Back to it

I have been a bad blogger, its true. And for most of the summer I was a bad potter. The trade off was much needed time to enjoy the summer and relax on weekends and evenings instead of pushing myself. But, now I'm back to the studio and back to work.
Instead of potting, much of my newly discovered free time was spent in our garden or processing our veggies. After all of our hard work and trying season of cool weather and tons of rain, we couldn't stand to part with any of our homegrown produce. All summer our fridge was packed to the gills with kale, chard, chili peppers and squash. As the end of August rolled around we (for the first time ever) canned our food. It was labor intensive, but after 3 or 4 days of prepping, washing jars and cooking up batches, we ended up with quite a collection of yummy garden treats to get us through the cold months.
To name a few: curried zukes, bread and butter pickles, pickled garlic, three kinds of hot sauce, and a few chutneys. Mmmm.Now that our garden is pretty much finished (except for that hardy kale!) and its too cold to spend time by the creek, I'm getting back to it. Working on some new ideas and restocking my shop....just in time for the cool weather. Chili anyone?

Summer days

Shortly after my last update, I decided to participate in a small craft show in my backyard during the Rosendale Street Festival in the Belltower Market.
It was the first time I had shown my stoneware work and I realized as I was setting up my table that the last time I participated in a show of any kind was five years ago.
I ran into many old friends and made some new ones. In particular, I found my fiber counterpart in Alison Tauber's silkscreened clothing. We noticed our work has a similar design sense and color scheme. I came home with this excellent t-shirt printed on organic cotton.

It was good to get out and show my new body work which has only been seen and sold on etsy. I heard lots of good feedback and met a few local shop owners. Most importantly, it gave me the inspiration I was looking for to get me back in the studio.

Vacation mode and front page

Happy summer! Hard to believe it's been exactly a month since my last post. I have been on a bit of a sabbatical from working in my studio. Aside from a major cleaning and purging, I have been reading up on marketing art both on and off the internet. There are so many resources that I've found with a little digging around the internet and library. Most importantly, I'm rediscovering how good it feels to unplug from the computer and relax by the creek we live near. I think this desire to reconnect with nature is even stronger after cool and rainy June.
I have lots of work to photograph still and post. My shop is pretty full at the moment, but as of today, I decided to go into semi-vacation mode in my shop. I am excited to get back to making new work and want to focus my energies on making for the next few weeks. So, I'm going to post less often and renew here and there. I'll post pictures of my progress, both in my studio and garden real soon. Hopefully there will be lots of growth in both areas!

This month, I was included in two absolutely beautiful treasuries, both of which made it to the front page of etsy. It would be really swell if etsy had some way of notifying sellers that they were on the front page, other than the rush of convos and hearts you get during that brief time. Either way, I was especially flattered by this one assembled by windowseatbooks. It included two of my items and other potters I admire. Plus a few new sellers I've never heard of before.
For whatever reason, the one assembled by owlonthesill just may be my all time favorite. Thanks to both sellers!

Out of space

Before I start a new body of work, I need to start with a fresh and organized space. Yesterday as I was cleaning the shelves where I store finished work and work in progress, I could see I was completely out of space. I have two entire shelves of work that are waiting to find homes. So, I am marking down items that have been around for a while. Check out my OUT OF SPACE SALE.
I'll be adding new items until I can see the back of my deep shelves. That means lots of items at super affordable prices.

Interview and a garden update

I've been interviewed on Artsy Beat's blog. Click here to see it. If you're not familiar with Artsy Beat, you should definitely check it out. Lots of interviews with artists in all mediums and some helpful articles too. A great way to get some inspiration and learn about other artists on etsy and around the world.Not much new to report from my studio at the moment. I've been working on filling up my etsy shop a bit. But almost all of my free time has been spent working on our 20 x 30' garden plot at a community garden. And the weather up until this week has been ideal for prepping the beds and planting. Last year we grew so much food we had to freeze and pickle a bunch. The site is ideal, tons of sun and insanely fertile soil. You'd never know if from this pic below, taken in mid-May.
After tilling and plotting out beds, it was starting to show some signs of a decent veggie garden.
Even more promising with lots of seedlings. Now all we have to do is keep up with watering and weeding. I've lost count of the number of wheelbarrows we filled with weeds so far just this year.

My new plate

One of our favorite dinner plates that I made back in college broke recently. I used to love to throw plates back in college and it was part of a class called Design and Production. We had to make a place setting service for 8 of dinner, lunch and dessert plates, bowls, tumblers and mugs. It definitely gave us a taste of life as a production potter. And that taste was all I needed to figure out I was not interested in making the exact same thing over and over again. The nice part was getting a full set of dishes after the class was over. I only kept a few of the pieces, selling and giving away most of it. For whatever reason I only ended up keeping two dinner plates.
So when it cracked in half, I knew I'd have to make a replacement. This presented a new and exciting challenge. I had never made a dinner plate off the wheel until this one. It didn't warp and I love seeing the little blue birds dance around the border. Although the mossy glaze didn't quite behave like I would have liked, the blue center is perfect.Also in that firing were many of my glaze tests. Here is a portrait shot of my new family of glaze colors. I can hardly wait to see them in action.