Day to Day...in Clay

Floating with the Clouds, a Treasury by movezerb

2010-08-07T17:57:00.001-06:00

My white oval pendant, featured in a new Treasury!

A little break...

2009-10-13T11:25:00.002-06:00

Maybe you've noticed that I've been away awhile. I've been really busy working to develop a new body of work, and keepin up with my day job and wholesale commitments. Because of all this, I'm going to give this blog a little break. I'll pop in once a while to mention new pots or jewelry items in my shop, or upcoming sales. When I come back, it will be with what I hope is a beautiful and exciting new body of work!

I heart The Studio Potter

2009-08-12T16:51:00.000-06:00

Can I just tell you how much I love The Studio Potter? I do, I love it so much. If you're a clay person and you don't get Studio Potter, you're really missing something great...

Studio Potter is a ceramic arts journal that comes out twice a year. I first started getting it a few years ago, and I have to admit, at first it was a bit over my head. It's chock full of intellectual articles, and completely free of advertising. It's unlike any other clay magazine. The major difference between Studio Potter and the other clay magazines for me is that I will read and re-read Studio Potter. I've read some issues twenty times I bet. Out of each issue, there will be a handful of articles that are so insightful and profound for me, I have to read them over and over to really absorb the ideas and content.

My favorite articles from the most recent issue are Eyes Wide Open by Kari Radasch, and Empty Promises: Accountability and the MFA degree by Raymon Elozua. Radasch's article is profound for me right now, because I am in the midst of a huge upheaval of my work. If you're familiar with my work through Etsy, you might have noticed a bit of a drought in the pottery section of the store. The truth is, I have lots of work hanging around the studio, but most of it's not quite finished, and it's different than what I've been making for the last few years so it hasn't hit the public stage yet. Leaving behind a body of work is scary, and Kari's article perfectly sums up everything that goes along with such a huge change.

Elozua's article grabbed me because I've been seriously entertaining the idea of applying for an MFA program in ceramics. Elozua's article shifted my grad school thinking away from, "Will they like my work? Will they accept me? Can I afford to do this? Can I afford not to do this?" to "What am I going to get out of grad school? Is this the only way? Is focused study with a couple of people better than study with many different people in different places?" His article really brought up a lot of new questions for me, and made me realize that I have to be as discerning in looking at schools and my future education opportunities as they would be of me. As Elouza put it, I would essentially be hiring the faculty of a particular school for three years, for a cost of anywhere from $30,000 to $60,000. I better make damn well sure that they jive with me and my goals!

So, to put it simply, Studio Potter is fantastic because it always makes me think. And it always gives me comfort and courage to hear about the trials and tribulations of a life in clay straight from the potter's mouth. Check out studiopotter.org to become a member or check them out on Facebook!

A (mini) Clay Conference

2009-07-27T19:14:00.003-06:00

Here's a little photo I grabbed from my new friend Judi's blog:

This is Chris Gustin and me discussing my work and my future plans in clay. He was tremendously helpful and informative. If you ever have a chance to take one of his workshops, do it!

PS-Check out Judi's shop, you'll love it!

Anderson Ranch: Day Five

2009-07-26T18:32:00.003-06:00

Well, I came home from Anderson Ranch yesterday. Friday was a bit of a bittersweet day. Everyone in my class was a little sad that the workshop was already over. We all learned so many new things, and assimilated a ton of new information in a short period of time.

We spent Friday morning practicing design strategies by using india ink on greenware and bisqueware. The idea was to practice what we've learned in a commitment-free way, since the ink will burn off in the bisque kiln. We started by painting line drawings of our pots on newsprint. We turned up some music and all settled in to the rhythm of drawing the same pot over and over, until a certain jesture developed in the image, and we became comfortable with using the brush and the ink. After that, we took the whole pot image and painted it directly on the pots. I tried to use the jesture of my lines, because my pots were too small to fit an entire image. This was a very freeing exercise for the whole class. Knowing that the decoration wasn't permanent really allowed us to experiment more freely.

After a final lunch together, we discussed an assignment Chris had given us earlier in the week. He gave us a handout with a list of questions about how we work in clay. There were technical questions about clay bodies and firing atmospheres, and then questions about scale, intended location of finished work, and time use and management, among other things. This workshop was called Architecture of the Pot, but I think it should be renamed "Throwing the Dart," because so many of the exercises were about throwing a wrench in the works of what you've been doing by selecting a design strategy at random (hence, throwing the dart) and seeing where it takes you in the progress of your work. As Chris said many times, "All of our choices in clay are arbitrary. Change one thing and you change your work."

While I'm glad to be home, I will miss the immersive, supportive atmosphere of this workshop. It was a terrific experience and I'm already thinking about going back next summer!

Anderson Ranch: Day Four

2009-07-23T19:01:00.006-06:00

Wow, I can't believe my week at Anderson Ranch is almost over! It's gone so fast. I just have tomorrow and then I'm done.

Today, we took a field trip to Harvey/Meadows Gallery in Aspen. If you've seen the Artstream traveling art gallery at NCECA, then you've seen the precursor to this gallery. Owned and operated by ceramic artists Sam Harvey and Alleghany Meadows, this gallery features a wide range of contemporary sculptural and functional ceramic art, including some work by my teacher, Chris Gustin. Alleghany and Sam were so lovely to host us there. They talked extensively about their gallery's role in educating the public about ceramic art, as well as giving them the opportunity to purchase it. So many people have no idea what an amazing medium ceramics is, because it's dwarfed in the art world by painting and sculpture. But once people learn a bit about it and buy a piece or two, they're often hooked for life!

The main gallery space was full of amazing large pieces by Betty Woodman, Virginia Scotchie, Bobby Silverman, and numerous other fantastic artists. But my primary interest lay in the tiny backroom storage space. It was full of functional pottery, by every big name in the field right now. Andrew Martin, Julia Galloway, Christa Assad, Josh DeWeese, Lisa Orr, and many, many more, all there in one little room. As I looked through the cluttered shelves, I felt an awe and a reverence, as though I was inside the Notre Dame cathedral or viewing the Sistine Chapel ceiling. My love of pots is enormous at times!

I walked away today with a Sam Clarkson tumbler called "Speed of Life" and a Julia Galloway sugar and creamer set. I looked through tons of wonderful pots, but when I handled these pieces, I immediately fell in love. Especially when I discovered that the pillowy lid of the Galloway creamer has a tiny clay bead tucked inside, making it a little rattle! I love those little surprises in pots. And the Sam Clarkson tumbler was so lovely in the hand, I couldn't put it down. Sorry the photos aren't better, it's a bit dark here in my condo.

Tomorrow, I wrap up my workshop with an individual discussion with Chris about my work, and a group review of all the pieces we made this week. It's been an incredible experience, and I feel so lucky to have been here!

Anderson Ranch: Day Three

2009-07-22T21:36:00.004-06:00

So, I just got home from Paul Soldner's house. That's right, THE Paul Soldner, father of American Raku, first student of Peter Voulkos, and creator of numerous hilarious pottery equipment print ads. Soldner founded Anderson Ranch in 1968 and has a home in nearby Aspen. He and his daughter Stephanie host open houses in the summer about every other week, and all of the students at Anderson Ranch are invited. I got to sit at the dining room table with Soldner for a few moments, and when I left I felt like I'd just met Madonna. It's electrifying just to be in the physical presence of a man so important to American ceramics. By the way, this image is of a poster that was hanging in his studio. I'm sorry it's a bit blurry. The tagline reads, "Entertainment for Potters." Don't you just love it?

Today was a busy day in the studio. With the open house tonight, we all buckled down and worked, worked, worked. I didn't even have any time to take any photos of the new work created today. Our only bisque kilns get loaded early tomorrow morning, so everything had to get transferred to the drying room, which is a wood shed of sorts loaded with heat lamps and fans. It's kept at about 95 degrees and a night in that room will sure dry out any pot! It's like a little pottery sauna.

I feel like I've made some tremendous progress in these three short days. Aside from the fact that I miss my husband, pets, and my own bed, I really don't want to go home! This is such a truly fabulous opportunity to drop out of daily life for a short period of time and really surround yourself with great teachers and fellow artists. I may just come here every summer!

