Introducing Lena!

 Where have I been? 

Well, it started with this... 

Pay attention to the fourth puppy - the female who has a spot of white on her chin. Before anyone jumps on me about not rescuing a pet from the pound, know that I made many visits to the places in town, and all I found were pitbull and chihuahuas. I decided to do a little research and found a breeder in Northern Nevada.

After much discussion, I put a deposit down and waited for the litter to be born.  It took nearly a year!

Jenny breeds miniature schnauzers the right way – in an amazing setting, on a sheep farm. Her outbuildings have temperature controlled kennels, and the fenced in play area is impressive.

I mention she sent pictures every week!?!

This is my pup at four weeks!

Along with a friend, I drove up to a small city outside of Ely, Nevada, to pick her up at nine weeks old. She sat on his lap the whole way home, and despite stopping a couple of times to let her out for a potty break, she  slept the whole way home. She was scared, but did well.

 

A lot of people warned me that getting a puppy would drastically change my life. And sure... the first month or so limited me from being away from the house too long.

But we made it work!

She got used to the peacocks pretty quickly, and they have since stayed away. 

The breeder recommended giving her a raw bone once a month, and it's definitely something she looks forward to.

By the way – the breeder had started housebreaking her and having her sleep in a crate while still a newborn. 

From the very first night, she slept all the way through, never waking me up once.

As winter set in, she started wearing sweaters and sweatshirts.

She only weighed about 8 pounds, and got cold very quickly. 

It was difficult, deciding on a name for her, and I had a list of about 30 choices. I would call her by each name that I was considering, and she never answered to any of them. People kept telling me that she would let me know which name  she chose.

And you know what – they were right! 

Training her has been fairly easy, but it helps to have a smart puppy. OK, she's not perfect, but...

She learned how to high-five almost immediately.

And once we found a car seat, she learned how to ride in the car.

Here's her first pup cup!

Now we're settling in, she's more comfortable, claiming various parts of the house as her own. She loves to perch on the couch.

And so many friends gave me gift bags of toys, but this silly girl has favorites... who would guess that measuring cups would be her toy of choice!

I had left an area in the yard as a "pee-pee" spot for her, but all she did was dig in it. And I got tired of rinsing her paws clean every time she went outside. So I decided to build a deck over that area. 

She was a real trooper around the power tools! 

And as summer progressed, she learned to play in the pool. Even if it's empty, she sits in it!

At around seven months, she went into heat, and we booked an appointment for spaying. She wasn't particularly happy with me when I picked her up. Her 10 day recovery was a challenge, as it's difficult to keep a puppy down.

A lot of people warned me that the Fourth of July would give her anxiety, but we watched fireworks from the backyard. And she never freaked out once!

These days – you'll find her on my lap, 

or waiting for me to fill the pool. I have to weigh the pool down when it's not filled, as the wind will blow it out of the yard.

She loves her toys, loves to go to the dog park and meet other dogs, and has been an amazing addition to this household.

So that's where I've been!

She's just a few days away from her first birthday - where did the time go?

Packing up a friend's shop, and missing him already!

 If you missed the story about George Nakashima on CBS the other morning, you missed a really interesting view into the world of his live edge furnture. (Scroll down to watch it.)

For at least a dozen years, Andrew Moore was THE live edge maker here in Las Vegas. He's a good buddy and fellow furniture designer.  I've even hired him to teach a few classes at my old school.

His company is Reclaimed Secrets; he started out many years ago working with pine that was killed by beetles. 

The wood's noticiable blue tint added to the visual interest of this wood, but unfortunately - the availability of beetle kill pine was limited.  And worst of all - the wood is very soft. So Andrew branched out into working with hardwoods - walnuts, maples, pecans. 

He had a ridiculous inventory of live edge slabs. Later, he added my one of my favorites - Monkeypod. 

But alas... all good things come to an end. There are so many factors that play into the success of a business - wood prices, competition by other artists, fuel prices, popularity of the product, and much more. 

For many years, Andrew was THE only one in town making live edge furniture. But with the popularity of live edge work, many artisans have now jumped on that bandwagon. All of that, plus some amazing new opportunities opened up for him, and he's packing up and moving to Texas. I've been helping him pack his shop all week. 

