My Amazing Butterfly Adventure

I feel blessed to have had a wonderful

Butterfly surprise this summer.

As I showed in an earlier post I was able to find 6

Monarch eggs on my milkweed I planted.

http://nataschasinspirations.blogspot.com/2017/08/if-you-plant-it-they-will-come.html

They all went to the top successfully and formed

Chrysalis.  I am thankful that nothing

went wrong and no diseases appeared.

I discovered from my Facebook groups posts

many things can go wrong.  

Having never done this, it was all a new

and exciting experience. 

This is when five of them were up transforming.

As they get closer to emerging the chrysalis
becomes transparent.  I have to add the
chrysalis are small, no longer than an inch.

So surprising how this butterfly
emerges from such a small space.

They hang upside down to dry their wings

and pump fluid into them.

It was such a wonderful thing for me... that I just

fell into accidentally.  I look forward to doing it

next year and helping in the migration.  I read that

if left in the wild there is only a 10% chance in

survival from predators.  Then in the migration there is

more risk in them successfully making it to Mexico

Apparently they are killed primarily by cars.

I am very hopeful mine will make it to Mexico...

https://youtu.be/F8BbIJtvbBg

Look at this beautiful male #1.  Notice the

two black dots in the orange

by the tail of his body which

indicate he is a male.

This one a female #2.

In all 2 males and 4 females emerged.

All healthy with no deformities.

If felt amazingly special to hold a

butterfly in my  hand!!!

Their legs feel like they have little

suction cups and they 

kind of grip on to you.

Male #2 was in a big hurry to go and flew up into

my tree quickly.  This being the only picture

I got of him.

Farewell beauties.  I hope you make it to Mexico.

I think they will make an appearance in my 

pottery in the future.

New Stuff...

 

Sunflowers and Bee's  this is a custom
piece for someone.

 

 

A simple bird bath.  Designed so a stick

can be placed under the leaf in the top right corner.

 

 

Another daisy bowl

 

 

A poppy bowl

 

I'm hopeful nothing gets broken before they are

finished.  Many times get broken

before they are completed since

they are so fragile.

 

 

 

 

 

A few new Etsy items...

I posted a few new items in

Etsy.  Take a look!

If you plant it they will come

Over a year ago I ordered seeds for

milkweed since I heard there was a shortage

of it.  I had never seen it in a garden shop

but apparently they do have it,

as I bought some more this year.

Then I waited.  I wondered why I didn't see

a bunch of Monarchs flying around my garden.

I know that I had heard they are

endangered due to habitat being depleted.

Then I saw a page on FB for SE Michigan Monarchs

and I joined the group.  I saw everyone

posting about eggs they found on their milkweed.

So I thought I'd go take a look and....

And what did I find.... tiny white eggs the size of the head of

a pin on a few leaves. So the Monarchs were there. I just

had not seen them.  I put the eggs in a container and

waited and these tiny guys hatched. ~not sure

if that's the right term, but you get the idea.

How amazing that the eggs are put just

on the exact and only leaf that they must eat

to survive.  They then emerge

and begin eating and growing.

As they grew larger I moved them

out of their plastic food container

in which I had poked tiny air holes.

The one with the red lid to the left.

into to my

son's old frog habitat

Their container has to be cleaned often.

Since they eat a lot ....they poop a lot. 

So why might you ask am I bringing them inside.

Well as you can see by their size...

they would make a delicious bird meal. 

By bringing them in we are kind of helping

to give them a helping hand in

the hopes of increasing the population. 

As they get bigger I am super excited...

like a kid!  I am hopeful that

I will get to see transformations.

I have also learned caterpillars facts.

For instance caterpillars that

transform this late in the summer will

most likely take part in the big migration

from Michigan to Mexico.

https://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/blogs/monarch-butterfly-migration-rebounds

I have 6 caterpillars in different stages

Fingers crossed all goes well

and all develop healthy and I can
release them to head out to Mexico.

I have learned that apparently

like anything they can get diseases & die.

Two have gone up to the top to start their transformation

Good luck guys!

~Natascha~

Creative lessons

Not  everything always goes as planned.  I have learned a few

things by trial and error. Just a  simple painted plate, but

I learned with this one that the white glaze

no matter how thick doesn't show up well over dark colors. 

In the future I will pay closer attention to my light colors.

Not sure why the color pulled away from

the edges of the flower petals.

I will apply thick coats of dark

color if I want the solid effect

I do like the tan glaze with the green flecks in it though.

This one has a copper color metallic flecks along with green specks.

Hmm this one... all I can say is I do like the green

glaze with the blue spots.

Kind of cool, I think.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On to my next inspiration

Many ideas... just never enough time!

~~Natascha

Sharing Pond Flowers

The pond plants were getting over grown

in the pots so I was sort of

dreading separating and repotting them.

Mainly because it's a messy job.

I had a few barn friends ask me if I

had any extra pond plants to share. 

These are water irises that get pretty blooms

Dividing them up...

and I ended up with all these to share.

My pond plants are all nicely contained.

As I put them back in I set them on

bricks to keep the lip of the pot just above the water

level and this has greatly helped us with

having to clean the pond filter.

We don't buy Koi, as a Heron came by one

year and ate all our beautiful giant fish.

So now we buy feeder fish that were destine to be

some big fish's dinner.  Instead they came to our

little pond to live out their little fish life.

They seem happy!

I hope you have a great day!

~Natascha~

My first Glaze Firing

I'm excited to show off a few of my first glaze firing.

This is my favorite...I think.

I love the green glaze pattern on the bowl!

As you can see below when they go in to fire

the colors look nothing like when they come out.

Many things can go wrong as the glaze heats up to

1800 degrees.  All items are put on stilts so that they

do not permanently bond to the shelves

that they sit on. The shelves are pricey, so  I just prayed I did

everything correctly on my first go around.

Thankfully all came out great.  Including my

9 year old nieces creations. 

I will brag about her bowl later as it's a birthday gift

for her Mama and I don't want to ruin

the surprise!

Cute little daisy bowl

This post can't express how excited and thrilled I

am to have my own automated kiln at home.

It's a dream come true and  sometimes I have to pinch

myself.  I am in awe and so thankful

of how Blessed I am.

This little violet bowl, I experimented with washing the

glaze thinly.  I wanted to see if it would

replicate a kind of water color effect.

I am pretty happy with my first run.  I will share more pieces later.

All these take  quite a few hours per bowl. 

Especially when you are experimenting and trying new things.

~Natascha~