Is There Such A Thing As Folk Pottery?

Pottery was fun today. The kind of fun where there was laughter and chat and more laughter. Some days we are quiet and everyone seems to turn inward to concentrate on what they're doing but some days seem more lighthearted and freer and today was one of those. 

Chicken pot pie dish was out of the kiln and although it is no work of art, it sort of makes me smile. The yellow does come through but I think I have learned that for an outline of something, another color needs to be used or at least used along with it. 
I rather like the braided rim. 

I doubt I'll be making individual sized chicken pot pies anytime soon so perhaps it can become my scrambled egg serving dish. 

Another piece had come out of the kiln but this one just from a first firing and it was a I have no idea what to do with these last forty-five minutes of class affair which the chicken dish was too, really. To be honest, I had forgotten I'd even made it. 

This one may be binned. It is so obviously lacking a stem or some sort of ending and it probably isn't even worth glazing. 
Live and learn. 
Today I started a new flower bowl, this one hopefully to be a hibiscus.

I plan on adding something hopefully resembling the stigman, style (pollen tube), and anther which make up that cool center part of a hibiscus flower. 

And of course I had to look that shit up. 

I do not know how I managed to even live without google. You have no idea how often I am sent there to search something from YOUR blogs and also, in aid of writing mine. This would be very educational if I could remember a damn thing from one day to another. 
I tried to use a photo I took of a hibiscus flower vase at an antique/vintage store a few months ago as an inspiration, a guideline. 

And yes, I have posted that picture before.

Due to the fact that I have the kind of brain that if you sat me down with a pencil and a piece of paper and said, "Draw a bicycle," I would instantly feel as if I had never seen a bicycle in my entire life. I would draw two wheels and be completely flummoxed. 
But that's okay. Many, many other people do indeed know how to draw a hibiscus and if I get help from their work, it's okay. 
I mean- when people throw bowls or pots on the wheel, they are not inventing a new shape. 
Is that a lousy comparison? You know what I mean. 

But the thing I really enjoy really, really enjoy, is the way I find myself, in the process of making these flower bowls, and yes, the fish too, figuring out things as I go. 
It seems almost magical to me as I have never, ever considered myself to be any good at all in the visual arts. And I'm not saying I am. I'm just saying that I am learning, with each and every piece I make, a little more about myself and what I can do. 
This alone is worth the time and money. It feels as if I am exploring rooms in myself I never suspected were there. 
Once again- thank you, Jessie.

So it was a good day in pottery and Jessie and I went to lunch because that's what we do. Lily couldn't come today because she was supposed to be getting color done on a tattoo she got a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, the appointment had to be moved due to some glitch with delivery of needles but she said she got a nap instead and that is not a small thing. 
But I am quite excited to see the end result of this tattoo which is based on illustrations from this book which I think is just about the most charming book ever printed, whether for children or adults or both. 

All shall be revealed soon. 

Enough, enough, enough. I am tired as I always am on Wednesday nights. I get up early and I never sleep well the night before. I'm always glad I did get up early but it comes back to bite me at the end of the day. I've made a giant pot of vegetable beef soup because for whatever reason I've been craving that. As I always say, it has ALL the vegetables in it and I will freeze a good portion of it to send up to The Camp next week. 

The only problem with this soup is that it fills the pot to to the top, making it impossible to add the potatoes. I have two options here. I can either simply not put potatoes in, which is unthinkable, or I can take some of the soup out, put it into another pot, and add potatoes to both. 
I will probably go with Option B. 

Here's Glen's latest picture. 

That was from last night. He has finished one bedroom upstairs and I am sure he started in on the other one today. I am a bit astonished at how beautifully these floors are turning out. I had no idea he had that talent too. 

It's going to be an early night for me tonight. 

Love...Ms. Moon