Author: mud&string

Mother, daughter, wife, grandma, friend, animal lover, potter, knitter, Catholic and finally, retiree. Will work for yarn and/or clay and tend to geek out on any and all the above at the drop of a hat, provoking glazed expressions from polite company and eyerolls and heavy sighs from not so polite company (read family).
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Cooler Heads

mud&string

Thank heaven for cooler heads!!! I took ya’lls advice and put Gray Days in timeout for about a week, during which I calmed down a bit, enough for an attitude adjustment. . I picked it up again Monday morning and Gray Days is knitting up well and once again, all is well at Casa Coleman. 🙂 Here’s a look at my new, improved Gray Days Gansey:

Things are also going well in the pottery studio also.  I’ve had a couple of kiln unloads that I’m  very pleased with and want to share with you all.  Both pieces are made of the same clay, Speckled Brownstone.

 

Thanks to all who sent me good advice when I was ready to relegate Gray Days to my personal limbo — the back of my closet.

Oh, and don’t forget to visit my etsy shop for more pottery love!

And we are put on this earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.

William Blake

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Random

Bummed

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So for the second time, I frogged the cable section on Gray Day and tried to fix a mistake.  Made a bigger mistake that just got worse and worse.  I’m fighting the temptation to relegate it to the WIP basket that resides in the deepest, darkest part of my closet, never to be seen again.  Should I give it another chance??  What would you do?

 

One fails forward toward success. Charles Kettering

 

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Random

A Real Post As Promised

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I finally got my Etsy update finished and posted. If you haven’t visited my shop, consider this your invitation. I had a pretty good pull out of my kiln yesterday so another update is in the works so BOLO!

Here’s what’s happening here at Casa Coleman –

The Gray Days sweater has undergone a radical amputation and is about half the size it was when last shared. 😩 One of the cables went rogue necessitating a radical frogging. In my world, it’s more efficient to place a lifeline, take the needles out and just unravel. Tinking cables…..well, we just won’t go there. 😉

Here’s a look at some of yesterday’s firing –

The cookies are glaze tests; the green is Amaco’s Potter’s Choice Wasabi celadon and the blue is also an Amaco PC glaze, Downpour celadon. The large piece is wearing Downpour also.

Grandgirl #2, Harper has had the flu, but is on the mend fortunately. Now praying that the other two avoid it. 🙏🙏🙏

The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. Christopher McCandless

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Random

Surprise!

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Ever glazed a bowl or knitted/sewn a project that you had such high hopes for that, on completion, was so ugly it was a real challenge to NOT throw it in the trash or banish it to the recesses of
of your darkest closet?  Let me tell you about my latest bowl of shame………

There was nothing wrong with the naked bowl, one of my better ones IMO.  Sorry guys, I took no photos of the first glazing. Too painful. 😜

The first glaze consisted of Toasted Sage poured into the bowl and swirled to cover, followed  by Oatmeal brushed on the rim x3.  I laid a band of Textured Turquoise below the Oatmeal rim inside.  I then brushed the outside with Spectrum Cinnamon Ripple x3.  When the glaze was dry, I fired this bad boy to cone 5. All I can say about the final result was YUCK and double YUCK.  I tried to console myself by saying we can’t all be beautiful and made up my mind to keep it around for a little while; sometimes a glaze combination will grow on me. Not this time.

I decided to refire it, using a new glaze I got for Christmas, a Hot Pink by Spectrum.  So, I just sort of slapped a few coats of this pink on it all over and fired it again.  BTW – all glazes are Amaco Potter’s Choice unless specified otherwise.  This glaze was a cone 9/10 and since I like to live dangerously, I fired to cone 10. 🥵

Here’s the surprise:

 

 

Love this!!

I’m so glad I gave this pot a second chance!  Forrest Gump’s mama was right:

Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.

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Random

I’m Not Bragging, But…..

mud&string

So I’ve been coat shopping for a while but had trouble aligning what I wanted and what I wanted to pay.  Yesterday I made a run to Clothes Mentor, a consignment store close to Casa Coleman and lo and behold I found the Perfect with a capital P coat! Black, with a hood, a bit longer (think knee length), barely worn as best I can tell and the thing I wanted above all things in a new coat – down.  I always lusted after a down coat but never got one—mostly because of price,  rationalizing not getting one because I had a perfectly good wool coat. Never mind that it was 15 years old and I needed a change.  Best thing about this new coat – price.  I got a great down coat for -are you ready for this? – $25.00.🧥🌬🌨☔️

A penny saved is a penny earned. Benjamin Franklin

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Knitting · pottery

Score!

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After a try out of Kollage Square Circular Knitting Needles I’ve fallen deeply in love with these babies and want one of every size and length.  The rub? Kollage has quit making them.😢 My LYS does carry them, but with very limited choices.  I spent way too much time last night trying to track some down – a rollercoaster of emotion, let me tell you. I was ultimately successful, finding a nice selection of needle sizes and cord lengths at Paradise Fibers and bought three new circs, sizes 1,1.5 and 2 with 60” cables, my favorite! I’ll start stalking our mailman in the next day or so.

ON MY NEEDLES

I’m back on track  with my Gray Day Gansey and am about an inch away from separating for the sleeves.

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Gray Day Gansey

Knitpicks Wool of the Andes

Haze

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Petty Harbour

First Light Handicrafts

Manos del Uruguay Fino

Turkish Delight

JUST OUT OF THE KILN

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ClayDreamsPottery

Buncombe White Clay

Glazed w/ Blue Rutile on exterior and Arctic Blue interior

Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly. Robert Kennedy

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