One more.

Heartstrings...which you can see here. A thank you to Monarchdancer, for featuring my sculptural bird dish with pink...which is also part of my Valentine's Special through Saturday.

Pink loveliness.

Okay. I know I say it a lot, but this piece is so lovely. When I took it out of the kiln my heart was melting. I think I may need to make myself a mug version of this pitcher. And as someone who spent the first 25 years of her life hating the color pink, I've certainly had a change of heart. I guess it's the context that makes the difference and paired with black and white, almost any color can shine.

I've mentioned previously of my love/hate relationship with mugs. In the beginning I thought that I had to make them. Everyone loves mugs. They are an inexpensive, useful yet handmade and special gift for others and a present you can buy yourself and not feel so guilty. And for the ceramics collector, the are another relatively inexpensive way to purchase work by your favorite artist. BUT, they are a lot of work. At least the way I work. Throwing them exactly the same size, painting them, CARVING them(I don't think people appreciate how long that takes), pulling the handles, attaching the handles, firing, glazing, firing again... At first I kept them simple in form, simple carving. But they were still taking time and I felt bad charging a lot and definitely lost money on them. Now, I think I've found some peace...

I'm not going to worry about matching perfectly. They are all the same style. I'm using the same amount of clay for each so they are all similar in height, but not exact. And if someone really wants a matching set, I'll make sure they are the same height, but not exact in shape. They're more interesting that way anyway. And I don't feel bad charging more because more work, more consideration of form and definitely more love goes into these. There are still a few left in the shop from the last batch and I'm working on more.

Little me.

I was going though and scanning some old photos and came across this one. It was taken in the summer of 2000 when I was at Penland in NC. I was 21?...I guess that's not too little. I was about to start my last year of undergrad and received a nifty scholarship and didn't have to pay anything or get up at 5am to work in the kitchen, so that was pretty sweet. I took a 2 1/2 week workshop with Julia Galloway. Richard Notkin was teaching downstairs and they did a lot of combined talks and slide lectures. I don't really like workshops, the dynamic is always kind of weird, but it was fun and Penland is so nice and secluded from the outside world.

I spent the morning outside doing some gardening and playing with Dudley. Then I "refreshed" some of my glazes and started unloading the kiln. I guess it's dinner and then glazing for me tonight. I haven't had cable for about 7 years now. I was never really a TV person. Sure, I love my Seinfeld and Simpsons, but I have the DVDs. When we are at parties or out at one of Jon's shows and someone mentions just about anything pop culture it's a big "huh?" from us. So we don't know much about what's on TV but we borrowed the first season of Dexter from a friend and watched 4 episodes last night. Now all I want to do is NOT glaze and watch the DVDs all night...a big reason to NOT have cable.


At least I got some new work posted. Like the next bird dish...in pink!

Christmas.

Well, not really, but it always feels like it when I open a kiln. My camera battery died before I could take more pictures, but I am loving my glazes. Here are some new tripods in a new light pink and blue...I posted them in my shop today along with a few special orders...

This one is sold, but I will be posting more of these bird bowls this week so be on the lookout. My other bird bowls...dishes really...came out just like I had hoped. I'll post some pics tomorrow. I'm soooo happy with them.

I also got a lovely message from Sydnei, from SimplySentimental, this morning to inform me that she featured my green chick on her blog today. Thanks Sydnei! She also included something from Modern June, who's oilcloth aprons and tablecloths are perfectly practical and totally cute.