Of course I will miss him, and wish him the very best in his new endeavor. I've been in Vegas long enough to see many artisans open up shops, only to see them eventually leave for brighter pastures. I believe that's where he's headed -  to a pasture like that, where his work will once again be in HUGE demand!  And he'll be kiling it again!

Enjoy this video!

Animal House Pottery has cooked up something for us to enjoy...

If you know anything about my work, then you know, I love combining mediums. Sure, wood is my first love. 

But I've been working with clay since the early 90s, when I experimented with tile making, to incorporate it into the furnuiture that I build.  I still have a ceramic studio, and one of my current projects us making tile for the backsplash in my kitchen. (Add that to my list!)

So when I found out that Animal House Pottery was going to be exhibiting some of the students ceramic work, I headed down to City Hall to see the show.

There's no doubt City Hall is impressive. It’s easy to park, there’s a deck right across the street. 

As you walk up to the building, you see larger than life sculptures of Oscar and Carolyn Goodman, our former mayors. Say what you want about them, but I think they accomplished a lot during their reign.

Security in the lobby is pretty tight, but as you walk in the doors, you can see the show displayed in the lobby. Once I told the security guard I was attending the show, she gave me a voucher for free parking, and I stepped through the metal detector to see the work.

I know… a metal detector! It's hard to believe we've gotten to this point, but considering not too long ago, we had a mass murder here, where 100 people died... it (sadly) makes sense.

The ceramic show wasn't extremely big – by my count - there were only 14 pieces. But there were quite a few that I absolutely adored. 

Hopefully, I am attributing the artwork to the correct artist - my iPhone was acting up, after a new update, so many of the photos that I took were out of sequence. (Thanks, Apple!)

A piece that I absolutely loved was made by Nicholas Denson, a figurative abstract sculpture that had me staring at it for quite a while. 

I took several photos, but really couldn't capture the essence of this piece. But it was stunning.

Owner of the pottery – Anthony – had (I think) one of the most impressive pieces. It was a large vessel, much larger than anything else in the show. 

If you've ever thrown clay on the wheel, you know how difficult it is to accomplish something this big. That in itself was very impressive. But Anthony's piece was lovely in its own right –the shape, the markings, the texture - everything about it was gorgeous.

I very much enjoyed the details in Marianna Romero Martinez' piece - Resilient Nature. 

She combined a wooden plaque with a ceramic sculpture of a heart - embellished with flowers and color. I later learned she's been working on a whole series of similar pieces - imagine how interesting it would be to see an exhibition of all of them togeher!

JuliaEstelle’s “Margiela” was another one of those that had me thinking about it as I drove home. A single large scale tentacle of (I'm assuming) an octopus was rich in detail, and deep in surface decoration and color. 

Again – hard to take photos of pieces like these, but her work was great.

Another piece I very much enjoyed was Robert Hoier’s constant pots – a saggar fired plant vessel. 

To be honest, when I first looked at it, it didn't seem like anything special. But I found myself returning to the pedestal where it was displayed, viewing it from all angles. 

The color and texture of it was magnificent.

My favorite? Cathy Calabio’s Jupiter Vessel(s) were the ones that I'm most enjoyed. 

They were sculptural in ways that challenged you to look at them from every angle possible. The glaze on these are right up my alley, and they were simply (technically) outstanding. 

 I spent a good long time examining them from near and far. 

Bravo Cathy! 

There were several whimsical pieces, including this one by Mariana Romero Martinez, and this trio of ducks by Ashley Hughes. They were clever and fun and I enjoyed their playfulness.

As I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate whimsy in artwork. With practice, anyone can make technically good pieces. But combine that with some thought and incorporate it into the work, and it takes to piece to a whole new level. 

 Finally - I really liked the texture and luster of this vessel, and I'm guessing that it was raku-fired. 

You don't see that spectrum of color on reduction or oxidation fired pieces. But honestly - raku is a crap shoot.  Sometimes you'll get amazing colors, but often, you'll get sooty, damaged work. Raku is a whole different ballgame, so this piece is a victory.

Again - if I mis-labeled any of these photos, attributing the work to the wrong artist - I apologize. Apple really needs to get their act together with its phone updates.

The show ends in late July, and I highly recommend stopping and seeing this interesting collection! (Don't forget to ask for a voucher for parking!)