support a living artist

, originally uploaded by nirbhao.

For the giftmas season, I am offering wine bottle chillers for $25 each.

there are a bunch of pictures of other things that I know you would love to own here.

huzzah!

don't be duped.

I got a message on etsy today that read

I am interested in the immediate purchase of your item and will be make payment via cashier check/money order, my private shipping company will handle the shipping, but before payment will be made i need to be sure of who i am dealing with if you are going to be honest and sincere throughout the transaction. A certified cashiers check is cash-able the same day,there is going to be an excess fund on the check ,the excess fund is meant for the private shipping company who will come to your place for pick up of the item, so shipping is not a problem,will you be able to transfer the excess fund to the shipping company the same day you receive the check?. check would be sent to you so when you get payment you can easily cash it at any cashing point near you or deposit in your bank. You'll be sending excess fund to my shipper , which would be meant for shipping arrangement.if you agree, signify your interest by forwarding to me your Final Asking Price, Full Name & Contact Address a
nd Tel # also i will want you to email to my private email address white.carl@rocketmail.com because i had some bad network with my acct in Etsy.com,So plz kindly email me to my email address I await your response soonest.

Best and kind regards,

nope. didn't even sign it. anyway, I've encountered this type of fraud before. a banker I knew fell for it. it's a mess. Etsy made a post about this type of scam on the storque.

please be safe.

IRL

I graduated from the University of Iowa, and my brother graduated from the University of Michigan. Each year, we go to the football. That isn't exactly true, because the teams didn't play the past two years. We went this past weekend, though.

I pretty much do not care about football at all, except that I think it is neat when the Hawkeyes do well. Driving to Iowa, though, I was pushing on the inside of my ribcage trying so hard to make them win.

Iowa City is a bit of a magical place. It's not as magical as Mackinac, but things happened in that place in that time. I moved to Iowa City 17 years-old and quite confident that I was the most capable and intelligent being in the universe. I was part of the National Academy of Arts, Science, and Engineering program and my parents drove me out there and bought my books for me.

I got my first B in a Latin poetry class. We were reading Ovid. Frustrated, I approached my instructor. She said, "You did a good job. You earned a B."

so I think I had to learn a lot faster than some of my colleagues that learning was more than grades.

the University of Iowa has (had?) an exceptionally well-thought-of ceramics program. I had taken non-credit ceramics classes through Kendall College since I was 8 years old, and I missed it. so I took classes. at the time I took the LSAT, I was 15 credits shy of a BFA. I had even had my show. people were crying in front of Philips hall, but I thought the logic games were fun. I had two good options.

I did well on the LSAT. better than my brother by two points. haha

I went to the University of Detroit Mercy. I died. during rehab, I started rebuilding a studio. my parents gave me a thomas stuart kick wheel, and a widower sold his cress electric to me for $200 because his wife would have wanted it to be used and loved. I went back to law school, and it was fun. I made it three terms before my organs started failing again and stuck it out until the fifth.

then I moved my studio into my best friend's house, and he asked me to marry him.

he came with my brother and I this past weekend, and I took him to see the ceramics department. You may remember the devastating flood that hit Iowa City in 2007. certain buildings were as much as 7 feet under water. we subverted the fence. I pulled on every door that wasn't boarded shut. we wondered at the smoke damage where the kilns had been.

getting caught up on life in general

the routine is starting to fall into place. slowly. I'll be upsetting it again soon.

I found a good temple. I have a set day to change the sheets and another to clean the bathroom. I have dinners planned for the next week. 13 wine chillers, some of which are already sold (YEA!), are ready to fire. the garden is ready for winter.

the sock yarn blanket is coming along beautifully. I have taken a bit of a break from buying yarn and am getting caught up on using what I currently have. I have a lot of yarn. keeping up with the politics of the business is fascinating, though. and how can you not buy malabrigo sock when it first hits the market?

I've had a number of flops otherwise. I started the Q sock pattern. I like the socks a lot, but the yarns I used were too close together in color and I took about an inch of work out. I haven't had the energy to start with a new color yet.

I'm also trying to make my own menstrual pads. I have some nice undyed hemp that will be perfect, but patterns I've found are either ridiculously incomplete or unnecessarily complicated. I'll make my own-- it shouldn't be too hard.

by the by, I prefer reusable feminine hygiene products for a number of reasons. first, they create less waste and are less expensive. more importantly, they are far better for a woman's body. placing a wad of non-sterile mystery-material that contains a known carcinogen against the most sensitive mucous membrane of the body is not the healthiest thing a woman can do. boiling a silicone cup or running a cotton or hemp liner through the wash makes a lot more sense to me.

anyway, that was just in case homemade sanitary products strike you as gross.

being a domestic artist-- a homemaker who does so using power tools-- has tested my beliefs in terms of feminisms and disability. I don't know why I have to justify to myself or anyone else that it's okay to spend my days elbow deep in clay, making all of my food from scratch, or retro-renovating this beautiful first-era ranch. I don't know who I owe an explanation to that going grocery shopping tires me to a degree that I can hardly function afterwards. who is it I implore for understanding that, since I've left the rat race, organs that were starting to fail have started functioning again?

plus my enabler is about the most awesome partner anyone could ask for. this is what a friend said to me, just yesterday, "[H]is alliance with you demonstrates a depth that made us all take notice. Bravo. I just had such a positive, electric feeling that you compliment, understand and support each other. There isn't anything better than that."

and so my life continues to be a wonderful dream.

retrovation

the good, originally uploaded by nirbhao.

a lot has changed recently. I'm no longer in school. law school is bad for a person's health. also, I like my organs working. I moved. I'm getting married.

a bit over a month ago, I moved into a lovely little brick, first-era ranch near Detroit. my studio is set up to the point of being functional. I threw earlier this week, and I plan to fire for the first time here on Saturday. there is a lovely gigantic cast-iron sink sitting in the middle of the room on a dolly waiting to be installed.

unfortunately, I haven't had a lot of time for art because the house requires a lot of attention. last week, mopping the floor turned into removing the stick-on vinyl squares from the linoleum floor (that's the picture-- it's really neat). last night, in a moment of idiocy, I clogged the laundry sink / tub. clearing the pipes revealed--- well-- rust. a lot of it. my guy is currently sorting out what to do with a pipe in the concrete that has no threads.

I'm getting more into my routine, now, and figuring out that it will include six to eight hours of "house" work every day. it's my new full-time job. and I like it.

gearing up for gift giving

, originally uploaded by nirbhao.

keep your white wine cold while entertaining. thank your host and hostess with the gift of useful décor. booze it up tastefully with a ceramic wine bottle chiller. all you need to do is freeze the chiller. then, when you want to serve your white wine, place a bottle in the chiller outside of the freezer. the stoneware holds its temperature and can handle a great deal of stress. it is freezer, refrigerator, microwave, oven, and dishwasher safe. you could probably throw it against a wall, although I wouldn't recommend it. it is also food safe.

I accept commissions starting at $25. you can either make a request by price or request a specific design. prices are determined by complexity, specificity, and glaze composition.

see some of the pieces I have sold here.

TADA!
(curtsy, breathing heavily)

/ soul selling

noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I kept the computer around for one reason: it had my student edition photoshop 7 installed. I no longer had the disk. I no longer had the codes.

now I have a folder icon, alternating between the smile and a question mark. nothing else.

it appears the machine has gone senile.

*sniff*