The Studio Tour.

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A new piece that sold at the tour

The only bad thing about the studio tour was that there are no pictures. None. Not even one. I was way too busy talking to all my friends to take pictures, my studio assistant John was too busy filling drinks, refreshing appetizers, and flipping records to take photos, and Rachel was my accountant, taking care of all the sales, receipts, and overcharging my friends. (Seriously, to all my friends who paid $3 too much for your new mugs, let me know and I'll give you a special gift sometime. Rachel did not mean it, she didn't realize I had lowered my prices for the event, and she wants me to be rich.)

About 40 people came to the event, we think, but it was hard to keep track. I'll have to get a guest book for the next one. THE NEXT ONE??? YES! That's right! As soon as I get the new kiln in the yard done, I would like to have another one, and let my friends help me fire the kiln.

So in the case that you haven't noticed, there is not a store on my site anymore! That's because all the work is now available at Coffee Friends Coffee Shop. I now have to make all new work. All new ray guns. And all new space helmets. And all new everything. Excited yet? Yep. Me too.

P.S. I made 16 new wine cups yesterday, four are already sold, two sets left. Who wants em'?

Ups and downs

I had my first miss-hap yesterday. My kiln over-fired, and did not shut off when it was supposed to, so it got way too hot, and I lost 16 pieces. I think. I'm firing one of those pieces right now to see if the glaze I applied sticks to it, or if the clay has become too mature, the glaze could just slide off the piece when it gets hot. WE WILL SEE! I certainly don't have my hopes up.

I did throw 16 new pieces yesterday, so at least it feels like I've already made-up for the loss. I made 8 large, curvy tumblers, 4 small wine cups, enough parts for a pair of raygun salt and pepper shakers, an espresso cup, and a bowl with a hollow rim.


I was also recently able to photograph the last project that I had my college class do. It's a bit of a version of "exquisite corpse". I had everyone make parts and pieces, without much direction other than they had to make at least 5, they could be spheres, wheel thrown pieces, coils, slabs, clay pizza, or whatever. After about 20 minutes, we put the pieces outside to firm-up. We then chose words randomly out of random books, and put together a sentence, randomly. That sentence became the title of the piece, and we then constructed the sculpture to fit the title. They learned about gesture, narrative sculpture, and team work, as well as how to collaborate and "let go" of one's work, as no one was allowed to use pieces that they had originally created.

The title of this piece is, "The Spooky Cow Danced on Florence's Tongue

Many people took one look at this piece when it was still in clay-form, and said that it could never make it through a firing, and yet, Florence persevered. After she was fired, we rummaged through the AVA Community Art Center's fridge & cupboards to find mustard, many teas, fruit punch, and coffee, which we brewed, and painted onto the sculpture, when the tea was too weak, we added watercolors. It was crazy, kind of smelly, but a lot of fun. When I get the kiln built this summer, I'd like to cement her to it.


I know the picture of the spooky cow is very blurry, but I thought it was such a funny picture, I just had to show it off.

Trailer Fire Studio's first firing!

I finally got my first finished works photographed! The shiny glazes are kind of hard to get good images of, I'm doing some research on how to get better results. But, I'd rather be making pots, so for now, these will have to do.

The blue raygun is now my favorite. It is much brighter blue than shown here, and it's fin is too fun! I can't wait to assemble some more.

I am making lots of cups today, some space-mugs, and some tall cups similar to the celadon ones shown here. I've got another firing to do tomorrow, and I just received a book telling me everything I need to know to build my outdoor kiln, a 10-year-old dream, finally coming true. There's so much going on it's hard to make time to maintain this here blog!

In other news, the Pearls of the Prairie banquet was this weekend, it's an event where a local artist/art group is honored, as is a patron/supporter of the arts. I had a beautiful (i thought) set of four black and white cups for sale, a medium-sized black and white kitchen bowl, and two collaborative pieces (Jimi Wickenberg's) for sale, AND THEY ALL SOLD! I was a very happy lil' potter that night!

Zap! I'm back!

After many days, many pots, and many pairs of clay-encrusted pants, I finally emerged from the studio this weekend to celebrate my birthday with family and friends. It would have been very easy to just stay in there, but there was the promise of ski-ball and a JB King performance at Coffee Friends coffee shop. One of the great gifts I received this weekend was a digital camera from my mom! THANKS MOM!!! Now I can finally show what I've been working on.

This clay raygun feels so good in your hand! I can't help but hold it and make "pew pew pew" sounds. I'm making all kinds of kitchen gadgets that are raygus, such as salt & pepper shakers, salad dressing cruets, whisks, and others that I will keep quiet about until I show them. ALSO, I've made some really funky space helmets that you can actually wear, or use for a salad bowl, though I wouldn't recommend both at the same dinner.

I've also been making some things that are completely alien to me, like a giant gem-stone-pot for a show I have next year with jewelry artist Maria Stiles. Im really looking forward to all the collaborative aspects of that exhibition, Maria is an exceptional artist and I feel extremely fortunate to be showing with her.

I've aso made a lot of large drinking cups, bowls, plates, platters, a pitcher, and a bunch of other stuff. It's all been so fun to do.

So far, life as a potter is something I could get used to.