The Trade

I am so excited. I was able to make a trade with a fellow artist named Jill Oldenski. She makes wonderfully artistic dolls. I had wanted to score one of Jill's dolls for a while and suddenly when she admired some of my new plates and bowls the idea came to me - "how 'bout a trade?" Thankfully, Jill was up for it so I was able to score this beautiful custom doll for our neice, Samantha. She's complete with butterflies, in pinks and purples, Sammie's favorite colors. And, I just love the pink tennies. Jill even made an ID necklace! I just love this doll. It's going to be hard to give her up when I see Sammie next week. Jill's dolls can be found at Florida Craftsmen Gallery in St. Petersburg, FL, as well as A Little Room For Art, on Pass-A-Grille Beach.

Invitational Teapot Show

A couple of the girls are holidaying out in Steamboat Springs Colorado for the Invitational Teapot Show. I'm envious that they are able to get out to Steamboat this time of the year without me, but they're in great company. The show opens this evening and runs for two months. There are some absolutely wonderful teapots that have been accepted into this show, that was curated by Deb Babcock. I'm honored that I was asked to send some of my "girls" to be part of this fabulous show.

Here's a link to the show information.

http://steamboatspringsarts.com/HTMLPAGES/teapots.html

My Birthday and Christmas All Rolled Into One

I was able to open yesterday's glaze firing first thing this morning and it was a wonderful gift! The kiln gods smiled at me because everthing came out great. All of the pieces in the kiln are earmarked either for custom orders or a gallery. The one piece that doesn't already have a home is this 3-legged dish. I am so happy with the color cominations, the miracle of my steady hand when painting the dark blue, that I didn't smudge anything when I was dipping it in the clear glaze and extremely grateful for my Air Pen for helping me paint the scales. Tomorrow's my birthday but I got my present today!

Disclaimer: No fish were harmed in the making of this dish.

How I Do What I Do

Today's post is a pictorial of some of the steps in making one of my Fishy Ring Teapots. These photos pick up after the two main components have been slowly drying under plastic for a couple of weeks. After trimming the ring and cleaning up the base I go to work. This teapot will be a Blingity teapot with rhinestone studded sunglasses, earrings and beaded tendrils off her dorsal fin. I'm not sure yet which fish her glazing will be based on just yet. Now she's under plastic for a slow drying. From lumps of clay to finished teapot, these usually take about 5-6 weeks to complete.

Good Morning!

What an incredible surprise I had when I went outside day before yesterday to see my husband off to work and let our dog out for morning relief. I just had to stand there frozen watching the colors change. I'd love to be able to recreate these colors one day on clay. After being snapped back to reality I realized that I had to run in and get my camera and take advantage of these fleeting moments before the sun came up any more and transformed the clouds to white. On one of the shots there's a sliver of the moon showing. See if you can spot the moon!

Mugs

The mug is such a personal form of pottery. Most folks have their favorite. It could be that the handle fits well with their hand, or there's a special place to rest their thumb, or perfect balance, or a great tactile feel with the glaze, color, size and the list can go on and on. For that reason, a simple form like the mug can be a tough one to get just right.

Up until a year ago I was never a big mug maker. It was always a challenge for me to get the handles just right, the size perfect, and the decoration the way I wanted it. I felt the best thing to do was just to not include mugs in my repetoir. A year ago all of this changed. The Etsy Mud Team had it's 2nd annual mug swap. It's an anonymous swap, almost like a Secret Santa, and because of the number of incredibly talented potters on the Mud Team, I was sure to get a winner.

This exercise got me to thinking that I should try to improve on my mugs to give them a bit more style and I'm happy to say that the designs are evolving. I'm happy with the last batch that will be at Florida Craftsmen for the Holiday Show in St. Pete, FL. And I've started another batch. I'm enjoying the fact that I can take the same elements that I use on larger pieces like bowls and plates and translate those design elements onto the mugs. My goal for the next month is to make at least one mug every day. I think it's going to be like eating Lay's potato chips, I can't just make one!

A Labor of Love

Sometimes I get requests to make special things for people and it's a challenge because it's something new to me and I have to figure out how to make it. Sometimes it's a little stressful to make special orders because the requestor has an idea in their head of what they want and my fear is that my vision isn't in line with theirs. There's always that moment when I hold my breath as the requestor takes that first look at the finished piece.

Well, recently I completed a special order. This was a teapot that my mother-in-law asked me to make. The teapot is a gift for a very special lady and the making of the teapot turned into a labor of love. This special lady loves pink so the main color had to be pink.

Sometimes during the making of teapots, there are mis-steps. There'll be a little cracking that I have to repair or, the glaze will creep or crawl a little so I'll have to re-fire. But, not with this piece. It was almost as if this teapot wanted to be born and wasn't going to give me any problems. As with every teapot that I make, my last one is always my favorite. True to course this is now my favorite teapot.