Colorado Art Studio

Arthaus66 Gallery
6320 Linn Avenue NE #C
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87108
I have some really exciting news! I was contacted by a gallery in Abuquerque, NM about 5-6 weeks ago about placing some of my ceramic jewelry in their newly relocated gallery space with the potential to add some of my other ceramic work in the near future. After emailing back and forth and a phone call, I agreed to send a few pieces of jewelry to Arthaus66 last week for their grand opening reception on Friday, November 23rd from 4:30 - 6:30pm. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to make it for the opening, but my work will. I sent some of my more experimental pieces and hope it will be the beginning of a nice relationship.

One of my newer porcelain pendants

Celadon glazed porcelain earrings with sterling silver ear wires
It’s a terrific way to head into the holidays and sets the tone for 2008. I am going to be targeting galleries to represent me locally and in a few select areas of the US in the new year. Selling one’s own work is incredibly labor intensive and I’d rather concentrate on making new work and having quality studio time than marketing. In that regard, a gallery is worth every penny in earned commissions. Unfortunately, this will mean a price increase for my work in my Etsy shop where I will keep a presence so that I keep my prices in line with the gallery’s retail price. I’ve been meaning to raise my prices for some time as they are currently set closer to my wholesale set point.

I’m going to get a head start on my New Year’s goal of contacting some galleries in December. We’re taking a long weekend trip to Crested Butte, CO and I’m going to see if any galleries in the ski resort town would be interested in carrying some of my ceramic jewelry.

Clay + Imagination = Art Tueday’s Class Masks, grades 2-5
Meanwhile, my Tuesday clay class finished their ceramic masks and they’re terrific. There were several that I would liked to have kept!

Have a good week everyone and a great Thanksgiving if I don’t catch you before then,
~Cynthia

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If you happen to be in town and are looking for something to do this coming weekend, June 9th and 10th, pop on by the Summer Art Market and say hello. This is where you will find me and my ceramic work this weekend. I’m sharing a booth with 2 other talented ceramic artists, Mary Cay, an instructor at the ASLD, and Kathleen Laurie, a member of the Colorado Potter’s Guild. Our booth number is 114 - look for the banner that reads “Slightly Off Center”.

If you happen to stop by, expect your photograph to be taken with me, so that I can post about it here on my blog!

New business cards
I’ve been busy, busy, busy getting ready for the show - both making lots of work, listing items for Etsy and all the administrative work that goes along with the job of being an artist. Luckily, I remembered that I needed new business cards and I was able to design them and send the file to Overnight Prints, just in the knick of time. They were delivered yesterday. Nothing like some good last minute cramming. By the way, Overnight Prints is not overnight; but then again, I didn’t pay for overnight shipping either. They were fast; I received my order in about 6 days. They also do free glossy coating if that’s something you desire.
New porcelain sand dollar pendant - currently in my Etsy Shop
I’ve been hard at work making some new jewelry designs out of clay. After SAM, I’m going to experiment with adding Precious Metal Clay to my ceramic pendants. It requires more concentration which frankly I just don’t have right now. Plus, I have to do some research to see how I fire PMC with ceramic pieces. I just love this sand dollar pendant. I have 2 more in the kiln right now and I already know that I am going to keep one for myself.

About 11 people voted in my poll if you include my first one and then my re-formatted one. An overwhelming majority of people think that I should offer the pendants separately with chains on the side in my shop. I’m thinking that I might be able to get around the no jewelry sales at SAM if I sell just the pendants, so, I am going to bring them with me, albeit with no chains or cords. They will simply be ceramic beads. Oh, and I have a lot right now! Thank you to everyone who emailed me your 2¢ on the topic and for your votes.

