These are my last weeks of glazing chinas. I have to stop using any art tools I want to bring to England by April 10th when I have to get things ready for the shipping crate. So I am finishing up my last confirmed commissions, and all are greys. Here are teaser photos of two of them I started recently:

With a little over 2 months to go before the Boyz and I step on that plane, I am starting to feel a teensy bit of time pressure! I would like to find time for a couple of non-commission pieces to finish and offer for sale before I’m forced to quit. But I am wondering if anyone has any money left for china horses… or if maybe I should just wait 2 years for when I get back and the economy should have recovered. (I prefer to take the optimistic road on that prediction!)

It will be hard to give up glazing completely for 2 years just when I feel that I am really reaching for the top of my game and each piece has been exceeding even my fussy expectations. (And it is quite possible that we might stay overseas longer than 2 years if Paul wants to continue to work rather than retire in 2010. The opportunities for the most interesting work in his company are in places other than the US.) So I ought to have my painting tools with me to keep all options open.

I am taking my 2 best airbrushes and my air eraser. I can always buy a little hobby airbrush air compressor over there if I need to, they don’t cost that much. My main project/goal is to learn to slip cast my ceramic molds and do customizing of the clay bodies. But if I really learn to do it and get bisque pieces maybe I’ll find a local commercial studio kiln I can buy firing time on. At the very least I can save up stuff and make the 2 hour drive to Donna Chaney’s studio and buy time on her kilns when/if she has space available.

I decided not to try to push to finish the “Clarity” sculpture before I go. Or the little walking Morgan. This may change if I find myself with time in May when I can’t glaze anything, but right now I can tell I am just not into that work. I am really really focused glazing right now and that is enough to keep me busy. If I try to rush a sculpture I know it won’t be right. They will both keep just fine as-is, covered up and stored. What I can do is pack my favorite clay and sculpting tools and start something new in England if I feel like it! It costs so little to buy the parts for a new armature setup. Who knows, I might fall in love with a horse at a horse fair or show and start fresh on sculpting.

Even with Paul all moved into our new house over there, and describing his life via daily emails and occasional Skype calls over our computers, it is still impossible to visualize what my daily life or my worklife will be like there. I can’t wait to find out! I do know that I will miss my studio here. It looks like I will be working in the dining room over there; that’s the only room possible to be converted to a workspace near water and sinks where I can make messes.

Speaking of Paul, I just got the nicest surprise! I’m going down to Tucson for my big 5-0 birthday the 3rd week in April and to see my siblings and their families for the last time before I go overseas. Paul just told me he will be joining me there for a few of the days!! He was trying so hard to make it a total surprise that I wouldn’t know about until we got there, but the logistics were too hard to coordinate even with my mom and sister in on it.

I won’t have to wait 4 months to see him again after all (and have the big romantic reunion in Heathrow airport I was envisioning–like the end of that movie “Love, Actually”.). Though I told my family since I only have 2 nights with him (out of the 5 total I’ll be there) we may not come up for air very much!