There are lots of opportunities to holiday shop locally and to support your favorite area artists this month. I know it will be hard for me
to resist buying something for myself while I'm out and about
this weekend.
This year I am very happy to say that I have met my goal of having my pottery represented in area galleries—Hudson Gallery in Sylvania, Angelwood Gallery in Grand Rapids, Ohio, and most recently the Toledo Museum of Art Store Collector's Corner. I have worked frantically to create enough inventory to spread around since the completion of my pottery studio this past fall.
It has been an intense learning experience to work on my own—from stocking the studio to working with new clays, glazes and equipment. Owning my own kiln was something I am so happy to to have and use. Up until now, everything I made was fired in kilns by and with other potters. As a result, there were occasional issues with firings that arose which were out of my control. Now if there is a problem such as glaze issues, I can more easily isolate and address it. I am so thankful to Julie Beutler for getting me started on this pottery journey and for helping
to program my kiln, to Christopher Jones for building a wonderful
studio building, and to my husband Tim for his support with this
whole project.
First, it was to learn how to make pottery. Thank you instructors! Then, my obsessive nature took over—build a studio, make pots, then get them in shows and galleries. It was a busy autumn and things have gone very well. My next step as a professional was to self-promote. First a page on Facebook, then this ceramics blog and finally a website to showcase what I do to the general public. So after hours sitting at my computer this weekend, I finally got a domain, built a site and got it up online. It is only a three-page site