You will most likely not hear from me again until Monday morning,

Mini kiln opening
Celadon and Aqua Libre glazed ceramic pendants, earrings, buttons and pins
Bone dry porcelain ware ready to be bisque fired

I fired both of my kilns yesterday and need to re-load then again today! I could hardly wait to open up the glaze kiln because I had tested a new glaze and texture on some of my pieces. I used a celadon and an aqua libre glaze that’s very runny and so this was a test for me to see how thickly I can apply it without worrying about whether or not the glaze would run all over the kiln shelves. What did I learn?? I can apply the glaze on thickly without worry. Aqua libre is a gorgeous aqua blue crackly glaze that reminds me a bit of the the color of the ocean in the Carribean or something.

Sales have been a little slow on Etsy for the past week and I wonder if I should change my strategy a little bit. I need to gauge other people’s opinions on whether or not I should try a different way to sell ceramic jewelry online. I have 3 different cords/chains in the works; black satin cord with sterling findings, sleek stainless steel cable and crocheted silver wire chain. Obviously each costs me different amounts of money and time to make. So I was thinking, I could sell the pendants and chains separately and if someone just wants the pendant, they could purchase the ceramic piece alone at a lower cost than the whole necklace. If they want a chain or cord to go along with it, they could purchase it separately. Anyway, let me know what you think - I would really appreciate it!

To get around selling jewelry at the Summer Art Market this coming weekend, I am going to be offering free shipping again on all the jewelry in my Etsy Shop on June 9th and 10th.. I’ve also crafted some buttons and magnets that I can sell at the market so that I have some items in an affordable price range.

Thanks again everyone,

Note: My apologies, I had to reconfigure the poll vote counter because it was acting up….

Small porcelain platter with colored slip and sgraffito @8.75″ x 6″


I enjoyed a good weekend filled with lots of ceramic work and a BBQ everynight, including last night. We went over to some friend’s who had decided to go with a Greek theme, which was very tasty. Although when the Ouzo came out around 8 PM, I thought to myself, “Wait, it’s a school night, I can’t drink this!” But, I did and now I’m feeling a little bit groggy. I hope everyone else had a nice weekend too.

My daughter still has 1.5 days of school left. When we lived on the East Coast, she attended school until mid to late June. Here in Colorado the kids get out around Memorial day. I swear last year, her final day of school was right before the long weekend. What in the world can they accomplish in the next 1.5 days?? We agreed last night that it was a good experience and parallels what it would be like to be a lame duck president, or maybe someone who has given notice at work and is just filling out their contractual obligation. Otherwise, why bother??

Anyway, the small platter above is a new piece that recently came out of the kiln. I’ve mentioned this several times before, but I learn something about working with clay every single day. Working on this piece was no different. I had formed the piece after rolling out porcelain clay using a slab roller. I slumped it in one of my new plywood forms and after it had set up, I painted colored slip onto it. Don’t do the latter unless your piece is still in your slump mold!!

I did and was promptly rewarded with my piece reverting to a flat piece of clay. Somehow I rescued it, but now it has a fairly small lip in contrast to the original generous one. The good news is that since I considered this piece kaput, I felt free to try a new color combo and technique on my platter. Why does that happen? An item becomes less precious, and I can be a little less rigid design wise. Why don’t I treat all my pieces like this? Some really cool stuff happens when I do. This is also one of those pieces that I didn’t expect would survive the glaze fire; yet it did when they cake platter didn’t.

I need to work on my photography. I couldn’t photograph this head on without getting the glare of the sunlight on my piece. Add another thing to my to-do list! I read somewhere, that artists should never photograph their own work, to leave that to the professionals. Well, it’s quite a dilemma if one has to choose between paying a pro to photograph work vs. buying new material to make more work!

I sold quite a few things this weekend from my Etsy Shop, which pleased me to no end. I’m starting to think that this can really work for me. If you recall, I had a special going over Memorial day weekend, Free shipping for all jewelry. Surprisingly, I sold 1 set of jewelry (earrings and necklace) but the rest was functional pottery. That’s exciting to me.

I hope to get around to everyone’s blogs today or tomorrow. I’m still feeling the need to throw a few more things for the summer art market. This is pretty much the last day for me to make anything. The rest of my efforts will be concentrated on finishing.

Have a good day everyone,