Author: Caryn

Another round

On By CarynIn Craft

We’ve done another round of ceramic painting. This time I tried for flowers, daisy on one side and a sunflower on the other for my mother-in-law.

Photo description: ceramic mug painted with a white daisy on a blue background, before firing
Photo description: other side of the same ceramic mug painted with a yellow sunflower on a blue background, before firing
Photo description: sunflower side after firing, same camera angle

It was interesting how the flowers changed after firing, and something to consider when painting again with glaze.

The other interesting thing is the apparent shape of the mug. In the pictures above it looks like a standard straight sided coffee mug, but it isn’t.

Photo description: same mug, but photographed from the side showing the sloping angles of the sides better
Photo description: daisy side of the mug, after firing, photographed straight on

My favorite part is the ombre interior. It really amuses me to have the inside painted like a patina of coffee has already built up.

Photo description: inside of the mug showing yellow to brown glaze gradient

Clicker

On By CarynIn Cats

Thor the gray tabby is still afraid of the cat flap. I think it is the click of the magnets, so I had the idea to use a clicker with treats to desensitize him to the click noise. Could I find my dog clicker? Nope. So I used a canning jar lid.

Photo description: Gray tabby sniffing a Ball canning jar lid insert with “Thor’s Clicker” written in Sharpie

The lid insert is designed to pop. The intention is to show when a glass jar is properly sealed, but the action in the steel can be manually manipulated. I push the can lid in, it gives a small click, then I give Thor a small piece of chicken, and push the center of the lid the other way and it makes a louder click. It isn’t as loud as a store bought clicker, but with my scaredy cat, that is better.

House spider for the win

On By CarynIn Insects

My youngest told me there was a large bug in the bathroom, so I went to look. It was indeed a large bug, a bark scorpion, but it had been taken care of by our friendly neighborhood house spider. I have no idea how the scorpion became entangled in the web an inch off the floor, but the spider definitely had the advantage.

Photo description: house spider feeding on a bark scorpion vastly larger than the spider, day one
Photo description: same spider, same scorpion, day three, the scorpion is looking decidedly desiccated

The spider is certainly eating well, and we find it revisiting different parts of the scorpion as well as taking breaks from feeding. I’m going to leave the scorpion until there is nothing left, then clean up the web and let the spider rebuild. Go spider go.

Autowash

On By CarynIn chickens, Coop

In the summer I put out a chicken foot bath to help my hens cool off in the Texas heat. Yes, they tend to drink from the same water they stand in, but I haven’t yet lost a chicken to heat stroke. To keep the water relatively clean, I set up a hose on a timer to rinse the foot bath twice a day. I’ve hammered the hose end down to a slit to give the water spray some power, and it only takes a minute for the bath to do a water exchange. By putting the hose on the high side of the bath at an angle, the water swirls around the shallow dish, and floating materials, like pine shavings and feathers, spill out on the opposite side.

Photo description: chicken foot bath made from a large plant tray and a hose set up to autowash

Bag progress

On By CarynIn Craft
Photo description: loop and twist bag in progress next to flax fiber

After about 14 hours of riding in the car, I figure I have put about 12 hours into my loop and twist bag that I am twining from flax fiber as I go. I like the work because I can enjoy the scenery as we drive. I can both twine and loop mostly by feel (I do look when I join in new fiber.) I’m drawing my fiber from the center of the bundle, which I don’t think is the best way, because I’m getting tangles that have to be pulled out. I tried from one end, but the tangles were worse. I should lay out the fibers like flax spinners do, but space in the car is limited, and flax fibers can be over three feet long. The plan is to continue to twine until I run out of untangled fiber, then clean up the tangles and twine the string for the closure.