Creative World

booties

2011-10-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

booties, a photo by redhotpottery on Flickr.

felted wool booties for the wee one--what a fun project!

I decided to make myself some felted wool slippers--no, not THESE!! these are for the grandbaby. I made these as a sort of a test of thickness, and to see how long it took to felt this wool, how much it shrunk so I could guage the size. What a fun project. I'll be sharing pix if my pair end up looking so nice.

ok, since I haven't done a post in ages...

2011-08-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

wooo. I've been here all along...just not much in the mood for blogging...time to reconnect!
I've reworked some items in my Etsy shop and am streamlining a few things. Yarn bowls are taking over my life in more ways than one. I feel like I can make them in my sleep, I've made so many this year. I went thru a phase where I broke nearly every other one during the process...since I was so tired and stressed. I'm learning to ride the waves of business life. Definitely taking breaks during slow periods and learning ways of not getting myself stressed out when things are super busy. I'm also learning to toughen up a bit regarding competition. More on that later.
And I'm making good use of my iPhone photography apps!! I'm finally satisfied taking web photos with my phone. What do you think?

2011-02-18T10:20:00.001-08:00

Hey I'm on my iPhone

so time, she is a flying...

2011-02-18T09:16:00.000-08:00

blogging absence due to real life activities!! lots of tango, a little travel, and some construction and now back to the grind!
here are some new pieces:

and here we are mid-Feb 2011. Happy new year!

and, of course, I got an iPhone and am using the Hipstamatic app like crazy...weehaaw!

bon weekend, mes amis!!!

whoa nelly!

2010-12-21T10:17:00.000-08:00

So here it is--my 5 minutes of fame!!
Bobbie Thomas used my yarn bowls on the Today show last Friday, on a little segment on knitting. Wow. I'm just floored at the response. Looks like I'll be making a few more yarn bowls....hehehe.

where I've been...

2010-12-16T21:26:00.000-08:00

Nowhere. I'm a blur--working harder, faster, longer, deeper, better than I have ever before in my life. Happy holidays! This year, I've spent over a month hard at it--and boy did the monkey wrenches come a-flying. Throwing at top speed, glued to the computer when I'm not elbow deep in clay or glaze, running my business like a machine. Me being the machine, that is. I was thoroughly flummoxed by this years' holiday rush--caught completely off guard, without any hired help, (bad move!) but jumped in with both guns a-blazing... I feel like I was tossed into a tornado of early holiday orders and suddenly sprouted a new set of hands and arms to deal with it. I also began a new workout regimen--short, fast and intense bodyweight-only workouts a few times a week-- a little yoga, pushups, pullups, crunches, and hundreds of mountain climbers. (gawd, those are tough!) But a new set of muscles has served me well. I had, for years, suffered with shoulder/neck issues after only an hour or two of throwing, requiring me to pace my workdays to accomodate the dreaded head, neck and body aches that I had accepted as a hazard of the job. Now that I've grown all my new muscles, I can throw 40 bowls in an afternoon with little or no pains afterwards--and go dancing later!! Lightbulb moment!!! All you potters out there, take heed! I remember, years ago at a Tom Coleman workshop, he described his own back problems and how weightlifting had kept him intact for potting. Why, oh why did I not listen?? Well, better late than never, I say. Thank you Mr. Coleman.
I'm also standing on the brink of something. Not at all sure what it will bring--maybe some changes in my life. Maybe nothing much. Tomorrow morning (I'm writing this Thursday night) something of mine will be mentioned (possibly) on a national tv show. I began this crazy week nose to the grindstone at full speed. Tuesday I got an email to ship some bowls to NYC for a possible spot on Friday's Today show. (!) You read correctly! Maybe the spot will get killed, maybe it will air, maybe people will head over to my shop and place some orders. We'll see what tommorow brings. Regardless, I feel surprisingly calm. But thoroughly grateful. On my knees grateful. To be able to create and share my handiwork with the world--to have amazing, sweet customers who appreciate my work has been one of the greatest gifts of my lifetime. And this last month of better, faster, more, more, more has been a kind of daily zen meditation. Being present to what each moment requires. Switching gears at a moments' notice, observing myself fluidly (mostly) moving from mom, to potter, to product designer, to photographer, to customer service rep, to salesperson, to packing and shipping clerk, to girlfriend, to dancer nearly every single day from 7am to midnight. I can identify with the juggler who keeps getting new items tossed at him and just works them all into the air. Wow--taking a moment to write this post and think about what I've been doing the last month is giving me some perspective. I definitely wouldn't want to continue at this pace for much longer, but in a short burst it's been rather refreshing. Not that I haven't been a little freaked out--oh I have had one good meltdown per week. (not so bad, honestly) letting off a little steam...but I am bummed I haven't had the time to go see Harry Potter yet.

the gods must be happy with me at the moment....

2010-11-12T14:15:00.001-08:00

because this glaze makes me smile. Yum.

holiday elf...

2010-11-12T09:47:00.000-08:00

not really--I was a snow fairy at our Halloween Milonga...
but now that I'm in the crunch for holiday sales inventory I kinda feel like I need to clone myself or hire a slave.

what I have learned so far...

2010-11-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

in Argentine Tango:

1. Being totally present is vital to having a good connection to my leader. Take a moment, breathe, wait to feel the connection, shifting weight with him, feeling his breathing, how he carries his body, finding where I am comfortable in his embrace and on my own two feet, relaxed, balanced, and responsive. If I'm thinking about anything other than this connection, it is lost.

2. Really listen to the music. Feel how my partner is feeling the music. This one takes some practice. It doesn't work if I'm thinking about my steps, or how my butt looks! I have observed when I am with a leader who is having fun and enjoying the music, I am able to 'get' how he is feeling and tune into his groove with it.

3. In tango, as opposed to other dances, I feel like I am an extension of my partner's body. I don't know what the other tangueras would have to say about that one, but it's how I see it at this point. It's like I'm the car and he's the driver. (or something like that lame metaphor) I have always enjoyed dancing alone, letting go of my mind and just moving to the music. When B and I started tango, I was terrified that I'm too just controlling to be allow myself to be led. So when I arrived at tango class I was surprised to find myself being swept along in my instructor's arms responding to his simple leads and somehow getting the basic premise of it. I was able to drop into my nonthinking bodymind and feel his lead instinctively because: 1. I trusted him, and 2. I had been doing this all along on my own. It was exactly what I did when I danced alone, letting my body interpret the music--I was now just letting my partner use my body to interpret the music. I've only just recently been able to understand this. I could probably write much more on this subject....

4. Energy cycles back and forth between my partner and myself when we are relaxed and connected and feeling the music. Kind of like sex, but actually less complex because the dance is a container for the energy without the machinations of romance, emotion and reflection clouding it up. I can totally see how partners can become infatuated (or furious) with one another during a tanda. A little example: in the beginning, tango was very challenging for B, and he was struggling and working really hard to get it right, after a few months of this, during practica one evening he finally really let go of thinking and just danced to the music, and I felt a huge shift and a wave of energy flowed from him into me. And I was like "wow!!--what happened?" and he answered, "I just said 'screw it!' and let go of trying to do it right and just grooved". We were only at the point of walking and doing the basic, but after this we took it to another level, and really started to have fun.

These are just a few observations I've made in this short journey with the tango, I'm sure there will be more to come. Learning it has been a deep and beautiful metaphor for so many things in life. It has been challenging, to say the least. To dance it well, the presence required might just involve total ego annihilation--which you can do the easy way, or the hard way. If you want to just do some fancy steps and look sexy to the audience, this is way too slow and tough of a method--try salsa for that--faster and easier to learn, and your ego remains intact.

Here is a video of Alberto Dassieu and Paulina Spinoso. When I first saw these two dance, I got chills. I visibly saw their connection--moving as one body, and it helped me to understand. enjoy!

see! this is what happens....

2010-11-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

when I have to be throwing pots--I get a sudden burst of........SOMETHING! and then I grab the camera and start fooling around--next thing I know three hours have gone by, and I have this.

never fails.

ok, I'm off to throw pots now. I promise. I will stay away from photoshop for at least one hour. really.

(the ring of little white heart bowls is for a wholesale order that I should have delivered yesterday--kinda glad I held onto them....)

I know, I know

2010-10-29T12:50:00.001-07:00

I haven't written a 'real' blog post in ages...I guess I'm moving too fast these days...but please, I know many of you out there in blogreaderville are of the female persuasion, so I'm gonna send you over here
to remind us all of the women who fought for our right to vote. Please get out and make your voice heard this Tuesday.

here it is!

2010-10-13T14:37:00.001-07:00

I love it. I've been wearing it in the evenings for the past few days--I have to say I think it's darn near perfect dimensions at 74" long and 18" wide. The open lacy style of the crochet stitches created a really nice drape for a somewhat scratchy wool. (best for outer layers.)

and now I've started on some crazy thick socks
with some old wool/mohair blend yarn that will probably end up felting to my feet, but at least I'm learning to knit socks! The pattern is from Jill Draper who has a wonderful Etsy shop with yarn and patterns. (shop is closed til 10/18 but I thought I'd post the link anyway)

oh yeah, and I'm making lots of pottery too. here is a custom vase for a lovely couple of lovebirds.

chilly

2010-10-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

finally feeling a bit of a chill here today in Northern Arizona--drinking waaaaay too much coffee...mmmm.. It's like from one day to the next, the earth rounds a corner and we've landed square in Fall's lap with a comforting plop. My toes are forever cold--I needed to paint them for tango shoes yesterday and couldn't spend any time without socks. (I found my window of warmth to get the job done) And now I'm wearing my large wool scuffs and dreaming of new wool socks to be knitted--my first pair! I'll post my progress....(if I ever get started on them)

my giganto shawl is nearly finished--just a few more rows and then to be blocked and photographed--stay tuned!

busybusy

2010-09-24T10:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a little diversionary project...this baby just screams Fall, doesn't it?

last Friday night I remembered two balls of Kauni wool yarn I had purchsed last year and never knew what to make with it...so around 10pm I start doing research on Ravelry. (boy, there's a way to kill a few hours....) I found this amazingly easy pattern here and my fingers started a-flying. I love working on a project that doesn't require too much thinking and whips up fast. I'm about a quarter of the way done and I'm loving how light and airy this shawl is.

And here's a pic of a glowing rubber ball.

Happy Weekend!!

no, no, it hasn't really been that long...

2010-09-17T13:29:00.001-07:00

you're just imagining things.

well, before my harddrive faceplanted last week, (back up your files, people!) I was pretty darn busy. Luckily, Mr. Computerboyfriend helped me out with another lengthy backup just two weeks ago, so the only files of value I lost were a zillion tattoo ideas I had bookmarked....hehehe, and a few photos, not the least of which was my boy in full combat gear heading out to his first fullscale Airsoft war. (he survived, thankyou) Oh, and some newly downloaded tango music. Not too shabby on the timing, I'd say. But luckily, Time Machine was doing it's thing until we shut it off to do the other backup. Thank you Steve Jobs, you're a star in my book.

Other than that, not too much of interest has been going on here. Cranking out pots, packing them up and heading them out. We had a party. I did another juice fast. ho-hum.

The party throwing endeavor was the push we needed to get the rest of our crap, I mean stuff, unpacked and all the boxes recycled. So we no longer resemble the Beverly Hillbillies in the neighborhood. well, except maybe here:
I have another pink rose bush! The blossoms are now but a memory, but this pic will live on forever in the interwebs.
Do I really need to keep talking about our move to the new house? God I hope not, and maybe I'll have something interesting to say next time.

Still trying to figure out the photo setup:

and lookie!

I've resurrected the dreaded bronze green glaze!! What? Did you think I no longer wanted to spend hours upon hours throwing and carving pots to have them end up bubbly vomitgreen disasters? Or is it my memory is shot? Anyhoo, I've come to the conclusion that I can master this glaze by strategic firing placement and application, and by golly, I may be on to something here. You have permission to remind me of my lapse in judgement when you see bubbly, crackly, crappy pots in my garbage can and me actually kicking myself in the head.

and on that note, I hope you all have a splendid weekend!!

DO FUN STUFF

2010-08-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

Today is kinda special. Today is August 30, and that means that it's 'DO FUN STUFF' day!!

Sorry, your browser does not support iframes.

Ryan over at Pacing The Panic Room, has been working his butt off to bring together folks all over the world to raise research funds and awareness of Smith-Magenis Syndrome, or SMS for short. He's put together an awesome compliation album of 'music for kids and their cool parents' available on iTunes today!! So listen up, these songs are groovy, sweet, silly, and a couple of them are just bound to keep you rockin and boppin through your day with a spring in your step and a little silly grin on your face. And you get to help out an awesome cause. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT (YES!!!) of the money raised goes directly to PRISMS to fund research and hopefully get support and answers to families of children with this difficult diagnosis.
If you've never been over to The Panic Room, you should head on over and get to know Ryan and LB (short for Littlest Buddy) his stepson who has been diagnosed with SMS. LB will melt your heart.

So Long I'm Six from The Panic Room Videos on Vimeo.

And if you want to get in on the fun, you can! Click here to get your very own widget to post on your site or blog. If you would like to just make a donation click on the donation button. Every last nickel is going directly to the folks at PRISMS.

crazy loco....

2010-08-19T16:25:00.000-07:00

wow--I don't know what has gotten into me--I've done one batch of regular production, and now I'm getting all inspired and feeling very creative. I haven't made a doumbek drum in two years!

Of course I had to go make the mother of all drums! This baby is over 18 inches tall! I envision her (definitely a 'she') with a some beads on the leather strap, and a henna mandala on the head. (Glazing will present it's own dilemma, but I'm thinking something neutral...)
And nor have I made a lotus bowl in many, many months....

I was getting discouraged with both endeavors in the past and my time was consumed with orders...but somehow made room for some inspiration to peek thru after the mayhem of moving.

Feels good.

finally...

2010-08-12T08:37:00.001-07:00

I threw some pots yesterday! weeeeeeeeee!

It has been a long road to functionability, but I'm gettin there.

I'm loving the new space. No, I'm apeshit over this house. Ape. Shit. We are in a gorgeous, quiet neighborhood right next to the most amazing rock formations. (I will have to post some pix soon, but I didn't bring out the camera yesterday) Last night as the sun was setting and turning everything golden, I ran out the door and hauled my ass out onto the rocks to watch. Heaven.

