hell am i thinking' goal. you decide,)
• sewing
• doing a lot more cooking
• reading
• writing
• learning more spanish
• who knows what else :)

In the spirit of bullet 2, sub-bullet 2, sub-sub-bullet 1, I went running with my sister today. 22 degrees farenheight meant bundling up in all of my athletic-best

3.2 miles today. and my iPod stopped working at mile 1.2. DANG YOU, SHODDY APPLE BATTERIES

Golden Marbled Vase
White and red clay; golden-green glaze;
5.5" diameter and 7.5" tall

This was the other piece I made after seeing the youtube video of someone throwing a marbled vase. (see two posts down.) My new goal is to take a video of myself throwing clay and become an internet video star. Though maybe that's not so exciting... maybe I'll just be an internet star among bohemian nerd-hippies

This piece is much taller than the small marbled tea cup I made, which means it took a lot more time to throw it. The extra time is used to bring the walls of the vessel up, to thin them out, and to shape them. That means that the two clays get marbled together a lot more. The marbling is very thin-grained and subtle on this - with the golden glaze it almost looks like an amber wood. Or a really dirty vase. One or the other

You can also see how different the same glaze will look on different clays. I made a similar piece back in August, also a vase and with the same glaze, however the one in August was just white clay. You can tell it is the same glaze, but the marbled one shows a lot more texture underneath. Texture rocks my world.

Studio Sweet Studio

some of you have been asking where I make this pottery. Common guesses are in my apartment, in my oven, or at a store on Newbury street.

none of the above, sorry to disapoint your avid imaginations

I make my pottery at the Boston Center for Adult Education at 5 Comm Ave in Boston. Basically the studio is in the basement of a BEAUTIFUL brownstone in the back bay. It is actually really weird to be this bohemian hippy playing with clay in one of the most pretentious buildings in town. And by "weird" i mean "awesome"

Marbled Blue Teacup

My pottery studio is finally open again after the holidays! POPULACE, REJOICE!!
The studio is now open for limited hours but at least I can go in a little bit. I went in tonight and it was just like old times. yay!


Back in December I had been looking for pottery videos on YouTube (dont laugh) and found one on making marbled pieces using different colors of clay.

Pretty flippin awesome, so I tried it with a couple pieces... below is one. Success!

Marbled Blue Teacup
Red/black clay and white clay; fleckner's blue glaze; 3.5" diameter and 2.5" tall

I knew I wanted to make a marbling with as much contrast as possible, so I took about half a pound of pure white clay and half a pound of regular red clay, then added a little bit of black-tinted slip (slip is just runny clay) and added it to the red. This made the red a LITTLE bit darker than it would have been.

I put the two chunks side by side and punched them roughly into a ball, then threw the small cup like I normally would have done. At the end, all the water you use on the wheel makes it look just light red overall - but when I was done, I took a metal rib (sort of like a spatula) and scraped all sides while the wheel was turning. This scraped off all the wet slip on the outside and revealed the marbling underneath!! I then took two more small pieces of clay, kneaded them just briefly, and shaped a handle.
I wanted to show the marbling off as much as possible, so I chose a semi-transparent glaze that I know is a brilliant blue on top of white clay but is a dull color over red.

Since this was a very small piece, the throwing took only about 5 minutes - which means the clay wasnt moved around a lot on the wheel. Therefor, the marbling came out very broad... which I love!!! The teacup is too small for me to use for my massive cappucchinos in the morning, but it is nice to look at.

Thank you, YouTube!!!

Heavy Rainbow Mug (commission!)

Heavy-Duty Rainbow Mug
Red/white clay mix; noxema blue glasxe on upper and handle, randy's red glaze over entire area; approx 4" diameter and 7" tall
Commissioned for the collection of Mr. C Stanvick of the Back Bay

A co-worker took a chance on a fanciful young girl from Andover and became the first person to commission work - yay!

This was one piece he asked for - a heavy mug that could replace his water cup at work. The water cups at work are large styrofome contraptions that are a) wasteful and b) not very fabulous. So he asked that I make him a mug that could replace that for his daily iced tea.


This is my Ode to a First Marblehead Water Cup - large and somewhat cone shaped. The glaze is similar to what I did on another mug recently, with blue seeping into gold and red. The inside red got very deep due to the lack of oxygen flow (reduction reactions.)

The glaze did drip a bit near the handle and formed a little nub at the bottom - which I actually kind of like, because it makes it look more crafty and hand-made

Some people have been asking about commissions lately - YES I WILL MAKE YOU STUFF! Let me know if you're interested in requesting a piece or some pieces. Small stuff like mugs is generally a few weeks in turnaround, large stuff a big longer.

claybyrose@gmail.com is my clay address. Because, you know, i have to be professional and everything.