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it's taken me forever, I've had this sculptural pot I been making. It has been so obliging, sitting there in a garden sized garbage bag sometimes for weeks on end without attention, it loosened off the board no problem, it's probably a bit heavy for me to carry to the kiln but I'm hoping it will be okay when it's dry. it stands a little over 2ft.
If you look closely you can see the tiger is having dinner. and why did it take so long, in the end it's a bit wild and sketchy but there's a wolf on the other side. Not saying what he's doing. 
It is wild weather here all around but as often happens we are okay in the middle, it goes down the range or out to sea - it's been very muggy though. and it's like we've gone covid loopy as a country. Our prime minister is on telly crowing about how we got 90% vaccination rates when obviously it's nowhere like that number so there's that but then there's the covid loopy I'm experiencing with the pool build and then there's my life in general and I'm kinda getting to like it.
probably pretty good for all of us, sort of soften us up for all the rest of the disasters (I'm just recovering from a bad back and feeling upbeat). and I think I'd rather get taken by pestilence or bad weather than robotics or the Chinese (it is starting to feel, in an underhanded way like they own us now).
but back to the subject matter, here's a pic of my pot.
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Very nice pot and big too. I like the face.
And please post a picture of your pool when it's finished.
Glad to hear that you're doing well.
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thanks. yes I will post a pic when the pool is done but it is taking a long time, still waiting for the cement pour and I've lost count of delayed dates.
I just want a swim. my back is sore. but I am hoping to end up with a nice looking pool. already I am enjoying the landscaping I've been doing in preparation with flowers and more grass around the house and my first serve of freshly picked spinach. but I know I have to do less gardening much as I love it - so focused on that swim!
hope you are going well too.
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omg just when I'd given up expecting the cement pour, one day it will happen, and it is underway! fascinating. It's just the thickness of the cement that keeps it from oozing out of the formwork, and it is amazing to watch the steps being formed with a trowel and stick, very skilled, it's an artwork, he's doing a beautiful job of it.
well, it's the end of the day now and I took a few pics and it was a terrific crew and they were having a good time and I'm just amazed how emotional it is, a real artwork. looks beautiful to me and I don't want to put pebblecrete on and cover it up.
anyway it can't be covered up as far as I'm concerned, I've seen what's gone into it. what an amazing thing to watch, I can't describe it but I guess it's down to the quickly setting thick heavy cement - it's like watching a ballet, a balanced dance of studied motion and the two main men are like they are as big as boulders.
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Wow, looks like a big job. That will be very nice for you to enjoy.
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I can't wait for that first swim. well I have to. The delays and the delays. Talking with the concreting crew I had to realise, as did he, that we were being played by the pool company. He gets told I am being difficult, I get told he is. My brother advises me to put the progress payment into my lawyer's trust account. oh boy was that a good move. Looks like they might have been robbing Peter to pay Paul. will find out in the next little while, either that or they will finish the pool. so it feels good in the meantime to have protected that money.
It's really bad management to take a company that had a good reputation to this point. It's not for lack of customers. and it's not Covid restrictions. the men who did the actual work have been fantastic, so really I have a great concrete shell and if it keeps raining I will have a swim in it! tbh, I am experiencing a certain level of relief. it has been tough going trying to cope with the pair of managers. and I feel more confident to complete the build without them.
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Wow! Sounds like a headache.
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yes it has been. Instinct says you're not being treated well but the excuses say different. But then that point came where we'd exchanged a bit of information and honest to god the concreter wanted to say sorry to me, it had been so bad, but I told him not to, it wasn't his fault and we are looking at each other and probably thinking in unison, omg these guys are bs'ers.
The site manager had kept me waiting all morning on the last one, stringing me along, they'll be there soon, text after text, and blaming the contractor even at one point saying his truck had broken down and he must have known all that time that I had been bumped because they did it. And then he complains he gets too many texts!!!!
It's good to be able to have a laugh about it now.
I hope the concreter can too.
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was an adventurous friendly cat she had a sweet happy nature and was a companion of the very best kind and I buried her this morning under the avocado trees I have planted. so now she's got the earth all around her plus a bit of dolomite and leaves and rocks on top and I am pretty much going to be a basket case for days I think.
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Sorry to hear the news, Lesley.
Pets are very important to us in many ways.
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thanks drek. I was very fond of telling her she was the best puss in the universe.
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My little puss has some companions in the fire today, got the kiln going, the Human Beast is the main thing in there but she has a cat and a mouse made from the clay dug up in the garden.
I'm fascinated to see how that clay performs. it looks really good so far. if it can take it's own weight so I can build a sculpture with it I am going to call it super clay! and the oddest thing is it's smell, never come across clay that smells like milk before.
