Penny Sanford Porcelains

Tab Boren of Mantachie, MS

I am tired. Zombie. Brain dead. Slowed to a Walking Dead pace.

Almost too tired to blog, so tonight I will share a bouquet of Black Eyed Susan wildflowers (in the sunflower family) displayed in one of my favorite pottery vases.

I collect hand-thrown pottery. Preferably from places I have visited or potters I have met. Especially Mississippi potters!

I met Tab Boren back in 2002 at a signing. She and I were signing our respective work at a gift shop in Tupelo. Tab brought her wheel, and I have some pictures of her throwing little heart-shaped pots.

I think I also have pictures of a table full of drool-worthy pottery that she had thrown by hand. I wanted all of it! She was doing dragonflies on some of her pieces that I wanted so badly. If I can remember I will look for those pictures and come back and post them here.

These Black Eyed Susan flowers are in a vase that I ostensibly bought for my mother's birthday. The flowers and pottery vase are on display in the old farmhouse, and the pottery stays on a shelf in the dining room in the farm house.

But Mama knew the truth. She knew that I could not live without this vase. Since she is the one who got me hooked on collecting pottery, it all works out just fine. I can give her pottery for presents, and she can give me pottery for presents, and we are both as happy as a cat sleeping in a ray of sunshine!

Tab impressed me with her Christian perspective on life and because she was taking care of elderly parents while trying to run a business. She also has a big heart for giving of herself to others.

Apparently Tab comes from a pottery family. She learned her art from her grandmother Eupal Riley of Peppertown Pottery. Now I must find some of Mrs. Riley's work as well!

Gordon and I must get to Mantachie, where Tab lives, and splurge on some more pottery! Definitely. Maybe I can order some by email or phone.

Oh, baby! I just discovered the gallery section of her website! Gotta have some of that!!

Oh, and yes, I must share more of my pottery obsession with you. You will probably laugh at me for how well the different pieces, made by different potters from different states, all blend well together as if I planned to collect a particular range of mix-and-match colors!

Lots and lots of porcelain. More problems...not unexpected. Still working the problem. Still in good spirits. Just very, very tired. Going to bed early tonight.

If you know of some talented potters who throw on the wheel, please share with me. I will never have enough pottery! NEVER! *wicked grin*

Do You Know If This Survived?

Our life in Mississippi has been divided between "Before Katrina" and "Post Katrina".  I'm sure Mississippians experienced the same mental compartmentalization before and after Camille.

It is like making a complete move from one state to another. All basic services have to be re-established in the new state, and finding a particular possession becomes a trail of bread crumbs like this:

"I kept it in the hall closet back in Alabama, but I think it was packed with the ironing board for the move. It might be in the pantry now, or it may be in the basement among the stuff I've not unpacked yet."

Well, the lower third of Mississippi is in varying stages of continued disarray similar to this, but on a massive scale... Yes, even 27 months Post Katrina! 

Even our friends who continue to live on the Mississippi Gulf Coast don't necessarily know if such-and-such survived Katrina.

I bought this vintage postcard on eBay recently, thanks to the heads up from Florida DAR friend Gay Harlow!   I wonder if the little house or if the DAR marker are still standing Post Katrina?

"Oldest house in Mississippi Valley at Biloxi, said to have been built by the early French explorers, who, under d'Iberville, landed at Biloxi in 1699, and established the great Louisiana territory.

"Insert shows boulder marking spot where d'Iberville landed on the north shores of Back Bay, erected by the Gulf Coast Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution.

"Pub. by A.S. Grieff Book & Stationery co., Biloxi, Miss"

The postcard was mailed in 1925, so it is possible the historic building and/or the marker erected by the Mississippi State Society Daughters of the American Revolution were moved or destroyed after 1925 and before either Hurricanes Camille or Katrina.

Do you know if either survive? Email me.

Gordon and I will have to investigate on our next visit to the Coast! If either is still standing, we need some current pictures, and we love following little rabbit trails like this!

