Journey's in Clay 2009.

I survived another gallery opening! And it was a successful one too, sold 6 of the 11 pieces.



Journeys in Clay 2009-Contemporary Ceramics.

May 30-July 18

GCCA Mountain Top Gallery, Windham, NY. Hours: Friday & Saturday 11AM-6PM; Sunday & Monday 10AM-5PM; Tuesday-Thursday:11AM-5PM. 518-734-3104, or visit www.greenearts.org.

You can see the nice little blurb in the Arts Newspaper right here...name misspellings and all.

p.s. The pitcher isn't in the show...I'll be posting it in my shop this weekend!

Tweet.

I posted my first pedestal bird! Isn't she pretty? This one was my first attempt. I had this form in my head for a few weeks now. It's always so nice to see work go from a sketch on a piece of paper to pulling it out of the kiln. These two were attempts 2 and 3. I was experimenting with a thicker base and different carving patterns. Unfortunately the one on the left has a little crack around the spot where I inserted the "candle hole"- which was a separate thrown piece. I'm sure you'll be seeing that one in the good old sale section. These 2 were in the same glaze firing. They are off to Massachusetts on Monday. I do have a similar green vase that will be posted eventually. I'm a little attached to it right now....that happens a lot. I'll hoard pieces I really like for weeks. Just living with them in the studio, soaking up their good vibes...deciding on whether or not I should just keep them all for myself. :)

In progress.

So I never got around to posting photos last night. I stayed in the studio quite late and then collapsed on the couch to do some crossword puzzles and watch an old James Bond movie. So this is what I woke up to this morning...

The vases in the 1st pic are from the other day. Drying in the kiln room. The other vases are the 15 from yesterday with half their black slip, waiting to be lightly trimmed and painted some more. Hopefully they will be ready to carve later tonight.

I'm off to bathe, eat and run to Bailey's for some new mason stains. I'm going to start testing a few new colors and I'm also planning on revamping my red for the spring. I know I've already changed it a few times, but red is so difficult. I get customers asking for a pink red, a primary red, a rusty red... I just want a clean, close to primary, glossy red. My current red is a creamy tomato red, which I love, but it is a little unreliable. I'm also testing a possible new green. I LOVE my current green, but I'd like a more glossy surface. So, if I can keep the color and improve the surface texture, I'll be a very happy lady.

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.