The North Patio


I love Craigslist. This was listed on Friday evening, I emailed "The Guy" about it on Sat morning and within 30 minutes we were the proud owners of this beautiful slate. We went to pick it up yesterday morning. Did you know slate is quite heavy? And this is all about 3/4"-5/8" and 12" x 12". We figure it was about 1000 lbs of stone, loaded into the truck then out of the truck. And we'll have to do that again at the house. But it will be worth every sore muscle.

"The Guy" we bought it from was very nice and helped us load the stone. He's had this laying around in his mother's backyard for years and she finally said "Get rid of it". Thanks, MaMa!

I have met the nicest people through Craigslist and eBay. I hear stories about all the stinkers and cheats but that has not been my experience. Kind of restores your faith in humanity.

The house with it's stucco skirt. All that above the stucco is mine to Create with Clay. Plans are finalized on what to do next. We are going to finish the outside and get the garage up and then be able to move to the inside for finish work.

We're probably about 6 weeks behind our dream schedule but what building project ever goes as planned?

Return from Canelo

…return to reality (kicking and screaming all the way). What a great week I had at the Artistry in Clay workshop at The Canelo Project. At an elevation of approximately 5000 ft (Tucson is 2400) the temperatures were near perfect, making for beautiful autumn camping despite an unexpected late season shower. Canelo is a green oasis with a running creek, the sound of which lulled me to sleep every night.

The other workshop attendees were fun and interesting, people from all over the US,all ages, all walks of life. We enjoyed eating our delicious meals together, sharing bits and pieces of our lives and discussing our projects and plans. I hope to meet up with some of them again in the future.

This workshop spans a week, Saturday to Saturday with lots of physical labor-I don’t know how Bill and Athena do it. To have a group of strangers (16) take over your house and property for a week and keep smiling (most of the time) is a feat, but they do it and do it well. I learned so much, if only I had more walls!

Some samples of my work in clay and lime. Look at the sheen on that first one! My greatest accomplishment-successfully using a hawk and trowel!

And just to add to the mix, Athena’s aunt, the artist Nora Naranjo-Morse visited to work on a prototype for her sculpture
to be installed on the mall at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. We all got to have a “hand” in that and it was quite an honor to be involved and to hear her speak with such passion about her work and about life. The creation of the process was being filmed and there were visitors from the Smithsonian. Life is interesting even in little known corners of Southern Arizona.

This is a picture of the outdoor shower, my favorite place! Taking a shower at dusk, looking at a beautiful sunset, priceless!