Back in the studio

While the picture to the left may not seem too impressive to the causual observer...I spent much of yesterday morning and early afternoon cleaning and reorganizing my studio. This was probably the messiest area (I should've taken a before picture)- my desk. I literally, and shamefully had over a foot of random papers, postcards, mail, and junk on each of those shelves and on my desk. It feels good, now, to have all the books and magazines organized so I can actually use them. And I put up some favorite photos of family and friends, so I won't get lonely while I'm working by myself. My friend Julie and I were talking yesterday about how it would be so much easier if we would just take the extra minute to put things where they belong, rather than spending hours trying to reorganize. I guess that's one lesson I didn't learn well when I was three (or thirteen, or thirty)!

Resolution? Probably not....

Happy New Year! I hope this finds everyone rejuvinated and happy after the holidays. I took some time off from the studio the past couple weeks to travel up to Ohio with Brian to visit family. Our parents live about 5 miles from each other (we grew up in the same town), so it's really easy to see everyone and actually spend quality time with them over the holidays. The highlight of our trip was getting to see our 6 year old niece perform in her school's little holiday production. Addie even had the last speaking line of the evening. We were thoroughly proud!

Our trip to Ohio consists of driving about 8 hours on big highways, small highways and back roads. We often see something interesting along the way. This year, along the AA highway (mostly just a 2 lane road through the through the countryside Kentucky- lots of farms) we encountered a cattle farm with a funny sight: someone must have just called all the cows for a meal because they were all lining up in front of a barn, waiting their turn (seemingly patiently) to go in for their dinner. It was so odd to see them all slowly sauntering over to the line, not even really bumping into each other. We forgot our camera at home, so I was bummed to not have a picture to share because the words aren't as captivating as the image was.

Even though I was taking a break from pots these past weeks, doesn't mean I wasn't thinking about them. My grandma has a great china cabinet full of old serving pieces from her family. I always enjoy spending time with her exploring all the china with her, while hearing some stories of their history. Once again, I was sad that I didn't have my camera with me!

I also got some good books for the studio as gifts:

This was one of them, a used library book of Chinese Ceramics. I also got an awesome picture book called "Food Mania," which contains images of food presentation, preparation, produce picking, you name it. One of my favorite potters, Kari Radasch, had it listed on her website as an inspiration.

While it's the time of the year for resolutions, I'm not one who usually works that way, but I am often inspired by others. I just read Ron's blog entry that he had logged 285 blog entries! My hope is that this year I will take time to post more often. I enjoy reading others' blogs, and comments, and I enjoy the feedback that I get from others. So thanks for reading and responding!

Demo at the Piedmont Craft Fair

I recently got some pictures in the mail from Nicole (who's the education director) at Piedmont Craftsmen. I did a short demo during the sale in Winston-Salem, hence the red dress. And, no, I didn't plan ahead to have a matching apron, but it does look quite nice...

I ended up making a teapot, a small wall piece and a basket bud vase. As I've said before, often when I'm teaching/demonstrating I feel the need to entertain as well as educate (which is not always needed or necessary or even appropriate). Luckily, this time, I don't think I embarrassed myself or scared any small children.

The Snitch!

Oh yes, folks. It's that time of year when a certain little terror lurks with the living good: the snitch has come to town!

A tradition in Brian's family, the snitch (AKA: Bellsnickle, with a nose like a pickle) serves as a watcher of all naughty behavior to report back to Santa before the big day. He can see through walls and is all knowing. In my family, I think my sisters and I took care of all the snitching ourselves!

So, watch yourself, because Bellsnickle is watching too....

Art Collective show

Here are a couple of the new pieces I'll have at the Art Collective show this Friday and Saturday. While I've been working on this series of pieces (which I lovingly call my "post-modern fine china") for a couple of months, I really feel like they're starting to work. I've been looking at a lot of old european pottery, such as wedgewood, for reference of the forms. I'm hoping to soon extend this work to other serving pieces such as gravy boats, teapots/tea services and large bowl forms. I'm looking forward to going home to Ohio over Christmas and getting some good inspiration by sorting through my grandma's china closet filled with awesome items of this nature.

Even though this image is a little fuzzy, this was my recent favorite as it came out of the kiln. It looks like a night scene, with glowing street lights:
This is the train crossing on Sugar Creek Rd., close to the dead end of Davison St.
A detail of the image above:
A similar scene as the first one, but with a completely different color scheme. I've really enjoyed working with new colors and experimenting with line in the borders:
As I've recently discovered/realized that I am indeed a girl (as opposed to the 9 year-old boy that lives inside me....that I often give too much voice to!) I have started to really really like putting pink on this pots. So pink it is!!!!
Come out to Charlotte Foust's studio this Friday or Saturday if you can make it. Like I said before, my dreamy husband is going to be playing some music to create the proper ambiance for the evening, and there will be champange and goodies too. Sounds like a perfect time to check out some art!

Last Class

A couple weeks ago was the last handbuilding class of the session at Clayworks. We ended a great session with a little potluck party and a raku firing. Here's a couple images from that event:


The loaded kiln just before firing..Toasty pots ready to come out of the kiln...