Anderson Ranch: Day Two

2009-07-21T21:05:00.009-06:00

Anderson Ranch is truly a fabulous place. After lunch today, I was sitting on a porch swing outside the studio, just feeling incredibly lucky and fortunate to be here. A beautiful campus, incredible teachers, happily focused students, good food, gorgeous weather. It's awesome.

Yesterday, we made some pots that incorporated two circles, either in shape (think foot or rim) or volume. After that, we were to choose one pot and draw the contour or profile line of that pot. This is much harder than it sounds! What you don't realize at first is that you're drawing what you WANT the pot to look like, not what it actually looks like. It took me seven sheets of large newsprint, full of contours, to actually draw what was there. After that, we were to pick a couple of contours that looked good to us and throw some pots with those contours. That's what we have on the right here. The original form is the bottle on the left, and the bottles on the right were thrown to the chosen contour lines.

Today, we were to add a third circle to our pots, again as shape or volume. Here are the drawings I did before I sat down at the wheel. I'm realizing that it's much easier to work out these visual design issues on paper than on the wheel. I love this sheet of drawings. It may find a place on the wall in my studio at home.

The next goal was to throw some pots from these drawings. Here are mine. I never make bottles, so I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I think they make a groovy little collection. I'm fortunate that we're working with a sandy stoneware body, because I had to push this clay around a lot to get these forms!

I'm beginning to see how this "design" process can be a fabulous tool in a potter's visual toolbox. It's important to learn from our teachers what questions to ask ourselves, and to learn exercises to help us move forward in our work. Most of us make good progress in classes or workshops, when someone else is asking the questions; the thing to take away from them is HOW to make progress when your work gets stagnant. I think these design exercises, combined with the "What grabs you?" exercise from earlier this summer, could support an artist for a lifetime.

Anderson Ranch: Day One

2009-07-20T20:56:00.005-06:00

Man, I am behind on the blogging. I've been working hard on a dinnerware order for my dear friend Alanna, and have been holed up in the studio working away. I was trying hard to finish it before I left for my workshop with Chris Gustin at Anderson Ranch.

So here it is, Day One at Anderson Ranch! My workshop is called Architecture of the Pot, and it's focused on the underlying design of pots (or architecture). Chris spoke today about how you can have great ideas and context for your pots, but without using good design, those ideas won't be expressed as well as they could be. Chris called design "the dirty little secret of art." It gets de-emphasized in school, regulated to freshman level design courses full of exercises that seem to make no sense. But design is the language by which objects speak to us. We approach all objects in relation to all objects we've experienced before them. Good design (which incidentally, is found everywhere throughout nature) makes one's pots speak on their own.

We spent a lot of time today looking at slides of historical and contemporary pots, pointing out their design strategies, such as division (into halves, thirds, fourths, and so on), framing, movement, scale, etc. After that, we headed into the studio to start throwing and then analyzing our pots. I'll explain a little more in the next few posts, I'm not far enough into this workshop to quite know where I'm going yet!

The Anderson Ranch campus is just beautiful. It's truly a lively, vibrant artists' community, full of excited, energetic students. I'm looking forward to a great week!

Triumph over teapots

2009-06-30T12:42:00.003-06:00

I'm back! I haven't been on the computer much in the last two weeks. Every summer, Arapahoe Community College offers a two-week "bootcamp" ceramics class in between the spring and summer semesters. This year's class was on teapots, and since I had never made a teapot in 10 years of pot-making (I know, shameful), I decided to sign up. So, I've been holed up in the studio, feverishly working on teapots.

The class was great, but it was fast-paced. Adding to the challenge was the fact that I sliced halfway through my left thumb two days before the class started. I was cooking dinner, chopping stuff with my chef's knife, and next thing I knew, I had a really deep cut through my thumb. I figured they'd stitch it up at the ER, but they actually glued it back together with a skin adhesive called Dermabond. It worked great, but you can't get the glue wet! So I got to throw my teapots with a latex glove on my left hand, taped around the wrist to keep the water out. It was difficult to throw with the glove because I couldn't get a sense of how thick the walls were, and everything wound up too thick. I also had trouble pulling handles and attaching spouts, because I couldn't hold anything with my left thumb. There were a few really frustrating moments in there!

Despite the fast pace and the clumsy left hand, I got through the class with ten full teapots made. Here's a few of my last ones, which I feel were the best. The real test will be how well they pour once they're done!

What grabs you? (part III)

2009-06-12T10:10:00.004-06:00

Another thing that grabs me visually is traditional Japanese design and art. I think this is rooted in the childhood memories I have of dressing up in a kimono that my grandfather purchased while stationed in Japan after World War II. I'm sure that by traditional standards, it probably wasn't a great kimono, but I thought it was so beautiful. In the fourth grade, my class did a unit on Japan and I still remember almost everything I learned. I was fascinated by the language, the culture, and especially the visual flavor of the buildings, textiles, and papers we were looking at. I still make paper cranes out of gum wrappers.

As an adult, I've become fascinated with the visual appearance of geisha and their elaborate kimono. I recently read a wonderful book called A Geisha's Journey about a young modern-day Japanese teenager who elects to become an apprentice geisha (maiko) in Kyoto. It's an absolutely stunning book, full of beautiful full-color images of the elegant maiko Komomo in all her colorful finery.

The complexity and color of kimono is starting to work its way into my ceramic work, which is a profoundly new direction for me. My work has always been elegant and much of it has been colorful, but in a stripped-down and minimal fashion. As my skills have increased, I have grown more interested in complexity and detail, and those things are starting to show up in my work. It will be a while before any of these complex pots make it onto the public stage of the Internet, but they're on the studio shelves as we speak, slowly coming into existence.

What grabs you? (part II)

2009-05-15T10:37:00.010-06:00

Continuing the discussion of what "grabs" me in this world, I have to bring up plants and flowers. Now, this is something that grabs a lot of artists, as evidenced by the amount of botanically-inspired artwork out there.

I think what I notice the most about plants is their colors. I can't get enough of the brilliant, saturated colors of flowers in bloom, and the soothing green of trees and open fields. I've never been as interested in the specific shapes and forms of plants, although the shape and proportion of a lovely tree or orchid blossom will catch my eye from time to time.

No, what I love the most about plants is their very vitality, the fact that they are growing, moving, changing, and filling the world with their color and life. I think this is why I've never been a winter person. The monochromatic grays and browns of the winter landscape leave me feeling weary. The brilliant, shining colors of summer are energizing and uplifting, and I think that's why I've always been attracted to them in my work.

What grabs you?

2009-05-15T10:21:00.012-06:00

I have been entertaining the idea of applying to graduate school next year. I'm going to spend the summer working with my teacher Kathy at ACC in order to try to advance my work as much as possible over the next six months. I don't know if my work will be ready at that point for the competitive world of MFA spots, but I'm going to give it a shot.

One of my first summer assignments from Kathy was to answer the question, "What grabs you?" Specifically, what catches your eye or heart in this world? What interests you that you want to share with the world through your artwork? This is precisely the question I've been trying to answer for years, but I've been coming up a little empty-handed. I've never felt a clear understanding of my sources of inspiration. So I just sat down with my sketchbook and started a list. I figured I'd share of few of the things that grab me over a few blog posts.

Numero Uno on my list is old houses. I LOVE old houses, and other buildings for that matter, with a passion and fervor other people reserve for soccer teams. I know I've gone on about this before, but old houses are probably my greatest visual love in this world. They may even top pots (gasp!).

Old buildings of any sort are great, but there's something about houses in particular that grabs me. Pretty much any American house built until 1940 is amazing to me. Maybe it's that they're each different, despite the fact that you could buy kit houses in the 1920s. Maybe it's that they each have a level of detail that you just don't see in residential architecture anymore. Maybe it's because they tend to be located on tree-line streets (also a great love of mine). Maybe it's because being inside one feels like living inside a piece of art.

At any rate, I have a serious crush on this house right now. I love to search through Realtor.com for beautiful old houses for sale. This one is in St. Petersburg, Florida and I am in love with it something fierce. It's drop dead gorgeous, inside and out, and I can't stop thinking about it. I want to buy this house despite the fact that I don't live in Florida and already have one mortgage payment to make! It's got a little guest cottage out back that would make a great studio. My perfect world would be made up of houses like this.

