Visit to Burlington, Vermont

My fabulous niece, Monica, graduated from the University of Vermont with a Bachelor of Arts in Sustainable Development this past weekend. I drove Mom up to Burlington and we spent a wonderful time with my brother, my sister-in-law and my SIL's sister.

We arrived Friday night and met at Monica's for wonderful organic pizza. On Saturday morning we went to the Burlington Farmer's Market. What a treat! I bought some artisanal bread and one-year old cheddar cheese (yum!).

At the Farmer's Market I met a couple of Etsyans selling their wares. Dan Siegel is a potter who makes graphic mugs, tumblers and other vessels. I bought one his mugs for my collection and have already enjoyed drinking my tea out of it. Jen Kahn is a brilliant jeweler and my wonderful SIL bought me a pair of earrings that I had admired! Check out their Etsy shops!

After the Farmer's market we had lunch at Stone Soup where I had the best roasted tofu sandwich in a long time. Following lunch we visited with Monica's professors at a reception for the environmental science students and headed to the shores of Lake Champlain for a very touching impromptu ceremony. That evening we had the best dinner at Leunig's. I had risotto stuffed artichoke... to die for!

Sunday was graduation day! We got to the Campus Green at about 8am and found the perfect chairs under a big shady tree with a magnificent view of Lake Champlain and the mountains in the distance. Even though the ceremony was very long (they read each graduate's name... and there were 2000 seniors!), it was a delightful, breeze day. Following the graduation ceremony, we met at Monica's house where all the housemate's mothers had a wonderful meal ready for us. There we met parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and siblings of Monica's friends. That evening we had another fabulous dinner at Starry Night Cafe. This time I had the salmon w/ the most amazing mashed potatoes.

So that was my weekend. I really felt privileged to be in such a beautiful setting, celebrating this most important occasion with my beautiful niece and dear brother and the rest of the family!

My Starry Nights Lamp is on Etsy's Front Page!

This is very exciting because I actually got to see this in real time!!! I'm very honored and extremely grateful to Walrustusks for including me in her treasury. Please visit her shop!
View an Etsy Front Page Treasury List - The Vault on Craft Cult

Mother's Day Sale This Saturday!

Please join me and 13 other potters in The Clay Connection's Spring Pottery Sale, just in time for Mother's Day. The event is being held at a new location: John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Annandale, Virginia on Saturday, May 8 from 10am to 5pm.

In addition to my pots, you'll be able to enjoy the work of Marvel Adams, Ginny Ainsley, Marianne Cordyack, Laurie Erdmann, Brigitta Feinberg, Bruce Glassford, Michael Hough, Klaudia Levin, Linda Moesser, Amy Wandless, Dick White, Becky Zweibel and Wendy Zaidman.

Admission and parking are free and visitors will be able to participate in a drawing to win one of Dick White's beautiful crystalline vases.

I've been a member of The Clay Connection since its inception and seen it go through many stages. I've become more active in the group since retirement and I'm excited about its new direction.

A new grandbaby!

I have a new grand-daughter that I want everyone to meet. Isabel Josefine was born at the end of February and here she is at 6 weeks. She's just gorgeous and looks just like her Mommy, my beautiful daughter, Andrea. Check out her Etsy shop and the beautiful photocards she designs.

Name that Glaze!

This is a test tile for a glaze I mixed last month as I was testing different colorants on a High Calcium Semimatte glaze from the Hesselberth & Roy book Mastering Cone 6 Glazes. The authors call this glaze "field mouse brown," but clearly it doesn't look brown at all and nothing like the example in the book.

I was not going to go any further with this glaze, but something about it made me give it another try so I mixed a 1000 gram batch and here are the results.

All I can say is Wow! I love this! I can't decide what color it is: it's black --or maybe it's very dark purple. It's got gray shadings --or maybe it's a very light brown. What keeps coming to mind is "Smoke."

And, clearly, it's not Field Mouse Brown! I think that I put a lot more cobalt carb than called for in the recipe... whatever it was I did, I hope that I can keep doing it.

Next step is to mix a 5000 gram batch and go for it!

New Green Glaze

Got some really nice outcomes from this firing. The base recipe is the High Calcium Semimatte from the Mastering Cone 6 Glazes book by John Hesselberth and Ron Roy. One of my favorites is this green (called "Spearmint" in the book). I especially like the difference between a thin and a thick application. The thin application (seen in the little cups and the berry bowl) has more orange/light brown tones while the thicker application (seen in the ring holder and the box) is more of an emerald green.

Spring is here!

Spring is finally here and the weeping cherry tree is still with us despite this winter's punishing snow storms and winds, and the best efforts of the carpenter ants and resident red-bellied and downy woodpeckers. This beautiful tree is again raining pink petals on the deck and life moves on.

Nature's awakening this March was accompanied by renewed activity in my Etsy shop. This has been a very good month for Glynt Pottery, so far, and I thank all those people who have shown an interest in my work, including several returning customers.

I was honored to have two pieces included in Etsy Finds this month.

This stoneware box was featured on March 13th. It was hand built from clay slabs that were impressed using a clay stamp. The box is 5 inches tall and would look great in any room of the house!

This double-walled bowl was featured on March 25th. This piece was thrown upside down on the potter's wheel. It looks stunning with an ikebana flower arrangement, especially if you were to arrange pebbles or small stones around the extra wide rim. It's also a great bowl to hold potpurri or sea glass, and it makes a great dip dish!