Our firemaster, Greg!

Art and Chuck waiting to remove their pieces...

More students hanging out, waiting while the kiln is firing...

I head up to Cornelius tomorrow to teach a handbuilding workshop at the Creative Arts Exchange. I'm looking forward to this short two day class and meeting new students at a new studio.

This weekend is the Art Collective show at Charlotte Foust's studio on Park Rd. in Charlotte. There will be a really nice variety of work for sale- paintings, collages, jewelery, and of course, pottery. I'll have some new work there (hopefully I will post some images of some new trays I just finished) and my husband, Brian will be playing the music for the opening!

Thanks to those of you who came out last weekend for the Clayworks sale! It was nutty crowded! I'm sorry to those of you that I didn't get much of a chance to talk to- I was running the register and was pretty much busy the entire night!

Fine, here you go Ron

So, I know I've been completely delinquent of posting anything on my blog for some time. I officially apologize to the 7 people that read this! Sadly, it's been so long that I forgot my password to log on to post- now that's sad. So, Ron, this is for you!

Actually, I've been quite busy getting ready for upcoming shows and such. Next week is the Piedmont Craft Fair in Winston-Salem, which is a 2 day show at the convention center there. It's a great show that has many repeat artists, which means I get to see some friends that I typically only see once a year- so, I'm looking forward to it.

My sweet sweet friend Alyssa is coming tonight just to be really nice to help me glaze. So I decided to make my all time favorite treat: zucchini muffins. Even though they're made with a vegetable, they're not too healthy. Eh. Who cares?!

I promise to post more often- I have some great pictures from a recent trip to DC to see some eco-friendly residential buildings. Coming soon in a post.....

Barn Sale, pics from the Iredell show, and such

Saturday was the Barn Sale, held out at McAlpine Business Park on Monroe Rd. This was the first time in 2 years that I was able to participate in this show because I've been out of town the past 3 shows: twice missed in the spring for being in Minnesota helping some potter friends for their show and once missed for being in Berlin for a Christian artist conference (it was incredible and traveling to mainland Europe for the first time was quite an experience!). So, needless to say, it was good to be back! The show has a very laid-back setting and it's often a place where I see friends that I haven't seen for a while.
Here's a picture of my booth as I'm just about to finish setting up in the morning. It was a little chilly, but I happily welcome this fall weather. The best part of the show was having fun neighbors- all the the potters in our circle of eight group were together and I was next to Jen Mecca and Barbara Chadwick- both whom make great work. It's always great to be in good company (of work and people!). At the end of the day Brian and my good friend Carrie came to help me load up the car- I'm so thankful to have people that care for me well!

My friend Julie (who's also a potter and you'll see her later in this post....) took some pictures at my show that opened a month ago at Iredell County Museums in Statesville. Here are a few pieces from that show:

Ron and I intently discussing the meaning of life....

Hi Mom! (check out those pink pants!)

Some of my industrial "post-modern fine china"

A detail shot...

One of my pieces from the "Soon?" series


As the "such" part of this post, earlier today I received an email with links to an online photo album from my crazy friend Julie (with her dog formerly known as Sagovia, but now known as Miss Princess):
Julie's sister had a costume birthday party for their dogs; while I wasn't at the party, I can still appreciate the goofy hilarity of dressing animals up. Here's some more:
He looks thrilled to be a hot dog.

A first

On Saturday, my friends Carrie and Mike, my husband Brian and I went to a rally in Rock Hill, South Carolina for Barack Obama. This was the first time I've actively participated in anything political (besides voting, or student council- but does that count?), and man, was it exciting! We went early to volunteer as crowd control- I'm such a beefcake that no one questioned me when I told them where they needed to sit or stand (yeah, right) and we also passed out signs. The place was full of people and felt electric by the time Obama came out and I was really impressed by the diversity of the crowd: a mixture of races, socio-economic status and age. I was really inspired by his message of hope for our country- I believe in him. One of my favorite quotes was that we need to have "pride in work, not pride in wealth."

While I don't consider myself an overtly political person, it felt good to be a part of something. I must admit that I was apprehensive to write anything political, because it seems to go a little against the grain of a lighthearted pottery blog, but heck, why not?

Mmmmm...cake

So I have an (un?)healthy obsession with Funfetti cake (the Pillsbury, from a box, cake of sugary goodness). I like to bake it for friends and family for celebrations- sometimes I'll even make up things to celebrate just for the sugar fix. This love of festive sweetness has inspired these new plates.

I really enjoy making items for a specific purpose (I make some rectangular bowls that are intended specifically for asparagus). I had some for sale a couple weeks ago at our Circle of Eight sale, and just had to make more. These colors are very different for me, as I usually use darker, earth tones on my work. The brightness is very appealing to me and change can be good, but I'm finding it hard to decide if I want to integrate these colors into my other work. We'll see.

This one was my favorite; and since today's (Sunday) my 31st birthday, I'm going to keep it (I hardly ever hold onto my own work) and have some cake!

These red ones are pretty crazy! The best part about these pieces are that my sister-in-law, Tammy, helped me make them. She's a rock star!