It’s been a wild week and a bit trying to glaze a whole batch of work to bring up to the cottage with me (& mayyyybe get a little ahead for the fall?!) & my whole body hurts & my eyes feel funky, but I did it!! Now there’s a very full kiln waiting to be started first thing tomorrow 👍👍👍

You don’t need a fancy one tho — we used one I got in like 2007 from The Bay until last Xmas & it just had a single switch that turned it on & the keep warm function! We just decided to get a bit more posh w/our rice cookin’ (Janet can do jook & has a bunch of other settings we haven’t used yet).

A couple new wee birds underglazed today — a couple of American Woodcocks & some Trumpeter Swans — plus I finished off the big flock of assorted warblers!!

Also there were SO MANY FIREFLIES!! We peered down this little path off the trail and it was incredibly magical (were they summoning me to some fabulous destiny?? I’ll never know 🥲)

Last night we walked back across the river from my partner’s birthday dinner at La Petite Primerose and it was one of those evenings where I can see the magic of summertime (helps that the heat has mostly broken).

My purple coneflower (aka echinacea) is blooming & it’s so incredibly robust and beautiful this year (of my native* plants, these guys took a little longer to really establish, but WOW! Worth it!!) 🥰🥰🥰 *where I am in Ont, I think this is a near-native, but the bees love it!

I’m back to the warbler mines the next few workdays (let’s see how long it takes me to finish 30 of ‘em 😅)!

Also, the Ottawa Titans have a delightfully disconcerting mascot (Cappy) and I love him 👍👍👍

Local baseball is very good! The stadium is lovely, the weather was great, & we walked home & saw a bunch of fireflies along the way 🥰

Thanks to a pal I’m doing a pottery-for-clothes trade with, I have now made a berry bowl/colander!! Very curious to see how annoying it is to glaze all these holes 😅

I’ve been working so flat-out that little footage has been taken, but! Here’s me wetting some scored bits while building mugs this aft 👍

Oop, forgot to post the brown clay ones! I fear the guy in the second photo will not be leaving my house for he causes me too much delight.

Yeah, my Michigan lilies fully bloomed today :)

Dragon posting! (Design inspired by various Medieval illuminated manuscripts)

Made some Wee Weirdos today (by some I mean 26!), a very soothing way to spend a Friday afternoon 👍

I made a few of these wall-hanging bird ladies two years ago & have been meaning to make more ever since & today was finally the day. Super happy with these Great Blue Heron gals 🥰

Also gotta show off my wild (meadow, I think) roses, which are in a weird in-progress corner of the yard behind an ugly dirt pile right now but looking gorgeous blooms-wise!

Time for another garden update! The Michigan Lilies are almost out, my non-native clematis & native elderberry are blooming now, and the wood poppies are starting in on their next flower-time (also, the leaf-cutter bees LOVE the elderberry’s lower leaves!) 🥰

Today was studio clean day & MAN it feels good to not be working in a horrible mess-swamp anymore!!! In other news, it’s time to get back to it…I have a little market up at my cottage at the beginning of August & would also love to start stockpiling stuff for fall/winter markets 👀

He’s my mom’s cat, but his name is Minou & I call him Son Boy, Son Boy Allowed, The Boy, Scamp, Stinker, and Sir

…how it ended (ish…I still had an hour left at this point & sold a few more things before it was time to go 😳)?!?!? Today was WILD!!! Ottawa loves weird little ceramics & illustrated cups, APPARENTLY!

How it started (11am-ish)…

Tfw it rains a bunch & your garden is suddenly infested with Hairy Woodsmen?! (I love making these little weirdos so much & am obsessed with how the Kiwi Underglaze colours turn out, especially the greens!!)

Creeping closer to Wench Faire (Sat, June 20, poster in 2nd photo) & have finally reached round one of photo editing time (as a second glaze load is in the kiln as I type)!!

Artists, quote with your yellow art! I did a few mothmans with a good amount of yellow, but this was the only all yellow fellow!

My garden is looking super lush & charming these days, so here’s a little after lunch stroll through the best bit (at the moment — we have some more work to do on the other side of the yard as soon as this heatwave breaks)!

Still pretty quiet here because I have a market on the 20th and am deep in glaze-mode! Just got enough done for glaze fire number one…now onto glazing for round two!

One of my goals this week was to put my body in the lake, no matter how cold it was (about 8-10°c, turns out) & it took me til the last full day (the others were a bit too chilly), but I did it!! It was tingly & good & I can’t wait til the temp is right for a real swim 😍

I’m so glad I saved this one for my week at the cottage — I was able to properly appreciate its slow, meditative pace and lush prose up here. A truly delicious book.

I’ve been up at my favourite place all week & for once we had a smooth, beautiful-weather’d opening-time (after 4yrs w/varying levels of disaster/things not working). Can’t wait to get back up later in the summer for my long stay!!!