Garden.

This one made it on to the front page of Etsy today. It got 400 views in 2 min. Crazy.

A whale of time.

I guess he's not really a fish. The tail isn't spread flat like a whale's...

Cute, huh? Made on the wheel in a couple of parts and altered. I have a whole menagerie starting in the studio.

My tray made it to the front page of Etsy this morning. Yay. It's still available right here.I made this little guy out of some felt I had laying around. Dudley likes him.

More animals to come...

Be inspired.

That's the name of this wonderful treasury that's on the front page right now...

curated by Rachelaakmama. Thanks Rachel!

There's still time to buy that mug!

Front page love.

I'm on the front page of Etsy again...Sometimes I get a wave of convos telling me that I was included in a treasury and I always snap a screen shot and hope they make it to the front page. But, it's always fun to be surprised and see one pop up of the front page when I haven't seen it before. Good job Ashley for making it to the front! If you haven't seen her work yet, go look! It's a great mix of modern and organic design. If I wore more jewelry (and actually left the house to show it off) I'd get these.

Hand-picked.

I love when I make the front page and it's a hand-picked group. And what a pretty list!

I'm alive.

Yup, I'm still alive. I know I wrote that I'd be posting customer photos...but that obviously didn't happen. I really don't have the time to do it now either, so they'll have to wait. I've been getting ready for Saturday. I'll be up in Albany for Art on Lark. It should be really great this year. They are closing off the street and vendors will be set up on the street. There's going to be tons of art and music and dance and even a fashion show. If you're in the area, come say hi! I've been firing kilns and packing work...I never seem to think I have enough. I definitely do. I'm waiting on a glaze kiln to cool. It's at 340° and those last 200° of cooling are always the worst...just like Christmas morning. Anyway, I'm on the front page of Etsy as I write this. I think this makes the 5th time I've been on there since my post last week....but I won't bore you with all the screen shots- just the one from today. It's too lovely not to. Thanks riyzedesignz!Oh, and tomorrow I'll be taking down a BUNCH of work from my shop to take to the show. So if there is anything you've been thinking of buying, be warned that it might not come back with me!! And, also a heads up that due to my material prices increasing (just like everything else in the world!!), some items will be going up in price starting June 22, so get them them cheaper while you can! I sat down after my last Bailey's order and did some math...AHHH! With my materials getting more expensive and my electric for the kiln...let's just say I should have increased my prices months ago. I won't be increasing anything already posted except for chicks, square dishes and tripods....the more "production" type items. Sorry!!!

Front page.

Yay! I clicked on Etsy just now to print up an invoice and what did I see?

This beautiful treasury is from Anne at webbpottery. The title was "Hot Jugs"...I love that. It's a nice mix of styles and finishes and included some of my favorites- work by Jenni Brant and Annie Chrietzberg.

Anyway, I went to Bailey's early yesterday and straightened out the cone mistake. I fired her up and now she's back down to 300º. I'll be unloading the kiln later this afternoon and posting some new work in my shop.

1500°??

WOW. So I guess it's been a while since I've posted. I've been majorly busy in the studio. I'm actually in a bit of a sour mood at the moment. I was firing a ▲10 glaze kiln this afternoon and I was shocked to hear from Jon that the kiln was off after only 4 hours! I immediately thought "what now?!" but then I remembered that I just opened a new box of cones. Aha! ▲010. Someone gave me the wrong box. I checked my invoice to make sure, and it definitely says ▲10. So that was a total waste of energy. Tomorrow it's back to Bailey's to get my proper cones and then I get to start all over again. I'm a bit disappointed as I had a lot of new vases I was pretty excited about seeing. Now I'm going to have to wait 2 extra days.

I did have work included in two treasuries that made Etsy's front page on Sunday and Monday.

Both yellow pieces. Hmm.

Oh, and I also spent Saturday night putting up some decals that I ordered from Elephannie....I know, a very exciting Saturday night, but Jon's band was playing and I felt like staying in. I had been wanting to do something with the space over my tub for a while now. Our bathroom is HUGE. More than twice the size of my undergrad studio space. In a normal house it would probably be a small bedroom. This photo shows about 1/6 of it.

Anyway, doesn't it look fab?! Our house was built in 1970 and then left unfinished for a few years. The previous owners bought it from the people who built it and finished it themselves. The couple were both artists and that made for some creative touches to the house. I'm particularly fond of the black tub, sink and toilet (right of the tub). Everyone who comes over comments on them. The black and white tiles are also very 70's. We had to re-do the shower stall (left of the tub) and opted to keep the tiles the same...although the original was all white and we added more black. Anyway, I'm totally addicted to these decals now. They were so easy to use and when I'm tired of them I can just peel them off and get something new.

blah.

