Clayton Hill Studio

Posted on March 15, 2012 by claytonhill

Big tease, microcephalic … and faith!

As I sit in the office, nursing a cup of coffee – trying to wake up and tap into my smiling, happy, civil side (come on caffeine!) … DH is giving me a run down on the weather predictions for the next 7 days. Michigan and I have a love/hate relationship this time of year … I love all the nice weather, hopes of spring and SUMMER(!) – but know we have at least one more snowfall/ICESTORM to come. And I HATE that! I’m all geared up, ready to start cleaning the pool, plant the garden – basically unHIBERNATE. But, it’s coming people … don’t get too turned on yet, cuz Michigan will leave us cold once more … The Big Tease!

Meanwhile, my yarn arrived yesterday … and I have been a butterfly-hat knitting fiend! I’m a little bit worried though. My children inherited their father’s big head. (It’s a gene their entire family passes on … something I would have taken into account pre-marriage and procreation – if I’d been thinking in my 20’s …) Anyway, this hat isn’t looking like it will stretch past my daughter’s eyebrows, let alone her entire head. I keep staring at the pictures in the pattern, saying ‘But, they don’t look microcephalic – they look to have a normal-sized head’ about the models … only to have DH inform my Yorkies that “Momma’s knitting a hat for you …” (Showing ZERO REMORSE for his part in passing on the mutant large-cranium gene!!)

But I have faith … Michigan will eventually roll into reliable nice weather (ummm … in June!) and my hat will fit someone (if not my daughter, maybe Winston – my 3.5 pound Yorkie) …

*NOT Winston – but a small dog with a tiny hat from the internet

Finally made it to my studio yesterday … the kilns are cooling down from a de-bubble run and a recycled glass experiment. Photos to follow … Have Faith! Winking smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on March 13, 2012 by claytonhill

Slowly sliding back into the groove …

WWU: The very large (not full any longer, but still full enough to affect my county) moon did not disappoint – busy, crazy and … difficult. But over(!) – so, moving on …

I spent about an hour after getting home from work Monday morning, just sitting in the studio, getting back into the swing of ‘all things glass’ … and then promptly crashed (slept). Last night, I developed a yen to knit a hat or two (for my daughter, as I really don’t wear hats …) So, I’ve ordered some yarn, patterns and (more) needles …

Today, DH has me looking at local properties (via the ‘net), as HE thinks he may want to become a landlord … ??? [‘Hmmm, ok, whatever honey …’] But – there is a house not far from us, I drive by it frequently, that has an INDOOR POOL!!! I never realized … you really can’t tell from the front. So – these photos started a huge discussion on a combination indoor pool/greenhouse project at our own home-front. Yea, baby! It’s only TALK, as this project would be quite time-consuming and COSTLY, but …. How Fun! Who wouldn’t love to wake up and shuffle off to THIS room?

Enough day-dreaming! It’s time to think ‘dinner’ thoughts so I can head to the studio this evening … Smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on March 10, 2012 by claytonhill

Fun night – and now …

Had a great night with the family last night … Fried fish and shrimp, an impromptu YouTube session showing the kids 70’s CLASSIC videos, and a surprise visit from my dad.

We have a couple of muskrats living around our pond – and they’ve been seen recently sunning and moving about. This is what started the video session … Captain and Tennille’s Muskrat Love – which started other educational topics (for the kids) such as Solid Gold and Soul Train [Elton John’s Benny and the Jets], and YMCA … (BTW – it amazes me how things from my youth have been stored away in my memory as ‘pretty cool’ – only to be revisited later as ‘quite lame’ … Years ago, I purchased the DVD Silver Bullet, forced the kids into family movie night so that we could all watch it … only to have everyone, myself included concurring it is a very silly movie! When will I learn???)

We gradually brought the videos up to more current decades, touching on the Spice Girls and ending with Maroon Five (oh, Adam!) … I’m certain my kids think I am certifiable – and that I should NEVER sing out loud … But we all had fun!

And now – to mentally prepare for this very large moon and a fun-filled weekend in the ER … Still haven’t made it to the studio yet – Darn it!!

Leave a Comment

Posted on March 9, 2012 by claytonhill

Dogs … they make me smile!

