Lotta

@gemmy

Swede in D.C. Hockey, ceramics, nature, kayaking, Taiwan. Tolkien nerd, brassica fan. www.lottaworld.com Pottery pics: www.instagram.com/lottainvirginia/

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Lotta@gemmy· 9d

Holy hell, this is taking forever. New thermal protection curtains out of the package are impossible to get nice…

A hand with an iron on very wrinkled curtains in front of a window with buildings in the background.

Lotta@gemmy· 9d

Me, who came of age in the 1980s: There aren’t enough saxophones in music today! Stars: Hold my beer!! Waiting for Metric. Show number 3 in 5 days!

Lotta@gemmy· 10d

Good pottery open studio today. Picked up some finished pieces and threw a few new pieces too!

Two thrown and altered bowls. Brown Brear clay and Panama Red glaze.

A buff clay round bowl on a red bat standing under hot lamps

Bottle in buff clay sitting on a red bat under the light in the pottery studio

Lotta@gemmy· 11d

Fascinating new WP contact form spam with very convincing AI written text and “example.com” email addresses. Easily able to bypass my 3 anti-spam plugins. Not sure what the payoff is for them, though?

Contact form submission to my website with a question about one part of my family. Except if it was real it would be written in Swedish, not English…

Another contact form submission asking for permission to use some song resources on my page. Still not sure what the payoff is for them?

Lotta@gemmy· 12d

Last night at Muse show #2 this tour. Pretty great view, nice people around me, and another show for the ages. And we got Map of the Problematique! Crowd a bit less willing to sing along, though… :(

Fairly simple but effective staging. There are several floating image cubes above the stage, in this instance with fields of stars. The light shines past them , making ray patterns. It’s beautiful.

Matt and Chris from Muse in matching red and black pants and black shirts, both playing on stage. Dan in the background and people silhouetted in the front.

Matt Bellamy playing the guitar on stage. Still wearing those black and red pants and a black shirt with bright stripes. In the back you can see Dan. Matt is making a face as he sings. :)

Another view of the staging. The cubes are in a different arrangement, with more lights and rays and with geometric shapes on the cubes now. You can see Matt and Dom playing Dom on red drums in the back, and Matt on a black guitar with a touchpad. People in front have their cameras up.

Lotta@gemmy· 12d

Waves to @kevincmurphy.com & @murftacular.bsky.social! ❤️

View of Philadelphia in the sunset from Camden, NJ. Pretty clouds over the city and water.

Lotta@gemmy· 13d

Buzz buzz buzzing from the Muse show at Merriweather tonight. SO GOOD!! Doing it again tomorrow night, so psyched!

Lotta@gemmy· 15d

Great day today, sunburned and very very tired…

Today’s haul. Fossilized sharks teeth. Paleocene, 56-59 million years old. Some Turritella moulds and a few ray tooth plates. They are laying on an IKEA tray with red moose drawings.

End of the day at Mallows Bay. The front of my kayak in the foreground and the river in the background. The sun is setting.

The first of two catfish I caught. I’m holding it by its gills on the side of the kayak

Start of the day on the Potomac River. The front of my kayak in the foreground, with the calm river, riverbank, and a few puffy clouds on a light blue sky in the background.

Lotta@gemmy· 23d

Got my latest robot and some hard-to-throw one-piece wine goblets back from the pottery kiln yesterday. Started these in early May, lolz. Travel messed with my timeline!

Front of a green pottery robot, with high-temp wire as hair and some stray bits of deconstructed alarm clock parts added.

Three one-piece Brown Bear clay wine goblets in blue and amber glaze.

Lotta@gemmy· 25d

It was so nice to be back in the pottery studio after weeks and weeks of travel! Put some stuff in the glaze kiln and threw a twistie and a first attempt at a faceted pot. Can’t wait for Open Studio on Saturday!

Two similarly shaped pots in Brown Bear clay sitting on a wareboard. On the left is a twister - where you score a cylinder vertically and then press out, so the spin creates twisted lines on the outside. On the right is a faceted pot - started the same way but manipulated from the inside to create bulges. That makes the pot misshapen, so you have to add the rim to the center at the end. My first ever try at this technique. The clay was too stiff, I think, will try again with a softer clay.

The thick, vertically scored cylinder that’s the beginning stage for both techniques.

Closeup of the twistie under the lights.

Lotta@gemmy· 26d

Interesting comments on legal implications of a Taiwan invasion & how the PRC may try to lay the legal groundwork for annexation. This despite the absolutely HORRENDOUS AI generated photo illustration with Taipei 101 crammed in behind the Presidential Palace... smallwarsjournal.com/2026/07/16/t...

AI generated image of what are several buildings in Taipei, Taiwan (including the Taipei 101) crammed into space behind the presidential palace, and with an overlay of weird "documents" and a computer chip in the foreground and background, along with two white men's silhouettes... It's horrible.

Lotta@gemmy· Jul 7

Heading home! First leg, night train to Stockholm!

View out a train window. It’s 11 PM and it’s bright and light outside.

The interior of a sleeper cabin on the train. It’s pretty nice but looks like it’s in a movie from the 1960s.