That being said, I don't know exactly how to translate this love into my pots. I've never made a ceramic house, but I don't think I would like to just literally translate the gorgeousness of an old house into a ceramic replica. Maybe I need to think about making the kinds of pots that would live in this kind of house, that would enhance it's interior landscape. Maybe I can capture the level of detail and color in this house that is attractive to me. Maybe answering this question will be my next assignment....

Mother's Day is May 10th!

2009-04-27T13:30:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone! I've been away from the studio for a few days because my husband had surgery last week. He's doing well, although he needs a lot of help right now. I wanted to pop in to remind you that Mother's Day is coming up and I've got lots of great gifts in my store. Order by May 2nd to guarantee arrival!

I haven't thrown it at the wall quite yet...

2009-04-17T17:24:00.007-06:00

I got some focused shots today of my light-colored pots! I talked about the situation with an old dear friend of mine who happens to be a high school photography teacher, and she agreed that for some reason, the camera isn't able to distinguish the light-colored pots from the background. So I tried changing the shutter speed and some other settings but still wasn't getting anywhere, although I learned about the camera in the process.

Then I happened upon a decidedly low-tech solution. I held a chopstick directly in front of the pot, focused the camera by depressing the shutter button halfway, and then removed the chopstick and took the photo. Voila! Perfect focus.

Check out the improvement in the final images:

Now the question is, do I want to have to do this little chopstick trick every time the camera can't focus on a pot? It's quick and easy, but it seems like when you spend a good chunk of cash on something, it should work without having to resort to this. On the other hand, it's only certain pots that cause trouble, and the camera's super fast, and the photos look great, and it's working fabulously for my close-up jewelry shots. I guess I have a decision to make. At least for now I finally got some new photos for the store!

Photo Woes

2009-04-16T13:01:00.005-06:00

So, I was all excited yesterday because I finally bought a new digital camera. Mine died at the beginning of February, and I've been hemming and hawing over what kind to buy. So I finally went out yesterday, armed with my research, to test drive a few in person and settled on a Canon PowerShot SX10is, which is an EVF or "bridge" camera, meaning it's sort of halfway between a point-and-shoot and a digital SLR camera.

I got the thing home and started taking photos, of my pets, my husband, things around the house. And the photos looked great. Then I took it down to my studio, where I had some new pots to photograph. Here's the first studio shot:

Pretty nice huh? Not too shabby at all. Here's the next shot:

Great! No problems whatsoever. Here's the next one:

What the..?! And thus a good day spiraled into a bad afternoon.

I absolutely could NOT get the camera to focus on this pot. Hadn't changed any settings or anything at all. I tried repeatedly, but I could not get a focused shot of this pot or the green celadon one shown in the first photo.

So then I started changing every single setting, poring over the manual, trying to figure out what was going on. I got so frustrated that I had to leave the studio, or I thought I might throw the camera at the wall. Why would a brand-new, highly advanced, expensive Canon camera not be able to take the same shots that my crappy old Canon point-and-shoot took just fine?!

I think for some reason, the camera can't find the light-colored pots to focus on, like maybe it can't distinguish them from the background. I don't know what I'm going to do here. I think there must be some way to make it work, short of returning the camera and trying a different model, which will get expensive quickly, given the 15% restocking fee charged everywhere on camera returns. If you have any ideas or advice, please leave me some comments! Here's a shot of my photo setup, in case you were wondering how I've got things set up. I need help!

NCECA Recap

2009-04-15T09:23:00.007-06:00

Well, I'm back from my weekend at NCECA in sunny Phoenix. Yesterday was my 29th birthday, and the trip was a gift to myself to celebrate the start of my last year in my twenties.

This was my first NCECA and I had no idea what to expect. Because the conference is kind of expensive, I just purchased a day pass to go on Thursday. I had the opportunity to watch some demonstrations, go to a few panel discussions, and explore the annual cup show and sale and the K-12 exhibition (which was very cool).

So the conference was pretty cool, but the real fun started when I ventured out of the convention center. A number of concurrent exhibitions are held alongside NCECA, so I had the opportunity to look at a lot of people's work in one weekend. My favorite discoveries were the Artstream Nomadic Gallery show (where I snapped up a beautiful Jen Allen mug), and the "La Mesa" show put on by Santa Fe Clay, which featured 150 place settings by 150 different artists. After the other hands-off, pots-on-pedestals exhibits, it was such a joy to be able to handle and examine the work of so many talented artists. Here's a few you might recognize:

This is Lisa Orr's place setting. Lisa Orr produces work that is sort of the direct opposite of the aesthetic of my work, but I just love her vibrancy and the depth of her surfaces. More is more indeed.

Here's Bonnie Seeman, senior lecturer at the University of Miami, and the creator of some amazingly intricate and detailed work. Do you see the tiny bugs all over the cups?

And here's Christa Assad's place setting. I love the fresh feel of her work and the bright and somewhat unusual colors.

All in all, I had a fabulous time. Next year's NCECA is in Philadephia, which is a great, great town. Maybe I'll just have to attend that one too...

NCECA

2009-04-07T13:38:00.002-06:00

I'm flying off to Phoenix tomorrow to attend the NCECA conference. I'm so excited! NCECA is like the clay arts Mecca, and I've never been. I'll tell you all about the trip when I get back!

A refusal to learn

2009-03-24T10:25:00.004-06:00

Do you have a lesson in your life that you are repeatedly trying to learn? I do. The lesson that I need to learn over and over again is that I cannot glaze a kiln's worth of pots and do a bunch of glaze testing in one day. Ever since I installed my own kiln, I have been struggling to learn this.

It normally takes me about four weeks to make enough work to fill up my kiln for a bisque, because I only work about 10 to 15 hours a week in my studio. I then try to glaze all those pieces in one or two days. And every single time, this sounds like more than enough time, but nearly every time, I'm struggling to get it done. And I'm usually under some kind of deadline for custom orders or class assignments, so I can't just push the schedule back and glaze another day.

I don't know why I do this over and over. I did it again just this week. I have a surface treatment assignment due on Monday, so I plan to fire a glaze kiln Friday night into Saturday morning. I should have probably fired a bisque around March 13th in order to give myself plenty of time to glaze and mix some new glaze tests, but as usual, I didn't. I ran the bisque last Friday, and now have just one day to glaze everything. Why do I do this to myself?!

Positivity

2009-03-17T09:57:00.002-06:00

I signed into Etsy this morning, and saw I had a new feedback comment. I clicked the link and here's what I saw:

"This seller was amazing! The earrings I bought for my girlfriend were high quality, and Michelle shipped them fast. I would definitely order from this seller again."

Feedback comments like this mean so much to me. Given the relative anonymity of the Internet, it's very easy to forget that you're still dealing with real people. When someone takes the time to tell me that they enjoyed our brief interaction, my heart gives a little leap. I try hard to make each transaction a nice experience, and I love knowing that this is being noticed. I've been fortunate in that I've had very few bad transactions on Etsy. The vast majority of my customers have been fabulous, and for that, I'm so grateful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

A weekend with a master

2009-03-16T11:24:00.004-06:00

It's Monday morning and I'm recovering from a two-day weekend workshop with the legendary ceramic artist Don Reitz. I love these weekend workshops at ACC, I've attended four or five now and they're always wonderful. Very often, I come away from them with ideas for new pots, and loads of information on tools and techniques. There's nothing like getting to sit and watch the way these brilliant artists work.

The Don Reitz workshop was a little different than all the others though. I didn't leave yesterday afternoon with a sketchbook full of new ideas and techniques to try. In fact, I didn't take hardly any notes at all. Instead, I was swept up in Don's immeasurable enthusiasm and passion for clay, and for its incredible qualities. Don and I make very different pots, and he's got forty years of pot-making on me, but I saw in him that passion that I feel in my heart for clay and the creative process.

My teacher Kathy specifically wanted me to attend this workshop so that I would be exposed to Don's confident mark-making abilities, his tendency to attack the clay surface with gusto and fervor. Using a variety of tools and his own bare hands, Don carved up his thrown sections, making slashes, crosses, indentations, tearing edges, and so on. I have been wanting to shake up the direction of my work, but I've found that I'm often scared of ruining an otherwise good pot with what I think will be bad marks or alterations. As a result, I make the same pots again and again, and they're not bad, but eventually I lose a bit of that passionate creative flame that drives an artist in the first place. Nothing kills the creative spirit like boredom, I guess.

