Good fortune

My stoneware fortune cookies that are selling for $10 each at the Museum Store.

It  has been a while since my last post but I am happy to report that I have been back at work in the studio since the holidays ended.

The year started with making stoneware fortune cookies. I had given one as a gift to Heather, the retail manager of the Museum Store, right before Christmas. I had made it a long time ago at the 577 Foundation and she loved it so much that she asked me to make some to sell. I packaged them so the prospective buyer would know what fortune was in the cookie. The fortunes were mainly love sentiments, so they would be timely for Valentine's Day. I first brought in 24 cookies which nearly sold out and they asked for more. I made and brought in an additional 24 more earliler this month. They were featured in the Museum's email newsletter, ArTMAil. The cookies turn out to be a lucrative project. I was pretty "fortunate."

Taking a clay break

I thought I would be posting a pic of a snow-covered studio
but Mother Nature and Climate Change thought otherwise.

Success: My animal bowls made their
introduction in the galleries this season.
They included bunnies, birds, a dog,
a sheep and a ram.

All is quiet in the pottery studio. After months of working at a frantic pace, the time to sit back and regroup has been long overdue. It's now time to reflect on both the successes and the failures that occurred during this holiday season. It's one thing for me to like something and another, to have a customer agree. Since sales have been really great this past year, it boosted my confidence on certain designs that I wasn't sure would suit my audience. I also rotated a few of my pots from one gallery to another when they were pulled from their inventory and they all
sold immediately.

Unpopular: I may end up with a
cupboard of these pieces.

A series of pots that don't seem to be popular are my rust and white wax-resist pieces. I had made these at the potter's guild and they are made with terra cotta clay. I like them but judging from sales so far, I might be the only one. I also had some technical issues with some of them since it was a clay body I had not used before. I experienced some blistering, most likely due from too fast a firing. Back to the drawing board on this one.

Thankful that my work has been received so well, it provides the impetus to carry on and assures me that I was not crazy in having a studio built in the backyard last year. I look forward to experimenting with a few new techniques, new designs and improving on things I have tried before but not yet have abandoned. Bring on the new year—
happy holidays!

Where's the hand cream?

Just out of the kiln!

Most potters this time of year are working at a frantic pace to
get work completed for galleries, shows or holiday gifts. I belong
to this group, working to all hours and running my kiln twice a week. Working like I have and the onset of winter, I am constantly using
hand cream to replenish the moisture the clay has drawn from my sandpaper-like hands. I remember when I was a youth, there was a Jergens hand cream commercial— "Would you shake hands with a hairbrush? A lobster claw?"

I have just started to make my rounds to drop off lots of new work at
the three galleries which carry my work (listed in the right column).
Currently exploring some new glaze colors, clay bodies and surface techniques, I am hoping that they are well received. I have also continued to do some of the motifs that have been popular in the past. 

Some new work

Porcelain bird bowls for sale at the Museum Store.

Bunny bowl from the new stoneware animal bowl series.

This bowl freaked out my dog Mozzie when I first
made it. He obsessed over his likeness and tried to bite it!

Wall plaque for sale at the Museum Store.

Summer funk

Not sure if it has been the heat-causing laziness, an ailing mom, a new dog, or a focus on gardening, I just know my creative juices have not been flowing this summer. Or perhaps I have been spending too much time pinning on Pinterest. While it is a great resource for getting ideas, tips and hints, can it be that it is creating an inspiration overload?
Or perhaps it was just time for a rest from my normally obsessive pottery passion. I just know that there are five in-progress pieces that are being regularly misted so they don't dry out before I finish them.
C'mon creativity!

From my last firing, a gift for my aunt for her 90th birthday.

Ding-dong, garden bells!

My latest pottery jag is making hanging garden bells. They are fun to make—incorporating a little throwing, some big hand-built animal and round beads, and some Pacific coast driftwood. This bird bell measures 11-inches from the top of the bird to the bottom edge of the bell. It's the biggest one so far. Besides birds, other animals include a chicken, rabbit, fish and dog. 

I cleaned house!

It's hard to believe how many pieces of pottery that I have made and accumulated in this house over these past two years. Pieces that I deemed flawed, ugly or unsellable in galleries, were included in this weekend's spring pottery sale at the Potters Guild. The sale which coincides with the Toledo Botanical Garden's annual plant sale brought in a steady crowd. At first I was reluctant to participate however it was worth the effort monetarily and I got rid of a lot of excess inventory. Fifty to sixty pieces were sold at mostly bargain prices and I only brought home about 8 pieces which will now be donated to the 577 Foundation's Harrison Rally Day sale. Although I am very happy with the outcome, all in all, I still dislike peddling my pots and prefer letting the galleries do the selling for me.

Scott & I intermixed our work on these tables at this weekend's sale.