Non toxic

Okay, I just heard from a friend who told me she  asked a mutual friend of ours if she was going to my home sale to which she replied,

“Oh you know you can’t eat off of any of that stuff”

or something to that effect Meaning it was full of lead, toxic, etc.

Now I would dismiss this out of hand if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve encountered this

A LOT at my art fairs! People often ask me if it’s food safe!

AND, worst of all!  this person is the partner of a 2D artist!! I always thought of her as intelligent,  well informed and kind of inside the loop.

What I want to know is, how did this perception get started? Is the hysteria all due to some news item on a handful of  pots from  south of the border with their bright colors and oh-so-glossy clear glazes?

I mean, our studio (Lill St.) is extremely strict about adhering to the latest safety guidelines and I can remember them eliminating a popular glaze as the guidelines got even stricter. Not to mention, as many of you know, that most of these materials are utterly bonded and at hi-fire temps even safer. Truly, you have to take a pot with lead or something else bad in it, use something acidic and leave it in there and use it daily to get poisoned.

The best example I can think of is Using some sort of low fire pitcher with a lead glaze for Sangria

do NOT use this!
do NOT use this!

DAY

AFTER

DAY

AFTER

DAY.

My lovely, high-fire, oh-so-functional pots are sad when they sit eternally on a shelf gathering dust.     Not only would they never dream of poisoning someone, they COULDN’T.

They don’t have it in them.

They are NON-TOXIC.

NON toxic octo platter

I am always happy to hear one has been broken in the line of duty. I mean, I’d rather someone is using them. I was delighted to hear when an acquaintance who owned something by me told me it got broken and she was so sad she couldn’t throw out the pieces but her partner -as a surprise-had it made into a broken piece mantel!

She said one image survived and that was placed right at the center of the mantel. I wish I could see it.

So there you have it, my first RANT- How can people be so UNINFORMED?

Spread the word.

NON. toxic


New Mosaic -progress report

Okay, I can’t stand it, I have to post a couple of photos from the latest mosaic.

I do apologize to you potters reading the blog as I’ve been a bit mosaic-heavy this fall but I have been also making pots and I will post about them as soon as I get a minute.

I am working on a mosaic for a new bathroom in our house- so this is a mosaic I’ll have to look at very often.

I started out with an idea of prairie but I knew I would have to work out the colors and background as I went

early stage

– our other bath surround had the convenient design of single images on a white background. This, as you will see is a bit more complex.

too muddy

This was just too muddy for me and I took out some diagonal leaves and simplified just a little. I’m surprised actually how much that helped.

cleaner design

I’m still not completely happy with it but I do love my clouds!!

clouds!

the only problem with them is that I have to use the nippers on just about every piece. It’s a bit hard on my hands. I’m so glad I invested in a pair of better nippers and I’ll bet I could stand to go up another level of tool quality.

So that’s the water controls wall- the tallest and perhaps the largest in square feet – we shall see; but it feels really good to have the first panel done and today I will be taping it and maybe cutting it up so I can start on the second panel.

I’ll keep you posted!