Don is in his eighties, and he had not been to Colorado for a workshop since 1987, so it's unlikely that I will ever have the opportunity to be in his presence again. I'm so glad that I had the chance to spend a weekend with him, even as just a spectator, sitting in a plastic chair with fifty or so other clay fiends. I take away from this weekend my new mantra, Don's voice in my head saying what he said over and over as he feverishly played in the clay and tried whatever came to mind, "It's ok though. It'll all work out."

Testing...testing...

2009-03-03T13:00:00.006-07:00

My camera is on its last legs, so I haven't really been able to do any posts about what I'm working on in the studio these days. Mostly, I've been doing my required assignments for my ceramics IV class and making a lot of test tiles for an upcoming surface treatment assignment. Here are some really crappy photos from my cell phone of my newest test tile-making method:

First, I roll out of slab of clay and cut it to be 10 inches long and 4 inches wide. Then I texture half of it with a bisque stamp (mine is a sort of pebbly pattern). To get that angled test tile shape, I then drape the long clay slab over the flap of a cardboard clay box, adjusting the flap inside the box to get the right angle.

After the slab has stiffened up a bit, I cut it into 2" tiles with a wire knife, and then use a hole cutter to put a hole in the corner of each tile. I also score a line into the inside bend of the tile, to make it easier to break off the unglazed base of the test tile after firing.

This leaves me with little square test tiles that can be hung up on nails or tied together into sets. I use a weird self-created shorthand to record the glaze information on the base of the test tile before firing using an underglaze marker, and then write the information again in Sharpie on the back of the finished tile. Once some of these are out of the kiln, I'll post a photo of a finished one. Hopefully all of my testing will yield some cool new colors and surfaces!

Getting Analytical

2009-02-25T09:39:00.004-07:00

You Etsy sellers out there might have noticed recently that Etsy has made it easy to set up Google Analytics for your Etsy store. Analytics lets you track how many visitors come to your store every day, and how they got there. It's listed under the "Shop Setup" section of your Etsy store.

I've been using Analytics since about January 11th and it's been very interesting to see where visitors are coming from and how many people visit every day. Here are some of my observations so far:

-Being on the Etsy front page rocks! Of course, we all knew this already, but the data given through Analytics really supports that. My store averages between 40 and 70 individual visits on any given day, but on a day when I have an item on the front page, the visits shoot up to nearly 500! Even if no one buys anything on a front page day, they very often will mark my shop as a favorite and then come back to it at a later point.

-Relisting and renewing on Etsy really does drive your visibility. When I was on vacation in mid-January, I used a public library computer to relist a few times during the week, down from my normal 6 to 10 times a day. During that time, I averaged about 20 visits a day. The second week I was gone, I didn't have access to a computer, so I put my shop in Vacation Mode and only averaged about 8 visits a day. Once I got home and go back to my regular amount of renewing, my visits shot back up to the normal range. I guess you really do have to spend money to make money! I budget about $2.00 a day to renewing listings and do almost no other advertising.

-The vast majority of my store's traffic (about 65%) comes from within Etsy itself. The next big category is Google, followed by craftcult.com and twitter.com, which are two sites I know absolutely nothing about. I need to look into this and see why I'm getting traffic from these two places. I think knowing where people are visiting from really helps you figure out where and how to advertise online. My blog is #20 on the list, and my website is #11.

If you have an Etsy store and you haven't set up Analytics yet, I highly recommend it. It's really pretty easy and very eye-opening!

Rings Are Back!

2009-02-24T13:42:00.004-07:00

Just a quick note to let you know that rings are back in the shop! My rings have been a hot seller since I debuted them last year, and it's been hard to keep them in stock. I still don't have all the styles in all the colors, but there are some available in the Rings section of my Etsy store, including this pretty cobalt blue one.

To create each ring, I first cut and shape porcelain clay into an oval or round shape, and then glaze each one with my signature reactive glazes. After the porcelain pieces are fired in the kiln, they get epoxied onto adjustable, silver-plated ring bands that have a pretty hammered texture.

Bridesmaid/Attendant Gifts

2009-02-12T10:57:00.003-07:00

Last night, I was packing up an order of eight matching pendants for a bride-to-be who contacted me through Etsy. I do several bridesmaid/attendant gift orders like this every wedding season, so it has occurred to me that maybe I should offer a special wedding package deal.

So here it is: if you buy six or more jewelry items from my shop (matching or assorted), you'll get free shipping! Each item will arrive packaged in a pretty jewelry box, ready to give to the lovely ladies who are supporting you through your wedding.

Note: Each item in my Etsy store is listed as having a quantity of one item, but in reality, I usually have several of each item shown. If you need more than I have in stock, I'm happy to glaze some up for you and run them through the kiln. Sometimes it can take 6 to 8 weeks to make enough work to run the kiln, so try to let me know ahead of time!

Wisdom

2009-02-10T14:57:00.002-07:00

In my Ceramics IV class yesterday at ACC, we had the opportunity to watch an incredible video on the topic of wisdom. The DVD came with the stunning Wisdom: 50 Unique and Original Portraits by Andrew Zuckerman.

Here's the description from Amazon:
"Inspired by the idea that wisdom is the greatest gift one generation can give to another, award-winning photographer and filmmaker Andrew Zuckerman interviewed, photographed and filmed 50 of the world’s great writers, actors, artists, designers, politicians, musicians and religious and business leaders of our time. He posed seven questions to each of his subjects—all over 65 years of age—and their candid responses offer uniquely inspirational and often surprising insights."

I found this movie to be really thought-provoking and personally touching and inspirational. I found myself jotting down quote after quote, such as Bernice Johnson Reagon's "You just have to go for broke." You can watch a portion of the movie on wisdombook.org.

Sales Milestone!

2009-01-30T11:32:00.002-07:00

Thanks to a late-January sales blast in my Etsy shop, I've now surpassed 400 sales! I love turning any milestone in my sales numbers. I know 400 sales isn't huge on Etsy, where some people have sold thousands of items, but for me, each one is still a huge accomplishment. It's such a dream come true to be able to make stuff and sell it, and every single sale on Etsy fills me up with joy. Thanks to all of my customers out there, you mean the world to me!

Back to Real Life

2009-01-29T10:45:00.003-07:00

I'm back! I've actually been back since Saturday, but it's taken me a while to get back into the groove of things. Our fun-in-the-sun vacation turned out to be more of a fun-in-the-cold-and-gray vacation, thanks to a freak streak of cold weather in Florida, but we still had a good time!

While I was in St. Petersburg, Florida, I had the opportunity to check out a bit of the local clay scene. I started off by visiting the St. Petersburg Clay Company, located in the old Seaboard Train Station, built in 1926. This facility is home to about 60 artists. They're unique in that they offer various levels of membership and studio rentals. They have a massive kiln yard that includes gas and raku kilns, as well as an anagama kiln. Throughout the facility, you can view the work of almost everyone, all the way from the artists-in-residence to the some of the original SPCC founders. If you're in St. Pete and into clay, you definitely want to schedule of a tour of this place!

I also got to visit the lovely Craftsman House Gallery, which is housed in a renovated 1918 Craftsman bungalow. I wandered for what seemed like hours through the sunny gallery space, and was delighted to find that the gallery carried work by such pottery greats as Tom and Elaine Coleman and Natalie Blake. I came away with a stunning Tom Coleman bowl, which looks a bit like the one here. Craftsman House owner Stephanie Schorr gave me a tour of the pottery studio, located in the adjacent renovated carriage house, and her kiln building. Craftsman House also has a wonderful cafe where you can get coffee drinks and a great little meal. I had the olive tapenade platter and the mango iced tea and it was fantastic! I can see why this place does such a huge local lunch rush!

After St. Petersburg, we headed to Orlando for a few days of fun at Disney World. This is my third Disney World trip in five years, I love it there so much! My first trip was for a friend's wedding, and I have to say, I was skeptical as to why two adults would want to get married in a place that's obviously for kids. Then I got there, and saw Donald Duck for the first time, and promptly fell under the Disney World spell. I've never had more fun anywhere in my life! The food, the rides, the beautiful gardens and hotels...I could go on and on. If you've never been, you must go at least once in your life. You won't regret it!

So, now I'm home and trying to switch over from vacation mode. I'm firing a glaze kiln next weekend, so look for some new work in the store soon!

In a sunshine state of mind...