Life is going on. Somehow, the worlds' longest move is coming to an end, and a new era is beginning...

Now I have to figure out how to shoot my pottery photos. My setup in the last place was great, but won't work here, so I'm trying new things. Here's the first round. Not the best, but I think I can work with it for a while. (add that to my list of things to do)

Pottery by the pound...

2010-07-29T07:02:00.000-07:00

there's been a bit o' mayhem round these parts. (for me, at least)
A sudden turn of events early in early July, resulted in B and I learning we would have to move asap, and then the craziness of running around town looking for homes to rent which would fit all of our needs (you should have seen the list!) and then within 48 hours finding one! (with studio space!! yay!)
Moving is one thing, but moving home and a pottery studio is another.
I decided at the last minute to have a seconds sale last weekend, to try to move some of the mountains of seconds that had been piling up around me....I haven't had a studio sale in three years! Considering that I fire weekly, which usually means there are one or two (or 8) screwups per firing, not to mention oddballs and test pieces--there was a lot of pottery here that I did not want to have to move to my new place. Needless to say, things went swimmingly. I put up signage around town, (yard sale style) since I had no time to do anything for the newspaper or print up flyers. And folks showed up. There were friends, neighbors and strangers who bought bags of mugs and bowlies...
An adorable young hippy couple came back three times (!) and lovingly cradled mugs and bowls that I had deemed 'bad pots' and filled up more bags and boxes of bargain stuff...those two really got it! They kept saying they loved my flawed mugs and bowls with crazy glaze drips and crusty bubbles exclaiming "it all had such good energy!"....and they would love to eat and drink from handmade stuff...it really connected me again with why I do this work and why it feeds my soul.
I spent the weekend chatting with people who did not know I lived here or did this work right in the neighborhood, or that potters even do exist anymore! People came who had taken a class and succumbed to the lure of clay, who wondered if I teach, and told me of their dreams to spend their days potting...oh how I remember those days! Falling asleep at night with thoughts of the next mug shape I would make, and how long it would be before I could get back to the classroom to learn more...folks came who've been working with a local teacher who was once one of my students ages ago!! (now I know I've been doing this a long, long time....)

Sunday night, I started to pack for real, and I wondered just how many pounds of pottery left the building over the weekend, and in my lifetime...how much clay has moved thru my hands?

So the real work began, and now we're about half packed up and moved. We get the truck today and the kiln will be moved tomorrow. (that always makes me nuts) I'll try to post some pix here and there of the new space as it comes together, right now it is just filled with boxes...and I'm unable to imagine getting through it all.
Onward!

what the heck?

2010-06-23T11:39:00.001-07:00

Happened here?

Anybody got an idea? This weirdo is on sale in the shop. Along with some other odd little sale seconds....

so there's this little photo contest happening...

2010-06-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

over at the Pioneer Woman today, and I noticed it was about bugs...now I LOVE me some bugs. They get such a bad rap....So I sent in this shot--kinda reminds me of Marilyn gettin her skirt blown up. If you have a insect pic you're proud of, go head on over there read the rules and submit it to the Flickr group!

2010-06-14T12:54:00.001-07:00

"Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. We are like people living in a country whose language they know so little that, with all manner of beautiful and profound things to say, they are condemned to the banalities of the conversation manual. The brain is seething with ideas, and they can only tell you the umbrella of the gardener’s aunt is in the house."
— W. Somerset Maugham, The Moon and Sixpence

Image by Judith Braun.

ugh...

2010-06-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

it was a rough weekend folks, I wish I had some lovely stories and pix for you of holiday feasts and adventures. Really, I do. But the fact is, I worked a lot,

(and had some firing disasters--see the streaky glazed vase below, grrrr)

had a tiny bit of fun with my boy, watched some sports (go Hawks!!!) and the rest is going to be forgotten asap.

I took the camera out for a bit--my red onions from last year are blooming and looking (and smelling!) a bit surreal.

where on Earth...

2010-05-24T11:19:00.000-07:00

....have I been, you ask?

well, looks like April came in like a lion, and so did May. This month has been a whirlwind of a doozy. There's been a little of this:

and this:

and thankfully only a little bit of this:

and a LOT of this:

and this:

and my battered toes the morning after tango workshops...:

anybody else have a crazy May?

Cécile Brunner in the house....swoon!

2010-05-05T09:02:00.000-07:00

my Cecile Brunner roses are blooming!

gawd, I tell you, nothing makes me happy like the first roses in the garden. Ok, I guess a few other things make me as happy, but right now I'm in bliss.

then I start wanting to take pictures, and then I get all distracted.....

I brought them in the other day and the whole livingroom smelled heavenly from just this little bouquet..sigh.

This is a rose that is famous for climbing and taking over--isnt' this just the most romantic thing ever? Why can't I have this in Arizona?? Maybe in 20 years my little shrub will look like this.

image found here

Book Fairy! (the coolest thing ever!)

2010-04-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited to share my Book Fairy story with you! I had no idea how fun and magical this would be, delivering a gift of Christine Mason Miller's(aka SwirlyGirl) book Ordinary Sparkling Moments to a surprise recipient, so forgive my gushing like a 10 year old girl, but just go ahead and picture me jumping up and down flapping my hands as I relate the tale....

Here's the deal with being a book fairy for the 100 Books Project, it's kinda like being a Secret Santa of a way cool spiritual/creative kick in the butt for a random someone who you have no control over choosing!! I sent Christine a note that I'd love to deliver one of her books--way back in December 2009. I told her how special Sedona is and that I think someone would really be touched to find this gift in a place where lots of folks come to get in touch with nature and a deeper sense of spirit.

So when she sent me the package for delivery I got all excited and started planning my adventure: I knew I wanted to leave the book outside in the spectacular natural surroundings...would I leave it on a sacred mountain? a lovely canyon? I started to run down the list of my favorite hikes and special places. What if weather was a problem? And then my life got busy, really busy and the book sat in my studio with a bunch of other things on hold while I began my Spring production and pretty much everything in my life besides work got ignored. Swirly checked in with me and I told her I was going to take it on a hike during Spring Break with my 12 year old son--well, Spring break came and went without any hiking. I was pretty stressed and bummed, and feeling frazzled, but somehow I always know things have their own sense of timing, and I knew I would go on my hike with the book when the time was right.

Easter Sunday dawned bright, sunny and warm and after a lovely lunch with my boy and my sweetie (that involved a bit of chocolate bunny beheading) we discussed going for a hike. My son chimed in, "let's go to Mezcal Mountain!" out of the blue and I know right then that's where I should take the book. There is a cave there, known to us locals as 'The Birthing Cave'.

I was surprised and grateful that C just blurted it out, since we hadn't been there in over 5 years....
We set off. The weather was spectacular,and we were all in a stellar mood as we hiked in the sun. The trail is fairly easy until the last climb up the mesa wall into the cave itself, where the spiky bushes and cactus have nearly grown over the trail and blocked it.
More than a few scratchy reminders later we were up there. The cave itself is more beautiful than I remembered and in the years I hadn't been there, some folks set up a rock altar in the spot where there had been a fire pit and it was covered with all sorts of offerings and notes and trinkets of all kinds: dollar bills, coins, jewelry, shells, stones. I got a rush of emotion, knowing this place would be perfect for Christine's book and hopefully someone would discover it in a really reverent kind of way and listen with their heart. Actually, I had no doubt that whoever found it would be in the right frame of mind to really 'get' it. I was super stoked. I placed the book just outside the main altar so someone could see it clearly was not meant to be left as an offering but to be taken as a gift. And as the three of us hung out in this beautiful natural cave, I noticed it seemed we were all positively 'bouyant' with glee.

I don't know if it was because it was a gorgeous Spring day, or we were all just high on the joy of being in the great outdoors or that it was because we were accomplices in working a little magic for someone...I said a little prayer for the book's recipient to be blessed by the experience and we went back on down to the main trail.

and that was that. The boys and I had a great day out on the rocks hiking and exploring and came home exhausted.
I sent Swirly a quick note, telling her the book was delivered and that I'd process the pix and write up a little story later in the week. (which I hadn't yet completed) Several days later I got a note from her, saying she is forwarding an email she received from the person who found my book. My heart skipped a beat--someone found it and even wrote to her!!!!!!! ( I wonder how often that happens??)

and here's what the note said:

Hello Christine, my name is Gloria Ortega I found your book in Sedona, Arizona the day after Easter. I took my hike up to mezcal mountain, was praying the whole way up about what I needed to do with my life, I'm a beautician and astrologer, meanwhile cashiering at New Frontiers, a health food store. I was deciding wether to go to the birthing cave or on up to the council circle where the ruins are, I chose the birthing cave. I needed some answers to why I'm at this point in my life, I sat and was journeying into the juniper tree which sits there when I decided to move to the shade, I spotted your envelope still unopened at the alter, I saw the message "This gift is for you." I ignored it awhile then it stuck out "YES YOU!" so I opened it and read the whole book sitting there. It was the best answer I needed! Spirit knows I need answers in writing at times to get it, so my prayers had been answered with a quick reading of a lovely book left there just for me. I was slipping it back into the envelope for someone else to enjoy ...then loud and clear I realized I should e-mail you and let you know how it touched my life so I brought it home. My roommate read it, and she was so inspired she sat up all night setting up a new web for a business we have been trying to get off the ground called Land of the Sacred, a hiking and retreat center to teach people about the land, all about the plants and animals, and old shamanic ways to connect to Mother Earth. She got it done, and we're on our way with lots of new ideas! So your book moved us both in lots of ways! Thank you for your words of wisdom and for leaving it. After e-mailing you I will return it to the birthing cave for someone else to enjoy ,Thank you again! if you're ever back in Sedona look us up at Land of the Sacred.com Gloria Ortega

wowzers.

If you haven't already clicked on the link to Gloria's site, please do! Three awesome women living the authentic life, sharing what they know and offering to be the connection to this magical land of Sedona.
I'm just floored that I was a bit of a catalyst in getting this rolling. After she sent me the email sharing Gloria's story, I asked her to write her to get permission for me to share it here on my blog, and she said YES! One of these days, I'm sure I'll run into her in town and I'll out myself, but for now, we're like ships in the night.

well, I guess I should get rolling..

2010-04-01T08:05:00.000-07:00

time's a wasting!! Today is glazing day, the day I dread every week, somehow I find myself inspired to get it all done and loaded--excited with the possibility of new pieces coming out of the kiln.... The kiln is nearly cool enough to unload and I better get some food in me and get rolling. I need to be done by dinnertime because I have a rehearsal for The Vagina Monologues tonight at 7:15...
Spent most of the evening last night working on my new postcard ( woohoo, the party never ends!)

--what do you think??

this week...

2010-03-26T10:14:00.000-07:00

has not been without its distractions. The search is still on for Paul Van Rensburg. Updates are being posted here and please click on the Donate button below if you can help. Every little bit is greatly appreciated.

I'll be off tomorrow to southern Arizona to meet a friend and take a few days off. (what? days off? the weekend?) I know, I know, 'look up in the sky! Pigs are flying!'

I'm going to be throwing pots, and packing pots this afternoon and then off to dance tonight! So I'll leave you with this poem by Mary Oliver

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.

Update on Paul's rescue efforts

2010-03-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

My friend Paul is still missing. The crew of friends and family is working hard to keep up the search... Considering the weather in the area he set sail from, they believe his boat was blown further off than the area previously searched. There is now a facebook fan page for updates.

and the official LET'S FIND PAUL site

Here is today's update from the info site:

We have made quite a lot of progress in the last couple of days with getting the media onside to get the awareness out to the NZ public and also to Paul's friends and friends of friends around the world and the many people Paul has touched.

We over here are really feeling the beginnings of a ground swell being created by the collective energies of you all supporting him, be it by suggestions, donations, messages of support or whatever and the momentum is building!!

Yesterday we sent up a private helicopter to scour the Eastern Cape one more time. Regan and Warwick, the Tauranga driving force, went up in a deer stalking chopper - they are awesome pilots and fantastic spotters - and they spent all day looking in every nook and cranny along the coast for signs of Paul, Tafadzwa or debris.

They found nothing at all. This has strengthened our hope that he is still on the Taf and just needs finding, as we have felt all along but yesterday's result has given us a little peace of mind and checked another box.

So we are back on the task of raising as much funds as possible for a further search.

Watch out for Kristen and Regan on TV3 Campbell Live either tonight or tomorrow. For those of you overseas I'll post a link for replay tomorrow or the next day.

Our strongest theory is that Paul has had some kind of gear failure in the storm on Friday night/ early Sat morning. The wind has been consistently blowing SW since then. We think that in such a case he would have chosen to sail with the wind instead of against it which he would have needed to do in order to continue on to Gizzy.

So, he would then be heading in either a NE or NW direction. There was also the cyclones in Fiji from which the winds would have possibly pushed him back West.

I spoke at length today with the Airforce Wing Commander who flew both of the sorties in the Orion's. He is a very experienced Search & Rescue pilot. He explained to me how they calibrate the radar and perform the search. The radar the Orion's are equipped with is specially integrated to find periscopes, which as you can imagine will be a lot harder to find than a 35 ft steel hull which is a perfect radar reflector.

The Wing Commander said, that while of course not ever being able to guarantee anything 100%, that he believed that had the Taf been in the area they searched, he would have found it.

However, the search did not begin until Tuesday morning, by which time Paul could well have sailed off for for nearly 3 days in a NW or NE direction and been out of the search area. Which is why we very much believe he is out there.

The Wing Commander also said that he ALWAYS finds a beacon.

What we want to do now is search where we haven't searched before for Paul and Nita on Tafadzwa. So for that we need to raise as much as we possibly can!!

Anyone in NZ can now walk into any ASB and ask to donate to Paul and they will have the bank details or see the notes section here for bank transfer details.

Overseas people wishing to donate can use the PAYPAL link on the website www.letsfindpaul.co.nz

The cost of this search is monumental--renting the plane and equipment for one hour of searching is over $800 per hour. The family and friends are financing the search on their own at this point and every little bit donated helps. Time is of the essence and the clock is ticking. You can donate by Paypal--every little bit is appreciated. Not to mention prayer.

thank you from the bottom of my heart.

