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Second visit to Beachy Head, April

Four weeks to go until I fly home with the Boyz! (Assuming no additional volcano-erupting, that is.) I can scarcely believe that I will be coming home just 2 days short of exactly a year since I left. This year in the UK has not gone much like we expected. But until you do something like this, who can really know what it will be like!

One thing I do not have any longer is only a fantasy-novel impression of Great Britain. It really is not a land of perfect little ivy-covered cottages down picturesque lanes… villages with been-there-forever antique shop, stone church, pub, and interesting bookshop… ruinous castles or at least an earthworks on every high point, sheep in gemlike green pastures between stone walls or hedge rows… a riot of green plants and flowers everywhere, divided by secret little streams with geese, swans, and ducks and crossed by arched stone bridges, accessed by a large network of public footpaths and bridleways complete with horse riders… buildings and house styles which haven’t changed for a couple centuries, hidden behind lichen-covered stone walls you’re dying to climb up just to peek at what’s there… stuck-in-time fishing villages beneath dramatic cliffs framed by aqua-blue ocean…

Oh WAIT, it IS all that!!!

Well… PARTS of the UK are like that. There is also a lot of this country that is not any of that.

And really, why should we expect any place to stand fixed at some idealized point in their past? As a devotee of history I am all for historical preservation, yet it is such a tourist-conceit to expect that Italy should be stuck in the renaissance or all of England should look like Henry VIII still rules. Of course people have contemporary lives here. They want industry, jobs, office parks, football stadiums, leisure centres, shopping malls, and new roads in order to have an enjoyable life and a viable economy, just like we do. It is my observation that the UK may have to move more from their somewhat rigid reliance on the-way-things-have-always-been-done in order to save their country from becoming inconsequential in the larger world. It is hard to tell where they are going, especially after this last economic recession. Yet how much of the fantasy-England (their incredible heritage) will they have to sacrifice to have a prosperous future? That is quite a question.

It seems like very few can afford to live in the fantasy England anymore (as usual with so much of the world). Most people live in the non-fantasy parts. Which honestly I didn’t like all that much, probably BECAUSE I was coming from the tourist-England expectation. But once we’d been here awhile we found that day-to-day living is just plain more annoying than in the US. And I do have a pretty dim view of American culture!! So it is fascinating to me that after living here for a year I much prefer the USA way of doing things (however imperfect we may do it, ha). I guess that’s probably true for most everyone; you just prefer your home, warts and all!

Eton

I have become so interested in the politics and societal issues over here, that I will be eager to follow the story long after I’m gone. Thanks to the incredible world wide web, I can read the Times of London any time I want; I’ve become a fan of quite a few of their columnists. I will be streaming my favorite London radio stations on my computer and receiving headlines from London media on Facebook.

Local footpath

Tourist that I mostly was this past year, I will indeed miss the fantasy England (and Wales and Scotland). I am so grateful that I saw as much of it as I did. My artistic soul is filled to bursting with visuals that are going to come out in some form or another eventually! We will treasure the experience our whole lives and especially the mind-broadening and world-view-expanding we received.

Hurley Village

Looking ahead to when I am all settled back into my studio routine this summer, I would like to restart my Go-To List on glazing-only china horse commissions. This was working well for me before I left for the UK.

It is a very simple and informal system. You email me that you are interested in my glazing work on X china horse, to your color choice. When I have a bisque of that particular horse ready to go I contact the next person on the list who wants one of those, quote a price and a (fairly short) timeline for completion. This works really well for me because I only start a piece when I am ready. There’s no big backlog pressure, it’s just my “go-to” list of those interested in a commission. And there’s no commitment on your part either. If I have a slot open and you’re next, you can just decline if you’re not ready or no longer interested.

From my own china sculpture “back catalog”, you can ask for Heart of Darkness Oldenburg (large or small), Boreas or Halfling Boreas Percheron, Optime Arabian, Streetwise Quarter Horse, and possibly a Caprice Holsteiner (but that mold is about gone). I will making all castings in earthenware china, but I may also have a few bone chinas from my archives to offer. Since Alchemy in England no longer has my molds, there won’t be any more bone chinas made of my older work. I’m still thinking about whether to have new sculptures made in England for bone china.

