When you take a pot pie from the freezer to zap it, it is rock hard. So when you try to follow the instructions to put slits in the crust, the pie responds with extraordinary resistance. You have to do a Norman Bates with your knife to get a good slit…

Unless you first start the microwave, stop it about a minute and a half in, and THEN slit your slits effortlessly and much more cleanly.

I have been hacking away at pot pies since the 20th Century and it has never occurred to me to do this!

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Where do you take a cat who has stopped purring?

The Repurr Shop.

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Here, fulfilling a commitment to my People’s Artist voters, is image #7 of 10 of my artwork. This photo was taken in situ after my “Shuttered Bird” was juried into the Glendale Arts Council’s 62nd Annual juried show early this year.

An Artwork a Day for the People’s Artist Event

May 5, 2026

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*“Glendale Bird,” 11″x11″x5″, ceramic sculpture, ca. 2002*

Today I thanked all my Facebook readers who for me in the People’s Artist competition, urged them not to buy any votes on my behalf, and committed to posting an artwork a day for 10 days by way of thanks (and showing off). This is the one I posted today. I forget what I originally called it (it’s been over 20 years) but I think “Glendale Bird” is a good name because I am a loyal son of Glendale, Arizona, and the laser transfer on the bird’s flank is an image from the Great Seal of Glendale on the side of the Glendale City Council building that I took with my then-cutting-edge 3.1 megapixel camera in the early 2000s.

People who want to vote for me as the People’s Artist may do so once every 24 hours between now and May 13. If you are one of those people, and reside in the US or Canada, here is a link:

peoplesartist.org/2026/g-bowers

Please do not buy any additional votes for me! And if you do successfully vote for me, please let me know in the Comments section.

Thank you, Friends!

A Bead/Skull Or Two for Donna Sue

May 4, 2026

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My sweetheart and future cohabitant Donna Sue Atkins has made some lovely beadwork in her day. When I posted some samples of her handiwork, one necklace in particular caught the eye of some of my readers.

See the one next to the heart pretzel on the right? It has a few nifty, cute skulls on it. Donna told me the skulls were expensive. “Darling,” I replied, “I will make you some out of porcelain.”

So I have begun to try, and it is not as easy as I thought it would be. But when I do a few dozen they will start to be cuter and better; and when I make Skull #500 or so they will be necklace-worthy, and I will have learned more about skull anatomy and the manipulation of itty-bitty spheroids of clay. A fun adventure awaits!

How to Make a Rock Star in 25 Minutes

April 27, 2026

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Start with a ball of soft clay about 3 inches in diameter. Roll it into a coil the width of your wedging board. Twist the middle so you have two equal-size pieces. Put one aside and roll a coil on the other so it is the width of the board. Twist in half; put one half aside; roll the other the width as before.

Go to your potter’s wheel where you just wired a vase off the batt. Spin the wheel slowly and use a wood knife to create your Rock Star’s plumage by gradually scraping the disc of wired-off clay toward the center of the wheel head. The clay will fold and texture and when you reach the middle it will separate from the batt.

Use the largest coil to sculpt torso, guitar, and head. The next size coil makes the legs and the last makes the arms and the rock star’s halo. Do not take more than 25 minutes.

Your effort may look crude but 90% it will be rock-starrish. The more times you do it, the larger and more refined your rock band will be.

National Poetry Writing Month 2026, day 13: Glazed Clayscape

April 13, 2026

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Glazed Clayscape

The edge of the table is an interface

Between this world

And the next. In this up-close world

A queen and a pawn may have roles

But the vessel is beholden to neither

And manifests indifference to the rules of chess.

..

The other world seems to be abandoned

Or in abeyance. It quiesces

And will abide till souled visitors

Displace the spaces.

There is a portal to a multitude of elsewheres

Prepared for drama, revelation, fools’ errands

And farewells.

..

Queen, pawn and vessel

Have no other world in which to transition,

No situation to covet,

No agendas.

They leave those to what souls

May arrive.

The Improbable Origin of Tomatoman

March 31, 2026

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November 2015 I answered an ad calling for restaurant workers at the airport; got a Cashier/Host gig at Matt’s Big breakfast in Terminal 4 right by Gate B5 at Phoenix Sky Harbor Int’l Airport; gave two weeks’ notice in September of 2022; had some glorious semi retirement adventures; reapplied for work with parent company SSP America after doing a three-week prep cook training course; was hired as a prep cook for the SSP Commissary in May of 2023; was tapped for tomato-slicing duty by Chef Adam that November. My main job since then has been running thousands of tomatoes through a manual hand-slicer with multiple parallel blades. Over two-plus years I have gotten to be good at it. It is not rocket science, but it does involve some choreography, especially when I start running out of tomatoes.

My good-humored co-workers call me “Mr. Tomato” or “Tomatoman” on occasion. That is fine with me. I strive to be the best Tomatoman I possibly can be. And to the other Tomatofolks out there, amateur or professional, I salute you. May your tomatoes ever be firm yet not underripe!!

Mise en Place II: One Week Later

March 23, 2026

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Last week I made over a dozen works in progress. This week I endeavor to finish as much of what I started as time allows. It is better to anticipate what I will need before I dive in, so I have surrounded the wheel with my unfinished stuff and added water bucket, needle tool, wire tool, trim tool, metal rib, wood knife and an Arnold Palmer made with herbal prickly pear iced tea. I have also centered about five pounds of clay to make chess-piece heads and other miscellany using Throwing Off the Hump technique. Please wish me luck and skill!

“Mise en Place” for a Wheel Throwing Session

March 17, 2026

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To make the most of my session time today I use the “plan your work, then work your plan” strategy. I cut half a bag of Kashmere cone 5 clay into successively smaller pieces with the intent of making chess pieces. I am under no illusion that I will KEEP this plan–often the clay has a will of its own–but it’s always better to prepare.