A call for help-

2010-03-22T08:14:00.000-07:00

A dear old friend, Paul Van Rensburg is lost at sea. Literally. His 11 meter yacht is missing after leaving Tauranga, New Zealand, sailing alone into rough weather on March 12. A 10 day search for the craft has turned up nothing, but it's possible he's run ashore on a small island or is in the lifeboat. Paul is a lifelong sailor, and if anyone can survive, he can. Please put him in your thoughts and prayers. And if you have any connections to any organization in New Zealand that can help with rescue or would like to donate to the rescue fund, please contact me at Christinerhp@gmail.com.
A website for information about this situation and rescue is here.

and a facebook fan page for updates is here.

hearts and a tango clip...

2010-03-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

Spring is springing all over the place--our little town is busy with tourists and so is my little studio--things are flowing all over the place...

On another note, B and I have been dancing more than ever and just started learning Argentine Tango--which we both love and I'm sure will be one of the great joys of our lives. I'll dance anything and am starting to feel much more confident with my West Coast Swing, which is a really fun dance, when I'm not panicking about being on the floor with a pro. (which actually happened last weekend--swoon!) Our little town has a smalll, but growing dance community and we actually have dances at a local saloon twice a month, so we get some real floor time with other dancers. I found this clip from the film "The Tango Lesson" by Sally Porter and I just love how simple and understated the dance is portrayed here.

Happy Weekend!!

oh and another thing I love about my job...

2010-03-11T09:43:00.001-08:00

is the continued development. Stagnation is impossible.
I was glazing up some birdies this morning and as I dipped them into the bucket and watched the light play across the curves which imply 'head', 'back', 'wings', 'tail' I was sort of stopped in my tracks. From where had these creatures emerged? From me, duh! It's like I almost don't recognize the product of my own hands, it's changing and developing so quickly from month to month.
Somehow I feel it is a physical record of me, described in the language of clay, fired to solidity as I am not. In ten years these pieces will most likely still be on earth in exactly the same form, but me, I will be a different being altogether. My cells will all have been replaced by new ones (twice!) and the years will have described me a bit differently at that time. But here are concrete pieces of me, they will be still standing as they are today. A snapshot. This is what I will leave behind so I better do good work.

it's been cold and rainy~

2010-03-09T07:32:00.000-08:00

typical March, you say? Well, normally here in the high desert March is often dry and sunny with the accursed clouds of pale yellow dust--the pollen from the cedars and junipers covering our world in a fine mist. Sometimes when the wind blows it looks like the tree is filled with smoke. And then the sneezing. I swear, before I moved here, I thought I knew what sneezing was. Well, I was dead wrong. There are days when I sneeze literally hundreds of times a day. My nasal passages so swollen for weeks at a time I forgot what my normal voice sounded like. Snorting Afrin like coke, even though I knew my body was just becoming immune to it. *sigh*
Well, this March has been so wet that the pollen is draining off the trees in tiny yellow rivers. Perhaps that is why I'm able to be outdoors for nearly half an hour before I have to run for cover. B and I sat outside on the porch for about 20 minutes on Sunday, enjoying the late afternoon light, and sure enough, the sneezing started and we scurried back inside, cursing our stupidity. How silly of us to think we could enjoy the outdoors in March.
I know it's a little silly to be so insanely grateful each morning I wake up to more rain, but all I can say is I'm only sneezing 30 or 40 times a day.

I received a potted bunch of bulbs for my birthday a while back and they're all blooming!! How sweet--I can enjoy them and not have to go outside!!

hmmmm...

2010-02-24T09:22:00.000-08:00

So here we go: getting into the swing of Spring production. My days have this really weird rhythm lately...I tend to do lots of throwing at night for some reason. Like, after 9pm, I get really creative and my shelves are filling up quickly with greenware...

Lots of new ideas for Springtime vases, lots of sizes and shapes etc. I know what this will mean when it comes down to shops ordering, it means I won't want to define myself by a particular line anymore and keep reproducing those items. For years I worked hard at keeping my line as limited as possible, never bringing too many new items in for the buyers, in case they would want me to produce more than I was able. So I had a manageable line and that worked well for me, even though it was a little routine and boring. Now it looks like I'm throwing caution to the winds and letting it rip. (well, for me at least!) The one thing I don't do is anything larger than 9 inches tall. And of course, that's what everyone asks for. 'These are great, and they sell well, but customers are asking for the same things only larger!' Well, the problem with that is the glaze, I tell them. See, I dip glaze my pieces. And I have yet to figure out a way to dip larger pieces and either A. not break them in the process, or B, have the glaze come out remotely evenly. I guess that is my new task. sheesh. Now I not only have to keep up with all this, but push myself to add some 'size' to the line. never ends, I tell ya.

Last nite I made this super yummy Italian Sausage and veggie thing (and I actually took notes so I can share the recipe with you!) and we watched the Olympics for a bit. B looked over at me and the boy, and lauged and said, "I gotta take your picture, you two are just like bookends!" So this is what he saw.
Note the clay all over my shirt. Classy gal all the way.

followup to last post....

2010-02-17T13:19:00.000-08:00

babies outta the kiln last nite....
I'm liking them.
a lot.

I don't know how this happens....

2010-02-10T08:39:00.000-08:00

I wake up one day and just head off in a new direction. No warning, nothing. Now I'm obssessed.

World Nutella Day

2010-02-05T06:24:00.000-08:00

today is World Nutella Day!

One of my most fav foods has it's own holiday! woohoo!

I discovered this today over on the Italian Dish where there is the most amazing recipe for Nutella Bread.

Doesn't that pic just make you swoon!! If it wasn't glazing day today, I'd be baking. Maybe tonight....

I know I'm not the only one who eats it right out of the jar....but my other favorite way is rolled up in a flour tortilla with cherry preserves.

don't knock it till you try it.

What's your favorite way to eat Nutella?

feeling rejuvinated...

2010-01-29T13:45:00.001-08:00

that's for sure. I'm having quite the wild ride testing the new glazes. Some major fugly, and some nice. Here's a pic of some of the nice pieces (I'll spare you the fugly)

I just listed a couple of mugs in the green and the yellow--I really can't express how it feels to add a new color--there is a whole new sense that each color brings to my space....kinda weird, actually.

I've still got some more tests to go. And working on some fun nesting bowl sets--

It feels really good to get rolling again. A whole new phase. Nice.

2010-01-27T06:46:00.001-08:00

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” —Albert Einstein

The southwest got hit by a doozy of a storm last week--areas of Sedona were flooding, but luckily not as bad as it has in the past...I was out in the cold sleety rain last Thursday night cleaning out our ditches that had become blocked with a year's worth of debris and had slowed the drainage to the point my studio would've been taking on water if the rain kept up...fun. Another friend, who had flooded in September, had taken pains to sandbag one side of her house only to call me at 10pm with a kitchen full of water. Luckily we only had to divert a stream of water to run away from the house and she was dry again. We got some snow for a day on Friday. And Flagstaff got several feet of snow, so that's where we spent Sunday--enjoying the magical blanket of white. I don't know if you can see it in this picture but there is mist coming off that field of snow behind the boy....we were so entranced we pulled off the road to check it out. (I know, those of you living in the rest of the world where snow is normal are rolling your eyes at me....) It was magical, I tell ya!

Work is taking on its own life and rhythm these days. I've been out of the production groove since late December and haven't found it again yet. Fine with me--I've been working on new things for the Spring--lots of birdies, making myself a little website on WordPress, (I have a lot to learn! yikes!) some new glaze colors, perhaps some slipcasting....not sure. Taxes are looming--must get those done before I get busy with production....and now I'm off to glaze up a load of work, new glaze tests will be in this kiln--hopefully I'll have some happy pics to share on Friday.

finally...

2010-01-21T12:10:00.000-08:00

something new. It's been quite the effort to get rolling in the studio this year...so far! I'm thinking Spring in these dreary January days...my heart is yearning for the bright and beautiful. New glaze tests are rolling out of the kiln-
now I'm testing for watertightness in vases. You folks may not realize that some glazes look great and glossy but for a vase to hold water for several days with no dampness underneth it is quite the feat at the temperature I fire. So the dark days of winter are kept at bay while I dream of my new sprintime colors and designs....

I cannot stop it...

2010-01-14T13:18:00.001-08:00

I've been crying off and on all day today. My heart is so heavy for Haiti. She has suffered insult after injury after insult for over 600 years. Since Christopher Columbus it has been one horror after another. Look it up--after Columbus claimed the island for Spain, the native population was nearly wiped out, presumably, by European borne disease. Spanish and French interests ruled for nearly 4 centuries and trafficked in nearly 800,000 slaves to work the very lucrative sugar and coffee plantations, followed by years of shaky rule and revolution, violence, terror, corrruption, abject poverty and crime until the present time.
I won't go further into detail of the tumultuous times that Haiti has endured, but I've come to the conclusion that the people of Haiti must be the toughest, strongest, most tenacious, and bravest people on our planet. To be the the world's second poorest nation and have survived the abuses of the last centuries and now the flooding and hurricanes of the last several years brings me to my knees. These words I read about Haiti's history only serve to shed a tiny flicker of light on what allows an island the size of Maryland to survive such continued difficulty.
How, HOW can this be??
I look around me and at every turn I'm shocked at how insulated and safe I am. My walls are standing. My heat is on. There is food in my fridge and gas in my car. I burst into fresh tears at each one of these realizations. My child has warm clothes and a full belly. We have clean water.
Why me?
I light a candle and pray in a way I haven't prayed in years.
I make my donations.
I cannot seem to bring myself to do what I normally would be doing right now on a Thursday afternoon: my potter's wheel sits silent across the room, boxes of clay waiting quietly to be opened, orders needing to be shipped, taxes to be done. The grocery list and laundry are being ignored. A family birthday gathering looms ahead this weekend and travel to another city to celebrate seems inconceivable knowing so many brothers and sisters are suffering and dying in unfathomable fear, grief, pain, hunger and thirst. How many of those suffering share the same birthday as my little 2 year old niece?

*sigh*

I know even if I jumped on a plane right now I wouldn't be able to help. Right now they need doctors and nurses, emergency personnel. People who are trained to know what to do. I feel guilty that I don't have that training, that I haven't dedicated my life to that kind of work. That I have a frivolous 'art' career while there is so much hunger and pain on this earth. I don't know what to do so I make a donation in hopes that somewhere, someone's hardship is eased...

Keeping it fresh and exciting....

2010-01-10T17:31:00.000-08:00

It's a new year. 2009 was awesome in so many ways. I learned a lot, acheived some goals, didn't acheive some others and have experienced what it is like to be in a totally supportive environment for the first time in YEARS. (yes, I'm shouting that one) I crashed hard the last two weeks of December and am slowly emerging into the studio. I have renewed my strength, reformulated some of my work. I have some new and exciting teaching plans for 2010, and I'm on some kind of track with my plans for growth and I hope to be able to report as things happen. (remember waaaaaay back here where I made some commitments to increase my income by tax time?) Once I crunch all the numbers I'll let you know how I did.
There is something else I need to say out loud. Last year when I moved into this house and a broken kiln switch delayed my work for a few weeks, I began a new chapter in my career as a potter. I began blogging in earnest, wanting to document my processes, first and foremost, for myself, and for any other artists, or buyers or just the general audience who might find some interest in the ins and outs of daily life by the seat of my clay covered pants. The new chapter involved making some big changes in the direction of my work. Most of you may or may not know, but for many years I had a very distinct style of work. My stoneware multi colored line:
was where I earned my bread and butter, and it was 98% of the work I made from 1996-2009. (that's a really long time!) During the years I had a retail outlet I occasionally experimented with other glaze palettes, but really didn't have too much time to experiment. It was great to have the freedom to make whatever I wanted and put it out for sale. Even though I make my living selling a particular line of pottery, and most people associate me with that style of work, I have never been one to have any interest in developing 'one' particular style and not ever producing experimental work. I actually have always enjoyed having two or three styles of work going simultaneously. I know many successful potters out there who have one very distinctive style in, let's say, porcelain and you'd never see a stoneware piece in their shop. They stick to their style and brand and if they are experimenting they keep it to themselves.
Me, on the other hand, I just can't do it. When I had my shop, I loved coming up with something different and wacky every once in a while and putting it out on the table to see how folks reacted. Most often these experiments sold on the first day out of the kiln. The reason being, I believe wholeheartedly, was they were 'fresh'. They were a physical embodiment of my excitement with my medium. Nothing stale about it. It just screamed at the customer, 'pick me! pick me! I'm new and exciting!'
So last year I noticed that I recieved a bit of attention when I made a switch in style, or, more accurately, added something new to my repertoire. For me switching the style of my secondary lines is nothing new, but I've only been working online and photographing my work since 2007. So the online record of my work shows only what I've done since then. I guess people expected me to keep doing thins the way I had been doing them, and were surprised to see something new. When my kiln was down last year I did my first glaze tests in years. I blogged about how I was ready for a change and was starting to feel the itch of something new brewing. I felt that my stoneware line was feeling a bit stale and static and I wanted to incorporate some of the design elements I'd played with in the past into my work and see how it fared. My bronze green glaze:

was proving to be such a pain in the ass, I decided to not waste my time with it anymore and wanted to come up with something different that worked well on my smooth stoneware and porcelain. A wholesale client requested a design incorporating my little bird sculptures into my pottery, I started making my birdie vases. She was thrilled and placed a pretty large order. I made her a batch of pieces in various sizes and ended up with some seconds which I put up on my etsy store--which recieved a hugely enthusiastic response. Several people contacted me for more of these pots. What I thought was going to be a secondary line of pottery has now become one of my most visible items with a lot more potential for growth in other styles and colors. My new glaze colors that I started working with last January have proven to have a good appeal. (which is nice, since I really don't enjoy testing new glazes all that often)
So this year, I'm looking at ways to move forward and expand on what I started in 2009. I have a few new glaze tests in the works, some new design ideas, but I want to commit myself to growing on what's already strong, and not doing too much experimenting. Except for maybe a few things like this:

Ringing it in right...

2010-01-04T10:43:00.000-08:00

well, I guess I've gone and done something right--here's the Cappucco Cheesecake I made for New Year's Eve. I got this unbelievable cake recipe from Deb at Smitten Kitchen and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to make it. It's definitely over the top--there is a layer of chocolate kahlua ganache, then a layer of coffee cheesecake, then a vanilla layer, and then more ganache. Holy moly--I think it weighed nearly 40 pounds.
I know I'm not a food blogger (not with so many awesome ones out there!!) but we took some pix of the process, since it was rather daunting, so I hope you are inspired and enjoy seeing it go step by step:

--it was fun to make and everybody groaned with delight as they tucked in--what more can a girl ask?