Commissions on the Go-To List also will include glazing your bisque china horse sculpted by someone else. So if you’ve got a bisque looking for clothes, you can get it in my queue. Please let me know what you have first. I don’t glaze just anything… and I especially can’t glaze one-of-a-kind bisques or anything not easily replaceable if something goes wrong in the kiln.

I can also custom-overglaze an existing glazed china piece from mass-producer potteries like Hagen-Renaker. You can order one of their current re-issue horses in the white-grey color and then I can fire just about any gorgeous custom color into the glaze. I have a few of these myself that I am eager to glaze when I get back. PLEASE talk to me first BEFORE you order one of these from H-R. Here’s a fleabit grey “Sheba” I glazed:

I charge anywhere from $500 to $2000+ for my work (lower of course if the bisque is one you send me)… it all depends on the complexity of the color.

I’m eager to get going on casting chinas from my molds, but they won’t arrive until roughly 8 weeks after we get home. Then I must get up to speed on this work and firing them successfully (and who knows how long that will take). But eventually I hope I will be able to offer an ongoing group of clay-customized earthenware pieces. I will cast a horse, sculpt some customizations, and then put each one up for sale/auction with the buyer being able to choose the final glazed color. (I will be offering all claybody custom chinas at auction or something as they come up, so you can’t get on the To-Do List for those.) I am especially excited about putting leg feathers, long tails, new manes, etc. on Boreas and Halfling Boreas. Plus show-braided ones, moved heads… lots of possibilities! And Heart of Darkness is begging for a sentimental re-emergence with a few customized versions. That piece is 15 years old now!! (I just realized I don’t have any photos of HoD on my webpage any more.)

To get on the Go-To List, you can reply directly to this email (if you’re getting it in your inbox) or go to my blog or website and use the contact link there. You must include:

• Which bisque. If one of mine, tell me if you only want a bone china (very limited availability on those, and will be a higher price)

• Your color choice. Must be specific. I work my Go-To list based on what color I feel like glazing, in addition to what horse becomes available!

• Your full name, address, and the email address I should use to contact you (it may be months from now)

I am totally looking forward to a summer of getting reacquainted with Fido The Kiln!

Welcome to April! I am overjoyed that it IS April, that’s for sure. (Even if my birthday is this month, bleah!)

The last month has been an incredible roller-coaster ride for my family. My mother made the decision to undergo a very very serious surgery (her surgeon told her and my dad the other day it was “one tick down from a transplant!”… to figure out once and for all what’s been going on with her stomach the past year. That was March 23rd. I knew I had to be there, so I flew back to Boulder a day before. (I will be so glad when I don’t have to do any more trans-Atlantic flights! Especially now with the airlines cutting back on services so much.)

On the day of surgery (which took 7 hours!) the surgeon came out and told me and my dad that it was pancreatic cancer. That was really terrible news of course. I called all my siblings from the waiting room, and we waited there another 5 hours before we could get in to see mom just for a few minutes. All the while, watching a big snowstorm come in and wondering if we were even going to get home that night! (We did.)

The rest of the week was a fairly surreal routine of visiting my mom once or twice a day, and driving back and forth to Denver airport to pick up and drop off my two brothers. Kurt came in on Thursday for about 6 hours, and left again. (He’s an airline pilot so he can do that sort of thing!!) On that day our spirits soared as we were there when my mom’s doctor brought us the news that the cancer had not spread anywhere, and the small tumor was completely removed. She would not require any further therapy like chemo or radiation, and could just… recover. I think I am still in recovery myself from the harrowing emotional/mental down-then-up of those two days.

On Friday it was off to the airport again to get my brother Chuck. My mom was making amazing strides and improvement could be seen daily. It was sure great to be able to see my brothers that week, even if the occasion was not great. I know my sister Kristin all the way out in Brooklyn was dying to be there too. But she got there this week—just in time to help my parents out as my mom went home from the hospital—and she was needed so much at this time it was worth it to wait.