Had to share a few quick pics … two of Bandido, our Neo pup and one from facebook that just made me smile:

Now it’s time for Fish Fry with the family … then off to the studio!!! Smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on March 8, 2012 by claytonhill

If anyone had told me …

I would spend 8 (almost 9) DAYS away from internet, email and smart phones – I would never have believed it … But – that’s exactly what I did.

We just came back from paradise (our tropical retreat) and while we had an unexpected delay in Georgia trying to make our way back home … I went 8.5 days without [my] technology. And I was okay with it! ‘Course unlimited adult beverages, entire days spent lounging in the pool soaking up sunshine, and nights full of endless food and fun may have contributed. It wasn’t until the last [unexpected] day, when our airline TOOK IT UPON THEMSELVES to cancel/rebook our connecting flight for the following MORNING(!), holding us hostage in Atlanta with no belongings (our bags were ‘checked’ – making them inaccessible to us), transportation or entertainment plans – that I broke down to touch base with technology.

Now home, with some 200 emails to filter through … I still had a great time! (Am boycotting Atlanta Delta for now though …) Had to keep our actual trip dates on the D-L to keep the evil-biologic from messing with the home front while we were gone [SUCCESS!] … So, a good time was had by all. Once I get the kids wound down from their week long sugar-high, compliments of Papa and Grandma – I can get back to the business of running our home, all refreshed, renewed and sun-kissed (jaundiced???) …

I have more Red Stripe and RS Light bottles for slumping … more Rum Cream, Liquor 43 and (a new one) Mango Liqueur to sip at (LOVE the shape of that bottle!) … and I hope to have some studio time tomorrow, before heading back to the reality of ER nursing. But for now, I have my kids (two and four-legged) to catch up with/love-on … and I’m happy! (BTW – so is DH …) Smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on February 28, 2012 by claytonhill

Still rollin’ …

WWU: Busy weekend! Sick folk, crabby folk, whiney folk … Wow! Sure glad it’s over … With it’s limited resources, my little stand alone ER has unique challenges when it’s that busy!

Flipping back to ‘glass artist’ role – I’m still enjoying my successes (for the moment, anyway) …

A couple more fun spoon rests:

Some wispy blanks … hopefully destined to be pendant lamp shades:

I’ll be running a coffin load for de-bubbling … Oh how I love my studio! Smile

Happy Leap Year everyone!

Leave a Comment

Posted on February 25, 2012 by claytonhill

Relaxed, playing–and on a roll …

A great couple of evenings with my kids (both the two and four-legged kind), my kilns and my studio has me rolling into the weekend feeling great! I have pictures:

Romp time with the pooches … DH caught a quick pic, calling me the ‘dog whisperer’. Smile The last remaining (Neo) pups are moving on to their new homes this weekend, and our flying babies did great!

Filling the kids in on my recent desire to go gator-huntin’ started an impromptu internet search for ‘exotic meats’ – which led to some pretty entertaining moments as well as a mini-vocab lesson … Pizzles, anyone?

Success with my pendant lamp … I love how uniform, while still being eclectic this one turned out.

A pre-firing shot and a photo of some recent successes and projects. I’ve been playing with slumping some of DH’s stained glass. Having some fun making little bowls and catch-alls …

DH’s pool window is coming along nicely:

And, in between kiln runs (as they are LONG [12-15 hour] firings) … I’ve been playing with some non-glass crafts – like recycled plastic bottle ‘icicles’ for the Christmas tree (compliments of Pinterest) and stamped tags. I have a learning curve to get through regarding what each medium does (chalks, metallic stamps, water color pens, embossing inks, antiquing inks, spritzer mists) … so some experimenting going on …

And I’ll leave with a picture from the view of my studio deck. Apparently there was a ‘town meeting’ earlier this week (before the snow hit AGAIN!) – and the deer were gathered en-mass in our field. While I didn’t get all of them in this photo, there were some 25-30 deer present for the meeting. Smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on February 22, 2012 by claytonhill

Wednesdays … WTH?!?

A much better Wednesday than last week (!), but still with some tension and stress (darn teenagers anyway) … For now, I’ve locked myself in the studio, armed with a cup of Café Mocha – to get some de-stressing/me time.

