Colorado Potters Spring Show Invitation
Today’s the big day – the Colorado Potters Guild Spring 2009 Show opens this evening at 5:00pm – so if you’re in the Denver area stop by and say hello! Click here for a map and directions.
It’s almost as this day was so far away, yet so close. I finally finished printing decals and began a laser toner decal firing last night around 9 pm – nothing like last minute ventures. I’m working tonight and tomorrow from 10:00am – 5:00pm if you happen to be around. I am interested to see how the show sales fare considering our current economic woes – no worries, I’ll report back on Sunday.
With that, I bid you early good weekend tidings,
~Cynthia
Just working away…
Kimonos from my after school clay class
I hope everyone had a nice Easter (at least those of you who celebrate Easter…) – I sure did in between spending time with family, I’ve been busy making work for the Colorado Potters Guild Sale opening the end of this month. Needless to say, I’m feeling less verbose than normal. Hope you have a good week,
~Cynthia
P.S. My after school clay classes kimonos have been fired since I took this photo – can’t wait to see them glazed next week.
More Kimonos from my clay class
Oh yeah, I confess, I was drinking a little while photographing – though I swear it was after 5pm!
Colorado Potters Guild Website is Finished
Colorado Potters Guild Screen Shot
WHEW, and let me just let out one more extended audible wheeewwwwwwwwwwww for my own benefit. I finally finished the Colorado Potters Guild website today – what a relief! I feel like I can finally get on with my life and I’m sure my family will be happier too since I will no longer be multi tasking every single minute of the day. Go ahead – head on over and take a looksie.
The good news about building a site from scratch is that I benefited from the knowledge I gained from all the mistakes I made on my own site. The bad news is that now I have to fix a lot of stuff on my own site – including my – the archive search is broken, among other things. It’s all good though because my own site isn’t nearly as pressing as the Potter’s Guild site. I’m going to make a list and tackle one or two items a day which will eventually get the job done.
More good news to share – my husband was spared the ax at work which is a relief and now we are making a few plans. I have decided to attend my first ever NCECA conference (National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts for you non clay readers) taking place April 8 – 11th in Phoenix this year. I think the family is going to come along, but I’m not sure how much time we’re going to spend together. We have friends in Phoenix that we haven’t seen in awhile, including friends from high school and one of my husband’s college buds and former room mates.
We also renewed our passports recently and are planning to take a summer vacation. Hubby is trying to talk me into a European vacation, I’m still on the fence about where to go. I have to think of the dogs after all – one of them fasts whenever we leave for an extended period of time.
And finally, in regards to my last post about my daughter’s solar heat collector that she made for her school science fair – she won 2nd place overall for her school! Pretty cool if you ask me…. She was relieved because she didn’t want to go to District Science Fair (don’t ask me why, I never got a straight answer) and only the 1st place winner gets to go, but also pleased because she won a prize and was rewarded for all the hours she invested in the project. She was also happy because one of her best friends won 1st place which is cause for celebration. At any rate, we brought her project home and we’ve decided to do some more experiments on our own with her solar heat collectors. We saw some plans for ones with fans that are generated by mini solar photo voltaic panels – so we have some work to do. By the time it comes to make a larger version for me, we’ll be all set to go! I told you I was being a little selfish.
I’m signing off for the day to hit the studio for a tad and now that I’m finally finished with the CPG site, I’m going to install my Bamboo Fun Wacom tablet that I haven’t allowed myself to play with out of fear I would become too distracted. I made a couple of porcelain pendants the other day that I thought would be good canvases for some ceramic decals.
I hope to catch up with what everyone has been up to lately in the next week,
~Cynthia
New Glazed Work
Relief printed hand built stoneware mugs
I meant to write a blog post yesterday or this morning, but my flash image uploader in my wordpress dashboard wasn’t working and I was forced to upload one photo at a time. Quelle horreur! Stomping my feet impatiently and yelling at my laptop didn’t seem to solve anything. So, today, I did a little computer clean up and also investigated the image problem. After perusing the WP support forum, I discovered that the new version of Adobe Flash 10 is not compatible (apparently this will be fixed with the next release of WP) – so I had to roll Adobe Flash back to version 9. What a pain – but, I’m happy to say that my uploader is now working fast and properly so here I am writing this post at 8:40pm on a Monday night.
Relief printed frog stoneware covered box
Sales were good at last weekend’s Colorado Potters Guild Sale. I really wasn’t sure if they would be given the economy right now. Maybe folks are feeling a little more hopeful with the election results? I sold quite a bit of my new work and even some older work that doesn’t quite match what I making now. Out of 35 mugs, I took home 5 (deservedly so – I will be reglazing them this week). I love getting this kind of feedback!
Lots of folks remembered my covered boxes from the spring sale and were asking where I hid them. I only had about 5 and came home with 0. I meant to make a bunch of boxes for the sale and just plain ran out of time. I accepted a couple of special orders for boxes at the CPG sale that I’m going to start working on this week at a leisurely pace. These aren’t something that I can rush – they take time and careful consideration depending on the theme.
Hybrid mugs – hand built and wheel thrown
People really liked my new mugs – good thing since I like making them! The relief printed ones in the top image of this post were the first to go, I guess that means that I should really make more of these in the future and also expand my lino-cuts. I haven’t committed to any more sales events before the holidays – something about which I’m happy. I plan to continue exploring shapes and different ideas and will also stock up my Etsy shop, which is currently empty.
Hybrid vases
I like the vases – but need to refine them just a bit more. They would also make a good sized pitcher if I added a spout and handle.
Meanwhile, I spent yesterday reading and commenting on my favorite blogs since I hadn’t had the time to do so the week leading up to my sale. It feels good to get back to a normal routine. I know my family has enjoyed having me back. 
The good news is that I have a full kiln load of glazed work that I didn’t get fired in time for the sale which will help fill my Etsy shop. As soon as I reglaze the mugs, I’ll push the start button. This week I’m also going to start adding images to my gallery page – I’d say it’s about time, wouldn’t you?
Have a great week,
~Cynthia
