Year: 2019

Good Glaze Combo

I found a nice glaze combo I really like - if I remember right (I have it written down, but not near at hand at the moment) it's Amaco's Toasted Sage over Laguna's Turkish Amber. The sage becomes a cool blue-green, and the combo with the amber leads to some nice blending effects. The one in the front has the sage on both the inside and the outside, and the one immediately behind it has the sage just on the inside (and a little bit on the rim).


Carter’s Bookcase

Carter's collection of books has started to outgrow her existing bookcase, so she asked me to make her another one to handle the overflow. I let her choose all the design details. For the wood, she went with hickory. And for the top, she chose some really cool tiles. They look almost like a sliver mother-of-pearl or abalone, which really echoes the grain of the wood.


Drawer Organizers

I made these drawer organizers for our 'junk drawers' a few weeks ago. They're made from some cherry scraps I had left over from another project, and are two-tiered - the top tier can slide around on the bottom tier, for even more storage. Working out great so far!


Glaze Test Tiles

I've done a whole bunch of test tiles so far - and it's a good thing I did! Out of all of these tests, there are probably only about a half-dozen that I really like and would use on a full-size piece. I've got another batch of test tiles in the kiln right now, which needs to cool down for a few more hours before I can open it. Hopefully there are some good ones in there, too!

Heap of Bisqueware

I've been throwing lots more pottery since the last time I posted about it. But as I've been burned several times now with glazes that didn't come out the way I wanted, I decided not to glaze any of this stuff yet. I'm going to make and glaze a whole bunch of test tiles, to see which glaze combos come out nice. That's a lot easier than spending a lot of time making a pot I like, only to have to the glaze look bad and essentially 'waste' the pot.


Godzilla Woodcut

A friend turned me on to an artist on Etsy called "Woodcut Emporium". He does Japanese-inspired woodcuts of pop culture subjects - they are pretty cool. I ordered the one you see at left - a Japanese coastal scene, but with Godzilla in the bay. I built a custom frame for it too, and tried to stick to the Japanese-inspired style.

CRT2019: Medieval Times

Our last stop on the trip before heading home was dinner at Medieval Times in Dallas. They give you a 3 course dinner (which you can only eat with your hands!) and you watch a medieval tournament with jousting, sword fighting, horsemanship, etc. It's all choreographed, and was really entertaining. It was very dark in there and we took almost no pictures, but Carter did take this one (fuzzy) panaromic shot of the arena.


CRT2019: Museum of Science and History

In Fort Worth we stopped at something called the "Museum of Science and History". We weren't really sure what to expect, but decided to give it a go. Turns out is geared to much younger kids than Carter, so we didn't stay very long. But Carter did try out this bed of nails that you can lie on.


CRT2016: Cameron Park Zoo

We had planned to stop at Cameron Park in Waco, Texas for a walk around to stretch our legs. When we parked though, we saw signs for a zoo. So we decided to check it out - even though we'd already been to two other zoos on this trip, and one is usually my limit. But surprising the zoo at Cameron Park was the best one we saw this trip. The enclosures were really well designed - they didn't look like cages. They used natural features to disguise the fact that the animals were in captivity - similar to how they do it at the San Diego Zoo, if you've been there. For example, all of the lemurs and gibbons were on big islands in the middle of a pond, with no fences or glass around them. It was very cool, and the animals seemed to like it as well - they seemed very calm and happy, as no humans could get right up close to them.


CRT2019: Peter Pan Mini-Golf

Austin has a kitschy old mini-golf course that we decided to check out as we passed through. It was full of old-school sculptures and features, and was pretty cool and funny. Unfortunately, we forgot to take any pictures - so I borrowed one from the internet.