My pool won't be finished for Christmas but if the forum is still here I will post a pic when it is finished, hopefully next month.
wishing you all a merry Christmas.
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Merry Christmas, Lesley.
Please do show what you've got going in the kiln and eventually your pool.
It's just the same old thing for me here in California, but I'm not complaining. Just hope it rains enough so we don't have heavy duty water restrictions. That and Covid would be too much.
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talk about nothing happening. I did think I should check the gas bottles but didn't and I ran out of gas, fortunately in the early stages so the gas man was able to deliver yesterday evening, he is busy with Christmas looming. it is early hours now and I just started up the kiln again, hoping to get in before more rain arrives. Here is a pic of the cat and mouse at the feet of the human beastie, I have started a companion piece, it will be a pair.
Just as I was thinking I'm glad I didn't attempt to go down to Sydney for Christmas, the virus has arrived here. I went to the bridge club get together last night and omg I hear the doctors clinic have said there are 6 cases in my locality.
suddenly the double vaxxed don't seem so safe any more and they're not feeling safe either, waiting for the booster.
I am feeling well, I think I have survived, and it was a very nice evening but I think more than ever I am going to have to rely on a rich inner life and on line bridge.
and I also learned last night from a neighbour what I should have done with the pool contract - when you have a verbal contract for the completion time then you insist on a penalty clause in the written contract. It just never occurred to me there wouldn't be one in an industry standard contract. I am working on my zen futon technique.
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That's a good looking cat you've made there. The mouse seems like a very large mouse, but I understand that a small one just wouldn't have the impact as that one.
Yes, the COVID thing is not over yet. And it's no surprise to me.
I think that we will be dealing with variants and surges for the rest of our lives. One does wonder about that lab in Wuhan. And I wonder if it was a bio weapon in progress that got out and now we all pay dearly for it. But, that's conspiracy talk. Yet, the Chinese pretty much shutdown any effort to investigate what happened.
A friend came down with Covid the other day. Fortunately, they were vaccinated and boosted and they are very sick with a cough and a cold. It could be the flu. Don't know. Can't get tested these days because everyone wants to get tested for the Holidays.
I'm vaxxed and boosted, but I'm playing it safe. I'm really a big baby when it comes to getting sick. I always maximize it and think that I'm going to die!!!!
So, stay safe!!!
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I started with the mouse and it is life size for the pussy cat, she loved mice a lot.
Firing seems to have gone well, I will be able to unpack in the morning.
I don't like getting sick either, who does. am getting very good at the mask wearing, and very careful.
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the firing has gone well and that clay is a super colour - white with a warm peachy blush and the bit with a streak of oxide through it has come out same with a bit more red making it pinker. This is a nice clay. omg. Perhaps I will need to upgrade from super to superb clay, I will need to try something bigger next. Idk, it's maybe a bit towards the feel of a porcelain but then it's so gutsy. I'm a bit excited tbh. but focus, my second human beast pot is underway. Now that is a reliable clay with lots of grainy bits in it, it will put up with whatever you do to it and keep smiling.
god, we could all be dead tomorrow, drek.
the way you talk about maximising over being sick I am doing over my pool build so flinging myself into the clay helps. I need the insulation. 
I completely understand the feelings of wanting to avoid covid - I simply hadn't been in the same position with cases in the area until I went to the bridge thing and got to feel how it is - I have not really been at risk before.
Now I have to go shopping. I will avoid the supermarket, and then I will get a period of time risk free hopefully. Not that it means all that much when the news from the UK is so bad.
It's no fun this covid thing and I don't know that I even care very much how it came about, I'm probably better off knowing less than more, it's all too horrible isn't it.
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Happy Holidays, Lesley.
Glad the firing went well. That's clay that you dug up? Cool.
Yes, the Covid is here with us now and it's a little scary, indeed.
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thanks drek, yes clay out of my garden and then yesterday I was trying to dig out a deep rooted weed (couldn't) and popped up a nugget of very red clay. omg, I just sieved it and it's a bright orangey red, again it's unusually colourful. I will be very excited to see what colour it ends up after firing. The basic shift of colour in the kiln is from yellow to red, so what is it going to do?
I have a commercially prepared white clay that is very grainy so good for big things. I'm going to do some test pieces in the next firing to see if I can put my garden clay on top of it and if they will fire together. If they can I will need to do some landscapes. I want to make some planter pots for veg with curved edges but flat sides - that's where the landscape goes.
I've had this picture in my mind for years - the human beast on a cliff top, his wings hunched and rippling on the wind as he leans forward into the vast stretches that lie before him.
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