2009-01-10T14:11:00.004-07:00

This is my last blog post for a couple of weeks! My dear husband and I are heading to Florida for a fun-in-the-sun vacation, complete with a side trip to Disney World. My mom will be running my Etsy store while I'm gone, but only jewelry items will be available. Pottery, chopstick gift sets, and international shipping options will return on January 26th!

Money Matters

2009-01-07T15:47:00.003-07:00

I've been away from my blog for so long! I took a few days off from the computer around Christmas, but this long absence is due to the fact that I threw out my back a little over a week ago. It's getting slowly getting better, but it's been very uncomfortable to sit at the computer for any length of time. Or to do anything else, for that matter! I've never thrown out my back before; I had no idea it was so debilitating.

Since I'm not up to anything in the studio, I spent the morning doing the bookkeeping for my pottery business. I'm proud to say that I made a profit in 2008! I've never actually made a profit in my business before, I've only sort of broke even. I took my profit and divided it by a rough estimate of the number of hours I worked at my business this year. I discovered that I earned $4.00 an hour making and selling pottery and jewelry this year! Hoots toots!

Of course, I would like to make more than $4.00 an hour making pottery. And I'm beginning to understand how to do that, finally. I'm discovering that it takes careful tracking of information of all sorts. I track what I spend on my business, in various spreadsheets for material, marketing, and overhead costs. I also track my sales monthly and annually to see which sales venues are producing the most income. I got my spreadsheets from an excellent art/craft business book called Making a Living in Crafts. I highly recommend checking it out if you're new to running a small craft business or you just never feel like you know what you're doing when it comes to the money side of your business.

I used to worry endlessly about how I would ever make enough money to continue to be able to make pottery. I wondered how in the world anyone ever supported themselves with their art! Now, I just try to do better than last year. I used to think there was some sort of magical plan or system that I just had not discovered that was the Answer. Now, I realize that pretty much everyone does the same thing. They do research, they try things, and then they keep what works and they pitch what doesn't. It's really that simple.

Going into 2009, I'm looking carefully at my spreadsheets, trying to determine where I can cut costs in order to be more profitable in the coming year. I see that my shipping costs and shipping supplies categories are where I spend a lot of money. Maybe I can search around for lower costs on bubble mailers and shipping labels and the like. I also see that my advertising section is pretty hefty, probably due to all those Etsy showcase spots and co-op ads I bought into early in 2008. I was just signing up for things willy-nilly, because I had no idea what worked for me. Now I know a little more. Etsy co-op ads, such as those in Bust or Craft magazines, have done nothing for me. Main Showcase spots are usually worth the money, but Category Showcase spots are not. I dropped Constant Contact's e-mail marketing services in favor of Vertical Response, because Constant Contact costs $15 a month whereas Vertical Response is pay-as-you-go and normally costs me about $4 to send an e-newsletter to my entire mailing list. It's amazing how little things like this add up to big money at the end of a year.

I know a lot of people don't like to talk about money, and some think it's crass to do so, but I don't agree. How will anyone learn about money if no one talks about it? I would love to see more money talk in artists' blogs, because I'd love to learn what they've learned without having to go through it myself. Why do we insist on reinventing the wheel? Let's just all share what we've learned so we can all do better.

On that note, I hope 2009 will be a happy and prosperous year for all of you. I know that our economy is feeling pretty shaky right now, so it's more important than ever to learn what we can about money. If your personal finances need help, check out a little gem of a book called All Your Worth. I read this book two years ago and it changed my financial life forever. If you've resolved to get your money act together in 2009, start with this book. You won't regret it! Happy New Year!

Mission Accomplished

2008-12-16T11:20:00.008-07:00

I think the Christmas rush has passed. I've been hesitant to say so, but I think it's over. It's funny, I spent so much time this year thinking about and preparing for the Christmas rush, and here it is, over already. I want to say thank you so much to everyone who purchased items from me, either through Etsy, at a craft fair, or direct from my studio. Your support means so much to me. Being an artist is never easy financially, but with the economy so rocky, I didn't know what to expect this year. But thanks to all of you, I've had the best Christmas season since I started my business. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

I have to say, I think my Holiday Stress Reduction Plan (or Project Anti-Freakout) worked pretty well. The first week of December was rough because I had two craft fairs in addition to the increased Etsy traffic, but other than that, the season went pretty well. (I would say the season started right after Halloween and lasted through the first nine days of December.) Limiting shipping to three days a week was key, because I could fill all the orders that were in at any given time, and then not think about it again for a day or two. Last year, I was shipping nearly every day and that was a big source of stress.

Having set up the designated shipping space in my closet also helped a ton. Having all of my shipping supplies in one place, close at hand, made packing go much so faster and easier. And it was great to close it all away when I was done for the day. I also did not spend a single second standing in line in the post office, thanks to PayPal Multi-Order Shipping and Endicia for Mac. This contributed greatly to my well-being!

I think it's nice that the hectic holiday season for my business is pretty much over by December 10th. That gives me nearly two weeks to enjoy Christmas for what it is, in the present moment. Now that the rush is past, I can bake Christmas cookies and watch Christmas movies. I can wrap presents and plan for the Christmas Eve party I'm having at my house. I can enjoy my Christmas tree, the real evergreen wreath on my front door, and a blazing fire in the fireplace. It's like the real Christmas season is finally here!

To every thing, there is a season...

2008-12-08T14:34:00.006-07:00

It's less than three weeks until Christmas, and I'm sitting here thinking about Valentine's Day. Between the holidays and my regular job, I have just eight days to make new work before I go on vacation in mid-January. I'm thinking about Valentine's Day because if I want to try to make anything Valentine-oriented, I have to do it now.

Being ready for holiday/seasonal sales is something I'm trying to improve on. In late April and early May of this year, I had this huge spike in sales in my Etsy store and I had no idea why. I thought maybe the world had finally discovered my work and couldn't get enough! I thought I had finally "made it." Turns out it was for Mother's Day gifts. That one made me feel a bit dense.

So, I am now trying to capitalize on holidays in terms of both merchandise and marketing. I did that this past Halloween when I produced some limited-edition Halloweeny colored jewelry. I don't think I got it into my shop early enough though, because it didn't sell super well online until I put the remaining stock on sale the last week of October. Or maybe it was because Halloween is not really a gift-giving holiday. However, the items did sell very well in person to a friend of mine who went to OSU and therefore loves the color orange to an almost unhealthy level...

The hardest part of this process for me is trying to prepare for a season beyond that which we are currently in. I mean, I'm surrounded by Christmas stuff right now, so it's hard to find Valentine's Day inspiration. I had a hell of a time designing my Christmas ornament this year, because I was trying to do it in August. I was still in a long hot days-bright flowers-garden tomatoes-eating breakfast on the patio frame of mind. I was struggling so badly to come up with an idea, I nearly had to take myself on an inspiration trip to the local year-round Christmas shop.

Christmas is, of course, the big selling highlight of the year for artists and crafters. Last year, I made half of my entire annual sales amount in November and December. But beyond Christmas, what can we do to take advantage of gift-buying holidays? Valentine's Day is the first gift-giving holiday after Christmas, so I would tend to think that people are shopped out. My husband and I still exchange Valentine's gifts, but they're usually of the cheap and quirky handmade variety. One year, he actually made me a heart-shaped pendant out of dried macaroni and glittery ribbon. It's still the best gift I've ever received.

But back to the subject at hand, do very many people buy each other Valentine's Day gifts, especially of the pottery variety? I don't know. I figure I'll try a few ideas and see how things go. I've learned that there's really no other way of doing things in this line of work!

Craft Fair Tales

2008-12-04T13:39:00.011-07:00

Today is a cold and snowy day here in Denver, and although I don't like being house-bound by the snow, I'm relishing a little bit of quiet time in a crazy, hectic week.

The week started with a craft fair in downtown Denver, in the lobby of the Denver Newspaper Agency. I was contacted through Etsy about this show months ago, and I decided to go for it because the table fee was only $20. I don't do a lot of shows, but this one seemed easy enough.