I guess the decade will begin with decadence!
(I promise, the next post will involve pottery!)

wrappin it up....2009, that is.

2009-12-28T10:00:00.000-08:00

good grief, isn't it over yet??
(how many posts do I start this way?)

I've been a very very lazy blogger.

I really don't know why I have a rough time at the holidays....OK--I guess I can't really claim to have a rough time--compared to the fork stabbing types of holiday wrecks, I'm a creampuff... I can't quite figure it out, I start out fine, and then by Christmas Eve I'm usually ready for it all to be over and the cranky bus has arrived. In the past I would stress out over throwing my son and my ex birthday parties the week before Xmas, along with all my holiday work busy-ness. Now I only throw a party for my boy--and at age 12 that means getting pizzas, cake and soda and keeping the troops from injuring themselves or igniting the furniture for about 6 hours. Maybe, as B says, it's my letdown time of the year. Everything ramps up and up through my busy Fall season and holiday sales and I know it's about to deflate. Kinda like when you have to pee really really bad on a car trip, but you're hanging on longer than you thought possible, and you finally get to the gas station and those last few steps thru the bathroom door nearly kill you? Yeah, that's it. This is those last few steps thru the bathroom door. Maybe I should write a song about it. ok, nevermind.

So we had a low key Christmas. The boys (mine 12 & his 20) got prezzies. Me and B dedicated our gifts to each other toward funding a new couch, which has yet to be chosen. (but just let me tell you, people, the (no shit) hunter green damask shabby chic piled with pillows with bright white plastic zippers that he let his ex bring home about 10 years ago just isn't doin it for me anymore) Somebody made that couch and then beat it with an ugly stick. If his ex loved it so much how come he got it in the divorce and she went shopping for new furniture from the current century? B always claimed what it lacked in looks it made up in comfort. He was rationalizing just a wee bit, if you ask me. The kicker came at Thanksgiving when his son home from college won't even sleep on it anymore due to back and neck pains it gives him... I, on the other hand, moved in here with my black leather couch that still claims the best night's sleep a couch can claim, but B hateshateshates leather couches, so (since its his house) it will remain in the 'backroom' and we have to utilize the pukey green with white zippers monster couch til we find a new one.
The things one does for love.
Ok, the man is a gem, but really, I've had it with that freakin couch, and I think he's finally seeing the light. Oh, did I mention it has matching loveseat?? The entire livingroom is consumed by hunter green damask. I'd rather sit on milk crates at this point.
Alrightythen, got that off my chest....
Back to Christmas. I cooked up some Tyler Florence chicken marsala and made Jaques Pepin's Pound Cake (see photo below with lazer tag gun in background)
which we drowned in blueberries and icecream, just like the 4th of July. Seriously good, but kinda out of season...(what is WRONG with me?)
oh, and rum balls. dayum. That is one good Christmas cookie. Don't even have to bake em, (keeps the booze in) and nothing says Christmas like a drunk 12 year old...
just kidding! I didn't let him eat more than 20 over 2 days.
B and I strung some lights on the 8' tall ficus. I gave up on the ornaments after putting 4 little glass birdies up.
It was elegant.
There wasn't even much to clean up. Our garbage can wasn't even full. We're the only house on the block with a garbage can lid totally closed.
Well that about wraps it up, now on to hassling my kid to get his ass off the *&^($#$%#^ play station and maybe I'll hit the gym.

oh yeah...

2009-12-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

The kiln fired out just fine--what a relief!

here's a few shots of the wares--I shoulda took a pic of all of it together, but most of it got packed up and moved along yesterday. (I packed 20 boxes....)

and one of the famous model:

holy moly what a weekend..

2009-12-08T09:43:00.000-08:00

for my kiln to break down!!! yikes!I spend the week throwing and Friday glazing up all this stuff:

and loading the kiln for this weeks firing....now, a little back story here: my kiln, let's just call her 'Pamela', she was a used manual Skutt 1227 9 cubic foot kiln that I purchased in 2003. She has been my steady workhorse thru thick and thin, she was my graduation gift to myself when i started to do pottery as a serious career. I had no money back then, I borrowed money from one of my local shops (against the next year's ware purchases) and wheeled and dealed to get ahold of her, and she's been with me ever since. We have moved studios 5 times since then, and spent many late nights together...because she was manual, I had to turn her up by hand and watch the cones bend and shut her down when she was done firing...In the last few years she's had her elements replaced, switches, and the lid was beginning to crumble along with many of her bricks. I knew it was getting to be time. I was hoping she would make it thru the holiday crunch. Well, I was wrong. A switch failed mid firing and I woke at 6 am Saturday to find she was not anywhere near the temp she should have been at...I went thru the varying modes of panic, as you can well imagine....lots of swearing and a few amped up freaky moments of thinking the worst (that I'd have no source of income for a while-) and then I found myself in a very calm accepting space. Yes, you read correctly: I calmed down, and started getting on a solution. I had known for a while I'd need a new kiln, so I knew what I wanted. (spending the $$ was the hard part...) I priced them out in a few different places and then put in a call to my supplier in Phoenix, just after they opened at 10am. I just happened to have my courier picking up supplies that day, but assumed we'd have to rent a truck to get a kiln anyway...we hammered out a deal (yay--I love wheeling and dealing) and I started to plan for the drive down in a borrowed truck. They called me soon after and said, " your courier is here and we're going to try to get the kiln into his van, so you don't have to drive down." Cha-Ching!! woo hoo--delivery service too!!

By this time B was in high gear--he cleared his Saturday appointments to help me out, borrowed a truck, (which we didn't end up needing) mobilized some guys to help,
and by sundown, I had a new kiln sitting in my studio!!!!! wheeeeehaaaaaaaa!! I love that man--it wouldn't have happened without him. I'm a lucky girl, and I know it.

We had to wait to move the old kiln because she was still hot, so we got the new baby in place Sunday afternoonand I ran a test fire Sunday night. She seems to be functioning properly and last night (in our first winter storm, 50mph wind gusts nonetheless) I refired my wares from last week.
Talk about rolling with the punches--in the past this would have taken me at least 2 weeks of stress and delays, and wringing my hands over trying to save the old kiln, somehow I used to get myself more tied up in knots about things...and this time I was all "look, universe, I'm moving forward, so lets keep rolling!" Now the real test is when I open her up later tonight. I'll have a shot (or two) of tequila on hand for that...

Here we go again..

2009-11-29T14:35:00.001-08:00

not much time for blog writing these days...the holiday whirlwind has begun a'blowin! I've been putting 7 day weeks for a while now and realized I was just a wee bit overstressed earlier this week when I blew a gasket and ended the day in tears over a shipping mishap. (nothing broken or damaged, just a postal return that needed to be rerouted to a gift recipient--it all worked out fine in the end)
Time to reassess how hard I'm working, and how much I let it get to me. Perspective is a good thing.
At the moment, I have a relative on his deathbed over in Europe, and took some time today to call overseas and spoke with him and his wife and son. It's very hard not being there to say goodbye, and knowing we won't see him on this earth anymore, and what a dear man he is and that he will be gone soon from our lives. I've been wandering in circles all day, knowing I should be working but also knowing it's much, much more important to attend to his passing however I can. Sitting down with the phone to speak to family, and cry together, letting myself be raw and sad and teary. Talking with my son about it...

I know later I will put in a few hours in the studio--the mugs and bowls I threw yesterday need their handles and decoration. I wonder how the state of my heart right now will affect my work. I always want my pieces to be imbued with my presence--that is what I enjoy most about being a potter--sharing a part of my spirit in my work. Right now that part of me is full of emotion, for letting someone go, feeling very tender about the loss of a wonderful person from our lives. Yet I'm not in a bad place, even though I'm sad--just a very bittersweet and poignant place.

OK, so it wasn't so bad after all....

2009-11-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

I know I was whining a bit yesterday about having a crappy throwing day....it's true I didn't get very far with production, but my big wobbly bowl got fixed right up last night...sometimes just letting it harden a little bit and then continuing to throw can work wonders.
And I had some fun playing with new ideas for vases (and a whole bunch of other things...in this style)

I can't throw for sh*t today....

2009-11-12T15:56:00.001-08:00

really, I've tried. I've messed things up, I have a mighty wobbly salad bowl rotating on the wheel as I speak and even tho I know it is beyond saving, and I should just give up, the eternal optimist in me (or the idiot--not sure which) thinks it can be salvaged. *sigh*

This whole week has been a bit of a bust....production-wise. I know I'm off my game and I just don't know when to step away from the wheel. This was going to be my week to get on top of things after the boy was home sick last week.
At least I took some pix of the last pomegranates on the tree--nice and Autumn-ish don't you think?

The Messenger

2009-11-11T07:09:00.000-08:00

Went to see The Messenger last night. A new film by Oren Movermen starring Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster about the trials of two army officers currently working in the Casualty Notification service. You know, they guys who have the job of personally notifying families that their loved ones have died in Iraq. Pretty heartbreaking stuff.
According to director Moverman, his friend, producing partner and screenwriter Alessandro Camon came up with the idea for “The Messenger” a few years ago.

“He suggested writing a script about Casualty Notification Officers because no one was looking at the war from that angle at the time. No one was shining a light on the home front from the perspective of the messengers who bring the consequences of war to the families, to the people who pay a direct, intimate and everlasting price for the decision to go to war,” said Moverman. “It's an impossible, horrible job, and yet it's as real as it gets.”

Moverman insists that the film is not about casualties of war, really. It's about the people left behind to deal with life after casualties of war have gone.

“ ‘The Messenger’ may say a thing or two about war, but I think it ultimately deals with grief and the desire to live, to let life into the darkness, even to laugh,” said Moverman. “It definitely makes the point that there are people who have to deal with war in a way that is not strategic or political, but personal.”

When asked about his hopes for the film, Moverman says, “We obviously want people to see it, and listen to it, and be moved by it. This is a film that a team of people poured their hearts and souls into, and we all feel the film has something to say and a lot of love and healing to offer.”

Harrelson says in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, "It was a good experience for me because it's one thing to consider yourself pro-peace, like I consider myself, and quite another to understand what the soldiers are going through. On the film, we had to shoot at Fort Dix and talking to all the guys there just made me really have a lot of respect for the soldiers. I don't love the war, but I do love the warriors I ran into, so it was very important for me philosophically to have that time with them."

.
Regardless how you may feel about the war, this film brings a sense of humanity to the forefront in dealing with a universally human subject.
I'm glad we saw it yesterday, right before Veterans' Day.

have I told you lately...and a GIVEAWAY!!

2009-10-27T17:24:00.001-07:00

just how much I love throwing pots? You know, sometimes I forget what a thrill it is to do this work...I clean the table, put away the packing materials, the glaze buckets, the tape gun, step AWAY from the computer and wedge up a batch of clay and crank some tunes and get rockin at the wheel.
anyway, I whipped out these babies this morning and had such a sense of satisfaction looking at them all lined up, I just had to take a pic.

The weather is finally feeling Fall-ish around here, although I still have a few tomatoes and roses...and some of these (whatever they are) and the lantana is gorgeous as hell in her flaming orange-red, dontcha think?

Kitty is settling in--I'm actually keeping her in for a few weeks so as to acclimate her to this being her home. She had taken off twice to return to her former stomping grounds, crossing major roads and giving me quite a scare. I'm just enjoying having her around and she is such a sweetie. Here she is sitting in the chair in my bedroom 'not wanting to pose for pictures!'

and head on over to Down and Out Chic to enter a giveaway of one of my heartbowl/bathsalts sets!!!

can I get an AMEN!!??

2009-10-25T17:09:00.001-07:00

whoa Nelly!
got wind of this on Denise's blog along with the link to the original article from Glamour describing the photo shoot of what is now called 'plus sized' models. I don't know what else to say other than "plus sized? they're just plain hawt!"

B happened to stroll by my computer as I was reading the article and well, let's just say he took notice of the screen for longer than a moment....hehe. And as we both looked in awe at these gorgeous ladies, we commented on just how lovely the curves and bellies and thighs really are.

Beauty is subjective, no argument there, but I, for one, am so freaking sick of sleek, bony airbrushed perfection (not that these ladies aren't photoshopped) being our standard of beauty in pop culture!! Real women-- they got some belly, some booty and some gravity doing its job, and it does nothing but enhance their beauty, in my eyes. They look attractive because they do look more realistic. As one reader commented on an earlier image of another 'plus sized' model that caused a bit of a stir, “This girl is normal,” wrote one reader. “Redefine plus-size for me again? Is every woman over 120 pounds and a size 2 considered ‘plus’ now?” scary.

I also agree with Denise, that thin women are no less beautiful, but the absence of natural bellies and thighs in the media has been a joke. It's nice to see it mixed up. And it's nice that it's coming from a fashion and beauty magazine.

time travel, standing on the edge, and a new holiday item in my shop...

2009-10-22T13:18:00.000-07:00

sorry dear readers for skipping out on you for a bit--sometimes the blogging bug just doesn't bite, ya know?
I've been all over the place (literally) working on wholesale orders, dealing with runaway kitty issues, (she's here now, for the moment, but really misses her old house and keeps finding her way back there) and taking a weeklong hiatus off to Chicago. I lovelovelove my hometown, and had a really sweet time hanging with family and friends. The boy needed to work on a school assignment, so we did some research at the huge library downtown, paid exorbitant parking fees, ate in cool restaurants, hit some of the old haunts...ate some amazing Cannoli, (yay!) hit the Sky Deck at the (former) Sears Tower with a bazillion tourists...here's me on the edge of the glass box 103 stories up--

holy crap it's high! I still can't believe I stood out in that thing....
So now I'm back for the grind that will take me thru the holidays...I've been brewing up new stuff over here, I just can't help myself. I've been secretly and somewhat obsessively blending essential oils and Dead Sea Salts for a holiday gift set. A pound of luxurious bath salts packaged along with one of my heart bowls...lovely sitting on the edge of the bath and ready to ship to your giftee in it's own gift box.

The winning fragrance is a winter woodsy blend of muscle soothing Spruce, Fir, Cedar and Rosemary that I'm calling Deep Forest....I've been sending it out to my 'test bathers' and the feedback is great! Even B, my manly man likes it. So here we go for the gift giving season. Now I'm off to unload a kiln and get on with the glazing.
Let the games begin!

just when I get used to things...

