road to the half marathon

Manish, the friend with whom I'm running the Toronto Waterfront Half Marathon on Sept 28, proposed this preparation schedule, in order to ensure full physical and digestive preparation:

Road to the Half Marathon - Terms of Bet:

1) Each participant will give up drinking (exceptions below) between August 5, 2008 and the completion of a half marathon, tentatively scheduled for September 28, 2008 in Toronto, ON. If one or both of the participants cannot travel to Toronto for the race, each participant should complete a half marathon before October 15, 2008, or the bet becomes null and void.

2) Each participant is allotted a certain number of "Get Out of Jail Free" cards, whereby the participant can partake in > 1 drinks on a given day. Manish is allotted 2 cards and Rose is allotted 4 cards. Each card is gained by the participant running at least 8 miles in one session. Cards may be stored and used as needed.

3) Each participant is alloted one glass of wine (or equivelant) per week to drink at their leisure.

4) If both parties successfully meet these terms or both fail at achieving this goal, then Manish will fund a fancy celebratory dinner after the completion of a half marathon by both participants. If Rose completes the terms of the bet and Manish fails, then again Manish will fund the celebratory dinner. If Manish completes the terms of the bet and Rose fails, then Rose will fund the celebratory dinner.

5) Each participant will update the other on Sunday night, complete with training results for the week and whether any terms of the bet were broken.

I think I got the better end of the deal... though I did have to fight for those 4 cards!

This has, actually, been super motivating... I ran 9 miles on Sunday (WHAT??? yikes. I am amazingly hardcore.)

Thanks, Manish, you're the best

getting IT

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Visual Narrative of Throwing (making) an Awesome Bowl

1: make awesome balls of compacted clay
2: awesomely slap the ball of clay onto the wheel head




3: Show awesome strength and concentration by centering the clay on the wheel head
4: Poke an awesome hole in the center of the centered clay


5: Pull the hole out in an awesomely even curve to the side, compressing the edge to have an awesome lip
6: Pull up the sides with an awesome sponge and both awesome hands





7: Pull up the sides an awesome second time to make them taller and thinner. Awesome thin.
8: Pull up the side one last, awesome time. Start the awesome bowl shape.







9: Use an awesome wooden rib (pictured, in my awesome hand) to create an even interior
10: Remove the now AWESOME bowl from the wheel head and attempt not to faint in the aura of its Awesomeness

Smashing my Ill-Fated Lidded Form

JohnG, you said you wanted some exploding pottery... is this good enough?
(For context, click here)
BEFORE






























AFTER

Someone sent me flowers... good thing I have a MILLION vases!

On Friday a friend sent me flowers for congratulations on the new job - it was SUPER sweet. They came with a glass vase, but WHY WOULD I USE THAT WHEN I COULD USE A CERAMIC ONE!??!?!


Distressed Bronze Vase
Red/white clay mix; bronze green glaze with randy's red over upper area; 8" tall and 4.5" diameter

This piece came out of the kiln about a week and a half ago. I've gotten a very positive response from people, the glaze has a cool sculptural effect with the layering of two very different glazes (a matte green/blue one that normally looks like aged bronze and a crazy shiny red one that normally looks like rust) creating a ridged texture along the sides, with a neat dripping effect at the bottom.


There's a man in my studio who is infamous for making great glaze work but keeping a lot of the combinations and techniques to himself... he asked me how I did this, and when I told him I was able to counter with a question about one of HIS pieces. Not a bad way to extract information :)

Don't the tulips look nice in this vessel?!?!