I would only have two hours to set up on the day of the sale, so I thought I'd better take a couple of hours ahead of time to figure out how I was going to display everything. I borrowed a table from my friend Pirate Monkey, a bunch of tablecloths from my mom, and a whole jewelry display set up from a friend who used to sell Cookie Lee jewelry. First, I set up the table like this:

I thought my jewelry pieces looked really nice on the velvet-lined jewelry trays, but having all that black off to one side made the table look lopsided, and the pottery almost invisible. So I rearranged everything, and came up with this:

I thought this was better, but all that black in the middle just dominated the table, and the pottery still seemed hardly visible. So I decided to split up the trays, and move everything again:

Ah, third time's a charm! Splitting up the trays did the trick, and put the emphasis back on the pots in the middle.

Having figured out how to set up the table made me feel pretty prepared, so I was very surprised to find I couldn't sleep the night before the show! I wanted to sleep, I was very tired, but I just couldn't. My mind wasn't even racing with things I needed to do or remember, I was just wide awake. So I stayed like that most of the night, finally falling asleep sometime after 3 am and then waking up to my alarm at 5 am.

Despite feeling like a zombie all day, the show went pretty well. It was slow in the morning, which made me think no one would buy anything, but then sales picked up later in the day. My mom worked the table with me, which is so nice. If you've ever done a craft show, you know how nice it is to have a little help and company!

I think the best part of the day was getting to meet some other Etsy folks. My closest tablemates turned out to be two of the loveliest Etsyians you could ever meet. As soon as she had her table set up, Angie (spacemonkey on Etsy) walked up to my table and said, "Are you MSpottery?" My first real-life Etsy encounter! Angie turned out to be wonderfully funny and friendly, with an utterly fabulous collection of all-natural handmade bath and body products. I couldn't resist the gorgeous smells, and had to buy myself a Chai Tea lip balm and a White Jasmine bath bomb. I was going to use the bath bomb last night, but I couldn't bring myself to dissolve all that lovely scent just yet! It will have to wait a few more days...

Two tables down from me was the very sweet and adorable Susan (susanporteous on Etsy), with her beautiful handmade books and sock animals. I have to tell you, this woman has incredible craftsmanship. Her books and animals were so beautifully made, I wanted to buy everything. I had to restrain myself and walked away with only a little, colorful book and something else that I can't tell you about, because it's a Christmas gift for someone who's probably reading this right now!

All in all, the show went really well and I had a good time. Now, I'm going to take advantage of my quiet, snowy day and relax a little!

New Work

2008-11-28T14:55:00.004-07:00

Happy Belated Thanksgiving! I hope you all had a wonderful day with friends and family. I had a great day, visiting my mother-in-law's house early in the day and then my sister's house in the evening. It was wonderful to be with so many friends and relatives, and to eat so much terrific food!

With Thanksgiving over, the holiday season is officially here! I've been busy with lots of orders from my Etsy store, and I've been adding tons of new pottery pieces. Here's a few for you to check out:

Set of Three Nesting Bowls in Aqua, $85

Chopstick Gift Sets are back! Set of Four in Magenta, $24

Small Dish in Sage Green, $12

There's plenty more in the shop, including new mugs and tea bowls. It's nice to have more pottery in the shop again. For a while, it seemed like I had nothing but jewelry pieces in there, which makes Michelle Swafford Pottery a bit of a misnomer!

2008 ornaments are here!

2008-11-21T13:26:00.002-07:00

The shop is hopping! I've been busy adding lots of new jewelry and pottery items, including this year's holiday ornament!

Every year, I create a new design and produce just 50 ornaments. Each ornament in the run is signed and numbered on the back, just like a limited-edition print.

These went up in my shop last week, and I'm already running low. There are just 16 of these ornaments left, so if you have your eye on one, don't wait! You can also save a bit on ornaments this year by buying three or more!

Starting over. Again.

2008-11-12T12:06:00.009-07:00

Years ago, when I was a junior in college, I lost all of the contents of my beloved Apple G4 computer when the hard drive crashed. I was majoring in multimedia and graphic design, and the crash wiped out my entire portfolio. I had to start completely over.

When bad things happen, I tend to cope by trying to find the lessons that can be learned from the situation. The lesson I learned from that crash years ago was to always back up important data. And I did. For a while.

For quite some time, my aging 2002 Mac has been making weird noises and if you tried to shut it down, it would restart instead. I kept thinking I needed to take the computer in and have it looked at, but I never got around to it. I kept thinking I needed to buy an external hard drive and back everything up, but I never did. It was too expensive, I'd do it later, on and on. Besides, I had some data backed up here and there on CDs and thumb drives. I wasn't worried. Surely the old girl would carry on!

Then one day last week, the computer began behaving strangely. Applications wouldn't open up and everything was running really slowly. I printed off my packing slips and shipping labels for the day's Etsy orders, and then restarted the computer to try to get it working right again. It never came back.

I took the poor dear into the Apple store and they managed to get it up and running again through their Genius Bar voodoo magic, but they weren't able to retrieve any of my data thanks to a little thing called FileVault, which comes standard with the operating system. If you have a Mac, and you use FileVault, turn it off this instant! I mean it, stop reading this, open up your System Preferences and turn it off right now.

The guy at the Apple store described FileVault as a "Department of Defense level of data encryption." It comes with the following handy warning:
"WARNING: Your files will be encrypted using your login password. If you forget your login password and you don't know the master password, your data will be lost."

This didn't exactly make me shake in my boots when I first turned on FileVault. I thought securing my data against all sorts of computer threats was a good idea. Was I ever wrong! The warning should really go something like this:
"WARNING: Use at your own risk. If your hard drive fails, and you don't have your data backed up, you will lose everything. Don't think the guys at the Apple store will be able to help you in the event of a crash, because they won't. They will only roll their eyes at you and make you feel like an idiot by saying, "You have FileVault turned on?!" like you're supposed to know that this is an obviously stupid and dangerous thing, which of course you would expect from something that comes standard with the operating system. Seriously, don't turn on FileVault unless you've got all your data backed up on an external hard drive, or preferably two, with one drive located on site and the other stored in a safety deposit box, fireproof vault, or possibly the Vatican."

So, now I'm starting totally over, trying to retrieve what data I can from my little collection of CDs and other disks. I'm reinstalling all of my software. I have lost all of my images of my pottery and jewelry, save for the ones that have been uploaded to Etsy. I am relearning all the lessons I learned from that first computer crash years ago, which stings a lot more than learning them the first time.

I've purchased a new little Apple Mini to replace my dead G4, but more importantly, I bought a shiny new 500 GB external hard drive that backs up my computer every hour. I'm not doing this a third time...

An instant uplift

2008-11-07T12:47:00.004-07:00

My dear friend Pirate Monkey just introduced me to possibly the best thing to ever hit the Internet:

Live Streaming by Ustream.TV

Puppies on demand! I could honestly sit here and watch this live, streaming video all day.

I'm a huge animal lover and my husband and I used to do foster care for a local animal shelter. I miss having all those puppies and kittens around, but foster care is how I wound up with three cats when I never meant to get one. Go figure!

New Items

2008-11-07T10:42:00.009-07:00

I've in the process of adding some new jewelry items to my Etsy store. For the first time, both the round and oval earrings will be available in my midnight blue and magenta colors! I create these colors using either a black or red underglaze and my pearly white glaze (which you can see on other items). The result is a beautiful, saturated color with a kind of shiny, starry depth. I love it.

I've also got new solid round pendants to post. These are the same size as my open round pendants, but with a smaller opening. I love how well the large surface shows off the glaze patterns my reactive glazes.

Vote!

2008-11-04T10:51:00.003-07:00

Just in case you've been living under a rock or something, today is Election Day! Get out there and exercise your right to vote! It's a real privilege and something that those of us in the free world should never take for granted.

The nightmare before Christmas

2008-10-30T14:37:00.008-06:00

Today is only Halloween, and yet I've felt it for months, creeping into my peripheral vision, lurking around with its insidious, low-grade stress and endless to-do lists.

Christmas.

Or, more correctly, the winter holiday gift-buying season, which seems to officially begin November 1st.

I used to love Christmas, I really did. I still like Christmas, but ever since I got more seriously into the business of being an artist, Christmas has come to equal a lot of work. All of my summer now is consumed with thinking about what to make for the Christmas season, because nothing happens quickly in the ceramics world. Even if I'm really pushing my schedule, it takes me at least a month to make something start to finish, due to the drying time and multiple-stage ceramic process.