Then if the Mississippi DAR does not have this post card in our archives, I will give it to our MSSDAR State Historian, Ginger Walker. If the little post card is not needed in the MSSDAR archives, then I'll see if the Mississippi Department of Archives and History needs it. Maybe a museum or archives on the Gulf Coast will need the 82-year-old post card.

I've learned in the past few years that one must not nonchalantly assume the various archives have copies of old postcards or photos or documents.  One should share, share, share research. 

Katrina taught us that. Priceless artifacts and irreplaceable files, photos and ephemera are gone forever, lost to the murky depths of the ocean.

Cupid Delivers Yellow Tupperware

It is Saturday already?  How did that happen? 

My goodness, so much can happen in just a short week! Day trips, meetings, finishing projects, sculpture, kilns malfunctioning, deep cleaning and organization, more sculpture, portable sawmill visits, quilt kit arrives, video taping and photography on the farm, more sculpture, old slides discovered and remastered, history recorded, some applique, more sculpture...and those are just the high points of a busy, busy week!

With all of that going on, I feel like blogging tonight about Yellow Tupperware!  Is not the female mind gloriously enigmatic?  *grin*

It is no secret that I have a THING for Yellow Tupperware, especially the bright happy sunshine-yellow pieces.  I use them for sewing project boxes and storage for special items.  Besides that, the happy yellow just looks so pretty stacked neatly on an open shelf in our kitchen. I just like to look at those uniform stacks of empty happy yellow boxes!

So imagine my chagrin this week when dear Gordon asked if I would mind terribly if he put some food leftovers in one of my Yellow Tupperware containers! Can you imagine using Yellow Tupperware for food?  *cheeky grin*

Oh, My Goodness Gracious!  Men do get the strangest notions!  I wonder why he was timid about actually USING my coveted Yellow Tupperware!  *self-depreciating laughter*

It did remind me that I wanted to share about three delightful gifts of Yellow Tupperware.  Back in February (thus the title of this post), four lovely little Yellow Tupperware bowls arrived in the mail (second photo).  They were so happy and charming with great lines....but I did not remember buying them off of eBay.

I troll eBay each month for at least one piece of Yellow Tupperware Therapy, most often the yellow lunch boxes.  Well, there was no return address or message with these pretty little yellow storage bowls.  I had no record of having bought them from eBay.  Gordon, Mama and Unc (my uncle Charles) all promised they had not been the mysterious gift-giver.

The mystery was not solved until my friend Pat D. in Brandon, MS, brought to the Mississippi DAR State Conference a pretty Yellow Tupperware creamer/sugar that she no longer used!  She 'fessed up to the mystery shipment of a few weeks earlier, and we all had a wonderful laugh. (Here is another post about the fun at that February event!)

I wonder if Pat has any concept of how much simple, pure, repeated pleasure she has given me from the arrival, the mystery, the process of deciding what was special enough to be stored in the little bowls, the photographs for the blog, and now remembering all of it as I blog about her thoughtfulness!

Pat, in your bowls (second photo), I am storing a precious collection of vintage buttons we have found in the attic of my grandmother's house (that we are S-L-O-W-L-Y renovating).  They have huge sentimental value to me!

Cupid was rather busy at the DAR State Conference this year!  Another friend, Ginger W. of Waynesboro, MS, found a couple of Yellow Tupperware mixing bowls in her cabinets, and she gifted me with those!  I was in Yellow Tupperware Heaven! 

For now, Ginger's bowls (first photo) are storing my coveted collection of Aurifil applique thread.  If you have bought any of that long-staple strong cotton thread, you will understand why it is worthy of Yellow Tupperware storage!  *grin*

Thank you so very much, Ginger and Pat!

Read about the YoYo To Go Box here.  My Embroidery To Go Box is blogged here.

So now that I have explained how nonchalant I am about my Yellow Tupperware collection, can you help me understand why Gordon was almost trembling when he asked to use a piece for food storage?  Men can be such silly creatures!  *wink*

Can You Overdose on Orchids?

Here is something I am collecting.

These Haviland Limoges plates were made specifically for the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution back in the early 1980's. 

The orchid transfers are from the paintings of First Lady Caroline Lavinia Scott Harrison , wife of President Benjamin Harrison.  Mrs. Harrison was also the first President General of the DAR.