2009-10-07T09:25:00.000-07:00

I have to go and try to adopt a cat....
I love kitties, have been fairly allergic my whole life, so I've never been able to really have a cat as a housepet. We adopted a stray years ago who lived outdoors most of the time around our home for nearly 12 years. What a pleasure she was to have around....she was magic. RIP dear Kali. She died in 2005 after a long, good kitty life.
So when a fellow freecycler posted that she wanted to re-home a kitty that had been living under her porch, I thought, 'could it work?' Maybe we could adopt her as our outdoor kitty and feed her here and look after her, and take her to the vet etc.
I went to meet cat, and she was super friendly--yay! She seems to be a young adult female that was very used to people. The woman had been feeding her and she seemed very healthy. She had checked with the neighborhood to see if she belonged to anyone, and got nowhere with that. I went home and talked it over with B, who was wary of the whole venture, but had rescued a kitty years ago and had a similar situation as mine with an outdoor cat. So we made an agreement.

The next day I brought her here in the carrier and she wandered calmly around the house for a bit, had a treat, played with me and then hit the road. When she left, I thought, "oh crap, that's the end of that" and worried most of the day that she'd never come back. But around 7pm I went out in the yard calling to her and brought out her food, and there she was! We hung out all evening, in the house and the yard and she seemed really comfortable and happy. She sat on the throw rug outside my studio door while I worked, and followed me around if I got up.... B came home from Monday nite football and immediately got down on the floor and played with her. "Cats just love me" he said, and he was right, she was all over him like white on rice. Things looked good. We put her out for the nite and hoped she'd be there in the morning. She wasn't. I worried all day about her yesterday, but she showed up at night again. Same thing: she hung out with us all evening, ate her food, played, snuggled, dozed, and went out around 11. Now she's gone again, so I'm a little worried, but maybe she'll come back for her evening meal.
Like I don't have a ton of work to do, I better get on it.

**UPDATE***
Shortly after I posted this I went out in the yard and called her and she came out from under the neighbor's deck. She came in to eat, wander around and I tossed her a little teabag of catnip that I made last nite for her. She went crazy for it, tossing and biting it till it opened and she ate a bit, and got herself all high and rolled around for a while like a little nutty kitten. She hung around the studio for a while, had a little more to eat and was off again. I think she's getting used to it here.

back at it...

2009-09-28T15:40:00.000-07:00

Oh it feels so good right now to be throwing pots!! My groove get a bit derailed last week and it took quite a while to get back to my centered space...and I watched it get me down--really down! I felt so out of whack, and couldn't do anything about it. Finally home alone yesterday--guests gone, the boys out at the bar for football and I got some uninterrupted studio time--*sigh* heaven! I'm realizing just how much my inner compass is always where I need to pay attention. The last week was challenging, at best, to stay focused. (which is never easy for me...) several different things got me out of my normal groove and I felt a bit lost all week, which culminated into some serious anxiety on Saturday. Working at home and balancing it all is generally a pretty enjoyable dance most of the time. I tend to flow thru my workdays from morning to evening, sitting at the computer, moving over to the wheel, the kitchen, the garden, back to the wheel, the kiln, packing boxes, the computer, the post office...etc
I wonder how other work at home creative folks handle lifes interruptions... I wish I was better at it, and didn't get so disturbed by the monkey wrenches...I guess it's because, as my good friend P said, my home is my sacred creative space and I'm the queen here...hmmm.

A dream. and synchronicities.....

2009-09-23T10:16:00.000-07:00

Those of you familiar with this blog know that I don't get too personal in here, so brace yourselves...I wrote most of this post a few days ago and have been hesitant to post it, maybe it's a bit too revealing of my inner workings, maybe it's self centered silliness, maybe someone will find it of interest and of value. I normally reserve this sort of material for my private journal, but it is such a good example of what I call my spiritual life and what guides me, weaving my inner and outer worlds together...so my hesitance to post it just now again this morning got another synchronistic jolt that has pushed me to publish it...

Monday: I dreamt I birthed a baby last night. I've often dreamt of being pregnant, but never of the actual birth. This was a quite a vivid dream, in which I was the young wife of a weathy Arab man who was the youngest son of three in his family. His two older brothers had long been married and their wives had birthed several children and now I was the laboring to bring the next child into an already large family. My two sisters-in-law wanted nothing to do with me as I was a new young wife competing for territory and power, so I was content to keep to myself and my beloved husband. In the dream I was aware that my husband and I posessed a pleasant and sweetly comforting relationship that made me very happy despite petty jealousies that surrounded us in the large family home. As my time drew near, I seemed to have been abandoned by the other women in the household and I found a quiet room in the house and decided to simply squat down to birth my child. I waited and waited thru the contractions until the midwife declared I was already dilated 12 cm--(ha! more than ready!) and I (being somewhat lucid in this dream) remembered somewhere learning that the baby can birth himself and I should just follow my body's natural direction. Since there were no other women telling me what to do I did not feel the need to push, instead, I allowed the gentle, firm force of the contractions to push the baby. It was rather intense, but with very little discomfort, and fairly quickly he emerged from me sliding smoothly out of my body and into my hands and I just held him there staring down at his slippery warm body. He slowly opened his eyes, locked onto me with his gaze and smiled at me.
Now my memory of this dream is still very clear, and I can so clearly see and feel this tiny baby boy I held in my hands, his face beaming up at me. The image is burned in my consciousness. I love it when I have a captivating dream like this that is rich in all sorts of ways, and I spend a lot of time in the subsequent days recapping the dream in my head and ruminating on the symbolism in my life, etc. This is one of those dreams, of course, and it will certainly leave a mark.

And the synchronicity thing today...which is somehow connected to everything else... I'm often noticing synchronicities in my life, and today it is the song 'Blackbird' from the Beatles. I was reading Sharilyn's blog to see what's new and she had made a lovely little compilation of bird related songs for her young daughter. She posted the playlist and I was reading thru the titles and one of them was 'Blackbird' from the Beatles, which among all the other lovely songs, didn't really make much of an impression. But then, not 10 minutes later, I was reading Kim's blog scrolling down thru the posts and just last week she had posted a video from Youtube of Crosby Stills and Nash performing their version of the song, 'Blackbird'. Funny huh? and I watched the video and kinda had a moment at the line, "All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arrive."
So I've been thinking about this post for a couple of days, and wondering if this sort of thing happens to other people...and what they make of it, and maybe I'm a bit silly for finding these synchronicities so fascinating and letting myself get all excited when they happen. I do generally feel like the web of life is a deep and magical thing, completely non linear and when I get these syncronistic messages that usually serves as a reminder of that interconnectedness.

Now it is Wednesday, and, like I said, I've been wondering if maybe these episodes are meaninful only to me, and would be rather self indulgent to post them here... and then this morning while I was working on some bird vases,
and listening to KCRW radio, and a snippet from this show with Paul Mc Cartney came on and Paul started to talk about writing the song 'Blackbird' and proceeded to play a little acoustic version of the piece. I was just floored. I decided I had to to share the story.

When these things happen I do get a sort of thrill and feel like there is some meaning here for me to decipher... but right now I'm just going to let that idea rest, and just enjoy feeling connected to the bigger picture.

aaaand.... EXHALE!

2009-09-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

Carl Andre's 'Eight Blocks and Stones' Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

“You are led through your lifetime by the inner learning creature, the playful spiritual being that is your real self.”
~ richard bach

Somehow this quote calms me. It's like, 'oh really?! now I can relax and be my quirky self and stop worrying that I'm doing it all wrong and start enjoying life more.'
Or maybe that was what happened when I turned 40. I wonder what it's gonna be like at 50....

burnout...and a flood.

2009-09-15T07:47:00.000-07:00

yeah, I know. I've been working pretty hard the last coupla months...and I kinda hit a wall. Last week I didn't throw too many pots, and it was all I could do to keep up with my business correspondence and shipping. I kept wandering aimlessly around the house fretting about all I wasn't getting done, and finally, I sat down to work on a wholesale order for one of my local shops. I was throwing pots and Sedona got hit with an incredible storm...I just stayed at the wheel for a bit and the storm ramped it up a notch, so curiosity got the better of me and I went to go check it out. It was a raging and a hailing down something fierce....this picture does not convey the drama very well, but you can see the hailstones a bit.

Well, it turns out that this was one of 'those' storms. And somehow our little neighborhood didn't really get hit too bad. Some parts of town flooded pretty bad, and two of the three shops that carry my work were filled with several inches of mud and had a lot of damage. Nobody got hurt, but cars were floating around in parking lots down by the creek at Tlaquepaque shops, causing some added mayhem and extra damage. This one was quite the doozy.

Bruce and C and I went down Thursday night to help with some cleanup and then I spent some time down at the other shop cleaning up on Friday, so the owner could open up for the big weekend festival at Tlaquepaque. It all came off pretty well considering two feet of water, mud, debris and a Mini Cooper were floating thru there less than 48 hours earlier...

I don't have anxiety...do I? DO I?!! naaah. nope. Do I?

2009-09-03T13:29:00.001-07:00

So I spent one entire day last week unloading the kiln and packing up the rest of my orders from the prior week. Something like 28 packages....Lots of little birdies..vases, mugs all flying off to various parts of the planet. I requested a pickup from our mail carrier and set the boxes out to be picked up. Normally mail comes around 9:30 am, so I made sure these were out there by 9.
I had a Dr. appointment at 10:45, so I was sure that the packages would have been picked up long before I had to leave...they seemed so vulnerable just sitting there...awaiting their destiny:

The carrier was late. At 9:45 I get a knock on my door. Thinking it's the carrier, I run to the door and open it. It's a salesman for a carpet cleaning company with a special offer. Now, we don't get too many door-to-door salespeople around here, and I'm always a little leery, but I figured, our carpets do need to be cleaned, so I wanted to hear about the offer... as we were talking, he said " well let's have a look" and just walked right on in the door. What was I gonna do? yell, "stay outside!" (actually, yes, I should have) So he's looking at the traffic patterns in my living room, I start to get squicked about the whole thing, and I wrap it up by telling him we couldn't possibly do this today, and he says they are only in our area today, and he took off. I watched him walk past our neighbor's house and meet up with his partner and they both walked on down the street. Now, I was raised in the city, and I do consider myself to be more cautious than most people here in my small town, and always tend to question myself and my suspicious nature as being a little over the top. We live in a place where most people don't lock their doors and folks do look out for one another. But I'm still a city girl at heart. And something about the whole thing seemed weird. (especially just barging right past me and coming into my living room) I know, I know....
So now my adrenaline is up and it's getting later. I need to leave to make it to my appointment, and the carrier hasn't shown up. I start to wonder if it's a bad idea to leave a great big pretty pile of my work sitting out on the front porch with potential criminals roaming my neighborhood. I walk out the front door and stand there in front of my pile of packages, and while I'm standing there a bashed up van drives by reeeeeeeallllly slowly and I notice it's the carpet cleaning guy and his partner.
They just stare at me and my pile o' boxes as they cruise by... That's it, I'm freaked, I decide to move it all into the house and write a note to the carrier and head off to my appointment, figuring I'll have to take everything to the post office later. There was just no way I was going to be able to leave nearly $1000 worth of ware just sitting there with strange guys cruising around possibly casing the joint.
I get it all back into the house and write a note to the carrier and then he shows up, just as I'm getting into my car. So I explain to him why the boxes aren't out there waiting, and he says, "Oh you could have just left them out here for me! don't worry, I would have just picked them up."
And I want to punch him.
I do realize that I had an inordinate amount of stress last week, and I logged in waaaaay too many hours working than I should have, so I guess my nerves were a bit more fried than normal. I do get very insecure about my worrying. I was raised by cautious people, who taught me to be on guard for danger at all times, then I moved to Sedona and spent several years surrounded by "it's all good!" "just relax, you'll make something bad happen by worrying" hippy types of folks who always seemed to belittle my cautiousness as uptight and not fun and freewheeling. So now I don't really know how to trust myself. Yes, I am cautious, that is who I am. I'm not a freewheeling girl who just goes with the flow...I tend to prefer structure and I do worry more than most and rarely is it justified. But this situation was with regard to my work, and actually it was no longer mine: buyers had already paid for it. I'm glad I didn't just drive off, I'm the one who needs to take care of things around here. Yes, the carrier was right, I probably could have left one or two packages out there on a normal day. But this wasn't a normal day.

amazing...

2009-08-28T08:13:00.001-07:00

This is a castle made of paper--by an artist named Watarou Ito, a University student from Tokyo. Took him four years. I'm speechless. More info and images at Tokyobling.

wild, wild, west

2009-08-27T08:08:00.000-07:00

It certainly has been one heck of a week. I'm still packing up orders and got the kiln fired yesterday...
97 little birdies went in, and 96 came out. --one of my kiln shelves tipped a bit and landed on a birdie and he fused himself to it.
It's a rare occurrance that I load my kiln so precariously....actually it's never happened before...so I lost a platter and one bird. Could be worse. When I opened the kiln last nite and I noticed the angle of the top shelf was not level I started to panic--thinking the whole kiln load was ruined. So as I was unloading the kiln waayy too hot--shoulda let it cool another hour or two, I burned myself nicely on one of the shelves...silly potter! drop the damn hot shelf before you let your throwing hand get burnt!! It's not too bad--Nelson's Homeopathic Burn cream seemed to help a lot...
So I tore thru the kiln down to the bottom to check some vases and pulled up this one: Now WTF is this? why on earth would there be a gray line showing up on this pot??? this poor baby is destined for the shard pile because of a kiln god's graffiti? uggggh! These things never happen on the inside bottom of the pot--noooooo it has to be right on the front of the decoration---quit messing with me!!!

Oh. oh. oh. oh.......I can't even speak straight today...

2009-08-20T07:06:00.000-07:00

So here we are already nearing the end of August--holy crap--where has this year gone????? Remember this post? That was waaaaaaaay back in April!!! (seems like last week to me....)
So here are a few new pix of the yard:
--it has been so freakin hot out there that I'm only out there before 8am or after 8pm....life in the desert, you know. So yes, the weeds are growing a bit, but not too bad as we've had very little rain, and my garden has been doing just fine. I carried about 6 pounds of tomatos in the other day gathered up in my skirt (I wish I had a pic of that!) but I only have this:
My friends have all received large bags of tomatoes so now I think it's time to get out the food dehydrator and make some 'sun dried' tomatoes. Since these are all Roma tomatoes, they should dry well. I'll keep you posted.