Lotta@gemmy· Jul 2

A week left in Sweden. Taking the opportunity to eat some Norrland specials. Last 3 days have been Falukorv (Falu sausage) in the oven with apples and cheese, suovas/renskav (chipped smoked reindeer) with mashed potatoes, and today my fave uppstekt palt (fried and creamed potato dumpling). Yum!

Potato dumplings called Palt. Served fried up and creamed with some milk, eaten with butter and lingonberry jam. These are the far less good purchased cold versions- the Palt are usually made with old potatoes, harder to find here in the early summer…

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 30

Waiting for the France vs Sweden World Cup game, nervously pacing the back deck. At least the view is good!

The View from my moms back deck at almost 11pm. The bright nights are the best thing about being in Sweden in the summer.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 26

The sun rose over a happy Swedish household. On to Round of 32! Goodnight! Godnatt!

3am. The sun rose a bit ago, this view is from my mom’s back deck over an inlet of the Baltic. We stayed up to watch the Word Cup game!

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 25

Kickoff at 1am, but mom and I are watching. Come on Sweden! Heja Sverige!!

Pic of the TV in my mom’s living room showing a huge Swedish flag in Dallas where the football team is playing Japan in the World Cup.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 19

Happy Midsummer!!

View over a Baltic bay from my mom’s back yard. In the foreground are some white Finnish roses.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 12

The last 2 days, I’ve driven more on dirt roads than the rest of my life combined. At least the views were worth it!

A bumpy dirt road through woods. Large pools of water in the front. The car HUD show max speed limit of 70 kilometers per hour (ca 43 miles per hour), not the speed at which we traveled this road…

View of a beautiful lake and mire. Dark clouds in the back, a boat in the foreground.

Panorama of a lake and creek in the woods.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 8

It’s midnight here in northern Sweden. The birds don’t care. :)

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 5

Current rainy day activity! The smell is absolutely intoxicating.

My left hand holding a bouquet of Lily of the Valley flowers and leaves. They are bright white and green. In the background are the same flowers growing among additional greenery. This is the hill at my mom’s house leading down to the Baltic.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 4

Current office view. :)

A table with a laptop screen corner just visible. In the background is a lovely view over a glass fence and an inlet of the Baltic and some very green fields and woods. On the table is a hortensia flower.

Lotta@gemmy· Jun 1

35 hours from Taipei to northern Sweden in four steps. Two wildly different views…

Taipei in the sunrise. Taipei 101 in the skyline.

A view of an inlet of the Baltic. The green is bright against the blue sky.

Lotta@gemmy· May 30

Last night in Taipei requires some Linjiang night market shopping. I took a detour to the Keelung Road pet store cluster too! Earlier today I visited the Jianguo flower market, I love that place! Great day in Taiwan!

The entrance to the Linjiang Night Market (臨江街觀光夜市). It’s crowded and lively under the sign. In the foreground is a motorcycle rider.

Some dogs in a windowed display at the pet store. They are sleeping in a pile and look adorable!

A stand of orchids at the Jianguo flower market. So pretty!

A little white dog in a windowed cage. It’s very cute. Looks sort of sad in the photo, but was actually really active and happy-looking in RL.

Lotta@gemmy· May 26

Currently on the Taiwan High Speed Rail southbound. Pretty views, decent speeds.

Sign saying the train is going 174 km/h.

View out the window of the HSR near Taichung. Green rolling hills and a small hill, with electric lines in the foreground.

Lotta@gemmy· May 24

Feels like coming home. Hello, lovely city of Taipei!

Taipei 101 dominates the Taipei skyline, shown in a foggy evening shot with bright lights.

Lotta@gemmy· May 23

I’m ready to get going from San Francisco to Taipei. Best part of the SFO airport is the outside terrace! Wish all airports had something like this!

Pick of a runway. In the front are succulents and art in the outdoor terrace garden. The sky is very blue.

Lotta@gemmy· May 18

I’m really happy with the last few things I got out of the kiln & put in for bisque. Now just one more session until I leave the country until July - I’ll be fiending to throw again by June!

An astronaut luminary, with a white body and dark blue helmet visor. Brown Bear clay, blue brush on glaze and white dipping glaze.

Another robot for the kiln. I have a bunch of robots now, I wonder if I should make some monsters and then set them up in a tableau for the student sale display later this year… Brown Bear clay, high temp wire. Thrown body with hand-built head.

Brownish blue bottle. Brown Bear clay, Blue Amber glaze.

Small bowl. Brown Bear clay, gold sharpie wax resist pattern, blue & agate glaze.

Lotta@gemmy· May 16

Pick a Bond villain from photos you already have on your phone.

Lotta@gemmy· May 10

Landed at Dulles from Phoenix around 2:30 pm. Drove straight to the pottery studio, glazed an astronaut lantern and trimmed a goblet. Didn’t have the energy to throw any more, sadly, but now I’m pleasantly exhausted!

Glazed astronaut lantern. Blue helmet visor and white body. Went in for glaze firing today.

Half-glazed astronaut. Helmet visor is blue glaze covered and waxed over.

Brown Bear clay goblet on a table. I think it was my fifth try at this shape - harder than it looks!

Lotta@gemmy· May 9

Better gym view than normal! Hellooo Tempe. Too many grads around to go walking outside this evening! Good day hosting an event at ASU, flying home in the morning!