So I just realized it's been over a WEEK since I updated this thing! Bad. I've actually just been really busy. My bestest friend from college came up last weekend and we hiked and ate good food and just chilled out...I needed that. I did bust my ass and got a lot of work done. Fired 3 kilns, finished up all my orders and now it's time to do some playing. I have a stack of ideas to try and I'm pretty excited. I have a ton of gray porcelain waiting to be used and I'm thinking of using white slip...

Anyway, I made it to the front page the other day... is it so wrong that I want those Barbie earrings from margauxlange?

I was also included in this fab chicken list! I can't believe this didn't make it to the front page. I think it's so great. And I LOVE mincingmockingbird.

So anyway, I just unloaded a glaze firing this morning. Loads of tiny tripods, more chicks and more of my square dishes I've been working on. I'm very pleased with these little dishes. They fit tea lights, they would be great for sauces, salt and pepper, jewelry...very useful. I have them in 5 colors right now; green, pink, yellow, cobalt blue, and I just unloaded 4 in orange!

Spring fever.

I seem to get super spring fever this time of year. Not to just go outside and hike or sit in the sun with a book(although of course I love those too), but for manual labor...my gardens. It is another beautiful day out and I need to be in the studio. Of course I LOVE my lucky fortune of working at home in my studio everyday, but it is a rather solitary existence. When Jon gets home from a day of teaching kids he just wants silence...and all he hears is blah, blah, blah from me. At least I have Dudley to keep me company. But when I talk to him all day, he just looks at me like I'm nuts...and perhaps I am. Anyway, the kiln is almost ready to unload and then I'll have to start glazing. So maybe I can get an hour or so of outside time after all...yes, I think I will.

And look what made it onto the front page of Etsy this morning...

My three-bowl server! What a pretty list! And, look at that cup and saucer in that print with the bird. It's my Franciscan pattern! And, the color I want to paint the kitchen. Well, one project at a time, and we are still finishing the tiling in our shower stall. It's almost done! I can't even tell you how long we've been taking baths, it's a bit embarrassing.

I was also in this treasury, but I don't think it ever made the front page.Oh, I forgot to post that I was featured on this great blog One Part Whimsy. You can check out the post here. It's a blog by fellow Etsian, thefatcat.

Ok, enough out of me. I'm off to change into some outside clothes!

new work.

I unloaded a kiln Friday night. Like I mentioned before, it was mostly special orders. Not much left to post on Etsy or to keep as back stock. Whenever I think I'm getting ahead, I see a boost in sales and then *poof* no more work left. I thought January and February were the "get ahead"months!

Anyway, mug mania was brutal. I had several mug orders to fill. I haven't been making many mugs because they are rather labor intensive and I don't want to have to charge a ton for them. I recently started to only take special orders for them and then I sell off the extras from the special orders. And however many times I say to myself "never make more than 8 at a time" I never listen. I inevitably end up with at least a dozen mugs that all need to be carved at the exact same time, have handle put on at the exact same time...ugh! 8 is manageable, more than that is not. And here are some of the fruits of my labor. (and with my new orange again!)

I also have my new lavender glaze. I guess I'd say it's more of a periwinkle, but it really depends on the light. It definitely looks more blue in my photos. Maybe I will call it periwinkle. It looks so nice with just about all of my colors. Especially green and yellow. I only made up a small batch. So once it's gone, it's gone!

I also forgot to mention that I was on the front page again a couple of nights ago. And yes, more tiny tripods. This time in red! And of course, another great treasury of items that I'm happy to have been included with.

Treasury mania.

Wow! So I made the front page on Etsy 2 times in 3 days. Not bad. And with the same orange tripods.

And I sold a ton of these little guys. None in orange. You need to be a certain type of person to want orange I think. Me and my husband are. Our kitchen is orange. Although, I think 4 years is enough. Time for turquoise. Especially since I decided to start collecting my Franciscan Starburst dishes. Yummy.

Now that's a salad plate!

Postcards.

I'm going to work on some postcard designs tonight. I LOVE my business cards and I've been thinking I need some postcards to send out every once in a while. I was going to make some up in the fall, to send out before the holidays, but I got WAY too busy. I was thinking of having a spring sale and these would be great to advertise or have a promotional code for free shipping or something like that. I've been using Overnight Prints for a while now and I've been very pleased with their prices, turnaround time and quality. It's also very easy to download templates from them if you have no idea what you're doing.

I'll be working on some new designs in the studio today. Tomorrow I'll post some "in-progress" pictures. In the meantime, I made the front page again!

Front page.

Yay! I made the front page again. And what a beautiful list curated by hhopper. A lady with great taste (thanks Heidi!) :)

I unfortunately chopped off a few fellow ceramicists, including
CircaCeramics, from whom I bought this fab mug.

And, I discovered marstinia. Gorgeous enamelware. I love her colors.