Well, I have no excuse for not updating my blog. Frankly, I thought I had taken it down but it popped back up and here I am!! In the last blog I said we would return to Mexico, build a house and studio and make a garden.

Done!!

The studio, Adobe Studio, is a creative place where we offer classes in basketry, weaving, paper making, spinning and soon, low fire or pit-fired pottery.We have enthusiastic students and keep planning new educational experiences for the.We will soon be posting a web page.

I will return with pictures of my latest work and more info about living in Mexico.

Spirt of Egrets, a three-panel hinged stoneware piece.

"Inner Beauty", a transformation mask, showing two aspects of ageing.

It is of stoneware clay fired to cone 6.

This pot needs a name. It will be in the Ajijic Society for the Arts show end of March. To stoneware, I've added the inflorescences of palm (the branches that hold the little nuts). I use them a lot in my basketry.

It has a name: Winner!!! Frst Place in the ceramics division in the annual Ajijic Society for the Arts exhibit. What an honor! It also sold at the opening reception--yahoo!!

At left is the unfinished piece, (just needs stain) "Spirit of the Egret", one of a series; the others being hinged tryptychs. The hingeing is tough but I shall master it.

Una Vida Nueva en Mexico

It has been a while since visiting my blog ; I am indulging in a new lifestyle in Chapala, Mexco. I moved there last November to see if the climate and culture agreed and fell in love with the area--so much so I bought a lot a mile away from the town on Chapala, planted a cactus garden and started a compost pile for my organic vegetable garden which will go in during the rainy season in July. The two gentlemen at left are a part of my family now, Luis, my partner, and the wonder dog Pele, who appeared on our doorstep in Mexico, a little street dog who loves living with us.

We returned to Sitka in May, sold the house, a large collection of Alaska Native art and books, ordered a little 13' Scamp travel trailer to be delivered to Seattle which we will haul down Hiway 101 and into Mexico. We'll camp on the lot for a while, plant trees, the vegie garden and build a studio and eventually a house. There in Mexico, I am loving being involved daily in the creation of primative pottery (low fired -smoke and chemical colorants) and making baskets from the miriad natural materals nature offers in a semi - tropical setting. The three-legged pot is an example of recent work along with 7 new masks (the one pictured is entitled "Buho Dream"). Life is good.

Bull Kelp Rattles

I've just finished making new bull kelp rattles. What fun! It took a long time testing the kelp to get it to dry right (dead kelp heads all over my house--pretty sad--they looked like shrunken heads) and then we had a freeze. Mother Nature took care of the problem for me, freezing the washed-up kelp into great textural forms. This is so much fun, gathering the kelp off the beach (people stop me and ask why) and then beach combing or scouring the woods for interesting pieces of wood for the handles. I fill the dried heads with glass beads and wrap them onto the handles, add ornamentation and here they are. Check out the great photography by my son Scott who used a plastic shopping bag for the background giving them their original marine environment look.