Posts Tagged “pottery”

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

Hand built relief printed white stoneware boxes fresh from the bisque kiln.

I’ll be the first to admit that I haven’t been very productive lately when it comes to making any new work.  I am not sure if it’s the awful news of late and all of the political campaign noise that’s distracting me or if it is the result of my mom duties or that I have been questioning whether or not I should even make pottery.  To relate it in pottery terms, I feel like I have been looking for answers in a murky throwing bucket before the clay slurry has had a chance to settle to the bottom leaving clear water on top.  Maybe my inattentiveness and reluctance to enter my studio is a combination of all of the above. It’s not like I haven’t been thinking about clay either - it’s something more.

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Oh for Carpe Diem’s sake, Cynthia, stop over analyzing everything!  Just do it already and start making work and posting pretty pictures again.” I’ve decided to edit the political, financial, religious and mom stuff out of my original post and am going to cut to the chase today.

Here is part of what it comes down to: I’ve been a little hung up on making things to sell to other people when I’ve been trying to live a simpler less consumer driven life.

The philosophy of “living simply“  has ties to Transcendentalism, Epicureanism, Conservation, Social Justice, Sustainable Development, Ascenticsm, Taoism, Buddhism, and even Anarchism. According to social scientist and author of Voluntary Simplicity, Duane Elgin describes voluntary simplicity “as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living.”

By now, you’re either fully tuned out, or you’re saying, “Get to the point, sister!”

In the past few months, I’ve considered selling all my equipment and doing something else - something more service oriented.  In the past few days, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that potters are part of an ancient tradition of making functional and decorative hand crafted work and are passing their knowledge to future artists.  A hand made mug does cost quite a bit more than a cheap mass produced one from China sold at big box stores, but that purchase is also supporting a lifestyle that very well could become extinct.  Now more than ever before, the arts are a necessary component of a healthy and balanced society. In a way, people like me as well as everyone listed in my blogroll on the right hand side bar, along with artisans around the world are sustaining an important tradition.  In essence, the act of making and purchasing hand crafted items is a conscious choice that fits well into the philosophy of living a simpler life.

One of the fathers of the movement, Henry David Thoreau wrote Walden while living in a simple cabin outside town as an experiment to live close to nature with minimal personal stuff in the 1800’s. While I know life is more complicated than it was in the 19^th C, and can’t really be compared or viewed in utopian or romantic terms, a place like Walden Pond sure sounds pretty enticing right now. Maybe my husband and daughter will be up for Thoreauesque experiment in the near future.

Either way, I feel like the clay slurry has settled and after letting my neuroses ferment for awhile, I realize that I am in the right place right now.  I haven’t been taking advantage of the 6 uninterrupted hours I have available 5 days a week, to make work while my daughter is in school.  All I lack right now is a little bit of discipline and the research stage has gone on long enough - time to start working in the studio.

Meanwhile, I took a close look at the work that I bisque fired the other day and am happy with the relief printed boxes and mugs.  The work didn’t warp or crack and the design is crisp.

That’s it for today,

~Cynthia

Crabapple jelly

If you’re seeing this photo and nodding your head up and down in acknowledgment, or you’re shaking your head side to side and tsk-tsking, either way, you’re right - I’ve got nothing right now, at least not in terms of pottery or anything clay related and it doesn’t seem like the situation will be ameliorated any time soon.  I couldn’t bear the thought of writing a blog post without an image though, because I am such a visual person myself.  As a child, I always digested the pictures before reading any text.  Even after reading passages from a book, I would have to back track and make sure that the illustrations supported the text.

I can’t seem to find a rythym.  It’s not like I’m sitting on my duff either.  I’m volunteering, being a mom, designing a business card for the Colorado Potters Guild, helping my F.I.L. configure a wordpress site for his high school classmates and alumni, am embroiled in “math-gate” at my daughter’s school and yes, have even made crabapple jelly - something I’ve always wanted to do.  It’s about time the squirrels weren’t the only ones to benefit from the bounty that our crabapple tree produces every year.  The recipe is pretty simple - a ton of crabapples, water and sugar.  Just google crapbapple jelly and pages of recipes appear magically.

In the meantime, I have agreed to substitute teach at my daughter’s school for the next 4 days, while the 5th grade students (my daughter included) and their teachers go to sleep away camp till the end of the week to bond.  If I sound bitter, I’m not - I’m actually grateful for the distraction.

Just today, I was out walking my dogs in the park and listening to a podcast featuring art coach, Bruce Baker and I had to laugh.  He mentioned how artists can often times get lost in ideas and that when the monkeys start chattering too loudly in our brain, it’s time to shut them up and just go to work - creative people have a tendency to over think stuff.  Luckily, the park was empty today since it was a rainy and drizzly one, so when I laughed out loud embarrassingly at his remark, no one was around to hear me - except my dogs and they love me unconditionally.  I’ve become lost in my head right now.  That’s a true confession and I feel totally distracted.  I need to learn to compartmentalize events as they occur and I’m afraid that I have been unable to do that recently.  I feel everything acutely and often the need to react is just as strong as the original stimulus.

Sigh….  This is not a “oh woe is me post” either.  It just is and so am I.

~Cynthia