I have been incorporating some more earrings into the shop too:
and some new tasty mugs:

oh, and by the way (I almost forgot!) Come over to Etsy and see me on the front page as the Featured Seller!!!!

weekend work....and a little rescue mission

2009-08-11T07:48:00.000-07:00

So I got up bright and early to glaze a kiln load Saturday morning--well, it didn't get done til Sunday at 5pm...just a few change of plans thrown at me over my 'work weekend'....ha! My neighbor Mike knocked on the door and said "I have something to show you--I thought maybe you could use this for your pottery..." and as we walked over to his driveway I saw a veritable ocean of bubblewrap. He's a mechanic and does some work at home for friends, and a bumper had arrived in a box with about 4,000,000 feet of bubble wrap. Here's what it looked like somewhat contained:

(this is how they pack car parts?) anyhoo, my mind fast forwarded to the holiday season shipping frenzy and I thought, wow--MOTHER LODE!! I'll never have to buy bubble wrap again! Thank you thank you thank you!!!! So I spent a little time out there on the driveway trying to contain it all and eventually got it into several black bags and into my garage....
as I was doing the backstroke through the plastic sea on my driveway, my phone rang--it was B. He was halfway across the state on a video shoot and I thought he was calling to speak sweet nothings as he sometimes does when he's on a job out of town, "hi sweetie," I crooned into the phone...
Him: "ummm, so what are you doing today?"
Me: "I'm glazing today and Mike just gave me a little bubblewrap..."
Him interrupting me with a strange edge in his voice: " well, I'm kind of screwed here, could you drive down to Prescott (couple hours away) and bring me some equipment?" It turned out there was a mixup with his boss' cameras and he was shooting an all day event and had the wrong power adaptor and a dead second battery for the camera. There was more than a little panic in his voice--this is a man who covers his bases and hardly ever asks for help. It seems that the last person to use the camera left a few things out of the bag, and B hadn't checked it when he picked it up, so now he was in a real bind...
Me: "sure babe, what do you need me to bring?" He proceeded to talk me through various cabinets and drawers in his office to locate the stuff he needed, and I heard him breathe a sigh of relief as I said goodbye and I'd see him in a couple hours. I wrangled the rest of the bubblewrap into the bags to get it off the driveway, and hit the road.
By the time I got home 5 hours later, I was in no mood for glazing so I threw a few lotus bowls and drew their designs

before heading out to see Julie & Julia with a girlfriend. I carved the bowls Sunday morning and then I got the kiln glazed and loaded Sunday afternoon.
Needless to say, I took most of the day off yesterday.
and yes, my sweetie was very thankful for my help, and I was really glad I was there to be of help. One of the benefits of working from home and making my own schedule.

silver lining....

2009-08-04T07:52:00.001-07:00

You may remember I've been having some troubles with my firings--remember that batch that underfired last month? Well, I refired everything and it overfired and bubbled and needed to be tossed. Yes, one week of work thrown in the garbage. Customers needed to be called and told their orders would be late, shitty pots sat in the yard because I couldn't bring myself near them after pulling their bubbly, crusty carcasses out of the kiln mid July. Haven't had that happen in several years now....I was about ready to hang myself over it---that's a lot of work to come out ruined, not to mention loss of income! I told myself not to dwell on those things and keep moving. It was a funny sort of exercise, not to allow myself to go down that route of rage and anger and victim-ness, but somehow I did it. I did have a few little fits in the first few days, but I kept steering the car away from that road. (I have learned something in these 41 years!)
Of course, I was pretty deeply affected by it, who wouldn't be? but there was a silver lining to that dark cloud, and I developed a new trick to firing my kiln, which is a bit more labor intensive, as it's a manual kiln, but I have much more even firings and have been really happy with the results.
So I noticed as I was potting along yesterday reflecting on the gorgeous firing I had over the weekend, that I wouldn't have come up on the new process if I hadn't had all those problems a few weeks ago. Isn't it always like that in life? I was so freakin miserable about the ruined work but I'm glad I kept on working as if it didn't happen and then somehow started tweaking the end of the next firing, and lo and behold it worked!
(thank god, or else I might have really hung myself, or quit clay altogether!)

this just slays me....

2009-07-27T07:42:00.000-07:00

for those of you who are hormonal, get ready....
enjoy!

sigh

2009-07-20T08:01:00.000-07:00

Got my ass back in the groove with a vengeance last week, fired my kiln in the 100+ heat, and blissfully awoke Sunday morning to unload.

*Inserts sound of needle scratching off record here*

Half the neighborhood heard my 7am groan as I opened my baby to find a horrific misfired load of pots. Well, only the top half of the kiln was underfired--I won't go into the details as to why, I KNOW why it happened. I was at fault---well, maybe I can blame the heat that affected my brain on Saturday. that's it, it was the heat (or my insane craving for cherry pie that I went and baked Saturday nite) anyway, the bottom half of the kiln is miraculously perfect, and the one custom piece that my gracious Jennifer has been waiting for is just fine. (thank God!) I know, WTF, right? I was reeling all over the place for a few hours---happy/sad; annoyed/grateful, thrilled/dissapointed. I guess a half bad, half good kiln load is better than nothing, right? Welcome to my little rollercoaster.

This job is a riot, let me tell you. (well, I just did.)

Here are some of the reasons I was happy: (and I'll spare you the underfired pots)

back from the moon...

2009-07-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

and I hit the ground running yesterday morning at 5(!):30 am. Never fails, I'm such a workaholic, that when I do get away for a bit, I get so anxious about all the things that are going unattended I run full speed back into the studio at the earliest possible moment. Yesterday really tested me, several monkey wrenches came flying at me in the areas of home and work, not to mention 100 degree heat and humidity....
But oh, how nice it was to be off the grid for a bit! I didn't realize just how obsessive I have been about work this year, but it seems to be paying off too. I can see some solid legs under me now. I have an awesome opportunity which I will share with you all later in August, but it is requiring me to buckle down for the next several weeks with a discipline I have never known. I said to B last nite, that I'm feeling like I'm surfing a wave and not sure if I'll be able to ride it or it will crush me. And then I proceeded to tell him all the things I needed to take care of so that I handle this phase of growth in stride and avoid some of my past pitfalls. One of the things I know about myself is that I never budget for studio improvements, I make do with things the way they are, which, in the end causes me a greater amount of time and labor to do my job. Here's and example: clutter! In June, I took an afternoon off and went down to Home Depot and bought some shelving and installed it. Now my studio is now nice and organized and serves my workflow needs much better. That sort of thing. I have made a small budget and a monthly commitment to address these issues regularly. On the list are new kiln shelves, and some tools that aren't too cheap but I've put off buying them for years....
Normally, when things get suddenly busy I am caught off guard and run around like a chicken for several weeks at a time. So I said to myself, 'been there, done that. What can I do to prepare for this so I'm NOT running around like a chicken? (well, at least not with my head cut off)' Things like stocking up on everything, making larger batches of glaze in advance, ordering all shipping supplies early, organizing my production schedule more efficiently (and sticking to it) etc...I love being a right brained soul, but to avoid constant stress and burnout, I need to let my left brain drive the car a bit more.
So on a lighter note, here's a vacay pic:

Vintage shopping on Hollywood Blvd...Dang! the coat was too small or else I woulda bought it--it's sooooo me!

Simple things...round two!

2009-07-08T05:07:00.000-07:00

Thanks again to the lovely Ms. Christina from SoulAperture for round two of this lovely game...Please check her blog to find other wonderful sould who are participating!

Simple things that make me happy:

~Watching the quail with their tiny fluff-babies running amok and crashing into one another in their excitement....

~Cream: butter, whipped cream, heavy cream, icecream, frosting, creamcheese, creamed coconut....*sigh* my thighs salute you!

~Playing with clay: nuff said.

~It made my smile down to my toes when my son said to me, "mom, you have a very stylish vegetable garden." (he gets it!)

~Watching a fire burn down to its embers and noticing how those embers have a spirit dancing like nothing else....I get entranced....

~Getting lost in an impromptu dance in the studio when a the right song strikes....it seems when the creative doors are open, I'm more likely to get struck.

~A pair of warm solid hands on my skin--never get enough....

~Buying a half-dead plant at a yard sale and bringing it back to life.

~Grilled peaches

~Jumping into an ice cold creek with my boy on a 100 degree day, floating on our backs under the trees in the dappled sunlight....heaven!

~and then getting out to lay on a bare rock and eat watermelon in the sun....

~Freshly painted toenails

~Fish tacos on the beach--here I come!

~Kahlua cake!

happy summer everybody--I'm off to Cali for a much needed break and to visit the ocean....it's been way too long.

crazed potter woman....

2009-07-06T14:52:00.001-07:00

should be prepping for VACAY (!) instead of throwing pots....
but I'm having a good throwing day, so I guess I'll keep going and pack tomorrow....
leave Wed. morning for Socal with the boys.

july....

2009-07-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

is here already! My garden is humming along--I spotted my first ripening tomato yesterday--finally! I've been working like a madwoman this past week on some new ideas...
It was really nice to bring a batch of clay down to the banks of Oak Creek and sculpt some birdies on these really hot afternoons, although I didn't take any pix.....I woke up early this morning and unloaded my kiln--mostly happy with the results, a few disappointments, but nothing like this poor guy! I bumped him during glazing and thought I could just put him back in place and fire the vase and, well....not so good. Poor baby! Frozen for all eternity sliding down the vase only to land on his head.
And tomorrow evening we'll be laying under the stars watching somethings that look like this:

Happy Fourth Weekend everybody!

Adventure time!!

2009-06-26T07:41:00.000-07:00

So, my friend Kimmie calls me up yesterday and says she has booked a campsite at Havasupai for a weekend in August for a moms and boys trip and would my boy and I want to come....riiiiiiiiight.
Ok, for those of you who don't live in Arizona, this is one of the most spectacular locations on the planet, (see above photos) yet a famously grueling hike to get to....several hours of backpacking carrying all your gear, food and water in the blazing sun, etc. etc. I know, for someone younger and without chronic pain it might only cost you a few blisters...but for me it means fear. Fear of real pain and discomfort and potential injury. I'm someone with so many back/hip/neck/knee aches just during normal life, how on earth do I think I could manage this? Plus I have to sleep on a double foam topper on my bed so as not to be in pain---IN MY OWN BED! I know that camping on a tent pad in the sand won't get me much sleep either..... So what do you think I said? I said yes! of course. We have time to plan, time to get into better shape, time to do those leg extensions to help save my knees....time to get a scrip for pain pills, sleeping pills and possibly morphine. Time to save up for the helicopter ride out of the canyon when I can no longer walk...
I haven't had an adventure in so long I can't even remember...maybe it was childbirth. I feel like an adventure has-been, a geezer, an old crotchety lady with no more wind in her sails--like the grave is calling my name if I don't do this. (is this a midlife crisis? naaaaah)
Haven't mentioned it to the boy yet. His siblings did it with their dad years ago, and loved it. He's down, I'm sure.
Oh, to add to our thrills--this is right in the middle of flash flood season. (probably why the campsite had openings) Wheeee!

A funny self portrait for sp wednesday...

2009-06-24T13:30:00.000-07:00

and some other new things...zucchini from the garden, some birdies from my shop and a lovely poppy too...this beauty was begging me to do her some justice with the camera this morning--I think she wanted to greet the blogworld.
listening to Corrine Bailey Rae cuz she's the sweetest, yummiest thing right now.....

Lost in a Moment....music by Shrift

2009-06-22T07:36:00.000-07:00

It's been a weekend of work, kids, a little sun, a little rain, a lot of eating, (a few new pounds of something riding around on my thighs.....) a sweet wedding, (with cake, of course! mmmmmm!) did I mention work? , of course, and now it's Monday and it's 7:30 and I'm sitting here overwhelmed by what this week means (busynessbusyness.....) and getting ready for our annual Solstice Party (one week delay because of the wedding....) and I just came across this lovely vid on Alex's Gypsy Girl blog and captivated my heart and I hope this dreamy feeling remains with me just a little bit longer as my hectic workweek begins and I launch myself into the cosmos again....
enjoy.

lost in a moment from dennis wheatley on Vimeo.

Today...

2009-06-19T12:06:00.001-07:00

I made lots of these:

I finally got some of these:

I discovered lots of these:

and I can't wait to play with these:

Happy Solstice Weekend!!

In case I haven't told you how I love peonies....

2009-06-17T11:55:00.000-07:00

Peony time-lapse from munich time-lapse on Vimeo.

I found this marvel on the lovely Pia's blog and just had to post it...here in the desert I have no peonies, and I know many of you are enjoying these heavenly blooms in your gardens right now. I'm only a little jealous....

new work....

2009-06-15T09:13:00.000-07:00

some new things from last week's firing--just listed in my Etsy Shop.

working late...

2009-06-13T07:51:00.000-07:00

burning the midnite oil quite a bit in the last few weeks....it goes in waves. A local magazine has a little blurb about my nesting heart bowls at the Hummingbird House, so I've been making tons of them for her, and through her I got a new account up in Flagstaff (yay!)--and they've placed a substantial order as well, of pottery and earrings. I made these and they sold within 8 hours of listing in my Etsy shop--wow! Here's a shot of my studio last nite while B was away at a bachelor party...he came home at 10:30...?? I was more than a little surprised to see him so early--I thought it would be me and KCRW and the needlenose pliers into the wee hours...

simple things...

2009-06-09T22:01:00.000-07:00

Christina over at Soul Aperture invited her readers to write today about the simple things that bring us joy. Well, I just fairly leapt on that bandwagon...here's a few things:

~a flock of birds flying in concert--I see this so rarely where I live, when I do see it, it's so thrilling it brings tears to my eyes.

~smells! just about anything can evoke a magical response in me--the scent of my tomato plants seems to be captivating me lately...every time I touch them...

~fresh garlic hitting the hot oil in the pan...

~the fragrance of the bowl of peaches in my kitchen stops me in my tracks...

~the scents and sounds of a roomful of boys having fun...ummmm, well I guess only a mother could love this one....

~and insects!! I love them--well, not all of them all the time, especially the biting ones, but most of the others are so damn beautiful to behold that I cannot resist marvelling at their design and beauty.

