I thought I’d share two bone china pieces that I finished glazing this past week.

The Sharif is going out to Jeanene Bernardin of California. It was the first Sharif I have glazed so far. Lovely, lovely sculpture and what a pleasure to do all that dappling on the matte bone china finish. I have another commission in the queue, and I bought two of these myself. I hope to get at least one of mine glazed before May!

The Boreas is heading to Jo Ellen Arnold’s collection in Virginia. He certainly is a splendid-looking boy with his striking splash of white to set him apart!

My thanks to Jeanene and Jo Ellen for being such great patrons of my work and their patience with my lack of production at the end of last year!

Update on the England Housing Question:
Paul and I exchanged emails Friday morning which both said the same thing: the “country” Maidenhead house, emphatically! We put in an offer for the rental so I hope we get it!

As much as I like the idea of trying a city lifestyle, I think truly what we’ll need at home is as much normalcy as possible. There will be more glitches and hassles to come I’m sure, so we should choose “easy” when it is offered! (That house was the only one that was furnished.) There will be so many new things to experience as it is!

I would like my typical day to be at least somewhat like here and I love love love our serene Boulder neighborhood. I admit I feel a little tense and stressed just looking at the Windsor street shots Paul sent. I’ve been to Windsor and it is not even a big urban city by any means! But I love peace and green surroundings best; it feeds my artistic soul. I’m not one of those artists that gets inspiration from edgy strife or angst!

Next on the studio workbench:
A Caprice, another Boreas, another Sharif, an Optime, a Breyer porcelain “Giselle” (BreyerFest ’09 donation), and the Contest prizes. (The Contest Hadrian is already about half finished.) After those are done, whatever else I glaze is totally up to me, yeah!

Paul spent today going around our new location in England looking at housing. And the choice of how and where we want to live comes down to this…

We can choose a more in-town lifestyle—right in Windsor—in a row house like this (ours would be in the row on the right side):

With a small walled back garden like this:

Or we can live in a new, more suburban house about a mile from his office in Maidenhead:

With a pretty yard like this:
The Windsor house is older, on 3 floors, it’s only 2 bedrooms. He’d have about a 20 min. drive to work. It is right in town; only about 5 minute walk from their main shopping district and about another 5 min walk from Windsor Castle! All their parklike grounds are just down the street. So we’d have less space at home for the dogs but lots of places to take walks. And we’d have to park the car on the street. But we could walk to shopping, restaurants, and the train to London!

The house in Maidenhead is in a very quiet suburban neighborhood somewhat like ours in Boulder. And only a mile from Paul’s office so he could walk or ride his bike there or I could drop him off on really bad days. I wouldn’t be walking distance to shopping etc. but it’s 4 bedrooms, all new everything and lots of space.

So, the dilemma is do we want to try a more-urban lifestyle for 2 years, with easy access to all the in-town pluses (and minuses), or do we want to be in comfortable suburbia like we already are? I can’t decide!

Well, Paul is headed off to England on Sunday. He still has to come back here to complete the visa process, but he couldn’t wait any longer. His new job has some upcoming deadlines and they really needed him to be there. So it looks like he might be gone 3 weeks. At least he will be looking at housing and will almost certainly sign a lease before he comes back here. Then he’ll have someplace to call home in Feb besides a hotel room! He’s taking the camera and will be sending me photos of the most promising houses. #1 priority: close to his office and a yard for the dogs!!

I guess this means this all is really happening!! I honestly didn’t allow myself to believe it until now. Starting next week I will be on my own. That should mean that I will be really really productive, because I am such a loner and Paul is pretty much my social life and sole companion. I may not be able to notice the difference between weekends and weekdays! I’m glad I have settled myself with a lot to do between now and the end of May, because hopefully it will mean the time will pass quickly.

I decided not to take on any more custom glazing commissions. Just finish up what I agreed to do. And then I want to glaze a few pieces to my choice of color and offer them for sale. It has been a long time since I did that and I have some great china pieces here that are begging for my attention.

And of course my other goal to finish both the “Clarity” sculpture and the little walking Morgan, so I can take them to England for ceramic molding.

It looks like I will be going down to Tucson in April. My family will be getting together there and it will be my last chance to see them all together for awhile, maybe! It should coincide with my 50th birthday on the 17th, so I guess we’ll have a party. Which is a good thing because left on my own I’d be trying mightily to ignore it completely. I realize I haven’t had a birthday party in decades! It just never was my thing, and especially once I was past 30!

Because when people give me ideas for colors, it gets me out of my “standard” mental box of horse colors.

One of my customers has been patiently waiting her turn for a custom Boreas. I know she really wanted a grey but I don’t want to duplicate any colors or shades, and I’m pretty much to the point where most all variations of grey have been done. So she chose a dark chestnut tobiano. Which turned into last month’s “mistake” horse when I forgot to make the horse a pinto!

When she called me to tell me she didn’t want the solid chestnut, she suggested grey tobiano pinto. And whooo, baby, that is going to be an amazing choice! One I wouldn’t have thought of on my own!

The two photos below show the progress. I shaded the whole horse in grey first. Then with a paintbrush dipped in water, I wiped off the grey to place the white markings. I just spent the past 2 hours removing grey overglaze with the air eraser to get all that dappling.

Usually I paint dapple greys one section of the horse at a time, and then fire. (In order to cut down on accidents like me putting a big thumbprint in a finished area!!) But in this case I decided to go for it in one shot, because I felt it was important to work the shape of the white markings in one session and manage the balance of grey to white.

I’m also glazing a Brigitte Eberl/Horsing Around bone china “Sharif” Arabian in matte dapple grey this week (this Boreas is gloss), so it is the week for the greys. My back is complaining already. I can only work dappling for about 2 hours per session or my back just locks up, because it is such a precise and intense way of working.

Here’s the finished chestnut Boreas that I mentioned in a previous posting about being the “mistake” horse—missing his pinto markings. The person I was glazing this Boreas for decided to go with another color completely (since I was going to start over anyway) so this piece is now for sale. I received more than a few offers to buy him therefore the most fair way is to list him at auction. The auction ends on Friday. Thank you!