Horse Hair Series Potter – October 2011

Below find my latest pottery I wanted to share in my continuing learning of the Horse Hair Process.

In this Pottery process, actual horse hair is used to make the vivid black lines. The three vases were burnished when the pottery was in the green ware stage which means firm but still damp clay. Burnishing is accomplished by a metal rib, a spoon, a smooth rock or nylon and gives the finished piece a sheen. The piece is then bisque fired which is the first firing. Before burnishing, I applied Terra Sigilata which gives the piece a whitest look. The decorative bowls were not burnished.

Bisque ware is heated to 1100 and then strands of taunt horse hair are applied quickly before the piece cools down. Scant sprinkles of sugar can then be applied if desired. The next part of the process is spraying on the Ferris Oxide. The piece is cooled. The Final step in the process is spraying with Polyurethane clear satin finish or you may use high gloss.

Burnished White Terra Sigilata Horse Hair Vase with two Vases Burnished White Terra Sigilata Horse Hair with Ferris Oxide ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Burnished White Terra Sigilata Horse Hair Vase

Bisque Horse Hair Bowls with Ferris Oxide

The Fall Harvest

Fall Harvest time is one of my most favorite times of the year. This year we marked Harvest with three small ripe tomatoes (picked when just a show of red), five small green tomatoes and thirty tiny green tomatoes (before the frost) four small yellow summer squash, twelve serrano peppers, four small cucumbers, one cucumber (large enough to make a boat), six small green peppers, and two small green pumpkins (just larger than a baseball). Now you might think, that is not much, but, we were grateful. You see, we have rabbits that sneak in our yard, and now quail and worse yet, we have squirrels. So, you see that it was us racing to get the small veggies, before they were all gobbled up by the critters

Although our roses bloomed a little less this year, at least, they did not get eaten by the critters! They were late blooming, but in September, we were able to enjoy theses and a few other.

Race for the Cure

General Conference Sunday, October 2, 2011, I was able to “Walk” in the Race for the Cure. I have been able to Run-Walk the Race for the Cure since 1996 – so – this is my 16th year. My first race was when we lived in Bettendorf, Iowa where I Ran-Walked the Race on Arsenal Island in Davenport, Iowa. My finish time was 36 minutes for the 5K Race. This year my time was about that for the two miles that I walked – I am babying my torn meniscus.

My inspiration is my sister, Suzan Morrell, who fought Breast Cancer that year so I am glad to Celebrate her life. Another Celebration in the Race is for one of my former Seminary students, Jaycee Taylor.

I also remember others that have any type of Cancer. I look forward each year to this worthwhile event!

School Daze, School Daze…!

I love this time of the year when everyone goes off to school. Education is such an important part of our lives. I love the learning process, the acquiring of new and different knowledge. In fact, my whole life I have loved learning and school. As you know, I finally finished my Psychology Degree at University of Nevada, Reno on December 4,2010. At that time, I also finished an Art – Ceramics Minor at University of Nevada, Reno and earlier in the spring 2010 I finished an Art – Ceramics Associates at Truckee Meadows Community College where I have taught Computer Classes to Senior Citizens for the past ten years. In 1988, I finished and Associates Degree in General Studies at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. Earlier, much earlier, I finished grades one through twelve.

One of the great things that happened at the Grimmett Reunion this July is I received a very neat picture of the Moreland School House which has since been torn down. It is the school house that I went to when I was in the First Grade. This school was the Moreland High School but the first and second grades went here. Our room was downstairs and right in the front on the left. We could get to the classroom two ways: going down the stairs outside the building or going up the front stairs and then down a set of stairs just inside the door. How excited I was for that first day of school. Mrs. Anderson, my teacher, was a grandmotherly type lady so I felt right at home. We did like recess and especially the swing which was tied to the very tall trees at the back of the school. You could swing so high that you just thought that you would go over the top bar.

The Second Grade..... We moved over to Riverside Grade school where I stayed for through sixth grade. Mrs. Parrish, our Second Grade teacher was a young tall beautiful auburn hair lady. We all thought that she was or should be a movie star. One thing she liked to do is check to see if we all had a clean handkerchief, I’m not sure if I forgot mine or I just did not have one, so Della Erickson, the girl across the aisle, let me use hers. In those days girls did not wear Levi’s, but every day we wore dresses. In the winter, and even late into the spring, we, girls, liked to wear the leggings to our snowsuits under our dresses so that we could wrestle around on the playground and play on the tricky bars. One of the fun things that we did during recess was play kiss tag out under the big tall trees at the end of the school yard.

In Third Grade... We had the scariest and grouchiest teacher named Mrs. Jolley. She wasn’t as pretty as Mrs. Parrish or even as tall and she certainly was not to be mistaken for a movie star. One day she left the classroom, and of course, we all started to talk and act up and thought we were pretty safe as we had posted a guard. Pretty soon we heard the guard say here she comes, and we all scrambled to our seats. Mrs. Jolley came and said, “Here’s she come!” Although a grouchy person, she was a good teacher and I learned a lot from her teaching.

< In Fourth Grade... Our teacher was named Mrs. Harris. She was a very nice lady and as pretty as Mrs. Parrish but older and a mother to children. Right after lunch she would read to us to settle us down. In particular, I remember her reading to us from Black Beauty. Mrs. Harris was going to have a baby and during the summer time when the baby was due, we learned that she had died in childbirth. Our hearts were broken, our beautiful teacher had gone to heaven, leaving her family and the new born baby.

Tune in later for more on school daze….!

This is September 5, 2011... This Blog needs some new posts...!

Guess who? What Year of Grade School?

Two weeks vacation - Family & Grandkids!

The past twelve or so days have been just the greatest of fun...! We headed down to the LA Jackson's - Clark-Me Soon-Jessica-Brandon's home in La Canada... Clark and Brandon headed to Washington DC... A couple days later Me Soon headed to Korea...


Grandpa and I stayed home with Jessica.




Here is Jessica:









These beautiful Roses are Flowers Me Soon brought Grandma J. for achieving an Associates in Art Ceramics at Truckee Meadows Community College. The roses are displayed in her Art Deco Vase.















We had a fun time at the Scullin's - Patrick-Kandra-Harrison-Hunter - Memorial day celebrating the Veteran's, Eagle Scouts (Clark was pleasantly surprised to be included as an honored Eagle Scout) and Scouts - Baseball - Picnic - Barbecue








Here Grandpa and the boys - Brandon, Harrison & Hunter have just raked the pine needles.







Harrison & Hunter heading out to school.







Our next stop was the Chugg's in Las Vegas where we visited with Jared-Geneva-Carter-Hanna-Jake-Josh-Cole.



We had fun at Carter and Hanna's school performance of patriotic songs.




And ever so much fun watching the young boys at play... It was fun swimming with all of them. Is baby Cole suppose to be sleeping or is he just waking up...!


















Hanna's play Beauty and the Beast in which she played Belle. She is in her black tights getting ready to go to the play...














Here's Hanna and two ole' dotting grandparents....


Finally on June 4, 2010, we headed home and had a wonderful drive across that barren Nevada desert because of the beautiful fluffy clouds the whole way home!










And Home...with more clouds.

Our Home has a Facelift!

Spring has been trying very hard to come to Reno... To herald spring, we decided to paint our home... What color should we use...! The consensus is, let me see, brown... Brown inside and outside... We are now officially the Brown Home...

It looks just the greatest!