There are two different views on these plates.  At least, I have found only two different designs of these plates.  Several DAR friends across the country are on the lookout for me for more of these. 

In the long run, I would like to collect at least 60 of them so that we can use them for DAR functions.  At last count, my mother and I had collected 23 of them.  Mama is my "enabler" in this collecting obsession!  *wink*

The hunt is fun part.  I never outgrew Easter Egg Hunts, so now I apply that joy of discovering something pretty and colorful to collecting something a bit more elusive than Easter Eggs...like these DAR orchid plates!

From time to time on this blog, I'll share some of the things I like to collect, much of it porcelain!

Poor Gordon has NO IDEA of how many sets of porcelain dinnerware or dessert sets are tucked here and there, in closets, under beds, and in attic crawl spaces here on the farm. 

We've been married over three years, and he just does not need to know....yet!  *cheeky grin*

I had 40 years to collect and inherit porcelain before Gordon and I married! Besides, It could be worse.  I COULD collect...fabric.....oh wait, I do collect fabric already!  *HA!*

Well, I COULD collect...something outrageous. So if Gordon reads this post, he should be thankful my obsessions are so...traditional and "safe"!  *wicked grin*

The orchid plants that we bought in a ready-to-bloom state for my mother around Christmas have been moved to the base of one of the giant oak trees around the old family farmhouse.  They can enjoy some dappled sunlight under this massive tree until the Mississippi summer reaches the Scorching Season. 

We have been watering the orchid plants with rain water, and already I am seeing new growth!  I just hope I can coax the orchid plants into bloom again (as opposed to killing them).  *grimace*

So now you know why I am a bit obsessed about orchids.  It is the unofficial flower of the DAR.

One gracious tradition in DAR is to send an orchid corsage to a DAR member for a special occasion while she attends the annual national convention called Continental Congress.

A few years back, I sculpted an orchid brooch in porcelain so that those of us not special enough to be gifted with a live orchid corsage, could still wear an orchid!  *grin*  The larger orchid is an ornament for the Christmas tree or for the curio cabinet.

So do you think my orchid "thing" has reached an unhealthy state yet?

Yellow Tupperware Therapy

Full week.  Productive week.  Busy week.  Good week.  Stressful week.  Needed some of that Yellow Tupperware Therapy!  A few pieces have come in after Christmas...always, it seems, on days I need a little Y-T Treatment!

It intrigues me that there are so many shades, textures and opacities of Yellow Tupperware.  My personal favorites are the sunshine yellow like the long celery container and the yellow lunch box/ice cream box above. 

Sunny, one of the English Shepherds, snitched a little square cutie like the top box, and escaped outside to open it and devour the contents.  Then she proceeded to chew on it like a chew toy.  I'm glad to replace that one in my collection. Maybe it is fitting that Sunny the dog went for the sunny little box!  LOL

All that yellow tupperware stacked on open shelves looks so warm and cozy in our temporary kitchen in the studio.  When we eventually get moved into Grandma's house (that we are s-l-o-w-l-y renovating), I'm thinking about keeping the yellow tupperware stacked on an open shelf....part contemporary art and part visual therapy.  You know, there are actually art installations made entirely of Tupperware pieces?

I've got some cool photos and "stuff" to share with you from this week...as the weekend allows a tad more time for blogging!

You can see in my Flickr account many photos that do not appear on the blog.  To my knowledge, one does not have to sign up for anything just to go look at photos.  Be sure to click on the sets on the right side to see all photos in a particular category.

Time to count little Tupperware boxes (in my sleep) and stack them neatly on their shelves....

 

Love that yellow tupperware!

Aaaahhhhhh, eBay/USPS/Santa just delivered a small "fix"  of yellow Tupperware!

Any idea when the yellow Tup was made?  In the....70's?  80's?  There is a lighter sunny/daffodil color....my favorite....and there is a darker goldenrod yellow.

Well, I've been in a yellow phase for the past three-or-so years. 

The "Easter Egg Hunt" for yellow tupperware scratches one my collecting itches.

Happy, happy yellow!