~snuggling with my boy and chatting about our day...he's 11 and he will still let me hold his hand--not in public, mind you, but at home on the couch is another story.

~my man jumping up off the couch to get the door for me and grab the groceries out of my arms--

~tending my houseplants and terrariums--Oh those terrariums are a major source of happiness! I can kill an hour just hovering over the opening and observing what is hapening in those little worlds...

~standing on the subway platform in total ecstasy with tears rolling down my face listening to a street musician captivate the crowd...

~during takeoff in a plane, the moment we leave the ground...

~ laying down on my back on the forest floor.

~whipped cream

~eating food out of my garden that wasn't there a month ago....

~a rose called 'Perfumed Delight'

~watching an ant carry a crumb three times its size across the table--I just want to yell, "you GO girl!"

hoo boy, time is a flying....

2009-06-01T07:48:00.000-07:00

here we are, June first!! It's Summer! (well, I hereby declare it is) We've had some amazing weather--with daily rains on and off for the last two weeks--looks like our monsoon weather came waaaaaay early this year! Everything is green and growing--which makes me happy! Normally it is dry as the desert (haha) until late July and August when the monsoons come...
So here's the monthly shot of the garden--lots of greens--which is what I love--I eat salads twice a day normally and the garden is outrunning me--I'm going to have to pick a lot of that chard and kale and do up a good batch of greens and garlic soon. That will thin it down a bit.
In honor of Deb over at BonBon Oiseau and her crinkly poppy post--here is my contribution to crinkly week: my poppies!
And a few shots of the pots I glazed last post.

glazing day....

2009-05-21T19:53:00.000-07:00

Normally I glaze fire once a week, and the day of glazing, loading and firing is, by far, the hardest day of my work week. I wake up knowing what lies ahead will challenge me physically, mentally and emotionally. Inevitably I run out of some glaze and have to mix up a batch...my back starts to ache early on in the process from all the standing and bending...grumbling all the way and giving in to too many distractions: I need a few coffee breaks, so I go sit outside in the garden and read for a bit as often as possible... The entire job must be completed in one day: unloading the bisque, sanding, signing, waxing bottoms, glazing, decorating, cleaning and finishing and then loading the kiln and firing overnight. If monkey wrenches come my way, then you will find a very cranky potter girl at 9pm still wading thru glaze buckets...then staying up late turning up the kiln around 1am, and rising at 6 to watch cones bend as it finishes.
I rarely get it all done and loaded before 6pm.
Today I got done by 5:30! Now I'm going to play some pool with the boys. (the gf's and wives are allowed to come once in a while....)
Here's a few pix of the bisque ware before I started.
I had to grab the camera once it was all on the table....I love the way everything looks in monochrome. These are my babies and I love them every step of the way. Now they are all nestled in the kiln in their powdery coats of glaze waiting for their firing. The studio floor has been mopped and a light rain is falling outside--first rain in over a month.

hitting a wall at 90mph...

2009-05-14T08:03:00.000-07:00

Anybody notice I haven't written much of a real blog post lately? it just sort of goes in waves--the writing thing, that is. In March my local wholesale business kicked in with some serious gusto--I was caught a little off guard, since the winter had been so unusually slow, and everybody was grumbling about the recession affecting business. Then our Spring season hit, and my local shops were calling me every week for pottery. Things were selling faster than I could make them, and none of the shops had any inventory because they had stopped ordering back in November. I spent several weeks working like a madwoman and being somewhat furious with them for letting inventories get so low, giving me no indication that they would be ordering and then suddenly calling me with orders they needed immediately and saying they didn't know how long it would last. So this was a little frustrating. Plus my Etsy shop was very busy at the same time, and that involves a lot of work what with all the photography and listings etc.
Then my partner in another creative photographic venture called and said he was coming to town with a model and wanted to set up some shoots. The timing couldn't have been more, ummmm, 'challenging' for me. When it rains..... so we did that shoot and I finally had a moment to do some production on a few of the shots....here is one of the outtakes:
So last week one of my shops told me to stop bringing inventory for a while....grrrr....but that gave me the freedom to slow down and take stock of what this year has been like so far. I have a serious need to work in a natural rhythm, so when things slow down in one area, there is usually another area that gets a lot of attention. I'm really glad I developed some new glazes and a new style of work that is very marketable. My new glazes have been selling really well on Etsy and in the other local shop. Yay! And my new line of earrings seems to be workable too. This idea has so much more potential for wholesale income, I can sell it in many other types of shops and it is really fun to be back making jewelry--something I did a lot of when I had my little studio/gallery. Now during this next slow wholesale period I will keep developing that line, and organizing the ladies who will be helping with assembly. Finally I have embraced the concept of farming out some work.
And speaking of farming, here are some new shots of the garden and some of the flowers on the property. We have been eating salads daily from the garden for a couple of weeks now: mixed greens, kale and swiss chard, and lots of herbs and onion tops. The tomatoes have blossoms now which is good as they won't set any fruit if they blossom when it's really hot. So maybe I'll get some tomatoes before it gets too hot, and then another round later in the summer.

playing with the toys...

2009-05-06T10:31:00.003-07:00

just digging my little flower tool...

Garden and yard update, and not much else to blog about.....

2009-04-30T07:20:00.001-07:00

I took these the other day, and just haven't posted them. I did try to finish up the beds along the garden wall last week, so I can take a bit of a break from wielding the pickaxe for a while--yay! Work has been more than busy. I got some new stoneware clay, so I've been playing around with that, trying to see what glazes it likes. (so far none of the glazes I use, which sucks). I actually made some little flower earrings for my local stores, both shop owners told me to bring in 10-12 pairs to try out. I LOVE making jewelry! I could do that all day long, that's for sure. So I'm playing with these little toys I got at the conference making little cherry blossoms...
I feel a little scattered again--I guess that's when I blog. What's up with that?

I got down on my belly in the dirt this morning....

2009-04-22T08:27:00.000-07:00

In the broad earth of ours,
Amid the measureless grossness and the slag,
Enclosed and safe within its central heart,
Nestles the seed perfection.

-Walt Whitman, Song of the Universal, Leaves of Grass, 1891

Ok, so much for me not rambling on about the same old hooey...

2009-04-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

but here I go again.
So B and I are out at dinner tonite and he starts revving the old engine about how there is no freakin way either one of us is ever going to be able to 'retire' unless we start socking away about $4k/month starting right NOW! I have been thinking the same thing--how on earth am I going to have a livable situation when I am 65 without having a good half a mil working for me? Anybody got an answer on that one? My dad has a nice pension from the company he gave 33 years to, but it's not enough. He realized that when he was in his late thirties and joined the Navy Reserve and gave them 18 years of service and now he has another modest pension from that--so he gets by. I basically don't want to ever really retire--I know I'd go nuts if I couldn't work on my stuff somehow. But to realize that I will have to be bringing in a few thousand per month just to scrape by is a little scary.... when I'm in my 60's and 70's....good grief.
So after we swallowed this weighty morsel of reality, we started talking about things we need to change immediately to build up the old nest egg. In my case, I have to keep streamlining this creative venture that I call my life, and set some goals and structure it more. As it is, it's pretty haphazard: I have my stoneware line, which is kind of like trying to put an octopus into a string bag--new legs seem to keep popping out all over the place, (not to mention is is HUGELY labor intensive and the glazes have such a tiny window of success, I'm dissatisfied with it most of the time--now how am I sposed to feel good about that??) And I've been spending a lot of time working on new ideas just seeing where it all goes. Now there is nothing wrong with that, that's how I create. But I could keep playing around with new ideas forever. I need to edit it down to the ones that are going to make money, and then make them do just that: make money. More money than I've ever made before. I'm certainly done with the freewheeling years of being an artist--I'm saying goodbye to that phase of my life--I've determined that I will be screwing myself over if I don't double my income in the next few years and maintain it. (Now don't freak out people--I know it doesn't look like it but I've been living on pretty much nothing for the last 15 years, most waiters and bartenders earn considerably more than I do--)
The problem is that I'm comfortable. I only bust my ass when I have to, when there is a deadline, or I need money for something. If I'm flush, I tend to slow down my work pace. So now I have a deadline: one year. Tax time next year, I'm gonna see double what I saw this year, if I can do it. I've already added two new accounts and my retailing has grown by 300% since this time last year. I already have my 401k automatically deducted from my main bank account, so I think I will double that number starting in May, and see how I handle that.
This is not a brand new concept for me--I've been chewing on growing my business for a while, and tonite's conversation just seemed to seal it somehow, and now I'm moving it into a higher gear.

(If the economy doesn't come crashing down even more... I can't even think about that right now.)

Insert sound of screeching brakes here.

Wait, I know that I DO need to think about it. I may be screwing myself over just as badly by putting my head in the sand about my finances. I know people who had everything in the stock market and lost two thirds of it last year. I've been educating myself more and more about different investing strategies, various funds and bonds, risk levels etc. I'm aware that nothing is foolproof, but educating onesself about the realities we're in can only be a good thing. As a working artist, it's one thing to be able to sell your work, but it's just as important to be able to manage your finances like a freakin grown up.

I should be throwing pots right now...

2009-04-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

but instead I've been playing with my new toys I got at the conference---I am dreaming of jewelry, or various floral adornments for vases and plates...
*sigh*

NCECA and little rant....so remember a little while ago....

2009-04-13T07:35:00.001-07:00

I said I was having trouble reconciling my insane work schedule: puttin in 5-12 hour days 7 days a week? And what do I have to show for it?? Not much going on but work. I've been thinking a lot since that post about how to restructure my life so that I actually have a full day or two off 2 or three times a month. well, folks, I have acheived that goal!! Last week, I took 2 (!) whole days off and went down to tha big citay for the NCECA conference. woohoo!
and then.....
I got a huge twobyfour upside the head...
So, for those of you who don't know, NCECA stands for National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts. i've heard about it from potters forever--It is an annual conference and this year it happened to be within driving distance, so I thought I'd better hop to it on down there and see what it's all about. Now, I've heard from every potter I've ever known about this mecca of clay since the early 90's. I've been waiting my whole (pottery) life to go to this event. I've been dreaming of meeting up with other potters, talking shop, sharing foibles, new tricks, lectures, panel discussions, being inspired by amazing work, new gadgets, books, tools, taking workshops etc. Now, I really did experience most of those things and am so impressed by the amazing work and people and innovation in this field. I just wanted to bow down several times and kiss the feet of artists who have dedicated a lifetime to working and teaching in clay and have created such beauty it brought tears to my eyes and keeps the fire in my heart. I was in pottery 'awe'. My cup runneth over. You get the picture.
So remember a few lines back I told you what NCECA stands for? and the word 'education' was one of the main words? Ok, so there was a large contingent of folks who reside in the Academic (with a capital A) world of clay. This is a world I've never visited--I do have an art degree, but not in clay. I never went for my MFA in photography because I never wanted to teach. I stumbled sideways into clay, and I have developed my style and career as a studio potter over the last 19 years pretty much on my own. I love my work, I love my freewheeling lifestyle. I love my creative fits and starts and I love selling my work and sharing it with other humans and thus putting food on my table and keeping the roof over my head. Its a pretty damn rewarding, if not humble, life. So, somehow, I was under the impression that at this conference I would be met with a throng of other studio potters working at the same craft, and living a life with more than a few similarities to mine, who come together every year to share, learn and grow thru this meeting of minds and hearts. I did meet some of those folks, and it was wonderful. But the kicker of the whole event happened in a panel discussion entitled "Promoting your Work". Now, by the title, anyone can guess the topic of the discussion, right? Now why would a clay artist want to promote their work, do you think? To get admiration? To make new friends who worship their creativity? To learn how to cook? NO, dammit, to freakin sell it!! At least that's what I thought it was gonna be about-- Gee, silly me. During this discussion, each member of the panel spoke from their field of expertise on how to approacht the tasks of getting their work seen and accepted into galleries, to apply for resident artist positions, to apply for graduate programs, using the internet to be visible and respected as an artist, etc. There was a lot of info shared in a short 1.5 hour discussion. During Q & A I got up and asked the panel to speak about their awareness of the process of knowing what to do with all this creative work and promoting it--how does one know if they are choosing the path as an artist that is viable, what the goal should be: full time studio work? teaching? etc. so that when they DO go out and promote their work they have a goal in mind of what they need or want to achieve. Ok, I probably could have been a little more concise in my wording, I'll admit that. I probably confused the panel as to what I was actually wanting to know. Maybe I also confused the several hundred people in the room too. But the first thing one of the esteemed panelists said to me was this:

"I doubt that there is a single person in this room who makes their living as a potter."

--come again?

I had been standing up and stumbled backwards toward my chair. Was I not at NCECA?? Had I hallucinated and was really at the National Conference of ditchdiggers moonlighting as clay hacks?? I thought I was at the largest annual conference of people IN MY FIELD, and an expert was telling me that she thought none of the people in the room made their living at it! Well, obviously I was mistaken in what I thought this conference would be about. This was the National Conference for ceramic educators. So I guess most of the people who go to a panel discussion on art promotion are educators. But, I KNOW professional potters who were sitting in the room with me there. I lifted my hand (with which I had thrown 65 bowls the previous day) and told her that I did, indeed, make my living at it.
I have to admit, this was my own misperception of what the event was, based on hearing about it for years from other potters. I had never heard about it from an educator, simply because I don't know any.
End of rant. Whatever. I got my ass chapped over this little gaffe, and I had to take a moment to reassess. (Actually, I've been stewing over it all weekend.) I thought this would be a good post where I could get it all out of my system....
The further discussion here is really about those folks who choose to spend several years and a boatload of cash getting one of these esteemed art educations. What IS the goal if you are on that track? Is the entire system set up just to churn out a whole new generation of really talented educators?? What about Bernie Leach and the whole 'humble potter' tradition??? I guess that's dead and buried. And the face of clay in America belongs on a professor.
I guess what I'd really love to know is, why all these folks showed up in a lecture about promoting one's work.

calling to me...

2009-04-09T12:31:00.000-07:00

Aren't these just FABULOUS!!!!!!

I just had to take a moment and shout it out--Babette world has the lovliest and most original jewelry made of leather and precious metals....

drool...

Oh... I just can't help myself....