Starting with photography: Here’s a shot of my last coffin run pre-firing:

And my pendant lamp trials … Still having issue with the wispy blue/purple blank (it broke again – but this time on a ceramic mold, so I can’t use brute force to bust it out of there …GRRRR); a successful size and it’s more stunning than it photographs; an unsuccessful example, but one that I can refuse over the metal mold next round. (Photos taken over my trusty flashlight – for sophisticated lamp feel – lol!)

Here’s a blank that I like, but fear it’s too opaque for a pendant lamp. While it’s pretty with light coming through, I think it needs to be wispier (more clear) – so I might cut it into pieces and reform … Thoughts, anyone?

I plan to work with some crystal cut beads this evening and maybe get another blank running in the production kiln. Recently, my sister filled me in on a new Budweiser beer (Platinum) – that comes in cobalt blue bottles … she hooked me up with a few … Here’s one I slumped into a curved spoon rest … I like it – and it tastes great too! Winking smile

Leave a Comment

Posted on February 21, 2012 by claytonhill

It must be winter …

(WWU) Got through another weekend … busy Saturday, but nothing critical (lots of cold and flu complaints). My weird sleep habits had me up and wide awake at 7am this morning …WTH??? Such an unnatural hour for me. I’ll pay for it later I’m sure … But in the meantime, I’m watching the skies unload on Michigan. An unexpected snow fall has my yard white again. Here’s the view from my office (old studio):

The pups are moving on to their new homes this week … with some set to fly later today. I’m hoping this snow doesn’t have us grounded. We’re flying to the east coast (MA, CT and ME), so I’ve got my fingers crossed.

It must be winter, as I have my yearly hankering for knitting. I’ve fallen in love with this novelty yarn (Tutu by Crystal Palace) … it’s such a fun scarf design that I’ve just ordered several more skeins. Smile And my bag project is coming along nicely. As it will be felted (shrunk), it needs to be really large prewashing to come out as a decent size once finished … I think I’ve nailed it. A few more skeins to get the height where it needs to be, and then to design the handles …

Studio news: I’m wanting to put some additional lighting in the studio kitchen (track lighting that looks similar to this) … so I’m working on some custom pendant shades. As they’re in the trial stage now (trying to figure just how tall I want them) – I have a few experiments going. More pictures to come as the project unfolds …

2 Comments

Posted on February 16, 2012 by claytonhill

Disillusioned, disappointed and depressed …

Had another first for my ‘lil rural county yesterday – 3 SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) cases in less than 24 hours. WTH?!? I believe I covered every service provided to ‘adults’ by our agency (… if I didn’t – I don’t even want to think about what scenario I missed)!

So bummed at the state of my community, I felt compelled to look up our population: 181K people living over 568 square miles of area. Sounds rural to me … What is all this ‘big city’ sickness doing in my podunk county???

Add to it some not-so-successful stamping fusing experiments and I’m feeling very uncreative/uninspired … I definitely had more success when the bottle was stamped after slumping … Lesson learned – the hard way. (Although, while not stamped, I do like the Red Stripe bottle – will have to bring home a few more.)

On an upside – our youngest (my BABY!) got his braces off today. No more ‘metal mouth’ in the family. Sweet! He gets a week full of all the popcorn he can handle before he goes back for his retainer …

And – I am in LOVE with my new Keurig Café Mocha flavored coffee! Like “hand-shaking, gut-clenching, caffeine overdose – and still want more” in love. It’s so yummy it has to be high-in-calorie/bad for you … but I don’t care. I wonder if I can buy it by-the-pallet??? 24 k-cups of this ‘coffee-crack’ simply is not enough! Disappointed smile

I have 48 hours of free time to ‘fix myself’ before heading back to work … I can do this! Lately, I have been fascinated with the History channel show “Swamp People” … it’s about some folks in Louisiana who hunt alligators for a living. (You need to know – I have a very ‘girly’ fear of snakes, as well as a general dislike for swimming in non-pool bodies of water – with ‘critters’ brushing up on you that you can’t see … and I’m not really fond of boats …) For whatever reason, this show has me wantin’ to go gator-huntin’ … and it’s on tonight!! Smile