So I spend all summer thinking about what to make, when to make it, how to sell it, where to sell it, how much to sell it for. In the fall, I finally get down to the actual making of things and by then, I'm usually already behind. Take this year for instance. I'm already behind on my self-imposed schedule. I do a special Christmas ornament every year, and this year I wanted to debut them on November 1st, but due to delays in my studio, it's going to be more like November 10th, assuming they all turn out ok in the firing, which a good potter never assumes!

This will be my third Christmas on Etsy. Before Etsy (BE?), I usually did one small group holiday sale with the Foothills Clay Arts program, and I thought that was pretty difficult. Then, on a whim, I opened an Etsy shop in the summer of 2006 and did pretty much nothing with it until right before Christmas of that year. After my Foothills holiday sale was over, I posted all the remaining pieces to my shop. And then I got slammed. By "slammed," I mean that I got about 12 orders in five days, which was total overload for a person who had had three Etsy sales to date. I didn't know how to package stuff for shipping, that you could print postage online, none of that. And I had the most awful stomach flu. It was craziness.

In 2007, I was more prepared. I had been selling more regularly on Etsy, and therefore knew a lot more tricks. Still, my monthly sales more than doubled in both November and December, and I was spending long hours after work every night packaging orders up in my little office/guest bedroom. And I got sick again, and had to spend an evening in the ER.

I'm determined that Christmas 2008 is going to be less stressful. I've been working on a holiday attack plan since June, which has helped with all the necessary planning (although I'm already behind). And I spent a day last week organizing my office with my mom, who is very organized and tends to have more energy than me. We created this cool little shipping nook inside the closet. I'm hoping that having a designated shipping/packaging space helps me stay more sane this year.Priority Mail boxes are lined up under the table, jewelry inventory is ready to go in gift boxes, and mailers are up on the top shelf. My bubble wrap is inside the door on the other side, along with my packing peanuts. I even cable-tied a little halogen light to the clothes pole so I can see what I'm doing. It's worked pretty well so far, and I love that I can close the door on it and put it completely out of sight.

I'm doing some other things to try to reduce my stress this year. I'm going to be using Endicia.com for my shipping, instead of PayPal shipping, which is what I normally use. The reason for the switch is that Endicia can print First Class International postage, while PayPal shipping can't. International orders are the only reason I have to stand in line at the post office anymore, and being at the post office during the Christmas season makes me absolutely crazy. My goal is to not set foot in there this year. I'm going to rely on carrier pick up and the drive-up drop boxes. I'm also going to pack and ship orders only three days a week. Last year, I packed and shipped orders as they came in, which was every single day. That was too much!

I'm not a real high-energy person, so I've come to accept that I must have some built-in downtime during this stressful season. Therefore, I've declared Sundays off-limits to all studio and Etsy work, and to any and all social engagements. Sundays from now until the end of the year are reserved for sleeping in, staying home, eating snacks, and watching Broncos' games. I'll still renew listings on Etsy to stay visible, but I'm be doing it in my jammies!

In the beginning

2008-10-23T10:52:00.005-06:00

I first threw clay on a potter's wheel when I was about nine years old. I was taking a kids' clay class at the local community college, and they actually let us attempt to throw on the kickwheels. I remember it being so HARD, and couldn't even begin to imagine that anyone could ever get this crazy throwing thing down. I turned out a little tiny gritty pot and glazed it a bright yellow. I kept jewelry in it as a teenager, but now I don't know where it is.

Because I was showing an interest in clay, my parents bought me a "pottery wheel" like this one for Christmas. I don't remember how old I was, but I was ecstatic! How cool to have a wheel of one's own! The only problem was that you can't actually throw on these things. The wheel grinds to a halt as you apply the pressure needed to move the clay around. It didn't turn out good pots of any sort, but it was really fun. I got a HearthSong catalog yesterday and was so surprised to see this little wheel for sale. It brought back a flood of memories.

I got into my first "real" clay class when I was eighteen. I had just graduated from high school, and had always wanted to take a ceramics course in school, but had never had the time for it in my schedule. I got on a waiting list for the one ceramics class offered at my local rec center, and after a few months, I finally got in. My first pot was a very short cylinder, about four inches across and maybe an inch tall. I glazed it with green and white glazes and was very proud of it. It still is with me every day in my studio, holding the little posts for my Giffin Grip. It reminds me of how far I've come.

Now, I've been making pottery for nearly 10 years and have just started learning how to sculpt in clay. The excitement I feel every week in my sculpture class reminds me of my early pottery days, when I had no idea what I was doing, but was loving every minute. I still love to make pottery, but that excitement is sometimes tempered by thoughts on pricing, marketing, personal development, and so on. Some days, there's a heaviness of it that makes me wonder why I do this in the first place. Then I go to my sculpture class, tired and sore from a long day already spent in the clay studio. When I pull out my sculpture from my cubby, my heart lifts and I feel a rush of that first love feeling. And I am reminded of why I do what I do.

Sculpture Update

2008-10-10T12:49:00.003-06:00

Here we are at the end of another week, and I have another sculpture update for you!

I think she's coming along pretty well! This week, I added her hair and refined her cheeks and chin a bit more. As I was working to add more fullness to the cheeks, I was suddenly hit by the fact that the piece is really starting to look like my little niece. With this being my first sculpture ever, I never really thought it would resemble her at all. Bob is truly a gifted artist and teacher.

I took this photo right before I had to cut off the top of her head, pull out the newspaper, and begin hollowing her out. That was very traumatic! It reminded me a bit of cleaning out a Halloween pumpkin.

My class is almost over already! I think I need to sign up for the next one too, because I am loving this sculpture thing. It's such a different process from making pottery, which requires so much time management. With clay sculpting, you just keep working it until it looks right, and you can always carve things off and replace them with new clay, because you don't have to worry about the piece cracking in the firing and being ruined. Bob showed us how most of the sculptures will crack in the kiln, but they can be repaired with various fillers and fixed right up. This is a totally radical notion to a potter like me!

Halloween Jewelry!

2008-10-09T09:51:00.007-06:00

This year, I've created some very special, limited-edition versions of my jewelry line just for Halloween! Very limited quantities of my pendants, earrings and rings are available in pumpkin orange and a very cool variegated black and white pattern. These will only be available in my Etsy shop for the month of October, so don't wait to get yours!

Back in the saddle again

2008-10-03T09:48:00.004-06:00

Well, I'm back from Wisconsin. The trip was a whirlwind, but it was nice. My grandma's funeral and burial went well, and most of my family was there. It's hard to say goodbye to a loved one, but it was really nice to see so many family members too. I think we gave her the send-off she deserved. Thanks to everyone who has contacted me with sympathies, I truly appreciate it.

I was able to get to my sculpture class Wednesday night and get back on the portrait head band wagon. I worked on her features mostly, working off of photos of my niece to sculpt the nose and eyes. My instructor Bob showed me how to do the eyes, carving a recess to create the colored iris of each eye. A little speck of clay gets put back in to create the little white highlight we all have in our eyes, and then all of a sudden, the sculpture is staring right at you! It was really eerie, to suddenly have this sculpture making eye contact with me...

I still don't think this sculpture looks like my niece, but it does now look like a fairly realistic human being. Next week, she gets hair!

Life comes at you fast...

2008-09-25T13:28:00.005-06:00

Unfortunately, I have no update on my sculpture for you this week. My grandmother passed away yesterday and I just didn't have the energy to go to class and be creative. My grandma had been sick for some time, living in a nursing home for the last year, and had just been moved to hospice this week. She had widespread cancer and it just finally got the best of her.

I think this photo from earlier this year shows my Grandma as I'll always remember her. I'm trying to pose for a photo with her, but can't get her attention because she's totally cracking up over a joke my dad is telling her. She was a tough, funny, stubborn, and incredibly loving woman who always fascinated me with her stories. She was the child of Eastern European immigrants and would teach me sayings in her native Slovenian language. My favorite is Na zdravje ("to your health"), which we would always say during a toast.

I'll be flying back to Wisconsin this weekend, just as I did in July when my grandfather passed away. It will be strange to go there and not see my grandparents, not to go to the old farm on which they lived for more than 60 years, not to hear all the old stories. I take comfort in knowing that my grandparents are freed from their failing bodies and that their suffering is over, and I'm so grateful that they each lived long, full lives. But I'll miss them just the same.