2009-04-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

Spring is clanging so loudly in my ears and inside of me, today is neither a throwing day nor a glazing day (that'll be tomorrow) so I've spent the morning working in the yard...
This yard had been not given much attention in the last few years, so it was kind of a weed field when I got here at Winter Solstice. Here is what it looked like in January:And here is where it's at now:Slowly I've been getting in there and trying to get a sense of what is possible and what wouldn't be a just a huge waste of water. The last house I lived in was a green, lush, verdant landscape totally out of balance with the Arizona environment. Although I loved the green, we ended up having a lot of weird pests and a $100 monthly water bill in the summer to keep it up the way the owner wanted. Here I want to create a space that works for us and not be irresponsible with the water usage. B has given me permission to get busy out there, and I'm starting to feel it. It is a good thing to document the progress. You see the area that I've terraced right outside my studio door, I'll be putting in gravel in the flat space and a trellis structure with jasmine for shade. At the last two studios I've had I realized how important it is for me to have a comfortable outdoor space to dry pots, and sit throughout my workday. I usually throw or glaze for a while, and then go sit outside a bit. So here will be no different--as long as I can have some shade!! Up above it I've put in my vegetable garden--I'm not a very ambitious gardener, so I'm keeping it small and only grow things that I think we as a family will consume on our own. (No bushels of zucchini, thank you!) In the bottom left corner of the pic you can barely see I have one quarter of it planted with salad greens (they've just come up!) and the other is kale and chard. Going around it all are red onions that will get picked as we progress thru the summer. Once the greens are done and it gets hot, I'll put in one zucchini plant. The southern half will get tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and beans on poles--which will hopefully shade the tomatoes a bit in July. We'll see how it all goes.
Along that wall at the back of the property I'll slowly prepare for planting some ornamental trees and rosebushes--and maybe more jasmine. (it does sooo well here and really doesn't need much water)
Although we have a fence, a critter has come in and eaten two of my kale plants, (grrrr....) so I need to get some chickenwire to patch up around the fence gates and between our neighbors and us.....
So now I'm gonna have some lunch and get back in the studio--here's a couple of new pix from my last firing:

Something to inspire you thru the weekend....

2009-03-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

What would we have without hope? I love this little film and I hope you do too.

A Thousand Words from Ted Chung on Vimeo.

A Thousand Words, by Ted Chung

makes more sense in the rear view mirror....

2009-03-22T12:10:00.000-07:00

my career, that is. I spose there might be some readers out there who wonder how on earth a smart, sensible, clear headed woman ends up spending a good chunk of her life making and selling things made of clay. I was born and raised by sensible immigrants in a Chicago suburb. I was the first on both sides of the family to receive a college degree, in art photography, btw. I stumbled into clay as a hobby, introduced to a neighborhood clay class by a friend after college. I was actually hooked by the lure of clay immediately, but I also had a budding career as a corporate salesperson in a creative field. I seemed to be on the right path: a good job that I excelled in, a stable financial outlook and a comfortable looking future. ummm.......riiiiight. So it seems. Throw in the proverbial monkey wrench--my outlook in life had already changed at the ripe old age of 25. I swept off for the desert searching for meaning and depth, sure that I was finished with 'jobs' and resumes and schedules. I was seeking to discover my destiny--I landed in Sedona, Arizona with a little cash cushion and promptly began a radically different lifestyle. I briefly became a member of a quasi-sprirtual community, which served to shake me up real good. (the leader was a complete wack job, it only took me a few months to notice....) Luckily, that phase didn't last too long. Mostly I settled in as an innkeeper at a B&B, to my mother's dismay (for this you went to college??) Anyhoo, after about 2 years of life in the desert, I reluctantly became aware that a big part of me was unraveling. The part was the chunk of my ego that did indeed identify deeply with the work I was doing. I had quit the corporate gig in Chicago because my heart wasn't in it--it seemed shallow--I was almost embarrassed to put so much effort into it--we weren't saving the rainforest or discovering a cure for cancer.... Helping create advertising for Taco Bell or Jolly Rancher just wasn't really all that meaninful to me, and I could no longer put my blood, sweat, tears into making my monthly sales goals..... I was going a little bit Lester Burnham on myself--remember American Beauty?? But now things were different: I had left all that behind in search of meaning, and what had I found? That I was as vulnerable as the next person to the machinations of greed--be it spiritual or financial. I was left feeling basically pretty powerless, confounded as to what I was 'supposed to be doing' with my life. There I was, in the desert, with very few meaningful career opportunities available, and thru my depression a kindly friend offered me the phone number of his pro psychic (this is Sedona, after all) girlfriend. He said she might be able to help me. I called, and told her of my woes: barely making any money, not enjoying the work I was doing, not knowing what else to do and general malaise and lack of interest in my life. I told her I felt like a failure at 27. She paused, offered me a few 'hmmmmmms' and then said "You know, I'm tuning into you right now, and the question I am getting really, really clear is 'what is it that you WANT to do?' " I quickly responded, " Oh I want to do pottery! but I know I can't make a living at it--I mean, who can make a living at that--I've only taken a few classes...." and as I trailed off she interrupted me and said "Stop. Don't say another word. Just notice what you said: you want to do pottery. Is there any way you can do pottery? Is there a class you can take somewhere?" I replied that I had looked into a class at the community college but the previous 2 semesters had been full and had wait lists...again I seemed to be talking myself out of it. Strange, huh?

That concludes today's installment of the history of Red Hot Pottery. Stay tuned for more.

so I'm noticing how nutty my life is lately....

2009-03-13T09:17:00.000-07:00

with all sorts of schizo work days. Don't get me wrong, I love being an artist but maybe I have just a little too much freedom. It's a little exhausting! I wake up and get rolling: coffee, sit at the computer, write emails, check news, list some items on Etsy, check my finances, Facebook, blogs. Then I spend the next 12-18 hours either making pots, cleaning pots, trimming pots, glazing pots, firing pots, packing pots, delivering pots, photographing pots, listing pots on Etsy, responding to convos meanwhile running back and forth in and out of the studio, running errands, cooking, laundry, yard, mealtimes with the boys, getting back at the computer for a few moments, etc, repeating throughout the day and evening until I go to bed. It's not a bad life, really!! I enjoy it, and I do have time for my son and his activities and the household stuff. But I end up going for weeks on end like this, without a 'real' day off for more than a few hours or so. Weird. I need to get it together enough that I can take 1 or 2 actual days OFF from pots per week or at least every 10 days. I've declared to B last nite that I don't earn enough money for this to monopolize my life so completely!! ( I guess I would re think that statement if I made 6 figures...)
So I'm restructuring my days, I'm making a plan. I'll keep you posted.
Oh, and by the way, I'm on the front page over at Etsy...yay!

trusting the natural flow and rhythm...

2009-03-08T08:33:00.000-07:00

So back in January, recovering from my move and from the holidays, I observed a shift in my normal functioning rhythm. (bwahahaha! doesn't that sound very proper and mature!) My world, so to speak, had been turned on its ass from all the changes, and it only makes sense that my working and creating life would also need some time and space to adjust to things. Adding to the ungroundedness was the fact that my normal wholesale business, which usually pushes me along in production and keeps the bills paid, had come to a complete and grinding halt in November and still hadn't recovered--Aack! I found myself in a new home, at a new stage of relationship with my partner, a new studio which needed a bit of work, and I didn't have any 'work' that needed to be done--yet I still had plenty of bills that my holiday income was feeding and what was I gonna do when that ran out?
I tried to work on the usual stuff and then my kiln started to malfunction, which required a few weeks of repairs. This threw another monkey wrench into my my mental state. "but how am I gonna make any money, how am I gonna make any money?" was the tune on repeat in my head. I knew I still had some of my holiday sales income to get me thru the next few months, but I needed a PLAN, I needed to feel like I had things under control and that I could take care of myself and my son. That feeling wasn't happening. Now, it's not like I was panicking or anything yet, I was observing the nag in the back of my mind that kept saying " you better get things sorted out and start producing and selling and get your life back on track, woman! You are forty f**king one years old!" blahblahblah...same old crap. I know all this, I've been here before, and I now know to trust the process without completely wigging out. I keep on keeping on, get into the studio every day and keep rolling and it will lead somewhere.
During the time that my kiln wasn't working I started dabbling in some new ideas--something I rarely do because I AM normally so busy working on wholesale orders. I made some glaze tests, did a bit of research online and felt the pull in my heart to work in a very different direction. I know many of you are artists, and don't do the same thing over and over for years to pay the bills, but that HAS been my deal for the last 10. I figured out a way to make my living with my hands and I stuck with it.
In the last 2 weeks all of my wholesale accounts have placed orders that should carry me thru the Spring. And I have a new account that is interested in the new work that had been birthing during this winter, and that work has been showing potential in my Etsy shop with some strong initial sales, and being featured in a lot of blogs and treasuries and even on the front page a few times. This feels pretty good. I know that without all the upheaval I wouldn't have gone in a new direction, and although I don't really know where this is leading, except that it feels right and natural and in the flow. And I guess I am learning to trust it.

hum de dummmm....and tightening the belt another notch

2009-02-28T07:40:00.000-08:00

haven't posted in a bit--not too much interesting going on--I did pick up a new wholesale account yesterday here in Sedona, YAY!! It's a lovely little shop in a historic old house called The Hummingbird House--full of wonderful art, antiques, treats and home decor. I'll be creating a line of work just for them--mostly in white and my new robins' egg blue. This makes me happy for two reasons: it's local and won't involve shipping, (AMEN!!) and since it's a new line of pottery it won't compete with my other local stores.
The economic downturn is hitting home, as it has been for many others. My beloved B, who moved me in here around the holidays because the house wasn't selling, and the bills were too much for one person, has been given a considerable pay cut at work, which puts him right back where he was financially before we moved in. I'm glad my business seems to be growing in some ways: I have two new wholesale accounts, that might make up for the reduced orders from my old ones, and my Etsy shop is humming along fairly well.
I've always been frugal and sensible about spending. (thanks Mom!) I enjoy shopping at second hand stores for lots of things, or go to yard sales here in town. Sedona has awesome yard sales because lots of well-to-do folks move here, and once they are here for a while they realize they don't need all the stuff they brought and have a sale! B told me how much money he has saved since we moved in just because I cook dinner almost every night! And I often like to make a double batch of something and the freeze half. I use leftovers a lot--it's amazing what you can turn into a gourmet omelet or panini the next day. He comes home for lunch 4 days out of 5 every week, where it used to be the other way around: going out for lunch 4 out of 5. So a couple of days ago I got a hankerin' for meatloaf. James Beard Meatloaf to be exact. I used to make it years ago, back when I lived in Chicago and got meat from the Italian butcher in the neighborhood. Now I just eliminate the veal and adjust the recipe accordingly. The whole thing is wrapped in bacon (the King of foods). So we will have sandwiches from this one--I'm thinking of making it into a grilled cheese..... Sorry I didn't photograph it last night, and today its looking much less photogenic. But here's a picture of James Beard instead: You'll have to take my word for how awesome this meatloaf really is.
Before I head off to throw some pots I'll leave you with some photos of new work.

just a couple of pix....

2009-02-16T10:10:00.000-08:00

new glaze...

2009-02-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Ok-- so here's the new glaze that I am loving--I keep thinking of it as Robin's Egg Blue--but it might be a bit more of a pale turquoise...it's smooth and shiny and seems to behave itself in different parts of the kiln. Checking the vase for water tightness overnite tonite.
And here's one of the new birdie teapots.

moving right along...

2009-02-04T10:08:00.000-08:00

My kiln is back up and running--yay! Most of the wares from that disastrous firing are acceptable, some are total trash, and a few are pretty darn OK. So I'm good with all that. Just another hiccup in the life of a potter.
So this week, I am working on some new things, trying out some new designs--really going in a new direction for me. I am very happy with one of my glaze tests--you will see them later, and will be using the new glaze on these pots. I really try to keep a good attitude about going with the flow of life's ups and downs, and am feeling OK about things right now.

I have been working diligently on my little kiln yard area, which needed a lot of attention to be safe and functional for me to do my work. I had a tiny little sidewalk which dropped off into a drainage ditch right outside my studio, so I moved the ditch (can you say pickaxe and backache?) and laid down some pavers and it should serve me all right. I can't wait to plant some things and level the ground a little more on the left.

this week...

2009-01-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

Indoors: Teapots are birthing...spring is coming!!

Outdoors: Kiln is under supervision by a competent electrician--it seems some connections are unusually loose, unable to be tightened properly and require scouring the state of Arizona to find the proper connectors.....

Whenever I have a delay, or a setback in my normal workflow I get incredibly creative!!

new photo light box

2009-01-28T07:11:00.000-08:00

Since I'm waiting for parts for my kiln, I'm throwing some new things and taking pictures of my work for my Etsy page
I built a light box and put it out under the Arizona sun and took some pix. I'll need to get some lights, but this is working pretty well for now.

so here's the link from Darren at Digital Photography School
Any of you potters who want to try to make a light box and photograph your work--this is pretty dang easy to do. I didn't really follow all the instructions to the letter, I modified it for speed rather than durability. (I actually used tissue paper instead of fabric, cuz there's no way I'm heading out to Walmart just for some 99 cent sheer fabric.

radical acceptance of what is....

2009-01-25T20:50:00.000-08:00

so you know how much fun I had working last week, I made some new stuff, tried new things, made new glaze tests, worked on a commissioned set of dinnerware etc.
Well, f**kity F**K!!!!
my kiln decided to tank on me this afternoon in the middle of this firing of all this new stuff. The button on the kiln sitter, the thing you press to turn the kiln on, the main power button just frickin' BROKE in the middle of my firing and shut it down and nothing we could do could get it back on--the freakin thing melted apart.........yes, it was old, I know.... Everything is fired to about 80%. Can't refire it, as most of my work has shiny and matte glazes and the don't refire well, so the dinnerware is trash, or seconds.....the new glazes need to be re-done as I can't guage anything by this firing....and my new carved lotus bowls will not turn out as I hoped if I refire them...I am supremely disappointed, angry at myself, the kiln gods, whatever is to blame for this misfortune. A week of work in the trash heap. damn.
I know I am whining, but I will deal better with this tomorrow. Shit happens, and it was my turn to learn a lesson.
Today also happens to be my birthday. It has been a strange day, to say the least.
I am really grateful for my friends who watched me trainwreck this afternoon as this happened, made me drinks and fed me cake and ice cream. I love you guys more than you know.
I don't have any other pix than B heading out for a ride this morning while things were still all going well.
Life goes on.