I flew back to the UK the Saturday after the surgery, then had 2 days with Paul, and then he was off to NY for a week to tend to his father Millard. Mostly to handle the extra paperwork involved with filing income taxes and taking care of finances since his mom passed away at Christmas. We are so delighted with how well Millard has been doing on his own. We knew he was feeling good when he announced his intention to plant a few veggies in his garden this year! And Paul got treated to 80° weather most of the week, the stinker!!

Now, spring in the UK is arriving at full speed having been delayed by about a month from the worse than usual winter. Paul was gone over Easter weekend so I spent Easter Sunday walking around London. Their parks were just starting to bloom, and the trees flowering. Here’s a photo of Buckingham Palace from St. James Park:

I haven’t been doing too much of an exciting nature. Just really enjoying our house and neighborhood and walks with the Boyz. Paul and I go running each evening down this country lane next to the Tudor manor, and it’s been great watching the trees and shrubs and hedges begin to leaf out this week. Now that we’ve been getting some sun and warmer temps, it is all happening really fast! I’ve also been enjoying watching the farmer till and plant the field next to where the Boyz and I often walk the footpath. Green shoots just started coming up there this week!

The other day we finalized a lot of our plans for leaving the UK. Our belongings will be packed up and shipped off (going back on a ship, literally) on May 24th. The Boyz and I will fly back the next day on May 25th. Taking the Boyz into the USA is far far simpler than getting them to the UK! Not nearly as much paperwork and we can travel on United Airlines—I will just check them in as “baggage” (like a pair of skis, ha ha). Instead of having to use British Airways air cargo like on the way over here. BA was the only carrier with a direct flight out of Denver who also dealt with the UK’s complicated scheme on bringing pets in. It will cost about $1000 less PER dog, too!

My Brother Kurt, his wife Terri, and their 5 year old son Scott are arriving here this Tuesday for a big visit. They will stay with us for a week, with a lot of trips to London and some places in the country. (I’ll be getting another look at Stonehenge, ha). Then they are heading over to Ireland for a week, and then back here for about 3 days before they go back to Tucson. I am looking forward to showing them around my new home, almost as a local!

I am not sure we will do any more travel before we leave here for good. We’re feeling very home-y and wanting to do stay-at-home stuff. (Sick of flying!) I am sure spring in Berkshire will be so pretty we will enjoy just poking around here. I’ve got a few day-trips in mind for the weekends. I have been looking around for a dog-friendly cottage the 2nd week of May, in either North Yorkshire or Isle of Wight, but we’re going to wait until the week before and just see what the weather is like. I am not convinced the weather is going to be all that nice for the next 2 months, having been let down so much this winter…! So no advance planning.

On the art front… I’m pretty much resigned to not getting much if any sculpture work done before I leave. The Roundabout sculpture has now been re-started from scratch. I think I’ve got it going down the right path this time, but there’s a lot of work to do on it, all over again. I’m feeling awfully busy and distracted with the time I’ve got left over here. (It being Spring in southern England being the #1 “problem”!) But I should still find a little time/motivation here and there over the next weeks to get him a little further along I hope. Though I really wanted to complete Roundabout entirely in the UK, it will be OK if he ends up being a multi-national. He was purely inspired by my time and experiences over here anyway. I sure feel like I know that Cob now though! I just need to free him from the clay (to paraphrase Michelangelo).

The reason I titled this post “transitions” is due to the obvious one of going home soon. But I have a feeling that me and my work life are going to go through a lot of changes this year, with Paul retiring from his job as soon as we get back to Boulder. His retirement gift to himself will be to buy a 2nd house in one of the Colorado mountain ski towns, and I expect we’ll live there half the year at least. That will be an interesting challenge for my work routines, especially since I will not be as retired as Paul!

Lastly, here’s a photo I came across in my archives. It’s me and my mom and the Boyz, our final day in Boulder last May. About an hour before my dad drove us to the airport. Do I look stressed? I totally was!! I didn’t relax until I saw the Boyz’ travel crates going up the ramp into the plane. I feel a lot more calm about sending the Boyz on a plane now that I have done it once. And I’ve promised them they won’t ever have to do it again!

Donna kindly fired my first-ever customized china Optime Arabian last week, and here are some photos. When I get back to the US and can glaze it, it will be destined for my china cabinet. Because it is my first, and also because the front leg warped in just a little so it’s not sell-able. 🙂