Weekend Update

2008-09-19T13:46:00.004-06:00

Hooray, it's Friday! I'm excited the weekend is about here, especially because the beautiful 80-degree weather is supposed to hold out for a few more days.

Here's the latest version of my portrait head from my sculpture class. As you recall, it's supposed to be of my three-year-old niece. It still doesn't really look like her, but it no longer looks like a monkey-alien either. It now somewhat resembles a human, and for that, I'm grateful.

Summerset Festival went well this weekend. We had a record number of Foothills students and staff participating in the sale, so our booth was full of great pieces. I sold a ton of jewelry and discovered that I need a much better display method for my necklaces, as they got continually tangled while customers looked through them all. If you have any ideas, let me know!

Dear Texas...

2008-09-16T13:28:00.005-06:00

I'm so saddened by the devastation Hurricane Ike has caused along the Texas coast. It sounds like Galveston Island, which I wrote about it an earlier post, has been just devastated in parts, along with several other communities along the coast. I hope everyone affected will be able to put their lives back together again. You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Summerset Festival

2008-09-12T13:58:00.004-06:00

Hey all! I almost forgot to mention that my work will be available for sale this weekend at Summerset Festival in Littleton, Colorado. My stuff will be part of the Foothills Clay Arts program booth, which will be the great big pottery booth right out front.

I'm unloading some stuff in preparation for the holiday season, so stop by to save a bundle on jewelry pieces and pottery too! The weather looks to be fantastic, so I hope to see you there!

Another time and place

2008-09-12T10:32:00.008-06:00

So, this is not clay-related, but I feel there is something you need to know about me, especially if you're going to follow this blog, because I'm sure it's going to come up over and over again.

I am totally in love with old houses.

I have an complete and total fascination with almost any building built before 1950. (Even though my jewelry line has a bit of a modern flair to it, I just don't like mid-century modern buildings. I think they pale in comparison to what came before them. But that's just me.)

I swoon over traditional architectural details like rafter tails, crown moulding, and dormer windows. I pine away for my very own wraparound front porch, beadboard walls, and subway-tiled shower. I love the elegant stained glass windows found in stately Victorians, and the humble grace of Craftsman-style built-ins.

That being said, I have only lived in an old house for two years of my life. The house I grew up in was built in the late 1970s, and my current house was built in 1983. My husband and I tried in vain to buy a vintage home, but we couldn't find one in our budget that wasn't totally falling apart. Because we were under the gun, we settled on a very nice and well-laid out, if slightly vanilla, suburban tri-level. It's been a lovely home for us, in a safe and friendly neighborhood, and I feel so lucky to even have a home in this time of foreclosures following risky mortgages. That being said, part of me is still looking for The House, the one with the wood floors, wide baseboards, and divided-light windows.

Because of this longing, I spend quite a bit of time on the realtor.com website, looking at lovely houses all around the country. I routinely hit the "Saved Properties" limit of 100 houses and have to delete some that are not as great as others.

Because Hurricane Ike is headed towards the Texas coastline, today's photos are from one of the fabulous houses for sale on the island of Galveston, Texas. Galveston has a tremendous concentration of late 19th- and early 20th-century architecture, and I've always wanted to visit there to see these buildings for myself. I do hope the hurricane weakens and that the people (and the houses) of the Gulf Coast will be safe.

The teacher has become the student...

2008-09-11T10:25:00.007-06:00

For the last five years, I've been teaching adult pottery classes for Foothills Park & Recreation District here in Colorado. Right now though, I'm taking some time off from teaching in order to be a student myself! Foothills has just started offering sculpture classes with the very talented Bob Allison, and I had my very first sculpture class last night. Despite working in clay for ten years now, I've never done any clay sculpture. I've found that most clay classes don't offer it as part of the standard curriculum.

Here's what I had by the end of class last night. Bob is a wonderful figurative sculptor, so I'm taking advantage of his expertise and trying my hand at a portrait head of my three-year-old niece. So far, I think it looks a bit like a generic monkeyish alien, but hopefully it will resemble her in the end! I'll take photos every week and post them here to track my progress.

It was so lovely to be a student again. Lately, I've been into taking more classes and really enjoying getting to be the person with lots of questions, instead of needing to be the person with lots of answers. I took a really wonderful World Ceramics class at Arapahoe Community College this past January with the always-awesome Kathy Holt. If you're in the Denver area and into clay, I highly recommend you take an ACC class at some point. It's a terrific clay program.

And on a total tangent, I took the above photo with my cell phone and was able to beam it to my computer using wireless Bluetooth technology. Isn't that amazing? Technology is so cool (when it's working...)

Pots and Gunshots?

2008-09-05T13:27:00.004-06:00

You know, real controversy is pretty rare in the pottery world. Potters will argue over where to place pots in a wood kiln or over the merits of Gerstley Borate as a glaze material, but real honest-to-God controversy is rare.

That's why I was so surprised to see this article while on AOL today:

Pottery Feud Divides NC Town of Seagrove

In case this link stops working in the future, basically a new pottery festival has been planned for the same weekend as one that's been running for the last 26 years. Here's an explanation from the article:

"The schism generally involves differences between potters who support the Museum of North Carolina Traditional Pottery — which is more of a welcome center with samples of local work — and artisans who have broken from it.

Some in the breakaway group also support the financially struggling North Carolina Pottery Center, which displays and promotes work from artists statewide, not just those based in Seagrove. It also sells pottery, which critics say hurts local artists and takes business away from their shops."

Also from the article:

"The divide, and all the confusing reasons for a fight over pottery, can appear ridiculous to outsiders. But it's venomous for those involved, resulting in ugly propaganda, reports of a gunshot fired at one shop and allegations of assault. Attempts to settle it have gotten nowhere."

A gunshot?! Over pottery festivals?! Now, I know the people of North Carolina take their pottery very seriously because they have several hundred years worth of clay traditions. But really, they're coming to gunshots over it? Wow. This is definitely NOT something that happens every day in the clay world!

(On a sidenote: Why is Seagrove called Seagrove when it's several hours from the coast? I've always wondered...)

The Almost Perfect Studio Day

2008-09-04T10:54:00.014-06:00

Yesterday was one of those rare, almost-perfect days in the studio. I really didn't think it would be because I was having most of the windows in my house replaced, which I thought would make it hard to focus. There was a lot of noise and racket, but I was forced to stay holed up in my home studio with my dog Josie all day and just work, which was lovely and somewhat rare! I hate studio days that get broken up by appointments and trips to the grocery store, vet, post office, and so on. I just lose momentum and energy...

Yesterday was a plate-throwing and jewelry-making extravaganza. I'm working on a custom dinner plate order right now and some of the plates from my original round of throwing didn't quite turn out, so I needed to throw replacements. I've also been trying to get as much jewelry made as possible this summer, because each piece requires quite a bit of sanding and it has to be done outside. My tentative plan was to spend the summer mostly making jewelry, and then go back to pot-making once the weather turned colder.

Speaking of summer, I absolutely love it, it's my all time favorite season! Summer in Colorado is fantastically gorgeous, and yesterday was a beautiful day with a high around 70 degrees and the sun shining brightly. My studio opens onto my deck, which I consider an extension of my work space for four months out of the year. I still at the table and sand jewelry and listen to music and bask in the warmth. Why can't every day be like this? :)

The First Post

2008-09-02T10:28:00.003-06:00

Ah, blogs. I love blogs, and I read a lot of them, especially artists' blogs. I love seeing artists' lives through their own eyes, especially when they write openly and honestly about their struggles as well as their triumphs. I love vicariously getting to know the people behind the work.

I lose interest in blogs that consist only of pictures, or that seem to be censored into a picture-perfect rendering of the artist's life. The reality is, things go wrong for everyone once in a while, and if you happen to work in clay, things go wrong often!

Despite this, I resisted writing a blog for a long time because I was afraid that then people would find out something most horrifying about me:

I HAVE ALMOST NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING.

It's true, I have really no idea how to be an artist. I've been working at it for a few years now, and although I almost never feel like I know what I'm doing, I look back now and I see that I've become an artist in spite of that. I'm not a full-time, professional, self-supporting artist, but I am a part-time artist who has managed to have some success amidst all the struggles.

So, rather than trying to write a blog that shows me only in my best light, I thought it would be far better for me, and far more interesting for you, to learn about my actual life in clay, with all its ups and downs. Maybe we'll both learn something along the way...